Dual Loyalty

As writers and bloggers are so fond of saying; you couldn't make it up. You don't cross the Iron Curtain and come out without scars ...
· Jozef Imrich, Survivor of the Iron Curtain Crossing

Thursday, September 29, 2005



Not all, but too many of the best writers, composers, and artists of our time begin to be acclaimed only when they no longer have anything to say and take to performing instead of stating. This is how they first become accessible to broad taste, which is lazy taste, and by the same token to the processes of publicity and consecration. As long as they were trammeled up in the urgency of getting things said they were too difficult, too 'controversial.'
-Clement Greenberg, Hofmann

Sometimes we discover seemingly surprising chains of connections, like finding out that your next-door neighbour is your brother's housekeeper's cousin. When should we be surprised and when shouldn't we? The six degrees of separation between you and everyone else

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Future must be entrusted to Love alone. May Love be equal to the task!
Not poems about politics. Poems about a father thinking about his child or a mother worrying about her daughters. And kids were saying things like, 'Gee, I never thought about there being children in Iraq.'

As long as one pain is considered better or more real than someone else's pain, as long as people think, 'Your son is not equal to my son,' there can be no peace. We must remind ourselves that fanaticism of any kind is dangerous. We must work every way we can toward wider expression and dialogue. We must keep reading poetry with renewed vigor, for courage and hope. Poetry, the most intimate form of expression, gives us a deeper sense of reality than headlines and news stories ever could


• Naomi Shihab Nye Poet builds bridges, line by line [Correction Appended ; One of these simple,
brilliant ideas got built Catalog your books online ]
• · Risk A Photographer who Takes Risks; How could one resist after reading Lesley Kartali Pick-up lines for feminists
• · · Crowe vs. Crowe ; Britain is terra comis for the United States Is Brand America In Trouble?; High Water How Presidents and citizens react to disaster
• · · · That love was meant for beauty queens and high school girls with clear-skinned smiles who married young and then retired Coming to terms with the truth at 17 ; The bestseller lists of the past fifty years are mostly a somber graveyard of dead books In praise of the novel; Everyone Is Dancing To The Same Song Day! There is some good news to report. After three plus years on the web and well over 1,000 consecutive calendar days scandalized, Girls Are Pretty is going to be a book Girls are pretty
• · · · · Gus Lee mined his isolated boyhood for a novel about the city he loves -- now it's a book club pick One City One Book: China Boy ; Ashley Smith frank about her flaws in new book Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero ; A progressive Christian organization embraces a comedian's unorthodox take on their liturgy Bigger Than Jesus
• · · · · · When Sharni Montgomery came to us with an innovative idea for meeting Sydney's men, we sent her to test it out Classified information ; Sometimes we discover seemingly surprising chains of connections, like finding out that your next-door neighbour is your brother's housekeeper's cousin. When should we be surprised and when shouldn't we? The six degrees of separation between you and everyone else ; To the outside observer, these individuals appear to be remarkably accomplished; The Imposter Jozef Imrich

Wednesday, September 28, 2005



Curiouser and curiouser . . .
And when she uses a word, it means
precisely what she intends it to mean
Nothing less and nothing more.
-While Liz uses the above tag inside her risque emails ;-) Ellen Parr is fond of the following: The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity

I am
a. delighted that you found my blog worth reading.
b. ecstatic that you got Scot two links for his fabulous writing
c. that you understand where I'm coming from and that you know a bit of Latin.
The sense of humor doesn't hurt either.
I have a new masthead now--you won't be able to miss the name of the page next time. BIG CHESHIRE CAT GRIN.
I know you'll find a way to sneak the appropriate links in next time.
PS. if you're looking for content, "all of the stuff on my site is original and worth crediting," she said with an impish grin.
You can call me Liz,
Smiles, Liz
Elizabeth Strauss

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Up, Up & Away in My Beautiful Balloon…
A nation of sheep will beget a media of wolves ... A leading member of one of Australia's most exclusive and secretive clubs has ratted on his co-members. His name is Kerry Stokes,and thi week in the Federal Court in Sydney he lifted the veil on what he says really goes on behind the closed doors at the Media Proprietor's Private Member's Club. In a statement released in the court, Stokes tells of a meeting with club member James Packer five years ago when, according to Stokes, the son of Australia's richest man told him: "I've come to tell you that we're going to take the AFL rights off you. We're all going to get together to take those rights. We don't really want to do it, but News are making us. That's what goes on inside the club all the time, but normally it stays inside the club. Not anymore. The court action by Stokes's Seven Network against the other key club members – chiefly Packer's PBL, Murdoch's News Limited and Telstra – is trotting out the dirty linen

Frank Morgan responds to a recent speech by Senator Helen Coonan, Federal Minister for Communications, on proposals to change Australia’s media ownership laws. He discusses how new technology has changed the way we receive and digest news and information.


some questions of media policy [Murdoch, Packer 'ganged up' Stakes are high for Stokes ; Australian media mogul takes billion dollar court battle ...; Seven Network: Chronology ]
• · · The Water Cooler ; According to White House sources, President Bush is bracing for intensified criticism following Monday's report that the body of Tyler Sheehan, son of outspoken anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, was recovered from the receding floodwaters in New Orleans Bush Braces As Cindy Sheehan's Other Son Drowns In New Orleans
• · · · Despite all that has happened, I still think that The New York Times has a stature and a position of journalistic authority that is greater than any news organization in the world. Could that be destroyed? I believe that it could be
Charging for Columnists: Notes and Comment on the Launch of TimesSelect
; If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else: Rebecca Blood - Thanks Shel and Rebecca at al for lifting me up ;-) Naked Conversations
• · · · · It deserves to be in contextuality. It deserves to explode, let it do so MSN jumps in with talk about their new contextual ad program ; A list of the most consistently influential sites that publish feeds The PubSub LinkRanks 1000 ; A Collection for 40+ GMail Tips
• · · · · · Darren Rowse: Gawker Adds Comments to Three Blogs ; Bucky Turco, first to be banned from Gawker's comment club

Tuesday, September 27, 2005



Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding force that they once exercised on character must be entrusted to Love alone. May Love be equal to the task!
-E.M. Forster

As you've surely heard, a summer of Faulkner was enough to drive Oprah back to contemporary books and live authors she can bring on her show. Oprah's Book Club to Add Contemporary Writers
Somewhere near you, someone is signing a flyleaf. An insider’s guide to a literary phenomenon. No longer is it just rock stars who go on tour, attract groupies and perform live. Britain has gone crazy over writers and readings at literary festivals And now, live on stage, the superstar author

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Last Day in September: Machiavellian Morality
When Ronald Reagan said the only thing on earth enjoying eternal life is a government program, he forgot about Deep Throat.

The late-spring exposure of former FBI deputy director Mark Felt as the long-secret Watergate source revived this unending political drama: movies were being produced, books published, and Watergate revisited on talk shows...
I now realize that we humans have an infinite capacity for self-justification


One reason teenagers, among others, are jammed in our prisons [Could this list in fact mark the end of the age of the great public intellectual? Not that there's anything wrong with it, as Jerry Seinfeld might say. Who are the world’s leading public intellectuals? ; On the brink of turning 80, Gore Vidal - aristocrat, intellectual and prolific novelist, playwright, and essayist - is as outspoken as ever. Age cannot wither him ]
• · Ten years ago, the Russian futurologist Leo Nefiodov predicted that the health industry would take over from information technology as a motor for growth The end of the miserable quest for the self ; Americans work harder than any other industrialized nation. Labor on the Screen
• · · Human beings are self-absorbed creatures, so the response to Hurricane Katrina has naturally included some hand-wringing over the question: "Could this happen to my hometown?" Wyoming? Nope. West Virginia? Think again Where To Hide From Mother Nature; Don't Blink. You'll Miss the 258th-Richest American ; 'Fortune's Formula': Wanna Bet?
• · · · The words themselves outweigh moral and ideological arguments The case for the classics is read within ; Wise Hedgehogs and Clever Foxes
• · · · · These WSJ links likely dissappear in short term Knowledge Deficit ; Better Information Isn't Always Beneficial
• · · · · · Bernard Lagan on Mark Latham’s first marriage I had more success with women than her; Where words fail, music speaks ... Too picky? Too shy? Addicted to ``hamster love''? Confessions of a speed dater

Monday, September 26, 2005



First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi

The question that I was faced with nearly a year ago as I battled with a serious case of jet lag: To blog or not to blog...

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents
Reporters Without Borders has produced an excellent Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents (pdf)

It has been reviewed by Rebecca MacKinnon, at Global Voices Online, who says it "is the first truly useful book I’ve seen aimed at the kinds of bloggers featured here at Global Voices every day: People who have views and information that they want to share with the world beyond their own national borders." Rebecca and her Global Voices colleague Ethan Zuckerman, who is also - full disclosure - President of Worldchanging's Board of Directors, are aggregating content from the growing numbers of bloggers worldwide who will welcome this book as a helpful guide and a support for bringing others into the "second superpower."


Rebels at Large [Revisiting linking rights ;
Helping hand for bloggers who want to blab but stay out of jail
]
• · The media are actors, active elements, which transform the confusions of reality into a narrative. They are like the play within a play in Hamlet, put on to show the usurping King of Denmark the sin he had committed in killing Hamlet’s father. The corruption of the Canberra media ; Is the ultimate goal of media in a democracy to promote truth and accuracy or a diversity of views? The responsibility of the harlot
• · · Murdoch close to unveiling internet strategy Murdoch's No 1 priority: a net empire ; Like any other form of expression, blogging has not been insulated from infringements on intellectual property or what is commonly called “plagiarism.” Blog-O-Rama: It's basic manners to give credit to whom credit is due
• · · · Dream Date Love Blogs ; Blog Watch Could it put Media Dragon out of a job?
• · · · · For Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents Blog, Podcast Without Censorship ; Blogging Survey - On Bloggers
• · · · · · New York Times meets the Darknet ; Google: the tale that's wagging the blog? ; Yes, Google Does Alert You To New Blog Finds ; There is a power shift going on The power of the blog; Google Print and the Authors Guild

Saturday, September 24, 2005



Dear diary ... This weekend I am again invading Blue Sky , the sanctuary of


Speaking of blue skys of our past, I came across a story about my old club and the way it is swimming in financial irony. Oddly and despite being topped and tailed by one of Sydney's highest-grossing restaurants and best ocean pools, the iconic Bondi Icebergs is in financial difficulties having recorded an operating profit for the year of just $1008. Iceberg member #703 no longer drinks as heavily as he used to. Shame on mmmmwwwaaaa Icebergs at risk of sinking

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Rumsfeld's Wisdom
Rumsfeld's logic may be tongue-twisting, but ...

At a February 12, 2002, news briefing, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explained the limitations of intelligence reports: "There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."


Where the known meets the unknown is where science begins [What's wrong with young American men Attack of the listless lads ; Why do we tolerate intolerance? ]
• · Costs and benefits of community involvement ; Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs ; Mark Cuban is a witty guy: If only I was taller. If only I was thinner. If only I was richer: If Only….
• · · Everything I know I Learned from Folk Songs ; There are hundreds of ways of approaching the topic, writing and stress A Plethora of Hats or is it Grumble and Gripe?
• · · · It is difficult enough to get seven internationally known and opinionated business people and journalists in one room at the same time. Getting them to read 17 heavyweight books over a busy summer and then to agree on the best six in a single meeting seemed at best optimistic when the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs launched their business book award in April. How the judges brought the contenders to book (link likely only very short-lived); HR has traditionally struggled to adequately quantify a hard contribution to an organisation. Craig Donaldson speaks with the authors of the report Evaluating Human Capital and the Human Resources Function about the latest trends in the area and outlines the steps HR professionals need to take in order to measure their work. HR’s measurement baggage How effective is your HR function?
• · · · · How taking a Parkinson's disease wonder drug apparently makes some people want to gamble and have sex all the time Overstimulated ; A Final Nomination: Maps for Lost Lovers ; All you need is love
• · · · · · Art of cooking ; Book lovers are shunning the "stack-'em-high, sell-'em-cheap" tactics of supermarkets in favour of the personal touch provided by dedicated bookshops Fairytale result for bookshops

Friday, September 23, 2005



He is the best speaker who can turn men’s ears into eyes ...

I’m the first person to pooh-pooh bestsellers, especially the ones that everybody falls in love with because they’re so damned heart-warming and life affirming. The Write Book Buzz: Tuesdays with Morrie
Book news is a service that collects news from book news sources Newsportal for the readers and writers in the business

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Other Men's Daughters
Books about failed marriages are as old as the Bible (Adam and Eve, after all, had the shortest honeymoon on record).

Yet most novelists play favorites with their feuding spouses. In Other Men's Daughters (Triquarterly Books/Northwestern, $15.95 paper), one of the truest and saddest portraits of a disintegrating marriage, Richard Stern does not. Granted, the focus remains on Robert Merriwether, a Harvard academic whose specialty--the physiology of thirst--does nothing to improve his desiccated home life. Our sympathies are mostly with him. From time to time, though, we get a glimpse of the household through the embittered eyes of his wife, Sarah, and discover that her grievances are no less raw or real. This balancing act is exquisitely calibrated


• Old and indifferent - what could be worse? You wouldn't get away with that nowadays [Old and indifferent - what could be better? Aesthetics of bewilderment ; I now give up on people Older, and bleaker ; Free societies provide the conditions for happiness: For centuries, philosophers and poets have tried to understand what happiness is, and what might contribute to it. In recent decades, scientists have started to come up with the answers. Happiness is electrical activity in the left front part of the brain, and it comes from getting married, getting friends, getting rich, and avoiding communism The Scientist's Pursuit of Happiness ; What It Costs To Live Well In The U.S. ]
• · Do you let small issues build up inside? Do you simmer? Does it raise your stress levels? It took me about 5 seconds to fall hopelessly in love with Textpander ; If we can begin to infect our environment in a positive way
• · · It's time to start planning your jailbreak. Are you living in a prison of your own design?; Cheers, Not Jeers! The Secret to a Winning Presentation
• · · · Private and cultural life are as passionate as business and politics are cynical Kangaroo Kandinsky ; In this economy, energy is the currency. Artists should stop casting entrepreneurs as criminals
• · · · · A.P. Fashions a News Feed for the Young; Fictional character eBay auction wins over book fans ; Wallace labeled Doctor Zhivago - a little commie
• · · · · · The Career Digest ; from Association of Talent Agents Actors' Agent Search ; Collection of online books, research materials online Bookrags

Thursday, September 22, 2005



US journalist Janet Malcolm put her finger on what journalism is really about when she claimed in her book, The Journalist and the Murder, that every journalist knows that what he does is "morally indefensible" and that in his heart he's a sort of "confidence trickster" who lulls people into a false sense of security and then betrays them mercilessly.

Media Link has been providing free research to journalists since 1987 MEDIA LINK

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Time to Blog?
Just how taxing is it to be one of today’s chief executive officers?

Most are on call, in one form or another, nearly 24 hours a day. According to an article in the Pocket Manager, it’s difficult to determine precisely how many hours the typical CEO works, but research shows that U.S.- and U.K.-based chief executive officers work the longest hours. While Oracle’s Larry Ellison has attempted to cut back on his 80-hour work week, most CEOs ether haven’t mastered the technique or don’t have that luxury. So why in the world would CEOs take on the extra task of blogging—a communication medium with a tentative ROI that remains largely unproven


Adding Your Voice to the Conversation. Why CEOs Should Blog [Media and democracy ; PDF version Managing Major Media Companies in an Era of Globalization ]
• · The Latham Diaries Pressure on ABC ; Mr Murdoch said Mr Blair told him the BBC's reporting of the aftermath of the August 29 hurricane was full of hatred of America and gloating at our troubles BBC accused of bias
• · · Malcolm Turnbull's doggerel: the former internet entrepreneur has launched a “dog blog Welcome to Jojo, Mellie and Rusty's Dog Blogs! ; Wentworth is definitely a dog friendly electorate
• · · · The more things change, the more they stay the same – or, in fact, go nowhere at all: We reveal some of what vendors are keeping mum 20 Things They Don't Want You to Know ;
• · · · · 4,109 issues. Half a million pages. Yours to search and savor Every issue of the New Yorker ; User feedback drives five principles for multimedia news on the Web Avoiding an information overload (Mmm...)
• · · · · · Blog Networks - A List ; The emergence of poverty and race as a central element in the story

Wednesday, September 21, 2005



But tonight I sat down to write post, to blog a blogger, to thank him for his feedback and his critiques. I stopped cold. I realized I do have a bloggy crush. Not love, respect for the writer and the blog well-written—Scot L. Cunningham and Unburned Pieces of the Mind (I'm beginning to find that having a blog is akin to having a village store ...)

Do you have a Blog Crush? Bloggers are falling all over each other inside the Blogosphere of Crushes and Darren at ProBlogger is documenting the risque tresspasses Blog Crushes ; Blog Crushes Revealed - Round 2
Ooooooh my blog lust is no longer a top secret BookSlut is it!

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Google World
Google is covering all the big apps on the Web. They had search, last year added free email, and now has free chat and voice-over-internet [VoIP] and they keep track of all activity with those services. They even have blogs with Blogger.

As long as you stay logged on (to Gmail – their email), Google can track all of your online activities connected to its services, which include searches run on its search engine. Not only do they have information about all of your emails, they also know what searches you run and what results you choose…


• I Love Keyboards, I Can't Tell You How Much Development of very nice maps of people’s networks [The Daily Telegraph, John Brogden and hyena journalism ; John Brogden - a fundamentally good guy ]
• · Yahoo is going to use an old idea (journalism) done in new form (digital, cross-platform) to attract an old source of revenue (advertising) delivered in a new manner (digital video). Sounds like a good thing to me - a new source of money to pay for journalism ; Good Stuff from the Newsreader ; None of us can create, yet all of us are creative - Still Don't Write Off Old Media Print media will figure out how to make money online
• · · EDS has started a blog to provide a vehicle for their EDS fellows to discuss future trends in technology EDS' Next Big Thing Blog ; EDS spice ; Guidelines
• · · · Why Knowledge Management is So Important ; Knowledge Management Organizations and Sites
• · · · · The Global State of Information Security 2005; Utah and Maine Lead All States in Online Government Services ; STAT-USA/Internet, a service of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a single point of access to authoritative business, trade, and economic information from across the Federal Government STAT-USA/Internet
• · · · · · Keeping Journalists Safer: What Can Be Done ; Yahoo Moves Into the Hot Zone ;
Six weeks ago, frustrated and sick of my life revolving around my blog, I decided I would continue to read other blogs

Tuesday, September 20, 2005



According to Crikey, Mark Latham's oil slick is spreading. Since it oozed into Australian political waters last week, Latham's murky sludge of allegations and enmities, bile and bastardry has tainted Kim Beazley, Kevin Rudd, Stephen Conroy, Wayne Swan and John Faulkner. And it's spreading still. This morning Pru Goward was forced to refute a slimy rumour – retailed by Latham – that she had an affair with John Howard. Kim Beazley's daughters have waded into the Latham muck to defend their father and Leeanda Wilton, the sister of former MP Greg Wilton, has braved the sludge to support Latham's claim that ALP callousness contributed to his suicide. And as the muck spreads, there's been no word from Melbourne University Press, that venerable academic publishing house, of a clean up operation. Publisher Louise Adler told the ABC this morning she was delighted at all the publicity this goo is getting. The Latham Diaries – a "riveting chronicle of life inside politics" – hits the stores today, and it's going to be a publishing smash hit. Meanwhile the slime is out there, spreading still. Robert C(a)rr has A leaked extract of the Latham Diaries…


Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Real Meaning is all about your attitude
Heart surgery, studio apartments and hurricanes: all offer opportunities for self-serving slippage between language and the world.

A young man walks through chest-deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Beneath another near-identical photo, except the people are white, another caption reads: Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store. Note, they're "residents", doing some neighbourly "finding". The youth must be a blow-in.


• We're All in It Together Does it jab or come in waves? [Few in publishing inspire more fear than the head buyer of Waterstone's. War of the words ; Kewl. God only knows why cool didn't suffice. Bing Me: Kewl; How are you going? Busy? is like a relentless spur we use to urge each other on, creating a personal version of the old Cold War promise of "mutually assured destruction": if we all stay busy - if we cling to each other in this desperate, dizzy dance - none of us will notice what's actually happening to us and we'll all be dead before we realise it. Life's busy, then you die ]
• · Filmmakers and actors are turning to the net In the can online ; In the end, emotional alchemy boils down to wisdom and compassion. The meltdown of our habits of clinging and pushing away, and of centering everything on ourselves, reveals a wise compassion. There emerges a sense of interconnectedness and a deep wish for everyone, all of us, to experience that freedom Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
• · · There's a whole world of gadgets designed to refine your aural experience Listen up: Loud and clear; Name that tone
• · · · Murder and mysticism challenge three generations of women Little Oberon: Magic mountain ; Without any doubt Sydney rental market is becoming like the old Soviet bread queues, but without the shared black humour. Sydney is like the frog being slowly boiled in warm water. Cast your mind back 10 years and reflect on how your suburb, your city, has changed ... It's not the children of the elite who are being driven out of their city Applying Soviet breadline policies to their housing markets ; Scenes from Ismail Kadare's novel Broken April (1978), a fable of vendetta in the north Albanian highlands, discloses both a narrative and a psychological bias by the laureate of the 2005 Man Booker International fiction prize Living with ghost
• · · · · Set foot in your local Wal-Mart at own peril ; Watch out girls, these guys have had a gutful and it's payback time
• · · · · · Little Fish, with a stunning performance by Cate Blanchett, might just be the best Australian film in quite a while Nothing fishy in Cabramatta ; Publishers and authors are horrified at Waterstone's proposed takeover of Ottakar's and want it blocked A literary storm; Who will bring the high street to book?

Sunday, September 18, 2005

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.
- Kurt Vonnegut

The creative stakes are high in a time of publishing deadlines and revisions. Media Dragon was selected to review gurus, evangelists, of Shel Israel’s and Robert Scoble’s ilk Galley Reviewers At Large selected:

Blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers–meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line. With a foreword by Tom Peters, author of such business bibles as In Search of Excellence, this book uses more than fifty case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and infinitely more credible method of business communication. Blogs are easily linked, allowing information to spread rapidly, and blog readers are active, not passive, participants in the communication. Business and marketing decision-makers will find themselves excited about the possibilities after just a few pages.

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Democratic Audit of Australia
Expanding on the issue of protection of journalists’ sources, Helen Ester looks at a range of factors affecting the Press Gallery’s role in public accountability

These include not only government pursuit of whistleblowers but also a weak freedom of information regime making journalists overly dependent on leaks, and a hollowing out of the press gallery, meaning many gallery journalists are relatively inexperienced.


Whistleblowing and the media: transparency the biggest casualty [PDF version of the Whistleblowing and the media report ; Jay Rosen: The Net Knows More Than You: An Open Letter to the People of CBS News ; Blogging is unquestionably a medium for personal journaling Blogging for the Soul, Not the Bottom Line ; AOL Survey Says: People Blog as Therapy ]
• · James Torio Thesis On Blogging ; Blogging and Academia ; Global Trends Collaborative
• · · The Internet, immense, global and changeable, seemed to be uncontrollable. We can not control everyone who surfs freely the world wide web. But this is not necessary. There is enough with capturing a fish now and then to frighten the rest or making them change their habits. Censorship and control expand through regulations and repression throughout the world Freedom in the Web? ; Dennis Kennedy has made available his notes on technology disaster recovery Technology Disaster Recovery ; Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves Blog Search
• · · · Barry Eagar: Australian patent blog ; 20 Creative Uses for Podcasts ; If you've heard about the unbelievable rates you can get by using your internet connection to make phone calls, it's time to set the record straight - it's all true Why talk is cheap
• · · · · A home office? ; 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog
• · · · · · Welcome to probably the most exciting story and poetry site in the world - Right now, I have 22 stories in 4 collections on the site ABCTales Member for: 5 years 37 weeks ; Google muscles into blogosphere, introduces Google Blog Search

Saturday, September 17, 2005



Catholic bishops have decried the nation's culture of waste and busyness, warning that Australians are victims of the disease of affluence Affluenza is wasting us away

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Hollywood Follows the Reader
When Filmmakers Go by the Book, Should Filmgoers Go Buy It Too?

"What! Another of those damned, fat, square, thick books!" an exasperated Duke of Gloucester is supposed to have said to Edward Gibbon upon being presented Volume 2 of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." "Always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Mr. Gibbon!" And all these years later, it's the same thing: Damned, square, thick books, scribbled by little Johnny Writer types, then turned into movies, and this fall appears to feature a shelfful of them. It's not even a trend, it's a simple reality. Just look: "Shopgirl," "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Pride and Prejudice," "Everything Is Illuminated," "Harry Potter and the Flagon of Iced Gin," all due in the coming months. And there's at least a half-dozen more before Christmas. Good heavens, sirs, will you make a movie of anything ? Have you no pride?


• The deepest truth of the book into the movie There is no God if everyone dies alone [ Why Donnie Darko is a favorite film on college campuses ; World’s literature is diversifying, and a new, bolder generation of readers is taking shape Sink or Swim; Dreams & Words without Borders ]
• · We atheists have to accept that most believers are better human beings Faith does breed charity ; 8 Principles for Learning 50 Reasons Why We Can't Change
• · · They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it Thieves respect property ; Rabbi Aron Moss Is It Immoral to be Overweight? ; Sydney's underworld of the '80s is getting a fresh airing A life of crime brought to book
• · · · The media were among the first on the scene in New Orleans and often lent a hand, but Network Nine gilded the lily of their "media rescue" to match their rivals at Seven. Media Heros? ; The Angel of Forgetfulness Encouraging Morning ; Australians are finding it harder to get away from it all due to working longer and more erratic hours to pay off ballooning debts Have a good weekend - if you can afford to take the time
• · · · · Chapters Bookstore Celebrates Its 20th, but 21 May Be a Cliffhanger ; Save Kepler's: the Blog
• · · · · · Wisteria? Dividend? Freedom? Sleep? Here's your chance to tell the world about your favorite word ; One sign of a mature, argumentative democracy is that it expects its bright young talents to carp at their own culture. Bedevilled by a lack of detail Trashing own backyards

Friday, September 16, 2005



My youngest daughter, Gabriella, a.k.a. Gabrielle, Bella, Vella, Wella, began blogging this week A debut worthy of MJ Rose ;-)

Thursday, September 15, 2005



Jay Rosen Spine is always good, rage is sometimes needed, and empathy can often reveal the story. But there's no substitute for being able to think. What is the difference between a “blame game” and real accountability? If you’ve never really thought it about it, your outrage can easily misfire. Amidst the horror, American broadcast journalism just might have grown its spine back, thanks to Katrina ... From Deference to Outrage: Katrina and the Press

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Research Problem
Doing Legal, Political, and Historical Research on the Internet: Using Blog Forums, Open Source Dictionaries, and More

Neither Google nor Yahoo searches produced results. Nor did searches of the various subscription databases to which I have access as a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California. After several days of browsing to look for the answer on and off, when I was not working on other matters, I realized the whole search was taking entirely too much time. That is when I had a thought.


Using Open Source Information [ 10 Reasons for Reading a News Site ; Journalism by Every Means Necessary ]
• · Rupert's in hot pursuit of those migrating ads Murdoch has fresh go at mastering the web ; What Journalism Could Learn from Advertising
• · · eBay to acquire Skype; How Google Got Its Groove On; With a billion users and counting, the Internet hardly seems to need an evangelist. Yet "chief Internet evangelist" is precisely the title chosen by Vinton G. Cerf for his new job at Google; Tasmania powers up 12Mbps broadband
• · · · Journalists' Report Documents Challenges To Obtaining Government Data ; Public Eye's most fundamental mission is to bring unprecedented transparency to the editorial operations of CBS News. Show Me Angry
• · · · · Every citizen is a reporter. Journalists aren't some exotic species, they're everyone who seeks to take new developments, put them into writing, and share them with others OhmyNews and 21st Century Journalism ; Hiding Information from the People Who Paid for It
• · · · · · So, You Wanna Fund a Startup? ; Media ownership and convergence, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Speech by Graeme Samuel, in an address to the Melbourne Press Club Journalism 2005 Conference Media ownership and convergence,

Wednesday, September 14, 2005



Literary bloggers have become the new darlings of the publishing industry Book blogs' buzz grows louder

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Little Fish
Little Fish will, quite simply, knock your socks off.

Little Fish may turn out to be the most important film in a year that's looking like a dramatic turnaround for Australian movies. Local film production is still mortally crippled by under-investment, the legacy of years of deliberate political neglect. But films are being made and many are capitalising on the international success of Australian and New Zealand actors.


Shakespearean story of Tracy Heart [The struggle to get ahead in the suburbs makes for a memorable Australian movie Sink or swim ; September smatterings ; Nancy Drew and the mystery of the mean girls ]
• · A series of article on the seven deadly sins, and why they're not always so bad! ; Cities of the Future Today’s “Mega-cities” are Overcrowded and Environmentally Stressed ; Kurt Vonnegut doesn't want any part of contemporary culture
• · · Men are more likely than women to be authors of journal articles and influential textbooks in political science. Why? Gender Gap in Publishing ; About 90% of all writers are desperate. Especially with the first few books. And no wonder. There are over 10,000 novels published a year and each imprint only anoints three to four books every season The attention game: A crisis of confidence and sets up a neurotic condition
• · · · A dismayingly bad book What irony: reviewer ousts author ; Oxford University Press is one of the first major publishers (that I've seen, at any rate) to blog Blue Background Makes Nifty Visual Pun
• · · · · Manorama Online reports that Literary figures making false forays into performing arts. ; The True Classic of Terrorism
• · · · · · Self-help gurus might be fakes - but why do so many people fall for them? ; In an age of blogging, reflexive ironizing and ceaseless celebrity worship, two small literary-intellectual magazines try to make a different kind of big noise Among the Believers ; Novels can accommodate those subtleties of the human condition that leave us shaking our heads in perplexity Victory parades should be times of mourning

Monday, September 12, 2005



Online study doesn't mean a second-rate degree when it comes to earning an M.B.A Click And Learn

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Build a kick ass company
How We Find Companies to Profile

We find new companies primarily in three ways. First, we scour hundreds of blog and news feeds daily to see what’s new. Second, we get a number of tips (often anonymously) about new stuff – usually these are the most interesting new products. The third way is a direct request from the company itself.


Top Ten Things You Can Do To Get Blogged [Yes Virginia, There Are Still "Communicators" Who Don't Know What a Blog Is Blogs: Collective Wisdom of Crowds ; Darren Rowse became a celebrity in the blogosphere earlier this year by saying, "I expect that this year my blogging will generate a six-figure income." Blogging-for-profit course attracts 800 ; Radio National interview on blogging and PR Trevor Cook;]
• · Blogging has essentially developed in waves or generations, each of which was notable for the backgrounds of the majority of people entering the blogosphere at each point The demise of the geek bloggers ; When bloggers talk about your company, knowing how to respond - if at all - is key Is "free" all it's cracked up to be? ; Should PR ignore the long-tail?; You can't ignore blogger 'fact checkers' even if they are sometimes cruel, because often they are also right Women and blogging
• · · Instead of a party, healing and revelation Reporter finds his 'good heart'
; Media Ownership Regulation in Australia
• · · · Project Censored presents the 10 biggest stories the mainstream media ignored over the past yea Censored! ;
• · · · · You may think Google is powerful today, but it's still only using 5% of its brain. Search Lite ; And the race is on to become the Google of blogs New Search Engines: Help Users Find Blogs ; SAPO Already Does IT!
• · · · · · Tajikistan: Crisis Of Independent Media Sparks International Criticism Over the past year, Tajikistan’s independent media have suffered one setback after another. All the major opposition newspapers have been shut down, and recently the editor of one of those newspapers was jailed on what many say are politically motivated charges. In the last week, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has expressed concerns about Tajikistan’s media environment. Crisis Of Independent Media Sparks International Criticism ; The Power of the Internet "Movement" News ; Study Links Broadcast Indecency To Ownership Consolidation ; Indecent Proposal

Sunday, September 11, 2005



Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art
-Eleanor Roosevelt

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.
-Mark Twain

Thoreau deplored the supremacy of work in this way: "It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work." And this is all that my wife is slaving 7 days a week and she will even miss on Alex’s birthday party due to some IT migration issues. Strange world we are living in ...
We often forget that going to work every day is often more a chore than a pleasure Working Hard at Nothing All Day
Nettle suggests that we would all probably be happier by trading income or material goods for time with people or hobbies. But most people do not do so. My enemies should never enjoy such a book! The Science behind Your Smile

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: What Women Want
Why do the poor have children out of wedlock? It's not just a matter of money

When it comes to single-parent families, Everybody's Doing It. That, it seems, is the received wisdom--but it's not true. As Charles Murray noticed decades ago and demographers have known for some time, the structure of families has diverged drastically by social class. The out-of-wedlock birth rate among women with no more than a high-school education has skyrocketed since the 1960s but remains very low among college graduates. Divorce has declined among the well-off but is climbing among the unskilled. Although almost all college graduates still marry eventually, marriage rates are dropping steadily among those without a high-school degree.


Times of Me Me Me [It's time to recognize that America's poor need more help than we're giving them Castaways And Cuts; Pro-lifers branch out to poverty, health care—and war]
• · If you want to finish your dissertation, it’s time to stop worrying about greatness and to start focusing on good enough Words on Paper ; What these firing-squad lists declare is not only what we should be reading but, of course, what we should not be reading Classics, literary canons of "great" works, prize short-lists and long-lists, certainly are exclusive ; Literary letters, lost in cyberspace Wilson: the search for love that fed a career in letters
• · · The struggle to get ahead in the suburbs makes for a memorable Australian movie Sink or swim ; NYT science writer Dean's evolution coverage wins praise: Cornelia Dean "presents a leading example of how not only to report on but also how to contextualize the intelligent-design strategy," write Chris Mooney and Matthew C. Nisbet. They note that the Topeka Capital-Journal appears reluctant to go beyond publishing letters on the evolution debate, running only two guest op-eds (both in support of evolution) and no in-house editorials or columns. "Silence is no way for an editorial page to respond to an evolution controversy in its backyard." Undoing Darwin
• · · · Podcasting for Readers ; Those weighty collections of reference books are making way for fast online version Give us the facts
• · · · · A book a day keeps the doctor away" is the theme of this week's Nonfiction Chart, with You: The Owner's Manual, by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D., at No. 1; When Mehmet Oz was on Oprah on May 3 of this year, he made quite an impression with frank talk of a...personal nature: the ideal bowel movement. "It should hit the water like a diver from Acapulco hits the water," he said on the show. "It should be an S shape." An Insiders Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger ; In defence of advertising
• · · · · · Regents ask, 'What's in a name?' ; An elementary look at what may have happened if pioneer pop stars had ditched sex, drugs & rock ’n’ roll Rock vs. School: Because a waste is a terrible thing to mind ; The Sound of Music is a seriously religious film, its plot a fairytale version of modern Christian history Hegel with songs

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Happy Birthday, Daughter of the Velvet Revolution, Alexandra Imrichova ;-)

I love you past the sky and past the oceans ;-)


In Latino culture, a girl's fifteenth birthday party is a religious and social occasion that ushers her into womanhood. Learn the traditions of this Coming-of-Age Celebration: Quinceanera Celebrations

Thursday, September 08, 2005



September 8th World Literacy Day: International Literacy Day is a grassroots event

I'm a clear-cut case of a condition which is called exile. Like literature, exile invents its own rules. ‘There is a reason why the language we inherit at birth is called our mother tongue,’ writes Mukherjee. ‘It is our mother, forgiving, embracing, naming the world and all its emotions...’ Yet exile teaches us to embrace our adopted mother with real passion. Today marks the quarter of the century of those special goose bumps one gets when we focus our eyes on our new adopted mother country. What is that impresses most when we finally spot the sanctuary of Sydney Harbour ... peering through the 707 tiny windows? Its sheer size? The way antipodean sunrays pull the trigger reflections out of self-interest? No. Nothing makes an impact like those dark reflections, impenetrable emerald eyes. Those chipped emerald mirrors rival literature, geography and even history and just like mother’s breasts they shout: Ach, drink me up!
Sydney is the mother of exiles. If you were a political refugee in Sydney in 1980 all roads led to our new homes based at Villawood or Coogee Hostels. For me, Villawood became my Hollywood and the script written in English come to me in strange frustrated waves. Driving from the airport on the wrong side of the road is one thing. But not being able to spot any red ferns at Redfern was another. No one could explain to me what could possibly be new about Newtown? Those strange descriptions and words rolled over me, and though they almost smothered me with hard to express sentences, the sentences left me with a unique accent and unique expressions ... But it is the unique kindness of strangers that I will rembember most on my deathbed. Endless mentors: From Dr Dorman to Dr Cope; Soulmates: from Mary to Lauren; Strangers who became friends and then Godfathers to the Daughters of the Velvet Revolution: Christopher & Steve; Adopted family: From June to Minna; Greatest Treasures: Alexandra & Gabriella; Adopted homes: From Villawood to Darling Point to Bellevue Hill to Scaborough to the Shire and only destiny knows where else ...



For me, it's a really, really big responsibility that Webdiary works, because if it works, other journalists will join the independent media movement.... Webdiary movement doesn't just have legs, it has tentacles Webdiary's offer to journalists: journalism bringing more passion to the table ; Confronting ethics in the netherworld between politics and the media

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Losing the next generation of idealists
Edward Wasserman says young people want to do something "active" -- to make things happen instead of reacting to events the way they do in newsrooms. "Students come back from summer PR internships with exciting tales of scanning the next day's papers for stories they helped bring about," he writes.

Journalists have enough worries: cutbacks, bloggers, a geriatric audience. But here's one more: They should worry that bright young people who might once have been heading into newsrooms are going into public relations instead. Worse, these people aren't going just for the money. Journalism -- assailed by self-doubt and public mistrust -- is in danger of losing its next generation of idealists to PR.


Is journalism in danger of losing its young idealists to PR? [Use it as a guide, not a crutch: Jeff Jarvis: The goal is to be ready — God help us Recovery 2.0: A call to convene ; Who is the one person you would not want to read what you have just written? Heather Armstrong ]
• · Microsoft CEO: 'I'm going to f---ing kill Google' ; New Haven has a new online daily newspaper: New Haven Independent
• · · The American blogosphere has been criticised for its lack of reponse to the media's portrayal of those devastated by Hurricane Katrina since it hit New Orleans last week American Bloggers Come Under Fire ; Online campaign begins for Bill of Rights
• · · · Vega 91.5, the much anticipated brainchild of DMG has kicked off its first day of programming this morning A New Boomer in Town ; Affiliate site to sell for $1.3 billion dollars (via Blog Herald) Empire Poker
• · · · · Blog Herald: Blogs starting to make an impression in German Elections ; The future will make liars out of many current Political Masters WH to press: The time for bickering, blame-gaming is later
• · · · · · That's one question from today's Howard Kurtz chat. His answer: We don't have to deal with bureaucracies, just editors. We just get up and go How did journalists beat relief workers to New Orleans? ; A Gathering Storm for the Media: Misreporting on hurricane further eroding public's trust of media Ham blasts "putrid reporting" of Katrina by the mainstream media ; Search Engines Indexes Sites With Info on Hurricane Survivors and Missing Katrina Missing Persons Site; Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? Drowning New Orleans

Tuesday, September 06, 2005



'The fault I find with our journalism is that it forces us to take an interest in some fresh triviality or other every day, whereas only three or four books in a lifetime give us anything that is of real importance.’

We act recklessly and pretend we can order nature around, and are shocked when nature overwhelms us. We fail to plan for the worst and then act shocked when eminently predictable crises occur. Usually we can spend or rebuild our way out of them, but shouldn't we at least ask whether it's a good idea to do so? Why Isn't House Speaker's Question On the Table?

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Bad Vibrations
Modern social science has banished concepts of good and evil. But, argues Amos Oz, literature, from Shakespeare and Goethe to Grass and Böll, gives us truer insights into human nature

Job's Satan, like Faust's Satan, enters upon a wager. His big prize is neither a hidden treasure, nor the heart of a beautiful woman, and not even a promotion to a higher position in the heavenly hierarchy. No: Satan enters a gamble out of some kind of didactic urge. He wishes to make a point. To prove something, and to refute something else. With enormous argumentative zeal, the biblical Satan and the Aufklärung Satan try to show God and his angels that man, when given the choice, will always opt for evil. He will choose bad over good, willingly and consciously.


The devil's progress [Spielberg? Hitchcock? Ed Wood? Kevin Smith? Who should be given the task to direct the film of your life story? Based on action/romance, comedy/drama, complex story, and financial budget requirements, this test will select the most appropriate of 24 selected film directors to commit to celluloid the story of your life ; The fastness of friendship; the treachery of one's nearest; the destruction of good by good. Passion which overrides reason VIOLENT AND PROUD DEATH! ; I'm delighted to report that Cold River mania continues to spread, slowly but surely, through the web: Ralph Kaiser writes: 'It's hard to read this work and not shout, Bloody Hell!' Experimental River ]
• · Does allowing a man to open a car door or to slide out a chair at a restaurant perpetuate sexism? A Feminist’s Dilemma ; Sierra Club at a Crossroads; Fiction and Memoir ; The gift of the perfect sentence
• · · There's no place like ancient Rome—except for sweltering modern-day New York City All hail the "monstrous city"; "Teledildonics," quick and easy cybersex is becoming an option for anyone with a mouse Single, white with dildo ; Is monogamy dead? ; The saddest thing about the whole rather sad story of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is the publication of his one, world-famous novel, The Leopard, because it could be said that it was the only extraordinary thing to have happened in his life, although it happened, in fact, in death, sixteen months after he had departed this world How To Be Bored
• · · · Once it was a secret; then it was a "right"; now it is a duty Good Vibrations ; If size really matters, pornography now ranks as one of America’s most prominent industries How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives
• · · · · Image is (almost) everything ; Local communities in a big, tough world ; Authors, Librarians Unite
• · · · · · Increasingly, I'm interested either in forgotten greats of world literature or modern marginal stuff (mostly, but not exclusively, in translation) Odds and Ends ; Ready Steady Blog ; Polish poetry and history

Monday, September 05, 2005



Bloggers have lost jobs, friends, and even spouses over things they revealed in their journals. Bloggers have to make the conscious decision from the start that what they write today may come back to haunt them tomorrow, and be OK with that choice. That’s the warning from one of the best veteran bloggers. They share their tips and experiences.
Corporate Engagement is peppered with colourful insides of many topics. So czech (sic) out those three veterans Trevor Cook , Keith Jackson, Ben Haslem Corporate world without boundaries

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Trevor Cook
What is the state of Australian blogging? Trevor Cook notes that overall, he is 'pretty bullish about the state of blogging and podcasting in Australia.’

This is a difficult question to answer - it goes to the heart of what blogging is about (fat heads vs long tails, media rivals or new ways to fill gaps in the landscape and so on), it is hard to get evidence of how many Australian blogs there are because a lot of people use US services (blogger, typepad etc) and it hard to judge the influence and impact of blogging in Australia....


The state of Australian blogging [ Feedster has produced a top 500 blog list ; My Mate has a blog: Donald J. Trump Donald the Blogger: You’re fired; Quick spring cleaning tips for your blog ]
• · James Governor: Should we solve one-click subscription by turning the HTML off? The web browser as a coccyx, HTML as an appendix ; As marketeers we are living through fascinating times
• · · Darren Rowse More on Blog Pay Rates ; Blogger Earns $16K in August ; 'The State' (Columbia, S.C.) Launches Community Blog, Citizen Journalism Push
• · · · Personal blogs, media blogs, and organisational blogs Disruptive and non-disruptive blogs ; Websites contain many things, but not the answer to all question Value the fruits of free speech; State Rep. Daylin Leach said the Web site was being pulled "permanently." He had vowed Thursday to put it back online Blog by legislator to remain off-line
• · · · · James Cherkoff on how 'citizen hacks' are challenging the might of corporations the world over You, too, can become a global broadcaster ; Today, when you lose a customer, you don’t lose just that customer, you risk losing that customer’s friends In Blogs & Blogging, Marketing & PR ; Citizen-journalist bloggers in knickers-in-twist shock ; Writing individual websites – or blogging as it is better known – is helping young Syrians re-engage with politics, users say, with dozens of web logs or "blogs" coming on line in the last year, promoting freedom of speech Focus on freedom of speech through the internet
• · · · · · A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy ; Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy

Sunday, September 04, 2005



Communication is all about sharing a (hopefully) passionate story with another. In doing so we often use shorthand — jargon, references to other cultural material to give additional flavour or ‘back story’, even clothing. Nonverbal communication: What’s your story?
A growing number of social scientists fear that marriage may be on the rocks and few doubt that matrimony, as we have known it, has undergone a wrenching period of change in the past several decades Can Marriage Be Saved? From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives The Purchase of Intimacy

The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions. Warning: Sometimes in Marriage Situation Ignorance is bliss

Art of Living & Saddest Father's Day Across Frontiers: Follow Your Heart!
For some unknown cultural reason we have not been taught and reinforced to address our emotional health in the same manner as our physical health. This is a mistake. I identify with people’s loneliness; I have been there many times; after all I am a Man Without A Country as the old Czechoslovakia no longer exists ... Migrants are often its greatest victims of that stange cold feeling in the bones Loneliness must be one of the most painful experiences of life. It can gnaw away at the very soul of a person's being. What is tragic is that, when a lonely person becomes desperate for human contact, others often sense it and are scared off or repulsed by it. The lonely soul hence becomes the avoided soul and so a downward spiral begins which can push people to despair ...

In western culture we are raised and constantly reinforced to believe that proactively attending to our physical health is appropriate and responsible. Such old sayings as: 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" persist in our culture. Regular physical malady we diagnose the ailment and develop a course of treatment. In short, we develop a plan and take action! Occasionally, we determine that the physical ailment cannot be addressed independently. Thus, we seek professional help from a health practitioner.


It's Ok to Need Help Peter Bakowski and his poetry on loneliness succeed in raising public interest The loneliness of the long-distance poet
[Winning when you knew you were going to win all along is Boring with a capital B. No one wants to play a game that they can win every time. Scoring with a sure thing is fun.. but only for about 15 minutes If you can no longer trust your instinct that tells you that you are right, get out; Raising awareness, increasing the dialog about cancer, building internal and external excitement Blog For Hope ]
• · David Kipen writes his farewell review ... For book critics, keeping a diary couldn't be more unnecessary. Any critic worth his oats adds to his serial public autobiography with every book he chooses and every review he writes. A perfect book for making you miss California ; Storytelling is Dana Adam Shapiro's weakness Never lost for a story ; From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives The Purchase of Intimacy
• · · MJ Rose: Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination What's New in the World of 16.3 Million Blogs? ; Susan Schwartzman: Book Publicity News; A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette 'A polite librarian is a good librarian'
• · · · The trend to put very young children in long-day care is leaving us with a behavioural time bomb I just want my Mummy ; Modern dads revel in hands-on parenting; Elisabeth Lloyd tells us a story why some feminists hate “The Case of the Female Orgasm,” and why they shouldn’t. I float here an analysis of why many women and feminist bloggers and journalists are so enraged with me. And trust me, there are lots of unhappy campers: More orgasm
• · · · · Meanwhile: Let's put a collar on the thief of time ; Polka Dot Mittens: nursing students don't just drink all the time
• · · · · · And that is exactly what Kamal Aboukhater, the producer of the movie Blowing Smoke, has just done Doing it my way, all the way... ; Tough times for lords of the manor

Saturday, September 03, 2005



Dreaming of a rapidly growing and increasingly important independent media Dreamers & Doers
The wire services on which newspapers like these tend to rely for breaking news are coming under increasing pressure from blogs - particularly in the area of technology news Blogs beat the wires

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Citizen? Journalist? She's Both
Emily Metzger, a community columnist for the Shreveport (La.) Times, is using her personal blog to convey the passion, urgency and anguish felt by so many other journalists during the tragedy along the Gulf Coast

I don't care how many efficient federal or state press conferences announce that the relief process is underway. It's not enough. I don't care how many dry, well-fed but no doubt anguished officials proclaim to the world that help is on the way. It's not enough. There are still thousands of people trapped in New Orleans and they're starting to die. Whatever's being done is not enough."


Human Tall [Emely Metzger ; Unbelievable story here, received via a trusted friend ; Katrina update | Jon Lebkowsky ]
• · more via Tim Porter : Prescient Reporting ; Want to know what it's like to be a reporter right now in New Orleans? I'm scared. I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm getting out of here Dangerous Ground in New Orleans
• · · Finding Purpose in Journalism ; Katrina Coverage: Dining at the Media Buffet
• · · · Catallaxy on Margo Kingston Making Citizen Journalism Pay ; Aussie newspaper blogger goes solo Margo Kingston ditches Fairfax and goes solo ; When reporters don't stand up for rights, we all lose liberty Press freedoms aren't free
• · · · · Over at the Blog Herald, Duncan Riley detects a generational change in blogging ; Deep in the midst of this saga, I am increasingly thinking about what will happen if one of my neighbors accidentally stumbles across it. Writing About Real People ; Did Sydney's Daily Telegraph go too far in hounding disgraced Liberal MP John Brogden? The moral balance of daily journalism is more like a playground seesaw than the demure scales of justice we'd love to claim. The ups and downs can be brutal: Brodgen chase sparks ethics row
• · · · · · Are you a blogger? Know of a prize-worthy Weblog? Want to see what's captured bloggers' attention in other countries? Submit Your Favorite Weblogs and Podcasts ; A weblog covering security and security technology: Trusted Computing Best Practices Schneier on Security ; Google's entry into net phone has set the industry abuzz Google Talk makes a big noise