Obama front pages

Via Kottke, check out this video of Wednesday-morning front pages from newspapers from around the country:



Here they are in more static form. Here are a bunch more.

Lots of Blogging On The Way

So I had a trip to the doctor Monday; end result of which is that everything is OK, but I am laid up for a while with plenty of time to watch movies, read, and blog.

Items of interest:

• H.G. Wells wrote an article in the 1930s about the idea of a World Brain. Excerpt: Both the assembling and the distribution of knowledge in the world at present are extremely ineffective, and thinkers of the forward-looking type whose ideas we are now considering, are beginning to realize that the most hopeful line for the development of our racial intelligence lies rather in the direction of creating a new world organ for the collection, indexing, summarizing and release of knowledge, than in any further tinkering with the highly conservative and resistant university system, local, national and traditional in texture, which already exists. These innovators, who may be dreamers today, but who hope to become very active organizers tomorrow, project a unified, if not a centralized, world organ to "pull the mind of the world together", which will be not so much a rival to the universities, as a supplementary and co-ordinating addition to their educational activities - on a planetary scale. The phrase "Permanent World Encyclopaedia" conveys the gist of these ideas. As the core of such an institution would be a world synthesis of bibliography and documentation with the indexed archives of the world. A great number of workers would be engaged perpetually in perfecting this index of human knowledge and keeping it up to date. Concurrently, the resources of micro-photography, as yet only in their infancy, will be creating a concentrated visual record. Few people as yet, outside the world of expert librarians and museum curators and so forth, know how manageable well-ordered facts can be made, however multitudinous, and how swiftly and completely even the rarest visions and the most recondite matters can be recalled, once they have been put in place in a well-ordered scheme of reference and reproduction. Sound familiar?


• Publishing 2.0 asks: Should Newspapers Become Local Blog Networks? Excerpt: Most newspapers are actually using blogs as platforms for daily online publishing — platforms that allow one person to publish a “mini-publication.” This got me thinking — maybe what newspapers should become in the digital media era is a network of local bloggers — some of whom are staff writers and some of whom are freelancers. Maybe most of them are freelancers. Maybe the full-time reporters are dedicated to beats like covering local governments, which require more time-intensive reporting to fulfill the Fourth Estate mission, but which can be supplemented by freelance reporting.


• Here's the Periodic Table of the Internet.


• Via Bookworm, playing cards to teach U.S. troops about Iraqi archaeology.

Asshole of the Week Award Goes to...

... New Port Richey, Florida 911 Supervisor Dave Cook!

Excerpt Whole Thing:

New Port Richey, Florida - "9-1-1 what is your emergency?”

The caller on the line says, “My girlfriend... I don't know, she's choking!”

911 operator Jenny Montanino received that call March 24th saying that Nancy McGhee was choking to death inside a Land O'Lakes home.

The operator asks the caller if he can do the Heimlich Maneuver, but he misunderstands and asks if she means to get behind her.

As part of the investigation into the incident by the Pasco Fire Department, Montanino says she asked for assistance for what's called "emergency medical dispatch," because she is not yet certified to do this.

But her supervisor Dave Cook, who in the past has been disciplined for sleeping on duty, said "I am not getting on with a hysterical caller."

The caller begged the operator to get people to the home and she assured him help was coming, but the caller hung up in frustration.

Montanino called him back and eventually Cook got on the line, but the caller was getting more upset:

Cook asks the caller if the woman was alert and the caller replies, "No sir." Cook asks again, and the caller tells him the same thing.

Cook then firmly says, "Listen to me, listen to me." The caller says he can't do Heimlich Maneuver, and Cook responds by saying "Alright, I'm going to give you back to the operator."
The report says Cook dropped the phone receiver onto the desk and said, "See, he's not listening."

And not only was there confusion inside the Pasco 911, but also because emergency units were out of place, it took 11 minutes after the call came before help arrived -- even though there is a fire station 7.6 miles away. And by that time, Nancy McGhee was dead.

The investigation also shows Cook laughingly said after the woman died, ”Another one bites the dust," and "I guess she bit off more than she can chew.”

Cook -- who was found sleeping on the job again the day after the incident -- turned in his resignation for medical reasons. The Pasco Fire Department is continuing an investigation.

The assistant supervisor, Maureen Thomas, is also on leave.

Stranger Than Fiction

Imagine that. And it happened right after football season ended...

(Not the first time for Onionesque headlines in the MSM.)

More Links...

A few more things that have caught my attention:

• Here's a very large list of palindomes.
• Google gives come-hither to publishers and librarians and now has a new blog specifically for librarians.
• Trends in newspapers moving incorporating blogs into their websites.
• Make sure to visit the Wikipedia store! I'm thinking about getting this coffee mug.
• TCS Daily article on the benefits of a volatile economy. Excerpts: Yes, economic turbulence can yield a kind of psychic unease -- unease that's exploited for political gain. But that same turbulence is also the source of significant beneficent changes. If this is a War on the Middle Class, we should want a troop surge to keep it going... ...Job losses tend to be highly concentrated, making for good media fodder. Just last week an announcement came down that Sprint-Nextel is set to cut 5000 jobs. When was the last time you read about a firm creating 5000 jobs in one stroke? Job creation is more gradual than job loss by comparison, but over time there are more than enough jobs created, and better ones at that.
• Via The Speculist, Must-know Terms for the 21st-Century Intellectuals. Excerpt: First, I am trying to come up with a list of the most fundamental and crucial terms that are coming to define and will soon re-define the human condition, and that subsequently should be known by anyone who thinks of themselves as an intellectual. I admit that there's an elitist and even pompous aspect to this exercise, but the fact of the matter is that the zeitgeist is quickly changing. It's not enough anymore to be able to quote Dostoevsky, Freud and Darwin. This said, while my list of terms is 'required' knowledge, I am not suggesting that it is sufficient. My definition of an 'intellectual' also requires explanation. To me an intellectual in this context is an expert generalist -- a polymath or jack-of-all-trades who sees and understands the Big Picture both past, present and future. While I value and respect the work of specialists, they can be frustratingly out of touch with other disciplines and some of the more broader applications of science, technology and philosophy. Given the obvious truism that nobody can know everything, there is still great value in having individuals understand a diverse set of key principles.

Ford Owed Status as Oldest Ex-President to Gay Guy

Open memo to Hollywood:

In light of the various tributes paid to the late President Ford this week, isn't it about time for a documentary or biopic on the tragic life of Oliver Sipple? (Just don't fuck it up, OK?)

Mr. Sipple, who scored a zero percent name-recognition score at the lunch table at work the other day, was the ex-Marine who happened to be standing next to Sara Jane Moore when Ms. Moore decided to try to "allow the winds of change to start" by taking a shot at President Gerald Ford in San Francisco in September 1975. This was only a couple of weeks after Manson Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme tried to do the same thing. Sipple was in a crowd watching the President and saw Moore aim a handgun at Ford. He lunged at her and forced her to point the gun elsewhere so that when it fired, the bullet missed its mark. He then prevented her from firing again until the Secret Service got to them.

In the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished tradition, Sipple was heralded by the media, and was soon outed as being gay by columnist Herb Caen. Caen's column was carried in the Detroit Free Press, which was read by Mr. and Mrs. Sipple, Sr. back home in Michigan. Despite the 1970s' Boogie-Nights image, John Q. Midwest was not necessarily as forward-thinking as he is today, and the national revelation of their son's homosexuality caused the senior Sipples to disown their son permanently, despite his being a decorated Vietnam Vet, and saving the life of the President of the United States. Sipple unsuccessfully sued the San Francisco Chronicle for invading his privacy, and eventually died alone after years of substance abuse.

What about this? I'm a huge fan of the First Amendment, but what about Mr. Sipple's ability to just live his life in elected obscurity? And how should Gerald Ford have handled the awkwardness of having a gay guy save his life? Ford is probably high on the "Presidents You'd Like to Have As Neighbors Because They're Great Guys" list, but part of being a regular guy in 1975 was that you'd be unlikely to make waves by giving effusive public accolades to a known homosexual.

One of the people involved in the outing was the openly gay San Francisco politician and activist Harvey Milk, who later was shot to death in a city council meeting his office in city hall, along with the mayor. Years ago I watched the fascinating documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and I think I'm going to put it to the top of my Netflix queue to watch again.

Update, 1/5/07: We're watching TToHM right now, and it's almost to the end. Not word one about Sipple, which is kind of lame... I wonder if they tried to steer clear of making Milk look like a bad guy.

In any event, I think it's time to start work on putting the Oliver Sipple story up on the big screen. (Although, by suggesting this, am I falling into the same type of voyeurism about which I question Caen's judgment? -- I hope not, because all the principles except Moore are now deceased.) Philip Seymour Hoffman would be great as a lead.

Response From Guardian Writer

OK, so it looks like Bobbie Johnson, the guy who wrote the article on Tim Berners-Lee about which I blogged the other day, has taken note of my comments and those of others (here, here, and here) and has responded to our responses to Berners-Lee's response. Excerpts: But unfortunately, mistakes do happen - and that's why we have a procedure to fix them. After a long conversation with Tim on Friday, before he published his post, he did as I suggested and put his complaint in an email to our independent ombudsman, readers' editor Ian Mayes. It's not necessarily as quick as we'd all like it to be, but it is thorough and effective... ...I think implications of sensationalism are ill-founded, as hopefully anybody who reads the Guardian's wide spread of technology coverage will realise. The same goes for the hint that it was deliberate obfuscation that comes as the result of an anti-blogging mentality; that's especially galling for me, a fairly passionate advocate of blogging who has been writing his own for six years.

No hard feelings, certainly... Sounds like a series of human miscommunications. In fact, why don't I just add the Guardian Unlimited Technology Blog to the sidebar?

TBL Pwned by BBC, Guardian

Tim Berners-Lee is the fellow you have to thank for never getting anything done around the house anymore because you're always on the Web. He's involved in a new initiative to formally study web science, so he gave an interview to the BBC recently (audio included), which was picked up on by the British newspaper The Guardian, among many other periodicals. Here's the gist of the print version from the BBC site:

Web inventor fears for the future
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is concerned about the future of the web.

The British developer of the world wide web says he is worried about the way it could be used to spread misinformation and "undemocratic forces". The web has transformed the way many people work, play and do business. But Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he feared that, if the way the internet is used is left to develop unchecked, "bad things" could happen. He wants to set up a web science research project to study the social implications of the web's development.

Oh no! Bad Things! Here's some of what the Guardian said:

Creator of web warns of fraudsters and cheats

Blogging one of biggest perils, says innovator
Launch of first degree course in online science

Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
Friday November 3, 2006

The creator of the world wide web told the Guardian last night that the internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who founded the web in the early 1990s, says that if the internet is left to develop unchecked, "bad phenomena" will erode its usefulness. His creation has transformed the way millions of people work, do business, and entertain themselves. But he warns that "there is a great danger that it becomes a place where untruths start to spread more than truths, or it becomes a place which becomes increasingly unfair in some way". He singles out the rise of blogging as one of the most difficult areas for the continuing development of the web, because of the risks associated with inaccurate, defamatory and uncheckable information.

Here's something from another Guardian response:

Protecting the web

Tim Berners-Lee is right to worry about the future of the web. The history of such innovations is marked by persecution.

The world wide web is 15 years old and still in its technological adolescence. Its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, worries that "bad things" could happen and the web could be used to spread misinformation and support undemocratic practices. Berners-Lee is right is worrying about the future of the net. What is critical is not simply worrying about spread of "bad things", but finding a healthy balance between the benefits and risks of the web.

[Extended analogy follows about the history of the acceptance of coffee in the Middle East and Europe.]

Sounds scary! However...

Let's just see what TBL says on his own blog:

Blogging is great

Submitted by timbl on Fri, 2006-11-03 10:11. ::

People have, since it started, complained about the fact that there is junk on the web. And as a universal medium, of course, it is important that the web itself doesn't try to decide what is publishable. The way quality works on the web is through links.

It works because reputable writers make links to things they consider reputable sources. So readers, when they find something distasteful or unreliable, don't just hit the back button once, they hit it twice. They remember not to follow links again through the page which took them there. One's chosen starting page, and a nurtured set of bookmarks, are the entrance points, then, to a selected subweb of information which one is generally inclined to trust and find valuable.

A great example of course is the blogging world. Blogs provide a gently evolving network of pointers of interest. As do FOAF files. I've always thought that FOAF could be extended to provide a trust infrastructure for (e..g.) spam filtering and OpenID-style single sign-on and its good to see things happening in that space.

In a recent interview with the Guardian, alas, my attempt to explain this was turned upside down into a "blogging is one of the biggest perils" message. Sigh. I think they took their lead from an unfortunate BBC article, which for some reason stressed concerns about the web rather than excitement, failure modes rather than opportunities. (This happens, because when you launch a Web Science Research Initiative, people ask what the opportunities are and what the dangers are for the future. And some editors are tempted to just edit out the opportunities and headline the fears to get the eyeballs, which is old and boring newspaper practice. We expect better from the Guardian and BBC, generally very reputable sources)

In fact, it is a really positive time for the web. Startups are launching, and being sold [Disclaimer: people I know] again, academics are excited about new systems and ideas, conferences and camps and wikis and chat channels and are hopping with energy, and every morning demands an excruciating choice of which exciting link to follow first. (Ed. Note: What a great turn of the phrase!)

And, fortunately, we have blogs. We can publish what we actually think, even when misreported.

Fortunately, not everyone is going with "The Sky Is Falling" as their lead. For instance, The International Herald Tribune's headline on this story reads "Web science is 'big next step' in information." IHT excerpt: "The Web isn't about what you can do with computers," Berners-Lee said. "It's people and, yes, they are connected by computers. But computer science, as the study of what happens in a computer, doesn't tell you about what happens on the Web." The Web science program is an academic effort, but corporate technology executives and computer scientists said the research could greatly influence Web-based businesses. They pointed in particular to research by Berners-Lee and others aimed at building more "intelligence" into the Web - moving toward what is known as the Semantic Web - as an area of study that could yield a big payoff.

Just for kicks, here's the Google News page on this story; Interesting to skim and see which journalists go with optimism and which rags go for the Chicken Little approach.

Update, 5:22 pm, 11/7/06: Here's a response from Bobbie Johnson, writer of the Guardian article. Excerpt: So what happened? First off, nobody made Tim's quotes up - he did indeed say that there is a danger the web, without serious thought and design, is in danger of becoming a place where "untruths start to spread more than truths". However some of his quotes did unfortunately lose their context - particularly the ones about blogging. In the process of reaching the dead-tree version of the Guardian, they lost their grounding and certain aspects were then amplified down the chain. I take responsibility for that. But unfortunately, mistakes do happen - and that's why we have a procedure to fix them. After a long conversation with Tim on Friday, before he published his post, he did as I suggested and put his complaint in an email to our independent ombudsman, readers' editor Ian Mayes. It's not necessarily as quick as we'd all like it to be, but it is thorough and effective... ...Yes, we get things wrong sometimes. But when we do, we work hard to fix it.

Suggestions for Newspapers; S-Rock Rocks; GooTube and Goofice Suite; BBB

A few things:

• Doc Searls has 10 ideas for newspapers to succeed in the age of the Internet. Excerpt: First, stop giving away the news and charging for the olds. Okay, give away the news, if you have to, on your website. There's advertising money there. But please, open up the archives. Stop putting tomorrow's fishwrap behind paywalls. Writers hate it. Readers hate it. Worst of all, Google and Yahoo and Technorati and Icerocket and all your other search engines ignore it. Today we see the networked world through search engines. Hiding your archives behind a paywall makes your part of the world completely invisilble. If you open the archives, and make them crawlable by search engine spiders, your authority in your commmunity will increase immeasurably. Plus, you'll open all that inventory to advertising possibilities. And I'll betcha you'll make more money with advertising than you ever made selling stale editorial to readers who hate paying for it. (And please, let's not talk about Times Select. Your paper's not the NY Times, and the jury is waaay out on that thing.)
• Schoolhouse Rock! -- Where Are They Now? Excerpt: Ezra Mohawk stands out as the rebel rocker in the group, having performed with everyone from Frank Zappa to Jerry Garcia. She also represents all the singers who might have worked on just one or two of the Schoolhouse songs. There was Verb, That's What's Happening, by Zach Sanders, Elbow Room by Sue Manchester, and a few others, But Liz is the only person I could find anything on, so she's the spokesperson by default, and a damn good one, as Interjections is a classic. Note: If you like Schoolhouse Rock! when it rocks, be sure to check out Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks!
• Looks like in addition to the YouTube business, Google now wants to get into the Excel business. I'm sure the jury will be out for a little while. Maybe I'll play around with it this weekend.
• I've been enjoying the Boing Boing podcasts. Their podcast show is named "Boing Boing Boing." I kind of wish they had picked "Boing Boing Bone (Bawn)."