Social media news and TV – Current.com Blog – Your guide to Current

We’re on day two of November, and despite daylight savings time, you may already be behind. That is, if you’re a writer. November is chock full of writing-themed challenges, most of which involve writing at breakneck speeds.

You may already be familiar with National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to the writing community to write 50,000 words by the close of the month. It’s “thirty days and nights of literary abandon!” and Twitter is already alight with tweets from novelists cranking away.

In response to NaNoWriMo, a group has declared November to be National Blog Posting Month as well. The challenge here? Post one time daily for the entire month of November. According to Twitter, the challenge is being met.

So, whether you’re interested in writing a novel or just getting your blog back in shape, you’ve got options. But, you better get cracking, the month is already 2 days old. So, here are some ideas to help get the creative juices flowing:

Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds

“Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas wrote.

You could go so many directions with this. First, it’s an interesting story to dissect based on the headline. The actual study offered some interesting details on the benefits of both positive and negative thinking, but then again, “Balancing positive and negative thinking boosts memory and creativity equally, study finds” is not a very compelling headline.

World’s largest cruise ship squeezes under Danish bridge

The 20 story tall ship, The Oasis of the Seas narrowly cleared the Great Belt Fixed Link while departing on it’s maiden voyage. This is really good news, and passengers should revel in this for a while. After all, the cruise is headed to Florida, which means it’s all downhill from here.

Honor Sandwich day — Vote for the Greatest Sandwich in America

Go meta! Use November’s tribute to writing to pay tribute to another November dedication — sandwiches! November 3rd is the home of the oft-overlooked Sandwich Day. The good folks over at lemondrop have compiled a list of 16 sandwiches for their readers to vote on. A friend of mine has a published poem titled, “Ode to the Sandwich” which you can find in his book, The Date Fruit Elegies. Paying tribute to the art of food while making social commentary is possible, people!

Surprise! Cost cutting boosts Ford’s profits to almost $1bn in 2nd quarter

In a total shocker, Ford has announced nearly $1 billion in profit during the 2nd quarter. The company is crediting cost cutting, but did cash for clunkers play a part?

Obama warns more job losses coming

On a sour note, President Obama has warned of more job losses looming in the future. I’m not sure about you, but now might be a good time to take advantage of November’s writing-centric themes. Just think, this could lead to selling your novel, or open the door to the next breakthrough blog that takes the Internet by storm.

We’re taking the challenge, and I’m going to get things rolling on my own personal blog as well. We’ll see how that goes.

So, what are you waiting for? Start writing! And be sure to share your work in the Creative Writing group on Current.com.

Yay! October 14th is finally here, and tonight we’ll unleash season 3 of our documentary series Vanguard, followed by the first of our six part music special, Embedded.

Here is everything you need to know about our Current TV premiere night:

1. Tell Your Friends!

   Tonight is as good as any to gather a group together and turn the dial to Current.

2. Get Directions

   Make sure you know where to find Current TV on your cable/satellite service. Here’s a list of channel numbers where you can find us: DIRECTV 358 | COMCAST 107 | DISH NETWORK 196 | TIME WARNER (check local listings).

3. Have A Backup Plan

   What? You can’t make it? Well, alright. There are plenty of ways to watch. Here are a few: Set your DVR! No DVR? Join the Vanguard and the Embedded groups on Current.com and the full episodes will be available shortly. You can even login using Facebook!

4. Be Prepared

   Pop some popcorn, but also have some tissues on standby. Seriously, tonight will be a rollercoaster ride. I expected tears (and was correct in doing so) while watching Mariana Van Zeller’s “The OxyContin Express” during our Current SF screening party, but I was also surprised by the humor, too. Conversely, I anticipated laughs during Embedded with Mos Def, but was taken aback by the layers behind the mask. With both of these shows, you never know where you’re going to go — emotionally and philosophically.

After Vanguard and Embedded Air

1. Share!

   Did you like the episodes? If so, you’re definitely on the inside track, so why not show off a little? We have plenty of options to help spread the word, here are a couple: Share Vanguard (requires login) and Embedded (requires login) on Current.com. You can also find our shows on iTunes, and tell a friend from there.



2. Interview Mariana Van Zeller

   Did “The OxyContin Express” leave you with a few biting questions? Or, do you have a general interest in the nuts and bolts of our Vanguard journalism team? Well, you’re in luck! We’re planning an interview with Mariana right here on the Current.com blog, and we want YOU to provide the questions! Get all the details here.



3. Embed Embedded

   We need your help getting the word out about our new Current Music Special, Embedded. Each week, we will release a clip from the upcoming show. If you choose to help out, you will get first look at this exclusive clip, and a chance to score some limited edition Embedded swag! All you have to do is embed the unique embed code for the exclusive clip (found here — requires login via Current or Facebook) on your blog, MySpace, Tumblr, or other site that allows embeddable video content. (NOTE: Posting to your Facebook stream will not work, as your unique embed code will not be used in the Facebook news stream). You can get the full scoop here. Help us please? Thanks in advance!

More importantly, thanks for tuning in tonight, and let us know what you think (Leave a comment, or shoot us a tweet with the hashtags #Embedded and #Vanguard!

6:05pm — Current SF reactions:

5:12pm — Snagged some video of staff reactions to the episode. I’ll post shortly.

4:58pm — Episode credits. Lights are back up. I’m going to ask people what they thought.

4:57pm — This just rocked me.

“That’s what moms do.”

4:55pm — Todd and Drew’s mom is amazing. She’s checking up on Todd, I don’t know what we’re going to find.

4:53pm — Most pain clinics refused to speak to @MarianaVZ.

4:52pm — The Sheriff has a great point about taking the Hippocratic Oath. Sickening.

4:51pm — BUSTED in 30 minutes. Out of 150 pills, only 52 left in the bottle.

“This is not my lifestyle.”

4:48pm — @MarianaVZ is following a unit supporting an undercover detective attempting to get people to offer pills to him for sale.

4:45pm — Some of these “pill billies” are mothers. Now @MarianaVZ is talking to their families.

4:43pm — Now we’re in county lockup, talking to so-called “pill billies.”

4:40pm — See? More humor! This time from a “worn down old Sheriff.” You guys will love this guy.

4:39pm — Don’t be fooled, this isn’t just about the addicts — “Hillbilly Heroin” is a business.

4:37pm — The Vanguard team does such a great job of balancing the seriousness of this subject with the characters involved. It’s equal parts tension and character study.

4:35pm — I just learned what the titular “Oxy Express” is. I thought it was just a title…don’t worry, I won’t spoil it.

4:33pm — Florida has basically become a pain pill distribution hub for the US.

4:31pm — Now @MarianaVZ is entering a pain clinic with a pen camera on. She never ceases to amaze even her co-workers, everyone in the room is on the edge of their seats.

4:30pm — And here’s the question, are these places in business solely to cater to pill addicts? Oh wait, @MarianaVZ just asked that in VO.

4:28pm — Pain clinic closed down. Guy sitting outside is handing out maps to the new location. At the new location @MarianaVZ and @fineyoungman filmed for a few minutes when a black SUV chased them away. The SUV followed them for 25 minutes.

4:25pm — @MarianaVZ is watching someone get high off of oxycontin…he’s explaining the high. Chilling.

4:24pm — Todd is walking Mariana through doctor shopping techniques. This is insane.

4:21pm — I’ll never be able to look at those pain management advertisements in the back of weeklies the same again.

4:20pm — The benefit of company viewing parties? No commercials.

4:18pm — Todd again:

“My wife died right there, November 22nd, 12:59am.”

This kills me.

4:15pm — Mariana van Zeller is talking to the Parkinson family. It’s amazing how many pills their son Drew was able to get via a prescription. Drew’s younger brother Todd says:

“You think it would make me want to stop, but it made me want to get more addicted to keep from dealing with the pain.”

4:13pm — We were greeted with a Current branded compass and a viewing party invite on our desks this morning. here’s a picture.

4:10pm — A few announcements out of the way, and Vanguard is on the screen. Paul Levine is loving the chips and salsa.

Everyone on this side of the fence has been working hard in preparation for next week. Vanguard returns to Current TV next Wednesday October 14 10/9c for a third season chock full of all new episodes. Kicking it all off is Mariana van Zeller’s investigation of the prescription drug use in Florida, “The OxyContin Express.”

Today on the Hulu blog, Mariana chats with Editor Rebecca Harper about the episode. She answers questions about Vanguard, how she got started in journalism, and the decision to investigate prescription drugs for the season premiere.

Of course, the best part of all of this? Well, sometimes pictures speak louder than words.

Mariana and Vanguard featured on the Hulu homepage

It’s time, once again, for another Current blogs round-up. Sit back, let the tea steep, and let’s dig in, shall we?

Current News

According to bansheewail’s post earlier this week, prescription drug related deaths have actually overtaken traffic fatalities in 16 states. Andrew took a closer look on the Current News blog, and according to the CDC, that number has been on the rise lately. The question is, why? The AP points to changes in the way doctors prescribe painkillers, and this actually coincides with the season premiere of Vanguard on October 14th. In “The Oxycontin Express,” Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Florida, “the epicenter of the prescription drug boom.” Be sure to check it out.

Mariana van Zeller travels to Florida to investigate the prescription drug boom in Vanguard’s premiere, “The Oxycontin Express”

Some of biggest news this week came out of the South Pacific, where a pair of earthquakes and a tsunami ravaged the Samoa Islands and Indonesia. Andrew pulled together raw video intel and followed the story closely. Take a look.

Current Music

The Current Music team is racing to the finish line in preparation for the premiere of Embedded, immediately following the season premiere of Vanguard on October 14th. Shana took a minute to share progress on the six-part special on the Current Music blog: apparently the team is knee-deep in post-production on the six episodes, as well as preparation for online distribution.

Also, Alex posted photos from The Dodo’s show at the El Rey. Alex always takes amazing photos at shows, so head over to the blog and check them out. If you have a few extra minutes to spare, give this a look as well.

Current Movies

John has continued to make due on his festival coverage with dispatches from the New York Film Festival. A couple of excellent posts this week, one covering some of the influences and inspirations behind Harmony Korine’s latest, Trash Humpers.

Additionally, John finally screens Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, the film that compelled Cannes audiences to collectively question, “Why?” Additionally, Von Trier went on record with this film, proclaim that “I am the best filmmaker in the world.” Check out John’s review here.

Current Tech

Over on Current Tech, Sarah Lane shed a little light on her shopping addiction with her exploration of your best online shopping options and deals. As community member aaronights pointed out, “No wonder you’re always low on cash!”

In a far less costly post, Sarah takes a look at another obsession that is apparently taking over the world: Twitter Apps. More specifically, OneForty — the Twitter App store that Twitter forgot to build. Seriously, take a look.

Current Green

Leah spent some time chatting with Colin Beavan (you may know him as No Impact Man from his Twitter account, blog, and the trailer of his new movie), and discusses the dedication it takes for someone like No Impact Man to commit to a lifestyle change of this extreme magnitude. All in the name of “green.” It’s quite remarkable.

Keeping in theme with environmental heroism, Leah caught up with photographer Ian Shive — the man dedicated to saving our National Parks one photo at a time. If you haven’t checked out “Photos Across America” yet, be sure to give this post a read.

Current Comedy

Thursday nights mean a new episode of infoMania. In case you missed it, you have Josh to thank because Fridays are “Hey check out what happened on infoMania” days on the Current Comedy blog.

Josh likes to combat claims of failure. In fact, you might even call him a FAIL adjuster. In the FAILspace, he is what an auditor is to accounting. Once again he’s worked up another account of why some supposed FAILS are, in fact, not FAILS. Peep them here.

Vanguard

An added bonus this week, our friends in Vanguard are ramping up their blogging efforts, and to kick things off they’ve posted a couple gems for you to take a look at. First up, Vanguard correspondent Laura Ling shared her thoughts on Vanguard’s mission during a live event in Italy. As an added treat, the full broadcast of the Italy event is embedded on the post, so if you’ve ever wanted to hear Mariana van Zeller speak Italian, make sure to watch beyond the intro.

Speaking of Mariana, her piece “The Oxycontin Express” is going to be our season premiere for Vanguard on October 14th, and as an added bonus the team was invited to tape an episode of Dr. Phil and discuss both her documentary and the prevalence of prescription drugs. Darren posted some photos from the visit to Dr. Phil, so go check it out. The Dr. Phil episode with Mariana will air on the same day as our Vanguard season premiere, October 14th.

As Darren points out over on the Vanguard blog, Vanguard has a new look on Current.com. Just in time for the premiere of the new season on October 14th, too!

Darren’s post will run you through some of the finer points, and he even has an episode breakdown for you, so head over there and check it out.

If you haven’t visited the new Vanguard page, please do. I’ve spent most of the past hour digging through some of the sneak peeks to episodes from the upcoming season, and they look amazing. I know, I work here and I’m still floored by the things these guys accomplish. I’ll leave the individual sneak peek clips for you to discover on the new page (hint: you’ll find them in the featured videos section).

For now, here’s the Season 3 promo to whet your appetite:

Vanguard returns to Current TV on October 14th

It’s Monday, and while the wheels are slowly starting to pick up steam, here are the top 5 stories being discussed on Current.com:

1. California dreaming of full marijuana legalization
   

   Medical marijuana has become big business in California and the drug is approved for a range of conditions and for “any other illness for which marijuana provides relief”. In these straitened financial times, booming sales and healthy tax revenues mean that full legalisation of cannabis may be just around the corner.Across California there are an estimated 2,100 dispensaries, co-operatives, wellness clinics and taxi delivery services in the sector known as “cannabusiness”. That is more than all the Starbucks, McDonald’s and 7-Eleven outlets in the state put together.

2. Honeybees, Bumble Bees, and now Ladybugs– they’re all going on strike

   A citizens-science group is calling for children, adults, families, and educators to help native ladybugs.

   During the past two decades as invasive look-alike ladybugs expanded their territories and pollution and habitat loss have crowded them out, species of Native ladybugs began vanishing and the invasive species began increasing. These include the multicolored Asian ladybug, checkerboard ladybug and the seven-spotted ladybug.

   “This has happened very quickly and we don’t know how this shift happened, what impact it will have, and how we can prevent more native species from becoming so rare,” said John E. Losey, Cornell University entomologist.

3. McDonalds Density: Never more that 145 miles away

   Data can be truly eye-opening. Take a look at this visualization of McDonald’s locations across the United States, and take comfort (?) in knowing that the golden arches are always less than 145 miles away from wherever you are.

   

   This map was created by Stephen Von Worley, who used location data on the 13,000 plus MickeyD’s locations along with some coding-fu to generate the above map. What we see is as expected, a network of the franchises largely following the freeway and highway system and increasing in density in proportion to the population density.

4. Community organizing for comprehensive immigration reform

   This video by allanfrieux is rather timely.

   The Center for Community Change and the Reform Immigration FOR America
   Campaign organized state-wide youth trainings in Colorado and Florida. This video takes an inside look at what happens at these trainings, it talks about what Comprehensive Immigration Reform is, and shows how the youth is organizing their communities to fight for C.I.R.

   
   Community organizing for comprehensive immigration reform

5. Sneak Attack at Oakland Whole Foods

   Personally, I’m a big fan of creative demonstrations. This sneak attack at an Oakland Whole Foods falls right into that category — complete with choreographed dancing and a backing band.

   In case you’re not keeping up like some of us are, Whole Foods’ CEO, John Mackey, recently penned an op-ed in the WSJ in which he opined that, because he is able to provide private health insurance benefits for his (mostly young and w/o pre-existing conditions, like arthritis or CAD or osteoporosis) workforce, he is opposed to health-care reform that would make health-care a “right” in America.

   He even (surprisingly) went so far as to call it “ObamaCare,” right in line with the nut-jobs who don’t want our government to mess with their MediCare.

   
   Sneak Attack at Oakland Whole Foods

Apparently, it’s Mafia versus cops in the odd news world.

First up, reports out of Rome point to Italy’s anti-Mafia police seizing a crocodile that has been used to intimidate in exchange for protection. I know what you’re thinking, but no, this isn’t a plot line ripped from the next Guy Ritchie movie.

When it comes down to it, aren’t we all led by movies and pop-culture to believe that bad guys take on strange and vicious pets for the sake of freaking people out and killing their opposition in gruesomely obscure ways? A large (dare I say potentially man-eating) crocodile falls right in line with cliched villainy.

On the other hand, taking a break from a search warranted drug raid to play a few rounds of Nintendo Wii Sports bowling is totally out of character for undercover drug investigators, but that’s exactly what happened as evidenced by security camera footage during the search of a Polk County home in Florida.

Sorry cops, the Mafia wins this round.