Saturday, March 29, 2003

Talking: Jargon Patrol

Forget about those Williamsburg hipsters who made up and speak their own language.
This is the incomprehensible stuff the rest of us spew out.
Thanks to Anne from the pho list for this one.
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BAKING: Snickerdoodle goodness
Oh, god, the smell of the butter and the cinnamon! Tonight my son made Snickerdoodles, his favorite cookie. These traditional butter cookies are rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixtures before baking and they have that homey goodness.

Land O Lakes has a pretty good recipe here. We've also used Lee Baily (excellent), Mark Bittman (fair), and Joy of Booking (poor).

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PLAYING: Winston thanks you

Winston, my 110 pound American bulldog was very interested to learn about Urbanhound, the city dog's survival guide. Thanks to The Morning News for the link.
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Jason Kottke has a link to Google's Building a better query page.However, the Google page doesn't offer any tips for refining what you get when you type in gold teeth jesus miracle, or my dog he is my baby kisses. So many of pages found as Google query results are the result of serendipity.
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DALLAS SCHOOLS WILL CREATE POLICE FORCE TO PATROL SCHOOLS
According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, Dallas school trustees agreed to create an armed police force that will be stationed in the district's high schools and middle schools.
This news gives new meaning to the term "police state."
(Source: EdBriefs 3.31.2003
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Iraq--The New Vietnam ?
Dave Farber sent this amusing list out today, courtesey of Gabe Gold

1. Cabal of oldsters who won't listen to outside advice? Check.
2. No understanding of ethnicities of the many locals? Check.
3. National boundaries drawn in Europe, not by the locals? Check.
4. Unshakable faith in our superior technology? Check.
5. France secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
6. Russia secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
7. China secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
8. SecDef pushing a conflict the JCS never wanted? Check.
9. Fear we'll look bad if we back down now? Check.
10. Corrupt Texan in the WH? Check.
11. Land war in Asia? Check.
12. Rightists unhappy with outcome of previous war? Check.
13. Enemy easily moves in/out of neighboring countries? Check.
14. Soldiers about to be dosed with our own chemicals? Check.
15. Friendly fire problem ignored instead of solved? Check.
16. Anti-Americanism up sharply in Europe? Check.
17. B-52 bombers? Check.
18. Helicopters that clog up on the local dust? Check.
19. Infighting among the branches of the military? Check.
20. Locals that cheer us by day, hate us by night? Check.
21. Local experts ignored? Check.
22. Local politicians ignored? Check.
23. Local conflicts since before the USA has been a country? Check.
24. Against advice, Prez won't raise taxes to pay for war? Check.
25. Blue water navy ships operating in brown water? Check.
26. Use of nukes hinted at if things don't go our way? Check.
27. Unpopular war? Check.

Vietnam II, you are cleared to taxi.


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AOL REVENUE: $400 Million Off?
The SEC is exploring whether AOL TW did the nasty with Bertelsmann AG when it booked revenue against a large advertising deal tied to AOL/Bertlesman's joint investment in AOL Europe.

In a memo to employees on Friday, Chairman Dick Parsons wrote:
"It is not possible at this time to predict how this issue will ultimately be resolved, or for that matter, to predict the ultimate outcome of either the SEC or DOJ investigations. What I can tell you is this: We are committed to dealing with these questions forthrightly and as expeditiously as possible."

The SEC announced last summer that they were conducting an investigation into AOL accounting practices..looks like it ain't over yet.
Raise your hand, children, if you think AOLTW will have to restate $400MM in revenue?

What's that you say? A future stock price of $8.00? Removal of the AOL name from the company masthead? A sale of the AOL unit to Yahoo ?
Rumors, all of them.

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Saturday in New York
A pleasant afternoon on the Upper West Side. After Vietnamese food at Monsoon, my 6 year old nephew and I sit on a bench near the restaurant and play a game: Every time a stroller with a baby goes by, we will whoop like Indians. If a person passes us talking on a cell phone, we will flap our lips. When a big dog goes by, he will kiss me, and when a little dog goes by I will give him 50 cents.
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Cooking: Saturday breakfast
Carmelized french toast with maple syrup and toasted pecans
Strawberries
Coffee
Dog drooling next to my chair

(I had this amazing french toast at the City Bakery three weeks ago, and wanted to try to replicate the flavor--strong vanilla, with burnt sugar hint. We were able to make something very similar, and it was devoured.)
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More stories on N.J. murder of 3 year old; 10 year old neighbor accused.
"This is another child that the division has known for quite some time." -- Cecelia Zalkind, executive director of the Association for Children of New Jersey, calling on NJ child welfare agency DYFS to review all cases involving at-risk children still in their own homes
Read the latest Associated Press story
Tot's mom urges mercy for killer
Track Google news stories here.
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Friday, March 28, 2003

BARK: Artist/Musician Kevin House

The April issue of Bark, the modern dog culture magazine, highlights Kevin House, artist,
He's from Vancouver.
Here are two of his paintings--neat, huh?


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Reading:

Just finished Sea Glass by Anita Shreve.
I have read most of her novels, and thought this one was one of the best paced and perhaps most nuanced (thought not as good as The Pilot's Wife, my favorite).
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The best non-pizza pizza
Stopped at the uptown branch of the Sullivan Street Bakery on 47th Street in Manhattan, late the other night, and feasted on wonderful breads.
This is the potato bread, which is thin-crusted and delicate. Potatoes are smothered in onions and garlic and the whole thing is slightly moist, yet oven-browned.

Here's a link for the recipe, which I will try.
Not surprisingly, NYC food maven Arthur Schwartz says that the owner of Peasant, one of my favorite New York restaurants, handwheels a truck over to Sullivan Street Bakery (downtown branch) to get their fresh bread.
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Is this proof the Internet is rebounding?
AP just filed a story today about how the Gap Inc. hired eToys founder to run their online division. Lenk will work with Gap's CEO Paul Pressler, who worked with Lenk at Disney.

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Gary Hart is blogging. But does he have anything to say?
(from Instapundit)

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Who the hell was watching out for this kid?
News outlets today carried the story of the 10 year old boy charged in killing a 3 year old. According to reports in the New York Post, the 10 year old was an angry child whose mother had died the year before and who seemed "abandoned" by his father, with whom he shared a house. Neighbors suspected the father might be sexually abusing him.
It amazes me that this child was acting out in home and at school and that the only comments about it seem to be neighbors saying things like "The kid's got a mouth on him."
Wasn't anyone paying attention--or was this a 10 year old the community was ready to just throw away?
Newsday reports the ten year old may be the youngestr accused murder in N.J. history,
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Mom Dated Jack Kerouac: Brett News tells the tale

Imagine that your mother was 19, and that she was working as a waitress in Amarillo, Texas, and that it was, say, 1958, and that one summer morning around 4 am,. Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady came into her cafe on a cross-country road trip, and Jack thought she was cute, and they hung out together. Want to read more? Then Brett Leveridge's story Men My Mother Dated is a don't-miss.


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Thursday, March 27, 2003

7 DAYS OF BLOGGING
I started this blog last Friday. Of course I am now obsessed since I have a compulsive--and enthusiastic--personality.
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Dinner: Home-made salmon croquettes (this is one of my new recipes, and definitely a keeper--salmon patties with cilantro, red peppers, onion, scallions)
Spinach salad with olives and pimentos
Animal crackers

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Why I read Popbitch every week:
"If my son had pulled a gun on Lil Kim, I wish he'd blown her brains out" - Notorious Big's Mom
Saddam Hussein's
astrology birthchart

Gak Attack--Cocaine rituals of the famous
One of life's great mysteries is 'how do celebrities take drugs without spiteful on-lookers telling all to the papers'?
Snorty Spice has a clever trick. Rather than have a line in front of other people,someone racks out a line and then everyone else has to leave the room.When they came back in, mysteriously, the line is gone. How discreet.
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Secrets of a War Blogger: Jarvis Revealed

Jeff Jarvis, blogger extraordinaire (and my former boss), has written an informative piece on blogging for the Star-Ledger, the biggest Newhouse paper.
Read and learn.
Plus Jeff's list of war blog links.

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TRUE CRIME: Sons & Fathers
1: Damon Dash's son busted with dad's pot

The New York Post reported today that the 11-year-old son of Rock-a-fella rap exec Damon Dash was busted after bringing what he said was his father's pot to school and showing it to his teacher. According to the article, the kid brought dad's stash to school in Alpine, NJ to complain to a teacher; the teacher then arrested the child for possession. Dad, meanwhile, withdrew the kid from that school and moved him to Manhattan after the bust occurred. Meanwhile, Dash was arrested in NY yesterday on a warrant for "absconding with a child" after the kid's mother said he intended to move the boy out of state.

2.Teen credit card hacker has IBM Security Chief pop

According to Kiernan Crowley's exclusive story in the NY Post, the father of Loren Anderson, the 17-year-old alleged hacker arrested on Long Island in a $100,000 credit-card computer scam is Clain Anderson, director of client security for IBM - and a specialist in fighting hackers and preventing computer fraud.
The piece has some great color from Dan Verton, author of The Hacker Diaries: Confessions of Teenage Hackers. Verton, who reportedly served on a security panel last yester with Anderson pere, who suggested that the son most likely has "top of the line equipment" to learn on at home because of his father's profession.
Apparently, according to Crowley and to other published reports, Anderson Junior started running his ATM counterfeiting scheme at home in Chapel Hill in July, then dropped out of school and moved to Long Island--alone and 17--to live with two boys he met on the web and develop the alleged credit card scam.


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Wednesday, March 26, 2003

this is what democracy looks like--pictures of the war
From Memoryhole, via JD Lasica:

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COOKING: Dinner
Spinach rigate with fresh tomato sauce with basil and mushrooms
Baby spinach salad with red peppers, cilantro, sweet onion
Strawberries
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Blogalicious: One Good Blog begets another

I stole this picture from Tony Piece to get your attention.
Came across Paul Frankenstein's" blog today and started talking to him.
He links to Tony Piece, who seems exciting, a little dangerous, and has great pictures.
Tony Pierce links to Amy Langfield, who has a New York diary.

I feel like Alice going down the rabbit hole, except instead of encountering creatures, I am encountering sites and people attached to them--so much to read!

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EMAIL: My in box
Let's see, what kind of mail have I gotten in the past few days?
1. Make it bigger--increase your penis size
2. Pay off your debts for free
3. Teen slut loves to have you watch
4. Voliation of AOL TOS--click here or we will turn off your account
5. Online doctors prescribe Xanax, Fenfentermine, Viagra
5. Jobs in New York!!! Hurry---they're going fast (this is from an association I belong too, moderator must be feeling desperate)
6. (Name here) has signed your ryze guestbook ( I love ryze)
7. Re: Susan Mernit's blog--these are really fun, lots of comments and feedback

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Naive and excited
've been reading about blogging--and reading blogs--for almost a year. Probably the first one that caught my attention was Buzz Machine by Jeff Jarvis, which evolved out of his dramatic story of escaping from the World Trade Center disaster. My passion for blogs reminds me of my passion for the Internet back in 1992-93--I wasn't one of the first people to discover the possibilities of the web, but I was on the early arc of the curve when it came to the mass market.
I remember how much there was to read and to learn in those days, and how I struggled to catch up to everyone else I admired. SGML, HTML, gopher trees, perl, pine...I was consumed with all the tools that helped build the communications platform I found so fascinating. When the web hit, I launched one of the first commercial web sites for consumers--The Scholastic Network for Scholastic, a kids and school publishing company.

Now I feel like I am in a similar position with blogging. I am so into the concept of social networks and the social web (have been for a while), am fascinating by RSS, and eager to see blogs become available as tools for more people. Today I discovered something that probably all the cool people in the blogging world are already taking for granted--the amazing work being done by
phil pearson. Wow! This guy has done some great stuff!
He started the Internet Topic Exchange which is a database or taxonomy of the blogging world, similar to The Open Directory Project (I know everyone who is not techie is scratching their heads as they read this, sorry).
Also, the remarkable Blogging Ecosystem, which tracks how blogs are linked together, including this one.

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Naive and excitedI
've been reading about blogging--and reading blogs--for almost a year. Probably the first one that caught my attention was Buzz Machine by Jeff Jarvis, which evolved out of his dramatic story of escaping from the World Trade Center disaster. My passion for blogs reminds me of my passion for the Internet back in 1992-93--I wasn't one of the first people to discover the possibilities of the web, but I was on the early arc of the curve when it came to the mass market.
I remember how much there was to read and to learn in those days, and how I struggled to catch up to everyone else I admired. SGML, HTML, gopher trees, perl, pine...I was consumed with all the tools that helped build the communications platform I found so fascinating. When the web hit, I launched one of the first commercial web sites for consumers--The Scholastic Network for Scholastic, a kids and school publishing company.

Now I feel like I am in a similar position with blogging. I am so into the concept of social networks and the social web (have been for a while), am fascinating by RSS, and eager to see blogs become available as tools for more people. Today I discovered something that probably all the cool people in the blogging world are already taking for granted--the amazing work being done by phil pearson. Wow! This guy has done some great stuff!
He started the Internet Topic Exchange which is a database or taxonomy of the blogging world, similar to The Open Directory Project (I know everyone who is not techie is scratching their heads as they read this, sorry).
Also, the remarkable Blogging Ecosystem, which tracks how blogs are linked together, including this one.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2003

READING: Just finished reading Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety.
Several members of my book club, aka The Cupcake Book Club, said that this was their favorite novel, so I got a copy. Crossing to Safety is about the 30-year friendships between two couples and how their lives evolve over time. Beautifully written, the book offers powerful insights into family relationships.
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Broadband--cool news from Europe

Up until 5 minutes ago, when Reuters and ABC News launched new broadband news products, and Yahoo launched the Platinum service, there hasn't been much interesting new broadband product from U.S. companies that I have seen. Much of the interesting activity is in Europe, where there are 10 million broadband users, many of whom bypassed dial when they first got online.
A just-released Yankee Group study reports that the broadband market in Europe will expand by 68 percent every year for the next five years and be worth 17.8 billion euro ($19.02 billion) by 2006. Another study released by custom consulting firm Datamonitor predicts that a total of 41million households in Europe will be connected with high-speed Internet services by 2006.


MTV UK launches Peep
Meanwhile, MTV UK has just begun transmitting an new interactive broadband service, called 'MTV Peep' that allows users to choose from news broadcats, clips from prime time shows, racy late-night clips, and alternative or rare content that the network says is 'innovative, funny stupid and just plain weird.'
(Source: Broadband Bananas News)

When is some of this goodness going to hit in the U.S.? Hurry up, broadband folk, where's the good stuff?

Interactive Chat w/Pix launches in Spain
Broadband Bananas also reports that Barcelona, Spain based agency Random One, a provider of mobile and cross-media marketing solutions has launched FOTOCHAT, a solution which enables users to chat via SMS and to view their messages broadcast on TV together with a photo of the message author. The photo can be sent either via MMS or the web.

This is exactly the kind of interactive broadband application the U.S. needs to develop--is anyone out there making this kind of product?i>

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Notes from the Jupiter Conference: Day 1
2nd Panel : Structuring a Business Model for Content
Mark Josephson, About.com, Inc
Charlie Fink, American Greetings & Charlie, Co.
Mark Jung, IGN
Mitchell Praver, NatGeo
Lowell Selvin, Planet Out


This was the best panel of the day in terms of exploring how content-focused sites can do strategic planning and use research--and common sense--to make money. Each of these CEOs has gone through the fire in terms of challenges building their businesses, and they shared practical strategies grounded in strong business analysis. Some key points and impressions:
Mark Jung of IGN, formerly SNOWBALL, was very articulate.

He explained how his company has honed in on the opportunities with the 12-19 year old male market, a group it can be hard to get dollars from at the younger end of the age spectrum, but also an area where there isn't alot of other competitive media such as magazines and web sites. Jung is very research-oriented and studies the pathing of users' behavior on this sites to determine both interest in content and services and sales opportunities for both content and premium services.


Here's a picture of Jung.

Jung also outlined how they make decisions about restricting content to subscribers or buyers:
a) content can be "locked" forever--it's always available only at a cost
b) content can be locked for a period of time--it costs money to get it fresh, or it costs money to get it when the pathing analysis on Jung's site suggests the user is desperate to have it (i.e. a teen boy searching for cheat codes for an online game he is in the middle of playing--and losing.)
c) content is not locked, ever

Jung quote: "Before you build your business, identify the competitive advantage you can have with both online and offline entities--you're not only competing with other web sites for attention."

More on the others on this panel TK, along with reports from day 2.





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Notes from the Jupiter Conference: Day 1
1st panel: The Paid Content Debate
Michael Rogers, Washington Post Interactive/Newsweek
Dennis Mudd, CEO, Music Match
Jacob Weisberg, Editor, Slate
Debra Wilson, Pres. Weather Channel Interactive


Wide-ranging dicussion of subscriptions, premiumn services, critical audience mass versus revenue from small group.
Best marketing advice came from Mudd of MusicMatch who was eloquent on the value of:
a) offering a basic free service to use as an upsell
b) testing and development to refine the most attractive offers for your paying segments
c) closely trracking who those best users are, what they want, and what you can sell them that they can't get elsewhere.

Debra Wilson of the Weather Channel provided wonderful insights into how they have developed very specialize, niched products as incremental and ancillary extensions of their core business--extreme weather alerts across multiple media platforms for example (get a phone call if there's a tornado coming into your area, for example).

The most futuristic comments--among many good point he made--came from Michael Rogers, who is thinking about what comes next in web publishing, or what is post browser publishing?

This is an area that really interests me--think about the disconnect between newspapers needing to put up PDF-like digital editions of their print products to save cost--and the kind of real-time video blogging and multi-media reporting we are starting to see, and it's clear there are some converging streams to work out.

Rogers and the teams he is working with are exploring how to create non-PDF, dynamic pages that literally go beyond the browser. This was definitely the most intriguing idea I heard and one I want to pursue.

Hey, you out there: If you know anything about next generation, post-browser, publishing" please let me know, okay? I'd appreciate emails with any tips or pointers to smernitataoldotcom. Thanks,
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Notes from the Jupiter Conference: Day 1

Keynote 1: Barry Briggs, COO, CNET Embrace ROI!


Briggs' speech focuses on how CNET is developing an in-house set of tracking and measuring tools to provide automated, versatile ways to measure ROI on behalf of advertising and transaction partners. "Meaurability is the key to providing marketing value," is his rallying cry.

Brigg's goal: Ensure all CNET properties are able to track users through the learning cycle (this is where they read articles, test software and game demos, listen on community and ratings), then move them into the buying cycle, ideally right on the CNET site, but on the partner site if need be.

While his measurement solutions are far too enormous and grand for most in the audience to adopt, Biggs has some nice comments about ways to offer value to the audience that are relatively more attainable--free white papers, webcast and community discussions, free downloads.


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Monday, March 24, 2003

More on Kevin Sites/CNN

Notes and comments are flying about CNN asking Kevin Sites to cease posting to his war blog. Jimmy Guterman says he is talking about it and pointing to Jarvis. The message below was sent out by Dave Farber. to folks on his list.

Has it occurred to anyone that the simplest solution would be to bring Site's blog--or some web page version thereof--onto the CNN site?
Of course, that would mean highlighting one correspondent above the others, which is not part of the CNN m.o., not unless it's an anchor they select...



Forwarded Message
From: Bonnie Bucqueroux
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 10:16:28 -0500
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: CNN foolishness

I posted to the Society for Professional Journalists listserv about CNN
ordering Sites to stop his weblog. I was surprised that it generated
relatively little comment and that most of the posters seemed to view this
as a copyright or contract issue rather than a free speech right. My hunch
is that the CNN lawyers also saw it this way -- that they own whatever
Sites produces over there, by contract, and that they do not want to be
liable for something they do not control. One poster noted that CNN, of
all the cable networks, was the only one to demand that all field producers
get script approval before putting anything on the air.

For all the live coverage of the fighting, so much of the war reporting
seems as processed as American cheese. I am truly sorry to see an
independent voice silenced.

Bonnie Bucqueroux
Michigan State University
Victims and the Media Program
School of Journalism


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OFF TO JUPITER CONFERENCE ON ONLINE MEDIA
Spending most of the day at the Jupiter Conference on Online Media; will post items of note.
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CNN calls halt to war correspondent's blog--pundits jump into fray

CNN asked journo Kevin Sites to stop blogging, saying covering the war is a full-time job. Not only have The New York Times and The Washington posted picked up on the story, but web pundits Ken Layne and Jeff Jarvis have jumped into the fray.
Jarvis' comments:
Kevin Sites, CNN correspondent, has been told to stop blogging. Others have
decried this and now I'll join the chorus.

I'm a big media executive type -- in a suit, even -- and I have to say that
this is short-sighted on CNN's part.

I have no idea what CNN's problem is. I can imagine a few scenarios -- e.g.,
some editor worries that Sites won't do his work (he's in a warzone; what else
is he going to do?) or some editor worries that they're not editing what he
writes (if you don't trust him, don't hire him).

Bottom line is that CNN proves it is out-of-date.

MSNBC has weblogs.

FoxNews has weblogs.

My big media company has weblogs. Knight Ridder has weblogs. USA Today has
weblogs. The BBC has weblogs.

But CNN doesn't.

CNN is not only disrespecting Sites, it is disrespecting his audience, and it
is disrespecting bloggers as a whole -- which is a mistake, since we, fellow
bloggers, are now influencers. Ken Layne says CNN is the old fart network.
We're quoting that. It is a meme that can take over -- unless some wise CNN
executive sees the trouble and slaps some bureaucratic underling on the wrist
and begs Sites to begin again.

CNN used to be the cutting edge network. It is no more. It needs blogs to get
back to the future again.


Compare this to what a highly placed CNN news executive told me last week:
"CNN does not blog and does not plan to. We prefer to use a more structured form to present information."

The reality is that media types will complain, CNN will ignore them, and no one there will care so long as they stay ahead of MSNBC.com. At MSNBC.com, they are already having columnists write blogs, and my guess is they'll be the ones to step up and meet the demand the media pundits will help shape.





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Sunday, March 23, 2003

CALIFORNIA K-12: Still recruiting amid prospective layoffs

Spurred on by what was thought to be decade-long teacher shortage, California school districts are spending $9MM in 2002 to recruit new teachers through six regional teacher recruitment centers and a series of job fairs and beating the bushes for people interested in training for positions in the classroom.
Meanwhile, faced with a statewide budget gap of $30MM in education, most school districts are preparing for layoffs.
-- Oakland Unified has warned more than 1,000 teachers that their jobs are at risk.
--San Diego has sent notices to nearly 1,500 teachers. Another thousand have been notified in Fresno.
--San Juan Unified in Sacramento County, has notified 600 teachers, or 20 percent of the staff, they could be laid off.
The California Teachers Association estimates that as many as 10,000 teachers have received provisional pink slips this month alone.
(Source: Sacramento Bee, March 18, 2003, State spends millions luring teachers amid layoffs via EdBriefs.)

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BLOGGING: What compels my attention most?
This is day three of writing the Susan Mernit Blog. Which blogs do I read on a regular basis?

Romenesko: media news-- I tune into Romanesko several times a day, hoping for updates.
Gawker: Media, gossip and Nooh Yawk stuff-- The day Gawker launched, I started checking it as compulsively as AOL execs check their stock portfolios.
Boingboing: A directory of wonderful things--If only magazines were as interesting as Boing Boing!
Buzzmachine: Politics, news & blogging--Stylings, observations and sometimes rants from the inimitable Jeff Jarvis
Marc Canter's Voice:Got bandwidth, baby? Visions of next generation, high-bandwidth tools & products
Ross Mayfield: Mapping the blogosphere--Cogent analysis of the development of social networks meets rampant blogging evangelism

There are probably about 20 other blogs I check out periodically and enjoy, ranging from well-know blogs like Joi Ito's to family and friends' blogs such as SheRantz and P.Leopold Bloom's Journal.

Suggestions for blogs I might like--or blogs you like? Email me at smernitataoldotcom and I will check out your notes and post items.

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TWO NEW YORK STORIES FROM AFTER THE MARCH

Practicing calm on Lafayette Street
“Leave your cell phones in the hall, but bring your souls inside,” announces a sign posted at the entrance to Jivamukti, the downtown Manhattan yoga center I wandered into on Saturday in search of a Village bathroom not clogged with fellow anti-war demonstrators. Famous as the yoga studio of choice for Christie Turlington and other celebrities, Jivamukti is a cavernous, purple-painted space with a yoga boutique and a stunning granite waterfall wall in the entranceway. Entranced by the vibes, I signed up for a 5-session trial series at 50% off.

Debating War on the IRT
“Ladies, you ladies, you anti-war demonstrators are nothing but intellectual masturbators, unwilling to consider the nuclear cloud hanging over Manhattan three years from now!” The man shouting these words in the center of an uptown IRT subway car was 35-ish, neatly dressed in jeans and a Polo windbreaker, with a little flag pin in his lapel. “Do you consider what it is like to watch your mother being raped and sent into the desert to die as the Iraqis have? What makes you think they do not want to be liberated?”

This tirade was addressed to three middle-aged women with unbound breasts and graying hair who looked to be from Northern Connecticut or someplace close to Vermont and on their way back from the march to catch a train. The women muttered things about not liberating with bombs and freeing countries that had asked for it, like Somali and the Congo before getting off at 42nd Street. The provocateur continued to debate the war with several people in the subway car before getting off himself at 59th Street. “He didn’t seem to have a coherent point of view,” the man next to me muttered as I departed at 68th. “His arguments were pretty emotional, they didn’t make that much sense.”

These are the things I love about New York: the contrasts are extreme and everyone has an opinion they’re only too happy to share.


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