insights from the digital future
Caught a bit of Lollapalooza this weekend in Chicago and had a wonderful time. Only *really* experienced Radiohead (aurally from across the street) and Rage Against the Machine (from the side of the stage). Both were awesome. Enjoy the photos below.
Manny Ramirez became a Dodger, Ken Griffey, Jr. became a White Sox, and the Chicago Cubs completed a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers all within a matter of a long lunch today. The sweep was the perfect punctuation to a few key acquisitions made by Jim Hendry, weeks before today’s trade deadline. Jim Edmonds had 5 RBI including a grand slam, and Rich Harden continued his mastery of the NL, with 9 K’s, allowing just one run (as a Cub, Harden has 39 strikeouts in 24 innings with a 1.11 ERA).
I love it. Hoping to see an appearance from Manny at the game tonight (Dodgers v. Diamondbacks). Tomorrow I’m off to Lollapalooza for the weekend, with an afternoon at Wrigley scheduled for Saturday (Zambrano Lilly on the mound). See you in Chicago?
Continue reading “Amazing Trade Deadline Day as Brewers-Bashing Cubs Stand Pat”
In the mid-2008 media world, every network, blog, and news website wants to break the big impact story in times of developing news. For hours after a 5.3 magnitude earthquake centered near Chino Hills, ~30 miles from LA, rocked Southern California, all of the major networks and their websites continued carrying the news with a red BREAKING NEWS flag attached. But other than shaking up millions of people and scattering items off of shelves, there was no “news” to break (at least as of 4pm, more than 4 hours after the initial temblor).
The photo above first aired on CNN and was sent in by someone who was supposedly in the supermarket at the time — what CNN terms as an iReporter. Sure, it is very possible that many of the paper goods were shaken to the ground during the 15-20 seconds in which the ground, building, and everything else shook. But how are we to know when to believe whether a photo or video is faked, fabricated, or Photoshopped? CNN’s iReport Terms of Use addresses nothing about photo manipulation or regulations. And, to be fair, it’s not just citizen reporters that purposely fake photos for effect or attention, there are the memorable lessons in photojournalism fakery brought to us by the likes of Reuters, the LA Times and most recently, the Iranian government (and here are more.
Considering the small size and low resolution of the above photo, I won’t venture to investigate the possibility that it was digitally manipulated or whether it’s an honest to goodness eyewitness photo. But below, you’ll see a few surveillance camera or eyewitness camera viewpoint of what is clearly either real footage of the earthquake and it’s after affects, or simply fakes.
REAL:
I waited 3 years to feel one and it was not an insignificant shake at 5.8 5.4 — epicenter 30 miles east of the house. Naturally, all the action was on Twitter — I went straight there to confirm and immediately knew that it was felt as far as San Diego and some appeared to feel a stronger quake than I did (see second photo). Moments later it was confirmed by USGS — a 5.8 quake.
