Monday, March 14, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
For Peter King, Lawmaker Examining Terror, a Pro-I.R.A. Past - NYTimes.com
I favor a round of hearings on radical Republicans, or maybe one just focused on radical tea bags.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
NPR Executive Caught Calling Tea Partiers 'Racist' - NYTimes.com
This seems like a story with many possible perspectives, only one of which is reflected in the NPR reaction.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Glamour's iPad Series to Let Viewers Buy Clothes From Gap - NYTimes.com
And what's the newspaper version of this one?
'Today' Show Moves to Today.com and Stresses Video Clips - NYTimes.com
What an interesting opportunity for newspapers to consider doing something similar to help the world understand all of the work that goes into producing everything we find under every newspaper "umbrella".
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Ivory Coast and Libya
Think about the amount of coverage we are seeing for events in Libya vs. those in the Ivory Coast. Why is that?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The Lehigh Group
A great example of a "joke" of a website. This company produces a consumer product about which I had a question. It's web address appears on the packagaing but there is no information here nor any route to contact them. I searched on the Jarden Group and similarly, NO opportunity to ask a consumer question. One thing for sure....I would never invest in such a company. And I will explore all options to buying their products in the future, but it is one of those giant umbrella operations that seems to own a great many different brands and so you almost need a crib sheet to avoid them.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Conference Preview | GSMA Mobile World Congress
The lack of diversity in this array of mug shots is both unsurprising and shocking.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Shorter E-Books Show Promise for Mobile Devices - NYTimes.com
How could newspapers help respond to this apparent demand?
Despite globalism, international news coverage is becoming a foreign concept | StarTribune.com
I'll add two cents of comment: 1 - There is nothing to stop a Star-Tribune or any other newspaper swallowing its journalistic pride and identifying competent people living in other countries - perhaps several in each - and using those people as better than no one when the need and/or opportunity arises. That costs little and at least gives the paper feet on the ground, whether they be US citizens or foreign nationals. I know of no newspaper that has done this. 2 - The word "international" is not good in talking about this. "Overseas" news is better. The point is that almost any story reported in Minnesota or elsewhere has an international angle to it; but what this column addresses is the news, like that of Egypt and other countries in the region, that arises overseas. Yes, it raises international issues, but the need is for feet on the ground of those places overseas instead of relying on non-resident speculators.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Metropolitan Museum of Art Seeks New Audience Online - NYTimes.com
I wonder if there are any virtual newspaper extensions today?
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Friday, February 04, 2011
tunisia status - Google Search
It's discouraging that even today one cannot do this sort of search and find any news organization that seems to be keeping the situation in Tunisia updated in a wiki-type environment.
This is a great start at the New York Times, but stopped some a week or more ago?
Just where do things stand in Tunisia today?
This is a great start at the New York Times, but stopped some a week or more ago?
Just where do things stand in Tunisia today?
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Innovations In News
Wow, the latest innovatoin at the Washington Post was last August? That sure does not come across as operating at digital speed, does it?
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saner Gun Laws - NYTimes.com
It's depressing to see such modest proposals bite the unintelligent dust.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
New York Times search
Why is the search engine on The New York Times website so bad? About 30% of the time, I simply cannot pull up something that I know for sure is there and know that it is online, but the search will not produce a link. That happened with two stories just today; saw them in passing on TimesWire, but then later when I tried to search for them, there was no sign of them. Finally found them on Google, but even there it was not on the first try, as it should be.
Tunisian spark
This morning, there was a touching tribute to this man who seems to have started much of what has happened in a short week in Tunisia http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/world/africa/22sidi.html?pagewanted=1&hp . I think it was his mother, but it might have been his sister, who said that she hoped his death would bring about a new, representative and democratic government in Tunisia. That should not be so startling, but imagine the courage and appreciation required for her to do so. It would have been so much easier to rant and rave about Ben Ali or his family, or simply to do the normal thing and express tremendous grief over the loss of a son or brother, but, no, she rose above that somehow and said what so many Tunisians seem to be saying – in a rational and coherent, non-radical manner. I just hope they can keep that together. Already, yesterday, there is new Imam for Tunis and I have not seen a good report on the Friday prayers message. Separately, there is now a struggle for ownership of various enterprises in which the family had a stake, including the media where reporters are claiming that the shares owned by the family ought to be redistributed to the workers. These will be very touchy matters, and I think many of them have the potential to cause considerable unrest and consternation. So, it’s still very much doigts-crosses time, I think!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Journal Le Temps - Tunisia
One of several Tunisian newspapers online. Some are in Arabic and a few in French, like this one - the only one I have been able to access online. Having read them, and visited many of them, over the years, it really is astounding to see the stories they now carry and no apparent front page pictures of Ben Ali!
Facebook to a blog
Apparently, there is no way to link from a blog to a specific Facebook entry/posting. I wonder why this is.
iTunes and iPod Shuffle
It sure takes a lot of effort to download podcasts into iTunes and then to transfer them to the iPad Shuffle (I think that is its name). And it's hard to organize what you've listened to and what you have not. Maybe it just makes sense for music that you want to download once and leave there, but for news and podcasts, life evolves and so do the news and other items. There ought to be a orderly way in which to manage this, and there does not appear to be one.
Vive la Différence - NYTimes.com
When I try to print this, I get only part of it. Must be the graphic and there is no print option to help.
The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
I can't get The New York Times pages to fully load.
What I Learned From Sargent Shriver - NYTimes.com
This New York Times piece by Bono on the late Sargent SHRIVER simply won't reload and I have yet to get the whole piece to display on my screen.
Cloud storage
I use an online backup service with my laptop, and it has given me huge problems. The latest is that I have a very large Outlook file that it seems unable to swallow in one backup. So I must keep it running for days in the hope that the connection holds and it is able to swallow the whole thing. That means I cannot reboot my Lenovo and improve efficiency.
Orange
I tried to print this page and Internet Explorer said there was a problem and it had to close. Tried it twice.
"Vive la Différence" - NYTimes.com
This looked like it might be an interesting graphic until I read it. While it may offer a valid characterization in a few cases, and one or two laughs, I have to wonder whether the Times would do one of these talking about Latin-Americans, African-Americans, Native Americans, etc. Probably not is the likely answer, so why pick on the - mostly - Europeans? Thick skins?
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Tunisia
I am especially interested in the evolving situation in Tunisia as are many people.
As I look online and on television (here in France) for coverage, I am struck by several things.
The ease of getting to quality coverage has really not improved very much in the last twenty years. I mean that literally.
It is still a matter of making some informed and uninformed guesses about where to go, and a matter of the places visited in the internet and on television deciding when and what to share.
Much of what I see is either older information (as in hours), or is just not relevant to my core questions about what is happening.
I know of no way that one can go to virtual real time, well-informed and researched coverage, either for free for a fee.
It's remarkable that we have come so far technologically traveling no distance at all in terms of what matters most....the content of what we consume.
As I look online and on television (here in France) for coverage, I am struck by several things.
The ease of getting to quality coverage has really not improved very much in the last twenty years. I mean that literally.
It is still a matter of making some informed and uninformed guesses about where to go, and a matter of the places visited in the internet and on television deciding when and what to share.
Much of what I see is either older information (as in hours), or is just not relevant to my core questions about what is happening.
I know of no way that one can go to virtual real time, well-informed and researched coverage, either for free for a fee.
It's remarkable that we have come so far technologically traveling no distance at all in terms of what matters most....the content of what we consume.
Friday, January 14, 2011
New Gun Control Limits Are Improbable, Lawmakers Say - NYTimes.com
I have sadly come to the view that there are basically two groups of people in the US. One group is intelligent and caring of all those living creatures around them. They support the intelligent policy that basically prohibits most people from owning or using firearms. Instead, this group believes that only people who have a proven need to have a gun ought to be allowed to have and use one (or more). These people should be strictly supervised, licensed, inventoried, examined, etc. I am a member of this group, whether or not I have the intelligence associated with most who believe this way.
The other group, largely unintelligent people, believe otherwise.
For me, it's a simple choice and if we choose not to change, the blame for future tragedies caused by the use of guns rests solidly with that second group and with those of us in the first group who fail to make our case successfully.
A friend told me long ago never to engage in a battle of the wits with the unarmed, and I am afraid her advice was good, is good, and is likely to result in leaving the intelligent gun policy on the shelf instead of on the streets.
The other group, largely unintelligent people, believe otherwise.
For me, it's a simple choice and if we choose not to change, the blame for future tragedies caused by the use of guns rests solidly with that second group and with those of us in the first group who fail to make our case successfully.
A friend told me long ago never to engage in a battle of the wits with the unarmed, and I am afraid her advice was good, is good, and is likely to result in leaving the intelligent gun policy on the shelf instead of on the streets.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
"New Security Features from Google" - NYTimes.com
I would have expected, in a more perfect world, that newspapers would not leave this kind of reporting to a distant company and its computers. Instead, I would have expected this sort of thing to come from newspapers, helping customers.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
"How Green Is Your Real (or Fake) Christmas Tree?" - NYTimes.com
How are we doing with real trees "made" in NC?
Friday, December 17, 2010
Nook and newspapers
Today I saw a television commercial for Nook Color from Barnes & Noble. What struck me as they mentioned "newspapers" alongside books as the value a customer would derive from having one of these devices, was how rarely I see the newspaper promoted by anyone else in the value chain. That was nice to see and newspapers should look for more ways to arrive at the same result, not to mention working on ways to encourage people to use this and other devices to access what newpspaers have to offer.
"911 responders bill" - Google Search
See post on my Facebook wall about Jon STEWART and this legislation.
It's remarkable to me that nothing pops up in these search results that empowers us to DO something, if inclined as I am to act, to advance the legislation.
How do we explain this failure of something that I would have expected someone to have set up? More volunteer work needed?
This happens all too frequently, for me anyway.
It's remarkable to me that nothing pops up in these search results that empowers us to DO something, if inclined as I am to act, to advance the legislation.
How do we explain this failure of something that I would have expected someone to have set up? More volunteer work needed?
This happens all too frequently, for me anyway.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Made in North Carolina
I am especially interested in the subject of what gets made, grown, produced in some way in North Carolina and how much of it winds up getting consumed there. I will be adding some posts tagged Made in North Carolina in order to record some of the things that I am finding.
"Bully’s Killing Is Unsolved, and Residents Want It That Way" - NYTimes.com
I am going to start posting a newspaper article each day, more or less, that really seems quite worth the effort for someone to read it. These will come from different newspapers in different places.....and I will tag them Daily Newspaper Stories.
For example, I am including this one because it provides us with a fairly comprehensive look at a case capable of repeating itself anywhere - a longstanding unsolved murder. It also is here because one could imagine that this story MIGHT have some impact on where, if anywhere, the case goes from here. Might it inspire a breach of the secrecy wall that seems to have been constructed?
For example, I am including this one because it provides us with a fairly comprehensive look at a case capable of repeating itself anywhere - a longstanding unsolved murder. It also is here because one could imagine that this story MIGHT have some impact on where, if anywhere, the case goes from here. Might it inspire a breach of the secrecy wall that seems to have been constructed?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
"U.S. Survey Data Reveals Pockets of Wealth and Poverty" - NYTimes.com
I've got to say that it is really irritating to read something like this, find no mention of where to get access to the data or when it might be available. Equally irritating is to go to the Census site for this survey and find nothing at all mentioned there. The New York Times and the Census Bureau should really look more carefully at themselves in their mirrors. One hopes they would see, shall we say, a wonderul pair of improvement opportunities.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
"Directory: People (Find People)"
One of "life's perplexing quesitons" that I cannot seem to answer is exactly why no newspapers have ever decided that maintaining the local director of people in the markets those papers sever was not the right strategy to deploy. How many times have you wanted to reach someone locally whose contact information you simply did not have.....? The answer to that is a lot of potential revenue for newspapers and huge potential value delivered to the market, I think.
Friday, December 10, 2010
"Foreign Language Programs Cut as Colleges Lose Aid" - NYTimes.com
There is a principle that unfortunately works in many circumstances --- that of a "downward spiral". When we choose - for whatever reason - to make it harder to learn the languages of other lands, I fear the impact on how we think and especially how we see the rest of the world. And I worry how much and quickly it can build on itself.
Friday, November 26, 2010
"Eating the Irish" - NYTimes.com
Everyone's an Irish expert, and everyone thinks they have solutions to the economic crises that confront "us" in so many places. To understand what is really happeneing requires a level of understanding and intelligence that I do not think we can muster. The alternative is to accept the world as we find it to be.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
"Prisa Looks for Return to Financial Health" - NYTimes.com
This is like The New York Times Co. being acquired by a Swiss investment fund.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
"Google Wants to Help People Shop Offline Too" - NYTimes.com
When was the last time anyone recalls reading of a newspaper's initiatives to help customers make these kinds of better-informed choices while shopping in the newspaper's market?
Why different sizes?
I sometimes reflect on why things are different between here and there, with there most often being France. Why is it that the standard letter size here is just a little bit wider and a little bit shorter than the printing paper in France - regular letter size? Why do we call it letter size and they call it "A4"? Why do I have to use different numbers to buy a pair of shoes here and there? Occasionally, I just write it off to being a reminder that here is not there and vice versa. And I suppose that the loss of the French franc and the Italian lira made those two heres and theres a little more alike.
Hmmmmm.
Hmmmmm.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
"Netanyahu Sharply Insists on Building in Jerusalem" - NYTimes.com
The United States needs to make the right decision in this case, free of any pressure from Israel or its supporters. That proper choice is to forge ahead with a result that either forces Israel to become a multi-religious country covering a large area or forces it into the small space it merits and let it continue to be a Jewish state, whatever that is. But the world should not allow us to be Israeli lapdogs any longer, accepting actions and policies that we would loathe if they happened in our own land.
"An Unknown Soldier" - NYTimes.com
I am still in France. On one of tonight's national news programs, there was a disheartening story - very well presented - about how many "marginal" people in France are facing personal ruin. That's ruin not limited to financial terms. It's ruin in terms of what they can afford to buy to eat, what health care they can access and quite simply how they can live their lives. We have many of these same sorts of real people in the US. How anyone from South Carolina, or from any other place in the US can argue for war against Iran is well beyond my ability to comprehend. Whether in France or in the US, our first obligation is to help our fellow people live respectable lives; it's not to bomb others because one small country supported by influential and wealthy groups in the US feels threatened.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Saturday, November 06, 2010
"Do Consumers Want Location-Based Social Networking?" - NYTimes.com
The answer to the headline's question is I don't know. We tend so often to assume what can be done is what people will choose to use. Maybe they will this time, too. But I also can imagine this resulting in a blizzard of useless information and offers cluttering up lives that already cannot make room for anything else.
"Wearable Cameras Move Beyond Sports to the Mainstream" - NYTimes.com
It was inevitable. And I can imagine just the people who will rush out to get one.
Friday, November 05, 2010
"Prokhorov's Snob Magazine Seeks 'Global Russians'" - Advertising Age
I love the idea of charging people to make comments!
Thursday, November 04, 2010
"Londoners Take Aim at Sidewalk Scourge: Slow Walkers" - WSJ.com
The worst offenders, I think, just don't care!
"Abroad, Fear That Midterm Result May Turn U.S. Inward" - NYTimes.com
Talking heads live overseas as well as in the US, but this is an issue on the minds of some people.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
"Times of London Reports More Than 100,000 Paying Customers for Web Site" - NYTimes.com
I'll let others declare victory on this one. This is the way newspapers should have operated from the beginning of the digital world, but I am not sure if there is still time to make it right.
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