Stupid Attention-Whoring Filmmakers Get Attention

Brian Tierney’s ongoing quest to make the Inquirer and Daily News more corporate than when Knight-Ridder owned them is right on schedule. The newest evidence is a DVD included in certain copies of the Inquirer on Sunday called Obsession - Radical Islam’s War Against the West.

It was actually in a host of other papers, including the Bucks County Courier Times. It’s common knowledge: Newspapers print any ad if you pay them enough money. But this ad has the added intrigue of offending someone, so it makes the news.

Spokesman Gregory Ross says the group’s intent is strictly to educate Americans about terrorism: “We are not against Muslims. We are only against that 10 to 15 percent that are radical.”

In 2003, The American Conservative wrote that 99 percent of Muslims were moderate. But the magazine warned: “One percent of one billion is a lot.” Now after five years of war in Iraq, we have 10 to 15? Surely this film’s spokesman (spokesman??) is a fair and impartial judge.

If there are radical Muslims, surely there are tubular Muslims, too, right? I bet those guys are awesome.

The Metro is Into Mature Asians

From the front cover of today’s Metro:



What?

Statistics: Fast is Good [Metro]

Bloggers Have High Number Of Workplace Homicides

The Labor Department released statistics yesterday that showed 1 in 4 workplace deaths in Philadelphia is a homicide. The national average is 1 in 10.

Nationwide, the most common way to die on the job was to get in an auto accident. But in Philadelphia, auto accidents made up only one in eight deaths. Enjoy the rest of your workday.

Update: Oh, yeah, and this graf (thanks Mike):

“Among them was Zong Xiang Wang, 44, fatally shot during a robbery Aug. 11, 2006, behind his takeout at Fifth Street and Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia. Wang had hoped his restaurant would be the ticket to the American Dream. Instead, mourners placed dumplings, noodles and rice at his grave to nourish him on his journey to the afterlife.”

Phila. tops in workplace homicides [Inquirer]

Everyone You Know Has Been Pregnant

In yesterday’s Bulletin, Joe Murray examined new statistics on abortion.

According to a recent study following abortion-related trends, 90 percent of women will have an abortion by the age of 45–

Stop, stop, stop. What? Ninety percent? Did they only survey people who went into Planned Parenthood to get an abortion? Are they counting anyone who’s used contraception, ever? The “by age 45″ part is kind of tricky, too; there can’t be many, if any, abortions performed after that age.

Hmm. If 10 percent of the population is gay, then that means… oh, man, this is just too confusing.

Study: Abortion On The Decline [The Bulletin]

Mark B. Cohen’s Research Methods Leave Much To Be Desired

As you may know from reading this site, Pennsylvania State Rep. Mark B. Cohen just loves the Internet messageboard Phillyblog. He adores it. He thinks it’s the bee’s knees. He thinks it will replace the Inquirer and Daily News as the news source for all Philadelphians. If Phillyblog were a sandwich, he’d eat it. If Phillyblog were a woman, he’d have sex with her. If Phillyblog were a blog, he’d post blog entries on there, I guess.

Last week, I noted Cohen’s attempt to become the Bill James of Phillyblog when he listed the Phillyblog members who had 1,000 posts or more. As the thread progressed, a few members posted about their omission. They had 1,000 posts, too, why weren’t they on the list of the Golden Few?

Turns out, Cohen didn’t know about the feature of sorting members by posts, which would have made his quest rather simple, of course. Instead, he apparently compiled the top Phillyblog posters all by hand before being notified about the automated way to do it. Later, he promised to do more research into Phillyblog members not from Philadelphia.

It’s difficult to say how unique Phillyaggie is. Chief Salsa, banned from this board for rules violations, accumulated over 3700 postsl many or all of them (I don’t know all the facts) were done while he was in Utah. Then there are two members of this list–I forget their names–from Richmond, Viriginia; one identifies himself as an ex-Philadelphian, and the other does not. Then there is a member of this list from St. Louis.

I’ll try to do more research on this question; anyone else is welcome to answer Phillyaggie’s question as well. He certainly will be a great addition to Philadelphia when he arrives here.

It is only a matter of time before Mark B. Cohen begins the Society for American Phillyblog Research, or SAPR. One day, his revolutionary messageboard counting statistics will be used o’er the land, coining the new term “sapermetrics.” Or perhaps: Cohenomics.

ldondre Makes 20,000th Post, As About 100 Phillybloggers Hit 1,000 - Page 8 [Phillyblog]
Archives: Mark B. Cohen