Welcome To The Machine

Well folks, It’s been a few days since I’ve written anything and here’s why: I was busy putting together a little project called NutmegMachine.com

It’s intended to be a blog, a news service and a resource for manufacturing in Connecticut, a topic I have been writing a column about (“Industrial Strength”) for the Hartford Business Journal since April.

Boston University’s Strange Journo-Marketing

I just got around to sorting some of the mail and magazines on my desk. I was reading through the most recent issue of Bostonia, which is the alumni magazine of Boston University. There is a profile of WBUR, the NPR-affiliate based at B.U. At one point in the piece, the writer makes this awkward reference to an alumna, considering the story is running in a combination marketing and journalism mag.

As recently as two years ago, newspaper stories about WBUR described the station as troubled. They noted its growing debt to BU and the cancellation of The Connection, then the station’s flagship program, with a huge national following. Prior to that was the October 2004 resignation of longtime general manager Jane Christo (CAS’65) amid accusations of mismanagement, many eventually deemed not credible by a BU investigation.

Does that strike anyone else as weird, knowing this is a puff piece promoting B.U.? I can’t quite decide if it’s very bad marketing or very good journalism.

[BTW, the things an internal investigation found that Christo did were not all that interesting.]

Update: Questioning The AIDS Rate Story

Here’s an addenda to my earlier post about the AIDS infection rate growing among teens and young adults. I suggested that one reason for the jump might be the rise of abstinence-only sex education. Well, lo and behold, a new study comes out and says that the teen birth rate has jumped and the reason: the rise of abstinence-only education.

(S)ome experts said they have been expecting a jump. They blamed it on increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that doesn’t teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception.

Isn’t this really a very similar scenario with a totally different analysis? Both AIDS and pregnancy are direct results of unprotected sex. Both AIDS infections and teen pregnancies saw their first rise in years. Yet for AIDS, experts blame a perception that AIDS is less dangerous; for teen pregnancy experts blame abstinence-only education. Couldn’t it be true that rising AIDS infection rates could ALSO be related to the rise of abstinence-only education? It at least seems probable.

To be fair, it could also be vice versa: The perception among teenagers that pregnancies don’t happen has led to an increase in teen pregnancies. To some degree this could be happening, but I doubt it’s the best explanation.

Feel free to comment below.