The 'Ask Jeeves' search engine has ditched its cartoon butler and redesigned itself as ask.com. Gary Price, Editor of resourceshelf.com and Director of Online Information Resources at ask.com, offers this look at the butler's departure ... and at plenty of other features and services now available at ask.com ... "Something tells me fans of Jeeves and company won't lose a lot of sleep over the the day's news," one blogger observed, and he may be right.
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With thanks to Overlook Press at Elephant Walk for the heads-up ...
If nothing else, the Financial Times' Trevor Butterworth finds some out-of-the-ordinary - even titillating - metaphors to present his view of the practice of blogging, its advocates and its critics, its strengths and its weaknesses, its impact and its future ...
For example ... "Which brings us to the spectre haunting the blogosphere - tedium. If the pornography of opinion doesn't leave you longing for an eroticism of fact, the vast wasteland of verbiage produced by the relentless nature of blogging is the single greatest impediment to its seriousness as a medium."
Go, refill your coffee cup, settle down, and CLICK HERE for Butterworth's entire essay. Later, I'd like to know what you think of some of the points he makes.
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With thanks to James Marcus at House of Mirth for the heads-up ...
Just this past weekend, the music at church included "Onward, Christian Soldiers," with vocals by the choir and the congregation, and music by First Prez' bluegrass group, "The Backsliders."
You might ask,"so, what's the big deal?" Well, actually, it WAS a big deal, at least for us.
You see, we're Presbyterian Church-USA ... and, that fine old song is no longer in our hymnal ...
Needless to say, the decision to delete "OCS" has not been a popular one outside the church ... www.biblebelievers.net, for example, lists our church under the category, Apostasy.
But, you know, it's not a universally-popular decision inside the church, either. I know I don't like it, and I was more than happy to stand up and make a joyful noise ... well ... at least, a noise, unto the Lord, singing "OCS." And I wasn't the only one in the sanctuary that did so, joyfully.In my case - and I do not presume to speak for others, here - I've always thought that salvation comes with more than just an assurance of grace, it also comes with marching orders, of sorts ... and there are times when we must be Christian soldiers, recognizing the need, the obligation to act on what we believe, to practice what we preach ...Ironically, following that service, during a Sunday School discussion of the 'enthronement' Psalms, we discussed the sometimes-militant imagery that occurs, time and time again, in the Word of God ...Is it possible that some of us have allowed the more militant aspects of God to be shorn? There's more to being a Shepherd of the Flock, than just cuddling cute little lambs, for example ... one film buff in our class recalled a movie where a pastor, after allowing his congregation to hear a plea for recruits in the local militia, himself takes a gun and saddles his horse, saying, "a shepherd must tend his flock and, at times, fight off the wolves ..."Granted, that was a bit of Hollywood fluff ... yet, in the real world, people of faith took up arms in defense of certain inalienable rights that could not be usurped by a crown ... and those people of faith included Presbyterians ... including, at least, twelve of those who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.Onward, Christian soldiers ...
When one tunes in the news, and that news turns its attention to the Iraq War, the lion's share of space and time seems to go to the more extreme elements on either side of the issue ... if it's not the swaggering bluster by the war's proponents, it's the shrill denunciations by it's detractors ...
In the midst of all that sound and fury, is there a place for a 14-year-old girl, a weblog, and lots and LOTS of cats? ...
Maybe there is ... just ask Raghda Zaid, the Baghdad Girl ...It's not an in-depth analysis of the problems in Iraq ... nor does it offer solutions ... it is, when all is said and done, a 14-year-old girl, a weblog, and lots and LOTS of cats ...But maybe ... just maybe ... it's also a hint of the sense of normalcy that we all - proponents and detractors alike - must certainly hope and pray will someday return to that country ...
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With thanks to National Public Radio for the heads-up ...
Why have I taken so long to finally get around to writing about the film adaptation of "Lord of the Rings?" I guess I was just waiting for something to spur me ... and I got that during a brief exchange of comments with Jim at serotoninrain, in which I found out that he and I share a favorite moment, from a favorite film.
I remember, it started as a buzz when word first circulated that Peter Jackson was going to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" to the big screen, in a three-film adaptation that promised to be every bit as epic in its scope as Tolkien's original trilogy of books.
As the film went into production, that buzz became a rumble, and a source of growing debate around the world, from a variety of viewpoints, and in a variety of languages ... including Elvish.
All I knew, from watching the trailers was that, whatever Jackson may have done to the rest of the film, when it came to set and scenic design, costuming and props ... he NAILED it ... at least, in my humble opinion. I didn't have to wonder, "What's that supposed to be?" I knew, just in watching those snippets in the trailers, that that was Rivendell, that was Minas Tirith, that was Lorien, etc.
The feature-length films bore out my first impressions from the trailers, and I have seen all three installments a few times, in the theaters and on DVD.
Does that mean that Jackson has produced a literal adaptation of Tolkien in every aspect of his films? Well, no, he doesn't. Though they haven't stopped me from enjoying his films, I have had some problems with the direction his story takes, and with his general treatments of characters. Jackson, I believe, does not allow for so broad, or rich a variety of characters - motives and values, thoughts and beliefs - as Tolkien did.
You see, for all the perception some have of Tolkien as some kind cloistered intellectual of the 'ivory tower' variety, he was actually very much a man of the world ... and he encountered a great variety of people ... saw them at their best, and their worst ... and all of that is reflected in his writings. True, they are set in a fantasy world, but it's one populated by real world characters.
In Tolkien's world, some women were warrior princesses, while others stayed home and sewed. He saw it first-hand as everyone in Britain did something to support the war effort (WWI). In Jackson's (Hollywood's) world, women do NOT stay home and sew, especially if they are given a role in the film way out of proportion to their role in the book ... Arwen Evenstar, daughter of Elrond and beloved of Aragorn.
In Tolkien's world, there are many kind of heroes ... the unlikely hero, the ironic hero, the anti-hero, and the true hero ... not so in Jackson's world, where Aragorn shuns his heritage, flees from it, denies it until it finally thrust upon him ... a far cry from the character in the book who, at times, was the lone light in the darkness, the remnant of the glory of man, and the last prophet of the Return of the King.
But, in the scheme of things, this seemed like quibbling, and I have enjoyed the films again and again ... all the time looking forward to the third installment, when my own, personal favorite character, Rohan's King Theoden, would answer one last call to glory in my own, personal favorite moment of the story.
It's a moment that Mr. Jackson, once again, NAILED ...
It is that moment when, at the head of his massed waves of horsemen, he sees the hosts of Mordor filling the fields of Pellenor, and breaking through the great gate of Minas Tirith ... instead of riding off, "skulking in the hills," he instead leads his men (and one woman, and one hobbit), on a wild charge into the very heart of Sauron's forces ... "a sword day, a red day, 'ere the sun rises."
All too red ... Theoden finds his death on the Fields of Pellenor ... but he also finds his redemption ... he has long since acknowledged his failings, his shortcomings, his sins as a king ... and he now trods, almost eagerly (though still short of a berserker's mindlessness), the road to salvation that lies before him ... he goes to join his fathers, in whose company he shall not now be ashamed ...
Much has been made of the Christian themes one finds in the "Chronicles of Narnia," written by Tolkien's good friend and fellow Inskspot, C.S. Lewis ... yet many of those same themes can be found in LOTR, as well ... and that includes the idea of redemption ... sometimes obtained at great cost, as Thorin Oakenshield learned in the foothills of the Lonely Mountain, as Boromir learned on the banks of the River Anduin, and as Theoden learned on the Fields of Pellenor ...
Will Webb and I have exchanged thousands of words and dozens of photos over the past year, we've cooperated in a news venture that brought first-hand reports from the Iraq War to thousands of Web readers, and we've shared - just between us - some personal thoughts, feelings and prayers, on where we are and what we're doing in this world ...
And we never actually met ...
At least until this week, when Sgt. Will Webb, 56th Brigade Combat Team, Texas National Guard, freshly-returned from a tour of duty in the Iraq War, paid a visit to the Tall City.
Will and his actual family (his wife and baby daughter) were greeted by members of his virtual family - Eric Siegmund of the Fire Ant Gazette, and myself, and our wives - at Venezia's for lunch.It was a wonderful time ... good food, great company, making faces at the baby, some discussion of the past, and plenty of talk about the future ...That last is especially important to me ...That's because I believe that nothing befits a war better than its ending ... and we must all live and work for that day when our men and women can come home, with heads held high, hang their swords over the mantelpiece, and give some thought to the future ... a future they have helped create and maintain ...Virtual Will and Virtual Jeff were good correspondents ... I'm hoping that Actual Will and Actual Jeff can be good friends ...
Those of you who hold some level of disdain for the media in general (and National Public Radio, in particular) missed out on a real treat this week ...
I'm referring to "Talk of the Nation," NPR's midday news-talk show, where host Neal Conan leads what's been described as "a productive exchange of ideas and opinions on the issues that dominate the news landscape. From politics and public service to education, religion, music and healthcare." One of the perk's of listening to the program is that Conan seems content to sit back and devote the lion's share of mic time to caller, e-mail writers and his studio guests ... especially those guests ...
On Monday, those guests were Donatella Lorch, who covered the war in Afghanistan for Newsweek, and the Gulf War for the New York Times; David Turnley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the Detroit Free Press who's covered war and revolution in just about every part of the world ...
And then, sort of the 'senior correspondent' in the room, was Joe Galloway, who served three tours in Vietnam for the old UPI organization (during which time he earned the Bronze Star ... a first for a civilian). If you'd like to learn more about his experiences back then, you could read his book, "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," or see the movie based on that book. Or, you could ask Wallace, over at Streams, who has corresponded on a number of occasions with Galloway (and who, by the way, can tell you a thing or two about 'Nam, himself).
The topic of Monday's program was "The Risks and Rewards of War Reporting," and it was a great look at what is expected of journalists who choose to cover war and rumors of war in far and sometimes forgotten corners of the world ... it's not a job to which all journalists aspire ... and, frankly, it's not a job for which all journalists are qualified ...
So, why do they do it? ... and how? ... and have the why's and how's changed from one era to the next, from one war to the next? ... Give a listen to the program, and find out for yourself, from a distinguished panel of guests well-suited to answering those questions, and more ...
Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn't ask me what it's like, editing NewsWest 9's website. It's like most things, I tell them ... only more so ...I still get a kick out of the looks on their faces when they learn that Jeff McDonald, mild-mannered editor for a major metropolitan news website, is none other than "Web Masters ... Journalist for the 21st Century!"Don't believe me? Just ask the folks at CNNnewsource.com who captured this image of me that you see here ... taken just after I've dropped the boys off at school, and I'm heading out to the office ... really ...
In the wake of Super Bowl XL, there are many of us - at least among those with more than passing fancy for the Pittsburgh Steelers - that are sharing their own, unique perspective on "The Game" and "What It Meant" ...Why should I be any different? ...Mine is "A Tale of Two Running Backs" ... and it's about two men whose glory days were spent running the ball for the Pittsburgh Steelers ... and who ended their careers in a field surrounded by Seahawks ... though in VERY DIFFERENT ways ...I watched the first of them, Franco Harris, when I was a teenager in Pennsylvania, back in the 70s ... Harris was part of what was - to me, at least - the greatest team in the history of American football ... he was one of many, MANY great players and future Hall-of-Famers playing for the Steelers at the time, and was part of one of the most awesome running back duos in the league (the other was Rocky Bleier ... a personal hero of mine, to this day) ...In one respect, we've never seen another team quite like those Steelers, and never will again ... it was the last team to win a Super Bowl with what was completely home-grown talent, with a starting lineup made up entirely from its own draft ... the times, they were a-changin' back then, and one of those changes involved free agency ... And that's what got Franco ... On September 6, 1984, unable to come to an agreement with the Steelers in what some suggested might be his last season, he signed with the Seattle Seahawks ... it was a chance at bigger bucks, but not much else ... by the end of October, he was released by the Seahawks ...The last photo I saw of Franco suited-up was in the uniform of the Seahawks ... and that hurt ... after all, this was the man who had gave us all the Immaculate Reception, which remains one of the greatest images of Steeler glory, and a preview of the greatness that lay ahead for them ... it was enough to make one want to rip off your armband that identified you as a member of Franco's Italian Army ... but you didn't ... he was still Franco, and we still loved him and waited for him to, someday, come home ...More than twenty years later, along comes Jerome Bettis ... another running back for the Steelers, another great rusher coming to the end of a great career, another half (with Willie Parker) of a dynamic duo of running backs, and another member of a talented ensemble of athletes destined for glory ...Last night, that glory was achieved, and the running back's career came to an end ... and it happened, once again, in a field full of Seahawks ...But, oh, the difference ...
The 'Ask Jeeves' search engine has ditched its cartoon butler and redesigned itself as ask.com. Gary Price, Editor of resourceshelf.com and Director of Online Information Resources at ask.com, offers this look at the butler's departure ... and at plenty of other features and services now available at ask.com ... "Something tells me fans of Jeeves and company won't lose a lot of sleep over the the day's news," one blogger observed, and he may be right.
