Category Archives: News

News

Nepenthe in Big Sur escapes the flames

Nepenthe in Big Sur

Every time I cut a video about the fires going on in Northern California, particularly the one raging in Big Sur, I cringe — I can’t believe all that gorgeous scenery is going up in smoke and ash. I was glad to see, though, that Nepenthe, pictured above with its wood-carved¬† phoenix right in front, escaped unscathed — sort of.

At the popular restaurant Nepenthe, flames burned all the way up to a knoll above the edge of Highway 1 and across from the restaurant’s famed patio with its epic ocean view.

…skip

Highway 1 remains closed between Nepenthe Restaurant and Esalen. Because burned hills can’t hold rock, the highway is dangerously littered with falling debris.

Nepenthe's view

I say sort of because part of Nepenthe’s draw is the wonderful views of the ocean and the lush mountains. Plus, with Highway 1 being closed, there will be less traffic to the restaurant, and I’m guessing their business is heavily dependent on tourist traffic.

Big Sur from Nepenthe

This is a picture taken from Nepenthe’s balcony. It happens to be my wallpaper right now. It really does make me sad to think that fire is ravaging all this beauty. I know there are those who say that its part of nature, that fire is needed to cleanse out wild areas from time to time, but still. It still makes me sad.

Permission to slack off

Apparently, a recent survey found that American workers are a bunch of slackers — out of eight hours a day at work, they spend as much as two hours lollygagging at social networking sites like Facebook (curious that Facebook was named as a culprit), talking about nothing with coworkers and basically doing nothing.

The shock! The horror! NPR spins it as young people slacking off. The LAT says, dude — slack off, its good for you. Me? Shoot, my work is to provide you with things to read and watch as you slack off.

The actual survey press release includes some interesting tidbits though. For example — the survey found that men and women waste about the same amount of time at work, HOWEVER — HR managers suspect women waste more time. Is it because they simply talk more or because they multi-task better? I think its the latter. Also, the survey notes that HR managers actually set salaries with some slacking off time built in:

“Our survey results show that workers on average are wasting a little more than twice what their employers expect. That’s a startling figure. Although in some cases this extra wasted time might be considered ‘creative waste’ – time that may well have a positive impact on the company’s culture, work environment, and even business results. Personal Internet use and casual office conversations often turn into new business ideas or suggestions for gaining operating efficiencies.”

Let’s also not get into the fact that other countries don’t work as hard as we do — many European countries have mandated 35-hour work weeks and as much as six weeks PAID VACATION TIME. And don’t get me started on maternity leave time in Europe. Just look at it for yourself. It leaves me speechless.

So employers — don’t freak out. Especially when you call us at home, text us via Blackberry or call us in for emergency. I mean, really, we need that slack off time. You don’t want folks going postal.

Photo: Office Space, a film before its time

Reporting live on Pasadena, from India

I know they say you can do just about anything from your home computer, but c’mon. The absurdity of trying to report on Pasadena City Council meetings from India is just — there are no words. It’s so absurd even AP has picked up on the incredulity (beating, by the way, most of the local news outlets. But I suppose its not like I check India’s Craigslist ads everyday, so whatever.

The publication is PasadenaNow.com, and the editor is James MacPherson:

“I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications,” said the 51-year-old Pasadena native. “Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview.”
The first articles, some of which will carry bylines, are slated to appear Friday.

The plan has its doubters.

“Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don’t know the institutions but aren’t even there to witness the events and nuances,” said Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor and Pasadena resident. “This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism could become.”

It is a shaky business proposition as well, said Uday Karmarkar, a UCLA professor of technology and strategy who outsources copy editing and graphics work to Indian businesses. If the goal is sophisticated reporting, he said, Macpherson could end up spending more time editing than the labor savings are worth.

First off, I personally know of a few editors and publishers who are reading about the plan, rubbing their chins with Mr. Burns-like flair, thinking, “why, that could work! Why didn’t we think of that?!”

Second, I love that the whole brouhaha was a chance for the Star-News’ Larry Wilson to kind of brag about where Star-News alumni are now:

Former Star-News reporter Marshall Allen wrote from the Las Vegas Sun: “One of my colleagues here predicted the first question a Pasadena Now community reporter will ask Bogaard: ‘What is your plan to address all the bicycle traffic?”‘

Former City Editor Kathy Drouin-Keith wrote from her desk at Long Island’s Newsday, where she was enjoying a bag of Pasadena Pecan trail mix from Trader Joe’s: “Just came back from the annual meeting of the American Copy Editors Society, where we discussed how to avoid this very problem. The presenter, Joe Grimm, of the Detroit Free Press, said copy editors have to brand themselves: become ‘the comma queen’ or the geography nerd or the person who knows how to do percentages. Seems the same applies to reporters.”

Third, the whole idea is so obviously harebrained and stinks just a little of a publicity stunt. The dude obviously does not care so much about covering Pasadena as he does care about getting those Pasadena advertising dollars.

When I reported on municipal and school board meetings, half the battle was getting there – and from time to time, the story I had prepared would get trashed in favor of another story I got because there were protesters outside, or a huge crowd had gathered to speak on one item, and so on and so forth. Those are not details you can get from watching the meeting online, where you’re dependent on what the camera is pointed at – and often times, they are not pointed at the audience.

Plus, what the heck would they do about the time differences and the language nuances? I’ve never been to India, but I suspect written and spoken English are completely different from the way we do here. Plus all the journalistic idiosyncrasies? Please. I highly doubt this arrangement will last for very long.

Or maybe it will. After all, all he seems to need are those advertising dollars. They could be typing, blah, blah, blah, BLAH, blah, blah, blah, blah, for all he appears to care.

Va. Tech shooting coverage

After seeing the news at the top of Yahoo this morning (I know, I know, I’m late), and watching tidbits of it on CNN, I knew immediately that local news outlets would head for my alma mater, Cal State Fullerton, which was previously the site of another horrific shooting rampage. From Wikipedia:

On the morning of July 12, 1976, Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian at the Cal State Fullerton library, shot nine people in the basement and first floor of the library with a .22-caliber rifle. Seven of the nine wounded victims died.

The shootings occurred shortly before 9:00 am, when the library was scheduled to open. The victims were his fellow university employees.

Allaway fled the campus after the shooting and drove to a nearby hotel where his wife worked. He called police and confessed to the shootings. Police arrested him and found the .22-caliber rifle in the back of his car. He was subsequently represented by a public defender in trial proceedings and pled not guilty by reason of insanity.

He was later found guilty of six counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. However, a second phase of the trial determined that he was not sane. Five different mental health professionals diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. He presented a history of mental illness. He was committed to the California state mental hospital system, where he remains at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, as of 2007.

Allaway’s apparent motive was that he thought pornographers were forcing his wife to appear in movies. This served to enrage him. His wife had filed for divorce just before the attack occurred. The defense alleged that commercial pornographic movies were being shown by library staff members before library opening hours and in break rooms, but Allaway’s wife was not in them.

Most of the Wikipedia entry, interestingly, is based on a Daily Titan article written during my time as editor. Go figure.

I also found this article about Edward Allaway on the Hearst Journalism Awards site – it had won first place in features. Nice.