Today in the Washington Post's Squirrel Week coverage is a fascinating article on Tommy Tucker, DC's most famous squirrel. Tommy was rescued as an orphaned infant by a couple and became a national celebrity (and famous cross-dresser) during the World War II era.
Tomorrow at 11am eastern time, John Kelly will be hosting an online question and answer session session with squirrel vocalization expert Robert Lishak. You can submit your questions about squirrel talk on the Post's web site.
Showing posts with label media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
It's Squirrel Week!
In addition to being Easter, there is an extra reason to celebrate today: the beginning of Squirrel Week.
The Washington Post columnist John Kelly created the observance last year after an article he wrote on squirrels received an unusually large number of responses. This year, today through April 14, Squirrel Week will feature daily columns on squirrels, reader-submitted squirrel photos, and a gallery featuring the reasons why people love (or hate) the bushy-tailed rodents.
The first column of the week is about white squirrels, and features the squirrels of Olney, IL and Brevard, NC, the latter of which I have written about in this blog.
Cheers to John Kelly and the Washington Post for devoting a well-deserved special week to the squirrels! Squirrel Nation will be following closely this week.
The Washington Post columnist John Kelly created the observance last year after an article he wrote on squirrels received an unusually large number of responses. This year, today through April 14, Squirrel Week will feature daily columns on squirrels, reader-submitted squirrel photos, and a gallery featuring the reasons why people love (or hate) the bushy-tailed rodents.
The first column of the week is about white squirrels, and features the squirrels of Olney, IL and Brevard, NC, the latter of which I have written about in this blog.
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| One of the famous white squirrels of Brevard, NC |
Cheers to John Kelly and the Washington Post for devoting a well-deserved special week to the squirrels! Squirrel Nation will be following closely this week.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Occupy Wall Street
This is the Declaration of the Occupation of New York.
It is the statement of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement that started on September 17 in New York City, and is spreading across the country. It is an awesome popular uprising against the corporate greed and influence that is destroying our country. I am hopeful that a similar movement is developing in Charlotte as it has in many other cities following New York's example.
It is not surprising that the corporate "news" media is not giving this growing movement the coverage it deserves. I browsed three online news sources earlier this afternoon: CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and the British site BBC.com. Guess which one gave the most prominent place on its site to the Occupy Wall Street protests. Yep, it was BBC.
And even the "liberal" New York Times web site is showing its bias against this movement. Yesterday, when over 700 protesters were arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge, NYTimes.com made a sudden and startling change in its lead sentence (see screenshot image below), shifting the blame for the arrests from the police to the protesters. For the record, there were many witnesses who reported that the police had led the protesters deliberately onto the bridge roadway and were planning ahead to carry out mass arrests.
It is the statement of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement that started on September 17 in New York City, and is spreading across the country. It is an awesome popular uprising against the corporate greed and influence that is destroying our country. I am hopeful that a similar movement is developing in Charlotte as it has in many other cities following New York's example.
It is not surprising that the corporate "news" media is not giving this growing movement the coverage it deserves. I browsed three online news sources earlier this afternoon: CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and the British site BBC.com. Guess which one gave the most prominent place on its site to the Occupy Wall Street protests. Yep, it was BBC.
And even the "liberal" New York Times web site is showing its bias against this movement. Yesterday, when over 700 protesters were arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge, NYTimes.com made a sudden and startling change in its lead sentence (see screenshot image below), shifting the blame for the arrests from the police to the protesters. For the record, there were many witnesses who reported that the police had led the protesters deliberately onto the bridge roadway and were planning ahead to carry out mass arrests.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Didn't we settle this already?
I was at the grocery store this afternoon and saw this staring at me in the checkout line...
I know that the first impulse for many people is to ridicule anyone who is ignorant enough to purchase and believe this kind of story. To me, the people who are truly worthy of our ridicule and our contempt is those who publish these magazines, who encourage and capitalize on the ignorance of these readers, rather than using their platform as publishers and writers to educate and enlighten the public. There are plenty of real scandals going on in government and business that are much more shocking and important than the phony allegations of a handful of right-wing conspiracy theorists.
I consider myself reasonably well-educated and informed, but I realize that there are people out there who, sad to say, will see this and actually believe that this is a real news story. And while I am as much an advocate of the free press as anyone, and more so than many people, I have to wonder if there shouldn't be some means of prosecuting the publishers and writers who print crap like this that is based on deliberate and blatant lies, that takes advantage of the ignorance of a population that has been cynically misled and used by corporate elites like the Koch brothers, to push their right-wing agenda under the guise of the allegedly "populist" tea party movement.
I know that the first impulse for many people is to ridicule anyone who is ignorant enough to purchase and believe this kind of story. To me, the people who are truly worthy of our ridicule and our contempt is those who publish these magazines, who encourage and capitalize on the ignorance of these readers, rather than using their platform as publishers and writers to educate and enlighten the public. There are plenty of real scandals going on in government and business that are much more shocking and important than the phony allegations of a handful of right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
So this is what you get for following instructions and doing your job?
I had a feeling that it would come to this. Juror number twelve has left Florida and is in hiding, with more likely to follow her, especially if their names are made public. This is what happens when the media selectively hypes up whichever case that is deemed most lurid and fans the flames of public outrage with wall-to-wall coverage of every grisly detail.
Nancy Grace, a former attorney who should understand the judicial system, nevertheless declared this woman guilty before her trial even began. If any of the jurors, or Ms. Anthony herself, is gunned down by some self-appointed vigilante, I believe Nancy Grace and the producers of the trial coverage at CNN Headline News will share responsibility for helping create the atmosphere of hysteria that surrounds this case.
I also believe that if Ms. Grace feels any sense of public responsibility, she should go on TV now and ask her fans not to commit any acts of violence or harassment against anyone related to this trial. It would only be the decent thing to do.
--Dan
Nancy Grace, a former attorney who should understand the judicial system, nevertheless declared this woman guilty before her trial even began. If any of the jurors, or Ms. Anthony herself, is gunned down by some self-appointed vigilante, I believe Nancy Grace and the producers of the trial coverage at CNN Headline News will share responsibility for helping create the atmosphere of hysteria that surrounds this case.
I also believe that if Ms. Grace feels any sense of public responsibility, she should go on TV now and ask her fans not to commit any acts of violence or harassment against anyone related to this trial. It would only be the decent thing to do.
--Dan
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