87 years ago today - October 11, 1918

1918 pandemic, war, and small town life, as reported by the local paper (beginning Oct 1). The virus is in San Francisco, and has hit Redding (and, we learn today, other Northern California towns), but hasn't arrived in Nevada County yet. But it is killing our enlisted men...
============================

(three paragraphs at bottom of the front page:)
Dunsmuir has 300 cases
effect: the further crippling of train service, already felt at Gerber in Tehama County where there are a large number of cases.

p. 3, Saurin King will be buried in Greenwood Cemetary.

(nothing on flu on the editorial page)

p. 5, Precautions Taken to Stop Measles
State Health Officer is paying attention to the present outbreak of measles in Nevada City.

pp. 6 and 7 have a long Bulletin on Spanish Flu from the Surgeon General of the U.S. Health Service.

p. 8, Melvin L J Frandy dies in Virginia Camp
Age 21, born March 26 1897; graduated from the University of California in Mechanical [and?] Electrical Engineering; died of influenza at Camp Humphrey. Few young men of Nevada County had a more promising future...his death is a severe blow.

Esther Hartung is here from Colfax for her cousin Saurin King's funeral.

============================

October 11, 2005

Actually published Oct 10, a beyond excellent* piece by Sandman, The Flu Pandemic Preparedness Snowball (although his his criticism of the Reveres of Effect Measure does seem off the mark; nicely expressed here.). Read (or at least wander through) this and also Dr. Grattan Woodson's pandemic preparedness handbook (PDF, via) before you read anything else on bird flu. It's time well spent.

87 years ago today - October 10, 1918

1918 pandemic, war, and small town life, as reported by the local paper (beginning Oct 1). The virus is in San Francisco, and has reached Redding, but hasn't arrived in Nevada County yet.
============================

Influenza Is Holding Grip on Entire Nation

...is now epidemic in virtually every state and shows no abatement in army camps

Motion Picture Industry to discontinue releases after October 15

Reaches Camp Lewis ... prevalent in Cape Town, Australia, Pernambuco, South America

----------

Community singing last night - large audience at the Auditorium. M. Henry Argall was the Four Minute Man*.

An apple tree at Spenceville is in full bloom.

Mrs JF Towle of San Francisco is visiting her son CW Towle and family.

Placer County cattle are dying of unknown cause. "They stagger around a while, then plunge forward, dead."

Only two lightless nights a weeks soon.

War Relic train to be at Colfax Friday morning.

[the editorial page is silent on flu today]

Charles Salmon (of the Salmon mine at Tyler) has secured the Eastin bungalow on Nevada St. for the winter.

Richard Phillips of Spring St, who has been down with Malarial Fever for a couple of weeks, is out again.

Cecil Brophy has had measles for the past 10 days; it is a mild case and he is out of bed.

There was a large attendance at the Kieffer funeral yesterday.

Frank Crase at Camp Hancock* has been promoted to First Lieutenant.

=====================

2005

Get your insights here:
via Laura, some excellent (Paul Graham caliber) articles on communicating risk to the public -

• Adjustment Reactions: The Teachable Moment in Crisis Communication
  
• What makes an excellent pandemic communication speech.
  
• Communicating worst case scenarios and how communicators cheat -
  One common approach is to mention the worst case scenario once or twice in a low-circulation technical report, or even in a news release, so it’s on the record -- and then stop talking about it. With a little luck maybe nobody will pick up on it much. Repetition is a key signal to journalists and stakeholders that something is important. If you don’t repeat it, they may not notice it, or may not realize its importance.
  Another strategy is to say it, even to say it often, but without much drama. If you phrase the worst case technically enough, maybe reporters and the public won’t know what you mean; if you phrase it boringly enough, maybe it won’t quite register.
  ...
  Virtually every unauthorized precaution people decide to take is called panic by those in authority...
  
  
• The myth of panic
  

and lots more. If you're partial to scoffing at the stupidity of others, you won't enjoy this reading.

87 years ago today - October 9, 1918

1918 pandemic, war, and small town life, as reported by the local paper (beginning Oct 1). The virus is in San Francisco, and has reached Redding, but hasn't arrived in Nevada County yet.
=========================

Decrease of Influenza in Army Camps

(subhead: "Throughout country it is on increase and is spreading rapidly; California cases light")
Total # army camp influenza cases since it started last month: 182,000; pneumonia 19,283; deaths 5761

No Alarm in California

PHS said 71 cases in San Francisco; said to be not of the virulent type and strict isolation was proving effective.

Strange Child Malady Epidemic in Argentina

In Catamarca province (population 10,000), 100 children are dead in one month ... resembles dysentery ... highly contagious

Barracks Liked by Girl Workers

["like boarding school", we are told; this is a "glorious moment" in their lives]

25 Years Ago Today

A fine deposit of asbestos was discovered near Colfax

American Forces Going Overseas Rapidly

[Despite influenza in the camps] All these men sent abroad are in excellent health. They take care not to send anyone with influenza or who has been exposed.*


------------------

Mass for Clifford Murray, first Nevada City boy killed in action (in France) ... Mario Maresi's body is coming home ... M. McBride and family returned from brother's funeral in Oakland ... Clifford Williams slowly improving from a recent illness ... County Recorder SJ Clark has been sick at home with a bad head cold for the past few days.

=========================

October 9, 2005

Scientists: Pandemic flu unlikely this year

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said a bird flu pandemic was unlikely this year.
"How unlikely, I can't quantitate it," Fauci said. But, he added, "You must prepare for the worst-case scenario. To do anything less would be irresponsible."

"I would not say it's imminent or inevitable," said Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, chief of the molecular pathology department at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
"I think in the future there will be a pandemic." But, he added, whether that pandemic will be bird flu or another type, no one can say.

87 years ago today - October 8, 1918

1918 pandemic, war, and small town life, as reported by the local paper (beginning Oct 1). The virus is in San Francisco, and has reached Redding, but hasn't arrived in Nevada County yet.

(No October 7, 1918 paper - it was a Monday, and The Union didn't publish on Mondays.)
=========================

October 8, 1918

Henry J. Widenman, head of the State Highway Commission, killed himself accidentally while hunting with a shotgun. He was an active Republican and Progressive in politics.

Red Cross called to fight influenza

Secretary of the Interior collapses while making speech* - Acute indigestion given as cause

Influenza kills Brigadier
Brigadier General Charles A. Doyen, commandant of Marine Corp Training [?] at Quantico

High Vitality of People is Influenza's Foe
Vitality of the American people is high. This is robbing the influenza of much of its terrors. ... Science is arrayed strongly against the disease. And soon climatic conditions over the greater part of the country should be such as to check its ravages.

Influenza should not make people hysterical
Prevalence of influenza in several army camps and among civilians in a good many states has become somewhat serious...(but preventive measures and prompt treatment help) and there is a notable decrease in new cases in several localities.

The Pacific Coast has thus far been virtually immune to the disease in virulent form. It may come...but climatic conditions are such that it will probably be less severe than in the Northeastern States.

It is well that wise precautions be taken. But there is no reason for Californians to become hysterical about the malady. It can be and will be conquered and there is no present menace to the state.
...Coolness and caution and due attention to preventive methods should prove effectual. In any event, giving way to exaggerated alarm will do no good and might do harm. Carefulness rather than consternation should be the rule.

-------------

There's community singing at the Auditorium tonight.

Edward J White funeral well attended
... The large [Elks] hall was filled with friends and acquaintances of the dead soldier.

The funeral of Joseph Kieffer will be at 2pm Wednesday.

Maril Mresi has died of pneumonia in Aberdeen MD

Mary Huy, who came to Nevada County in 1859, has died in Redding at age 68. Cause is said to be valvular heart trouble; it came suddenly but was not unexpected.
Her son is head clerk at the National Hotel.

Raymond Paull at Camp Lewis has pneumonia, but is recovering slowly.

Small boy bitten by Ferocious Dog
Little Irvin Hays was badly bitten by a vicious bulldog on Temby St.
The dog owner was ordered to confine the dog for 10 days, to watch for rabies.


=========================

October 8, 2005

Bird flu (in birds) in Europe; cases reported in Romania and Turkey. Not yet clear if it's H5N1 or a "normal" strain.

In Forbes:

The United States is unprepared for a global flu pandemic, according to a draft of a federal report, which predicts a worst-case scenario that could lead to the deaths of 1.9 million Americans and the hospitalization of 8.5 million more people with costs exceeding $450 billion. ..."

87 years ago today - October 6, 1918

1918 pandemic, war, and small town life, as reported by the local paper (beginning Oct 1). The virus is in San Francisco, and has reached Redding, but hasn't arrived in Nevada County yet.

Legal Battle in Nevada over Hearst Papers

...the suit was brought to restrain the [State council of Defense] from interfering with the sale of Hearst publications in Nevada on the grounds that the Hearst publications were unpatriotic in the past.(*)

Grass Valley residents go wild last night on German peace news*

hundreds of people...immense parade...immense demonstration...The crowd continued to increase until midnight

---------------

Military dance big success (at the Armory); lucky couple Miss Alvetta(?) Wasley and Ray Perrin of Grass Valley received the thrift cards.

Mrs Huy ill at Redding
Joseph Huy of the National Hotel was called to Redding by telegraph Friday...mother had taken ill and is in a serious condition. He left to attend upon her.

Use Tanlac - gain much weight fast.

75% of war bonds now subscribed - willful slackers not forgotten

Rough and Ready is planning big patriotic meeting

87 years ago today - October 5, 1918

Liberated Flemings from Ledegham say the Germans "forced the civilians to sleep on the floor while husky Germans occupied their beds". 28 villagers were killed by the Germans.

There were 9 Grand Jury indictments for seditious utterances in Sacramento; bail is $1000 each (for 4 male residents of Stockton and for Mrs. Johanna May Powell of Chico)

Influenza is Sweeping Over Whole Nation

- Public Health Service statement recommending suspension of gatherings
(Washington DC, Oct 4)
Continues its rapid spread - become an epidemic in many more cities - 12,975 new cases reported among soldiers training in the U.S. - Public Health Service officials say the best way to combat it is to prohibit public gatherings; Head of the Treasury Secretary McAdoo has asked newspaper editors to give publicity to the suggestions.

---------------

The J. Warren Kerrigan film "One Dollar Bid" is playing at the Auditorium Theater - Fatty Arbuckle in his funniest 2-reel comedy, "Oh Doctor" shows at the Nevada Theater - tonight's the weekly dance of the Home Guard - and there'll be a general patriotic program at the Rough and Ready schoolhouse.


The Naffziger and Fischer residences on Nevada St are for rent.

---------------

Influenza Don'ts

Don't:

• indulge in promiscuous coughing or sneezing in public if possible - if you do, cover or smother...
  
• use common drinking glasses or towels
  
• visit a person who is suffering from or is suspected to be suffering from "grippe"
  
• neglect a "cold", but seek proper medical advice
  
• visit places of crowded assemblage
  
• sleep in overcrowded or unheated rooms
  
• indulge in excesses of any kind.
  

-------------

Darrel Coughlan promoted - has written to his parents from Camp Lewis[*] that he now wears the stripes of Corporal. He was promoted after only 12 days in the camp.


RJ Ronchi's Red Front Store in Nevada City offers Local Mountain Potatoes:

We now have a new lot of fine large local potatoes. They are the best we have been able to offer this year and are very fine.

---------------

A society piece on the wife and daughter of John W. Davis, the new U.S. Ambassador to England - "Miss Davis is a college student and one of the most popular girls of her set"

---------------

Influenza at Redding
dated Oct 4 - 16 cases reported up to last evening; no case is serious as yet (and no pneumonia)

=======================

October 5, 2005

From CIDRAP (pandemic page here), Scientists recreate 1918 flu virus, see parallels with H5N1

The 1918 flu pandemic, regarded as the worst in history, killed as many as 100 million people.
Mice infected with [the reconstructed virus] died in as little as 3 days, and mice that survived as long as 4 days had 39,000 times as many virus particles in their lungs as did mice infected with a control flu virus
Within 24 hours, [infected human] lung cells released at least 50 times as much virus as did lung cells infected with the [normal flu] strain.
...Only 10 amino-acid changes in the polymerase genes consistently distinguish the 1918 virus and subsequent human flu viruses from the same genes in avian viruses. It adds, "A number of the same changes have been found in recently circulating, highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses that have caused illness and death in humans and are feared to be the precursors of a new influenza pandemic."

From the Dallas Morning News, U.S. unprepared for influenza pandemic

The United States is woefully unprepared if - and it's a big if - an influenza pandemic erupts, public health experts say.
...
"The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can," President Bush said this week.
...
The avian virus...has caused only 60 human deaths out of 116 confirmed cases reported since 2003

87 years ago today - October 4, 1918

Influenza's Spread Cause for Concern

Further spread over the country of Spanish Influenza with an increasing death rate was indicated today in reports received by the Public Health Service and the office of the surgeon general of the army. ...total # cases at 113,737 with death rate increasing... Pneumonia takes 2479 ...

------------
Local news -

Bert Austin is sick in hospital in Sacramento -
Mrs Ella M. Austin has been in Sacramento the last week to be at the bedside of ther son Bert Austin, who is confined in the Sisters hospital with typhoid fever.

FL Hunt arrived home yesterday with his sheep from the mountain range....Max and John Solaro made Savory Ford's 3rd grade honor roll in Nevada City, as did Frank Silva in 5th grade and Roy Silva in 8th. Herbert Nile and his wife motored to this city from their home near Smartsville yesterday. Mr. Nile is not in his usual good health.

The Fettered Woman is playing at the Nevada Theatre...Harry Grover will give the Four Minute Talk, on Liberty Bonds.

------------

Something About Spanish Influenza

(a Welfare League Bulletin)
Is this new disease which has already killed hundreds and stricken thousands of our soldiers and civilians a new German War Offensive? [No, since it's not likely that] if Germany undertook an offensive of this kind, she would choose such a mild and inoffensive sort of disease. A much more plausible explanation...the recent cold...large numbers...contracted colds...developed...into pneumonia and resulted in an unusual number of deaths. Colds...often result fatally...

In any event there seems to be no occasion for special alarm or panic about the matter for the disease is evidently one which the American medical profession is perfectly able to handle, and moreover, effective measures are being taken, wherever it appears, to check and destroy its power.

------------

Dr. Howard Nafziger (born in Nevada City, graduated from Nevada City High in 1900) now in France as head consulting surgeon of one of the leading Base Hospitals of the US Army) has distinguished himself in his surgical work... been [named?] to the high position of Lieutenant Colonel. This is an unusual preferment showing the high regard he is held by army heads and staff.

------------
Saurin King, about 26, a native of Grass Valley, has died in Ft. Monroe, Virginia. It is presumed that he fell victim to the epidemic of Spanish Influenza. ...one of the hundreds of splendid young men who have gone forth for the service of their country during the last few months.

87 years ago today - October 3, 1918

==============

October 3, 1918

[According to the PBS 1918 timeline, Boston registered 202 influenza deaths on Oct 2.]

Brother of Resident Here Dies Suddenly

CR Williams, 32, the youngest brother of Mrs. M. McBride...on the streets of Oakland ... was known to be in good health a short time before ...Mr. and Mrs McBride will leave on the train for Oakland today where they will attend the funeral.
------------

The body of Soldier Edward J. White (who died at Edgewood Arsenal) is expected to arrive Saturday or Sunday ... the funeral will be held immediately

=====================

From Ch. 9 of Barry's The Great Influenza:

[Woodrow Wilson's] Sedition Act made it punishable by twenty years in jail to "utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive Language about the government of the United States." One could go to jail for cursing the government, or criticizing it, even if what one said was true.
...
To enforce that law, the head of what became the Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed to make a volunteer group called the American Protective League an adjunct to the Justice Department... ... Within a year, two hundred thousand APL members were operating in a thousand communities.
... the league's American Vigilance Patrol targeted "seditious street oratory," sometimes calling upon the police to arrest speakers for disorder conduct, sometimes acting more ... directly. And everywhere the league spied on neighbors...

...government...urged people to report...anyone "who spreads pessimistic stories, divulges - or seeks - confidential military information, cries for peace, or belittles our effort to win the war."

the forging of all the nation into a weapon... would jam millions of young men into extraordinarily tight quarters... they not only shared beds but shared beds in shifts, where one shift of workers ... climbed into a bed just vacated by others leaving to go to work, where they breathed the same air, drank from the same cups, used the same knives and forks.

[and] through both intimidation and voluntary cooperation, despite a stated disregard for truth, the government controlled the flow of information...

87 years ago today - October 2, 1918

(about)

=====================

October 2, 1918

Smallest story (of 12) on the front page:

Spanish Influenza Sweeps Gantonments(sic)

...continues to spread in army camps ... over 14,000 new cases in 24 hours ... increase over yesterday's 3666 cases

------------
Films:

The Great Nazimova is at the Strand tomorrow, in Toys of Fate.

The latest Salisbury film, The Eagle (a superb Western drama), plays at the Auditorium [theater] tonight.

------------

(advertisement)
Mothers - give candy Cascarets to work the nasty bile, souring food and constipation poison from the little liver and bowels

------------

Local war news:

Registrants (#1331-1544) include Harold William Paynter, George Thomas Wasley, Arthur Burling Foote, Fred Orzalli

Theodore H. Tobiasson is among those called up for examination on Oct. 7

Raemah Arbogast and William Englebright are headed for Fort McDowell.

------------

Nationalism First

... The man who puts internationalism above nationalism is as much to be suspected as the man who puts promiscuous affection for his neighbors above devotion to his own family. ...

------------

The Case of Eugene Debs

(reprinted from the Kansas City Star)
The honest man who is hopelessly wrong may be an even greater menace to society than the consciousless crook. Debs is a man who lives by formula - a dangerous principle to follow.
It is this inability to make distinctions... that distinguishes the fanatic from the real reformer.

=====================

October 2, 2005

Helen Branswell interviews Dr. David Nabarro of WHO, whose "150 million dead" estimate (*) was followed by yesterday's frantic WHO backtracking:

...
The official WHO estimate (of 2 to 7.4 million deaths) was calculated using a mathematical model based largely on the Hong Kong flu of 1968, the mildest pandemic of the last century.

"It would really disturb many, many systems and our capacity to cope in many countries would not be that great," he says, predicting food supplies in the developed world - where diets are comprised almost exclusively of purchased (not home-grown) food - "would be particularly badly hit."

A leading advocate for pandemic preparedness, Dr. Michael Osterholm, has warned a pandemic would have a substantial and highly disruptive impact on the production and movement of goods, leading to shortages of many products critical to daily life.

87 years ago today - Oct 1, 1918

What did newspapers' coverage of the 1918 inflenza pandemic look like?
John Barry's book covers this, making the point that a cowed and propagandist press (during WW I) was not an informative press. Here's how The Union covered and editorialized on the events in October 1918.*

Caveats:
1. This is from notes, so complete accuracy is even less likely than usual.
(Any chance The Union will be one of the papers in the National Digital Newspaper Program?)

2. Other standards for this series are also lax. If the post isn't ready until after midnight, I'll turn the "post time" clock back an hour or so, so it appears to be published on the correct day; I'll go back and fix spelling and expand/append notes without explicitly saying so; or perhaps laziness will reign and spelling etc will go unfixed.

=====================

October 1, 1918

Edward White added to roll call of dead

Edward John White, age 25, Nevada City Elks member, at Edgewood Arsenal, MD, of pneumonia. ...the remains will be shipped to this city for interment...

------------

Influenza Epidemic Is Not Alarming Nation

..no disastrous general epidemic of the disease is probable.

Essentially a crowd disease
While only a few sporadic cases have developed on the Pacific coast, there is the possibility, of course, that it might become prevalent in some measure, in this section, for a time. Precautions are not amiss...

------------

Put the Propagandists out of Business Here

Pro-Germanism employs many diverse schemes to fortify its ends. Smite mercilessly enemy propaganda whenever and wherever found, and whoever may be responsible for it. Disloyal, seditious remarks overheard should be reported promptly to the proper federal authorities or to local patriotic organizations. Your name will not be used...

Deny any alarmist rumors that may be retailed in your hearing...
Puncture such lies as that American transport ships are being sunk and soldiers drowned, but that the Washington authorities are keeping the truth hidden. This is a monstrous untruth and should be excoriated whenever heard.

[ed. note:
U. S. Navy troop transports sunk or damaged by enemy torpedo, bombs, or gunfire (from http://www.usmm.org/ww1navy.html):

• May 31, 1918:
  U. S. S. President Lincoln (troop transport), gross 18,167 tons; torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-90, 600 miles off the French coast; 26 killed, 1 taken prisoner.
  
  
• July 1, 1918:
  U. S. S. Covington (troop transport), gross 16,339 tons; torpedoed by German submarine U-86 off Brest, France; sank July 2; 6 killed.
  
  
• September 5, 1918:
  U. S. S. Mount Vernon (troop transport), gross 18,372 tons; torpedoed by German submarine U-57 about 200 miles off Ushant, France; made port; 36 killed, 12 wounded.
  
  
• September 30, 1918:
  U. S. S. Ticonderoga (N. O. T. S.* cargo(?) vessel), gross 5,130 tons; torpedoed, shelled and sunk after two hours battle by German submarine U-152, in North Atlantic.; 213 killed: 112 Navy, 101 Army, 2 taken prisoners.

]

------------
Other headlines:

Cholera has made appearance in Berlin
Germans too dazed to counter attack
Wounded men well cared for

=======================

October 1, 2005

In the SF Chronicle:

Every day, headlines squawk about avian flu and mosquito-borne West Nile virus... But are birds really a threat?

"We're a country of fear," said avian expert Dr. Greg Harrison of Lake Worth, Fla. ... Harrison pointed out avian flu has been around for at least five years, "and worldwide, fewer than 100 people have died from it." "...panic is not the answer" ...the risk of an avian flu pandemic remains low at this time due to the current genetic makeup of H5N1, although this could change...

and in NY Times ( World Health Agency Tones Down Alarm on Possible Flu Pandemic (AP story)):

The World Health Organization moved Friday to drastically revise downward what it considered alarming predictions that a possible pandemic from the avian influenza virus ravaging parts of Asia could kill as many as 150 million people.
..."We're not going to know how lethal the next pandemic is going to be until the pandemic begins," [WHO influenza spokesman] Dick Thompson, said Friday. "You could pick almost any number" until then, he said, adding that the organization "can't be dragged into further scare-mongering."

Interview questions

adding more...

Pat Butler is a brave man, to submit to a face to face interview.

I am not a brave man. On the other hand, I do readily answer questions from my readers.*

Questions:

• Others have said:
  The goal of objectivity is not fairness or balance: it is reliability and credibility. Objective information actually upsets rote "fairness" when one side of an argument is based on an obvious distortion.
  and
  Neutrality requires that you give equal billing to people who say the earth is flat and those who say it is round. Objectivity allows you to point out the evidence that the flat-earth folks are wrong.
  Do you aim for objectivity, or for neutrality and 'fairness', in The Union's reporting?
  
• The Union started a weblog last spring that contained some interesting posts and comments, which I had linked to from mine. In your switch to the new, less reader-friendly format, the old (WordPress) blog's posts and comments were taken offline, thus blocking community access to a unique source of local information. Were the posts and comments archived? if so, will they be put back online?
  
• The long-broken pre-2002 Archive Search, that used to be on The Union's website, has been taken offline. Are there plans to restore it?
  
• Why is the current Archive Search still broken? It hasn't been fully functional for over a year. Why is there no warning on the page, to inform the users? (there used to be one, then it disappeared, and, despite repeated requests, hasn't returned)
  

More questions are in the old list here.

progressive blogging at The Union

Thurs update: I'm trying to get an answer from an editor (of web or paper) at The Union as to whether the posts and comments from their previous blog a) were archived and b) will be put back online. One days-old email query not answered, now switching to asking in blog comments (which, according to Kady, are working now - "Our servers in Reno had some problems...a few things were lost before I got a chance to save them to our own system."(*)).

If 'conservative' can mean 'ok with treating the planet as disposable since Armageddon will be right with us' then a 'progressive newspaper' can be one that engages in gratuitous linkrot, deleting all old posts and comments from their WordPress blog and replacing it with redirecting visitors to a through-the-looking-straw pseudoblog.

So if and until it gets resurrected, my past links to their blog's posts and comments are kaput.

Reason?
from the dead blog, "We also hope to revamp the look of our blog soon and make it easier to read and skip from entry to entry.*"

My response (in comment to that post):

"Easier to read and skip from entry to entry"? Pat, could you explain what you mean by this?

Please to excuse my unwarranted suspicions, but I fear you mean that you'll be regressing to Swift's [sub]standard blog format, as manifested by the Greeley Tribune's Editor's blog; note that comments (and commenters) are effectively throttled. It's the antithesis of progressive newspaper blogging.

Please Pat, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you want to encourage participation, not smother it.

if such is true.

(and will old blog posts and comments be migrated - thereby breaking the permalinks, a web offense - or will you keep them in their current format and at their current URLs?)

Their reply? None, AFAIK*, except to do pretty much as I foresaw - although it was a surprise to find that the old posts and comments had been blown away altogether.

Advice for progressive newspapers: Cover news, not tracks.

blog hiatus, belated explanation

Edited 2010-06-16 (toned down wording)
Still alive, still conscious, busy elsewhere in life for now, plus the usual tone of this blog is wholly inappropriate in a time of natural and other disasters.

One thing I have to say though -

I've worked in the broadcast industry - writing software to configure and control equipment that's used in television stations and post-production houses - for over 15 years. It's been great to be paid (well) to work out puzzles all day, but, up until recently, I've had doubts about the social utility of my work.

The television coverage of New Orleans post-Katrina changed that.

It's a wonderful thing to feel proud of what we do.

Added Thursday, found in TPM Cafe:

Our nation's hope lies at the bottom, with our National Guardsmen, our volunteers, and disaster relief teams tasked with cleaning up the consequences of the elite's greed and negligence. It lies with the people who, God willing, still don't have access to TVs, and have not yet realized the humanity they experienced is not shared by all. (*)

Awas

(Awas is Malaysian for "If you fall in that hole it's your own damn fault".*)

Effect Measure is not safe to visit today. The title of this post draws a pained request from a reader, but the proprietor's response is not at all helpful.

From someone in Metafilter (here) a while back:

I remember reading at one point that having a song stuck in your head stimulates part of your lower brain, and that the dumber and simpler the song is, the more the lower part of your brain likes it. It's like having an inner moron.

Thought experiment for business people and developers

Picture this -



It's summer.
It's around noon.
It's maybe a hundred degrees outside.

You're at home.
The house is cool.
But you need a few things from the world.

Are you going to get in your car and drive to the sea of blacktop (sporting mini-atolls of charming tiny trees and drought-tolerant shrubs,
while frying cars and customers sunny side up) to patronize the local bricks-and-mortar establishment?

Or will you just say to yourself "I can find it on the web, or else make do with what I've got"?

I know what I do.

If there was a shopping center with shade in this town, it'd be making money hand over fist.



The Fowler center. Fry your fowl here (and at every other shopping center in Nevada County).

The shopping center is young, they're growing the shade as fast as they can right?


Wrong. Note the dieback; some trees are shrinking. (tip to landscapers: trees need water)

A solar grove solves the problem elsewhere, but up here the wildlife would be likely to log it.