Tuesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Tuesday

A learned man says things to us, let’s listen

This morning we heard historian David McCullough speak. He filled up a little under one-half of the Arena, which demonstrated that there’s not a good mid-sized venue on campus:

I’ve read McCullough since I was in college, Truman was his first work I bought. He read letters from Mary Jane Truman, complaining to her brother, the president, about how much of an imposition all of this president business had become, his point being “History is about life, not about boring textbooks. It shouldn’t be taught with boring textbooks. It is about humans.”

McCullough also discussed John Adams, the subject of his other Pulitzer winning book. Adams was brilliant, even though most of what you learn about him in school — if even this — were the alien and sedition acts. An unfortunate series of legislation, for certain, but not all the man was by a long stretch. Perhaps you’ve heard about him on HBO. But that wasn’t the extent of the second president, either. McCullough mentioned reading the works of his subjects, and discovering that in his diary Adams would often write one line, “At home thinking.”

“Oh to know what was going on in that wonderful mind,” which gave his audience a little insight into the romantic notion of knowing the people he’s writing about better than he knows anyone else.

History is the best trainer, he said, no matter your field. It was a tough speech, in a way, because there were plenty of older folks in the audience, a few college students and a large group of high schoolers. The landscape was far and wide, then, but he had some universal lessons. I liked this one, which he directed at the large group of high school students who were there, “What a delight to be caught up in the love of learning.”

I use a similar line from time to time. Learning the joy of learning is the true education.

“History is an anecdote to the hubris of the present. It is an aid to navigation in difficult times.”

And then he got chipper. He’d already talked about how we are soft compared to our ancestors, comparing our troubles with previous generations. Think of any medical example and you’ll be on the same page. Everyone with any age on them in the crowd knew what he was getting at. (Meaning people who’ve never used the #FirstWorldProblems configuration before.)

“A lot of people feel our country is in decline. I don’t think so. Our history shows when we have problems we solve them … I am an optimist. I feel the best is yet to come. And on we go,” he said, wrapping up a nice little 40 minute talk.

(Some other good McCullough books I’ve read: 1776, The Great Bridge and The Path Between the Seas.)

Got in a quick 20 mile ride in the evening, suffering the entire way. It has been too long since I’ve been in the saddle and it felt like it, especially in my knee. What does it mean when there’s a numbed, hollow feeling where you’d expect a ligament to be?

But it was a nice ride, out through the neighborhood, past the state park and down the waterfall hill. That let’s you cost for almost a mile. But then you have to ride back up another side of that hill, which is about two miles of gentle climbing which is topped by church where there is frequently lots of praying: Please let this hill end. Another turn and then you fall down to the creek bed, over a new bridge and then back out again. A few more miles puts you back in the neighborhood and then you’re just racing daylight.

Tonight I made recruiting calls, which I am convinced are one of those things that make the world go ’round. Think of it. The world is a big place. It takes a lot of things to move the world around. Me calling students and singing praises about our beautiful campus and all of the potential in our program is one of them.

Twice tonight I called, got the voicemail, started leaving a message and then had that person return my call before I’d completed the voicemail. I do not understand this. I prefer to allow a moment to pass, discover what, if anything, the person on the other end of the call would like to share with me. After which, of course, I can turn to the mediated correspondence of choice and contribute my portion, as necessary. Otherwise I’m just making people repeat themselves.

Things to read which I found interesting today … Someone found an 18-foot-long creature in the sea and thought “I must physically haul this monster to the surface and shore, so that others might note its splendor.” So, naturally, you run the smallest version of the photo possible. The monster is big, the photo is tiny and that dog has no camera sense.

It all makes sense if you click the link. And squint.

This is a bit old, but … House members forced to reuse gym towels. I do not think they realize how these quotes play at home, or with the people that are currently out of work — and, thus, at home — because of the shutdown. Politics aside, there’s something to be said about thinking about the quotes you offer media. Skim some of the comments, by the way.

This fellow, hopefully this hale fellow, is shocked by what he’s lately learned. Obamacare will double my monthly premium (according to Kaiser):

My wife and I just got our updates from Kaiser telling us what our 2014 rates will be. Her monthly has been $168 this year, mine $150. We have a high deductible. We are generally healthy people who don’t go to the doctor often. I barely ever go. The insurance is in case of a major catastrophe.

Well, now, because of Obamacare, my wife’s rate is gong to $302 per month and mine is jumping to $284.

[…]

I never felt too good about how this was passed and what it entailed, but I figured if it saved Americans money, I could go along with it.

I don’t know what to think now. This appears, in my experience, to not be a reform for the people.

Lot of that going around these days.

Me? Still haven’t been told, which is nice. (Is anyone running a Tumblr on these then and now prices? Someone should.)

Most important: Syrup Sopping is this weekend. Grab some biscuits, get to Loachapoka.

Can’t wait.

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8
Oct 13

You’ve no choice — you will like the video at the end

I can write my day in one sentence.

In the morning I read, in the afternoon I worked in the library, in the evening I was in the pool and tonight I’m with the student-journalists who are putting their newspaper together.

Which, in the scheme of things, makes this a pretty great day. Dinner could have been healthier, but I promised myself a Milo’s burger if I swam a lot. So it was that I caught up on the morning’s news. I sat in a deep leather chair and watched the reflection of the world in the dark corners of my computer screen poring in from the window behind me.

It was a beautiful day. I had a conversation about it while I was trying to make this panorama. A colleague and I decided we shouldn’t be inside, but rather on the quad:

Photosynth, showing me the errors in my panoramas, but only after I uploaded the thing, ever since I got the app. However, if you are in a picturesque place, that’s a pretty good free app.

I made it to the pool just in time to spend that sunlight-twilight-dusk-darkness period carefully avoiding drowning.

I swam 1.5 miles tonight. I’ve been told by the best swimmer in my house — and probably the best swimmer on our side of town — that I should note these measurements in a different unit. So I swam 2,700 yards.

I do not know what is happening.

Every third lap I did freestyle, so 900 free. And remember, I couldn’t do half a length of any pool like that this summer on account of my shoulder and collarbone.

The last 200 yards or so were even more ragged than usual. I am slow, and it isn’t pretty, but I am pleased.

Then a burger and fries. Finally back to the office for a night enjoying the editors put their paper together. It’ll be done sometime after midnight. It’ll be on newsstands tomorrow. I’m sure it’ll be another strong edition.

Things to read, which I thought you might enjoy …

This is, perhaps, the best thing I’ve ever read on HuffPo, Nadine Schweigert, North Dakota Woman, ‘Marries Herself,’ Opens Up About Self-Marriage

The marriage took place among friends and family who were encouraged to “blow kisses to the world” after she exchanged rings with her “inner groom”, My Fox Phoenix reports.

“I feel very empowered, very happy, very joyous … I want to share that with people, and also the people that were in attendance, it’s a form of accountability,” Nadien Schweigert told Anderson Cooper.

So long as you now feel accountable to yourself and, one presumes, for yourself.

This is just about the most offensive story of the day, I should think. Mother of fallen soldier denied death benefits: ‘I won’t ever understand it’:

Collins said she feels lucky to have a job and supervisors who will allow her to take paid time off to take care of her son’s return. For those who aren’t as fortunate, the death gratuity may be critical to their survival and sense of closure.

“While that benefit may not be urgent for me, it’s urgent for somebody. There’s somebody who needs to fly their family home. There’s somebody who needs to have expenses covered, or be able to take off work to handle the affairs of their loved one,” she said. “And to know that the government shutting down will delay their ability to handle their business, some people just won’t be able to do it.

While, financially,she is able to address her son’s return, Collins said she still could use help in paying for his funeral.

“I don’t necessarily have $10,000 to bury my son,” she said. While she is working with the funeral home to make arrangements, she wondered: “Am I going to be on a payment plan for the rest of my life so that my son can have the services that he deserves?”

You also have this feeling that this particular cruelty will be remedied right quickly now that Congress sees it played out in the media. And that should tell you everything you need to know about how the government works.

The best story of the day is an easy one. North Haledon quadruple amputee teen happy to play soccer, motivate others:

Jorge has lived with amputated limbs since he underwent a life-saving procedure at the age of 14 months because of an infection — most likely meningococcal meningitis, Dyksen said. “His skin was just rotting away,” she said. Today, he’s healthy.

It’s not only on the soccer field that Jorge has looked past his physical constraints. He’s also a member of the school bowling team, using both arms to roll a ball without holes. And he’s also prolific at text-messaging, family friend Carla Nash said, hitting away at keys without his prosthetic right hand. In the classroom, he holds a pencil between both arms.

[…]

He said he hopes to be a motivational speaker as an adult. “Because I know there’s people out there that really need motivation and everyone says I always motivate other people,” he said. “I help them get happy in their lives. I’m always smiling and I just feel like that’s the right thing for me.”

Good for Jorge.

You want video? They’ve got video.

“Nothing is impossible,” his teammates say. Special young man, there.

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1
Oct 13

More open than DC

Someone wrote this on the floor-to-ceiling chalkboard in the Samford Crimson’s newsroom.

Lately the board has been filled with non sequiturs, cryptic notes or jokes. That’s fun. I’ve always wanted to draw football plays on it. One day I’ll quote some 13th century Chinese philosopher and see if anyone notices.

The government shut down. In pieces, full of the nonessential types, which are surely made up of people who find themselves and their salaries essential. You wonder how long the thing will last this time. You recall the 1990s and how a lot of people didn’t seem to notice. You wonder how long it would take for some of those unfortunate nonessential types to be considered truly nonessential.

But if there is one place that jobs aren’t fungible, you know where that is.

All that could be said about the government shutdown has been said elsewhere, or is perfectly capable of being digested in 140 character increments on Twitter, or tuned out with The Million Second Quiz. Mileage may vary, of course. I’m pretty certain we’ll come to the conclusion that no one is playing their parts especially well.

I swam 1.33 miles tonight, 2,400 yards.

I do not know what is happening.

It started out poorly. Oh, it ended raggedly, too, but at least it improved a touch. The first 400 yards, though, were such that I was questioning pretty much every decision of the day. I hadn’t slept enough. I hadn’t eaten enough. I shouldn’t have walked over to the pool. I shouldn’t have deleted that spam email about arm replacements and on and on. I started bargaining with myself about when I would hang it up, because this wasn’t a pleasant experience.

After a time, though, the laps started ticking off and the weak feelings disappeared.

I improved my freestyle. For the first 1,800 yards I was doing 150 in my tadpole breaststroke and then 50 free. In the last 600 yards I was doing 100 in the fake stroke and 50 free. So, over the course of the swim, that worked out to 650 yards of freestyle. Which, I guess, means I have to learn how to swim now.

Remember, this summer I couldn’t swim more than four or five strokes of freestyle, so this is grand progress.

Things to read which I found interesting today.

Wearable Computers Could Make Steep Inroads into Farming, Experts Say

Does the right to “inspect” public records include the right to Instagram them?

College football attendance drops 3 percent in opening month

Inside Nairobi’s Devastated Westgate Mall

I put this on Tumblr. There’s more stuff there you can scroll through. Find me on Twitter, too.

And now I’m being summoned into the newsroom … so until tomorrow, then.

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24
Sep 13

Transferring 14,233 files – 6 percent complete

Spent the day transferring data on computers. You know how that goes, right? Here are a bunch of files on this machine. But this machine is going to be replaced by that machine. So you have to move all of these directories and files from here to there.

Fortunately I have a great server I can connect to and swap out files. Unfortunately I have a lot of big files. A lot. And big ones. So this took Much of the day and night.

And then the process of making sure you don’t need any of those other files. And then double checking that, because once you return this computer it is over, pal.

And then loading new software on the new machine. Only you don’t have all of the software, so you have to track people down tomorrow. No matter, though.

Tonight the students are working on the newspaper. Two weeks ago, on their first issue, they were in the newsroom until 5 a.m. Last week it was 3 a.m. Here’s to hoping that’s a trend.

But they working hard and laughing and sound like they are enjoying their evening. They do good work and ask a few questions and I’m impressed by the quality of work they are producing in just two weeks. They have a great deal of potential.

Went for a swim tonight. I did 1.25 miles. That’s 45 laps, or 90 lengths, if you are counting. It has to be the greatest distance I’ve ever traveled in water that didn’t include a boat or inner tube.

I did 250 yards with a breaststroke. It was slow. It was probably sloppy. And I was exhausted from just that. This summer I could do about four strokes before I had to stop because of my shoulder, so 250 sloppy yards is a tremendous improvement. Someone should have been there to give me a high five.

Well, maybe a low five.

I do not know what is happening.

Also, people need to learn how to swim in lanes. I’d complain, but the guy might read this and just keep distractedly swim right on to my side.

The Samford football team wrapping up practice:

Pat Sullivan just rejoined the team. The head coach had spinal fusion surgery and missed the first three games of the season, but returned on Saturday to coach from a booth above the field.

I’ve interviewed Sullivan. We’ve shook hands. He’s 63 and has paws made of stone and fingers made of iron. Some of his players have been in my classes. I’ve dismissed classes early and watched his players stay in the room. Because, I was told, “Coach said the class runs until 5:30, I don’t want to see you down here until 5:30. Stay in the class.” He’s a good man. A solid, certain, Southern gentleman. The kind of man you’d want to grow up to be like.

I don’t know if he is back at practice yet, out in the gloom and rain and under the low clouds — you can see them clinging to the top of the mountain — but I know that’s where he wants to be.

Things to read: Full of stories I’ve enjoyed today, which you might appreciate as well.

Since we were talking about football, did you hear the one about the team who’s bus caught fire last weekend? It was a small college in Alabama. Concordia-Selma was on their way to a game at the time:

Concordia, a small United States Collegiate Athletic Association school located in a city more famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s than anything, saw all of its football equipment, $90,000 worth, including their only set of jerseys, get destroyed in a freak bus fire on its way to play Miles College this past Saturday.

In the days since the incident, the team has drawn closer and others have been drawn to it, donating everything from shoulder pads to girdles so the Hornets can continue their season Thursday at 6 p.m. in Demopolis against West Alabama.

[…]

“It’s made us value each other, made us value life more,” (freshman Treyvond) Moore said. “We look at those pictures and we’re like, ‘Man, that could’ve been us. But it wasn’t. It’s just brought us together as a team. I feel like can’t nothing divide us.”

The local story, with another incredible picture of the bus that carried 62 people:

We have about 10 helmets left,” (head football coach Don) Lee said. “We lost jerseys, camera equipment, shoulder pads, everything. Right now, we’re trying to figure out what we need and where to get it from.”

Lee said he had received a call from Dallas County High School, which offered some shoulder pads to the program, but that won’t be enough to meet the demands of a college program scheduled to play its next game Thursday. Concordia College-Ann Arbor in Michigan has also called and offered aid.

“We are still going to play Thursday,” Lee said of the Hornets’ scheduled game in Livingston against the University of West Alabama. “UWA has been great. Their coach called me Saturday afternoon, while we were still on the side of the road, asking if there was anything they could do.”

Deadspin examines Sports Illustrated’s Oklahoma State story and their ultimately thoughtful critique can be shared in one concise sentence:

At the exact point where the hard work started, SI stopped.

Time: Little Boy To Kenya Gunman: ‘You’re A Bad Man’

And from the campus blog:

Want to be a freelancer?

“If a bot can write the story better than you, let it

And now back to that computer. And the newspaper. Here’s to hoping it won’t be a 3 a.m. kind of night.

I’ve never done 36 laps of anything before

I am not a good swimmer. I have been in and around the water my entire life. I started SCUBA diving two decades ago. I’m perfectly capable of staying afloat, getting from A-to-B and all that. It might not be fast or especially efficient, though. And, most tellingly, I am not a lap swimmer.

That’s something to work on. I hit the pool this evening and swam a mile. I’m pretty sure that’s the most I’ve ever swam at one time. And if it isn’t, it is close.

A mile in the campus pool is 72 lengths, 36 laps. While I was there in lane two there was a youth swim team practice going on in most of the pool. Lane one was occupied by two ladies enjoying the opportunity to chat and gossip. On the deck there was a lifeguard. One of those three people had to be. How you could tell which from behind their phones and iPads and laptops, I’m not sure. There was also the sonorously loud swim coach who was emphatic about detail and all of the small things and had no problem singling the kids out for the wrong kick or whatever. When he was talking to them individually he seemed like a thoroughly decent man.

In my lane there was a teenager. And, later, his friend joined him. So, lap swimmers, how many people are you sharing a lane with? Because three people in one space seemed to much to me.

Especially when one of the kids kept moving swapping sides. And then he would swim under and across and it was hard to keep track of him and I found the entire thing annoying. It was my Get Off Of My Lawn moment of the day, something which is beginning to happen a little more frequently. Perhaps I should keep track of them.

But the swimming was nice. I did about 500 yards in a side crawl and the rest in a modified breaststroke, because I can only do so much freestyle right now — about 100, it seems.

The first 18 laps were kind of slow. Somewhere between 24 and 34 things really took off. By then I was almost the last person in the pool. I didn’t time anything, but I swam a mile.

I do not know what is happening.

I had burritos for dinner, vegetables for lunch and I wasn’t nearly as hungry as I expected I would be. I could go stand in the shallow end of a pool for an hour and be starving, ordinarily. Today, not so much.

Things to read which I found interesting: How fast are the entertainment and media industries changing? Pretty darn fast. In a year, Netflix’s competition shifted from Hulu to HBO to everything:

Netflix is simply acknowledging that it doesn’t just compete with other TV networks (although, in another change to the document, Netflix calls itself a “movie and TV series network” for the first time). It also competes for attention with nearly any kind of leisure activity.

That may not seem revelatory, but it’s rare for media companies to think of their competition as extending beyond discrete industries like news or music or television.

I discussed this more than two years ago, but Netflix is a fine platform — we enjoy it — doomed to fail. I said it better this spring: Netflix becomes just another layer in the stratification. The problem is that Netflix, as a pioneer, is inherently reproducible. If you have a smart TV or a streaming Blue Ray or similar opponent, you can see all of the On Demand stations, the branded streaming platforms and even the high end magazines are getting into the act. Everything is a competitor, everything is another vector to take on. Netflix’s purchase, production and streaming of original programming is a strategy to combat that. Will it be enough?

That would be a great story for a writer, right? Here’s a stab at how to, and how not to, pitch that idea over social media:

Social media is a blessing and a curse when it comes to pitching journalists. While Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Instagram — yes, Foursquare and Instagram pitches happen — present many new opportunities to forge connections, it’s very easy to step onto inappropriate turf.

Because the dos and don’ts of reaching out via social media can be messy, we compiled some solid rules for when it’s cool and when it’s creepy to contact a journalist. Here are 10 tips on how to pitch a journalist on social media, largely based on the experiences of Mashable’s editorial team.

Most of those ideas are common sensical, which is precisely why someone needed to write about it.

Speaking of Facebook, people are learning a new way to think of it in a new way:

Here’s the only substantial difference between the information Facebook gave the National Security Agency’s PRISM program and the information Facebook sells to its customers—the NSA didn’t pay for it. In fact, it turns out what Facebook sells could be even more personal than what the NSA requires. And a study that came out yesterday shows Americans are waking up to that possibility.

… the information Facebook and the other eight companies associated with PRISM are sharing with the NSA includes “the content of the communications and not just the metadata.”

Facebook is not our friend.

There are almost 1,000,000 Alabamians on food stamps:

In Alabama, about 914,000 people received SNAP benefits in June, a 61-percent increase from the 567,000 state residents who received them five years ago. That’s similar to increases around the country during the economic downturn.

But the 19 percent of Alabama residents who use SNAP benefits puts the state ahead of the national average of 15.4 percent, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In 2008, before the recession, Alabamians received $663 million in SNAP benefits. By 2012, it was $1.4 billion.

Also, Uh oh: 8 of 12 Alabama metros saw recession in 2012, GDP data show and The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989.

These next two are both great stories, despite basic headlines, which are worth your time. Perhaps the two best things I read today:

DNA double take

Apple’s Fingerprint ID May Mean You Can’t ‘Take the Fifth’

You remember the Costa Concordia. The big cruise ship that had the misfortune of having the wrong guy at the helm and then sank off of Italy. They raised it, a historical feat of engineering that took 19 hours. You can see a time lapse here.

One of our students produced this, in part, with his new aerial drone. It was one of his first projects with the thing and, for a first try it looks pretty great:

I want one.