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Why Watch the News?

It seems many news syndicates are biased towards either the left or the right, giving people the opportunity to watch news they already agree with. Is there value in this? And what about the overall quality of news as well? Fox News gives us an extreme example of the deteriorating quality of news today.

Date: May 13, 2011

Author: Aly Juma

Categories: Media

The problem with news syndicates now is that they are largely biased one way or the other. So most people watch news that resonates with them and what they believe in, which really defeats the purpose in the first place. If you’re simply watching news that you agree with, then what value does it serve?

Despite this, one of my favorite shows is the The Daily Show and I think Jon Stewart is brilliant. It also surprises me how the team at The Daily Show is able to regularly come up with material for his show, as it seems there is always something ridiculous happening. Of course a lot of his show has one source for their material being Fox News and their over-the-top, irrational stories that can only make you laugh.

A recent piece on Fox News just baffled me, as they criticized Michelle Obama for having Common as a guest poet at the White House. Basically, they portrayed Common as violent and misogynistic, conclusions drawn from a few lines of a single poem, largely ignoring the rest of his work. This was the focus of yesterday’s The Daily Show and you can watch the clip below to get a better understanding of the situation.

The Daily Show – Tone Def Poetry Jam
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

I just don’t get it. This is the kind of stuff that is covered on the news now? And it’s not just Fox News, but the overall quality and value of the news is deteriorating and it’s quite sad to say the least.

Sunday’s Top Links (5.8.2011)

In this week’s links we learn 38 lessons, see Obama at the Correspondent’s Dinner, understand the risk of an idea, explore stickK, and visualize reactions to Osama’s death. Enjoy!

Date: May 8, 2011

Author: Aly Juma

Categories: Sunday's Links

Welcome to this week’s links! And Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

1. 38 Lessons in 38 Years

A great post from Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta reflects on the lessons learned so far over his 38 years. There’s some great points in there that I think apply to all of us, especially the very last one.

2. Obama @ White House Correspondent’s Dinner

Although the death of Osama took over headlines, I watched Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on April 30th, which was quite enjoyable. I like how Obama is using humor to effectively communicate his messages, and its much more entertaining than a cut and dry speech.

3. The Risk of an Idea

When we have truly innovative ideas, its hard to discern if they really are that great or they’re absolutely ridiculous. The key becomes sharing the idea with others, but this can be a scary proposition for most. This articles touches on two ways an organization can create an environment open to ideas, both good and bad.

4. stickK

I’ve recently talked a lot about motivation, accountability, and incentives, and stickK seems to be a great tool to get us to start taking action. stickK is a web tool that allows you to define a goal, the stakes, referees, and supporters, all in an effort to help you accomplish your goals. I’m looking forward to trying it out and seeing if it works.

5. Death of a Terrorist: Responses

There’s been a wide range of responses to Osama’s death, which I touched on in a recent blog post. This being the case, New York Times has come out with this interactive graphic, showing the range of these responses based on comments made by readers – its pretty interesting to see visually.

And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.

Reactions To Osama’s Death

There have been a wide range of reactions to the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death: celebration, excitement, satisfaction, and retaliation. Reactions from leaders and representatives, give insight into the emotions across the world.

Date: May 4, 2011

Author: Aly Juma

Categories: Musings

The night before my birthday news broke that Osama Bin Laden had been eliminated, kind of stole my thunder there, but that’s besides the point. Reactions to the news have been interesting to observe, as many are celebrating profusely, while others are reluctant to celebrate a death, despite them understanding what the situation symbolizes. These distinct reactions are seen from top officials, such as Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani, as well as terrorist spokes people like Ehsanullah Ehsan.

Quote from President Barack Obama’s announcement:

“The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date against al-Qaeda… let me say to the families, we have not forgotten your loss, today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country. Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to … we can do these things not because of wealth and power but because of who we are.”

This will be huge for Obama as it appears to justify our efforts abroad, while giving him momentum going forward into his re-election campaign. Should be interesting to see how it plays out, but important to note that we don’t really know the impact Osama’s death will have yet.

A quote from former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani:

“I feel satisfaction and some emotional relief, but I don’t feel great elation. I watch a lot of the celebrating and it makes me feel a little strange, I don’t know. Nothing erases the loss of all those lives. … so I feel satisfaction and I feel the right thing has been done. and I guess it will good thing ultimately but I don’t feel like celebrating [as if it's] the end of World War II, because the war is still going on.”

Giuliani is one of many, who has been a bit uneasy about celebrating a death, despite its significance. Looking at the picture below, it looks more like Obama’s election celebration than one for a dead terrorist, but there you have it.

Finally, a quote from Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan:

“If he has been martyred, we will avenge his death and launch attacks against American and Pakistani governments and their security forces.”

Reactions from terrorist organizations are the most important because it could result in one of two outcomes. Either the death of Osama will perpetuate increased terrorist activity or it will discourage their efforts against the world. I hope it’s the latter, but it doesn’t sound like it based on the quote above. Only time will tell.

Sunday’s Top Links (4.24.2011)

In this week’s top links get a better understanding of Creative IQ, watch Zuckerberg’s interview with Obama, realize the change and opportunity of now, check out the NYT’s Cascade, and understand the benefits of working in a coffee shop.

Date: April 24, 2011

Author: Aly Juma

Categories: Sunday's Links

Welcome to this week’s top links!

1. Wile E. Coyote and Creative IQ

In response to Bruce Nussbaum’s claim that Design Thinking is finished (read here), frog design gives their take on the future of Creative Intelligence. In particular they touch on the misconceptions of creativity, as well as the fear that Creative Intelligence could face a similar demise as design thinking.

2. Zuckerberg Interviews President Obama

Watch the recent interview of President Obama last week at Facebook HQ. It was essentially Mark Zuckerberg holding a Live Town Hall with Obama and fielding questions from citizens. I find it very impressive how Obama has embraced social media for his campaign and it certainly helps with the younger demographics.

3. Realization Is Now, Opportunity is Here

In this post from Seth Godin, we get insight into the current state of society and the revolution that we are currently in the midst of. Aside from simply being aware of these changes, we also need to recognize the opportunity it brings along with it, which can be explored in the follow-up post here.

4. NYT Labs Cascade

New York Times has developed a new project named Cascade that maps out a timeline related to articles and information they create and share. It’s an interesting project and the information is beautiful, but I do wonder what they plan to do with the data they collect through this platform.

5. Working Best At Coffee Shops

An intriguing article from The Atlantic that focuses on the value of working at coffee shops. The article gives a number of reasons of why coffee shops are an ideal setting for work and some great examples of people who have utilized this avenue for their own creations. I personally love working in coffee shops and I think the article is spot on about the benefits.

And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.

Sunday’s Top Links (2.20.2011)

In this week’s Sunday’s Top Links we explore a new platform from TED, an initiative from Sabbath Manifesto, find a new tool for word analysis, visualize Obama’s budget, and see the future in 3D printing.

Date: February 20, 2011

Author: Aly Juma

Categories: Sunday's Links

Welcome to this week’s Sunday’s Top Links!

1. TED Conversations

TED has been coming out with some great stuff lately to better interact with their large network, one of these being TED Conversations. This is essentially a platform for sharing in three forms: ideas, questions, and debates. The interesting thing is that the conversations expire after a set amount of time, an interesting way to promote interaction.

2. Sabbath Manifesto

The Sabbath Manifesto is a creative project focused on slowing down the lives in the currently chaotic world. One of their big events is National Unplugging Day, on March 4th to 5th, where you remove yourself from technology for the day. Sounds like a great idea to force ourselves to step away from the technology in our lives.

3. Wordle

Doing any type of word analysis, perhaps on a speech or an interview, then Wordle is a great tool to check out. It takes any input of text and creates beautiful word clouds to make things more visually pleasing.

4. Obama’s 2012 Budget Proposal

Want to see how you spend $3.7 trillion? Check out the this interactive infographic, showing us how Obama plans to spend the budget in 2012. It also shows us the areas in which we are going to see spending increases and decreases for the next year.

5. 3D Printing

The future of creation seems to be 3D printing, as we are seeing more and more development in this field. In this article from The Economist, we explore 3D printing, the concept of “click to manufacture”, and it’s future.

If you missed last week’s check them out here. Enjoy!

State Of The Union Address

Date: February 3, 2011

Author: Aly Juma

Categories: Musings

This year’s State of the Union Address focused more on innovation, entrepreneurship, and new jobs, in particular for the youth and those just graduating from college. You can see the word cloud from this years address below.

You can compare this to last year’s SOTU Address word cloud.

As you can see, last years SOTU was more focused on the overall economy and the people, as well as health and energy. A much more overarching approach, but in this years version, we see a more focused vision around new business, creating jobs, and an actual plan to take this forward.

Many have been wondering how exactly Obama will bring in this new wave of innovation, entrepreneurship, and the like. One new initiative just launched by the White House is the Startup America Partnership that brings together a number of big players, combining the private and public sectors to promote startups. This focus on entrepreneurship appears to be a good strategy, as the unemployment issue is not getting much better. A recent article by Umair Haque exemplifies the fact that the issues of youth unemployment are not isolated to countries like Egypt or Tunisia, but are very real problems in Europe and the U.S. as well. He focuses on the solution lying with innovation, but more specifically institutional innovation, which should support the rest of the economoy. Hopefully the Startup America Partnership is a step in the right direction.

You can watch the entire SOTU Address below.