Monday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Monday

Auburn / football / Monday / Samford — Comments Off
5
Sep 11

Labor Day? Lazy day

Slept in. Watched television. Also, I think I might have taken a brief nap.

In the afternoon and evening I put together two lectures for class. I did laundry. Took a few Catember pictures. We enjoyed the rain, read about the wind damage to the north and tried to be productive. I fought the urge to indulge in that nap.

Labor Day.

It was dreary and raining. There were no big outdoor events and they would have been canceled anyway. We had four tornado warnings — just another day in the south — in our county. Two of them nearby. It would seem we were bracketed on either side, but we heard of no damage and saw none in our brief foray out.

Watched a bit of the Miami at Maryland game. That is one ugly uniform. Sports producer Dennis Pillion said it best:

These Maryland uniforms are just as terrible as everyone says. It’s like a crash test dummy mated with a crusader.

They call it Maryland Pride, but they should call it a corporate billboard. As this is all a design to merely get people talking about Under Armour (Look! It worked! Your unis are as dreadful as Nike’s! Have a nice day.) this is a shameless aspect of college football, the most direct and obvious exploitation of college football players in an industry built on a series of even and uneven exchanges of services.

Now, Auburn is an Under Armour school. And the schools have seemed to flex some muscle in whether they are willing to have these random designs put upon them. Auburn, full of staid and conservative people when you get right down to such decisions, have resisted the urge to make major changes to the uniform insomuch as it is a brand. I would encourage them to retrench.

It is an interesting discussion, though. For whom are these designs made? High school kids? Football recruits? It probably works for them. Television’s talking heads? Uniform changes for the studio fashionistas are a hit-or-miss thing beyond the purely “They’re talking about us” The older alumni? That’s where any given program’s money comes from, and I doubt they like it insofar as tradition is a big component of what they appreciate.

And after seeing the fashionable offerings by the big two uniform makers this weekend I’m inclined to welcome a return to Russell (which has the Samford apparel account) or Adidas. Because Maryland Pride is a technicolor folly.

Dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger tonight. And now I have that much more to work off this week. Totally worth it, though.

He said, with the memory of an Oreo milkshake still fresh on his mind.

cycling / iPhone / journalism / Monday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
29
Aug 11

Mondays, can’t live ’em …

Back to the routine, then. Classes start this week. My first one is tomorrow.

So I polished up a syllabus today. I put together the massive spelling list required of this class. I outlined the first four weeks of class. I wrote the first two lectures. Fired off a solid salvo of Emails.

Things got done.

Also I caught up the July photo gallery. Lot of pictures in there. Tomorrow I’ll catch up the August pictures.

Rode the bike this evening. Got 26.9 miles on the bike, enjoying a dry evening’s air. Only got heckled once, by a car full of young ladies. Also, I think I hate kevlar tires.

Lately my rides haven’t been very good. Too slow, too much struggle or too much pain. Today it was all three. This started when I had to replace my Continental racing tires with some three ply version of heavy duty there’s-debris-in-the-road tires.

Racing tires weigh between 30 to 60 grams less. And I wouldn’t have thought that would be a big difference for a duffer like me, but I’m changing my mind. The problem is that racing tires are more expensive.

On the ride before this I got home to discover my front rim was riding against the brake pad. No wonder it felt like I was going nowhere. I was pedaling through my brake! So, yes, I want my old tires back.

Visited the local Kohl’s tonight. That was the temperature. How’s August where you are?

journalism / links / Monday / photo / site / things to read / Twitter — Comments Off
29
Aug 11

Things to read

It was vital before the weekend, even as it is dated now, but here’s a bit of specialty reporting worth your attention. What do you do with prisoners during a hurricane? Nothing, apparently, if you’re New York City:

“We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, including a shutdown of the public transit system and the unprecedented mandatory evacuation of some 250,000 people from low-lying areas. But in response to a reporter’s question, the mayor stated in no uncertain terms (and with more than a hint of annoyance) that one group of New Yorkers on vulnerable ground will be staying put.

New York City is surrounded by small islands and barrier beaches, and a glance at the city’s evacuation map reveals all of them to be in Zone A (already under a mandatory evacuation order) or Zone B–all, that is, save one. Rikers Island, which lies in the waters between Queens and the Bronx, is not highlighted at all, meaning it is not to be evacuated under any circumstances.

Speaking of the storm, FEMA asked people to use Twitter and Facebook during the bad weather, for fear of otherwise overloading the cell phone system. How many stories are in that sentence, do you think? Meanwhile, the New York Times says Twitter was a playground.

Was Irene much ado about nothing? As of this writing there are 24 deaths and a great deal of flooding, but was the media too panicked? Did the system get too much hype? You could argue both sides. On one hand you never know about hurricanes until they make landfall, and by then it is too late for the media and government to caution and evacuate people. On the other hand, there’s Howard Kurtz:

Someone has to say it: cable news was utterly swept away by the notion that Irene would turn out to be Armageddon. National news organizations morphed into local eyewitness-news operations, going wall to wall for days with dire warnings about what would turn out to be a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest possible ranking. “Cable news is scaring the crap out of me, and I WORK in cable news,” Bloomberg correspondent Lizzie O’Leary tweeted.

[…]

But the tsunami of hype on this story was relentless, a Category 5 performance that was driven in large measure by ratings. Every producer knew that to abandon the coverage even briefly—say, to cover the continued fighting in Libya—was to risk driving viewers elsewhere. Websites, too, were running dramatic headlines even as it became apparent that the storm wasn’t as powerful as advertised.

Copy editing extends to television graphics. Look at what Irene did to some of our nation’s finest cities:

That’s from MSNBC, and probably a layer or software glitch. “That’s live television” some may say, but remember, in times of crisis it is information people need. Be sure you have it right.

Quick hits: We are all members of the media now. I’ve been saying it in classes and presentations for years now. Some of our peers disagree, but the New York Times sees it. How can Google+ be used in journalism education? Here’s a primer from Bryan Murley. Half of U.S. adults use social media, says a new Pew study. The publishing end run on Apple. Publishers want their control, but Apple’s closed model insists they have control; publishers were only going to give for so long.

There’s a saying in broadcasting that every mic is a hot mic, which means be careful what you say around every microphone, because you might be broadcasting without realizing it. ESPN is telling their employees to consider Twitter a hot mic. Agree or disagree? Internet use is on the rise for farmers. The 9/11 archives, raw footage from a wide variety of TV stations and networks during 9/11/01, and the days that followed, is now online.

Finally, typos are bad (says the guy who leaves a lot of them on his own site). Big typos on signs at school, signos, are embarrassing.

Auburn / cycling / iPhone / Monday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
22
Aug 11

“We’ve done this before”

I did not go for a ride this morning. I could not wake up fast enough. So I took a ride in the evening. In between I read some things. I also wrote some things, sent out Emails that will help orchestrate the giant journalism workshop of the fall and made a list for all of the rest of the things I need to do this week. They include … there’s a lot of stuff on that list.

Wiped out one of my browsers. Browsers, like my inboxes, have become my online To Do list. If the tabs are still open — and I love the tabs — then attention is still required. Presently I have three browsers open, the one in which I surf, which is at present also being overrun by dissertation things, and two for paper ideas. As much as I love tabs, I wish I could close them faster because I love to close tabs.

It isn’t putting the check in the box, a level of psychic joy I’ve never been able to appreciate, but the disappearance of the thing. You, sir, have been closed. Vanquished is that search on political action committees. I banish the to the under realms, the places the Tron characters wouldn’t even go.

It’d be nice if a little poof of smoke popped up when I clicked the X.

We received a delivery this evening, a new mattress and box spring had arrived for the guest room. We have a queen frame and it has been holding a regular size for some time. Now, we figured, was the time. The Yankee found a deal, but I suggested checking another place. Her first deal stood. She found a coupon. I suggested driving around and doing a bit of window shopping.

The first place we visited stuffed their mattresses with the tender locks of unicorn hair, and that is the only way the prices can be explained. This was the place, I recalled, where I bought a mattress when I moved in my freshman year. We’d unloaded the U-Haul and set out to shop. Being exhausted, the first one I fell upon was declared the winner. And it worked for a good long while. I’ve either donated it or it is elsewhere in the family, I don’t recall, but the point was that it was cheap. And that same place had no such option now.

Just down the street, a par five away, we found the place with our coupon. We found the expansive clearance section. We tried every flat surface. We discovered one in the proper size, which became $100 cheaper if we turned down the frame, sheets and pillows. Done and done. We pronounced we had a coupon. They offered to deliver it for a song. We sang.

We realized we did not have the coupon with us at the time. “No big deal,” the guy said. “When would you like it delivered?”

We got it for about 38 percent less than the original find. I fully expect for it to dissolve over night.

Checking. Nope. Still there.

Anyway, the guys show up, two young men they pulled off fraternity row, and they were stunned to find the old mattresses carefully stacked next to the door. They big up the old mattress and carry it out. They grabbed the old box spring and toted it away. They bring in the replacements.

So you guys have it under control?

“We’ve done this before.”

“A few times.”

And then they were gone, off to do whatever mattress delivery guys do when they aren’t tearing plastic off your new purchase.

I spread out the blankets and tried the new setup. Our guests will no doubt be appreciative. If the thing doesn’t dissolve over night.

Set out for a ride just after quitting time. The road I choose was necessarily busy. So I called an audible, pedaled my way to the first stop sign, took a right and dashed off into the countryside. Well, dashed is a kind word. There are two little hills in that direction, both of which wore me down. But I got over the top of each, collected my breath and, as I often do, questioned my sanity. Down the hills in a proper tuck position, just hoping that the momentum will get me part of the way up the next one. And so on it goes.

I stopped at one point for a drink and a photograph.

And here a woman stopped and asked me for directions. I knew the place, but not it’s location relative to where I was standing. I told her to keep going and look on her right, thinking that if she hadn’t passed it from whence she came, it has to be just down there in the direction she’s heading.

She continued on straight, I went the opposite direction. Down a hill, back into the sun, rounded a curve, and there’s the soccer complex she’s looking for. Terrific. Just as I make it there, she actually passed me again. If I’d only been a bit faster she would have never had the occasion to see me on the road again. Brushing me with the mirror must have been tempting.

So, if you run across this, ma’am, I’m sorry. I’m not sure how long one is supposed to feel bad about giving the wrong directions, but be assured I’ll regret it for at least twice that length of time.

Made it home just as it got dark, marking a 26 mile ride, and just in time for dinner. Food, talk, scanner problems, a little television, some more reading and now this.

… Still there.

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: