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The Future of Journalism is 'Decoding' Mystery

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:58:57 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Mystery solving is the future of journalism that has grown out of the puzzle solving of the past. The 'transparency movement' will deluge us with information; it's our job to see the trees for the forest.

Clip Source: eaves.ca

I suspect the ideal of good journalism will shift from being what Gladwell calls puzzle solving to mystery solving. In the former you must find a critical piece of the puzzle – one that is hidden to you – in order to explain an event. This is the Woodward and Bernstein model of journalism – the current ideal. But in a transparent landscape where huge amounts of information about most organizations is being generated and shared the critical role of the journalist will be that of mystery solving – figuring out how to analyze, synthesize and discover the mystery within the vast quantity of information. As Gladwell recounts this was ironically the very type of journalism that brought down Enron (an organization that was open, albeit deeply flawed).

All of the pieces of that lead to the story that "exposed" Enron were freely, voluntarily and happily given to reports by Enron. It's just a pity it didn't happen much, much sooner.

Naming Names @ AIG

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:38:31 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Great article on the details of who & how AIG deliberately screwed US taxpayers.

Clip Source: www.rollingstone.com

The mistake most people make in looking at the financial crisis is thinking of it in terms of money, a habit that might lead you to look at the unfolding mess as a huge bonus-killing downer for the Wall Street class. But if you look at it in purely Machiavellian terms, what you see is a colossal power grab that threatens to turn the federal government into a kind of giant Enron — a huge, impenetrable black box filled with self-dealing insiders whose scheme is the securing of individual profits at the expense of an ocean of unwitting involuntary shareholders, previously known as taxpayers.

"These guys look for holes in the system, for ways they can do trades without government interference. Whatever is unregulated, all the action is going to pile into that."

Unlike traditional insurance, Cassano was offering investors an opportunity to bet that someone else's house would burn down, or take out a term life policy on the guy with AIDS down the street.

and then it all went to shit.

Religious Leaders Battle Abuse Bill in New York

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:42:13 GMT

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clipper's remarks: Important legislation in New York.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Roman Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials in New York are mounting an intense lobbying effort to block a bill before the State Legislature that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children.

the bill is now widely supported by the new Democratic majority in that chamber, and for the first time is given a good chance of passing.

Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University who has argued that states should remove all statutes of limitation on child sex abuse claims, said the principle is comparable to the way industrial pollution is treated under the law.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

He said that opponents’ claims of unfairness were not compelling, and that warnings of bankruptcy for religious institutions, which he dismissed as unlikely, missed the point.

“It’s not about money,” he said. “It’s about giving people the right to seek justice.”

Nerds on Wall Street :: Finance as Science :: Fail

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:13:27 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Economics is as much 'science' as psychology: not at all.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The problem is not that there are too many physicists on Wall Street, he said, but that there are not enough.

“What do you call a nerd in 10 years? Boss.”

“This is a crisis caused by business decisions. This isn’t the result of pointy-headed guys from fancy schools who didn’t understand volatility or correlation.”

Voluntary Madness :: a New Gonzo Journalist's Book About Madness

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:19:54 GMT

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clipper's remarks: Sounds fascinating and confirms my opinion that modern psychiatry pretty much has no idea what it's doing re: ameliorating depression.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

At the unfortunate cost of narrative suspense, Vincent discloses her biases early: like a growing number of Americans, she’s fairly certain that America’s love affair with modern-day psychiatry is nothing less than a subprime crisis, with the F.D.A., the DSM, Big Pharma and your harried family doctor in on the scam. She’ll even go so far as to describe depression as “bratty rebellion,” many diagnoses as “a guess” and most psychiatric drugs as “of dubious or at best limited efficacy and usually unfathomed toxicity.”

It is astounding how little it takes for Vincent to begin to recover at her last stop, a cognitive-behavioralist facility advertised for patients in mental distress but in practice a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center — a little bit of sympathy, a movement class, a therapist who finally zeroes in on the anger and breaks down the emotions around it.

Sit with your anger, and its handmaiden, shame.

Frederick Broden

Tags: depression, healing, mental health

U.S. in Pop Culture Export Translation: Screw You; Me First

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:25:29 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Oops.

Clip Source: www.radioopensource.org

I think what we project now through a lot of our entertainment is freedom in the sense of libertanism, it’s freedom in the sense of ‘I can do whatever I want and screw you.’ I’ve had people overseas actually say to me that that’s what they think American freedom means. That it’s the freedom of the sovereign kind of self, Orlando Patterson uses that term — the freedom of the master over the slave. It’s not a very pretty side of freedom. And we project this kind of freedom to do whatever the hell you want, unfettered by connections with other people, unfettered by ties to family or community, or any kind of ethical or moral restrictions — it’s a very radical idea of freedom, just as the will of the individual basically to satisfy his or her desires.

Click to listen to Chris’s conversation with Martha Bayles (36 minutes, 16 mb mp3)

Teasing :: Bullying :: Hierarchy :: Love

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:13:33 GMT

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clipper's remarks: An analysis of what teasing teaches us.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Hierarchies have many benefits — the smooth division of labor and resources, protecting weaker members of the group — but they can be deadly to negotiate. Male fig wasps chop their rivals in half with their large mandibles.

Teasing can be thought of as a status contest with a twist.

As a status contest, teasing must walk a fine line, designating status while enhancing social connection.

Each tease turned out to be a 30-second morality play.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Where teasing provides an arena to safely explore conflict, it can join people in a common cause.

To tease is to woo wisely.

Studies find that married couples with a rich vocabulary of teasing nicknames and formulaic insults are happier and more satisfied.

Teasing actually serves as an antidote to toxic criticism that might otherwise dissolve an intimate bond.

Our rush to banish teasing from social life has its origins in legitimate concerns about bullies on the playground and at work.

More Reality TV in Networks' Future = Fewer Eyes

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:31:25 GMT

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clipper's remarks: Scripted one-hour dramas in the 10p slots where content can be more adult-friendly are evidently on the way out, at least for networks. The value of cable just went up. Cable has to retain tight control over its shows to keep their value, at least insofar as the interweb is concerned.

It's Netflix that gets cable shows to me anyway. $60/month is too much.

The good news is, cable's doing some great entertainment, dare I say the best entertainment -- next to indie films.

Clip Source: www.variety.com

Then came NBC's Monday move to blow scripted programming out of the 10 p.m. hour in favor of "The Jay Leno Show."

"It's a bummer for the writers who are writing for drama," said one agent. "Five less scripted drama shows at 10 p.m. is bad for the business ... Some leaders at NBC said there hasn't been a 10 p.m. drama that's worked in three or four years. But no, they just haven't developed the best dramas."

Writers have already felt the primetime pinch in recent years, as the networks devote more hours to reality programs -- as well as repeats on dead nights such as Fridays and Saturdays.

"The more reality shows and talkshows the broadcast networks do, the more that dramas will go to cable, where they can be done properly,"

It will, of necessity, force them to cable, where the atmosphere is far friendlier and the creative environment more conducive to doing original work.

Facial Recognition Software Hits the Big Time

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:44:09 GMT

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clipper's remarks: If this is what's possible in the private sector, I can only imagine what's possible elsewhere.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

VIDEOSURF’S technology works in part by memorizing components of faces, Dr. Sharon said. It stores away images of Britney Spears’ eyes and cheekbones, for instance, in its collective memory, so it can recognize an image of her despite changes in light. Such expert perception means that the technology can do what many people can’t, he said.

“The machine easily distinguishes between Tina Fey and Sarah Palin,” he said.

“As videos get longer,” he said, “it’s harder and harder to find the one minute you want to see.”

Click on any one of these images, like the face of a guest on Mr. Stewart’s show, or the face of John Oliver, one of Mr. Stewart’s correspondents, and go directly to that part of the video. Users can also select snippets within a video and send them by e-mail to friends.

Rove Pushed for Hollywood Propaganda Abroad

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:27:43 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: No surprise there.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Hilary Rosen, the former chairwoman of the Recording Industry Association of America, who was also present at the post-9/11 meetings, said that Mr. Rove and other White House officials were looking for the kind of support Hollywood gave the United States during World War II.

“They wanted the music industry, the movie industry, the TV industry to produce propaganda,” she said. “Rove was putting a lot of pressure on us.”

In 2003, the domestic box office brought in $9.2 billion for American studios, and foreign countries generated $10.9 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. In 2007, domestic was $9.6 billion, while international rose to more than $17 billion.

“But then you ask the follow-up questions and you see that American culture remains attractive, that American values remain attractive. Which is the opposite of what the president has said — that they hate us for who we are and what we believe in.”

Privacy? Who Needs Stinking Privacy?

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:52:46 GMT

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clipper's remarks: When you think of digital privacy as a return to the village of old, lack of privacy doesn't seem such a bad thing. Or is it?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Citing the epidemic involving severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in recent years, he said technology would have helped health officials watch the movement of infected people as it happened, providing an opportunity to limit the spread of the disease.

“If I could have looked at the cellphone records, it could have been stopped that morning rather than a couple of weeks later,” he said. “I’m sorry, that trumps minute concerns about privacy.”

“The new information tools symbolized by the Internet are radically changing the possibility of how we can organize large-scale human efforts,” said Thomas W. Malone, director of the M.I.T. Center for Collective Intelligence.

“For most of human history, people have lived in small tribes where everything they did was known by everyone they knew,” Dr. Malone said. “In some sense we’re becoming a global village. Privacy may turn out to have become an anomaly.”

Why Shoot Video / Record Audio?

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:00:20 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Why do YOU shoot video?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Many times I have seen people (and yes, been guilty of) filming an experience rather than actually experiencing it. It can be as though you aren't even there, if you're peering at your daughter's birthday party through a viewfinder the whole time.

Glenn Reid, the programmer who, at Apple 10 years ago, wrote the original iMovie:

“I never made home movies, but I did make audio recordings. Almost every night when I put my little girls to bed, I would go over the highlights of what happened that day. Then they would then say their prayers and go to sleep.

“I plan to play these recordings on my deathbed to remind myself what a wonderful life I had.”

'Plant a seed for a tree you'll never sit under.'

Tags: why shoot video, personal media

Psychiatry :: Drugs :: Conflict of Interest or Bias?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:31:14 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Ask your doctor above their fiscal relationships with the manufacturers of the drugs they prescribe.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions,” Mr. Grassley said Thursday in a letter to the association.

In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, the drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association’s $62.5 million in financing.

“I think we need to review all arrangements between doctors and industry and be very clear about what constitutes a conflict of interest and what does not.”

But many psychiatrists supplement this income with consulting arrangements with drug makers, traveling the country to give dinner talks about drugs to other doctors for fees generally ranging from $750 to $3,500 per event, for instance.

Others say industry and academic researchers are now so deeply intertwined that exposing doctors’ private arrangements only stokes suspicion without correcting the real problem: bias.

Why Journalism Matters

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:05:25 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Bill Moyers - eloquent as ever - speaking about journalism's mission. It's TRUTH. Doh.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

In the buildup to the invasion of Iraq we were reminded of what the late great reporter A.J. Liebling meant when he said the press is "the weak slat under the bed of democracy." The slat broke after the invasion and some strange bedfellows fell to the floor: establishment journalists, neo-con polemicists, beltway pundits, right-wing warmongers flying the skull and bones of the "balanced and fair brigade," administration flacks whose classified leaks were manufactured lies - all romping on the same mattress in the foreplay to disaster.

The job of trying to tell the truth about people whose job it is to hide the truth is almost as complicated and difficult as trying to hide it in the first place. We journalists are, of course, obliged to cover the news, but our deeper mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden.

The present crisis of Western democracy is a crisis of journalism.

Tags: bill moyers, 5th estate, big media, crime, democracy, free press, mainstream media, media consolidation

Childhood Abuse Related to Adult PTSD

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:28:48 GMT

clipped by: fauxpress
clipper's remarks: Research continues into the origins and lasting effects of childhood sexual and other violent trauma.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Groundbreaking research suggests genes help explain why some people can recover from a traumatic event while others suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.

Researchers found that specific variations in a stress-related gene appeared to be influenced by trauma at a young age — in this case child abuse. That interaction strongly increased the chances for adult survivors of abuse to develop signs of PTSD.

Almost 30 percent of participants reported having been sexually or physically abused as children. Most also had experienced trauma as adults, including rape, attacks with weapons and other violence.

Childhood abuse and adult trauma each increased risks for PTSD symptoms in adulthood.

The study is an important contribution to a growing body of research showing how severe abuse early in life can have profound, lasting effects

Tags: surviving abuse, ptsd, research