Aceh Print

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) The Whole World is Watching The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago on August 26. For months, anti-war groups had petitioned the city to get space to carry out demonstrations while the convention was ongoing. The Youth International Party (YIPees) had decided to hold their own national convention, a five-day "Festival of Life" the same week as the democrats, nominating a pig as their presidential candidate. Mayor Daley had responded by denying permits, calling out the national guard and barricading the convention sites. The city was crippled by taxi and bus strikes. The weather was hot and humid and air conditioning was erratic. The television networks and party insiders had encouraged the Democrats to move their convention to another city, maybe Miami Beach (which President Johnson had rejected, saying 'Miami Beach is not an American city'). Yippee flyers posted around Chicago in the weekend leading up ...

After a slow week, a couple interesting new research blogs: Paper Trail Blog from Center for Public Integrity, links to useful and interesting public records background to stories in the news. Lisa Gold: Research Maven : she lists great tips for finding research resources, writing, and more. A couple research resources: Sports Illustrated's Vault gives access to 50 years of fulltext stories, covers, and images. State Digital Resources: Memory Projects, Online Encyclopedias, Historical & Cultural Materials Collections . The Library of Congress compiles a list of state resources. This is great. I know of a few states' encyclopedias but knew there had to be more. They're all listed here. And this: 5 ways newspapers botched the web , from Valleywag. Interesting recap of several of Knight-Ridder's online initiatives like Viewtron, Real Cities and New Century Network, along with The New York Times' Abuzz and newspaper consortium's Classified Ventures. On Knight...

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower remained in Walter Reed Army hospital, after being moved there in May to recover from a spring heart attack. He had another in June and two more on the 6th and 16th of August. Doctors were trying several new therapies to try to relieve the situation, but nothing was working. One day that month, on a day off, I accompanied a Post reporter to the hospital to sit on watch. The situation was dire enough that Post reporters were staying round the clock there, just in case. The reporter who asked me to go with him was bored with the assignment and at least with me there we could play cards, probably whist, which I'd learned seemed to be the most popular card game among Washingtonians. I remember little of the hospital except that we sat along a gallery overlooking a large room. Eisenhower would survive August, but die, still in Walter Reed, the next spring. That month, ‘ Cheap Thrills ,’ by Big B...

Via Boing Boing , a link to a Times Online story, Just right for the garden: a mini-cow . Irish Dexter cows are small, about 40 inches high, and can produce a couple gallons of milk a day, containing up to a quart of cream per gallon. Enough to share with all the neighbors! Fresh ice cream every day. No need to pasteurize! It's perfect! (Wonder if our little acre-and-a-half or so pasture would be big enough.....)

Over at the Nieman Watchdog, George Lardner wonders, in Spreading Lies, Rather Than Debunking Them , about a recent Washington Post story that he calls a 'front page ad' for a couple of new books about Barack Obama. ...why did the Post put a so-called news story about the book (and incidentally, for the sake of “fairness” no doubt, a pro-Obama book) on Page 1? And why did it fail to cite its lies instead of just saying that the main-stream media had pointed some out. ...The Post couldn’t bring itself to do what a newspaper should do and tell its readers what was true and what was false. It has been unable to do this in its presidential campaign coverage for many years, but most often in the last two decades. Interesting reaction from Lardner, who wrote for the Post for many years. But what if the paper made the story more even-handed? It would be accused of 'liberal bias'.

This is just too good to pass by. Question: How many presidents (or candidates) have gone by different surnames? From David Weigel at Reason Magazine: More fun with the stupidest people on the Internet .

After a long respite, some new research links, and a couple more references to what's going on in the world of laid-off journalists: We Were Print a blog from several "Former and Soon-to-Be Former Print Journalists". Includes a body count, and links to job listings. 42 Things I know from William Lobdell, recently bought out at LA Times, about the current state of newspapers (and the Times). The research links: News : The Newsfilm Online Digitisation Project offers selected newsfilm from ITN/Reuters archives , by subscription or free browsing. PopURLs , shows the most popular links on the Web today. Beijing Olympics News from NewsNow. Reference : A Chronology of Data Breaches , from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. I've used this in the past but don't think I linked it. Very helpful when searching for past hacking or theft incidents. A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff from ReadWriteWeb. Public Records : Criminalsearches.com : this beta from People...