In a presentation at TED in February 2008 Alisa Miller, the CEO of Public Radio International, provides some perspective on Americans' world view thanks to the coverage provided by US media. It's not very long, but it's fascinating. One nugget: in February 2007 the death of Anna Nicole Smith got more coverage than the happenings in all countries outside the US combined.
As I last posted the Winston-Salem Journal showed me a little love on Saturday by printing an excerpt from one of my blog posts in their "Bits & Pieces" section of their editorial page on Saturday. A commenter noted that I should see a spike in traffic to my site, which I assumed as well. Here's the thing: my traffic went up this last Saturday and Sunday compared to the previous weekend, but only a little and it was still lower than the traffic I had on Friday. In other words there was a little more traffic, but not enough that I'd say that the Journal's love had a real impact.
You know that 15 minutes of fame we're all supposed to get in our lifetime? The Winston-Salem Journal gave me about five seconds of that in today's paper. Personally, if I have to choose between fame and fortune I'm going for the fortune.
The New York Times has an article on the Demon Deacons' men's basketball team and handling Skip Prosser's legacy. One thing we know, he was right when the day before he died he told Coach Gaudio that this team would be good.
A 32 year old man was shot at a showing of the movie Notorious at the Grand Theater at Four Seasons in Greensboro last night. The movie's about slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. and the strange part of the story is that the actor who played Notorious B.I.G. in the movie was in the theater in Greensboro. Nothing against Greensboro, but why would the guy spend opening night for the movie in Greensboro and not New York? Weird.
Over at the Seventh Sense Ken Ashford points to a press release from an anti-abortion group that equates Krispy Kreme's giveaway on inauguration day to supporting abortion. You'll have to read it to believe it. As Ken says, these people do a good job of mocking themselves without any help from the rest of the world so I'll resist.
One of the adjustments you have to make when you move to North Carolina is dealing with a ballot that seems like it's 100 pages long when you vote. I mean we vote for positions that are appointed in most other states, and to think that we citizens actually know who every joker on the ballot is is just plain ludicrous.
Today I received a press release from Senator Burr's office announcing that North Carolina had received $52,303,004 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's Neighborhood Stabilization Program. According to the release "North Carolina may use this grant to assist individuals in purchasing foreclosed homes, acquiring and rehabilitating abandoned homes, establishing land banks for foreclosed homes, demolition of blighted properties, or redevelopment of vacant or demolished structures. All NSP funds are required to benefit individuals or families at or below 120 percent of area median income (AMI) and at least 25 percent must be targeted at those living below 50 percent of AMI. Funds awarded under this grant must be used within 18 months."
Yes, yes it's cold outside. We're all whining about it and the weather folks keep droning on about it, but when you think about it we could be a lot worse off. Don't believe me? Well, in MinneSOta it's so cold that if you spray hot water into the air it instantly crystalizes. Here's the video proof…now quit your whining.
I just received my daily email news update from the Winston-Salem Journal and their lead headline is the crash of a Charlotte-bound US Airways flight into the Hudson River in New York. Not to make light of that story, which hopefully will find that no one was seriously injured since early reports seem to indicate that the plane seemed to stay atop the water until rescue boats could get to it, but it's what's under the headline and the accompanying photo that was kind of jarring. It's this sentence: "Also, Midfielder Michael Lahoud of Wake Forest went as the No. 9 pick, to Club Deportivo Chivas USA, based outside Los Angeles." That's followed by the link to the "Full Story" which is the airplane crash story. (Click on the picture to the left to see what it looked like).
Befuddled 