Year: 2013

The Pope Resigns: Tweet Reax

The Dish Model, Ctd

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnCcoq-BNS4]

Mathew Ingram sees a new trend among disparate artists and writers:

In many ways, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan and alternative musician Amanda Palmer couldn’t be more different: the former writes about the Obama administration and the intricacies of U.S. foreign policy, while the latter is the former lead singer of a punk band called The Dresden Dolls and sports hand-painted eyebrows, among other things. Their approach to their respective businesses, however — in both cases a very personal form of publishing — are similar in one crucial way: they succeed or fail based on how well they connect with and serve their fans. Is this the future of media? … Fans don’t want content, they want a relationship.

When I read this, the first thing that came to mind was the “pay what you want” music experiments of bands like Radiohead and Girl Talk, both of whom asked their fans to pay for songs that they could have easily downloaded for free, and got millions of dollars in response. Why did fans do this? Because they wanted to support those artists, not because they wanted music for free — just as readers who want to support Sullivan probably don’t care that they can get the content free via an RSS reader (Note: Sullivan will be discussing his new approach at our paidContent Live conference on April 17 in New York).

The Kickstarter campaign that Amanda Palmer ran last year to raise funds for a new album and a national tour falls into the same category (as does comedian Louis CK’s method of going direct to his fans to sell a concert tour): after quitting a deal with a traditional record label, Palmer initially wanted to raise $100,000 to fund her recording. Instead, she collected 10 times that amount, or more than $1 million. And the reason why her fans wanted to donate all of that money has very little to do with their desire to get an album, or even to see her perform.

A Big Stick On Climate Change?

Bill Becker wants Obama to act more like the Roosevelts on climate change:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt resolved to attack the Great Depression as though it was the invasion of a foreign enemy. FDR made full use of the authorities delegated by Congress and pushed for more. He sometimes acted first and asked for permission later. Because he enjoyed popular support, Congress often complied. …

Now, as FDR concluded about the Great Depression, climate disruption is invading the United States like a foreign enemy. It is inflicting physical damages, loss of life and growing burdens on federal spending and the economy. Yet we are still injecting greenhouse gas emissions into the weather like steroids. It’s a very good time for President Obama to flex his muscles.

To execute this strategy, Becker looks to other Roosevelt:

Under Article II, Section 3, the Constitution requires the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”. Theodore Roosevelt interpreted this to mean the president should enforce the nation’s laws in general rather than only implementing specific directives from Congress. …  There are at least 112 relevant statutes in which past Congresses have delegated powers to the Executive Branch related to energy or the environment, including 96 that specifically address global warming, climate change or greenhouse gas emissions.

Cannabis Isn’t So Green

Josh Harkinson considers the environmental impact of grow sites in California’s Humboldt County:

In this video [above], made with hi-res satellite images from Google Earth, Anthony Silvaggio, an environmental sociologist with Humboldt State University’s new Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research, exposes the extent of the devastation wrought on private forest land by industrial-scale grows:

Maggie Caldwell reported on the problem last fall:

“This is not about marijuana, good or bad. This is just about the reality that this one industry, due to prohibition, has been essentially granted immunity from regulation,” [Mark Lovelace, a Humboldt County supervisor] says. “That’s the unintended consequence of federal prohibition.” Road building, land grading, filling and diversion of streams, the use of herbicides, pesticides, and rodenticides—things that would normally be regulated in any other legal industry—are going unmonitored because the DOJ says the regulations aren’t allowed, Lovelace explains.

Christianity In Crisis: The Papal Resignation Letter

<> on June 2, 2012 in Milan, Italy.

Here it is, as translated into English:

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

My italics. (Photo: Getty.)

The Great Republican Hope

Waldman wonders how long Rubio will hold the title:

[Y]ou can only be the Next Big Thing for so long, and there’s really only one way to become your party’s savior: win the White House. If immigration reform passes, Rubio will probably be given credit on the right. But what if, in 2014, Republicans do no better with Latino voters than they did in 2012? That might make them decide that moderating their stance was a waste of time. Or it might make them decide they need Rubio more than ever.

Josh Marshall’s view:

Let’s just say it: Marco Rubio is the Wes Clark of 2013. Only with many fewer accomplishments.

The Pope Resigns: Reax

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Pays A State Visit To The UK - Day 2

Benedict is calling it quits. Vatican watcher Rocco Palmo checks canon law:

[W]e’re in very uncharted territory here, folks, so please be patient. The lone item of canon law to even mention a pontiff’s resignation is Canon 332, paragraph 2, which states that “If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone.”

PM at The Duck of Minerva examines the voting process:

It turns out that since Benedict’s elevation, he has returned the papal elections to the traditional two-thirds margin. This could well result in a longer papal conclave than the last one (which was fast). For the Church, this could be a little bit of a problem, as a lengthy conclave during the Lenten season could leave the hierarchy without a Pope during Easter. Presumably, of course, Benedict’s move away from the Ken Arrow voting rules was also strategic; perhaps he feels confident that “his” man will be elected under a two-thirds rule. That could mean that the next pope is simply a younger, healthier, equally conservative Benedict supporter.

Tomasky hopes that the next pope will be a modernizer:

How long is the Church going to resist the flow of history and keep choosing conservatives or reactionaries? This is a chance for the Church to join the modern world as it did in the early 1960s under John XXIII. But I would imagine it’s an opportunity the Church won’t take.

Fraser Nelson thinks Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria is Benedict’s most likely successor:

Not so long ago, the candidates would all be Italians. Now, the odds on a pope from the third world are quite strong.

Freddy Gray, on the other hand, talks up Cardinal Dolan:

The suddenness of Pope Benedict’s announcement does not give the cardinals from the developing world much time to form a consensus around an emerging star. Whereas the Americans, in Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and a close ally of the Pope Benedict, have a widely respected and popular figure who could comfortably win enough votes. A New York Pope might not be the global story people are hoping for. Nonetheless, it would be quite something.

Ambers respects Benedict’s decision to step down:

Generally, when American political officials resign, a scandal is in the offing. But the former John Cardinal Ratzinger genuinely seems to be stepping down as Pontifex because he no longer believes he can do the job that he believes God has called him to do. There is something profound and endearing about someone elected (anointed?) to an incredibly powerful lifetime job deciding, with years still left, to walk away. That in and of itself is a powerful example to set for everyone.

And K-Lo is fawning:

John Paul taught us how to die. Pope Benedict shows us how to step aside in humility and love.

My thoughts to come.

(Photo: Stefan Wermuth WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Never Wait At An Empty Intersection Again

Eric Jaffe heralds an “emerging-vehicle-to-vehicle technology” called Virtual Traffic Lights:

The basic world of Virtual Traffic Lights operates like this: as you approach an intersection, your car transmits data, such as location and speed, to other nearby cars. The virtual system processes this information for all the cars in the area, with the help of a lead car that changes every cycle, and determines your individual traffic signal. Instead of seeing a red or green light hanging in the intersection, you see it on your windshield and stop or go accordingly.

The project was partly inspired by nature:

In simulations, the algorithm managed the flow of cars in a way similar to how insects manage themselves. In ant and terminte colonies, the large group always gets to go first. … As soon as the biggest group cleared out, the next group was allowed to go. Through the simulations, the scientists found that traffic drive time was reduced for urban commuters by 40-60%.