adventures / Auburn / Friday / iPhone / photo / video — Comments Off on Do somersaults count?
30
Jan 15

Do somersaults count?

Two videos I shot at the gymnastics meet this evening. They aren’t especially compelling, just my tinkering with different apps doing different things. This is just a proving ground, sometimes, and since I made it, I may as well upload it and share it.

This is Auburn on the beam. I shot this in the Miniatures Tilt-Shift Time-Lapse app. You can manipulate the saturation and the blurring in the app itself. I shot each of the gymnasts’ routines and then later edited them together on my computer. I put it to music that I made in 4Beats:

Here’s a video I made of visiting Air Force on the beam and Auburn on the floor to close the meet. I shot this in the Hyperlapse app panning my phone back and forth off the top of a camera lens. I also put this video to music I made tonight in 4Beats

Those ladies flip fast, don’t they? Auburn won.

floor

More pictures on Sunday.

food / journalism / links / photo / Samford / things to read / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on About that burrito bowl
29
Jan 15

About that burrito bowl

Random sighting in the cafeteria:

cereal

You just don’t see a big mound of large bags of cereal every day. And, given the lunch the last few days, this was looking pretty good. They brought in this new vendor last fall — because food is definitely a place you seek out the lowest bidder. Meanwhile …

I … just …

Things to read … because that’s a screwed-up picture.

Tomorrow is the anniversary, Remember ‘The Great Raid’ of 1945:

A group of more than 100 Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas traveled 30 miles behind Japanese lines to reach the camp. Along the route, other guerrillas in the villages muzzled dogs and put chickens in cages lest they alert the Japanese.

The 30-minute raid liberated 513 POWs.

Some of them weighed so little the Rangers could carry two men on their backs. At a rendezvous point, trucks and 26 carabao carts — local wooden carts — waited to carry them to safety. Villagers along the way contributed more carts because the Americans had little or no clothing and shoes, and it became increasingly difficult for them to walk. By the time they reached American lines, 106 carts were being used.

Audacious things are done by audacious individuals.

Such great news, ‘Rescue Ship’ rescued: ‘Batmobile’ driven by 1980s Birmingham good Samaritan set for restoration:

“It’s like ‘Where’d this thing come from?'” said Lee Shook, who’s making a documentary about the car. “It’s a time capsule. It’s amazing.”

The 1971 Ford Thunderbird is labeled the “Rescue Ship,” and three decades ago that’s exactly what it was.

In the early 1980s, Willie J. Perry drove the car around Birmingham looking for people who ran out of gas, had a flat tire or otherwise needed a helping hand. The Rescue Ship was an icon, covered with flashing lights and a flashy paint job, and equipped with a record player, toaster oven, and more inside.

The future!

Graphic Body Cam Footage Shows Oklahoma Cop Shoot and Kill Fleeing Suspect
Microsoft’s HoloLens Is a Viral Hit. Next Test: Real Life

And the present, The state of the ombudsman in 2015:

Daniel Okrent, who served as The New York Times’ first public editor, made reference to a “downgrading” of the position, based mostly on financial constraints.

“At a time when newsrooms are shrinking and news holes are shrinking, the idea of paying someone to criticize a newspaper is perceived by management as more and more obtuse,” he said.

The position is often the first to go when news executives are trying to trim their budgets.

“Do we really want to be spending scarce resources on an in-house critic?” New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen asked, hypothetically. “There’s the sense that media criticism rains down on us from all sides. Isn’t it better to let outsiders handle it?”

Buzzfeed editor in chief Ben Smith has often said as much—that the instant Twitter critics make a formal ombudsman unneccessary for the company.

Maybe I’m alone in this, but it seems that this is exactly the reason we need public editors right now. There’s such a thing as getting in front of an issue.

Need to be overwhelmed by data in numbers? The Internet in Real Time

And, finally, I’m told this happens in schools all over the country now. ‘No zeros’ grading policy awards students half credit for work they don’t turn in:

A policy instituted by Principal Nichole Davis Williams in the fall states that “Students should not receive a grade lower than 50.” This means that students at the school can fail to turn in work, and still receive some credit for the work.

[…]

The policy, which is not a district-wide policy, was implemented after a parent questioned her child’s low score on a progress report, the teachers said. Some students who are aware of the policy aren’t doing classwork and projects, and just taking 50s. The teachers said they have noticed behavioral problems they believe to be connected to that policy.

“Students aren’t learning because we can’t get them to do the work,” one of the teachers told AL.com. “When do we hold the students accountable?”

Can’t imagine what that does to the culture of the campus.

links / photo / Samford / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off on No boisterous frivolity
28
Jan 15

No boisterous frivolity

At this pool, we prefer calm and restrained play:

sign

And, ladies, wear your swim caps. I love the coloring on that sign, which probably was installed and hasn’t been reconsidered in years. I love the way the light falls across it and the tile behind it. The building was built in 1961, so the sign went in sometime since then.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on campus, Samford completes purchase of Southern Progress property:

There are going to be some thorny ethical issues here. I refer you to item five under the “Rights” section of Instagram’s terms of service, “You will not remove, alter or conceal any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Instagram Content and you will not reproduce, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works based on, perform, display, publish, distribute, transmit, broadcast, sell, license or otherwise exploit the Instagram Content.” There’s also a “We will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside Instagram” passage elsewhere in their terms.

Here, then, is a recent eyetracking study that says “Study participants were able to tell whether a photograph was made by a professional or an amateur 90 percent of the time.” The findings there also suggest professional photographs were twice as likely as user-generated photographs to be shared, that more time was spent with professionally generated photographs than with user-generated images and respondents rated shots for their memorability, the top 20 were done by pros.

So go on with Instagram, newsrooms.

I’m a fan of user generated content. I have a presentation on just this topic in a few weeks at the Alabama Press Association. UGC now has a valuable and, at times, vital role in the work of a news outlet. There are caveats and concerns: quality, accessibility, accuracy and, as above, issues of legality. Once you get beyond all of that — and that will take some doing — you get down to today’s example. Used in bulk like the Times did above it comes across as either a novelty (“We’re hip”) or a concession (“We couldn’t get our light painters outside to shoot the snow”).

Plus the joy of filters.

This story, which defies excerpting, just keeps on giving: Alabama police officer handcuffed, Maced fellow officer in front of confused mayor.

If you were waiting for the rest of the equation on relations with Cuba, that’s starting: Raul Castro: US must return Guantánamo for normal relations.

On Hitler’s Very Stationery is something we should all read. It’ll take you just a moment, and it is too good to excerpt. Read it.

journalism / links / photo / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off on You’ve been warned
27
Jan 15

You’ve been warned

No one ride this elevator after today:

sign

Here’s what you need to know about elevators in Alabama: state law requires all elevators other than those located in industrial facilities that are not accessed by the general public, to be inspected annually. The state seems to have 44 licensed inspectors. It costs about $90 to do an inspection. I don’t know for certain how long it takes to do an inspection — but it might not be what you imagine anyway, if you read the inside baseball at Elevator Blog. (That, by the way, is a surprisingly interesting site. Thank you, Internet, and strangers, for opening up the journey of discovery. There’s also an Instagram.)

Also, I don’t know how many elevators there are in the state. But this one, after today, is overdue.

I seem to recall doing a story several years ago about overworked elevator inspectors — one in a series, I’m sure, of state budget crisis stories. I believe they are private citizens, though, and I’m sure they have other jobs to do.

That elevator is perfectly fine, in truth. It is in a three-floor building, so I take the stairs.

There is an elevator in my building, going from the second-floor to the basement. I rode in that one time. Once. That was scarier than the night we thought we were about three minutes from a tornado was bearing down on the campus.

Things to read … because that’s what we do on campus.

You hope this doesn’t go private … Johnson Publishing to sell historic photo archive:

Looking to raise cash, the Chicago-based publisher of Ebony magazine has put its entire photo archive up for sale. The historic collection spans 70 years of African-American history, chronicling everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Sammy Davis Jr.

[…]

“It’s just sitting here,” said Johnson Publishing CEO Desiree Rogers. “We really need to monetize that in order to ensure growth in our core businesses.”

[…]

“This is an incredibly important archive.” said Mark Lubell, executive director of New York’s International Center of Photography. “It is the definition of the African-American experience in the latter half of the 20th century, and it’s an amazing, valuable asset.”

Wouldn’t won’t to add clarity to things … Paris attacks: Do not call Charlie Hebdo killers ‘terrorists’, BBC says:

The Islamists who committed the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris should be not be described as “terrorists” by the BBC, a senior executive at the corporation has said.

Tarik Kafala, the head of BBC Arabic, the largest of the BBC’s non-English language news services, said the term “terrorist” was too “loaded” to describe the actions of the men who killed 12 people in the attack on the French satirical magazine.

Mr Kafala, whose BBC Arabic television, radio and online news services reach a weekly audience of 36 million people, told The Independent: “We try to avoid describing anyone as a terrorist or an act as being terrorist. What we try to do is to say that ‘two men killed 12 people in an attack on the office of a satirical magazine’. That’s enough, we know what that means and what it is.”

We just don’t want to say it.

It’d be interesting to see a thoughtful and serious discussion about the impact of names and labels, used politically and in the media and so on. Are we doing ourselves a disservice? Are we ignoring obvious problems? Sugarcoating things? Insuring we never prosecute evildoers to the greatest extent? Who is such a refusal really serving?

I read this as Michael Bloomberg, a man who couldn’t find the paper towels, is running the newsroom: Bloomberg Shakes Up Newsroom Side of His Company.

Good stuff here: The absolute definitive list of questions you should ask when you conduct an interview.

State politics … Alabama’s first openly gay lawmaker threatens to ‘out’ officials having extramarital affairs:

“This (is) a time where you find out who are accepting, loving people. To say I am disappointed in Speaker Hubbard comment’s and Attorney General Strange choice to appeal the decision is an understatement. I will not stand by and allow legislators to talk about ‘family values’ when they have affairs, and I know of many who are and have. I will call our elected officials who want to hide in the closet OUT,” Todd stated in her Facebook post over the weekend.

That should make things at the statehouse a little awkward.

This is tough news: U.S. Steel could lay off 1,600 in Fairfield after production adjustment.

Locally, Auburn, Phenix City receive crime prevention grants:

Auburn received $27,940 to purchase license plate readers, traffic radar units, body cameras and digital video systems. Phenix City received $20,462 to purchase an automatic fingerprint identification system.

Now, about those license plate readers.

Media news:

Snapchat breaks into media with Discover
Most Young People Say They Have Stopped Watching TV

The Lighting II – Warthog debate rages on … In the Trenches with the F-35

Remarkable video, a very fortunate guy. Coast Guard releases dramatic video of plane crash, rescue operation

We are losing our way. To Collect Debts, Nursing Homes Are Seizing Control Over Patients:

(O)ne day last summer, after he disputed nursing home bills that had suddenly doubled Mrs. Palermo’s copays, and complained about inexperienced employees who dropped his wife on the floor, Mr. Palermo was shocked to find a six-page legal document waiting on her bed.

It was a guardianship petition filed by the nursing home, Mary Manning Walsh, asking the court to give a stranger full legal power over Mrs. Palermo, now 90, and complete control of her money.

Few people are aware that a nursing home can take such a step. Guardianship cases are difficult to gain access to and poorly tracked by New York State courts; cases are often closed from public view for confidentiality. But the Palermo case is no aberration. Interviews with veterans of the system and a review of guardianship court data conducted by researchers at Hunter College at the request of The New York Times show the practice has become routine, underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families amid changes in the financing of long-term care.

Love these stories, Senior manager with cerebral palsy gets chance to be basketball star:

“I think this is a stepping stone Austin never thought he would get to achieve,” teammate and friend Devin Brown said. “I think just the fact that he even gets to put on a uniform and warm up is amazing. But to start a varsity game in front of a big crowd with his best friends? That is something I am sure he never imagined possible.”

Much of the night surprised Miller.

Faith coach John Price told him only that he would dress out with the team, wear No. 33 and sit on the bench. He received a rousing standing ovation before pre-game warm-ups when he was introduced with the Rams’ other seniors.

“To come out to all that noise from the crowd was amazing,” Miller said. “For our student body to show that love was something special, but it wasn’t a one-time thing. They do that all the time. We really are a family at Faith.”

Kids these days, eh?

memories / Monday / photo / Samford — Comments Off on Welcome back
26
Jan 15

Welcome back

Who knows how long this will last, but as we’ve taken great nostalgic joy in noting the gas price signs in movies, we may as well document this unintentional slide in gas prices. Thanks, Saudis.

gas

Who, here, ever says that, by the way? In November of 2008 gas was nationally dipping to $1.87 — and there was no mention of the Middle East in the story. That was my first fall at Samford. We are typically a bit below the national average, but I can’t readily find a state story to verify it for that time.

Anyway, today was the first day of classes. Got into the office, noticed with resigned expectation that the printer was on the fritz. It wouldn’t be a Monday or a first day of classes if you can’t print.

And it isn’t like I ask it to print a lot. I’m going to print one syllabus here and then go down to the copy room where the Xerox machine lives and make duplicates for everyone. That machine staples. And collates. And faxes. It will also send an autoreply to those Nigerian prince emails and give you periodic updates of your stock portfolio. The Xerox machine is nice.

The HP in my office has a minimum state unsteady aerodynamic force coefficient matrix of what constitutes a paper jam is something the guys at JPL are still working on. It is a highly sensitive 20th century machine and it “jams” constantly. Take it apart and you find a wave in the paper barely perceptible to a Lilliputian’s most sensitive measuring equipment has caused the problem.

So, no, I’m not concerned about the machines taking over, just yet.

Class was fun. Met a room full of students, sitting in the room where I did my job interview several years ago. I’ve never actually taught in that room, though, until today. I sat at the front of the room, as I did on that August day, when I learned beyond doubt there’s no such thing as “summer wool.” Happily, they liked what I had to say and I’ve been having a great time working there ever since.

This class is on storytelling, so today we talked about the various challenges and obstacles. We’ll spend a day or two on information glut and go from there.

And the rest of my day was spent making phone calls. The last round of recruiting calls of the year. There are 220-some high school students on my list. I spend a lot of time on the phone. This was not one of those things we discussed in that interview, but it helps the department, which has a story to tell, a good one, and we think that those seniors should hear it.

It helps them make decisions, we figure, between how the campus sells itself and all of the literature we send them over time and then these high touch phone calls — and have you heard about our scholarships yet? — and then in the next year or so they are showing up in my classes. There are three or four from this class today whose names I remember from an old spreadsheet.

And that, I suppose, helps pay for the gas in my car.

So we’ve come full circle.

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