Happy 25th year, blogging. You've grown up, but social media is still ...
The Guardian
Happy 25th year, blogging. You’ve grown up, but social media is still having a brawl
We’re no Stephen
King, but it turns out we’ve written our fair share.
Here’s the stuff we’ve covered that’s scarier than the walking dead:
Here’s the stuff we’ve covered that’s scarier than the walking dead:
- An
election watchdog that’s been rendered toothless, just as we head into
election season.
- A
massive tax plan where rich people actually pay less tax than lower-income
folk.
- Customs officials who abuse their power with invasive body searches of minors and women.
The scariest thing of
all? The thought of a country with no freedom of the
press and no Fourth Estate working on your behalf to expose the real monsters. via public integrity
Curiosity is a frustratingly fickle sensation. Want to ensure that you channel your curiosity well? Read more deep bloggers and MEdia Dragons
MEdia Dragon Criss Referencing Legal Eagles and Other Suspicious Mates Mik
Sadly, as logophiliacs aka lovers of words know that some words are born while others die ...
Washington’s Blog: October 31st Is Our Last Day. :-(
We've come a long way since ancient Latin or the Old English of colonial times. In fact, Oscar Wilde, author of the play "The Importance of Being Earnest" and the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray," is credited with coming up with the word "dude," as being a combination of the words "attitude" and "duds."
You can learn anything on the internet, so why do I so often learn things I don’t want to know? When I’m surfing the web I want to be drawn in by articles on Europe’s political history or the nature of quasars, but I end up reading trivia like a menu from Alcatrazprison. Why am I not curious about the things I want to be curious about?
Curiosity feels like it’s outside your control, and trying to direct it sounds as ill conceived as forcing yourself to find a joke funny. But if you understand what prompts curiosity, you may be able to channel it a little better.
Across evolutionary time, curious animals were more likely to survive because they learned about their environments; a forager that occasionally skipped a reliable feeding ground to explore might find an even better place to eat.
Inside Higher Ed, Twitter's Gender Imbalance:
Women on social media face disproportionate levels of harassment compared to men. A new study says that female academics also have disproportionately fewer Twitter followers, likes and retweets than their male counterparts on the platform, regardless of their Twitter activity levels or professional rank.
Computers have an unlikely origin story: the 1890 census: FastCompany – David Lindsay Roberts – “The inventor of punched cards, which led to the first computers and companies like IBM, was aiming to solve a gnarly problem at the time: data collection for the census…The U.S. Constitution requires that a population count be conducted at the beginning of every decade. This census has always been charged with political significance and continues to be. That’s clear from the controversy over the conduct of the upcoming 2020 census. But it’s less widely known how important the census has been in developing the U.S. computer industry, a story that I tell in my new book, Republic of Numbers: Unexpected Stories of Mathematical Americans Through History.…
This may be partly because Dave doesn’t need the money (he sold his company to Symantec in 1987 for a substantial sum) but it’s mainly because he didn’t want to compete for the attention of his readers. “I see running ads on my blog,” he once wrote, “as picking up loose change that’s fallen out of peoples’ pockets. I want to hit a home run. I’m swinging for the fences. Not picking up litter.”
Reading is not a team sport. Thus, when we talk of the historical or cultural power of the novel, we may miss its real strength: establishing intimacy... Establishing Intimacy
From Czechoslovakia to Australia: The story of successful Slovak ...
Census Bureau asks states for driver’s license records to produce citizenship data
Shari Redstone. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
— BRUCE CHATWIN WAS THE INTERNET BEFORE THE INTERNET EXISTED — THE LEGACY OF THE LATE BRITISH WRITER AND JOURNALIST SHOWS US HOW THE INTERNET COULD BE — A PLACE WHERE REALITY IS NOT DISTORTED BUT ENRICHED BY ITS USERS.
Tax Plots
Immigration without assimilation is a recipe for disaster. We're headed in that direction. And in Europe it is even worse. But in the meantime we enjoy some tunes from performers who ditched their Italian surnames, not so much from a desire to assimilate, or because of ethnic prejudice, but to make themselves more marketable.
From Czechoslovakia to Australia: The story of successful Slovak ...
The PayPal Mafia has produced SpaceX, Palantir, Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube, and others far exceeding PayPal’s value. How did Elon Musk and Co. do it?
IT’S NOT JUST YOUR ACQUAINTANCES ON FACEBOOK: How the Universe Stopped Making Sense.
Census Bureau asks states for driver’s license records to produce citizenship data
WHYY – “The
Census Bureau is asking states to voluntarily share driver’s license records as
part of the Trump administration’s efforts to produce detailed data about the
U.S. citizenship status of every person living in the country. According to a statement the bureau released
Tuesday, the requests are in response to an executive order
President Trump issued in July after courts blocked his administration from
adding a citizenship question to 2020 census forms…” [h/t Pete Weiss] Note – if you are
not aware, all states have sent notifications to residents requiring that they
provide – by February 2020, in person at DMV, their respective PII – including
original Social Security Card, Birth Certificate, Passport and utility bills,
or risk cancellation of drivers license.
- Example – Having a REAL ID compliant driver’s license or ID card will be necessary to board commercial aircraft or gain access to federal facilities. To be considered REAL ID compliant, you must have the required documents on file with the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA)…
What would it take to outfox Fox News?
Shari Redstone. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
I mentioned this in Wednesday’s newsletter, but here are some
more thoughts on the most intriguing media rumor of the week.
The
Hollywood Reporter writes that media mogul Shari Redstone is thinking about
creating a conservative-leaning news network to go up against Fox News. A
Viacom spokesperson said that Viacom has “no intention of launching a TV news
channel, conservative or otherwise.”
Redstone reportedly met with former Fox News star Megyn Kelly.
And this may or may not mean anything, but she also recently met with President
Donald Trump. All this raises questions.
First, is Fox News even vulnerable to being challenged,
considering its stranglehold on cable news, especially among viewers who lean
right?
And if there is an opening for another conservative news outlet,
where is that niche? Would a new network be for viewers who are conservative
but don’t necessarily like Trump? Or has Trump’s recent criticism of Fox News
left some viewers looking for a network that would be even more of an advocate
for the president?
I have no scientific evidence or polling to back this up, but if
I was starting a network to rival Fox News, I’d target conservative viewers who
are not in complete step with Trump. If there even is a crack in Fox News,
that’s where it might be. Based on viewership numbers, Fox News viewers love
the “Fox & Friends” morning show and the primetime lineup of Tucker
Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. All that programming is, for the most
part, very pro-Trump. So it might be hard to out-Fox Fox.
If I started a network to compete with Fox News, my first call
would be to Shepard Smith, the Fox News anchor who stepped away last week over
growing dissatisfaction. I’d also put out feelers to any other Fox News staff
who might be frustrated with its direction. And then I would go about putting
together programming that wouldn’t necessarily disagree with or antagonize the
president, but wouldn’t be afraid to challenge him, either.
One final thought. When you’re talking about launching networks,
it can’t be about just right now and it can’t just be about Trump. This has to
be about the long term because at some point — whether it’s 15 months or five
years from now — Trump will no longer be president. But his presidency has
changed things politically in this country. Viewing habits and political views
born out of the past three years likely will remain long after Trump stops
being president. That suggests there is room for another conservative network —
now and in the future.
Hey, who
knows? Trump might even be the key figure in that network.
Emily Wilson, whose translation of The Odyssey recently reintroduced the epic to a wider non-classics audience, has now cheekily translated the tale of Odysseus into a series of limericks. She starts off:
There was a young man called Telemachus
who was bullied and in a dilemma ‘cause
he missed his lost dad
and his mom made him mad
and he almost got killed by Eurymachus.
And here’s the bit about Odysseus’ men eating the cattle of Helios, which earns them a thunderbolt from Zeus.
The men were fed up with their boss,
the rich guy, who’d gone for a doss.
They ate up the cattle,
which shortly proved fatal,
and all of their short lives were lost.
More damning accusations for NBC News
It’s an old story, but it’s back in the news. NBC News is facing
more criticism that it sat on a story involving rape allegations against
powerful men. In
a piece for The Daily Beast, Sil Lai Abrams repeats a claim NBC News
squashed a story involving rape allegations against Russell Simmons and former
“Extra” co-host A.J. Calloway. Abrams alleges she was raped by Russell in 1994
and sexually assaulted by Calloway in 2006. Abrams said she was working with
MSNBC’s Joy Reid about publishing a story in early 2018. But the story never
ran.
In her Daily Beast piece, Abrams lists her exchanges with Reid
and her account of why her story never made it to air. The reason this story is
back in the news is because Ronan Farrow’s new book “Catch and Kill” alleges
that NBC sat on his Harvey Weinstein story, which he then took to The New
Yorker and won a Pulitzer Prize. NBC has denied Farrow’s claims.
Abrams wrote, “I am one of the many survivors that NBC silenced,
and bore witness to how it treated one of their top talents for trying to break
a story on sexual predators. Given what has been exposed thus far by Farrow and
others, it’s clear that NBC thinks it can spin their way out of this — again.
What it fails to recognize is that this is a much bigger issue than their
cover-ups, payoffs, and excuses. The media is supposed to be a watchdog for
abuses of power. Reporting on the behavior of alleged serial predators is more
than news. It’s an act of social good."
An MSNBC spokesperson put out a statement last year and referred
to that statement on Monday:
“When MSNBC pursues
any investigative story our mission is always to be as thorough as we can, to
scrutinize sources and corroborate information before we report. Anything else
falls short of our journalistic standards.”— BRUCE CHATWIN WAS THE INTERNET BEFORE THE INTERNET EXISTED — THE LEGACY OF THE LATE BRITISH WRITER AND JOURNALIST SHOWS US HOW THE INTERNET COULD BE — A PLACE WHERE REALITY IS NOT DISTORTED BUT ENRICHED BY ITS USERS.
The New Yorker’s Naomi
Fry with a profile of journalist and author Buzz Bissinger.
The Tampa Bay Times’ Gabrielle Calise with the mysterious death
of a woman from decades ago. Did the woman die from … spontaneous
combustion?!
“How
‘Almost Famous’ Foretold The Future of Music Journalism” — an entertaining
and spot-on must-read from Ian Cohen in The Ringer. GREG CLARK. The Day I met the Emperor in Waiting
The request came from out of the blue. A neighbor in rural
Chiba whose wife had royal family connections had sent a message via her
husband that the crown prince, Naruhito, want to talk with me. He was
said to have had read an article I had written for a Nagano prefecture
regional newspaper about Japan’s little known Southern Alps. He himself
was planning a trip to the area. Would I and my wife be willing to
visit him and have chat about it? Continue reading
Tax Plots
Immigration without assimilation is a recipe for disaster. We're headed in that direction. And in Europe it is even worse. But in the meantime we enjoy some tunes from performers who ditched their Italian surnames, not so much from a desire to assimilate, or because of ethnic prejudice, but to make themselves more marketable.
But
first one who didn't part with his beautiful surname. An early
manager suggested to Frank Sinatra that he adopt the stage name 'Frankie
Satin.' Sinatra would have none of that bullshit. He did things his way. You got a problem with that? That's Life. That's what the people say. Flyin' high in April, shot down in May.
Joseph Di Nicola (Joey Dee and the Starlighters), Peppermint Twist, with an intro by Dwight D. Eisenhower! This video shows what the dude, Di Nicola not Eisenhower, looked like. He resembles a super short Joe Pesci. What Kind of Love is This?
Margaret Battavio (Little Peggy March), I Will Follow Him. An early feminist anthem.
Frank Castelluccio (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), Can't Take My Eyes Off of You. Deer Hunter version. Dawn. Walk Like a Man. (Sing like a castrato.)
Anthony Dominic Benedetto (Tony Bennett), The Way You Look Tonight
Alfred Arnold Cocozza (Mario Lanza), O Sole Mio. Here is
what Elvis made of the tune. Lanza ditched his Italian name for a
different Italian name. Are there any other cases of this? (Of course,
scroll up.) 'Lanza' rolls off the tongue; 'Cocozza' not so much.
'Long about the time King Creole
came out, when I was eight, I mentioned Elvis Presley to my Italian
mother. "That jackass!" she replied. The irony, however, is that she
listened to crooners like Mario Lanza.
Francis Thomas Avallone (Frankie Avalon), Venus.
Fabiona Forte Bonaparte (Fabian), his songs are too schlocky even for my catholic tastes. Linkage denied!
Before Bobby Darin became Bobby Darin he rejoiced under the name, Walden Robert Cassotto. Dream Lover. 18 Yellow Roses. You're the Reason I'm Living.
Bobby Rydell started out Robert Ridarelli. Forget him. Volare. "Letsa fly . . . ." Wild One. We Got Love.
No, his name wasn't Dino Martino, it was Dino Paul Crocetti. Schmaltzy as it is, That's Amore captures the Nagelian what-it's-like of being in love. Houston.
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, better known as Connie Francis. My Darling Clementine. Never on Sunday. I prefer the understated Melina Mercouri version.
Timoteo Aurro = Timi Yuro. When I first heard her back in the day, I thought she was black. What a voice! What's the Matter, Baby? Her signature number: Hurt.
Laura traded in 'Nigro' for 'Nyro.' Smart move. Wedding Bell Blues. And When I Die. These go out to Monterey Tom, big L.N. fan. Nyro died young in 1997 of ovarian cancer, 49 years of age.
The ATO boss took the extraordinary step of using his opening address at Senate
Senate Esttimates ...
