In the early '90s I was an editor of StarText, the pre-web online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

One of the most popular features I introduced on StarText was goodnews, a keyword where readers were always guaranteed to find a non-depressing news story.

A wire story today reminded me of that keyword -- a 400-foot tall waterfall has been discovered in a northern California recreational area:

Until recently, very few had seen the roaring water that tumbles three tiers before pouring neatly into Crystal Creek. That such a spectacle should evade even park officials for nearly 40 years is remarkable, said park superintendent Jim Milestone.

"It wasn't on a map, no one on the trail crew knew about it. People who been here 27 years had never seen it," said Milestone, who is leading an effort to clear a trail to the newly named Whiskeytown Falls.

2005/08/13 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Air America Addresses Loan Issue

The New York Times reported today on the questionable loans that Air America Radio's former director Evan Cohen gave to the network from a New York children's charity.

A spokesman for the charity told the Times that Air America has placed $875,000 in escrow as part of a repayment agreement. Al Franken addressed the subject in detail on his program earlier this week.

This should take the wind out of the sails of the conservative bloggers who have been riding this story for weeks, inflating its importance with grandiose names like "Air Enron." But a quote from Brian Maloney's analysis of Franken's program shows they plan to keep right on rowing:

The Radio Equalizer analyzed this audio in great detail.

After repeated listening ... the laughter seems nervous in nature, coming at odd times. It's used to cover up the particularly touchy aspects of this, toward the end.

This isn't the first time that Maloney's finely tuned hearing has picked up the sound of a conspiracy. In 2004, when his weekly Sunday afternoon radio show was cancelled by Seattle station KIRO because of Seahawks coverage, he claimed the real reason was his on-air criticism of Dan Rather.

Politics · Radio · 2005/08/12 · 8 COMMENTS · Link

Getting a Read on My Readers

People who have read Workbench for a while are probably wondering whether this has become a political weblog. My site has always emphasized what I'm working on at the moment, and I'm currently developing the LAMP web application that runs the Drudge Retort and serving as an unofficial geek advisor to the Alan Colmes Radio Show.

As a consequence, I've been eating, breathing, and sleeping politics for weeks. I may be taking it too far; I dreamed about Michelle Malkin last night, and all we did was argue about her supernatural ability to communicate with Casey Sheehan.

No vigorous spankings to correct her misguided political views. No suggestive remarks that referenced her desire to be subjected to internment. We played Hardball. A subconscious is wasted on the wrong people.

I have a big open source programming project that I'm hoping to release next week, which should bring technology back to this technology blog.

In the meantime, I'd like to offer free books to people who can answer a question for me: Why do you read Workbench? Technology? Politics? Jacksonville news? Raw sex appeal? International incidents involving domain name registration and the papacy?

I have extra copies of every one of my books except for Radio UserLand Kick Start. I'll give one to 10 people who take the time to comment on why you're here (as long as I can mail it to you for under $10). There are books on Java, Movable Type, FrontPage, and Windows XP. You can pick the book -- the best value, both in terms of retail price and metric tonnage, is the 840-page Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days, 4th Edition).

Any wiseguy who asks for a book written by someone else will receive a copy of Teach Yourself SunSoft Java WorkShop in 21 Days, a book that went out of date because of a Sun software upgrade about 10 minutes after it hit the shelves in 1996.

Publishing · 2005/08/12 · 20 COMMENTS · Link

Dukakis, Perot, Clinton, Gore, Kerry

Politics · 2005/08/11 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

Turn Your AM Dial to the Left

I'm putting together a talk radio station lineup, in case I win the lottery and can bring liberal radio to Jacksonville. North Florida could use the variety -- I live within listening range of three stations that carry Rush Limbaugh live. I can only assume that the right wingers in this area are concerned that one or two stations might lose their towers to a hurricane or nuclear attack, so they've build some redundancies into the system.

My rules: All hosts have to air live, should run in their entirety, and be a liberal alternative to the conservatives hogging AM radio. Here's what I've got so far:

• 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.: Rachel Maddow
• 10 a.m. to Noon: Diane Rehm
• Noon to 3 p.m.: Al Franken
• 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.: Ed Schultz
• 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.: The Alan Colmes

I don't know what to do with 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., or 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Air America offers Jerry Springer in the morning, but I think I'd prefer three hours of dead air, and I've yet to hear a broadcast of Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder's evening show that I liked. I may try again this evening to hear guest Duncan Black raise some hell.

There's nothing on in the middle of the night but George Noory, the creepy successor to Art Bell. Maybe I'll just broadcast live audio of Al Franken sleeping.

Radio · Politics · Jacksonville · 2005/08/11 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

AOL's web site redesign includes BlogZone, a blog digest similar to the Daou Report on Salon.Com.

I found it because of the traffic it's sending to the Cindy Sheehan interview broadcast by Alan Colmes.

2005/08/10 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

All Cheer the SuperJews

Jerry Springer has a fill-in host on Air America Radio, a Colorado talk show host named Jay Marvin who's vastly more listenable than the mumbly panderer.

Today, a caller told Marvin about a bit of sports trivia that floored me: A European soccer team goes by the monicker "the Jews," which inspires some horrible taunts by rival fans.

I dug up the details for a post today on SportsFilter:

Cheering on the SuperJews Wonder what it would be like if a sports team used a Jewish mascot? For years, fans of Ajax Amsterdam, Holland's most popular football team, have called themselves super-Joden (super Jews), wearing Star of David tattoos and flying Israeli flags at matches, but not because of their religion -- the team's home pitch is near Amsterdam's Jewish neighborhood. Says one Holocaust survivor: "When other teams' supporters chant 'Hamas, Hamas, the Jews to the gas', the Ajax fans are not hurt, because they're not real Jews. But my family was murdered in the gas chambers, so I am very insulted.'"

Sports · Politics · 2005/08/09 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

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