- 07:46 I hope the House doesn't pass telecom immunity while I'm at #TED not paying attention.
- 07:57 I'm at TED now, but @newmediajim is at the White House.
- 07:59 @newmediajim would you please tell Pres Bush that the ends don't justify the means, esp warrantless NSA wiretaps. Thanks.
- 08:43 Aww man. Late to first #TED session, and cafe ran out of soy milk.
- 08:55 #ted Craig Venter is designing cells to turn CO2 into fuel. Shipping in 18 months. Stay tuned.
- 09:43 @austinhill pick up Dean Ornish's new book The Spectrum. It's quite good. #ted
- 11:10 @Pamo save me a seat please!
- 11:22 #ted So I stood in line to get in the Main Hall, and all we are doing so far is watching a simulcast from Aspen.
- 11:44 #ted Isaac Mizrahi has too many outrageously amusing quotes to repeat here
- 11:46 Btw, #ted Dove ad earlier was great: Talk to Your Daughters Before the Beauty Industry Does.
- 11:55 @MParekh thanks for link, which I would cite here, but I still can't copy and paste on the iPhone.
- 12:01 #ted That was awesome. Detective work to identify the real face of Leonardo da Vinci. Turns out he did self-portraits.
- 12:31 Listening to Richard Saul Wurman talk about the creation of #TED 24 years ago.
- 12:33 #ted RSW: "All the talks aren't equally good but the bad ones aren't that long."
- 12:42 #ted RSW: 192021.org. 19 cities 20 million people 21st century
- 12:49 So exciting. Garrett Lisi takes the #ted stage.
- 14:36 Ready for next #ted session, Will Evil Prevail? Sitting next to @loiclemeur.
- 14:38 #TED: Philip Zimbardo, Stanford Prison Experiment, the Lucifer Effect.
- 15:07 Powerful talk by Phil Zimbardo at #TED. Still recovering.
- 15:37 News you can use: how to survive a nuclear detonation. Only at #ted.
- 15:38 Don't look at light, keep mouth open, duck and cover, get away from fallout, basement or above 9th floor...
- 15:40 Move downwind or crosswind, cover mouth, decontaminate, stay sheltered for up to 72 hours.
- 15:43 #ted CivDef satire poster: Rumsfeld: I will beat your ass with a shovel if you fuck with my country.
- 15:48 @Pamo /me waves. I'm 6 rows back over your left shoulder.
- 16:05 Next up at #TED: Samantha Power
- 16:45 Now having coffee with the guy who won the charity auction to attend #TED.
- 17:19 #TED Prize session is about to start. I think streaming live at ted.com.
- 21:26 David Blaine is talking to Samantha Power. He is not levitating right now.
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- 09:41 Must be TED. Hotel elevator full of interesting people. Heading to TED U, pre-conf microclasses.
- 10:04 TED U Tour of the China Web in 8 minutes or less. Next up, Mark Pincus on social apps (eg Facebook)
- 10:23 Next up: Social Media: what the heck is happening online?
- 10:32 This one has nice pictures. History of communication tech, from smoke signals to Nokia N95.
- 10:53 Now that's what I'm talking about: take a class, get a free Nokia N95. :-)
- 11:15 Yes, it's the 3G version. :-)
- 13:10 TED is about to officially start. Lining up at the main hall.
- 14:01 Leaky: humans are the only animal that conciously makes decisions that are bad for the survival of its species.
- 14:07 Jay Walker: it takes the energy from one lump of coal to download one megabyte of data.
- 14:41 I'm sitting next to @loiclemeur and I don't have to pay attention because I can read his twitters.
- 14:52 No way. Stephen Hawking. Pre recorded but way cool.
- 15:14 Two brains on TED stage: Jill Bolte Taylor holds a real human brain in her gloved hands, spinal cord dangling.
- 16:12 Thomas Dolby and the TED band, live from Simulcast lounge.
- 16:22 WorldwideTelescope.org coming in April. Browse the universe. Very cool.
- 16:44 John Hodgman (PC Guy) is talking about Fermi and aliens, but I'm distracted. Where's Mac Guy?
- 16:46 He is hilarious. Now talking about his close encounter.
- 21:44 Best part of BBC World Debate was when the cameras broke and Robin Williams did an impromptu standup from the audience to stall.
- 23:58 Greetings new followers! Back from EDGE/Brockman dinner, good to meet Nassim Taleb. Also met Mark Zuckerberg for first time. Brain is tired.
- 00:34 @ShahrzadN you probably need to go to twitter.com/devices to hook up your phone again
- 00:36 @ThereSkippy are you at TED? I don't see you. Of course, I'm getting ready for bed now and it would be really odd if I did see you.
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- 10:27 Packing for TED. Any other Twitterers going to be there?
- 10:32 @dsifry great I'll look for you
- 10:43 @ev great, see you there
- 11:38 @davewiner no Wire spoilers please! I'm a couple episodes behind!
- 17:06 @Ross check with local community foundation. They should know how to help, or someone who can, receive medical donations.
- 17:08 In Monterey, beautiful weather, hope it holds!
- 18:13 TED gift bag line. Always the first stop. Lots of goodies, plus a Zune. What's a Zune?
- 18:26 @benja right on.
- 18:37 Excellent, that *is* Robin Williams in the TED registration line.
- 18:48 I'm sitting on the bus next to the guy who used E8 to come up with a theory of everything. Physics. Garrett Lisi.
- 00:04 Back from opening dinner. Talked about Evil with Phil Zimbardo, E8 with Garrett Lisi, and everything else with everyone else. Ready for TED.
- 00:31 Argh, my email says 666 unread. Talk about evil.
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- 18:59 Lots of meetings today, no time to twitter. About to start last meeting of the day.
- 23:06 @loiclemeur don't be pissed... TED starts tomorrow night! Something to look forward to.
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- 10:59 @davewiner I agree with you in principle but be wary of too much trust in President, e.g. post-9/11.
- 15:05 Signing up a bunch of friends for Twitted over lunch.
- 15:06 Twitter, that is.
- 15:44 Help remove
- 15:45 Oops. Twitter text commands changed?
- 17:41 @semhar weird, why am I not allowed to direct-message you? Your settings?
- 19:10 Tried to take a nap, but bit my lip right before falling asleep. How weird is that?
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- 17:01 Not good. W Antarctic ice draining to ocean faster than IPCC suggests. Sea level rise could happen much sooner. tinyurl.com/28qbk4
- 17:04 @kamranjune That is definitely cheating. Would not be vegetarian Persian food. Ghormeh Sabzi is delicious w/out meat, though.
- 17:05 Any Twitterfolk going to TED2009 next week? I'll be there. I'll try to twitter with #TED hashtag.
- 17:06 I suppose that would be TED2008 next week, not TED2009. I'm a bit ahead of myself.
- 17:09 Good short piece on why @hrheingold is hooked on Twitter: tinyurl.com/2me5cg
- 18:12 I can't log in to qik.com now, trying to demo it. Law of demos I guess.
- 00:42 Qik.com was only down for a minute, so demo was fine. Intro'd a few people to twitter and qik, had a nice party, and now the party's over.
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- 15:58 @kamranjune I'm a bit younger than Ben Franklin, you know. Also a bit more alive, these days.
- 20:12 @loiclemeur 's advice to entrepreneurs. Well done. youtube.com/watch?v=N5VTTd8Pwls
- 20:20 @scobleizer I love Persian food and I bet my wife can out-cook yours! But we are vegetarians since August, makes it a bit hard for Persian.
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- 15:39 Is it Thursday? I thought it was Wednesday.
- 15:57 McCain/NYT flap misses the point. People should *read* the story. No gotcha there, no bad implications. Just maybe his blind spot to optics.
- 18:01 "Silly season." Nice positive spin on negative campaigning.
- 18:19 I didn't like the Xerox line because it violated trademark. Or maybe they're a donor? I'm sure we can find a Xerox-Clinton donor. Silliness.
- 18:46 Wow, well said.
- 18:50 @omigog sorry, that was debate commentary
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- 13:24 2 days since my last twitter? Can't get word in btwn @acarvin and @davewiner
- 13:33 Thanks for the nudge my friend.
- 14:05 Facebook ABC News poll on warrantless wiretapping immunity: tinyurl.com/2l83ts
- 14:32 Playing with Seesmic. But it's not updating my Twitter status like it's supposed to.
- 16:12 Anonymous sources are out of control: tinyurl.com/33s43z
- 16:33 @dsifry thanks, listening now
- 16:40 @dsifry Must be embarrassing for the poor guy, what with being dean of a journalism school and all... but what if he was a blogger?
- 17:35 Maybe because I thought everyone knew, but I'm surprised at how little notice the "935 lies to war" report got: tinyurl.com/3axzuu
- 21:05 That's five repeat twitter texts I've received. You can stop now.
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I'm not an expert in the journalistic use of anonymous sources, but something seems to be getting out of hand. Almost every article I read about government activities cites unnamed anonymous sources. The New York Times often includes awkward notes about why their sources asked for anonymity, but the reasons don't always seem that compelling. And the Times doesn't typically offer a compelling argument for why they granted anonymity; instead, they only report that the source requested anonymity for certain reasons. And sometimes those reasons are entirely missing.
Take this excerpt from an article today about the government's plan to shoot down a failing intelligence satellite:
Providing new information about how the mission would be carried out, a senior military officer on Wednesday described the vessels, weapons and command structure for the unusual operation, the first time an interceptor designed for missile defense would be used to attack a satellite. The senior military officer briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. [emphasis added]
Why would a senior military officer "brief" reporters about the operation, but only on the condition of anonymity? When I read "briefed reporters," I imagine a press conference with multiple reporters from different news organizations, listening to a statement and asking questions. Did this take place in person, or over the phone? If it was over the phone, how do reporters know the officer is who he says he is, and that he is in a position to know what he is talking about? He could have said, "I'm Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but since you're not going to print that, no one will ever catch me."
And why would a senior military officer share information about the program only to withhold his name? Was he not authorized to share this information? If that's the case, since he is an officer, he can expect a court martial in his future, no? What about his assistant? Did he help set up the meeting? Did anyone else know about it?
Clearly I don't understand how this whole thing works. It seems like a casual and capricious use of anonymity. Since when does our government get to hide behind anonymous spokesmen? If you're not in a position to fear retribution for talking to the press, then anonymity only implies that you've got something to hide. Which makes me not want to believe a word you say.
So, in my way of understanding, this innocuous article should have been recast as this: Government Refuses to Discuss Details of Satellite Shoot-Down. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, without good reason, is like not speaking at all.
