Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Councilman Don Vaughan gives us a peek inside the sausage factory: "When you meet in closed session to discuss an economic incentive or business relocation the only groups present (the Chamber, the City's business recruitment office, etc.) are speaking in favor of the project. In essence, we're only hearing from the project's cheerleaders and getting the positive spin. That's one reason why the vote in closed session is a non-binding vote." Previously, and even more previous. 3:04:38 PM   permalink   comment []

Many oil companies are working on alternative energy sources. WSJ: "Not Exxon. Openly and unapologetically, the world's No. 1 oil company disputes the notion that fossil fuels are the main cause of global warming...Exxon also contributes money to think tanks and other groups that agree with its stance." Article free here for seven days, then reg. req. here. 2:50:07 PM   permalink   comment []

News at the speed of blogging: Mark Binker updates his own story in real time. Reporting on a proposed tobacco tax from Raleigh: "Before I even had a chance to mash the send key, Democrats forced a committee vote on the bill. The tax package passed and will be sent to the floor." Bonus points for saying "mash." 11:11:17 AM   permalink   comment []

Rebecca MacKinnon reacts to Scoble's defense of Microsoft's reported banning of certain words, including "democracy" and "freedom," from its Chinese portal: "to state that Chinese students and professors have an 'anti-free-speech stance' is the biggest pile of horseshit about China I've come across in quite some time." Scoble is a thoughtful guy, and I don't dismiss out of hand his logic about doing business in China. But R-Mac is compelling: "The issue is whether Microsoft should be collaborating with the Chinese regime as it builds an increasingly sophisticated system of Internet censorship and control...China's filtering, censorship, and surveillance systems wouldn't be what they are today without lots of help from a number of North American technology companies... "...I can tell you one more thing about the Chinese. They hear what you say, then they watch how you do business. From there, it's pretty easy to figure out what your real values are." 10:49:58 AM   permalink   comment []

Roch Smith Jr. will host a session on online alt media, aka aggregated citizen journalism, at Converge. Roch is the creative force behind the Greensboro 101 community site. He has also played an important role in recruiting hosts for the conference, although he did not, Dick Cheney-like, assign himself a session. 6:50:13 AM   permalink   comment []

JR voices every good editor's dream for a new project: "it could produce results that are just too weird to ignore." 6:45:17 AM   permalink   comment []

Onomatopeyote was not filled with love for his fellowman at the Willie Nelson/Bob Dylan concert: "Note to Greensboro Beautiful: believe me, it aint." Thigpen has a less hostile outlook...but also a conspiracy theory. 6:42:48 AM   permalink   comment []

Springsteen is coming back to the Greensboro Coliseum for an all-accoustic solo show on July 26. I missed the Stone Pony years, but I've seen most of Bruce's incarnations since catching an epic show at the Spectrum in 1980 -- that was classic E Street, heavy on Clarence and the early albums. Then came superstar in the mid '80s, mellower Tunnel of Love version, and elder statesman. Solo accoustic sounds interesting. Solo accoustic in a vast coliseum, less so. 6:39:49 AM   permalink   comment []

Herb Everett will lead a session on podcasting at Converge, 10/8/06. A longtime blogger, Herb is the motivating force behind the News & Record's podcasting efforts.  A photo of Herb in beta:  6:32:21 AM   permalink   comment []