CONNECTIVITY AND LIFE INTERNETTED

LIVING BENEATH THE MOON

    Shooting the moon, the recent blood moon, gave me a chance to tweak around with a new camera.

WEBS

  Spider webs are forever fascinating.

THE HUMAN WEB
NEW CONNECTIVITY'S

    It would have been nice to know this woman's father.

   Jim Hayes was a beloved journalism professor who mentored an impressive retinue of high calibre users of words.

    Dayle Hayes paraphrased the Norman Maclean novel A River Runs Through It in remembering her father when she said, "There is no clear line between religion and words." She said in her father's life words were religion.

    Dayle opened ADVANCING INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION-JIM HAYES SYMPOSIUM at Cal Poly.  The impressive  presentations that followed underscored the legacy her father seeded in practitioners as well as the confounding issues that challenge 21st Century journalism and communication.

     Presenters included Peter King Director Public Affairs, University of California and former LA Times reporter, editor and columnist.  David Kerley ABC News Correspondent, Judy Muller professor at USC's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, NPR Commentator and former ABC Correspondent, Robert Logan of the US National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, Kevin Riggs former television newsman and now a senior vice president of Randle Communications, Patrick Linn professor of Philosophy and Director of the Ethics + Emerging Sciences group, an author and expert on artificial intelligence and robotics, and Karen Miller Pensiero editor of Newsroom Standards for the Wall Street Journal.

     Pensiero's Keynote affirmed the need for ethics and core values even as journalism and communication morph into new methods of gathering and distribution. She eschewed the idea that social media is self correcting. 
     Pensiero observed that news group "brands" must now co-exist with  the "franchises" of some of their own employees. She was responding to my inquiry about Ezra Klein leaving the Washington Post for Vox Media, the Wall Street Journal's own Walter Mossberg departing for his new Re/Code and Nate Silver's taking of his 535 franchise from the New York Times to ESPN and his own private label. "I see no end to it," she said noting it is part of the new world.

    Judy Muller played the iconic clip of Walter Cronkite choking back a tear as he announced the death of President Kennedy. She said that was "emotionalism" in journalism in a 1960's world. By contrast she played clips of Anderson Cooper  angrily going off on Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu for political back patting as victims of a Gulf storm continued to suffer and as bodies laid on streets. She played a clip of CNN's Jake Tapper being emotional as he covered disorder in Ferguson. I asked her to reflect on the differences of Tapper's emotionalism to Tom Pettit's coverage and that of others during the 1960's civil rights disturbances. She said she thought if they could have used the same live technology they too may have been more emotional.  

      It's my view the jury is out on that assessment. Everything was different then and those who practiced journalism saw themselves as distillers and handlers of information. Our emotions were not to be a part of the coverage and in fact the entire process was a series of filters.But Muller is correct, emotionalism and commentary are a part of the current delivery, like it or not. Her suggestion for Media Literacy training for students is a wise idea.

 

     In this time of Ebola and media inspired fear, Logan's presentation dealing with weighing best evidence and providing contextualization was a healthy antidote.

     Based on the accounts given by presenters, Hayes must have been an extraordinary "teacher/editor." The audience included alumna and alumni, professionals, a few retirees and students, though the information has value to all who use any form of media.

      Ethicist and Artificial Intelligence expert Dr. Patrick Lin, blew a few minds when he put three news briefs on the screen. Each had been written by a robot. It was part of his discussion of Algorithmic Curation, the affect of data mining and organization that you may see in your own life. Here's what I mean. Research a new camera for example and suddenly web sites you visit feature camera ads. Lin said present generation algorithmic writing programs are very effective at correlation but bad at determining causation. Correlation is not causation. An example he cited makes the point. Traffic fatalities decrease when there is an increase in the import of lemons from Mexico. Artificial Intelligence can spot a correlation, but can't make the judgement there is no connection.  

      Lin made good points in noting that values change with time and we seem to be witnessing what he called a "democratization of news." He concluded that ethics is a competitive advantage.

       With more demands placed on journalists-the need to tweet, blog, shoot video, edit and report at the same time, with demanding editors and a hungry news machine to feed-it is reassuring to know the values taught by a fellow who must have been a helluva good professor have been enshrined in what I hope will be an annual symposium on integrity. The world needs it.

       See you down the trail

LIMITED BLESSING-A POLITICAL THROWBACK

LIMITED MERCY

    A blessing of this area is the coastal fog, especially so in this third year of California drought .

     The marine bank begins to thicken and roll when temperatures rise on the eastern side of the Santa Lucia range.  

   Here on the western slopes, fog trickles around sunset and begins to billow into valleys.

   During the night it may remain in the valleys and cling to the slopes,

 or fill the sky and obscure the pristine star field over the mountains and pacific. Some nights it hovers thickly as though written into the moors by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but  will quickly wisp away revealing an ocean of galaxies. Coastal dreams are woven beneath this dance of misty gossamer.

  Morning will dawn under a damp blanket of moist relief and cool.

   It is a dose of mercy.

    By late morning sun angles on the grazing slopes, orchards and vineyards.

     The great golden light and saturated color returns.

     Tender shoots nurtured by the fog and the cool are quickly gone. A dry land and its inhabitants await the start of a rainy season.

     And we hope.

THROWBACK CLASS OFFICERS

    Ball State University Sophomore Class Officers 1966. John Yount, Joe Peach, Joy Novak, Sally Staley, Tom Cochrun.

     See you down the trail.

SERVING TRUTH-TOPPING MORRO ROCK-EATING IN A BARN

WISDOM FROM A YOUNG MAN

   "The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself…In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation."

                     John Kennedy October 25, 1963

MORRO BAY TOPPING

    Morro Rock is perpetually fascinating in an infinite variety of light or cloud.

     It is one of "seven sisters-" tectonic/volcanic mounts that ridge the central coast from Morro Bay to south of San Luis Obispo.

   On our first trip to this area in 1969 we stopped to pick up fish and oysters on the docks of the fishing port next to what we called "the big rock."

   The cars and people in the foreground give you a perspective to its size.

BLUE DUTY

BARN DINNER

     In coaxing brother John and I into the world of good manners Mom would offer "Mind your table manners. You're not eating in a barn" a variation of "Close the door, you weren't born in a barn" which made sense as she was a farm girl in her youth.

     Mom would get a delight in this. I relied on those manners, including which fork and knife for what course, recently in a barn!

   Hope you can read the menu, because the Halter Ranch Wine Club Ancestor Dinner was first class.

   The lemon-pine nut pot de creme' desert, that I failed to photograph, was served with vin de paille.  The frame below is vin de paille in the making. Vin de paille, or straw wine, is similar to ice wine.  The grapes are permitted to dry for an extended time, building up the sugar content.  

    Another Paso Robles wine maker uses a syrah grape, dried in the vineyard.  La Vigne's Amerone is a superb wine too. The Paso appellation is rich with creativity and great wine.

   Lest those of you in other climes come to think that Epicurean delights are all Cambrians pursue, here's an update.

    Sunday morning a group presented a personal account of a recent back packing adventure across an 11 thousand foot passage on the John Muir trail in the high Sierra.

     The trek was not without incident, some got lost which raised the very real thoughts of life's fragility. It all ended well and each of the team presented personal insights, observations and reflections. It was a meaningful and enlightening time.

                              HOME TOWN POLITICS

                                           

   A standing room only crowd filled the Unitarian Universalist Community meeting room to see the six candidates for the Community Service District board of directors election. Two of the incumbents are up reelection and face 4 challengers.

  The CCSD board serves as the government in this village where everyone has an at least one opinion and where everyone is correct and knows the absolute right way things should be. Just ask anyone!

   Water is a big issue in year three of a drought. So too is growth in this village, the last population of significance on the Pacific Coast Highway between here and Carmel. It's good of these neighbors-everyone is a neighbor in a village of this size-to put themselves out there.

    Stay tuned. In the meantime my favorite Cambria heroes are the artists in this enclave of originality.

   See you down the trail.

LIGHT and A VERY SPECIAL COUPLE

BREAKFAST LIGHT

BEACH LIGHT

DAY MOON

 NIGHT LIGHT

A VERY SPECIAL COUPLE

    Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader may have created a new format or genre of film relationships-the Sibs. Couple films, bromances, action adventures, chick flicks, women pals have found ways of creating ideal combinations.  Wiig and Hader as sister and brother are brilliant and have created a relationship that is as nuanced, textural and entertaining as any screen coupling.

   In a recent interview they said their time together doing Saturday Night Live gave them a bonding, based on experimentation and hanging it out there in character sketches. It was marvelous training and they bring an extra element to their portrayal of twins.

    Hader and Wiig are another testament to how superbly comedic artists can bring to life dramatic characters. In large and little ways these two infuse credibility and power into Milo and Maggie who reunite after years after both cheat death on the same day. There are moments when the SNL talent shines and you are amused and there are tender and vulnerable moments as both contend with the affects of their beloved father's suicide when they were kids. Wiig and Hader connect in a very special way and the power of that relationship is strong enough to make you want to see this duo again in those roles.

    It took writer director Craig Johnson a couple of years to get this independent film done.  He's created a unique piece that serves as a platform for this new kind of relationship film.  Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell and Boyd Holbrook are perfect in their roles. Wilson especially so.

    There is more to this story than comedy and mirth, but the full emotional range opens great performance from the SNL alums. Wiig and Hader are very special.

See you down the trail.