"We may convince others by our arguments, but we can only persuade them by their own." Joseph Joubert

"Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We know too much, and are convinced of too little." T.S. Eliot

Today's image: Black & White Beauty by Rikkilynn07. Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

F5: Two interesting ongoing discussions. First, The Nicholas Carr writing Is Google Making Us Stupid: What The Internet is doing to Our Brains. Now followed on by the the contrary opinion of Danny Hillis. Read both via Altantic Monthly here. Second, a reminder that racism is alive and well in America. The latest example, an online video producer loses support of a sponsor, Verizon, for featuring a video last year which many, including this blogger, find patently offensive and insensitive. The video producer claims it to be a form of comedy or at least entertainment, many objecting to the content say it is the blatant racism of stereotyping blacks. You decide. Read Corvia here, and Shey Smith here. I'll not name or provide a link to the the video producer. In my opinion, the guy is a hack and he'll get no traffic from this blog. Besides, at this point he's a very easy guy to find. This is certainly a situation Tom Joyner and Tavis Smiley need to bring to light and examine in some depth. Tom? Tavis? [I've reached out to both gentlemen]

Bonus: A N I M O T O. Create videos and trailers. Very cool.

Congrats & cheers: Radio programming ace Brian Kelly, wife and new mom Katie on the birth of Emerson John. Jim Thompson named prexy Broadcasters Foundation of America. Radio programming and marketing maven Tim Dukes joins Tribune as vice president of promotions.

Photo: I Love You More by Thomas Hawk. Killer image. Thank you!

"If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play." John Cleese

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." Sally Berger

"Be yourself. The world worships the original." Ingrid Bergman

Fox Business redirects domain, teasing 10/15 debut. Back story here. Site here.

Midtown buzz: Time, Inc. annual billing about $175 mil in online rev, running a CPM of approx $21. Compared to $5.2 billion in dead tree rev.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain: Predicting the future of media is, at best, a parlor game fraught with peril. Back in the last century I recall giving a talk at MIDEM and leading with a denouncement - CHR is not dead. I took up the task of telling the audience to ignore the idiot American consultant who, at a session earlier in the day, told the audience that CHR was totally dead. Predictions do make good copy. Last week, just about the time that Yahoo! announced they were closing up their podcasting business, we learned that the first tribe of wireless is, well, toast. The best used by date a bit less than 20 years ahead. Michael Harrison is quoted in the Mark Washburn column here in Charlotte Observer...

Harrison, who entered broadcasting in 1967 and has published Talkers since 1990, said he believes most listeners will abandon the traditional AM and FM radio services and migrate to new technologies in the next two decades.

"The next 15 years will be the demise of terrestrial radio as we know it and the rise of the extraterrestrial," he said. Just as Vaudeville gave way to movies and horses to the automobile, he said, radio will be overtaken by gadgets that serve people's needs more efficiently.

What comes to mind here is Orgel's Second Rule (i.e., "Evolution is cleverer that you are"). What media around 15 years ago remains the same today? That pesky four word qualification in the prediction (e.g., "as we know it") seems to prove there's no fist in that glove. Care to make a Long Bet Michael?

Lee Arnold gets Bob Dylan to deliver his mail to WRIF, no kidding, details here. Kudos to Lee, clever as ever!

GOP front runners to Tavis Smiley: Drop dead. In what is certain to be a calculated move the four leading GOP candidates were no shows at last week's PBS sponsored debate. Worst of the bunch would be Fred Thompson who did agree to attend and later backed out when hearing the big three were not attending. Tone deaf. Stupid without excuse. ABC News coverage here.

Bonus: John Maeda

Congrats & cheers: Warner Bros and NBCU stations renew Ellen through 2011. Hey!Nielsen on their beta launch. Rebecca Watson, Glynn Washington and Al Letson winners of the PRX Public Radio Talent Quest (more), entered by 1,400. Rebecca blogs here. Should you be a station person looking for leading-edge original music you need to get dialed-in to the guys all the smart kids are inviting to play; these guys are the goods: Bob Shannon and Bruce Upchurch on the success of their exciting and very cool new venture.