News Bites
Monday, February 6, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites, News Hail, Hail, to Michigan!
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 8:57 AM
“I’m coming home. I just want to feel the love.”
“They haven’t had much to love in Michigan for a long time,” said the TVA.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Media, News Bites The Facebook paradox
Posted by Michael Miner on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 10:54 AM
Some 20 to 30 percent of Facebook users are "power users," according to a study by the Pew's Internet & American Life Project, done in collaboration with Facebook. This is the minority that partakes of at least one Facebook activity at a "much higher rate" than the rest of us. (About 5 percent do everything you can do on Facebook at a much higher rate.)
The result, says "Why most Facebook users get more than they give," which was released Friday, is the oddity expressed in the report's title. "The average Facebook user receives friend requests, receives personal messages, is tagged in photos, and receives feedback in terms of 'likes' at a higher frequency than they contribute."
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Media, News Bites Mick Dumke wins Studs Terkel Award
Posted by Michael Miner on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 1:18 PM
Here's a link to CMW's profile of Mick. It begins:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Science, Media, News Bites, News The good old supernatural
Posted by Michael Miner on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 2:26 PM
"Nearly everybody in the Middle Ages believed in magic," Kieckhefer's account begins.
Next I opened my e-mail. There was a note from a colleague, and the next e-mail I read turned out to be from an author, Jerry Kubicki, pitching his new book, A Dubious Dream. He began:
"History records many people that have had super natural powers. Are they all myth? Or is there a common thread between these unique people throughout the millennium? What if an item has come to earth and has provided those that possess it powers that are both good and evil?"
Bedbugs Week, News Bites, Environment, Other Stuff A bedbug horror story
Posted by Luca Cimarusti on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Three of us lived on the top floor throughout the lease. I remember being told that the girl who had just moved into the first-floor bedroom discovered she might have bedbugs. I didn't even know bedbugs were real—I thought "sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite" was a cute nursery rhyme. And I ignorantly believed that, being on the top floor, I was immune to bedbug bites. I was wrong.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites Alinsky and Gingrich—separated at mirth? Alinsky's son speaks
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 9:07 AM
Just about everybody who knows anything about Alinsky has weighed in on Gingrich's zany offensive, often with a guess-it-takes-one-to-know-one air of amused irony. For instance, here's how the Tribune's Eric Zorn began his remarks: "I suspect Saul Alinsky would nod with grudging admiration at the way GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich repeatedly injects his name into speeches and interviews."
And here's Philip Klein in the conservative Washington Examiner:
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites We have that guy right where he wants us
Posted by Michael Miner on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 8:58 AM
He’d interpret it later. Right now the important thing was to get on with the campaign.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Religion, Media, Politics, News Bites Watching in awe
Posted by Michael Miner on Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:03 AM
I would have suggested to Tina Hampton that a better question is whether the Republicans should be the party that says, where’s the birth certificate? But no one changes minds by questioning first principles, strange as those principles might seem to an outsider.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Media, News Bites We're the Tribune, and we endorse this endorsement
Posted by Michael Miner on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 3:48 PM
My first reaction was to think, well of course, doing endorsements right is hard work and the Sun-Times doesn’t have the staff for it any longer. But the editorial promised to keep up the grunt work: “We will post candidate questionnaires online. We will interview candidates in person and post the videos online…
“What we will not do is endorse candidates.”
Monday, January 23, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites Caucus and bull story
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 9:00 AM
One was the South Carolina primary. But to make matters even worse, said the Tribune, "the Iowa Republican Party, after saying just days ago that the Jan. 3 caucuses were inconclusive, issued a statement overnight declaring that Rick Santorum had, indeed, won. Romney had initially held an eight-vote lead, but certified totals released Thursday put Santorum ahead by nearly three dozen votes."
And in the Sunday Sun-Times: "Santorum, in a belated decision announced Saturday, beat Romney in Iowa after all."
A new "winner." A new "loser." A dramatic reversal. You can't beat it for excitement.
