What a quick and tumultuous rise to power.
Twenty-nine years ago today in 1979, Saddam Hussein replaced the resigning president of Iraq and went on to further consolidate his power.
It was the beginning of nearly three decades of tickle fights with the international community. In April 2003 he was dislodged from power and on Dec. 30, 2006 he was hanged for charges of genocide.
Everything I ever learned and didn’t want to know about menstruation came from an educational video from 1953.
Part 1
Part 2
“What about dancing, Miss Jensen, can I do that while menstruating?”
Okay, we get it, newspaper circulation is down. Everyone is ditching print for online.
But, I get the feeling it is a bit exaggerated. I’ve already posted here that we’re simply living through what we’ll someday call the newspaper bubble, the market swinging the industry nearer to a healthy environment.
I would love to really investigate the rise and fall of newspaper circulation numbers through generations, but the numbers are kept fairly private by those who have the best access, groups like the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a nonprofit that was formed in 1914 by publishers and advertisers wanting to provide the industry regulated, reputable circulation data – and they aren’t giving it out to me.
So, we tend to mostly guess from reports in newspapers that provide some information. I did find some great numbers from the Newspaper Association of America, though the data is only up to 2003, perhaps before industry fears went public and the newspaper bubble had clearly burst. After that date, the NAA makes you pay for the information.
Rather than forking out the $50, let’s just crunch what we have.
Continue reading Historic newspaper circulation data: how many fewer newspaper readers are there?
When I am done at the end of August, I will have reported with top-flight state political reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Allentown Morning-Call, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and the online-only subscription service Capitolwire.
What unites them all is that they are members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association. The nearly 115-year-old organization doesn’t do much to promote itself because it is mostly an informal collection of members from a struggling industry, so I didn’t know much about it when I got here.
I have learned plenty and thought many might be interested, too.
Continue reading The Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association: a brief history
DO YOU WORRY about going on a date? Of course you do. So why not learn from educational films of the 1940s?
Part 1
Part 2
On this day, March 18, in 1965, Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov (depicted at right above) became the first man to walk in space. See video of that monumental step by the Russian below.
I stumbled upon this and thought it pretty cool.
This silent film claims to be, and I have no reason to suggest otherwise, a home movie of the 1929 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Athletics, a series the Philadelphia team won four games to one.
The video owner described it as such:
Home movie footage of 1930 Flag Day followed by the 1929 World Series played between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago Cubs. Both games were played at Wrigley field. The World Series was played on either October 8 or October 9, 1929. It includes opening ceremonies, crowd shots, and a few pitches.
Check out this old commercial, date unknown to me.
I have been cleaning, organizing and scanning many of the 86-years of archives of The Temple News, the college newspaper for which I work, and every once in a while you come across a gem.
Remember Creed? Of course you do. Well, in 1998, while Creed was at its peak, the band came to Philadelphia and TTN was there, with a review, interview and plenty of love. Rock it out, my friend.
Yes you read that headline right, ‘Creed continues to rise!’
What do you think?
Today, Feb. 22, is the 276th anniversary of George Washington, the dude who is recognized as the first president of the United States. Good for him.He is dead now, though, died Dec. 14, 1799, according to my calendar. Still, he died a long time ago, so it isn’t that sad. Let’s celebrate him with, perhaps, a decidedly strange song in his honor?
I saw this on Digidigidigi on President’s Day.
