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So what was Steve Dubner doing before he became a journalist? He was a member of a band called The Right Profile with roots at his alma mater.
Update: Check out the act with whom The Right Profile was sharing the stage.
According to Media Life Magazine:
The Post will not reveal circulation and ad revenue figures to Media Life, but data available elsewhere paints an alarming picture. Ad revenue is up just slightly over the past five years, to $783.5 million last year from $770.6 million in 2000, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
But circulation has tumbled, falling by 137,695 for the weekday paper in the past decade, from 816,474 for the year ended Sept. 30, 1995 to 678,779 for the six-month period ended Oct. 2, 2005. That's a decline of 17 percent. That's according to numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the latter of which has not been audited yet and is based on publisher statements.
This is not good news for the Post for a number of reasons.
Well, I'm grateful for their first class web site.
The New York Times has an interesting article (rr) about Wal-Mart using blogs to promote its agenda. Apparently some bloggers are copying word-for-word from Wal-Mart's press releases emailed to them.
I didn't know this.
The best-seller “Freakonomics,” a look at “the hidden side of everything” from an economist’s point of view, is the summer reading selection for entering freshmen at Appalachian State University.
The book is co-written by economist Steven D. Levitt and Appalachian alumnus Stephen Dubner.
Dubner, a 1984 graduate, will be the guest speaker at Appalachian’s fall convocation Sept. 7.
Dubner, a graduate of Appalachian State University? I didn't know that.
Speaking of Appalachian State University, I noticed that John Whitehead has ceased their econ blog.
Kids, don’t try this at home: A Dutch talk show host is set to give a first-hand demonstration of just what drugs do to you. Filemon Wesselink plans to take drugs including heroin and LSD while on air in an effort to reach young people. The show, which is called “Spuiten & Slikken,” (“Swallow and Shoot up”), will be on late-night TV on BNN-TV in the Netherlands starting Oct. 10. “The reason that we are doing this show is that a lot of young people have confrontations with drugs. They want to know more and this show gives them that information,” BNN-TV spokeswoman Ingrid Timmer tells Media Life. She explains that Wesselink will be accompanies by a medic who will both monitor him and give details to the audience about the dangers of drugs and what they do to your body. The 26-year-old Wesseling will take a different drug in each episode as well as partaking in an on-air pub crawl with the usual result—getting drunk—to explore the effects of alcohol. Just what reaction Wesselink’s drug-taking antics will get from the authorities remains to be seen. While Holland has long been known for its lenient attitudes toward marijuana, LSD and heroin are illegal. This late night show on BNN-TV will also delve into the world of sex, with another presenter carrying out sex experiments during the show. Ties Westing will disappear into a room without cameras at the beginning of the show with a sec act, for instance a threesome, to take part in. Later in the show Westing will answer questions from the audience about the activity.
Story here. (Scroll to bottom.)
Yes, this is strictly educational. I'd like to watch the show where he actually finds himself enjoying the experience (sex or drugs), then consequently encouraging students to do the same.
The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.
"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on an actual August afternoon sipping lemonade and talking about the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. "I don't think people realize how precarious we are,"
Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."
This from the October 2004 National Geographic.
Well, I don't buy that they're all necessarily dumb, but some certainly are entertaining (and dumb).
11) "What didn't go right?'" –President Bush, as quoted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), after she urged him to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown "because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right" in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort (Source)
13) "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." –Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal (Source)
17) "I believe the town where I used to come – from Houston, Texas, to enjoy myself, occasionally too much – will be that very same town, that it will be a better place to come to." –President Bush, on the tarmac at the New Orleans airport, Sept. 2, 2005 (Source)
20) "We just learned of the convention center – we being the federal government – today." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, to ABC's Ted Koppel, Sept. 1, 2005, to which Koppel responded " Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting on it for more than just today." (Source)
PBS has a kid's show, "Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat." The cartoon cast includes an inept and overindulgent Magistrate and his cunning wife, Tai-Tai. Although the blurb on PBS describes Tai-Tai as, "loves her family very much and often encourages him to do the right thing," as I was walking by the television this morning I caught her harshly questioning her husband with, (and I paraphrase) "did you pass more laws so that we can collect more fines for our empire."
A very good lesson in civil service and public choice for eight-year-olds.
Current bid is $250, 100 with 26 hours until the auction ends.
Was it really unexpected that a couple of jackasses would destroy what was a short-lived interesting experiment?
