February 2012
8 posts
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Who is Bon Iver? →
…is the new Who is Arcade Fire?
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The recent SOPA/PIPA fight and MegaUpload shutdown reignited the debate about whether piracy is good or bad for artists.
Successful indie artist Jonathan Coulton on MegaUpload:
Even some of the illegal usage was likely the kind of activity that approaches what I consider to be victimless piracy: people downloading stuff they already bought but lost, people downloading stuff they missed on TV...
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Why we will no longer endorse in elections →
The Chicago Sun-Times:
What we will not do is endorse candidates. We have come to doubt the value of candidate endorsements by this newspaper or any newspaper, especially in a day when a multitude of information sources allow even a casual voter to be better informed than ever before.
Additionally, senior management of the newspaper will be prohibited from making financial contributions to...
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January 2012
7 posts
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Wired Magazine on texting and driving →
But I’m not convinced the bans will work, particularly among young people. Why? Because texting is rapidly becoming their default means of connecting with one another, on a constant, pinging basis. From 2003 to 2008, the number of texts sent monthly by Americans surged from 2 billion to 110 billion. The urge to connect is primal, and even if you ban texting in the car, teens will try to get...
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Best correction of 2011
The Post incorrectly attributed a quote to Toni Braxton in an article published on March 25. Braxton did not say: “I have a big-ass house, three cars and I fly first class all around the world. Some say I have the perfect life.”
The burning question: Did the Post make up this quote entirely? Or, to whom is the quote correctly attributed?
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Last week, the New York Times asked a question that I found to be absurd:
I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.
Yes, and always. It is the job of journalists to research the claims that their interviewees make, and report on the facts.
The problem is that, in an effort to...
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Murdoch doesn't understand links →
…or how the Internet works in general.
Jeff Jarvis:
I’m reminded of a focus group I held in Cleveland in 1995, in which the participants thought all the content on this internet came from a company called Netscape.
December 2011
13 posts
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“Their whole business model, in some ways, I think is based on drunk people...”
– Merlin Mann on GoDaddy
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“‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was not a success in it day and...”
– Asa Dotzler
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Enquirer to shrink, move printing to Columbus →
Although previously announced in August, it’s now official that the Cincinnati Enquirer will close its Cincinnati printing plant, laying off 200 employees, and move printing operations to the Columbus Dispatch’s plant.
Gannett, of course, glossed over these details and chose to tout the new “easy-to-use format” coming soon to the Enquirer. Although the new format will...
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The End of Cheap Coffee: Why the Diner Staple Is... →
“It’s interesting to me that the same consumer that will go to 7-11 and buy a bottle of Fiji Water for five dollars will go crazy and complain about a cup of coffee,” says Geoff Watts, Intelligentsia’s vice president and green (unroasted, that is) coffee buyer. “This is a meticulously grown agricultural product from halfway around the world that was hand-harvested, hand-picked, and roasted and...
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Copyright and remix culture: The new Prohibition? →
Andy Baio:
Under current copyright law, nearly every cover song on YouTube is technically illegal. Every fan-made music video, every mashup album, every supercut, every fanfic story? Quite probably illegal, though largely untested in court. […]
No amount of lawsuits or legal threats will change the fact that this behavior is considered normal — I’d wager the vast majority of people...
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'Vocal Fry' Creeping Into U.S. Speech →
A curious vocal pattern has crept into the speech of young adult women who speak American English: low, creaky vibrations, also called vocal fry. Pop singers, such as Britney Spears, slip vocal fry into their music as a way to reach low notes and add style. Now, a new study of young women in New York state shows that the same guttural vibration—once considered a speech disorder—has become a...
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The Book of Jobs →
For the past several years, Bruce Greenwald and I have been engaged in research on an alternative theory of the Depression—and an alternative analysis of what is ailing the economy today. This explanation sees the financial crisis of the 1930s as a consequence not so much of a financial implosion but of the economy’s underlying weakness. […] The underlying cause was a structural change in...
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My Occupy LA Arrest →
I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. […]
Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done...
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“Does anybody create anything anymore?! Is it just all reblogs?!”
– Merlin Mann ranting on 5by5’s After Dark #50: After Back to Work #36 (via clangandclatter; reblogged ironically)
November 2011
9 posts
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Why conservatives can't get people to work hard →
A winner-take-all society is not very conducive to hard work; I’m not going to bust my butt for 30 years for a 1% shot at getting into The 1%. But I am going to bust my butt for 30 years if I think this gives me a 90% chance of having a decent house, a family, some security, a reasonably pleasant job, a dog, and a couple of cars in my garage.
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15 Food Companies that Serve You ‘Wood’ →
He said cellulose is common in processed foods, often labeled as reduced-fat or high-fiber – products like breads, pancakes, crackers, pizza crusts, muffins, scrambled eggs, mashed potato mixes, and even cheesecake. Inman himself keeps a box of Wheat Thins Fiber Selects crackers, manufactured by Kraft Foods Nabisco brand, at his desk, and snacks on them daily, clearly unmoved by the use of wood...
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My Presidential Bid →
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, writes a lot of surprisingly good political commentary on his blog.
On day one of my presidency I would form a committee of libertarians to recommend ways to shrink government. But I would require them to describe in detail how the country would look when those government functions disappear.
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COAST Demands Constitutional Right to Lie →
What happens when you can’t win a ballot issue based on the facts?
COAST today filed a suit in federal court in Cincinnati seeking to overturn Ohio’s law against false statements in issue campaigns. […]
COAST claims Ohio Revised Statute 3517.22 violates constitutional free-speech protection. The statute makes it a crime — punishable by prison and fines – to “Post,...
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October 2011
18 posts
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What's the Plural of Texas? →
When Texas joined the Union in 1845, voluntarily giving up its independence, it was granted the right by Congress to form “new States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number and in addition to the said State of Texas.”
This would increase the total number of Texases to five, and enhance their political weight - at least in the US Senate, which would have to make room for 10...
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Most Black Americans Sitting Out 'Occupy' →
“Young white Americans are finally getting a taste of the kind of hell black Americans have endured for generations,” said an unapologetic Shaun Rubinson during a discussion at Andre’s Hair Salon in San Bernardino.
Many of the O.W.S. protesters are upset with the current political climate that resulted because they didn’t bother to vote in 2009 or 2010. Protesting is cool and all, but...
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Maybe you are working class →
A 2004 study by the Drum Institute for Public Policy put the middle class as $40,000 and $95,000, even as people all over the income map also argued to be put in this category.
Yet:
If you have a household of 4, you can be classified as “needy” by the federal government and qualify for WIC if you make up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $40,793.
The definition of...
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Ohio's War on the Middle Class →
In 1980, he got his first professional job with a high school diploma in Cleveland for $28,000 a year. In 2007, I got my first professional job with a master’s degree in San Francisco for $27,000. A hundred dollars in my pocket today was the equivalent of $274 in his then.
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The Bank of Starbucks →
This should be a bigger story, shouldn’t it? Banks seem less and less interested in lending money to people as their primary business and things like Kickstarter and this Starbucks initiative are taking their place.
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“Chris Smitherman is the master of illusion. He hoodwinked the voters into...”
– Keith Fangman, former Fraternal Order of Police vice president
(Please don’t vote for Chris Smitherman.)
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In August 2009, anti-city group COAST claimed the city’s expanded recycling program would be a boondoggle and said Cincinnati had the “stupidest city council ever”:
A majority of the nine fine fools voted to spend $3.5 million to lease high-tech recycling carts with radio transmitters. We are not kidding. We could not make this stuff up if we tried.
The “radio...
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One million iPhone 4S preorders in first 24 hours →
Pretty good for a phone that tech journalists called “disappointing”.
See also: Apple iPhone 3GS Disappoints at 2009 WWDC