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Just a few quick things on history, and today

As I worked, I had this playing in the background. A movie you’ve seen a few dozen times is good for noise. And it was kind of fitting. I’ll talk about some World War II examples in class tomorrow.

I wonder what Patton would be like if they made that movie today.

And as I wondered that, I found this evening’s most interesting story, Longtime Opelika resident Bennie Adkins to receive Medal of Honor:

Retired Command Sgt. Major Bennie G. Adkins was recently named the latest recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor in the United States. He will be awarded by President Barack Obama Sept. 15 in Washington D.C.

“Mr. Adkins is a true American hero who served his country in Vietnam,” Congressman Mike Rogers said in a written statement. “His acts of heroism during his tour of duty earned him our nation’s highest honor, which he has long deserved. I congratulate Mr. Adkins on this honor and thank him for his bravery, sacrifice and service to our nation.”

He was in the Special Forces in Vietnam. After he retired he received three degrees from Troy, taught at Southern Union and Auburn University, ran an accounting firm for two decades and, with his wife, raised five children.

The three-day battle for which he is justly being honored is a rich read of heroism, pain and the best attitude we could ask for from service members.

During 38 hours of close-combat fighting he was frequently in and under enemy fire and manning a mortar position. That was when he wasn’t continually exposing himself to the enemy to treat and save wounded men and retrieve the bodies of the fallen. When the mortar was spent, he changed weapons. When he had exhausted his ammunition, he sought out more, again under fire. Ultimately, when he’d fired every weapon they had at Camp A Shau, he led the survivors out with just an M-16. They’d fought for a day-and-a-half. He would led men through another two days of evasion before they were picked up by the good guys.

From the battle narrative:

“Approximately 200 of the camp defenders were killed in action, with 100 wounded. The enemy suffered an estimated 500 to 800 casualties. It is estimated that Adkins killed between 135 and 175 of the enemy, while suffering 18 different wounds.”

You wonder why it took so long.

Things to read … And these won’t take too long.

Turner Broadcasting to offer voluntary buyouts, layoffs also expected

Here’s a rapidly evoloving topic. Why public relations and media relations don’t mean the same thing anymore

Harassment Charges for Student Who… Told Joke [Gasp!]

Student Activists Keep Pressure On Campus Sexual Assault

And that, I think, will do for one night.

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25
Aug 14

First day of class

First day of classes. Get into my office, ready to print up my syllabus and various other materials, ready to walk into class ready to wow students and start the term off right. So, naturally, I got into my office a little later than I’d wanted.

No matter. I’d left plenty of margin for error.

So, naturally, my new computer isn’t speaking with the printer. No matter, I have other computers. None of them are tied into the printer yet.

No matter. Down to the department office, where there are other computers and a bigger, better printer. It took some doing, but I found a machine that I could use. And apparently I was asking the printer to produce the most sophisticated configuration of ink and white space committed to pixels in the 21st century.

It ate into class time, not the best way to start things.

But we had class, and everyone stayed awake and we are off on a wonderful adventure of writing and editing.

Later I swam 1,750 yards. I haven’t been in the pool in ages, but it turns out that I still remember how to swim poorly.

I also saw this on the back of a local repair man’s truck:

I took this to mean that he’d surveyed the competition. He’d listened to his customers. He realized that there were plenty of people out there who were having trouble getting work done at home and having even more trouble getting someone out to work on the problem. He surmised that this magnet would mean something to people: I will be there.

And he’s correct. More than a few times over the years I’ve tried to have people come out to work on this or that, but was left with disappointment. This magnet sign might earn someone a try. Now, if on the other door, there was another that said “And we bring our own tools!” Then you’d be on to something.

Things to read … because reading always puts you on to something.

UAB launches an online cure for the common doctor visit:

It uses a diagnosis and treatment software system to collect a patient’s symptoms by asking a series of questions that would in other cases be asked by a clinician in a face-to-face meeting. The patient’s responses are then reviewed by a UAB clinician who provides a diagnosis and personalized treatment plan.

“eMedicine is an urgent care service that enables patients to use their desktop or mobile devices to interact with our providers,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, medical director of primary care in UAB’s School of Medicine. “This will add to patient convenience for those who are suffering from upper respiratory infections, flu, allergies and other things very common in an urgent-care setting. It’s really a novel way to extend the physician-patient relationship.”

College Football Hall of Fame opens in Atlanta

Report: Alabama’s economy sixth slowest in the U.S.:

Business Insider noted that the state’s wages increased by 0.78 percent from 2012 to 2013, and its unemployment increased by 0.3 percent in the last year, which was the lowest rank out of the 50 states.

Alabama’s GDP growth rate was 0.8 percent in 2013, according to U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This is, I believe, one of the better pieces you’ll find at Grantland: When Narratives Collide: Michael Sam Meets Johnny Football:

In our media-saturated InfoWorld, it has become easy for us to make representational action figures out of human beings who have the misfortune of capturing our massed attention.

[…]

It’s part of the deal now, and I understand that. It’s a clause in a subparagraph in the implicit contract struck between athletes and their fans that athletic celebrity is now indistinguishable from a celebrity, full stop. The camera is always on, the microphone always hot. You will stand for something even if all you want to do is sit down and catch your breath. But if you accept all this as part of the legitimate transaction of fame and celebrity, it’s your part of the bargain to understand that it’s fundamentally dehumanizing to use real people as characters in your private passion plays.

Also, they’re just football players.

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22
Aug 14

The barber, the check writer and the pie maker

I made the mistake of getting a haircut today. Going to my barber on a Friday afternoon is like going to most people’s DMV, or my local post office.

He’s a nice fellow, good, easy small talker. There are nice family photos to study as he cuts your hair. He does a fine enough job of it and he’s the cheapest guy in town — those his prices are going up, and we’ll have to talk about that.

Everyone in town has figured this out, I guess, and everyone goes there. And so you wait and wait, but it is a break from other things, one supposes, and the television is on an endless loop of some sporting thing or another. He’s the kind of guy that’s on a first name basis with people and sometimes he remembers me, but my strategy is to cut short and ride on that haircut for as long as possible. So I could be easy to forget in the blur of faces he sees every month.

We talked about the VA and pensions and the Bulge and Iraq today. Once, when his shop was slower and he remembered who I was, he picked my brain about various shenanigans going on in the journalism industry. Another time he almost carved a junk out of my ear and sent me on my way home bleeding and, I think, with the haircut incomplete. Scared him. It bled so well it scared me too.

Today he nicked my neck a little just below the hairline and applied some demon-infused, artisanally crafted pain juice on it, smeared a white powder on top of that and then smacked my neck. He was a combat medic. He knows what he’s doing, I told myself.

After that I visited various book stores about town, with this weird white caking powder on my neck. No one said anything about it.

We went out for dinner. It is Friday. Friday is Pie Day:

“Clinkies!” as we used to say while trying to not stab each other with forks.

The server gave us fist bumps for ordering pie. Surely he was thinking “I didn’t even have to upsell these people!” And then he let us choose the color of pen used to sign the receipt. I went with the hunter green.

Things to read … and, sadly, none of these are written in a hunter green font.

Security for journalists, part one: The basics:

Just as you can take steps to reduce the physical or legal risks of journalism, it’s possible to protect yourself in the digital realm. This two-part post will cover the basics of digital security for journalists. It’s impossible to learn everything you need to know from a couple of articles, but my hope is to give you enough of the basics that you understand what to study next.

Even if you’re not working on a sensitive story yourself, you need to understand digital security because an attacker can harm other people by going through you. This post contains generic security advice that everyone in journalism should heed, with specific advice about simple things you can do right now to improve your security.

Govt-blacklisted journalists and the growing info grip:

David Sirota reports on “How Government Blacklists Journalists From Accessing the Truth” stating that “The public is being systematically divorced from public policy, which is exactly what too many elected officials want.”

[…]

“In recent years, there have been signs that the federal government is reducing the flow of public information,” Sirota writes, agreeing with a growing consensus from many Washington D.C. journalists.

Sadly, there’s no surprise there.

This thoughtful essay from a student-journalist, I will not be returning to Ferguson:

There are now hundreds of journalists from all over the world coming to Ferguson to film what has become a spectacle. I get the sense that many feel this is their career-maker. In the early days of all this, I was warmly greeted and approached by Ferguson residents. They were glad that journalists were there. The past two days, they do not even look at me and blatantly ignore me. I recognize that I am now just another journalist to them, and their frustration with us is clear. In the beginning there was a recognizable need for media presence, but this is the other extreme. They need time to work through this as a community, without the cameras.

Gov. Bentley announces creation of Alabama Drone Task Force

I read aloud a bit of Willie Morris tonight. I’ve been searching for examples of excellent writing to share with students, so I had to raid one of the bookshelves in our library. This won’t be the one of Morris’ that I share, but it is worth a read. This is when he was writing from Oxford, Mississippi and remembering his time and a love on Long Island, New York. The complete essay isn’t online, so a brief excerpt:

She would say, “You’re not too old and I’m not too young.” But she was the marrying age, and she wanted a baby. The love we had was never destroyed; it was merely the dwindling of circumstance. How does one give up Annie? Only through loneliness and fear, fear of old loves lost and of love renewed – only those things, that’s all. The last departure came on a windswept October noon of the kind we had known. We stood on the porch of my house and embraced. “Oh — you!” she said. She lingered for the briefest moment. Then she was gone, a Tennessee girl with snow in her hair again. She married a local boy and now has two little daughters, I hear on good authority from Long Island. The years are passing, and don’t think I haven’t thought about it.

The man could write. But he was perhaps never better than when he’s writing about home (which is why whichever Willie Morris piece I hand out in class will have at least two references to jonquils). Happens to a lot of us, I suspect.

Do you ever get the feeling Patrick Stewart is just cooler at everything?

I do.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
21
Aug 14

Here’s something I’ve noticed

It occurred to me the other night — as I dumped the ashes and replaced it with charcoal, marveling at how the cheap grill we bought four years ago is simultaneously holding up and starting to deteriorate, pulling the aluminum foil and trying not to get dirty and strategizing how I could light the entire grill on a single match — that this was a good way to cheer one’s self up.

When your day gets you down, light the briquets.

It works. Give it a try.

Things to read … because you should always give reading a try.

This really needs a better title, The meltdown doesn’t explain the magazine’s position on where we are on foreign policy at the moment.

Meanwhile, you wonder if CNN has had enough. What Obama did after speech on ISIS is just 1:15 of the president playing golf.

That puts the New York Times in an awkward position in A Terrorist Horror, Then Golf: Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics, apologizing thusly: “Aides said the golf game did not reflect the depth of his grief over Mr. Foley.”

A sorry state of affairs indeed.

I would say sign me up! Immersive journalism: What if you could experience a news event in 3D by using an Oculus Rift?:

If you’ve heard of the Oculus Rift at all, you probably think of it as the off-the-charts geeky, facemask-style VR headset that’s designed for playing 3D video games. And that’s true — but virtual reality has other applications as well, including potentially journalistic ones: USC fellow and documentary filmmaker Nonny de la Peña, for example, is creating immersive experiences that give participants an inside look at a news story, such as the war in Syria, or the military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

What better way to see the president’s golf game?

Next for Virtual Reality: Video, Without the Games:

Nearly all the hype around virtual reality — much of it fanned by Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, the headset maker — is about how the technology can be used for games.

Another intriguing use for virtual reality, one that has received scant attention until recently, is video. Imagine the possibilities of being able to swivel your head around within a movie, a news broadcast or a football game to see everything around a camera, not just what is in front.

These aren’t the static 360-degree images anyone can see on the Street View function of Google Maps, but rather live-action motion pictures, rendered in immersive 3-D on a virtual reality headset.

We’re on the verge of an intriguing way to produce and consume stories.

The Media and the Mob:

Those of us who admit that we were not there, and do not know what happened when Michael Brown was shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, seem to be in the minority.

We all know what has happened since then — and it has been a complete disgrace by politicians, the media and mobs of rioters and looters. Despite all the people who act as if they know exactly what happened, nevertheless when the full facts come out, that can change everything.

[…]

Television people who show the home of the policeman involved, and give his name and address — knowing that he has already received death threats — are truly setting a new low. They seem to be trying to make themselves judge, jury and executioner.

Then there are the inevitable bullet counters asking, “Why did he shoot him six times?” This is the kind of thing people say when they are satisfied with talking points, and see no need to stop and think seriously about a life and death question. If you are not going to be serious about life and death, when will you be serious?

Meanwhile, here at home, Just 21 percent of Alabama high school graduates ready for college-level coursework in all subjects:

More of Alabama’s graduating high school seniors than ever before are taking the ACT college-entrance exam, according to a new report from ACT Inc.

But relatively few of the 37,895 class of 2014 graduates — from both public and private schools — who took the ACT are ready for college-level coursework in all subject areas, the report says.

The comments are about what you would expect, reasonably disappointing, so don’t bother. But the story is worth a read.

cycling / iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Wednesday — Comments Off
20
Aug 14

I would ride 5,000 more

I choose the routes for all manner of different reasons. Sometimes, admitting my deficiency on climbs, I’ll set out for the biggest “hills” we have around here. On another day, hoping to feel fast, I’ll find an easier route. Boredom, adventure, the name of a road, a fleeting thought or spontaneity can all decide the plan.

Last night, though, I knew today’s ride would be a special one, so I set out for what would be a nice photograph. I broke 5,000 miles on my odometer and I didn’t want to do that in a neighborhood. I planned, instead, to find a nice quiet, woody road.

And I still managed to wind up by this silly little carport:

That’s the way it goes sometimes, I guess. That’s the view ahead. This is the view from whence I just came:

And here’s my proof:

Did it all on this little guy:

I’ve had a lot of fun on that bike. I’ve suffered on it, too. It has hurt me and I don’t think I’ve ever made it flinch. Sometimes it carries me along, more frequently I’m having to convince it I can ride. Occasionally, I feel like I need a new bike. It is a little undersized and sometimes (or perhaps in the same vein) I can generate more power than others and it feels shaky. But that’s a fine ride. Shame the cyclist isn’t better.

I’m also a little embarrassed by how long it took to get to 5,000 miles. Must ride more.

Things to read … because we should also read more, too.

This is interesting, How a Copyright Dispute Helped Give America Rock ‘n’ Roll:

We associate iconic musicians and musical genres with places, stars, and cultural narratives. Less often we recognize the markets and economic forces shaping popular music’s trajectory. But in 1940-41, a dispute over music royalties brought music once relegated to local audiences to national radio, spurring the popularity of blues, country, and, ultimately, rock ‘n’ roll. Were it not for a battle over how much radio should pay for music royalties, performers like Ray Charles and Elvis Presley may have never become classic American musicians.

[…]

The boycott lasted for almost a year. In late 1941, ASCAP signed an agreement with radio stations at terms less generous than it had before the boycott. The Justice Department also sued ASCAP again on antitrust grounds. This time ASCAP lost, and it was forced to accept regulations that opened it up to other musicians and set blanket rates for licensing deemed fair by third parties.

With the gatekeeper gone, the new genres maintained their national audience and anointed new stars, including the first rock and roll icons in the following years, a development that grew out of the once neglected genres like blues.

There is a lot to process here, and it is worth your time. This is a fine collection of information from the New York Times. The Iraq-ISIS Conflict in Maps, Photos and Video

Here’s another informative piece with some good takeaways. How a Norwegian public radio station is using Snapchat to connect young listeners with news

I’ll be honest, this one — Journalism Digital News Archive — had me at the pull quote:

“We should have had a historian running around saying ‘I don’t care if you are ever going to use them — we are going to keep them.'”

Alabama biz taxes account for 47.5% of all state and local taxes:

That represented an 1.8 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, giving it the ninth lowest state and local business tax growth in the U.S.

It works out to $7.2 billion dollars last year.

Meanwhile, Baxter International adding 200 new jobs in Opelika by 2016, means a $300 million 230,000-square-foot expansion for the dialyzer manufacturing facility.