BuzzMachine
by Jeff Jarvis

December 31, 2004

Stingy this!

: Sitting in the MSNBC newsroom, I saw a bulletin come across saying that the U.S. government had just pledged $350 million. This is turning into a worldwide Israel Bonds dinner: a competition to top this! And that is a wonderful thing.

MSNBC links

: Here are links I plan to use on MSNBC on Friday:

EYEWITNESS BLOGGERS

: Evelyn Rodriguez posted very personal and heartfelt moments from Phuket at Crossroads Dispatches. A commenter now tells me she just arrived back home. She tells of sitting next to people whose lives are thrown apart: a boy who has lost his family, a man who lost his wife, another man who found his wife after their children back home told the father he'd just seen the mother on TV looking for him.

: Mark is another blogger who just arrived home. He found that he and his girlfriend made news as her father told the Scotsman he was praying for her safety. They are safe.

: Rick Von Feldt writes an amazing blog about everything he saw in Phuket.

: Fred blogs from Sri Lanka at Extra, Extra.

: From ChiensSansFrontiers, one of the more remarkable blogs:

The first thing I saw in Mullaitive town was a board hanging outside a battered building. I aksed our guide what the board said. He said says Senthalil Children's Home.

The Home was home to 150 war orphans. They had lost both their parents to the war or had been abandoned or separated from their parents during the fighting. When the Government and the LTTE signed the ceasefire agreement 3 years ago it looked like at least some of these children were going to get a good deal in terms of their future.

Now only 5 of them are alive.

A wroung iron bed that was wrapped around a mango tree was for me the most telling thing about the force of the wave. I can't even imagine the force required to bend something like that. It looked like a straw wrapped around a bottle of coke. I tried to bend it back. I couldn't even move it.

: Stuart Lock writes about his honeymoon at the disaster.

: Scott Raderstof gives us an incredible moment-by-moment recollection of how he and his family survived the wave.

: Good roundup of eyewitness blogger quotes in the Guardian (some reduntant).


NEWS BLOGGERS

: Blogger and journalist Kevin Sites has left Iraq to cover the tragedy in Thailand; he is blogging it here.

: Many good articles on the impact of this -- on, say, fishing -- at WorldChanging.org.

: JavaJive writes about media coverage, local and international, and wonders why Thailand is getting more attention (so far) than Sri Lanka.

: Insignificant Views says the Sri Lankan prime minister and delegation met with protests while the PM's office made no mention of it:

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha and leaders of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna visited Jaffna Thursday amidst strong protests by refugees from the Tsunami destroyed coastal villages of the peninsula. Jeering refugees, demanding relief from Colombo, got into a tussle with the PM’s delegation at the Puloly American Mission School near Pt. Pedro. Earlier, the PM and his entourage were turned back by refugees in Valvettithurai protesting against Colombo for not sending relief or medicine to them since the Tsunami devastated their villages four days ago.

Meanwhile a press release by the Sri Lankan government Thursday states: “Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse travelled to Jaffna today (30 December) and met many people who have survived the tidal waves. The purpose of his visit was to formalise the distribution of essential the distribution of essential items in Jaffna”.

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan online paper says the protesters were terrorists acting as locals.

: Wikipedia has a new and comprehensive entry on the earthquake and its aftermath.


HELP

: The ever-more-amazing SEA-EAT blog has no end of helpful suggestions. The latest: Where to donate your airline miles to charities helping in South Asia.

: The Amazon gift page is up to $6 million tonight. The Red Cross reports that as of noon Thursday, the total from Americans was $18 million.

More figures about the generosity of people around the world here.

The Times of London says Britons gave 20 million pounds in 24 hours.

: Here is the Red Cross Family Links page where people are trying to find each other. Here's a Phuket forum where people are posting notices. They're doing likewise at travel site Lonely Planet.

: The Times of London gives us a chart showing what nations of the world have pledged to disaster relief.

: Apple, like Amazon, hands over its home page to raising funds for relief. Microsoft does. Walmart does not. What other companies are following suit?


VIDEO AND PHOTOS

: Video bittorrents here. More mirrors here.

: Punditguy got hit with a #1,000 bandwidth bill for showing the videos. Help if you can.

: A comprehensive list of videos and photos.

: Flickr photos under the tags tsunami, earthquake, Thailand, Phuket, disaster.


SMS

: SMS messages at ChiensSansFrontiers:

: We can pray later. Keep the food, water, clothes and medicine going. SAVE LIVES NOW!PRAY LATER! Pass this on. Message phones, word of mouth, any way.

: All those who can help SHOULD help. All of us working to provide aid let's not waste time at religious ceremonies tomorrow. Praying's not going to help anyone right now. Let it not disrupt our work. EVERY MOMENT COUNTS! Saving lives IS god's work. We can pray later! Keep the food, water, clothes, and medic *SOME TEXT MISSING*

: The Holy Family Convent, children's home and school are completely destroyed. Debris covers the entire compound and the stench of rotting flesh is everywhere. There are obviously bodies under the rubble. There's no one to remove them. Mother Superior Ambrosine covers her nose as she tries to salvage what she can. She hasn't slept in 3 days.]

: Mullaitivu: The central college, about a km away from the coast is almost completely gone. Only 2 buildings remain. Children were home because of the holidays, but out of the 1100 students, over 400 are dead says principal Antony Jeganathan. His house is between the school and the beach and he survived by hanging onto a tree as he was being swept away


MORE...

: I'm seeing stories from around the world saying in one way or another that having a big New Year's party would be poor form so soon after this tragedy. A story from London here.

The Jakarta Post reports that New Year's parties are turning into charity events.

: The founder of Lonely Planet says tourists should continue go to go these nations.

This report says tourists are doing just that.

And here are pictures from the German paper Bild showing tourists sunning themselves amidst the debris in Thailand. UPDATE: A commenter corrects me; I mistook an earlier story at Bild as connected to these photos; they are not from after the wave. Thanks for the correction.

: Thailand's The Nation reports that Thai officials are implanting chips in the bodies of the dead to make identification easier.

: Thailand's the Nation joins The New York Times in editorializing against and excoriating America for its "meager" response.

: An Indonesian paper reports problems with disease and anger over the lack of food.

: And the crackpots come out of the woodwork: Astrologists say it's the end o' the world: "Top astrologers in the country are hinting that the tsunami strike might indeed be a step towards Nostradamus' prediction - End of the world in 2010."


LATER....

: From MSNBC, I'll add links as I can, more randomly....

: There are local sites popping up to serve local audiences. The web is, after all, local at heart. See Waves of Hope, One Thailand, and a Penang site.

: JerseyEric says Jeb Bush is starting his 2008 presidential campaign in south Asia.

: Evelyn Rodriguez is interviewed in the Mercury News. She needs someone near San Jose to help her set up a wireless router so she can keep her tsunami-injured leg elevated. Volunteers?

: Walmart update: They now have up a link to the Red Cross and good for them. MSNBC asked me a question opening the door to criticize Walmart and I didn't; it's a holiday week and it takes time for people to get these sorts of things to happen. Good on all those who do.

That's Wikipedia, not Ickypedia

: I've gotten lots of email from folks trying to figure out the address of Wikipedia after I plugged it on MSNBC and clearly said a confusing word unclearly. These poor folks are all looking for an Ickypedia. Sorry, folks. That's Wikipedia.org.

December 30, 2004

Up and down

: If you've had trouble getting to the site tonight, it's good news (insert punchline here). Hosting Matters is switching me to a new server and I'm glad for it.

Tsunami links

: I'm going to be on MSNBC at regular intervals throughout the day tomorrow giving continuing reports on weblogs' and the web's response to the tsunami tragedy. Will Femia was doing that today.

Please leave new links in the comments below -- any new stories of survivors, new resources for help, new and compelling responses to the tragedy, new photos and videos....

Tsunami: the political angle

: Of course, it took no time at all for media to find the celebrity angle to the tsunami tragedy (see the pathetic NY Daily News cover on how the tsunami affected a model).

But it took three days for the pundits to find the political angle of the story, criticizing Bush for taking three days to speak out on the tragedy from his vacation. The NY Times argues today that the reason for Bush to take action is to make friends with Sri Lankan Muslims. Matt Lauer parrotted that on Today this morning.

Isn't helping people the reason to take action?

Getaloadathis

: The Pacific News Services proposes an American tsunami surtax.

: Speaking of dumb ideas, Sen. Patrick Leahy proposes redirecting money earmarked for Iraqi rebuilding to South Asian rebuilding. It's as if he is admitting that he does not care about the Iraqi people.

Connected charity

: Witness the phenomenal response to Amazon's call for tsunami charity -- $3.5 million at midnight -- the Washington Post notes a fundamental shift in how charity works, thanks to online.

Like never before, people are turning to the Internet to donate money, the latest step in a revolution that has altered everything from shopping to presidential campaigns.

"This is like 1951, when television really took off,'' Paul Saffo, director of the Silicon Valley-based Institute for the Future, said yesterday. "We are in the middle of a fundamental shift from mass media to the personal media of computers and the Internet, and charitable giving is a logical progression.''

At Amazon.com alone, more than 53,000 people had donated more than $3 million by yesterday evening after the company made an urgent appeal on its home page. Catholic Relief Services was so overwhelmed with Web traffic that its site crashed. Online donations to the Red Cross outstripped traditional phone banks by more than 2 to 1....

Much of that giving came from people sitting at their computers. That has happened before, primarily after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But relief officials said the scale of online giving has grown dramatically since then....

"It definitely came as a groundswell from our employees,'' said Amazon.com spokesman Craig Berman. "As soon as it went up, we started seeing donations kick in. It was virtually instantaneous."

The only other time Amazon.com made a similar posting was after Sept. 11, when it raised more than $6.8 million.

December 29, 2004

The toll

: The toll rises to 82,000 so far.

: More than 5,000 Australians are still missing. UPDATE: A commenter says I'm wrong and it's 5,000 foreigners. I can't find the original story (and neglected to link to it late last night, messing up in every way). I stand corrected.

: Here is a frightening story of a mother who had to choose one child to hold and one to let go. I will not make you suffer suspense: The child she let go survived and all escaped.

A survivor blogs

: Evelyn Rodriguez -- a blogger and kindred spirit regarding citizens' media and marketing -- survived the tsunami in Phuket and she blogs about it as she gets to Bangkok and out of Thailand. I won't quote. Just go read.

: The Guardian quotes from more survivor blogs.

Who's stingy?

: The NY Times headline this morning says: "Irate Over 'Stingy' Remark, U.S. Adds $20 Million to Disaster Aid.'
Now that makes a direct cause-and-effect relationship; the headline says we added $20 million because of the U.N. "stingy" crack.

The story does not back that up. I don't believe the facts back that up.

: Somebody tell me when France decides to add to its $170,000. [That's in Australian dollars, I'm now told. The amount in U.S. dollars: $135,000.]

: Donations to Amazon's relief fund passed $1 million before 7 this morning.

: UPDATE: Bush responds to the "stingy" crack. He says it was misguided and misinformed. He said that in 2004, the U.S. provided $2.4 billion in government relief -- not including private relief -- and that was 40 percent of worldwise aid. "We're a very generous and kind-hearted nation," he said.

: UPDATE: The Washington Times says it went over the transcript of the first Egeland briefing:

Despite his claim of being "misinterpreted," a review of the transcript of Mr. Egeland's initial press briefing confirms that he asked reporters at the United Nations why Western countries are "so stingy" and specifically cited the United States as an example of a country whose citizens want to pay more taxes so that foreign aid can be increased.
"An unprecedented disaster like this one should lead to unprecedented generosity," Mr. Egeland said in his Monday briefing.
Mr. Egeland complained that the United States gives only 0.14 percent of its gross domestic product to foreign development aid, compared with 0.92 percent given by his native Norway. In this category, Norway ranks first and the United States ranks last on a list of 22 industrialized nations compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"The foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of their gross national income," Mr. Egeland said on Monday. "I think that is stingy really. I don't think that is very generous."
He pointed out that only Scandinavian countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark, as well as the Netherlands and Luxembourg, give at least 0.7 percent of their gross national income, a level suggested by the United Nations 25 years ago.
Mr. Egeland — a former journalist, deputy foreign minister of Norway and head of that nation's Amnesty International chapter — did not mention that the U.S. government gave $15.8 billion, more than any other nation, to development aid last year, compared to $2 billion by Norway.
The U.S. figure does not include massive infusions of cash to Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor does it include the category of food aid, where the United States is the largest donor in the world, or charitable contributions by private American individuals, churches and other organizations.
I have not been able to find that transcript on the UN site.

: AMAZON UPDATE: Now up to $2.5 million about 24 hours after going up.

A wave of destruction and death

: We try to make sense of what we do not know by relating it to what we know. So pardon me for making an obvious connection, obvious for me. But watching the videos of the tsunami coming onshore reminded me of too much of escaping the wall of destruction and death that came as the first of the towers collapsed on September 11th.

Same beautiful, cloudless day. Same shock. Same speed, running faster than any man could run. Same power. Same sound. Same deadly debris carried along by its force. Same images of the helpless at their last moments. Same color of gray in its wake.

Of course, one was caused by evil man, the other by uncaring nature. One cost thousands of innocent lives, the other many thousands more.

But I think I understand the emotions of those who shot these videos and were there and were lucky enough to live.

December 28, 2004

Tsunami notes

: Among the casualties: 1,700 people on one train, qualifying this as the worst rail disaster ever amidst what may become the worst natural disaster ever.

: On NPR tonight, I heard a satellite expert say that most people would have been safe if only they'd walked one mile inland or gotten to higher ground (on videos, we've seen people on higher floors safe). There is no formal warning system but once the earthquake hit and once the nearby islands were hit, it's hard to believe that media could not have been alerted. Radio DJs panicking the way American weathermen panic at one inch of snow could have saved countless lives.

: See the first before-and-after satellite images.

: The BBC has started one of its logs of quick reports from correspondents around the globe.

: Among the victims are those tied to the famous. Sir Richard Attenborough lost three family members, including his granddaughter. An Australian rugby star and his bride were lost on their honeymoon. A model lost her boyfriend (in a story painfully overplayed in the New York Daily News).

: The Times of India lists entire tribes that may have been made extinct by the wave.

: The Guardian tells the story of the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog (but without a link or address).

: LATER: Glenn Reynolds writes about the internet and disasters.

The Internet accounts have given the disaster an immediacy and a personal dimension that traditional news accounts lack, and the self-organizing character of the blogosphere has allowed for rapid response as people who want to help have been put together with ways to help.

That won't replace traditional efforts, of course: Despite being criticized as "stingy"
by Jan Egeland, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, the United States has sent an aircraft carrier and a Navy expeditionary group that was supposed to go on holiday leave to help with the recovery effort. It'll be a long time before the Internet crowd can dispatch resources like that.

But nonetheless, a lot of human capital has been brought to bear on this problem in very short order, through voluntary cooperation.

The new network beats the old network

: I'm watching CNN right now and Anderson Cooper made a big deal of showing video of the tsunami "just in." Except I saw that video online this morning and linked to it then.

Whether it comes to gathering news -- witness this video -- or distributing news -- witness the 6-10 times more people who saw Jon Stewart online than on CNN -- the new, distributed citizens' network sometimes beats the old, centralized corporate network.

A new Iraqi blogger

: See Ali, liberal Iraqi blogger.

The reviews are in

: Chuck Olsen's Blogumentary gets reviewed (favorably) in Mother Jones.

Stingy like a frog

: At 5 p.m., Glenn Reynolds reported that Amazon had raised 112,000 for tsunami relief. Less than three hours later, the total is over $360,000 -- which beats the amount the French were reported to have pledged to tsunami relief this afternoon (as a UN official called America's first offer -- of many, no doubt -- of $35 million as "stingy").

: UPDATE: Five hours later, the total is over $585,000 at Amazon.

Shooting lutefisk in a barrel

: In The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell reviews a book by Jared Diamond swallowing the assumption that ancient Norske had fishphobia but then Matthew Yglesias does 20 minutes of Googlechecking (previously known as fact-checking).

: Fritz Schranck fishes yet deeper.

Numbers too big to bear

: The number keeps growing bigger and more incomprehensible. They always do. The latest says 59,000 died in the tsunami.

For perspective, this is rising almost to the number of all people killed in natural disasters last year, which itself was multiples over the totals in years before:

According to an annual survey by the German reinsurance giant Munich Re, 75,000 people were killed in natural disasters last year - up from 11,000 in 2002 and 25,000 in 2001. Most devastating were the Bam earthquake (40,000 dead, 30,000 injured) and heatwaves in Europe that claimed more than 20,000 lives. Economic losses were put at $US65 billion, up $10 billion on the previous year.
: UPDATE: An Italian official says the toll could reach 100,000.

Socialized medicine indeed

: In posts below on godless Britain, some frustrated folks are trying to put up comments using the word "socialism." They are stopped in their tracks and they think there's some vast conspiracy (they can't decide whether it's of the left or the right) stopping them. But of course, it's not a PC cop. It's a spam cop that guards the door. MT Blacklist prevents the spammer evildoers from posting comments linking to their dubious business endeavors. And so what's wrong with socialism? Well, at its heart, as you can see, socialism is all about erectile dysfunction. The opiate of the masses, indeed.

Bloggers tortured in Iran, says ex-VP

: Iranian blogger Parthisan left a comment below urging us to read his translation of a post by Mohammed Ali Abtahi, the former VP of Iran -- renowned for blogging himself -- reporting on the imprisonment and torture of bloggers in Iran. It is his report on a committee meeting with imprisoned bloggers, called for by the president of Iran. An excerpt:

1- Physical torture, punches and kicks: "he banged my head to the bench that made my recently-operated nose bleed, and later I found out that they broke my nose"; "they punched us"; "we were alone in single cells for months"; and things of this kind...

2- The classical questions about sexual relationships [to create moral scandals]: "Write down the names of your boy/girl friends"; "tell us about your illegal [= out of marriage] sexual relationships"; "what kind of relationship have that girl/guy had with you?"; "how many times have you been raped, or have you raped?"; and worst of all, they gave the names of 6 reformist activist to one of the girls asking her to confess in writing that she had had illegal sexual relationship with them. And when the girl refused, they brought in a former prisoner (who had turned to their side under torture) who told the girl face to face that he had had sexual relationship with her!

3- The interrogations were managed by a formerly arrested blogger. A few other bloggers who had [given up and] repented before were under less pressure, and were in a way helping the interrogators who had lack of technical knowledge on the subject [of internet and blogs]. This proves that weak people cannot be trusted in politics. However, we understand the situation they're in and can't really blame them for what they've done.

And more....

I first discovered the amazing Iranian blogosphere when the government arrested fellow blogger Sina Motallebi. I blogged that. Others blogged that. Major media picked up the story. Motallebi got out of jail and then out of Iran and he has credited the attention his plight got from bloggers.

If what we read here is true, then it is incumbent of us to bring attention to this abuse who are doing nothing more than we are doing: excercising our right to free speech. This is citizens' media and these are our fellow citizens.

Spread the word.

A world of witnesses, a world of reporters

: Following up on yesterday's post about finding photos and video and the tsunami, Brian TVNewser Stelter sends this good quote from David Carr's NY Times story:

Bob Calo, an associate professor at the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, said that there had been something of a reversal in the news-gathering process. "If you think back, news gatherers would get the story and then commission a photographer to go and get the pictures," he said. "Now we have flipped it around to where reporters are chasing the pictures, trying to create some context for what viewers are seeing."
We are all reporters. I've written often that I wonder what would have been different if I'd had a camera or cameraphone with me at the World Trade Center on 9/11: An event viewed from a rooftop three miles away would have been viewed from a human level instead.

: Meanwhile, Punditguy sends a link to this dramatic tourist video of the wave engulfing a resort and these photos. Those photos are taken by an American in Thailand named Ernest and if you scroll down on his blog, you will read how he ended up in Phuket. This makes the news very human.

December 27, 2004

Tsunami: envisioning the horror

: TVNewser reports that TV networks are falling over themselves to buy tourist video that captures the instant power and horror of the tsunami.

: These pictures at News.com.au come close: look at the sequence of unexpected destruction on a beautiful, sunny day.

Dr. I've-Had-My-Phil

: TVNewser tried to find anybody who liked Dr. Phil's appearance on Meet the Press. He failed.

Rerun: Two of my favorites

: Howard Stern's recent appearance on David Letterman's show is rerun tonight.

Help

: Southeast Asian bloggers are putting together a blog with information on helping or finding information on victims of the earthquake and tsunami.

Pulse taken

: BlogPulse's year-end roundup makes for some interesting reading. [Full ego disclosure: I'm happy to be included in the top-cited blogs. Thanks for the links, folks!]

Vloggercon

: Unmediated passes on news of an impending vloggercon (for video blogging). If the date holds -- Jan. 22 -- I won't be in town. Damn!

Fortune

: Fortune's next issue on the top 10 trends to watch for leads off with blogs ina story by David Kirkpatrick and and Daniel Roth. They just put the story online -- free! -- and so here's the link. I haven't even had a chance to read it (I'm still visiting with family) but I'm letting you know about it first.

: Just got back and had time to read the story. It's very good -- blogs from Fortune's perspective of corporate America with a simple message: You can't afford to ignore these things.

Says Bill Gates:

"It's all about openness," says chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft's public blogs like Scobleizer. "People see them as a reflection of an open, communicative culture that isn't afraid to be self-critical." ...

Says Bill Gates, who claims he'd like to start a blog but doesn't have the time: "As blogging software gets easier to use, the boundaries between, say, writing e-mail and writing a blog will start to blur. This will fundamentally change how we document our lives."

Not to mention change the world.

On the Air

: Reminder that I'll be on Air America's Morning Sedition at 8:30 ET. My son's going into the studio with me to see how they make radio: Guys talk.

December 26, 2004

The tsunami

: The Independent has a helpful if horrifying country-by-country report on the impact of the earthquake and destruction. Here's a map from The Age in Australia.

: The Age asks readers to send in their stories and this comes from an Australian near Phuket:

We came to Koh Tao on a two week holiday to relax in the sun......
AdvertisementAdvertisement

I was standing on the beach about 30 meters from the shoreline at a dive shop when I heard raised voices and looked around. The deck chairs that were lining the beach were floating toward me. It was a bit confusing at first as nobody had any idea what was going on. There was no loud noise or wind, just all of a sudden the sea had risen a good 10 meters.

Then the wave sucked out away from the shore a few hundred meters, exposing the coral reef that I had dived on a few days earlier. That's when people really realised something was terribly wrong. All of a sudden all the dive instructors and staff of the nearby restaraunt ran down the beach to see if anyone was pulled out, only to find themselves faced with a surging ocean at least 15 meters high. At this point I was standing on a small cement wall at the top of the beach and watched as they scrambled up the beach and up the steep hillside on the edge of the bay.

When the second wave came in it simply tore apart the wooden buildings that sat at the top of the beach, the water came up to my knees and very neally took me off the wall. When the second wave sucked out, everyone who could bolted for the slopes on the sides of the bay.

The third and probably largest wave came surging forward and simply ripped apart the cement buildings like they were made of balsa wood. I saw a friend of mine scramble onto a roof about 5 meters from me as the water reached its peak - only to hear a loud crack and see the roof lurch badly. I couldn't believe my eyes when the entire roof - with my friend on top, floated to the side and was sucked out into the bay and out of sight.

It just seemed so impossible, 10 minutes earlier we had been sitting down on the beach drinking a coffee, and now the entire beach had been ripped apart and my friend and all the buildings were simply gone.

The waves continued for a good hour after, gradually getting smaller only to reveal the complete devastation left behind. There was complete confusion as people were running around trying to find each other - or simply sitting in the wreckage with vacant looks on their faces. Later I found out that my friend had been rescued by boat with a mild concussion and lacerations from all the wreckage in the water and is at this moment in Phuket hospital....

: The dramatic first-person account of a Washington Post reporter who swam through the tsunami off Sri Lanka:
I was a quarter way around the island when I heard my brother shouting at me, "Come back! Come back! There's something strange happening with the sea." He was swimming behind me, but closer to the shore.

I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. All seemed peaceful....

Then I noticed that the water around me was rising, climbing up the rock walls of the island with astonishing speed. The vast circle of golden sand around Weligama Bay was disappearing rapidly, and the water had reached the level of the coastal road, fringed with palm trees....

Instead of the ark, I grabbed a wooden catamaran that the local people used as a fishing boat. My brother jumped on the boat next to me. We bobbed up and down on the catamaran as the water rushed past us into the village beyond the road.

After a few minutes, the water stopped rising, and I felt it was safe to swim to the shore. What I did not realize was that the floodwaters would recede as quickly and dramatically as they had risen.

All of a sudden, I found myself being swept out to sea with startling speed. Although I am a fairly strong swimmer, I was unable to withstand the current. The fishing boats around me had been torn from their moorings, and were bobbing up and down furiously.

: The science of a tsunami:
“The effect of the earthquake is like throwing a stone in a pond, except that you are throwing it from below. You get the equivalent of a splash and water is displaced with waves spreading outwards,” he said.

Over the ocean, the waves of a tsunami are small, probably no more than a few centimetres to a metre high. Fisherman 20 miles out at sea barely notice their passage.

Their speed depends on the depth of the water, but is typically several hundred miles an hour. The deeper the water, the faster the waves travel and at the bottom of the deepest ocean they can keep pace with a jet aircraft.

As yesterday’s tsunami approached the coasts of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia and the Maldives, it slowed. The more it became compressed, the more it grew in height. As it reached the shore it grew into a monster.

: The official USGS data: 9.0.

: I went to the United Nations' site earnestly expecting to find some update on relief efforts and I find nothing (save for a link about Iraq). You might think I"m being unfair but I don't. Shouldn't they of all agencies in the world be prepared on a moment's notice to at least suggest how people could help people in disasters?

: Jeff Ooi continues to link to news and other bloggers' reports.

Secular Britain
:
: A new survey finds most Britons don't believe in God. Compare with Americans here.

To say that Britain is rapidly becoming a godless country would be too strong, but a YouGov survey provides overwhelming evidence that the British are now a largely irreligious people.

Only a minority believe that God exists and almost everyone acknowledges that Britain is becoming an increasingly secular society.

There is little or no evidence of active hostility towards either religious people or religious beliefs.

Instead, the national mood appears to be one of benign indifference. Most people give the impression of regarding religion almost as a consumer good, one to be consumed by those who happen to have a taste for it.

Now I'm sure some of the folks who argued with me over religion will see this as a sure sign of the path down which we're headed, now that we've happy-holidazed ourselves, a sure sign of a worldwide war against religion. I don't. America still thinks of itself as a religious nation (though a heckuva lot more people say they're religious than go to services; a heckuva lot more people belong to churches than go to services in many places). And I note in this story a strong tolerance of religion by the nonreligious; in the recent discussion here, the assumption by many -- wrong, I believe -- is that the secular are hostile to the religous. Live an let live -- eternally or not -- that's the attitude I see.

Air America Morning Sedition notes

: I'll be back on Air America's Morning Sedition Monday at 8:30 ET. Here are my notes, which I'll try to share in case you all have words of wisdom (on the jump):

Revolutionary media moments from 2004… in which the citizens take control of media:

The Dean Scream… marks the moment when the public sets the spin, instead of spin alley. I don’t buy the argument that Dean was only speaking up because of a loud crowd; every candidate plays only to the TV cameras and Dean was trying to play the role of a winner, even though he had just lost in Iowa. Throughout the campaign, he tried to play the role of an antiwar leftist, even though he was more of a moderate. The forced fakery of the scream confirmed the view of many voters that the guy wasn’t what he seemed. That was the spin of the Scream remixes – and besides, it was a great punchline for a new medium flexing its multimedia muscle. Spin alley is over; in the future of campaign coverage, we will come directly and quickly to citizens’ media – rather than pundits, pollsters, or spinsters – to find out how it plays.

Dan Rathergate… of course, marks the ascendance of citizens’ media and the descendance of big, old, top-down, one-way, haughty, know-it-all, one-size-fits-all news. It took citizen bloggers 18½ minutes to fact-check Dan Rather’s ass and though citizen journalists will not replace the pros, we will see them report more and more and if big media is smart, they’ll find ways to cooperate and coopt rather than disdain and dismiss.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire… marks nothing in terms of substance (it was a great comedy routine) but it means everything in terms of the future of media distribution: At most, 500,000 saw it on big CNN but on the web, via iFilm and Bittorrent, an estimated 3-5 million saw it. Witness the death of the power of the network; witness the birth of the citizens’ network. TV will never be the same: We’ll get what we want when and where and how we want it.

Add this all together, and we will mark 2004 as the year of the media revolution. We took control.

Another major event this year was, of course, the Janet Jackson’s breast and the flood of censorship it unleashed, culminating – so far – in Howard Stern’s desertion of broadcast.

Together with Morning Sedition, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the nine complaints that led to a patently ludicrous and wasteful indecency investigation of the Greek Olympics on NBC. The FCC cut us off at the pass by quietly posting those complaints on the web. I’m betting that at least some of these are the work of guerilla comics and fans of Howard Stern and the First Amendment, who want to show this FCC jihad for the absurd and ultimately offensive exercise it is.


In current news…

The Bernie Kerik pile-on… it may be fun sport since Kerik is such a nincompoop. But I say there is a dangerous precedent being set in this gleeful exhibit of gotcha journalism. The coverage of the presidential election turned all too much into gotcha journalism (see the Swift Boats) and I’m sorry to see that continuing. Bernie Kerik was no longer a threat to national security once he withdrew his nomination. Yes, of course, there are some apparently legitimate stories about edgy things he may have done as New York police commissioner. But the truth is that The New York Times is going after Kerik with great joy because they want to go after Rudy Guliani’s presidential aspiration. Even now, the 2008 game of gotcha begins. And that worries me because every person President Hillary Clinton appoints will go through a ringer worse than this one. If you can’t escape the pile-on even by withdrawing, then no one will want to risk lifelong scrutiny for a bad-paying government job. We’ll end up with bland bureaucrats in power. We have to stop acting as if our politicians are perfect. Of course, they’re not perfect. They’re politicians!

And I just added Tim Russert's leap over the shark, below.

Meet the Press jumps the shark

: I was appalled this morning to hear Tim Russert interviewing -- if you can call an exchange of meaningless pap and platitudes an interview -- with TV quack shrink Dr. Phil. They traded baseless generalizations about "the family" for way too long.

Add this to the Meet the Press sin of having Jerry Falwell and Al Sharpton on a few weeks ago to talk religion.

Who the hell is booking this show? Meet the Press has been the smartest show on TV. They can get anyone they want. They used to try a little harder to find someone smart.

Now their guests are as random as an elevator ride.

For shame.

: James Wolcott seconds the motion:

What's next, Suzi Orman laying out Social Security privatization for us between teeth bleachings?

I'm not sure what which was worse, Dr. Phil's thimble-deep patriarchal profundities or the sage nods with which they were received by Untiny Tim.

Tragedy in south Asia

: A horrendous earthquake and tsunami:

The world's biggest earthquake in 40 years hit south Asia Sunday, unleashing a tsunami that crashed into Sri Lanka and India and swamped tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives, killing more than 6,300 people.

A wall of water up to 30 feet high triggered by the 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra caused death, chaos and devastation.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.

: Bangkok blogger Ron Morris has amazing updates [via Jeff Ooi]. See these photos (1 - 2)

: Here's a Dutch blog that appears to be made up entirely of Google news alerts; this is the page on quakes.

: Glenn Reynolds has more links. Command Post's reports here.

Merry, indeed

: Colleague, friend, and fellow blogger Joe Territo got an amazing Christmas present: The family's adoption is final.

December 25, 2004

Reports from Iraq

: Zeyad is back with two very informative posts at Healing Iraq. Zeyad's reporting comes in shades of gray: not the white of Iraq The Model or the black of Riverbend. As much as I love and respect the ITM guys for their courageous stand in favor of a free future and as glad as I am that we can hear every perspective, including Riverbend's angry view, it is Zeyad who provides sophisticated, balanced, yet personal and human reporting from Iraq. From his first post, he was glad to be free but also bluntly realistic about the hardships and fears he and his family are living under.

In the first post today, Zeyad gives us an incredibly detailed and eduational post about the Iraq election process, more than I've read anywhere else. He explains what all the coalitions and lists are and how people will vote for lists but only the top candidates from successful parties will get into National Assembly based on their vote total. Zeyad does a wonderful job explaining it, but it's quite confusing:


A registered voter will cast his vote for ONE of the 93 lists. The National Assembly will consist of 275 members. A candidate would need (total number of voters/275) votes to get a seat in the assembly. For example, if 10 million people vote, divide 10,000,000 by 275 and you get 36,363 votes required for a candidate to be on the assembly (actually it's 36363.6 votes but I'm not quite sure how they are going to deal with fractional numbers).

So, for a list that gets 11% of the votes (1,100,000 votes), they are allocated 11% of the 275 seats which is [275/11=]25 members. If that particular list has 200 candidates, only the top 25 members on the list get the seats. Therefore it's easy to conclude that the higher a candidate's name is on the list, the more likely they would get a seat. I hope I haven't confused anyone!

I should add that the majority of Iraqi voters are in fact confused and unfamiliar with these details and I have a feeling that the major players intend to keep it this way. The IEC has promised to distribute pamphlets and handbills explaining the above process in simple terms to Iraqi voters.

Nonetheless
Recent polls by the IEC indicate that some 80% of eligible voters (all Iraqis over 18 who can prove their Iraqi identity) in the country have registered.
Take that, those of you who think that there are people on this earth who aren't ready for democracy. Take that along with the incredible turnout in Afghanstan. I will bet that even with the fear of dying at the polls, more Iraqis will show up to vote than at too many American elections. We take our freedom for granted. That, and much more:

In his second long post of the day, Zeyad catalogues the daily difficulties of life in Baghad: still no electricity for hours and even days at a time (why haven't we yet received a decent explanation for this>), continuing shortages of fuel in an oil-rich land, and phones that just don't work. Clearly, it is hard and dangerous to get the infrastructure built with terrorism at any corner, but as in any electorate, it is the daily issues of life that will affect the outcome of an election.

Christmas cheer

: David Letterman takes his show to the troops in Baghdad again:

When hands flew in the air in response to requests for a volunteer to help deliver the opening monologue, he asked: "Isn't that how you got here?"

With the help of cue cards held by an Army soldier, Letterman ran off a series of crowd-pleasers:

"Iraqi elections are in January. Hurry up and pick somebody so we can get the hell out of here," he said.

Merry Christmas, friends

: I have to tell you that there is no sweeter moment than sitting in the congregation for the church's family service on Christmas Eve, listening to my son in the pulpit, reading the lessons, and watching my daughter as an angel, looking the part. Pride and joy and hope well up.

I read my Christmas posts over the last three years. The first, in 2001, was, of course, about recovering from September 11th. The next two were about war in Afghanistan and Iraq. This year, there is plenty of darkness we could concentrate on: continuing war in Iraq, continuing fear, continuing political animus.

But we also have hope for the beginnings of democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, even Palestine. We have hope for the small beginnings of new connections in the world as Joi Ito tells us. And I have my family, my wonderful children, the preacher and the angel. Watch your children and you cannot help but have hope.

So this Christmas for me is about small beginnings of hope and the hope children bring.

Merry Christmas, my friends. Have hope.

December 24, 2004

Joi to the world

: Joi Ito writes the perfect Christmas greeting to the world for this year: A call for remembering the need to use this new medium of ours to build bridges with global voices. Joi reprints the latest version of the Global Voices Convenant (formerly a manifesto; thanks for changing it to covenant, folks). Says Joi:

...at our fingertips, we have the ability to reach out and speak to, build bridges with and interact with those people we have been "wishing well" to in the abstract for all of these years. We have a long way to go before we are able to hear the voices of everyone on earth, but I believe that providing voices and building bridges is essential for the World Peace we all wish for.
Amen.

Others are wondering what the year ahead holds for blogging and media. Others are saying that blogs will get respect or advertising or big-media attention.

My fondest hope is that blogs grow ever-more international. I've now met bloggers from Iraq, Iran, Kenya, Malyasia, China, the Phillipines, India, Germany, England, Australia, Canada, France... Blogs have allowed me to build or cross bridges that would not have been possible before: person to person, around boundaries, around governments, around censorship, around prejudice, creating understanding and friendships. It's a small process, a link at a time. But that is how our world works now. It's not about masses. It's about masses of individuals. Every link we build to someone in another land, every bit of understanding we share, every friendship we form is a link to world peace.

So Joi could not have written a more appriate message for Christmas: It's about people. It's about peace.

: And thanks to Doc for the headline.

: The Global Voices covenant is already being translated into other languages. The start:

We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak -- and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech.

Wir glauben an Meinungsfreiheit: Schutz des Rechtes, seine Meinung zu äußern. Und des Rechtes, zuzuhören. Wir glauben an unbeschränkten Zugang zu den Instrumenten von Meinungsäußerung.

إننا نعتقد بالكلمة الحرة: بحماية الحق في إسماع الغير وحصول الفرصة للإستماع لهم. لكل فرد في هذا العالم الحق في الحصول على أدوات تساعدهم على ذلك.

Nous croyons en la liberté d'expression, en la protection du droit de parler et du droit d'écouter. Nous croyons en l'accès universel aux outils d'expression.

Now that is how to say Merry Christmas to the world.

Consumer-driven advertising

: In a piece for Technology Review, John Battelle translates the weblog discussion on sell-side advertising started by Ross Mayfield and picked up by Battelle here (I joined in here). Battelle changes the name to publisher-driven advertising but I don't think I like that because it doesn't go far enough.

What we really want -- the endgame -- is consumer-driven advertising.

Says John:

Ideally, commercial media would consist of equal partnerships between three parties: publishers, the audience, and advertisers. In reality, advertisers, the group with the most money, hold all the cards. Publishers have been relegated to the role of supplicant, and the audience—well, we pretty much have to swallow whatever deal the publisher and the advertisers cut.

For the most part, the Internet has inherited this model from print publishing: on the Web, there are far more publishers trolling for ad dollars than there are advertisers doling them out. But the Internet’s interactivity suggests an alternative economy in which the long-standing imbalance between publisher, audience, and advertiser could be corrected. A system of Internet-based marketing, which I’ll call Publisher-Driven Advertising, or PDA, may be soon possible. In this system, publishers would pick and choose from a vast supply of advertisers.

The idea, to recount it as simply as possible, is that rather that advertisers would make ads available; publishers would pick up the best ones for their audiences and interests; advertisers would pay only for performance.

In the previous discussion, I tried to take this another step by suggesting that publishers (bloggers, that is) and consumers should create advertising. Yes, there'd be screeching that the creative wouldn't match the advertisers' brand messages -- but when you think about it, that's damned silly: Who better to create the brand message the works than someone who has bought your product?

Now I will take this one step further, arguing for consumer-driven advertising and ad transparency: In this new medium with all its targeting power, how much better it would be if we could tell the targeters: Don't give me car ads because I'm not in the market for a car now, thank you. Don't give me feminine products because I'm a man. Don't give me booze ads because I'm on the wagon. We'd be telling them not to waste their money paying for our eyeballs. That's better for the advertiser: far more efficient. It's better for the publisher: far more efficient. It's better for consumers: far less irritating. It makes advertising actually useful. What a revolutionary concept!

See Jarvis' First Law of Media: Give the people control of media, they will use it. The corollary: Don't give the people control of media, and you will lose. (More broadly expressed: Bet on that which gives citizens control. And bet against those who try to maintain control apart from the public.)

See also Oren's corollary: Every ad a wanted ad.

Clearly, this doesn't work for every product ("please, please give me ads for the latest and greatest in toilet paper tissue"). But when this does work -- when the consumer becomes your advertiser -- then we have reached the real ideal to which Battelle refers.

In this brave new world of advertising... Palm puts out a marketing RFP for the Treo. I am a big Treo fan and I know many of you are, so I sign up to put that ad on Buzzmachine, getting paid for all your clicks (or perhaps even purchases). But then I see that I can do a better job selling the wonders of the Treo because, as a consumer I know what appeals to me, so I create my own ad that outperforms Palm's creative. Meanwhile you, dear reader, get to tell my ad-targeting software that you aren't in the market for a phone and so I won't waste that pageview on you; I'll sell you a good book, instead.

In the end, everybody benefits -- except, perhaps, for the old-style ad agency that made its money off creative and media buying, a model that will have to change along with the rest of media in this new age.

: MORE: When I first posted about creating ads, I thought it was a little nutty. But since then, we've seen the consumer-created iPod ad getting great distribution. Here's the NY Times reporting in the phenom.

New ads and ideas for campaigns are increasingly popping up without client or agency involvement, whether online, on television or metaphorically nailed to boardroom doors.

Various people with diverse motives are behind the proliferation of vigilante marketing. They are freelancers and fans - even agencies - looking for accounts, and they have shown up this year to advertise or try to advertise products as they see fit.

George Masters of Irvine, Calif., who teaches Web design and graphics to high school and community college students, said he created a 60-second animated commercial for the iPod Mini music player partly because he likes making animation with graphics. But he also said that some measure of evangelism was involved.

: See also the wonderful SpecSpot, where creative types show off their talent in hopes of attracting work by making fake commercials for real products -- many much better than the real commercials. (I first wrote about it here.)

Turning the world into podcasts

: Thanks to the link from Instapundit, I just downloaded BlogMatrix Sparks "to record streaming Internet radio programs and download podcasts and store them in your media player (iTunes or Windows Media Player). Sparks! uses an interactive directory of radio stations and podcasts to help you find content."

There is no documentation yet but it's quite cool. I'm using it to record my appearances on Air America's Morning Sedition

In fact, I now see that David Janes, creator of Sparks, is the nice guy who recorded my last appearance on Morning Sedition.

Americans and religion

: A new Gallup poll on Americans and religion says:

: Eighty-eight percent of Americans say it is OK to say merry Christmas "as a way to spread holiday cheer."

: Of those who do not identify with a Christian religion, 79 percent say it's OK to say Merry Christmas.

: Asked which greeting they would use with someone they just met, 41 percent said they'd say happy holidays while 56 percent said they'd say merry Christmas.

: Asked whether they're upset with the shift from merry Christmas to more secular greetings, there's a split: 44 percent said it's a change for the better, 43 percent for the worse.

: Regardless of religious affiliation, 96 pecent of Americans celebrate Christmas. Four out of 10 Americans say they attend religious services on a regular basis.

: Eight-four percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian. Another five percent are affiliated with nonChristian religions.

"Religion is very important to about 6 out of 10 Americans, while another quarter say that religion is fairly important in their lives. Only 16% of Americans in 2004 said that religion was not very important to them. This measure of the personal importance of religion to one's daily life has not changed much during the last decade."

What does that say to those who argue that Republicans are the religious ones? Yes, the poll finds that Republicans are more likely to attend church than Democrats or independents. But they didn't get 84 percent of the vote.

: Among the 9 percent who say they have no religious affiliation are agnostic or atheist, "tend to be politically liberal, Democrats, independents, younger, living in the West, students, and those who are living with someone without being married." In short: Berkeley.

: Protestantism is fading. Young people, 18 to 29, are the least likely to attend church overall. Among Protestants, only 37 percent of 18 to 29s identify themselves as Protestant vs. 63 percent for those age 65 and older.

: SEPARATELY: See this report about the International Bible Society sponsoring the distribution of New Testaments in the Colorado Springs Gazette. There's a supposed controversy about this. I don't know why. There are ads for churches and synagogues in every paper. I get plenty of advertising that doesn't relate to me; if this doesn't relate to you, then ignore it. I agree with Tom Rosenstiel:

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington research organization affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, disagreed.

"I think there is a free speech issue here," Mr. Rosenstiel said. "I think this is one of the things about newspapers: they deliver you everything. If a newspaper is open to all, I don't understand the issue here. Are we frightened of having this in our house? Should people of one religion not read the scriptures of another? We can't neuter our society."

The problem, from a press perspective, is that reporters are forever on the lookout for someone who is going to be "offended" and that becomes a story: "Some Jews and Muslims said getting the New Testament with the Sunday paper felt like being proselytized in their homes. Journalism critics debated whether this was free speech or skating too close to an endorsement of a particular religion." But, in fact, only five people canceled subscriptions over this -- far fewer than when a cartoon is dropped, the publisher said.

This shows how the press encourages our culture of complaint, our society of offense.

America, the digital third world

: Network visionary David Isenberg cites an article on why we are so far behind other countries -- even Jamaica -- in mobile uptake and quality and then says:

Too many networks, not enough investment. The same thing seems to be happening in U.S. broadband policy. The United States, the FCC, the telcos, etc., are making a big deal out of multimodal competition. (The telcos want to keep other people off the poles, outa their fiber, and offa their twisted pairs, so they support the idea -- idea -- of cable plus wireless plus broadband-over-powerline plus . . . This might be good for the telcos, but will it put the U.S. behind the rest of the developed world for the next 20 years?
And I note this on the FCC's site today reminding utility-pole owners that they have to provide access to their poles for wireless companies at a reasonable rate.

We're combing navel lint while the rest of the world is racing ahead of us.

December 23, 2004

Watchable

: Nick Denton is on of The Wall Street Journal's 15 people to watch. He shares the stage with Kofi Annan.

And God rolled His Eyes, continued

: Conservative columnist Michele Malkin makes just the point I was making about the real war against religion in the world:

Yes, it's maddening when politically correct bureaucrats ban nativity scenes and Christmas carols in the name of "diversity" and "tolerance." We are under attack by Secularist Grinches Gone Wild. But the war on Christmas in America is a mere skirmish.

Around the world, a bloody, repressive war on Christians rages on....

If America's mainstream media would give the global War on Christianity just a fraction of the attention it pays to the War on Christmas, lives might be saved. And light would be shed on the true heroes of the original religion of peace.

: LATER: I'll clarify two points: First, as I said in my original post, there are wars against Jews and wars among Muslims not to mention Muslim and Hindu. So, no, I'm not saying that there is a war just against Christianity (and I don't know whether Malkin is). Second, the point where Malkin and I agree is that in any case, the moaning about a religious war in America is trivializing what is happening elsewhere in the world; it's silly and unbecoming of people who have the privilege of living in the freedom we have.

Now I'll repeat what I said in the comments: It's Christmas Eve. Let's call a truce, please, and not start religious wars here. Thank you. Merry Christmas.

Fishing with a howitzer

: Cathy Seipp takes on Prof. Pondscum's best buddies. Go get 'em.

Whine

: I'm sick and grumpy (not a cause-and-effect relationship). Blogging if I come out of a fevered fog.

Can we eliminate the handshake from our culture? I'm not germphobic but why get sick if you don't have to? I'm thinking of becoming eccentric in the model of Donald Trump and Howard Stern: I'm going to wave or bow. I'm going to wear masks. I'm going to disinfect every surface I touch. I'm going to let my fingernails grow....

Nevermind me, I'm in a fevered fog. Gawd, I hate being sick.

FCC follies: The Olympics complaints

: The FCC quietly posted to its web site the nine complaints that triggered a Commission investigation of the Olympics.

I'm betting that many if not most of them are the fine work of fans of Howard Stern and the First Amendment who have a well-developed sense of comic absurdity and enjoy painting the FCC into a corner: Hey, suckas, if you're going to censor Stern and Jackson and Bono, then censor this! One clue: A complainer says the FCC should go after Oprah Winfrey (a rallying cry for us Stern fans; she did exactly what got Stern a huge fine but she's skating so far). Another clue: They argue that commercials for Father of the Pride -- a cartoon; it tried and failed to be a little sophisticated but it was still just a cartoon -- and The Exorcist are indecent.

Why did the FCC put this up now? It could be because they wanted to cut off my Freedom of Information Act request at the pass (I filed it with Air America's Morning Sedition and the FCC wouldn't want either of us to have a good story). It could also be that there is some sane soul in the FCC who's glad to have this absurdity exposed. I doubt that. But a citizen can hope, can't he?

Here is my forensic analysis of the nine complaints.

My favorite goes after a profile of Amanda Beard:

In one of their athlete profiles they described her as the sex symbol of the Olympics, and showing some incredibly inappropriate images of her to prove their point.
Anybody have a copy? Please?
This happened during prime time, when children could be watching. Instead of celebrating the greatness of mankind as represented by the Olympic spirit, they showed pictures designed to incite lust and immorality -- roots of many of the social ills facing our nation today.
This is either a brilliant Stern prankster or someone who badly needs a dose of Viagra.

Two complain about the opening ceremonies, an event so dull only people without lives could stay awake to watch for nasties. One of them whines:

How could NBC be allowed to show the male genitalia on national television, especially during prime time, in their coverage of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. This was suppose [sic] to be family viewing time. There were children watching. I am referring to when the giant white mask that broke apart into a statue of a nude man. First we had to be subjected to the breast of Janet Jackson in the Superbowl, an [sic] now an even more gratuitous display of pornography and indecency during what was suppose [sic] to be another family viewing event.
The Washington Post gets to the bottom of this cultural scandal, reporting:
Actually, the writer is referring to the gigantic replica of a Cycladic head, so popular around 2700 B.C., that broke apart to reveal a replica of a Kouros sculpture, all the rage around the 6th century B.C.
Another complained:
To sit there with my kids and watch a guy basically rip off a girls [sic] clothes while appearing to have sex, has nothing to do with the Olympic tradition.
The Post interprets:
We believe this writer is referring to that happy couple seen frolicking -- and losing some clothing as sometimes happens when one frolics -- in the world's largest puddle, during the artsy-craftsy part of the ceremonies.

FYI, that was right around the time that puddle-wading pregnant chick with the glowing belly showed up. We have been told on good authority that she was supposed to represent Leto, aka Latona, the Titans' daughter, who, I'm here to tell you, was one skeevy chick.

Four of them complain that they heard the word "fuck" during women's beach volley ball.

And two of them complained about commercials for curing erectile dysfunction or entertainment (which are, after all, pretty much the same thing):

While watching the Olympics women's volleyball game, USA v. China, on Saturday 8/14, an advertisement for THE EXORCIST came on. We parents shouldn't have to sit on a Saturday afternoon and worry what kind of messages our children might receive while watching an Olympic event. That advertisement was completely inappropriate and I found myself scrambling to keep my kids from watching that violence.
Yes, their heads started spinning and they began spewing pea soup! You'd think that these folks would like The Exorcist; the devil loses, you know. This correspondent also complains about a Cialis commercial and adds:
Is there no time at all that we can peacefully watch television. You're so worried about Janet Jackson's breast yet you let this kind of advertising just slide. Do your job.
Yes, let's not be sexist! Another letter complains about Father of the Pride promos. Well, there was a lot to complain about with that turkey but not this:
I am not a prude, but subject matter shown in these commercials is not fit for family viewing.
Heh. This correspondent this goes on to describe the Viagra and Cialis commercials in detail.
We all know they are marketing to people who use the drug to enhance performance, not just to treat disfunction.
If they, instead, treated the limp like Jerry's Kids, I assume there'd no problem.

Because of these patently if not purposely absurd letters, government lawyers and sleuths are now investigating the Olympics to see whether sex, drugs, and kids cartoons are ruining the nation's soul.

I could argue that doping and greed are doing that. But, hey, then you'd have to ban baseball... and football... and....

: MORE: The NY Times goes to too great a length to try to analyze FCC Chairman Michael Powell's cynical hypocrisy on the First Amendment. They note (as I did in my Nation story on this) that Powell once defending the First Amendment and even won an award because of it; now he is the national nanny.

Odd that The Times says the FCC would not characterize the complaints regarding that Olympics yet the FCC put the complaints themselves online three days ago. The FCC is gaming us.

December 22, 2004

Smuggled out in a cake

: Martha Stewart sends a message to her fans from inside prison (and links to her appeal).

: Tony Pierce in the comments:

it took jail time for martha to see that drug reform is necessary.

maybe we should send congress to jail for a few months until they get it too.

Aw shucks

: I started reading Fimoculous' year-end State of the Blogs address nodding my head in agreement:

Before anyone tries to talk you into uttering senseless historical inanities, let's just clear this up: 2004 was not "The Year of the Blog." This was not the year of Howard Dean's bold online campaign, nor was it the year of dismantling Trent Lott. It wasn't even the year of the Paris Hilton tape. That was all last year, and while we have plenty to celebrate about '04, it's best to approach the past 365 days wearing a new look: maturity. In other words, this was the year blogs grew up.

Don't mistake that assessment as a suggestion that blogs are slipping into a rheumatic slumber. To be sure, it was a good year, one in which we (may I use the royal first person?) booted a tiresome TV anchor, sparred with the FCC, pre-reported Ken Jennings' demise, and discovered an entire radical music movement. Excellent work, and that's not even counting the intrepid analysis of Tara Reid's nipple.

But this was a landmark year for independent publishers not so much because of Lewinsky-size scoops, but because the internet came into its own as a medium for experiencing news events. Think about it -- look how many events didn't necessarily happen first online, but seemed to exist because of the blogosphere. The moments that best defined culture in '04 -- the best political debate (Jon Stewart pouncing on Crossfire), the best sex media scandal (Bill O'Reilly raping a falafel), the best TV moment (Janet exposing a Super Bowl nipple), and the best music video (Ashlee Simpson lip synching on SNL) -- were all probably delivered to you via blogger keystrokes. These media events all somehow felt, if you will, "internety" -- somewhat like how Jon Stewart's Daily Show has that intangible quality that makes it feel like television's version of a blog.

In other words, 2004 was the year we became the medium that mattered....

And then I scrolled down to find something I didn't agree with, but it's damned nice of him anyway. You'll see....

: MORE: Uh-oh, there are more year-end wrap coming. I hate year-end wrap, except that they make the last week of the year easy for reporters and editors. That is why they exist.

: MORE: Lileks does his year-end wrap (no mayo) on blogs:

Full disclosure: This writer knows the Power Line guys, and has a Web site of his own. Good thing, too; the Internet is going to make gigs like this obsolete, once enough people realize that some guy in his basement is capable of turning out commentary as insightful as a tenured eminence who was handed a column 30 years ago and has spent the last 10 coasting on a scoop from the Reagan years. It takes dynamite to get some writers out of the paper.

In the new media, however, a clever blog can spring up overnight and get 100,000 readers in a day. That number can quickly fall to zero if the blogger gets a terminal case of the stupids....

In a sense, blogging is so 2004. The next big thing will be videoblogs. You can fit a rudimentary TV studio in a suitcase -- a laptop, a camcorder, a few cables, and a nearby Starbucks with Wi-Fi you can leech onto to upload your reports. This too will be good. One hundred thousand pairs of eyes looking high and low, versus CBS' staring monocular orb. We'll all turn to the nets to see what they think we should think. And then we'll hit the blogs for the rest of the story.

I second that motion.

When bleeding hearts clot

: I really can't stand Sen. Sam Brownback for a host of reasons (his attacks on free speech and the First Amendment not least among them). Nick Kristof can't stand Brownback, either. Yet today Kristof writes:

Sure, Mr. Brownback is to the right of Attila the Hun, and I disagree with him on just about every major issue. But 'tis the season for brotherly love, so let me point to reasons for hope. Members of the Christian right, exemplified by Mr. Brownback, are the new internationalists, increasingly engaged in humanitarian causes abroad - thus creating opportunities for common ground between left and right on issues we all care about.

So Democrats should clamber down from the window ledges, roll up their sleeves and get to work on some of these issues. Because I'm embarrassed to say that Democrats have been so suspicious of Republicans that they haven't contributed much on those human rights issues where the Christian right has already staked out its ground....

Liberals traditionally were the bleeding hearts, while conservatives regarded foreign aid, in the words of Jesse Helms, as "money down a rat hole." That's changing. "One cannot understand international relations today without comprehending the new faith-based movement," Allen Hertzke writes in "Freeing God's Children," a book about evangelicals leaping into human rights causes.

I don't know why the bleeding hearts of the left have coagulated and hardened, but in many quarters, sadly, they have.

That is my complaint with the left and Iraq. Protest the war: fine. Complain about its execution: Sure. Disagree with me on the war: Absolutely. But I have heard too little empathy for the people of Iraq and too little disdain for their dictator. Even when two wonderful gentlemen, just people, just bloggers, came here this month, my fellow travelers tried to fang them just because they were associated with Iraq. That's just plain uncivilized. I've always seen Iraq as a humanitarian issue more than an issue of defense or terrorism but that human aspect is too often lost.

Of course, there are too many other humanitarian issues in the world today and Kristof is warning his fellow travelers that they will be left behind -- their historical leadership usurped by, of all people, the fundamentalists they too often disdain -- if they don't wake up and find their moral bearings again.

Liberalism is supposed to be about people, about caring for your fellow man, not just about shouting.

But if you prefer to judge this on a political rather than a moral basis, then heed Kristof's warning: Don't let Brownback win this one alone.

God would roll His eyes III

: Blog Done With Mirrors has a wonderful commentary on what is becoming known as the Hewitt-Jarvis debate on religion in America this Christmas season. This is the best of blogs: Hugh and I (and others) have a good and respectful discussion and others join in with good thoughts.

If you close one eye and look at America, you can see basic ideas of right and wrong -- a bulwark of a robust, free people -- eroding under attack from reckless and embittered relativists. Close the other eye and you see just as clearly blind fundamentalist morality on the march, threatening to enshrine an un-democratic Old Testament creed as the higher law.

Open both eyes, then, and see what Madison saw. The tension, the negotiation, the struggle for consensus and a common view, is the unscripted balancing act that keeps America safe.

But the best thing about this Hewitt-Jarvis discussion is what it isn't. So far, the focus isn't on government and religion. That's in there, but the posts are largely about We the People and our faiths and our joint ownership of the nation. I like that. Too often talk of religion in America presumes Americans are passive little leaves buffeted by the whims of a few fundamentalists in the corridors of Congress, or a few secularists on the 9th Circuit Court.

We're citizens, not subjects.

: ON THE OTHER HAND: There is the Lileks-Wolcott debate.

: MORE: Michael Bérubé, a profblogger from Penn State, fantasizes:

They warned me this would happen back when I was in boot camp at Focus on the Family, but I didn’t believe them. “You will need to gird your loins for the attack on Christmas,” they said. “Jacob Grinchstein and all his liberal friends in the media, the banks, and the intelligentsia are gearing up for an all-out assault on our Christian nation. First they came after Mel Gibson, and now they’re planning to take the Baby Jesus away from us.”

“Oh, come on,” I said at the time. “Next you’ll be telling me that they use the Baby Jesus’ blood to make matzohs.”

“No, they don’t do that anymore,” I was told. “Today they’re much more indirect and insidious-- they’re forbidding us even to say the word ‘Christmas,’ and they’re forcing your kid to sing ‘dreidel dreidel dreidel’ and make menorahs in your public school. Then when we call them on it, they hide behind Santa and start singing contentless ‘holiday’ music like ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’”

Now don't get all offended. A little humor is a healthy thing, remember.

: And here's John Scalzi (keep that sense-of-humor switch in the "on" position, please):

Here's the deal. Wish me a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Either way, I'll get what you mean, I'll take it in the spirit in which it is given, and in either case, you're likely to get the same response (i.e., "Thanks. You too."). On the other hand, wish me a "Merry Christmas" with that defiant air that means that you are driving your Christ-sticky foot into the ground and digging in against the godless forces of "Happy Holidays," and what you're declaring is that you are, indeed, a first-class idjit. It also signals that you're less interested in wishing me joy and glad tidings than in pimping the baby Jesus, in the guise of being nice. So not only are you a first class idjit, you're also rude. If you're going to wish me a Merry Christmas, try to mean it, for Christ's sake.
: LATER: Hugh Hewitt challenged Jim Geraghty at National Review to tackle somebody his own size -- aka me -- on this issue. I think Hugh did a better job of tackling, frankly. But here's Geraghty's take. Where this is coming out is where it went in: These folks think there is a [pick your lighter synonym for 'war'] on Christianity and I say there isn't. Geraghty wants me to "Go rip the 'You can’t say Merry Christmas, you have to say Happy Holidays' folks!" And I do [pick a lighter synonym for 'rip'] them. In fact, that's just the point. I think they're silly. And silliness does not add up to war or persecution or an attack on religion and Christianity in America. It's silliness. That's precisely the point. That is why I propose that God's reaction to this is a sigh and an eye roll in a world where so many of His children face very real challenges to their faith.

: AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS: Wolcott answers Lileks answering Wolcott:

In a holiday season when some of the leprechaun people are lamenting that not everyone accepts their cry of "Merry Christmas!" like a wet kiss, I am happy to report that here in Manhattan we're taking the savior's upcoming birthday in stride. After leaving the dermatologist's--I was relieved to discover I didn't have ringworm--I passed an adult video store in midtown which boasted a neon Christmas tree and menorah in the window, strategically flanking the latest exciting releases from San Fernando Valley. A Santa cap dangled from some sort of personal pleasuring device, a rather jaunty decorative touch, I thought. This is the sort of ecumenical spirit that ought to be encouraged in those fractious times.

December 21, 2004

Wiki spam?

: I checked in the Global Voices wiki and what do I find but what appears to be wiki spam. Bastards.

And God rolled His eyes III

: A very good discussion -- which we're all emphasizing is a discussion, not a fight -- continues with Hugh Hewitt here and here and Powerline here. What this is coming down to, in part, is whether the struggle (not war, as Hugh says) over a creche in city hall is an attack on the religious soul of the people (as they say, if I'm getting it right) or a media ploy by both sides (as I say) and thus, we differ on the cultural importance of this.

You're not alone, Craig

: Craig Newmark writes: "I (heart) wonkette."

Santa Slate

: Howard Kurtz just reported that The Washington Post has bought Slate. Here's Slate Editor Jacob Weisberg's announcement.

Howard just called to get react from the two-headed hydra I am as Media Man by day and Blog Boy by night. I said it's a good thing for both; they fit well together, not unlike Dow Jones and Marketwatch. Kurtz said the Post's rationale is that it will bring them more traffic while they bring Slate better ad sales (and thus the first taste of profitablity, they hope).

But I also said that the Post could have met the same goals without the cost and without the risk by establishing with a network of citizens' media, selling ads on and getting traffic from and extending their reach through the best blogs, which can then stay independent.

That requires thinking in a distributed way and that's hard for the old centralized marketplaces to do.

The FCC dodges

: I just got a reply, of sorts, to the Freedom of Information request I filed with the FCC asking for all documents "that contend or support the contention that Viacom and any of its subsidiaries -- including but not limited to CBS and MTV -- or executivesa were in any way aware before the fact that Janet Jackson's breast would be exposed on the Super Bowl telecast." The FCC said the exposure was the only illegal act and the company was the only guilty party -- Jackson and Timberlake were not fined -- and so I wanted to see what evidence they had the Viacom was directly responsible for the incident. My bet is that they have none and that will come out in court.

The FCC produced nothing in its reponse. Its letter says (leaving out the typographical omelet of the legal citations):

It would be inappropriate for us to characterize any evidence before us in the manner that you suggest because the Commission has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) concerning the halftime entertainment show of the National Football League's Super Bowl XXXVIII and the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast.

The FOIA requires a reasonable description of the records sought. If, upon review of the NAL, you determine there are specific records you would like to obtain, you may file a new FOIA request with a better description of the documents you seek...."

I thought I was quite clear. Perhaps an attorney out there could give me better language to file this again. I want to see any interviews with the parties or documents from the parties related to Viacom and company's foreknowledge of this event. From this letter, I'm not sure whether they're saying I did not describe the documents properly or they shouldn't discuss the case while it is active or both or neither. In any case, they dodged the question. So the only thing to do in dodgeball is to pick it up and throw it again.

The other way to go is for me to call the PR department but I think I'll stay with this one more round as I also await my other FOIAs.

My Iraqi friends

: Omar and Mohammed are back in Iraq and back on the blog. They write:

The three of us will never quit fighting for freedom and democracy along with our brothers and sisters in Iraq and the rest of the world and now we're doing this with more confidence and faith in a better future as we knew that Americans supported freedom in Iraq but we had no idea how great this support is and how committed the American people are for the success in Iraq until we saw it in our trip.
Thank you again.
We will never disappoint you because basically we're fighting for our dream.
The third brother, Ali, said the other day that he is leaving the blog. I don't know why; that's a matter between brothers. But we do know that Ali defending his brothers against foolishness while they were in America and at the time, I got a nice note from him.

The three of them are courageous defenders of their freedom. I hope they remain safe and continue their good work. Welcome home.

And God rolled His eyes II

: Yesterday, Hugh Hewitt, PowerlineBlog(oftheYear) and others responded to my post below about whether religion is under attack or attacking in America (I said neither statement is true). I first want to thank these good bloggers for the respectful tone of their disagreement; it's good to debate about a war without going to war (especially about religion). I was sorry I didn't have the time yesterday to respond. Now I'll try.

Start here: No one is this country is being stopped from worshipping as they please. No churches or synagogues or mosques are being shut by mob or government edict. That would indeed constitute a war against Christianity and religion; that would be illegal, unconstitutional, unAmerican, and wrong. But I don't see that happening. And if I did, I would be fighting that with my full First Amendment fervor.

Ah, but you might say that you're prevented from putting a creche in front of city hall or singing Christmas carols in school. But be careful, for if you're using that as an argument of religious persecution, you end up arguing that you want city hall and the school to become a place of worship and that does raise issues. You can't have it both ways: You can't argue that the creche and the carol are harmless displays of culture and then argue that preventing them is religious persection that prevents worship. That doesn't wash.

I'll repeat that I think it is silly and argumentative to demand the right to put a creche at city hall when there are so many other places where you can put it and when there are legitimate Constitutional questions about this. But I also think it's silly and argumentative for the other side to fight to stop it, for if we talk about celebrating the culture and diversity of this country then I say let's start celebrating. And I am tired of this annual charade.

Next, if your argument is that there is a war against religion in this country because there are more signs of secular life and more people who reject religion -- well, folks, that is their right in this country. And so, that is a problem of marketing, not Constitutionality. If you lose converts it could well be because they don't like your message or how you deliver it. If Coke loses customers to Pepsi, Coke isn't being persecuted; it's facing competition. We believe in competition in America -- even for minds, yes, even for souls. That is the essence of the First Amendment: No one side gets an edge up thanks to government. And enforcing that is precisely what protects the free choice of worship -- for you don't want to find government endorsing