Shut Up or I'll Jump

A few notes on this gem:
-I considered throwing myself from a moving car a month ago and were it not for those pesky child safety locks, I would have succeeded.
-How upset do you think he was when he discovered he was at the hospital? Even worse if she was standing over him.
-Twenty-three and three kids? No mention if they were his.
-I think this tactic is known as "avoidance" in conflict resolution parlance.

Husband reportedly jumps from car | The Leaf Chronicle:
A man was flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Thursday evening after he jumped from a moving vehicle.

According to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office report, the 23-year-old man, his wife and three children were headed toward Clarksville on Guthrie Highway when the two adults began arguing.

At one point during the argument, Deputy Blake Neblett reported the man told his wife to “shut up.” When she refused, the man jumped from the moving vehicle.

A witness traveling behind the vehicle told Neblett it appeared the man jumped from the vehicle.

The man was in the trauma unit at VUMC on Friday, and in critical but stable condition, according to the hospital.

MSNBC.com Acquires Everyblock

Only a matter of time before this got picked up by larger media.

Data Is Journalism: MSNBC.com Acquires Everyblock: "

Everyblock, Adrian Holovaty's local data aggregator, has been acquired by MSNBC.com. Many are hailing it as local news acquisition. For 15 major US cities Everyblock aggregates crime data, restaurant reviews, health inspections, local news and more. This is data that is only of interest to people within a certain area. I care much less about crime ten blocks away than I do about crime two blocks away. Everyblock lets me know what is happening within three blocks of my home and filters everything out (on the web and iPhone). So Everyblock is a hyperlocalnews acquisition, but that is only half of the story (maybe less).

The future of news is data and Everyblock is the premier startup in this area. As Adrian phrased it on his site this past May in a post entitled The definitive, two-part answer to 'is data journalism?':

It's a hot topic among journalists right now: Is data journalism? Is it journalism to publish a raw database? Here, at last, is the definitive, two-part answer:

1. Who cares?

2. I hope my competitors waste their time arguing about this as long as possible.

MSNBC.com stopped wasting time just in time.

There is a coming deluge of data from the new administration. Sites like Data.gov, USASpending.gov and Recovery.gov are hopefully just the beginning of new data sources. It's already too much for many organizations to make sense of. Without the proper tools many stories will never be covered. People will not get the info they need. Everyblock has proven that by taking free local government data sources and making them readily available to interested citizens you can create value. Now it's time to turn those tools and thinking onto a problem of a national scale. (If you'd like to learn more about the Obama administrations efforts to release data check out Anil Dash's latest piece The Most Interesting New Tech Startup of 2009.)

It's important to note that Everyblock recently open-sourced the code to their site and as Techcrunch pointed out their traffic is not that high. So MSNBC could have easily duplicated Everyblock and just turned their traffic hose at the new property. Instead MSNBC.com realized that they are facing a new problem and they needed a new team to tackle it head on. Enter Adrian and Everyblock.

Of course many people know Adrian as one of the co-creators of DJango. In his acquisition blog post he states that he will have more time to work on Django, that Everyblock will stay Python (and presumably continue to roll their own maps) and that this does not effect ebcode, the open-sourced version of Everyblock (Radar post).

Congrats Adrian it looks like you solved the dilemma (Radar site) of what to do once you've open-sourced your site; you tackle a bigger problem.

Post updated to reflect that it was MSNBC.com, not MSNBC, that bought Everyblock.

"

Murdoch Boyer Lecture: The Golden Age of Freedom

Patch Print Problems In Three Easy Steps

I'm a parasite.

A leech.

According to this article in the Maui Time Weekly I am part of the problem, not the solution. Ted Rall makes some interesting market-based points about how to remedy the tanking print industry. Among them, all newspapers should pull the plug on their online offerings.

Other suggestions included copyrighting every article and cease participation in wire services.

Other key points:

• "The New York Times or the big city daily has better news, but how much better?" said San Jose State University business professor Joel West. "If it's $20/month (or even $10 or merely requires a login) will readers bother? Most won't. As with other commodities, better loses to 'good enough.'"
• "A reader of The New York Times' print edition generates about 170 times as much revenue as someone who surfs NYTimes.com. (This is because print readers spend 47 minutes with the paper. Online browsers visit the paper's website a mere seven minutes)."

Prez Candidates' Reps Discuss Media

TV Week posted this article yesterday regarding McCain's and Obama's views on media ownership and access.

Candidates’ Differences on Media Outlined

Barack Obama would more closely examine broadcasters’ public-interest obligations, while John McCain would ensure that the government doesn’t take steps to interfere with the Internet’s growth, surrogates for the candidates are suggesting.

At a forum Tuesday sponsored by the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council, former FCC Chairman William Kennard, speaking for Obama, and former Assistant Secretary of Commerce John Kneuer, speaking for McCain, offered sharply different views of the Federal Communications Commission’s future under their candidates.

This was an interesting point refuting the Web as an equal alternative to traditional broadcast.

Mr. Kneuer, now senior VP of strategic planning and external affairs for Rivada Networks, also said proponents of consolidation wrongly cite the Internet and new media as providing competition, when most Americans still get their news and information from traditional broadcast and cable media. Advertisers too spend most of their media dollar on the traditional media.

And I send my tape to...?

I'm pretty sure he won't be back. Then again, he's been with the station since 1990, according to Wikipedia. Now, to whom do I send my demo reel?
I could do crazy stuff like this. He should have looked down at his "script" or made some sort of pause.

Fully Baked

Man tries to buy snacks with pot (Chicago Tribune--May 21, 2008)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A New Zealand man who offered to pay with marijuana when he did not have enough money for a snack was caught by a police officer who overheard his unusual proposal, a news report said Tuesday.

Wade Churchward, 28, went to a service station on March 22 in the capital, Wellington, where he picked up two packets of M&M's candy and some potato chips, the Dominion Post newspaper reported.

But when he reached the cashier, he realized he didn't have enough money and instead offered a container with 0.042 ounces of marijuana and a pipe for smoking it, the report said.

Churchward failed to notice a patrol car outside and a police officer standing behind him in line — who promptly arrested him.

Sounds like an extreme case of the munchies. You have to give the guy credit though. He was able to find his way to the store (and jail). If only the chips were Funyuns or Sun Chips.

I'm not sure on the exchange rate of pot to cash, so was this was a fair trade? Churchward was also quite generous; he offered the pipe too.

I wonder if and how he posted bail.

Ripped From the Headlines

Belligerent donkey gets out of jail (Chicago Tribune--May 22, 2008)

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico — A Mexican donkey has been freed from jail after doing time for acting like a jackass.

The Televisa network Wednesday showed Blacky gobbling food from a bucket after spending three days in a jail that normally holds people for public drunkenness and other disturbances.

Blacky was jailed for biting and kicking two men near a ranch outside Tuxtla Gutierrez, capital of Chiapas state. Officials freed the donkey after its owner paid a fine of $36 and the $115 hospital bill of the men, who suffered bites to the chest and a broken ankle. Authorities say he also must pay $480 to each man for missed work days.

In regard to the headline: was the donkey really belligerent? I'm sure a donkey can put up a good fight, but belligerent? Did it refuse an attorney or assert its innocence? Did Blacky scream discrimination or profiling?

What the article doesn't mention is whether or not Blacky's wife and children were awaiting his release. Can you imagine the reactions of the others in the drunk tank when they tossed Blacky in the clink? Did the policia dangle a carrot in front of the donkey's head to get it in the jail?

Blacky had no comment when released.