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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread

Monday Evening Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  April 4, 20115:50 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment

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Via Jim Romenesko at Poynter, “former NPR chief executive and ex-head of NYTimes.com Vivian Schiller“, self-described “free content absolutist… anti-paywall zealot“, has decided “the conditions are finally right to give newspaper paywalls a fair shake“. Those conditions? As I understand from her linked speech to the 12th International Symposium on Online Journalism, people are lazy (apps & tablets), advertisers are stupid (and can’t figure out where else to throw their money), and Twitter has created a vast volunteer army of “news-gatherers” for the professionals to steal leads from. But, hey, let’s not be needlessly cynical — lazy, stupid and naive have always been key factors in business-building models!

So… what are the key modelling points for future development in your area this evening?

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Previous Post: « An apple wrapped in an enigma inside a basket
Next Post: Good Points About the Koran Burnings »

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    April 4, 2011 at 5:55 pm

    .
    .
    It is a privilege to be thrown under the bus by President Obama.

    Discuss.
    .
    .

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    April 4, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    Perhaps the only good story I’ve seen emerge from the Japanese tsunami. Special puppeh content for BJ readers.

    http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/04_23.html

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    April 4, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    If anybody would like to give me $40 million, I’ll build you a paywall at least as good as that of the NYT.

    Heck, I’ll do it for $30 million.

  4. 4.

    kindness

    April 4, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    You’ve probably all seen it but I’m a softie for good animal endings. You know that dog who was rescued from the floating roof of a house out at sea for three weeks? Here’s video of the owner claiming the pup:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG8wZjKEnNQ

    I cried a little.

  5. 5.

    Suffern ACE

    April 4, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    Despite the fact that the cloud will change everything, I’m still forced to boil water for pasta this evening. I hear that in the cloud, water boils at 188 degress, so the future looks bright. Less pot watching, at least.

  6. 6.

    MikeJ

    April 4, 2011 at 6:17 pm

    @Suffern ACE: If the cloud is at 13,000 ft, yes water will boil at 188°F.

  7. 7.

    jl

    April 4, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    The key modelling points in my area (aging human) are to look into work overseas or other binational living arrangement. Not as some kind of goofy protest, but as a prudent option for my future welfare.

    Look at this nonsense:

    Truly Pathetic
    Why on earth did the Democrat speaking for the Democrats just now on Hardball say it was “courageous” but “politically stupid” for Paul Ryan to put up a plan to abolish Medicare and other federal social programs?

    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/04/truly_pathetic_1.php?ref=fpblg

    Edit: I liked the last line of the TPM post, since I have thought the same myself.

    “Sometimes things are politically risky because they’re profoundly bad ideas.”

  8. 8.

    kdaug

    April 4, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    what are the key modelling points for future development in your area

    My irresistible sex appeal?

    Sorry, I got nothin’. (And don’t imagine the wife would much go along with that idea).

  9. 9.

    kdaug

    April 4, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    @Suffern ACE: Know the thing about clouds? They’re easy to fall through.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    April 4, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    I’m working on my multi-media Cat Empire.

    And in other news, Tristan learned to ring our temple bells (hanging on our apartment door) to get back in after playing on the staircase and hoping to greet people.

    Remember the little morsel we rescued?

    Here’s what he looks like now.

  11. 11.

    Cris

    April 4, 2011 at 6:32 pm

    I suspect I won’t be watching basketball. Much as I still enjoy college hoops, I find the Final Four to be an anticlimax. Nothing against the quality of the play, it’s just that the first two weeks — and the first week especially — get you so used to quantity.

  12. 12.

    MikeJ

    April 4, 2011 at 6:33 pm

    Bishops Agree Sex Abuse Rules!

    At least they’re being honest about what they think now.

  13. 13.

    Cris

    April 4, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    It’s clouds’ illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all.

  14. 14.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 4, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    @MikeJ:

    At least they’re being honest about what they think now.

    They need to sweep it under the rug and move on. This bed cannot be unshat.

  15. 15.

    Mike M

    April 4, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    Stung by John Cole’s recent criticism, the UN and France went on the offensive today in the Ivory Coast, attacking forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo. Sec. Clinton called once again for Gbagho to leave immediately.

    Meanwhile, the US has abandoned long-time ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, and called on him to quit … and soon.

    Despite all the rampant cynicism, I see come consistency in US foreign policy.

  16. 16.

    cathyx

    April 4, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    @MikeJ: Is that

    Bishops agree that sex abuse rules or
    Bishops agree on sex abuse rules

  17. 17.

    kdaug

    April 4, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    @Cris:
    Quick, send in the clouds.
    Don’t bother, they’re here.

  18. 18.

    MikeJ

    April 4, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    @cathyx: I read it as Bishops agree: Sex abuse rules!

  19. 19.

    cathyx

    April 4, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    @MikeJ: I read the article to mean they agree to a standardization of rules with regard to sex abuse.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    April 4, 2011 at 6:49 pm

    Monday Evening Open Thread If this is really an open thread I’m going to rant. Once again the republicans have come up with a plan to do away with health care and force people into emergency rooms or die on their own. We already know that emergency room care is the most expensive of all so someone will pay but maybe they are hoping that people will just die. Where is the uproar?
    Where is the coverage on this?

  21. 21.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 4, 2011 at 6:49 pm

    @MikeJ:

    1. Is the boy hot?
    2. Did you try a sexy pose?
    3. Pouty makeup?
    4. Alcohol?
    5. Alcohol for you?
    6. ..

  22. 22.

    Studly Pantload, Vibrant Trollbot for Obama

    April 4, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    @Cris:

    Holy hooters, I haven’t heard that song since the ’70s – probably haven’t even thought of that song since the ’70s – but as soon as I saw those lyrics, that tune came right back to me like I’d heard it just last week.

  23. 23.

    Roger Moore

    April 4, 2011 at 6:54 pm

    what are the key modelling points for future development in your area this evening?

    Continued availability of NIH grant funding, for the most part. If my wealthy uncle Sam can keep ponying up cash, we can keep working.

  24. 24.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    April 4, 2011 at 6:57 pm

    Key modeling point for me was calibration of the vernal equinox insolation on cranial epidermis undergoing androgenic alopecia.

    I drove home from work with the top down. Woo hoo!!

  25. 25.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    April 4, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    @MikeJ:

    You never did the Kenosha Kid.
    You never did the Kenosha, kid.
    You! Never did the Kenosha Kid…
    You? Never! Did the Kenosha Kid?

    etc etc

  26. 26.

    MikeJ

    April 4, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    @cathyx: Sure, if you’re gonna read the article instead of just making fun of the headline of course you can make it something less stupid.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    April 4, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
    Sorry to hear about the hair, dude.

  28. 28.

    Studly Pantload, Vibrant Trollbot for Obama

    April 4, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    @JPL:

    I agree. Of course, it’ll be DOA if it gets to the Senate, so it’s not like this is going anywhere. But, yes, Americans need to hear about this rather stark portrayal of what the future looks like in a Republican “utopia.”

  29. 29.

    goblue72

    April 4, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    Our local city council equivalent is poised to give a tax break to Twitter over tweeted threats to move their HQ out of town for the ‘burbs. Needless to say, as soon as they caved, the folks that brought you the social media annoyance known as Farmville threatened to then move their farm/mafia wars/zombies for the ‘burbs as well if they didn’t get a tax break.

  30. 30.

    Dee Loralei

    April 4, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: got a sunburn on your male pattern baldness? Or just had the sun beating down on your head? Man, I wish I still had a convertible.

    @Studly Pantload, Vibrant Trollbot for Obama: I still love that song and am humming it now.

  31. 31.

    cathyx

    April 4, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    @MikeJ: That one should go on that post John Cole did about misleading headlines a while back.

  32. 32.

    j low

    April 4, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    @Cris: My unhip parents let me think that was a Judy Collins song. The Joni Mitchell original is far superior.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    April 4, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    @Studly Pantload, Vibrant Trollbot for Obama: Just the idea depressed me. My rep is Tom Price and I wrote him asking him if he would be willing to introduce a law preventing emergency rooms from taking the indigent because we know that adds to the cost of medical care.. no answer.. The problem with the republican plan is they force more into emergency rooms and that does not lower costs. It raises them.
    BTW..Obviously I don’t want people turned away from emergency rooms but I don’t think republicans can have it both ways. They need to respond.

  34. 34.

    Failure, Inc.

    April 4, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    So… what are the key modelling points for future development in your area this evening?

    Praying that both former and current employees don’t rob me blind. The courts are disinclined to help unless you’re big; so prayer is all I have left.

    Damn shame I’m an atheist.

  35. 35.

    Warren Terra

    April 4, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    I don’t think it’s made the front page here at Balloon Juice, but the Congressional Republicans united last week or so to endorse a Balanced Budget Amendment. Unsuprisingly from this bunch of clowns, charlatans, and willfully ignorant morons, it’s a plan that that Ezra Klein, who’s been doing yeoman work on this (legislation, with numbers, is right up his alley), has been calling “The Worst Idea In The World”. His most recent post on this includes a blockquote from Bob Greenstein that is just mind-boggling:

    The amendment would bar total federal spending from exceeding about 16.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product . It says spending in any fiscal year may not exceed 18 percent of the GDP of the previous calendar year (i.e., the calendar year that ended before the fiscal year began). Using CBO’s economic assumptions, in the first five years that the amendment would be in effect, the amount of spending allowed would average 16.7 percent of the current year’s GDP.
    __
    The last year that federal spending was 16.7 percent of GDP or lower was 1956 . In that year, Medicare and Medicaid did not exist and millions of workers (including many low-income and minority workers) were excluded from Social Security. Federal aid to education barely existed. Most federal environmental protection did not exist. Nor, for that matter, did most basic programs to ease poverty and hardship such as Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled poor, food stamps, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. More than a third of elderly Americans lived in poverty, infant mortality was far above today’s levels, and rates of child malnutrition in some areas of the country approached those of Third World nations.

    For comparison, Paul Ryan’s “Road Map” included a plan to cut taxes and arbitrarily declare that tax revenue – which at the time that he proposed his “road map” during the worst depths of the recession had sunk to something like 17% of GDP – would magically hit 19% of GDP.

  36. 36.

    Roger Moore

    April 4, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    @JPL:
    Of course when they do respond, you can count on their response to be a lie. I’m sure that they’re trying to figure out some kind of explanation for how forcing more people into the least cost effective care will save money. It won’t stand up to more than momentary scrutiny, but that’s all they need to convince their willing dupes.

  37. 37.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 4, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    @Warren Terra:

    I don’t think it’s made the front page here at Balloon Juice, but the Congressional Republicans united last week or so to endorse a Balanced Budget Amendment. Unsuprisingly from this bunch of clowns, charlatans, and willfully ignorant morons, it’s a plan that that Ezra Klein, who’s been doing yeoman work on this (legislation, with numbers, is right up his alley), has been calling “The Worst Idea In The World”.

    Do you have a better idea to prevent Republicans from blowing 6 trillion borrowed dollars on absolutely nothing again the next time they regain power?

  38. 38.

    darkmatter

    April 4, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Continuing to watch The Mel Brooks Collection on Blu-Ray. Up to High Anxiety and Harvey Korman steal the show in every scene he’s in.

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    April 4, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Do you have a better idea to prevent Republicans from blowing 6 trillion borrowed dollars on absolutely nothing again the next time they regain power?

    Yes: don’t let them regain power. I’m not sure how to implement that idea, but it’s at least as sensible as what the Republicans are suggesting.

  40. 40.

    JPL

    April 4, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    @Roger Moore: I won’t hear back unfortunately. Everyone who lives in a district with a whacko needs to write their congressman asking why they support the Reagan bill when it would be cheaper to open a clinic. It might not make a difference but at least you can point out that those who pay their health insurance are paying more because of their right wing ignorance.

  41. 41.

    WereBear

    April 4, 2011 at 7:38 pm

    @Warren Terra: This is not a sustainable economic plan; the lost productivity that would swirl down the rathole of sickness and death would doom us.

    They just want to sell off the country and leave. No other explanation.

  42. 42.

    El Cid

    April 4, 2011 at 7:43 pm

    What if James O’Keefe goes undercover and records her saying something off-color in a discussion about paywalls?

  43. 43.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    April 4, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    @Roger Moore: Me too. Started losing it at 19. Do you know how hard it is to be a hippie when you’ve got enough forehead for four heads?

    (Thank you Morey Amsterdam for that line!)

    @Dee Loralei: Not enough sun for a burn today. Later in the year I’m gonna need a hat.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    April 4, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
    Get one of the Tilly hats. They’re expensive, but good enough to be worth it.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    April 5, 2011 at 1:33 am

    @jl:

    It would have been nice for Marshall to name the “Democrat speaking for Democrats” who was on “Hardball” tonight. I can’t even evaluate what Marshall said without that basic fact, and yet he never named the person who said it.

    What’s up with that?

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