Calling the Itamar Attacker a 'Terrorist'

I'm getting some pushback on the Drudge Retort to how I presented the Itamar attack story:

Intruder Kills Israeli Settler Family

In the West Bank settlement of Itamar, five members of an Israeli family were killed Friday night by an intruder who broke into their home and stabbed them to death. The suspect stabbed the mother, father and children aged 11, three and three months old. Two children, aged 2 and 4, were not harmed in the attack. The attacker has not been caught.

The media is calling the attacker a terrorist. I read six stories on the incident last night and none of them contained a single bit of evidence to back up this claim. They all simply assume that it must be terrorism and quote people making the same assumption.

I know this heinous crime is likely to be terrorism, but the media should not jump to conclusions and report something that is likely as if it is certain. This is particularly true when a story has immediate and explosive political ramifications.

But since I wrestled with this decision for a while, I'd like to hear other opinions.

Longevity, Health and Charlie Sheen

Last night's episode of Two and a Half Men ended with this end-of-show text from series creator Chuck Lorre, who puts vanity cards at the end of his shows that only can be read by pausing the TV:

I exercise regularly. I eat moderate amounts of healthy food. I make sure to get plenty of rest. I see my doctor once a year and my dentist twice a year. I floss every night. I've had chest x-rays, cardio stress tests EKGs and colonoscopies. I see a psychologist and have a variety of hobbies to reduce stress. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't have crazy, reckless sex with strangers.

If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed.

Huffington Post is a Content Cesspool

A lot of the commentary about AOL's purchase of Huffington Post is coming from people who don't appear to have ever visited the site. Huffington Post is not a liberal news and opinion site, though that was founder Arianna Huffington's stated goal when it began in 2005. It's a massive search engine optimized pile of junk content with a little original news and commentary sprinkled in -- and most of that was written for free with no editorial oversight or quality control.

On Saturday, an unnamed Huffington Post employee wrote an article that perfectly represents the dreck that it publishes -- a story titled "When does the Super Bowl start?" Check out some of the fine journalism that AOL valued at $310 million:

Are you wondering, "what time does the Superbowl start?"

It's a common search query, as is "what time is the super bowl 2011," "superbowl time" and "superbowl kickoff time 2011," according to Google Trends the evening before the Super Bowl.

It's easily answered too. Super Bowl 2011 will take place on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

The NFC Champion Green Bay Packers will take on the AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas. Early odds had the Packers as the favorites and both sides have several standout players.

Usher, Slash and the Black-Eyed Peas are scheduled to provide the Half Time Show entertainment.

You can watch the game live on television (FOX) or follow along live online via Twitter or the numerous live blogs on the Web, including one right here on The Huffington Post.

In the meantime, be sure to preview some of the Super Bowl commercials here and share your prediction for the game below.

When Huffington Post isn't running Google Trends-inspired searchbait like this, it's taking stories from other sites, copying big chunks of them and putting a search-friendly headline and lots of tags on it. This often leads to the site getting more traffic and higher prominence in Google than the originator of the news.

People who think the editorial vision of Arianna Huffington will be good for AOL media properties -- such as the recently acquired TechCrunch -- are kidding themselves. If Huffington follows the same blueprint for success that got her acquired by AOL, TechCrunch, Engadget and the rest of AOL's original web content will be search engine optimized, topic linked and ad saturated to oblivion.

Right Whale Dies Off St. Augustine

Right whale entangled by rope off Daytona, Florida, Dec. 31, 2011

On Dec. 30, 2010, a team of federal and state biologists rescued a severely entangled North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Daytona, Florida. The whale, born during the 2008-09 calving season, was one of 300-400 left in existence from a population that once numbered in the tens of thousands. (Click the picture to see a high-resolution JPEG photo.)

The female whale had become caught in more than 150 feet of fishing rope and wire mesh, some stuck in its mouth. This was causing it feeding difficulties that left the creature undersized.

On Jan. 15, 2011, the team sedated the same whale, slowing it down enough to remove 50 more feet of rope.

Sadly, the whale died this week and its body was towed to shore on Butler Beach south of St. Augustine late Wednesday night. I drove out yesterday to see the whale and witnessed a team of around 20 people conducting an autopsy and dispensing of the whale's remains.

Right whale being autopsied on Butler Beach near St. Augustine, Florida, on Feb. 3, 2011

I've shared the photos I took on Flickr. They're not for the squeamish. The whale was so big they had to use a backhoe to pull it apart. One guy stood atop it with a machete and others climbed inside the animal, a gory process that was surprisingly bloodless. By the time I stopped by a few hours later with my son Max, almost all that was left was a 20-foot long truckbed filled with whale bones. It looked like the remnants of a giant rib dinner. The smell downwind of it was horrible.

I've been following the news of this whale for weeks, so it was depressing to learn that it didn't make it. I'm currently looking for opportunities to help the whales, who come south every winter from December to March to give birth to calves. The blog North Atlantic Right Whale Watch has more pictures and information on how to volunteer as a whale-spotter here in North Florida.

Direct Quote

"Around 12 years ago I photographed the opening of a salon at Bergdorf Goodman. Molly Ringwald was there & I asked to her to pose. She said yes & we walked over to a private area to do the shoot. Before I started to click I told her that Sixteen Candles was my all time favorite movie. She gave me a NASTY look & stormed away. A minute or so later the event organizer came over to me with 2 security guards & told me that I offended Ms. Ringwald & she wanted me thrown out. I explained what I said & was told it didn't matter, she wanted me out & I had to go. I said fine, I'll leave on my own & he said that Ms. Ringwald insisted she be able to watch me be escorted out with the security guards. It was humiliating, to say the least. I still remember the nasty/gloating smile on her face as I walked past her, with a security guard on either side of me. That is probably my most memorable (not in a good way) celebrity experience as a photographer." -- Steven Bergman

'Place to Be' by Hiromi Uehara

Heard this song for the first time tonight on the Concord Records site and couldn't believe how great it was.

Buying Our First iMac for Video Editing

Apple iMovie logo

My son Max has volunteered to help athletes at his high school edit video of their game highlights to send to colleges. The athletic department devotes an Apple iMac to this purpose and also has some Windows 7 laptops.

Since my sons all have an interest in filmmaking, thanks to YouTube, we're going to buy an iMac that will be devoted to editing video and find classes to help them nurture their inner Akira Kurosawa. As a Windows and Linux guy, I'm not sure what we need to purchase. I have a few questions for Mac gurus reading this post:

  • How much iMac do we need to edit video, in terms of hardware, memory and disk space?
  • Is Apple iMovie sufficient, or should be we looking at Final Cut Pro?
  • What other software should we get?
  • How upgradeable are iMacs?

We'd be buying the Mac from an Apple Store, so if there are service or training plans to get (or avoid), that advice would be helpful too.

The high school produces video in several formats. Some are VOB, BUP and IFO files, which I think are the standard DVD format. The others are in either Quicktime or AVI.

I don't think the school has Final Cut Pro, so my son will be using iMovie on the Mac and Windows Movie Maker on the PCs at school.

I tried unsuccessfully to pull VOB files into iMovie. A Google search led me to advice that Toast Titanium can convert that format to one iMovie likes, but when I tried to do that with Titanium 6, a dialog informed me that I needed "Toast with Jam."

Please help me become an Apple snob. I don't want to have to ask a Genius.