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Birmingham was the dividing line, more or less. To the north people reported snow amounts ranging from three to nine inches. In Birmingham it rained all day. The city started seeing snow late in the day, and it really began to stick after night fall. But it seems to have been a fairly mild event locally.
So I have no nice snow pictures. These photoshops I made, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, will have to do.
Campus opened late today because of concern about the roads. The forecast called for ice, but I never did hear of anyone having any problems. So, perhaps, opening at 10 a.m. was the right thing. Or perhaps we all benefitted from an over-abundance of caution. Either way, that was a big part of the morning.
In the afternoon, in my never-ending effort to get more things out of my office, I ran across this old clip Crimson from 1988:
McClure coached seven academic All-Americans and won a conference title at Samford. Throughout his career he coached a remarkable 145 All-Americans. He produced three Olympians. His athletes held world records in eight events. He was an assistant coach in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. You can’t find a track and field or regional sports hall of fame that hasn’t inducted him. Previously, I’d discovered this photo of the “reserved gentleman,” Bill McClure among the hundreds of files I’ve inherited over the years:
He retired in 1996 after a 46-year sports career, the last 10 years at Samford. Before he picked up a whistle he was a Marine in World War II. He’d worked at Abilene Christian (63 All-American), South Carolina. LSU (34 All-Americans) and was the associate athletic director at Samford. He died in 2008 and was survived by five children.
Maybe they should name something after him.
Paper tonight, classes canceled tomorrow. So they’re reworking the front page and dreaming up contingencies for weather coverage. It has made for a long day, despite the late start.
Things to read … because the clock never stops.
We found the real Ron Swanson, and he’s just like the one on TV:
(T)rue fans know the loss that will hurt the most: Ron Swanson.
Ron Swanson, our freedom-loving, meat-eating, mustache-rocking man’s man. He’s our instructor of how to live on your own terms while remaining fiercely loyal to your people — characteristics we’d want in any man, especially our fathers and bosses. We’ll be lost without his rants, his wisdom, his giggle. Is there anyone who can replace him?
Well, there is a real Ron Swanson who lives in Indiana.
The guy doesn’t even watch the show. Also, remember how Ron Swanson was initially supposed to be a joke? Funny how that works out.
At times (quite a bit) the way that Twitter has chosen to roll out features and products has felt schizophrenic. And that’s no wonder, really, as the company now serves two masters. Its users and its shareholders. And while those interests may sometimes align, there is no question which is the more important to please for a public company.
This has led to rocky times when it comes to external, and even internal, perceptions of Twitter’s directional confidence.
[…]
Recent product decisions appear to be displaying more thoughtfulness about how to balance Twitter’s Dilemma. It remains to be seen whether the market will bear that, or if there is a way to truly find an equilibrium there. But there are some pleasant signs. We’ll see if the messaging products really do get the attention that Weil says they are, and whether video and onboarding continue to get polished.
There is a great deal of thought and insight in that piece. The big takeaway is that there are a lot of moving parts in play. The second takeaway is that Twitter might try to become all things to all people. And you know what happens when you do that.
Critics of President Obama’s “net neutrality” plan call it ObamaCare for the Internet.
That’s unfair to ObamaCare.
Both ObamaCare and “Obamanet” submit huge industries to complex regulations. Their supporters say the new rules had to be passed before anyone could read them. But at least ObamaCare claimed it would solve long-standing problems. Obamanet promises to fix an Internet that isn’t broken.
The permissionless Internet, which allows anyone to introduce a website, app or device without government review, ends this week.
And we’re going to miss it when it is gone.
Lawmaker with lavish decor billed private planes, concerts:
Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock, a rising Republican star already facing an ethics inquiry, has spent taxpayer and campaign funds on flights aboard private planes owned by some of his key donors, The Associated Press has found. There also have been other expensive travel and entertainment charges, including for a massage company and music concerts.
The expenses highlight the relationships that lawmakers sometimes have with donors who fund their political ambitions, an unwelcome message for a congressman billed as a fresh face of the GOP. The AP identified at least one dozen flights worth more than $40,000 on donors’ planes since mid-2011.
The AP tracked Schock’s reliance on the aircraft partly through the congressman’s penchant for uploading pictures and videos of himself to his Instagram account. The AP extracted location data associated with each image then correlated it with flight records showing airport stopovers and expenses later billed for air travel against Schock’s office and campaign records.
Reporters are watching politicians’ EXIF metadata. That’s brilliant.
Later in the story we learn that Schock is a 30something legislator that refers to people as “haters.”
Thank you, modern society.
Journalism links:
What can you do with a GoPro?
Snapchat stories: Here’s how 6 news orgs are thinking about the chat app
News Outlets Are Using This Site to Find Photos and Video on Social Media
Tomorrow: a snow day! But will we get snow?
One more week and this becomes a thing, but today I saw this cruise down the highway.
If you think of it, most everything gets shipped somewhere, one way or another. But you never really think about that, at least until you see a truck hauling logs going one way as it passes a truck hauling logs going the other way. Then it seems silly. “They’ve got logs over here, too!”
Maybe it should have sunk in and stuck in our traveling minds the first time we saw a big truck hauling other trucks, or when you saw a freighter moving most any thing that can move on its own. Everything gets shipped, even the live fish. And you hope to never think about it, or become aware of it which, in this case, would usually mean bad news puns because of an accident. “Ofishials: Traffic flounders after accidents, bystanders threaten to sushi.”
Just Coelorinchus horribilis.
(Yes, I had to look that up.)
You want to see that crudely drawn logo, you say? No problem:
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the fish has a fishing pole. Like a fish can whistle.
Things to read … because I can’t whistle, either.
Sure, it’s not the same as an earthquake: The snow will melt, eventually. But that will bring more woes. The flooding will hurt the T, ruin roofs and basements and clog roads still more.
Where are the federal disaster funds, the presidential visit, Anderson Cooper interviewing victims, volunteers flying in, goods and services donated after hurricanes and tornadoes? The pictures may be pretty. But we need help, now.
This is more snow, seven feet in three weeks it says, than I’ve seen in my entire life, probably. And there are certainly big problems — many of them are detailed in that column. But, really?
(We’re absolutely getting two to four inches of snow later this week. I’m going to laugh at us.)
Easily the best story I read yesterday, Chasing Bayla:
Moore had engineered something that could be a breakthrough for rescuers, a way to sedate whales at sea. The man standing to his left on the Zodiac platform held the instrument Moore had conceived for the task: a pressurized rifle tipped with a dart and syringe filled with 60 cc’s of a sedative so powerful that a few drops on human skin could kill.
Bayla was probably seven tons, but you can’t weigh a free-swimming whale. If the estimate were wrong, an overdose could plunge Bayla into a catastrophic slumber and she would drown.
Moore scanned the horizon. Fishing charters and Disney Cruise Liners jockeyed for space at the shore. Ahead, the vast reach of the Atlantic met at every point with the prickling Florida sun.
He knew that the work of a lifetime shouldn’t come down to a single moment. He was the father of four grown boys. He loved his wife. His home was an island in Marion Harbor. He had published scores of peer-reviewed papers and commanded millions in grant money.
Yet the vow he had made to himself as a young man, the thing he had dedicated his career and heart to, remained unfulfilled. For Moore, nearing retirement and running out of ideas, there might be no more chances.
Blow spouted off the port bow.
That’s a slightly longer read, and it has stunning visuals. Well worth your time.
CNN … just … Does Kim Jong Un’s new look reflect a new attitude?
Journalism links:
Why Journalism Students Need a Baseline Understanding of Coding
Local newspapers are hoping online radio can be a growth area
Your ultimate guide to Snapchat
Snapchat boss sees music as a ‘really interesting opportunity’
And. finally, we return to the old Crimson archives that are still in my office. I’m trying to work through them all and file them away elsewhere. Occasionally I find some interesting things. Here’s one now. This was written in 1979 by a person who now works at a non-profit in Texas and a Kentucky physician.
Did you know there was a rear gate? It was right here:
The weekly weekend post with extra pictures.
Do you really mean it!? “Tell us what makes you happy and you could win tomato ketchup.”
I did not realize there are new griddles at Waffle House. We should go to more to see how many places have the new gear:
This is called SkyView Atlanta. You get nine to 15 minutes or 4 complete rotations per ride. That’ll run you $13.50 for adults and $8.50 for kids. A lady I met over there said it was pricey, yeah, but you got good views.
We had steaks the other night. You missed out on me almost over-cooking them:
Allie is very possessive of her chair, and she has no problem letting you know about it.
Of course she’s possessive about all of her seats, which leave precious little room for anyone else …
Slept in a bit this morning. We picked up sandwiches at the deli. We dressed warmly and headed to the ballpark. They canceled the game last night. Too cold, it seems.
I asked the visiting coach Joe Raccuia how this works. I’m guessing, purely guessing, that postponing the Friday game must be an agreement by the two coaches. He just turned and made the zipped lips motion. “I’m just the coach from Radford,” was all he said.
This was on the lineup board:
I think they got a bad batch of markers, because the weather was not bad today:
They played a doubleheader. Auburn won both games, one in 10 innings and then the other in the regular nine frames. They’ll try to get in the third game around rain tomorrow. Aubie is ready:
We had dinner with friends and then, somehow, magically, wonderfully, it almost seemed like bedtime.
And that was the entirety of my Saturday. How was yours?
