Atom Feed
May 17, 2005
OpenDemocracy, Hoder and others have started a blog — Iran Scan — to cover the upcoming election in Iran in June. I’m guessing that it’s going to be one of the very best sources of information about that event. It’ll sure beat the round-up articles we’ll see in the MSM. [Technorati tags: globalvoices iran]
Jake Shapiro of PRX is giving a Berkman lunchtime talk.
PRX is the Public Radio Exchange, a service that enables public radio stations to find audio reports posted by producers. Public radio’s audience is increasing (currently 30M listeners per week). How can it embrace the new ecology? Program directors have been gatekeepers, but many are open to the idea that through the Net they could provide more than 24 hours worth of programming per day. (You can see Public Radio’s statement of values here.) They feel threatened by time-shifting, the growth of
Chris Lydon asks if there’s any point in going through the stations instead of just posting podcasts. Jake, who was a producer of Chris’ previous radio show, says that it’s not an either/or. “Public radio is primed to plug in.”
Chris: Have you thought about PRX becoming a packager of podcasts, filtering the thousands of them?
Jake: That’s what we’re doing. PRX hopes to have many people creating playlists.
Rebecca MacKinnon: You could do Greensboro101 but for podcasting.
Much discussion ensues. A few random points:
Jake: Program directors can become a “feed-j.”
Jake: You could have the pledge drive feed that interrupts and asks you to buy flowers for your mother, or you could pay to get the pledge-free feed. Or there could be subscriptions and/or sponsorships.
Jake wonders what the legality and good practices of the redistribution of feeds will be. He says the only terms of use for a feed that he’s seen is on NPR.org. He points out that Cory recently blogged a similar question. [Technorati tag: berkman]
Mark Dionne points out that the old toy computer, Geniac, is sellling on eBay for $305, whereas he bought a new real computer for $250.
May 16, 2005
Alexandra Samuel posts the full text of her story on tagging that ran in The Toronto Star. Good story either way. And, of course, you have to love the way in which posting the full story is getting to be common. [Technorati tags: tags taxonomy]
The tag for those blogging from or about the Personal Democracy confab is pdf2005. Check for updates at Technorati… [Technorati tag: pdf2005]
You can hear Pilot #2 of Chris Lydon’s new radio program, Open Source, which launches officially on May 30. This pilot features Global Voices.
Chris and his long-time producer, Mary McGrath, are trying to bust the radio medium open, weaving its conversations into and through the Net. They’re in the rare position of knowing the MSM inside out and being true believers about the Net. It’s going to be fascinating to watch Open Source develop. [Technorati tags: ChrisLydon GlobalVoices media]
George Monbiot has a piece, published by The Guardian, showing exactly how a scientist — David Bellamy — came to the get a letter published in New Scientist that claims that 555 of the 625 glaciers being monitored are in fact growing in size. That figure is crap. Bellamy is president of the Conservation Foundation, the Wildlife Trusts, Plantlife International and the British Naturalists’ Association, so his statement has been picked up all over the place. Unfortunately, it’s total crap.
Monbiot traces it back to a web site touting a book published by the paranoid demagogue Lyndon Larouche. The “555” apparently was Bellamy’s mistyping of the site’s figure that “55%” of glaciers are increasing, which is itself unsourced and false.
Fascinating article by Monbiot. Depressing conclusion about the reliability of big-time science journals. Heartening conclusion about the truth getting out anyway. (Thanks to Gary Nexcerpt Stock for the pointer.) [Technorati tags: science GlobalWarming]
When I travel, I carry a heavy knapsack on my left shoulder, and for the past two weeks, I’ve been traveling a lot. I’ve also had a persistent ache in my left shoulder, occasionally in my left pec, and persistent aches and pains in my left arm. I’ve had no shortness of breath and no sweating. Ibuprofen does a good job relieving the pain. So does changing my position. In other words, I am showing all the marks of a muscular/skeleton problem and only one of a heart attack.
Nevertheless, when I called Harvard Vanguard, our excellent (and impossibly expensive) health plan, to see if I could get an appointment with an acupuncturist or possibly a muscle-shoveler, they had me come in for an EKG.
They knew I wasn’t haven’t a heart attack. I knew I wasn’t having a heart attack. But they’re hypochondriacs. So, I had an EKG confirm that I wasn’t having a heart attack.
I appreciate the care. I appreciate more that they were reasonable enough to let me wander in when it was convenient instead of sending an ambulance shrieking to our house. But the doctor – friendly, professional, attentive – spilled the beans. He told me about a guy who came in with unalarming symptoms, passed his EKG, and dropped dead 2 hours later. “They sued the pants off of us.”
I admit I’m an alarmist. If I get ink on my fingers, I assume it’s skin cancer. But I’m also a rational alarmist and can usually talk myself down off the ledge, at least since the time in grad school when I had a doctor inform me that that lump in my chest was a rib. Our health care system is far worse. It’s a fear-based alarmist hypochondriac. The result is that I get medical care that most of the world would die for, so to speak. But the system is optimized badly.
(By the way, if I drop dead of a heart attack in two hours, nothing I’ve written here should be construed as preventing or inhibiting my survivors from suing the clinic’s pants off.) [Technorati tag: healthcare]
Speaking of health care, Dr. Bill Koslosky points to an NPR story and a report in Time Canada that even some Republicans are getting behind a bill that would expand the stem cell lines currently available for research. Bill wonders if this might occasion W’s first veto.
JD Lasica is beginning to post long installments from his entertaining new book, Darknet: Hollywood’s War against the Digital Generation. First up: The story of some teen film-makers. He’ll also be posting new material. [Technorati tag: drm]
May 15, 2005
Back of the Frosted Flakes box (click for large image)
Jedi Spoon next to Jedi Google Tchochke for size comparison
[Technorati tag: starwars]
Joho the Blog uses WordPress blogging software.
Thank you, WordPress!
