No signal detected!

Am I crazy or yesterday did I catch a glimpse into why newspapers are struggling? The answer, I believe, is yes I am crazy (and I like it) and yes I caught a frightening insight into the thinking, or none thinking, that is dragging newspapers down.

The speaker at the SMarts London Social Media Un-Conference was the online editor at The London Free Press. He started his presentation with a giant blue square image with the message, "No signal detected." The chap just assumed that his notebook would talk to the projection set-up at the art gallery. The two systems wouldn't talk and the audience wasn't seeing his show.

I used to run seminars at the local university and I, like the editor, am not a technical wizard. It is cable-out-to-cable-in and if there is no resulting signal out, I'm snookered. For that reason, I always went to the lecture theatre before the event and conducted a complete run-through of the system. At the end, I wasn't all that much smarter technically but I knew I could run the equipment that I would be up against during the conference.

After failing to get his presentation to run on the large screen, our speaker went on to tell us that he wasn't "into technical stuff." All of us had gathered that already.

One young woman who recently lost her job asked how one makes money blogging as it was billed as a talk on blogging basics and social media etiquette. "I can't tell you how to make money from blogging," was the response from newspaper's online editor. (One quick, easy answer is this: if you are blogging on Blogspot, owned by Google, you can easily set-up an Adsense account, also run by Google, and this can result in some income. It sounds great but be warned that one should not quit their day job to blog. And you will not see a cheque until you have earned at least $100.)

Also, there are sites that will share the income with the posters. It is, after all, the posts that attract folks to the site. He could have finished his answer by warning her not to share with The London Free Press. The paper and its owner Sun Media insist that you grant "Sun Media and its affiliated companies, a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast and publish that Material for any purposes, on any material form and in perpetuity."

I know of Internet sites handling images that will not touch a picture once the photographer has entered into such an agreement. Sun Media not only does not pay you money for your work but agreeing to their terms will cut your chances of making money with your image in the future. Got a once-in-a-lifetime image and you want to get it into print, get a lawyer. But it had better be a truly important and totally unique image or you will not sell your picture and you will be out the legal fees.

If you were curious about the tools used in blogging, our speaker was as lucid on this as he had been on everything else. His answer was simple and to the point: "I don't know about the blogging tools."
So, how well is The London Free Press blogger doing? He has about 60,000 pageviews a year with from 40 to 60 comments a day. A hundred comments would be a "really good day." (I just checked the latest Google Analytics for this blog and this blog has 1.99 pageviews per visit with the average visit lasting just under four minutes.

Some have argued that the speaker is not truly a blogger because his platform is The London Free Press. I think, from his numbers, one can see that he is not taking advantage of his position with the paper. This blog, the one you are reading, recently tracked 152 hits. The other four associated Rockinon blogs also had their own separate hits, and of course Rockinon is on other sites as a participant. Using the last two weeks of October (my absolutely best two weeks), this blogger is running at annual rate of 174,000 pageviews a year.

One interesting thing about Brown's blog and his small but loyal group of followers is that most visit his site to "breakup the boredom at work." Because of this, he told us, Fridays are his slowest days. Apparently on Fridays his followers rush to finish all they put-off doing during the week.

So, what is his goal with his blogging: "There is no goal." And if you were wondering, his blogging "is not journalism."

As one person remarked after his talk, "You know what his presentation said to me? It said he doesn't like what he's doing. Am I right?"

I don't think so. I worked with this fellow and I really think he likes his job. It is just that, as he told us, "I'm out of ideas" by Friday. He gave his talk on Saturday. By Saturday, there's "no signal detected."
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If the above talk disappointed, the keynote speaker carried on with the theme - disappointment. The speaker was Brad Frenette, the online features editors for The National Post, and he brought along a show and tell video which The Post had uploaded to YouTube.

I looked at the woman sitting beside me and she looked back and we shook out heads. The video, posted a year ago, had had only 2,154 views. Sad.
The other videos from The National Post looked to have had 1302 hits and 3041 hits. Unbelievable. (If these videos are posted in more than one place under more than one name, the editor should have made this clear. As it is, it looks bad for The Post.

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But all is not lost at newspapers. Those who caught Steve Groves, director of Internet media at The London Free Press, were in for a treat. In fact, his opening was so dramatic — the man knows how to quickly grab a crowd's attention — that he got more applause right from the get-go than those other speakers received at their finishes.

Groves based the first part of his talk on the book groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li.

Groves said one result of the social media revolution is that today people are beginning to get information from other people rather than from organizations. And advertisers would be wise to understand that "people don't listen to marketers, they listen to the market." (I believe, I got that right but my writing hand was showing signs of fatigue by the time Groves hit the podium. Plus he was so interesting, one just wanted to listen.)

Groves gave the audience some insights into how the paper is taking advantage of social media tools such as Twitter. He talked very positively of reporter Kate Dubinski's use of Twitter to keep London Free Press followers up-to-date during the recent biker murder trial held in London.

He made it clear that the paper was not at all sloppy when it came to setting up their Twitter approach to covering the news. Almost everyone involved was consulted, including the presiding judge. The judge said O.K. And they learned from the experience and will include even more people in the loop the next time they pull the Twitter tool from the new media tool box.

When Groves was done, one young man was heard to exclaim, "Steve Groves rocks!" Actually, he said it with more enthusiasm and with stronger, more colourful, youthful language, but I have given it my best crack at an accurate translation. Other young people and older attendees were equally as positive if not as colourful with their praise.

Our online editor/journalist at the paper may have hung up his journalistic spikes when he started playing on the Net but I got the feeling that Steve Groves is just suiting up. With Groves on the Free Press news team, and a fine team it is, there may be hope yet for my hometown paper.

Another Take on Reusing Old Theatres

Recently London saved the exterior of two buildings in the downtown core. One was originally a theatre designed by the famous movie theatre architect Charles Howard Crane. The London developer razed the theatre auditorium and put in a parking lot.

I wondered what other communities have done with their old theatres as so many, if not most, have now been abandoned.

I found this: the Atrium Office Center in Lansing Michigan. It's in the former Strand Theatre. The interior was completely remodelled into first-class commercial office and retail space. It was done as part of the City of Lansing revitalization project.

The interior features a central atrium, a domed foyer with restored plaster detailing and decorative painting. New limestone detailed to match the original terracotta replaces damaged material. The grand central staircase was preserved and is now the focal point of the office centre.

Check out what was done in London. The frame-grab is from The London Free Press video.

Media Disinformation

I was sent this link by a regular reader. I'm posting it today as I think some of you might find it interesting.

Can Science Fight Media Disinformation, by Lawrence M. Krauss in Scientific American.

Cheers,
Rockinon

Theatre gone; Facade saved! Sad...

The facades of two, fine downtown buildings — the former Capitol Theatre and the former Bowles Lunch building — have been spared. Well, at least that of the Capitol. Well, at least part of it.

Whatever, The London Free Press sees this as a win-win event for the city and the developer involved. According to the paper ". . . these buildings were originally written off, considered too expensive to restore."

As I recall, the naysayers said the cost to restore the Capitol Theatre auditorium would have been prohibitive. Well, the auditorium was not saved. Perhaps the naysayers were more right than wrong and perhaps that is the reason these two buildings seen more demolition than restoration.

The Free Press congratulates the developer and the City of London for saving "a key part of our history" and doing it in a truly imaginative manner. And what was this imaginative manner? It was the demolition of the key part of the heritage theatre — the auditorium, the theatre itself. Paul Berton, editor-in-chief of the Free Press, admits ". . . the back end of the Capitol theatre is gone" and then quickly adds "at least the facade is safe."

Today the paper often refers to the Capitol Theatre as just the Capitol. The theatre part, the part with the 1400 seats at its opening in 1920, is now a parking lot.

The loss of the Capitol Theatre is a huge blow to London, and not just the downtown. Originally called the Allen Theatre, it was designed by the renown theatre architect C. Howard Crane. Crane was responsible for the design of some 250 theatres across North America. When you think of the Fox Theatre in Detroit, think of Crane. And the United Artist Theatres in Detroit or Los Angeles, take your pick, think of Crane again. (Architect Charles Howard Crane shown)

The Fox has been described as Hindu-Siamese-Byzantine or Far Eastern-Indian-Egyptian in design. The lavish theatre cost about $12 million to build in 1928. It underwent an $8.1 million restoration in 1988. Detroit can be proud. London? I'm not so sure.

In 1988 $8.1 million U.S. was about $10 million Canadian. Using the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator, I learned that $10 million in 1988 would be $15.9 million in today's dollars. So, Detroit restored the entire Fox Theatre for just four times what it cost London to sort of save just two facades. (The restored Fox Theatre in Detroit is shown.)

According to The London Free Press, "the Bowles Lunch used to have a terracotta front, but 80% of the 400 tiles were damaged. The decision was made to demolish the original facade and rebuild it in carved stone.

Some descriptions of the Capitol Theatre mention its terracotta front and how the Bowles Lunch was made to match its neighbour. It is more accurate to say the Bowles Lunch facade was replaced — not restored.

The screen-grab is from The London Free Press story claiming "two side-by-side downtown London historic gems that came close to a date with the wrecker's ball have returned to their former glory." Oh? Look at the screen-grab. This is not the Fox Theatre restoration.

Berton tells us we are beginning to realize the potential in heritage buildings . . . "because they are unique and interesting . . ." Berton seems to have forgotten we are talking about facades here. There is nothing unique or interesting about the commercial space being swept by the construction worker.

Berton tells us that Londoners owe a debt of gratitude to the developer for showing his faith in these two structures. Faith in these two structures or a concern for the facades? The developer himself wrote in a letter to the city that some of the interior detailing in the old theatre was donated to the Park Theatre and some to the Aeolian Hall for use in renovation projects. (For that generosity we owe the developer a thank you.) Unfortunately this was done in preparation of the theatre's demolition, clearing the way for a long-planned parking lot.

According to the city, the developer's company acquired the Bowles Lunch building in August 2006 for $250,000 and the Capitol Theatre in June of 2006 for $890,000. From the city records posted online one learns an inquiry was made by the developer "with respect to possible demolition of the Capitol Theatre building" in late 2005. This was before the theatre had even been purchased. The developer ripped down the theatre three months after he gained control of the property.

Berton tells us, "If London is to thrive, these are the kinds of projects that will lead us into the future." I don't think so. Berton may not think much of "gargantuan movie theatres" but the old ones once found in downtown London did have some cool features — like screens and seats.
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You will notice that the developer's name has not been used in this post. The developer is not a bad person; the developer is a developer. He runs a profitable business and not a charity. And make no mistake, the facades were worth saving with the finished appearance actually quite good.

Just an old silver star...

It's just an old silver star, one point is broken and it has a couple of nasty holes from pins used to attach it to the top of the Christmas tree in years past.

It was a Christmas gift to me from a woman who worked at the Bartlet, MacDonald and Gow Department Store in Windsor, Ontario. I was only months old when she gave it to me and it would be years before I appreciated it.

But when I was old enough to notice the handmade silver star, I was quite taken with it. It was so well made. Very nicely crafted with no top, no bottom, and finished on both sides, it had no front or back.

Holding it in my hands was like holding the answer to a riddle: What is silver, has no front and no back but five tops? The Christmas star. When you're four it's an entertaining riddle.

Today Bartlet, MacDonald and Gow is gone. I believe one owner took his own life. My mother related the incident with far more detail but I was young and really didn't want to listen. The details are gone.

I no longer know the name of the woman who made the star and gave it to the little child of a man with whom she worked. Bartlet, MacDonald and Gow closed and the staff dispersed.

My mother, of course, would recall the lady's name if my mother were alive, but she isn't. My father passed on decades ago.

But, the life of the little star goes on. It sits at the top of my Christmas tree, an elastic band holding it tightly to an angel bought by my wife. It doesn't mind sharing the glory. In fact, it lets the angel take centre stage while it plays back-up.

Someday I'll fade away like the Bartlet, MacDonald and Gow owner but I hope without the dramatic flourish; I'll fade away more in the manner of my father, of my mother, and of the lady who made the little silver star.

But I'm going to show Fiona the little star. I'm going to show her how it spins and how it reflects the Christmas tree lights that now adorn our tree; Our tree because it is not just mine but it is also Fiona's and the family's.

Maybe the little star will create memories for Fiona, maybe she will breathe new life into Christmas memories so familiar to me and maybe, just maybe, my little Christmas star will sparkle brightly for years to come, and refuse to fade away.

Drugs demand respect: Including Tylenol

Sun Media's Mindelle Jacobs recently ended a column on the dangers of OxyContin saying, "A drug like OxyContin is markedly different than a drug like Tylenol 3." She also said in reference to OxyContin, ". . . people are unfortunately naive about the potential risks of such drugs." She could have as easily been referring to Tylenol 3.

Yesterday McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a Johnson & Johnson company, announced it is lowering recommended maximum daily dose for Extra Strength Tylenol to reduce the risk of acetaminophen overdose. Other Tylenol products, such as Tylenol 3, will follow in 2012 with lowered recommended maximum daily doses.

Why the fuss? It has been reported that acetaminophen causes three times as many cases of acute liver failure (ALF) as all other drugs combined. It is the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States, accounting for 39% of cases.

Most Tylenol overdosing cases are unintentional. People take multiple medications not realizing how many contain acetaminophen. (The active ingredient in Tylenol.) This accidental overdosing results in approximately 150 deaths annually in the U.S.

Here's a detailed list of some of the most commonly used drugs containing acetaminophen. Mix these drugs at your peril.

Actifed: Cold & Allergy, Sinus

Alka-Seltzer Plus: All Products

Anacin: Aspirin Free Formula

Benadryl: Allergy Sinus Headache; Severe Allergy & Sinus Headache

Comtrex: All Products

Contac: Severe Cold and Flu Maximum Strength Caplets, Non-Drowsy Caplets, Day & Night Cold & Flu

Coricidin: D Cold, Flu & Sinus Tablets, HBP Cold & Flu Tablets

Dimetapp: Non-Drowsy Flu Syrup

Dristan: Cold Multi-Symptom Formula

Drixoral: Allergy Sinus, Cold & Flu Excedrin®: All Products

Feverall: Suppositories

Goody’s Powders: All Products

Midol: Maximum Strength Menstrual Formula, Maximum Strength PMS Formula

NyQuil/DayQuil: Cold/Flu Relief Liquid and LiquiCaps

Pamprin: All Products

Percogesic: All Products

Robitussin: Cold, Multi-Symptom Cold & Flu, Multi-Symptom Honey Flu Liquid, Nighttime Honey Flu Liquid

Singlet: Tablets

Sinutab Sinus: Sinus Allergy Medication Maximum Strength Formula

Sudafed: Cold & Cough Liquid Caps, Cold & Sinus Liquid Caps, Severe Cold Caplets and Tablets, Sinus Caplets and Tablets

Tavist: Sinus Non-Drowsy Coated Caplets

TheraFlu: All Regular and Maximum Strength Caplets and Hot Liquid

Triaminic: Cold, Cough & Fever Liquid, Cough & Sore Throat Liquid, Cough & Sore Throat Softchews

Tylenol: Allergy Sinus Formula, Severe Allergy; Arthritis Pain Extended Relief; Cold Formula, Cold & Flu; Extra Strength Pain Reliever; Flu Formula; Maximum Strength Sore Throat Adult Liquid; PM Pain Reliever/Sleep Aid; Regular Strength; Sinus; Women’s Tylenol

Vanquish: Caplets

Vicks: Vicks 44M Cough, Cold & Flu Relief Liquid and Liquicap

Acetaminophen is the most commonly implicated drug in cases of acute liver failure (ALF), predominantly due to its widespread availability.

This may all come as a surprise but acetaminophen is not the only painkiller with serious side effects. According to the Canadian Medical Society Journal, sixteen thousand deaths a year in the United States and 1900 a year in Canada may be caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inducing gastric perforations, obstructions and bleeds.

Dr. Ike Iheanacho, editor of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, says: "The latest evidence shows . . . for every 3,300 people you treated for a year (with daily aspirin), you’d get one extra incident of gastrointestinal bleeding, which can be fatal."

According to Johns Hopkins: ". . . a narcotic pain reliever such as morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, or fentanyl . . . does not pose the health risks you face with NSAIDS (aspirin, Celebrex, ibuprofen) . . . studies show that (narcotic) abuse is rare among patients with chronic pain, and with newer, long-acting opioids that release controlled amounts of medication . . ."

Why are people not more knowledgeable? One reason may be that reporters are not all that knowledgeable. When it comes to drugs, reporters seem to deal more in fear than fact.

Increases in deaths from opioid drugs such as OxyContin may be linked to the volume of coverage such deaths receive in the news. According to a study from Children's Hospital Boston and the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill.

The study, "Breaking the News or Fueling the Epidemic? Temporal association between news media report volume and opioid-related mortality," found that spikes in media coverage often preceded an increase in deaths, suggesting that media coverage — even when negative — may have influenced opioid abuse.

This is the first time research has assessed the relationship between opioid abuse and the national news, according to senior investigator John Brownstein, Ph.D., of the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP) and Children's Division of Emergency Medicine. Although anecdotal information about a link between news reports and drug use date back to the 1950s, when amphetamine abuse was a common news topic.

The authors suggest that stories about drugs follow guidelines similar to what psychiatrists and professional journalism organizations recommend for stories about suicides; under those guidelines, specific details are withheld so as not to inspire copycat suicides.

"Specifics on how one might get high and how it feels are probably things that should be mentioned with caution or even left out of the news," Brownstein adds. "This is setting the stage for research around responsibility in the news."

A London Free Press / Sun Media Special Report informed readers what medications "contains higher levels of oxycodone" and went on to tell readers what they can do to bypass the time release mechanism built into the pills to force the immediate release of oxycodone.

What the paper didn't tell its readers was:

"What makes these (deaths from opiods) even more tragic is that overdoses involving opioids (drugs like heroin, morphine, Oxycontin, Vicodin) are usually slow killers. Victims can be revived without lasting effects if the antidote — a drug called naloxone (brand: Narcan) — is given early enough."

—  source: Maia Szalavitz writing in the Huffington Post:

When I worked at a newspaper, I used to argue the dangers of "shotgun drugstore remedies" should be addressed in the paper. I got nowhere. Today I feel slightly vindicated.

Is Green Public Transit a Myth?

I wrote the following post defending my Morgan ownership some months ago. Today the National Post had a story on rethinking green transportation and what the Post essentially called the clean public transit myth.

This could not be right I thought, and I googled the facts in their story; So far I have found that there is a lot of support for their attack on public transit.

I also discovered that their reporter, Kevin Libin, may not have developed the story on his own. I found lots of sources confirming Libin's position, but these sources are old and one would think Libin should have been aware of them. This may be a case of the MSM ripping off the blogging community.

Here is a post from the blog Brad Ideas and here is a link to the National Post article. What do you think? (I have already received comments and some excellent criticisms.)

My original defence of my Morgan.

It’s not cool to defend cars. They are nothing but polluting, carbon-belching, resource-consuming pigs. For getting to the store, you’re better off walking – it’s better for your health and the health of the world – or so we are told. For getting to Toronto, rapid transit is the answer and not the car.

I found all the above very easy to write as I kinda believe it. The other day I walked home from Westmount Mall swinging my purchase at my side. I like walking but, and it is a big but, I also like driving.

There, I’ve said it. I like driving, and not just any old car – nope – one particular old car. My soon to be 41-year-old Morgan roadster. She’s a feisty one, so I wouldn’t call her an ‘old girl’ and I certainly would never call her a pig. Never. If she overheard such remarks, she might get her proper English knickers all in a knot.

But she is a cheap date. She is easy on the pocket and relatively easy on the planet. Think about it. For more than four decades this car, this hunk of steel on wheels, has been taking me from A to B and delivering great pleasure while doing so.

She is willing to go almost anywhere if asked. She spent a Christmas in Kapuskasing braving winter in the Arctic watershed. She took my wife and me to San Francisco in 2005. She took my mother grocery shopping in the '60s and she takes me shopping in St. Jacobs today. There is one place she won’t go, and I won’t take her, and that’s the auto wrecker’s.

I confess, I have sent quite a number of cars to wrecker’s. I even drove one right to the devil’s door and got nothing more in return than spare change. But, these were not Morgans.

Morgans are special and in ways that may not be immediately evident. Please bear with me as I explain. Morgans are simply made. A steel, ladder frame onto which a strong, wooden frame is mounted. The steel body sections are attached to the wooden frame. They are hand-built.

I know what you’re thinking: “Wood? This car has a wooden frame?” To which I reply, “Yes, and much of the wood in my car is original.” Wood is a fine building material and has been in use in canoes, planes and homes for years. When it does deteriorate, it is easily replaced.

The steel in my car is solid and tough and long lasting – as it is in most cars. Eventually, steel rusts. But steel, if you are skilled, can be repaired – fully restored to original condition. My car has been restored. The rusty, diseased metal was removed and new, fresh metal welded into place.

My power steering has never required repair but then my power steering is an oversized Brooklands Bluemel steering wheel. The large diameter wheel uses the power of leverage – mechanical advantage – and leverage carries a lifetime guarantee. The steering wheel itself is another matter. After 41 years it needs some attention.

I like to say that if you added up all the stuff my car doesn’t have, you’d almost have another car. Power windows, no. It doesn’t even have window cranks. Why? I have side curtains.

Power brakes, no. With a car that doesn’t weigh a ton or a tonne, take your pick, my disk and drum combination works just fine. Power door locks, no, and when used in the winter the exterior door handles never freeze. Why not? You guessed it; I don’t have them.

This summer the Morgan Motor Company is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Yes, they are still making Morgans and they are available in many parts of the world. A tangle of bureaucratic rules keeps them from being imported into Canada and has kept new ones from entering the country for decades.

Being a centenarian doesn’t mean the Morgan folk are not forward looking. They have a fine web site. And they have a new, experimental hydrogen model. Zero emissions model. Cars in the future will pollute even less than my little four-cylinder gas sipper.

Tomorrow’s cars will be close to 100% recyclable. BMW has already publicly stated this as one of their goals. According to an article in the Independent: “Once proper disposal of vehicles becomes legally enforced, financial advantages will be drawn by owners of cars whose producers have invested most in maximising the number of re- useable parts, and in designing cars that are easy to take apart.” BMW plans to be competitive.

In the future, if BMW is correct, cars will encourage the repair and reuse of parts just like my old Morgan does today. Such reuse and repair will create employment for skilled, knowledgeable people. Good folk will get good jobs. The fellows that keep my Morgan on the road are like family to me.

I have logged more than a hundred thousand miles in my Morgan. Being small hasn’t stopped it from being useful. Think Smart Car. It may not be able to carry a family of six but that was never its intention. (I saw my first Smart Car in Nice in the south of France and immediately went looking for a car rental shop. My wife and I needed a car for a day and the Smart Car looked perfect.)

We may have paved over a lot of the earth but please don’t try to foist the blame onto my little Morgan. She hates the large freeways. She’s happiest on narrow, older roads. She delights in finding a way from here to there that is slow but fun. If you are in a hurry to get somewhere, you might be better off taking the train.

That’s right; owning a Morgan actually encourages the use of rapid transit. But it also encourages runs to Shaw’s dairy bar south of St. Thomas for a chocolate malted milk shake or a Sunday morning visit to Telegraph House in Port Stanley for a lovely brunch on the patio.

Oh, one last thing, my Morgan doesn’t do drive throughs.
Cars, small efficient cars like these Morgans have a role to play when taking a green approach to life.