Journalist killed in Libya by government forces

Al Jazeera cameraman killed in Libya, in government ambush of news crew
[Via Boing Boing]

Al Jazeera has announced that one of its cameramen, Ali Hassan Al Jaber, was killed after a reporting team for the Arabic-language channel was ambushed by government forces near the town of Benghazi.

The news sparked an outpouring of emotion and support for the network and the slain cameraman.

Wadah Khanfar, the director general of the Al Jazeera Network, announced the death in broadcast remarks, saying “the network will not be silent after death of our cameraman” and would seek to prosecute the perpetrators.

Read a longer account, with archives of tweets from people close to the story, here.

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Reporters are the people who get us the information we often need. Always bad when one of them is killed.

{UPDATED )What Hillary meant by coolant

Flea powder may be saving lives in Japan [Via I, Cringely]

There’s a 40 year-old nuclear reactor cooling-down right now in Japan following the big earthquake in that country. Actually there are 11 such reactors cooling-down, automatically brought offline by the 8.9 temblor, but one of those reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi generating plant is not going gracefully and 3000 people have been moved from their homes as a precaution.

 

Good idea.

I worked as an investigator for the Presidential Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, 32 years ago, and a few months studying the plumbing TMI’s Unit 2, which is actually younger than the errant Japanese reactor, gives me a very healthy respect for the danger in Japan.

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Very nice explanation of what is probably happening. It also explains what Clinton meant by sending coolant – to save the plant they have to kill it.

A boiling water reactor does just what it sounds like — it boils water to make steam that drives a turbine generator. This is as opposed to a pressurized water reactor that uses the nuclear reaction to heat a coolant that never really boils because it is under high pressure, then sends that coolant through a heat exchanger which heats water to make steam to drive the generator. Boiling water reactors are simpler, cheaper, but generally aren’t made anymore because they are perceived as being less safe. That’s because the exotic coolant in the pressurized water reactor can contain boric acid which absorbs neutrons and can help (or totally) control the nuclear reaction. You can’t use boric acid or any other soluble boron-laced neutron absorbers in a boiling water reactor because doing so would contaminate both the cooling system and the environment.

This will prevent the plant from ever being used again but will stop any reaction. Now I understand what they were trying to do.

UPDATE: Reports in media of using boric acid and sea water for coolant.

Another good one leaving Engadget

Hello, I must be going
[Via Engadget]

It’s hard to believe that I’m currently writing the words I seem to be writing, though a casual stock-taking of my senses dictates that it must be true. Here I am, at my computer, typing letters one by one into a plain text document, rolling along through one of the strangest posts I’ve ever penned for this site. Okay, probably the strangest ever.

After nearly four years at Engadget, it’s time to make my exit. There are things I’m after and challenges I want to take on that just don’t fit with my day-to-day schedule here, so off I go.

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More changes at Engadget.

Waiting in line at the Apple store – connecting to the world

Video: Walking the longest iPad 2 line
[Via Brainstorm Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine » Apple 2.0]

An hour after this was shot in NYC, the queue had swelled to nearly 1,200 people

The second edition of Apple (AAPL) tablet computer drew the largest crowd I’ve ever seen at New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store. This was shot at 4 p.m. Friday. By the time the doors of the big glass cube opened, Gene Munster’s team at Piper Jaffray had counted 1,190 heads.

It took 4 minutes and 38 seconds to walk the line. YouTube link here. 

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Lots and  lots of free publicity about their product. How many other launches of any mobile device has people counting heads or anyone putting up an almost 5 minute video on Youtube. And look how many other cameras there are.

With 18 different models to stock it is not surprising that some people did not get the iPad2 they wanted.

But other people described much better experiences in the comments. This excerpt from one by rtdunham made me smile, with its view of our modern world:

I got in line at 3; knew at 4:30 i’d get the model i wanted; was into the apple store by 6:05p; and was out (including setup) before 7. It was a wholly enjoyable and well-organized experience. Having said that, if they’d been out of the model I wanted, especially if i’d been one of the first ten in line, I’d be pissed too. But I’d try not to whine so much about it. Did anyone notice thousands of people died horrible deaths in the Tsunami in Japan today, not long before we joined our lines for an electronic device? While I was in line I was texting my niece who’s in Japan teaching English; the woman behind me’s soldier-son had just arrived today in Japan for R&R and by the time we’d entered the store she was celebrating the fact that he’d gotten on a flight out. Perspective, people, perspective.

That is someone with a marvelous perspective on life and it so aptly describes the miracle of the modern world – while waiting in line people can still connect with others from around the world to stay up to date with loved ones, even during a catastrophe.. This is why web access should be a universal right.

And, as I recall, Apple was one of the very first to provide free Wi-Fi access to the Web at each of its stores. Apple, avital part of our connected world.

(You know, Apple could make an incredible ad following conversation in line from people waiting outside their launches. Just recreating this one described by rtdunham would get across a point that no one else could because no other company would draw the waiting line.)

The Goonies meet Close encounters of the Third Kind

The Full ‘Super 8′ Trailer Is Here!
[Via Cinematical]

With a summer movie slate crammed full of sequels, prequels, reboots and comic book adaptations, leave it to director JJ Abrams to deliver something original. The full trailer for his science fiction adventure ‘Super 8′ is here, capping off a year of mysterious teases regarding the film’s plot and concept.

This full trailer thankfully leaves a lot of things unanswered (can we all agree that going into a movie not knowing every detail of the plot sounds pretty darn refreshing?), but what we do see looks unique — a summer blockbuster that’s truly going to stand out from the rest of the pack.

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Or Stand by Me meets ET. I’ll be checking this out. Looks really well done and more interesting than many coming this summer. No remake and no cartoon sequel. An original.

Well, while  it seems to be a pastiche of old tropes it looks to be done in an appealing way. As the guy said. “There are only two kinds of stories: a hero goes on a journey and a stranger comes to town. Looks like this is the latter.

Japan illustrates how breaking news should be disseminated

Japan – Is the web a private or a public matter?
[Via Robert Paterson's Weblog]

I was at a Media conference last week. A Journalism Prof dissed Twitter all night long. How could anyone cover a story in 140 characters? In the last 2 months in Canada we have had a regulatory fight – in essence the web is being seen as another entertainment channel where the most important part of the equation is how much we should all pay for watching movies.

I think that this idea – that the social web is trivial and just about fun is wrong and dangerous. I think that its true importance has to be put on the table politically.

Japan nails this issue for me.

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Robert provides several great insights into how the best, most adaptable media – some represented by single person who gets it – need to use the web to provide breaking news. Today, talking heads won’t work. I can actually go to some Twitter feeds and get better, more up-to-date information than CNN.

This means that these corporations need to understand how vital access to the web is to their business model. And we as a society need to recognize the vital importance of  access to the internet. Perhaps it should not be left to a small monopoly of cable/teleco companies, where most people only have one provider for their access.

Such single site of failure makes universal access, critical during emergencies, is not very robust. Robert says it better:

The biggest lesson then for me is that the web and social media are not just toys where I watch movies, hear songs or play games. The web and social media is now the most important part of any societies social infrastructure.

This implies that it cannot be regulated as merely another entertainment channel. It has profound public value that has to be put first.

Societies that have a healthy and widely used and easily accessed web and social media system – will be better informed and more resilient in the shocks that are inevitable in our future.

The private interests of all have to be subsumed to the public good.

Understanding the NFL owners

Bill Simmons: Greed is good in NFL labor talks – ESPN
[Via ESPN]

Take a deep breath, suspend all disbelief and walk through the following hypothetical (and admittedly ridiculous) scenario with me …

It’s December 2006.

I decide to leave ESPN, start my own blog and charge $10 per year for anyone to read my column. Just for fun — again, it’s hypothetical! — let’s say one million readers sign up, guaranteeing me $10 million for that first year (2007). And let’s say I sign advertising deals with three sponsors for another $2 million apiece, raising my total haul to $16 million for Year 1. I spend the next 12 months writing and pinching myself for my good fortune. Life is good.

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A nice allegory of the owner’s greed. Pretty much explains their position.

Apple’s smarts = having lots of iPad2 review units

It’s Been Quite a Year
[Via Daring Fireball]

Shawn Blanc:

So I remember this time last year when all the pre-launch reviews of the original iPad were coming out and John was posting up links to them all and in his comments there was this slight tone of being bummed out that all these guys had gotten review units from Apple and he didn’t. But now he does and call me sentimental but I’m really glad for John.

It’s nice to have a review unit in advance, it really is. But it’s not just me — Apple has significantly expanded the number of venues that get prerelease access to the new devices. Engadget, TechCrunch, Macworld, and Slashgear all got iPad 2 review units, too, and I think this allows anyone who takes their gadgets seriously to make a much more informed decision.

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A very smart idea of Apple to get iPad2 review units into reviewers hands, including influential bloggers. Often these sites have more people read them than the ‘real’ journalism sites.

And trust them more.