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Australia could only manage 41st position in RSF's third annual index of press freedom, lagging behind some former Eastern bloc nations, including Slovakia (7), Czech Republic (19), Hungary (28), and Poland (32) Australia ranks poorly in global media freedom listing

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Authorities harass a blogger
Reporters Without Borders has condemned a bid to intimidate a blogger after the minister of internal security threatened to imprison Jeff Ooi, who runs the weblog Screenshots at the beginning of October 2004.
Ooi is accused of allowing an Internet-user to post a message insulting Islam Hadhari, a religious practice promoted by the government.
The international press freedom organisation called on Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to see that no legal action was taken against Ooi. "A blogger cannot be responsible for a message posted by an anonymous contributor," it said. "The statement by the internal security minister is serious because it will force those running weblogs to use excessive censorship."
Jeff Ooi on 30 September 2004 posted an article on Screenshots discussing the contradiction between the values of Islam Hadhari and the corruption of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). A contentious comment was posted a few hours later by someone calling himself Anwar. It said, "Islam Hadhari and corruption are like shit and urine". Ooi reacted quickly to this statement and replied online
• What you said affects and hurts me because you have twisted and hijacked my blog topic [ Reporters Without Borders ]
• · Liberation Online A look at Iraq's bloggers All my editors want is blood, blood, blood. No context. No politics. No Blogs
• · · Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Media freedom rankings
• · · · Don't be confused by the tide of contradictory voter surveys. The clear message is that Bush is in trouble Blogs Polling Truth ; [Blogger Used To Spam Google ]
• · · · · The Selfish Gene Web is obsessed with anything that spreads, whether it's a ebook, a blog or a rumor. And so the Spider loves memes; [The AP article discusses their research finding that people are searching for e-commerce more and sex less]
• · · · · · 101 years in 101 words Word birthdays - Beatnik (1958) ; [We live in a media-driven, commercial culture, where it's hard to escape the ever-increasing waves of advertising and infotainment. Meanwhile, our public spaces are eroding, and what were once safe havens – schools, museums, libraries, parks – are now awash in commercials Jessica Cutler gleefully published the graphic details of her sexual encounters with high-ranking DC insiders ]

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At an early stage in the Cold War, the governments of the Soviet Union and the United States formalized the cultural front as one of their primary theaters of conflict, embarking on a series of alternating cultural exchanges Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold War
The words that jump off the page speak of joy and wonderment and reckless, inebriated fun, of characters as wild and colorful as fireworks.
The book, On the Road, became an overnight sensation, a trophy, mantra and manual for the Beat Generation The author was Jack Kerouac, who died 35 years ago. He was 47
[He died with $91 in his bank account. His death was from alcohol. He was known to consume 17 shots of Johnny Walker Red per hour, washed down with Colt malt liquor. He helped us understand legislatures in America and Australia. ]

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Soren Kierkegaard Period
That extraordinary writer of stories about the "Christ-haunted" American South, Flannery O’Connor, was frequently asked why her people and plots were so often outlandish, even grotesque. She answered, "To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you have to draw large and startling figures." I expect Søren Kierkegaard, had he lived a century later, would have taken to Flannery O’Connor and would have relished her affirmation of the necessarily outlandish. But then he would immediately be on guard lest anyone think that he does not really mean what he says, that he is anything less than utterly, indeed deadly, serious. He exaggerates for effect and witheringly attacks his opponents who suggest that his exaggeration is anything less than the truth of the matter. He writes, as he repeatedly says, for that one reader—the singular individual who has the courage to understand him—while at the same time describing in detail, and often with hilarious parody, the many readers who refuse to take him at his word. Kierkegaard was keenly (some would say obsessively) attentive to the ways in which he was misunderstood, even as he persistently and defiantly courted misunderstanding. This, as readers beyond numbering have discovered, can be quite maddening. It is also at least part of the reason why Kierkegaard is so widely read.
• If Kierkegaard was not to be given the privilege of literally shedding his blood, he would bear witness in other ways. He welcomed the derision of those surrounding him, recognizing in them the same crowd that surrounded the cross of his contemporary, Jesus Christ Kierkegaard for Grownups [Here-within-inside is a memo designed to cheer up the human race
Rosemary Woodruff . Those who just barely, gasping, made it from the Spanish-American War through World War I were then asked, with no respite to deal with the Roaring Twenties, Communism, the Depression, Hitler, World War II, Hiroshima, Cold War, television, Lunar landings, drugs, Hustler, cloning. No one was permitted to stand still.]
• · Faiza Guene, the 19-year-old daughter of Algerians who moved to France before she was born, has taken her experiences Growing up in public housing projects outside Paris and whipped them into a confection that is tender, funny and even wise [Destiny is misery because you can do nothing about it. My mother, she says that if my father left us, it was because it was written.]
• · · Monsignor Ignazio Sanna Christians Will Need to Be Mystics, Says Theologian ; [Popieluszko was abducted and killed by secret police on Oct. 19, 1984 His body was stuffed in a sack weighed down with stones and thrown into the Vistula River ]
• · · · My Own Private Library: A love of books. Okay, it is a form of madness. But a pathology that combines history, the aesthetic, and a desire to preserve knowledge can’t be all bad These books represent the person I once aspired to be; [Manners and Morals at the Strangers Dining Room: Why You Should Not Eat the Person Sitting Next to You {PDF version}]
• · · · · It’s haunting to read through the yellowed news clippings of the 1960s. The clock was winding down and no one knew how the story would end The Other Sixties ; [ Nothing To Watch In The 210-Channel Universe]
• · · · · · Suspicion, distrust, backbiting, smear tactics, simple loathing and sometimes extremely unliterary abuse have come to characterise A struggle that has been waged until now behind the closed doors of London's literary salons
[The only thing that really changes is the writers. The profession can often be wrong about what the readers wants, but then someone will come up with something different]

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It is hard to believe that 164 years ago St George area had a population of just 164 people. According to Brian Shaw, president of the local historial society, in 1840 the suburb was known as Gannons Forrest and the railway station which was opened in 1884 took its name from a local school called Hurstville - village on a hill in a forest. The topic is near to home for me as I was lucky enough to share for a number of years accommodation with a guru on history of Australian railways. Dr George Dorman whose uncle supplied rivets for the Sydney Harbour Bridge had a special soft spot for the preservation of the railway history. George was always a hungry historian, eating up railway stations and entire railway lines in large bites. George used my Nikon camera on a number of ocassions to capture his hunger for history. Even though George was recovering from the heart bypass operation, he still managed to sneak some snaps of the Hurstville station in its centenial glory. At our wedding, when George caught his breath we were fortunate to hear his favourite yarns about the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the colonial life in Australian towns. I also learned why Leo Schofield deserved to create a show around Sydney Harbour Bridge, as a nephew of George Dorman he is the closest artistic thing to the bridge.
If George was still with us I know that he would rush to get a copy of a historian Dr Ed Duyker who wrote this year a story called Citizen Labillardiere: A Naturalist’s Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755-1834). This is an adventure story about a great 18th century traveller and naturalist Jacques-Julien de Labillardiere who according to Duyker was more significant than Joseph Banks or Daniel Solander. Labillardiere’s landing place, Rocherche Bay in Tasmania is considered by Dr Duyker scientifically more important than Kurnell or Cape Solander in Sutherland Shire.
Coathanger; On the stroke of New Years Eve, people all over the world look to the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Art & History Across Frontiers: It`s all fun and games till someone has to pay for the phone call
Father John of St Patrick Church might identify with this story even the bishop find it hard to get passed the Sutherland gates...
An American decided to write a book about famous churches of
Australia. For his first chapter he decided to write about famous Sydney
churches. So he bought a plane ticket and made the trip to St Mary's Cathedral
thinking that he would work his way down the country.
On his first day he was inside the cathedral taking photographs when
he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that
read "$10,000 per call".
The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by
what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a
direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God. The
American thanked the priest and went along his way.
Next stop was Star of the Sea at Waverley. There, at a very large
church, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign under it.
He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw at St Mary's
and he asked a nearby nun what it's purpose was. She told him that it
was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God.
"O.K., thank you", said the American.
He then travelled on through the North Shore and in every church he
saw the same golden telephone with the same "$10,000 per call" sign
under it.With his first chapter going well, he left Northern Sydney
and travelled to the Sutherland Shire.
Again, there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign
under it read "10 cents per call." The American was surprised so he
asked the priest about the sign. "Father, I've travelled all over
Sydney, and I've seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I'm
told that it is a direct line to heaven, but in all the churches in
Sydney the price was $10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?"
The priest smiled and answered, You're in the Shire now son. It's a local call
• John Sullivan Parish Priest
• · Pittsburgh like the Harbour Bridge is all about steel: It is also the town of Slovak born Andy Warhola ... From Rust Belt to arts mecca
• · · Value of Stories; [Drowning In The Booker ]
• · · · Librarians were the first people in this country to stand up and resist the forces of ultra patriotism The Librarian reads like the back story behind today's headlines
• · · · · UK Government Tries To Turn Around Public Libraries
• · · · · · Now I want entire Ministry and Meyer Bureaucracy and the Royal Sons to Read it! (smile) Amazon - Remember When Just Having A Profit Was Good Enough For Cold River? ; [Erotic Muse: Sonnets About Sex by John Boase Virtual ‘Fessing Up]

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There's a difference between making a point and having an agenda. We don't have an agenda to change the political system. We have a more selfish agenda, to entertain ourselves. We feel a frustration with the way politics are handled and the way politics are handled within the media.
-Jon Stewart (thanks Tim)

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The Road to Nemesis
To Fisk or Not to Fisk?
So far over twenty light and sober responses are appended to the Road to Surfdom’s entry on why people blog. Nemesis started the blog rolling and Tim Dunlop being Tim happily returns to blogging virtual horses and dragons.
Barrista and I started gently with our fingers passing on emails and now the addiction has taken the entire arms (smile).
Tim Dunlop writes: I got into blogging accidentally and was mainly interested in it as a way of writing a diary of my time in the US. But I pretty quickly became interested in the democratic aspects of it--the idea of potentially having a way of participating in public discussion about politics and social issues--and so I started to linking to blogs and they started linking to me and pretty soon I was part of the blogosphere.
Two big events changed how Surfdom developed. The first was the Washington sniper. My posts about living here during that fun time made me visible to American blogs and brought me a readership amongst them and their readers.
Then I got caught up in the whole war-in-Iraq debate, which was probably the galvanising moment for a lot of bloggers, if not for the political blogosphere in general, even more so than 9/11.
The fact that I get quite a few people through these days is something of an amazement to me.
I write about and mention stuff that interests me with no attempt at all at being comprehensive in my coverage. I write largely because I think it is fun to write.
• And I see value in arguing, though I wish everyone just agreed with me ...; [Dina Musing about Blogging community ; Taxonomy: The Dreaded T-Word, Or, Why Doesn't Google Know How To Classify Blogs? ]
• · Dear Oprah More and more readers are leaving their newspapers on their doorsteps, unopened and unread. But Oprah's magazine might hold a few answers
• · · NYT's Okrent explains why he named a "coward" blogger ; [Schwenk: Naming me served one purpose -- to harm me]
• · · · Tim Porter: Even though Julia Sellers acknowledges that journalists just leave a bad taste in many people's mouths she still wants to fulfill her desire to be a reporter because as a journalist it is your responsibility to report the truth to the public ; [It is a daily struggle to get fair and balanced news Apologize? For What? ]
• · · · · It's the ultimate global marketplace, raking in billions of dollars and attracting thousands of new buyers and sellers every day. Kevin Airs explores the online bazaar of eBay What am I bid? Who am I? Imrich
• · · · · · You’re so vain, you probably think I’m talking about you-you’re so vain…Bombay Writers' Cafe I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again
[We're all Christ and we're all Hitler. We are trying to make Christ's message contemporary. We want Christ to win. What would he have done if he had advertisements, T.V., records, films and newspapers? The miracle today is communication. So let's use it.
-John Lennon '69 Ich bin ein Berliner: Herbert Kundler, 77, Cold War-era broadcaster in Berlin; Anthony Hecht, 81, was a formal poet who wrote about war, corruption, taking on society in the largest sense]

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Sexty (60) Minutes is a broadcasting institution. Amerikan 60 Minutes is the longest continuously running prime time TV program ever, watched by 16 million viewers every week. Not only has it been in the Nielsen top 10 for the last 23 seasons, it’s the only show ever to have the highest ratings in three different decades. 60 Minutes is the most honored TV series of all time, with 75 Emmy Awards. It’s also the most profitable, having earned CBS an estimated $2 billion. What’s the secret?
Before 60 Minutes debuted, in 1968, television news was terribly earnest—and terribly dull. It was also terribly unprofitable and was usually subsidized by a network’s hit comedies and dramas. Into this void stepped creator and executive producer Don Hewitt, a protegé of CBS legends Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Hewitt, whose notions of journalism had been shaped by the classic newspaper comedy The Front Page, saw no reason why televised journalism couldn’t be entertaining. He conceived of 60 Minutes as a broadcast version of Life magazine or the Saturday Evening Post. Instead of dealing with issues, says Hewitt, we tell Cold River type of stories.
The show has produced some of television’s most powerful investigative pieces

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Life Beyond the Political Margins: A Blogger's Endorsement
PR blogger Steve Rubel has endorsed John Kerry for U.S. president. He made the pronouncement recently, in what I suspect is now a trend among bloggers to who make their views known and to influence others.
Do you care who a blogger on (predominantly) non-political topics endorses publicly? While I doubt Rubel will influence many of his readers -- if
any -- I can certainly envision other bloggers who do cover politics and current affairs and who have loyal audiences influencing their readers. Why shouldn't bloggers endorse, just as most newspapers do?
Well, I can see reasons for bloggers like Rubel to abstain from public endorsements. Because he covers a non-political field, his endorsement could turn off readers who swing the other way, and even lose him some of his audience. With most current-affairs bloggers, though, the audience knows which way they lean and doesn't need an endorsement to be
published to figure it out.
• Steve Outing (no link available received by email) [ Without saying a word, Jess Ventura gets behind Kerry ]
• · Personal and Confidential? Not on Google Search analyst Chris Sherman, currently finishing up his latest book, Google Power told me something remarkable. If you go to Google and search for
personal and confidential you'll get about 35,000 search results Well, it shows that too many people don't treat online security seriously [Amazon usually gets outsized attention for their quarterly earnings report, but today they are both overshadowed by Google's first-ever quarterly report and slighted by analysts who once again fear the company's growth is declining mirroring (sic) the sales of Cold River - Palm Digital seems to be a way to go for unknown writers in 2004]
• · · The ideals that my Slavic forebearers lived by, and the institutions that sprang from them, remain as strong, and as fragile, as ever. The virgin issue of The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy is out Great editorial on the what, the why, the how, and the for whom of inclusive democracy
• · · · On the idea of fairness and balance in journalism
• · · · · Markets are conversations. Markets are now becoming smarter, faster than the companies that service said markets. A good example is what happend with the dear old Kryptonite lock earlier this month (As a bicycle rider, you must have heard about this scandal? Ask any clued-up blogger and (s)he'll tell you). What is true for markets is also becoming true for Governments, as well: Russian by temperament and British by political fortune, Boris Johnson is blogging
• · · · · · Take this quiz to find out which file extension most closely matches your personality

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Whether the drink in your cup tastes more or less bitter, more or less creamy, is not so important in the end. It is what the whole experience does to your spirits and your sense of self that really counts...So the product - the taste, the colour, aroma of the coffee - matters, but arguably everything else matters a bit more. This was the possiblity that [CEO] Howard [Schultz] saw...
Howard saw an experience that could connect with people's lives at an emotional level. Starbucks tapped into the ritual around coffee and the community conversational relationship aspect of a third space
Evelyn Rodriguez asks: Is not blogosphere a sort of non-geographic third space too?
-A story of Starbucks - is told in a book called My Sister is a Barista

1894841069 Even my ISBN cannot help itself when it comes to the final double digit position. However, folks more positions 69 and other positions will appear in the new 13-digit ISBN which I have approved and plans are underway to transition to the new number industry-wide, world-wide by January 1, 2007 Lucky 13: ISBN’s Second Coming ; Speaking of positions and numbers, Media Dragon will post, flesh willing, the evil double entry 2 - 666 [scary!]
Neal Stephenson answers questions on Slashdot about his new book The System of the World, according to Bookslut

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: They Speak, but Why Listen?
With all due respect to the Naipaul view, it seems to me that the novel--or the writing of fiction--is in robust health. More people do it than ever did before, and while quantity is never a reliable measure of quality--especially when it comes to words, or yarn--telling stories is still a human passion.
• Vunku Varadarajan on why the novel isn't dead--and neither is the urge to be an oracle [As someone who has gotten some serious hell for shooting my marketing mouth off online, I admire the Bestselling author and biographer for Celine Dion Quirky Book Promotion: "Call Them All" Grassroots Contest... Will Librarians Heed the Calls? ]
• · Books are like companies. Their first and best function are as Idea Amplifiers, not commerce mechanisms. It's this utter belief in humanity and human potential that excites us. We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature Spread pollen and start conversations with all sorts of people. No different than blogging; [Take a nice, sensitive Bohemian male, drop him in Sydney, and in weeks he’s a sexist pig. His apartment’s a sty, he smokes unfiltered grass, drinks his Winston Hills spirits straight; Women Gain Power In Aussie TV ]
• · · Umberto Eco: What is aesthetically ideal in art? A Picasso, a Mondrian - or a Morava River? Our age enjoys an orgy of tolerance, and polytheism of beauty ; [Want to act like you've read Cold River and The Da Vinci Code when you really haven't? Or maybe you just want to spoil the ending for everyone you see carrying it around? Go to The Book Spoiler and start ruining endings; eBooks Web-based textbooks give students' backs a break and and encourages them to learn]
• · · · Imagine a revolution that ought to change all, but in the end leaves everything as it is, giving us easy comfort and normalcy. It’s The Da Vinci Code and Cold River
• · · · · Graham Green et al Great writers who want their memories honored but don’t like comparison can get bad writers for their biographies; ; [Rank and Vile Guiding Political Revelations Reviewed circa 1930s ]
• · · · · · Great works of art can stand the heat of spamming criticism It’s the almost great ones that, alas, caramelize under the fire of relentless discussion

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Booker Prize winner Mr Hollinghurst drew ahead only by the finest of whiskers when the chairman, Chris Smith, a master of political shepherding, proposed that the only vote for Mr Toibin be transferred to that judge's second choice.
Time, like a cold river, is a wheel of continuous movement: the present is the fruit of the past and the future is the fruit of the present. This week I exchanged an email with one of the Chinese dissidents I had a pleasure to meet at the office of the President of the NSW Legislative Council circa 1999. I am bragging again because most dissidents, unlike most novelists or politicians, tell the truth for the living ...
One of the great challenges for dissidents is to try to redress the potent cliche that history is written by the victors. Rumour has it that the Chinese censors forbid readers to access the fruits of my writing life. My escape across the Iron Curtain is considered a dangerous story - a tale that might dog totalitarians in China, Cuba or Korea. Yet, the Chinese underground is apparently learning how to live with that kind of censorship ... The Internet is an amazing creation!
Ach, Garry Maddox explains why so many Villawooders, filmmakers and actors, head to Hollywood: Aussiewood of my Villawood

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Triple Take on Kokoda Track
I am grateful to Dr George Dorman for exposing me to Fortunate Life by Facey. I am grateful to Dr James Cumes for sharing with me in the most amazing way the story of Kokoda Track. The story based on truth and nothing but the truth is entitled Haverleigh. James to me is the Antipodean Shakespearean who was born and bread in Beenleigh, a place to be found south of Brisbane. To sneak or not to sneak a place of your childhood into a title of your book was answered on the cover of James' book back in 1995. (To be or not to be - to have or not to have)
If you are a true Australian soldier you believe in compassion. James is a true Australian Soldier who now fights for Victory Over Want.
By some luck and coincident, I also came across another amazing army officer and pollie by the name Charlie Lynn in 1990s. In my fortunate exile, I even had the pleasure of having a chat over a coffee with Charlie and happened to be the first to introduce him to James. When time permits, Charlie takes restless souls on hellish walk along the Kokoda Trail. Charlie's victims include Kerry Chikarovski and my former PAC Deputy Chair, Peter Cochran. James is an amazing writer who has an ability to stir a new interest in the history of the WWII.
Over a school holidays, I read Peter FitzSimons bestselling story Kokoda and I must admit it complimented well the story written by James.
It is great to find out this week that another book on Kokoda is coming out in three weeks. The next book will have a perfect timing is it is launched on the Remembrance Day (11 November). This time Paul Ham draws his Kokoda account from diaries of both Australian as well as Japanese soldiers. As Peter FitzSimon explained the burst of interest as being due to the fact that the Australian soldiers fighting in New Guinea where fighting for Australia and won. At Gillipoli they fought for England and lost.
Australian filmmaker take a note and start knocking on James Cumes’ doors before some Austrian or American director put their hands on a story which deserves to be shot by the people living in the land so far away and down under. At Frankfurst and London book fairs James’ eyewitness story fuels great reviews. A signed copy of Haverleigh can be ordered direct from James Cumes at - cresscourt@chello.at
• James Cumes: The wisest and most compassionate person I know, a man who dedicates his life to helping people From page to screen: Haverleigh ; Haverleigh Links [James Cumes with Haverleigh and other titles - compliments of A9 ]
• · When the Iron Curtain came down, Europe gained more than 500 ski resorts Skiing or snowboarding in former communist countries is akin to being in a James Bond film without the technology; [If you fall in the Slovak river, nothing's gonna save you. The lower currents will pull you down, no matter what you do. I cannot swim, but what good is swimming [in such dangerous water]?; The alcohol is hard and straight, the surroundings are seductive, adventure and mayhem are on the agenda even the birth of Jozef Imrich Junior (smile); Unique Gothic River of Churches; Some Escapes are Sadder Than Others]
• · · A wealth of memories and a lifetime of reading are formed when you read with your children Writing itself is like being a 70s guitar hero, without the groupies [Paul Boutin]
• · · · Like the better known Prophecies of Nostradamus, the Prophecies of Paracelsus are exceedingly cryptic, filled with allegorical symbols and capable of being reinterpreted for any purpose It comes with 32 surreal woodcuts which seem to reveal additional details about each prophecy ; [Farther on still a bishop is shown immersed in water and surrounded by spears that prevent him from reaching the bank. Broking up all empires: Had thy pretended wisdom and understanding been thine own thou wouldst have been beyond disaster, and moreover other empires would have taken thee as a mirror ]
• · · · · I keep forgetting to link to the history of surrealism and great poster: Girls Who Say Yes 1960s anti-draft poster ; [USA Today spotlights the influence of the prizes on supporting emerging writers. Whiting Foundation program director Barbara Bristol comments: What we are trying to do is spot writers at a moment when they are at their most vulnerable, when they might give up. To say to them, 'Someone has noticed you.']
• · · · · · Emma Bovary took arsenic; Anna Karenina went under a train, Tess of the D'Urbervilles was hanged. But let's face it. These days women in modern societies don't die of adultery. It is not a hanging offence. Testing the Waters: From I Do to You Can not
• · · · · That Giant Of Reviewers, Robert Kuttner, comes up with an essay on faith, reason, terror, and democracy What Would Jefferson Do?
• · · · · · War and Evelyn Waugh His kiss was like a flash of lightning; when it was dark again she was free
[Maybe You Do not need to know, but if you do the NYT has named William Grimes as a regular nonfiction book reviewer (via a reliable source)]

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All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
-Ernest Hemingway, American author (1899 - 1961)

Bad politicians are like 17-year locusts: When they show up en masse, the public greets them with fascination and fear. The current prolonged infestation naturally provokes questions both analytic such as Why do they say what they say? and introspective such as Why do we let them do what they do to us?
Back in bad old Czechoslovakia I got used to seeing the rotten fruits sold at the markets by our political masters. However, even in Australia it is rare to come across fruits rich in political vitamins and democratic fibre. I was not suprised yesterday to read cynical observations in the letters section of the Sydney Morning Herald regarding federal-state-financial-dysfunctions. One bohemian writer employed hard-core irony and wrote: Bob Carr’s offer to trade power with Canberra is a step in the right direction, but why stop there. A merger of the NSW Parliament and Commonwealth parliaments would be real progress.
[Some MPs would be delighted to be called Senators...]

Julian Burnside shares with Czechoslovak born Tom Stoppard the view that we are all born with an instinct for justice. In Professional Foul, one of his characters tells of the child who in the playground cries “It’s not fair” and thus gives voice to ‘an impulse which precedes utterance’. Our perception of justice may be blunted by exposure to its processes. At the start of a career as a law student, we see law and justice as synonymous; later we fall into cynicism or despair as clients complain that Law and Justice seem unrelated. We might remember the observation of Bismarck, in a different context, saying “He who likes sausages or law should not see them in the making” be it in the NSW Parliamentary Library or the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Yet there are a number of MPs who have done their bit to preserve my sense of my faith in politicians on both side of the Parliament and almost one and all independent. I view the suggestion made by Miranda Devine yesterday as rather exaggerated. In her article, entitled Headaches All Around at Town Hall, (a great title for a rock song) Miranda wrote that Clover Moore is creating a royal court of servants by expanding her personal staff by a third because she is not coping with her work.

Clover is a capable politician and an amazing person as is the former chairman of the PAC Andrew Tink. As an insider’s insider’s insider I saw the stone of the fruit and I just wish we had more politicians who come to Parliament after having a real career, real family lives, real interests outside politics and real appreciation what democracy mean...

Czech out the thoughtful contribution by Andrew Tink. I gather that most library newsletters and journals in Australia and even overseas are liberal with extracts from this brilliant speech. This speech was written even before the journal New Matilda saw the light of the publishing day.
Public language is not decaying under a death sentence as proclaimed by Don Watson on the front cover of his latest book.
Rather it is being used as it always has been by those in power, those seeking
power and their critics to attack, defend and criticise.
At the very beginning of his book, Mr Watson accepts this by quoting Primo Levi’s description of public language as ‘an ancient repressive artifice, known to all churches, the typical vice of our political class, the foundation of all colonial empires.
If the title to Mr Watson’s book ‘Death Sentence The Decay of Public Language’is correct, then the decay of public language is something to celebrate: (PDF format) Attack and Defence: Public Language Across Four Centuries

Repeating History Classes: Towshend puts Lord Sydney in shadows
The fact is that few Sydneysiders know exactly who the city was named after and even fewer could tell you what was his non-aristocratic name. New South Wales parliamentarian Andrew Tink laments how little honoured is Lord Sydney in his own backyard:
'The 1780s were arguably the most important period in the history of the English speaking world and Lord Sydney was right in the middle of it. 'How many people have cities on two continents named after them and can say they directly influenced the futures of Australia, Canada and the United States as well as his own country Britain.'
Tink, who has made himself almost a lone Australian expert on Lord Sydney through painstaking archive searches, recounts his hero's achievements and the part they played in the history of the English speaking world.
In appreciation of Lord Sydney's efforts, the loyalists named Sydney in Nova Scotia after him. Tink argues that it was Lord Sydney's support for the loyalists that was a key reason why the English of Canada went on to dominate the country over the country's French settlers..
It was a grateful captain Arthur Phillip, unlike Tommy Townshend, revered by Australians of all ages, who named the new settlement after Lord Sydney.
Born in 1733 as the son of aristocrat Lord Townshend, and later to become an aristocrat in his own right as Lord Sydney, Tommy Townshend graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts when he was just 21.
He went almost immediately into politics, holding a number of key parliamentary posts before taking on his colonial roles
• Andrew Tink: the Lover of History [Andrew Tink ]
What do Andrew Tink - historian politician, Andrew "Boy" Charlton - Swimmer, Banjo Paterson - poet/writer, David Gonski - Coca-Cola chairman, Baz Luhrman - film director and Malcolm Mackerras - Psephologist have in common SGS
• · Even Sydney's Charms Cannot Save the Politician who Angered a Poet
• · · PDF Words that Haunt Sydney
• · · · Speech can stop people being afraid or sorry; it can promote happiness and increase feelings of pity. Speech is a ‘powerful ruler’ because, though invisible, it achieves superhuman results

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Iraqi kidnappers who threatened to kill an Australian journalist checked his work by "Googling" his name on the net before freeing him. Now Google Even Saves Life of a Journalist: Kidnappers 'Googled' journo before freeing him
[If you want to survive these days as a journalist become a Pajamahadeen]
The New York Press more on the worst political reporters

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Web of Altruistic Intrigue: Connecting the dots
Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web but he had something bigger in mind all along. Now he's working on Internet 2.0.
Berners-Lee's invention was based on an information retrieval program called Enquire (named after a Victorian book, Enquire Within Upon Everything), which he wrote in 1980 while working as a programmer at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. In part, the lack of riches is because Berners-Lee did the unthinkable when he finished writing the tools that defined the web's basic structure more than 10 years later: he gave them away, with CERN's blessing, no strings attached.
• Mark Frauenfelder reports Berners-Lee did the unthinkable when he finished writing the tools that defined the web's basic structure: he gave them away with no strings attached [While Moore chips and tiny fish are on the menu, some are Selling technology down the river]
• · Sifry's Alerts State of the Blogosphere: Corporate Bloggers; [Blair’s Alert]
• · · The head of Australia's competition watchdog has cautioned that it may not be all smooth sailing for the Federal Government's proposed media ownership changes Mr Samuel said definitions that differentiated TV, radio and newspapers were blurred, and regulations were outdated ; [Sunday Channel 9: Graeme Samuel has a tough job as chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Graeme Samuel on the job]
• · · · Bloggers should care about the government jailing Judith Miller. You uphold the public's right to know and citizens' right to challenge authority. What happens to Miller and other journalists happens to you and me. The government’s growing attack on freedom of speech and the free press I love this blog world--you make a general statement and then some people write a book for you about it. I am totally persuaded and will now stop pruning my garden, leaving behind my old fashioned notion that editing and flowering areare necessary partners Whose economy is it?; [Freddy Kreuger: The printer's devil Crikey & Newspaper circulation figures]
• · · · · Surveillance and Society
• · · · · · Tracing the Evolution of Social Software ; [David Hills is the new CEO of LookSmart via Search Engine Watch Blog]

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The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
- William Hazlitt

Until death do us part yet in Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.
In the dream we are sitting together after all those years pulling memories and photos together. Indeed, my life with Lauren has been nothing but a dream!
After two decades, exactly today, I know why Lauren loves cooking with wine. Sometimes she even puts it in the food.
On the Saturday when the Sydney Opera House celebrated its birthday, I had an engaging encounter with Lauren in front of the altar.
Christopher was there with his Polish hangover and two golden rings from the discounted counter of the Berkeley International Diamonds.
Speaking as a rough diamond and the black sheep of the Imrich family, I know too well that stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But to watch the polished walk of the Australian Academy of Ballet dancer during the Wedding March is a pure ecstasy.
Some men suggest that all marriages are happy. It's the trying to walk together afterwards that causes all the problems.
While some women swear that before marriage, a man will lay down his life for you; after marriage he won't even lay down his newspaper.
We agree on so many things such as if marriage is your object, you'd better start loving the subject:
Men are from Earthy Central Europe. Women are from Earthy Australia. Deal with it.
Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
Recognise that what goes around, comes around, and that there is nothing new under the sun.
I swear that not every marriage is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all trends and indicators it is as perennial as the grass. In some mysterious ways, happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length

Marriage vows in an objectivist church would probably run along the lines of "Do you promise to attempt to dominate and subdue this woman until such time as you grow bored?" "Maybe." "Close enough. And do you promise to applaud this man`s production until such time as you find someone with a bigger ... corporation?" "Whatever." "By the power vested in me by having scammed you guys out of a marriage license fee, I now pronounce you man and appendage. May you be unencumbered by small persons.
-Rob Slade, reviewing Atlas Shrugged

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This past June, when Patricia Worth, and her husband, Gary, who works as a graphic designer, opened River Reader Books in Lexington, Missouri, Patricia left a 16-year career as a contractor to become a full-time bookseller, and, since the new bookstore has a cafe, a barista, too. No sense in learning one new trade when you can learn three or four The Worths Build a Business: River Reader Books

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
In this blog I have been bitching - some say endlessly - that we need new marketing ideas and ways to attract more readers to more authors.
To that end, I'm starting an experiment. A new blog called Backstory.
Each week a different author will answer the single most common question novelists get from readers is: "Where did you get the idea for your novel?"
In other words, what's the backstory? What are the secrets, the truths, or just the illogical moments that sparked your latest novel?
In the upcoming months all kinds of wonderful authors have agreed to post their backstories including: Katherine Neville, Lee Child, Tess Gerritesen, Chris Mooney, Jason Starr, Robert Ferrigno, Marcia Talley, Gayle Lynds, Laura Lippman, Caroline Leavitt, Lev Rafael, J.A. Konrath, Doug Clegg and more and more.
• MJ Rose of Buzz Balls Hype Think of it like an magazine article that has no end [EL Noel (Lynn) ]
• · Nicholas Clee, Editor of The Bookseller is to leave the position this autumn Farewell
• · · Brain battle provides insight into consumer behavior Why Instant Gratification Wins ; [Professor the 5th Earl (Conrad) Russell observed when I was an undergraduate I think women could afford to say 'no' when they meant 'yes'. Now they can't. The more freedom a woman has, the plainer her sexual signalling has to be.]
• · · · It may be a shocking dilution of academics - or an ingenious way to hook reluctant readers. 'Hamlet' too hard? Try a comic book; [It's a typical story in the murky and dangerous underworld of small, independent publishing: Screwing a book for its cover]
• · · · · Drenka Willen publishes books in translation. Her ability to succeed despite the trends and the odds makes her one of this country's most valued cultural gatekeepers. She writes very concise questions in the margin, and it is done so firmly that even if you erased them, they would still be there Found in Translation ; [Sir Antony Sher, the actor, writer and artist, yesterday launched a bitter critique of the exclusivity of the literary world ; Cold Revenge by Sir Jozef Imrich Is Simon & Schuster up for sale?]
• · · · · · Speech is a ‘powerful ruler’ because, though invisible, it achieves superhuman results Speech can stop people being afraid or sorry; it can promote happiness and increase feelings of pity. [Counting the Errors of My Ways
Quiz: How Spiritual Are You? ]

---

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
- William Hazlitt

Until death do us part yet in Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.
In the dream we are sitting together after all those years pulling memories and photos together. Indeed, my life with Lauren has been nothing but a dream!
After two decades, exactly today, I know why Lauren loves cooking with wine. Sometimes she even puts it in the food.
On the Saturday when the Sydney Opera House celebrated its birthday, I had an engaging encounter with Lauren in front of the altar.
Christopher was there with his Polish hangover and two golden rings from the discounted counter of the Berkeley International Diamonds.
Speaking as a rough diamond and the black sheep of the Imrich family, I know too well that stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But to watch the polished walk of the Australian Academy of Ballet dancer during the Wedding March is a pure ecstasy.
Some men suggest that all marriages are happy. It's the trying to walk together afterwards that causes all the problems.
While some women swear that before marriage, a man will lay down his life for you; after marriage he won't even lay down his newspaper.
We agree on so many things such as if marriage is your object, you'd better start loving the subject:
Men are from Earthy Central Europe. Women are from Earthy Australia. Deal with it.
Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
Recognise that what goes around, comes around, and that there is nothing new under the sun.
I swear that not every marriage is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all trends and indicators it is as perennial as the grass. In some mysterious ways, happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length

Marriage vows in an objectivist church would probably run along the lines of "Do you promise to attempt to dominate and subdue this woman until such time as you grow bored?" "Maybe." "Close enough. And do you promise to applaud this man`s production until such time as you find someone with a bigger ... corporation?" "Whatever." "By the power vested in me by having scammed you guys out of a marriage license fee, I now pronounce you man and appendage. May you be unencumbered by small persons."
-Rob Slade, reviewing Atlas Shrugged

---

This past June, when Patricia Worth, and her husband, Gary, who works as a graphic designer, opened River Reader Books in Lexington, Missouri, Patricia left a 16-year career as a contractor to become a full-time bookseller, and, since the new bookstore has a cafe, a barista, too. No sense in learning one new trade when you can learn three or four The Worths Build a Business: River Reader Books

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
In this blog I have been bitching - some say endlessly - that we need new marketing ideas and ways to attract more readers to more authors.
To that end, I'm starting an experiment. A new blog called Backstory.
Each week a different author will answer the single most common question novelists get from readers is: "Where did you get the idea for your novel?"
In other words, what's the backstory? What are the secrets, the truths, or just the illogical moments that sparked your latest novel?
In the upcoming months all kinds of wonderful authors have agreed to post their backstories including: Katherine Neville, Lee Child, Tess Gerritesen, Chris Mooney, Jason Starr, Robert Ferrigno, Marcia Talley, Gayle Lynds, Laura Lippman, Caroline Leavitt, Lev Rafael, J.A. Konrath, Doug Clegg and more and more.
• MJ Rose of Buzz Balls Hype Think of it like an magazine article that has no end [EL Noel (Lynn) ]
• · Nicholas Clee, Editor of The Bookseller is to leave the position this autumn Farewell
• · · Brain battle provides insight into consumer behavior Why Instant Gratification Wins ; [Professor the 5th Earl (Conrad) Russell observed when I was an undergraduate I think women could afford to say 'no' when they meant 'yes'. Now they can't. The more freedom a woman has, the plainer her sexual signalling has to be.]
• · · · It may be a shocking dilution of academics - or an ingenious way to hook reluctant readers. 'Hamlet' too hard? Try a comic book; [It's a typical story in the murky and dangerous underworld of small, independent publishing: Screwing a book for its cover]
• · · · · Drenka Willen publishes books in translation. Her ability to succeed despite the trends and the odds makes her one of this country's most valued cultural gatekeepers. She writes very concise questions in the margin, and it is done so firmly that even if you erased them, they would still be there Found in Translation ; [Sir Antony Sher, the actor, writer and artist, yesterday launched a bitter critique of the exclusivity of the literary world ; Cold Revenge by Sir Jozef Imrich Is Simon & Schuster up for sale?]
• · · · · · Speech is a ‘powerful ruler’ because, though invisible, it achieves superhuman results Speech can stop people being afraid or sorry; it can promote happiness and increase feelings of pity. [Counting the Errors of My Ways
Quiz: How Spiritual Are You? ]

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Political bloggers to duel in live forum. The scribes known as Wonkette, Kos and Hindrocket will appear at Moravian College
Indymedia was taken offline on 7 October when an unnamed United States government agency went to court on behalf of an unnamed foreign power and seized two computers from the United Kingdom. Rackspace: If this is possible, can independent media survive?

The Blog, The Press, The Media: A new patent blog
And no sooner do I publish my column on IP blogs than a new one comes along: Patent Pending. Its author, patent attorney Robert Shaver, says it is more entertainment for inventor and technology fans than it is legal postings. "I post what I am interested in," he says, "which is old patents, new technology, ancient inventions and technology, and historical patents. There is some patent and copyright law in there too." Bob is at the Boise firm Dykas, Shaver & Nipper, also home to blogger Stephen Nipper. Come to think of it, that means that half the attorneys in the firm have blogs. Must be some sort of record.
• Patent - Inventions and Technology Updates; [GetNetWise is a public service brought to you by a wide range of Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations. The GetNetWise coalition wants Internet users to be only "one click away" from the resources they need to make informed decisions about their and their family's use of the Internet ]
• · America Votes A Public librarian was responsible for uncovering the America Votes scandal; [Stereotyped Librarian Spinster's will sees charities, church and cats share £2.1m ; A sad sign of the time The Sad Irony Behind Rejection of the Horniman Museum ]
• · · Communications Minister Helen Coonan: A major shake-up of Australia's media laws could help a third force emerge alongside industry moguls Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch
Exclusive, Scoop via Insiders Czech Whispers: MEdia Dragon the third media mogul Down Under; [Gee, They Always Say Such Nice Things About You: Somersault Some Shares: Note Insider Trading is Illegal in Australia and Amerika ...]
• · · · Artistic bridge Is your mouse an expression of your personality?
• · · · · Blogging is not democratic only because it gives each person a place to publish -- it is also democratic because it is a body of practices that help each person invent something worth reading Blogging, Invention and Freedom - Dennis Kennedy ; [via Bill Ives Of Portals and KM fame; Mainstream Media Use of Blogs ]
• · · · · · Poor librarians were soon to go the way of blacksmiths and town criers, their chosen field made obsolete by Internet search engines and self-perpetuating electronic databases 'The Librarian': The Fog of Facts; [Lawyers In Google We Trust?]

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The Scots have confirmed what I have suspected for a long, long, time. I am right. Flamers note that I am always right. Imrigh \Im"righ\, n. [Scot.; Gael. ?un-bhrigh chicken soup.] A peculiar strong soup or broth, made in Scotland. [Written also imrich.]
Why I'm writing a book ... The Chaotic Age is upon us. We are scared. Damn right, we should be scared. But out of the terror comes the amazing opportunities for us to expand both on the material and spiritual level. The fewer safety nets there are to save us, the less choice we have to be anything other than ourselves, the less choice we have besides doing what is meaningful to us. And finding ourselves, doing what matters, becoming the person we were born to be, this is what God put on this earth to do.
We live in amazing and interesting times. I intend the book to do a damn good job proving it.

Literature & Sport Across Frontiers: My Master Plan for World Domination & Soul Soup
Since the dawn of the film industry, it has been common practice for writers to send scripts and pitch stories to movie executives and producers. And for almost as long, scores of writers have sued the studios for stealing their ideas, only to have suits, filed on hard-to-prove copyright infringement grounds, which are dismissed or quietly settled. But a recently published opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Jeff Grosso v. Miramax Film Corporation, may soon shift the balance of power in this age-old tug of war.
Every successful movie ever made has had a raft of crazy lawsuits.
• What? We Can't Steal Your Ideas? [Is Canada Really Stealing Hollywood Productions? ; Can you win over the same folks who read People magazine without turning off the so-called serious reader? Stand-alone book magazines ride choppy seas to celebrate the promise of the written word: Bookmarks]
• · Exhibitionists who like to feel more than the wind in their hair rejoice - nude cruises are coming to Australia The Bare Necessities of the Maiden Voyage (Boat People); [ It's Maiden Book Blitz Week at Slate ! ; Maiden high-tech security: Vatican: It is home to 1.6 million books, centuries-old manuscripts and the oldest known complete Bible]
• · · A few months ago Hollie Andrew was collecting tickets at a Sydney Dendy Cinema at Circular Quay. Now she is nominated for an AFI award: her movie Somersault premiered at the Sydney Film Festival What a Somersault of Artistic Life; [Snakes hit the beach; and may Gianna’s Novel-in-progress Hit #1]
• · · · Why Authors Should Blog ; [The sexual memoir has been gaining steam (no pun intended) as a literary form in recent years, and far from being near-porn, many of the books read like throwbacks to an age when sex was allowed to be beautiful, and not simply an animal act. Literature Regains Its Sex Life: sexual writing aims... to demystify and de-emotionalize sex — to reduce it to a physical and hormonal process not much different from, say, scratching an itch ]
• · · · · Leisel Jones' and our old coach, Ken Wood, has seemingly re-opened the rift between her and Brooke Hanson by playing down the Victorian's record-breaking feats at the world shortcourse swimming championships; [The allergy is now under control thanks to her switch from an indoor pool to an outdoor one at Sutherland, where she trains under the guidance of Ian Thorpe's coach Tracey Menzies. Kirsten Thomson ]
• · · · · · Elfriede Jelinek has been pilloried in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer, someone who fouls her own nest by exposing the seamy side of her country of birth to the outside world. She's very adventurous. She's a playwright and poet too and is always doing crazy and wonderful things with the form of the novel. While the form taken by her writing constantly shifts, however, its fundamental purpose appears to be to disturb. And she does so, in the academy's words, by demonstrating how the entertainment industry's cliches seep into people's consciousness and paralyze opposition to class injustices and gender oppression ; [Reports of the Death of the Printed Word Have Been Exaggerated]

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Imrigh \Im"righ\, n. [Scot.; Gael. ?un-bhrigh chicken soup.] A peculiar strong soup or broth, made in Scotland. [Written also imrich.]
Why I'm writing a book ... The Chaotic Age is upon us. We are scared. Damn right, we should be scared. But out of the terror comes the amazing opportunities for us to expand both on the material and spiritual level. The fewer safety nets there are to save us, the less choice we have to be anything other than ourselves, the less choice we have besides doing what is meaningful to us. And finding ourselves, doing what matters, becoming the person we were born to be, this is what God put on this earth to do.
We live in amazing and interesting times. I intend the book to do a damn good job proving it.

Literature & Sport Across Frontiers: My Master Plan for World Domination & Soul Soup
Since the dawn of the film industry, it has been common practice for writers to send scripts and pitch stories to movie executives and producers. And for almost as long, scores of writers have sued the studios for stealing their ideas, only to have suits, filed on hard-to-prove copyright infringement grounds, which are dismissed or quietly settled. But a recently published opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Jeff Grosso v. Miramax Film Corporation, may soon shift the balance of power in this age-old tug of war.
Every successful movie ever made has had a raft of crazy lawsuits.
• What? We Can't Steal Your Ideas? [Is Canada Really Stealing Hollywood Productions? ; Can you win over the same folks who read People magazine without turning off the so-called serious reader? Stand-alone book magazines ride choppy seas to celebrate the promise of the written word: Bookmarks]
• · Exhibitionists who like to feel more than the wind in their hair rejoice - nude cruises are coming to Australia The Bare Necessities of the Maiden Voyage (Boat People); [ It's Maiden Book Blitz Week at Slate ! ; Maiden high-tech security: Vatican: It is home to 1.6 million books, centuries-old manuscripts and the oldest known complete Bible]
• · · A few months ago Hollie Andrew was collecting tickets at a Sydney Dendy Cinema at Circular Quay. Now she is nominated for an AFI award: her movie Somersault premiered at the Sydney Film Festival What a Somersault of Artistic Life; [Snakes hit the beach; and may Gianna’s Novel-in-progress Hit #1]
• · · · Why Authors Should Blog ; [The sexual memoir has been gaining steam (no pun intended) as a literary form in recent years, and far from being near-porn, many of the books read like throwbacks to an age when sex was allowed to be beautiful, and not simply an animal act. Literature Regains Its Sex Life: sexual writing aims... to demystify and de-emotionalize sex — to reduce it to a physical and hormonal process not much different from, say, scratching an itch ]
• · · · · Leisel Jones' and our old coach, Ken Wood, has seemingly re-opened the rift between her and Brooke Hanson by playing down the Victorian's record-breaking feats at the world shortcourse swimming championships; [The allergy is now under control thanks to her switch from an indoor pool to an outdoor one at Sutherland, where she trains under the guidance of Ian Thorpe's coach Tracey Menzies. Kirsten Thomson ]
• · · · · · Elfriede Jelinek has been pilloried in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer, someone who fouls her own nest by exposing the seamy side of her country of birth to the outside world. She's very adventurous. She's a playwright and poet too and is always doing crazy and wonderful things with the form of the novel. While the form taken by her writing constantly shifts, however, its fundamental purpose appears to be to disturb. And she does so, in the academy's words, by demonstrating how the entertainment industry's cliches seep into people's consciousness and paralyze opposition to class injustices and gender oppression ; [Reports of the Death of the Printed Word Have Been Exaggerated]

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Nostalgia used to be something that obsessed my generation born at the end of baby boomers. But a new generation is discovering a fondness for its youth. It's hip to be so five years ago when you left the NSW Parliament
James Cumes of VOW and Lakatoi fame shares with the blogosphere via Jeffa the Good News
James Cumes is the author of Haverleigh and other great books are filled with grace, style, honesty and wit. Read James’ master pieces for sheer history, beauty and charm. Nothing new even comes close. Austrio-Czech Jelinek is great, yet Austrio-Australian Cumes is greatest of the all... I think life is too short to waste it on mediocre wine, artificial flowers and meaningless books. Obey my orders taste James word and you will never look back!

Tracking Trends Great & Small: Can You Name That Supertitle?
Businesses spend millions to create a catchy tagline for their products. Too bad consumers don't remember most of them ....
Quick -- what's the title of Jozef Imrich’s book? How about Kmart's (KMRT )? And Buick's (GM )? If you don't know, you won't advance in Jeopardy! when the category is advertising. But you won't be alone.
Like Cold River, contemporary catch-phrases just crumble into dust.
• Obey your reading thirst; [Yellow brick road to righteousness: More people gain their philosophy of life and spiritual values through musicals than by going to church, says a new book. So what life lessons can musicals teach us? My Mamka Maria taught Do-Re-Mi while My Tato Jozef taught me Guralu Ci Ci Nezal; ]
• · Good news for men everywhere: the more sex you have, the better your sperm quality Superman 2004
• · · There is, of course, a Sod's Law factor to the equation. If you judge your ratings wrongly, you might become too optimistic - and calamity will strike A new mathematical formula has proved Murphy's Law really does strike at the worst possible time ; [Having the blues lifts the Imrich’s heart It's not always easy feeling blue ]
• · · · Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial
• · · · · More wonderful things on the blog include a comment about how women have much more influence on the Net than people think as they tend to be the emailers and listserv supporters, spreading the stories that need to be spread
• · · Value your life! Superior protection Phil Harvey sells sexual excitement to the rich, then helps the poor
• · · · · · Czechs and Aussies take a sip: A report finds not all beers are created equal; [ Coke versus Pepsi: It's all in the head ]

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Six online journalists and webloggers have been arrested in Iran recently in a crackdown on dissent on the internet Iran cracks down on blog protests
Evan Williams, founder of Pyra Labs, who allowed me from time to time comment on his blog is the man who launched extraordinarily popular Blogger service in 1999. I linked to his blog entry about his depature last week, but I only came aware of this entry in Motley Fool the traders behind Media Dragon shares today (thanks a million Jeff Myers). Evan is being sued by my family and friends (did I say friends - smile) for the blogging addiction which affects nearly one in a million of adults in the world Evan Williams at Bali or Nepal? Hardly!

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Well, that was a real snooze-a-thon
Czech out Blogging at the end of the earth exclusive for Perth and Yobbo Bloggers
• Bob Novak: View from the right
• Paul Begala: View from the left
• Jessi Klein: The Lighter Side
Bush didn't pee his pants or kill anyone, so my guess is that people will say it was a tie. Kerry was solid, in his usual, uninspired, A-student-that-memorized-the-text-book sort of way.
The most fun part was at the end when the families had to come up onstage and try to look all huggy and "normal," which tends to fail, since, like every family, both groups are clearly totally dysfunctional.
But after the kisses and handshaking they all kind of got in a line and waved to the crowd. It looked like the final bow at a mediocre community theater production of "Godspell." But that's basically what it feels like our country has turned into, so I guess that's appropriate. I don't mean to sound so pessimistic.
• CNN Blog ; [Blue reporter and Penn State senior Adam Smeltz was recruited by the Centre Daily Times' parent company, Knight Ridder, to cover the campaign trail. He reported on both national conventions and will follow the politicians through the Nov. 2 election Check out his blog - Centre Daily Times]
• · Richard Byrne: How the broadcast news organizations -- and their viewers -- went astray Books on the media
• · · Female Fox coworker details lewd behavior of cable TV star Bill O'Reilly is hit with a sexual harassment suit ; [A UCLA student's online journal is used in bid to discredit her claims that she was raped by a football player ]
• · · · NAOMI KLEIN Proposal to Assist the Government of Kuwait in Protecting and Realizing Claims Against Iraq James Baker's Double Life
• · · · · A million thanks to: Google Desktop Search - Beta Version ; [Where To Submit My RSS Feeds And Weblog URLs To Get More Exposure, Visibility And Reach]
• · · · · · A freelance journalist, Richard Sleeman, was awarded $434,000 in damages today over an article in The Australian newspaper about a story he wrote on Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe The Water God

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Farce is higher than comedy in that it is very close to tragedy. You've only got to play some of Shakespeare's tragedies plain and they are nearly farcical. All gradations of theatre between tragedy and farce—light comedy, drama—are a load of rubbish."
Joe Orton (quoted in John Lahr, Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton)

Because there are over 175,000 books published a year and they can't all get reviews in the NYTBR. Authored by M.J. Rose, Superwoman (2004)
Psychologists call it the Proustian phenomenon. Specific odours can spark a flood of reminiscences. The first time I walked inside the David Jones Glorious Food Hall all I could smell was Vrbov everywhere the Vrbov of our baker Mr Zummer: Supersmell (1980)

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Water's water everywhere
SSometimes I wonder why nobody reads philosophy. It requires, to be sure, a degree of hyperbole to wonder this. Academics like me, who eke out their sustenance by writing and teaching the stuff, still browse in the journals; it's mainly the laity that seems to have lost interest. And it's mostly Anglophone analytic philosophy that it has lost interest in. As far as I can tell, 'Continental' philosophers (Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Heidegger, Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre and the rest) continue to hold their market. Even Hegel has a vogue from time to time, though he is famous for being impossible to read. All this strikes me anew whenever I visit a bookstore. The place on the shelf where my stuff would be if they had it (but they don't) is just to the left of Foucault, of which there is always yards and yards. I'm huffy about that; I wish I had his royalties.
• For water to be necessarily H2O is just for water to be H2O in every possible world [Sometimes when you read Updike you laugh outloud, other times you are going 'wow'. Like yesterday in 'Couples' when they described the local fire chief as the most neurotic man in town, he had a phobia of fire, water and dogs!
From what I can make out Updike is always struggling, always experimenting with the idea of 'the good life' or 'the best life'. Only this struggle does not begin when we are 15 and end when we are 18. No, for Updike it begins the day you are born and it ends the day you die, or maybe you are lucky if you even find an answer by the day you die. Books Of Note]
• · Book distorts history by omitting crucial facts, including an important link to the Czech Republic Not Everything Is Illuminated [The real-life hero of the movie might be actually found in the Czech Republic]
• · · The first thing you notice about alumnus Matt Mankins, SM ’03, is that he doesn’t look like the Lone Ranger or Don Quixote Being Book Smart
• · · · Dion Painter and blogger of Artnews; [One in three people believes in angels and one in five believes they have been helped by one ]
• · · · · A farm is about to be overwhelmed by a bushfire. The oldest son keeps pigeons, and he lets them go The fire of the truth [A fiction-like form gives this story its entertainment value. But it is the truth that gives it power]
• · · · · · Fact v Fiction
[Elfriede Jelinek gave an interview to Profil (Austria's top weekly).
The interview headline shouts: "Habe gebetet, dass ich ihn nicht bekomme" (I prayed I wouldn't get it)
Die Kinder der Toten ist sicher mein wichtigstes Werk. Es enthält alles, was ich sagen wollte; es hätte eigentlich genügt, dieses eine Buch zu veröffentlichen.
(Die Kinder der Toten ('The Children of the Dead') is certainly my most important work. It contains everything that I wanted to say; it would have sufficed to publish just that one book.)]

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In a terribly earnest age, it's gotta be comforting to Gen-X'ers that irony is making a comeback. It's like rock-paper-scissors. Ironic beats earnest; cute beats ironic. Filthy Linking Rich tell me more about it ... Making It to Page One

The Blog, The Press, The Media: We Are All in This Together
I still like to think that I am, as the late novelist Irwin Shaw famously said, a storyteller in the bazaar, telling the world about itself, sharing my experiences with unknown readers out there.
I like to think that there are readers out there who want us to circumvent the sensational and serve up analyses and reflections. I like to think that by helping others understand our complex world better, journalists also help people understand themselves and their cultures better.
I know that focus groups in many countries are telling editors that they don't much care for the news, and certainly not for longish dispatches. But I haven't heard of any focus groups saying that they'd ignore rich, compellingly written stories about the daily dramas of our collective lives...
The most enduring lesson that Mr Rosenthal - now 82 - taught me was that in the pursuit of truth and fairness, no price is too high to pay. He always said: Make that extra call, take that extra trip, visit that additional source - then do it all over again until you are truly convinced that your story is as accurate, as fair and as thorough as humanly possible.
My other great teacher was Mr James Michaels, the man who created the modern-day Forbes Magazine. His lesson? You've got to be a bulldog in the journalism business: You mustn't let go of a story once you've sunk your teeth into it. Don't allow yourself to be bullied. And don't allow yourself to be bought.
• Hard questions to answer [Firedragon Guys with mustaches are switching to Firefox ]
• · Progressive Blogs by State: a directory from American Street
• · · A9.com: Amazon's search engine, now out of beta. Lots of cool features remember and categorize your searches. If you sign in with your Amazon ID you get a discount for using A9 - Cold River so Hot @ Amazon
• · · · Who's Buying Up Expired Domains? ; [Who2 is a good biographical resource. They've added several compilations, including a list of 'celebrities mauled by lions' and killed in cars, serial spouses ]
• · · · · Slashdot Politics: see what the techies have to say
• · · · · · SearchEngineWatch Blog ; Search Blog ; Search Engine Guide ; SE Low Down

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It turns out Dick Cheney got more wrong than just the name of the website factcheck.org during the vice presidential debate Tuesday.
Just The Facts, Ma'am - Websites Clarify Campaign Errors Spinsanity.org and other sites profiled
Ach, Hack Watch suggests that the search for Australia's worst campaign journalist has ended, while in Amerika it just begun

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Pranay Gupte: old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism
Tim Porter of First Draft Fame writes: Warning: This post may induce dyspepsia in critics of Mainstream Journalism
If you are starting out in journalism or thinking about it, listen to an old hand tell why it is still worth the while. Pranay Gupte reflects on a life well spent on good, old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism and says that while the focus of journalism may change, its values must remain inviolate
IN ALL probability, this is for me the last innings in a newspaper career that has stretched four decades over two centuries in several continents and may well end in Singapore.
Daily journalism everywhere is changing so speedily that it's become hard to tell fact from fiction, education from entertainment, and information from ideology. Reckless opinion masquerades as analysis, and character assassination postures as legitimate portraiture. Even the sanctity of news columns often doesn't seem to matter: some of India's major newspapers, for example, openly offer their editorial space on Page One for sale - and they have to turn away takers.
• Why journalism is still a job worth doing [Oregonian editor Sandy Rowe says printing the allegations against David Wu, who is running for a fourth term representing Oregon's 1st Congressional District, "was a difficult decision, raising serious questions about how far the news media should go in examining a candidate's background ]
• · Here are 10 policies to fix our media
• · · Program enjoyed by Gabriella the Behind the News (BTN), the ABC's long-running news program aimed at school-children, will return next year [The Daily Terror and Channel Ten replaced BTN with TTN]
• · · · Discourse at the Boundary between Conversation and Publication; [Blogjam Last Trainspotting ]
• · · · · A Possible Example of Old Media Journalism - Blog Co-Existence ; [From small-town reporter to waitress She's treated
shabbily now: My Turn: Can I Get You Some Manners With That? ]
• · · · · · Mark (Human) Steyn’s column which argued that all future hostages like Kenneth Bigley should be written off to reduce the incentive to take more hostages was cancelled Today, for the first time in all my years with the Telegraph Group, I had a column pulled ; [Nine Japanese were found dead on Tuesday in two rented cars with the windows sealed and charcoal burners at their feet in pacts End of the road facilitated by Internet suicide sites ]