podcast

I do not know what is happening. / links / podcast / running / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on All of our meanwhiles
2
Sep 15

All of our meanwhiles

Here is a podcast I recorded today with Trussville Tribune publisher Scott Buttram. He tells us about a sparsely attended secession rally in Montgomery. We wind up touching on whether things like this should be covered and the art of providing your audience with an even-handed report. It is a good conversation, check it out:

Meanwhile, I saw this video over lunch, and immediately identified with the kid:

Meanwhile, here’s your “educators” story of the day. New York School Wants to Block Student With Down Syndrome on 1st Day:

The president of the Westhampton Beach Board of Education did not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. But in a letter sent to The Southampton Press by school board member Suzanne M. Mensch and obtained by ABC News, Mensch wrote she was “extremely disheartened by the Killoran family’s repeated public efforts to bully the Westhampton Beach School District into developing an educational program for their son” and that “Westhampton Beach has not been a party to this discussion” regarding Aiden’s placement.

I think that stands all by itself. Mean ol’ family bullies.

Meanwhile, these stories about cutting-edge technology solving archeological problems keep cropping up. If it didn’t have some extremely expensive laboratory equipment involved you’d think they were just making things up as they go. Mostly because they are. And why not? Silver scans solve mystery of Jamestown graves:

The coffins were long gone, victims of decay, but the coffin nails remained. The scientists knew of the tradition of burying important people in the chancel—and two important clues clarified the mystery further.

One was a small, sealed silver box that had been placed on top of one of the coffins, as evidenced by wood fibers preserved on the bottom of the box. The other was silver thread found in one of the graves.

But the team from the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project was left with a conundrum: how to use these valuable clues to reveal the identities of the people in the graves without destroying the artifacts?

Meanwhile, from the Department of Things Change, Obviously: Millennial Travel Habits Force Tourism Bureaus to Shift Strategy:

Millennials at destination marketing organizations are pushing senior leadership to develop more innovative digital communications and more experiential sales efforts targeting both the leisure travel and meetings sectors.

Especially on the digital side, many of these younger professionals feel that their youth and social media expertise can be better leveraged to create more compelling social media and content marketing outreach for their organizations.

[…]

“I think it’s important for Millennials to point out to their senior leadership that the intent behind these campaigns is not just to do something fun,” says Spencer. “Of course, it was fun, but there was a strategy behind it and a lot of ROI. We wanted to get folks excited about Cleveland as a great place to visit, and we achieved that with a great outcome.”

Stack dimes.

After I’d had all the fun I could with class and podcasts and emails and reading and directing the typical traffic of a Wednesday I went for a run. I had a nice seven-mile jog, and I clocked my final mile at 8:26. That’s not fast, not even for me, but I’d like to stress, again, that it was mile seven.

I do not know what is happening.

photo / podcast / running / Samford / swimming / Thursday — Comments Off on You can park here
27
Aug 15

You can park here

The parking wars.

We’re having a lot of fun with emails around campus about the current parking crisis. None of this is new, of course. You go back to the first cars on a college campus and the first campus that installed parking lots and you find these same problems. (Seriously, I’ve seen it in archives.) This year we have a record enrollment — so more students and cars — and some ongoing construction eating into preexisting parking.

To the credit of the Samford administration, they are doing great work in solving the problem. We have shuttles and golf carts driving people back and forth. The university president and various vice presidents have been driving the carts around. And they’ve wasted no time in building a new parking lot which is already starting to accept cars. Meanwhile the construction equipment is starting to move out and go on to some other project, destined to ruin someone else’s parking.

So things are finally starting to return to normal a bit. And then the emails today. A campus-wide note told us of new cones for reserving spots. And then the reply-all emails, noting those times when cones are put in place to reserve a spot for some guest, only to never be used.

Like the ones above, which sat there, untouched, all day. And apparently that happens in a lot of the parking lots, according to the other emails. It made for an entertaining read. But, again, nothing of this is new. I have been pleased to share with colleagues that my president is out in the driving rain driving commuters and the vice president of student of affairs is doing this and that and the vice president of business and financial affairs is outside driving a shuttle. Truly, it is a unique place with an extraordinary response to a predictable problem. We’re pretty fortunate.

Today’s podcast features Jeremy Henderson following up on a story he wrote about a guy who wrote somethings on Facebook that have landed him in more than a little trouble:

This evening I had a 2,000 yard swim and a sloppy five-mile run. That follows yesterday’s 10K run. Now if all of my run could be on a flat track.

journalism / photo / podcast / Wednesday — Comments Off on Can I get $1.86?
26
Aug 15

Can I get $1.86?

There’s not really a lot to say about the events of the day that hasn’t already been said. Terrible as this was, the people in Virginia have covered their own tragedy with great aplomb. Media criticism will probably continue on with the New York tabloids tomorrow. But outside of that, it has been one of those days where the media somehow manages to rally around itself. Mostly because they think it could have been any of them.

To a degree, that is true. At least, I suppose, this horrible thing wasn’t entirely random, but that is surely coming. And it is a terrible thing to contemplate.

Watching media reaction is informative. How many times have we all stood somewhere doing a story, harmless or dangerous, and thought nothing of what might be lurking around the corner? How does a story like today’s change how we view remotes, covering violent crime or the privacy of others?

Something happier, then. The 10-year anniversary of Katrina’s landfall was the subject of today’s podcast. Specifically, this cool story from the New York Times.

Andre is such a fun storyteller, particularly about the role that “place” has in telling the story of “us.” I was pleased he took the time to join us for what became a pretty far-ranging topic. And that Times piece he chose is pretty impressive, too.

Having just celebrated the big Netscape browser anniversary and then the 10th anniversary of YouTube it is fitting that we lunge headlong into the next phase of the internet. First there was text, then the images, now video is yielding to streaming video … Why live streaming is important for Facebook. Don’t forget, meanwhile, the booms from Meerkat and Periscope. The market is clearly ready for live streaming.

And sometime soon thereafter, virtual reality for everyone. All of this that has come before is the foundation upon which that will be built. Exciting times.

Exciting for different reasons, even though it is just a picture of a sign:

Wallets everywhere, rejoice.

photo / podcast / Tuesday — Comments Off on Cracked a mic for the first time in seven years
25
Aug 15

Cracked a mic for the first time in seven years

The new podcasting project I’m developing at work. The premise is fairly straightforward, we want to present to you a story in each episode that you might have overlooked, explain why it might be important in the hopes that you’ll seek it out.

My department is taking part in the production. Students are doing the intros and the outros. Soon, I hope, I’ll have students doing some of the guest appearances. It’ll be grand. Here’s the first one:

Maybe tomorrow I’ll remember how to breathe.

We’re aiming for wide, varied topics in easily digestible chunks. Each show will be around nine or 10 minutes, I hope. I’m pretty excited about what we can do with something like this. It should be fun, so follow along on SoundCloud and share with your friends.

Saw this at the big box store tonight:

not duct

It takes more than a little entrepreneurial moxie to make a duct tape koozie out of cheap, flimsy rubber. There were only two on the shelf, so they must be selling. That is even more difficult to understand.

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