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17
Mar 14

A photo, two videos and a dozen good links

On the way to campus this morning:

Everyone seemed OK. The troopers were there. We had just a slight slowdown and I met no ambulances coming the other direction for the rest of my drive. Even still, you see these small accidents and know that these people just had their week ruined. And on a Monday morning, too. But at least everyone is OK.

And now, to change the subject, here’s another hit from Kid President:

It is probably selfish to say, but I hope that guy never changes.

In class today we talked about mobile marketing. This is the part of the conversation where students always find the line dividing acceptable and creepy. Say you’re walking down the street and your phone buzzes, “Hey! We noticed you’re just a block away from Starbucks. Couldn’t you go for a nice coffee and muffin? Here’s a coupon!”

I mentioned this story:

Fan Zhang, the owner of Happy Child, a trendy Asian restaurant in downtown Toronto, knows that 170 of his customers went clubbing in November. He knows that 250 went to the gym that month, and that 216 came in from Yorkville, an upscale neighborhood.

And he gleans this information without his customers’ knowledge, or ever asking them a single question.

Mr. Zhang is a client of Turnstyle Solutions Inc., a year-old local company that has placed sensors in about 200 businesses within a 0.7 mile radius in downtown Toronto to track shoppers as they move in the city.

The sensors, each about the size of a deck of cards, follow signals emitted from Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones. That allows them to create portraits of roughly 2 million people’s habits as they have gone about their daily lives, traveling from yoga studios to restaurants, to coffee shops, sports stadiums, hotels, and nightclubs.

One of my students mentions this even more disconcerting story:

In November, the Macy’s department store chain began testing a product called ShopBeacon at stores in San Francisco’s Union Square and New York’s Herald Square.

The app, created by Shopkick Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., enables a merchant to offer discounts on specific products that a customer has expressed interest in or, perhaps, has lingered near, prodding him or her to buy.

“We can find out where you are standing and how long you’ve been standing in front of the Michael Kors handbag and if you haven’t purchased,” Macy’s Chief Executive Terry Lundgren said at an analysts conference in November. “And if you haven’t, I’ll send you a little note to give you encouragement to do so.”

And that’s the new world in which we shop. Or does something like this just push you further away from brick and mortar stores?

I didn’t mention it but I did have a nice, brief bike ride yesterday evening. I got in a quick 14 miles, wherein I managed to have two thoughts. The first was that I haven’t been riding my bike enough. I knew this because I hit too small little uphill segments and pushed my feet down and accelerated and that was a wonderful feeling. The ride was really meant to be the first half of a brick workout, where I would take on a long run. Just as I went back outside, though, it started to rain. And while I enjoy riding in the rain, I don’t much see the need to run in it. But the other thought I was continually having on the bike was “I wanna run.”

I do not know what is happening.

I did not run, however, because of the rain. This evening I swam a mile, 1,750 yards. It even felt pretty good, which doesn’t happen often. Didn’t want to run, though!

Things to read … because I still don’t want to run.

The title overstates things, but … Robots have mastered news writing. Goodbye journalism:

“It actually started with me reading an article by Steven Levy in Wired about algorithms and news content — ‘Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?,” Christer Clerwall tells Wired.co.uk. “My first thought was ‘maybe it doesn’t have to be better — how about ‘a good enough story’?” Sadly, Wired may turn out to be the architect of its own destruction. Because Clerwall, an assistant professor of media and communications at Sweden’s Karlstad University, has found the answer to this question. And it’s yes.

This is the second small study I’ve seen like this. Both have to do with sports copy, which probably means something. What may be promising, however, is that as the algorithms improve this could free up writers from the more basic stories and allow for better storytelling.

Meanwhile, The First News Report on the L.A. Earthquake Was Written by a Robot:

Ken Schwencke, a journalist and programmer for the Los Angeles Times, was jolted awake at 6:25 a.m. on Monday by an earthquake. He rolled out of bed and went straight to his computer, where he found a brief story about the quake already written and waiting in the system. He glanced over the text and hit “publish.” And that’s how the LAT became the first media outlet to report on this morning’s temblor. “I think we had it up within three minutes,” Schwencke told me.

If that sounds faster than humanly possible, it probably is. While the post appeared under Schwencke’s byline, the real author was an algorithm called Quakebot that he developed a little over two years ago. Whenever an alert comes in from the U.S. Geological Survey about an earthquake above a certain size threshold, Quakebot is programmed to extract the relevant data from the USGS report and plug it into a pre-written template. The story goes into the LAT’s content management system, where it awaits review and publication by a human editor.

The copy, which you can read in that story, was basic, to the point, and not perfect regarding style, but it shared the pertinent information, apparently within three minutes. What happened afterward was telling. ” Quakebot’s post had been updated 71 times by human writers and editors, turning it from the squib above into this in-depth, front-page story.”

This first story, the early morning Quakebot copy, is a first step. It didn’t save the day, or save even a big part of a reporter’s day, but it is the sign of a utility to come, or, rather, a tool that is already here.

These next two items go together in an interesting, if unintended way. Welcome to the New First Screen: Your Phone:

Daily time spent on mobile devices is now outpacing TV in the U.S. for the first time, according a newly-released 2014 AdReaction study from Millward Brown.

Americans now spend 151 minutes per day on smartphones, next to 147 in front of TVs. But the numbers are even greater elsewhere.

Do you know what else is happening? Major Multi-Channel Video Providers Lost About 105,000 Subscribers in 2013:

“2013 was the first year for multi-channel video industry losses, but the modest losses represent only about 0.1% of all subscribers,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “While the overall market remains fairly flat, further share-shifting has taken place. Cable providers now have a 52% share of the top multi-channel video subscribers in the US, compared to a 58% share three years ago.”

We are at something of a hinge point in entertainment history.

Undercover TV Reports on School Security Raise Ethical Questions:

The three news reports followed the same format: Television reporters walked into schools with hidden cameras, under the premise of testing the security measures. Each time, the anchors provided a sobering assessment of the findings.

[…]

Critics say these kinds of undercover efforts do not provide an accurate portrait of school safety, and question whether they serve any public good. Some journalists question whether the news organizations become too much a part of the story, and whether it is dangerous for reporters to wander into schools now that students and staff are often on heightened alert.

Quick links:

Red Clay Readers to offer fresh look at ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ during 5-week book club

Vestavia Hills woman found nude in dumpster recovering in hospital; no foul play suspected

Auburn hoping go faster with Marshall back

Comments! Oklahoma’s Charles Tapper on Sooners’ spring swagger: ‘Whole defense just dominated Alabama’

And, finally, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a tank, and he wants you to take a ride with him:

If he’s taking the Adam West, Bill Shatner route of playing the caricature of himself, count me in.

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15
Mar 14

Doubleheader

It will rain tomorrow, so today let’s play two!

Freshman Keegan Thompson threw his second consecutive complete game, striking out 10 and scattering four hits while allowing two runs. (So it was a disastrous 5th inning by his standards.) He threw 121 pitches. His 111th pitch was clocked at 91 mph. The kid is unbelievable. I hope they don’t break him.

Auburn won the first game 5-2 to take the series from the visiting Aggies. Thompson came out in the second game and played first base for a while. Auburn was put away easily in the last game of the series, falling 9-0.

So let’s talk fans! This group includes two of the four new Aggie friends we made today. Scroll beyond the photographs. There are things to read below the pretty pictures.

Things to read … because today hasn’t been all about baseball.

International news: Venezuela is likely more important to us than Crimea, though whatever Putin is doing in the home office is interesting. Meanwhile, just common sense suggests that of all the places you could cut the military here, slicing off parts of the navy is an inherently risky strategy.

Venezuela’s foreign minister calls Kerry ‘murderer’

While the West Watches Crimea, Putin Cleans House in Moscow

Obama, Navy Lying To Congress On Carriers: Seapower Chair Rep. Forbes

Journalism items of interest: The lengths people will go to try to prevent reporters from doing their jobs often borders on the absurd. Here are two examples, and correspondence from Great Britain, which has been milling about on the wrong, lost, broken path for a while now, it seems.

New York Police Department Says Its Freedom of Information law Manual Is Confidential

You Can Photograph That Federal Building

Britain is treating journalists as terrorists – believe me, I know

Just stories: The first one is just strange, the kind where you know you don’t know the whole story, where maybe the whole story doesn’t matter so much, so long as the person is OK.

Vestavia Hills woman found alive in trash compactor off U.S. 280

Good Samaritan meets mother of man rescued from burning truck

That last story makes you think “Yeah, sometimes you just need a Marine and two Army veterans around.”

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11
Mar 14

Signs of spring, finally

This little bush in our side yard always seems to have the first blooms. They showed up last week, finally. I thought it’d be nice to show them off, finally.

Two trees on campus, that I drive and walk past every day, have turned into lovely lavender explosions. Everything is about to surge forward. Spring, finally.

My swim was much better this evening, thanks for asking. I swam 2,000 yards. That’s 1.14 miles to you and me. I’m pretty sure I’ve consciously gotten into my car and deliberately driven it a shorter distance. It isn’t fast, or especially pretty, but there’s distance, and I don’t feel bad during it. Except for being constantly winded.

I’m told this is because I don’t know how to breathe. I’m beginning to believe that.

Things to read … because we want to believe everything we read.

With a new newsfeed, Facebook is getting ready to go Pay-for-Play includes some thoughtful tips and interesting links.

Alabama offering free photo IDs to vote

Perhaps you heard about the body found in Michigan. Today there’s a new angle on that story. Voting Records Raise Questions After Mummified Body Found:

The body found last Wednesday in Pontiac is that of Pia Farrenkopf — according to her sister, Paula Logan. Authorities investigating the case haven’t released her name, but they have said that the woman apparently died in 2008 at the age of 49.

According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, records show Farrenkopf as voting in the November 2010 gubernatorial election. Officials say, however, that it may represent an administrative error. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard says the information must be checked out.

Whoops.

Also in Michigan, 82-year-old protects family, attacks home intruder with hammer to head:

Officers found the 33-year-old male suspect in the living room with blood dripping from his head.

The 82-year-old victim, George Bradford, who was inside the home, struck the suspect with the hammer in an effort to protect his family. George says his mother was in an upstairs unit and that he’s owned the duplex on Whitfield since 1968.

I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy when the aggressor is the one who gets hurt and the victim is the person with the hammer.

Weird headline of the week: Missing woman unwittingly joins search party looking for herself . And, remember, the week also includes that ridiculous story about the Oregon man who called 911 on his cat.

Ahh, educators. Fond du Lac students protest censorship mandate for school publication:

The piece features stories of three rape victims. Their names have been changed in the story.

On Monday Fond du Lac High School Principal Jon Wiltzius told journalism classes new school guidelines require that all stories meet his approval before publication and are subject to rejection.

“This is a reasonable expectation,” Wiltzius said. “My job is to oversee the global impact of everything that occurs within our school and I have to ensure I am representing everyone and there was some questionable content.”

Here’s a rule of thumb: If someone can fairly say you have a rape culture on your campus and you’re talking about how everyone is represented and you are questioning content, it is possibly possible that you are asking the wrong questions.

What will digital life look like in a decade? Some predictions, from the optimistic to mind control:

Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s initial proposal for what would become the World Wide Web. Think about how different media and technology were in 1989 from today. Now imagine how different things might look at a year that sounded like science fiction not that long ago: 2025.

And, now, Kevin Bacon:

You can’t just swipe away the hurt. Also, the Soviets had nukes for a lot longer than 20 years. Or maybe they ran out after nuking Bacon’s friends.

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10
Mar 14

Not very viscous

I don’t recall Daylight Saving Time having this much of an impact on me. Maybe I’m just not sleeping well. Maybe my diet is off. For one of these, or some other, reason, I have been battling a terrific laggard feeling today. I’m blaming Daylight Saving Time. That’s what I said getting out of the pool after a lousy swim this evening.

That’s also why I’m saying I’ve staggered through the entire day. The clear parts, the hazy parts. The warm parts and the mild parts. It has all felt like syrup.

So I swam 1,350 yards tonight. It was unremarkable except that I have discovered if I go slower each lap I actually go faster in the long run. And now I have to develop a routine that makes it all work — for when I am not in molasses.

Things to read … because other parts of the world are moving at normal speeds.

Joran Van der Sloot to be extradited in 2038 to face charges he defrauded Natalee Holloway’s mom: Beth Holloway — whose name is never actually mentioned in the story, oddly enough — will be in her mid-70s by then.

Found: A Corner of the Cosmos:

When I first saw this 1919 picture of nebulae in the Pleiades, I was surprised to see such an old photograph of distant stars. To think that an image like this was published just a year shy of the end of the first World War and over 40 years before the first man stepped foot in outer space seems almost beyond comprehension.

There are some incredible photos there.

David Carr: Journalism Is Still Serious, Just Different:

There are so many models out there. We’re at Bloomberg now, where a core terminal business is funding journalism, and it’s something that is of use to the users, giving them real-time information that’s going to be efficacious and useful. That’s one way to go. You have Huffington Post at the other end, where it’s not a narrow user base; it’s the broadest user base possible. You have BuzzFeed, which is taking viral content and then overlaying it with a skin of serious news. You have a lot of mainstream journalists like Ezra Klein, formerly of the Washington Post, Kara Swisher, and Walt Mossberg leaving Dow Jones and striking out on their own or in alliances with nonlegacy companies. There are all these bets all over the table and nobody knows what’s going to work and what’s not going to work.

Here’s the full video, which has some nice, thoughtful conversation throughout:

Two editorials that go together. The first, from Freedom of Information Law is a powerful tool to demand accountability from government:

“The legislature hereby finds that a free society is maintained when government is responsive and responsible to the public, and when the public is aware of governmental actions. … The legislature therefore declares that government is the public’s business and that the public, individually and collectively and represented by a free press, should have access to the records of government …”

We’re quoting from the preamble of New York state’s Freedom of Information Law. It requires governments to release records of their activities, with some exceptions, so that taxpayers know where their money is being spent and how their government is performing. FOIL is a powerful tool for demanding accountability.

Alas, saying “government is the public’s business,” and acting like it is, are two different things. Government agencies and officials routinely resist public disclosure.

The second, A newspaper and its place in a community:

The press-freedom portion of the First Amendment is a compact between the Founders and future generations. A strong democracy depends on journalism to keep government honest. This applies from the top all the way to the bottom — from details about the federal government’s expansive domestic-spying program all the way down to the goings and comings of a county’s criminal justice system.

“Democracies die behind closed doors,” wrote a federal judge in 2002. A journalist’s job is to pry those doors open. Someone should keep an eye on the courts, the city council and the streets department, to cite a few local examples.

Human nature tends to cut corners if no one is looking. And the kind of corners we’re talking about — public safety, criminal charges, proper bid processing involving taxpayer dollars — can come with a steep price, in terms of money and, occasionally, human life.

And, lastly, from the Department of The Children Are Our Future, comes another fine tale of the generous spirit of young people:

Trinity Classical was up over 20 points against Desert Chapel with time winding down in the California section championship. Trinity Classical brought in Beau Howell, a player on the team with autism who had never scored a point.

Take your eye off the ball. Watch number four. And then, at the very end, the winning championship team is giving Beau the ball.

Kids these days.

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8
Mar 14

Things that bite

The bird seed was left on the back porch, one of those “Let me put this down and deal with something pressing and I’ll get back to it” decisions. After a short time it was forgotten. At some point after that the squirrels and the chipmunks found it. The squirrels bit nice holes into the bag.

We noticed because Allie noticed:

We’ve learned, over the years, that the little meeping noise cats make is because they are frustrated. “I want IT.” Allie makes that noise when she sees wildlife in her yard. She also twitches up a bit. She’d really love to go outside and catch the thing, whatever it is she sees. But this cat is not a hunter. And even if she had enough speed to keep up with the other creature — bird, squirrel or chipmunk — she’d have no idea what to do about it.

A mouse, in a story so embarrassing a cat would beg you not to tell it, once scared her away.

She is fierce, this cat. Which is why, I suppose, I have a long scratch on the back of my hand right now. One of the few times she’s ever really done that. I choose not to interpret it as “You didn’t let me catch the thing, so you’ll do as a substitute.”

In baseball today Keegan Thompson pitched seven innings for Auburn. He allowed no runs and only two hits in collecting the win 4-1 over Mercer.

She is wrong. This wasn’t Thompson’s second win of the year. It was his third:

Actually I have no idea what she was talking about. But she held that position for a long time, so it must have been important.

A cutie at the park:

With one out in the ninth, Mercer had three runners on and the tying run at the plate. A ground ball to first sent center fielder Sasha Lagarde to the plate. The umpire said Lagarde slid in under this tag to score.

Auburn’s manager, Sunny Golloway, disagreed. He had a discussion about the best pizza toppings with the umpire. The plate ump decided he’d learned all he needed to know about the local fare. Golloway still had some things on his mind, so he circled back and brought up the best places around to get wings:

The umpire, not being a wing man, threw Golloway out of the game. Not everyone dips in ranch, Sunny. But the big emotional outburst — “How can you not like celery and carrots!?” gave struggling closer Terrance Dedrick the opportunity to regain his composure and he shut the Bears down from there.

Things to read … because some things are more important than a beautiful afternoon at the park. (Or so we’re told.)

I met Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter three years ago. It was a unique and humbling experience. Now, it seems, he’s getting the Medal of Honor. When you read his story, the instantaneous decision of a Marine of 21, which I thumbnailed in the first link, you’ll understand the common experience people get when they meet him, and why he’s up for the nation’s highest military distinction.

Study Finds Fivefold Increase In Alzheimer’s Deaths: Why It Matters

The story everyone will talk about next week: The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse

The story you can’t hear enough of: Clay County Christian team made ‘Cody Time’ for Down syndrome teammate:

At Clay County Christian Academy, they call their favorite player “Codyman.” They have blue T-shirts with “Down syndrome awareness” surrounding a Superman logo on front. The logo has “C” instead of an “S,” and the back of the shirts says what Codyman fans feel about No. 12, Cody Morris: “Codyman, sort of like Superman (only cooler).”

Morris had his time to play in most every game this season, called “Cody Time.” It was that final minute when the sophomore took the court in the same uniform with his friends and teammates, and they made sure he got chances to shoot the ball.

And make no mistake. Morris can shoot.

I do enjoy those stories.

Finally: Chris Hemsworth. Liam Hemsworth. Meryl Streep. And Tom Hanks in The Bitman Begins:

In a way, this is actually a small culmination of the post-modern, highly social, remix era. The thing is somewhat funny on its face, but to maximize the video you have to understand several layers of nuance and references. Everyone probably has some basis for reference tough. The “Charlie bit my finger” clip now has more than 675 million YouTube views, so maybe you don’t need subtext.

Discuss.