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Jan

23

Carnival of Ohio Politics #101 now posted

Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off

Thanks go to Scott Piepho of Pho’s Akron Pages for this week’s Carnival of Ohio Politics.  The words and image alone are worth the read.  Great job, Scott.

Remember, a Carnival needs all types to keep it vibrant.  You’d think I’d be happy with the nearly 70 or so contributors in the sidebar but no, I want more.  More, I say.  Whether you consider your blog a political one or not, face it: you’re an Ohioan in a presidential election year.  You must write some posts that wax political.  Send them to the Carnival to play with all the others.  You will have a great time.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:37 pm January 23rd, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off 

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Jan

23

The beauty of unenhanced breasts

Filed Under Health Care, Tech, Women | 4 Comments

I got to see what that looks like today, after my second follow-up MRI – the first follow-up having been after my first-ever MRI.

The reminder to have the second follow-up flashed on my PDA regularly starting in September, but I kept stylusing it to “snooze” until two weeks ago. Likewise, last fall, I ignored the two notices that told me that I was overdue for my annual mammogram (it was supposed to be in October) and needed to schedule it immediately.

Then, as part of my new year’s resolution to do what’s on my to do list (and to actually keep a to do list that’s accurate, complete and in small enough chunks so that I can complete items on it) instead of just keeping the list and thinking that that’s enough, I scheduled the MRI.

The recap is that I have a very strong family history but a just-too low Gail score (this tool gives a similar result for me, so I would guess it’s quite accurate) that makes me ineligible for many clinical trials related to prevention. Genetic testing showed that my mother (who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 44; her mother died at age 52 of metastasized breast cancer) does not carry the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 mutations, but, in 1999, I was given about a 30% chance of getting breast cancer. (According to the American Cancer Society, “The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer some time during her life is about 1 in 8. The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 35.” You can read the most recent ACS report on breast cancer, for 2007-2008 here.) Given my increase in age, I would expect that my risk has gone up somewhat, though probably not enormously.

So at age 43, it was suggested that I start to get MRIs annually (I already see my ob/gyn once a year for my annual, and a breast cancer specialist six months after that, each year; that’s been going on since I turned 40). Again, because of my family history (in addition to my mother and her mother, there’s also my mother’s father’s sister, her daughter and her granddaughter; they all had cancer and two of them died of it; two had breast, one had bone). Read more

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:30 pm January 23rd, 2008 in Health Care, Tech, Women | 4 Comments 

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Jan

23

NYT invests in WordPress

Filed Under Blogging, Business, Media, Tech | 1 Comment

You read that right.  From the New York Times article, “Times Company in Group Investing in Blog Publisher,”:

Automattic, the commercial arm of the popular WordPress publishing platform for blogs, has received $29.5 million in financing from four companies, including a small portion from The New York Times Company.

WordPress is open-source software used by bloggers to publish posts. Its chief competitors are Blogger (owned by Google) and TypePad (owned by the software company Six Apart).

Automattic received $1.1 million in financing about two years ago. Polaris Venture Partners, True Ventures and Radar Partners were joined by the Times Company in the second round of financing.

Does it mean anything to you, especially if you use WordPress?

Martin A. Nisenholtz, the senior vice president for digital operations of the Times Company, said the company hoped to improve the publishing technology at the foundation of WordPress and harness the platform’s ability to aggregate blog posts.

“As we’ve adopted blogging and started to treat it as a mainstream publishing platform, there are all sorts of things we might do going forward to improve our approach,” he said.

Citing a potential application of the technology, Mr. Schneider said blog posts from across the Internet could be featured alongside stories on The Times’s Web site. [my emphasis]

Hmm. How do you suppose that will work with blogs that use WordPress but that have a Creative Commons License on it?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:45 pm January 23rd, 2008 in Blogging, Business, Media, Tech | 1 Comment 

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Jan

23

“Internet is the Dennis Kucinich of media” re: political ad spends

Filed Under Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Media, Politics, Tech, WH2008 | Comments Off

Wow. I didn’t think of that line, but Media Post did:

WHEN IT COMES TO GARNERING political ad dollars, the Internet is the Dennis Kucinich of media outlets.

 

With political advertising expected to hit nearly $5 billion this election year, online spending will collect just $20 million–with half that amount funneled into paid search, according to a new study.

The report, released Wednesday by Borrell & Associates, predicts that broadcast television will maintain its dominant role in selling candidates–capturing $2.9 billion, or 60%, of all political ad spending in 2008. The rest will go to newspapers (17%), radio (10%) and cable TV (5%).

Borrell postulates that this is because:

1. “…older, affluent voters remain the core of candidates’ political support, according to the Borrell report. The best way to reach the over-55 crowd is still TV, since most of that group spends less than an hour per week online.”

2. “…[a] continuing uncertainty about its effectiveness in reaching and targeting undecided voters. When candidates have to make a broad impact in a short time, they are more likely to turn to TV or other media.”

In addition to other speculation based on the study,

Borrell also expects that a new crop of niche political blogs such as Politico.com and RedBlueAmerica.com will become increasingly important information sources, especially for the Web 2.0 generation.

Politico.com took off much, much faster than the speed RBA seems to be generating currently, but it’s still extremely new. The Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com new political blogging effort is an example of what Borrell predicts.

The report’s answer to the “why bother” question, even as it acknowledges that such benefits don’t necessarily lead to votes:

The report argues that the Web’s importance for candidates goes well beyond what they’re paying for online media. In particular, candidate Web sites have become a key way to build grassroots support and raise money. As an example, it points to the $17 million that Barack Obama raised in the second quarter of 2007, almost two-thirds of which ($10 million) came from online contributions.

Campaign sites also serve as “free” media hubs. “A candidate can now deliver information directly to his or her constituency–or to the electorate in general–without having to purchase airtime, newspaper space or stamps,” said Gordon Borrell, president of Borrell Associates.

I’m still not feeling sorry for Dennis though.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:55 pm January 23rd, 2008 in Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Media, Politics, Tech, WH2008 | Comments Off 

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