There has always been the running joke that television weathermen and local grocers are in collusion to sell more milk and bread whenever the word “snow” or “freezing rain” makes it into the forecast. I have not been presented with proof one way or the other, but I have a general skepticism toward anything more specific than “mostly sunny” or “slight chance of rain.” It is really hard to see a weather forecast on the evening news as true science. The wide discrepancy from one channel to another suggests the use of a variety of methodologies to forecast the weather. While I can accept most as merely educated guesses, the pageantry thrown behind the weather segment strikes me as an attempt to boost ratings. I am not sure why some have resorted to saying that they have “the most accurate weather forecast” to “keep you and your family safe“, as if the other guys use tin cans and barn weathervanes.

All of this reminds me of the old saying, “The only reliable, 24-hour weather information comes from looking out your front window.“

A Nashville, Tenn. resident blogging mostly about politics, news media, technology and hockey.

The word blogging moved on to writing. In the absence of hard and fast rules, I consider blogging the active participation in an ongoing discussion with other bloggers. This makes up some sort of “blogging community,” where current events or proposed topics are analyzed at length and then linked to other community members for their thoughts. The typical blogger gets several comments on each post from passionate readers wanting to further add to the discussion.

There are quite a few examples of people being paid to post links and commentary on the Internet for our enjoyment. Many are skilled wordsmiths and unabashed self-promoters. Most have devised a plan to even make more money annually than you or I do with advertising and affiliate links. My hat is off to them.

I am not a blogger.

What you read here is written for no particular audience. I have a couple of friends and co-workers who drop by on occasion. Facebook regularly imports my posts and shares them with friends there. Sometimes I might write something someone feels is worthwhile to share with others, but I rarely return the favor.

I write simply to keep writing.

A few years ago, someone told me that I had better figure out a way to use my background with IT and Web technology to make my way in life, “because [I] certainly won’t make a living by writing.” I have also been told I have zero business-sense. Lacking those two elements would obviously put me at a disadvantage for running a successful blog or being a successful blogger.

As for the rest of the tag-line:

• I am trying to resist the urge to rant about politics. That is more challenging than I previously imagined.
• Critiquing the news media is likely akin to armchair quarterbacking, but I do it anyway. It needs improvement.
• I still try to write a bit about hardware and software. New stuff comes out every single day.
• There is a gracious and loving God in Heaven. Not entirely unrelated, hockey season starts soon.

The struggle in writing any opinion piece is that it must have a fair amount of facts to support the statements of opinion. Facts require research and a bit of a devil’s advocate approach to see where a reader may poke holes in your argument. Like any form of writing, it also requires a clear mind and a bit of momentum to meet the proper tone for the publication. A letter writer also must grapple with the notion that for every three or four letters they submit, only one may be published.

I read some letters that baffle me as to what the opinions editor was thinking when he or she dropped it on the page. Furthermore, our metropolitan newspaper introduced a commenting system for all of their stories published to their Web site. You can quickly lose faith in a belief of Free Speech after reading only a few of the anonymous pundits. If you turn in a letter that gets published, you will almost certainly draw the ire of those that disagree with you. They always get the last word.

The Letter to the Editor has also lost a bit of its luster thanks to blogs and other forums. Tonight CNN took time to read Facebook comments on the air. But why? I think the real reason was to appeal to a younger advertising demographic. If the question is about the economy, interview an economist or president of a major investment bank. Even if the ploy was less nefarious, shouldn’t the news organization turn to slightly better informed people than the history major with a chip on his shoulder?

Here is my doom and gloom prognosis for the mainstream media. We are getting less facts, more spin, and even more watered down opinion from the so-called “average American.” The news is not meant to be a barometer of how people think and feel. It is supposed to be an accurate account of what is going on in the world around us. Energy and resources once reserved for investigative pieces are instead being used to pay a staff to monitor Twitter feeds for reactions to current events. Rather than telling us what we need to know, we get a nice, neat package of what a random market sampling suggests we want to hear.

Now, if you will excuse me, I will go back to hearing about which cockroach won the presidential race. I really wish that I was making that up.

Wired Magazine, July 2009

My subscriptions to Wired magazine and Rolling Stone likely give a bit of insight into my interests and personal beliefs. I will leave the talk of sex, drugs and rock & roll for another time, but I do have a bit of commentary on a recent change in Wired.

They seem to have canned “Found: Artifacts from the Future”.

The “Found” feature is a single page in the magazine that has a heavily photoshopped image with references to technology or conditions that the artist speculates may exist in the future. A popular theme is to show an ordinary task, such as driving to work, enhanced with non-existent or augmented technology, such as a heads-up display that fills the entire windshield with eye-controlled widgets alerting to an uninsured driver or being late for a meeting. The concepts varied from the wildly absurd to the achievable technology that would improve our lives.

I cannot find any explanation in either issue as to why the page disappeared. I picked up on one visual clue that it may be coming to an end last month (July), when a cover of the magazine appeared with the words “The Final Found / July 2018″. This month’s issue instead has an advertisement for the Sony Vaio.

Without a reason for its demise, I must resort to blaming Sony Corporation.