Amanda Serfozo

The Times’ Arthur Brisbane posed a question last week...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:28:00 -0500

The Times’ Arthur Brisbane posed a question last week that had keyboards blazing.

“Should the Times be a truth vigilante?”

The important thing is not to take the question at face value — a metaphor unto itself.

(It was appended later that day to clarify that the question at hand was not whether the media should chase the truth, but rather if it is an obligation of a journalist to rebut false statements.)

Mr. Brisbane’s first inquiry delves right into the gut of journalism ethics, and a larger question of personal and press integrity. Do journalists have the wherewithal to know when to set the record straight in the case of rampant campaign soundbites, and further, do they have the tools (i.e. education, resources) to do so? This trickles down into so many secondary questions: are journalism schools the answer? How do you ‘teach’ journalism anyway? How would we go about writing the rebuttal delicately but willfully, so as not to promote bias?

In considering the troves of blog posts and comments related to this question, it occurred to me that an important distinction begs recognition.

There is a wildly marked and vast difference between the titles of a journalist and a reporter. Using them interchangeably isn’t entirely accurate, and has mislead me for years — until this piece finally clarified the difference without even trying.

We need reporters to deliver news objectively, reporting (there it is!) verbatim the happenings and goings on of local entities. Reactionary quotes. Human interest pieces. Arts and entertainment. Natural disasters. Community perspectives. Essentially, reporters serve as the necessary, informative intermediary between a people and their papers, no interpretation necessary. It seems that the majority of reporters take on a more local flair; I would say this is mostly true.

We need journalists to deliver news objectively, but responsibly. For the love of God, fact check statements before they even leap off the notebook and into the typed document. When a story becomes more than just a national disaster — when it starts to evolve into a public official’s quotes on disaster relief funding, an organization’s degree of aid, or a claim made by a Senator — you’ll know whether to act as a reporter or a journalist.

Verify a source’s credibility. Use off the record information from anonymous sources sparingly, and when necessary, interject when a stump speech goes off the rails into false territory. We need journalists to be public servants, ombudsmen who understand the difference between organic free speech and erratic, unchecked statements before they even make it to the presses. Honest, dogged journalists are savvy filters — not talking heads. They quietly verify a piece of information from a credible source, they consult their editors, and they cut the fat on erroneous information that could go awry in the hands of the blogosphere, or 24-hour news cycle.

But most importantly, while the responsibility falls on the desks of reporters and journalists to do their jobs, editors are the ones that ultimately need to be at the helm. Grill (yes, grill — are we too politically correct to say it?) your journalists when necessary. Take an austere and ruthless approach to digging for public records. Hell, use phonebooks once in a blue moon! Request that the Library of Congress pull parchment for you. Call the resident newsroom fact checker to confirm a piece of information on a lede. Find old papers from the archives to match the Now with the Then. While the internet is an abundant cornucopia of information, it isn’t flawless. Don’t be afraid to get ink on your fingertips. Just wash them before you touch your iPad again.

The profession of journalism is in danger. After all, it’s a job duty with a split personality. Not for the faint of heart when your name is sitting on the byline.

Despite what the Internet revenue race may say, I bet the candid truth would sell harder, garner attention faster, and yes, sometimes displease the country stronger than half-truths ever could.

Time for a gut check.

Yoga. Mmm. I’ve been practicing yoga, in some ways, since...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:23:00 -0500

Yoga. Mmm.

I’ve been practicing yoga, in some ways, since I was tiny. Dance classes — ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary — were the focus of my life after dinnertime for over thirteen years.

There’s a place you go to in dance, much like there is in yoga. Donning leggings and ballet slippers is a cognitive cue that you’re entering a place that requires a strong core and squared shoulders, the way entering that certain Panera Bread in Atlanta is a cognitive cue that I’m about to do some serious uninterrupted studying for a few hours. Lately, slipping on these Lululemon crops have whispered to my mind that it’s time to calm down for a bit, to take a backseat and to let intuition guide my body into the places it wants to go. After several sun salutations, triangle inversions, and scorpion poses, I’m feeling limber and fortified. Accomplishment.

For me, some poses come easily. Warrior pose, for instance, is a huge favorite. The muscles in my thighs (hello, legs that will never be truly skinny thanks to so much of the aforementioned dance!) know exactly what to do in that type of extension, and my torso and arms extend into the old familiar strength of a demi-plié. But other poses, like the Warrior III (an advanced Vinyasa style), are difficult to move into — my right hip is used to moving into an action packed sequence, not a long stretch, and I often have to stop, center, and rebalance.

At that point, it becomes a mental challenge, and that’s half the benefit. While I was in D.C., I took a few particularly memorable Bikram (hot yoga) classes in the midst of one of the most intense heat waves on record, where temperatures soared to 116° one day. By the time I left, the hardwood floor was soaked with the sweat of two dozen yogis, and I felt pretty lightheaded. (Okay, so maybe Bikram in the middle of a heatwave is NOT the smartest thing, and I wouldn’t recommend it to most.)

But damn, pushing myself to stop being aware of the heat and concentrating on the sequence felt amazing. So did that first blast of air when I finally left the studio. Awareness.

There are a lot of yoga enthusiasts out there who come off as haughty in their practice, and that’s understandably a turn-off for many. On the other hand, I’ve tried very hard not to be an evangelist of yoga, as much as I believe in its ability to bring serious clarity to those who actively participate…

…but there’s something about going into your zone for that hour, just like it is for dancers, gymnasts, professional golfers, quarterbacks, welders, mechanics…really, any type of work that requires intense focus and a quieting of the mind in order to reach such flow. It’s full immersion, an intrinsic state where you find your mental footing.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian psychologist, theorized that as one becomes entrenched in the segments of a task, we enter several “fragments” before reaching what Buddhists might call enlightenment, or for the rest of us, a state of epiphany, a “eureka!” moment, or a “runner’s high”. Often, apathy turns into worry, and worry becomes anxiety when the mind is allowed to wander freely without control. This is the place in which most of us live, day-to-day. With yoga, that first stretch on the mat becomes a state of arousal, turning into a state of flow with each swan dive that becomes a downward dog. As the poses become easier with repetition, immersion takes over, and the mind’s motherboard takes a backseat to allow the body to direct the course of motion. Control turns to relaxation, and as we enter savasana (considered to be the most difficult pose by some, the ability to lie still and relax every muscle from eyebrows to toes), relaxation turns to clarity, and clarity turns into invigoration. (Finding Flow, 1997) Coming out of savasana is something that can hardly be explained, but I often compare to rising from a restful night’s sleep.

I just came out of my savasana a few moments ago, and was inspired to write this post with a clear mind. Since I’m home for winter break right now, I’ve been taking several classes in Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Kripalu yoga at my local studio a few times a week. I’m so excited to get back to Emory and begin classes there — I have a feeling it’s going to do wonders to find my flow in the midst of academics again :)

“Get the transportation right,” said Hall....

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:43:38 -0500

“Get the transportation right,” said Hall. “Then let things happen.”

(via The City Solution - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine)

(via Well, This Statistic Ought To Put The ‘Facebook Is...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:15:04 -0500

(via Well, This Statistic Ought To Put The ‘Facebook Is Killing Email’ Meme In Perspective)

I got to thinking last night, probably way too late for my own...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:08:51 -0500

I got to thinking last night, probably way too late for my own good, about novelty. You know, that crazy proverbial flag-on-the-moon, conquistador-inching-up-on-new-lands, disheveled-mad-scientist-in-a-secret-lab type of thing.

In a nutshell ― what makes for newness in discovery and innovation.

I had a couple questions: does originality truly exist in the way that I’ve been thinking of it, requiring an “untouched frontier” when it comes to creative innovation? Really, can anything be so groundbreaking, so novel, so out of our peripheral vision that its unveil would truly change the operation of our world? Are those inventors I just mentioned unique themselves or are they enhancing some blueprint left by another forefather?

Let’s take the case of Gunpei Yokoi. Riding the train to work, Yokoi watched a man fiddle with an LCD calculator for fun, when the idea dawned on him ― how could he fuse the wildly popular “arcade style” games of the 80s and 90s with the ease of portability and independent play? A few prototypes (and many failures, including the Virtual Boy) later, the GameBoy was born.

So would we call Yokoi creative? Certainly. Original? In some ways. The raw materials he used to create the device ― plastic buttons, 3.5 mm headphone jack, external rechargeable battery, a rainbow of microchips — weren’t his inventions in the least. The ‘screws and nails’, so to speak, were mutually exclusive to the idea. If it weren’t for Yokoi selectively picking out those parts for that product, it wouldn’t exist.

And therein lies what I think is a new distinction: authentic originality. Just like you didn’t hatch the eggs or milk the cow, that delicious chocolate cake is all yours, even if you didn’t write the recipe.

To be honest, I was completely annoyed by the notion that all the good ideas were taken when it comes to newness. Everything’s been done before! Where can we leave our dent in the universe! And it dawned on me ― save digging in a quarry for some alien mineral, “reinventing the wheel” isn’t so bad. Actually, not bad at all if you consider the hundreds and hundreds of re-inventors like Steve Jobs or even Eli Whitney. Instead of tweaking (this word is way too close to Twinkies by the way, so I won’t use it often), authentic originality is a personally rendered enhancement rather than the ripping-off I had previously seen it as.

And therein lies the novelty only uniqueness can bring.

“Wherever you may find the inventor, you may give him wealth or you may take from him all that he has; and he will go on inventing. He can no more help inventing that he can help thinking or breathing.”

― Alexander Graham Bell

A beautiful-looking travel camera for those spontaneous shots...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:14:05 -0500

A beautiful-looking travel camera for those spontaneous shots that don’t allow for much fiddling. I love SLRs and delicate lenses, but if it can’t fit in my back pocket, I’ll be using it rarely.

(via Nikon 1 J1 Camera | Compact Camera System)

Hello again big, beautiful world :) Another semester is over, and another winter break has begun. I...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:23:00 -0500

Hello again big, beautiful world :)

Another semester is over, and another winter break has begun. I posted the sticky note below before classes began this August, as an apropos “away message”, and took my own advice in the interim. Suffice it to say — it’s definitely working in my favor so far. I love being humbled and from that humbling, encouraged to reach a greater potential.

I pulled into my (literally) freezing driveway back home in Philadelphia this evening, with tons of blog post ideas and general brain chatter, inspired by Merlin Mann, the Vienna RSS reader I just snatched, and the Zite iPad app I’ve been swooning over this fall.

So — expect newness.

Let’s get back at it, shall we?

/@amandaserfozo

ohmuffins: be patient.

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:16:56 -0400

ohmuffins:

be patient.

cheattowin: Want. Like, for the past six years.

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:19:35 -0400

cheattowin:

Want. Like, for the past six years.

petitpoulailler: May 5, 1922. Washington, D.C. “Vista of...

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:41:20 -0400

petitpoulailler:

May 5, 1922. Washington, D.C. “Vista of Monument from Lincoln Memorial.” National Photo Company Collection glass negative via

Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night. (Rupert...

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:43:00 -0400

Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night. (Rupert Brooke)

futurejournalismproject: TED: Mike Matas: A next-generation...

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:21:15 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

TED: Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book - Mike Matas (2011)

Great example of a book on an iPad and iPhone. Some really nifty interactive stuff in there.

I’ve been reading Rocketmatter’s “Legal...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:25:00 -0400

I’ve been reading Rocketmatter’s “Legal Productivity” blog for weeks now, just nodding and mentally exclaiming “eureka!” after each post. It’s seemingly under the radar, but you need to take a look if you’re anywhere remotely in the six degrees of law, journalism, digital platforms, social media, global communications, the English language, handwriting, hieroglyphics, cavemen, the invention of fire, speaking, oxygen, being a human…

Today’s panel was on “responsible connectivity”, or rather, “knowing when to unplug, and how to do it effectively”. I’ve been grappling with this for some time - when our days are filled with talking, jabbering, and being on the cutting edge, how do we make the leap to less talkative waters? Sometimes I whisper to my Mac at the end of the day, “I wish I knew how to quit you”. @EmilyPicc has seen this firsthand.

Here are some takeaways:

- Neuroplasticity is one of the most important terms you can learn from the field of neuroscience. In sum, what you do ‘molds’ your brain by changing the physical shape of neurons, dendrites, and the journey of all those lovely little electric jolts that travel between them. For mice, moving about in a fixed environment like a maze redesigns the functions of the brain (where do you find the cheese? where are the dead ends?), in order to survive. In modernspeak, this is your brain on the web. Further, repetition has a significant impact on this clay-brain effect. The Internet is our maze, and the irony is that it never has a dead end. Your brain has certainly evolved from the brain it once was in 1991. We’re going to have to deal with it.

- Which means there are more and more interruptions at a constant rate. It’s not unlikely for some to check their email, Facebook, or Twitter, thirty or forty times per hour. And get stuck in a technology loop like Fred, seen above. Enter a university lecture hall and sit in the back row. You’ll see.

- A 2009 Stanford study found that multitaskers are “suckers for irrelevancy”. Everything distracts them! Not only did they lose time by transitioning, but they’re distracted by things that aren’t important, and having to switch those mental slides back and forth, resetting the circuitry - and thus the neurons within - is a big time waster. (“So, uh. What were we talking about?”)

- Work on your weedy inbox for a few moments before breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. Set a timer for email and only email. And then be done. See also: leave work at work.

- As @AlexPriest and @JosephRooks have told me, the ”zero inbox” method of archiving, deleting, and starring is one way to mentally and physically compartmentalize. Gmail is especially privy to this method, but there are a host of other email services out there that can do the same thing for you.

- Twitter and Facebook are the distractions we love to hate and hate to love, no? Know how much time you want to allocate to those jobs, and when to knock it off. For instance, I use the RockMelt browser. It’s chaotic. Very ADD. Look at it. I mean…seriously, that’s insane. That little bell up there? Quiet function.

- “The guys who formed our Constitution in some way — Locke, Hobbes, Jefferson — had neural pathways designed for deep concentration.”

- Reading books forces you to concentrate, and exercises these neurological pathways. Feeling anxiety, an inability to focus, or just general neurosis can be aided by simply reading. (Revolutionary! Books! I love books.) Exercising a part of the brain that will counterbalance the hunter-gatherer function is key. Even reading at night, if only ten pages at a pop, will rewire your grey matter for the better.

- “An internet addict is like an alcoholic running a distillery.”

- For more: www.responsiblyconnected.com

newsweek: President Barack Obama is hosting a Twitter town hall later this afternoon, and we’d like...

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:34:49 -0400

newsweek:

President Barack Obama is hosting a Twitter town hall later this afternoon, and we’d like to use our Twitter account (1.4 mil followers!) to amplify one question from our Tumblr readers. This can be anything from gay marriage to Libya to the ongoing debt debate. Just submit yours by 1pm ET and we’ll select our favorite before the event starts at 2. Ready? Tell us: Do you have a question for Obama?

Happy five year anniversary, TED! (Give our team over at...

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:41:24 -0400

Happy five year anniversary, TED!

(Give our team over at TEDxEmory a ‘like’, and keep the ideas spreading on Asbury Circle for our 2012 conference.)

Stories like Whitman’s are not uncommon: legal cases involving...

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:39:06 -0400

Stories like Whitman’s are not uncommon: legal cases involving brain damage crop up increasingly often. As we develop better technologies for probing the brain, we detect more problems, and link them more easily to aberrant behavior.

A fantastic, comprehensive read on the study of neurolaw. There are so many avenues yet unexplored here - bioethically, neurologically, legally. I can’t wait to delve into this field.

(“The Brain On Trial”, via The Atlantic.)

I cannot get enough Lawrence Lessig. A pioneer in...

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:48:44 -0400

I cannot get enough Lawrence Lessig. A pioneer in “marrying” law with technology. I’ll be doing a post soon on this idea I’ve got, between Old Law v. New Law. It’s in ink at the moment, so I’ll be dissecting that soon.

And just in - DCists love their Vespas. I started a blog last night called www.ourdailyvespa.com, which is designed to be a collaborative, neighborhood minded project. From AdMo to Cathedral Heights, downtown and on Capitol Hill, we want to fuse our iPhoneography (Instagram, Plastic Bullet, among other apps) with a model like Foodspotting (taking local interest to the next level by collaborating and sharing, recognizing street corners and plotting where each was seen).

Happy Friday!

Via The 99% Think through the sketch to think forward....

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:24:04 -0400

Via The 99%

Think through the sketch to think forward. Inspired to go pick up a new Moleskine!

(Winners of the 2011 Edward R. Murrow Awards via...

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:39:08 -0400

(Winners of the 2011 Edward R. Murrow Awards via @PoynterOnline)

“My long-term goal is to understand cultural phenomena and...

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:44:30 -0400

“My long-term goal is to understand cultural phenomena and trends,” Berns says. “I want to know where ideas come from, and why some of them become popular and others don’t. It’s ideas and the way that we think that determines the course of human history. Ultimately, I’m trying to predict history.”

A fantastic read from Emory University’s eScience Commons — our TEDxEmory alum Dr. Gregory Berns is at the helm of some major neurological research, specifically how music affects teenage brains. The potential for studies like this are enormous. If we can pinpoint what makes a song, artist, or genre successful, especially in the ever changing landscape of modern culture, how will it affect record sales? How will affect the way songwriters and producers create music? Will we ‘tailor’ and customize for neurological pleasure? Read on!

http://bit.ly/kCfP2r