Endopolis

As the news cycle winds down each year, and as reporters, editors and readers go on vacation, media outlets like to roll out their "Year in Review" packages. This week you probably saw a few of these: Hottest Gadgets of the Year, the Year's Top News Stories, Biggest Celebrity Meltdowns, etc. Yahoo News has its own Year in Review package, natch.

But as each year comes to a close I like a little more meat with my potatoes. I start with Project Censored's Top 25 Censored Stories. This year's list is, as always, thought-provoking, amusing and shocking. It contains some of the usual rants against government that are pretty well known by anyone who follows the news (like Blackwater's role in Iraq), but also some pretty outrageous reports that deserve attention (why won't the FBI accuse Osama bin Laden with the crimes committed on 9/11?).

Another interesting list I found the other day (by way of NPR radio in my car) was Foreign Policy Magazine's Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2007. Number 10 in particular caught my attention: "Armed robots take the field in Iraq." That's something you might have seen in Wired magazine, but not so much in the mainstream press. To think about the implications of robots toting machine guns is downright disturbing.

Happy 2008. 

Posted by senders at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As the photos roll in from the swell of 12/4 and 12/5/07, I can't help but continue to be amazed by the size and power of the surf from up and down the state. Awesome!

• Mavericks (two galleries at the top of the page)
• Morro Bay
• Rincon
• Ventura
• La Jolla 

Thanks, Flickr!

Posted by senders at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Whenever the waves get really big, the surfing network lights up. There's a buzz, and you start watching the forecast and looking for photos and videos online, and me and my surfer friends start pinging each other with anticipation and excitement. "Dude! It's huge!"

I also usually get a few messages from family members or other friends who have heard reports of the large surf, warning me not to go out. They shouldn't worry. Not that I can get to the beach without faking a sick day, but I have no desire to try and paddle out and test my mettle when the buoys are reporting 18 foot swells at 17 seconds.

The Monterey buoy was there 24 hours ago, which on a beach or reef equals 20 foot-plus surf. No thanks. The biggest waves I've ever paddled out in (while in my prime) were about half that size. Big, but not BIG. I may be a wuss, but I'm comfortable with my limits.

I was dreaming about seeing the ocean yesterday and early today because the waves were as big as they've been in quite some time, and I love to gawk at the ocean's power. All the usual spots were off the charts, going ballistic: Mavericks was enormous (photos are starting to trickle in), and the waters around Santa Cruz were turned into a washing machine. This video from the Mercury News shows some of the action, including the rescue of a surfer who apparently paddled out only to be overwhelmed by the currents. A reporter interviewed him after reaching dry land; he seems a bit embarrassed, and rightfully so. The prospect and possibility of lifeguards zipping on jet-skis to save my ass does not make me want to paddle out. I'd probably not want to be interviewed when I got back to shore, either.

Riding big waves are the Everest of surfing. They're out there, and people will try to conquer them. At a big-wave spot in Pebble Beach, a well-known surfer died after losing his board and trying to swim ashore. On the San Mateo coast near Mavericks, two men from a fishing boat probably lost their lives after their ship was presumably rolled by the big surf.

The swell marched down the coast yesterday afternoon, and everything north to south was BIG. I just wish my only view on all that action wasn't through a computer.

Posted by senders at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Great interview here with Kevin Sites, who was on the PBS News Hour recently talking about his experiences with the Hot Zone.

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Drudge had an interesting red headline the other day, trumpeting the success of the CNN/YouTube debates. Or, more accurately, that the GOP debate hosted by CNN/YouTube last week was the most-watched debate yet.

Here are the top three, according to TVNewser.

I haven't watched the GOP debate from the other night, but the format certainly was interesting and different (I did see the first Democratic debate on CNN).

It's too bad that the table above doesn't include the Democratic Candidate Mashup, which we at Yahoo! News produced and hosted in September. I always meant to come back and write a little about that experience, but since the moment is long lost I won't dwell on it a whole lot here now. I served as the product/project lead on the web side of the event, and it was the most challenging, exciting, and rewarding project I've ever been a part of.

Users seemed to like it, too. If that chart above had our "debate" included, Yahoo! News would be on top. The metrics are a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but we had well over 4 million video streams on the page, watched by well over a million users in the one week we heavily promoted the feature. Since our debate is still available to see online, people are still continuing to watch it. Let's just say the numbers are far ahead of either of CNN/YouTube's TV events.

Posted by senders at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)