Man, you know times are tough when people steal crops:
Deputies in Yadkin County are investigating the theft of crops from two fields…
In that case, farmer Billy Dale Harris reported that about five buckets of green beans had been harvested from his land…
Four days later, a farmer on Simmons Patton Road in Jonesville reported that corn was missing from a field.
Lex linked to I Write Like, a free web service that analyzes a sample of your writing and tells you which famous author you write like. My first sample returned Stephen King, my second James Joyce. Frankly I was hoping for Hiaasen.
LancasterOnline.com is charging a fee to browse obituaries:
Fresh on the heels of a story posted by my LR colleague Cory Bergman about paying fees to leave online comments, is news that a local paper in Pennsylvania is charging readers to view death announcements. The obituary section of LancasterOnline.com now has a paywall.
LancasterOnline.com, the online news affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers Inc,. launched the obituary fee on Monday. Out-of-county online readers will be charged $1.99 per month, or $19.99 per year, if they view more than seven obituaries in a month. Local online readers, subscribers, or any out-of-county readers who only look at a few obituaries a month online will not be required to pay a fee.
I would pay good money to see Esbee's face if the Winston-Salem Journal's site did this. I think the head spinning would be Excorcist-esque.
From the Freakonomics blog I've learned that scientists who might be involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are being coached to deal with the press. For my journalist friends out there does this sound like an accurate description of the press to you?
the IPCC also offers a background memo, produced by Resource Media, with tips for dealing with journalists. It describes journalists generally: “overworked,” “underpaid,” and “inquisitive” — but also “skeptical,” “jaded,” and “world-weary.” (Sounds about right to me.) It tells the researchers what journalists want (“something new,” e.g., or “something that moves them”) and offers advice for handling an interview, including preparation, focus, and communication style: “Don’t assume any level of knowledge. In most cases reporters know less than you think they do.” (Also sounds about right to me.)
A while back it became standard practice for most newspapers to allow comments on the web versions of their stories. Personally I thought it was a necessary step, and I thought it would make for a kind of interactive version of "Letters to the Editor." Now my opinion is that if you judge a population by the comments left on the websites of news organizations then we're a bunch of flaming idiots.
At least one newspaper has decided to try and make some lemonade with their commenting lemons. It's going to charge people who want to comment on stories:
From tomorrow, the Sun Chronicle, a Massachusetts paper, will charge would-be commenters a nominal one-off fee of 99 cents. But it has to be paid by credit card, which means providing a real name and address.
And the name on the credit card will be the name that will appear on comments. So it's goodbye to anonymity.
At the same time, the poster must acknowledge that he/she will abide by US state and federal law and agree to be legally responsible for any content he/she posts.
They won't make a dime, but I have to give them an A for effort.
via BookofJoe:
This is funny (via Guerrilla Communications and AdsOfTheWorld). Remember kids, you're looking like a fool with your pants on the ground!
Apparently someone has studied the composition of zoning boards and has come to the conclusion that people who join them are disproportionately people who have something to gain from their service:
What kind of person would volunteer to serve on a zoning board? It’s not exactly a lucrative position. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that a new study byJerry L. Anderson, Aaron Brees, and Emily Renninger finds that most zoning board members have something to gain from their positions.
It's shocking, SHOCKING, I tell you. One might argue that with my job I fall into that category with my service on the Lewisville Planning Board, but I joined the Zoning Board of Adjustment and then the Planning Board before I took my current job. In fact before I took my current job I had no experience in real estate and I had absolutely no business reason for joining the ZBOA or Planning Board. I was, however, really interested in learning about how things worked in town and so I happily volunteered to serve. I guess I'd add one caveat to the findings outlined above, and that is there are geeks like me out there who actually like sitting through planning sessions and find the topic interesting whether or not we benefit from the position. Mind you there aren't many of us, but we are out there.
The pictures from the Redneck Games speak for themselves.
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