Ohh. Ohh. I know why the media seldom links to primary sources.

Why don’t journalists link to primary sources?
[Via Bad Science]

Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 19 March 2011 Why don’t journalists link to primary sources? Whether it’s a press release, an academic journal article, a formal report, or perhaps (if everyone’s feeling brave) the full transcript of an interview, the primary source contains more information for interested readers, it shows your working, and it allows [...]

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Because then their misleading falsehoods would be too easily revealed. Read how they twist remarks by scientists into completely wrong-headed articles.

Of course, we can easily find the primary sources ourselves. And reveal just how far afield the media have taken themselves. We can fact-checl their ass.

Another reason why they continue to take a downward course. We can too easily demonstrate that they are failing at their primary purpose – to inform.

If the paper refuses to provide outside links to the primary sources, I start to wonder about its veracity and trustworthiness.

An entire news production facility in the front seat of a car

Geek Squad founder reports breaking news with iPad, iMovie
[Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

According to TwinCities.com, Robert Stephens, resident of Minneapolis and co-founder of Geek Squad (now owned by Best Buy), was driving to work when he witnessed a rather large gas explosion. Without hesitation, Stephens grabbed his iPhone 4 and started recording the event whilst driving towards it, “…to see if anyone had dialed 911 yet.”

Once Stephens had captured the source of the explosion, he drove to a nearby parking lot, transferred the footage from his iPhone to his iPad 2 (we recently covered how to do this using Apple’s USB Camera Connection Kit), edited the footage, added a map, subtitle and voiceover describing the incident and finally uploaded the film to YouTube and iReport. Stephens then tweeted (with a few stills) permission for others (including the media) to use the footage and before long his breaking news was getting coverage on CNN and MSNBC.

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In order to produce a news video 10 years ago, you would have needed as staff and facilities costing million. Here we have a single individual with an iPhone and an iPad.

He filmed it, while driving, then did post-production voiceover, editing and graphics in the car. He published from the side of the road and it was seen by millions shortly thereafter.

Bob Woodward yells at the new kids on his lawn. Here we have someone who found the news and gave it to the rest of us in a way that the Washington Post could never do.

Maybe instead of complaining and whining he should try and take advantage of these technologies.

Bob Woodward joins Jon Bon jovi

Bob Woodward Blames Google For ‘Killing’ Newspapers
[Via Techdirt]

Famed investigative reporter Bob Woodward apparently doesn’t spend much time “investigating” the state of the internet and online news before making statements. His latest is that he’s not thrilled with this whole internet thing, saying that Eric Schmidt’s tombstone should say “I killed newspapers.” He followed this statement up with this bit of pure cluelessness:

“There’s going to be something we’re going to miss in journalism that will be very regrettable. I hope the young people who have developed Facebook and Google will say, ‘We need to fix the information system and we need to get information to people that’s well-researched and investigated.’ ”

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Jon and Bob together “Hey, kid. Get off of my lawn!”

Do you wonder whether buggy whip makers were quoted as saying Henry Ford killed the horse-driven taxicab business? Probably.

What killed the businesses was the loss of their customers, not the tools their customers began losing. Complaining because you can not provide customers with what they want is usually the sure sign of an organization that lacks the resiliency to successfully compete in today’s world.

Check out online organizations such as Xconomy to see how a different paradigm can still produce very, very good online news gathering sites. I expect Xconomy to be around long after the Washington Post is gone.

Interesting take on NYT pay wall

by adKinn

The opportunity cost of the New York Times’ Pay Wall
[Via Edible Apple]

There’s been a lot of debate surrounding the New York Times’ recent announcement of a pay wall. The merits and complexities of the Times’ subscription options aside, former Times employee and design director Khol Vinh argues the opportunity cost incurred to develop the pay model will not be worth the payoff.

Explaining that it took the NYT approximately 18 months to conceptualize the pay wall and get it up and running, Vinh argues that that time could have been better spent on any number of other endeavors, especially because the Times is expending resources on a product for an arguably dwindling audience.

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What could an adaptive, innovative company based on the app economy come up with in 18 months? Especially since the math indicates that their own pricing model indicates access to the website is worthless.

NYT and most media are chasing a shrinking market here. They need to make the shift to a new paradigm and they just can not do it.

I wonder who will replace them?

TEPCO – not the good kind of notoriety

by simminch

WSJ: TEPCO initially resisted using seawater to cool reactors; harm to “valuable power assets” feared (UPDATED)
[Via Boing Boing]

[ UPDATE: Joi Ito has been blogging about lies, corruption, and safety breaches with TEPCO for nearly ten years. Links to a couple of his 2002-2003 TEPCO posts at the bottom of this Boing Boing item.--XJ ]

In the Wall Street Journal, news that critical early efforts to stave off crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were delayed by the operator’s concerns over damaging “valuable assets,” and by “initial passivity” on the part of Japan’s government. Snip from WSJ:

Tepco was reluctant to use seawater because it worried about hurting its long-term investment in the complex, say people involved with the efforts. Seawater, which can render a nuclear reactor permanently inoperable, now is at the center of efforts to keep the plant under control.

Tepco “hesitated because it tried to protect its assets,” said Akira Omoto, a former Tepco executive and a member of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, an official advisory body involved in the effort to tame the plant. Both Tepco and government officials had good reason not to use saltwater, Mr. Omoto added. Early on, nuclear fuel rods were still under cooling water and undamaged, he said, adding, “it’s understandable because injecting seawater into the fuel vessel renders it unusable.”

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TEPCO also has a nice long history of lying about its plants and filing false reports. Not the best example for the nuclear industry. It turns out that TEPCO is involved in a boiling water nuclear plant in Texas, 90 miles away from Houston. It wants to invest in the expansion of this facility.

This may not be a good time for any nuclear power plant that is trying to get funding to have TEPCO as a possible investor.

If only they were all like Taylor Mali

President John Tyler’s family is evolving slower than the rest of us

by cliff1066™

TIL John Tyler, the 10th President of The United States, born in 1790, has two grandchildren that are still alive.
[Via reddit.com: what's new online!]

We’re talking SIX Presidents before Lincoln!

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Tyler, whose time in office was full of some amazing history  – first VP to become President due to death, first President to have impeachment proceedings started against him, and pushed the successful annexation of Texas –  does still have 2 grandchldren still alive.

Their father, Lyon, was born when Tyler was 63 – Tyler fathered his last child when he was 70. The two Tyler grandchildren themselves had an old father. Lyon was 71 and 75 when his two sons were born.

A definition of evolution is the change in the gene pool from generation to generation. Fruit flies evolve faster than we do because their generation time is much shorter.

Since a generation for this part of the Tyler family is so much longer than most of us – 2 generations in 200 years – they are surely evolving slower than the rest of us.

Will he tell Commerce “Don’t be evil”?

by Steve Snodgrass

RUMOR: Obama to tap Google’s Schmidt as U.S. Secretary of Commerce
[Via MacDailyNews]

“The word in Washington is that President Obama is close to naming departing CEO Eric Schmidt as the nation’s next Secretary of Commerce,” John Ellis reports for The Business Insider.

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The Secretary of Commerce is a pretty zero role. The only reason I know the current one is that he used to be Governor of my state – Gary Locke.

Looking back through the list of former Secretaries I find they are all pretty much unknowns to anyone but their fans. It seems some have had a dubious honor – they are declared the designated survivor during State of the Unions. So if something takes out the President and everyone else, the Secretary of Commerce gets to assume the Presidency.

Not a really exciting new position for the former CEO of such a place as Google.