Morning Ed: Media {2016.03.24.Th}

45 thoughts on “Morning Ed: Media {2016.03.24.Th}”

1. Personally I can’t stand podcasts which is odd considering that they’re basically just a blog post read aloud. This is probably because I can’t multitask with someone yammering in my ear.Report

   1. I don’t like them either. The are basically blog posts, but performed more or less extemporaneously in chatty language. Reading is faster than speaking, and any blogger whom I am willing to read produces a tighter work than would be natural in spoken language. The result is that the information density per unit of time is much lower in a podcast. If I didn’t have any other use of the commute driving time, I could see going the podcast route. But I do, and I don’t. And commute driving time is the only circumstance I can think of where listening to a podcast would just annoy me.Report

      1. Podcasts (like audiobooks) are good for when you’re doing chores.Report

         1. Exactly. I can’t read while I’m driving, or while I’m cooking food, or while I’m ironing or doing laundry. Basically, any time I’m doing something with my hands I can’t read, but I can pay attention to things.

            You know what else I can’t do during those times? Watch video.Report

            1. You’re gonna love the Smellocast though!Report

            2. Co-sign 100%, @densityduck .Report

   2. They’re basically talk radio with added convenience. The interview podcasts range in quality from the worst talk radio drivel, to the best radio interviews of interesting people by skillful and insightful interviewers.

      There’s plenty of audio drama distributed as podcasts too – at least where I am, audio plays don’t get aired on radio much anymore. Again, the quality ranges from the worst of what used to be played on radio, to the best of what used to be played on radio.

      Also lots of radio stations offer their music and news shows as podcasts, so you can listen to them at different times and in locations the station doesn’t reach.

      I quite like to listen to them when I clean or cook. I wouldn’t listen to them while commuting, because (1) I enjoy bicycling already, and (2) each thing would distract me from the other, so I’d be both less safe on the road and less able to enjoy the podcast.Report

      1. What are some audioplays you’d recommend? I dig that stuff.Report

         1. Seeing Ear Theater has lots of good stuff. I dug their production of “Snow, Glass, Apples”

            “Welcome to Nightvale” is good fun, if rather silly, Lovecraftian humour.Report

         2. The Adventure Zone! It’s a mix of genuine collaborative storytelling and improv comedy that results from having three brothers and their dad play dungeons and dragons via Skype. I really, really, really enjoy it.Report

   3. Calling “podcasts” a thing is like calling “television programming” a thing. Podcasts are a diverse medium — unscripted interviews, solo, tandem, q-and-a, etc. — it seems odd to dislike them in their entirety unless you’re just not an auditory person.Report

2. New Zealand spends $16 million…to keep same flag

   http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/24/Report

   1. That’s a shame, the alternate flag they chose was really pretty, and just the idea of a country changing its flag by popular demand is cool.

      It does highlight a problem with big referenda as a means to get things changed. They’re almost always a choice between the devil you know and the devil you don’t. Apathy is going to win out. It’s unlike a political election where, while the incumbent has the advantage of apathy on their side, it’s still phrased as a choice between “candidate A” and “candidate B” not “change” and “no change”.

      To keep the $16 million in perspective – that’s about $3-4 per citizen of New Zealand, and it was spent inside New Zealand, not sent out of the economy.Report

      1. That is still $16M that could have been spent on a new bridge, or feeding people, etc.

         And how in the hell do you spend $16M on that?Report

         1. Elections are expensive!

            As someone who would like to see about half of our states change their flag, I say it was a worthy effort.Report

            1. That’s about $8/vote.Report

            2. Yes, we keep hearing how expensive civilization is, especially when you waste money.Report

               1. If ya cut out that pesky upper management it gets a whole lot more affordable, jus sayin’.Report

         2. You have to design the new flag choices, promote the election , make sure people know what the choices,. set up polling places, pay polling place staff, etc.Report

            1. @leeesq

               it was a postal ballot so a goodly fraction of the money ended up going through New Zealand Post.Report

         3. The sight of Americans scolding Kiwis about misspending 16 million dollars is a bit, um, humorous.
            Mirthful…
            Guffaw-inducing…

            Yeah, Kiwis, if you want to be a proper first world nation, you really need to step up your game in squandering government cash.

            Perhaps Blackwater or Northrup Grumman can be called in to consult.Report

            1. Oh, I know, we piss away $16M giving Congress a nice breakfast.Report

3. Academic to English translators will finally let people know that many academics are full of it. I don’t agree with Chomsky’s belief system but I do agree with his stance against obtuse writing. If you have something worthwhile to say about politics, history, literature, philosophy than it should be said so most people could understand it.

   Vice: The optimist in me still hopes that there is a market for Delayed Gratification magazine.

   Breitbart: We should stage a liberal takeover.

   Trump and the media: I still think that the Republican Party should take most of the blame for Trump’s rise. He is the natural result of a political strategy that was pursued since Nixon. The Republicans could have more or less developed a similar pro-market, anti-government, strong on national security, tough on crime stance without indulging some of the worst parts of American identity. They choose not to as an electoral strategy and are getting what they deserve good and hard because of that.Report

   1. 1. I like the idea of Delayed Gratification magazine.

      2. Having been involved with academics at both a familial level and relationship level, that is just how they think, alway the biggest word possible, and six when one will do.

      3. Liberal takeover of Breitbart? Isn’t that the NYT? Or is it the new editor of the New Yorker? I kid.

      4. Trumps rise isn’t about one political party, its about one class. Its why the polls have been skewed for so long, why the pundits have not had a single correct assumption reguarding him, etc. The managment class has almost no idea what motivates the working class anymore, and the working class is letting them know. The left blaming him on the right is simply whistling past the graveyard.Report

   2. He is the natural result of a political strategy that was pursued since Nixon. The Republicans could have more or less developed a similar pro-market, anti-government, strong on national security, tough on crime stance without indulging some of the worst parts of American identity.

      This is a nonsense statement. It also fancies that people who object to the various social projects which have been hatched by cadres making use of the Democratic Party as an electoral vehicle should adopt the disposition frequently attributed to battered wives: if other people attack you, it’s your fault. Thanks for the education.Report

      1. I agree that it’s a nonsense statement, but I probably don’t agree with you on why (I don’t actually understand the logic of your second paragraph).

         I just think that a “pro-market, anti-government, strong on national security, tough on crime stance” pretty much is “some of the worst parts of the American identity”.

         It isn’t necessarily so if you just look at the words – but what policies can possibly come from a government having defined itself as “anti government”?

         As “tough on crime” in a country that already has the highest incarceration rates in the world and some of the highest recidivism rates in the developed world?

         As “strong on national security” in a country whose military might is already so overwhelming that it would probably win a war against every other country in the world ganging up together?

         You would have to first discard reality to actually do anything that looks like it emerges from that agenda.Report

   3. Delayed Gratification Magazine, where all articles are split across two or more issues, sometimes not even consecutive ones.Report

      1. You’ll love what we plan to do with our centerfolds.Report

      2. @dragonfrog

         Delayed Gratification Magazine, yesterday’s news today!!!Report

4. I always thought Sam was drafted because he was a good player. I guess I was wrong.

   http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/03/23/michael-sam-rams-hard-knocks/Report

5. Prosecutor: No prison for NY officer in stairwell shooting

   http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-no-prison-ny-officer-stairwell-shooting-210309307.htmlReport

6. Update to the “Largest 3-digit number” story: I’ve now had the pleasure of being insulted by the dude on Twitter, and Snopes has its doubts:

   http://www.snopes.com/common-core-ed-trice-999/Report

   1. Nice.Report

   2. The lack of any kind of news mention or publicity occurred to me as well.

      Good on Snopes for running it down as best they could.Report

   3. The dude insulted you? You sure is wasn’t walter?Report

      1. I told him what I thought of White Russians, and he went off.Report

      2. Not a big deal when Walter insults you. Now, if it’s Heisenberg …Report

   4. Turns out the dude is a habitual fraud:

      http://www.buttcoinfoundation.org/the-greatest-story-never-told/

      (Also, best website name of the week.)Report

7. Completely unrelated to the 999 story, POLYMAGNETS!Report

8. Wow, Chelsea has her knives out for obamacare. The Clintons have been trashing O lately.

   Chelsea Hits Obamacare’s ‘Crushing Costs’

   http://www.weeklystandard.com/article/2001707Report

   1. Geez, that a misleading headline. Not that that’s unexpected from the Kristol house organ. (The “crushing costs” are uncapped out-of-pocket expenses. Hillary and Chelsea want more regulation, not less.)Report

      1. How is it misleading when she says the words “crushing costs?” Clearly you should listen to the video. Maybe she should choose her words better.Report

9. More Hill emails? But she told us she turned them all over?

   http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/274230-lost-emails-discovered-from-clintons-serverReport

   1. Oooh, that’s a nicely trollish nickname. Much better than using “BO” for Obama…
      Insinuate that Hillary’s too old, while being perfectly able to walk it off as being innocent.Report

      1. “BHO” is a better nickname if you distrust Obama. (Think what BHOs can do to IE.)Report

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