On a related note, the New York Times public editor wrote a column about the New York Times' slowness with regards to covering news stories that competitors first broke. Though it does not mention the US Attorney story, apparently it took nearly two months after the Wash Post first wrote about the Walter Reed scandal for the Times to write a short piece about the story, and similarly, nearly 6 months for the Times to cover the story of marines allegedly killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha after Time magazine first broke it.
Though in fairness, this is a common problem with other publications, including the Washington Post.
Read the column here.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
TV Slow To Catch Up on Attorney Story
This is an article about the time lag between TPM's first post about the US Attorney story and the nearly two months before the network news broadcasted their first segment about the story. The article gives a fairly detailed timeline. The article also talks about a similar lag that occurred with the reporting of the Walter Reed Medical Center scandal, which first broke on Salon.com, where it slowly percolated its way to the Times/Post frontpages and finally the Evening News shows.
It mainly posits that the reasons for the time lag are many: the network news leans on the Washington Post and New York Times for their news agenda and also that it took some time for their to be "footage" (namely the Senate hearings, Bush's statement, Gonzalez's apology) for the shows to properly "frame" the story for broadcast.
Read the article here.
It mainly posits that the reasons for the time lag are many: the network news leans on the Washington Post and New York Times for their news agenda and also that it took some time for their to be "footage" (namely the Senate hearings, Bush's statement, Gonzalez's apology) for the shows to properly "frame" the story for broadcast.
Read the article here.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Wikipedia Article on "Conservapedia"
Outraged at the flagrant liberal bias of Wikipedia, conservatives have created an alternative on-line encyclopedia named "Conservapedia," which more accurately reflects the infallibility of evangelical Christianity and American industry.
As conclusive proof of Wikipedia's liberal bias, the Conservapedia site claims that:
1) Wikipedia allows the use of B.C.E. and C.E. instead of mandating the BC and AD dating system. This is clearly an attempt to deceive people into thinking that Jesus did not personally create the time-line.
2) Wikipedia's abortion entry reads like a pamphlet from the abortion industry.
3) And finally, Wikipedia is six times more liberal than the American public.
The full list is here.
However, as the Wikipedia entry notes, "Critics such as libertarian conservative writer Andrew Sullivan, conservative blogger Jon Swift, science writer Carl Zimmer and others, have criticized and mocked the Conservapedia website for factual inaccuracy, extremism, hypocrisy, bias, and ignoring the scientific consensus on subjects such as the Big Bang and evolution in favor of biblical exegesis. Widely disseminated examples of Conservapedia articles that contradict the scientific consensus include the claims that all kangaroos descend from a single pair that were taken aboard Noah's Ark, that "Einstein's work had nothing to do with the development of the atomic bomb" and that gravity and evolution are theories that remain unproven."
To be fair, the Wikipedia entry has been flagged for its potential lack of neutrality.
The Wikipedia entry on Conservapedia can be found here.
Addendum: Jon Swift, one of the individuals cited in the Wikipedia Entry, has kindly provided a link to the entirety of his blog post regarding Conservapedia. Read it here.
His comment also reminded me that I should hat-tip the Washington Post blog for first informing me of this story. Therefore [Hat-tip to the Washington Post]
As conclusive proof of Wikipedia's liberal bias, the Conservapedia site claims that:
1) Wikipedia allows the use of B.C.E. and C.E. instead of mandating the BC and AD dating system. This is clearly an attempt to deceive people into thinking that Jesus did not personally create the time-line.
2) Wikipedia's abortion entry reads like a pamphlet from the abortion industry.
3) And finally, Wikipedia is six times more liberal than the American public.
The full list is here.
However, as the Wikipedia entry notes, "Critics such as libertarian conservative writer Andrew Sullivan, conservative blogger Jon Swift, science writer Carl Zimmer and others, have criticized and mocked the Conservapedia website for factual inaccuracy, extremism, hypocrisy, bias, and ignoring the scientific consensus on subjects such as the Big Bang and evolution in favor of biblical exegesis. Widely disseminated examples of Conservapedia articles that contradict the scientific consensus include the claims that all kangaroos descend from a single pair that were taken aboard Noah's Ark, that "Einstein's work had nothing to do with the development of the atomic bomb" and that gravity and evolution are theories that remain unproven."
To be fair, the Wikipedia entry has been flagged for its potential lack of neutrality.
The Wikipedia entry on Conservapedia can be found here.
Addendum: Jon Swift, one of the individuals cited in the Wikipedia Entry, has kindly provided a link to the entirety of his blog post regarding Conservapedia. Read it here.
His comment also reminded me that I should hat-tip the Washington Post blog for first informing me of this story. Therefore [Hat-tip to the Washington Post]
Friday, March 02, 2007
Swiss Army Accidentally Invades Liechtenstein
(AP) 170 Swiss infantry soldiers wandered 1.2 miles across an unmarked border into Lichtenstein early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back. Both the Swiss and Lichtensteinian authorities are playing down the incident, noting that no one noticed the intrusion and that the soldiers, while armed, did not carry any ammunition.
Switzerland has long held policy of neutrality and self-defense, and is neither a member of the European Union or the United Nations. This policy of neutrality has also served as a plot device in many World War II films, with the nation often depicted as a safe haven for escaped Allied POWs and plundered Jewish artwork.
Lichtenstein has no military, and basically, anything of note to speak of, except for a slightly off-color and funny name.
The article is here.
Correction: The nation is actually spelled "Liechtenstein"
Switzerland has long held policy of neutrality and self-defense, and is neither a member of the European Union or the United Nations. This policy of neutrality has also served as a plot device in many World War II films, with the nation often depicted as a safe haven for escaped Allied POWs and plundered Jewish artwork.
Lichtenstein has no military, and basically, anything of note to speak of, except for a slightly off-color and funny name.
The article is here.
Correction: The nation is actually spelled "Liechtenstein"
Bus Plunge Kills Six
ATLANTA, Georgia (New York Times) -- A bus carrying college baseball players plunged off a highway today, killing six, including the bus driver and his wife. Twenty-nine others were injured as well. The bus landed on Interstate 75, several miles away from here. The driver apparently mistook a left exit ramp for a through lane when the bus plowed through the guard rail to plummet to the highway below.
The full article is here.
The full article is here.
AP Ends Hilton Blackout
The Associated Press has has officially ended a self-imposed Paris Hilton news blackout with this article about Ms. Hilton recently receiving a traffic ticket in West Hollywood. And, if you were as concerned and curious as me, the first thing that should have popped in your mind was, there was a Paris Hilton news blackout?
In a strange and somewhat self-congratulatory announcement, the AP stated that the Paris Hilton blackout was "experimental" and was pleasantly surprised when editors and other supporters praised the AP's bold stance against further sensationalizing Ms. Hilton's rather drab and quotidian existence. That the blackout only lasted a few days is neither here nor there, of course, since K-heds are still a necessity even in the age of digital editing software and on-line publishing, and there is no better source of gap filler that people inexplicably care about than Ms. Hilton.
Of course, as reported in the New York Observer, who obtained an e-mail memo about the blackout last week, the intent of the blackout wasn't some moral stance against the philistine and irrelevant, or even a a serious commentary on the current state of the news media, but rather a way to throw some attention on the Associated Press. As written by AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington:
“Hopefully we will be able to discuss what ‘news’ we missed,” read the memo, which could have used some stern copy-editing, “the repercussions of our blackout for AP both editorially and business-wise, and most importantly the force that cause the world to be fixated on this person who, despite her shallow frivolity, represents an epochal development in our culture.”
(Courtesy of the New York Observer)
And if one wants to read the equally epochal navel-gazing that the AP purports to be insightful self-analysis, read it here.
In a strange and somewhat self-congratulatory announcement, the AP stated that the Paris Hilton blackout was "experimental" and was pleasantly surprised when editors and other supporters praised the AP's bold stance against further sensationalizing Ms. Hilton's rather drab and quotidian existence. That the blackout only lasted a few days is neither here nor there, of course, since K-heds are still a necessity even in the age of digital editing software and on-line publishing, and there is no better source of gap filler that people inexplicably care about than Ms. Hilton.
Of course, as reported in the New York Observer, who obtained an e-mail memo about the blackout last week, the intent of the blackout wasn't some moral stance against the philistine and irrelevant, or even a a serious commentary on the current state of the news media, but rather a way to throw some attention on the Associated Press. As written by AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington:
“Hopefully we will be able to discuss what ‘news’ we missed,” read the memo, which could have used some stern copy-editing, “the repercussions of our blackout for AP both editorially and business-wise, and most importantly the force that cause the world to be fixated on this person who, despite her shallow frivolity, represents an epochal development in our culture.”
(Courtesy of the New York Observer)
And if one wants to read the equally epochal navel-gazing that the AP purports to be insightful self-analysis, read it here.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Darfur has officially frozen over
Angelina Jolie, fresh off her official adoption of the nation of Namibia, has set her sights on loftier goals, writing an op-ed in the Washington Post advocating intervention to stop the conflict in Darfur.
Yes, that's right, the Washington Post. A publication that actually has a crease in the middle that you have to unfold in order to read it. Presumably, the op-ed doesn't contain a sidebar enumerating her top 10 favorite cures for dysentery.
Read the op-ed here.
Yes, that's right, the Washington Post. A publication that actually has a crease in the middle that you have to unfold in order to read it. Presumably, the op-ed doesn't contain a sidebar enumerating her top 10 favorite cures for dysentery.
Read the op-ed here.
Biblical Wednesday IV
Fortuna has chosen a particularly choice quotation for today's Biblical Wednesday. We are blessed with a passage from the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostle, to be precise. It is, in many ways, the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx of the Christian texts (or should I say Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is the Acts of the Apostle of the Wu-Gambino collective?) in that its narrative is the most cinematic and visceral.
Here, we do not have the incessant drone of St. Paul, firing off his bulls and letters to various gentiles like the Epheisians, or Gallatians, and most odiously, to the Corinthians (twice!), hectoring us about the risen Christ and all that. No, this book, much like a Hollywood blockbuster, is instead a sequel to the Gospel of Luke, expounding on how, after Jesus got capped, the Apostle-mafia brought the ruckus to the Roman Empire. This is the book Michael Bay would have written if he ever decided to go biblical. And the following quotation captures the action-packed, ghetto-fabulous flavor of this book; specifically how a Saint (I think it is Paul) gets into a rumble with some disrespecting, playa-hating Grecians:
And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him. Acts 9:29.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Is there a de facto national flat tax?
This article alleges that if one takes into consideration all the taxes we pay, including federal and state income tax, payroll, property, and sales, no matter which income bracket you find yourself in, you pay a marginal tax rate of about 40%.
Pretty interesting article. Read it here. [Hat-tip to Metafilter]
Pretty interesting article. Read it here. [Hat-tip to Metafilter]
Monday, February 26, 2007
I-Tunes Catches A Piano Plagiarist
Pianist Joyce Hatto was known as a middling pianist until, in 1989, she released a Liszt album that began, what was then thought to be, one of the greatest late career renaissances in classical music history. She later expanded her repertoire to cover the entirety of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Messiaen, and Prokofiev (making the breadth of her recordings larger than any but a handful of pianists). Her playing was particularly astounding, because her style would adapt and change with each performance, as if she became a different person for each piece. This has been revealed to be more true than previously realized.
A reader of the magazine Gramaphone reported that after attempting to play one of Hatto's recordings in his computer, his I-Tunes program identified the CD as an album recorded by Laszlo Simon, a Hungarian pianist. After listening to both, a critic from the magazine discovered that the recordings were identical. After further investigations, it has turned out that every single album she released since 1989 were rip-offs of recordings made by less established and younger performers. And this from a pianist once called "the greatest living pianist almost no one has heard of."
To read more, read here.
The Gramophone Magazine Expose is here.
[Hat-tip to Arts and Letters Daily]
A reader of the magazine Gramaphone reported that after attempting to play one of Hatto's recordings in his computer, his I-Tunes program identified the CD as an album recorded by Laszlo Simon, a Hungarian pianist. After listening to both, a critic from the magazine discovered that the recordings were identical. After further investigations, it has turned out that every single album she released since 1989 were rip-offs of recordings made by less established and younger performers. And this from a pianist once called "the greatest living pianist almost no one has heard of."
To read more, read here.
The Gramophone Magazine Expose is here.
[Hat-tip to Arts and Letters Daily]
AB's Blog Post
Since, as many of you know, AB refuses to start a blog, I have taken it upon myself to do the dirty work for her. The post comprises of a series of top 10 lists related towards Jewish-American life. Here is a sample:
Top 7 Jews Who Tried to Be Goyim
7. Karl Marx
6. Benjamin Disraeli
5. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
4. Bob Irsay
3. Arthur Hays Sulzberger
2. Bob Dylan
1. George Allen
For more, click here.
Top 7 Jews Who Tried to Be Goyim
7. Karl Marx
6. Benjamin Disraeli
5. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
4. Bob Irsay
3. Arthur Hays Sulzberger
2. Bob Dylan
1. George Allen
For more, click here.
Strom Thurmond's Family Once Owned Sharpton's Kin
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Taxgirl Blog
For all you lovers of the Internal Revenue Code, this is a link to a relatively highly regarded tax blog written by a Philadelphia tax attorney. I looked at it quickly, and though I understand some of it, the breadth of the blog's coverage goes beyond the Raytheon replacement rule or the definition of gross income, so I am at a loss. For those of you who are more attuned to these issues:
The blog is here.
The blog is here.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The Wonders of Bread
As all of you have heard by now, I made Pound Cake. Here is a photograph for those who did not have an opportunity to taste such this apotheosis of sensory delectation.
On a lighter note, Conan O'Brien has a conversation with Cornell professor and Bread expert Steven Kaplan. I can't make a direct link, but just click on the link "Bread Expert" to see the segment. [Hat-tip to Metafilter]
The clip is here.
Read here for Professor Kaplan's review of several baguettes.
The Passion of the Gore
This Washington Post article describes Gore's renaissance as the Jimmy Carter of vice-presidents and failed presidential candidates. Certainly, no one would have thought seven years ago that Al Gore would become the most respected elder statesman of the Democratic party. In what the Post article describes as his "slide-show," the article talks about Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" and the roadshow that returned Gore to national prominence. It also ponders whether the renewed interest in Gore has to do with the man's reignited passion for the environment or a change in the national "zeitgeist" with respect to global warming.
And of course, the most impressive perk about Gore's come-back is that he is now on a first name basis with Ludacris. (So, does he call him Cris or Luda?).
Read it here.
And of course, the most impressive perk about Gore's come-back is that he is now on a first name basis with Ludacris. (So, does he call him Cris or Luda?).
Read it here.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
NYU Immigrant Hunt
The College Republicans at my alma mater, NYU, has decided to sponsor an "illegal immigrant hunt" in Washington Square. Apparently, contestants search through a crowd looking for the illegal immigrant (who is in fact an actor), and if the person is found, the winner gets a modest cash prize. Ostensibly, this is meant to bring attention to a forgotten issue wholly neglected by the left wing media and other p.c. politicians. Obviously they succeeded, since this debacle apparently merited a New York Times blog post.
The blog post about this is here.
Addendum: The New York Times has an article about the "hunt" here.
The blog post about this is here.
Addendum: The New York Times has an article about the "hunt" here.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Biblical Wednesday III
In celebration of Ash Wednesday, Fortuna has decided to pick a verse which is a model of brevity and wit. Truly, this verse truly reflects the spirit of the Lenten season, an event as holy and miraculous as when David Copperfield made a Boeing 747 disappear on live television:
From Exodus 19:25:
So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
From Exodus 19:25:
So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
What I Thought Was The Best Film of 2006
Tonight, I saw Babel with certain individuals, and in my mind it was fairly mediocre. The movie consists of four tenuously connected plot arcs filmed with dialogue in 5 distinct languages (I include the signing as one of the languages). The movie was 2+ hours long, haphazardly lurching from one storyline to the next, leaving me intermittently bored and peeved. The camerawork suffers from the faux-verite style in vogue for the past several years, making liberal use of jump cuts, handheld camera shake, and unnecessary zooms to replicate the urban-documentary feel that other films, such as City of God, have used to better effect.
Despite being a "foreign" film, it was also infected with the Hollywood obsession with close-up. At least 80% of the shots were close-ups, with the average shot length probably less than 3 seconds. Occasionally there would be a painterly establishing shot of either Mexican or Moroccan desert, or some clouds to mix it up a bit, but more often than not the film consisted of silent heads staring mutely into the camera, occasionally emoting via a grimace or a lone tear trickling down a cheek, and uttering a quiet moan of despair. There was hardly ever a medium shot of people interacting with each other or their environment, allowing the viewer the time to look around and focus on something he would want to focus on, rather than having the director immediately cut to a close-up and compel the viewer to focus on what he wanted to focus on.
To sum it up, the film was extremely didactic. First, its preaching about the unfairness of the current immigration regime or America's morbid obsession over terrorism and foreigners was cliche. The issues were already decided by the director (e.g. border guards and American tourists are jerks) without presenting any countervailing facts or ideas to allow viewer to decide the question for himself. Moreover, despite its "gritty" "verite" cinetamatography, the editing's reliance on montage was pure varnished Hollywood, leading the viewer along so nothing was shown besides the particular object or facial expression the director wanted us to see, and therefore ineluctably imposing on the viewer specific conclusions about the characters and issues that the film raises.
Don't get me wrong, I love montage as much as the next person, when used correctly. (e.g. Passion of Joan of Arc, Battleship Potemkin, Godfather), but it shouldn't be used in such a didactic manner.
Anyway, for Best Films of 2006, I would go with Cache (even though it was made in 2005), which spoke far more persuasively about issues of both race and immigration than Babel. However, since it technically is a 2005 film (though not released "widely" in American until 2006), and considering how dreary the film landscape was this year, I would say the best film of 2006 that I have seen so far is:
Casino Royale. (as pure a film as a good kung-fu flick).
Despite being a "foreign" film, it was also infected with the Hollywood obsession with close-up. At least 80% of the shots were close-ups, with the average shot length probably less than 3 seconds. Occasionally there would be a painterly establishing shot of either Mexican or Moroccan desert, or some clouds to mix it up a bit, but more often than not the film consisted of silent heads staring mutely into the camera, occasionally emoting via a grimace or a lone tear trickling down a cheek, and uttering a quiet moan of despair. There was hardly ever a medium shot of people interacting with each other or their environment, allowing the viewer the time to look around and focus on something he would want to focus on, rather than having the director immediately cut to a close-up and compel the viewer to focus on what he wanted to focus on.
To sum it up, the film was extremely didactic. First, its preaching about the unfairness of the current immigration regime or America's morbid obsession over terrorism and foreigners was cliche. The issues were already decided by the director (e.g. border guards and American tourists are jerks) without presenting any countervailing facts or ideas to allow viewer to decide the question for himself. Moreover, despite its "gritty" "verite" cinetamatography, the editing's reliance on montage was pure varnished Hollywood, leading the viewer along so nothing was shown besides the particular object or facial expression the director wanted us to see, and therefore ineluctably imposing on the viewer specific conclusions about the characters and issues that the film raises.
Don't get me wrong, I love montage as much as the next person, when used correctly. (e.g. Passion of Joan of Arc, Battleship Potemkin, Godfather), but it shouldn't be used in such a didactic manner.
Anyway, for Best Films of 2006, I would go with Cache (even though it was made in 2005), which spoke far more persuasively about issues of both race and immigration than Babel. However, since it technically is a 2005 film (though not released "widely" in American until 2006), and considering how dreary the film landscape was this year, I would say the best film of 2006 that I have seen so far is:
Casino Royale. (as pure a film as a good kung-fu flick).
George Takei responds to Tim Hardaway
George Takei, Sulu from Star Trek, and a gay activist, releases a response to Tim Hardaway, who recently made several anti-gay remarks.
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