April 2011
What I Think I Know About Journalism →
The more people who participate in the press the stronger it will be.
The profession of journalism went awry when it began to adopt the View from Nowhere.
The news system will improve when it is made more useful to people.
Making facts public does not a public make; information alone will not inform us.
NYU Journalism professor Jay Rosen lays out what he’s learned over the past 25...
“I came back from running errands and there they were. It’s not right. They...”
– “In New Jersey’s Solar Panels, Some See an Eyesore on Every Pole” (Via NYTimes.com)
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“Fifty-five percent of Americans believe that housing chickens in cages is not...”
– Marginal Revolution pulls two figures from the economics book Compassion by the Pound.
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“Some readers are not worth saving. One newspaper killed its stock tables, saved...”
– Jeff Jarvis has a great piece on rules for news industry business models. I strongly suggest anyone with even a passing interest in technology, news, or business read the whole piece. (Via BuzzMachine)
“The movie hauled $879,000 over the weekend; more importantly, it only made an...”
– Slate.
Atlas Shrugged fails in a capitalist market.
Around this time every year I ask the same question: “They’re still doing the Webbys?”
“We had absolutely strict rules. We could only shoot for six days, and each day...”
– Werner Herzog on shooting Cave of Forgotten Dreams. (Via BlackBook)
3D movies are coming to an airline near you →
bbook:
entertainmentweekly:
According to the Hollywood Reporter, MasterImage 3D is poised to install glasses-free 3-D screens on the planes of several airlines. You know, because the biggest problem all of us have with air travel is that the in-flight movies are too two-dimensional.
The end is nigh.
Because we needed more nauseating disorientation when we fly.
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“Not worth one of your twenty.”
– Tyler Cowen, at Marginal Revolution.
A new service journalism genre is emerging: Paywall Reconnoitering. Aka, Filtering the New York Times down to their 20 most essential monthly articles.
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Fun fact: iPhone autocorrects ‘shitshow’ to ‘suitable’
“Well, I remember once being at a luncheon with Isaac Asimov, who had written 560...”
– Calvin Trillin is a quote machine. (Via CJR)
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“Still, at any share over about 20%, it will be more economical for an...”
– Good point by Michael Mace, at Mobile Opportunity.
eBooks made up 27% of book sales in the first quarter, which is likely the high water mark for the year. Give it a bit and ebooks sales will be steadily over the 20% tipping point.
“Someone asked me once what I had learned about the country, and I said, “Well,...”
– Calvin Trillin, interviewed by CJR
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“Robot is drawn from an old Church Slavonic word, robota, for “servitude,”...”
– Lapham’s Quarterly: The origin of the word “robot”
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Apple's Pile of Cash Doesn't Compute for Wall... →
Like clockwork, analysts are wringing their hands till they bleed when they hear the current size of Apple’s cash hoard ($65.8 billion, for those keeping counting.) Perhaps it’s a knee-jerk reaction from those who make their living spending other people’s money, but I always felt that this anxiety arises because pundits don’t have a model for a company that is on track to...
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“Finding applicants wasn’t a challenge. As soon as the news broke that Lee would...”
– Fortune has a nice piece recapping Google’s entrance and exit from China.
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“The one thing I do fear, though, is a lightning strike. The Gila gets hit by...”
– Philip Connors, former fire-watcher and author of the book Fire Season. (Via Paris Review)
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Robot to Throw Out First Pitch At Tomorrow's... →
oldtimefamilybaseball:
The Future: it’s here and it’s terrifying.
From the AP release:
“…the one-armed, three-wheeled robot, designed by engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday’s game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers…
After which, the Phillies will promptly add the bot to their rotation.
ESPN Drops Poker Programming After Websites... →
The best part of the poker sting:
ESPN sports cable channel will remove poker advertising and programming after the U.S. indicted gambling websites that sponsor televised tournaments and froze their bank accounts.
(Via Bloomberg)
"North Korea Stages Biggest Magic Show Ever" →
Headline of the week.
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Conservatives Almost Tricked into Passing Their... →
The House of Representatives descended into chaos Friday as Republicans who wanted to pass the really really conservative 2012 budget unveiled by Rep. Paul Ryan almost passed the really really really conservative one authored by the Republican Study Committee because of a trick played on them by Democrats.
Upon realized that more Republicans were voting for the amendment than against it, the...
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“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.”
– Jeff Hammerbacher
I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff a few weeks ago. He is ridiculously sharp and clearly spots simple truths the rest of us never notice. (Via The Atlantic Wire)
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“While it may be unfair to regard the Winklevoss twins as characters out of...”
– At least the judge presiding over the Facebook case had fun. (Via The Atlantic Wire)
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“The ratings agencies weakened their standards as each competed to provide the...”
– From a US Senate report investigating Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s bond rating practices. Roughly 90% of AAA securities backed by subprime mortgages were later downgraded to junk status.
It looks like no one will go to trial for these actions. Apparently our courts are too busy...
Highway 99 Reopens Following Crash of Big Rig... →
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“Dubbed ‘Places Chat’, users can communicate directly and in realtime with other...”
– TechCrunch, covers startup Dailyplaces with a straight face.
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And Flip Cameras are on Gilt today.
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Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Camera Business;... →
Time from acquisition to obsolescence? One week short of two years. It’s a vicious market out there…
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How long until the New York Times is holding pledge drives?
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New York Times Twitter Search →
Looking for a specific NYT article reference or quote, but you’ve tapped your paywall limit? Try searching Twitter.
While looking for an article link to forward to a friend who pays for the Times, I tapped my article quota. So, I grabbed a list of NYT Twitter accounts and plugged them into Google Custom Search. Works like a charm. Search for a headline, click-through to Twitter,...
NPR is streaming the new tUnE-yArDs →
There is no reason this shouldn’t be huge. Merrill puts on one of the best live shows around (sadly sold out in Brooklyn…) and this new effort hasn’t had a down moment yet…
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O’Reilly to Go Print on Demand →
The technical publisher O’Reilly Media announced yesterday that it was abandoning traditional publishing methods and will soon start printing copies of its books as needed.
O’Reilly once again leads the way, keeping unsold books out of shredders and waste down. Hopefully, we’ll see similar efforts from non-technical publishers.
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