Here's another excellent TED talk that highlights the founder of WikiLeaks.org, yet one more brave person who's gone out on a limb to make a difference in the world. 

WikiLeaks is an important example of how bringing transparency to government activities delivers more good than harm. Yes, there will be instances when leaked information should remain private in the interest of national security. But those instances are very rare, and the pros of those infrequent slips far outweigh the cons of government without accountability. And as you'll hear in this video, Wikileaks sent reporters to Iraq to investigate the horrific allegations against U.S. soldiers accused of mistakenly ambushing innocent cilivians and journalists. It's not like they're posting raw video without vetting the information. 

It's sad that a site like WikiLeaks needs to exist, but I'm grateful outlets like this allow people who fear for their lives or occupations to bring attention to problems of wide importance. 

Steve Jobs

Montgomery Burns

Publicly, Jobs says, "We're not perfect" and "Phones aren't perfect" but impartial reviewers at Consumer Reports called BS on Apple's initial brushing off of consumer complaints. The best smartphones do push the envelope, but you kinda expect a phone to be able to process an actual call without requiring a $30 add-on.

Don’t get me wrong: I like Apple’s products. I think my iPod Touch is one of the most amazing devices ever. I use a Powerbook at work and have a Mac Mini at home. And I want an iPad.

But I’d like Apple an awful lot more if they acted human. This mindset of diminishing the concerns of real customers should scare any consumer. Jobs’ responses are starting to sound like an abusive spouse or boss who blames everything on someone else, berating anyone who dares question his wisdom. I would not be surprised if, while raging at critics, he were to slip into Burns-speak and tell his minions to "Release the hounds."

It’s time for Jobs to take a deep breath and recognize that that customers will be forgiving if you show them some trust and respect. If you don’t, there’s a forgiving company called Google that’s ready to capitalize on pompousness (remember that several key iPhone4 features are playing catchup to Android). Given the pace of overall Android sales and app development is surpassing that of the iPhone, that time might already be here. 

• Paid $5 extra for a seat on a Bakersfield-Phoenix flight so I could have extra legroom and be closer to the front of the plane to catch a tight connection to Philadelphia. Get on board and find a 95-year-old woman sitting in my seat. Anyone who has lived 95 years deserves props, so after about 3 seconds of internal groaning at the thought of being jammed into a window seat, I jammed myself into same window seat and made friends with Hazel. That -- not the legroom -- was worth the extra $5.
• On return flight from Charlotte to Phoenix today, saw a woman sitting in first class but her two small children -- probably 6 to 7 years old -- were sitting in coach a few rows directly behind her. I can understand wanting to keep costs down or even needing quiet time from your kids, but how about stooping to sit with your kids on a 4-plus-hour flight?
• Unfortunate headline placement from USA TodayUnfortunate placement: Wednesday’s USA Today sports cover gave prominent play to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which the National League won after a 13-year drought. The headline – “National nightmare is over” – would have been great had it not been placed immediately above a secondary photo of controversial Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died Tuesday.  Ouch. Or was it intentional?
• Do we really need a footlong hamburger? Apparently so, Carl’s Jr. has decided. $4 gets you just the meat, cheese and bun; and extra 50 cents gets you lettuce and tomatoes to make it healthy.
• Saturday night's Phoenix-to-Bakersfield flight had a few local sports celebs on board. Mike Dallas was flying back home, fresh from his nationally televised boxing victory in Mississippi. Dallas remains undefeated at 15-0-1. Word is his next fight may be televised live on ESPN. And LA Dodgers consultant George Culver was heading back home. Culver, who tossed a no-hitter during his time in the major leagues, has a long history of supporting local college baseball programs.
• If you’re on the run from the law, you probably don’t want to be tatted in a very promiment way. This Bakersfield suspect would probably be less conspicuous if he were wearing a hockey mask.
• Philly has done it right when it comes to pro-stadium placement. The stadiums for the Eagles, Phillies and Sizers/Flyers are all in the same place, meaning they can share the same parking, theoretically creating a smaller imprint on the city, consolidating mass transit efforts and more.
• Love the public-use rocking chairs placed here and there in the Philly airport. Nice touch and a way to help calm the masses.
• Saw a restaurant named Legal Sea Foods at the Philly airport. Not a very inviting name if you ask me, even if it’s supposed to put one at ease. Maybe it’s a regional thing.
• US Airways gives you the ability to upgrade your coach seats AFTER you book. So, instead of choosing your choice seat when booking at their rock-bottom price, they get your money, then upsell you later anywhere from $5 to $20 depending on the length of the flight. And this is just within coach, not up to business or first class. I suspect they know I’m a big guy who has tight connections because invariably my default seat is in the middle of a row and at the back of a plane. And because their data will show I’ve upgraded in the past, they know I’m likely to do the same thing again if they conveniently plop me in the middle of a row toward the back. Aggravating to me, but not a bad business plan where airlines have to pick up quarters anywhere they can.
   

The book came from a local school library, and I can see why they figured it had served its time. The text and illustrations are dated in a bad way, and what passed for excitement back in 1958 would drive a kid back to the videogame or Club Penguin in about ... 3 seconds. 

Case in point is this exchange between Don, an impressionable kid, and Uncle Jack, a reporter at the City News:

Editor Mike Jenner left the paper today after nearly two decades in Bakersfield. He's taking a prime journalism teaching gig at his alma mater, the University of Missouri, one of the best journalism schools in the country. If there's paradise in a tumultuous business like ours, that might be it.

Mike started working with the paper as a design consultant 17 years ago, but soon was hired to fill a series of top newsroom and "new media" positions, including executive editor. I've never met anyone who had a better mix of news, design and technical skills. Some editors are great wordsmiths or managers but lack the knowledge or want to understand the processes and technology that can make or break good journalism. It's hard work to get "underneath the hood," but that knowledge is invaluable, and I've always marveled at Mike's thirst to understand exactly how things like press configurations worked so he could take full advantage in producing a newspaper every day.

Newsweek

Newsweek sent me a notice to renew the subscription I've maintained annually since the mid-1980s. Unless you've been in a cave recently, you know that Newsweek is up for sale. Its owners, The Washington Post Co., bluntly said in announcing the sale, "We do not see a path to continuing profitability under our management." Not a good circulation builder.

If Washington Post sees no future for the company, why would I want to renew for one year let alone three, as the invoice suggests to save money? It's sad because I think the magazine provides context to the craziness of our 24-7 news cycle. But I'm not stupid. Sadly, a 35-year relationship is about to come to an end barring some kind of last-minute rescue.

I'm happy to be among the beta testers for Publish2's News Exchange, which was formally announced to the world today at TechCrunch Disrupt.

After using News Exchange for a few days -- and quite a bit today -- I can safely say it brings a whole new mindset to how media organizations can share, pursue and purchase content. I've worked with Associated Press content and tools since I was a college student in the 1980s and my first impressions of News Exchange last week were, "Wow, this is a game changer."

News Exchange is a simple but powerful rethinking of traditional content-sharing networks like The Associated PressThe Associated Press ought to be very worried because the News Exchange tools, while rough in spots, have the possibility of being a very powerful yet much less expensive alternative to more traditional services like AP. In short, Publish2 sees News Exchange as a better, livelier and cheaper middleman between media providers and customers.

Some of the highlights:

• A greater emphasis on what you want to read. We pruned some of the stuff that just wasn't getting traffic and put more focus on the things people were using.
• A livelier logo.
• Dozens of different wallpapers that change regularly with each new page. Our long-term goal is to let our readers and artists in the community design future wallpapers. 
• A widget that pulls in entertainment stories from bakersfield.com.The new design pulls in a PDF of The Californian's Thursday Eye on Entertainment section We know Bakotopia is something of an alternative to The Californian, but we also know The Californian delivers local entertainment news Bakotopia readers are interested in.
• More promotion for the weekly Bakotopia Radio show on KRAB 106.1 FM, which features local music and exclusive live performances.

We're publishing the site with the open-source Drupal publishing system.