A couple of posts back there’s a little animation depicting life and death in five seconds. A little depressing and dark, even for me. But it reminded me of a more life-affirming animation I posted a few years ago. If this blog remains “alive” for 100 years (I’ve got a plan), it’s fun to think about this little lady dancing away, hour after hour.
Look for an exit, I gotta pee!
My friend Kay shares Barb’s knack for picking really good cards. She points out this one features three lanes and that she and I are in the middle. We left our idealism a couple of rest stops back. And we’re not ready to think of ourselves as bitter.
Had she designed the card, she would have put Idealistic Youth in the left land –the fast lane– and Bitter Old People in the right lane where they could drive for miles and miles with their turn signal on.
NFL: Radio and TV okay, the web…no way
I’ve posted a couple of times on the restrictive policies of the NFL and the MLB regarding audio, video, still images and other content on websites.
Green Bay Packer QB Brett Favre is holding a news conference to officially announce he’s hanging it up. First words out of the Packer media guy’s mouth: You can broadcast on radio and TV, but no streaming from websites. Except for one: Packers.com.
Hardly a mystery. The Packers do not –as far as I know– own radio or TV stations. But they DO have a website and and it’s got lots of sponsors. Just one more example of how the web is changing –if you’ll forgive me– the playing field. Once upon a time, the teams and the leagues needed the media to reach their fans. They still need them, but maybe not as much and not for everything. As more and more fans –and advertisers– move to the web, this will be a big issue.
Update: Lost remote reports that traffic at Packers.com was so heavy, they had to switch to a breaking-news layout.
Life and Death in five seconds
Created by MadAndUgly [via J-Walk]
Zogby Poll: 67% View traditional journalism as “out of touch”
Two thirds of Americans – 67% – believe traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news, a new We Media/Zogby Interactive poll shows.
The survey also found that while most Americans (70%) think journalism is important to the quality of life in their communities, two thirds (64%) are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities.
Meanwhile, the online survey documented the shift away from traditional sources of news, such as newspapers and TV, to the Internet – most dramatically among so-called digital natives – people under 30 years old.
- Nearly half of respondents (48%) said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, an increase from 40% who said the same a year ago.
- Younger adults were most likely to name the Internet as their top source – 55% of those age 18 to 29 say they get most of their news and information online, compared to 35% of those age 65 and older.
- Overall, 29% said television is their main source of news, while fewer said they turn to radio (11%) and newspapers (10%) for most of their news and information.
- Just 7% of those age 18 to 29 said they get most of their news from newspapers, while more than twice as many (17%) of those age 65 and older list newspapers as their top source of news and information.
Web sites are regarded as a more important source of news and information than traditional media outlets – 86% of Americans said Web sites were an important source of news, with more than half (56%) who view these sites as very important.
Most also view television (77%), radio (74%), and newspapers (70%) as important sources of news, although fewer than say the same about blogs (38%).
Craig Watson and Steve at birthday party
Not sure which birthday is captured here. Maybe four? I’m second from the left in the bitchin’ shorts. To my left is Craig Watson, who shared my birthday and is helping me hold one of the little baskets that were given as party favors. I’m pretty sure he’s not gay either. To my right is Unidentified Guest holding a small caliber pistol. He got to blow out the candles and feels guilty about it.
Procrastinate like your life depends on it
Doc Searls –who happens to be the same age as I– draws some insight from the movie No Country for Old Men:
“The central figure, Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, is a psychopathic killer who personifies death and chance in unequal measure.
His motives? His quarry is money, but that’s just a point on a path. There is no doubt that he will get the money, and that people will die along the way. But death itself has no motive. It is merely inevitable. Like Anton Chigurh. The Terminator, the Alien, the guy DiNiro played in Cape Fear… all the relentless bad guys we’ve known… don’t compare easily with Chigurh. Because all the others could be, and were, defeated.
Death can’t be defeated. In Chigurh, it could only be wounded, because he is death in human form. But he is still death.
Which is on my mind more as I get older. The old men in the movie — Tommy Lee Jones and cohorts of his generation — are barely older than me, if they’re older at all.
Being older, if not yet “old”, requires increased acquaintance with the certainty that Your Time Will Come.
I plan to procrastinate. For some things that’s a helpful skill.”
I’ll be 60 years old next Saturday and, like Doc Searls, mortality has been more on my mind. In coming days I might post a thought or two on birthdays that end in zero and what –if anything– I’ve learned in the last 6 decades (I like the sound of that better than “sixty”). But once the day has come and gone, I’m going to try not to think/write about it.
The Poor Man’s Steadicam
My pal Jamie suggested I try the Poor Man’s Steadicam to bring a little stability to my video.
“The camera operator may walk (or even jog), move through tight hallways and doorways, and even climb up and down stairs without shaking the camera. Unfortunately, professional steadycams cost around $1500. Even the cheap 3rd party ones cost $600+. Not exactly a bargain considering many of us use cameras in that price range. So, I decided to make my own version. It turns out, it only costs $14. Not too bad.”
The Myth of the Surge
Writing in the current issue of Rolling Stone, Nir Rosen gives us a spin-free report from the streets of Baghdad. … And for an even scarier perspective on the "war on terrorism" and the real reason we’re up to our chins in Middle East doo doo, read this article from The Guardian archives.
“…due to technical difficulties”
New York Times: “In an attempt to clear up questions about how an Alabama television station lost its signal at the start of Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes” on CBS, the management of the station, WHNT-TV, issued a statement Thursday citing equipment failure.
The station, in Huntsville, said that after a review, it had concluded that the blackout was related to a similar interruption during a basketball game the day before. The break in the signal, which lasted about eight minutes, came as the CBS News program was beginning a report of special interest to Alabama residents: an investigation into whether the trial and conviction of a former governor, Don Siegelman, was politically motivated. The report included charges that Republican and Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, had sought to discredit Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat.”
I’d be scared shitless if I was the engineer or producer who actually pulled the plug on that segment. A loose end that Uncle Karl might like to tie off.