Women, earthquakes and Boobquake 04/26/2010

In response to a statement by an Iranian cleric that women wearing revealing clothing cause earthquakes, an Indiana blogger initiated a demonstration called Boobquake.

“In a prayer sermon, the cleric said: ‘Many women who do not dress modestly… lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,’” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi said in response to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s warning of a possible quake striking Tehran.

Miffed by this statement, blogger Jennifer McCreight shared her views online, which resulted in a campaign to get women worldwide to show as much cleavage as possible as an answer to the cleric’s link between women and this natural disaster. Boobquake is slated for today and while I usually support grassroots movements empowering girls and women and have a daring streak, I can’t show off the “sistahs” today so I’ll pass on this effort; supporters can buy a T-shirt (sales will benefit the Red Cross). But I am sure the effort will generate a lot of buzz. I am too old/modest and more inclined to challenge ideas with my mind. I can’t help but wonder what type of criticism it will generate. Last time a woman’s body made headlines was when singer/songwriter Erykah Badu debuted a video off her latest CD. She tried to make a powerful statement, but I think that message was overshadowed by the reaction to her disrobing as she walked in Dallas, namely near the site of Kennedy’s assassination.

“Obligatory disclaimer: I in no way think that all Muslims or Iranians or theists agree with these two men. For all the rational thinkers out there who happen to fall into those groups, my mockery is not directed toward you,” McCreight posted on her blog.

After her joke generated a lot of online and media attention, she wrote Wednesday, “I just want to apologize if this comes off as demeaning toward women. To be honest, it started as silly joke that I hurriedly fired off since I was about to miss the beginning of House. I never thought it would get the attention it did. If I would have known, I would have spent more time being careful about my wording. That being said, I don’t think the event is completely contrary to feminist ideals. I’m asking women to wear their most ‘immodest’ outfit that they already would wear, but to coordinate it all on the same day for the sake of the experiment. Heck, just showing an ankle would be considered immodest by some people. …”

Webby Awards Announce Nominees 04/13/2010

On Tuesday, the 14th Annual Webby Awards announced finalists for the Internet’s top honors.  The “Oscars of the web,” as CNN International anchor and correspondent Errol Barnett  called the honor in a tweet linking to his segment about the nominees, will be handed out on June 14. The ceremony will mark the end of Internet Week New York 2010.

Internet and pop culture standouts nominated this year include Twitter, foursquare, “The Hangover” star Zach Galifianakis, David After Dentist, Texts from Last Night, Hulu, Mashable, and ColbertNation. According to the Webby Awards, NYTimes.com leads with 15 nominations, followed by BBC with nine nods; and The Onion, Next New Networks and CollegeHumor, each earning six nominations. Beliefnet, for which I monitor and contribute to its community discussion boards, was named one of the nominees in religion and spirituality.

This year, the international award honoring excellence on the Internet launched the Webby People’s Voice Awards. Judges such as Martha Stewart, David Bowie, and Arianna Huffington will pick the winners among the finalists, but fans of these sites can vote for their favorites through April 29. Click here to register and vote: http://webby.aol.com.

“What makes The Webby Awards so much fun is that fans help select the winners, and now that they can vote on our partner networks like AOL and YouTube, we’re expecting more people than ever to participate,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards, in a press release. “Over the next three weeks, we’re going to see who has what it takes to win the battle for Web supremacy.”

Old LL Cool J clips snipped from Sarah Palin’s show – Join the Discussion 03/31/2010

Taken from a Beliefnet.com forum thread: Seems like, of late, we’ve seen a lot of the former Republican vice presidential candidate and now Fox News Channel provides another reason.

The first episode of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s new series, “Real American Stories” airs at 10 p.m. ET Thursday and again on Sunday. Her guests include country singer Toby Keith and former General Electric chief executive officer Jack Welch. According to the program’s Web site, it is designed to celebrate the American spirit.

Rapper and actor LL Cool J also was advertised as a featured guest, but “Fox News said it would cut an interview with LL Cool J from the debut episode of ‘Real American Stories,’” according to a New York Times arts beat blog post Wednesday.

On Twitter, the “NCIS: Los Angeles” star wrote Tuesday, “Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW.”

“Press representatives for LL Cool J said Fox News was repurposing an old interview without his permission. Fox News said that it conducted an interview with LL Cool J about 18 months ago for a program called “Real American Stories,” and that it did not need his permission to use the interview on the new program,” the New York Times  reported Wednesday.

With news about the rapper, I wonder how this will impact the new series’ debut. Join the discussion at Beliefnet.com.

Update (10 p.m.) courtesy of the Washington Post’s 44 blog: “Country singer Toby Keith was also unwittingly included in promotions for Palin’s show, a spokesperson says. “Toby was not asked to participate nor has he ever done an interview with Sarah Palin,” his publicist told PopEater. “Like LL, Keith’s interview for the special was also taped in 2008.”

Bride, Groom Tweet at the Altar 12/03/2009

I know we’re in the right-up-to-the minute age of communication, but really couldn’t this have waited? Also, the people who matter the most, who’d really want to know about the change in their status, aren’t they like sitting there at the ceremony?

 

AP Issues Social-Networking Guidelines 06/23/2009

The Associated Press  has adopted a social-networking policy  for employees, warning them  “to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards.”

“It’s a good idea to monitor your profile page to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards; any such material should be deleted. Also, managers should not issue friend requests to subordinates, since that could be awkward for employees. It’s fine if employees want to initiate the friend process with their bosses,” according to the policy.

“The AP’s social-networking policy comes as the media at large begins adopting Facebook and Twitter guidelines during a time of explosive growth in online social media,” wrote David Kravets for Wired.com. “The News Media Guild, representing about 1,000 AP journalists, says the AP’s policy is perhaps the most restrictive the union has seen.”

“I am unaware of anything else like that,” News Media Guild President Tony Winton told Wired. “Parts of the policy seem to be snuffing out peoples’ First Amendment rights of expression by a company that wraps itself in the First Amendment.”

The news organization is concerned about what employees’ put on their social networking feed/pages because “we all have a stake in upholding the AP’s reputation for fairness and impartiality, which has been one of our chief assets for more than 160 years.”

“So many people were asking what our policy was, we wanted to lay out the top-level view,” Kristin Gazlay, AP’s managing editor/financial news and global training, told Editor and Publisher.

She distributed the policy to employees last week.

“It has become a huge part of how people gather information and disseminate information,” Gazlay said. ”There is no intent on being Big Brother, no plans to scour people’s pages looking for things.”

“These guidelines do not break new ground – they are consistent with the rest of our Statement of News Values and Principles. They just take into account the new realities of the social-networking world and answer questions that many AP employees have asked,” according to the policy.