links « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

links

journalism / links / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Aug 11

Things to read

This is great video. What a country:

More details here. Hard to imagine that happening in a lot of other countries. At the same time, I suspect that people on the rope line will be a little more thoroughly screened in the future. There are reasons campaigns and politicians like to work friendly crowds. But, still, how great that there is occasionally the opportunity to just maybe have a fleeting conversation on something of substance with which you disagree about your president.

And good for President Obama, too, in briefly engaging with the guy. He blows him off at the end — there are a lot of people there to meet and greet — but he didn’t ignore him like you might imagine a politician doing. That’s nice to see.

Obama also reportedly said this, elsewhere in Iowa. Pretty sure everyone wishes he hadn’t:

“Democracy is always a messy business in a big country like this,” Obama responded. “When you listen to what the federalists said about the anti-federalists … those guys were tough. Lincoln, they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me.”

This was during a Q&A with an “invited guest” (See?) who asked how he deals with his congressional critics in the GOP. The writer’s of that story then gleefully called up every Lincoln scholar in their office that day to disabuse everyone of this notion. Sometimes ad libs are bad.

Here’s a tale designed to chill you. Should you see a traffic stop gone wrong, think twice about pulling out your camera. That video could get you
sued:

The amateur videographer with the colorful vocabulary who memorialized the alleged 2009 police beating of Melvin Jones III during a traffic stop may be charged with illegal wiretapping.

One of four police officers disciplined for the incident on Nov. 27, 2009, Michael Sedergren, has filed an application for a criminal complaint against videographer Tyrisha Greene. Sedergren, who was suspended for 45 days, claims it was illegal for Greene to videotape him without his consent.

Greene made a 20-minute film that included Jones, who is black, being struck repeatedly by a white officer with a flashlight while a group of other white officers stood by without intervening. The video also included an expletive-filled commentary by Greene, 29, who sounded alarmed by the scene that unfolded on Rifle Street.

The suspect who was beaten has a record and apparently went for one of the officers’ sidearms. So, yes, he was going to be stopped. The officer who lost his cool, and his colleagues who stood around, should have also stopped.

You’d think with dash-mounted cameras, and more than a few of these stories making the news every year or two the officers would do well to pull the guy off, but that didn’t happen here.

The suspect’s mugshot — he was beaten badly — and the video are in that story, along with a thorough detailing of the legal aspects. The story comes down on the side of the videographer, who the plaintiff-officer claims “improper interception of wire and oral communication.” That makes no sense in this circumstance, as far as the stories go.

Oh look, a newspaper stealing a photo from a casual photographer. This never ends well. A woman took a picture of mannequins at a clothing store, made a clever comment and that generated some interest from various publications. The Washington Post asked for permission to use it, and she gave them her approval. The Daily Mail asked and she turned them down.

In the comments, however, there is a great debate about copyright, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. If this were an issue in the U.S. you could say Daily Mail basically followed the guidelines and precedent in place, using a thumbnail, and that was asking to use the private individual’s photo and being denied. Everyone is right, so everyone feels wronged. Given that this all took place in London, I’m not entirely clear on the etiquette and copyright details. More importantly, how did that woman take a picture in a mall without the mall cops giving her the Spanish Inquisition?

(Update: The story has been pulled altogether from the Daily Mail site, but the conversation on Boing Boing continues.)

About that Miami football scandal, here’s a nice look at the presentation from many of the online outlets, via the always outstanding Fear the Hat. Surprisingly ESPN’s site has been incredibly late to the party, as you’ll see in the screen caps.

I took a look at the front page of the Miami Herald this morning. They ran the story as a lead piece on the front page, but there was no color and no art.

NBC 10 in Philadelphia is flexing a little social media muscle:

The local NBC station in Philadelphia has started reporting news on location-based social network Foursquare. Initially, NBC 10 will pick one lead story a day and have a reporter check in on Foursquare from relevant locations and leave text and photo news updates. Later, this will extend to multiple stories and individual Foursquare accounts for each reporter.

That’s a fine idea. And since the Poynter piece didn’t do it, I’ll add that in addition to working Foursquare, they should also run a similar program elsewhere. You want to have some say in your distribution? You have to know, and go, where your audience is. Expand this program to Facebook Places, Gowalla, and, really, wherever their audience gathers.

journalism / links / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off
16
Aug 11

Things to read

Make the authorities nervous, and they’ll cut your lines of communication. The British? Oh, no. This was in California. There was a shooting that led to chatter about protests, which made the locals overreact, killing cell service:

Since shutting down cell service on Thursday to try to quell rumored protests which never came to fruition, the Bay Area Transit Authority (BART) has had an interesting weekend and Monday.

Aside from getting investigated by the FCC as to whether it exceeded its authority in shutting off cellphones, the myBART website has been hacked by collective Anonymous on Sunday, with Anonymous claiming that the hack was motivated by the fact that BART’s actions were anti-free speech. The breech exposed identifiable contact information of over 2,000 employees and passengers.

While the original protests were planned in response to the shootings of Charles Hill and Oscar Grant by transit police, Anonymous also took their anti-BART campaign to real life by organizing more protests against the cell service disruption, starting today at San Francisco’s Civic Center station at 5pm. This resulted in a sort of dual protest, both for the cell service issue and the deaths.

According to local reports, the movement was at its height around 100 people, chanting slogans like “No justice, no peace, disband the BART police.” All in all four subway stations, Civic Center, Powell, Embarcadero and Montgomery were shut down and reopened within an hour’s period. Perhaps having learned its lesson the hard way, BART did not interfere with cell service this time, although it had threatened to.

That’s not about Anonymous, but about what might have been. Consider if there had been an emergency of any kind. Thankfully nothing of the sort seemed to happen, but had there been a need to make a phone call, everyone would have been helpless.

It is also about precedent, and the comfortability of doing such a thing again. This is a fair way down that argumentative slippery slope.

Does the Associated Press “get it”? You can pick up the new style book — the reporter’s Bible, as it were — for $13 on Amazon, or $20 on their own site. It’ll cost you $25 to get the iPhone app. I wish them well with that, but they’ve inverted their model.

One more time: you make the app once and you don’t have to bind it, run new editions or distribute it. (Well, you shouldn’t have to, but it seems they are pushing the app as a yearly thing, rather than simply updating the pre-existing app like every other offering in the app store.) So the overhead is gone. This is, then, a pure profit machine. Should people find it necessary to download one. But I doubt that is happening as much as they’d like. The stylebook itself (which does get updated every year in the dead tree edition) is a small enough (read, portable) piece that you can carry it anywhere. And if you’re going to have to pay for annual app updates you may as well just have the book.

Albert Brown survived the 65-mile Bataan Death March. He spent more than three years in captivity, contracting and fighting off so many diseases and ailments that, when he was liberated, doctors told him to not expect to see his 50th birthday:

But Brown soldiered on, moving to California, attending college again and renting out properties to the era’s biggest Hollywood stars, including Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland. He became friends with John Wayne and Roy Rogers, doing some screen tests along the way.

“I think he had seen so much horror that after the war, he was determined to enjoy his life,” Moore said.

He recently died at 105 years old. It is a great story that I commend to you. And there’s a timeless quote from his biographer: “The underlying message for today’s returning veterans is that there’s hope, not to give in no matter how bleak the moment may seem. You will persevere and can find the promise of a new tomorrow, much like (Brown) had found.”

You can run away from this robot, if you can run 6.9 miles an hour. Also, it has knees. There’s a video, which can’t be embedded (sure, there’s a running robot, but you can’t embed this clip … ) and it is clear, the Cylons are here.

If you’ll recall, this spring was when Skynet was supposed to take over. I’m no Luddite, but they can’t take over if we don’t invent them. Just remember that when the mechanical reckoning comes.

I’ve covered a lot of horrible stories of death, murder, callous views of humanity and all manner of nearly unspeakable horrors. (There’s a reason I left hard news.) This one is just about the worst story I’ve ever read.

journalism / links / Monday / video — Comments Off
15
Aug 11

Linky things

As the stage rigging began to teeter, Laura Magdziarz grabbed her 3-year-old daughter, Maggie, by the armpits and delivered a one-word directive to Maggie’s grandmother and two older siblings: “Run.”

The next thing Magdziarz remembers is being on the ground amid the debris. Her arms were empty.

Maggie was a good five feet away, crying in her tutu, which she had worn to match Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles. Magdziarz tried to stand but fell right back down — her leg was broken.

Maggie started walking to her, so she thought maybe her daughter was OK. Until she saw Maggie’s left arm — bone, flesh and blood, probably from elbow to wrist.

If you’ve not seen the video of the stage collapse in Indiana, you can find it here, along with a great piece of analysis from the local paper’s (solid) coverage. The crash is horrifying and, once again, it seems a miracle that the death toll isn’t higher. (Maggie is OK.)

If you like crisis communications here’s a solid analysis of what has and hasn’t happened after the disaster. Three of the bullet points from there:

The first rule of crisis communication is to “Be first. Be right. Be credible.” The very agencies that people are depending on for this information were not. And now that social media has become more prevalent, the days of depending on emailed press releases written by committees and regularly rescheduled press conferences are way over (a press conference was originally scheduled for midnight, and then rescheduled to 1:30 am. But they could have kept the news media up to date with occasional tweets and quick blog posts).

I’m struck by the irony of the authorities asking people to use social media to give updates while they barely use it themselves. Hopefully this will convince the first response authorities start to use it themselves.

The crisis communicators responding to crises like these need to start including social media in their own responses. Not only can they get news out to the public, they can respond to rumors and bad information immediately, squelching it, and getting out good information instead.

As I’ve been saying to students, scholars, firms and pretty much anyone else who would listen, you ignore these tools at your own peril.

From the same post at ProBlogService (Which, apparently, offers blog ghost writing. Really? Really?):

The news media would be smart to start streaming their news programs on their websites during emergencies like this. I was communicating with people in Chicago, Alabama, and even Toronto about the incident. All I’ve been able to do is send them to stories on sites, but they could watch this live if the stations would stream their emergency news broadcasts.

We’re coming back to that, but first a quick trip to California, where your rights are being further eroded:

Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures “with no apparent esthetic value” is within Long Beach Police Department policy.

McDonnell spoke for a follow-up story on a June 30 incident in which Sander Roscoe Wolff, a Long Beach resident and regular contributor to Long Beach Post, was detained by Officer Asif Kahn for taking pictures of a North Long Beach refinery.1

“If an officer sees someone taking pictures of something like a refinery,” says McDonnell, “it is incumbent upon the officer to make contact with the individual.” McDonnell went on to say that whether said contact becomes detainment depends on the circumstances the officer encounters.

McDonnell says that while there is no police training specific to determining whether a photographer’s subject has “apparent esthetic value,” officers make such judgments “based on their overall training and experience” and will generally approach photographers not engaging in “regular tourist behavior.”

You’re beyond a slippery slope, here.

And considering that piece from Long Beach, I’d like to go back to Indiana, where Erik Deckers reports:

If you’ve ever had any doubt about the need for a smartphone, or the power that citizen journalists wield, know this: all of the footage and images that all the newscasts are showing, and the ones that the national news outlets will be playing over and over, came from people and their smartphones. Not news cameras recording the aftermath of an event, but real action shot by real people who were on the scene.

Traditionalist newspaper reporters don’t like it, but that doesn’t matter. We’re all reporters now. Except for in Long Beach, and select Florida towns, where you can get arrested if a cranky cop runs across your path.

Finally, you’ll laugh, but I’ve had this nightmare:

Auburn / Glomerata / history / links / site / weekend — 1 Comment
13
Aug 11

The 1901 yearbook

8/16 UPDATE: This piece has been syndicated at The War Eagle Reader.

I won an auction earlier this week for one of Auburn’s 1901 yearbooks. (You know I collect these, right? Here are the covers of more than 100 years of history. You can see the inner details from a few select years, too.)

There were two annuals in 1901, the traditional Glomerata, which was then all of five years old, and this one, The Chrysalis:

No one in this book would recognize the place today. From their point of view, only Samford Hall, Langdon Hall, the University Chapel and Hargis Hall remain. One of the advertisers in the back of the book would be familiar to modern eyes, and nowhere inside is there a reference to Tigers or War Eagle. Auburn, A.P.I. and the Orange and Blue are used interchangeably as the names of the place and collective people.

But why were there two yearbooks? The editors of The Chrysalis explained that the independent students were being shut out by the Greeks. Because they were organized, the seven fraternities, making up about a third of the student body, felt they could dictate terms. (Read the complete argument and rationale for the Chrysalis.)

The Chrysalis complains that each fraternity got a member on the Glomerata’s editorial board, and the non-fraternity students were represented by only one person. This led to the best sentence, and the worst rationale ever, to explain the purpose of something like a yearbook.

“The non-fraternity men demanded equal representation on the Advisory Board, which they should have had, for eight of the eleven players on the Varsity Foot-ball Team belonged to their number …”

(The football team, by the way, went undefeated that year. Auburn hosted “the Nashville boys” and defeated them in a cold rain, 28-0. They traveled next to Birmingham to face a Knoxville team that was “the strongest team we played.” After the game people that stayed in Auburn received a telegram “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Auburn won 23-0. Up next were “the Tuscaloosa boys,” as Auburn and Alabama (the yearbook didn’t use their name) met in Montgomery. Auburn thrashed ‘Bama, 53-5. But that game wasn’t the finale as it is today. Back then Georgia was still the biggest game of the year. In this, just the seventh meeting of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, Auburn whipped Georgia 44-0. A capacity crowd of 3,500, watched the game, according to the yearbook.)

The dispute between the fraternities and independents raged and, ultimately, a panel of professors stepped in to arbitrate. Those three professors decided the Glomerata’s editorial board should be more evenly divided. But that didn’t happen.

“(T)his time, as usual, they were offered ONE and told that they did not deserve more – this was not accepted, and it was decided to publish a non-fraternity annual.”

And so there they are, the editors of the non-fraternity book. The Chrysalis was published for only the one year. How the dispute was resolved in 1902 remains a mystery to me. I don’t yet have that edition in my collection.

Here’s the sophomore class of 1901. How young:

I collect these because they look great on the shelf and they are stuffed with history. There’s a great history lesson of the university in this book, too, written by Professor O.D. Smith, who taught English and mathematics. Soon after writing this history he would find himself serving as the interim president. Today Smith Hall is named in his honor. (You can read his full accounting here.) Here’s a lengthy excerpt:

The Alabama Polytechnic Institute and A. & M. College was one among the last of the land grant colleges established under the act of congress passed in 1862, known as the Morrill Act. Owing to the confusion and demoralization incident to the reconstruction period, the donation of land script granted by the act was not accepted by the State Legislature until December 26, 1868. The amount of land allotted to the state was 240,000 acres. A Board of Commissioners was appointed to receive and sell the land script and invest the proceeds in Alabama bonds. The amount of bonds ultimately purchased was $353,000.

A striking commentary upon the unsavory financial operations of that period is, that over three years elapsed before the sale and investment was completed. A still more remarkable fact is, that not a trace of a record exists of these large transactions. During this period, a large part of the fund was misappropriated to the use of the state and came dangerously near being lost in the wrecked finances of the state.

By an act of the Legislature approved February 26, 1872, by Gov. R. B. Lindsey, the offer of the grounds and building of the East Alabama Male College, made by the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was accepted and the A. & M. College was located at Auburn

[…]

The first session of the college was thus inaugurated March 25, 1872. A provision was made that the senior class of the old college should complete their course and graduate at the usual time, and should be recognized as Alumni of the A. & M. college. The usual commencement was held in June, and this class received their diplomas, but it was provided that the session should continue through the summer and close the 30th of October. The theory seemed to have been that the summer was especially adapted to the acquisition of Agricultural knowledge. One experiment was enough. It was never repeated. During this year, owing to the bankrupt condition of the state Treasury, the college received but a small part of its interest. The close of the session found it burdened with debt, which necessitated a reduction of the faculty, and a reorganization of its work …

The college reopened Jan 1st, 1873. This was really the beginning of the first session of the independent existence of the college, and the class of 1873 was the first class to graduate at a commencement held exclusively under the auspices of the new college.

It is well to mention that the number of students matriculated that year was 103, and of that number only 47 were in the college classes. From such a small beginning, the college has risen to its present numbers, when its graduating class for the present year is twenty per cent larger than the entire number of college students the first year of its existence.

The location of the college was fortunate. Auburn had been famous as an educational center, and the seat of much wealth, refinement and culture. The Methodist church had established in 1858 an excellent classical college, officered by some of the ablest educators in the south. The college, its buildings, equipment, patronage and good will, were all conveyed to the state. According to the records, the most zealous and effective workers in securing this transfer to the state were the present treasurer, E.T. Glenn, Esq., and the first president of the Board of Trustees, the Hon. W. H. Barnes.

Under the first charter of the College, the Board of Trustees was a self perpetuating body, electing their successors whenever a vacancy occurred, with the exception of the Governor and the Superintendent of Education, ex-officio members. The change made by the present constitution providing for their appointment is of doubtful advantage, as it opens the way for partisan political influence, than which nothing can be more disastrous to an institution for higher education.

[…]

Naturally at first the institution encountered serious difficulties. It was an experiment, and it had to meet both jealousy and prejudice. There was much ill concealed skepticism as to the practicability of combining mental discipline and intellectual culture with practical training in the arts and sciences. The financial resources were limited to the interest on the bonds paid for some years in depreciated currency which the college was compelled to dispose of at as much as 25 per cent discount. In addition to this embarrassment, the college was burdened by a heavy debt incurred the first year, from the failure of the state to pay the interest on its bonds. And yet this decade was not an era of stagnation, its curriculum was extended, its faculty increased and new chairs established … The average attendance was 151 …

The second decade, the beginning of its period of development on scientific lines, was ushered in by the election of Dr. Wm. Le Roy Broun, president … The college was just beginning to move forward under the impulse of these new forces when the main building and all its contents were burned June 24, 1887. This seeming disaster proved a blessing in disguise. With the insurance on the old building and an appropriation of $50,000 by the state, the present Chemical Laboratory and main building were erected, giving much increased facilities for college work.

The laboratories destroyed by the fire were re-established, enlarged and better equipped, and the department of Biology was established in 1889. New energy and increased zeal seemed to be infused into every department and the growth of the college in patronage and in every direction was much greater in the five years succeeding the fire than in the five preceding years. The average annual attendance from 1882 to 1887 was 141, from 1887 to 1892 was 235, an increase of over seventy per cent.

[…]

The third decade has been characterized by growth and development in all the old departments, and by the addition of several new ones. Of these the most important were Pharmacy and Electrical Engineering … The shops of Mechanic Arts department have been greatly enlarged … A large three story building has been added as an annex to the Chemical Laboratory, which is devoted to the departments of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Mechanical Engineering. Three commodious buildings have been erected for the use of the department of Veterinary Science. Three large rooms in the main building and a separate dynamo building has been provided for the Electrical department. A separate State Chemical Laboratory has just been completed. One of the most important additions is the library, which has been created almost during this decade and under the management of its efficient librarian, Prof. C. S. Thach and the library committee, has become one of the best collections of books in the state. To sum up, there have erected nearly a dozen separate structures, some of them most handsome … The buildings and equipment are easily valued at $200,000 and yet the demand for more is urgent …

During this decade the annual average attendance has been 325. The enrollment for the present year has reached 412, of that number 341 are from Alabama, and 68 from thirteen other states and three from Cuba and Nicaragua.

(T)he number of permanent instructors six, attached to the experiment station, not connected with the faculty of instruction, one associate chemist and four assistants – total 27. The present income approximates $58,000 … An institution is known by its graduates. These are its epistles read of all men; and by their career and success is to be judged the worth of the training given by their Alma Mater. Among the 579 graduates, the idlers can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Farmers, engineers, chemists, lawyers, physicians, ministers, teachers, business men are all included in the list: not less than 80 per cent of the entire number following employments closely related to the physical sciences, and other than the so-called learned professions. Not a few have achieved distinguished success. The profession of teaching has claimed a large number and the graduates of this institution are to be found in many of the important colleges and universities of the south.

Co-education cautiously attempted by the college has proved a success. The young women have demonstrated an ample ability to master the most difficult subjects of the curriculum and easily take rank among the first in their classes. There has been entire harmony in the relation of the two sexes …

In conclusion I would urge there is a great work yet to be accomplished in Alabama by this institution. What it has already accomplished is but vantage ground for still higher achievement. It is to be hoped that the Alabama Polytechnic will do its full share in the great work of leading the state to higher and better things. And this it will do, as year by year, with the guidance of able trustees and a competent faculty, and with the earnest support of its alumni, and the sympathy of all good citizens it strives towards the full accomplishment of the ideal of its founders in sending forth class after class of young men who are once scholars and trained specialists, public spirited citizens and technical experts; young men of broad intelligence and sound morality who are able and willing to address themselves to any of the practical problems of life.

Remember: You can see all of my covers here and details of a few books here. Also, there’s the complete argument and rationale for the Chrysalis and Professor Smith’s full historical account here. That one is lengthy, and probably only of interest to serious Auburn enthusiasts.

And now, the last of the pictures that I scanned from the book. Just because.

The pastoral turn of the 20th century setting of Auburn, Ala. I think this is from perhaps the belfry of Samford Hall, looking into town. What do you think?

Here’s a street view. The book does not say which street. Maybe it wasn’t even named yet. I’m guessing it is the modern College Street.

And, finally, a page of ads from the back of the book. This page features the only business name recognizable to contemporary students:

journalism / links / Monday / video — Comments Off
8
Aug 11

London calling, they say there’s nothing on the telly

I could not sleep last night, or most of this morning. It was a fitful thing, falling asleep while the birds were rising to their day’s task. Whistle and tweet, and there’s the lightening sky, how neat.

It reminded me of every all-night ever pulled in the history of man. You remember the thrill of the first all-nighter. It was a great feeling, defeating the night, beating the sun to its sense of purpose, only to strangle yourself on snores a few hours later. Youth.

And here you are missing out on four deleted paragraphs devoted to the evolution of the all-nighter’s impact on your body. As you know, you begin to cope less and less with it.

Anyway. The problem with being wide awake at 3 a.m. is your choice of television, which is to say every shopping channel, SportsCenter’s greatest hits from 1983 and infomercials. The most challenging thing on television? The Transformers movie. You can’t fall asleep to that because you’re too busy being annoyed at how bad the thing is.

Headline News, searching for the sweet spot of news and entertainment irrelevance, had a package where Jersey Shore regulars give their insight into the economy. Here’s your tip: two guys from Jersey Shore have an opinion on the economy. Wrestle with that awhile. And then digest their take home message: Italy is in much better shape than the US just now. I refer you to this handy 2010 Economist infographic on the PIIGS. Judge for yourself. Me, I’ve now watched two minutes of people who’s stature in the world has been determined by their appearance on a show with the word Jersey in the title.

I have a strict rule: No Jersey Anything watching. And I have in-laws, lovely, thoughtful, sweet, lightyears beyond the stereotypes, in-laws in New Jersey. But, still.

What you think you know about the London riots is probably understated. This map, if accurate, gives one pause.

View Initial London riots / UK riots in a larger map

Not that you can see it on American television, but, then, that is why we have the Internet. The initial spark was a police shooting, but this now seems to be a bit of youthful discontent, hooliganism, opportunism and the slowest governmental response to a swelling issue in quite some time. Here’s a Sky News reporter, shooting in his neighborhood tonight:

Here’s an overview piece that basically says no one knows why, and no one has done much yet to stop it. It doesn’t seem if there will be any solutions anytime soon, given all of the dynamics in play.

Meanwhile, my little presentation is coming along. It now has a central point. I have also downloaded the appropriate PowerPoint template. Tomorrow words will begin appearing on it, as if by magic.