The whole seven minute clip that’s been shared online is nothing but Jones yelling at Morgan.

Sadly (while I disagree with the majority of their tactics elsewhere), I think Jones could learn a thing or two from the members of Westboro Baptist who appeared recently on Russell Brand’s TV show. They disagreed for sure – but at least they had a predominately civil discussion.

Have you seen other examples of civil disagreements on TV?

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) could learn a lot from Westboro Baptist

U2 in Houston, Oct 2009: City of Blinding Lights | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

I’ve really been enjoying the U2/South African mashup videos during ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The videos feature footage from U2′s Rose Bowl concert last year, mashed up with the Soweto Gospel Choir.

Billboard.com reported earlier this year…

After teaming with ESPN for its coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Bono pulled aside ESPN senior director of sports marketing Seth Ader and said, “This is just a warm-up for the one that really matters: South Africa.”

One of my favorites so far has been the Get On Your Boots mashup…

(Watch on YouTube)

They’ve also featured Magnificent, Beautiful Day, City of Blinding Lights (version 2), Desire, Where the Streets Have no Name (version with Martin Sheen narrating), Unknown Caller, Out of Control, One and Amazing Grace.

There’s been no specifics on how much money changed hands for the partnership, but I see it as a smart move by both parties — similar to another TV ad U2 did a few years back.

Granted, I’m a U2 fanboy, so I may be a little prejudice but I’d love to have these mashups available for download somewhere.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Found the great pre-game video from today’s US vs Algeria win, narrated by Martin Sheen:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

U2 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about the squared-circle.

But Tripp posted a great find over at Homebrewed Christianity in which “Wofford college professors Byron R. McCane and Dan Mathewson reveal how the equally toothless performances of New Atheists like Richard Dawkins and creationists like Ken Ham share more with the garish world of Hulk Hogan and the Iron Sheik than with serious scholarship.”

It’s a great paper piece that compares the one-sided, over stereotypical and simplified views of Ham (Creation Science Museum) and Dawkins to Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Lots of fun. I give it five Ric Flair “WOOOOOOOO’s”

What do you think? Do Dawkins and Ham respresent over stereotypical and simplified views or science and religion at it’s best?

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Wrestling, Faith & Science

The headlines a little misleading. They don’t claim they own you… just own all your content and everything else you post to their site.

They’ve changed a little paragraph in their terms of service to read ::

You are solely responsible for the User Content that you Post on or through the Facebook Service. You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses.

posted this earlier this evening on Facebook….

Facebook claims ownership of everything you post on their site

As of Feb 4, Facebook updated their terms of service to claim ownership of everything you post to their site — even after you might choose to cancel your account with them.

I’m not real happy with this at all. I’ve made 99% of my creative content available with a Creative Commons 3.0 license. That basically says that you’re free to use and share my content as long as you give me credit, don’t use it for commercial reasons (make money off of it) and you don’t change the licensing of it (i.e. Copyright the material).

But Facebook now claims they have ownership of everything I post on their site. That includes my recent cruise pictures, random videos of me and my friends eating sushi, pictures of my wedding and honeymoon as well as content we’ve created for the something beautiful podcast.

They claim they have the right to it all – and can do with it as they please. Of course now that there’s a lot of hub-bub going on, they finally clarified their changes as of 5 p.m. today — 8 days after they quietly changed their terms of service.

So, until they change their terms of service back to what they were, I won’t be posting any new content of my own to Facebook.

It’s still easily accessible to to those who would like to view it.

I have an RSS feed setup so you can have everything that automatically posts to Facebook already sent to your favorite RSS reader (I like Google — especially with their 10 guiding principles—including #6, “You can make money without doing evil.” Or, in short, “Don’t be evil.”) or you can have it emailed to you.

Simply visit my blog and click My Life in RSS and you’ll be able to subscribe to the same information I post here on Facebook.

Sorry for the hassle, but hopefully if more and more people are made aware and more and more people take action, something will be done.

For more information check out Steve Knight’s great blog post

And check out how other services like Google, Flickr and Twitter compare to Facebooks Terms of Service

And if you want to abandon Facebook all together but still have some fun online, check out these social networks :: encounterthis.ning.com and somethingbeautiful.ning.com

UPDATE: Here’s the license info from Ning.com…

Ning does not claim any ownership rights in Your Content. After posting Your Content, you continue to retain ownership of Your Content, and you continue to have the right to use and license Your Content in any way you choose. The Content that you upload to any Social Network needs to comply with the terms of this Agreement. At any point, you can take Your Content from Your Network and cancel your account and Ning does not retain any license rights except as provided below.

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Facebook to users, ‘We own you!’

He says that a lot of people he most admires are non-believers. Bill Gates. Warren Buffett. “People who are prepared to spend their entire life’s fortune trying to make the lives of people they don’t know a lot better. These people are more Christian than the Christians. Zealotry and certainty are worrying for me. Love keeps religion from zealotry.”

SOH So without love, it becomes another kind of fixed ideology?

Bono “Yeah, that’s right! Anyway, there’s loads of pops in there about zealotry, religious and otherwise, and you’re the only person who’s picked up on this in the lyrics. I mean, ‘Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady.’ Come on?”

SOH That’s a pop at the militant atheists.

Bono “And at myself. I mean, I have a bit of it, myself. I have a bit of the helping God across the road like a little old lady.”….z

“You know, it’s like that thing that people said about U2, that most bands start off writing about girls and end up writing about God, but we started off writing about God and ended up writing about girls. But we found the God in the girls, that would be my retort.”

U2′s new album drops March 2 (3rd in the US). You can pre-order all five versions here.

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Bono on “non-believers”

According to the Chicago Tribune ::

The management shakeup at Sun-Times Media Group Inc. continued Wednesday, as the Chicago newspaper publishing company’s newly installed board tapped one of the company’s directors to serve as chairman and interim chief executive officer.

The new chairman is Jeremy Halbreich, former general manager of the Dallas Morning News and one of three directors elected last month when a dissident shareholder’s successful proxy fight ousted all but one of Sun-Times Media’s sitting directors. As chairman, Halbreich succeeds Raymond Seitz, who lost his seat in January in the proxy fight.

Halbreich founded American Consolidated Media roughly 10 years ago after he left the Dallas Morning News. The newspaper group grew and was sold to Macquarie Media Group (for $80 million) a few months before I left the Waxahachie Daily Light (an ACM owned paper).

With the money and backing of the Australian Macquarie Media Group Halbreich told the Dallas Business Journal that “ACM has grown into the fifth-largest community newspaper group in the U.S.”

Halbreich remained as CEO of American Consolidated until August 2008 when he stepped down and Liam Stewart, an ACM asset manager, was appointed interim CEO.

“Now that the planned acquisition and expansion phase of ACM is complete, it is an appropriate time for me to step down from full-time responsibilities,” Halbreich said at the time of his resignation.

Some have suggested that the Macquarie Media Group purposely purchased up many of the smaller-town newspapers along I-35 in order to help control the local media as it relates to the Trans-Texas Corridor (aka the suggested Mexico to Canada toll road). Macquarie Bank (MMG’s parent company) is heavily invested in toll projects around the US and many expect them to play a roll in many future projects as well.

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Jeremy Halbreich to head Sun-Times Media

Watched/listened to Barack Obama’s inaugural address today. You can read the entire text here or here.

I thought it was a good speech. Reading back over I liked it even more. Don’t think it was Obama’s greatest speech, but a great speech for the moment.

Here’s what stood out to me during the speech ::

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.

They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

What about you? What did you like or dislike?

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Transcript of Barack Obama’s Inagural Address

Jeff Brady is taking over for Brad Hawkins now on WFAA’s Daybreak.

Brad Hawkins

Brad Hawkins has left Daybreak for “corporate America” and former 5 p.m. anchor, Jeff Brady is taking his slot alongside Cynthia Izaguirre “for the time being.”

Hawkins posted a video blog on WFAA explaining the switch and seemed to really put an emphasis on “this is not permanent.” Sounded like perhaps he’s not too happy with the switch.

Been a crazy 12 months for the Daybreak team. First was the change of bringing in Izaguirre, next was the departure of Justin Farmer, who was replaced by Brad Hawkins, and now Hawkin’s departure. Will be interesting to see what happens next.

It’ll also be interesting to see what kind of reaction this gets – the original announcement about Justin Farmer remains one of the #1 blog posts on my site. Crazy!

UPDATE (11/13/09): Jeff Brady has left WFAA as well. As of March 12, 2009, he left the station to start his own new media/PR consulting company – Brady Media Group.

In a Tweet from June 27, he suggests that folks aren’t interested in “appointment TV” anymore. We don’t rush home to watch the news at 5,6 and 10 anymore. He’s right – probably why I hadn’t noticed he was no longer with the station.

From his site:

My name is Jeff L. Brady. I’m the CEO of a new media advocacy agency called the Brady Media Group. We are journalists, photographers, creative digital architects and – in the end – professional storytellers. We have not formed an ad agency, production house or a traditional PR firm. We approach commercial marketing from several new directions. All focused on authentic, value-driven media content. All of them focused on the future.

So good luck to Jeff and his new venture! Hopefully he’ll start Tweeting again as he continues on this new journey.

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Jeff Brady in Brad Hawkins out at WFAA Channel 8′s Daybreak

I love the story of one pastor who got fed up with all the decorations and clutter. He began to see that we are in danger of losing the very “reason for the season,”� Jesus — the Jesus that was born in the middle of Herod’s bloody genocide, the Jesus who was born a refugee with no room in the inn, the Jesus who knew suffering from the cradle to the cross. This pastor went through the sanctuary the night before the big Christmas service and spread out manure all over the floor — nasty, stinky piles of turd. As folks came in the next day in their best attire, he preached — and did he ever. He preached about how the original story of was not about malls and decorations. He preached about a story that was not pretty. He preached about a God who enters the s**t of this world and redeems all that is ugly and broken. It is a story they will never forget. It is the story of our faith.

Here’s a video from Buy Nothing Day events in Philly – posted by our friend Jamie Moffett – (look for Shane on stilts) ::

(embedded video)

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

Shane Claiborne on Buy Nothing Day & Black Friday

So I love this idea of ambient intimacy. I love that I can get to know the folks in my community better and better through things like twitter, and facebook status updates and even their blogs.

I love that I can learn so much about people in short 140-character thoughts and quotes and comments throughout the day.

But I’m also getting annoyed that twitter is starting to become a “link dump” and/or a “read my new blog post!” @tonyjones twittered about this last week and I originally thought, well that’s a bit unkind – then I realized how many text messages (aka noise) I get throughout the day that are nothing more than “read my new blog post!”

I hate it because while I don’t mind seeing these things in facebook’s news feed or on my twitter friend feed I also see them in my RSS reader. So having an announcement about them show up on my cellphone as text messages really bugs me.

I know, I know – everyone just wants to plug their stuff — and honestly I’ve plugged a blog post here or there too. But I guess what gets me about the whole scenario is that for those folks I chose to go the extra mile in getting to know and actually opt-in to get their tweets sent to my cellphone (rather than just following them via the web). I don’t need a reminder to check your blog. And the fact that you automatically send me announcements every time you update your blog (rather than just highlighting the really good stuff) — or send a mass of tweets 3 or 4 times a day that share all your blog posts from the last several hours — makes me that less interested in following you or subscribing to your twitter feed. All the automatic posts just add to the noise and turn me off.

Am I making any sense? Maybe not — but I guess that’s why it’s a rant.

In full disclosure, the encounter blog and website are setup to automatically post a tweet anytime and every time a new blog post is updated and/or we post a new announcement or podcast to the website. So you can probably rant and rave about that and argue that I’m being biased (maybe this is where my rant/argument falls apart). However, I would argue in response that both the blog and the website are updated on a fairly limited basis and I’m/you’re not following the encounter twitter feed because you want to get to know someone better – it’s setup as a “news/announcement/prayer feed” for folks interested in encounter.

So there you have it. What say you?

[/rant]

I better post a link to this via twitter to be sure everyone knows about it and responds.

[rant continued]

update :: I also hate reading RSS feeds that don’t show the entire blog post. I don’t want to have to click “read more” or “this post continues elsewhere.” Just put the entire blog post in your RSS feed — PLEASE! I’m dumping a lot of RSS feeds right now that make me click on another link to read — it makes the entire point of RSS rather pointless.

[/rant]

If you're receiving this post via RSS please be sure and subscribe to my new RSS feed at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/rss. Or you can subscribe via email at: http://casadeblundell.com/jonathan/subscribe.

web 2.0 rant