News stops where profits start September 6, 2008 10:03 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, News, Of Interest, Publishing , add a commentIt almost sounds like Dan Rather is saying bloggers are the hope for future reporting.
add a commentColbert needs to interview these people! September 3, 2008 12:31 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest, TV / Movies , add a commentPapa Bear did a bit of a smack down on some youthful Obama supporters. I think Stephen Colbert should interview these same two supporters!
And Dear Stephen Colbert Staff, in case you don’t watch the show on a 21" television, the green screen during the interview segment reflects off the mahogany table in an almost painful way. Mahogany shouldn’t glow green unless it’s from Oak Ridge, TN.
This video originally seen on Mahalo.
add a commentIs your news complete? August 26, 2008 9:56 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest , 2commentsDoes reading news online, or even in a paper (or television), really give a clear picture of the story? Of course not. It gives a reporters impression of the story, sometimes reflects the political views of the paper or broadcast company, and can be intentionally misleading. I don’t think anything was intentionally misleading in these article but look at how information from 3 different sources changes your views of a story about a LaFollette man dying:
My introduction to the story by WBIR
In summary, the WBIR story reported a LaFollette man crash his car and died. He was not found for two days and was presumed to be drinking. 82 words in 5 paragraphs. The commenters were quick to bad mouth the obvious drunkard. I was left with the impression the car was in a ditch beside the road and people drove past ignoring the wreckage.
The 2nd story I read was by Knoxnews
The Knoxnews story had much more detail at 181 words in 7 paragraphs. Knoxnews revealed that the car was found over a football field’s length from the road. They gave much better detail about the way the accident happened, the age of the driver, the fact he was wearing his seatbelt, and even the type of vehicle. None-the-less, I finished the article with not much sympathy for someone drinking at driving on a Monday afternoon.
The final story by WATE was heart wrenching
The last story I read filled in some gaps and created great empathy for the family. WATE’s story at 81 words in 5 paragraphs was reported yesterday and did not mention the man’s death. It was titled "Search for missing Campbell Co. man with dementia" and was a plea for the community’s help in finding the missing man. WATE included the man’s age and description of his truck both of which matched the Knoxnews article. The WATE article had one comment from yesterday by the man’s daughter, Amber Sutton:
hey im johnny sutton’s daughter please keep me and my family in prays….i miss my dad…please come home safe and whoever is lookin 4 him i send all my thanks out
Her comment and the word "dementia" put Johnny Sutton’s story in a completely different light.
When you read news, do you take it for what the one source claims or do you seek the whole story?
2commentsCan you rely on Twitter for breaking news? August 21, 2008 10:56 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, News, Of Interest, Technology , 2commentsTwitter gets the word out and fast! Twitter can spread news quickly because the news comes first hand from those experiencing it, concise (140 characters), and directly from their finger tips to a potentially worldwide audience. However, the ability to receive that breaking news has much to do with how well you, the reader, can process the stream of data; how many people you follow; and what subject/focus group captures your interest.
How many should I follow?
In the beginning we commit to following a few. "I don’t understand how people can follow hundreds or thousands. I’ll follow 10 or 20." That is how I began my Twitter experience. Today I follow 555 (yes, like the timer). A quick sidebar, if you follow 10 people who Tweet once a week each you will have a far different Twitter experience than following 10 people who Tweet once an hour. Too often we think of Twitter in "numbers of followers and following" when really it should be "ratio of following to tweets produced by those you are following." Back on topic, If you follow a small number of people your Twitter experience will be one of intimacy and learning great detail about those people. Your experience is narrow and deep. If you follow hundreds of people or thousands, your experience is wide and shallow; however, you experience a pulse like a life force on the common thread that ties those people together. If those hundreds of people are all in the tech industry, you will know what is happening in technology the instant it happens. If those hundreds of people are in the entertainment industry, you will know the gossip and dealings of Hollywood, Broadway, etc as it happens. If those hundreds are politicos, you will be informed more quickly about politics than others. And if those hundreds are locally connected, say all from Knoxville, then you will know about the happenings in your local area more rapidly than others. Of course topics bleed over. Those you follow could be local people that are into technology and politics. If those hundreds or thousands are diversely unrelated, you will get noise.
How to process the information?
Twitter’s power is in its SMS interactions. Okay, not so true. Twitter’s power is the community, the people, the audience; however, adoption of services like identi.ca, which stands to give Twitter the most fierce competition, has been slow due to lack of SMS integration. If you follow hundreds of people and something newsworthy happens, your phone will beep so quickly that you cannot possibly follow the conversation. Although SMS is very powerful for Twitter, it is cumbersome when the action is occurring. Watching Twitter in a browser is tedious and requires taking your attention away from other activities such as your job, family or playing solitaire. Using a program catered to Twitter is the best way to get the most from Twitter. For me, that program is Twhirl. Twhirl can connect to multiple Twitter accounts, Friendfeed, Identi.ca, Seemic and anything that commuicates with XMPP (and if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, most people don’t). Twhirl sits in the background and in my peripheral vision I see its little stream move along. When I take breaks I scan it for keywords. In certain circumstances I get a ping with an alert to say it needs my attention. For the most part, I can stay connected without being distracted. And if it ever becomes a distraction, I turn it off. The problem with programs like Twhirl becomes its ease, addictiveness, and amusement. On a whim, I can send a nonsensical out and often it is directed to a single person but rather than making it a private message, I inadvertently spam 550 people (or in Barack Obama’s case 64,140 people). Of course, maybe those 550 people want that level of interaction. For me, that remains my unanswered question, "what do these 550 people want or expect?"
What subject matter belongs in Twitter?
Your interests will dictate your Twitter experience and make it far different from someone else’s Twitter experience. I believe Twitters fall into 4 categories:
- Exhibitionists, Voyeurs, Gossips - These are the folks that will send/read a stream of messages about the minutia of daily life
- News feeds - These are the folks alerting the world about their experiences with the California fires, or the next big event. These are the newspapers getting the headlines out. These are people like myself alerting others that the Interstate is at a stand still.
- Topic Specific - These would be people sharing information about a particular subject. Unlike news feeds these will often include back and forth discussions about the topic.
- [addition to original post] Spammers - People taking advantage of the tendency to follow those who follow you simply to draw attention to a product or website. The Twitter staff and others are trying to minimize the ability for people to spam through Twitter.
A fifth category could be utility such as how The RedCross has used Twitter to make accessing the Safe and Well database easier. By following a topic specific group of people, you will get a pulse on the latest news regarding that topic. You will be in the know. By using a program like Twhirl, you can have multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously following different topic areas. Or by checking Twitter Search (aka Summize) you can quickly be updated on a particular subject matter. So yes, I think that you can rely on Twitter for breaking news. I think some misinformation is likely to come with the speed at which Twitter delivers that breaking news, but Twitter (and main stream media) will be quick to correct the misinformation.
2commentsTVA and Knoxnews Unfamiliar with Google July 20, 2008 4:13 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest , add a commentOne thing is certain. At some point in our life, we will die. (Unless Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey, and fellow scientists succeed at treating aging as a disease - read some debate and discussion, and, I am certain they will but it will be affordable only to the ultra wealthy) WBIR and Knoxnews reported that a man had jumped from The Bluffs near Tellico Dam and died. Accidents happen particularly when thrill seeking. This does not mean The Bluffs should be fenced off and protected by armed guards. Accidents happen. It is unfortunate and I feel badly for his family.
In the Knoxnews article, the report:
[TVA spokeswoman Nancy] Mitchell said she did not know where the man was from, “but I’m assuming (he was) fairly local,†she said. [Source, Knoxnews, ID released on jumper killed at "Bluffs"]
Knoxville is a small town. When I read about someone around my age passing away, I google them to see if I knew them. In 30 seconds of reading the Knoxnews article, I knew exactly where the deceased lived and thanks to Streetviews can tell you the style and color of his house. Yes, this could a different person with the same name but based upon the search results, I highly doubt it. The article also states "his next of kin were notified between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday" which seems contradictory to Nancy Mitchell’s statement. Poor reporting? or poor release of information by TVA?
add a commentLet Oak Ridge, er, Hollywood Clean Up the Mess! July 13, 2008 12:04 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Environment, News, Of Interest, Touchy Subjects , 1 comment so farRight now there is a huge ecological disaster happening in Tennessee. An 18 wheeler tanker has a spill of highly volatile material, titanium tetrachloride, and has caused an evacuation of everything within 10 miles of the accident as well as totally shutting down Interstate 40 near Crossville and having some people stuck in traffic 6-12 hours. This sounds similar to the train wreck that evacuated much of Farragut a couple of years ago.
So here is the scenario: Truck containing hazardous materials traveling on Interstate 40 has a problem and substance begins leaking. Nine people get sent to a hospital. Area is quarantined and evacuated for a radius of ten miles. A hazmat team is sent in, cannot contain the leak, and determines contents of truck to be producing heat (ie. explosion pending). To make matters worse, water mixed with this hazardous material produces hydrochloric acid. Winds are currently blowing strong. Storms are forecasted in less than twelve hours and the special cleanup team from New Jersey will take twelve or more hours to arrive. Sounds like an out of work script writer is trying to pitch Paramount.
My question: Why isn’t Oak Ridge responding to this? Certainly the labs are prepared for a worse ecological disaster than this. Between Becthel Jacobs, SAIC, Perma-Fix, and the dozens of other contractors that regularly do work at Y12 (in particular cleanup and handling of dangerous materials), you would think we could have a crew to Crossville in one hour instead of twelve. Are lives at stake for bureaucracy? Is this Katrina on a smaller scale?
How would Hollywood handle this? Simple! Tommy Lee Jones would come barking in to establish perimeters and control the choas while Will Smith beats some people into cooperating/doing actual cleanup and Chris Tucker smack talks the red tape out of the way. Of course we don’t get to learn the outcome because Hollywood is poised for a second strike (See Return of the Bad Television - Guild Strike Part Deux).
And would someone teach the AMPTP about permalinks?
Our final offer to SAG members includes more than $250 million in additional compensation, important new media rights and protection for pension and health benefits. The refusal of SAG’s Hollywood leadership to accept this offer is the latest in a series of actions by SAG leaders that, in our opinion, puts labor peace at risk. SAG’s Hollywood leaders have already pursued a time-consuming, divisive, costly, and unsuccessful anti-AFTRA campaign. Any further delay in reaching a reasonable and comprehensive agreement does a disservice to the thousands of working people of our industry who are already being seriously harmed by the ever worsening de facto strike. [Source, AMPTP, Breaking News, July 10, 2008, Statement of the AMPTP] (See also July 8, 2008, AFTRA Ratification Statement and June 30, 2008, Statement of the AMPTP)
1 comment so farAny increase for the benefits of health insurance, pension, or residual gains made by the WGA are also likely to be demanded by other entertainment industry labor unions when their contracts expire. This is a practice known as pattern bargaining — the first union to reach a contract with the AMPTP usually sets the template for the agreement with other unions. The contracts for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Directors Guild of America (DGA) expired on June 30, 2008. [Source, Wikipedia, Other 2008 industry-wide strike threats]
Writer’s Strike Part 2 June 29, 2008 5:17 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest, TV / Movies , add a commentIs SAG trying to kill television? Don’t they know the second in a series is almost always bad?
The contract between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expires Monday, and negotiations have dragged on for weeks with no apparent headway…A strike in July…could delay the return of many fall TV shows. [Source, MSNBC, Strike 2? Hollywood braces for actor walkout]
Seen on Shavar’s Blog (which has music that autoplays).
add a commentBoycotting the AP? June 22, 2008 11:10 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, News, Of Interest, Publishing, Touchy Subjects , 2commentsA week of vacation has put me a little out of touch. Am I boycotting the AP?
2commentsDisturbing News of the Day May 29, 2008 11:29 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Mental, News, Of Interest , add a commentCan you say "psychotherapy?" I knew you could!
A 12-year-old girl has testified in court that she saw her father kill her mother and he then forced her to help dismember the body with a circular saw. [Source, WBIR]
Now that’s some authoritative parenting! I can’t even get my children to sweep the floors! I wonder what that girls career will become. And the grossness continues…
Police said James Hawkins cleaned the saw and returned it to a store where he had obtained it. [Source, WBIR]
…which means someone else bought that circular saw and is cheerfully using it to build their bookshelves in their house. Of course, they’ll never understand why the books seem to rearrange themselves, occasionally jump off the shelf, and exhibit symmetrical book stacking just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947.
I don’t get how someone could do this to another human being much less include their child in the act!
add a commentWearing a mic? Don’t say words that rhyme with duck! May 14, 2008 9:05 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest, TV / Movies , add a commentWarning! Obscenities ahead:
Find the links and quotes on Mahalo. (And no, I don’t quite get Mahalo yet either but I was slow on the Twitter uptake too.)
add a commentThe War of 2020 between China and the US May 7, 2008 5:06 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, Economy, News, Of Interest, Politics, Security, Technology, Touchy Subjects , add a commentYou did know we are at war with China, didn’t you?
add a commentD.C. Madam “suicide” - Don’t these people watch movies? May 1, 2008 4:05 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Conspiracy, News, Of Interest, Politics, Sex, Touchy Subjects , 1 comment so farWhen you heard that "[a] court had recently found Deborah Jeane Palfrey guilty of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud in connection with a high-end prostitution ring operating in Washington D.C." [Source, Truemors], didn’t you just immediately wonder which senator was afraid of having his or her super kinky dungeon fantasies revealed?
Suicide notes were found near the body in a small storage shed next to a mobile home…Palfrey, 52, was reportedly staying at the home of her mother…Prosecutors estimated the sentence she would have likely received would have been…about six years…She argued it was a legitimate, legal escort service. [Source, CNN, 'D.C. Madam' found dead]
The low budget spy thriller writes itself.
1 comment so farI like robots March 21, 2008 11:16 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest, Robotics, Technology , add a comment add a commentToday’s Tinfoil Hat February 3, 2008 5:54 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, Conspiracy, News, Technology, Touchy Subjects , add a comment3 critical cables mysteriously break and are blamed on ships. Video proves no ships were in the area. Iran loses 100% connectivity to the Internet. Does this sound right?
To me it sounds like AT&T is installing a secret room in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea!
Now for some US/Iran studies: If Iran Were America (And We Were Iran): A Timeline by J.L. Byran.
Update: Now the report says 5 cables have been cut.
Update: The secret room might look like NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Lab.
add a commentNot in America! And Only in Knoxville… December 2, 2007 9:41 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest, Sex, Touchy Subjects, Video , 2commentsDoes that suit drive you nuts? Would you like to be a little more casual? Perhaps the Audrey Underwear company is for you.
The Audrey Underwear company in Taiwan asked it’s 500 women employs in the firms head quarters to come to work in camisoles and knickers to celebrate record sales. … More than 90% of female workers reportedly went along with the spirit of the day and worked in their underwear. [Source]
This takes Half-nekkid Thursdays to a new level!
And Knoxville shows its butt on the news with a woman who wants her butt implants removed:
http://view.break.com/409510 - Watch more free videos
