Blogs
Edwards raises in excess of $14 million
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/01/2007 - 19:13On a conference call with reporters and bloggers this afternoon, Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince and Finance Director Jennifer Swanson reported that for the first quarter, the Edwards campaign raised in excess of $14 million dollars. The exact number of donors was not available, but it is greater than 37,000 donors, which is a preliminary number of online donors. The final number is likely to be around 40,000 donors.
Wait, Wait, it's April!
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/01/2007 - 12:09One of my favorite radio shows is Wait, Wait, don't tell me, NPR's weekly news gameshow quiz, or something like that.
Every week, they have a section where a listener is told about three stories from the week's news. It is up to the listener to determine which one is true. Today, I've heard three great stories, all documented on the web.
The first is from Google
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The second is from Reuters
NY gallery cancels naked chocolate Jesus exhibit
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Manhattan art gallery canceled its Easter-season exhibit of a life-size chocolate sculpture of a naked Jesus on Friday after an outcry by Roman Catholics.
The gallery's artistic director tendered his resignation to protest the cancellation.
The sculpture "My Sweet Lord" by Cosimo Cavallaro was to be exhibited for two hours each day next week in a street-level window of the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in Midtown Manhattan.
and the final one is from Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen:
BTW, did I tell you I was pregnant?
For months I have been trying to lose weight. No matter what I did --diet, Pilates, aerobics, yoga, high-colonics-- my belly wouldn't go down in size. Well, now I know why I have been craving olives
I had incredibly excrutiating pains last night. I thought it was the pasta with creamy porcini sauce I had eaten for dinner, but no, this pain was something else. We live right across the street from a hospital, so I asked the ball and chain to take me there.
Those who have been following the news closely probably know which story is true. Others can follow the links and try to figure it out themselves.
America’s Next Top Model
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 03/31/2007 - 10:41When I was a kid, I loved the Godzilla movies. At one point, someone suggested to me that perhaps Godzilla was a metaphor for the United States, and particularly for the nuclear attacks during World War II, and it opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about media.
Now, years later, I’m a participant in a discussion list of the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME). Recently, there has been a discussion about the “Crime Shoot” episode of America’s Next Model. (For very graphic, not work safe images, check here) As one blogger succinctly sums it up, You would be prettier if you were dead.
When I got beyond my immediate revulsion, I started thinking in terms of Godzilla and other monsters. What does this say about our country? The lyrics of Steppenwolf’s Monster come to mind:
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster
The Japanese had Godzilla movies to help them process their feelings about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Perhaps we have CSI, Law and Order, Crossing Jordan, 24 and other shows to help us process our feelings about 9/11 and the subsequent wars. As one person noted on the discussion list, there is a large market for women that can look pretty as victims of crimes in these shows.
I am not a psychologist, but somehow, it seems like there must be better ways of processing these feelings than to look at pictures of ‘pretty dead women’ on TV, even if the shows have a satisfying resolution of finding the killer at the end. Perhaps we need a new type of American top model. Perhaps instead of becoming numbed to images of death and destruction, we need to learn to own our fears, respond to them positively and become more empathetic.
(Cross posted at Greater Democracy)
The continuing saga and AT&T v. FreeConference
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/30/2007 - 11:29Back on March 14th, I posted a blog entry about AT&T blocking calls to FreeConference.com. In that call, I described my experience and noted that I filed a complaint with the FCC. Well, yesterday, I received a phone call from Rosalyn Young at AT&T’s Office of the President about my complaint.
Unfortunately, I was on the road at the time in an area where there is poor Cingular Wireless cellphone coverage, and the call cut out partway through. I suggested that we talk later in the day, but when she called later, I was also out of range. I’m not sure if there is some hidden message there.
Anyway, this morning, I called her back to follow up. We had a good discussion. She explained that AT&T gets charged for calls to Freeconference.com, so technically their not free. I’ve been reading up various posts about the issue, such as the one on e Pluribus Media, so I was prepared for the discussion.
I asked her if the charges were different from the standard termination fee that Interexchange carriers (IXCs) are required to pay Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) as part of the FCCs Rural Communications rules. She didn’t seem exactly clear about what I was asking, so I put it this way. Yesterday, I called Gavin TV and Appliance in St Marys, Iowa. The same town where Freeconference.com’s interconnection is. Is there some sort of termination fee that AT&T has to pay Freeconference.com or the LEC that is different from what AT&T pays the LEC for a termination fee for me calling Gavin TV and Appliance? She did not know the answer and said that she would get me information on the different termination fees and get back to me.
Stop Cyberbullying Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/30/2007 - 09:54Spending time on political blogs, you get used to some very inappropriate comments. I’ve had people attempt to interfere with my professional life. Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan certainly have experienced cyberbullying, and Kathy Sierra has written about some particularly offensive cyberbullying, including death threats that caused her to cancel her ETech presentations.
As she notes in the title of her blog post, “Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech"”. Andy Carvin has blogged about this on his PBS blog and has set up Stop Cyberbullying social network on Ning.
Robert Scoble talked about taking the week off from blogging as a response. Wesley Fryer is talking about “blogging fast in response”. Andy comments, “Actually, I’m not sure if I was proposing a blog fast per se - more like ruminating on the idea”
I don’t know how we Stop Cyberbullying, but spreading the word seems to be a key way that bloggers deal with any sort of threat, so please, spread the word about Stop Cyberbullying day.
