Saturday, November 29th, 2008
I believe that the terrorist attacks on Mumbai are technically over by now. I say this in that way because the attacks went on for such a painfully long amount of time. Reports say that nearly 200 people died and over 300 people sustained injuries. The last few days have surely been horrendous for the people of India. In response, I want to focus on the events of the last few days in the only way that I am connected to them: the media’s response.
I took interest in the media’s interaction with this tragedy. I was not surprised with the amount of information that quickly spread about this event. As is evidenced even in a small way by my previous post, tons of online sources reported the entire process of the attacks. Pictures, live streaming video, Twitter updates, and mainstream news updates were just some of the ways that this information was sent out. Two aspects of this were significant (that is, aside from the huge amount of information to the general public, which is not that important in the grander picture, particularly when life and death is involved).
First, these tools (particularly Twitter, from what I saw) forwarded the cause of relief information. Requests for assistance flooded streams of text. Most noticeable to me were the constant requests for blood donors to the Mumbai hospitals to save the lives of the many who had been injured. In this way, this new method of rapid communication was extremely helpful.
Secondly, this information did not go unnoticed by the terrorists, and subsequently the government. The terrorists made use of this information DURING their attacks. Terrorists were reported as watching TV in order to learn the plans of police and armed forces before their counter-attacks. Once the TV streams were cut, terrorists reportedly resorted to the Internet, perhaps even taking into account Twitter updates. I believe this has been suggested as a result of the Indian government asking that tweeting about the event be stopped. It appeared as though this rapid spread of news was actually aiding the terrorists in their plot, although I imagine that the government acted to put a stop to this as quickly as possible.
In summary, I am pleased with the media’s response to this tragedy thus far. It is disappointing that these new methods of sharing information may have assisted the terrorists in their horrible plot, but I am encouraged that these tools were used positively, as well. I only hope that this positive response will happen in the future (truly, I hope that this kind of thing never happens again, but I cannot be so naive as to expect that). What are your thoughts?
See also:
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
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A few minutes ago I noticed lots of people discussing the Mumbai terror attacks on Twitter. Obviously this is an awful, awful act, and as of now 80 people have been declared dead. Terrorists are beginning to be detained, but it’s still a horrible situation. I wanted to gather together a bunch of links to make for easy access to this news.
Times of India (for tons of different articles and updates) – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Live News Video Streams:
Photos:
News Articles:
Other:
Expanding…
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
As you all probably know, California is having a major problem with wildfires in the last couple of days. In regard to that, I just watched a short video of a DC-10 dropping down some fire retardant on the affected area. Apparently these planes have the capacity to hold 12,000 gallons of this fire retardant stuff, although it doesn’t seem to me that all 12,000 gallons are dropped in this video. You’ve got to check it out; it’s crazy.
See also: DC-10 Drops Phos-chek over Running Springs
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
This is just something I found the other day. I forget where I first stumbled upon it, but I’d like to give credit where credit is due, so I apologize to whoever helped me to discover this site. Tip of My Tongue is a quick web app that aims to help its users with a problem that humans have had for all of time: remembering a word that they just can’t think of. Using short qualifiers, the app narrows down possible words as far as possible. I’ve found it pretty successful in identifying words that I tested it out with.
Useless example: For instance, if I just can’t remember what you call a book which you use to look up meanings of words, I’m quickly able to figure it out. I type in “book,” “meanings,” and “words” into the “Word Meaning” fields, and it narrows my search to “dictionary” and “wordbook,” at which point I realize I’m thinking of the word “dictionary.”
Give it a shot; I think it’s a pretty cool app.
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
The other day on his blog, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers Michael Hyatt announced a new project that his company has introduced, Book Review Bloggers. The idea behind this is that a blogger is given the opportunity to review a new release from Thomas Nelson on both their both and also the book’s product page on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or another book-selling website. I’ve talked about how I’ve done this before with Scot McKnight’s Blue Parakeet, and I’ve also recently posted on my excitement with the way publishers are jumping on board with some new ideas for uses of the Internet and social media. This is another great example of how they’re starting to get it right, and I’m excited about that.
I particularly like this idea because it is quick and easy for both parties. I, the blogger, get a free book, and the publisher gets a quick endorsement of their product. Once I’ve reviewed one book successfully, I can apply to receive another. Additionally, both the publisher and the blogger get lots of online press via links and social media marketing.
I’m pretty excited about this, as you can tell. I think I’m mostly glad to see this for the principle of what they’re doing by tapping into the vast resource of the blogosphere. Although this blog isn’t in any way a book blog, expect to see some reviews in the near future.