The Noise Bazaar Wordle

This blogging/social networking class is really getting me re-obsessed with the internet and all its wonderful possibilities. I've gotten back into blogging, I read a ton of blogs, I've started messing around with Delicious and I even have a Twitter (although I don't update it much, nor do I have many friends). Just a couple of days ago, our professor set up a Ning -- an online social networking community where you can add your own blog, talk in a discussion board and upload pictures, music and videos.

The latest fun thing he showed us to day was a Wordle. Wordle takes a bunch of text, a blog or Delicious bookmarks and turns them into sophisticated word art. The bigger the word, the more the word is found in the text.

I now present you with the official Noise Bazaar Wordle. (Click to enlarge)



Exciting, huh?

Over at wired.com you can see a Wordle for Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, or a couple of pretty Wordles for the oh-so-bitter but outwardly supportive Mrs. Clinton.

It's highly entertaining. I support wasting a few minutes on it.

Bob Dylan gets The Beatles high

I cannot vouch for the truth, likeliness or possibility of this story, but it's too awesome to ignore. According to Mark Katz, an associate professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill music department and my Intro to Rock professor, you can single-handedly thank Bob Dylan for the psychedelic experimentation that characterized the latter part of The Beatles' catalog.

We were talking the other day in class about common mondegreens (misheard lyrics) in popular music. The three we mentioned were:

"The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind." (Wrong)
vs.
"The answer my friends is blowing in the wind." (Right)
"Blowin' in the Wind" -- Bob Dylan

"Excuse me while I kiss this guy." (Wrong)
vs.
"Excuse me while I kiss the sky." (Right)
"Purple Haze" -- Jimi Hendrix

"I get high." (Wrong)
vs.
"I can't hide." (Right)
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" -- The Beatles

Now, this last line is where our story begins. That mondegreen comes from Dylan, who swore that the lyrics were "I get high." He couldn't believe that such a mainstream group was talking about drug use in their hit song, but was glad that they were putting it out there and were proud of it.

Not long after, Dylan got a chance to meet John and company while they were out on tour. He began talking about that song where they sang "I get high," and how great it was, but the Fab Four had no idea what he was talking about. Finally they realized he was talking about "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and proceeded to tell him what the real lyrics were.

Dylan was shocked to find out that The Beatles had never tried marijuana. Not surprisingly, Dylan changed that.

Pot leads to stronger drugs, which lead to the psychedelic glory that is, in my opinion, the best music that The Beatles ever made.

After hearing this, I did a little Google-ing and found that this story has been reported by others.

That doesn't mean that it's true, but, honestly, I don't care, it's a great story no matter what.

The Real Paul Jones

After nearly killing myself last semester with four of the hardest and most work-laden classes in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, I decided to give myself a little bit of a break this year. I'm a senior, dammit, I deserve it. So here's my schedule: Music Theory (the really easy one -- "Is this note ascending or descending?"), Musical Modernism, Introduction to Rock Music and Blogging, a new undergraduate class in the J-School.

The first day of my blogging class, I was surprised to see a fifty-something guy with glasses and long flowing hair that strangely resembled NASCAR's Kyle Petty standing in front of the twelve-person class. I was even more shocked when after talking intelligently for a minute or two he let out a nervous, geeky machine-gun laugh that sounded something like the Cowardly Lion when he's really nervous. I thought I had found the biggest geek on campus, and I may have. But I figured the class would be entertaining at the least.

Little did I know that I was sitting in front of a living legend of the internet. My professor, Paul Jones, is internationally regarded as one of the leading names of the open-source software and social networking on the internet. He created UNC-CH's ibiblio, which is essentially a website where anyone, anywhere can upload any content they want to and publish it to the web. You can search it like a massive library archive and find any kind of information that you want. It's like some kind of mix of Wikipedia and Blogger, even though it came out before the former and less than a year after the latter. He's done even more than that since, but I won't take the time to list them all here. You can check out his ibiblio bio, or read a great feature that the News and Observer did on him in 2001. It's written by David Menconi, the music writer for the N&O whose blog, On the Beat, is at the top of my bookmarks list.

And I just thought he was a nerd who knew more about Facebook than I did. How wrong I was...

McCain's AP Mouthpiece?

Look up any journalism code of ethics and you will find some common themes: tell the truth, don't libel, identify your sources and, finally, be objective. Just to show you, here is a snippet from the code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists:

"Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context."

Let's move onto the American Society of Newspaper Editors and an article they published in 1997 about journalism values:

"Journalists must implement four key values to gain and preserve credibility. These are balance, accuracy, leadership and accessibility."

There is a whole class in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication dedicated to media ethics, and a recurring theme in that class is being objective and unbiased, unless, of course, you sell your soul to Corporate America and become a public relations specialist (read: business' ass cover).

I'm even pretty sure that The Daily Tar Heel, UNC-CH's student newspaper, doesn't allow it's writers or editors to be a member of any partisan organization on campus, work for any student campaigns or even throw some pro-Obama propaganda on Stalkerbook.

Don't worry, this is all leading somewhere.

Today a friend sent me an article from The Washington Monthly about Ron Fournier, the Associated Press' Washington bureau chief and his ability to rise above any the values and ethics of most every other journalist in the country.
Here's the gist of the story, in their own words:

The latest piece from Ron Fournier, the AP's Washington bureau chief and the man responsible for directing the wire service's coverage of the presidential campaign, on Joe Biden joining the Democratic ticket, is drawing a fair amount of attention this morning. More importantly, McCain campaign staffers are pushing it fairly aggressively to other reporters, in large part because it mirrors the Republican line with minimal variation.
[...]
Fournier's objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky. We are, after all, talking about a journalist who, as recently as last year, considered working for the McCain campaign.
[...]
We learned not too long ago that Fournier exchanged emails with Karl Rove about Pat Tillman, in which Fournier wrote, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight." Fournier was also one of the journalists who, at a gathering of the nation's newspaper editors, extended McCain a box of his favorite donuts ("Oh, yes, with sprinkles!" McCain said).

The article continues to list out even more evidence of good ol' run snuggling up in bed with McCain.

Now it's understandable that everyone has their biases and ideas, that's unavoidable. No writer is truly unbiased, but it's important for non-advocacy journalists to at least try to be objective, especially when he or she is writing for the AP, a wire service that sends articles around the country for thousands of newspapers to use.

It's simply unacceptable that the AP is allowing Fournier to continue spouting what seems to be nothing more than McCain propaganda and passing it off as real news from the campaign. A freshman after his or her first day of "News Writing" could tell you that.

I'm a SENIOR, who the #@#! are you?

I've spent the last three years of college delaying the inevitable. Now there is no more delaying.

Being a senior is awfully bittersweet. On one hand, I'm almost done with school forever and can move on and start my career. On the other hand, I don't have the safety net of school for much longer and I have to move on and start my career.

I feel like I'm finally a real person. By "real" I mean more responsible: not the college student that goes to class, sleeps, drinks and repeats. I have more cares in the world then where the big party is. I used to have so much free time that I didn't even know what to do with myself. I spent a lot of time playing video games, watching Netflix movies and reading books other than those required for class. Now I barely have time to think.

I started an internship at Chapel Hill Magazine this week. It's a great opportunity and I enjoy working there. But combining that with my job at the bookstore, my classes and band, it means that most days I am going from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. I have to consciously think of time management and make sure that I keep up all of my obligations. I'm not used to that.

I know that this is what I have to look forward to when I join the working world, but I'm not yet in the working world. I feel like I should still be able to have a slack semester where my only real concern is where the alcohol is going to come from. College is only (usually) four years of your life, and I want to be sure that I make the most of those years. But I can't. It won't be the same as my earlier college years. And not by choice: I'm not done with that stage yet.

Most college kids are lucky enough to have a stalling mechanism set up for their post-graduation years: graduate school. It's the perfect cop-out when you're not ready to join the real world, just keep on taking some schooling. Unfortunately graduate school is not in the books for me. The Journalism School isn't really interested in students coming straight out of undergraduate and would rather have you go out and get some experience before coming back.

So where does that leave me? That is the question that I have battled with all summer. I want to have some time to travel and be crazy and enjoy myself before I settle into the working life. Ideally, I would have a job where I could travel and be crazy and get paid for it by some ridiculous travel magazine. Whether I do that or not is irrelevant to this point, though. The fact is that I don't have a clue what I will be doing in nine months, but I need to figure it out. It's either that or move back in with the parents, and they've already said that they won't allow that.

I'm not sure that I'm ready to be thrown out into the real world. I think I need some more time to develop. I don't know if I'll ever be ready for the working world. How do you know? I'm not even sure that I know enough about my self and what I want before we try and figure out what we want.

The Senior Marshals pass out the stickers that say "I"m a SENIOR, who the #@#! are you?" I think the more fitting sticker -- at least in my situation -- is "I'm a SENIOR, who the fuck am I?"

Ride the Wave

So it's definitely been a while. No doubt any readers that I once had have probably given up on me and run to greener (or blacker?) pastures. I don't blame them.

After trying to pound my way through a tough semester, I was swept away on a month-long road trip with my granddad and sister, where I unashamedly cheated on the Bazaar. Writing in one blog each night was enough for me, there was no way I could keep this bad boy going.

But now I'm back for good. I'm in my apartment with a few weeks to relax, regroup and revel in the few weeks that I have before I jump right back on this whole college carousel one more time. I hope to use that time to get back into the habit of writing, starting...

...Now.

"It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant...
[...]
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...
And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply PREVAIL. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
~Hunter S. Thompson -- "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

I couldn't be there in the 60s. I wish I could. Hell, I wish I could have been running through North Beach with Kerouac and his Dharma Bums in the 50s.

San Francisco was hotbed of liberalism then, the counter-culture mecca. It was freedom to the highest and craziest extent, something that many of us can't wrap our head around. It was, as Hunter S. described it, "a very special time and place to be a part of."

It's different now. Not just the city: the world, the people. Most of our generation -- myself included -- idolizes the 60s, puts it on this pedestal and dreams of peace marches, sit-ins, Woodstock and free love. We smoke weed and listen to the Velvet Underground, Hendrix, Marley and Jefforson Airplane and say things like, "Yeah man, he had it right. He understands! DIG this..." I think we're fooling ourselves. Inside we realize that there's no hope in this. We can say the slogans, wear the T-shirts and sign the petitions, but the passion is not behind it.

"Our energy would simply PREVAIL. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum."

There was a blind faith then, as Hunter S. points out, that simply believing and pure energy and faith would turn the world around. But once that "wave" crashed, we realized that it was all a lie. Blindly we churn along, hoping to bring a tsunami across the nation, the world, but there's nothing behind the thought and we keep lapping idly against the sand.

But how are we supposed to change? We realize that we need more than marches and speeches and rallies to change the world, a wave machine. Enter Barack Obama.

He's not the perfect candidate by any means. He's not going to change the world the day that he walks into the White House. In fact, I only used his name because he's the most recent example. Let's use a general term: political stimulant.

The machine that our generation is looking for must come in politics. We know that we can't do this alone: we learned it the hard way. We can't fight the system, we have to use it. We have to start trusting at least a few people over 40.

Gradually we're starting to realize it.

It's obvious. Just look at how many young people have registered to vote this year. Look at the obscene amount of political blogs that have surfaced over the past few years and, more importantly, look at how many of our generation are hitting the "Refresh" button 20 times a day.
So I take back my earlier statement, the people haven't really changed. For the most part we still want a lot of the same things. I meet people everyday that are extremely intelligent and have great ideas for ways to change our society for the better. I'm inspired by the things I hear about my generation doing all around the world, from Peace Corps to backpacking Asia simply just to do it, to experience it.

I have faith in our generation, no doubt. We're a lot more like the 60s than I ever thought. We even have awesome music. All I can hope is that soon we'll figure out how to weasel our way into a political system that has been run by old, white-haired and white-skinned guys.

When I was in San Francisco this weekend, I found the mark of that massive wave that Hunter S. talks about. It's on the bearded old man playing guitar on the side of the road, it's in Castro and it's as far away from Fisherman's Wharf as you can get.

Just across the Bay in Berkeley, I think I can hear the surf getting a little stronger.

Nine Circles of Disposal Hell: Patrick Murphy

My good buddy and former band-mate, PMurph, posted a note on Facebook that I think everyone needs to read. He brings up some good environmental and recycling issues, but skillfully avoids preaching and makes it funny. It's so well written and has some solid information for everyone, especially college students that are moving out of their dorms and apartments. I'll reprint it here for your reading enjoyment, and hopefully he won't mind too much.

--------------------
Nine Circles of Disposal Hell

At the end of each year NC State plants huge dumpsters outside of all dorms for students to throw away all the stuff they don't need anymore.

I went dumpster diving today from 3-6am, hoping to find discarded items that would be of use to me, primarily to furnish an apartment next semester. My goal is to spend as little money as possible on the new space, yet through a little re-working of some everyday items wind up with a living space of unique and interesting pieces that don't belie my status as a "designer." We'll see how things go.

some items uncovered:
-complete new set of matching ABS coathangers (something i've never had)
-dishrack I wanted in the beginning of the year but couldn't afford.
-3-shelf rolling storage cart
-fully-functional folding papasan lounge
-practically unused backpack used to carry all this stuff. (we're talkin like...rip-stop nylon, laptop support, 7-compartment, everything and the kitchen sink bag)
-2 large mirrors, one black wood frame, one grey-stained victorian ornamental, both unscratched.

And my personal favorite:
In one receptacle I saw a brilliant display of flashing leds and heard catchy 8-bit music. It turned out to be this:

http://www.thegadgetblog.com/2006/01/19/sega-toys-ifish/

iFish

It was pretty cool, and completely unscathed, so i threw it in my bag and rode off only to later discover the probably reason it's previous owner threw it out in the first place: the thing wouldn't shut the hell up. Turns out there's no off button. like an oceanic furby. also, the battery compartment is accessible via the smallest phillips head screw on earth, so no luck there. But, the NES-style tunes (which were actually quite varied) eventually kept me company rather than annoy me to the point of returning it to a trash bin wit ha swift kick to the dorsal. With a USD pricetag of $65, I just couldn't refuse.

So, the trip was amazing, I found some cool stuff, explored campus when nobody was around, and got to watch the sun rise while an alarmingly loud (but overall enjoyable) menagerie of birds signaled the start of the day.

______________________________________

The trip was also incredibly depressing. The amount of trash accumulated in the dumpsters was no surprise, but the quantity, quality, and state of the things discarded that weren't necessarily garbage was astounding. To top things off, approximately 40% of what I saw was cardboard. Cardboard is not trash, it is a fusion of tiny wood strands pressed together to form a structurally rigid sheet. When reused or reprocessed, it creates more cardboard, is used for composting agents, and serves as a highly efficient form of thermal fuel.

Another 10% of receptacle content was pure white paper, also a collection of processed wood product, and also usable after reprocessing, mostly to create more paper. Another 5% was comprised of functional, unbroken furnishings (The stuff I kept were few of many choices).

another 5% was computer parts, the majority of which were CRT's and printers. CRT's are one of the worst things that can be thrown into a landfill, not only serving as solid, un-biodegradable mass, but leeching on average 8 pounds of lead into the environment (per monitor)upon breeching of the cathode tube.

probably 10% of the remainder was solid wood product, which, in an even less-processed state that that of cardboard or paper, is nowhere near the end of its life cycle.

20% of everything was carpet and rugs, most of which were completely fine, all of which could be cleaned, and one of which will go under my feet next year (a large and particularly beautiful light-sand colored tall-fibred specimen) I mean...there was a lot of freaking carpet there.


2% was clothing and shoes, many of which were only slightly used. These could have gone to collection boxes for the poor. (they're all over the fucking campus, find one and give a poor kid some kicks)

the majority of the rest was actual trash, in actual trash bags. BUT maybe 15% of this? were aluminum and plastic drinking vessels.

Now before I launch into a tirade about the issues present in my findings, I will say that I have absolutely no idea whether or not the contents of these bins will be sorted through (like many dumpsters on campus) by a recycling center before heading off to an actual landfill. If that's the case, then a lot of the "problem" here will be averted, and much of the material saved from useless death in an oxygen-starved mountain of trash. I will also say that by writing this, I am quite the hypocrite. I guarantee you that I buy more crap, waste more water and electricity, and am responsible for the discarding of more un-recycled material in any given work week than most people are in a semester.

But there are other things that people can do (even fall into the habit of doing) that require minimally more effort than just simply placing everything in sight in a trash bin or dumpster.

______________________________________

The nine circles of disposal hell:

1) duds, kicks, and lids-
If you've got clothing or shoes or fanny-packs you don't wan't anymore, don't toss 'em. Try selling them to places like Plato's closet first (if in good condition and still in style)- you'll actually get paid for them. If they reject your camo gear, parachute pants, and wasssuuup! shirt-- fear not, you can donate them to a second hand store where financially-strained people (or kids looking for halloween costumes) can buy it for little mula. Thirdly, and most honorably, find a "clothing drive" or whatever bin and donate the clothes to starving kids in africa or homeless people here.

2) carpet-
If you're a college student living in a shitty dorm with a floor that has a color scheme that a partially blind person obviously concocted, I feel your pain and have been there before. you'll probably want to buy a carpet to cover up your tiffany lamp of a bare floor- understandable. But think about the end of that year: will you be able to carry it home or ever use it again? will it adapt to your ever-changing style needs? (maybe black is a better choice than your seasonal need for some hot pink in your life) do you need a carpet that big or will a smaller one do just fine? I saw too many carpets today that won't be making the journey home with their owners.

3) furniture and furnishings-
So you got some cool stuff for your room for the year, a fold-up chair to snuggle up in to watch a movie or cry for 3 hours because dammit, Noah really did still love her...., a mirror so you can getcha hair did, maybe even a TV stand or a storage rack for your nike collection if you really pimping out the place. But ask yourself the same questions as above^...are you ever gonna use this thing outside of the room you first put it in? Is it worth spending a little more on something you might want to keep for more than a year? can you make something out of stuff thats lying around that will serve just as well as what you're about to drop 50 bucks on? can you take something just like it from home that your family already owns instead of buying it brand new? nobody cares about you intricately color-matched room courtesy of target or pier1(and trust me, I'm talking about guys JUST as much as ladies), so relax--you're still gonna get laid even if your file folders and bedsheets "clash".

4) that secondary xylem you call "table"-
WOOD. I have a soft spot in my heart for it. completely renewable, strength-to weight ratio rivaling that of carbon fiber, lowest energy to process of virtually any material, and the list of awesomeness goes on...But just because it's ridiculously easy to just make more wood products doesn't mean you should toss out that table or shelf when it breaks or you need to get rid of it, wood is entirely recyclable and for the most part, biodegradable (but not in an microbe-deprived landfill, where a lot of it winds up going). I'm actually hung-up on HOW to recycle wood though...there's a few select dumpsters around campus that will accept it, but most of them are pretty inconvenient for a lot of students. Please discuss ideas below:


5) plastics make it possible-
so you recycle your vault bottles like a good lad, and thats great, good for you. BUT, it might surprise people to know that bottles aren't the only thing made of plastic that you can recycle. It all depends on the numbers 1-7 (1-6 in some cases). before you toss anything made of plastic, check on the bottom or side for the triangle recycle symbol, and find the number inside of it. The number corresponds to a certain thermo-plastic polymer, each of which is compositionally pure and capable of being remelted with nearly zero-material loss and formed into another plastic thing. So if it has a number on it and will fit, toss it into a recycling container marked for plastic bottles. Check out this site for info on what numbers mean what and common products that are made from them:
http://pslc.ws/macrog//work/recycle.htm

6) electronic wasteland-
Computers and electronics and things of that technological nature are great, probably some of the most amazing achievements mankind has ever created, next to the lay-Z-boy and pb&j in the same jar. However, a potential downside is that technology changes VERY fast. meaning the laptop you buy your freshman year might be in the smithsonian when you graduate. It's scary fast- it's estimated that by 2013 there will be a computer that can exceed the processing capabilities of human brain. Get ready for the robot war. But as fast as computers and technology are evolving and their peripherals being updated and replaced, these items are potentially hazardous if disposed of using traditional methods. Check with best buy, officemax, circuit city, or any computer supply place or junk service and they'll tell you how to properly dispose of things that can really do a number on the environment. Also, if you're doing a lot of computer graphics and art stuff, don't be too quick to toss that CRT- they have color display capabilities that are far more accurate than modern LCD's, so if you're having issues with display-print inconsistencies, give your old monitor another go at it, it might save you some hassle.

7) what can brown do for you?-
Cardboard. There's just too damn much of it getting thrown away. It's not a hard fix, either- although not as abundant as traditional recycling containers are, cardboard dumpsters are pretty frequent, especially on college campuses. If you're a good person you'll break down the boxes like the dumpster asks you to. If you're an even better person you'll remove any tape, staples, and labels before chucking it. If you're a super-cool person, you'll save it all, buy some ducttape, and be a transformer for halloween.

8) it's white, flat, and reeeally flexible-
No, it's not your mom. It's paper. also no excuse for throwing this stuff away. While humanity makes the steady transition to portable electronic "e-paper" you can do your part to put the current means of textual communication to good use by not dooming it to a garbage bin. If you're trying to score extra brownie points with the poor guy who has to empty and sort the recycling containers, you'll be sure to remove any tape and staples, and separate the pure white office paper from the "mixed paper products" and place each in their respective bin. a lot of packaging materials, newspapers, magazines, etc. can be placed in the "mixed paper" bin, along with thinner forms of cardboard like 6 or 12-pack containers, shampoo boxes, general smaller box packages, etc.

9) the unholy trinity-
Aight, now for my wrath: trashbags filled with 67 cans of PBR from your party last night in the dumpster?
Seriously, just fucking kill yourself, cause that's ridiculous. there are recycling containers that take glass, plastic, and aluminum that line the entrance to nearly every building on campus. Your building not have one? here's a splendid idea: walk to the next building over. Or make a homemade bong, I don't care. and LOOK AT THIS: http://www.chrisjordan.com/


As a consumer, the moment you purchase something you've made a choice and a commitment. You've made the choice to consume something that was taken from this earth, and ultimately made the choice to one day return it to the earth in a different and possibly harmful state than it was originally. You've also made the commitment to be the owner, sole guardian, and exploiter of said object. It's lifespan and the efficiency and usefulness with which it lives it's life will be determined by you.

Once said by a man who was wiser than you (therefore you should listen silently and attentively):
"we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from out children."

I think our children have a bleak future.

-- Patrick Murphy
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In other quick news, despite my recent tirade about politics in North Carolina, Obama had an amazing showing Tuesday night and won NC decisively and kept Indiana close, all but locking up the nomination for himself. Now if we can just get Hill-dog to step down and concede. It's the best thing for all involved, especially for the unity of the Democratic party heading to November.

As of Tuesday at 10 a.m., I am a senior. I finished my last exam and now have just one year left before I don the Carolina Blue cap and gown and sit, terrified, in Kenan Stadium. It's a scary time, but I plan to make the best of it. You're only in college once.

That's all for now. Go recycle something.

peace
C