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The making of Inside the Meltdown by Frontline Producer, Michael Kirk of WGBH, Boston.
Sample Postings: 6 of the most recent entries ordered by date
[ Sunday, July 30, 2006 16:11 PDT ]
Nicholas Burns: the Cool Communicator for the State Department
Section:
Government
Summary:
R. Nicholas Burns, the 50 year old career diplomate and the number three person at the State Department, continues to calmly and clearly communicate on television. As the political point guy at home , he helps shape and explain the current administration’s moves and motives in the high stakes, multinational, multicutural, multistakeholder crossroads in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Main:
The youthful appearing Burns is schooled in French, Greek and Arabic, but speaks clear prose without a regional accent. He makes a smooth connection through the eye of the camera to his audience. He is pleasant without an appearance of patronage, understandable with excess simplicity, sincere without and overdose of the saccharin and straightforward without blunt bluster. His sunny style was well mirrored on Sunday by Ayalon, the Israeli Ambassador to Washington.
The message from one Beruit, Lebanon counsellor was that the Israeli Air Force was guilty of “War Crimes”
Even American League Yankee and Red Sox baseball partisans exercise less hyperbole.
Meanwhile this week-end, regular gas at the I-80 Shell station is $3.15 and noontime Sunday business if off on a pleasant weather day at the Quick Stop Store and In & Out Burger. So, what is the global connection, if any?
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[ Saturday, July 29, 2006 15:06 PDT ]
Aging: 65 is the new 45.
Section:
Health and Medicine
Summary:
Gina Koleta of the nytimes has got the real goods when it come to covering the new trends in boomer generation. That generation is living longer, larger and healthier
Main:
She notes in the first of a multi-part series, the following:
* Americans and those living in the developed nations are experiencing similar benefits on healthy longevity for similar reasons, including:
* Healthier childhoods, longer adolescense, safe drinking water, reduced air pollution, healthier diets, safer food, healthier work places, safer occupations, more time, energy and money spent on a wide range of recreational activities, safer transportation, healthy family finances, sustaining social networks,etc.
* American men are 3 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than the 1900 generation.
* The major infectious diseases of 1900 have been reduced to minor leagues of Public Health.
* Major disabilities can now be treated with cataract removal, joint replacement, coronary bypass, pacemaker placement and asthma therapy.
* The evidence is clear at an overflow area youth swim meet in Davis hosted at the Schaal Aquatic Center at UCD this weekend. The kids, their parents and their grandparents are performing as well as hanging out. Meanwhile, kids are attending cheerleader and wrestling camps. A California Kid Triathlon event is coming up with participants ranging from 4-17.
But, Davis is not the only game around. Dr.Eric Heiden of Sacramento and Dr. Testla of Davis as moving their families and Orthopedics and Sports Performance practices eastward on IS 80 to the Orthopedic Surgical Clinic at the Intermountain Health System Cottonwood Hospital in Murray, Utah a suburb south of Salt Lake City. The attraction is the area is the site of U.S.A training centers for winter sports including ski racing and snowboarding. The Olympic Village, Park City and Alta are among the venues.
In addition, living where you work and play are important attributes for a balanced family and professional life.
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[ Friday, July 28, 2006 13:14 PDT ]
Cronkite: Big Media and Moral Authority
Section:
TV
Summary:
A recent American Masters presentation on PBS featured Walter Cronkite. He was a presence in the American consciousness via the UPI wire service, radio, live television and the film documentary. Most working for CBS News, he covered the big stories from the American air war in Europe during WW ll, political conventions, the JFK assassination in Dalles, the Civil Rights Movement, the ground war in Viet Nam, the Space Program, the retreat of LBJ , and the Watergate scandal. He retired as anchor of the CBS Evening News in 1981.
Main:
The subject, the story the context and the medium bring the following observations to mind.
* Cronkite was a triple threat kind of guy. He could write and edit rapidly; his voice was steady, calm and authentic: his visage was personal and professional. Many have written better; most of his CBS peers could speak with more sophistication and gravitas; today he could not match the pretty girls and boys who read the news from the desk. Today, specialists reign in the separate playing fields of print, radio and the visceral “hot media ” that combines sound, music and motion pictures.
* No one covers the media with more loving care than the integrated giants that include media journalists, editors, producers, executives, advertisers and distributors.
* The gentlemen from CBS News have been saying Good Bye and Good Luck longer than Frank Sinatra.
* With Moyers, Cronkite, Rather, Molly Ivins, Shaeffer, Lehrer and others seems to be a Texas thing going.
* In that connection there is a Strong streak of moral certainty as to values and ideology. That sense of ideologic certainty coupled with clarity of moral advocacy forms a power call to action by the new moral authority. It has been said that the “news” delivered to the home has replaced practice of dressing up and attending Church with family friends and neighbors for many Heartland Americans. Journalististic ideologs working as for profit moral authoritarians. Now there is an idea for the ages.
* Of course, today even the integrated media giants like Viacom, General Electric and Disney are under pressure to meet the wild expectations of the new Internet generation that is challenging the likes of Microsoft.
So, what lessons does the 90 year life and career of Uncle Walter Cronkite have for the emerging movers, makers and shapers of instant news and analysis? One can hope that there still a place on the All American team for a fresh, optimistic, well liked, versatile and reliable triple threat anchor. Now, what is her name again?
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[ Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:45 PDT ]
Weather Watch: Hawaii, the Great Central Valley and Seneca Oregon
Section:
Feature
Summary:
Weather and micro Climates: The importance of Local, Location, Location.
Hawaiians are serious about weather and climate. Michael Fox reports from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The new UC Merced campus north of Fresno is impacted by summer weather. Tiny Seneca, Oregon claims the title, “winter icebox of the west”.
Main:
Meanwhile, the data debate and the rhetoric surrounding AGW continues.
* Hawaii would seem to be a good place to conduct scientific studies on climate and CO2. Mauna Loa (the Volcanic Shield Mountain) on the Big Island is the site of the data for the Keeling Curve, Top earth and astrological science in done by the Keck and other observatories on the summit. In all points of the compass, the region is dynamically influenced by the surrounding Pacific Ocean, On that point, the Michael Fox article is filled with gritty authenticity.
* UC Merced Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Kease has announced her retirement from that post. After spending $500 million on planning and building the newest campus in the UC State System a smaller than expected class is expected to enroll in the mid Valley campus. The 2006 class will be down to 500 entering freshmen from 700 in 2005. UC President Dynes recently called the school, “a startup.”
High summer temperatures, student isolation, unfinished dorms, unequiped labs, scant recreational facilites, few cultural events or venues, no sports teams and limited majors have not been able to overcome the proximity of Yosemite N.P. at attract students according to a July 17 report from the National Desk of the nytimes.
* Seneca, in eastern Oregon’s Bear Valley and nearby Crane Prairie in the Logan Valley at the headwaters of the Malheur River south of Strawberry Mountain in Grant Country are known as cold sinks. Local records indicate, and the State Climatologist concurs, that during the month of February 1933, the average air temperature was 0.0 ° F., the coldest in the nation. The lowest recorded temperature is -54° F. Portions of the area are now part of the Paiute Indian Band properties. There is no archeologic evidence of native American settlements in the area and there is unlikely to be any Resort or Gaming developments in the future.
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[ Wednesday, July 26, 2006 16:41 PDT ]
Lebanese Americans and the Middle East.
Section:
Opinion
Summary:
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” from Cicero The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, and JFK.
In the backstreet bazaars and banks by the Bay throughout the Byzantium of the eastern Mediterranean, opinions are many and diversity runs deep. But, by the end of the day the haggling is concluded, a deal is struck and the trade is made between momentary friends of convenience and necessity.
Main:
Selected List of Prominent Lebanese Americans includes:
Senator George Mitchell
Ralph Nader
John Sunnuu
Spenser Abraham
Dr. DeBakey
Dr. Brian Peter Medawar
Keanu Reeves
Jack Hanna
Joseph Abboud
The Maloof Family
Doug Floutie
John Elway
Jeff George
Frank Zappa
Paul Anka
Neil Sedaka
Prince alValeed bin Tallal
Ed Safra
Paul Orfehea of Kinkos
Sema Hayek
Danny and Marlo Thomas
Victor Atiyeh and the Kafoury family of Portland, Oregon
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[ Tuesday, July 25, 2006 15:13 PDT ]
The heat is on and the humidity is high in the Heartland
Section:
Weather
Summary:
For the past week and a half, midafternoon temperatures over 100° and humidity of > 35% have taxed the AC units and the electrical power grids of the great Sacramento Valley. On the UCDavis campus, facility managers have been scambling to service and supply the cooling requirements of research facilites that house primates, rat colonies, animal surgical labs, and mini server farms.
Meanwhile, in Davis outdoor swimming pools are averaging 88-90° as concrete become a heater and some older classrooms are stiffling. The work of the day is best done early.
Main:
The Cal ISO reports that peak electrical power use is currently running at levels predicted for 2010.
The good new is that state wide Sierra water storage levels, river flows and hydroelectric power generation are high. In addition water temperatures are low and favorable to migrating fish in the American river.
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