Posted February 25, 2010 at 5:26pm
The view from outside my windows today (Times Square, NYC). Do you see the Empire State Building? Me neither. But I should. One of those days, folks. One of those days.
Posted February 25, 2010 at 2:49pm
Battier’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths. When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse — often a lot worse. He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also has a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers. On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly reduces their shooting percentages. At the same time he somehow improves the defensive efficiency of his teammates — probably, Morey surmises, by helping them out in all sorts of subtle ways. “I call him Lego,” Morey says. “When he’s on the court, all the pieces start to fit together. And everything that leads to winning that you can get to through intellect instead of innate ability, Shane excels in. I’ll bet he’s in the hundredth percentile of every category.
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The No-Stats All-Star - NYTimes.com
Yet he makes less money, no one knows his name, and would you notice if he wasn’t playing? Probably not, at least until you saw the final score.
I hate Duke, but for all these reasons, I love Shane Battier.
Posted February 25, 2010 at 2:40pm
The Best of Journalism (2009) - True/Slant
Some of the best stories of the past year, in all of journalism. So many incredible writers and stories here, I had to share.
Posted February 22, 2010 at 11:32pm
People often ask how I get into the writing frame of mind. To me, it feels like being the night watchman in a museum. My job is to make sure all the doors are locked, and the blinds are pulled, and the lights are out. As a writer, you need to shut out all of the distractions from your other senses. I make sure I’m not hungry, tired, uncomfortable, or listening to anything. Then, like the night watchman, I go room by room with my flashlight until something scares me, surprises me, or makes me laugh. I have to feel something. And when I do, that’s the part I keep. Then I wrap up the inspiring words in ordinary words, to form sentences. That part is more craft than art.
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Scott Adams Blog: Like a Night Watchman 01/25/2010
His whole discussion of how he writes, and actually has a sensation associated with words, hits home for me.
Plus, I’m glad someone’s finally admitting to only being functional early and late in the day. Maybe it’s not just me!
(Hat tip to Marco)
Posted February 22, 2010 at 5:14pm
What Exactly Is Curling?
After watching days worth of curling over the last week or so, my understanding of the game is…only slightly more advanced than before. This article helped.
Posted February 22, 2010 at 11:10am
Digital Lent
So, the Lent season started this week, and I’ve been debating whether or not to give something up. After talking about it in church today, though, the discussion came up about Lent being about giving up distractions, rather than just sacrificing something, to give us more time to just be.
In that spirit, I decided to get behind Lent a bit. Here’s what I’m giving up until Easter:
1. Online TV. Completely. No Hulu, no Fancast, no Netflix streaming - nothing.
2. New Web apps. I’m going to use what I’ve got, get great at them, and ignore new and shiny ones. Except when I’m reviewing them…
3. StumbleUpon. I’ll read what’s interesting to me, but I won’t go hunting for it with SU.
(I wish Twitter were on this list, but thanks to my line of work being what it is, that’s next to impossible).
I’m putting this out there so you’ll hold it to me. Wish me luck!
Posted February 21, 2010 at 3:30pm
1. Reporters — who go out and do first person reporting — creating original stories, not just reposting rewritten wire copy.
2. Columnists — who “start conversations and give stories another perspective.”
3. Curators — who “‘cover’ the news by sorting, verifying and editing live everything good existing on the web and in the media. They make link journalism, they make the news more accessible.”
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The Role Of Curation In Journalism | Techdirt
The above are the three types of journalists Jay Rosen thinks are going to take over. I love the mix here, and I think he’s right - the key is going to be providing context and surrounding information.
As it is right now, we’ve got an endless stream of information - but it’s all surface stuff. For anyone who wants to dig deeper, understand an issue, and learn more, there’s remarkable difficulty in doing so. That’s where the columnists come in, and I think their value only increases as the volume of information does.
More information, and companies like Demand Studios and Seed, don’t create less of a need for journalists - they create more. We don’t have time to sort through everything to learn and understand, so we rely on professionals to do it for us. That’s always been the case, and though the job of the journalist might be a bit harder now, it’s also much more important.
Posted February 20, 2010 at 4:08pm
Scam-Detective: How did you find victims for your scams?
John: First you need to understand how the gangs work. At the bottom are the “foot soldiers”, kids who spend all of their time online to find email addresses and send out the first emails to get people interested.
When they receive a reply, the victim is passed up the chain, to someone who has better English to get copies of ID from them like copies of their passport and driving licenses and build up trust. Then when they are ready to ask for money, they are passed further up again to someone who will pretend to be a barrister or shipping agent who will tell the victim that they need to pay charges or even a bribe to get the big cash amount out of the country. When they pay up, the gang master will collect the money from the Western Union office, using fake ID that they have taken from other scam victims.
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Interview with a scammer – Part One | Scam Detectives
Found this via BoingBoing - it’s an amazing look into this very real (and apparently very profitable) business that’s claiming victims all over the world. Somehow makes me sympathetic to the “deposed Prince of Nigeria” emails—which is no small feat.
Posted February 20, 2010 at 12:56am
Riding in school buses in the early morning, then sitting in poorly lighted classrooms are the main reasons students have trouble getting to sleep at night, according to new research.
Teenagers, like everyone else, need bright lights in the morning, particularly in the blue wavelengths, to synchronize their inner, circadian rhythms with nature’s cycles of day and night.
If they are deprived of blue light during the morning, they go to sleep an average of six minutes later each night, until their bodies are completely out of sync with the school day, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reported Tuesday in the journal Neuroendocrinology Letters.
The finding was made by fitting a group of students with goggles that blocked blue light and discovering that their circadian rhythms were significantly affected.
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Science Explains the Teenage Night Owl Syndrome - Neatorama
So, I’ve always known there was a reason for my insane sleep schedule, and now it’s scientific. Thank goodness.
Posted February 18, 2010 at 5:39pm
