Saturn’s Strange Hexagon

Talk of the Nation Science Friday just mentioned the strange hexagon on the south pole of Saturn’s bizarre atmosphere.  Here’s what they’re talking about:

You can read the official Nasa findings on this formation here. This feature is big enough for 4 earths to fit in and at least 60 miles deep.  Skirmisher.org has an explination for this, based on some of Newton’s experiments in gravity.  Digg.com, of course, has even more theories. 

Dr. Dunn recap

If you missed yesterday’s broadcast of Dr. Dunn on Meridian, you can listen to it now from the WKMS Newsroom archive.  He discusses MSU’s progress on the new Clark College building, the Science Building, Politics, and more. Dr. Dunn takes your questions on air again in April.

MSU President Randy Dunn on Meridian

Murray State President Dr. Randy Dunn will be on Meridian this Thursday at noon. He wants to hear from you! Email in your questions here or call 800-599-4737 during the show to talk to him live on air. 

Also, he’s launched a blog called “Open Book.” This is generating quite a bit of feedback, and may give you an idea about  what’s on Dr. Dunn’s agenda right now. Read the open book here.

Citizendium – “Can’t we do better?”

Today’s Morning Edition mentioned that Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia.org, is creating a rival site called Citizendium. He’s written about why Citizendium will succeed on his personal site. Here’s an excerpt:

the Citizendiumhas, I think, an immediate and broad appeal to many readers who are also potential writers.  The appeal to readers is obvious.  Finding factual or “encyclopedic” information about general topics is one of the main things people use search engines to do.  This no doubt is why we click on Wikipedia links so frequently: regardless of how dodgy the information might be, it does, after all, purport to be accurate information, which is what we’re looking for.

If we add reliability to this basic, winning formula, the appeal to readers increases hugely.  I suppose the reason Wikipedia articles are as attractive to search engine users as they are, is simply that they sum up a lot of information.  That implies a high signal-to-noise ratio.  But if an entry has been overseen by experts–that is, if the project as a whole is evidently devoted not just to boatloads of information, but boatloads of credible, expert-vetted information–then it becomes much more attractive.  

Clay Shirky, well-published web skeptic, isn’t convinced Citizendium will work. Read why.

You can check out the beta of Citizendium here.

Presidential Campaigns on Youtube

College student James Kotecki tracks many of the political ads on YouTube and posts his critiques on the Web site.  With unofficial ads popping up, like the 1984-style ad mocking Hillary Clinton (which it turns out was produced by a Barack Obama supporter without Obama’s approval), candidates have lost some control over their message, Kotecki tells Morning Edition’s Renee Montagne.

“It is true that in the age of user-generated content, candidates are going to have a lot less control over what goes up,” he says. “I think that’s worse for candidates who fear loss of control and aren’t good at projecting nonchalant off-the-cuff versions of themselves and really require a very controlled image to be effective.”  Kotecki, 21, says he hopes the success of YouTube will get more people in his age group interested in politics. See some of the 2008 Online Campaigns (npr.org).

[edit: corrected link]

Spring Break!

Murray State’s Spring Break is here, which means a week of Feedback silence.  Feel free to comment and discuss among yourselves . See you all on the 25th!

Feedback on Feedback

Looking back on our Spring Fundraiser, is there something you think we could have done better?  Let us know! Here are just a few questions to consider, or just leave a comment on whatever stood out to you. Your suggestions help us prepare for the next fundraiser, so please take a moment to share your thoughts with us.

sample questions:

1. How do you think we could make a stronger case for WKMS’ need for listener support?
2. Are the station’s financial needs clear to you?
3. Do you have suggestions as to how we can better handle the “thank you gifts”?
4. What would you think of a fundraiser without “thank you gifts”?
5. Did our “thank you gift” choices affect how much you pledged?
6. What additional choices for “thank you gifts” would you like to see?
7. What would you like to hear more of/less of during fundraiser?
8. What do you feel was most effective during the recent fundraiser? Least effective?
9. How did you feel about the decision to trim two days off the fundraiser?
10. Should we create better incentives for renewing your membership by mail?
11. Have you any suggestions for increasing the appeal of pledging on line?
12. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being poor; 10 being excellent) how would you rate the recent fundraiser?

Temporary Texans: NPR at SXSW

NPR has sent Stephan Thompson to one of the biggest events in the Music Industry, South by Southwest, “a sort of music-industry trade show held for four days every March in (usually) sunny Austin, Tex.”  And he’s blogging the whole thing.  From his introduction post:

From the intro to South by Southwest attracts more than 1,300 bands — many more, if you count the ones playing unofficial shows in unaffiliated bars, not to mention buskers and the occasional guerrilla performance on the back of a flatbed truck. And, of course, it brings tens of thousands of diehard fans, label employees, promoters, wannabes, media types, and locals who will gladly expound on their love-hate relationship with the festival and its associated chaos.

From Wednesday through Saturday, NPR.org will not only team up with member stations to stream more than two dozen performances from bands playing the festival, but we’ll also post to this blog as frequently as logistics allow. Rather than merely set the scene — “It’s loud in this club! Wish you were here!” — we’ll stream a veritable pantload of music by artists we like: the ones we anticipated coming in and the ones we discover along the way. And, of course, readers can add to the discussion, offering feedback on the music, recommendations for artists both new and old, and terse corrections of the usage errors and broken links that come with blogging while trying to watch rock shows and drink beer.

Sounds like fun. Read along at www.npr.org/blogs/sxsw. Sample the music and let us know what you’d like to hear!

We Made It!

Yesterday, March 13, at 3:33p.m. (no joke), an anonymous caller closed out our Spring Fundraiser.  Thanks to everyone who has donated over the last 10 days. We have many new members, who I hope enjoy the e-newsletter and web enhancements along with the listening that prompted them to pledge.  Of course, we have the renewed support of so many of you that come by this site, follow our website, listen online, listen at home and in the car, and even come by from time to time to see us in the station.

It’s been a fun week here at WKMS.  Our phone volunteers did a great job taking hundreds of calls. In between rings, I got to know several of our listeners better.

Thanks again to everyone who came in and talked to us on air as well.  I know I’d much rather be behind a keyboard than a microphone, but you stepped up and told the world how much you enjoy our station.

And  thanks to everyone who made their pledges online. We had more this year than I remember from the last fundraiser, but I can’t site any numbers just yet. The iPod drawing is still scheduled for this Friday, so good luck!

Finally, this little deviation from  the usual Feedbackstyle marks one more special occasion: today is the 100th Feedback post. It’s been a little over sixth months since this project was launched, and I’d like to say thank you to those regular readers who keep coming back for more.  With Fundraiser completed, I have plenty of time to come up with more for you to read.  And with summer coming up, new voices are on the way to Feedback as well. 

As always, we love to hear from you. Share your Feedback by commenting below, or send in a story at the “leave a comment” button. 

Thanks for reading,
-Chris

Happy Birthday, Jack!

From Writer’s Almanac:

It’s the birthday of Beat novelist Jack Kerouac, born Jean-Louise Kerouac, in Lowell Massachusetts (1922). He grew up speaking French, and couldn’t speak English fluently until junior high. He was a football star in high school and got an athletic scholarship to Columbia University. It was there that he became friends with Allen Ginsberg.

In 1951 he sat at his kitchen table, taped sheets of Chinese art paper together to make a long roll, and wrote the story of the cross-country road trips he took with Neal Cassady. It had no paragraphs and very little punctuation and Allen Ginsberg called it ”a magnificent single paragraph several blocks long, rolling, like the road itself.” And that became Kerouac’s novel On the Road (1957).

For the Kerouac enthusiast, Viking Press will release a 50th anniversary edition of On the Road. This uncensored version contains text that was removed from the released version because it was deemed too explicit for 1957 audiences. It will be drawn solely from the original scroll and the only things not included will be things that Kerouac himself crossed out.

If you’d like to hear more, Tim Gallaher of USC has a page of Kerouac readings.