maynard's blog

The rise of citizen journalism. Everyone is talking about it. Soon, the citizen journalist will rise up against The Man and eclipse those mainstream corporate media outlets, finally freeing the intellectual plebeian masses to "get the story out" and rock that vote!

Or maybe not.

Herein I examine two cases of citizen journalism on Dailykos and one on The Inquirer, the culmination of all which leaves me wondering if -- perhaps -- we ought to register and license journalists as we do physicians and attorneys.

The text below consists of a conversation between two individuals recorded surreptitiously. This recording took place at the main entrance to the Harvard Square MBTA stop.

The text below consists of a conversation between two individuals recorded surreptitiously. This recording took place in an office between a male manager and his male subordinate.

The text below consists of a conversation between two individuals recorded surreptitiously. This recording took place while walking along Kirkland St. in Cambridge between two women.

Here is a NY Times story about cyberstalking, a trend whereby one -- often anonymous -- person harasses another using the Internet. The article presents the harrowing story of Ms. Claire E. Miller, who was being harassed by having her name, telephone number, and address posted on various sex sites for reasons unknown by persons unknown. She had to remove her doorbell due to the number of strangers who arrived to be "serviced."

Here is the story of a man who took 40,000 doses of ecstasy across nine years and lived to tell the tale. Well, he sortof lived. And he was still able to talk. That is, when he could remember the subject of conversation.

Doctors upon examining him seven years after stopping the drug found that he continues to suffer from "... severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression."

Excessive cuteness inside. The cute impaired are advised to avoid clicking below the fold, or at least bring a suitable barf bag.

Most everyone has at some point in their lives experienced a Eureka! of creative insight - that point upon where prior to it one had a problem to solve until right afterward the solution presented itself through a seemingly creative explosion. One did not work through a linear path toward solution, it simply presented itself as an unconscious act of clarity. A common term for attempting to call forth such enlightenment is: "to think outside the box," which upon hearing tends to thwart any possibility of further insight due to the listener's extreme pain from their bleeding eardrums. It's called autoimmune hearing impairment due to hazardous cliché exposure. Fortunately, brain science is here to the rescue with some new -- and amazing -- facts! Perhaps in short order that old 'box' cliché can be stamped out of existence, saving us all from further eardrum damage and thus giving us further opportunities to attend ear splitting Metallica concerts.

Below the fold, a fascinating new tidbit from world of SciEnCe ...

That's what Chris Korda has been saying for years. And he/she/it started the Church of Euthanasia to promote this ideal. [photo here] The guy who is now a girl is a looney. I once witnessed him and his group do a demonstration in Central Square, Cambridge, where they tied a woman to a large pole and carried her around pretending she was being burned on a spit for food. They recommend cannibalism. And suicide. And if not that, at least sterilization.

So, years later, imagine my surprise to discover a serious scientist Dr. Eric Pianka promoting much the same thing. Only instead of voluntary population culling, he recommends biological extermination through airborne ebola. And he presented a talk on just this idea to the Texas Academy of Sciences to an apparent standing ovation after cameras were turned away from the presentation. Below the fold, text from the article in question.

Robert McNamara, interviewed in Erol Morris' Fog of War, stated in his second lesson that: Rationality Will Not Save Us. This was in reference to the outcome of the Cuban Missle Crisis, pointing out that every leader in that conflict from John F. Kennedy, Nikita Kruchiev, and finally Fidel Castro were all rational beings, yet were willing to come within a hair's bredth of nuclear war over a combination of cultural misunderstandings and global power wrestling between nations.

Scientists at the European Space Agency have announced a surprising gravitational finding that's not predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. It appears that upon rotating a ring of superconducting material a gravitomagnetic field is generated that is "[...]a surprising one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein’s General Relativity predicts." The experiment tests the Tajmar and de Matos conjecture on the difference between high-precision mass measurements of Cooper pairs and their prediction in quantum theory. They claim this anomaly could be explained by the appearance of a gravitomagnetic field in the spinning superconductor. While they have completed an initial run of 250 experiments, they are asking other scientists to confirm their findings. A more detailed PDF is available for download.

Does this effect in any way relate to Eugene Podkletnov's claim that a spinning superconductor showed "gravity shielding effects"? Perhaps not, but a curious development nonetheless.

So you just turned 18 and are now legally considered an adult. In most countries you now have the right to vote, are held legally responsible for binding contracts and criminal actions, and, if a US Citizen, must sign up for Selective Service so that should a national emergency occur you may be drafted into military service in order to protect the country. In all respects but one, a US citizen gains the legal rights and hardships of adulthood at 18.

This is a paragraph by paragraph rewrite and summary of a June 10th, 2005 Economist OP-ED and does not express my opinion on the subject matter therein. The intent is simply to make a legal version of expensive premium content available to public eyes without breaking copyright law. The original article may be found here at: North Korea: Test its intentions.

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This is a paragraph by paragraph rewrite and summary of a June 10th 2005 Economist cover page OP-ED and does not express my opinion on the subject matter therein. The intent is simply to make a legal version of premium content available to public eyes without breaking copyright law. The original article may be found here at: Anniversary lessons from eBay.

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This is a paragraph by paragraph rewrite and summary of a June 3rd 2005 Economist cover page OP-ED and does not express my opinion on the subject matter therein. The intent is simply to make a legal version of premium content available to public eyes without breaking copyright law. The original article may be found here at: The Europe that died.

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