World War II "secrecy" billboard

Uranium-235: Part 1

August 1, 2016 / / No Comments

My dad died in 1992.

He’d been ill for a while, but his death and its aftermath have remained as the most emotionally vivid, significant, and shattering experience of my life.

This is after more than two decades, after living through 9/11 in New York City, after surviving Hurricane Fran, after saying goodbye to more family members and friends than I want to think about.

I defined myself through him. I know that’s true for most young men. But from an early age (surprisingly early) I defined myself as the opposite of how I saw him. He was straightlaced, sober (never smoked or drank), law and order (literally a federal agent), and truly, deeply religious.

Of course I because the rebel, bending and breaking the law, living on the edge (the “edge”), and authentically not believing. Or not experiencing belief as he did.

This lasted through college of course, and began to change once I began working as a journalist — specifically, an investigative reporter for a well-regarded regional newspaper.

Dad read my work, and had to consider there was more to me than the pain-in-the-ass underachiever (in his eyes — after all, who needs an English/journalism degree when there are real jobs out there?) who always wanted the last word.

I kept up my habit of calling home every week. We’d talk about the issues I was writing about; the politics, the crime, the sad human stories. These were things he also dealt with in his job, before he was forced into too-early retirement (federal agents who carry firearms usually have to retire at 55).

We found common ground. We began to see each other as men, on our own, and with similar beliefs and causes. We began to really talk to each other.

Then he was gone.

He’d been diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) a decade before that. But here’s the thing about CLL — unless you test positive for a specific marker (known as ZAP-70), it’s supposed to be chronic, treatable, survivable.

Dad didn’t indicate for ZAP-70. His CLL was treatable at the beginning. At the end, though, his leukemia mutated (a few times) and his doctors were left essentially powerless, treating symptoms and offering palliative care. When the end came, it was incredibly fast; really, a matter of hours — a stark contrast to the years he’d spend living a chronic life.

So what happened?

War. Service. History. Radiation. Time.

Setting the Stage: The Atomic Age

The first atomic bomb used in warfare — Little Boy, detonated over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th, 1945 — was an enriched-uranium bomb developed through the Manhattan Project.

The very first man-made nuclear detonation in history, the Trinity test conducted just three weeks earlier in New Mexico, used an implosion-design plutonium device (named “The Gadget”), which was also used in the Fat Man bomb detonated over Nagasaki on August 6th.

It’s stunning to realize we as a species went from no nuclear detonations in our history to three in less than a month. (I’m not going to debate it: Little Boy and Fat Man helped conclude a war with Japan that could have gone on far longer with an even more staggering death toll.)

Back to enriched uranium. Natural uranium (fully organic!) is radioactive but isn’t usable as fissable nuclear fuel. Natural uranium primarily consists of Uranium-238 (about 99.28% by weight) and just a tiny bit of Uranium-235 (about 0.71%).

U-235 is also known as enriched uranium, and it was the material used in Little Boy.

Enriched uranium is rare in nature. (Plutonium is even rarer, practically but not quit non-existent, but that’s a different article.) Highly enriched uranium (also known as weapons-grade) is a concentration of 20% or higher U-235, and is DEFINITELY not found in nature.

Enriching U-238 to weapons-grade U-235 at industrial scale — what’s needed to produce atomic weapons — was nasty work that began in the middle of World War II.

Most of that work was done in a place called Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee.

Oak Ridge the town was known as the Secret City, because it was built as a production site for the Manhattan Project, and by presidential proclamation was declared a military district not subject to state control.

The population grew from 3,000 in 1942 to about 75,000 in 1945.

A uranium-diffusion facility named “K-25” was built during this time, and it covered 44 acres. That’s right: 44 acres. It was the largest building in the world at the time, and was constructed in near-total secrecy, at a cost equal to about $10 billion in today’s dollars.

My father arrived in Oak Ridge in 1944.

Numbers, Sloppy Numbers, and Statistics

July 11, 2013 / / No Comments

I admit it — I get unreasonably cranky when I see sloppy, lazy or just plain bad business/financial reporting.

It goes back to my roots as a business journalist. I spent a lot of time making sure any estimates, figures, numbers or statistics I referenced were a) correct; and b) explained in as much detail as possible for general audiences.

While general-audience business journalism has historically been full of errors, false comparisons and mistakes (usually because these reporters come from J-school, not B-school), it seems to be getting worse. Yes, I’m sure news-org consolidation and downsizing has something to do with it.

But I was hit with two typical errors recently, and I have to vent.

Error 1: Not All Dollars Are Created Equal

I’m living in California’s Central Coast area now. And not to out any local media groups, but there was recent reporting on a reservoir’s water supply. So far, so good. Water’s always in the news here.

The local reporter took it a step further though, and said this particular project was built in 1957 for $5 million — what a deal that was! …And they left it at that.

Okay, if you’d going to reference past dollar figures, BRING THEM TO CURRENT VALUE! Annual inflation is a real thing, so give your audience an apples-to-apples comparison.

It’s easy. Heck, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has an online inflation calculator.

Spending about 6 seconds there shows us $5 million in 1957 is equivalent to about $41.5 million today. Still probably a deal for a water reservoir, but now at least there’s a valid basis for comparison.

Error 2: Statistics are Slippery Things

For this next example, I’ll name names because they’re national and they should be able to take criticism. It’s NPR.

First, they were covering a sad, even tragic, topic: suicide. The reporting focused on Japan’s suicide culture, and how suicide is often seen an an honorable way out of dishonorable actions or circumstances.

Realize that I have great empathy for the issue of suicide. I don’t want to be perceived as being insensitive.

However, the reporter led with the statement: “Japan’s suicide rate is twice that of the United States. More than 30,000 people a year kill themselves in Japan.”

If I’m a casual listener, I might have missed the fact they just compared an apple to an orange. Someone could infer the US has about 15,000 suicides annually, since that’s half the Japanese number just mentioned (or another way: 30,000 is twice as large as 15,000).

But the RATE is different from the total NUMBER — especially in a country as large as the US (about 316 million people), versus Japan (about 128 million people).

This type of reporting opens the door for that same casual listener to conclude (incorrectly) if the US is only looking at about 15,000 to 16,000 suicides a year, the problem isn’t so bad.

The real numbers are far more disturbing for Americans. Yes, Japan tragically recorded about 30,000 suicide deaths annually… but the US reported 38,364 such deaths in 2010.

And there’s evidence the US rate is actually far higher, but under-reported by local authorities for a wide variety of reasons, including family concerns.

To close the loop, the rate is measured per 100,000 people — and according to World Health Organization estimates, Japan is actually not quite double the US suicide rate (21.7 suicides per 100,000 people versus 12 suicides per 100,000… and climbing for the US).

Even more depressingly, Greenland, South Korea and Lithuania have truly horrifying rates (but that’s a separate story).

Again, it’s a sad topic, but this also means there’s even more reason to make sure your figures and statistics are carefully vetted and put into proper context.

In doing the basic research for these numbers, there’s still validity to the story about Japan’s cultural view of this type of death, and the fledgling movement to change attitudes.

But another, larger story about America’s rarely discussed suicide culture is still waiting for a national stage, a national dialogue, a national discussion.

That’s just one reason why facts, figures and statistics are incredibly important to get right.

And the Best Mockumentary of 2010 is…

January 20, 2011 / / No Comments

First, the clip, then the story:

You might have already seen “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, the film by famed street artist/social provacateur Banksy.

For a film placed in the documentary category, it’s done well at the box office: nearly $5 million worldwide so far, which places it in the Top 40 gross of all documentaries released theatrically. (Trivia: “Farenheit 9/11”, “March of the Penguins” and “Earth” are the top performing docs. I knew you’d wonder…)

I got on the “Exit” tangent because I mentioned to a friend recently that I’d hoped to be blown away by “The Philosopher Kings” — but wasn’t.

They followed with “Hey, you know what’s a great documentary? ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’. That was a great documentary.”

After I stopped pulling out my hair, I mustered a “You really thought that was a straight-up doc?”, and got just a quizzical look in return.

— Don’t get me wrong. If you haven’t seen this film, definitely check it out. It’s incredibly entertaining. But while the filmmakers themselves will be loathe to ever tell the whole and full story about how it was made, I’ll bet everything in my 401(k) that it ain’t what many believe it to be: a real documentary.

It IS a fascinating look at the history of street art (think Banksy, of course, but also Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and Zevs, to name a few); Andy Warhol and his continued influence on contemporary art and contemporary society; and then, essentially a one-sided pissing match between the street-art community and contemporary, famous and well-paid “established” artists. Guess who comes out on top?

Oh, and this fight is cleverly wrapped inside another “fight” between alleged original director
“Thierry Guetta” and Banksy himself — who claims he had to take the project over because of “Guetta’s” incompetence as a filmmaker. Incompetence like this, which I challenge you to match yourselves:

Anyway, Banksy says you can, at home, in a couple hours or so. and that’s why he took over the project.

But let’s move on to the REAL controversy.

— Will “Exit Through the Gift Shop” get nominated in the Best Documentary category at this year’s Oscars? (It’s on the short list of 15 docs, although only 5 will make the final selection…)

— If it does, is that like Milli Vanilli getting nominated for and winning a Grammy? Okay, assume Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus actually were self-aware and in control of their careers, if you wanted to make it a better comparison.

— What if it actually wins the Oscar for Best Doc? (“Waiting for ‘Superman'” will take it, although “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spencer”, “Inside Job” and “Restrepro” are better, but far more political and therefore problematic.)

Oh, and just so you know, “Exit” was nominated for the 2010 International Documentary Association’s “Distinguished Feature” award (it lost to “Waste Land”), and is also up for the “Independent Spirit Award” sponsored by IFC.

It could win (the event is Feb. 26), but if I were Banksy, I’d keep a wide berth from Sebastian Junger if “Restrepro” loses to him. Something about all that time spent at a forward operation base in Afghanistan, real bullets, real death, etc…

Pondering “The Philosopher Kings”

January 16, 2011 / / 1 Comment

First, the clip, then the story:

This is directed by Patrick Chen, produced by Chen and Greg Bennick.

If you work in higher education, you should take the time to watch “The Philosopher Kings” documentary. It’s available on iTunes and Netflix (streaming and DVD). Consider it a homework assignment, or a continuing-education requirement.

For those not in the sector, I’m somewhat torn about recommending this documentary, which focuses on the lives of janitors and custodians at a handful of prestigeous, well known universities — including Caltech, Cornell University, Duke University, Princeton University and U.C. Berkeley, to name most of them.

I was led to this doc by a friend who knew about the Duke University connection: one of the people profiled is Oscar Dantzler, who takes care of Duke Chapel itself.

Don’t get me wrong — it’s certainly well shot (in fact, some of the visuals are absolutely gorgeous), has a fantastic music score,  is well edited, and the people featured have interesting life stories (but of course; otherwise, they wouldn’t have made the final cut).

In my opinion, while “The Philosopher Kings” is a good documentary — it simply isn’t a GREAT documentary.

And that’s problematic.

“The Philosopher Kings” was initially pitched to me as a story about these custodians/janitors, who worked at these great colleges and universities — and described what THEY learned while at work.

The documentary barely touches on that theme before pulling back and showing the real story, which is the disconnect between these people who are seen every day by faculty, staff and students — but aren’t really seen by them at all.

Where this project falls short is its nearly complete lack of interviews with some of these same faculty, staff and students, to find out what they know, if anything, about the lives of those also in service to the institution, and whose daily efforts make the offices, restrooms, lecture halls and labs habitable and useable.

In fact, if it weren’t for a sound bite delivered by former President Bill Clinton, who spoke at Duke University about this exact subject — but as part of a speech a different focus — there may not have been such a concise summary of this theme of seen but not really seen.

The exploration of the lives of the subjects is astounding. Most all of them have heartbreak in their past, and seem to have conquered that as they sought out normal lives.

It also seemed readily apparent that few if any people at these universities knew anything about these personal struggles and triumphs. Maybe that’s appropriate to a point — work is work, personal is personal, right?

But a university, a college, a place of higher learning is supposed to be about sharing ideas and experiences, building on knowledge from the past and the present, and moving society into the future with this foundation.

In a way, though, I want to promote “The Philosopher Kings” because it actively (and perhaps unknowingly) demonstrates a theme that I’ve been promoting for years. (And yes, I’ve worked in the higher education sector for a number of years, so I’m not simply shouting from the bleachers here).

Most colleges and universities are loaded with great stories, generated by their own people — faculty, staff, students, alumni and local residents.

And most colleges and universities do a poor job of identifying all but the most obvious stories (superstar faculty, high-achieving students, successful/famous alum) and getting these great stories out into the world.

Technological restrictions have fallen. True, budgetary constraints in this economy may be real factors.

But the limitations of imagination, the focus on how things have traditionally been done, and the will to move past categories, class and caste designations seem to be very real, if usually unspoken, barriers.

And it doesn’t require a philosopher king to realize that’s a shame.

On being on the road

January 12, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Which is worse? Okay, maybe “worse” implies something truly horrible.

How about — which, to you, would be harder to deal with?

After a long day of working on the road, coming back to:

1. A small, empty hotel room; or

2. A large, empty hotel room.

After a couple straight days, I think the large (but empty) hotel room is worse for me, personally.

All that space reminds me of what (or more precisely, whom) isn’t there.

A small room just means my stuff can fill up a lot of that space.

With a big room, there are expanses and echoes and a lot more empty.

But this will pass. And so will these mid-winter traveling blues.

– James

“One True Thing” – the documentary starts

December 7, 2010 / / No Comments

First, the clip, then the story:

There are a lot of projects on my short list, but it’s the usual excuses of too long a list, and not enough money or time.

But excuses just don’t cut it anymore, so my plan to get this documentary project going is to just do it — and structure the plan in such a way that all the shooting can be done on incredibly flexible schedules, and the budget can remain miniscule (for now, at least).

So here’s “One True Thing”.  The idea is that our team sits down with someone at their preferred location, and once everything’s set up, all we do is ask for your first name, and to tell us one true thing.

It can be anything, from trivial to profound. So long as it’s true to you.

We also have some ground rules for ourselves/the project:

— First name only

— We won’t edit your response once you start on your true thing. That means once you being, we’ll run until you stop. So, no edits to make you look better, worse, or more concise.

— You can have more than one thing to say. We’ll just treat them separately.

— Don’t pressure yourself. We don’t expect Dalai Lama-league answers, so no worries. Something about your cat is acceptable…

What do WE get out of all this? Good question.

Expectations:

Sure, the first clip is three guys of various ages working in various levels of seriousness.

The real payoff should be when we reach a certain critical mass and broader themes emerge. Personally, I fully expect this to start focusing on religion, relationships and philosophy — but I could be completely wrong.

Maybe folks hone in on sports and cosmology, who knows?

If I were to point to an existing model for how I expect this to turn out, I’m going to reference one of my all-time favorite books and life guides: Directing the Film: Film Directors on Their Art, edited by Eric Sherman.

Yes, you’ll find a lot of practical advice on nearly every aspect of filmmaking by some of the greatest in the field — but that’s essentially a bonus.

What I find great is that within Sherman’s 352 pages of collected wisdom, you can read one absolutely sterling, profound and compelling piece of advice put forth by an absolute master of their craft — and on the next page, there’s another absolutely sterling, profound, and compelling piece of advice from yet ANOTHER master, completely and absolutely contradicting the first.

Example: Think about rehearsing your actors. There are a number of directors that weigh in on how their actors must be absolutely well rehearsed and prepared, so there’s no doubt about the lines, nuances or inflections before the cameras roll.

And there are a number of directors that talk about why anything beyond nominal rehearsal kills the energy and dampens the creative sparks from fresh discovery.

Who’s right? They all are. And that’s the point — the truths within this book are the truths that work for each person.

So that’s where I personally see “One True Thing”‘s potential. But we’ll see.

Technical Points:

As we add in clips, we’ll update the master video, and keep individual clips for easy reference.

We’re also COMPLETELY OPEN AND ENCOURAGING of outside submissions. So feel free to crank up your webcam or video recorder, work up a segment, and send it on.

Contact me at OneTrueThingDocumentary@gmail.com, or visit the project site at OneTrueThingDocumentary.com .

And of course, a special shout-out of thanks to my Creato Destructo compatriots, Jerry and Shay Stifelman. (Tracey, let’s get you taped!)

– James

Penland School of Crafts, Hoss Haley, Auctions and Sculptures

October 21, 2010 / / No Comments

First the video, then the story:

This was an absolute blast to produce and edit, for several reasons.

I’m an Asheville, NC native, so to (finally) be part of the historic Penland School of Crafts family has a lot of personal meaning. Penland dates back to the 1920s and Lucy Morgan’s efforts to both learn native Southern Appalachian crafts and help residents market their wares. It has since evolved into an internationally-recognized center for craft education, history, innnovation and experimentation across a wide range of styles and media. Plus, its location and campus are simply breathtaking.

Penland has a benefit auction every year, with (mostly alum and faculty) artists donating pieces, and the proceeds going to help sustain the school’s mission. I basically showed up to this year’s auction (Penland’s 25th) with gear and recorded nearly everything and everyone I could. Okay, they knew I was coming, but this was a first-time experience for both of us.

The signature work — the art piece that was highlighted on all the promotional and marketing material, and the cover item for the auction book — was “Toric Knot”, a one-ton Cor-Ten  steel sculpture by alumnus Hoss Haley.  Early word was that Penland organizers and Haley himself would be delighted if the piece sold for its retail listing of $20,000.00.

You’ll have to watch (and listen) to the clip to find out what happens, but I believe the video captures a career-changing event in progress.

Haley sat down for an interview the day before the live auction, albeit somewhat reluctantly. He is a self-described taciturn Midwesterner, after all, and talking about himself isn’t on his Top 10 favorite things.

Still, he was a great interview subject — focused, insightful, honest and intelligent. The hardest part in editing his interview was simply cutting down and cutting out a lot of really good material — to let the truly great parts surface.

In terms of style, I also made a choice to reduce the level of polish. Most all of the transitions are simply cuts: direct and straightforward, just like Haley himself. There’s at least one dissolve, but it’s because the transition looked like a jump-cut on its own.

I also played with sweetening his audio, but the result was sterile. The interview itself took place next to a center of activity for the event, and I wanted to keep that energy and enthusiasm as a part of his discussion, even if it’s in the background.

As for the auction itself, it felt creatively “right” to stick to the opening, establishing scene and the closing/conclusion. The audio underneath the quotation cards also let viewers keep up with the progress, and build towards the final strike of the auctioneer’s gavel.

Ultimately, though, the piece is less about things — the sculpture, the selling price, the auction as event; and more about people — Haley, his wife, his real family and his Penland family.

And how on a magical weekend in August 2o1o in the mountains outside Asheville, NC, craft became art, and work became career.

That’s at least my opinion. What’s yours?

Oracle’s Ellison Pledges Billions

August 5, 2010 / / No Comments

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle, has pledged to give away “at least 95%” of his $28 billion fortune to charity.

Oh, and in the same announcement, George Lucas said he’d do the same. But few people ever doubted that Lucas’ heart was in the right place. With Ellison, it was less certain.

During the 1990’s tech boom, I worked for a nonprofit that doubled as both a (free, open) news and information service, and as a service provider to nonprofits — we went around the country teaching 501(c)3 groups of all stripes how to use tech to further their missions (and that covered a lot of ground).

It was a great job — even after 60-hour weeks living in hotels far across the country from my own bed, I always felt my work had helped people in specific, quantifiable ways.

It was also an exciting time to be reporting in that sector, because fortunes were being made overnight. (Looking back, we now know most of these fortunes were only on paper, but still, it was exciting.)

And it was particularly exciting because many of these tech entrepreneurs were giving away big chunks of their new fortunes in very public ways. The attitude at the time was that the people drawn to the tech/start-up culture were more in touch with their core values through their work, more in tune with how social networks can bring real benefits to society, and that the type of people working in that field were driven primarily by the thrill of innovation and discovery; not simply greed and profit.

I believe a lot of these (positive) stereotypes were true, although it would have been interesting to see how these newly rich folks would have held on to their values if the tech crash hadn’t removed most of their fortunes.

But I digress.

I was reminded of that time by Ellison’s announcement. He apparently was motivated by the VERY public appeal by Bill & Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett, as part of their “The Giving Pledge” effort.

And during the time of the tech boom, the three biggest tech bazillionaires that HADN’T publicly pledged much of their personal fortunes (as opposed to corporate gifts and donations) were Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs.

Melinda Gates and Bill Gates Sr. went first, announcing plans were underway to create a massive foundation that would funnel the trio’s fortunes into specific areas of global health initiatives, global development (economic aid to the poor), and tech/access and education initiatives in the U.S.

They got off to a roaring start in 1999, and have grown the Foundation’s outreach ever since.

Ellison, not so much. At the time, he was fairly closed-mouth.

It turns out he has been giving away millions, but in a quieter, far less public way. Okay, there was that little dust-up with Harvard University, where he rescinded a $115 million gift because of their ousting of Lawrence Summers. (But Ellison also stated he’d increase his other giving to medical research.)

The reason he’s coming forward and signing this pledge now is that his example may lead other wealthy folks to give and/or make other commitments to the social good.

“Warren Buffett personally asked me to write this letter because he said I would be ‘setting an example’ and ‘influencing others’ to give.  I hope he’s right,” he stated in his pledge.

Maybe one measure will be when (rather than if) Steve Jobs announces plans for HIS vast fortune, and how exactly he plans to give it away. That should be fascinating.

Work examples: Producer, 1

July 13, 2010 / / No Comments

All the heavy lifting and hard work was done by Kenyon College honors film students, Jean Mougin and Martha Gregory, and their incredibly supporttive professor, Jonathan Tazewell. But sometimes, a producer can help…

Client: Kenyon College