Photo above –taken by Matthew Howard– shows why many homes in southeast Missouri are still without power. Matthew managed to get some photos on his Facebook page and give me permission to share a few here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a utility pole snapped in two. Or this much ice damage to trees. And this close-up sort of tells the story.
As power is slowly restored to some parts of southern Missouri, more photos like this one are getting out as folks get back online. This is Nancy’s home (Kennett, MO) and you get some sense of just how much ice it would take to bring down a tree limb this size.
Major U.S. companies are retaining workers over 55 even as younger workers get the ax. That’s the gist of an article in Feb edition of BUSINESSWEEK:
“Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tell the tale: The number of people aged 55 and up with jobs actually rose nearly 900,000 from the start of the recession, in December 2007, through last year. By comparison, people aged 25 to 54 lost nearly 2.9 million jobs. The share of older Americans who have jobs has risen during the recession, while the share of younger Americans with jobs has plunged.”
And a “mature” dude such as myself, who is comfortable on the Internets… let’s get us some of them!
“What will it take to get one of the remaining jobs in the all-digital newsroom? Certainly an understanding of, and probably enthusiasm for, new forms of media and storytelling. The transformed newsroom will be filled with multi-functional journalists who are comfortable carrying around a digital camera and tiny video camera; who make it part of their routine to record audio for possible use in podcasts or multimedia project sound clips; who are regular users of social networks and understand how to leverage them to communicate with and attract new readers, and share some personal information about themselves as well as promote their work; and who are comfortable and willing to put in the time to engage and communicate with their readers or viewers, including participating in reader comment threads accompanying their stories.”
“With blogs at the center of a reporter’s work universe, there’s still much to do in this new kind of news operation.
Here’s what the reporter/blogger will routinely do:
1. Long-form stories and features. But in this new environment, a reporter may do fewer of these because of other duties. And they may be in a variety of formats, from simple text and video to multimedia presentations, audio or podcasts.
2. Regular blog entries (basically short articles) through the day. The reporter in this organization doesn’t wait till all the facts are in when it’s a big breaking story, but reports what’s known quickly. Additional blog updates can be added as the news event progresses. (Again, don’t take “blog entry” to mean “text.” A reporter might post video or audio to the blog, as well.)
3. Instant updates. When relevant, a reporter will put out short alerts to mobile phone news alert subscribers; to an e-mail list; as a “tweet” on Twitter or brief report on other social networks to update the reporter’s “friends” and “followers,” etc. This can take but a minute (with proper systems in place to streamline the process), and then it’s on to the write-up for the blog.”
— From Steve Outing column at Editor & Publisher
Lucy –the junior pup at our house– is extremely camera shy. If you pick up something that even resembles a camera, she runs under the bed (her sanctuary). I thought I could fool her with the iPhone. No way.
But I got this shot (with iPhone) last night. Hardly a great photo but I like the monitor glow on Barb and you can just spot Lucy’s nose peeking out from beneath the table.
For some reason it appears I’m about five floors up but it’s just one.
Lots of folks looking for jobs and many more will be. I’ve been trying to remember the last time I interviewed for a job. I blush to recall that Clyde recruited me 25 years ago and “insisted” I accept his offer.
In 1972 I got a job at the radio station where my father worked so there was nothing that resembled an interview. If I was willing to work 10p-6a, the job was mine.
The short-lived gig as a postal inspector was more of a pass the test, fill out the form kind of thing. Another instance of me “falling into” the job.
I can only recall a couple of job interviews: one for the Memphis TN police department; another with a community theater in Kansas City. I wasn’t qualified for either and was damned lucky I didn’t get hired.
During my Management days, I interviewed lots of people for jobs but don’t think I ever got very good at it. And I wouldn’t be very good at applying for a job now.
I wish the very best to those now “on the bricks.”
Suppose you had a friend that was really smart and funny, and that friend got to cover and live-blog White House press briefings that you could watch “with” her (on C-SPAN) and chat back and forth. Does that sound like something you might be interested in?
Okay, Ana Marie Cox isn’t a friend of mine but she feels like one. I’m one of her legion of fans that go back to the Wonkette days. She now works for Air America.
I don’t know if this is journalism or not and I don’t care. In the same way I don’t care what you call The Daily Show. I call it fun and interesting.
I think of this as the MST3K effect. Even a boring press conference is fun if you’re watching it “with” fun people.
I love the writing of Scott Adams. The Dilbert Principle played no small part in my escape from Management. His blog is one of the most thought-provoking I read. I just finished God’s Debris. Not a book for those who already have things figured out.
“Humanity is developing a sort of global eyesight as millions of video cameras on satellites, desktops, and street corners are connected to the Internet. In your lifetime it will be possible to see almost anything on the planet from any computer. And society’s intelligence is merging over the Internet, creating, in effect, a global mind that can do vastly more than any individual mind. Eventually everything that is known by one person will be available to all. A decision can be made by the collective mind of humanity and instantly communicated to the body of society.” pg 53
It is beyond the human brain to understand the world and its environment, so the brain compensates by creating simplified illusions that act as a replacement for understanding. When the illusions work well and the human who subscribes to the illusion survives, those illusions are passed to new generations. pg 34
The odd collection of molecules that make a human being will stay in that arrangement for less time than it takes the universe to blink. pg 35
What could possibly be interesting or important to a God that knows everything, can create anything, can destroy anything. The concept of ‘importance’ is a human one born out of a need to make choices for survival. pg 36
I love the writing of Scott Adams. The Dilbert Principle played no small part in my escape from Management. His blog is one of the most thought-provoking I read. I just finished God’s Debris and will post a few of my favorite bits here. Let’s start with this one:
We’re the building blocks of God, in the early stages of reassembling.
Time is a human concept of how things change compared to other things. pg 57
Morality and willpower are illusions. For any human being, the highest urge always wins and willpower never enters into it. Willpower is a delusion. pg 94
Your short-term payoff for contributing to God’s consciousness is fewer problems in your daily life, less stress, and more happiness. pg 101
Over time, everything that is possible happens. pg 102
“A replica of your mind and body will exist in the distant future, by chance. And the things you do now can either make life more pleasant or more difficult for your replica. pg 102
You can change only what people know, not what they do. pg 107
Awareness does not come from receiving new information. It comes from rejecting old information. pg 125
I’m a regular user of the Shared Stuff feature in Google Reader. That’s the little widget in the sidebar, which feeds to a larger page. I love it.
I recently discovered another Google tool that also seems to be called Google Shared Stuff. This one works from a little icon in your menu bar. As you surf around the web you can add links and notes to a “shared stuff” page. But not the same shared page. It has to be a DIFFERENT shared page.
Why can’t the shared pages be shared? One page for stuff from my Google Reader and the “shared” button. If any of you kids in the Accelerated Class can help me out with this, I’ll be grateful.
Every year on this date I pause to recall that it was way back in 2002 that I began blogging. Like many others, I was posting little rants on my website before we had the tools and the name, but this is the date I started “writing some stuff down.”
That post was a long quote from Carl Hiaasen’s novel, Basket Case. He described two types of journalists and alluded to the “slow-strangling dailies,” a number of which have finally strangled in the last year or so.
On the 4th anniversary of this blog I met some friends and had four beers. I’m afraid 7 beers would put me out of commission for several days, so we won’t do that.
Another thing I used to do was browse back through the earlier posts but with 4,000+ that is no longer practical. So this post will serve as another scratch on blog wall.