I had a nice four-mile run today. First mile was great. I paid for it over the next three miles. In the third mile, though:

I thought they were hawks when they were flying. But it makes more sense to have a murder of crows rather than a flock of hawks. They were massive and there were at least 34 of them.

Things to read … since we haven’t seen this feature since the holidays:

First some, jobs/money news:

Alabama and Peru to sign trade memorandum

Polaris to add 1,700 jobs at massive Huntsville plant

Alabama DHR program to receive $41 million child care grant

Hoffman Media expands digital media division

Glad to see the multimedia growth for our friends at Hoffman. They were very successful in the magazine-only model for longer than most. Now, this diversification is a good move for them.

Here are a few news stories. Bureaucratic apologia, in three, two … Can America afford Obama’s two-year tuition proposal? Putting $60 billion in perspective. And by perspective, we mean in isolation. That makes everything look like a possible rounding error, and who can’t sympathize with that?

Glad we could finally see this through. Desmonte Leonard sentenced to life without parole for 2012 University Heights murders

I said last March, and again in September, Venezuela is key. The Impending Collapse Of Venezuela:

The falling oil price is causing a widening foreign exchange gap. Venezuela needs an oil price of $100 per barrel to balance its external accounts, but oil is falling rapidly towards $40 per barrel and so far, Venezuela has failed to persuade other oil producers to reduce production in order to support the price. Venezuela’s foreign exchange outflows now substantially exceed its inflows, not least because it is supporting a complex and unhelpful exchange rate system: its US$ reserves are down to $22bn and falling fast. Venezuela will probably attempt to staunch the bleeding with tighter price and exchange controls, but all this will do is accelerate demonetization of the economy as more and more trading shifts to the black market.

But the real issue is Venezuela’s domestic economic problems. Venezuela has been in deep recession for most of the last year. Its budget deficit in October 2014 – before the most recent catastrophic oil price falls – was 17%. Inflation is officially at 65%, unofficially probably far more. Import controls, inflation and the overvalued bolivar are causing shortages of essential goods.

[…]

Fearful of public unrest escalating into something more serious, the government has now deployed troops to control queues of disgruntled shoppers at the country’s half-empty stores. And it has introduced a system of rationing, limiting shoppers to two days per week at government-controlled stores. As Bloomberg cynically put it, “Venezuela reduces lines by trimming shoppers, not shortages”.

President Maduro returned empty-handed from his recent whirlwind global tour: China didn’t want to lend him any money, and oil producers didn’t want to cut production.

Being a resource-dependent economy doesn’t seem like the best idea, but that’s Venezuela at this point.

And, now, two Journalism reads. First, here’s a journalism dean who wants to curb journalism. Wickham: ‘Charlie Hebdo’ crosses the line

Jeff Jarvis, indirectly, puts the lie to all of that. Free speech is not a privilege. It is a journalistic responsibility.

Standing for free speech is not American. It is logical. If one allows a government to control—to censor—offensive speech, then no speech will be allowed, except that which government approves, for any speech can offend anyone and then all speech is controlled.

The idea that speech should be controlled to limit offense is itself offensive to the principles of a free, open, and modern society. That is what the Charlie Hebdo murders teach us.

Some quick marketing links:

An Old Fogey’s Analysis of a Teenager’s View on Social Media

What Budweiser is teaching us about marketing to millenials

The 4 types of audio that people share

4 Ways Marketers Can Learn From a Journalist’s Approach to Content Planning

Smartphones and live sporting events

I love the data in that last link. It just screams at the need for athletic departments — professional clubs, colleges high schools, what have you — to be proactive with their audiences.
Let’s make this simple. You are in the business of providing a source of entertainment. Your audience has determined that their new toys and tools and platforms suit them. Join them there. Be loud.

And that has to mean more than “Write #GoTeam on your tweets and we’ll select the best ones to put on the big screen!”

Here’s a read to help remind you that exercise should be fun: Recovering Athlete Finds Hope in an Indoor Tri:

As she prepared to start the Indoor Tri presented by IRONMAN and Lifetime Fitness, Gluck was filled with doubts of whether her body (specifically her leg) could hold up for the 10-minute swim, 30-minute bike and 20-minute run. Setting a new PR, placing top ten in the age category—all those goals she’d had as a top age-group athlete were replaced with a simpler goal: finishing.

It’s been a long road since the September day in 2012 that Gluck was hit. She doesn’t remember anything about the accident. She was in a coma for over two weeks and suffered a traumatic brain injury. A section of her skull was removed to help with the swelling. Much of her body has been put back together over multiple surgeries, with titanium rods, screws and plates in her knee, clavicle, femur and hip.

[…]

Still struggling with balance issues, so there is no real time frame for when she might be able to ride her bike outside again. For now she grins and bears it, riding her bike on the trainer set up in her room. “They don’t give me time frames,” Gluck says, clearly frustrated. For now, she wants to continue to strengthen her leg, and work on what she considers her biggest limiter by entering more 5k’s.

The things which we would take for granted are the ones we should cherish the most.

That was worth reading, no?