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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Marketing

Two of Three Little Pigs Weren’t Disappointed Because of Insufficient Public Relations

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So a pig sits in a house of straw, and a wolf comes by.  The wolf huffs and puffs, and blows the straw house down. 

Not long afterward, a second pig sits in a house of sticks, and the same wolf comes by.  The wolf huffs and puffs, and blows the stick house down. 

What brought this disaster upon Pig 1 and Pig 2? 

Honest to goodness, it wasn’t for lack of a public-relations strategy that their houses fell down. 

It wasn’t because they didn’t have a marketing plan.

It wasn’t even because they lacked an understanding of media relations. 

Even a child, hearing the tale for the first time, would correctly conclude that Pigs 1 and 2 lived in houses too flimsy to withstand calamity.

From an ordinary child’s understanding of the story, one may conclude two things: first, that children are able to grasp many important lessons even at an early age; second, that some adults, blinded from pride and entitlement, lack even a child’s comprehension.  

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.29.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will offer a wintry mix of flurries and freezing drizzle in the morning, with a high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 5:05 PM, for 9h 52m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73.6% of its visible disk illuminated. It’s still January, a month associated with cold and dark nights, yet the days are actually growing longer, and sunset is even now past five o’clock. Each day is, in fact, getting a bit longer; although it’s cold now, it’s these successive days are getting brighter.

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For the first time in over a century, there’s a confirmed sighting in Yosemite National Park of a Sierra Nevada red fox:

Don Neubacher, the park’s superintendent, said he’s “thrilled” by the news. He called the species “one of the most rare and elusive animals in the Sierra Nevada.” It’s the first time the fox has been spotted in the park in nearly 100 years.

Indeed, little is known about the fox in part because they’re so hard to track down. According to a fact sheet from the U.S. Forest Service, the Sierra Nevada red fox lives in remote and rugged habitats. They’re solitary and have a habitat range from California to southern Oregon and western Nevada. It’s thought 50 of them may remain, but the fact sheet notes that there could be as few as 15.

Striking.

Google-a-Day asks about literature:

Early in Conrad’s 1903 novella, Marlow makes a comment “one of the dark places on earth”. About what place does he say this?

City, Culture, Local Government, New Whitewater, Politics, School District, University

Whitewater’s Near Future Depends on What Year It Is Now

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I’ve written that a New Whitewater is inevitable, that we have passed The End of The Beginning, and are now in a Middle Time between one way of life and another.

When these changes will be wholly manifest depends on where we are in time, now, so to speak: ’35, ’55, or ’65.

If we should be in ’35, then the old guard has decades ahead, and their near future is secure.

If we should be in ’55, then our town squires have just a bit more than a decade of political relevancy ahead.  Many of them will yet live to see the collapse an older political order.

If we should be in ’65, then they’ve far less than a decade left.  

Even now, when they speak claiming to represent all the community, they do so in carefully controlled settings, bemoaning the winds of the greater world sweeping along every street just outside. 

It’s not ’35; we’re closer to sometime between ’55 and ’65.

These few have strived for a political and social preeminence that will not, that truly cannot, endure. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.28.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Our Wednesday will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-three. Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 5:03 PM, for 9h 50m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets at 8 AM, and the Community Development Authority at 5 PM.

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On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff, killing all seven members of the crew. Here is how the New York Times reported the loss:

Cape Canaveral, Fla. Jan. 28 — The space shuttle Challenger exploded in a ball of fire shortly after it left the launching pad today, and all seven astronauts on board were lost.

The worst accident in the history of the American space program, it was witnessed by thousands of spectators who watched in wonder, then horror, as the ship blew apart high in the air.

Flaming debris rained down on the Atlantic Ocean for an hour after the explosion, which occurred just after 11:39 A. M. It kept rescue teams from reaching the area where the craft would have fallen into the sea, about 18 miles offshore.

It seemed impossible that anyone could have lived through the terrific explosion 10 miles in the sky, and officials said this afternoon that there was no evidence to indicate that the five men and two women aboard had survived….

On this day in 1959, the Packers name a new coach:

1959 – Lombardi Named Packers Coach
On this date Vince Lombardi was named head coach of the Packers. He had been the offensive backfield coach of the New York Giants for the previous five seasons. Lombardi went on to coach the Packers for nine years, winning five NFL Championships and victories in Super Bowls I and II. [Source: Packers.com]

Google-a-Day asks a poetry question:

What poem title did T. S. Eliot say he created by combining the titles of a romance by William Morris with the title of a Rudyard Kipling poem?

History

Jefferson’s Hotel Stay & Public Policy

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There’s an oft-repeated story about Thomas Jefferson’s visit to a Baltimore hotel when Jefferson was vice-president of the United States.  (I don’t know the date of story’s first written account, or where that account first appeared.)

Here’s the telling of Mr. Jefferson’s unsuccessful reservation, from a website on the vice-presidency:

In another classic anecdote, our nation’s second Vice President, Thomas Jefferson, was riding his horse through Baltimore and needed a place to rest for the night. Whip in hand and covered in dirt, he entered a hotel barroom and asked if there were any rooms available. Looking him over, the landlord replied, “We have no room for you, sir.” Jefferson asked once more and the landlord repeated that there was no room.

After Jefferson left, a wealthy gentleman entered the bar and informed the landlord that Thomas Jefferson had just left. “The Vice President of the United States?! Murder and death, what have I done?” cried the landlord. He quickly located a servant, ordering him to find the VP and offer him the best of everything the hotel could provide.

When the servant found Jefferson in another hotel across town, Jefferson replied, “Tell him I have engaged a room here. Tell him that I value his good intentions highly, but if he has no room for a dirty farmer, he shall have no room for the Vice President.”

Jefferson sees the initial refusal correctly, and responds wisely (and cleverly).

In this private transaction, Jefferson doesn’t deny that the hotelier has the right to refuse service to a farmer; Jefferson simply rejects the establishment’s class bias.  (The hotel didn’t ask if a supposed, ordinary farmer could pay, but instead rejected a prospective guest for reasons other than an ability to pay.)

Now consider a similar response from a public institution, one that rests on public funds, for limited and specific purposes, under public law.

What does it say if a public institution treats the farmer differently from the supposed town notable? 

More broadly, what does it say about a society where public services (not private ones) are offered only to those who complain, or are offerered only to a privileged few?

Should one feel contented that, either by undeserved status or by strenuous objection, one received those things that anyone in the community should have received at the first instance?

About that kind of disparate treatment, there is every reason to be concerned.

From that concern, there derives a compelling justification to work for better public institutions.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.27.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday will be mostly cloudy, with a high of thirty. Sunrise is 7:13 AM and sunset 5:01 PM, for 9h 48m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 53.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets today at 4:30 PM.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Early this morning, an asteroid about the size of an aircraft carrier passed close to Earth, at a distance of three-quarters of a million miles:

For more about asteroid 2004 BL86, see Best images! Asteroid 2004 BL86, as it swept near Earth @ EarthSky.

Google-a-Day asks a pop culture question:

The actor who played handyman George on “Facts of Life” earned a 2012 Oscar nomination. What state is the setting for the movie that earned this actor the nomination?

Press

Ten Sound Tenets

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The post below first appeared at Daily Adams. Although the Center from Public Integrity’s Bill Buzenberg has led a journalism non-profit, many of the principles he enumerates would apply as well in for-profit journalism, or other professions by adoption. It’s astonishing how far from these standards, for example, the local press in Whitewater truly is. (That’s the local press such as it is, and such as it pretends to be.)

Below, in the original post, Bill Buzenberg describes how it should be:

Original post:

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As Bill Buzenberg steps down as executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, he takes leave by offering ten tenets of his organization. A better statement of journalistic principles one is unlikely to find.

Best wishes to Mr. Buzenberg.

Here, in full, the precious gift he leaves his organization, and others by inspiration:

Ten tenets for the Center for Public Integrity

  1. We are first and foremost investigative journalists. Although we do research and we think hard about our work which can extend over many months, we are not primarily a research center or a think tank devoted to information gathering.
  2. Because public integrity is part of our name, we adhere to the highest journalistic standards of ethics, accuracy and excellence.  We principally pursue issues that have an important public integrity component. We seek to fight corruption with facts and transparency.
  3. We are editorially independent as a news organization and we stoutly resist interference of any kind, whether from funders, government, corporations or individuals. We welcome feedback and criticism from anyone, but we make our own editorial decisions about what projects to tackle and how our work is to proceed, operating with a firm firewall between editorial decision-making and financial considerations.
  4. We are a non-partisan, non-advocacy investigative organization. We seek to launch our investigative projects especially in areas where other news organizations are not looking. Although we don’t editorialize in our work, we do stand for a robust and accountable democracy.
  5. We believe investigative journalism represents the highest level of professionalism and the profession. Where other news organizations may simply pass on opinions or rumors gathered elsewhere, we know that is not investigative journalism and we will not do that. The Center for Public Integrity has tremendous credibility built on a record of 25 years of solid reporting, searching for data and documents, and then analyzing, sifting and weighing this information carefully before making it public.
  6. Content is king and we seek to be multi-platform in all of our work. Whatever platform we use, careful editing, and painstaking fact-checking are critical to our credibility and our success.
  7. We believe in the highest level of computer assisted reporting (CAR), but we also know that data alone is not sufficient for our reports. Our strongest work will consist of focused reporting AND computer generated data. Some of our reports will start with the data, or be built on data or documents, while others will start with old-fashioned shoe-leather news gathering and reporting, and data or documents will be added later.
  8. We seek multiple funding streams for our work from foundations, individuals, members, sales to other news organizations, and other appropriate earned revenue sources. We seek the widest possible dissemination for our work and where possible a return to cover the cost of production. No matter what the funding source, however, we will operate at all times in a manner consistent with these ten tenets and the firewall described above.
  9. We believe news is a public service, not a profit center. Public service is the very soul of the journalism profession. To us, news is not just a commodity or a business, it is also part citizen education, part moral enterprise. We seek to provide the kind of news people need to be informed citizens in a democracy.
  10. We believe that our long term credibility and respect are built on the value we create and the information we provide. Credibility and respect are worth more than short term popularity and glamour. We also know that the First Amendment comes with enormous responsibility to serve the public and that, not financial gain or even award recognition, is our reason for being.

See, Thank you and farewell @ PublicIntegrity.org.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.26.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ve the last week of the year’s first month before us: a day with up to an inch of snow probable, and a high of twenty-five. Sunrise is 7:14 AM and sunset 5 PM, for 9h 46m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 42.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s School Board meets tonight at 6 PM in closed session, opening thereafter at 7 PM into open session. A copy of the agenda as of this post is embedded below:

On this day in 1934, Samuel Goldwyn makes a shrewd purchase:

One of America’s best-loved movie projects gets underway on this day in 1934, when the producer Samuel Goldwyn buys the film rights to the children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Production of The Wizard of Oz was plagued with problems, from numerous script rewrites to casting and directorial changes. After the original director, Richard Thorpe, was fired, Victor Fleming stepped in to take over the director’s role from George Cukor, who left to helm David O. Selznick’s Civil War epic Gone With the Wind, a job which, ironically, Fleming would later replace him in. When Fleming left, King Vidor stepped in to replace him. Despite all these changes, Fleming received the main director’s credit for the movie. Another stumbling block occurred when Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man, got sick from a reaction to the aluminum makeup he was forced to wear; he was replaced by Jack Haley.

In the end, the 101-minute-long film had modest success at the box office and earned several Oscar nominations–including a Best Song win for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and a special award for Garland as Best Juvenile Performer. In 1956, an estimated 45 million people tuned in to watch the movie debut on television as part of the Ford Star Jubilee. Countless TV showings later, The Wizard of Oz is one of the most beloved and best-known films of all time.

On this day in 1925, fire ruins:

1925 – Fire Destroys Whitewater Hospital
On this date a fire destroyed the Whitewater Hospital. Monetary losses were estimated at $20,000, but no deaths were reported. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Google-a-Day asks a geography question:

The castle that sits on top of the volcanic mound, Beblowe Craig, was founded by what 16th century king?