New quarter, new beat

Starting today until the beginning of June, I’m working on Health/Science reporting. My beat is Technology/Gadgets/Nanotech. If you should happen to have any good tips on these subjects, please please contact me and clue me in (ian at ianmonroe.com). I finally have a beat that I can write about with some kind of clarity, so … Read more

How I spent my spring breakation …

I caught a cold. It even came with a minor ear infection.  So I’ve been popping the amoxicillin and OTC cold remedies.  Bummer. I saw Watchmen. I liked it.  It got a bum rap from the fanboys (and critics), but then again, how could it not?  Some of the reviews have said that it was … Read more

If it isn’t there, you can’t fix it.

This fellow gets it. Everyone knows by now that the newspaper industry is broken, possibly beyond repair, but, particularly over the last three or four years, I’ve come across countless folks that want to sell you a solution to “fix” it.  But it can’t be fixed.  The environment has changed, and the niche that newspapers … Read more

They take their saints seriously in Chicago.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This is the first time I’ve been in a city that starts celebrating a full week before St. Patty’s.  Please enjoy this video shot at the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday. [flashvideo file=”flash_video/st.pats.flv” /] *** Update, 3/27/2009 *** Looks like this was the last South Side Irish … Read more

Kutiman’s THRU YOU project

This is really excellent.  This fellow took a bajillion unrelated YouTube videos of people playing instruments, or singing or whathaveyou, and edited them all down into a “virtual album” of seven tracks, including the original video samples with the music.  The results are brilliant.  It kind of reminds me of Coldcut’s Timber video, but that … Read more

Game theory used to predict novel behavior in birds

This is interesting. ScienceDaily.com is reporting that some folks at the University of Exeter have used game-theoretical models to predict strange food gathering behaviors that ravens exhibit only in particular geographic conditions… “The researchers built a mathematical model to understand how this behaviour evolved and why it might occur in some roosts and not others. … Read more

Getting help with the work of finding work

[flashvideo file=”flash_video/UnemploymentSeminar.flv” /] This is the first video that I’ve turned in for Northwestern that hasn’t been completely terrible.  It’s a story about a group in Chicago that provides support services for the unemployed to assist in their job search called the Career Transitions Center.