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test - Dispatches from the Culture Wars - November 13, 2012
<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-11-14T00:00:00-05:00">November 14, 2012</span>
By
Portside (Wed, 2012-11-14 00:00)
* Quote of the Day: America's Billionaires are Pissed Off at Karl Rove; * Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win; * Missing Out: Political Ads, Spanish-Language TV and the Latino Vote; * For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear; * Charles Darwin gets 4,000 write-in votes in Georgia; * Occupy Sandy Emerges As Relief Organization for 21st Century, Mastering Social Networks; * Occupy Wall Street Camps at Amazon, Wal-Mart San
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<ul>
<li>
<a href="#1"><strong>Quote of the Day: America's Billionaires are Pissed Off at Karl Rove</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#2"><strong>Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#3"><strong>Missing Out: Political Ads, Spanish-Language TV and the Latino Vote</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#4"><strong>For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#5"><strong>Charles Darwin gets 4,000 write-in votes in Georgia</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#6"><strong>Occupy Sandy Emerges As Relief Organization for 21st Century, Mastering Social Networks</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#7"><strong>Occupy Wall Street Camps at Amazon, Wal-Mart Sandy Aid</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#8"><strong>Occupy Wall Street campaigners buy-up debt to abolish it</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#9"><strong>Party's Over After Sandy</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#10"><strong>Two Chicago stations pick up Smiley & West after WBEZ cancels show</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#11"><strong>The Fight Over PBS Should Be to Broaden Its Scope, Not to Threaten It</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#12"><strong>Climate Change Threatens Legacy Coffee</strong></a></li>
<li>
<a href="#13a"><strong>Oh, this? Just some teenage girls from Africa who invented a urine-powered generator.</strong></a></li>
</ul>
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</div>
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<a name="1"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Quote of the Day: America's Billionaires are Pissed Off at Karl Rove</strong></span></a></div>
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By Kevin Drum</div>
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November 7, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/quote-day-americas-billionaires-are-pissed-karl-rove">Mother Jones</a></div>
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"The billionaire donors I hear are livid," one Republican operative told The Huffington Post. "There is some holy hell to pay. Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do ... I don't know how you tell your donors that we spent $390 million and got nothing."....If conservative billionaires are looking for something else to be mad about, I'd recommend the Romney campaign's apparent habit of paying about 50 percent more for TV spots than the Obama campaign. That helped line the pockets of their media consultants and buyers, but it didn't do much to win the election.</div>
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<a name="2"><span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win</strong></span></a></div>
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By Michael Scherer</div>
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November 7, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/07/inside-the-secret-world-of-quants-and-data-crunchers-who-helped-obama-win/">Swampland - Time Magazine</a></div>
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After a successful campaign to raise money for Obama included a contest to have dinner with Obama and George Clooney, Obama's top campaign aides sought out an East Coast celebrity with similar appeal among the same demographic, and the next Dinner with Barack contest was born: a chance to eat at Sarah Jessica Parker's West Village brownstone.</div>
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The idea for the Parker contest had come from a data-mining discovery about some supporters: affection for contests, small dinners and celebrity. Throughout the campaign, such data- driven decision making played a huge role in creating a second term for the 44th President and will be one of the more closely studied elements of the 2012 cycle. In politics, the era of big data has arrived.</div>
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<a name="3"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Missing Out: Political Ads, Spanish-Language TV and the Latino Vote</strong></span></a></div>
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By Joseph Torres and Josh Stearns</div>
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November 5, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/11/missing-out-political-ads-spanish-language-tv-and-the-latino-vote.php">New America Media</a></div>
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Latino voters will play a critical role in the 2012 presidential race, making up a significant portion of the electorate in swing states like Colorado, Florida and Nevada. Yet while analysts project that more than $3 billion will be spent on political ads this year, a relatively paltry amount has been spent on Spanish-language ads. This is particularly the case when it comes to ad spending by Super PACs and other third-party groups.</div>
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Given the nation's changing demographics, it's hard to imagine that political campaigns and third-party groups won't ultimately devote more financial resources to winning the Latino vote. While many Latino leaders believe more Spanish- language ads are critical to engaging Latino voters, some may have second thoughts once viewers are inundated with political ads.</div>
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<a name="4"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear</strong></span></a></div>
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By Mark Potok</div>
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November 7, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/11/07/for-the-radical-right-obama-victory-brings-fury-and-fear/">Hatewatch - Southern Poverty Law Center</a></div>
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The reaction to the re-election of our first black president from the radical right ranged from sputtering rage and name- calling to calls for a new Southern secession, mass emigration to Europe, or even the break-up of the United States. The loss of a white majority in the United States has helped drive a truly explosive growth of the radical right in the last three years, and now that Obama has been re-elected, the radical right may grow more dangerous still. Summed up on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly said: "The white establishment is now the minority. It's not a traditional America anymore."</div>
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<a name="5"><strong><span style="font-size:14px;">Charles Darwin gets 4,000 write-in votes in Georgia</span></strong></a></div>
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By David Beasley</div>
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November 9, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/us-usa-campaign-georgia-idUSBRE8A813W20121109">Reuters</a></div>
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In a September speech, Paul Broun, a GA member of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee, called evolution and the Big Bang Theory, "lies straight from the pit of hell."</div>
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Broun, a Republican, had no opposition in the general election. So Jim Leebens-Mack, a University of Georgia biology professor, started the write-in campaign for Darwin who attracted 4,000 write-in ballots. But the votes will not count officially since Darwin was never certified as a write- in candidate.</div>
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<a name="6"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Occupy Sandy Emerges As Relief Organization for 21st Century, Mastering Social Networks</strong></span></a></div>
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By Lucas Kavner</div>
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November 5, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/05/occupy-sandy-relief-efforts_n_2079308.html">Huffington Post</a></div>
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As local leaders and citizens complain of FEMA and the Red Cross and general government absences in their own neighborhoods, independent and local volunteer relief organizations have sprung up in droves, organized almost entirely through word of mouth and extensive social media campaigns. And Occupy Sandy, an off-shoot of Occupy Wall Street, has been a leader in spreading the word about local volunteer and donation efforts.</div>
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Though certainly not a well-oiled machine by any means, the group's Twitter and Facebook accounts have posted up-to-date information about exactly what is needed and where. Occupy Sandy's #Medics hashtag on Twitter found doctors for their hubs in Brooklyn and Queens. Hot meals are being prepared with volunteers in makeshift food kitchens in the Rockaways, Coney Island and Sunset Park. And the network has even set up a wedding registry, via Amazon, so anyone who wants to send blankets, flashlights, dry goods, and toiletries from anywhere in the United States or around the world can easily do so.</div>
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Occupy is able to act fast and quickly, without worrying about a lot of bureaucratic red tape, and Occupy Sandy has shown that collectively they can be a modern relief organization, both online and on the ground.</div>
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<a name="7"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Occupy Wall Street Camps at Amazon, Wal-Mart Sandy Aid</strong></span></a></div>
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</div>
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By Ryan Faughnder</div>
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</div>
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November 5, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-05/occupy-wall-street-camps-at-amazon-wal-mart-sandy-aid.html">Bloomberg .com</a></div>
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Occupy Wall Street has set up camp online at Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores websites, using wedding registries to solicit gifts for victims of Hurricane Sandy.</div>
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The group has been among the volunteers helping with disaster relief efforts since Sandy made landfall on Oct. 29. One volunteer at a church in Brooklyn decided to use an Amazon registry, promoted by posts on Twitter Inc.'s microblogging service, to speed aid to those in need. There is also an Occupy Sandy registry on Amazon that is shipping purchases to a distribution center in Jersey City, New Jersey, and another registry on Wal-Mart's website lists a delivery address in Brooklyn. So far, the Brooklyn registry on Amazon has received orders for items including flashlights, mini refrigerators, diapers, toothpaste, blankets and bleach, according to the company's website. The so-called couple describes their style as "warm, non-perishable" and requests items be sent without gift wrap.</div>
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<a name="8"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Occupy Wall Street campaigners buy-up debt to abolish it</strong></span></a></div>
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By Matthew Sparkes</div>
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November 9, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9666748/Occupy-Wall-Street-campaigners-buy-up-debt-to-abolish-it.html">Telegraph (UK)</a></div>
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A group of campaigners linked to the Occupy Wall Street movement is buying-up distressed loans for pennies in the pound and cancelling them to "liberate debtors at random". The Rolling Jubilee project is seeking donations to help it buy-up distressed debts, including student loans and outstanding medical bills, and then wipe the slate clean by writing them off.</div>
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Individuals or companies can buy distressed debt from lenders at knock-down prices if it the borrower is in default or behind with payments and are then free to do with it as they see fit, including cancelling it free of charge. As a test run the group spent $500 on distressed debt, buying $14,000 worth of outstanding loans and pardoning the debtors. David Rees, one of the organisers, writes "This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need - to free them from heavy debt loads. Now, we are ready to buy debt in communities across the country that have been struggling during the recession."</div>
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<a name="9"><strong><span style="font-size:14px;">Party's Over After Sandy</span></strong></a></div>
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By Mike Vilensky</div>
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November 6, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204349404578101252753783998.html">Wall Street Journal On-Line</a></div>
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It is high season for Manhattan's society events circuit, when wealthy people attend glamorous parties in the city's gilded halls to raise money for charity and cultural institutions. Then came Sandy, a devastating storm that laid bare for the world the city's stark wealth gap. Suddenly, many of these events have been toned down or cancelled altogether, and many of the social scene's regulars - among Manhattan's financial and social elite - have begun having frank conversations about income inequality.</div>
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Rarely has an event before Sandy so shaken the close co- existence of New York's extremely wealthy and its most impoverished: Wealthy New Yorkers were generally safe during the storm, while neighborhoods with high poverty rates such as Brooklyn's Red Hook and Queens' Far Rockaway are still without food or heat. The scenes of devastation in poor city neighborhoods such as Brooklyn's Coney Island appear to have had an effect.</div>
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<a name="10"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Two Chicago stations pick up Smiley & West after WBEZ cancels show</strong></span></a></div>
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By Dru Sefton</div>
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October 31, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.current.org/2012/10/two-chicago-stations-pick-up-smiley-west-after-wbez-cancels-show/">Current.org</a></div>
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The Smiley & West show is being picked up by two Chicago radio outlets, after public radio station WBEZ dropped the program. Tavis Smiley and his co-host, author and activist Cornel West, will be heard on progressive talk WCPT-AM and urban news/talk WVON-AM.</div>
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Thirteen stations have dropped the show since June 2011, with several taking issue with the co-hosts' political opinionating or citing complaints from listeners. WBEZ's cancellation and related comments from Torey Malatia, station president, triggered an angry letter from Smiley that sparked a widely reported controversy in Chicago. The program is distributed by Public Radio International.</div>
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<a name="11"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The Fight Over PBS Should Be to Broaden Its Scope, Not to Threaten It</strong></span></a></div>
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By Vincent Stehle</div>
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October 28, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://philanthropy.com/article/The-Fight-Over-PBS-Should-Be/135338">The Chronicle of Philanthropy</a></div>
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In our closely divided partisan election cycle, public broadcasting has once again become a sign of divided government. By injecting it into the 2012 campaign, politicians have brought into view just how paltry a sum the federal Treasury provides to public television and radio stations. The 2012 budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the principal source of federal dollars for public media, was just $445-million, roughly 0.01 percent of the federal budget, although in a CNN poll, Americans said they thought public broadcasting got 5 percent of the federal budget, a figure that would translate into about $178-billion.</div>
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As valuable as the flagship NPR and PBS services are, CPB and other agencies should support a broader array of institutions providing news and information, such as community-access television services, low-power and community radio stations, and the growing field of nonprofit online news organizations that are replacing the rapidly declining daily newspaper industry. This broader concept of public broadcasting actually reflects the original purpose expressed by President Lyndon Johnson when he signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, declaring his intention to build "not just a broadcast system but one that employs every means of sending and storing information that the individual can use."</div>
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<a name="12"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Climate Change Threatens Legacy Coffee</strong></span></a></div>
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By Christopher Intagliata</div>
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November 9, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=climate-change-threatens-legacy-cof-12-11-09">Scientific American</a></div>
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Rising seas and severe storms are the most talked-about threats of climate change. But here's another: no more coffee, because rising temperatures may cripple wild populations of Arabica coffee - the most cultivated species in the world - according to a study which used climate models to forecast the effects of warming on Arabica coffee trees in Ethiopia, their native range. Under the best-case scenario, only a third of today's range would still be suitable for coffee by 2080. And the worst case? Wild arabica could be nearly wiped out in the region. That's because coffee trees are sensitive to temperature and may not be able to colonize new areas fast enough to beat climate change.</div>
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[Text taken from a transcript of this podcast.]</div>
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<a name="13a"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Oh, this? Just some teenage girls from Africa who invented a urine-powered generator.</strong></span></a></div>
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By Robert T. Gonzalez</div>
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November 8, 2012</div>
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<a href="http://io9.com/5958887/oh-this-just-some-teenage-girls-from-africa-who-invented-a-urine+powered-generator">I09.com - We Come from the Future</a></div>
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How's this for an innovative startup: four African girls - the eldest of which is just fifteen years old - have worked together to invent a generator that's powered by urine. The group presented their creation at this year's Maker Faire Africa, and it's freaking brilliant. Here's how it works:</div>
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* Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen.</div>
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* The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.</div>
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* The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.</div>
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* This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.</div>
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* 1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.</div>
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Here's hoping these girls can get the funding they need to take this idea to new heights. Even if they don't, we've got a feeling they're going places.</div>
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