News: May 2005 Archives

Nathan Smith forsees newspapers of the future will focus on what they do best: delivering dead trees door-to-door rather than producing content.

A generation from now, running a newspaper will be pretty simple. One, you'll surf the web for good articles, debates, the latest major speeches, think tank reports, and blog posts. Two, select fifty thousand words or so of the best, most relevant content, in a variety of styles. Third, contact the writers for permission to syndicate, decide which fees (for those who ask them) are worth paying, and transfer the appropriate amount to their PayPal accounts. Fourth, correspond with advertisers, and assemble all the ads that are ready to print on a given day. Fifth, lay out your paper. Sixth, send it to the printers. Seventh, distribute it. Your staff will consist of web-surfing editors-and-content-finders, layout people and printers, and delivery boys with bikes, plus a staff to drum up advertisers and maybe a few reporters who deal with local issues.

He's got a lot more, and even describes a system whereby writers could continue to make a living. His ideas are pretty similar to the thoughts I wrote in "Media As a Loss Leader". Bryan at NetCynic obliquely notes that blogging companies face a similar dilemma: charging for their service would reduce its value.

(HT: Clive Davis.)

It's kinda stupid to link to a bunch of stories I found on Drudge, but whatever; sometimes he's got nothing, but today he's got the goods.

First, an inside look at the ratings wars and how Fox has risen and NBC fallen even further over the past year. I remember when Fox first started 19 years ago; everyone said they couldn't possibly compete with the Big Three networks... and now they're number one.

Italian writer Oriana Fallaci has been charged with defaming Islam for writing that "terrorists had killed 6,000 people over the past 20 years in the name of the Koran and said the Islamic faith 'sows hatred in the place of love and slavery in the place of freedom.'" I don't have a good understanding of Italy's legal system, but it appears that a prosecutor refused to bring charges citing freedom of speech, but a judge later indicted Fallaci anyway.

Betty Ostergren is fighting to keep private identity information off the internet by posting the Social Security numbers of powerful people. Sounds similar to protest actions taken against the leaders of the Total Information Awareness program from a couple of years ago.

Boys who attend Christian schools are less likely to be sexually promiscuous, and also less likely to have psychological problems or be suicidal. Correlation or causation, and in which direction? Other studies show that the connection between depression and sexual activity is even stronger for girls.

About 25% of sexually active girls say they are depressed all, most, or a lot of the time; 8% of girls who are not sexually active feel the same. ...

About 14% of girls who have had intercourse have attempted suicide ; 5% of sexually inactive girls have.

About 6% of sexually active boys have tried suicide; less than 1% of sexually inactive boys have.

Of course, early sexual activity and depression may both stem from the same underlying causes, and neither may directly cause the other, even if there is a vicious cycle.

Finally, a tool that shows what it would be like if a nuclear weapon were detonated in your city. Unfortunately the server appears to be overwhelmed.

Why is it that so many lefty protesters are so intolerant of differing viewpoints, even to the extent of assaulting a man over a simple non-obscene t-shirt? Well Michael Graham is the latest victim of these so-called "liberals" -- he was assualted for wearing an "INS" shirt at a pro-illegal-immigration rally in Maryland, similar to how I was assaulted in 2003 for disrupting an anti-war protest at UCLA. Mr. Graham was apparently detained by the police just for standing outside Richard Montgomery High School, while the thugs who accosted him smiled and laughed. He even has pictures of his assailants. The really ironic part is that the excuse the criminals used to exclude him from the rally was his lack of protest-authorized identification.

Around 3:20pm, I approached the gate in my "INS" t-shirt and was stopped immediately. A man who refused to identify himself, surrounded by several large, tattoooed people, told me that the public rally—which I learned about from the pages of the Washington Post—was an "invitation-only event." I showed him my ABC Radio ID and asked again to be admitted. He and his pals--none of whom had displayed any badges or ID--blocked my way and still refused to let me enter. They continued to examine my ABC Radio ID. The apparent leader did have some type of ID badge on, but whenever I tried to look at it, he covered it with his hands. He clearly wanted me to believe he was in the security business.

I kept pressing: "With whom am I speaking? Who are you?" One of the thuggish looking men replied, "Do YOU have any ID."

"Sure," I replied, and showed my ABC Radio ID again.

"Other than that?" he asked.

"Are you saying you’re not going to accept my ID? Are you saying you need tighter IDS at this event?"

His final note on the police reminds me of what the UCLA campus police told me after I survived my encounter with peaceful anti-war protesters.

After several phone calls and conversations, the police official in charge made a very disturbing comment: "Look, we can’t stop you from going in there in that shirt," he said. "But if you do, I can’t guarantee your safety. And when people in there attack you, I’ve got to send my officers in to get you out and that puts them in danger."

In other words, he was confident that the people at the rally would kick my a…er, would react with violence. And because they were violent, I and my t-shirt were the problem. Great.

And women shouldn't travel alone if they don't want to get raped.

(HT: The Babaganoosh and Michelle Malkin, who was also on the scene.)

Drudge links to an article about a study that claims that traffic jams are getting worse. Well duh.

WASHINGTON (AP) - If getting stuck in traffic makes you want to roll down your car window and scream, look no further than another of those studies to find the bad news: Gridlock is getting worse. Congestion delayed travelers 79 million more hours and wasted 69 million more gallons of fuel in 2003 than in 2002, the Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility Report found.

Overall in 2003, there were 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel for a total cost of more than $63 billion.

"Urban areas are not adding enough capacity, improving operations or managing demand well enough to keep congestion from growing," the report concluded. ...

Roads aren't being built fast enough to carry all the people who now drive on them, according to the Transportation Development Foundation, a group that advocates transportation construction.

The number of vehicle miles traveled has increased 74 percent since 1982, but road lane mileage only increased 6 percent, the foundation said.

Most cities have some sort of public transit, but people don't want to use it. Buses and trains, like carpools, are things that everyone agrees that everyone else should be using. But each individual wants to drive himself. Our politicians serve us and should spend our tax money they way we want them to. They should build more highways; that's how democracy works.

My little brother's team won second place in the San Diego regional remote-operated vehicle competition and will be traveling to Houston next month to compete in the national 4th Annual ROV Competition for High School & College Students. Oh yeah, he's in 8th grade. Here's the document that describes the RANGER class "Underwater Olympics" that his team's ROV will take part in. Hopefully I'll get some pictures to post at some point.

Army Pvt. Paul Varner, 20, was killed during a live-fire training exercise last night in Arkansas while preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. He was eager to serve his country, and his death is a loss for all Americans.

A communications error may have led to the death of a St. Louis area Army soldier during a training exercise in Arkansas, the soldier's mother said today.

Pvt. Paul Varner of Wildwood and another soldier in the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division were caught in the middle of live-fire training when Varner was shot, Linda Varner said she was told by the Army. The other soldier was not hit.

Details were still developing as the Army investigated the incident, Linda Varner said. ``Somebody had made a mistake. Communications that should've taken place didn't happen.''

May God have mercy on his friends and family whom he preceded to Heaven.

Update:
Been thinking about Paul all day. The thought of death makes me crave life all the more, and leaves me feeling selfish. Is it fair that he died? Is it right? Did God cause it, or allow it to happen? How is he served by Paul's death? I don't know the answers to these things. I doubt the answers would be satisfying, anyway.

Even talking about death feels unlucky, like I'm going to draw its attention. I've heard of survivors feeling guilty... I'm not a survivor or closely related to what killed Paul, but I don't feel guilty. I feel relieved that it wasn't me or anyone closer to me. Then I feel guilty about that. Is that what survivor's guilt is?

Paul was a Christian, and so I am, but I'm afraid to die. Does that reflect a lack of faith? I'm a coward. I want to live. I want to get married and have babies and gripe about taxes for another hundred years. I'm glad there are men like Paul, better men than me, that make my life possible. And then I feel guilty again, all in a circle. I don't know if it makes sense or not.

Proverbs 103:13-18

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;

16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.

17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-

18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

Update 2:
Roscoe has a description of combined arms training and why it is both dangerous and important.

Update 3:
Here's some video about Paul with pictures of him and interviews with his brother Adam and some friends.