Busy beavers found a use for thousands of dollars stolen from a Greensburg casino and thrown into a creek, authorities said Sunday night. Beavers building a dam on the creek apparently tore open one of three money bags and wove many of the bills into the sticks and brush of their dam, said Maj. Michael Martin of the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office. Deputies also recovered two other money bags, one of which had floated against the dam, Martin said. No charges have been filed against the beavers, though their home was ransacked by the search.
You can trap a lot of beaver with wads of cash.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/15/2004 10:18:15 AM ||
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Probably just wanted to build up a fund to pay for permits...
#4
Natural-born biotic anti-Materialists - they don't care if the dollar bill says one dollar or one million dollars as long as it makes a good dam and protects the clan. *"If its not a tree, then why is it colored GREEN"???
Key points
⢠Claims man-made structures off coast of Cyprus are lost city of Atlantis
⢠Archaeologist believes Cyprus island is remains of Atlantis peninsula
⢠Myth of Atlantis dates back to accounts by Greek philosopher Plato
Key quote
"The list of evidence is truly enormous. The people who dismiss it are people who have not done their homework. This is all based on real science." - Robert Sarmast, archaeologist
Story in full IT IS a legend which has excited the imagination of explorers and adventurers for centuries ... an ancient city lost for millennia beneath the sea.
While some discount the existence of the city of Atlantis as the stuff of myth and fable others have spent their lifetimes searching for the lost civilisation.
Now an American researcher believes he is ready to silence the doubters after locating evidence of man-made structures sunk in the sea between Cyprus and Syria which he is "absolutely convinced" are the ruins of Atlantis.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 8:41:41 AM ||
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Tis where da Jooo's have their secret Zionist Death Ray(tm) hidden . just FYI :)
#5
"American researcher believes he is ready to silence the doubters"
The doubters will point out that Plato located Atlantis in 'Western Sea'. "This location is South-East of Athens. Hence Atlantis did not exist."
BTW, I have a nice bridge to sell. It's between India and Sri Lanka as you can see from NASA images. It has been under 30-40 ft of water for the last 12,500 years, but chances are that it can be used agains when the next glacial will take a hold. (If I were to believe carbon dioxided environuts, it may as well be tomorrow as we cause global warming by a fraction of emissions that Mt Etna is able to spew out in a matter of days when it is active, not mentioning other volcanos; the global warming would then flip the switch to global chill; this part as well may be true, albeit I resent the insinuation that my chain smoking is responsible).
Hidus claim that some dandy fella named Rama (not related to Rama-dinga-dong thingy in any form or fashion) built a bridge between India and Sri Lanka a very, very, very long time ago. I use 'very' three times to give some impression about the time frame. Really very long. Hope that's sufficient to convey the span. Curiously, they claimed it for a long time (quite a while, but not really very long), before NASA imaged it.
#15
seems this fellow has been pushing this theory for quite a while (probably trying to get another grant) ---
FROM HISTORY TODAY SEPT. 28, 2003:
Is Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus?
An American researcher believes he has found the site of the fabled ancient civilisation of Atlantis. Explorer and mythologist Robert Sarmast believes the island lies off the south coast of present-day Cyprus. Using sonar technology, ocean mapping techniques and ancient texts he has now published maps to show where the underwater archaeology is situated. The legend of the civilisation originated in ancient Egypt and Greece and was described by the philosopher Plato in his dialogues the Timaeus. It was wealthy and powerful but eventually defeated and overwhelmed by a massive flood. The research has cost $500,000 and has been funded by the Heritage Standard Corporation; there are now plans to search the ocean floor. Mr Sarmast, who has published his findings in Discovery of Atlantis - The Startling Case for the Island of Cyprus, said: "We are set to make the biggest archaeological discovery of all time⦠Within his dialogues, Plato provides factual clues as to what Atlantis was like. I have matched all but two of the 45 clues with the area around Cyprus.â Others believe Platoâs writings are allegorical. Archaeologist Dr Despo Pilides, at the Cypriot Department of Antiquities, said: "Serious archaeologists tend to place the search for Atlantis within the realm of fantasy." (Sept 28th)
We have bridges that....oooooh almost made me spill the goods. Nice try, Ship.
BTW - Kent was a reference to Kent Brockman a la Simpsons and the welcoming of our new overlords by Mike K - the good Mikey
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/15/2004 20:53 Comments ||
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#17
Good point, bman. However, old Greeks considered all the ocean body on earth Atlantic Ocean. A brief look at the globe would convince you they had some beef there.
Now, regarding the location beside Cyprus... If we lower the water level so that the location is above sea level, we would break the connection with Atlantic Ocean and get something like a pond--an inland sea similar to Caspian Sea.
The last time that this were the case was about 12,500 years ago, when the last glacial ended and the oceans acquired additional mass from melting ice. The rise was approximately 100m. It was very close to that time frame (about 500 years later) that the water breached through the Gibraltar Narrows and the shape of the original inland sea got close to today's form. The same was repeated several millenia later in the Black Sea proper. These two episodes form the core of Great Flood myth.
Thus, the time frame when there may have been something located at the vicinity of Cyprus is very narrowly defined by its latest boundary, ~ 10,000 BCE, the location would be under water already.
I don't have a problem to imagine that the event of great flood 10,000 BCE would be refletcted in stories that would be passed on and preserve that very fact. It is harder to imagine that if there was a setlement at the location near Cyprus, that any details would survive for so long.
That there may have been a settlemet which may be called a city is not that far fetched, Jericho has been settled continuosly back to at least 9,000 BCE, according to archeological evidence--it seems to be in fact the oldest known city in the world. However, I would expect only fragments to be passed through verbal medium.
I suspect that the story of Atlantis is a composite that incorporates different fragments of verbal tradition. One of the larger fragments that contributed to details such as city plan and description of the might may be actually attributable to Minoan (Crete) civilization, that ended as suddenly as told in the story of Atlantis , as a result on natural catastrophe about 1,650 BCE.
Back to the Greek concept of Atlantic Ocean... As I already explained, they considered all the ocean body to be one big motha ocean and they called it Atlantic as a reference to the mythological overseers of its domain--Altants.
If there was such a place as Atlantis, it could have been at any location of the one big ocean of Atlants.
A strong earthquake struck western Colombia early Monday, destroying about a dozen homes in a port city west of the capital, but no injuries were reported, officials said. The 6.7-magnitude quake's epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia's Choco province and hit around 4 a.m. EST, said Viviana Agudelo, a spokeswoman for National Seismology Center of Colombia. The quake caused 12 homes to collapse, most of them near the port of Buenaventura, 220 miles west of Bogota, she said.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 1:40:30 PM ||
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Mark in case of things really getting bad, I'd like to take physical possesion of the Whiskey, fish hooks and seed corn... money will be worthless, what do I do?
#2
I think it would depend on one'sgeographic location, what season of year and transportation. Id's rather have some type of medicine than the whiskey.:)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 18:49 Comments ||
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Mark, with enough Whiskey you can get medicine, but not necessarily the other way around. :)
BRITISH firms are losing out in the battle for the £1,000 billion European public works market because other governments are unfairly discriminating against them and rigging the rules to help their own companies, a report will disclose today. Gordon Brown will tomorrow call on Europe to reform its single market rules after a year-long review commissioned by him found that huge obstacles stand in the way of fair competition in European markets, harming British and other EU businesses.
Today's report, from Alan Wood, chief executive of Siemens, the engineering and electronics conglomerate, will show big failings in the much-vaunted EU single market. He finds that complex rules, unfair national preferences, and a wavering commitment to competition in other parts of the EU are holding back the creation of a truly fair and competitive market for government contracts. The UK pays less state aid than any of the 15 older member states. State aid in the EU (excluding aid for railways) was â¬49 billion (£34 billion) in 2002 (0.56 per cent of GDP). Aid in the UK was â¬3.9 billion (0.25 per cent of GDP). Examples where large amounts of state aid have been given include: â¬2.2 billion from the French Government to Alsthom (July 2004); â¬3.5 billion in 2002 for the German coal industry: and â¬1.4 billion for the Italian national airline, Alitalia, in the 1990s. It is now seeking further aid.
British companies who gave evidence to Mr Wood requested that their names be kept confidential. He did not find that the rules were broken but they were certainly interpreted in a way that went against British companies' interests. Many felt that national competitors were unfairly favoured. Mr Wood's report calls for action by EU states to open up markets and to eliminate bad practice.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 12:52:52 PM ||
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The Brits are having severe heartburn over their EU mates. This won't last long before the plug is pulled.
Posted by: Capt America ||
11/15/2004 16:46 Comments ||
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We only hope our steadfast british allies see the folly of joining in the mainland again. The EU is down 4% in overall production and average wealth compared to the US in 4 years. They are well on their way to being crushed by the US by 2010, when the EU's goal of catching up to the US comes around. Hint to EU: DROP THE SOCIALISM! IT AIN'T DOING YOU ANY GOOD EXCEPT DRAIN YOUR ECONOMY!!
Analyst says confrontation between rivals may be 'unavoidable'
One of China's top Taiwan policymakers said on Monday armed conflict will be unavoidable if the island keeps provoking and pushing for independence, but held out hope for the rivals reopening long-stalled dialogue. Tension has been simmering since the March re-election of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, who said last week the next two years are key to resuming dialogue with China and suggested the two sides set up a "buffer zone" to avoid accidental military conflict. "I think it is unavoidable tension will rise in the Taiwan Straits and there may even be armed conflict ... if the island keeps bumping Beijing's 'one China' bottom line and pushes for independence," Wang Zaixi, vice minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office, told Reuters in a rare interview. "The Chen Shui-bian authorities are exploiting our restraint on the Taiwan issue," he said.
"They are attempting to exploit ... the fact that mainland compatriots are focusing energy on developing the economy and exploit our preparations for the 2008 Olympics," said Wang, a People's Liberation Army major general before becoming vice minister in 2000.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 2:01:35 PM ||
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AKA - Heil, Heil, Der MarxReich/StalinReich StaatFrau Hillary Clinton: Hillarina Vidae, 2008 -2020! TAIWAN is just an AIRBORNE LEAPFROG to the Philippines and CENTPAC, and cutting off US reinforcement to Japan, Guam, Singapore, and East Asia. SIBERIA/RUSS FAR EAST to JAPAN/ALCAN up north, NORTH KOREA to JAPAN-WESTPAC in center, and TAIWAN to PHIL-WEST/CENTPAC down South, with INDIA-DESTABILIZING NEPALESE MAOISTS as tertiary -with all this besides IRAN, SYRIA, and L'AFFRIQQUE, etc. I doubt superPC Hillary will run for POTUS in 2008 unless already resolved by someone else, or nothing will happen until after her POTUS tenure.
IT BEHAVES like a cockroach. It smells like a cockroach. It is accepted by other cockroaches. But it is not a cockroach. It is a robot and scientists say that its invention is a breakthrough in mankind's struggle to control the animal kingdom. The robot, InsBot, developed by researchers in France, Belgium and Switzerland, is capable of infiltrating a group of cockroaches, influencing them and altering their behaviour. Within a decade, its inventors believe, it will be leading the unwanted pests out of dark kitchen corners, to where they can be eliminated.
But this is only the first of the applications for a pioneering programme that has got scientists dreaming out loud. They say that they will soon be using robots to stop sheep jumping off cliffs, to prevent outbreaks of panic among guinea fowl and to encourage chickens to take exercise. "The idea of using decoys to control animals is very old," Jean-Louis Deneubourg, of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research, who is co-ordinating the programme, said. "Hunters and fishermen have used them for many years. The aim of this project is to develop a robot, or a robot-like artefact, capable of integrating and communicating with animals." The cockroach research was the first step, Professor Deneubourg said. "Cockroaches are not an objective in their own right. But this shows what it is possible to do."
(There's more)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 1:18:16 PM ||
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...Eventually they hope to invent a decoy teenager who will persuade real teenagers to do their homework, not talk back, and clean their room the first time they are asked.
Greece has admitted it joined the euro in 2001 on the basis of figures that showed its budget deficit to be much lower than it really was. Eurozone states are expected to have deficits below 3% of gross domestic product but revised data show Greece has exceeded that limit since 1999. The figures are being discussed at a meeting between EU finance ministers. Greece's membership of the single currency would not, however, be questioned, the EU has said.
Greek press reports suggest the country's budget deficit in 1999 was 3.38%. Greece had already said that its public deficit breached the European Union cap between 2000 and 2003, as the cost of hosting the 2004 summer Olympics reached 7bn euros (£4.8bn). But Greece's finance ministry had claimed that the country's 1999 deficit, on the basis of which Greece was allowed to join the euro in 2001, was below the limit. "It has been proven that Greece's budget deficit never fell below 3% since 1999," finance minister George Alogoskoufis admitted on Monday.
Katinka Barysch, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said the announcement would not be a surprise for Brussels insiders. "Quite a few member states did something similar because of the political imperative to join the euro as soon as possible. Greece has just gone a bit further," she said. France and Germany have previously defied the 3% limit. With the European Central Bank (ECB) currently telling East European member states that want to join the euro that they must strictly adhere to the 3% rule, the EU risks being accused of double standards, Ms Barysch said. "These countries will say the ECB wants them to be holier than the Pope," she added. A decision on possible disciplinary action against Greece is not expected until December. If then ....
Posted by: anon ||
11/15/2004 10:43:11 AM ||
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#1
So what's our budget deficit? I'm putting it at about 17% or so..
#3
And if the US had a clue about capital budgeting it would be half that.... The interstate system was expensed over a given projects construction period, not amortized over the lifespan of the project. AzCat, is that correct?
#4
Nothing in the federal government is a capital investment. It is either expensed immediately (as Shipman stated), or ignored until it happens (Social Security, flood insurance). That is a problem I have with a BBA. (The "deficit hawks" are a different problem, in that the deficit is only a concern at tax time, never spending time.)
States and local governments have to run a "balanced" budget but are allowed to issue bonds for capital improvements. Of course, governments can play games (NYC in the early 70s, California today), so maybe we don't want the federal government to issue bonds for "investments." After all, paying the salaries of teachers and social workers is "an investment in the children's future."
#5
How are you coming up with a deficit of 5.7%? The federal budget is around three trillion (with a T) or so, and the deficit is about five hundred billion. My math says 16%. Roughly. Actually, if you don't count the money raided from social security and paid for with paper IOU's, it's even higher.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/15/2004 17:06 Comments ||
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#7
Apples and oranges, #6. I'm rereading the article, and am confused. I'm talking about budget deficit, you're talking about gross national product defict. Obviously, the second number would be much lower. The confusion is this: in the article, they don't seem to be able to figure out which one they mean. sometimes it's budget deficit, sometimes it's GNP deficit. Do you know which one thye're really talking about, or don't they know themselves? In which case the article is so much crap.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/15/2004 17:28 Comments ||
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In increasingly desperate moves to reduce labour costs, German economists are considering how employers can avoid paying workers in cigarette and tea breaks. Employees could be forced to carry time cards and stamp themselves in and out when they leave their workplace for a smoke or drink so that, at the end of the month, the time they spent away from work could be totted up. Under the proposal, the wages for that time would then be withheld. Norbert Walter, head economist at Deutsche Bank, said that restricting pay to time actually worked would reduce labour costs dramatically. "Those who want to smoke and drink tea should be able to continue doing so. But no one should expect that the employer should pay for their breaks," he said. Some estimates say that some employees would stand to lose up to a month's wages each year.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
11/15/2004 7:03:24 AM ||
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#1
"that restricting pay to time actually worked would reduce labour costs dramatically"
Good luck. In my old country, there was a saying: "We pretend that we are working and government pretends that it is paying us".
Not saying it's the same, but close.
The cigar may come later when the flag of socialistic progress signposts the workers' paradise taken away from greedy fat capitalists ...
#2
The word they are looking for here is "productivity"--a magical phrase that US economists have long praised the US with in glowing terms of increase--but never the EU. The Europeans seem to think that a "work ethic" can be created by bureaucratic dictate, much like a 'Dilbert'-style pointy-haired boss; and yet they don't know how to properly motivate, either with inducement or coercion. Their priorities are screwed up: nobody can make employees work who don't want to work. A manager has to work 10 hours to insure that an employee works for 4 without slacking off--it's too much bother, and most of what is produced is worthless. Almost all work done in a day is done in a single hour, the rest of the work day being wasted.
#3
Actually, here's a contrarian observation in defense of one aspect of Euro-slackery. When you restrict the work week hours, preferably by social custom and boss pressure, you find that a lot of inessential bullshit falls by the wayside and your people become far mroe productive. I work for a French company, and our counterparts in France (for the most part) work fewer hours and accomplish as much as we do because they simply don't do a lot of the political BS stuff that wastes so many of our hours. They get the hell out of the office at 6 in order to be with their families, and their work doesn't suffer at all.
I for one would like to see our society adopt the Dutch-French approach of giving employees the option of less money for more leisure time. Absolutely crucial for anyone trying to raise a family with small children, and I guarantee it won't hit our productivity. Probably increase it, actually.
#4
Of course, no one has thought of trimming marginal income/payroll tax rates. You can chart the drop in work hours from the Economic Miracle days to the current malaise alongside a hike in marginal tax rates.
My company allows what lex has suggested; you can select how many hours you work (not week-to-week; you sign a contract). I know a few who do it, but most people want the extra money. Still, the option is there, and it's reassuring that it is.
But of course, My marginal rate is under 40% (fed + state + medicare part of SS). If it were 65%, well, I'd like some more time off, too.
#5
less money for more leisure time What? I want more money and more lesisure time and subsidized insurance for my canoe.
And cheaper HD TV... like REX cheap. Cable under 20 dollars or optionally they pay me.
#8
Less money for more leisure time, reminds me of the old Kellog Company. During the 30s, in order to keeep everybody working, they cut back to a six hour work day. Still got all the work done, but now people had time to do "other stuff" (Family, shopping, hobbies, loafing) as well as the energy to do so.
As I figured out once while trying to go to work and school at the same time, Six hours of school and eight hours of work addred up to 18 hours from the time I got up till I got to bed, before any overtime. I couldn't keep it going.
A post-therapy John Kerry supporter spoke out about her trauma treatment for the first time this weekend, saying Florida psychologist Douglas Schooler took her from the depths of despair over President Bush's victory to a new lease on life. Forty-four year old Karen of Boca Raton, a divorced mother of one who didn't want her last name in print, called the trauma specialist's intensive election therapy "profoundly effective" and described his hypnosis technique as "a healing process."
"I wasn't sleeping," Karen told the Boca Raton News in an interview. "I was very devastated and very astonished that people would re-elect this president. I was moody about the war and economic issues. I felt very unsettled and fearful. I thought, 'Oh no, what will happen for four years?'" Karen, whose medical insurance covers the treatment, said she approached Schooler last week after finding herself unable to function publicly due to President Bush's re-election. "Dr. Schooler absolutely understood the pain this election caused me and he opened my mind to a new point of view," Karen said. "You're relaxed, he talks to you and you just come out of it feeling more positive and renewed. It took one session. He did some relaxation techniques and probably did some things I didn't even realize."
Continued on Page 49
#1
Lol! This will do wonders for Dr Schooler's practice!
Poor Karen. All that money. She should file a class-action suit against the DhimmiDonk Party and all of it's leaders to recover her recovery costs, heh.
#2
That's it. The Onion and Scrappleface will have to close down, unable to compete with an increasingly absurd reality. Even the Weekly World News may not be able to survive, though its policy of not admitting satirical intent may pull it through until the final defeat of idiotarianism and the restoration of sanity.
#5
WAAAH WAAAH WAAAAH! Shrinks are fake doctors and can offer NO medical diagnosis. If your bummed about this election wait till 2006 and then in 2008, that is when the Republicans will control 60% of Congress. Start drinking, move to Canada, or just GROW UP!
What is most exciting about the new Congress is not only the increased quantity of Republicans, but also the increased quality. RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) are becoming an endangered species in the House and are at least threatened in the Senate.
This is the closest we have been to a conservative governing majority.
At the Club for Growth, we helped elect 12 outstanding new conservatives to the House, in many cases replacing moderates. In the Senate, some notorious RINOs remain in powerful positions (i.e. Arlen Specter) but excellent new conservatives were elected there also. Here are five newly elected conservatives to keep an eye on:
Sen. Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.)
Too few senators today believe in less government and eliminating worthless federal agencies. The Senate has needed a warrior for fiscal restraint. Tom Coburn will be just that. He will tie the Senate in knots if necessary to stop fiscally ruinous spending bills. He is every lobbyist's worst nightmare because he can't be bought.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.)
DeMint was one of the most principled men in the House, receiving the prestigious lifetime "Taxpayer Hero" citation from Citizens Against Government Waste and earning "A" grades from the National Taxpayers Union in four of the five years he served. He was one of 25 Republican heroes who voted against the fiscally irresponsible Medicare expansion bill last year, even though he was told it would hurt his chances of winning the Senate seat. He is author of the most comprehensive proposal for Social Security personal accounts, and is for eliminating the income tax.
Del. Luis Fortuno (R.-P.R.)
Puerto Rico does not have a vote on the House floor. But Fortuno could become very influential in the GOP caucus and nationally. He has star power and is solid on all key economic growth issues. Better yet, he understands them and can explain them in English and Spanish, making him a valuable asset as the GOP reaches out to Latino voters.
Rep. Ted Poe (R.-Tex.)
Judge Ted Poe became a folk hero for his "creative sentencing" (liberals hated it), which included requiring "murderers to hang pictures of their victims in their jail cells, auto thieves to give their cars to victims, and minor offenders to read books from a court-approved reading list." He is obviously an independent and creative thinker--skills Congress desperately needs.
Rep. Cathy McMorris (R.-Wash.)
The former Republican leader of the state assembly, McMorris is young, attractive, articulate, and a fierce fighter for smaller government and lower taxes. She is exactly what the GOP needs to counteract liberal Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Don't be surprised if someday she becomes the first woman Speaker of the House.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 2:17:09 PM ||
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Don't forget Norm Coleman. Not newly elected, but with one year making a big name for himself. He not only knocked off Mondale but is taking it to the UN.
Posted by: Capt America ||
11/15/2004 16:50 Comments ||
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#2
Don't forget Bobby Jindal from Louisiana, who just got elected to the House. A very promising young man.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/15/2004 22:47 Comments ||
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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- In March, NASA launched an experimental jet that reached a record-setting speed of about 5,000 mph (8,050 kph). Now researchers want to leave that milestone in the dust.
NASA's third and last X-43A "scramjet" was set to streak over the Pacific Ocean on Monday at 7,000 mph (11,260 kph) for 10 or 11 seconds -- or 10 times the speed of sound.
The Pegasus rocket will ignite and carry the X-43A to an altitude of 110,000 feet (33,528 meters) and a speed of about Mach 10, then release it for its brief powered flight.
The X-43A will then become a glider and perform maneuvers until it splashes down into the ocean.
Scramjet technology may be used in developing hypersonic missiles and airplanes or reusable space launch vehicles, with a potential for offering speeds of at least Mach 15.
Unlike rockets, scramjets wouldn't have to carry heavy oxidizer necessary to allow fuel to burn because they can scoop oxygen out of the atmosphere.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 3:09:58 PM ||
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Looks like it's a "go" for today. X-43A is mounted to Mom and they are prepping it now.
For those space junkies (like me) who want to watch it all live - NASA TV.
#1
These devices are brilliant, and fairly idiot-resistant, not giving a shock unless they detect that a shock is needed. Ironically, a LOT of people are greviously injured by dummies giving them violent CPR when they don't need it, breaking ribs and even puncturing lungs. So let the machine do the heart-starting, and concentrate on the mouth-to-mouth. (p.s. as soon as the wake up, they often trombone-vomit on you. they don't show that part on teevee.)
A gang boss fighting for Ijaw self-determination in the Niger Delta could threaten the world's energy balance and the existence of the Nigerian state itself. Until recently, Al-Haji Asari Dokubo was just a powerful local gang leader and businessman. But now he is responsible for a conflict that has spiralled into a global problem. Asari claims inspiration from a range of guerrilla fighters, past and present: "Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, the South African struggle. I take inspiration from the resistance that is going on in Iraq, Chechnya and in Palestine."
Two words, bub: Biafra. No. Make that one word...
Asari had just 2,000 men under arms - but the political impact of his call was so great it was the factor that finally tipped the oil price above $50. Within weeks, Nigeria's president had to send his personal plane to bring Asari to Abuja and negotiate a ceasefire. But the ceasefire solves nothing. Bunkering is still going on under the noses of the Nigerian navy, ripping off up to 10% of the country's oil production. The stakes are high. Oil provides 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange and funds 65% of the Nigerian state budget. With the Middle East in crisis - and Venezuela still simmering - Nigerian crude oil has become highly important to the USA's energy security. The Niger Delta is, effectively, America's reserve fuel tank. If the Delta conflict spirals out of control, it could destroy Nigeria's unity and disrupt the global balance of oil supply. That is the doomsday scenario - and completely avoidable according to experts in conflict resolution.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 1:06:59 PM ||
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Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has dismissed as "an insult" comments by French President Jacques Chirac that France will continue its UN-mandated action in the troubled west African nation and will not stand by while a situation of anarchy or fascism develops. "President Chirac supported the only party in Ivory Coast for 40 years. What is closer to fascism than a one-party system? We were in prison under the regime of the sole party supported by France. It's an insult," Gbagbo said in an interview published Monday in the Liberation daily here. Referring to the recent incident in the central Ivory Coast town of Bouake when Ivorian air force planes killed nine French soldiers, Gbagbo said that "objectively France has taken the side of the rebels".
The attack on the French troops was followed by a French air assault which destroyed Ivory Coast's small air force. The French retaliation "left me speechless," the Ivory Coast President said, adding that he found himself wondering "what had pushed Chirac to such swift and brutal action". Gbagbo also accused colonial power France of "navel-gazing" and "forever bringing the Ivory Coast story back to themselves" while "my country is on the road to a transition towards democracy". "France is still very involved in our internal political life, notably with the presence of its army," he added. Gbagbo compared the presence of French troops in Ivory Coast to the Soviet invasion of Prague. "The French soldiers are already less present in the streets. Their massive deployment was intolerable; it resembled the invasion of Prague in 1968". Finally the Ivorian leader bemoaned his own treatment in the crisis. "I have developed democracy and I never harmed any French economic interest," he declared. "And then we were attacked. Rather than disarming (the rebels), it's me who is being judged. It is an unacceptable and intolerable injustice and we will not accept it," he concluded.
President Jacques Chirac said Sunday that France would continue its UN-mandated action in the Ivory Coast, saying: "We do not want to allow a system to develop that could lead to anarchy or to a regime of a fascist nature." Chirac said Gbagbo's government had created a "disastrous" situation and was carrying out a witch-hunt against whites and other foreigners, including those from neighbouring countries and mixed-race Ivorians.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/15/2004 11:28:05 AM ||
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#1
Ok... I'm coming around on this. This Gbagbo might not be what I thought (another Mugabe). I say give him a chance. France out, coalition of US, UK & Aussies in. Let's kick the islamist rebel ass out of the north and see if we can't make something of this country.
#2
I agree, the US should be visibly backing Gbagbo sending a strong message to Chirac and the Islamic enemy in the north.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 12:26 Comments ||
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#3
The media is doing a good job of obfuscating this point, but the 4,000 French troops are not under UN control. There is a separate UN force in the country.
#5
This just in via ABC News: 'In Abidjan, firebrand youth leader Charles Ble Goude, one of those who called anti-French protesters onto the streets, said France should pull out of Ivory Coast.
"Do you think that the French army is still credible as a referee? I don't think it is," he told a news conference. "France is now one of the belligerents."
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/15/2004 14:14 Comments ||
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#6
Governments like Chirac's are reaping what they sow-they are quick to paint others with imperial tar, then surprised when they are grouped with the imperialists and are attacked. We are probably only looking at the very beginning of anti-Western/anti-white mob-making events in our world, thanks in large part to guilt complexes worn like hairshirts by liberal European politicans like Chirac and the trailing liberal press that enjoy a good show of self-flagellation.
#7
The Best thing about the US Army is it's ability to integrate all colors, creeds and religions. Once you are part of the "Big Green Machine" the other things are minor issues. I think it is worth millions in propaganda to have an African see a Black Americian Officer giving orders to some big 'ol white boy. From a Strategic POV, I'm not sure the Cote de Ivory is where we want to start on Africa. Sudan has a greater need and would fit into a expand from the M.E. approach. And the timing sucks. WE need to do Iran and Syris before getting started on Africa.
#1
lex - This is a topic you've commented on many times, so I was sure you'd enjoy this.
It looks like this is the competition - and I'm not sure he "gets it" regards what users want. Definitely gets it regards content, that it will be separated out by the users one way or another, and the fact that the package won't sell, anymore.
Where he seems to still miss the point is that he believes users need or want the AP's analysis component - I guess he views this as his org's value added function. Lol! Speaking for myself, that's dead wrong. I want facts - I'll synthesize the big picture myself, so thanks, but no thanks, heh.
#2
Adding to .com's observations. He sort of gets that the MSM business model is breaking down and he raises the very pertinent question who will pay for collecting content (facts) when the internet is the main distribution channel. And BTW does anyone know if you can copyright a fact?
Re: Users wanting AP's analysis component. I recall from my dotcom days that this kind of thinking was v common, i.e. people over-estimated the value of certain components in a disagregated product. 'Personal service' in selling financial products is a good example.
#3
And BTW does anyone know if you can copyright a fact?
Facts aren't copyrightable but particular selections and arrangements of facts are. Thus a wire service story will be copyrightable even if it contains 100% factual information because the wire service reporters selected a particular group of facts to include and arranged / expressed them in a particular way.
The arrogance of these bastards shines through. haahhahaaa!! They think they can control this??? Get a grip? A sufer may ride the wave, but he doesn't control the sea.
The implications for content providers are enormous. You cannot control the "containers" anymore. You have to let the content flow where the users want it to go,
Being able to control the news through print was of the 20th Century. These guys think they can hang on. heh heh...a nice dream about the good ol' days.
#5
...Anybody remember the line from Tomorrow Never Dies when 007 runs the meglomaniac newpaper publisher thru with a drill?
"...You didn't give the people what they want!!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/15/2004 9:57 Comments ||
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#6
Long post - sorry in advance, but as .com points out, this is near and dear to my heart (and with any luck, also to my pocketbook one day).
Thus a wire service story will be copyrightable even if it contains 100% factual information because the wire service reporters selected a particular group of facts to include and arranged / expressed them in a particular way
Thanks, AZCat, phil_b, .com. This helps clarify an issue that I'm grappling with. The question that our media betters don't want asked is, Where in a news story is the source of greatest value? That is, what in their product is commodity and what is real competitive differentiation? What will their consumers actually pay for?
Is it in the scooping of the facts, or the selection of those facts? Or is it the presentation and ordering of those facts? Or is the initial story of little consequence, a loss leader, so to speak, that quickly becomes commoditized, to be displaced by analytical follow-on articles that create real value for which consumers will pay hard cash?
My guess is that phil_b is correct: the MSM analysis is of little value to consumers. Or to put it better, of little added value above and beyond what intelligent, trusted bloggers provide. MSM hacks like Andrew Nagourney are no more competent as deep, insightful political analysts than your average 24 year-old Merrill traineee is competent at stock picking. In other words, the MSM conceit that "they really trust and value our analysis, and this sets us apart" can work only in the same environment that fixed-commission brokerage worked: consumer ignorance and government restrictions on supply and competition.
All gone now. Every man now owns a printing press. And as the blogosphere makes obvious each day, there are at least a dozen voices readily available on the web who can provide better, more insightful, often better-written analysis than these pseudo-professionals who call themselves journalists.
Which is why the only consumers who would still pay for MSM analysis are 1) the diminishing ranks of ignorant, gullible, and cash-rich newshounds and 2) partisans who desire not so much analysis as camaraderie, encouragement, a sense of community and shared struggle. Group #1 is not sustainable, except perhaps for the geriatric crowd that watches network TV news. But group #2 may contain gold for publications like the NYTimes that are willing to dispense with the "paper of record" pretense and recast themselves as lifestyle guides in which opinion and ideological posing is just another Fashion of the Times that urban childless blue Americans need to drape theselves in: Screw Anthony Lewis, give 'em the east coast's own valley girl, Mo Dowd. Who cares about Russia or China or Japan? Let's add more stories about the porn industry, gay Broadway, the fashion industry.
#7
As to the blogosphere, we need to get better at scooping stories. That is, we need to start using more effectively that old media device known as the telephone, and the new media technique of online swarming, to research our own stories and cultivate our own sources. This is not so crazy as it sounds, partly because the Bush admin's tightness and secrecy has sharply restricted the monopoly on sources that the MSM used to enjoy.
And if someone smarter than I can figure out how to use RSS feed scripts to cull and then sift and sort info from the blogs and comment sections, we might be able to make scoops like Charles Johnson's MS Word forgery scoop a regular feature of blogging. In other words, actually do real reporting, with real-time story editing and evolution via hundreds of blogger inputs.
#8
Thanks AzCat! Facts aren't copyrightable but particular selections and arrangements of facts are. This means you could disaggregate the facts from a news report and legally create your own product by resequencing or desequencing (the facts). Interesting!
Otherwise, IMVHO what adds value to the bare facts is (relevant) context. An example is reporting on climate change. It drives me crazy that effectively all reporting in the MSM on the subject is predicated on an implied steady state (theory of) climate, whereas we know that climate has always changed and often dramatically.
#9
Facts aren't copyrightable but particular selections and arrangements of facts are. This means you could disaggregate the facts from a news report and legally create your own product by resequencing or desequencing (the facts). Interesting!
Now you're cooking. Wonder if there's a software tool that could do this automatically to every AP and other wire service story? ie parse the stories to get their basic elements in headline/ticker format... No "analysis", no BS, just grab the news and then fling it out to a thousand bloggers for them to parse, add new info from credible sources, or challenge with info from credible sources, and develop without MSM intervention?
Bloggers as a petri dish. Or maybe a source of superior counter-memes that replicate and evolve more rapidly than the MSM can develop their original memes.
#10
Lex, I'm a software guy and I think I know something about semantics. IMO automatically parsing news reports to get the facts is not possible. OTOH doing it manually wouldn't be too onerous - the kind of thing say a dozen people working round the clock could do easily.
Its an interesting idea and one many bloggers would love, but where's your business model? I.e. who is going to pay for the service?
#11
It's always been that way - you take research from others - rewrite it and make it your own.
I don't know where the money will be in the future - but it won't be in analysis. Opinions are like belly buttons - everyone has one and no two are the same.
But what's difficult and most valuable are those phone calls. For example - I'd really like to know if all Presbyterian churches ...or Episcopalian churches have disinvested in Israel, or is it done by individual congregations? It is only those churches belonging to the National Council of Churches? What exactly is the relationship of the National Council of Churches to the individual churches?
I could pick up the phone and call around and probably have an answer in 15 minutes. But...I won't. I'll just keep wondering ..until one day I stumble on somebody who knows.
My point is that it is the person who makes the calls...that one who gets the reliable info from the appropriate sources, who is a "reporter". That's the hard work. Opinion writing - once the facts have been collected by someone else- is the easy part.
#12
gosh...I just answered my question above with one quick google and one quick phone call. So, I'm going to retratct my statement in my comment above. Making the calls and getting the facts is easy.
Now I'm wondering where WILL the money come from in publishing and news content? Afterall - I just realized that I could post an interesting article (I'll spare you all) with quotes and supporting docs. Time involved would be minimal and could be easily conducted in my spare time. Since I'm interested ...I could really get into it and publish a detailed summary.
How can the media compete with that? Interested people who get facts and publish FOR FREE...FOR FUN?
I now think that the commodity will be a in a BRAND that produces reliable facts, quotes and data. It will be the something like the NYT once was - an authoritative source to quote from. That will be the commodity - it's worth remains to be determined.
#13
If people do journalism for fun, then its like science in the 18th/19th century. Something that motivated amateurs did. Maybe 2b is onto something - an amateur equivalent of Reuters/AP. Interesting times!
#15
This means you could disaggregate the facts from a news report and legally create your own product by resequencing or desequencing (the facts).
In a logical world yes but it's not that simple.
In 1918 the Supreme Court decided UPI v. AP in which the court recognized the AP's right in the news they'd gathered even though neither the existing copyright law nor (IIRC) the existing unfair competition law quite covered the situation. If I recall the facts correctly UPI was buying early edition newspapers containing AP stories on the east coast, making minimal changes and telegraphing the stories to their own clients on the west coast who were subsequently running these "new" UPI stories in their morning editions. Remember that news in those days was still largely fact-based so we're really talking about UPI's merely cherry-picking and rewriting the facts AP had gathered.
What the Court recognized in UPI v. AP was the inherent value of the AP's news gathering service and the AP's right to protect the value they created via that activity. Or to put it another way they recognized and protected the value of fresh news and the AP's right to profit on the same while preventing free riders from doing so.
Worth noting also that the copyright statute has matured greatly since that time and includes other provisions that you could easily run afoul of. Additionally you'd have to worry about the body of unfair competition law which is far more mature than it was at the time AP v. UPI was decided.
#16
phil_b - Its an interesting idea and one many bloggers would love, but where's your business model? I.e. who is going to pay for the service?
News producers and editors mainly but also political campaigns, activist groups and other fund-raisers; corporations; research insitutions. Advertising revenue would be important, as would subscription revenues, but one interesting feature I toy with is the notion of an online news story exchange, ie a kind of eBay for news and other non-copyrighted content.
Editors, publishers etc would bid for exclusive rights to stories that develop in front of their eyes on the auction site. However the full content of each story would not be revealed, rather a teaser headline and background about the source. As stories evolve toward publication-ready articles, the bid price would increase.
Offerors of news stories could accumulate reputational ratings over time similar to those for eBay sellers. Offerors could be individuals, blogs, or groups, or even on the fly partnerships formed out of the "open-source"-type contributors to the thread.
Imagine a hybrid of Rantburg and Drudge but with a store of content that's 100x larger, genuinely global and dynamically amended, updated, developed further, taken along tangents to reveal new memes and generate new scoops. If the site can scale adequately, it would displace the NYTimes and the other online versions of the print MSM sources.
The ultimate prize, however, is translating this and blogs into audio on demand, downloadable to any device. A platform capable of delivering, 24x7, thousands of Limbaughs, Sterns, Hannitys = a billion $ business.
What I do see developing clearly is the change from organizational credibility to individual credibility and marketability. For example - I don't care who prints articles by VDH, Ralph Peteres, Glenn Reynolds, Wretchard, etc. etc., I still want to read them.
For the individuals, this will translate into book sales - but I doubt that is enough to sustain them. But their popularity will no doubt translate into a valuable commodity....like cartoons.
The NYT has no credibility - nor does Rather or any of the others who fell on their swords during this last election. But (some of) their individual writers do have credibility.
I think we will go from quoting the NYT to quoting individuals who have a reputation for accuracy ...and that's the direction this is headed. It will matter less where they say it than who says it. Individuals will rise and fall on their own reliability. Where the money comes from, remains to be seen.
#18
lex / 2b - Killer points in those last posts - and I think you're homing in on the model that will work.
I think that the economics of the reliable individual, to combine your closing ideas, is spot-on - and TV will be here for the forseeable future. TIVO may well be your biggest competitor, but...
Transcripts, audio, A/V of those trustworthy (or so individual and personality-laden that they have an audience no matter their accuracy; e.g. Stern the Dick) individuals will sell on the net. The org that can corral this content by the believable sources and serve it up either PPV or subscription looks viable in the near-term.
Long-term, the owners of the "atoms" of news content (to give the AP jerk his due) will be King and determine where the market goes.
#19
the change from organizational credibility to individual credibility and marketability
Bingo. If I read something on Fallujah at the NYT, I don't trust it. If I read it on Winds of Change or Command Post, I'll give it credence.
This is a huge development with profound implications. First, the notion of a legacy media "paper of record" or Uncle Walter Cronkite national newscast that most citizens find trustworthy is pretty much dead. I'm the core reader that the NYT seeks, and I find theiir stuff less trustworthy than obscure amateur websites created a couple years ago.
Second, you're right that credibility will be fragmented and split among dozens of individuals whose reputation will wax and wane. But another huge problem is availability. The sum of individuals model doesn't really scale unless you aggregate hundreds of trustworthy bloggers. Glenn Reynolds ain't the phone company. When he goes dark his site's useless, and the MSM have a huge edge for the simple reason that they never go dark. Also, Glenn's inherently parochial. He doesn't cover Russia or China or India or the technology business or demographic change or transatlantic mergers and acquisitions etc.
So the goal has to be to a) transform reputational currency into monetary currency in a dynamic way-- see my auction idea-- and b) achieve 24x7 uptime and reliability, with truly global coverage. Good news, maybe, is that these are essentially technical problems that the MSM types don't care to try to solve.
So he who builds the platform likely builds the new killer newsinfo brand. As you point out, reporting on the news is essentially a simple job that any intelligent, educated person with decent judgment, some writing ability, a browser and a phone can manage.
#20
lex - Is it mere semantics on my part to prefer a "news exchange" (ala stock exchange) description versus the "news auction"? Perhaps so.
An aspect not explored thusfar is that the product degrades - "news" spoils quickly.
Overselling is another... "Early adopters" will pay more for the timeliness - once it's relatively common knowledge, then the news purveyors will try to add that analysis component to add value to "old" news.
Hence my preference for the auction concept. Selling news stories is like selling hotel rooms or airplane seats. The time element adds greatly to the price bid. Imagine how much Charles J's Rathergate scoop would have fetched from producers at ABC or NBC! $10k easily.
#22
Imagine a hybrid of Rantburg and Drudge but with a store of content that's 100x larger, genuinely global and dynamically amended, updated, developed further, taken along tangents to reveal new memes and generate new scoops.
In other words: Imagine the ... Associated Press, but with a different political slant. I don't think you could scale the blog model all the way up to compete with MSM without itself becoming MSM. Blogs are interesting because they're numerous, highly focused, of deep personal interest to their authors, and because they exist in a highly communicative medium. This allows the blogosphere to assemble ad hoc groups of experts spontaneously, use them as needed, and then return them to the pool of available resources.
You can sort of scale that up but when you make the effort a business rather than a passion your experts will morph into consultants (no one is going to do unpaid expert analysis for your money-making venture) and you'll wind up with another AP that has a slightly different slant.
The value in an organization like the AP is going to remain in the timely gathering and dissemination of large volumes of factual informtion. They won't however be able to compete with the blogosphere for commentary and expert analysis. What the AP sorely needs is a regression: fire all opinion writers, axe anyone who spins rather than reports the facts, and just generally lean down the organization's role to what it was almost a century ago.
#23
And that brings up another issue, lol! PowerLine was first because of their reader (can't recall his name at the moment)... Charles did the Word demo (and more), Bill at INDC Journal extended the game by being first with a first-hand knowledge source, etc.
Who gets the $10K?
I see some stories as "developing" news and some as self-contained "scoop" news... Imagine the institutional whistle-blower game once there is an open bidding market...
#24
he who builds the platform likely builds the new killer newsinfo brand
I think you are right. And I'd like to believe that the news exchange/auction will be the way it will work...for personal reasons...but I'm not sure.
I think the first thing to go to the darkside will be the search engines. But ....I wouldn't go investing my money in them just yet. It's just too easy for a univeristy or other public group (anywhere in the world) to provide them for free- a la public libraries. Plus, as computers get faster and better - super-dooper search capabilities could become cheap and easy technology - so I'm not sure if the idea of restricting searches to direct us to what "they" want us to see (like the news media does today) will work for very long.
#26
I agree with above - but I still think it is too soon to see where this is going. We are putting our 20th century ideas of "news" and trying to project it forward to what remains yet unknown in terms of technology, platforms and societal changes.
The difference will be the sheer volume of people willing to report the news and the sheer volume of people who will be willing to do it FOR FREE and FOR FUN. It's supply and demand - and the supply just increased exponentially!
#27
aack..where did everyone go. I've been discussing with a friend - and I think this will boil down to two things - brand or name recognition and exposure. As exposure increases the ability to attach advertising to specific groups will result in money. Same ol' same ol' on a different format.
As such..I think your auction/exchange will be a very logical method of it happening.
#28
AZCat - In other words: Imagine the ... Associated Press, but with a different political slant. I don't think you could scale the blog model all the way up to compete with MSM without itself becoming MSM
Hmm, good points, but there's an inherent MSM tendency toward convergence around a central meme. No matter what the story, journalists look at what other journos write and, consciously or no, shape their own telling of the story into conformity with the Emergent Meme du Jour. Zarqawi Got Away. Election Was About "Values." etc
What I hope to do is to create multiple memes that compete with each other, dynamically, and that are placed side by side for all to see and comment upon and contribute to. A dialectic rather than an echo chamber. And the thread of this dialectic would be preserved on the site for all to see. In other words, rip away the pretense of neatly packaged "objective" self-contained MSM stories and show the authors and their biases, and next to them, their critics' rebuttals, counter-evidence, debunking/fisking etc.
So the presentation of news would also change. Inst of the typical AP format-- headline, lede, facts reinforced with quotes regurgitated down to wherever point the editor deemed in necessary to chop-- you'd have a structure more similar to a legal brief or a debating proposition, as in:
MEME: Fallujah is (success)(not a success).
ARGUMENT: Fallujah is a success because it destroyed a key logistical center of the fascist resistance and enables a pincer movement that will disrupt the ratline from Syria.
EVIDENCE: A, B, C
LOGIC: asdfasdfsdf
AUTHOR: Tom Wretchard (link)
COUNTER-MEME #1: Fallujah was a failure because Z-man got away, blah blah blah...
AUTHOR: Poindexter Filkins, NYT...
#30
It's Hitler in the bunker time for Old Media, and AP's Tom Curley is every bit as delusional. Just as Adolf moved his phantom divisions to meet the onrushing Soviet hordes, the AP chair sees a place for his fossil service in the New Media. He asks us to "Imagine Drudge without somebody to link to, or Wonkette without somebody to poke fun at," as though these two would be starved for content without AP and similar legacy services.
In fact, local media will continue to exist for a number of reasons, information posted by these will continue to be available worldwide, and it will be found and linked when appropriate every bit as easily as an AP story. Paid specialist publications; in business, security affairs, and science, for example; will continue to publish and these, too, will be linked instantly from the New Media. Large newspapers and other publications will continue to send their own correspondents overseas, or the web will make it easier to recruit suitable locals or freelancers wherever needed. AP is often not an originator of content so much as a packager and distributor. New Media bypasses this process, making the actual originator accessible instantly. In doing so, it makes the AP's stringers and reporters redundant, along with their dubious analysis and biased interpretation.
When I started reading newspapers, about 1955, I did not typically have access to anything from south of Manchester, let alone to the Times of India or the Washington Post. Today, both of these are literally a click away. Similarly, acknowledged experts in military affairs, like John Pike, are right at my fingertips. Before the net, this took a trip to the library, where the information was necessarily weeks out of date. For immediate news of military events, we had to depend on politically biased and militarily illiterate hacks from the old Media. The same is true in every area of specialized knowledge relevant to global newsgathering.
Curley's assertion of qualified and expert analysis is simply untrue. Typical journalists; driven isolated elitists and strivers that they are; often know less about many subjects than the average person on the street. How many APers can change the oil in their car or kill and dress a rabbit? I am a professor of science, not a mechanic or a woodsman, but I can do those things.
Curley's biggest delusion is in citing analysis as a major selling point. In one way he is right. "Analysis", aka spin or embedded editorializing, is the main point of sale for AP clients, the portion of the content that is most helpful to advertising objectives.
Lex cited the tendency of news organizations to converge around a central meme. The driving force behind this, I believe, is the recognized viability of certain memes in supporting advertising objectives: the heroic revolutionary as James Dean figure, for example.
What Curley and other hubris-bound Old Media proponents fail to recognize is that this subjective and often outrageously biased "analytical" content is one of the chief causes of the resentment that fuels the rise of New Media. It is the hated "spin" and the repository of world-destroying bias.
While it will sell to the commercial clients, it is increasingly a liability to the actual consumers. This discontinuity in product marketing, appealing to the effective "retailers" (the media clients) while alienating the actual audience and causing it to seek alternatives, will be the real downfall of Old Media, including the AP. The extinction will be total, inmho. In twenty years, there will be NO national or global general news organizations. There will be localized media and specialist publications, and the internet to tie them together.
The net will serve as a conduit between local media, taking over the original role of services like AP and Reuters. For example, you are news director at KROK TV in Humbug, Nb. You see on the net that WART TV in Little Hope, MA has a story about a two headed frog, and you would like to have it. You can exchange both the content and the necessary compensation directly on the web; possibly through a web-based clearing house operation, possibly with just the functions that are available to anyone. The clearing house could be a low-cost service or conceivably even free, since it would not have its own hordes of stringers and photogs to support.
#31
Well said, AC. The web will enable specialists and local experts will gain power. Centralized MSM blowhards will lose power.
What remains to be built is the web-based aggregating engine that will connect sources of real expertise and insight with consumers who value such expertise and will pay accordingly for it. It needs to be extremely simple to use, vast in scope and reach, remunerative for the specialist contributors, and capable of personalization for consumers.
It will replace blog-surfing and Googling alike, and will eventually be independent of the laptop as well, when it becomes capable of serving as a platform for audio delivered on demand to any number of devices.
#32
fascinating! I've been thinking on this (can't e-mail from this site - tom- I'd get fired)
Curley's biggest delusion is in citing analysis as a major selling
has a story about a two headed frog, and you would like to have it. You can exchange both the content and the necessary compensation directly on the web; possibly through a web-based clearing house operation, possibly with just the functions that are available to anyone. The clearing house could be a low-cost service or conceivably even free, since it would not have its own hordes of stringers and photogs to support.
We all seem to go back to this idea - so it must have merit.
We all seem to recognize that it will be reliable individuals that will be the commodity.......ie: we want it.
The format still remains unclear, but basically...not everyone is a VDH or Pavarotti. As in the past, the cream will rise and we will demand the cream. The cream will command a following which advertisers can attach themselves to.
To get to the top, the Pavarotti's will intitally be glad to give it away for free to get exposure. As they gain a following and it becomes "work" rather than pleasure - they will need some compensation.
Rantburg is an excellent source of info - I'd pay to access it (I send a contribution every so often) and I'd still come here if Fred made me suffer through an ad for guns in order to log on. As Fred gains more exposure - he can get better advertisements - today guns - tomorrow Boeing.
In the end...as in all things ...things change but remain the same. Ultimately, it will be about the guy who gets the most hits . He will get the most advertising dollars. But in order to get the most hits, he's got to give the best stuff. In order to get the best stuff - he's going to have to put out a little more than the next guy. He'll invest to get the rewards.
News is a perishable commodity. That it will eventually end up traded as such, makes sense.
But I ramble...anyone still out there? A glass of wine awaits!
#33
Oops, I was out at Ruth's Chris - my Bush Reelection Celebration dinner - I collected my winnings, heh.
Great analysis, AC... If I understand you, I'm visualizing a model that has been debated in O&G Engineering circles of R&D for a couple of years... In fact, it's similar to what has happened to the industry-specific publishing business. But, of course, I may have you all wrong. Anyway is this what you see?
A realignment of news-gathering capabilities into vertical expertise / accessibility (since they are realistically connected anyway) sources / channels which could feed into horizontal distribution centers - some generic and some specialized?
#34
.com, yes, that's exactly it. The centralized model that we have lived with for 150 years is obsolete, and a multi-dimensional model will take its place.
#35
Waay cool - I "joined" an entity that wanted to institute this at Aramco, our engineering support dept was a perfect example of where it could pay dividends by going to a commercial model of Customer-Centric Support... but, alas, it would've reduced the power of certain Saudis, so the idea was DOA. Lol! Of course it was DOA, lol! Saudis. Give up power? LOLOLOLOL!
Okay, so if I'm getting it:
The verticals are the worker bees in a narrow slice of life, the guys with contacts and expertise (to know shit from shinola, understand the nomenclature of the vertical), who gather and glean content from their slice of the world. These guys can be anyone in the right place at the right time with their ears and eyes open - I almost picture them as "fences" who specialize. They either originate the content through observation / analysis / etc. or are first level customers from individuals with unique position-to-know access.
The horizontals may specialize, too, but a few will certainly try to aggregate into something akin to the wire-service model. They are the second level customer and sell to us or to a third level subscription channel.
I forsee and anticipate real dangers in increased spying and whistleblowing for personal profit. Consider what a regular guy in Govt Job X might see crossing his desk everyday. Formalizing the content purchase business is a leaker's dream - could be highly profitable and much less dangerous, perhaps, than leaving chalk marks on mailboxes and doing dead-drop games, ala Moscow Rules.
The Watchers will have to increase as the money sources move closer to the product purveyor, I'm afraid.
#36
Dang, wish I hadn't got onto this thing so late. But here are a couple of thoughts:
What do we want from news? For me, in order (1) Facts, (2) Context, (3) Background/Analysis. In the ancient days of multiple wire services and multiple newspaper clients in each market, the wires were primarily sources of (1) and occasional (2), with (3) being reserved for syndicated columnists and Sunday-supplement specials. (One reason: Different papers had different viewpoints and wanted to add their own spin!) I agree with AzCat that the future of orgs. like AP is rediscovering their past, and moving back to the older model of fact collection.
Web-savvy news consumers can usually find their own (2) by searching the web for earlier reports and background on sources (although imagine an AP report with imbedded links, much as Rantburg flags people and organizations but more extensive). Analysis (3) is already available in abundance via weblogs and probably is the weakest in ever being the way to make money, although if we ever get a decent micropayments system bloggers with even relatively small followings should be able to make a few bucks.
Sudden thought: Micropayments solves the problem of aggregating specialized demand. If George is an enthusiast for (say) polka performances, internet+micropayments could aggregate enough people who share his interest to let George make money off his hobby by keeping them informed. Maybe not a full-time income, but a nice one-or-two-evenings-a-week supplement. (Say 5,000 people at 1¢/view, well that's $50. George has just paid for the beer at his next Oktoberfest, doing something he'd be doing anyway!)
And as mentioned above the other end of the process is credibility/trustworthiness: I don't have time to read everything; I need a "trusted agent" who reads all the news and gives me a heads-up when something I want/need to know happens. Part of this could probably be automated, maybe by using some Bayesian method that's the mirror of spam-filtering, where I rate stories that I get on an interest scale. But I still need sites like Instapundit and Rantburg to cover the "unknown unknowns;" the things of interest I didn't already know about. That's valuable, and I would be willing to pay for it.
Anyway, My $.02.
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
11/15/2004 22:52 Comments ||
Top||
#37
In other words, rip away the pretense of neatly packaged "objective" self-contained MSM stories and show the authors and their biases, and next to them, their critics' rebuttals, counter-evidence, debunking/fisking etc. - Now you are on to something. Not only is the MSM business model broken, but the news story model is inadequate/inferior when there are a billion information sources out there. In a sense RB, the Command Post, etc. are version 1.0 of a new model of news dissemination. What will version 2.0 look like? Definitely developing threads that you go back into and link to analysis, context, history, people, what opinion makers/bloggers think, etc.
I think you have a ways to go on a business model. You need something that works today. I have some experience of developing business models for the net and am interested in kicking this around some more you can email me at pxbradley@excite.com
BTW, I though micro-payments would be huge and they never went anywhere.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
