I'd never looked at the Drudge Report before watching the interview with Brian Lamb. It's an interesting compilation of links combining politics and tabloid-type stories. I like the fact it has a link to Dave Barry.
A woman called into the show and talked about teaching children to be intelligent consumers of the news. Great point. It's good to keep in mind that the news provided by mainstream media is created to be "interesting" and keep viewers attention, as part of a commercial venture, not necessarily to provide coverage of important issues.
Postscript - I see 5ives: Merlin's Lists of Five Things mentions the Drudge report -
"Five non-standard spellings of "weblog" (and where I’d like to see each used)
1. Mr. Log (The New York Times)
2. OMG lol teh bl0g!!!1!1! (LiveJournal)
3. weëblog (The New Yorker)
4. we belong (Pat Benatar)
5. free, uncredited leads (The Drudge Report)"
Merlin Mann
Interesting quote from Brian Lamb in a 1999 interview with Michael Ebner called Bringing Democracy to Television -
"I grew up with television being controlled by three men living in New York City. Everything trickled down from those three men, William Paley, Leonard Goldensen, and David Sarnoff. Now, they were just being good businessmen. They maneuvered to get the licenses first in radio, then in television. They set the standards for what television was going to be, and because there were only three, they tried to appeal to everyone all the time. But that is just not democracy."
Brian Lamb, August 1999
And when asked about the internet -
"Well, to start with, I'm not an Internet user, but I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the impact it's having on our country, and I think the significant and positive impact it will have on the future. I say that very much in the spirit of C-SPAN and the expansion of cable television channels because the World Wide Web does not belong to any one entity. It does not belong to David Sarnoff or Leonard Goldensen or Bill Paley. It does not belong to Time-Warner or AT&T or Bill Gates. It belongs to every single human being in this country--everybody who wants to can create their own web site and be a player. I don't think we have the slightest clue as to the long-range impact it's going to have on the country. We're just in it."
Craig Newmark the creator of craigslist.org was interviewed on a local Seattle radio station last week. I was amazed at how down to earth he sounded; practical and idealistic.
I like to look at the Seattle list of jobs, personals, and stuff for sale every so often. There are many other cities that have a Craig's List. Be sure to check out the best of craigslist for some funny stuff.
His interesting weblog is called aptly enough - craigblog. I have to admit what really caught my eye was the cute baby pictures in the April archives.
And finally some links to electrostatic precipitators. You probably wondered what took me so long to get to the fascinating part of this post eh?
Actually, last Friday I put an air cleaner in our workspace and that brought up the topic of air filtration devices. I was thinking it would be cool to make your own electrostatic air cleaner. Here's a guy with the plans for an Electro-static Air Filters. Downside might be having some home-built high voltage device sitting around the old abode, particularly if you have kids or haven't kept your home properly insured.
Maybe you could start with a SODA BOTTLE ELECTROSTATIC MOTOR. There's a zillion cool links on the "Static" Electricity Page and a bazillion on the SCIENCE HOBBYIST: Top Page if you like this sort of thing.
Those pages are courtesy of a Seattle fellow named William J. Beaty. Great resource for anyone interested in science, students or parents working with students on science projects.
Wishing you a great week kind, smart and gentle reader, with no static at all.
Citizen Steely Dan - 1972 to 1980 - The Box Set
Unless of course it's for a scientific purpose -
Some really neat antique electrical devices at PV Scientific Instruments' Online Catalog
