I wonder if the guys at the Examiner working on this electronic news project had any inkling that this project of theirs would eventually lead to the layoffs of their colleagues in the newspaper industry today.

Thanks to Boing Boing.

More campy looks at the future:

This one seems like the “Frozen TV Dinner” view of the future.

Being Swedish myself, this video has been a part of my New Year’s Eve tradition for many years. The video is ageless and never loses its shine.  Enjoy!

• Ready, Aim, Vote
• Ninja Bush
• Bush Game

If you have thrown a shoe in outrage over the Iraq War, perhaps you should send these guys a picture of yourself.

Barack Obama sounds like he wants to reach back to the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration to jump start the economy with an economic stimulus proposal featuring infrastructure repair. If so, it may be time for the man who would be FDR to take a look at another successful–but largely forgotten–jobs program from the Depression era: the Federal Writers Project.

This time, the FWP could begin by documenting the ground-level impact of the Great Recession; chronicling the transition to a green economy; or capturing the experiences of the thousands of immigrants who are changing the American complexion. Like the original FWP, the new version would focus in particular on those segments of society largely ignored by commercial and even public media. At the same time, the multimedia fruits of this research would be open-sourced to all media, as well as to academics. As an example, oral history as a discipline has made great strides in the past 70 years, and with the development of video techniques, the forum of the Internet could make these multi-media interviews widely available to schools and scholars, as well as to average Americans.

How would it work? Administering the new FWP as an individual grant program through community colleges and universities could minimize bureaucracy and overhead. In consultation with the Obama administration–perhaps through the National Endowment for the Humanities–and Congress, guidelines could be established and a small staff assembled in Washington to oversee the projects, in the form of grants, rather than hourly wages. Projects could be pitched locally to colleges, or suggested and posted by them, vetted preliminarily and then approved or rejected by the national staff.

I think the benefits of such a program would be tremendous, especially considering the technology available to tell these stories.  In a world where people are reading less and less, it would seem to be a great way at getting people to learn more about our less visible areas of society and culture, and also as a way to keep a large set of very talented writers and journalists occupied until they are ready to make the necessary transitions into other professions or retirement, or back into the journalistic profession, whatever that may be.

Perhaps his time had passed a few decades earlier, for Terkel was a remarkably honest individual who never wavered in his liberalism and social beliefs. In an era of Reagan, Clinton and Bush 41 and 43, when the L-word has taken on such negative connotation among people in many quarters of political life, it has been refreshing to hear such an unabashed liberal such as Terkel speak out so strongly about his political and social beliefs, regardless of the times.  He will be missed.

Here are some materials to peruse:

1.  Bob Edwards retrospective on Studs Terkel, XM Satellite Radio

2.  The Studs Terkel Program (radio)

At a time when the country is not churning out enough scientists, and science funding is on the wane, the last thing one of the world’s largest news agencies should do is cut a division that had only 6 producers and 1 reporter, Miles O’Brien, that covered a wide array of scientific and technological stories around the world.  Unfortunately, programming about celebrity gossip and scandals bring in the big bucks, whereas stories on science and technology are seen as dry and unprofitable.

The customary “honeymoon” for president-elect Obama is still in effect, considering the positive reviews in regards to his cabinet selections thus far, and his attempts at filling the leadership void in the current economic crisis less than two months before moving into the White House.  But I can’t help get the feeling that the media is sending strong hints about what conflicts they’ll be looking for once Obama assumes office on January 20.  Already CNN and Politico have written about possible infighting among Democrats once they take power.  Even the headlines are very similar (ie. Dems vs. Dems)  Of course, we’ve seen Democrats suffer pratfalls before, and it can happen again, right?  Is it what they want?  Time will only tell.  I will add articles to this post as they appear in the media regarding Democratic infighting.  My prediction is that we’ll be seeing a lot more of this, whether it’s stoking or reality.

New York Magazine last week released a video showing the facial expressons of various people as they played video games.  The games included Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto IV, various sports games and more.  The expressions vary from person to person, but it is interesting to see the differing emotions of each person as they play.  Some grit their teeth, others laugh, a few talk to the screen, one even cries, while some sit there expressionless.

It might be easy to predict the reactions of some people who watch this video.  The older and perhaps more conservative crowd might be disturbed by the video, saying that it is violent and only serves to corrupt our children.  Others will say that people are just having fun and letting off some steam.  I see it as an interesting montage of people intensely focused, each person showing their odd tick of concentration, with perhaps one peculiar tick missing from the bunch.

I know that I purse my lips when playing video games.