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things to read

What is going on inside your monitor anyway?

“It doesn’t get any easier; you just go faster,” said Greg LeMond, who never had to drop me on a ride. (If only because I’ve never ridden with him.) I find it isn’t getting any easier and I’m not going any faster.

I’ve had three days of short, pitiful rides I could complain about. Sunday I stopped because my back was hurting. Yesterday I pedaled home because it was about to storm in a profound way. Today’s ride was incredibly forgettable. The legs are dead. Everything feels off and I feel slow.

At least the scenery is nice:

I’ve been telling myself over the last 40 miles, that it is getting harder because I am about to go faster. That seems to have been the case in the past. Somehow, though, I think this is wishful thinking in this case.

I wrote an interesting PowerPoint presentation on feature stories. Want to see it?

No?

OK then.

Things to read … because you can’t say no to that.

This makes me wish I knew everything about the subject matter, New York Times Rolls Out Archive of Vintage Print Ads, Asks for Help ID-ing Them:

Vintage ads that appeared in The New York Times are getting their own digital archive that will live on the Times’ website. Called Madison in reference to Madison Avenue, the archive initially includes every print ad from every edition of the Times in the 1960s.

“It invites people to view an important part of our cultural history,” said Alexis Lloyd, creative director at The New York Times Research and Development Lab, which created Madison.

But the Times is inviting readers to do more than just view the ads. It’s also asking readers to help shape the archive by sifting through the ads, identifying them and even transcribing their text.

A good list, What are the perfect tools for a mobile reporter?

Even if this horrible estimate is wrong this is still grim, New Ebola Cases May Soon Reach 10,000 a Week, Officials Predict:

The head of the new Ebola Emergency Response Mission, Anthony Banbury, told the Security Council that none of the three most heavily affected countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — is adequately prepared. Only 4,300 treatment beds will be available by Dec. 1, according to current projections, and even those would not have an adequate number of staff members. The acceleration of new cases, if not curbed, could easily overwhelm them.

Mr. Banbury painted a picture of substantial need. Only 50 safe-burial teams are on the ground, he said, but 500 are required. They need protective gear and about a thousand vehicles. So far, Mr. Banbury said, the mission has delivered 69 vehicles.

The top three ways Alabamians are getting scammed:

When the recession sucked away retirement funds of many of Alabama’s elderly, the senior population became a desperate and easy target for crooks, said Joseph Borg, director of the Alabama Securities Commission.

And several scams have popped up that are luring in small and midsized businesses, Borg said during a speech at the Birmingham Kiwanis Club at the Harbert Center Tuesday.

Let me guess … Here’s how Facebook, Google, and Apple are tracking you now … there are little men inside my screen, right?

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13
Oct 14

Home light

The early evening light as it falls into our living room:

I do think that’s my favorite hour of the day in the house. It is full of hope and wonder, but it also has some melancholy, too. It is fleeting. And, soon, the light points out, it will be dark. So I’m always torn about it, but I do love that hour of golden light.

In the bedroom in comes in through a large laurel oak and if there is even a gentle breeze you get beautiful shadows dancing on the walls and the floor and the bed. As far as anyone can tell, that is one of the few redeemable qualities of a laurel oak.

Fall break at school, so I’m working from home. Two class preps. Emails to read and deliver. Work to dream up for student projects.

I also had to write a document on student achievements. We have impressive students. We have a lot of impressive students. And then we have some who just earn and win everything. I don’t know how they do it.

The most difficult thing, though, was trying to provide context. What’s the best way to distinguish this honor society from that one? And how do I explain this scholarship compared to another? Context is important, and it isn’t enough to say “Trust us on this, she’s an awesome person.”

Also, there was copy editing. There is always copy editing. Make your peace with it early, try to get useful at it. There is always something to read and mark up.

Things to read … because there is always something to read.

Let me guess! Because Alabama doesn’t have a rule on the books? Because Alabama doesn’t have a rule on the books, Why you may not know if your data has been hacked

What Buzzfeed, Medium and Adafruit Know About Engagement:

“When we have something that’s a hit, usually our response is not, let’s do more of those. Our response is, let’s figure why this is a hit and make variations of this. This was successful because it was tied to someone’s identity, it was successful because it had cats in it, or it was successful because it had humor, or it was successful because it tapped into nostalgia. If you’re making entertainment content, which is a big part of what we do, you look at that hit and you say, ‘Why was that successful? Can I do it again? Can I make something else that people really love and want to share?’ And you try to vary it, even though you know doing something derivative would work. Long term, you want to have a deeper understanding of how to make great things. That’s really the focus. That comes from people in a room talking and saying, ‘Oh, let’s try this, let’s try that.’ And valuing people doing new things, not just valuing people doing big things.”

Uh huh, NBC News’ Nancy Snyderman Apologizes for Violating Ebola Quarantine Guidelines

This is a great read on how the previous story came to pass, How local news site nailed NBC News top doc

Louisiana Attorney General halts Ebola waste disposal:

It was reported that six truckloads of potential Ebola contaminated material collected from the apartment where the Dallas Ebola victim became ill were brought to Port Arthur, Texas late last week to be processed at the Veolia Environmental Services incinerator.

From there the incinerated material was slated to be transported to the Chemical Waste Management hazardous material landfill in Calcasieu Parish for final disposal.

The temporary restraining order, signed by Judge Bob Downing Monday in Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court, requires Veolia to cease and desist any transport of the incinerator ash from the treated Ebola contaminated waste in Texas to the State of Louisiana.

This could be a big deal. Or it could be another Mobro 4000. Do you remember the 1987 garbage barge story? Last year’s 25th anniversary meant the New York Times revisited the Mobro 4000 story and concluded “little of what we thought we knew was true.”

One last game:

Yeah, that’s just the promo — the full package doesn’t seem to be on YouTube — but it is a great story.

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11
Oct 14

The sixth sense of nine lives

This is one of the cats we saw at dinner last night. We dined with a friend who owns two cats, that dines on her porch and tells stories that begin with “When I was living in Paris … ”

She made a delightful meal, I hope we were decent company. Another friend brought cookies. They were also delightful. The cats were cats, moody and hiding and staring at one another. We wondered, What if cats are telepathic? What are they saying to one another right now?

Most assuredly, it was a plot against us. They are cats.

A followup After Mobile County kindergartner was asked to sign ‘safety contract,’ school officials announce change in policy:

Mobile County school officials announced Saturday that the system’s safety contract has been discontinued.

The action came in the wake of widespread media reports about a kindergartner at E.R. Dickson Elementary School who was asked to sign a safety contract after allegedly drawing a picture of a gun.

The child’s mother said the kindergartner was asked to sign the contract without her consent, and was also given a questionnaire to evaluate her for suicidal thoughts. The mother also said that after the incident, her daughter asked her what the word “suicide” meant.

So a little national exposure brings about some semblance of common sense. Go figure.

Now here’s a story you don’t read every day, Hero Army expert removes grenade lodged in Alabama man’s leg, ending 8-hour ordeal outside Birmingham hospital.

But you’ll read a lot more stories like this before we’re done, Ebola airport screenings to expand to passengers in Atlanta, three other cities.

We live in the future, Blind man sees for first time in 33 years. And this man’s wife, she’s just the cutest.

I’m not a basketball fan, but I do like the Jazz: Jazz Sign Five-Year-Old JP Gibson for Scrimmage.

There’s no such thing as too many of those stories.

Hope you’re having a highlight-filled weekend, too.

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10
Oct 14

Meditations on food

I don’t know if you have heard about The Snappening yet, where thousands of Snapchat user accounts hacked or otherwise violated, but this could be a big story. And that led to, perhaps, the most insightful thing I said today:

Who really needs to invest greatly in PR, preventative and crisis comm: Anyone working in cloud storage.

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) October 10, 2014

I said one other good thing today:

New culinary rule: If you use the adverb "Southern" to modify "fried chicken" you can't be trusted to prepare it correctly.

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) October 10, 2014

Not to make this a culinary thing, but after several Fridays of bad examples, I am disappointed to have to say that the new cafeteria vendor has ruined fried chicken. It seemed to me that they deserved a few weeks under the Benefit of the Doubt accords, and I gave them that. There are a lot of carbs on a daily basis, and the basic foodstuffs seem to rotate on something close to a monthly schedule theme — so we’ve heard. But, and this is important, Friday is fried chicken day. And they’ve missed on all of them so far, in my humble and hungry opinion. Today I noticed the menu and knew it would be no better.

Protip: There is no other fried chicken. Any attempt at making fried chicken in any way not like a grandparent does is an abject failure and poultry abuse.

I apologize for that outburst.

OK, one more food related note, Five Dairy Queen locations in Alabama fall victim to data breach. Thankfully I am not impacted. Hopefully it doesn’t effect you. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I dined at Dairy Queen. I recall the last time I ate at a restaurant that used to be a Dairy Queen. It is a barbecue place now, most remarkable for the way they cut their fries.

That former Dairy Queen is the same place where once, many years ago now, the young lady working said that they had no ice cream for their blizzards. This was in the middle of a hot summer afternoon. I always thought she should have locked the door and called it a day. No one is going for the chicken fingers in July, right?

Back to the point, with every passing data breach story I read I am more and more convinced we’ll be returning to a more cash-based exchange, soon. Customers assume a lot of risk, and they assume those retailers have their networks under control, and, sadly, that isn’t hasn’t always proved to be the case.

Sorry for all of this food talk. In a few minutes we are going to a dinner party. I’m taking my appetite.

Things to read … to whet your appetite.

Couldn’t hurt, but it isn’t a 100 percent requirement, Should all journalists be on Twitter? Think of it this way: there are plenty of community papers out there with a minimal online component, if that. They still cover their market. They are still journalists. Now, you’ll find that some topics demand Twitter or other online tools, of course. Others, the online tools could serve as a great compliment. This is the point the piece tries to dance around in a snarky fashion.

To everything there is a season, Facebook is over for teens – and Instagram and Twitter are the most popular social networks among American children

Anyone surprised? Smile! Marketing Firms Are Mining Your Selfies

This is fun, Save Local History with New Wikipedia Map:

Have you ever wondered which buildings near you are listed on the National Register of Historic Places? If you’ve ever tried to look this up, you probably had trouble finding what you were looking for because until the summer of 2014, there really was no user-friendly way to browse map-integrated National Register listings. Now, thanks to the Wikipedia Summer of Monuments campaign, there is a free, simple, and interactive map that shows all places listed on the National Register.

Ummm … oops? Police sorry for telling wrong family of death:

An Alaska couple knocked on the door of their son’s long-time girlfriend Thursday, intending to inform her that he’d been killed in a car accident.

Karen and Jay Priest instead were stunned when the son, 29-year-old Justin Priest, answered the door. They had mistakenly been told by Juneau police that he’d been killed in the crash.

Karen Priest said her husband started sobbing, and she was in shock.

Told some students this was a big story. I don’t think they believed me, at first. Pastor Juan McFarland of Shiloh Baptist church a trending subject of world’s conversations and media attention

And, finally, the link of moral indignation. School Has Child Sign ‘Safety Contract’:

“They told me she drew something that resembled a gun,” said Rebecca. “According to them she pointed a crayon at another student and said, ‘pew pew,” said Rebecca.

She said her child was given a questionnaire to evaluate her for suicidal thoughts.

“[They] Asked her if she was depressed now,” said Rebecca.

Without her permission, Rebecca said her child was given the Mobile County Public School Safety Contract to sign stating she wouldn’t kill herself or others.

“While I was in the lobby waiting they had my 5-year-old sign a contract about suicide and homicide,” said Rebecca.

It takes a village. And that’s part of the problem, wouldn’t you agree?

Honestly, this is just about the stupidest thing you could conceive. And it is happening here, which is mind-boggling.

It was a good run, but common sense appears to be losing out.

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9
Oct 14

Things that remain

This was on the dessert stand in the cafeteria at lunch:

I did not eat any of them, nor did I even try to use my standard rationale: I ran five miles this morning. I can eat a cake. I think it was something about the message. Why does one eat love? How does one eat faith? You could go the metaphorical route, aim for the biblical teaching or, like me, just be a little weirded out by pink icing.

If you stare at those for a second you realize someone wrote all of those out by hand. That’s another thing. How do you expect me to eat that? You wrote faith on a cake square and now I devour it in two bites?

And what of the hope? 1 Corinthians is hardly complete without it.

Man, this is a great diet plan I’ve discovered, huh?

So, yeah, five miles. I can do six miles, no problem. (I do not know what is happening … ) I once knocked out eight miles around the neighborhood, with a fair bit of walking in it. But, still, eight miles. Here’s the problem: I need something to ward off the boredom. Around mile six I’m just ready to move on. Any tips?

Things to read … because you can always find helpful tips if you read enough.

I’m a big fan of making sure students never ask a rhetorical question in their copy. There are times it works. Too often, though, it leads to things like this non sequitur, “Are you a Red Bull Drinker? Do you want to be?” Red Bull Settlement: How to claim your piece of $13 million

There’s a great line in this story, which is always a difficult one to tell, Jury hears emotional testimony from Leonard’s father during sentencing hearing:

Wright, who wore clothes he borrowed from Leonard, pleaded with the court to spare his son, who is facing the death penalty for fatally shooting three people and wounding three others during a party at the former University Heights apartment complex on June 9, 2012.

The dad is in and out of prison, he tells the judge and jury he was never really in his son’s life. He’s actually been hauled to this hearing from his prison sentence. And he’s had to borrow his son’s clothes. The reporter told me he’d noticed that the tie was familiar. He’d seen the defendant, and now his father, wear it. That’s the sort of reporting you can’t get over the phone or in a rewrite. Message: Go to the place you’re writing about.

The trend continues, Marketwatch editor: Most stories will now be less than 400 words:

We need to reshape how markets and financial stories are told to better reflect how they are consumed. What do I mean by that? Like most news sites, MarketWatch still leans too heavily on the 750-word story — a legacy of print newspapers that has outlived its usefulness. We want to go shorter – and longer.

The majority of our stories will soon be under 400 words — breaking everything down into short bursts of news and insight that cut straight to what is most important to readers, without all the empty calories and filler journalists love to stuff in the sausage . We will also do longer, deep dives on important stories that warrant such treatment. This is the way the digital news is going: tall and venti, no more grande.

Let’s play ‘Can you find all the snippy bits?’ The “priesthood” is real and we do not need another one.

Perhaps you’ve seen a list like this before. This one has alternatives! And, yes, it has a gif, but it is from “Princess Bride,” so it gets a pass. So many qualifiers! 5 weak words copywriters and bloggers should avoid (and what to use instead).

Mobile news consumption hits the tipping point:

Now that mobile traffic is at or near 50% at many newspapers, editors and publishers need to put ever more of their thinking – and resources – into optimizing products, content and advertising for not only smartphones and tablets but also for such emerging devices as smart watches, smart televisions and whatever smart stuff comes next. As discussed below, mobile publishing is as distinct from web publishing as web publishing is from web printing.

And it is happening fast, too, as expected. (For a few years now I’ve noted that the mobile move was one thing that was outpacing the web’s legendary rapid adaptability.)

Well now, CDC Director on Ebola: ‘The Only Thing Like This Has Been AIDS’.

And, to end on a happy note, this is a video package worth watching:

I had to look four different places to find an embeddable version of that story, but it was worth it.