Burnin’

Like many busy people who rely on the interweb today, Jory des Jardins, one of the co-founders of BlogHer, gets buried in email, particularly the unwanted kind. Yet she keeps her sense of humor about it–not an easy thing to do with persistent electronic intruders.

I’ve stopped looking at SPAM as the problem and begun to look at the bright side of including it in my life. I know that if I don’t receive it, something is most certainly wrong with my computer or internet connection. It’s the equivalent of a breathing machine; it provides a din of normalcy that I’m used to.

As any student of nature can affirm, nothing is stable. Atoms, meaning, one’s odds.

According to this BBC story, the solar sytem is not stable.

About 2,500 scientists meeting in Prague said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets.

The International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) decision means textbooks will now have to describe a Solar System with just eight major planetary bodies.

Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh, will be referred to as a “dwarf planet”.

There is a recognition that the demotion is likely to upset the public, who have become accustomed to a particular view of the Solar System.

Yesterday morning, while driving home from Atlanta, I got off the interstate in Macon hoping to find a Starbucks. I found something else instead. Jeneane’s Cafe at 524 Mulberry Street. Breakfast had just ended, so I walked up to the cafeteria-style lunch line and paused to absorb the choices of down-home Southern cooking presented before me. I finally asked the nice, patient lady for pork loin and stuffing, with sides of black-eyed peas, fried okra and two biscuits.

Gore Vidal, 80, author of Myra Breckinridge, The City and the Pillar, Julian, Lincoln and Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia is also the grandson of a U.S. Senator and the son of an aviation pioneer who served in the Roosevelt administration. It must be hard for men of conscience in the American ruling class to find words to describe our present situation, but if anyone is up to the task, it’s Vidal.

“The election was stolen in both 2000 and 2004, because of electronic voting machinery which can be easily fixed. We’ve had two illegitimate elections in a row …

“Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror, but that is a metaphor, though I doubt if he knows what that means. It’s like having a war on dandruff, it’s endless and pointless. We are in a dictatorship that has been totally militarised, everyone is spied on by the government itself. All three arms of the government are in the hands of this junta.

“Whatever you are,” he goes on, “they say you are the reverse. The men behind the war in Iraq are cowards who did not fight in Vietnam - but they spent millions of dollars proving that John Kerry, who was a genuine war hero whatever you think of his politics, was a coward.

“This is what happens when you have control of the media, and I have never known the media more vicious, stupid and corrupt than they are now.

As a former college newspaper editor, I took note of this New York Times article about Gannett’s purchase of Florida State’s student newspaper.

College journalists have always had to grapple with a variety of concerns, from soothing the ruffled feathers of administrators to keeping beer out of the newsroom. Now seems to be the time to add a new one: dealing with corporate owners.

Last week The Tallahassee Democrat, a daily paper owned by Gannett, announced that it had purchased The FSView & Florida Flambeau, the student newspaper of Florida State University, which is also in Tallahassee. Media industry analysts said that it seemed to be the first time that a college paper had been bought by a major chain, but that it might not be the last.

Colby Atwood, a media industry consultant, said that the transaction could have ripple effects. “Most college papers are really not for sale,” he said. But, “if corporate sponsorship takes hold in the college newspaper arena, a lot of colleges might be interested in taking a look, for the mentorship opportunities and financial support.”

Thinking back on all the problems I had with administrators of my college, it would have been lovely to say, “Take it up with my publisher.” What I used to say instead is, “If it didn’t happen, it wouldn’t be in the newspaper.”

Bluffton icon, Betty Felix by Harmony Motter of The Island Packet

Bluffton just invested $635,000 in a new 8-acre recycling and dump site on Simmonsville Road, upgrading Ms. Felix’s work environment considerably in the process.

In 2005, 5,637.96 tons of plastic No. 1 and No. 2; aluminum and steel cans; clear, brown and green glass; newspaper; cardboard, magazines and mixed paper were recycled via Beaufort County programs alone. The County has twelve reclamation sites.

An average of 1,200 to 1,500 cars pull into the Simmonsville Road center on a daily basis.

WHHI-TV’s new owner, John Byrne (photo by Harmony Motter)

I took note yesterday of an article in The Island Packet about new ownership at WHHI-TV, the local cable channel. According to the paper, the new owner has big plans for the future, which is good news since the current production values and content offerings of the station are a bit soft.

Admittedly, WHHI has to do more to capture the interest of local viewers. A lot of residents have told Byrne they’ve seen his station, but they don’t watch it, he said.

Staff members say there are a lot of misconceptions about the station. Some people think the station is a cable-access arm of the government instead of an ad-supported station. Others think it is just a visitors’ guide.

“We are the good-news channel,” said Dick O’Donnell, director of sales for WHHI. “We don’t have hurricanes. We don’t have wars. We talk about the things your friends and neighbors do.”

Going forward, the station’s programs will be archived on the Web site, www.whhitv.com, so viewers can watch them online at any time. The Web site also offers schedules for shows, which include “Talk of the Town with Ed McCullough,” “Street Talk with Brian Finnerty” and “Doug Weaver’s Hilton Head Golf Weekly.”

A station like this needs to accurately reflect the community. Beaufort County has plenty of people with ideas and money. My hope is Mr. Byrne can channel some of these precious local resources into his new venture.

Boulder is an important town to me. I went to school there in ‘86. I spent a month there in the summer of 2001. I lived nearby in Denver twice. I’ve seen an inordinate number of stellar shows at The Fox and Boulder Theatre, imbibed on Pearl Street’s best infused mojitos, nibbled the tofu, etc. But what it all comes down to is this: there are lots of good people in Boulder. People I am lucky to call friends.

Boulder is also blessed with musicians who like to come down off the mountain on special ocassions to jam. Rockygrass is such an ocassion. And local pickers, Yonder Mountain String Band, did descend, along with the hill folk who follow them.

After the first night at our friends’ cottage on Alpine, and two nights sleeping in our REI tent along side the St. Vrain River (waking at 7:30 am to get out of the hot sun both mornings) we motored into downtown Boulder on Sunday afternoon and checked in to the St. Julien Hotel & Spa, “where nature meets nurture and simplicity meets style.” Ms. D enjoyed a hot stone massage. I took a nap in the four-poster bed after showering in the all-slate bath. Slate, not just on the floors, on the walls as well.

Of course, I’m far from the only one who thinks highly of Boulder. One of the world’s most creative companies just opened an office there, in order to offer its employees the choice of working in Miami or Boulder.

When living amidst all the natural beauty, organic food, beautiful people and world class athletes, one can, from time to time, find it all a bit too much. Yet, when one steps back–as I have several times in my life–and looks at Boulder through fresh eyes, mostly what’s there is a model community filled with active, educated citizens making their own reality better day-to-day.