Monday, January 26, 2004

Being a man, I'd guess that there is a good 8" of snow on the ground, but the authorities say it's more like 5". The roads are still covered in residential areas, and Elm Street between the hospital and downtown was still unplowed as of 2 PM. Nothing close to a thaw on this cold day. Lots of sledding, though. No school tomorrow, either. Tomorrow's UNC blogs-and-journalism conference has been postponed due to weather. They're looking for a new date. 5:46:56 PM    comment []

The National Republican Congressional Committee has a page with some bloglike attributes, dedicated to covering competitive House races, but calling it "Blog Across the Nation" seems to be mostly a marketing hook -- an attempt to piggyback on the popularity of blogs without actually writing one. It's essentially a daily newsletter that offers no room for comments and boasts no personality of its own. The page is also distributed via email. 5:23:43 PM    comment []

Kay: Hopes fade on finding Hoffa Former weapons inspector David Kay said today that finding the remains of ex-Teamster's boss Jimmy Hoffa was "unlikely." Kay, who recently admitted that significant stockpiles of illicit weapons of mass destruction were not likely to be found in Iraq, blamed the CIA and other intelligence agencies for overstating the case for uncovering Hoffa's remains. "I don't think we're finding Judge Crater, either," said Kay. "Whoops." Kay also said that despite intelligence reports to the contrary, he did not expect to locate the Loch Ness Monster, DB Cooper, Vanilla Ice's career, or your car keys. 11:54:33 AM    comment []

Audio files of The Blogging of the President show are posted at MPR. 11:37:32 AM    comment []

Today's sessions at the UNC J-school weblog conference have been cancelled due to the snow and ice. I feel bad for the folks who worked so hard to plan the event. We'll see how tomorrow goes... 9:40:35 AM    comment []

Doc blogged the Lydon radio show. The single most important thing discussed in terms of news about online campaigning: Republican strategist Max Fose promised a huge Internet push from Bush, who has an enormous email database at his disposal. Fose: You're going to see the 800 pound gorilla come out of the closet. I enjoyed my time on-air with Chris and Josh Marshall, thought we had a reasonably substantive conversation about the hype and reality of online tools in politics. The second hour of the program was less concerned with campaigns, Jeff Jarvis evangelized the medium and was especially good on Iraq and Iran, but the show eventually devolved into a slap-fight between Atrios and Andrew Sullivan, which was entertaining but not terribly illuminating. 9:26:00 AM    comment []

Philip Larkin, First Sight: "All they find, outside the fold/Is a wretched width of cold." What a brilliant ending to that poem. Lots of snow on the ground, no school today, ice on the way -- the weather twinkies on TV keep saying we're going to have a "significant icing event" -- and we haven't even baked our cake yet. Keep the laptop charged, hope to get to Chapel Hill for the weblog conference tomorrow, and for the State-Carolina game Weds.... 8:43:08 AM    comment []