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It was one of the coldest days of the winter and the guitarist Pat Metheny was only a few minutes late, but he had called ahead. When he arrived at our meeting place, a small recording studio within Right Track Studios in Midtown Manhattan, he arranged his stuff on the couch - including some musical scores - and sat down in a swivel chair before the 96-channel console. Mr. Metheny grew up in the rural Midwest but seems Californian: he has the inner glow. He had no socks on and looked comfortable. Well, for me, let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's everyday-life music B-flat minor, the saddest of all keys

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: What's wrong with the Australian film industry?

When the much-heralded film Eucalyptus was cancelled recently, it was a huge blow to the Australian film industry. After a disastrous 2004, it had seemed that things were looking up in 2005. Cate Blanchett was here to star in Little Fish, Abbie Cornish and Heath Ledger in Candy and Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman in Eucalyptus. It would have made a fine trifecta. Last year, the overall box office increased by 5 per cent, but attendance at local films slumped to an all-time low.

• This particular film was already had a lot of hopes pinned on it [MJ Rose with links ; Returns Suck: So Do Something About it ]
• · More on the Google Library Digitization Project How Google will scan the world, 1 Cold River at a time ;
• · · When I was a kid, I thought I'd grow up to be a novelist Behind the scenes in publishing
• · · · ; Why I blog ; A tribute to Hunter S Thompson
• · · · · What if the Holy Grail was not the cup that held the blood of Christ but the bloodline stretching from him? Notes on a Strange World The Secrets of Rennes-le-Château ;
• · · · · · Fluid Thinking ; Bill Ives

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Michael Schaefer ordered me to follow his initiative about the little first amendment engine that could @ deep blog ;-)

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
- Dorothy Parker

Why do I blog?

Short Answer: To be heard. Sole survivors might often be thought of as anonymous, but we never want to be voiceless.

Life is too brief and the world is too small not to blog. Is it a way to let off steam and give your two cents? Does it satisfy a desire to climb the mountains or cross the rivers? Or is it an outlet for your various interests? Let me count the ways blogging can record anything delightful, surprising, or informative.

Blogging is part of who I am ... First of all, I blog to keep up my spirit; to stir the spirit of others; to stir my blood, my brain, and my beliefs.

I blog to meet curious people like Dan Gillmor, Jay Rosen, Shel Israel, Robert Scoble, Michael Schaefer, MJ Rose,Tim Dunhill, David Tiley and many others.

Herman Melville put it best when he said, "We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results."

Before I was a blogger, I was a reader of samizdat magazines and a brother who recorded how his sister Aga died at the communist chemical factory and how another sister, Gitka, was sacked for going to church. As bloggers we share the deepest emotions on a regular basis and today I read a touching story by Lenn Pryor on the death of his sister Lori

For me, jotting down facts and ideas as well as reading has always been an addiction. In the past, I used to post or email stories I thought might be of interest to friends and acquintances. However, when the blog came along everything changed ... Blog allowed me to cut down on the number of emails I sent. I still view blogging as emailing to everybody.

Blogging regularly brings new ideas up, ideas I would never have thought of if I hadn’t read other blogs and magazines on a similar subject. The more I blog the more I get addicted to reading other bloggers. Blogging inspires me to read more because reading introduces new ideas or forces me to rethink old ideas.

If I learn something from my experiences, I hope it might be valuable to someone besides me. I have learned much about myself from reading others’ poems and stories; I hope that others can also learn something from my experiences and my writing. Deep down in the recesses of probably every blogger's heart is a realisation that we use each other for inspiration and motivation on our journey of self-discovery

I like to think of blogging as something more than just expressing ideas or sharing trends. I like to think I’m part of a wide selfless community. Blogs not only help to reveal who we are; they help us to transcend who we were.

What I like about Blogging is that it is rather organic. There are no boundaries to ideas, interaction and optimism. Blogging can be as deep and wide as you make it to be ...

In many ways, a blog is a playground dreamed up by a powerless voice just like the profetic story of 1984 was dreamed up in 1948 by a powerless voice of George Orwell.

George Orwell saw writing not only as a powerful tool for conveying ideas, but also as a demanding and enthralling art with a moral imperative to search for truth. In an autobiographical note sixty years ago, Orwell said “Good prose is like a window pane.” Like Orwell, Vaclav Havel trusted his audience to share his values and understanding of the world, but he also sought to increase their political awareness. Blogging helps us to think for ourselves. Blogs allow us to speak our mind and it helps us to link to concrete realities.

An individual blogger, like Winston Smith, sits down alone—with courage and an optimistic belief in his own ideas—to communicate his most secret thoughts to an unknown reader. Second, his dedication to truth, the product of independent thought, has the power to improve society. In our time, we desperately need Orwell’s clear language, his commitment to aesthetic as well as moral responsibility.

My purpose in this blog is to shed more hope and sunlight on complex and moral issues as where there is sunlight there is less likelihood for slime and mould to grow. What you see is what you get!

To me a link like this one which I received this week from Shel and Robert is priceless: Red Couch

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U.S. News & World Report reported last week that several senior Republican senators — upon hearing that "blogs" had uncovered the Dan Rather scandal, helped to defeat Tom Daschle and pushed for the resignation of CNN executive Eason Jordan — demanded that "blogs" be added to their official Web sites. Blogging ... Blah, Blah, Blah

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Google and God's Mind
The 2005 Business Blogging Awards have been announced. Top honors went to Media Guerilla as best P.R. blog, with JSLogan winning the best marketing entry

The awards were dreamed up by two bloggers who met after auctioning their Web logging services online. Jeremy Wright, a technology journalist, and another blogger, Darren Barefoot, noticed the attention they got and decided to launch a consulting firm, InsideBlogging.com. (I interviewed Wright and did a story about his self-auction on the Web and the radio.)

• Rappers and Bloggers Separated at birth! [ ; Free Speech Flight ]
• · Revenge of the Blog People! ; Code for Killing Google AutoLink
• · · Movies and Topless Viewing Traveling the public/private divide ; That Old, Tired Balancing Act Did the election kill objective campaign journalism?
• · · · Pajamanas It's hard to know who to root against in the bloggers vs. CNN controversy that led to the resignation of CNN's Eason Jordan, a twenty-three-year veteran of the network The Pajama Game ; On the latest initiative in Congress: Blogging The Latest Initiative in Congress: Blogging
• · · · · The William F-ing Buckley of stand-up; Hyakkimaru is one of the strangest heroes to grace the small screen Cyborg Dragon-samurai: Blood Will Tell
• · · · · · Category of one ... Janet Albrechtsen's background is all but unique in Australian journalism. John Howard likes her, Mark Latham certainly didn't Our ABC: Lightning rod for conservatism will make the sparks fly ; Blog of laws

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Compelling human stories, told through the words and deeds of real people: If William Faulkner were writing on the Bush White House The Administration and the Fury

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Lori Ann Pryor April 27, 1976 - Febuary 22, 2005

My sister died tonight at 8:30. She died alone in a hospice in La Mesa, California of AIDS related pneumonia. I was not there, even though she was just an hour or so away. I haven't seen or heard from her in 10 years. I am not sad for her, or for me. I am happy for her, as her 28 years of pain are over. There will be no memorial service, no funeral to fly home to. I have decided to hold one here on my blog.

• Tribute [God's Politics ; Politics still a turn-off, even in cyberspace ; How Psychologists Rate Presidents ]
• · The average yearly income for an Australian playwright is less than $10,000 ; A run-down of the 16 finalists in this year's Tropfest short film festival. This Festival is Yet To Be Classified Rattus Pistofficus: Too Sunny, Too Cold
• · · Creating Bestsellers ; The director of L'Esquive, Abdellatif Kechiche, also picked up a Cesar for his work helming the production, which was made on a miniscule budget. Amateur effort takes top film prize
• · · · We live in an insane world. Today we see, more than ever, incalculable wealth standing opposed to unspeakable misery. Millions die of curable or preventable diseases while the United States government wastes hundreds of billions of dollars on arms production. Half the world's working population makes $2 a day or less. Scary stuff. Think twice! The Case for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century? ; There is no chance to escape the collapse of empire Kirkpatrick Sale ; It is probable that only after the catastrophe which will bring down modernity, its world-wide saga and its global ideology, that an alternate vision of the world will necessarily impose itself he Essence of Archaism by Guillaume Faye
• · · · · Critics of cosmetic enhancement need an extreme makeover In Praise of Plastic Surgery ; Men, are you tired of the time, trouble and expense of having a girlfriend? Irritated by the difficulty of finding a new one? Eberhard Schöneburg, the chief executive of the software maker Artificial Life Inc. of Hong Kong, may have found the answer: a virtual girlfriend named Vivienne who goes wherever you go. Vivienne
• · · · · · Some people are stuck between a rock and a hard truth ; Browse through the racks of dresses, skirts, and tops in almost any trendy clothing store in fashion-savvy Argentina, and whether you find something that fits depends on your size. Which came first, thin women or tiny sizes?

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In Memory of Hunter S Thompson: I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me Begging To Differ

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Prep Graduates to Bestsellerdom

Curtis Sittenfeld and her book PREP continue to draw press, this time in the Washington Post. The book recently landed on the NYT bestseller list (after making numerous other lists--including the Post's--earlier in the month), and by the Post's account the book has "nearly 100,000 copies" in print. Sittenfeld promised her English class pizza if she made the list.
Every parent of a teenage girls and maybe even boys finds the book worthy of all the attention: it is an almost clinically accurate and absorbing glimpse into the daily life of an exclusive, privileged place. People who have read "Prep" go on enthusiastically about the smells, feelings, colors and emotional range that Sittenfeld appears to have recollected from her Groton days -- and built on once she got to St. Albans. Beyond the setting of PREP, the novel is more deeply about the universal experience of being a teenager, and about learning to let go of the weirdness, the damage of having been one -- perhaps more so than any novel in decades.

• Prep Teenagehood [It's a picture of Homer Simpson by the dead spirit of Picasso Reviews ; Dead Poets Society: Move Over, Holden ]
• · A stone carving in one of Rome's biggest cathedrals may hold the answer to the question being asked by Catholics around the world: will Pope John Paul II survive his latest health crisis? The carved marble monument to Pope Sylvester II, who ruled the Catholic church 1,000 years ago, is said to moisten when the death of a pontiff is imminent. Today, a priest touched the carving in Rome's Basilica of Saint John Lateran and confirmed it was dry - good news for the Pope, who underwent windpipe surgery yesterday after being rushed to hospital with breathing problems. Cold Drops; He's no stranger to controversy, but the Pope's latest published thoughts on abortion and gay unions are sure to spark debate inside and outside the church Two of the most powerful words in the English language are "evil" and "extermination"
• · · Forget about peace marches, poetry and poverty. Today's students pay their fees and work hard. That's all part of being the customer Tertiary Reality: Uni isn't what uni was ; Loneliness in Australia has a masculine face The solitary confinement of the Aussie bloke
• · · · Lonely? No chance, say young women sharing digs Women living in group housing are the least lonely people in the country ; Blokes warned: get married, or be lonely when your mates do
• · · · · Travellers sometimes need to break away from the tourist trail ; MJRose Reader and the Word
• · · · · · As Gonzo in Life as in His Work; Hunter S. Thompson directory ; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas The widow of journalist Hunter S Thompson said her husband killed himself while the two were talking on the phone

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In any case, the condemned man looked so like a submissive dog that one might have thought he could be left to run free on the surrounding hills and would only need to be whistled for when the execution was due to begin.
- Franz Kafka, "The Penal Colony"

Nightmares don't last this long, so the tragic fluid of the melting ice must be real ... Shel Israel observes the real and surreal angles of the Slavic Cold River: Together, We Can Move Mountains, Rivers and Walls

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While my Mamka, like the Pope, could not be there as she was in hospital with breathing problems the day after she celebrated her 88th birthday at home Petr was there!

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Summit: New Light Cast on Dark Matters
The US and Russian Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin met on the afternoon of February 24 in Bratislava castle, Slovakia. The talks started at around 15:30

Below is a list of topics expected to be discussed at the summit meeting
Democracy: The US and other western countries have expressed concerns that Russian is backing away from democratic principles.
Iran: Bush will try to persuade Putin that the Iranian nuclear programme is intended for the construction of a nuclear weapon. Russia is helping Iran to construct a nuclear power plant and believes Tehran's reassurances that it has no ambitions to create a nuclear bomb.
Nuclear safety: According to US administration sources, both leaders will announce agreements in the field of nuclear facilities' safety.
Neighbouring countries: Bush will express concerns over the problematic relationships that some former Soviet republics and now EU members (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) have with Moscow.
Chechnya: Although Bush is often under pressure to be stricter on Moscow's actions in Chechnya, he perceives the Russian operation as a fight against "international" terrorism.
WTO: Putin will try to acquire confirmation of US support for Russian efforts to become a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Bilateral relations: Disagreements over democracy, the war in Iraq or the Iranian nuclear programme should not hurt strong bilateral relationships.

• Big issues on the summit menu [The summit takes place at an especially historic moment Cringing before the East ; Lyudmila Putina and Laura Bush ; Google: Bush, Putin: Constructive talks ]
• · Our ABC of Albrechtsen ; Webdiary commentariat
• · · I just had a very important and constructive dialogue with my friend. It was great to see -- I know Laura was pleased to see Lyudmila Putin as well Bush, Putin Address the Media ; Bush upbraids Putin for backsliding on democracy
• · · · Almost four years ago, when U.S. President George W. Bush first met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia, it seemed he'd found a kindred spirit when it came to democratic values Another look into Putin's soul? ; Bush may give Putin some advice on democracy, but the Russian president seems in no mood to hear it Google: Bush, Putin Agree on Biological Nukes, Not Democracy
• · · · · Outrage grows at a catalogue of obfuscation and evasion in answer to requests for truth. You may ask questions - but the Government still has the freedom not to answer them Senators go dredging for political dirt ;
• · · · · · All the main characters in the plot to unseat the former mayor of Strathfield should be charged with criminal offences Charge the main players, says ICAC

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Beginning with a question of whether blogs can be hosted on a specific Web site, a colleague of mine wondered if I'd give him some suggestions about getting started blogging. Here's a version of the answer I e-mailed to him How to Pick Blog Software

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Citizen Journalism: citizen bloggers
The citizen-journalism movement is where journalism is heading. Newspapers, if they want to stay in the game, need to acknowledge the "lecture" model of journalism is dying, and join in the "conversation."

Earlier this month, the Poynter Institute (where I work as a senior editor for Poynter.org) held its Web+10 Seminar. It was a fascinating exploration of what journalism will look like in the next 10 years. And a big chunk of the discussion was about what we're calling "citizen journalism." The journalism leaders (mostly from the Web side of the business) who participated in that seminar seemed pretty certain that community members' involvement in producing the news was an inevitable and desirable component of the future of journalism.

• In Defense of Citizen Journalism [ Silicon Valley Watcher ; A blog doesn't need a clever name ]
• · Mark Ranford, Stratagility
• · · President, Ludicorp (Flickr) - blogging since May 4, 1998 Stewart Butterfield
• · · · Blog Aggregator J K Baumga
• · · · · Bloglines: Corporate Engagement
• · · · · · Today Part Seven is Up: Bill Ives is running Blog Excitement series in February 2005

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Beginning with a question of whether blogs can be hosted on a specific Web site, a colleague of mine wondered if I'd give him some suggestions about getting started blogging. Here's a version of the answer I e-mailed to him How to Pick Blog Software

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Citizen Journalism: citizen bloggers
The citizen-journalism movement is where journalism is heading. Newspapers, if they want to stay in the game, need to acknowledge the "lecture" model of journalism is dying, and join in the "conversation."

Earlier this month, the Poynter Institute (where I work as a senior editor for Poynter.org) held its Web+10 Seminar. It was a fascinating exploration of what journalism will look like in the next 10 years. And a big chunk of the discussion was about what we're calling "citizen journalism." The journalism leaders (mostly from the Web side of the business) who participated in that seminar seemed pretty certain that community members' involvement in producing the news was an inevitable and desirable component of the future of journalism.

• In Defense of Citizen Journalism [ Silicon Valley Watcher ; A blog doesn't need a clever name ]
• · Mark Ranford, Stratagility
• · · President, Ludicorp (Flickr) - blogging since May 4, 1998 Stewart Butterfield
• · · · Blog Aggregator J K Baumga
• · · · · Bloglines: Corporate Engagement
• · · · · · Today Part Seven is Up: Bill Ives is running Blog Excitement series in February 2005

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For years all bloggers had to have XML feeds, but no one has been there to display them. Now is the time for change in the blogger world, time for XML parsing to reign The Mother of All Blog Rolls 'Rolls Out'

The Blog, The Press, The Media: NEWSHOUNDS: Blogged Down
Hertzberg in the New Yorker:

Nothing is likely to come of it. All the memorable scandals of the past 30 years, real & fake, from Watergate to the Clinton impeachment [guess which one is fake!], have had in common is that the opposition party controlled at least one house of Congress, which gave it the power to hold hearings & issue subpoenas. If Bush ends up having an easier time of it in his 2nd term, it won’t be because the scandals aren’t there. It’ll be because the tools to excavate them are under lock & key.

• Paper Dragons [We are like the little first amendment engine that could ... Vanity Fair's James Wolcott on Gannon: He did provide some genuine insight into the journalistic standards of the far-right fake-news prosties & their blog enablers [I think that's us, guys!] ; All of those sites are seeing really strong ad buys In Search of the Blog Economy ; Jason Kottke is switching into full-time mode over at his blog and he's asking for your support Honey, I Shrunk the Patrons ]
• · Bloggers rally for jailed Iranians ; Global blogger action day called; now 14 years in Jail; Solidarity Update
• · · Karola's Ramblings from Slovakia Bratislava Blogger covering the Summit ; Bush-Putin summit Almost No Live Coverage
• · · · Local officials blogging for readers far and wide ; News gives people a false sense of wisdom. Knowing what goes on in the world does not make anyone more knowledgeable about what really matters Stop the presses!
• · · · · Media vs the blogs Bloggers. Truth-tellers or vigilantes? Trophy-hunters or watchdogs? ; How the threat to academic freedom comes from within the university as much as from without The new Chief Inquisitor on campus
• · · · · · To imagine life as "real" we have to stretch my imagination to metaphors ... Bloggers are like the little first amendment engine that could Cold River

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We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He choose this as the way in which they should break, so be it.
-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves


Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Be Who You Want To Be
Your child is on the blocks, ready to swim the 50-metre freestyle. You zoom in so close you can see her nerves, even behind those tinted goggles. Just be careful that you don't pan to the left or right to check out the competition.

Sharyn Brownlee, the NSW president of the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations, says parents should be forced to seek permission from schools to film and photograph their child - and only their child - at swimming carnivals, school plays and other events.

Even as teenagers, my girls spend hours sitting in the rumpus room going through the album of the photographs when they were little. They sit there and laugh for hours at the way they pulled faces ... did all the strange and wonderful things as babies and little girls. We treasure all those January swims every year which were run by the Department of Sport and Recreation. Each year they moved to the next level getting different colour ribbons and swimming caps. The program took them to many pools from Hefron pool to Scots College diving blocks Granbrook indoor pool is also in the photos. There are great memories of Wilston Friday club days, netball at Waverley Park and the ballet classes at the Bondi Pavillion or Bondi Road Art center. A lovely group shot of a sign created by Alex stating Sasha the Potato Masha ... Most of the photos were taken by me in order to keep their grandmother in Europe up to date with their changing faces; others were taken spontaneously by friends ... It is a sad generation which is driven to the stage of deciding the lesser of the evil that started to grow by the Wall of the Darlinghurst Road and spread to every corner of our suburbs :-(
• Sign here to take that poolside snap [Deserted playgrounds, childhood obesity and spiralling diagnoses of behavioural disorders - these are the legacies of over-protective parenting which has spawned a generation of cottonwool kids At risk - children's wellbeing and school excursions ; Not everyone wants to know when that child or parent shows up Years after, a knock at the door ... ; Books @ Salon ]
• · Melting the Cold River

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Like many a corporate executive, Intel President Paul Otellini rarely deviates from the company line in public. But read Otellini's blog and you'll see what he really thinks I applaud companies that engage in this kind of dialogue. It shows courage and a real interest in hearing from the company on all levels The only Intel executive reading Cold River is Andy Grove ;-)

The Blog, The Press, The Media: f I Had a Blog
T he bloggers are here, and they are ready to knock down the iron curtain and get their pound of flesh. The traditional media has no idea what is about to hit them.

In every major conference, at every major speech, sitting at tables in restaurants, there is going to be a blogger or podcaster with microphone, PDA, Videophone, laptop or paper and pencil in hand. Listening. Taking notes. That information is going to be transmitted to and from a blog entry and placed in the hands of "the readers."
Unlike celebrities who hear or see the flash of the camera, the gatekeepers don't know they are there. Blogging in plain site. Questioning everything.

• Bringing Down the Media Iron Curtain: I'd write more columns like this one [ People's Republic. Pedicure time. No toothpaste ; peek at what's hot (or what's not) in the ever-widening world of web logs ]
• · Husband-and-wife team build a startup into a trailblazer The darlings of the blogosphere ; Beat the metropolitan elite with the tactics of US conservatives Bloggers will rescue the right
• · · Workers with Web logs are everywhere, and they're starting to make corporate America very nervous Have a blog, win better job? ; While he celebrated the blogger’s ability to uncover breaking news, he noted that a blog’s inherent bias might be detrimental to the reader But Pa, Everybody's Doin' It
• · · · Sydney Blog Summit ; Silicon Insider: Internet Politics ; Blogosphere politics
• · · · · A. Sullivan, Sunday Times Society is Dead. We Now Live In Our Own iWorld ; In an interesting yet not surprising reaction to the passing of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, he is being referred to as the original blogger. Clearly this is not meant to be taken literally, as the blogging phenomenon is relatively recent and Thompson didn't keep a blog or even an official website. However, with more and more bloggers paying tribute to the man as one of their main inspirations and with the question "Are bloggers journalists?" being debated almost daily, this brings an intriguing debate front and center. Blogfather: the self-described alternative news and underground culture destination disinformation
• · · · · · Blog Flog: Web loggers, journalists argue over who covers news ... Blogs vs. Mainstream: Let the Battle Begin ; Google: The blog squad can add another notch to its belt

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The New York Times press release confesses: Our core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and disseminating high-quality news, information and entertainment. We do this at all of our properties and the same is true of About. Ranking in the top 15 most frequently visited sites, About.com is one of the Web's most popular destinations. Its network of nearly 500 experts, known as guides, create Web sites on thousands of topics – from personal finance to consumer electronics, to history and geography Compelling Strategic Benefits For Future Growth

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The News That Fits
So much of leadership literature is about doing things right, that the term "leadership" itself has come to imply goodness. But not all leaders are good. World history and our own life experiences have taught us that.

Now Barbara Kellerman, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, has put bad leaders under the microscope. In her book "Bad Leadership: What It Is, Why It Happens, Why It Matters," she argues that, "To deny bad leadership equivalence in the conversation and curriculum is misguided, tantamount to a medical school that would claim to teach health while ignoring disease." In order to lead well, we need to learn from those who have led poorly.

She illustrates each type with real cases, from Juan Antonio Samaranch's flawed stewardship of the International Olympic Committee, to William Aramony's sticky-fingered direction of the United Way's fortunes, to more recent bad leadership names in the news like Skilling and Saddam.
Be loyal to the whole and not to any single individual ...
• Leading Badly [Full disclosures, please Gates, Spitzer, Bezos at SABEW meeting ; Long criticized for its brand of journalism, The Washington Times makes a habit of publishing the work of extremists — including the wife of the newspaper's managing editor The Evans-Novak Political Report ]
• · The blogosphere, or the universe of Weblogs, continues to explode exponentially The Coming of blog.gov? ; If the news media were a stock market, the blue chips would be tanking. The establishment names that everyone used to trust have crashed in credibility and prestige, and are now living through their own Great Depression. Top executives at bastions such as The New York Times, CBS News, and CNN have been leaping from the highest windows in the business Why Blogs Are Like Tulips
• · · You're too young to know about the cafeterias. Blogs are nothing like the cafeteria. Well, maybe a little, but not that much. Go ahead though, Scott Go ahead and chop that kettle ; Why businesses should blog and how to do it effectively By Robert Scoble & Shel Israel Hot off the press: They have a publisher! On a personal note, Shel is a kindest blogger in the entire world; I mean it! Mark my words. I've been in this business for 25 years, and I think this has all the marks of a winner
• · · · There have been a number of articles in recent months on privacy issues associated with search engine queries. Investor.com offers a quick review of how data from public sources is aggregated and returned in search results via services from Google, Yahoo and MapQuest. Is It Too Easy To Find People On Google? ; The scale and speed of online threats is growing Secret Service says Internet fraud threatens economy
• · · · · The reaction is a bit like that of primitive cultures believing cameras could catch your soul ...Created by tech pioneers Adam Curry and Dave Winer, podcasting offers "amateurs" a means by which they can create and disseminate information on issues great and small, special interests and news, that listeners download and listen to on their PCs, iPods or handhelds. A How-To Guide is available from iPodder.org ; Clutching a microphone and leaning over a laptop on the coffee table, they praise the beauty of the Red River, now frozen on the edge of town, and plug an upcoming interview with a top-ranked professional walleye fisherman. Then they sign off Tired of TiVo? Beyond Blogs? Podcasts Are Here
• · · · · · Bill Gates’ Czech Agenda; Hands up who misses Steve Liebmann? It's only been a week. The new boy will be fine. That's not the point. The old boy was great. He was professional. He was cool. He had hair. He didn't insinuate his own politics into an interview. Even his passions (let's not dwell on an image of a passionate Steve Liebmann) could be held in check, unless some courageous Australian had kept him up half the night during Wimbledon. It's not that I hate change, but who doesn't? ; So freelance photographer Steve Malik was taking some photos of MUNI Metro. Suddenly, a hodgepodge of fuzz came and tried to arrest him. But get this: there's no statute in the books to prevent people from taking photos of city property Photographic Protest

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As you should know by now, I’m easily amused... These resentniks have destroyed the canon yet Lifting Us Up To Do: Let a Thousand Harold Blooms Bloom
It is, alas, the way we love: we are always taking the names of the dead or past characters and applying them to others: I mean all human beings are like this. Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one fails. But in the end, in the end one is alone. We are all of us alone... we all live at the heart of a solitude... we all have the consciousness of mortality... I've taught tens of thousands of students, and some of them occasionally come back or send me a letter and let me know that something was communicated to them, that something in their spirit is a touch less lonely

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Standing the Test of Time

Time was when Cahners Publishing was the king of trade publications, owning such titles as Publishers Weekly and Variety. No more. The company has been piecemealed to death into a shadow of its former self

• The Cahners have left the building [If you were to believe the advertising agencies, sometimes it was egg-shaped, sometimes a cigar called Hamlet, while John Lennon assured us it was a warm gun. It is the thing we desire most, but it can’t be bought. We’re talking, of course, about that elusive concept known as happiness Happiness is no laughing matter ; It seems that the heart wants what the heart wants -- and it can figure it out fairly quickly Falling in Love in Three Minutes or Less ]
• · Single-child families are increasingly common - so why do parents who refuse to have that second baby arouse such hostility? The one and only ; What happened when the Girls Who Had It All became mothers? A new book explores why this generation feels so insane Mommy Madness ; If "50 is the new 30", as they say, with luck we may try for 80 becoming the new 60 Age of the silver surfers
• · · A writer friend once described the brief history of an advertising campaign she worked on that never got off the ground — and thank God, because it sounded so draconian it could have sprung from the loins of Joseph Goebbels himself Does counterculture = consumer culture? ; Some people get high on crack. Other people hyperventilate over vintage Deron Douglas covers Drinker with a Writing Problem ; What thrills us depends on our personal hopes, fears, loves and desires A Robot That Measures Cold Rivers
• · · · The Crikey Army Books that have been pulped for legal reasons ; In the end, it came down to two great offers from two great publishers We Have Our Publisher!
• · · · · Anthony Sher discusses adapting Primo Levi's If This Is a Man for the stage. Sher tentatively distilled If This Is a Man into a first draft without checking on the rights. He then discovered that the Primo Levi estate had decided never to allow anyone to film or stage the book: I respected them for their stance, because the blood does run cold to think of what Hollywood at its worst would make of that book ‘Iron Curtain ... Auschwitz? It's just lunacy ; Bruce Elder reviews a book by Don Chipp entitled Keep the Bastards Honest. The book opens with vintage Chipp berating all Australian politicians for their gutlessness and lack of moral fibre in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Chipp makes good, pragmatic points about the nature of politics. He reflects on the sheer awfulness of a politician’s life and realises that when it comes to truth in the life in modern politics, his boast to keep the basdards honest has very obviously failed. He is one of the rarest species on Earth. A popular politician
• · · · · · Ach, we all remember Red Dean Reed who was an American and the biggest rock star in the history of the Soviet Union. He was so famous his icons were sold alongside those of Josef Stalin. Reggie Nadelson first saw him in 1986 on a TV chat show. A rock star behind the Iron Curtain my friends knew. But few people in the West had ever heard of him. Six weeks later Reed was found dead in a lake in East Berlin. Was he murdered by the CIA? The KGB? A jealous husband? The Russians gave him a Lenin Prize. He was their American. Comrade Rockstar is not just the story of Dean Reed's progress from Hollywood starlet to Cold War Cowboy, but an account of the search that took Reggie Nadelson from Denver to Berlin, and from Hawaii to Moscow. As she travelled, the Berlin Wall was breached and Dean Reed became an increasingly alluring figure, his life an unrepeatable tale from the Cold War. Nadelson captures the seedy, often hilarious subculture of Soviet rock ’n’ roll. He was the embodiment of the whole Eastern Europe’s dream about Amerika ; Dean's death was not a shock for me. I think he committed suicide because that's what a hero must do. When a human really wants to become something, he does. It demands enormous strength. He died having absolutely ruined himself. Dean, in his way, became what he wanted. He did something. He was truly a tale from the cold war From the land of the drowned...

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We've had our moments of soul searching about the details of the Gannon story. But, you know, you have a White House that's so controlling with information, that makes it so hard for reporters to do their job Salon editor Joan Walsh

Leonard Pitts Jr. says he's waiting for a good explanation of what Jeff Gannon was doing in the White House -- and for the public to be upset about it. Frankly, the only thing more galling than the brazenness with which the White House abrogates the public's right to know is the sheep-like docility with which we accept it A government that is allowed to create its own reality is a government that can get away with anything. So where is our outrage?

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Killing the Dead
Tuesday's ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington that two reporters must reveal the names of their confidential sources or go to jail means trouble for them and other good journalists

That much is obvious. What's less apparent, and more alarming, is that the ruling means trouble for the public. So much trouble that members of Congress from both parties now want a law protecting reporters' ability to shield their confidential sources.
Consider: What if all potential whistleblowers or public employees feared exposure if they went to a reporter confidentially with evidence of wrongdoing? The public would know a lot less about government, and government officials could hide a lot more.

Judith Miller and Matt Cooper seem to be headed for jail. Why isn't Robert Novak?

• Law would shield reporters, protect public interest, too [Reporters face time for no crime ; Dempsters of this world ;-) Jailing Journalists ; Jury finds Boston Herald libeled judge ]
• · This year will no doubt go down as a time when Internet and print media companies danced like never before. Blog Excitement Part Three: Providing the Needed Outlet for the Personal Voice. This is part three of a series speculating on why all the excitement over blogs. Providing the Needed Outlet for the Personal Voice ; Using Paul Keating’s vocabulary - I really hate linking to gossip about people in the magazine industry, but, well, sometimes I just can't help myself Exceptions ;-); At Blogfather.blogspot.com the cheatsheet features predominantly, but I received an email stating that some people still do not know how to cheat Here it is again to all of you potential GoogleCheaters
• · · Wikinews is an experiment in collaborative news gathering and reporting, and the latest in a collection of Wikis (pronounced wik-eez or week-eez) under the umbrella of Wikimedia, which cultivates free and open information resources written by its users. Write your own news; Researchers at Stanford University have found that an infusion of young blood has significant benefits. All those stories about my great great grand-baroness-mother drinking blood of young virgins was not pointless :-) Young Blood Makes Muscles Spry ; The six-week online auction was the largest ever by the federal government in dollars and size -- almost 6 square miles With a Palm-Size Projector, Presentations Can Go Places
• · · · Next Fifteen - Tim Dyson: As the blogging phenomena takes off it's great to see all the tech players salivate as they imagine a vast new piece of Internet real estate being built Where will blogs end up?; President and CEO, The Norwich Group Anne Stanton; Greg Papadopoulos, CTO, Sun Microsystems ; WhatCounts David Geller's corporate blog ; Pioneering Bloggers 1997 AD
• · · · · When you hear name-calling like what we've been hearing from the elite media this week, you know someone must be doing something right. The hysterical edge makes you wonder if writers for newspapers and magazines and professors in J-schools don't have a serious case of freedom envy The Blogs Must Be Crazy ; Stay informed: Weblog Tools Market ; In a move that significantly strengthens its online reach, The New York Times Co. said Thursday it will buy About Inc.'s group of Web-based information guides from Primedia Inc. for $410 million NYT Buys About.Com ; Emerging Technology video: Barsky, Gillmor and more
• · · · · · Over the past eight months, bloggers have covered two political conventions; claimed credit for forcing the resignations of two prominent journalists (soon-to-be former CBS news anchor Dan Rather, ex-CNN news chief Eason Jordan); outed a conservative faker with a taste for gay porn credentialed to cover the White House; and risen from relative obscurity to media darling. They've done this while attracting impressive levels of web traffic (and advertising dollars) and conjuring up a cottage industry and community devoted largely to, well, themselves.No Protection for Bloggers; Building Audience with Blogs ; A parent's primer to computer slang ; Scoops Awards Amerika ; How to conquer tax research: making the most of online resources, Colin Fong, Taxation in Australia, issue. 39, no. 7, 2005, pp. 362-370. The past ten years have seen enormous changes not only in terms of tax reform, but also in the way tax practitioners have acquired information about taxation. This article highlights how tax research can be conducted using the internet and how to optimise your time in finding useful and relevant information Colin Fong is one of the best Tax librarians in the world

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In Clint Eastwood's 1985 Pale Rider, the unnamed preacher played by Eastwood says, "Yeah, well, the spirit ain't worth spit without a little exercise." The Observer looks at the "anthology orgy" following the success of THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE, subcategorizing every aspect of the feminine (and the odd masculine) experience. They say a particular sort of female writer-one plugged into the appropriate social network, with multiple glossy magazine features on her C.V. and a few novels or a memoir in the can, is especially in demand for contributions. Collecting Anthologies

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Guns for Hire
Just how many liberties do biographical filmmakers take to strike the right balance between truth and engrossing cinema?

Somebody's spreading rumours in Los Angeles that J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, was a pedophile. The answer to why anyone in 2005 would bother telling unsubstantiated tales about a man who died 68 years ago is this: it's Oscar season.

• Tall True Tales [Didn't think it would happen to you? Think again. A computer crash is just around the corner Unnatural disaster; Successful comedy is no laughing matter ]
• · Gone to the Dogs is a new British comedy film. It's a surreal comedy about the trials of canine metamorphosis. On this site you can find out more about the film but I wanted to point your attention to the 'What Dog Are You?' quiz. It's not only very well done but it's also very accurate. At least in my case it is What Bessie, dog, are you; Icy Hot Cold River Hotel
• · · Czech at the Salon ; No word yet what odds the bookies are giving Booker ; A mother who drowned her son when trying to commit suicide in the Parramatta River had "suffered a tragedy" and was not guilty of his murder Son's death tragedy enough, judge rules
• · · · As the Web keeps growing, tracking the latest information related to our jobs and interests gets harder every day. We need a butler to surf the Web for us, find the headlines we crave and hand them to us on a silver platter. That butler is RSS Art of rSS; As an editor I spend more time on an opening paragraph than any other. If it doesn’t grab readers, holding their attention and sparking their curiosity, a good percentage won’t continue. From a purely editorial perspective the first few sentences, and especially the first sentence, matter more than any other The art of the opening line ; First Lines
• · · · · Sometimes people send us links to the steady stream of Judith Regan placements on Page Six and the NYDN gossip columns; just for the record, we generally ignore these items, based on the fundamental judgment that Judith Regan appearing in a gossip column saying something incendiary is not news. Today's is a little more absurd than usual, though ... Nothing Says B.C. Like A Judith Regan Item; Could a book be called deadpan or button-down? Bob Newhart writing memoirs with stories and anecdotes from career
• · · · · · Louis Boussard has hired a professional to abduct his son. On a late evening in early March, Rick Strawn of Strawn Support Services flew from Atlanta to Tampa, Fla. WANT YOUR KID TO DISAPPEAR?; SMH reviews Kafka on the Shore

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Sydney’s hot theatre ticket right now is a David Hare play called The Permanent Way or so is everyone telling me ... It is all about the state of Sydney-British railway system

What happens when you get a bunch of spooks, lawmakers, gadget geeks, and military interrogators together in a hotel conference room and ask them to talk - on the record? Spy world

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Pass it on by Postcard
Late Vivian Green said: Religious faith is not unlike sex, less product of the intelect than an expression of something deep within the human psyche.

Unlike John, I had come back, not to stay, but only for an hour or so—long enough to see and to savor again, for the first time in nearly five years, that small and surprisingly unchanged part of the city where I was born and had spent so much of my life, where I knew every building and back alley as well as I knew my own front yard, where I had been a young priest, where I had had my own parish, and where, as in no place else, I had belonged, I had been at home. I suppose it’s the mark of the provincial man, but in any case I find that I have a special and lasting love for this place which is so obviously just a place, which has no particular beauty or grace or grandeur of scene, but which is, quite simply, a neighborhood, my neighborhood, a compound of sights and smells and sounds that have furnished all my years. What kind of man is it who, after almost fifty years, can still spend half his time remembering the cry of the chestnut man, as it came floating down the street on a winter night…?
And the people, all the people, the people one knew and understood almost by instinct, who had warmth and wit and kindness and an astonishing cascading rush of words—and who also had long and unforgiving memories, and tongues that cut like knives….
-Edwin O’Connor, The Edge of Sadness

• World Book Day - The Power Of Recommendation [There is a crisis in literature. Book sales are down, authors are despondent, salons are closing and literary lunches have become drab affairs But American publishers have come to the rescue. Literature's woes, they have decided, lie in the smallness of the print ; Despite their ancient pedigree as "lovers of wisdom," philosophers sometimes muddy the waters more than they clear things up Philosopher puts concept of truth to the test ]
• · Yep, life'll burst that self-esteem bubble ; I was raised half Jewish and half Catholic. When I'd go to confession, I'd say "Bless me, father, for I have sinned -- and you know my attorney, Mr.Cohen." 100 Funniest Jokes of All Time
• · · A look at Dostoyevsky's disregarded prophecy The famous Russian author shows us what's to fear in a world without God ; From The Toronto Star, an essay by Arthur Miller, In praise of tragedy and the common man
• · · · If you sign on with a modern-day matchmaker, you'll have to toss away your idealized notions of soul mates and embrace the romance of no romance Unreal. He's just my type ; Lover boys
• · · · · As the French know, love -- like good food and wine -- is a stimulant best consumed in small, very pretty portions. On Love ; Many librarians believe they're competing with and losing against search engines like Google, that for most users the convenience of a simple, clean interface outweighs the quality of the quality of the results. Whether this is true or not Google's digital library project is an opportunity for libraries to remain competitive by working with the competition. For the sake of users, and their own future, libraries just have to make sure they're taking advantage of the opportunity and not being taken advantage of Will Databases Replace Libraries?
• · · · · · The Book-of-the-Month Club is reinventing itself, updating to try to compete in internet age Reinventing Book-Of-The-Month ; A couple of scholars write a book, then watch as it languishes near the bottom of the Amazon sales rankings. How to get it higher? How about visiting Barnes & Noble stores and placing it in more prominent position? Begging producers for interviews? Taping your own readings complete with laugh tracks? Goosing Book Sales - Two Authors' Saga ; It's no secret that I think the iPod is a life-changing device and that anyone and everyone who cares about music even a little bit should experience the joy of iPod-ness. But until this year, the least expensive model cost $250, making an iPod more a luxury than a necessity The Cheapskates iPod shuffle: tiny, inexpensive and ever so cool

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As it claws for greater power, the Democratic Party has found a newly rich ally in one of the fastest-growing U.S. companies: Google Google's givers go Democratic: Engineering Dissent

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Hair of the Blog
Political impact as Boris Johnson scoops Channel 4 award for the person who made the biggest impression on the politics of 2004. Hansard Society with courtesy of Google Society

On the merits of the Eason Jordan kerfuffle, we defer to our colleague Bret Stephens, who was there, and who was the first journalist to write about it, in the Jan. 28 issue of OpinionJournal's Political Diary (subscribe here). Still, there's no gainsaying the victory that Jordan's critics in and out of blogdom, who pursued the story relentlessly in the two ensuing weeks, won when Jordan announced on Friday night that he was leaving CNN.

James Tarnanto, OpinionJournal.com language is unequal to the task of encompassing reality. Its failure is inevitable, a given ...
• Eason Jordan kerfuffle [ WSJ's Apologia for Eason Jordan ; Since no one who has wielded unaccountable power is ever happy to suddenly find themselves being held to account, it comes as no surprise that the media is now squealing like a stuck pig. And so the media has reaped what it sowed ]
• · Michael Gawenda: When the journalist is a party spin doctor, it's bad PR for real news. More and more in the US, current affairs hosts and the like are fiercely politically partisan. n shades of Australia's cash-for-comment scandal, a conservative syndicated US columnist and pundit on several cable TV current affairs shows has been secretly contracted for $US241,000 ($307,000) by the Bush Administration to promote the President's education policies in his columns and TV appearances Intimate Dinners: Cash for PR ; In this research brief Thomas John provides an overview of the last 15 years of developments in whistleblower legislation in Australia and looks at some of the legal issues surrounding the topic. Whistleblowing in Australia: transparency, accountability… but above all, the truth
• · · Anyway, the big discussion topics du jour – are the blogs a lynch mob? Is it war between the mainstream media and blogs? Isn’t the Jeff Gannon story the biggest deal EVER? – all seem rather insignificant in light of some experiences this weekend. 48 Hours Of Jordan Fallout, And What Really Matters; I Would Have Fired Eason Jordan - On the difference between a mistake and brain rot Jack Shafer, Slate; via Bill Ives: Final thoughts on this mess
• · · · It Helps to Remember that the Wolves Arrive in Sheepskins Measuring Investment in Blogging – The CEO Bloggers Club; What really bummed me out about the Amazon haters wasn't that they disagreed with my politics, but that they immediately summoned such genuine outrage at me for deigning to express a political opinion at all How About A Little Politics With Your Candy? (The Role Of Art) ; Apple has four retail stores in the Los Angeles area, which give the sales associates ample opportunity to rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities. It isn't always pleasant. Stars Take a Shine to Apple
• · · · · Thorn: Publishing gets down, dirty: See Dick sue. Sue, Dick, sue: Who says publishing is a genteel business? Numerous lawsuits over publishing projects are currently before the courts. And some of them are pretty amusing... Suit Happy - Publishing As Entertainment ; There are some really smart people in the book business, which is why it’s such a mystery that so little is known about the basics, such as why anybody buys a book. Wal-Mart can predict with great specificity that hurricanes in Florida will mean increased demand for batteries and flashlights, but also, based on past correlations, beer and pop-tarts. (Beer, understood, but pop-tarts? Don’t they need toasters for that? Wouldn’t the electricity be out?) The book business has nowhere near this forecasting expertise Why Is The Book Business So Badly Run?
• · · · · · Ach, the writer's curse - writer's block. But even worse, perhaps - procrastination. "At its worst, procrastination is a form of slow suicide, a kind of stand-off with life. Why act, when we know the end of all endeavour? Days, weeks, months creak past, but still no attempt to advance the work is made. Procrastination is surely worse than writer's block, less involuntary: you see what you need to do, you know you can do it, and yet ... and yet Put Off - The Writer's Curse

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After the constitutional swimming routine, I invaded the land of the Blue Mountains and discovered that Red Cordial and Penrith coffee is a rather taxing combination. Even the coffee seems to be pricier than anywhere else: $3 for a cup of coffee. No wonder many invaders stick to drinking moore water or beer.

Les [Motto - squad boxing coach] is telling me the girls are getting better at boxing and that I am going to get a run for my money when I'm down there Meeting Miss Menzies: Stop Russian roulette in the pool

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Why the 20th Century Was the Century of Arthur Miller

Perhaps the 21st century will be remembered as the American century; although just now, at its outset, it is hard not to think that this may be for all the wrong reasons. And if the same could be said, perhaps more kindly, of the previous 100 years, it would be fine to consider that this might in part be because it was the century of Arthur Miller, too.

My admiration was sharply qualified: Terry Teacher What we had that was alive and crazy has been pounded into some hateful, ordinary dust
• Polish-Jewish immigrants in Manhattan [It's like Cold River: A survivor’s Story, but without the tiki torches or exotic locales. And members of the "tribe" vote off books instead of people Book brawl in Canada ; The book must be a page turner in the truest sense -- a compelling read that you are unable to put down Canada Reads ]
• · An Unfinished Season is a leisurely novel set in Chicago during the Cold War ; The book became buried despite great reviews," writes Kelby, and that was that. No support, no marketing or PR and the book becomes buried. She believes it will probably be taken out of print and with no paperback date in view, she seems to be correct. The irony is that more than anything else this is a book about peace in the context of war, which is generally when the most stirring accounts of peace are realized It will however, barring a miracle, "soon fade away from the landscape ; My Privatized Valentine A martyr for state-free marriage
• · · There are many angles for romance. In the movie Silk Stockings, Fred Astaire uses geography. He croons to the leggy Soviet apparatchik Cyd Charisse that he loves the east, west, north and the south of you Lover's booklist may send entirely the wrong message ; Wine labelled with a photo of Joseph Stalin was pulled from shelves in the Canadian province of Manitoba after complaints from local Ukrainians Steel Liquid: A rough red
• · · · From the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent, reads the first line of the H.P. Lovecraft story "The Shunned House," but chances are Lovecraft, who died in 1937, wouldn't have appreciated the irony of his present position as American literature's greatest bad writer Master of disgust ; via Barista Sophie Masson on English at school ; Aren’t modern bookshops great? Rum and Monkey, has a handy advice guide for the clueless bookbuyer Books in the Bookshop
• · · · · Justine Larbalestier's follow-up the publishing game's a difficult one ; Original repeat: Average First Novel Advances ; via Sarah Weinman
• · · · · · Job: Australian Red Cross: Blood Service - Nursing Unit Manager Level 1 enquiries Grace Attard 02 9229 4435 (sydney; Chatswood) Red Cross ; Australian Red Cross has so far raised more than $93.9 million in pledges for those affected by the devastating Asian earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. Important information about fraudulent websites and email ; Purity of heart - Good Political Blood in the Boardroom? Only Ticking Time will tell! Robert Tickner starts as CEO of Australian Red Cross

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To be really good (blogger), you have to be willing to have everybody in the world hate you.
Amy Sherman-Palladino, Gilmore Girls creator, interviewed in the New York Times Job Title: The 'Gilmore' Noodge

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Lynch mob meme?

With the resignation Friday of a top news executive from CNN, bloggers have laid claim to a prominent media career for the second time in five months.
In September, conservative bloggers exposed flaws in a report by Dan Rather; he subsequently announced that on March 9 he would step down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News."

• Bloggers as News Media Trophy Hunters [Best of the Media in 2005 on the following websites Webdiary Sydney Morning Herald ; Media Guardian; The Australian Media Section; Media at ABC News online]
• · Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble and Chong Weng Ho The Reader on Crikey.com.au ; The Reader is a nifty, pocket-sized weekly magazine that cherry-picks from over 650 newspapers
• · · Online news sources can be, and often are, wrong. However, Jay Rosen notes that web-born news has its merits and that comparisons with traditional media aren't necessarily relevant. It's like comparing a public park to a living room ; The politics of humiliation and hurt spin nicely on Web. The Internet is wonderful, but it has created a vast diaspora of the unengaged, the isolated and the cynical. These are not people interested in building bridges or communities. They are about tearing down, and trashing anyone they don't like on some petty, personal level. They are the other side. In a way, I agree the blogosphere is like the Blood bank 80% of people want the blood, however only 3% actually give it: Blood is the other side of the Metaphor
• · · · Opportunities have come forward journalistically. The kids were just spellbound. He said everything in one hour that it takes me all semester to say, just the nuts and bolts of good pavement journalism Robin Leach a hit with journalism students; Eight reasons Why WP website is better than print edition
• · · · · Bloggers didn't want [Eason Jordan's] head, most of us didn't. We wanted the truth We wanted to see that transcript from Davos ; Some question where the blogging movement is heading I wish our goal were not taking off heads but digging up trut ; The blogosphere, with its lightning speed and rough-edged sense of justice, seems to be claiming more victims more quickly In the Blogosphere, Lightning Strikes Thrice
• · · · · · Jobs: Google: Director, Global Print Production, Logistics, and Operations [Full Time]
Google Inc. (Mountain View, CA) Google ; Quick Access Quality Blogs - Red Couch: DeepBlog.com is an Easy Guide & Portal to Quality Blogs

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My father and Mamka were both born in February. Theirs is no red hearts or bouquets of roses in this Valentine's love story. (There was no such celebration under communism) No boxes of chocolates, no romantic rhymes, no pricey jewelry. There was just a lifetime of happy moments shared by Jozef Imrich and Maria Pecharcikova, old sweethearts. They met before the World War two and celebrated their 50th year of marriage after the collapse of the Cold War. My father, however, never saw my girls in real life. This is why I am very grateful to the pioneers who made it possible that at least he was able to see them in the virtual life before he passed away in 1992. In Vrbov Love was blind to the concept of lifetime

Imagine there's Love; It's easy if you try: Kiss me, Cupid
Is it just a conspiracy of florists and chocolatiers or has the universal day of love got us hooked? If The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown wrote a book about the secret origins of Valentine's Day, it would go something like this:

Take an ancient pagan fertility festival called Lupercalia. Add one Christian church that tries to undermine the festival (boo, hiss). Throw in a secret organisation of, er, florists, chocolatiers, sky writers, greeting-card sellers, condom manufacturers and makers of small, embarrassing fluffy dolls, all dedicated to keeping its erotic and romantic traditions alive. Blend in generations of love-struck fools ready to write classifieds such as "Dear Pookie Wookie, will you be my little love marmoset forever", and you have the mass hallucination known as Valentine's Day.

• Saint Valentine: Martyred For love ; [A delightful love story. ; Where love is spread]

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There comes a time in any man's life when he realizes that he is an insignificant speck of dust careering aimlessly through the cosmic woof of time. I've lurked the blogs, read the trades, surfed the web and exchange in "chats" with so many other dissatisfied writers, that if I scribble only one idea this entire month, I want it to be this heartfelt wish of warmth from the bottom of my pen on this Valentine's Day 2005 for each of you. Kvetch, kvell & klassy

Tracking Trends Great & Small: The Flame & Flower: Much Ado About You
I fell in love with romances on the spot. But my father was a poet, and he would have preferred that I had fallen in love with Whitman

Dman you precious virgins! snarled the bodice-ripping rake over the sound of tearing silk. It was fifth-grade choir practice in the spring of 1972, and I was learning about sex from a copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss's "Flame and the Flower" that a classmate had purloined from his mom. Now that was a bodice-ripper: passionate, crazed and outrageously overwrought.

I've a good notion that many people, no matter their reading preference, are hoping for a Valentine's Day that involves a bit of flying lingerie.
• There's enough wrong with publishing without us keeping alive this old sterotype [Once the realm of poets, artists and philosophers, love has been exposed as biochemistry Two Decades of Exile, Love & Sex; As psychology advances its understanding of the mind and brain, perhaps the last bastion of mystery about why we do what we do remains our perplexing behaviour around love and romance. Lovers, beware candlelight’s allure ]
• · The state is not only virginal and sexually attractive, it is also populated by people who are innocent to the point of being stupid. The Hindus and the Jews are the people who want to sexually violate this virgin State as a ‘violable’ virgin ; Can true love survive political differences? Passing the Political Mouse
• · · We are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights - though, of course, V.I.P.'s must be taken care of, as they are in any other circumstance The Age of the Resume Gods ; Tim Dunlop: Imagine there's no accountability; it's easy if you try
• · · · Announcement from WikiMedia: Google Inc. has made a proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects. Gookimedia ; About All of Us The Unassociated Press ; Bibliography of Online Research Tools and Trends
• · · · · Why does the Web's biggest retailer want you to confide your hopes, dreams and aspirations to a Web site called 43 Things? It's not telling. On the Internet, nobody knows you're Amazon.com, if you hide behind the friendly face of an independent start-up Salon investigates 43 Things ; Maud tells us about a new column in The New Republic called "Found in Translation," focusing on translated works that have been neglected by the media Increasingly, writers, readers and publishers are turning to literature as a bridge between cultures
• · · · · · The fortunes of spa holiday resorts can ebb and flow like the tide. Lovers of hot spas are no longer like a sheep and insecure. They have done their homework on the internet. When I was young we used to head on weekends to Ruzbachy, but to escape the costs and queues today people head to Vrbov by name and its spring is boiling ; Hungarians are obsessed with bathhouses, but Peter Hay remains high and dry

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Thank you one and all for making me this week #440 on the Blogstreet and some high profile journos acknowledging my links at Technorati Blogs are like bras, a good one never lets you down!
Jay Rosen said it in Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over: "A blog, you see, is a little First Amendment machine."

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Absence of Malice
It is not hard to feel sympathetic toward Superior Court judge Ernest Murphy ...

The US Supreme Court, in its landmark 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan decision, raised the bar to an extraordinarily high level for any such person to sue for libel successfully. The court ruled that a public official must prove "actual malice" — a legal term that means Murphy must convince the 12-member jury that the Herald and its lead reporter, Dave Wedge, went to press with articles that they knew were false, or that they acted with "reckless disregard" for whether those articles were true or false. Such a standard, Justice William Brennan wrote in the Times decision, is necessary to ensure that "debate on public issues" remains "uninhibited, robust, and wide-open," even to the point of including "vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials."

• The Boston Phoenix explains the difference between a newspaper being wrong about a public figure and being libelous [Remembrances of Arthur Miller ; Add Your Name to the Tribute to Doug Engelbart ]
• · Scoop: Access to Public Records; Is there a legacy of which CNN's Eason Jordan and his counterparts should be proud?
• · · Salam Pax takes to the streets of war-ravaged Iraq Baghdad blogger switches to the camera
; How insane. It’s a world where, on the one hand, we drownourselves in tears of regret about a meaningless destruction of human communities (tsunami) while remaining a party to the deliberate destruction of others (Iraq War) Phillip Adams in the Magazine 12-13 February
• · · · A newspaper editor has become the third person to admit lying to the NSW watchdog's inquiry into corruption at Strathfield council. Surprise, surprise ...Editor lied over bribe tape he didn't think was a story ; A former media adviser to federal Liberal MP Barry Haase is seeking restraining orders against the member for Kalgoorlie and his wife. Mr Haase and his wife, Dallas, have been summonsed to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on Monday to respond to applications for misconduct restraining orders lodged by Natasha Mutch Too Much Attention
• · · · · There is an element of irony when a so-called 'homeless hacker' is sentenced to home detention Doing time for cyber crime ; Rather than bringing users closer together, the increasing array of telecommunications available today may have made it harder to "get in touch Dating and dumping via email
• · · · · · Going into the 2004 election cycle, just about everyone said the Internet was going to change politics. But no one was sure how. Now we know Blogosphere politics; In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview with E&P today, former White House reporter Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James D. Guckert, revealed that, contrary to many media reports, he has not been subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame/CIA case. I haven't been this psyched since the sequel to Political Assassination on the Sussex Street