Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

First down

Started my morning with a run. I got in a nice 5K before a series of meetings — fortunately, there were no meetings about meetings. My workday also ended with meetings about social media. In between, I gave a lecture on the “changing concepts of news.” I started around the muckrackers at McClure’s and worked up to the modern moment. In 2015, remember, Back to the Future II showed us flying robot reporters working for USA Today.

We talked a bit about the Oculus Rift work. I showed them the latest androids being developed in Japan:

Think about all of the changes that have taken place in journalism and storytelling in the last 40 years, I said. Imagine what it will look like toward the end of your career, in another 40 years.

That android, that so many of them thought to be odd or creepy today, will be positively old fashioned by then.

Things to read … because reading will never go out of style.

(We hope.)

How the news upstarts covered ISIS:

The rallying cry for those bemoaning the demise of newspapers was, “Without The New York Times, who would cover Iraq?” Well, quite a few places, it turns out.

As traditional media companies have scaled back their foreign bureaus, newer news organizations like Vice and BuzzFeed have expanded their mandate to fill the void. (Not included in this review is Global Post, the online startup that James Foley worked for, since it started with the express purpose of covering foreign news.) But can a bunch of relatively small upstarts cover the world’s hot spots? ISIS, one of the year’s biggest stories, is as good a test case as any to see how five have been doing it.

Here’s more pessimism for print advertising:

For newspapers, continued print advertising declines will mean more pressure on circulation (print subscribers and paywalls) or new revenue (digital marketing services, events) to make up the difference. Most likely, they won’t, and we’ll see more cuts.

If the rate of print ad decline does slow in 2015 (from 8.9 percent down to 6.2 percent down), that would be…semi-good news, I guess, after several years of drops in the high single digits? But there’s nothing here to predict a leveling off, much less a return to growth.

The ‘guiding principles’ of Quartz redesign

The Miami Herald’s new publisher is moving the paper a bit closer towards irrelevancy

VA ‘Oscar the Grouch’ training angers vets:

The beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs depicted dissatisfied veterans as Oscar the Grouch in a recent internal training guide, and some vets and VA staffers said Tuesday that they feel trashed.

The cranky Sesame Street character who lives in a garbage can was used in reference to veterans who will attend town-hall events Wednesday in Philadelphia.

“There is no time or place to make light of the current crisis that the VA is in,” said Joe Davis, a national spokesman for the VFW. “And especially to insult the VA’s primary customer.”

These people will apparently not get it. And its a delightful little series of events to which we can all look forward.

The first college football game of the year was tonight. This guy was the referee:

I hadn’t realized that Boyd Crowder had taken on a side job:

Justified should be back around January. But football is here now. Hooray football.

history / journalism / links / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off
26
Aug 14

Just a few quick things on history, and today

As I worked, I had this playing in the background. A movie you’ve seen a few dozen times is good for noise. And it was kind of fitting. I’ll talk about some World War II examples in class tomorrow.

I wonder what Patton would be like if they made that movie today.

And as I wondered that, I found this evening’s most interesting story, Longtime Opelika resident Bennie Adkins to receive Medal of Honor:

Retired Command Sgt. Major Bennie G. Adkins was recently named the latest recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor in the United States. He will be awarded by President Barack Obama Sept. 15 in Washington D.C.

“Mr. Adkins is a true American hero who served his country in Vietnam,” Congressman Mike Rogers said in a written statement. “His acts of heroism during his tour of duty earned him our nation’s highest honor, which he has long deserved. I congratulate Mr. Adkins on this honor and thank him for his bravery, sacrifice and service to our nation.”

He was in the Special Forces in Vietnam. After he retired he received three degrees from Troy, taught at Southern Union and Auburn University, ran an accounting firm for two decades and, with his wife, raised five children.

The three-day battle for which he is justly being honored is a rich read of heroism, pain and the best attitude we could ask for from service members.

During 38 hours of close-combat fighting he was frequently in and under enemy fire and manning a mortar position. That was when he wasn’t continually exposing himself to the enemy to treat and save wounded men and retrieve the bodies of the fallen. When the mortar was spent, he changed weapons. When he had exhausted his ammunition, he sought out more, again under fire. Ultimately, when he’d fired every weapon they had at Camp A Shau, he led the survivors out with just an M-16. They’d fought for a day-and-a-half. He would led men through another two days of evasion before they were picked up by the good guys.

From the battle narrative:

“Approximately 200 of the camp defenders were killed in action, with 100 wounded. The enemy suffered an estimated 500 to 800 casualties. It is estimated that Adkins killed between 135 and 175 of the enemy, while suffering 18 different wounds.”

You wonder why it took so long.

Things to read … And these won’t take too long.

Turner Broadcasting to offer voluntary buyouts, layoffs also expected

Here’s a rapidly evoloving topic. Why public relations and media relations don’t mean the same thing anymore

Harassment Charges for Student Who… Told Joke [Gasp!]

Student Activists Keep Pressure On Campus Sexual Assault

And that, I think, will do for one night.

iPhone / links / Monday / photo / Samford / swimming / things to read — Comments Off
25
Aug 14

First day of class

First day of classes. Get into my office, ready to print up my syllabus and various other materials, ready to walk into class ready to wow students and start the term off right. So, naturally, I got into my office a little later than I’d wanted.

No matter. I’d left plenty of margin for error.

So, naturally, my new computer isn’t speaking with the printer. No matter, I have other computers. None of them are tied into the printer yet.

No matter. Down to the department office, where there are other computers and a bigger, better printer. It took some doing, but I found a machine that I could use. And apparently I was asking the printer to produce the most sophisticated configuration of ink and white space committed to pixels in the 21st century.

It ate into class time, not the best way to start things.

But we had class, and everyone stayed awake and we are off on a wonderful adventure of writing and editing.

Later I swam 1,750 yards. I haven’t been in the pool in ages, but it turns out that I still remember how to swim poorly.

I also saw this on the back of a local repair man’s truck:

I took this to mean that he’d surveyed the competition. He’d listened to his customers. He realized that there were plenty of people out there who were having trouble getting work done at home and having even more trouble getting someone out to work on the problem. He surmised that this magnet would mean something to people: I will be there.

And he’s correct. More than a few times over the years I’ve tried to have people come out to work on this or that, but was left with disappointment. This magnet sign might earn someone a try. Now, if on the other door, there was another that said “And we bring our own tools!” Then you’d be on to something.

Things to read … because reading always puts you on to something.

UAB launches an online cure for the common doctor visit:

It uses a diagnosis and treatment software system to collect a patient’s symptoms by asking a series of questions that would in other cases be asked by a clinician in a face-to-face meeting. The patient’s responses are then reviewed by a UAB clinician who provides a diagnosis and personalized treatment plan.

“eMedicine is an urgent care service that enables patients to use their desktop or mobile devices to interact with our providers,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, medical director of primary care in UAB’s School of Medicine. “This will add to patient convenience for those who are suffering from upper respiratory infections, flu, allergies and other things very common in an urgent-care setting. It’s really a novel way to extend the physician-patient relationship.”

College Football Hall of Fame opens in Atlanta

Report: Alabama’s economy sixth slowest in the U.S.:

Business Insider noted that the state’s wages increased by 0.78 percent from 2012 to 2013, and its unemployment increased by 0.3 percent in the last year, which was the lowest rank out of the 50 states.

Alabama’s GDP growth rate was 0.8 percent in 2013, according to U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This is, I believe, one of the better pieces you’ll find at Grantland: When Narratives Collide: Michael Sam Meets Johnny Football:

In our media-saturated InfoWorld, it has become easy for us to make representational action figures out of human beings who have the misfortune of capturing our massed attention.

[…]

It’s part of the deal now, and I understand that. It’s a clause in a subparagraph in the implicit contract struck between athletes and their fans that athletic celebrity is now indistinguishable from a celebrity, full stop. The camera is always on, the microphone always hot. You will stand for something even if all you want to do is sit down and catch your breath. But if you accept all this as part of the legitimate transaction of fame and celebrity, it’s your part of the bargain to understand that it’s fundamentally dehumanizing to use real people as characters in your private passion plays.

Also, they’re just football players.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
24
Aug 14

Catching up

The weekly post that concentrates on the pictures I haven’t yet used anywhere else. It passes the time. Let’s pass the time.

I don’t know why my barber insists on having everyone sign in at the front desk. When he finishes with one head of hair he just looks around the room and says “Who was next?” But I guess it gives us all alibis.

For a time he was having his clients sign in and had a young man typing in names too. It seemed … excessive.

This is the last weekend before the football craziness kicks off, so:

I’d like to try and catch a snapshot of all the cyclists I see. I think it would make for a good collection one day. Usually they are moving too fast. On this particular occasion my car was moving too fast. But I like the shot. If I’d been coming from the opposite direction I would have been going up a hill. Had I been doing that on my bike, straining, out of breath, trying to kick the last little incline, this is probably what I would have seen of that cyclist anyway:

photo / weekend — Comments Off
23
Aug 14

Do you have the Internet?

We don’t have an Internet connection. Scientists can beam a laser-based long-distance data transmission to the moon for an Internet connection. That impressive feat does nothing to get the wonderful, lovely, talented people at Charter to talk about what seems to be happening to their entire network.

Thus demonstrating the fragility of the Internet of Things. And thus making people wonder “What do I do in this World Without the Internet of Things!?”

This is a trying time for many. But at least we still have power, conversation and books. We have phones, analog diversions and cable.

Went out for lunch at the little cafe that is attached to the back of the little vegetable shop that orbits the little nursery here in town. The peaches were perfectly scented — just enough to overpower the vague presence of dirt and sawdust and not so much as to overwhelm.

Remember how, the other day, I said “(W)e have a series of triple-digit heat index days ahead. Summer finally showed up, he said for probably the second or third time this summer.”

Yeah.

Car thermometers are notoriously inaccurate, so that is mostly just for the fun of the picture. But it is hot.