Richard Deitsch: Media Power Rankings for April - Richard Deitsch - SI.com
He said he would take a "brief" look. Cue interviewer, in this case, yours truly, smiling a skeptical smile.) One of the reasons for the rapid growth of sites such as Deadspin and The Big Lead is that they feed the sports media's obsession with itself, present company included.
Had I fronted a show that produced fireworks between a Pulitzer Prize-winning author ( Buzz Bissinger ) and one of sports blogging's major domos (Deadspin's Will Leitch ), I would have surfed harder than Duke Kahanamoku to get a sense of the coverage.
Costas described the show as "exhilarating and also frustrating." That's a fair assessment given the time constraints of television and the seemingly unlimited subjects under the banner of sports media. Since the show aired we've seen an endless platter of interesting takes, including this and this and this and this and this from bloggers and mainstream writers.
Costas himself engaged actively in dialogue with AOL's Michael David Smith and also spoke with Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus (and occasionally SI.com). The show was not perfect -- for starters, I would have liked to have heard from more beat writers, the men and women who build the information walls -- but the attempt was more than admirable. 2. Ron Jaworksi and Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN: With all the airtime given last month to the tete-a-tetes between NFL draft wonks Mel Kiper Jr.
Todd McShay (THESE GUYS REALLY DISAGREE ON STUFF! IT'S NOT SEAN SALISBURY AND JOHN CLAYTON. WE SWEAR!) Jaworski and Herbstreit turned out to be the best part of ESPN's draft coverage. Truth be told, the Kiper-McShay duels were also entertaining -- at times). When informed people disagree, it makes for interesting viewing. 3. Buzz Bissinger, Internet punching bag Pulitzer Prize winner: If only he had offered his critique of the sports blog culture with the same reasoned, passionate and intelligent prose that earned him the admiration of literate sports fans.
Instead, Bissinger went reactionary. He threw out unfounded generalizations about sports bloggers. He let his conduct overshadow his content. Worst, he became the message. Since his ill-advised comments, Bissinger has privately apologized to Leitch and offered measured and cogent thoughts on the topic, including a thoughtful interview with Dan Le Batard 's Miami-based radio show and this Q&A with The Big Lead. I should not have used profanity," said Bissinger.
I shouldn't have been as hostile in my approach to Will Leitch because it makes me look bad. It's unprofessional. It's unfair to him. But I don't take back the words I said." For what it's worth, Costas said after the show that the segment was not set up as a Sonny Corleone -style hit on Leitch. I knew Buzz was coming with his game face on," Costas said, "but I had no idea what he would say." 4. Will Leitch, Deadspin founder: The usual disclosure: Leitch and I fit somewhere in that male gray area between acquaintances and friends.
I think he's a talented writer and I agree with him that the Web has created a new sports meritocracy that empowers non-journalists to reshape existing paradigms regarding what is newsworthy, relevant and tasteful. Deadspin.com would not exist unless there was an audience for it, and its audience cannot be classified by one strata. Nor can one easily classify sports bloggers, a lot consisting of lawyers, television writers and, yes, even folks living in their mother's basement.
Dedicated blogging is a very hard gig (even bad blogging is a hard job) and there are no days off if you want to build a loyal readership. In extreme cases, blogging can even cause death.)
Where I disagree with Leitch is the notion that posting photos of Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart partying -- or reporting on the nighttime antics of ESPN's Chris Berman -- humanizes those subjects. Embarrassing details of famous people are a commodity -- just like corn or soybeans. You can monetize it and millions of people are interested in it.
One of my SI colleagues made an interesting point in an e-mail last week: He wrote that he didn't think Leitch should represent blogs anymore because he plays in both worlds, mainstream and blogging. You can't write for The New York Times and GQ and pretend to be an outsider," he wrote. It was an interesting point.
With Bissinger cast as the establishment foil and Leitch defending the position of the sports blogosphere on Costas Now, I found myself marveling at the irony of the moment. Sitting next to me as a guest of Leitch was David Hirshey, who writes keenly on soccer for Deadspin when he's not otherwise engaged as an executive editor at HarperCollins, one of the most powerful publishers in America.
As Leitch and Bissinger jousted on stage, as the well-connected and well-regarded Hirshey wondered if his pal was being setup, I kept thinking: Which guy is really representing the mainstream here?
5. " Gasbags on Parade ": NBC's Al Michaels, in full superiority mode, delivered this cruise missile in the direction of ESPN in a taped segment on Costas Now : "ESPN has had a major influence on sports but there are a lot of shows that I watch now where it's a screaming match," said Michaels.
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New Worlds: New program teaches science and math teachers Jerusalem Post
A new program at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot is aimed at raising the low level of Israeli high-school pupils knowledge of scientific subjects and math that has been exposed in recent years in international comparison studies. The innovative "Caesarea Program" will soon be inaugurated at the Rehovot institute. Made possible by the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation, it will offer masters' degrees in science education to outstanding high-school and middle-school science and math teachers.
The three-year curriculum, prepared by Weizmann faculty members, will include studies designed to broaden and deepen scientific knowledge, meetings with scientists working at the cutting edge of research and practice in applying innovative approaches to teaching. Participants will also conduct research in the field of science teaching and gain first-hand experience in leading original initiatives.
Teachers will study two days a week for the first two years and one day a week in the third year. The rest of the week, the participants can continue their normal teaching duties. Participants will be selected on the basis of recommendations and personal interviews, and each will receive a study grant in addition to an exemption from tuition. For teachers who already have advanced degrees, the program offers a multi-track option that will integrate practical studies with research.
Participants in this branch of the program are also eligible for study scholarships. A continuing education program will be offered to those who finish either track, in collaboration with the science teaching department and other scientific departments at Weizmann, and with the Davidson Institute of Science Education, which also conducts its activities there.
The continuing program will support participants in developing and implementing innovative science education projects. The Caesarea Program is open to outstanding science and math teachers who have at least three years of experience. Those teachers chosen to participate are required to commit themselves to teaching for at least another three years.
Interested candidates can write to Miriam Carmeli at miriam.carmeli weizmann.ac.il. POLLINATING BEES CONFUSED BY POLLUTION A rose is a rose is a rose, but when it - or other flowers - grows in polluted air, its fragrance is diminished, thereby inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source.
A new University of Virginia study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment found that air pollution from power plants and road vehicles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby making it difficult for pollinating insects to follow scent trails. This could partially explain why wild populations of some pollinators, particularly bees - which need nectar for food - are declining in several areas of the world.
The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel about 1,000 to 1,200 meters; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters, said the study co-head, environmental sciences Prof. Jos Fuentes. This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers."
The potential result is a vicious cycle where pollinators struggle to find enough food to sustain their populations, and populations of flowering plants, in turn, do not get pollinated sufficiently to proliferate and diversify.
Other studies, as well as the actual experience of farmers, have shown that populations of bees, particularly bumblebees, and butterflies have declined greatly in recent years. Fuentes and his team believe that air pollution, especially during the peak period of summer, may be a factor. To investigate this, they created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind.
The scent molecules produced by flowers are very volatile and quickly bond with pollutants such as ozone, hydroxyl and nitrate radicals, which destroy the aromas. This means that instead of traveling intact for long distances with the wind, the scents are chemically altered. This forces pollinators to search farther and longer, and possibly to rely more on sight and less on smell.
The scientists calculated scent levels and distances that scents can travel under different conditions, from relatively unpolluted pre-industrial revolution levels to the conditions now existing in rural areas downwind from large cities.
It quickly became apparent that air pollution has destroyed the aroma of flowers by as much as 90 percent from periods before automobiles and heavy industry," Fuentes said. And the more air pollution there is in a region, the greater the destruction of the flower scents."
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globeandmail.com: Now on sale in aisle one: Class warfare
The city has rejected the development on the grounds that the land was zoned as "employment," and retail, with its low-paying jobs, doesn't qualify.
Neighbourhood groups have resisted the development, citing the increase in traffic and air pollution, and what they feel is an unimaginative and unproductive use of the land. The developer, the emphatically named Smart!Centres Inc. Power Centres, SmartCentres and Wal-Mart super centres that loom in the suburbs like the doomed heads of Easter Island.
The model submitted to the OMB shows two- and three-storey red-brick façades with a generous pedestrian corridor, though it may be anchored by the devil itself, Wal-Mart. Titled the "Foundry District Lifestyle Centre," it is a stealth mall. And this at a time when the city is famously broke.
The debate has been framed in terms of community and money, but at the heart is the nature of malls themselves. TWO KINDS OF MALLS' Malls are like nuclear warheads, each one created to counteract one that already exists, and if possible, destroy it, or render it obsolete. Their evolution is partly social and cultural, and is glimpsed in comedian Chris Rock's observation: "There's two kinds of malls. The one where the white people shop, and the one where they used to shop."
The mall where they used to shop may end up being Gerrard Square, several blocks north of the Leslieville project. For a number of years, I lived nearby, an area that was "in transition," as the real-estate agents say.
It featured a mix of gentrifying young couples, a resident ethnic mélange of Asians, Blacks, Sikhs and Turks, as well as combustible porch-sitting hillbillies, the residue of the white working class that occupied the area for decades.
Ten years ago, Gerrard Square was anchored by Simpsons and Zellers and there were a few chains, but there were also independent stores, and an ever-changing market filled with carts selling off-brand vegetable dicers, perfumes that were a syllable away from greatness (Entity, Obsessed), jeans by, yes, Galvin Klein, discount ceramics, and stuffed animals trapped in balloons.
A man occasionally sold meat out of a gym bag near the mall entrance. On the weirdness scale, only the Dufferin Mall could touch it. But it was a fair reflection of the neighbourhood. As the area gentrified and the disused factories converted to lofts, Gerrard Square began to reflect that change.
A Home Depot arrived, along with Staples and Winners, and the mall underwent an expensive renovation. The guy with the gym bag moved on. But it is a fragile alliance between mall and neighbourhood. Stores continue to come and go.
The siren bargains of Wal-Mart will lure some shoppers south certainly, and Gerrard Square could retreat to its eclectic Third Worldism, a casualty. TRAGIC FLAW Every retail concept is born with a tragic flaw that eventually kills it. Somewhere, an idea is already hatching to kill the unbuilt SmartCentres, kill its ersatz streetscape and two-for-one sales, its cute tops and discount jeans.
What then? In The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, a collection of essays edited by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaus, the mall is a preoccupation.
Rather than shopping (as an activity) taking place in the city (as a place)," writes John McMorrough, "the city (as an idea) takes place within shopping (as a place)." Continued on Page 2. The photo is dead.
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Turkish military says 150 PKK separatists killed in N. Iraq
The statement added several high-ranking outlawed PKK separatists may have been among the dead. Turkey's General Staff said on Saturday at least 150 PKK separatists were killed during the May 1-2 air strikes against PKK bases in northern Iraq. According to initial estimates, this operation allowed us to neutralise more than 150 terrorists," declared a statement published on the Turkish army website. The operation caused a big panic among terror organization's members," the statement read.
The military said in an earlier statement, it successfully hit 43 outlawed PKK targets in a three-hour air operation on Mount Qandil in northern Iraq which ended early Friday. The military released on Friday the video footage of the air operation. The link for the video can be found here. Please note the website is in Turkish) Turkish warplanes have targeted terrorist positions in northern Iraq since mid-December.
In February, the army conducted a week-long ground offensive against PKK hideouts in the region, where more than 2,000 militants take refuge. The Turkish government has a one-year parliamentary authorization, which expires in October, for cross-border raids against the PKK.
The United States has backed Turkish military action against the outlawed PKK separatists by providing real-time intelligence on PKK movements in Iraq. The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, including the EU and the U.S.. OPINION Mehmet Yilmaz: It is called 'police terrorism' OTHER NEWS Iraqi president's wife survives bomb attack President Gul: Turkey only targets terrorists in N.
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