Just things to read

Maybe we should all take our football a little less seriously. And maybe people should reconsider that extra drink. And if you judge people based on how dejected they act after your team loses, let’s not be friends, mmkay?

Woman charged with murder in Hoover Iron Bowl party shooting

The title of the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States hasn’t been in Alabama since Detroit filed this summer. So, in a way, Jefferson County got off the hook of ignominy. Now the county is out of bankruptcy:

(T)he county’s bankruptcy exit is being appealed by ratepayers. Critics of the county’s plan have said the sewer rate increases will place to great of a burden on poor residents. Others have noted that the debt structure of the deal could lead to problems down the road.

But county officials have maintained that the plan represents the best option for the county.

I knew, when I first covered the super sewer scandal in 2001, this would never end. This will never end.

Now for something more fun, AdWeek has compiled what, they say, are the 20 most viral videos of the year. Enjoy.

How about a few stories about disruption?

Professor Jeff Jarvis writes, Past the page, asking you to watch a video about Ask Google. Then he writes:

(T)hink about the diminished role of the page and what that will do to media. We publishers found ourselves unbundled online, so we shifted from selling people entire publications to trying to get them to come to just a page — any page — and then another page on the web, lingering long enough to shove one more ad at their eyeballs.

But just as the web disintermediated physical media, voice disintermediates the page. But media still depend on the page as their atomic unit, carrying their content, brand, ownership, and revenue. Now, when you want to know the score of the Jets game — if you dare — you don’t need to go to ESPN and find the page, you just say, “OK, Google. What’s the Jets score?” And the nice lady will tell you the bad news.

Now let’s go farther — because that’s what I live to do. Let’s also disintermediate the device.

What Will Google Glass Do For Journalism Education? Good question:

While Google Glass has some clear applications in higher education already, Robert Hernandez, a professor of web journalism at the University of Southern California, sees the technology’s potential more than anything else. “From a digital perspective, from my perspective, it’s just another device…it doesn’t change your life,” he explained. Nonetheless he can see a number of ways it can influence journalism and how it’s taught.
According to Hernandez, Google Glass isn’t likely to revolutionize journalism or education so much as provide users with a few additional options for how to create and interact with content.

Doesn’t technology just feel like that a lot? I’ve had that perception for most of the last decade. “This is neat, useful, somewhat impressive. But it is just a step along the way.”

More than anything, I see the shiny new thing (“Look what my phone can do!”) as an indicator of potential.

Eventually it starts to really change people’s lives. Like, perhaps, this story: The Beginning Of The End Of Waiters and Waitresses?

A friend of mine is producing this video. Like mountain bike riding?

Sport Science discusses Chris Davis’ Iron Bowl return:

This could be the last word on the subject. Probably won’t be, but it could be:

The Onion: Nobody At University Of Alabama Caught Saturday’s Game

Maybe this year I’ll get to take this ride: Bo Jackson to take bike ride for tornado relief to Auburn for 2014 A-Day game

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