Wednesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Wednesday

Avoid the shade

Bright. Clear. Cold. Not so bad in the sun, but it was a different story in the shade.

So I tried to run in the sun, but of course all of our preferred routes have nice tree cover, which is a great idea for most of the year. Only tonight did I think of visiting the actual track.

Ah, well, freeze and learn.

The high was 45. We are diving toward 27. Like I said, cold. But I got views like this:

I ran 3.64 miles, and the cold made it hurt. It has been a long time since I’ve ran in a serious chill. It doesn’t feel any better now than when it did back then. But I ran. Someone who runs in cold weather needs to tell me how to dress appropriately.

Things to read …

Chart of the Week: A minute on the Internet:

Keeping up with what people do online is no easy task — just ask the researchers in our Internet Project. Nor is it much easier for those seeking ways to make money off online activities — they’re changing almost too fast to keep up with.

But the folks at Quartz, the business-news site from Atlantic Media, have given it a good shot. They pulled together data from Intel, investment bank GP Bullhound, and a Facebook-led consortium called Internet.org to create this neat summation of what happens in a minute on six of the Web’s biggest services

The numbers are staggering. And speaking of which, This Map Of Planes In The Air Right Now For Thanksgiving Will Blow Your Mind.

Gov. Robert Bentley says report that Medicaid expansion would create 30,000 jobs is ‘bogus’:

“Because the studies are all bogus,” Bentley said. “The jobs are already there. You’re not creating new jobs. You’re not creating new people by bringing this money in. You have the doctors are already there. The nurses are already there. You don’t produce a new doctor in a year. I went to school 24 years to become a doctor. You don’t produce these type people immediately.”

The governor said he did not dispute that expanding Medicaid, which states have the option of doing under the Affordable Care Act, would create some ancillary jobs.

“I’m not saying it couldn’t create some jobs,” Bentley said. “That’s not the reason we’re doing this though. That’s not the reason we’re making this decision. We’re making this decision philosophically.

“And we’re just going to have to see how this plays out. I personally think the entire Affordable Care Act is falling apart. The people of this country do not like it. The majority of the people of this country do not like it. And I’m not going to be a part of it.”

There’s a lot to unpack there.

Love stories like this one. Secret to a long marriage revealed; Birmingham couple in nursing home renews vows:

He was walking into the JC Penney in Jasper more than 72 years ago. She was walking out.

Wednesday at a nursing home in Birmingham where they both reside, Hercule, 95, and Kathleen Henslee, 89, renewed their wedding vows in a ceremony that brought tears to the eyes of family, friends and nursing home staff alike.

“Do you promise to love, honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, to be faithful, forsaking all others, for as long as you both may live?” asked the Rev. Herman Pair, pastor of Sandusky First Baptist Church, where the couple have been members since the 1950s.

I saw this young man in the background of a football game the other night. He has a remarkable story. Alexander in wheelchair, but UAB lets him work toward football dream:

Practice is for players and Timothy Alexander was not a player, not in his condition. But before he could dream to be upright again, he had a proposition for McGee: You let me live that dream and try to become that player.

“I just fell in love with the person,” McGee remembers. “Then he started talking to me about, ‘Man, the Lord is going to bless me. I’m going to be back on the field.’ I started saying, ‘You know, I believe that, too. I think you’re right.’ ”

So Alexander, seven years removed from his car wreck that paralyzed him, practices football. Each afternoon. It’s not the kind of practice any of them is used to. Alexander does push-ups during practice periods, does leg lifts in the weight room. He once benched 315 pounds.

McGee has given him a locker, his own jersey. This bio even says he’s playing football. All this because when the Lord decides to bring Timothy Alexander all the way to the field, he wants to be in shape.

That’s a great personification of the human spirit.

Auburn fans may be able to see this on Facebook, though for some reason they are having takedown orders on YouTube. Despite the left-hand, right-hand confusion this is a fairly intense video for the Iron Bowl this Saturday. We have reached saturation point. We don’t care. There is a video to see.

journalism / links / things to read / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
20
Nov 13

A day of links

We all have those very normal days where we do things — perhaps not enough things, or perhaps a great many things — but none of it strikes a triumphant chord. I call this day Wednesday.

Oh, I had turkey for lunch. And Chic-fil-A for dinner! So there’s that. Strike all the above. There are amazing things to write about.

There was a man with his son at Chic-fil-A, where apparently the kid qualified for a free ice cream cone somehow. The boy wanted his father to have one too, but dad did not qualify. Their conversation sounded vaguely like the two had been apart a while. Maybe dad was out of town working. Maybe this is a visitation night.

Three tables away a woman in scrubs was dining with her two children. They finished eating and spent some time in the playground. It seemed a nice respite for mom.

There were some college students and an older couple. And there was me and my book.

So, yeah, my day in the office, then. Like I said, nothing really stands out. In a week it will all be a blur. Some links, then. You can find all of these on Twitter, and it’d be swell if you followed me there.

Things to read …

This won’t go over well. Perks Ease Way in Health Plans for Lawmakers:

Members of Congress like to boast that they will have the same health care enrollment experience as constituents struggling with the balky federal website, because the law they wrote forced lawmakers to get coverage from the new insurance exchanges.

That is true. As long as their constituents have access to “in-person support sessions” like the ones being conducted at the Capitol and congressional office buildings by the local exchange and four major insurers. Or can log on to a special Blue Cross and Blue Shield website for members of Congress and use a special toll-free telephone number — a “dedicated congressional health insurance plan assistance line.”

And then there is the fact that lawmakers have a larger menu of “gold plan” insurance choices than most of their constituents have back home.

While millions of Americans have been left to fend for themselves and go through the frustrating experience of trying to navigate the federal exchange, members of Congress and their aides have all sorts of assistance to help them sort through their options and enroll.

Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a visit to Miami for a photo opportunity. Things didn’t work as, I’m sure, she’d hoped. Here’s the video package:

Meanwhile, hear at home, if you liked your canceled BCBS plan, you can’t keep it, period. BCBS of Alabama decides against renewing canceled plans:

Blue Cross said the decision was not reached easily, but the company said continuing the non-compliant policies could create “significant legal and financial risks to our policyholders, the state and our company.”

Sentiment seems to be changing. More Americans than ever want government to stay out of healthcare business:

A new Gallup poll shows 56 percent of Americans think it’s not the government’s responsibility to provide healthcare coverage. Forty-two percent feel it is the government’s responsibility. Both numbers represent the highest – and the lowest – figures reported since Gallup began asking the question in 2000.

Sports! Here’s a funny story: Where did Cam Newton celebrate win over New England? Waffle House, of course:

Cam Newton turned in the biggest win of his short NFL career on Monday night, then headed to a familiar post-game spot for a certain Auburn coach, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Newton and his family headed to Waffle House, the preferred post-game spot for Auburn coach Gus Malzahn after big wins.

Two paragraphs later, we learn that Newton also visited the Collinswood Language Foundation and presented checks for $25,000 to three Charlotte-area schools. I suggested the lead was buried. Someone replied “Have you ever eaten at Waffle House? It’s awesome.”

That person is in the news industry.

Also in sports, I love smartphones. I love YouTube. This is from the South Carolina game last weekend. One person is explaining to another person how the Auburn game played out:

Finally, some quick journalism links. First, something I suggested years ago at al.com that is now taking place elsewhere: ‘New York Times’ introduces ‘The New York Times Minute,’ thrice-daily video news update.

The paper debuted a new video series this morning called “The New York Times Minute,” a thrice-daily, one-minute news segment highlighting three top stories of the moment. It will air every weekday on nytimes.com at 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. The segments can be updated continuously to accommodate fresh reporting on any of the given stories.

It is nice when you see others coming to the same conclusions that you have.

Q&A with Marguerite Sullivan: Why Citizen Journalism Makes Media Literacy Crucial

You need high standards of media literacy when literally anyone can be a citizen journalist. The public needs to be very discerning with what they read and believe.

Why Journalism Needs to ‘Do’ Ethics, Not Focus on Defining Journalists

Considering Ethics for Anyone Who Commits Acts of Journalism

This is a slideshow: These Astonishing Images Convinced Us That Google Glass Will Change Photography Forever. The pictures are by the immensely talented Trey Ratcliff, who makes two great points in that essay about stability and about spontaneous hands-free shots.

But your regular camera is still better. Which is why I should pull mine out of my backpack. Not that either would have gone over well at Chic-fil-A this evening.

history / journalism / links / photo / Samford / things to read / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
6
Nov 13

The red ink is on my hands

A few more leaves to mark our fall, which seems to be happening in more pronounced stages than usual this year. The oaks are, how you say, reticent:

Not that I mind. We’ve all shifted clocks and grumbled about that to ill effects. We’re all in various stages of layered clothing — depending on where you live or the thinness of your blood, as some people say — and now the betrayal of the trees. I’m always glad the oaks stick around. Mostly because we have several pin oaks.

Whomever plants pin oaks has never raked the leaves from a pin oak.

Critique meeting of the Crimson today. Story count is up. Layout is good. Quality is sturdy. Art is coming along. Now I need new challenges for them. You can see some of the students’ work here, if you like.

Also did some grading. I entered grades into a spreadsheet. Doing some other things with spreadsheets. I know some people that like spreadsheets. Well, how well can we really know someone who likes spreadsheets?

I prepared files. I printed documents.

Also, last night, I finished the files for the large present that we are delivering this weekend. I got the thing down to 26 pages. It includes maybe 16 sources and three appendices.

Never let the geek in your family prepare documents as gifts.

So that got printed out. It looks nice and clear on the good machine, the machine so important we named a room after it — the copy room. It has color maps end everything.

The document, I mean. Though the copier also probably has maps in its manual. It also faxes. And makes a mean espresso, from what I hear.

Anyway, this was the next thing that happened: I briefly explained the purpose of this file to one of the nice people in my office. She thought it was great. Then she gave me two different types of protective things to keep the file in. Everyone likes this gift. Everyone has thought the idea was nice. Four different people have chipped in. And none of them know the recipient.

But, to know the recipient, you’d want to help even more. That kind of guy.

All will be explained this weekend. I write vaguely about it because it is fun and mysterious, but also just in case he decides to explore the Internet beforehand.

Things to read …

Corpsman! Mother! Jesus! A Marine remembers Iwo Jima for the last time. Chuck Dean, you’ll see, is one of the stronger writers at al.com, but how can it be for the last time?

Jarvis struggled as we spoke. He often had a hard time catching his breath. He told me his doctors were treating him for pancreatic cancer.

“It’s not good,” Jarvis said.

As we talked Jarvis said that years ago he had not wanted to talk a lot about the battle. But later in life, Jarvis changed his mind.

“I came to see that it was important, very important that people understand what happened over there to us, to my Marines. It was important because people need to understand the horrors of war so that they think long and hard before getting into one. And they need to understand that those who fought in the war were just boys, really. That’s all I was. The day after Pearl Harbor every boy at Minor High School went down to enlist, including me. Some of them didn’t make it back. People need to remember them and what they did and why they did it.”

Jarvis paused after a while and looked at me with a thin smile.

“You know Chuck, you might be the last person I tell my story to.”

I told him I hoped not. I told him I was honored to hear it and would be honored to tell it.

He smiled again. “Well, I think you might be the last person I tell it to, and I want to ask you a favor. When you tell it, please tell it good.”

These next two stories? These are not the thing those young men fought for:

Man charged with using stun gun on wife after football bet in Mayville:

Before the game, avowed Packers fan Nicole Grant allegedly bet her husband, devoted Bears backer John Grant, that she would allow him to use a stun gun on her for three seconds if Green Bay lost, according to a criminal complaint.

Grant, 42, found himself in Dodge County Circuit Court the next day after allegedly making good on the bet. He was charged with possession of an electric weapon during an initial appearance. If convicted, Grant could face up to six years in prison.

And this one, Hijacker returns to the United States:

Instead of becoming the next Che Guevara, Potts found himself a foreigner who spoke little Spanish in crowded and often violent prisons. But he refused Cuban offers to return home.

“If you are not able to suffer for the cause you are just a play revolutionary,” he said.

[…]

But the one-time hijacker will return to an uncertain future. Potts was unable to negotiate a plea deal and, while he hopes any sentence he faces in the United States would be reduced by the time he has served, there are no guarantees.

That story is just full of quotes that are the opposite of genius.

Quick links:

I know people that work here: Job fair held for more than 1,100 workers who will lose jobs when International Paper closes

Third cyclist killed near Springhill Avenue in two weeks

ProPublica has found the one “sob story” worth your while: Loyal Obama Supporters, Canceled by Obamacare

When the data mountain comes to you

Independent Campus Journalists Vital

And, finally, I’ve been hanging on to this for a while. May as well use it here. #Story50 tips for the factual storyteller from Adam Westbrook

Auburn / books / history / iPhone / journalism / links / memories / photo / Samford / things to read / Tumblr / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
30
Oct 13

Signs of autumn: The absence of summer

It wasn’t fall today. It was 75 and clear, which means it wasn’t summer, so it may as well be autumn. The maple in the front yard, already giving up the fight, right in the heart of the tree.

The maples are always the first to quit, but they sometimes hang on a bit longer than some of the others in the yard. In the front yard we have this maple that goes yellow and a towering elm that flares yellow before burning out as a dry orange. In the backyard there is a southern red oak, a white oak and a few pin oaks — the oaks the rest of the oaks would disown if they had hardwood lawyers — another maple that turns yellow and a dogwood that will flame out as a defiant red any day now.

If you could get all of those in one spot they’d surely be a beautiful collection.

Had this in the office today:

I’m not a big pumpkin spice fan, but if you like pumpkin at all, you should try the Hersey’s Kisses. Two was plenty for me, so no need to share. But you’ll probably want to keep them all for yourself.

Things to read …

Or watch. The BBC now has a hexacopter. They have one more copter than I do. Maybe one day I’ll catch up. But check out those shots. (I’d embed it, but the Beeb’s code is ridiculous.)

I was reading last night, in Rick Atkinson’s book, about Lt. Ralph Kerley at Mortain. He only appeared briefly, but it was enough to make me look him up. Whatever happened to that guy? The Internet suggests he mustered out a lieutenant colonel and died in his native Texas in 1967.

He also shows up in this column by The Oregonian’s Steve Duin, which should really change your opinion of the deceased author/historian Stephen Ambrose:

Weiss also was furious that Ambrose had described his commanding officer, Lt. Ralph Kerley, as — after four days and nights of fighting off the Germans — “exhausted, discombobulated, on the edge of breaking.”

Not true, Weiss said: “To the dishonor of the man. Kerley was one of the coolest, most fearless men I’ve ever seen. The way (Ambrose) footnoted that looks as if he got the material from me. If in that little bit of material he took from my book he created that kind of fiction, how many other times has that been done?”

Bob Weiss was a Portland, Ore. lawyer who served under Kerley. Weiss took exception to the Ambrose depiction and then had a nasty bit of correspondence with Ambrose over some other questions of attribution. But, mostly, Weiss was worried about the way Kerley showed up in Citizen Soldiers — which also sits on my shelf, though today I’m a bit reluctant about that.

Kerley earned the Croix de Guerre, Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross. I was at Mortain for the exact same amount of time Ambrose was, which is to say not at all, which is also to say six days less than Weiss, Kerley and the 120th Infantry Regiment of the 30th Infantry Division. I just read the Ambrose passage again … given his history let’s just call it poorly-written narrative.

Anyway, local veterans are recalling their experiences in the military:

“I flew a B-25. That’s why I’m here,” Buford Robinson said, smiling. “I flew 43 missions.”

From 1944 to 1946, Robinson served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. He fought in the Pacific Theater of the war and participated in the rescue of 500 American POWs at Camp Cabanatuan in the Philippines.

Thom Gossom, the first African-American walk on at Auburn and the first African-American athlete to graduate from the university, got a bit of publicity today. He’s an actor today (and author), charming and engaging and wholly approachable. Here’s a story he told at homecoming a few years ago:

Quick hits:

ObamaCare screw up sends callers to cupcake shop

From Buzzfeed: Things That Took Less Time Than HealthCare.gov

How the NSA is infiltrating private networks

Insurance Insiders ‘Fear Retribution’ from WH Amid Pressure to ‘Keep Quiet’ About Obamacare

Broadcast’s Commercial Brake

And there are two new things at the Tumblr site I forgot to mention yesterday, here and here.

Allie? She’s right here:

books / friends / history / journalism / links / photo / Samford / things to read / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
23
Oct 13

Darth Vader is bad and his assistant is a mouse

I wrote, on Monday, about my lunch book, Rick Atkinson’s The Guns at Last Light, the last installment of his trilogy on the European Theater of World War II. I discussed Atkinson’s descriptions as “filled with detail and insight and passages from three generations ago that feel like they are fresh today.” This passage is in his prologue which, again, is 41 delicious pages long:

One concise paragraph touches on a millennia of history and technological firsts. It offers a description, a quip and a
discarded plan on how to address the English Channel problem. The guy is good.

Who else is good? The staff at the Crimson. We held our weekly critique meeting today. We’re almost a third of the way through their production run and we’re down things like punctuation in quotes and synonyms. They are working hard and showing their talent. I’m quite proud for them.

This video showed up somehow today, in that delightful way that modern life gives you things from so many directions you’re never sure from which they came. It is, as the kids say, completely insane.

Turns out this guy only finished second in this ridiculous display of gravity, speed and a complete disregard for survival instinct.

This is an entirely different kind of ride than I’d ever want to do. The first time I ever heard people talking about mountain bikes they were celebrating the ways they got hurt, like that was the competition. That’s not for me. One of our friends is a big time, travel across the country, day-long race mountain bike types. I sent him this video and he carefully noted “We can’t all do that!”

Not sure that would have been my first response.

But what a great testimonial for the GoPro camera, no? Ours will not be pressed into such a service.

We fired up the grill at home this evening. The Yankee made a London broil. We kissed it with just enough flame and it was delicious enough for seconds. Adam came over to enjoy the flank steak and catch up on a bit of Game of Thrones.

We’ve been watching them all again. They actually get better on the second viewing. There’s a lot you didn’t catch the first time.

For example:

Things to read …
You wonder how Netflix will stay on top of their entertainment niche as others build their own platforms to compete with in-house productions. They have some plans. Five things Netflix is going to disrupt next

The company has big plans for next year, and its executives previewed some of them during Netflix’s Q3 earnings call earlier this week.

This is a topic that’s been going around a few days because of an essay at The Atlantic, which for about 48 hours tried to be something of a continental divide in journalism and education. USC’s Professor Robert Hernandez chimes in. Those required courses in journalism school are there for a reason:

A modern journalist needs to know how the web works, needs to be exposed to and respect all journalistic crafts (including code), and needs to know their role in working with others. And that role is an active role, not a passive one. They need to use these digital tools to produce relevant, quality journalism.

A digital journalist (or web journalist) focuses on producing journalism of the web, not just on the web. That can manifest itself in a diverse set of roles — being the homepage editor, becoming a multimedia storyteller, or developing a news app, alone or with a team. They can use the tools, but they can also build tools when needed.

If you’re a student, I’m not going to debate which path you should take. I’m not even going to debate what level of instruction in digital journalism or code you need to take. (It’s 2013 — are you really arguing against learning technology?)

But what I will say is that, like those other required parts of your education, you are better off for being exposed to it, whether in a journalism career or in life.

How Website Statistics Changed Our Programs

Good news we can all use. Alabama’s economic development prospects improving, officials say:

Birmingham and state economic development experts said plenty of new projects and expansions are looking to invest money and add jobs, but recent history has proven there is a big difference between getting looks and breaking ground.

A panel of economic development experts spoke to members of the Society for Marketing Professional Services Alabama at a luncheon in Vestavia Hills today.

And two items from the multimedia blog:

Twitter, Vine and people the world over make a film

Google media tools

Thanks for stopping by. Much more on Twitter. Hope you have a great day tomorrow.