Two pieces recently published – an article on Dubai for the UK Independent and a piece on the Dubai Metro for CNN Traveller. Piece on seduction conference in Vegas will be coming out in various media very soon – watch this space…

பாபர் மஸ்ஜித்; ஒன்றுபட்டு போராட இயக்கங்கள் முன்வருமா..?

பிஸ்மில்லாஹிர் ரஹ்மானிர் ரஹீம்.

ஒன்று பட்டால் உண்டு வாழ்வு; ஒற்றுமை நீங்கிடில் அனைவர்க்கும் தாழ்வு என்ற தத்துவத்தை நாமெல்லாம் கேள்விப்பட்டிருக்கிறோம். உலகில் தோற்றுவிக்கப்பட்ட எந்த மதமும் சொல்லாத அளவுக்கு இறைவனின் மார்க்கமாம் இஸ்லாம் ஒற்றுமையை வலியுறுத்தி சொல்லியுள்ளது. எல்லாம் வல்ல அல்லாஹ் தன் திருமறையில் கூறுகிறான்;

இன்னும், நீங்கள் எல்லோரும் அல்லாஹ்வின் கயிற்றை வலுவாக பற்றிப் பிடித்துக் கொள்ளுங்கள்;. நீங்கள் பிரிந்தும் விடாதீர்கள்;. அல்லாஹ் உங்களுக்குக் கொடுத்த நிஃமத்களை (அருள் கொடைகளை) நினைத்துப் பாருங்கள்;. நீங்கள் பகைவர்களாய் இருந்தீர்கள் – உங்கள் இதயங்களை அன்பினால் பிணைத்து, அவனது அருளால் நீங்கள் சகோதரர்களாய் ஆகிவிட்டீர்கள்;. இன்னும், நீங்கள் (நரக) நெருப்புக் குழியின் கரை மீதிருந்தீர்கள்; அதனின்றும் அவன் உங்களைக் காப்பாற்றினான் – நீங்கள் நேர் வழி பெறும் பொருட்டு அல்லாஹ் இவ்வாறு தன் ஆயத்களை – வசனங்களை உங்களுக்கு தெளிவாக்குகிறான்.[3:103 ]

அல்லாஹ்வின் தூதர்[ஸல்] அவர்கள் கூறினார்கள்;
அபூ மூஸா அல்அஷ்அரீ(ரலி) அறிவித்தார்கள்; ‘இறைநம்பிக்கையாளர்கள் ஒருவருக்கொருவர் (ஒத்துழைக்கும் விஷயத்தில்) ஒரு கட்டடத்தைப் போன்றவர்கள் ஆவர். கட்டடத்தின் ஒரு பகுதி மற்றொரு பகுதிக்கு வலு சேர்க்கிறது’ என்று இறைத்தூதர்(ஸல்) அவர்கள் கூறினார்கள். பிறகு தம் கை விரல்களை ஒன்றோடொன்று கோத்துக் காண்பித்தார்கள்.
ஆதாரம்;புஹாரி எண் 6026

மேற்கண்ட குர்ஆண் வசனமும்-ஹதீஸும் ஒற்றுமையை வலியுறுத்தும் ஏராளமான செய்திகளில் ஒரு உதாரணமாகும். இந்த விஷயங்கள் முஸ்லிம்கள் எல்லோரும் அறிந்த ஒன்றுதான். ஆனால் நடைமுறையில் என்ன நிலை..? ஆளுக்கு ஒரு இயக்கம், ஆளுக்கு ஒரு கழகம் என்று பிரிந்து முஸ்லிம்கள் பலவீனப்பட்டு நிற்கிறோம். அந்த பலவீனத்தை அப்படியே தொடர்கிறோம் என்று உலகறிய செய்வதில் பெரும்பங்கு வகிப்பது பாபர் மஸ்ஜித் மீட்பு போராட்டங்கள். இடிக்கப்பட்ட ஒரு பள்ளிவாசலை மீட்கப்போகிறோம் என்று சொல்லும் இவர்கள், ஒரு இறைவனை நம்பும் இவர்கள், ஒன்று பட்டுஓரிடத்தில் ஒரு தலைமையின் கீழ் குரல் எழுப்ப தயாராக இல்லை. ஒவ்வொரு அமைப்பு சார்பாக ஒவ்வொரு இடத்தில் போராட்டம். தலைநகர் சென்னையில் மட்டும் கடந்த காலங்களில் ஒன்பது இடங்களில் ஒன்பது அமைப்புகள் சார்பாக போராட்டம் நடத்தப்பட்டது . இதை பார்த்த மாற்று மதத்தவர்கள் ஒரு பள்ளிவாசலை மீட்க ஒரு இடத்தில் ஒன்று கூட முடியாத இவர்கள் பள்ளிவாசலை மீட்கப்போகிறார்களாம் என்று எள்ளிநகையாடினர். பாபர்மஸ்ஜித் போன்ற பொதுப்பிரச்சினையில் கூட இவர்களை ஒன்று கூடவிடாமல் தடுத்தது கர்வமும்-ஈகோவும்-இயக்கவெறியும் அன்றி வேறென்ன..? இந்துத்துவா பயங்கரவாதிகள் பள்ளிவாசலை இடித்தபோது அதில் பாஜக, ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ்., சிவசேனா, பஜ்ரங் தள், விஷ்வ ஹிந்து பரிஷத் என்று பல அமைப்புகள் ஒன்று சேர்ந்துதான் இடித்தார்கள். இந்துத்துவாக்கள் அமைப்பு ரீதியாக பிரிந்து நின்றாலும், முஸ்லிம்களுக்கு எதிரான செயல்பாடுகளை ஒன்றிணைந்தே செய்கிறார்கள். அவ்வளவு ஏன் திராவிட இயக்க பாரம்பரியத்தில் வந்த ஜெயலலிதா, கரசேவையை ஆதரித்து தனது இன வெறியை காட்டவில்லையா..? அல்லாஹ்வின் ஆலயத்தை இடிக்கும் பயங்கரவாதிகள் ஒன்று படும்போது, அதை மீட்கப்போகிறோம் என்று சொல்லும் இவர்கள் மட்டும் ஆளுக்கு ஒரு மூலையில் முனங்கிக்கொண்டிருப்பார்களாம்! இதில் நாங்கள் குர்ஆண்-ஹதீஸை மட்டுமே பின்பற்றுகிறோம் என்றுவேறு சொல்லிக்கொள்வது. இவர்களின் கூற்றில் உண்மையாளர்களாக இருந்தால், வாருங்கள்! நாம் தனித்தனி அமைப்பாக இருந்தாலும் முஸ்லிம்களின் பொதுப்பிரச்சினையில் ஒன்றுபடுவோம் என்று அனைத்து அமைப்பினரையும் ஆலோசித்து களமிரங்காதது ஏன்..? ஒன்று பட்டால் வெற்றி உண்டு என்பதை சமீபத்தில் வாலிகண்டபுரம் மைய்யவாடி பிரச்சினை உணர்த்திக்காட்டியதே! பின்பு ஏன் ஒன்றுபட தயக்கம்..? ஒரே காரணம் ஒவ்வொருவரும் தங்கள் பலத்தை காட்டும் காரணியாக பாபர் மஸ்ஜித் போராட்டத்தை பயன்படுத்த எண்ணுவதே! இதை நாம் கற்பனையாக சொல்லவில்லை. சமீபத்தில் ஒரு அமைப்பின் துணை பொதுச்செயலாளரை தொலைபேசியில்தொடர்பு கொண்டு, பாபர் மஸ்ஜித் போராட்டத்தை ஒன்று பட்டு நடத்த முயற்ச்சிக்கலாமே என்றோம். அதற்கு அவர், நல்ல கருத்துதான்! ஆனால் யாரும் ஒத்து வரமாட்டார்கள். ஏனெனில் ஒவ்வொருவரும் அவரவர் பலத்தை காட்டுவதில்தான் முனைப்பாக இருப்பார்கள் என்று எதார்த்தமாக சொன்னார் இதுதான் இயக்கங்களின் நிலை. இதே நிலை தொடருமேயானால், அல்லாஹ் அறியாப்புரத்தின் மூலமாக அருள் செய்து மஸ்ஜித் நமக்கு கிடைத்தாலன்றி, இவர்களின் போராட்டங்கள் மூலமாக மஸ்ஜித் நமக்கு கிடைத்துவிடாது என்பதே உண்மை. உடனே இயக்க வெறியர்கள் சொல்லலாம் இட ஒதுக்கீடு கேட்டு தனித்தனியாகத்தான் போராடினோம் அதில் வெற்றி பெறவில்லையா என்று..? இட ஒதுக்கீடு மத சம்மந்தப்பட்டதல்ல. மேலும், குறிப்பிட்ட சதவிகிதம் ஒதுக்கீடு வழங்க சட்டரீதியான அனுமதி அரசுக்கு உண்டு. அதோடு வாக்கு வங்கியும் இதில் கவனத்தில் கொள்ளப்பட்டது. எனவே இட ஒதுக்கீடு கிடைத்ததேயன்றி, இவர்களின் போராட்டத்தை கண்டு அஞ்சி அரசு இடஒதுக்கீடு தரவில்லை.[இட ஒதுக்கீடு எங்களாலதான் கிடைத்தது என்று இயக்கங்கள் குடுமியை பிடித்து கொண்டது தனி விஷயம்].

எனவே அன்பான இயக்கத் தலைவர்களே உங்களின் போராட்டத்திற்கு பயன் கிடைக்க வேண்டுமென்றால், பள்ளிவாசல் இடத்தை மீட்பது ஒன்றே உங்கள் உண்மையான நோக்கமென்றால் ஒன்று பட்டு போராட முன்வாருங்கள். அதற்கு கீழ்காணும் வழிமுறையை கையாளுங்கள்.
ஒவ்வொரு மாவட்டத்திலும் ஒரு இடத்தில் மட்டும் போராட்டம் நடத்துவது.
அந்த போராட்டத்தில் அனைத்து அமைப்பினரும் சங்கமிப்பது.
ஒவ்வொரு மாவட்டத்திலும் எல்லா அமைப்பு பிரதிநிதிகள் அடங்கிய குழு அமைக்கப்பட்டு, ஒவ்வொரு ஊர் ஊராக சென்று முஹல்லா ஜமாஅத் நிர்வாகிகளை சந்தித்து போராட்டங்களில் அனைத்து முஸ்லிம்களும் பங்கெடுக்க வலியுறுத்துவது.
அவரவர் கொடியோடு, பேனரோடு வருவதில் தவறில்லை.
ஒவ்வொரு இடத்திற்கும் ஒரு பிரதான தலைவர் தலைமை வகிக்க, மற்ற அமைப்பின் முன்னணி தலைவர்கள் முன்னிலை வகிக்கவேண்டும்.
உதாரணமாக சென்னையில் பேராசிரியர் ஜவாஹிருல்லாஹ் அவர்கள் தலைமையிலும் , மதுரையில் அல்தாஃபி தலைமையிலும், ராமநாதபுரத்தில் பாக்கர் தலைமையிலும், திருச்சியில், விழுப்புரத்தில் இவ்வாறாக ஒவ்வொரு மாவட்டத்திலும் மற்ற நிர்வாகிகள் தலைமையிலும் போராட்டம் நடத்தலாம்.
போராட்டம் முடிவுற்றபின் ஒவ்வொரு பிரதான அமைப்பின் முக்கிய தலைவர்கள் அடங்கிய குழு, கவர்னர், முதல்வர், ஜனாதிபதி, பிரதமர் ஆகியோரை சந்தித்து மகஜர் அளிக்கலாம்.
ஊடகங்களில் ஒன்றிணைந்து பேட்டியளிக்கலாம். அப்போது நாங்கள் தனி தனி இயக்கமாக இருந்தாலும் முஸ்லிம்களின் உரிமைகள்-நலன்கள் விஷயத்தில் ஒன்றுபட்டு நிற்போம் என்று அழுத்தமாக கூறலாம்.
இவ்வாறு ஒன்று பட்டு பொதுப்பிரச்சினையில் போராடினால், ஊடகங்களின் கவனம் நம் பக்கம் திரும்பும். அதிகார வர்க்கத்தை அசைத்து பார்க்கும். முஸ்லிம்களுக்கு அநீதி இழைத்தால், அவர்கள் ‘தேனீக்கள்’போல் ஒன்று பட்டு எதிர்ப்பை காட்டுவார்கள் என்ற எண்ணம் உருவாகும். மேலும், இவ்வாறு ஒன்று பட்டு போராடும்போது இயக்கத்திற்கு அப்பாற்பட்ட முஸ்லிம்களும் போராட்டத்தில் பங்கெடுப்பார்கள். இதன் மூலம் ‘கலகலத்து’ போன பாபர் மஸ்ஜித் போராட்டத்தை வலுவான போராட்டமாக மாற்றமுடியும். போராட்டத்தோடு நாம் ஒன்று பட்டு அல்லாஹ்விடம் கையேந்தினால் அல்லாஹ் நமக்கு வெற்றியை வழங்குவான் இன்ஷா அல்லாஹ்.

இதைவிடுத்து வழக்கம்போல நாங்கள் ஆளுக்கு ஒருபக்கம் நின்றுதான் கத்துவோம் என்றால், இயக்கங்களின் பிரிவினை போக்கிலிருந்து அல்லாஹ் முஸ்லிம்களை பாதுகாப்பானாக!

நன்றி : » *நிழல்களும்-நிஜங்களும்* முகவை.அப்பாஸ்

11/28/39, Syracuse

Three Are State Contests And Fourth Is Against Celtics

Facing an arduous week of activity with a crippled squad, the Syracuse Reds are slated for three pro basket ball games on the road prior to their next appearance before Syracuse fans at the Armory Saturday night with the Buffalo Bisons. Four games will be played by the Reds from Wednesday through Saturday night. Three of the games are New York State Professional League contests. The Reds will travel to Elmira Wednesday night for a league contest, facing the circuit leaders. Elmira has won both starts in the State loop. After losing its fist league game last Thursday night in Albany, the Reds defeated Brooklyn of the American league Friday night in Gloversville, and downed Akron here Saturday night. The Brooklyn and Akron contests were non-league battles. From Elmira, the Syracuse cagers will jump to Buffalo to meet the Bisons Thursday night. After the duel with the Bisons, the Reds will journey to Watertown to encounter Kate Smith’s Original Celtics of new York City Ffriday night. The Reds will play the Celtics in Syracuse later in the season. The Reds will return to Syracuse for a return to Syracuse for a return engagement with the Buffalo quintet Saturday night at the armory, marking the first local game for the Syracuse five, the game to be the first played on the more liberal professional rule plan, with bodily contact and less whistle blowing. The Akron game was played under the intercollegiate rules. The Syracuse club is hopeful that its injured list will soon be reduced, with three basketeers now convalescing from injuries suffered in the first two road games played by the Reds. George Newmann and Marty Friedman were hurt in the only loss the club has suffered to date, in Albany, while Bob Stewart, former Syracuse University captain, sustained a head injury Friday night against Brooklyn in Gloversville. None of them saw service in the team’s local bow and victory over Akron. Newma is a former long Island University star. Friedman played at Savage College. Syracuse fans are still talking about their favorites with the Reds today, after their impressive win over Akron. Mark Haller, Carthage boy, the star of the Reds’ inaugural, and Bob Maxwell, giant center, from New Jersey, were especially well liked by the fans. Nate Frankel, the most valuable player in the American League last year, with the Celtics, also had a large share of admirers. John Bromberg, the Reds’ playing manager; Mike Sewitch, his former L.I.U. teammate; Sol Kopitko, a product of C.C.N.Y.; Sam Bush, A New York pro, and Jake Costello, native Syracusan, and former Clarkson Tech captain, also showed flashes of form while in service in the triumph over Akron.

MIKE PENNER/CHRISTINE DANIELS

The transexual Los Angeles Times writer, who made news in 2007 by announcing that he was becoming a woman, has been found dead. Mike Penner apparently commited suicide.

Penner announced, in a 2007 LA Times column, that he was a transexual and was going to become a woman. Penner then began a column entitled, “Woman in Progress” under the byline Christine Daniels. However, in late 2008, Penner switched back to being a man.

Whenever the Washington Post announced that they would shut down three U.S. bureaus, reassigning six correspondents to Washington and leaving three without a job, it came as no surprise to anybody who has seen what’s happened to newspapers over the last few years.

But the crazy thing about this? Two of the three journalists who were let go were multimedia and web reporters. Travis Fox and Pierre Kattar, both Emmy Award-winning video producers, were among those who will leave the Post at the end of the year.

That’s a tough thing to look at when you consider where the newspaper industry is headed. Obviously the multimedia and online journalism will fall on the old editors, those who have been there longer and head sections that appear in print, so it won’t disappear entirely. But it does make me wonder where the priorities are of some papers.

More than two years ago, there was a New York Times meeting between an ambitious print journalist, two graphic designers, the deputy managing editor and the CTO of Times Digital. The goal was to integrate the entire paper, from print to online, and eliminate barriers. Journalists and editors would work with online editors and multimedia produces to create the best possible journalism. And it worked. The Times took it upon itself to overhaul the way it was running a newspaper online and the result is one of, if not the best, online newspaper in the world.

A lot of papers missed out on opportunity to fix the current situation 10 years ago when the looked at the Internet as something too radical to embrace. And even more recently, more missed an opportunity to save what still remained.

In a world of online journalism, it’s a shame that some of the media jobs that are getting slashed are the online ones.

For more on Travis Fox or Pierre Kattar, visit their pages on the Post’s website.

Couldn’t make up my mind on these… so I’ll let you do it.

Tom Toles in the Washington Post:

So we know what THEY give thanks for…

- and -

Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Naaah.. those Republicans aren’t going to pass ANYTHING!

- and -

David Horsey in the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

…and this is where we leave American Capitalism…

Today I bought the Times as there were no Guardians left at the shop. I don’t buy printed newspapers much as they are mostly full of useless information that’s poorly spell checked and too dominated by celebrities.

Two of the lowlights today from the Times (not related to celebrities):

• Green nail polish from Chanel is selling for £80 on ebay. This was on the front page, seriously.
• Gordon Brown has a network of helpers including someone who is a chairmaqn – I didn’t know that word had a silent Q, but there you go (page 32).

That last pearler was from an infographic (download it here) squeezed into a tiny space at the top of the page between the ad and the story. I can partly sympathise with the ‘visual journalist’ charged with creating it. I imagine they were given the brief with about 10 minutes until deadline so there would have been little time for them to spell check (a task usually left for sub-editors but they have probably all been retrenched). I can also partly sympathise with them as I imagine the briefing process probably went something like this:

EDITOR: Can you quickly do a graphic to tart up this story?
VISUAL JOURNALIST: What’s the story about?
E: Not really sure, they haven’t finished writing it yet. But does it really matter? Just put all these names in it and then link them together somehow.
VJ: But that doesn’t actually explain anything
E: Why does it matter? Graphics are just there to make the page look pretty.

Part of the offending graphic

In my previous career as an editorial design consultant I often saw how underrated visual journalists are in newsrooms (other than at the New York Times where I have heard that there are around 22 of them). Their skills are often seen as secondary to that of word journalists and they are not given anywhere near enough time and resources to properly craft their graphics.

Good infographics take time to create. Good infographics explain and offer insight. They can support the story, or they can stand-alone. They should make sense, or they should not be used. They are journalism, not decoration. The Times needs to do better.

Lest you think I am being one-sided, there are many visual journalists out there who do not deserve the title. Just because someone is good at using Illustrator doesn’t mean they can tell a story visually.

If you are wondering what the good bits were from the Times today they were the story about a Royal Commission report that recommends traffic lights be switched off to save energy and stop light pollution (page 36), and a story about how the charity Fine Cell Work teaches needlework to prison inmates so that they can learn new skills and earn an income to help support them when they get out of gaol (page 40).

INTERNET BILLBOARD

Article II, Sec. 1, cl. 5 of the US Constitution

“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President. . .”

From the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution.

“or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until
a President shall have qualified;”

It is not a conspiracy theory. Using the term “birther” in a condescending, Orwellian manner to discredit decent, hard working Americans who believe that the US Constitution is the law of the land, will not be tolerated.

1. Barack Obama has employed a legion of private and government attorneys to prevent revealing his country of birth. Innocent and eligible persons seeking the office of president do not do that.

2. Barack Obama’s father was a citizen of Kenya and a British citizen.  “natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution” was explicitly written to deal with the issue of foreign allegiances at the time of the writing of the US Constitution.

3. Barack Obama’s citizenship and allegiance was further tainted when he was adopted by his stepfather Lolo Soetoro and Obama became an Indonesian citizen.

4. Some combination of the above allowed Obama to travel to Pakistan in 1981 when travel there was restricted to US citizens.

5. The only document presented by the Obama camp is a Hawaii COLB. There has been no substantiation that it is authentic and it does not establish country of birth. As Lou Dobbs stated, “It is a piece of paper that refers to another piece of paper.”

6. All other documentation, all school records, that would establish country of birth have been kept hidden and restricted.

7. No authentic documentation has been presented to establish that Barack Obama was born in the US.

8. The records of all hospitals in Hawaii have been searched. There is no record of Stanley Ann Obama ever having given birth to a child.

9. Barack Obama’s paternal grandmother in Kenya has stated on multiple occasions that she was present at Obama’s birth in Mombasa.

10. Others have stated, including multiple family members, officials and press, that Obama was born in Kenya.

This has been presented in a manner that a fifth grader can understand. However, if you have any questions, please contact me on this blog.

Failure to learn more about and understand this critical issue and take appropriate measures can only be construed as apathy,  ignorance or having an un American agenda. This includes the Mainstream Media and the Fox network.

The new media and new digital age that we are entering will require media professionals and citizens alike to rethink the way that news gets created and disseminated. I submit that the new technologies that have been created have made individuals creating news in a closed, static format obsolete. Instead news and therefore, information will be dynamic, open, cheap and widespread.

Clay Shirky’s book touches on some of the most important aspects of the new revolution. The book focuses on the social and cultural effects of the new media. It looks at how collective groups of people can influence and change the world. From his writing and ideas on groups, we can infer some things about how news is changing.

The dynamic nature of news is already here. In the past the paper was printed once or twice a day and that was the extent of the content. The live web is here and live news and information are with it. News is updated not only continually, but from mobile locations. Any person with a smart phone can produce information from wherever they are.

The dynamic nature of information is talked about in Shirky’s chapter on Wikipedia. He said that originally Jimmy Wales considered an expert only moderated article creation system, but that took too long and was cumbersome. Then, he let in the masses and the news and information was created with speed and increased quality. The collective action of many trumps the action of the few.

This dynamic and constantly updated change is also addressed in Shirky’s chapter detailing the publish then filter phenomena. This aspect could be a double edged sword for journalism. Content will be created, but quality and accuracy could be sacrificed. The free market of information would hopefully correct errors content, but that is yet to be seen on a mass scale. In looking at Wikipedia, the majority of content is accurate, but vandalism and questionable content still are published. That kind of vandalism and questionable content would be far less likely in the professional world of journalism.

Openness and new methods of sharing were talked about in Shirky’s chapter on collective action. The sharing of massive amounts of information is as easy as clicking the forward button on your e-mail. The ramifications for news will hopefully be higher quality content and verification. Having more eyes on a story would ideally lead to more corrections of inaccuracies by those who have information.

In the past, being a journalist was like a being given a special gift. A journalist was set apart from the average citizen and supposedly endowed with a special gift to inform the masses. Now, there is no distinction between news creators and consumers. Information and news creation is universal and cheap. In the future, being open with processes and news will not simply be an option, it will be the only way for trust to exist.

The cheap methods of content creation have made journalists no longer a set apart elite. This fact has and will continue to revolutionize media.  In chapter three, Shirky talked about how everyone is a media outlet. Today, people update their twitter statuses, facebook profile, flickr accounts, youtube accounts and more daily. This creates a lot of content. Of course, the vast majority of this content is low quality and meant for a tiny audience. Still, the mass individualized media outlets will require journalists to sift through them to find meaning and quality content, relevant to the masses.

Looking to developing parts of the world, this new media revolution is all the more important. In Shirk’s chapter on Flash Mobs, he talked about how instant protests have been seen in oppressive regimes. The same technology and ideas that form these instant protests can form to disseminate information and news about regimes, where technology or journalistic infrastructure is limited.

The access to news by the masses around the world and the amount of information available is revolutionary. There are trillions of websites on the internet. Wikipedia has more than 15 times the information than the Library of Congress. Broadband penetration and online access is spreading. This hyper information age that we are in has changed things. As Clay Shirky said, there has always been an information overload, but we just need better filtering methods. News needs to be synthesized and connections made by humans. Journalists can do that.

If I was to start up a new news organization, I would look to synthesize the points I have made into a practical standard operating procedure. This organization would share some resemblances to the past newsrooms. Of course, revenue would be needed and codes of ethics would be established,

The new model would be digital and lightweight, because as Jeff Jarvis so eloquently put, “atoms are a drag.” Investing millions in printing presses and the surrounding infrastructure would be unwise since innovation is to be expected and you cannot capitalize on innovation if you are tied to atoms and office buildings.

The organization would be humble. It would look to all sources for news and not put premiums on things like degrees or titles. News could come from sources that might not be expected. Looking at the people who are affected by news leads to truer content. Respecting what the masses of people say is a necessity.

The organization would iterate and flexible. Since I would not invest millions in hard infrastructure, new methods of content creation would be possible. Like David Cohn said, being able to fail is important to truly have innovative success.

The revenue that the organization would generate would be from several sources. It is no longer logical to expect people to pay more than a nominal fee for news. The generation that came to maturity with the internet is not going to pay a premium for information, just because it says the New York Times on the front.

Revenue could be generated by targeted ad sales. Using Google’s ad sense, ads could appear that are relevant to the individual consumer. It would be important that these ads are non-obtrusive. Having users pay a small monthly or yearly access fee would eliminate the ads.

If the site reaches a level that larger companies would want to advertise, it might be possible to do advertorials if the topic is deemed interesting enough and it is clear that it is sponsored. Digg, College Humor and other websites frequently have this type of content and it generates significant amounts of revenue.

The most important facet of any new news organization would be trust. Shirky talked about how trusting that our news and links are valid will make people willing to come back and willing to take a vested interest in the site. The trust and community have been and will continue to be the base for any type of news or journalistic adventure.

If a startup news companies followed those ideas, it would be profitable and high quality. New sites are emerging every day, so I am confident that new models of news will pop up. These new models will be unexpected but quality journalism will survive. There is no doubt that they will all be dynamic, open, cheap and widespread.

My local newspaper (or, more correctly, the website associated with the local newspaper) recently put out a call for reader input. How, the bloggers asked, can we make the newspaper better? How can we bring you back? How are we doing?

You can see the suggestions here (hint: though the article was posted a month and a half ago, there’s not a single response).

I like to help and I do still hold a place for newspapers in my heart. So here are my suggestions and observations:

1. Stop asking me how to run your newspaper.
I’m a reader. I’m not I’m paid to run your newspaper; you are.

These pleas for public comment have been going out for years, especially as newspapers began to see their readership numbers decline. In my years in newspapering I was guilty of making similar overtures. The idea, of course, is that it makes the paper look like it cares what readers think — that it allows readers a greater stake in the newspaper. It doesn’t.

Instead, it makes newspapers look pathetic and lost. It makes them look rudderless and incapable of solid decision-making. You are supposed to be an organization of trained journalists. Don’t whine and beg readers to make your decisions for you. If you do, you undermine your authority, and your readers’ trust in you.

Speaking of undermining your authority…

2. Stop dumbing down your design
There’s a reason everyone wears jackets and ties on TV news: Authority.

If new anchors wore T-shirts and jeans, you wouldn’t look up to them, would you? So why have all our newspapers gone from the stately, authoritative nameplates and designs to T-shirt and jeans equivalents? When I started in the newspaper business, the big metro daily’s flag screamed authority, in stately capital letters that demanded respect. The last two redesigns have reduced that nameplate, first to a friendlier font with lower-case letters and now, well, it’s become just initials, tucked away into the top left-hand corner.

Beyond that, the paper has moved to more digest items, fewer long-form stories, bigger photos, and all the little things readers have said they wanted for years. Guess what? It ain’t working.

3. Stop trying to prove you’re cool.
I’m glad you’re on Twitter. For me, the easiest, fastest way to catch up on the news of the day is to follow news outlets I trust, grab their headlines in my Twitter feed, and hit up the stories I’m interested in. So that’s working for you.

What doesn’t work are the news stories about Twitter, the constant references to your Twitter feeds in the newspaper, quoting Twitter feeds in the newspaper. It wastes valuable newsprint and it alienates readers who aren’t on Twitter — and that’s the majority of your readers. In fact, it’s more than 80 percent of your readers.

Speaking of Twitter…

4. Stop cluttering your Twitter feed with stories you didn’t write.
I don’t follow you for world and national news.

The Associated Press is a great resource for newspapers, if used properly. A good newspaper will include bits of world and national news of importance, and local writers and papers are just not equipped to cover that stuff. But national stories do not belong on local news websites unless they’ve been localized. I get my national news from sources with the resources to cover those stories. I follow them on Twitter, or I visit them daily. Including such stories on your websites and feeding them to Twitter waters down your strength, which should be covering local news.

The same really should go for the newspaper as well. More care needs to be put into what wire stories are chosen for the print editions, and in every possible case, those wire stories should be localized. If there’s not a local angle, why put it in the local paper?

I am a fan of newspapers. I spend every Saturday and Sunday morning with mine. And every weekend, I struggle with whether I will continue my subscription. As the quality of local coverage drops, the paper’s usefulness declines as well.

Unfortunately, nearly everything they’ve done to bring readers back drives readers the other way.

So maybe they really do need help.

Cuz it’s almost too late.

A year has gone by and we have come to the time that keeps many of us awake even now; the time when Mumbai, India’s cosmopolitan city, was turned into a jungle and the residents of the city were hunted out on streets, restaurants and five-star hotels.

It was naked terror that came via the sea and then walked in without the need for any disguise. The man who became the face of the attacks looked ecstatic in a particular picture and later it became known that the crew was on certain drugs that kept them numb, focused and inhuman. With a global audience glued to the TV screens the terrorists achieved what they had come for.

I’ve seen footage of the Scotland Yard in London and that of the New York Police Department (NYPD) on BBC and CNN and I’ve seen what the CCTV at CST showed when the two terrorists were there; if you’ve seen that you understand the point. The action of the local forces in the first few hours was that of total incompetence and it was this period that made all the difference in what could have been a few lives lost and the threat eliminated in a matter of hours to the fact that the trained terrorists got their hideouts with civilian lives as hostages around them and the situation continuing for what seemed like endless 62 hours of agony. It has now been over 365 days of anger, helplessness and embarrassment.

Hardly anything went right that day or the one prior to that and every machinery responsible to ensure the safety of the citizens and that of the country itself from a terror attack failed. The intelligence community defended itself by saying that the intelligence was provided and the enforcing agencies came out saying that it was not actionable. Three of Bombay’s senior police officers, who could have provided leadership, died around Cama Hospital within the first few hours of the attack when they came in the line of fire of two terrorists who were hiding and had a position of advantage.

William Bratton, the recently retired well-known chief of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) who has headed NYPD before once said ‘all terrorism is local because ultimately, when it happens, it’s local. It’s on your shores. The police are the first line of deterrence rather than the last. It’s the police who know the neighbourhoods and there has to be some level of effective local intelligence.’ Bratton is a legend and there are enough stories on the Internet that show how crime rates have dropped significantly wherever he has provided leadership.

IBN Live carried a story last year after speaking to US security expert Alex Alexiev who put the blame squarely on India’s poor grasp of terror dynamics and lack of coordination between various agencies. Thankfully the US security expert just used the word poor grasp and did not actually say something downright demeaning because we should have been better prepared living near what is called by the world as the ‘epicentre of terrorism.’ And we’ve had a history of terror acts pointing towards the ISI with the one prior to Mumbai being that on the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

The TV journalists did not know that the live footage was being used by the terrorist handlers but what about people from operations and from intelligence who are trained and were also listening to the intercepts? They should have barricaded the place and briefed the media and better still used it to their advantage. If intelligence and operations people knew that the handlers were passing information of our channels to their men inside the three places, then how much intelligence did they need to figure out that media would have been a perfect vehicle to foil their operations; and I am quite certain the journalists present would have been extremely happy to help. Instead people not authorised to speak were briefing the media about things not needed and we ended up showing the NSG getting into Nariman House and the handler shouting kill everybody, their forces are coming.

Our machinery is not working despite dozens of terror incidents because corruption and incompetence run riot in our systems and that is what needs to be rooted out. I read that the external intelligence agency R&AW has been destroyed by years of abuse by senior officials in a column and that the morale is at an all time low.

The media is not immune from incompetence and bureaucracy. Just sample this incident: A good exclusive story landed in my lap and I called two senior people in a newspaper and one of them said great story and asked me to go ahead and the other wrote in an e-mail copied to me and sent to the concerned section that for such strong stories we should be flexible. The section head was incompetence personified and kept coming back with idiotic questions and, finally, I had no choice but to answer them; now if the person had any shame and the bare minimum professional ethics I would have received some reply. Instead the newspaper pulled its shutters down.

Neither the two senior people who were copied nor the incompetent section reporter have got back to me for about six months now. And before my answer I was getting a mail about the gaps everyday. And I don’t think these three people would even be aware that what they did was wrong because power is not answerable to anyone; in fact I apologised to some of them thinking that perhaps there is something living inside them and they would realise. No accountability, no competence and complete shamelessness; and then these people would go out and ask for accountability from other institutions. What a charade of lies and hypocrisy.

I saw an interview of GE’s Jack Welch where he spoke about four kinds of employees and what the company should do with them. 1. High on skills and high on values: you value them and try to keep them. 2. Low on skills and low on values: you fire them. 3. Low on skills but high on values: you give them opportunities to learn. 4. High on skills and low on values: this is the dangerous category and companies often persist a bit longer with them to their own detriment.

Our culture needs to realise that competence matters at all levels and that we need to value it in every field and then perhaps the right people will find their rightful place and the intelligence agencies will function; may be even the right politicians and the police officers would come to the fore and you’ll also have journalists who can edit or write a copy.

Otherwise five years will pass and we would still be sitting ducks.

Yesterday I was commissioned to photograph Jim Beresford for the Guardian. Jim lives in Huddersfield, but was brought up near Dublin in a mixed Catholic-Protestant marriage. When he was thirteen, he was removed from his family home and sent to Artane, run by the Christian Brothers. His story is very moving and is certainly worth reading – it’s in today’s Guardian on pages 32-33, or here on the Guardian web site.

Jim Beresford :: the Guardian

More than just as tribute to the victims, more than just a disaster story, the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire, and the following events including the trial of the company owners, lay out issues students can see clearly.  I think the event is extremely well documented and adapted for student projects.  In general classroom use, however, the event lays a foundation for student understanding.

A couple of good websites crossed my browser recently, and I hope you know of them.

• From Cornell University’s Institute for Labor Relations, a site the features writings of some of the victims, headlines of the times, and several other documents suitable for classroom use or in building a Documents-based Question for an AP class.
• From the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the home of the Douglas Linder’s “Famous Trials” page, the story of the trial of the owners of the company (they were acquitted).  This site is rich in information and images, a real gold mine for in-class slide presentations and student projects.

1911 cartoon from a New York paper shows the owners dressed in dollar bills, holding shut the door that barred the safe exit of so many women during the fire. Courtesy UMKC Famous Trials site; New York Evening Journal, March 31, 1911

Events around the fire illuminate so much of American history, and of government (which Texas students take in their senior year):

• Labor issues are obvious to us; the incident provides a dramatic backdrop for the explanation of what unions sought, why workers joined unions, and a sterling example of a company’s clumsy and destructive resistance to resolving the workers’ issues.
• How many Progressive Era principles were advanced as a result of the aftermath of the fire, and the trial?
• Effective municipal government, responsive to voters and public opinion, can be discerned in the actions of the City of New York in new fire codes, and action of other governments is clear in the changes to labor laws that resulted.
• The case provides a dramatic introduction to the workings and, sometimes, misfirings of the justice system.
• With the writings from the Cornell site, students can climb into the events and put themselves on the site, in the courtroom, and in the minds of the people involved.
• Newspaper clippings from the period demonstrate the lurid nature of stories, used to sell newspapers — a working example of yellow journalism.
• Newspapes also provide a glimpse into the workings of the Muckrakers, in the editorial calls for reform.
• Overall, the stories, the photos, the cartoons, demonstrate the workings of the mass culture mechanisms of the time.

Use the sites in good education, and good health.

I’m standing in Barnes and Noble on 5^th Avenue, it’a lunch time, and I’m joined  by a throng (what is a “throng” by the way?) of people pouring over books for holiday gifts, romance novels and even a bunch of geeky looking guys, separate from the throng, who are  salivating over books about computers.

But I refuse to let myself be distracted by any of them because I’m searching the shelves for something much more important.

A way to get rich.

A friend mentioned a book called “Think and Grow Rich” and she’d just finished a chapter about how people seem to triumph after their darkest hour.

This brought two immediate thoughts to mind.  One, if thinking is required, I’m screwed.  And two, since I haven’t triumphed yet, does that mean I have even darker hours ahead?   Oh God, please say “no.”

Nevertheless, since I wasn’t making any headway playing Lotto, Lucky 7s or Mega Million, I thought I would give her book a try.   But as I stood in the Money and Finance section of the store, I found myself distracted.

For two good reasons.

First, I had already seen enough dark hours in my life to last a lifetime, and  didn’t really want to face anymore.  I just wanted to be left alone, live one day at a time, try to do the right thing and enjoy my simple life.

And second, I’m a dreamer.

People have always accused me of that each time I thought I’d come up with a good idea, or tried to express myself creatively.  And over the years, I came to believe they were right.

I thought back to my  teenage years when I wrote songs.   People who heard me play, and heard my songs, loved them.  Not just my friends, but strangers.  And for years, I recorded those songs, and took them to every record label in the world where they were rejected.  And I would try again.  I’d work several jobs, write more songs, do a better job of recording them, only to face more rejection.  From Los Angeles, to London, to Nashville to New York, year after year only to have everything that came from my heart be rebuffed.

In fact most of the people who were even nice enough to listen, would hand them back and look at me with something akin to pity, before they sent me on my way.   All I knew was that people liked my songs, except for the people who had the power to record them.

Years later, after I left that business,  I tried one more time.  A man heard me play an original song at a party, he cried, and told me it was a beautiful song, He wanted to give it to a friend who was the president of a major record label.  He did, and of course the song was dismissed immediately.  When I heard the news, I just stared at the man and I thought to myself,

“They were right.  I’m nothing but a dreamer.”

After I left that business in my early 30’s I began writing; articles, stories, poems, and mainly commentary about the things I noticed in life.  A professor of an advanced writing course at NYU said,

“You are a great writer.  You really have a talent.”

And another professor said,

“I feel every scenario you write about.  Your words are so descriptive, I could even smell the fragrance of the bread in the scene you wrote about your childhood.  You really write with great emotion and empathy.”

And for years I wrote and wrote, and was declined by magazine after magazine, by newspapers and book publishers.

Finally, one year,  after my writing days were basically over, I wrote a story for someone I loved, and wrote it in the format of a children’s story.  To my chagrin, everyone who read it, loved it.  And I thought, uh oh, here I go again.  And I was right, every publisher who read it declined it.   And when I asked people for help, most didn’t even respond.   I was told I needed a network.  That successful people know other successful people.  Kind of like the rich get richer.

But I was a kid from the south side of Chicago.  I didn’t have a network.  I went to a neighborhood grade school, like thousands of others in Chicago.  I didn’t go to a prep school, an Ivy League school, a Big 10 school, or any university where networking was part of the curriculum.  I went to a local junior college  made out of temporary metal buildings erected in an flat, open corn field in the middle of Illinois.   And I had been told for most of my life that I was only really good at one thing.  And that was being

Nothing but a dreamer.

Even in relationships, I have faced the same thing  One woman after another would think I was the nicest, most decent man they had every met.  But there was always a flaw, or a comment I’d make, or the lack of money, or class, or status, or distance, or something I would do.  And sooner rather than later I was spurned by them as well.   And like the music people and the publishers, I would never hear another word from them again.

Who knows why all of this happened.  Who knows why so many people could appreciate the talent, the heart and the decency, and how the only thing they could say was,

“I’m sorry, you’re not good enough.”

So, on that particular day, I stood at Barnes and Noble, surrounded by the “throng,” now half heartedly looking at books on how to be successful.  I remembered all of the record companies and publishers.  I remembered all the people who would sit at the piano bars and say “God those are great songs.”  I remembered all the people who read my writing and said, “you really have a talent.”

But most of all,  I stood looking at those hundreds of books all promising success, and I remembered the rejection.  All of it.

I smiled a sad smile, but also realized that I have been successful in other areas of my life, which to me are more important than who you know or how much money you have.  I have good friends.  People know they can count on me.  I’m honest, loving, faithful, meet all my commitments, love my boys, and do my best to help people when they need it the most.

But on that day I turned my back, and slowly walked out of the store, empty-handed.  I walked down 5th Avenue to my office where I had work to do that would pay my bills and keep me busy.  I thought to myself, accept the life you have today, continue to be decent, and try to treat other with kindness, respect, and affection.  But I couldn’t help thinking,

“A book on how to think and get rich?  What was I thinking?”

“I’m nothing but a dreamer.”

The Daily Mail published a typical article on immigration and the NHS. More shocking than the fact that NHS hospitals are teeming with foreigners is the revelation that the Republic of Ireland has recently joined the United Kingdom…

11/27/39, Syracuse

Bob Stewart, former captain of the Syracuse University quintet, is expected back in uniform with the Syracuse Reds’ pro five for their next home appearance at the Armory against Buffalo in a New York State League game Saturday night. He suffered a head injury in the Reds’ victory over Brooklyn Friday night at Gloversville, and was advised by a physician not to get in togs for the Syracuse team’s home bow with Akron last Saturday night. Stewart has joined George Newman and Marty Friedman, other injured Red players, in sideline company. Newman and Friedman were hurt in the opening league game lost to Albany Thursday night. These injuries made necessary the recruiting of two New York City boys, Bob Maxwell, giant center, and Sam Burns, guard, for the game with Akron. They made their debut with the Reds in the game, as did Jake Costello, native Syracuse boy. Wilmeth Singh, who is studying in Washington, D.C., is having difficulty getting here for week-end games. He could not make it Saturday night, and whether he will be here for the Buffalo game is questionable. Maxwell and Burns are expected to continue on the club roster.

Well, another win for the good guys. After threatening to close its doors Dec. 1 without significant concessions from its eight unions, a deal was hammered out with the last one yesterday. It was ugly for the staff, starting with a four per cent raise over five years, return to a five day workweek instead of four days, and rollbacks in benefits, but a major Canadian newspaper will continue to exist. First CHEK Victoria, now La Presse; good things are happening in Canadian media.

The newspaper wins frequent praise from within its industry and from media observers for the depth of its coverage, from international issues to municipal politics where it played a key role this year in breaking details of Montreal’s construction scandal.

CP/Canoe, November 26 2009

By N.S. Palmer, Ph.D.

It’s interesting that my most popular blog article is not about Obama, Bush, politics, science, economics, or philosophy. It’s about newspapers: “Why Subscribe to a Print Newspaper?”

I wrote that article in March of 2009 and it still gets from five to 25 views a day.

Quite a few people are still interested in newspapers.  Because I think newspapers are important, that gives me hope for the future.

I really hesitate to open this can of worms because I could rail for HOURS on the sheer stupidity of many of my fellow countrymen who, much like lemmings, will blindly follow a flag waving harpy who has NO ideas and NO real discernible policy, because she is ‘realness’ and for ‘freedom’, ‘conservativeness’, and ’stuff’.   At first I laughed this woman off, who luckily sank the presidential bid of Mr. McCain. But I realize that this woman is dangerous in that she is charming, ambitious and stupid.

Now, I realize that not all conservatives are stupid. I may not agree with them, but I wouldn’t say they are stupid. However, these people lining up to buy her book? OM MY KRISHNA!!! Did central casting feed these people lines? INCREDIBLE!!!

Here is a rather brilliant piece which rather speaks for itself. Mind you, there is no trickery involved here. Ya can’t blame Katie Couric for any tough questions. This man just asked these people why they liked Sarah Palin, why they’d vote for her, and why they though she’d make a good president. Pretty simple right?

Well, ok, not everyone is super smart. And not everyone understands foreign policy. Or domestic policy. Or policy for the people not from America, too. Not everyone went to a G-dblessed fancy college or can read a newspaper. Heck, they are so expensive, and the media lies, so it’s hard to really know what’s going on with the economy. Or health care. Or the economy. Or Obama’s birth certificate.

It’s times like this when I really cringe at technology and YouTube and the thought of the internet carrying this far and wide across the globe. Sorry, world.

So, it’s really not these people’s fault that they resemble the kids of Heavy Metal Parking Lot as my fellow comic cattle prod, Harmon Leon, has brilliantly pointed out. I personally think it’s a bit insulting to metal fans, who at least have taste, but I digress. Here is a mash-up between the above footage and the Heavy Metal Parking Lot film that Harmon put together.

Spooky, innit?

I’m beginning to think that the country deserves Sarah Palin. At least the country of Ohio does.

Before I was sports editor at TPN, I was the layout editor for a little more than year. It was a great experience and like changes on the web, I got to oversee some new things happen to our print paper.

That’s why I find this story about a Swiss newspaper’s quest for a redesign very interesting (via OJB). The premise, here, is that a design company, Information Architects, was one of five groups that wanted to redesign the Swiss newspaper, Tages-Anzeiger. The company wanted to streamline the print edition and connect it with the online version.

iA failed in their bid, but their ideas are very interesting. iA’s post about their attempt goes into more detail with pictures. Overall, it was complete paper overhaul, so I won’t post about the non-online stuff (although, it’s a good read if you’ve ever worked in layout). But here are the more, as iA writes, “controversial” ideas:

1. Blue words. These words are meant to be scanned easily, so somebody could read the front page in 20 seconds. If somebody wanted to learn more about the story, they could type the blue words into the paper’s website search function and get more information. “Links in print obviously doesn’t mean that you can click it, it means linking the paper to the online edition.”

2. Reader comments. Next to a story that appears in print is a reader’s comment that appeared online. The goal is to further the connection between writer and reader.

Like I said, Information Architect’s post has more pictures of their complete redesign, but they also have the full .pdf file of their redesign available.

I could not agree more with iA’s attempt to redesign a print paper and think that a lot of people would agree with me. It’s a very radical change to a traditional form of news, but the information age has shown us that change needs to happen. Newspapers are going left and right and now is the time for somebody to try something “controversial,” or that paper will fall just like others before it. You should definitely read the bottom of iA’s post, where they outline their pitch to the Swiss paper, because it has six important pieces of advice for newspapers:

I. Three Premises

1. The Masses are not Wise …but the have become much more powerful.
2. The Reader now is a User …she is in control.
3. Newspapers need to Change: …user experience is (the) key.

II. Three Guidelines

1. Improve Readability …and make the newspaper scannable.
2. Stay True to the Medium …with optimal reading typography, big images and prominent info graphics.
3. Mary Print and Online <…because Brand=UX

That’s some pretty powerful stuff to tell a newspaper. This was pitched to a European, Swiss newspaper so I’m not sure what their philosophy is or who exactly they are catering to, but I believe in this goals and would like to see a print paper attempt these. I’m not an expert on European newspapers, but if they’re anything like most American papers, they’re run by traditional, conservative (not politically speaking) people who are afraid of change and want to cling to the ink on their fingertips, which is something, I admit, I miss.

An incredible revelation

I’ve been watching the news unfold about the E-mails and documents that were somehow pilfered (or leaked) from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) last week.  I have been reading everything that I can find on the internet about the subject, including the E-mails themselves and some of the programmer comments embedded in the CRU software.

I have been stunned.

So it appears that either a) the science behind anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is dubious, or b) the entire global warming panic has been an outright fraud perpetrated by politically-motivated scientists against an unsuspecting, and largely gullible, world population.  I tend to believe the latter.

Not only am I stunned, I’m also livid.  At the same time, however, I’m also relieved that the priests of global warming now have serious reasons to be worried…if not afraid.  And now I hope the Senate will have more reason to look at the pending cap and trade debate with more skepticism.  Given the current–and very real–economic crisis, we don’t need Congress levying additional taxes with the intent of thwarting a crisis that doesn’t even exist.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong

I am an AGW denier.  I have always been a denier.  I am proud of the fact that I never fell for what, in my mind at least, always came across as being specious bullshit.  I’m so, so grateful that I’m not among the millions and millions of gullible idiots who took the bait hook line and sinker.

Up until now the term “denier” has been used as a pejorative by global warming adherents to describe skeptics.  But now one is led to ask the question: Who exactly are the real deniers?  Those of us who refuse to believe alarmist prognostications of imminent climatic doom, or those who refuse to recognize and consider evidence that sits before their very eyes?  Again I say the latter.  They are the ones in a deep state of denial, after all.  But why?

Because (probably subconsciously) they simply cannot bring themselves to admit that they have been wrong all along…they cannot admit that they have allowed themselves to be duped.  They have been fooled by perhaps the most outrageous con job of all time, and they cannot bear to face up to that single, pitiful, ignominious truth.  They are sheep, pure and simple.

Case in point: Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post:

Stop hyperventilating, all you climate change deniers. The purloined e-mail correspondence published by skeptics last week — portraying some leading climate researchers as petty, vindictive and tremendously eager to make their data fit accepted theories — does not prove that global warming is a fraud.

If I’m wrong, somebody ought to tell the polar ice caps that they’re free to stop melting.

That said, the e-mail episode is more than a major embarrassment for the scientists involved. Most Americans are convinced that climate change is real — a necessary prerequisite for the kinds of huge economic and behavioral adjustments we would have to make to begin seriously limiting carbon emissions. But consensus on the nature and scope of the problem will dissipate, and fast, if experts try to obscure the fact that there’s much about the climate they still don’t know.

[Goes on to outline the UEACRU E-mail hacking scandal in some detail.]

It would be great if this were all a big misunderstanding. But we know carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and we know the planet is hotter than it was a century ago. The skeptics might have convinced each other, but so far they haven’t gotten through to the vanishing polar ice.

Yep.  There’s that “denier” word again coming from the mouth of a denier.  It doesn’t get funnier than that.  And you’ve got to love Mr. Robinson’s flippant comment about melting polar ice caps.  This is especially humorous since researchers have shown that the volume of the polar ice caps stabilized in 2007 and has  been expanding ever since.  In his opinion piece, Mr. Robinson also declares that “climate science is fiendishly hard” to study.  Well, no kidding.  But unicorn science is fiendishly hard to study, too…BECAUSE UNICORNS DON’T EXIST ANY MORE THAN ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING DOES!

Yes, it’s problematic to study something that simply isn’t there, isn’t it?

But let’s name a few of the other dupes that got sucked into believing the AGW myth, shall we?

• Barack Obama
• Just about all of the members of the Obama administration (most notably the eco-fascist Carol Browner)
• Gordon Brown
• Tony Blair
• Angela Merkel
• Nicolas Sarkozy
• The European Union
• The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• Many members of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Many members of the U.S. Senate (to include John McCain)
• ABC
• NBC (see: General Electric)
• CBS
• MSNBC (see: General Electric)
• CNN
• BBC
• PBS
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• The Los Angeles Times
• Too many other U.S. newspapers to count
• Too many U.S. corporations to enumerate

I didn’t mention Al Gore because he’s among the “dupers,” not among the ”dupes.”  He’s just one of the dudes making hundreds of millions of dollars off of the global warming hysteria scam.

Actually, the list of dupes goes on and on and on and I don’t have time to list them all.  But the scariest dupes of all are the ones who are supposed to report the news and keep the public informed (see all of the television networks and newspapers above).  Most of the news sources listed above are being notoriously silent about the ClimateGate scandal.  This in itself is terribly insidious, given the fact that the Obama administration and the Democratic majority in Congress seem intent on foisting a cap and tax scheme on the American people that will greatly damage businesses in the United States and increase energy costs for all.

Yet, the mainstream media, cognizant of its humiliatingly supine complicity in an apparent world-wide con scheme, remains silent.  They are worthless now.  They have been worthless.

And now we hear that President Obama, despite the revelation of the UEACRU E-mail and document disclosure, intends to attend next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen anyway, where he intends to promise that he will commit America to reducing greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time forfeiting transferring billions of American taxpayer dollars to an apparently fraudulent international carbon blackmail tax scheme.

Good luck, Mr. Obama.  We’re watching you.

The American public is watching you.

As an aside, I wonder if Mr. Obama and his family will watch “The Day After Tomorrow” on DVD this weekend.  Maybe it will help build up his courage to travel to Denmark and betray the American people.

Note

Some of the bloggers at the Telegraph have, indeed, been covering the CRU E-mail story.  Here’s Gerald Warner:

At the more domestic level, the proposed ban on incandescent light bulbs, so supinely accepted in this servile state of Britain, is now provoking a huge backlash in America. US citizens do not like the government coming into their houses and putting their lights out. Voters may not understand the cut and thrust of climate debate at the technical level, but they know when the Man from Washington has crossed their threshold uninvited.

The term that Fox News is now applying to the Climategate e-mails is “game-changer”. For the first time, Anthropogenic Global Warming cranks are on the defensive, losing their cool and uttering desperate mantras such as “You can be sceptical, not denial.” Gee, thanks, guys. In fact we shall be whatever we want to be, without asking your permission.

Good to see a Brit taking a position on this travesty.  James Delingpole (from the same paper) has been doing superb work, too (actually, it’s been Delingbore–as some of Delingpoles’s detractors call him–who has done the yeoman’s work on this story at the Telegraph).  Well done, Sir!

There hasn’t been any “copying and pasting of news” this week – it’s been a busy one with a lot of deadlines. It’ll return come Monday. I also went to the launch on Baker Street last night of Trading Places, a new book by award-winning photographer and all-round good chap Steve Bloom. Also my dad. So that’s why posts have been scant: but it’s Friday, so I thought I’d cheer you all up with a few tips on how to survive the Christmas do…

The Christmas party: that perfect time to let your hair down and throw your reputation to the winds. What other time of year can you mock your boss, flirt with your co-workers and dance in your knickers, all at once?

But as legions of office drones know, that opportunity comes with a priceless hangover.

A good story was told by Adam, of High Street, Cardiff city centre. Things went wrong at his old job when fire fighters got more than they bargained for in a call-out.

Adam said: “My old work, a now-defunct bank, had a Christmas party in the office in 2003. There was a buffet, an awards ceremony for the year’s work, and karaoke machine, with added smoke machine.

“So the party was in full swing, people singing, people dancing and the smoke machine smoking. After about two hours of this, some men dressed in fireman outfits arrived at the office. Some of the female staff – including managers – assumed these were strippers.

“They started, well, gyrating around the men, trying to take off their ‘outfits’. The thing is though, they were actual firemen: the smoke machine had set the alarms off.

“Not surprisingly, that was the last Christmas party we were given in that office.”

So how does the humble worker bee prevent getting into pickles like these? Here are some ideas. Which type are you?

FOR THE NEW GUY

You have got to be extra-careful. For you have just entered a parallel world, in which your every move will be scrutinised to fit with the ‘banter’ of man-all-man employees who’ve been spending longer with each other than their wives for several decades.

So if you’ve been waiting for that perfect time to share your secret love of musicals, discuss French theatre, come out as gay or, worse, as a vegan, your first Christmas party isn’t it.

And beware, because it will seem like a good idea when you’re nine pints down and standing on the table without trousers or dignity.

Instead the best policy is cower in the corner, if possible with other trainees, and talk about ludicrously safe subjects.

Think along the lines of cars, ties (not shoes), bitter (not lager) and possibly politics, but make sure you tow the standard line: “Just how bad is that Gordon Brown?” Or you could stick to the ergonomic management keyboard:

FOR THE NEW GIRL

You’re over here. The punch is over there. In the middle is overweight Gwyn from accounts who always puts himself deliberately between you and the photocopier so you have to squeeze past.

This should be as good a hint as any not to drink anything. You’re young, fresh-faced, intelligent and unknown to you most people in the office are competing to be you, or worse, especially in Gwyn’s case.

So if they get you drunk, you’ll slowly turn into them: following the downward course until spring, when someone even younger and prettier comes in and sure enough, you want to be her.

Or, worse, you’ll canoodle in the corner with lovestruck Gwyn who, come 2010, will make sure he’s not only blocking the photocopier, but also the vending machine, water cooler and door.

But you’ve not got the same option as the New Guy. You can’t lurk in the corner with the fairer sex and a G&T, because unlike office guys, who mumble into their pints and keep eyes on ties, office girls will make sure they’re heard.

So it’s a no-go, especially if they have any gossip on Gwyn. The best bet is to flirt briefly with everything in the room – and walk away with your head held high.

FOR THE SAD HACK IN THE CORNER

You’re the only person older than the boss, so to rub in the fact you didn’t succeed even more you’ll be asked to toast him/her. If you’re sober, this will be an excellent exercise in brown-nosing. If you’re not, it’ll be an exercise in damage limitation.

You will be inclined to make a cruel joke. Do not bend to this temptation. It will probably come out wrong, meaning after 26 years of the same old story at the office do, you’ll be repeating yourself again in the new year. Someone else will get that promotion, and you’ll be stuck counting down the days on your free calendar to the next party.

You’ll also be inclined to do your famous boss-impression. Unfortunately, its fame is probably due to an in-joke among your younger colleagues, and isn’t actually funny. Plus, impressions at office dos are seldom better than that dance Ricky Gervais did in The Office. Often, they’re worse.

So don’t do it. And especially, please, don’t try and impersonate Ricky Gervais. Just no.

FOR THE BOSS

Finally, if you’re the boss and you’ve not been told about the office party, it could be a surprise do for you.

Be prepared to walk through that door after ‘urgent business’ calls you in to be greeted with party poppers and bubbly by the whole staff. By the time they’ve finished stroking your ego you won’t be able to get your head through the door.

But it more likely means you’ve not been invited.

So a word of caution: have a good think about how well-liked you are. Do you bend, bad breath and all, over the hunched shoulders of your well-meaning employees and whine you-could-probably-do-this advice in their ears?

Do you give motivational speeches standing on tables where you use star-charts and words like “self-fulfilment”? Do you keep everyone on past 5.30pm in the name of “building a community spirit”?

If any of these things apply to you, you are probably one of those Hated Bosses you’ve heard so much about. Your best bet would be to stay at home with your kids. They’re too young to realise how irritating you are yet.

Nowadays a lot of professional journalists are afraid to lose their jobs because of the credit crunch and also because of the internet. While I think the first is a real problem (as publishers, broadcasters have to cut their budget to survive), I do not consider the latter one a threat to the industry.

Csaba Balogh, a Hungarian journalist and blogger told me in an interview: ‘it is exactly the internet why newspapers have a future’. According to him, journalists have nothing else to do, but convert their knowledge and professional skills and start writing on-line as newspapers are ‘dying’. This, of course does not necessarily mean that professional journalists are not needed either – although there is an increasing number of citizen journalists – as they bring their professionalism and investigative initiative to this quick-changing industry. They just have to learn to write in a different style and for a different readership.

These changes might be difficult but they also open up new opportunities: journalists can add links, video, sound material and even more pictures to their articles which make them interesting and unique.

I agree with this approach and as a journalism student I am happy to see that Universities have understood these changes well and adapt to them perfectly. E.g.: in the summer I got a phone call from my University (Edinburgh Napier) and they did a little phone-interview with me and at the end they told me that the course does not simply concentrate on newspapers, TV and radio any more, but largely on the internet and blogging, offering us a multimedia-education. And honestly, what would we do without it, these days?