Thursday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Thursday

Doubly handy

This handy list is making the rounds today, boasting of 57 different views of the Kick Six. I settled in to watch them all, but realized it was over two hours long. And it didn’t include this one, which is my favorite, not just because I made it:

Mixing the band’s reaction — a brilliant, brilliant, video unto itself — with the actual play was a bit inspired, if I do so say myself. I think about how the stadium felt, how everyone reacted and remain so impressed by how the band pulled it together and did their job when everyone about them was losing their heads. It was an impressive performance.

Sadly, you couldn’t hear them in the stadium just then. It was so very, very loud.

We’re going to watch that game again soon, come watch it with us.

A friend of ours wrote this about that game, and it is worth a read if you like football or romance:

I would later ask why. Why that night? What changed? I had been ready for a while but had been patient. She told me plain and simply that as she watched the Kick Six, as she hugged and celebrated with her friend that had attended the game with her, that something was missing. She told me she wished that I had been there with her to celebrate that unforgettable moment. That same feeling I was feeling less than 50 yards away.

Everything was incredible, everything was unbelievable, but something was missing. That something was one another. Now, we had finally found one another and we were never going to let go.

That’s not coincidence.

Sounds like that one has a happy ending, doesn’t it?

Put in a few minutes on the bike this evening, my last ride before the weekend. I spun my feet in tiny circles just long enough to start sweating. And I did that just as the sun started to hide behind the trees. An already mild day, with the breeze of an easy ride blowing into me, felt positively coolish. That’s a strange sensation for July in Alabama.

Never question mild weather. I was going to say here, but that philosophy probably applies everywhere. You start to doubt what is going on, or fundamentally disagree with the disproportionate amounts of whatever you are having relative to the seasons and the barometer will hear about it. Next thing you know there are arctic winds in the summer or heat blisters in February.

Just enjoy the mild weather, and compliment the green things for how green they are. Maybe it’ll all stick around for a bit longer that way.

I learned this evening that I can’t eat Jelly Belly on my bike. The company sponsors a bike team and some of their products are supposed to be halfway decent for exercise energy levels and provide a little bit of fuel in a nice, self-contained package.

I received some as a stocking stuff from my mother-in-law this year and I’ve been waiting to give them a try. I stuffed them in my jersey pocket and set out for the ride, got halfway through it, reached back, wrestled with opening the thing for an entire downhill stretch and finally was able to coax out them out one at a time over about four miles.

Sitting down, I’d eat jelly beans that way, and with a nod to some completely arbitrary color scheme. On the bike, just give me the food. But they were all jammed up in the packaging. Obviously that’s not good when the point should be a quick snack for nourishment. So, delicious, but not practical for me.

Things to read … because reading is always practical.

Air Force research: How to use social media to control people like drones:

Using Graph theory, Dixon and his fellow researchers created a model to find the mathematics behind how much influence a social media “leader” needs in order to exert power and shift behavior. Dixon’s research, like many of the DARPA studies, did not perform real-world research to confirm findings—it was all simulation. And that’s a tripping point for taking this work further, one that Cornell Social Media Lab researchers hurdled with Facebook, creating an outcry in the process.

“The problem is, how do you perform a closed loop experiment? That’s something DARPA has struggled with,” said Dixon.

To that end, the SMISC program has pushed for experimental environments that use “closed” social networks. On the DARPA project page, the SMISC project team wrote, “SMISC researchers will create a closed and controlled environment where large amounts of data are collected, with experiments performed in support of development and testing. One example of such an environment might be a closed social media network of 2,000 to 5,000 people who have agreed to conduct social media-based activities in this network and agree to participate in required data collection and experiments. This network might be formed within a single organization, or span several. Another example might be a role-player game where use of social media is central to that game and where players have again agreed to participate in data collection and experiments.”

So, the more “thought leaders” you have, the better.

I suppose that sentence works in a great many contexts.

About two-in-five (41%) of U.S. households had only wireless phones in the second half of 2013, according to a report released today by the National Center for Health Statistics. The center, the statistical arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 39.1% of adults and 47.1% of children lived in wireless-only households.

The share of wireless-only households was 2.8 percentage points higher than the same period in 2012. That’s slower than in previous years. In 2010, the wireless-only share grew by 5.2 percentage points; 4.3 percentage points in 2011; and 4.2 percentage points in 2012.

Something to keep in mind when phone surveys are mentioned.

This isn’t a new story, but it is certainly an impressive one. Soldier Keeps Fighting After Being Shot In The Throat By Tracer Round:

As their dawn raid on a Taliban position commenced, Mononey and another machine gunner were positioned on a rooftoop overwatch position to provide support. Suddenly 30 Taliban fighters engaged the patrol from all directions in horseshoe ambush.

Moments into the fight Lance Corporal Moloney was struck in the throat by a tracer round which passed clean through. “It winded me like I’ve never been winded. I was thinking “I’ve been shot in the neck, it’s game over. I figured I had minutes left.”

The bullet passed just behind his windpipe, missing arteries by millimeters.

“When after a couple of minutes I was not dead and I could still talk I started to get a better feeling,” he said. “We had to crack on. They were pushing quite hard so it was either maybe die or definitely die because they would have over-run us.”

And, after being evacuated, he was back in the fight in under a month. So it came to pass that we all earned a great deal of respect for the gritty bravery of the Blues and Royals, a cavalry regiment of the British Army.

And today is, tragically, an important day to trot out the short version of the Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook, which is distilled down in to nine excellent points. I’d add “Wait, just a moment” which is a corollary to the Reporter’s rule of “Verify” and is most closely related to rules 1, 3, 7 and 9 in that excellent list.

Would that such a thing wasn’t necessary, but good that we have a way of sharing the information it contains.

Finally, Weird Al gets handy:

I have a feeling this one is going to stick around awhile.

cycling / history / iPhone / journalism / links / memories / photo / things to read / Thursday / Tumblr — Comments Off
10
Jul 14

There’s a can’t-miss offer at the end of this post

I had a V8 for breakfast this morning. “Start the gut,” they say. And I thought to myself, “I’ve forgotten how much I like V8.”

And then I read the nutrition label, remembering what I would find there, and realizing why I liked V8.

It is the potassium.

Oh, the old days in radio, when I would get to the studio at 4 a.m. and do three hours of air work and then rush down the mountain to the gas station for a V8 and a juice and some snack or other to get me through lunch. There’s nothing like faking energy on the air before 5 a.m., but, then, getting off before 2 p.m. had perks, as well.

Finally, about the time I convinced all of my friends that, no, really, I have to go to bed at 8 or 9 p.m., I was out of broadcasting. Sleeping in again never felt so good, and I probably haven’t had a V8 since.

I had lunch at a barbecue place, today, a little chicken, a little potato salad, it was delicious. And then later I went for a ride on my bicycle. I checked out 22 miles of the route for this weekend’s race. Here’s the beginning, and the end:

I didn’t do the very beginning, because it involves a small climb up from the river bank. I joined the circuit three miles in, where the country roads begin. This area will offer some long, gentle, slow climbs, rather than the rollers we normally ride. Always it felt like I was going uphill, or that I had dead legs, or both.

Then I’d look down at the computer and see my speed and be pleasantly surprised, except for the two hills of note. It will be a fast course through neighborhoods and beautiful corn and soybean fields and beyond pastureland stuffed with cattle. I think the layout only calls for six places where you have to slow down for turns, and so it is technically easy, and very pleasant. The roads are good. They are quiet.

Though I did have a car round a curve from the other direction so fast he was entirely in my lane. Not “I’m in the country and I can hover over the centerline a bit because I clearly see no one is coming,” but instead “For a moment there, I thought I was in England and driving on the left.”

And there was also, at the very end, the minivan full of children that wanted to pull up a little too close. People are people.

Anyway, the race planner has done a nice job, at least in the bike leg. I suspect several triathletes will come away very pleased with their times. (I will finish behind them all somewhere.) I hope I am. I didn’t even work very hard and had a high pace and absolutely bombed my way through the last turn and downhill.

Now the never-answered question: How much harder should I work during the race, knowing I have to bluff my way through a 10K after that?

Things to read … because if you read all of these you won’t have to run later.

Look out Hawaii, Samoa and Spain! We’re coming after your stuff! Or: Finally, Y2K arrives. 14,000 DRAFT NOTICES SENT TO MEN BORN IN 1800S:

The Selective Service didn’t initially catch it because the state used a two-digit code to indicate year of birth, spokesman Pat Schuback said. The federal agency identified 27,218 records of men born in the 1800s, began mailing notices to them on June 30, and began receiving calls from family members on July 3. By that time, it had sent 14,250 notices in error.

All the voter fraud people are surely wondering how many of them are still voting.

One commenter notes that perhaps they can find the IRS’s missing emails. Chinese hackers broke into computer network containing personal data on thousands of federal employees

I did this about 10 years ago. Man angry over child deaths videos self in hot car to prove a point:

“I’m sitting in the car with the windows rolled up cause I want to know how it feels to be left in the car, strapped in a car seat with the windows up, and the doors probably locked,” Williams says on the video. “I would never leave my kids in the car like this, man.”

The thing the story doesn’t mention is that babies can’t regulate their temperature as well as adults do. So when he locks himself in or, as I did, road 25 minutes from work to home at 3 p.m. at the apex of a summer in the South, there is an advantage we have. And, yes, it gets incredibly hot.

I think we’re down about a third in this category, based on the last numbers I recall seeing. I also recall working the statehouse beat, sometimes all alone, and seeing cobwebs in the old rooms that used to be the news bureaus’ — and all of that was a few years before the big cuts. It is sometimes worse on the local level. This means a lot when the politicians start to notice. Pew study: New media outlets attempt to fill void in statehouse coverage across the U.S.. The report says less than a third of the nation’s daily newspapers staff their respective statehouses. That is an embarrassment. Here are the state-by-state numbers.

First 5 Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellows Named:

The Fellowship provides a unique platform for U.S. Fulbright awardees to build awareness of transnational challenges, comparing and contrasting cross-border issues. Fellows will share their stories on nationalgeographic.com.

Finally, I made my triumphant return to Tumblr today, the place where I publish the random pictures I take so that they can one day be published on Tumblr. Today, you can enjoy amazing things like This 18-wheeler! A truly incredible chair! Or how about this postcard with a classic note? And, finally, the most amazing peanut cans ever!

There will be more tomorrow. See you then!

Thursday / video — Comments Off
3
Jul 14

Opelika’s Freedom Celebration

The neighboring town does their fireworks a night early. Who needs to wait?

It is a pretty good show, launched from their high school’s track and field facility. Across the street is a junior college, and diagonally you’ll find a strip mall. All three of those properties are filled with cars and lawn chairs and screaming kids. The high school campus has a lot of inflatable games and plenty of activities before the sun goes down. There’s live music, skydivers and more.

And than about 20 minutes of fireworks, leading up to the finale.

links / Thursday / video / World Cup — Comments Off
26
Jun 14

Soccer tacos

We went to a bar and grill to watch the game today, because soccer is a communal sport. The place was full just after 10 a.m. That’s when the priest came in, wearing his collar, sat at the bar and ordered some wings.

That’s the World Cup to me.

This is billed as the Out Of This World Cup:

So the U.S. lost, playing poorly but close against a dominate German team, but still advanced. And now all of the Americans that refuse to understand soccer — And it isn’t that they don’t get it. I’ve tried explaining things, and people are so intent on hating the sport because of reasons and feet and other nations’ success and a refusal to consider that the word “football” can have multiple meanings that they’ll dismiss anything you say, even if they are mentally capable of grasping a round robin format — will dismiss the round robin format.

We celebrated in that most American way, with tacos. They were good. First time I’d been to Tacorita. Now I’ll have to go back.

Today I’ve learned: that you will pay $271 as the fine for riding a bicycle on a sidewalk. (I don’t ride on sidewalks, because I, like pedestrians, would like to live. Every traffic violation you can commit in a car, save one, is less expensive. Drive a car on a sidewalk? That’ll only set you back $164.

You figure that out.

When you need a pilot, ask for a Marine Aviator. That guy landed his Harrier on a stool. There’s video.

I have some work to do. Triathlon for Masters Athletes: Lifestyle Adjustments

Sometimes people see more in a photograph than I do, which is good. Always, though, you need the context. Otherwise you just think “Dogs!” Photo Series Captures The Quiet Dignity Of Search And Rescue Dogs That Served During 9/11. There is a book of the prints available, as well.

cycling / journalism / links / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
19
Jun 14

Things to read

I am resting my legs. I am resting my legs because I’ve ridden two days in a row. I’ve ridden a paltry 28 miles on Tuesday and Wednesday, my first two rides on a real bike in a calendar month. Both rides felt like bad first rides. They weren’t even particularly demanding rides. I sought out easy routes. My legs are in no kind of form and that’s unfortunate.

And so it seems clear to me that I need to find a way to travel with my bike wherever I go because this is silly.

I have a lot of catching up to do.

Things to read … because I can catch up there more easily, I’d bet.

At the New York Times — A Paper Boat Navigating a Digital Sea:

The morning meeting is one of two large news meetings each day, with the other at 4 p.m. (For the record, of the 23 people seated around the main table, as opposed to the periphery, seven were women; two, both men, were African-American.)

The focus at the meetings, and The Times, has come a long way since the days when “what’s going on page one?” was the biggest question. Clearly, there’s an effort to make this, more than ever, an “all platforms” newsroom.

But the structural changes at The Times and in the larger media world are even more striking. And therein lies a problem that has no easy solution: how to fully transform for the digital future when the business model — and the DNA of the newsroom — is so tied to the printed newspaper.

The source may be anonymous, but the shame is all yours:

How did anonymous sourcing become the rule rather than the exception in American journalism? Journalism professor Matt J. Duffy informs us in a new (and securely paywalled) paper that anonymous sourcing was sufficiently rare in the first three decades of the 20th century that none of the journalism textbooks and guides he examined made mention of the practice. The first textbook mention Duffy encountered was published in 1955 — An Introduction to Journalism: A Survey of the Fourth Estate in All Its Forms, by Fraser Bond. According to Bond, anonymous sources appeared primarily in foreign diplomatic reporting and in those cases that reporters wanted to attribute information from the president.

How mobile is your strategy?:

Luca Forlin, Head of International Product Partnerships at Google, shared several thoughts on where mobile publishing is headed. “There are two things right now. There are two things right now. The first is the around the devices and the second is around usage.”

Around devices, “the interesting element is that we have seen huge growth in smaller tablets – phablets – which are taking a huge share of the market from the bigger tablets. Does that change much in terms of what publishers do? The truth is we are not yet sure. What is clear is that publishers must abandon the idea of designing something one way and move to a world where content actually adapts. Optimisation is really important. The second thing is that, while phablets are taking over, in reality they belong to the smartphone family, which is entirely different from big tablets. That again forces them to abandon their old habits. Small screen sizes require much more simplicity, different design logic and different content.”

Think about it: text is text, but images are hard in some mobile platforms. Some videos work well there, others less so. We have to think not only about the content, but where it is going and, now, how it is going to look in several different places.