When we aren’t bitchin’ about the media…

We make crafts!

View “Pieces of HOMEboldt” below.

 

 

Jumping Ship?

 

Whaaa? The North Coast Journal, the Times-Standard and the Arcata Eye* are all hiring.

This NEVER happens. But is seems that just seven months after the demise of the Eureka Reporter, many local media  peoples are  not going to stay aboard their vessels for too much longer. They leave spots open for the next weary pirate journalists. Even Jack Durham at the McKinleyville Press has been trying to sell his paper for months. One would have to be a brave soul to even think of jumping into those murky waters right now.

The Eureka Ruin salutes you all. Good luck out there, mateys.

*The Arcata Eye was hiring for a Scene Editor after Jen Savage left recently, but Kevin Hoover decided to nix the position to keep the paper on track financially.

 

Coming Storm?

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything here. Life took it’s course and guided me through exciting, yet turbulent, waters. Now that I’m in a more calm state there is something that needs to be said. Bare with me, cause I’m going to get metaphysical for a moment.

I can’t help but feel that there is a gathering tension across the world, across our nation, and across our communities. It grows like air blasted into a balloon, like a pot of water gradually boiling, like clouds gathering on the horizon amassing the energy of a furious storm. And then an explosion. Spill over. Pop!

I watch events unfold globally and can’t help but wonder, “where is this heading?” There is a gravity around us bearing down it’s awesome weight even now. Is this the calm before the storm? The last deep breath before plunging into the deep recesses of an ocean.

Horrible, crazy, insane shit happens all the time: wars waged, earthquakes exciting earth, poverty paralyzing progress. But I wonder, what I want you readers to think about it is, “Are the events unfolding today business as usual, or is humanity truly on the precipice of something transformational, if not catastrophic.”

I’m not talking about the end of the world, fire and brimstone, and all that. No, this is different. It’s like a wave guiding our species to an end, perhaps the end of a way of life, the end of how we organize our economic and social structures, a much needed enema if you will. It’s an end our collective actions over at least hundreds of years have manifested.

If you made it this far through my intuitive ranting, thanks. Now to more grounded concepts. I’d like you to consider where I’m coming from, what I’m seeing. Let’s connect a few dots, something the mainstream media isn’t doing at all.

 

Free Speech Test

Journalism Law students at Humboldt State University test how far they can stretch their first amendment right on campus.

 

Beer Church – the Radio Drama

Do ya’ll remember when we first introduced you to Beer Church, here on the Ruin? It was right after the Eureka Reporter closed down in November. A few of us staffers took a road trip to Seattle. What did five unemployed friends have to lose? Well, we discovered Beer Church. And now, I’m in a radio production class at Humboldt State and was inspired to tell a little tale. It’s not exactly what happened, but as close as my creative mind could take you. Listen here.

-Ashley

 

Seattle P-I on death bed

Judging from what happened when the owners of the Rocky Mountain News failed to find a buyer, the future for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer doesn’t look so good. If the newspaper doesn’t find a buyer by the March 10 deadline, it could share the same fate as the Rocky Mountain News, which announced its closure  just days after failing to find a buyer.

According to the PI, several reporters were offered jobs on an online-only version of the PI, which select readers will have a chance to check out during a test run. Adaption? With major newspapers folding, leaving metropolitan areas with little alternative, fleeing online may just be the saving grace they need, that is, if you have a computer with internet access.

This PI experiment could affect how the SF Chronicle situation plays out. Both newspapers are owned by Hearst Coporation. The Chronicle is also up for sale and shares a similar fate to Rocky Mountain News if a buyer isn’t found. A similar course of action may be planned for that newspaper as well. Let’s see how it plays out.

But overall, it appears the future for print journalism lies in the ability of newspapers to adapt, fast, to the economic shitstorm already battering the front gates. The only problem at the moment, the way I see it, is how to make money. No effective online money-making model for news exists, not for a mass audience at least. Once that obstacle is overcome, the transition, hopefully, will be a bit smoother.

 

“I’d give it maybe 5 years and newspapers will be non-existent”

When news broke that the San Francisco Chronicle might end up folding, I asked students at Humboldt State University what they thought that would mean for the future of other print publications. Click here to listen to what they had to say. -Ashley

 

Obama’s War?

Prez Obama signed the paperwork for 17,000 U.S. troops to be deployed to the never-ending war zone that is Afghanistan, trap of two other major empires in the past (Brits and Russians). That would bring U.S. force levels up to 60,000 compared to 146,000 in Iraq. With media attention shifting away from Iraq, despite peaceful elections and possible fraud, and Obama considering a troop level cut there, the question that comes to mind is, will Afghanistan be Obama’s War as Iraq was Bush’s War?

The circumstances are different for sure but just how far is Obama willing to go to combat the perpetual insurgency there, much of which is strengthened by Pakistan’s inaction in securing its side of the border. What is Pakistan doing with all those millions of dollars in military aid Bush forked over?

Afghanistan has always been a tricky place to wage empire. Too bad the previous failures of two past empires didn’t ring a warning bell for Bush before he jumped on in to fighting. Obama said it’s going to take more than military might to quell the situation there. Well, no shit. How about a surge of diplomacy not troops?

 

Summer of Hell?

**Map as of Feb. 10. 2009** Red= Extreme Drought, Dark Orange=Severe Drought

source= U.S. Drought Monitor

Even as the heavens opened up for the first real downpour of the year, the drought situation for Northern California looks to be the worst for the 21st century. At no time in early February since the turn of the century has Northern California been flagged for “extreme drought” by the  U.S. Drought Monitor.

“However, since this was the first substantial precipitation across the state in several weeks, and because reservoir levels remain low and higher-elevation snowpack is still considerably below normal, drought classification improvements were limited (for California),” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Consider last year, where below level precipitation in late winter and spring helped cultivate conditions that made the first day of summer a flaming spectacle, after a lightning storm set hundreds of fires months before the fire season started, choking our region with smoke for months. Consider the summer on the horizon.

Should we expect another early spurt of fires? Should we expect the state to have the resources, considering the economic meltdown in play, to rapidly respond to another Summer 2008? Should we expect the rivers to run high, the crops to grow plentifully? Should we expect a run from down south on our major precious resource, water?

If the rain keeps up for long enough, perhaps. But I shudder to think how the summer will be given the drought conditions that exist already in Feburary.

 

Money Trees Abound

What’s the worst way to get out of a mega recession – print more money and create more debt.

With the $789 billion stimulus/pork  plan one step away from Obama’s signature, the real issues crippling the country’s economy are not making it to the forefront of conversation. And being avoided all together is a basic economic rule: the more money in circulation, the less valuable the currency. Inflation, hyperinflation if we’re unlucky (think Zimbabwe).

Our national debt, after taking into account the $1.5 trillion created out of thin air to combat this unsustainable economy, will reach $12.1 trillion, not to consider any future bailout cries from financially defunct states. That’s a vast amount of money my generation, and the one after, will have to pay because our leaders, and the American people, refuse to reevaluate their economic system.

For too long we have allowed fractional reserve banking to dictate how money is distributed in society. For too long we let a private few control how much money enters and leaves the economy.

The system, as I understand, works off a base of assumptions, that X bank can loan out more money than it has on hand in the hopes that everyone invested in the bank doesn’t come calling for their fair share. To make matters worse, our currency isn’t tied to anything tangible, rather it is based off of confidence. Boy, now that can get you into a load of trouble can’t it, especially when the house of cards starts to tumble.

Money magically appears out of nowhere in this system, yet people wonder why it is that their 401ks and home values can all of a sudden plummet without putting the two together.

Consider this, a bank has value totaling $100. That bank loans you $100 at a certain percentage of interest, say 7.5 percent for conversation. Where does that interest come from? Nowhere. And why is it that interest exists in the first place, considering the fact that banks can loan out more money than it has, yet benefit for being a middleman between people’s assets. Then people get trapped in debt and crippling mortgages.

I’m not an economics expert by any means, but since this economic collapse began I’ve tried to educate myself about our financial system, something not many people understand. If you made it this far, thanks, and please start a dialouge here cause I’m curious what other people think about this issue.