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Overhead at the water cooler:
-I regret the day I was married. Consider yourself lucky. I was married for a whole year ...
-How is your ex wife … she has been drinking since I left her seven months ago. Don't be silly - no one celebrates that much ...

My lovely Anne Warfield noted: A true leader is not one you look up to because they are the best. A true leader is one that draws the best out in you. Brett Lethbridge - NO LIMIT: A Search for the Australian Artistic Dream

Why is it that so many girls wax lyrical over dating some bloke who refuses to return their calls, won't be caught dead meeting her folks and never buys her gifts (unless he wants something in return)? Introducing the bad boy - a.k.a. the blokes we tend to fall hopelessly in love with. Modern society is becoming increasingly restless and non - committal due to such large variety of choice. Yet has the concept of romance been blown out of the cold river? Nice guys finish last: Girls always, always fall for the bad barranqueros

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Performing a Miracle with Friends
Contagious behavior: We aren't emotional islands. We are walking mood conductors. Laugh and the World Laughs With You

Why do we laugh? Laughter has surprisingly little to do with jokes and funny stories. It is an ancient, unconsciously controlled vocal relic that co-exists with modern speech----a social, psychological and biological act which predates humor and is shared with our primate cousins, the great apes. With startling effect, laughter reveals why humans can talk and other apes cannot and leads to the discovery of the event essential for the evolution of human speech and language.

• via Phil, Kristen and James Pettifer The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, I was wrong: Wantok bilong yu ('your friend' in pidgin) [The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page - Saint Augustine Absence becomes the greatest Presence; Listening is a key leadership skill. The first step in listening is to close your mouth ; Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past. Kokoda ]
• · Strategic dreams often turn into nightmares if companies start engaging in expensive and distracting restructurings. It is far more effective to choose a design that works reasonably well and then develop a strategic system to tune the structure to the strategy. Great article, unfortunate title. Why is everyone so afraid of Disruption? How to implement a new strategy without disrupting your organization ; Sir Richard is unique and he, more than anyone else, knows how to drum up the publicity. Dick's spa stunt Richard Branson's Aussie sex romp video ; IT marketing smarts ; Get your eBay auction listings via your favorite RSS reader Auction
• · · For years, teachers, after school group leaders and librarians have been advocating for Walden Media to move into the publishing space. With the tremendous partnership we've established with our friends at Penguin, we can finally maximize the strong trust we developed with our audience and deliver the high level of quality product in publishing that we do in our films Penguin Children's Is Latest to Add Film Partner, In Agreement with Walden; It's the element of danger, of surprise, of being naughty, of adding a sense of sexcitement Why women cheat ; Can men and women really just be friends?
• · · · Ensnared by time-wasting traps, managers can fast get bogged down in repetitive tasks and irrelevant details. Enlightened organisations around the world are forging pathways for change. David Parmenter shares seven practical ways to clear the calendar and reclaim the day. Seven Time Wasters – And how to evict them ; A war on Sydney's taxi ranks looms after Macquarie Bank was finally given permission by the State Government to set up a new taxi network. The move is expected to annoy the industry doyen Reg Kermode - The taxi industry is far removed from the rarefied atmosphere of merchant banking Mac attack on taxis gets the official thumbs up
• · · · · You are what you eat (but cook it first). A life in the raw ; Another night, another spate of shootings with two more lives lost Wedding turns into a funeral for murdered boxer ; The Premier, Morris Iemma, yesterday accused Mr Debnam of hysteria, exaggeration and of undermining police. Mr Debnam claimed the Government was "in denial" about violence in the area and claimed there were drive-by shootings "every day" We need saturation policing on the streets
• · · · · · Very interesting on the development of media images of women and sex - not for the better. It isn't time to dip your toe into the icy waters of singledom just yet. The history of playboy's centrefolds ; It seems old fashioned dating is out. Yep, welcome to the new trend to hit the singles scene: "Hooking Up" So what's the appeal? Well when we're overworked, stressed out and way too busy to tap into our emotional energy, hooking up seems like the next best thing... What if we're simply sick to death of searching for "the one"? The Hookup Generation - no-strings attached type liaison; Forget oysters and strawberries - it seems that work has become the new aphrodisiac of the 21st Century. Yet with tough deadlines, rough deals and hefty sales targets, what makes us so addicted to the hard grind? Our lust for the job erodes our lust for each other Hooked on Asteron

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When you have come to the edge of all light that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown,
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.
~Patrick Overton

No ONE has ever accused corporate America of being shy when it comes to making its pitch for our dollars. So when the blogging phenomenon became mainstream it was hardly a surprise that the likes of Microsoft, Google and General Motors took it up to spruik their wares. Blogging the brand

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Corporate Blog - Enterprise Blogs and Wikis
Amazon.com uses blogs, wikis, plogs (personal web logs), and social tagging to generate site stickiness and direct customers toward desired products such as Cold River. Blogs are often published by book authors and wikis are used to allow customers to enhance information about products.

A recent AMR Research Alert mentions that "one of the world's largest high-tech manufacturers views wikis and blogs as part of its overarching knowledge management strategy..." This company is also mentioned as being an Open Text LiveLink user and having 64,000 employees in 73 countries.

• Getting Aboard - Reaching the next level [Authority of the Wikipedia ; It's time for the ivory towers to embrace the potential of the 'blogging age' Blog or be damned?]
• · Spoiled by Google Google has trained us not only that search can be very good but that it can be very easy Report: Majority of Web Sites Lack Search Savvy ; You take the lowest road, and I'll take a low road... Conveying Accountability through the Member’s Web Site
• · · It's what you know and how you use it The role of IT in knowledge management has been redefined Blogging the world ; Sociology of blogging Desperate Sourcers ; I am partial to using SAP Improve your Supply Chain
• · · · Judged by Recruiting.com as the best post from HR and Recruiting related blogs last week Why blogging works - Gautum Ghosh ; But your Honor, he is an idiot and she is a liar! And he made me cry!!!!!
• · · · · A decade ago, the concept of an online job board might have been chalked up as science fiction. The world of Internet job boards has exploded into an annual $1.3 billion industry and continues to grow exponentially, The International Association of Employment Websites 40,000 employment websites online ; Often over-the-edge thoughts on sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding... Does your organization have a soft belly to those whose goal is to identify your rainmakers and possibly hire them away? Meet the Edge
• · · · · · Cameron's Brain: Marty's right - ajaxWrite is amazing ; Another take on the great Vista blogger flurry of huffiness Daily comments on PR, media and related stuff ; That's my sentence ... that's my sentence ... that's my -- wait! He ad-libbed that one! The Speechwriter's Slant: IS GHOSTWRITING ETHICAL?

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What cannot be cured must be endured. Endure cheerfully!

Do not multiply your wants and then feel like a beggar. Reduce your wants and feel like a king.
- via Vanessa @ Bris Vegas ;-)

From Budapest to Mumbai to Stockholm, writers are jumping on the "Bridget Jones" bandwagon, with revealing results. The Chick-Lit Pandemic
Database of descriptions of hundreds of products. How Products are Made

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: This Passion Called Love: History of Single Life
Booze is as old as civilization. In fact, it might be the reason we have civilization at all: The first known cookbook is a Sumerian formula for making beer, and growing grain or grapes for alcohol production was a mainstay of economies from ancient Greece to the American frontier.

Even back in the good ol' days of ziggurats and temple prostitution, though, there was always a certain tension between alcohol's ability to raise spirits and its tendency to loosen morals. Hammurabi's Babylonian law said that if a woman dedicated to a god were to even enter a drinking establishment, she should be burned to death. Novels such as Rona Jaffee's The Best of Everything made urban watering holes seem like the natural environment of the men and women, great of ambition but loose of morals, who moved to the big city to make their way in exciting careers in advertising, fashion and publishing.

• Go into any restaurant, club or corner dive bar in Sydney, New York, London, San Francisco, Edinburgh or Los Angeles on any given night of the week, and you'll see the truth of what worried Hammurabi back in the day: No matter what, people are always going to want to get drunk and fuck Mixed Drinks - the torrent of joy juice that flows at apartment-house parties [Two Good Eggs - People in New York change sex partners quicker than the crosstown bus Wanted: A Few Good Sperm ; Good article from Cyberskeptic's Guide via The Virtual Chase. Here's a good one: The Art of Public Records Research]
• · Temperance is primarily about desires for the greatest pleasures, and the greatest pleasures result from the most natural operations, which are those that have as their purpose the preservation of the individual and the preservation of the species. Pleasures of meat and drink and sexual pleasures ; People are just so on-edge about this kind of stuff now Publishing's Pendulum Swing
• · · Lobbyists in Love: With power couples, conflict of interest is what makes them interesting. No one here wants to be "the wife."; Older women like sex. That less-than-earthshaking claim has raised eyebrows and ire The sexual revelation
• · · · So we all know how to act. Be nice & don’t do crime, kick puppies, or start forest fires. But those are easy Mr. Manners ; Series coming up: Blog Role Models
• · · · · Three Good Reasons to Start Your Own Company ;
• · · · · · Conversation may be one of the most fundamental political and social acts Are We Having a Conversation Yet? An Art Form Evolves; There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. Love and Literature

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In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.
- Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Empire"

My blog is worth $16,936.20.
How much is your blog worth?

Find out how much is your media dragon worth Inspired by Tristan Louis's research into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc

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Alright, I've been known to jump to conclusions now and again when it comes to dating, but I'm usually just letting you know what some other dude said. Hmm ... I've received a cryptic message that says that Katie Kosko is rumoured to say that DATING IS LIKE SEARCHING FOR THE PERFECT WINE. One date is too fruity, another too dry, and still another too much bouquet (cologne overdose). But once you find the perfect variety that suits your taste, get drunk. Katie is a real wife - Desperate housewives, wife-swappers, and the women of Bravo Barranqueros. — Wives are hot right now. During Sex and the City's original run, its Carrie Bradshaw, an urban bachelorette, was television's symbolic woman

Some things are sacred like Czech Sigmund Freud’s views on life: ‘Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.’ I also really like this post by Doug Thompson on the life of a newspaperman. Thompson says: You are the chronicler of life in a community, the conscience of society, always watching, always questioning, and always searching for the truth beyond the hype. So journalists need you. But you need them, too. If journalists don't tell you about this stuff, who will? The system won't tell you, not even in America. That's why all successful democracies have had a free and independent media. No system will easily admit its wrongs. Just a newspaperman

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Going the Extra Mile: Hi Jozef
Just wanted to draw your attention to AustralianBlogs.com.au which is staffed by a small but dedicated team of volunteers who believe that the Australian blogosphere produces high quality blogs that are just as good, if not better than those available offshore. Local content for local readers.

Hope you find it useful. www.australianblogs.com.au
Cheers
Jon
AustralianBlogs.com.au is a free community resource to bookmark your favourite Australian blogs. Similar to del.icio.us (but less invasive - we don't need you to register or login), you can add your bookmarks or just browse to see what's popular.
It is a place where Australian bloggers can showcase their work, and the blog-reading public can find interesting, relevant and popular Australian blogs.

• If you meet the above, drop over to their site and add your blog: Thanks Jon and the Dream Team; What Google developed wasn't artificial intelligence, but something closer to what O'Reilly Media tech guru Rael Dornfest calls "artificial artificial intelligence". That's the brand of technology most likely to win this race: not the machines we use, but the machines that know how to use us. Man vs. Machine in Newsreader War : [For All Five Of You That Care - Jozef Imrich: Nudity No 'Big Deal' - A nude James Bond? Oh my. How vulgar. Daniel Craig is not stranger to going full frontal on film, so why not bring his willingness to go nude to James Bond? 101 Insider Secrets from Top Direct Sellers of Cold River ; Kudos to Darren from ProBlogger for spotting this service - AdSense Blacklist. Adsense revenue booster? ; Never before in the history of advertising has it been possible to spend five bucks, write a couple of ads, and get instant access to over 100 million people in less than 10 minutes. But with Google AdWords, you can do exactly that - right now. Google AdWords Keyword Tool - A Useful tool for AdSense Publishers ; Journalism: Resources from advocacy to media watchdogs ]
• · 6 months, 2,174 miles, 14 states, 2 hikers and one trail. And we are going to walk the whole thing: Out of the Jungle and Into the Woods The Appalachian Trail; I gather that I can thank S for advertising link to this program - Scope of Professional Coaching in Health Care. Certified Coach Program for Health Care Specialists
• · · Bill Ives on The Clueless Manifesto- Giving Credit to the Stupid Question ; World Map of Site Visits ; Finding (Almost) anybody: nice guide to using public records from FIU prof Neil Reisner Barranqueros of this world; Guide to public records for business, lots of good links here to company searches, lots more. Construction Weblinks: Public Records Guide.
• · · · No question is too crazy to snare a prize ; A great guide to using Gmail from Life Hacker. Gotta try some of these.... Hack Attack: Become a Gmail master ; Incorporate A Simple Tool- Make A Name For Yourself Become a Household Brand Blog Your Way to Profits
• · · · · Media Matters for America has sent a letter to Washingtonpost.com editor James Brady saying that putting in a political operator to write a political blog with a conservative slant does not balance out the perceived liberal blogging of a veteran journalist like Dan Froomkin. When is blogging relevant? ; Yep, I agree with Atrios and the good folks at Media Matters. The Washington Post, or rather its online incarnation, has managed to capture the essence of the silliness of the 'media bias' debate in one easily digestible set-piece of its own making Reaction in several talking places ;
• · · · · · Good discussion from Steven Baker on Business Week's Blogspotting blog about whether journalists should contribute a blog to a profitmaking website without compensation. Should mainstream bloggers be paid extra? Should I? ; We Smirch, new celebrity gossip news and blog scanner from Memeorandum. Us Exclusive: Nick's Revenge Video

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Don’t mind me… I’m just over here frozen in terror. I’m in this terrifying limbo right now, wondering how am I going to survive the latest attack on Cold River. Let me tell you what sole survivors like me do not want. Bad reviews! I foresee a lot of vodka in my near future ;-) Every author becomes a mother when he begins to create a written work. For male writers, producing a piece of writing is the closest they ever come to being pregnant and giving birth to that adorable bouncing bundle of joy named Story. The bottom line is that I have no idea whether anyone will have any desire to read it. Will people who don't know me at all grab the book off the shelf to read it? That would be lovely, but I didn't think about the audience when I was writing. You're building the book for yourself, and it becomes your companion. If people hate it, then that's great — at least they have an opinion about it.
Writing and selling for most of us is more than telling a little tale. It is not just a short hike up a lovely trail to a nice fat czech. It is instead, a long, lonely road of toil, and more toil. More often than not, the road is paved with rejection slips, and the fat czech is many, many miles away...
Cold River described as door stopper by an opinionated coward ;-) Giving Birth to your ugly baby on Amazon in Taschenbuch

Bad reviews are a rite of passage! means your getting there...
Phillip Adams

That's disgusting - I'm sorry you got that!
Cheers,
M.J.
M.J. Rose - Author of The Delilah Complex

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Today, Tomorrow, All the Time
Don't miss the largest gathering of screenwriting talent ever assembled! Some people say that persistence is more important than talent in breaking into the film industry Persistence, "Film Fuss"

Final Draft and scr(i)pt magazine present a one-of-a-kind scriptwriting and creative development industry conference, marketplace and meeting sessions. Panels featuring A-list screenwriters, agents, managers, producers and development executives will examine the craft and business of scriptwriting for film, television and interactive media. Don’t miss this unprecedented opportunity to learn from the professionals who drive the entertainment industry.

• A-List Advice - A-List Talent - There are only a dozen or so times when the statuette was awarded to an undisputed classic such as "It Happened One Night," "Gone With the Wind," "Casablanca," "All About Eve," "On the Waterfront," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Godfather" and The Godfather Part II. Ten films that give Oscar a bad name ; The Film Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge [Welcome to the virtual water cooler for writers, general tips about avoiding/dealing with fraudsters, book doctors ... Alerts for Writers ; Bewares and Background Check ; Preditors & Editors ]
• · And trying to explain what the hell is wrong with everything: My Life Among the Deathworks by Philip Rieff may be such another book Three Worlds, One Book: Rieff Tries to Explain It All ; Lauren often said that the love of money is the root of all evil. In our attempt to keep up with the Joneses, money can be the cause of many relationship battles. With the likes of hefty mortgages, fancy cars and plasma television screens to be shared, how do we prevent or handle those inevitable money woes? As Aristotle Onassis once said: If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning For Love or Money?; To marry or not to marry?
• · · Blog Your Way to New Opportunities ; Gone were the days of doing heavy research in dimly-lit libraries. I didn't have to commute downtown to look up information. The Internet Changed My Writing Life
• · · · Giving Birth to Your Story ; Yuri Andrukhovych's acceptance speech for this year's Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding causes a minor furore Europe - my neurosis
• · · · · Why become a politician? What drives people to pursue a political career? Is it idealism, ideology or because they enjoy being bossy? And how much can politicians expect to influence events? Why become a blogging pollie? ; Let me tell you what men want. Let me tell you why some middle-age men wear the sports jerseys of semiliterate behemoths half their age while others customize their cars with so many speakers they sound like the hip-hop version of the San Francisco earthquake as they roll down the street. Recognition. Men want others to recognize their significance. They want to feel important and part of something important. All politics Is thymotic
• · · · · · Borrowing the idea from Oprah Winfrey, one television book club has reshaped British fiction. What do publishers make of R&J's choices? Reading Richard and Judy; Escape With Honor: My Last Hours in Vietnam ; No one may ever know unless social psychologists shake off their fascination with jerks; and let's face it Why Do People Behave Nicely?

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Then let us love one another and laugh. Time passes, and we shall soon laugh no longer—and meanwhile common living is a burden, and earnest men are at siege upon us all around. Let us suffer absurdities, for that is only to suffer one another.
-Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome

The Australian is concerned about "three certainties about Australian fiction today: fewer books are being published, sales are falling and shelf-lives are shorter." Lits out: Shrinking Support for Australian Novelists

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Dream Life
I have been in a bad mood for the last, well, to be perfectly honest, 25 years, since 7 July 1980, but for the sake of this blog post we'll say last few months.

Films have often been compared to dreams. Indeed, there is something dreamlike about those images moving before us as we sit still in the dark of a movie theater. Hollywood is called the "dream factory," and dreams have inspired avant-garde filmmakers, too. The great Surrealist Luis Buñuel, for example, made his first film, Un Chien andalou (1929), from a screenplay that he and another young Spaniard in Paris, Salvador Dalí, derived from their dreams. No one who has seen this startling dream-film can forget its opening. A man sharpens a razor, goes out onto a balcony and looks up at the full moon as a thin cloud slices across it, at which point the eye of a woman who has appeared out of nowhere is sliced with the razor. Even if this is, it is there on the screen with so vivid a quality of physical reality that we recoil in shock, as if our own eyes were under attack.

• Occurring in the man's imagination [Margo Hammond interviews poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This song has been a secret anthem of my soul ; Vote for the Greatest Living Writer I’m Rich ; Janice 'Girlbomb' Erlbaum Dishes on Her Sex-Crazed and Drug-Addled Past and How Life Is Different Now GIRLBOMB: A Halfway Homeless Memoir ]
• · American culture has always warmed to what's cool cold river ; My search for smiles is taking me to some wonderful places. The merest touch of lippy
• · · Literature is good with words Whose side are you on? ; It’s difficult to feel that books matter when most Americans don’t read even one book a year, when writers struggle to get published and noticed under the avalanche of celebrity biographies and diet books, and when nearly all of the book gifts I’ve given to friends have yet to be read. Real Life and the Life of the Lit Major
• · · · Woe unto the manly. So scorned, so sublimated When was the last time you could throw a punch?; Double Dragon really, really thinks you should go to Amazon river and dive into Cold River ; People are remembered by their flowers and seeds, not their mulch. Fuck interviews. Papal attraction: Douglas Coupland tries to interview Morrissey
• · · · · What America learned from 9/11 -- what other nations already knew, from their own dread acquaintance with terrorism and the anguish left in its wake -- is that people can just disappear, can vaporize, can put on a hat and coat and leave in the morning and never come back, can turn a corner and fade from sight forever. What happens when people simply go away? ; Is there ever a time and place for censorship? I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it Tom Stoppard: Free speech is not a human right
• · · · · · Should parents have the right to prevent their daughters from having abortions? ; Go back a few millenniums, and we've all got the same ancestors.

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The way one betrays one's old loves—getting the new one to read Trivia or Matthew Arnold, going to the same churchyard. When we are older there seems no new approach left. The disillusionment of finding out that something (say Trivia) has been his thing with someone else.
-Barbara Pym, undated notebook entry

Editorial on How years of monopoly undermined newspapers. Failing to mourn the end of the Golden Age of newspaper monopoly

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Net dreams
MARCH Madness starts this week in America, and for the rest of the month millions of basketball fans will watch the country's college teams dunk on each other, until the final of the men's national championship on April 3rd. CBS, a broadcast-television network, has shown the event since 1982—but this year it is conducting an experiment. As well as broadcasting the games on TV, it is streaming them live over the internet free of charge, accompanied by advertisements.

Everyone's got a digital tsar now, or if they haven't, they're frantically searching for one, says Peter Kreisky, a media consultant. Many large media firms have recently formed separate digital divisions. With the exception of Time Warner, which in 2000 merged with AOL, an internet-access firm, most of these contribute only a tiny slice of their parent company's revenues

• Desperately seeking digital revenues [The eBay of intellectual property will launch this April, allowing companies to buy & Sell technology patents ; Eben Moglen, Newsmaker: Free software's white knight ]
• · James Surowiecki on the end of network neutrality and the Future of the Internet ; Nowadays, there is a tremendous attention about Social Networking and Blogging technologies. The reason is very clear for me. Is Buzz Marketing a Fad ?
• · · TV and movies and all that jazz are not replacing our imagination, just adding another layer to it. Not In Place Of But In Addition To ; Hey, we are talking about a major transformation -- if not a revolution -- NEW PR JOBS
• · · · The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Chris Pearce, recently released The Australian Guidelines for Electronic Commerce. Consumer confidence is fundamental to the growth of electronic commerce ; If we needed further evidence of the undesirability of a government having control of the Senate, the media policy announced by Communications Minister Helen Coonan is a perfect example Public missing out, again
• · · · · What Democrat Bloggers Want ; Send lawyers, guns and money - the shit has hit the fan. Communications reform
• · · · · · Money changes everything Marimow says joining NPR was like being sprung from prison ; THE E-MAIL began circulating among minority journalists the moment the announcement was made: "New York Times Company to establish diversity officer." Kudos to NYT for addressing diversity issue, says Poblete ; WP's Spinner is jumpy, angry, depressed after covering war

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Two men were sitting next to each other at the Iceberg bar. After a while, one guy looks at the other and says, "I can't help but think, from listening to you, that you're from Ireland."
The other guys responds proudly, "Yes, that I am."
The first guy says, "So am I. And where about from Ireland might you be?"
The other guy answers, "I'm from Dublin, I am."
The first guy responds, "Sure and begora, and so am I. And what street did you live on in Dublin?"
The other guys says, " A lovely little area it was, I lived on McCleary Street in the old central part of town."
The first guy says, "Faith and it's a small world, so did I! And to what school would you have been going?"
The other guy answers, "Well now, I went to St. Mary's of course."
The first guy gets really excited and say! s, :And so did I. Tell me, what year did you graduate?"
The other guy answers, "Well now, let's see, I graduated in 1964."
The first guy exclaims, "The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us! I can hardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same bar tonight. Can you believe it, I graduated from St. Mary's in 1964 too."
About this time a woman walks in to the bar, sits down and orders a drink.
The bartender walks over to her shaking his head and muttering, "It's going to be a long night tonight."
The woman asks, "Why do you say that?"
The bartender replies, "The Murphy twins are drunk again."

My purpose is not only to make the lions roar. Bounce. But to trigger people's imagination. Bounce. Bounce. It's not only sex that's exciting, Mr. Holdengräber says, but the life of the mind. When you come into contact with a great idea, it can change your life. In the Age of the Overamplified, a Resurgence for the Humble Lecture

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Love may be lovelier the second time around
Without something to hate, said Wm. Hazlitt, we should lose the very spring of thought and action. The hate-filled Duke-North Carolina rivalry

If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance. So proclaimed the Roman general, statesman, and censor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, in 131 B.C. Still, he went on to plead, falling birthrates required that Roman men fulfill their duty to reproduce, no matter how irritating Roman women might have become.

• A Tar Heel Gives the Devils His Boo Final glory [Call it an absence of “social capital” or “trust.” In some topsy-turvy African nations, it’s in people’s interests to do what damages everyone else Why Poor Countries Are Poor; Celebrity Big Brother, is produced by the great grandson of the man who built the London sewer system. Somehow, it fits Big Brother - pure McLuhan]
• · Urban sprawl is charged with endless sins: causing global warming, pollution, obesity, killing family farms, cities, mom-and-pop stores The Way We Live Now ; Economic Man is a lovely pawn for academic theorists. But he does not exist. Real people are driven by weird, irrational, self-sabotaging, even altruistic behavior. Like all revolutions in thought, this one began with anomalies, strange facts, odd observations that the prevailing wisdom could not explain. Casino gamblers, for instance, are willing to keep betting even while expecting to lose The Marketplace of Perceptions ; How a small, leftist publisher in Vermont is having a national impact Do the Write Thing
• · · An inheritor of War and Peace sings of love and loss
Leo Tolstoy's great-great granddaughter ; There are times, one reader said, when I wish I could unread it. Another was persuaded by it that life was empty and without purpose. A powerful book.. The Selfish Gene: It's all in the genes ; Hundreds of Heads Books is dedicated to working with booksellers to promote our Cold River books online and offline
• · · · Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Oscar hopes were dashed by Crash. Now there’s blood on the red carpet, and the taste of sour grapes in the mouth... Blood on the red carpet ; Ted Morgan’s memoir of his own Battle of Algiers is a love song for a ruined city and a damaged people. War enriches no one... The Front Lines of Fear ; Want to be German? Name three philosophers
• · · · · Sometimes, mere words are just not enough to express to a friend or loved one how we feel. Yet, try we must. ; What lying does do is damage the relationship between reader and memoirist. Autobiography is a genre that is defined solely by a handshake. There’s no internal distinction between an autobiographical novel and an autobiography. Rather, it’s the autobiographer’s pledge to try to tell the truth that makes a reader respond differently . . . . And when this quaint contract turns out to be a con, we feel like rubes. The Predictable Scandal ; In a society where polite discourse is impossible, improving the world may become impossible, too. Most Frequently Challenged Book? It's Perfectly Normal The Power of Escapes: How Soul and Mind Interact
• · · · · · The latest abomination in CEO pay; The lure of incentive pay

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Happy Saint Jozef's Day to me ... March 19 is the Jozef 'name day' in Catholic calendar
TO WHOMEVER FINDS THIS NOTE:
Collect all the tapes, all the writing, all the history. The story of this moment, of this action, must be examined over and over. It must be understood in all of its incredible dimensions. Let all the story of this People's Temple be told. Let all the books be opened. If nobody understands, it matters not. I am ready to die now. Darkness settles over Jonestown on our last day on earth."
-From a handwritten letter found recently in the People's Temple FBI files at the Historical Society.

No ONE has ever accused corporate America of being shy when it comes to making its pitch for our dollars.Blogging the brand

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely
I started thinking about the import of newspapers starting blogs when I looked at Greensboro101 for the first time

Reader loyalty and engagement with the site: that's why newspapers need blogs. Some understand that, some do not. "The puzzle simply isn't solved by newspapers starting blogs, even though it's a good idea to learn the form by doing it."

• Seeders of Clouds: Latest on Newspaper Blogging [Trevor Cook compiles an impressive list of trends on the subject of PR and Blogging Why Blogs Will Never Replace PR ; Good writing is good writing no matter where you find it. However, each medium has its own unique considerations. One of the key points to consider about the text on your web site is microcontent. In online writing, little things mean a lot ]
• · Find Best Phone Card for your calling destination: Sydney v Prague ; Media dragon Am I geekier than I thought?
• · · Once people discover your secrets, your life might as well be over VC Confidential Blog ; Sometimes money does grow on trees and rivers
• · · · Those Busted Blogs; Sarah-Jessica Parker is developing a tv show based on The Washingtonienne. The Washingtonienne the Next Carrie Bradshaw?
• · · · · Getting a system accepted is not always straightforward. Politics is a normal and legitimate part of the IT business. It's just how decisions are made at a high level. If you want your project approved, or if you want funding, you need to know who to go to and how to lobby. It also helps to watch Yes, Minister The political side of systems ; AUSTRALIA Post has boosted its PrintSoft global digital documents business with the acquisition of Program Products in Britain and France. The deal follows Australia Post's purchase of Melbourne-based PrintSoft in July last year, which included a 15 per cent stake in Program Media Dragons: Post office to deliver digitally
• · · · · · There is no consensus for the exact dates of Gen Y but I use 1978-94; these young Australians, then, are between 12 and 28 years old. They are motivated more by personal fulfilment and social responsibility than by traditional monetary rewards and are rejecting the corporate culture of work first, life second. Life's a beach and so is work ; How smart companies are creating new products -- and whole new businesses -- almost overnight Media Dragons and Speed Demons; From Sydney and Stockholm and Tokyo they come, as well as from Denver and Dallas. Anyone who has worked long and hard on a blog, Media Dragon zine, or web product realizes how ephemeral they are Lets get it all on paper ; A Slate story on digital thespians analysed What Right in Digital Actors? ; Now, don’t be fooled by the “current boyfriend” stuff on my bias meter: I’m a fickle girl, and I change those boyfriends like I change the paper lining the birdcage. I do have my perpetual boyfriends, my kinky little harem of talented, sexy boys

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I hate flowers. I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move.
- Georgia O'Keeffe

You know you're at Bondi Iceberg club when the guy in front of you in the line for Gabriella’s favourite calamari and chips, the strange dude with the silver mobile in his golden suit, actually is James Packer (James and Frank Lowy are two Ausies considered the richest men in the world), rather than just some tall hipster who looks like him. And later when the Czech waitress with impressive accent who is standing behind the bar suggests in her tone of her voice to hurry up and get his ass moving ;-) This brings me to Bukowski's later works grapples for meaning and (lost) authenticity in the fat-and-happy, driving-a-BMW years, is interesting because the contrast between his lean years and later success is just so stark and difficult to swallow. Franzen, if crass, probably knew what he was doing Oprah: Irony and humor: the realization that there's a way to go on, but ultimately no cure

Sputnik Sweetheart is a little like an Eric Rohmer film, in that everybody talks incessantly and not always cogently, but their babble matters less than the deeper feelings and human truths it betrays. Alas, it also runs the same risk of appearing slight the moment one abandons the effort of caring Murakami Haruki : Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the Center of Tokyo

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Freedom to insult
Antipodean = 'one who is from a part of the earth that is diametrically opposite'

We may be at the mercy of the great powers, but we’ve always kept our heads above water with irony and perseverance. One of the most frequently challenged authors of the past decade has two books on the American Library Association's (ALA) list of the most frequently challenged books of 2005. Robie H. Harris' “It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health” heads up the list, while “It's So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families” rounds out the top 10. Both books drew complaints for sexual content.

• Love may be lovelier the second time around, but literature just turns ugly [Condemned by their own words: The ten worst autobiographies ; Powerful women are either sexually voracious rulers like Catherine the Great or Elizabeth 1, or treacherous bitches like Cleopatra or Helen of Troy Celia Brayfield; Believing Makes It So Happy Antipodean ; Adam Shand's journey into Australia's outlaw nation to examine the claims that bikies are the foot soldiers for organised crime… Unhappy Antipodean Outlaw nation ]
• · Gregor Samsa did not die near the end of Kafka's The Metamorphosis but instead lives, as a beetle, with a side-show of human oddities Reissued: Insect Dreams by Marc Estrin; With great black clouds of Schadenfreude gathering over successful debut novelists, it’s a miracle anyone ever writes a second book at all. An author can’t win with a second novel. If your first novel was a flop, you know that you’ll be dead in the water if you don’t knock ’em dead with the second: Ludmilla’s Broken English Blood in the Cold River: how sharks love the scent of second novels
• · · These are tough times for writers in Zimbabwe, says Martin Goodman Fighting for fiction ; The retailing or remarking of any work has to carry the past into the future. The question of originality is an interesting one. Originality belonged to God. Humankind reflected and copied Her word ; If the writers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh win their case against Dan Brown, will the journalist who first described them as "historians" be able to claim royalties from everyone who has subsequently copied him? The imitation game ; If you had to pick just one book to take to the moon with you, what would it be? 10 Welsh authors pick books for a long trip along Cold River; Coping with a breakup is hard for everyone, but in my opinion, it is harder for men than it is for women. This is especially true for all those men who were involved in long-term relationships. It's not fair
• · · · If you struggle with the moral questions raised by the disastrous political commitments of certain otherwise stimulating or even essential writers, then ponder this anecdote. Letter from Sarajevo ; Finns head the list in terms of newspaper reading and library use, and studies show that Finnish children read better than any other country’s: dedicated to Aleksi and Anton Letter from Finland ; Dedicated to Minna Monaghan A Presence with Secrets ; Monika Kruesmann - Just saying 'no', just doesn’t cut it The gap between rape and consent
• · · · · The New Eastern European Intellectual: Why do some EEs make a fortune while so many others struggle financially? A Culture of Lies; It's also about a family coping with death and madness, so there's plenty to get your teeth into. he risk in transferring a play to the screen, of course, is that it will be dragged down by its theatrical origins Proof
• · · · · · Simone Weil wrote that suffering is a sign of God’s love. That is her beautiful use of paradox. Bidden or not bidden, God is present ; It is like what we imagine knowledge to be: dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free, drawn from the cold hard mouth of the world -Elizabeth Bishop At the Fishhouses Australia's Eureka Street follows the leaders online

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Crish was not so innocent as to believe that perfectly requited love was the only kind that lasted. As counselor he had listened to a hundred tales of one-way love, unilateral love, hopeless love. Of course there were love stories with happy endings and there were love stories that never seemed to end at all (for years after Chris's mother died, his father went on loving her memory), but Chris knew that love for some was a continual giving without getting, love spilling from the heart like water from a hillside spring, love bubbling up from a vast reservoir and coursing off as unrestrained as a river to the sea.
-Jon Hassler, The Love Hunter

Albert Einstein (the physicist not the blogger) summed it all up: Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed. The party was a big hit with everyone and even Eva seemed happy after navigating her way through the crush of partygoers outside the venue. This was the evening of a particularly alcoholic night out with the spirit of Charles Bukowski. This was very generous of Buk. Nights out like books are not isolated artefacts. It is written in context. A cultural milieu. A sort of a sociology-of-work context, only creative writing, art, for which the writer might not ever be paid. A labor of love. How do you put a price on a labor of love? How do you put a price on your spouse, or significant other's labor of love? There is also a book before it and a book after it in the catalog. The fact is that numbers are the perfect way to dehumanize tragedies, to make us cling to imaginary patterns in the chaos, and to draw emotion out of exiled life. A raw nerve had been struck: love-chasing literature

One of the problems I had... I was a writer. And it has taken me the longest time to arrive... Because it was a dilemma. My friends... There were friends of mine who were in jail because they had made bombs and had planted them. There were friends of mine who had to run for their lives into foreign countries Courageous pessimism

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: New York: Right before your eyes
Abhorred by the chefs who cook it and the waiters who serve it, overrun by Times-toting diners willing to endure hour-long waits to O.D. on cholesterol and carbs, brunch tends to disappoint - manifesto on all things superlative

Bars hidden behind unmarked doors are the faux-grunge counterpart to bottle-service clubs. Back Room, which fronts as a closed toy shop—you creep down an alley to find the entrance—is really no more of a mystery than its rumored investors, Tim Robbins (who’s been tending bar) and Mark Messier, but its devotion to the concept is charming. Drinks are served in teacups to foil “the bulls” (as the police were known in thirties gangster movies), the front door has a peek-and-speak hole, and a sliding bookcase reveals a second bar.

• The best local watering hole for wherever you live. Walking to bars is extremely dangerous. I wouldn't do it, but it's slightly safer than driving Bars in the Hood and Back Room [The secret clubs and back-room deli-slash-dive-bars where the city's most enjoyable carousing goes down. We all love NY even if we never walked the streets; While in Sydney this contagiously friendly swimming pub is a neighborhood hangout in a neighborhood where people don’t really “hang out.” People know each other by name, but they’re always willing to learn a new one. This blessedly undiscovered clifftop boîte is also the picture of romance The club remains a refuge for lost singleton souls and poor writers. This is without any doubt the last place your husband, dear Margaritas, will come looking for you and if he does we shall straighten them up ;-) Iceberg swimmers and flirt summer and winter without fail: Time that went easily, time that was a pleasure to do as you give what you can, and you take what you need. Good writers shouldn't really have the time for very active sex lives. Even if a wall of flesh is after them Which Swimming Shoes Would You Make Love In? ; Thoughts are pure, words aren't -- I say that somewhere in The Quorum: What's the point of being a writer? Prague Pill: Having Sex With Women Who Wear Glasses ]
• · Women On Writing: Review: I have no script. The story is me and the people around me. It's there, it's real life and there is no other. I'm not carrying any other story. There is little suspense. There is little violence. There is little drama. I'm interested in the celebration of life and irony. I have always regarded myself as transnational author. There are many different routes into the film-making industry – and many of these involve luck and chance. There is no set path that will guarantee you success, but there are definitely a number of things you can do to prepare your story for the best chance. Start blogging ... Cold River: The Cold Truth of Freedom ; It might have become easier to locate hard-to-get books, pictures and maps Tome raiders : but you will not find Cold River by JI in Australia True! as at 11 March 2006 AD
• · · I will be talking about my life in football and other things as well. There will be a few surprises in there ;-) My first 249 months by W Rooney ; Translators of fiction are like priests who stand between us and the literary gods. We need them even as we pine for direct contact Novels found in translation ; Can sexual inadequacy or deprivation turn angry young men into killers? Extremism: the loser's revenge ; What do commercial fishermen, holocaust rescuers, mall shoppers, tax payers, blood donors, nuns, serial mercy killers, John Dillinger, and people who obey traffic laws all have in common? Looking for Kindness in Most of the Wrong Places; Expect Saint Martin’s summer, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars. Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. In reality weird sex is a billion dollar business and it wouldn't make billions unless it was completely normal like toilet paper or milk The Absinthe Literary Review Short stories, poems, poetics and essays ; A New York buzzing with the scandal of James Frey is a picquant location to interview Peter Carey ... It's trite to say it, but the US is a country run by liars going to war on a fantasy, so it's interesting to see people getting self-righteous about James Frey Peter Carey: Fakes, frauds, lies and hoaxes
• · · · It surprises and pleases me that strangers still want to have sex with me, because I have two children and am 37 and am completely out of the closet as a mental wreck. Drugs are Nice ; This is really stupid, to fall in love with every person that you sleep with Sex With Emily ; Breaking up is hard to do. Once the relationship is over - get over it. Besides, if things were so great, you'd still be together, right? How to survive a breakup
The genius who painted the Sistine Chapel was also rude, puerile and a tad pornographic. Another figure I touched while the restorers’ backs were turned was a biblical character called Booz, who appears in the Old Testament as a kindly Jew who marries a much younger woman, Ruth, from a different tribe. The Michelangelo code
• · · · · As soon as people step out of poverty, they become potential Media Dragon customers ... Searching for the invisible man: Economics rediscovers the entrepreneur ; Puzzles over her illogical longings ; Shopping, cooking, eating, washing dishes... it's all such a time-sucking, distracting chore. Best to wrap it all up in plastic and hurry it along, lest lost time eat at you. Pot, this is kettle... I thought this was a forum for pop opinions ; Tits and giggles, really, when it comes right down to it, and perhaps more tits than giggles. Metaphorically speaking, it's tits that make us want to buy something, whether it be a journal or a car or a handbag or a sweater for a baby ... if tits can be made to stand in for the quotient of glamour, or the promise of effulgence, or the metronomic catapult of image saturation: one eye on the tit back at the tit back at your eye. Tits equals extra. Tits equals vibration. Tits equals fiction! Tits equals valley and leverage, glen and demonstration. Tits equals hot food for the rest of your life Tits and giggles: round, probably warm
• · · · · · How did a 40-year-old woman fool the world into thinking she was teenage prostitute and wunderkind author JT LeRoy? As a punk rocker, porn writer and phone sex operator, Laura Albert had been inventing herself for years. She is JT LeRoy ; Right, like Nixon. Whenever he got a question he didn't like, he'd say, "I'm glad you asked that," and then he'd change the subject... and then we had sexual intercourse, if you know what I mean The Naked and the Dead; Samuel Johnson might have said, "It is hard out here for a pimp, Sir, and there's an end on it" Picking Up the Lyric but Missing the Beat

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What a liv an bamba yay -- when the two sevens clash -- it dread
What a liv an bamba yay -- when the two sevens clash -- it bitter, bitter, bitter
What a liv an bamba yay -- when the two sevens clash -- a man ago feel it
What a liv an bamba yay -- when the two sevens clash -- you better do right
- Culture, Two Sevens Clash

Meet Antipodean long tail of infomaniacs Trevor Cook , Tim Dunlop , Perry Middlemiss , John Quiggin , Gianna ; Antony Loweinstein , Genevieve and Mark Bahnisch. They blog on widely divergent subjects, but in their determination to push the envelope and in their reliance on the whole wide world to help them do so, they’re on common ground. Cream of the Australasia

Will success spoil MySpace.com? Wassuuuup!? Sutra Lounge

The Blog, The Press, The Media: How to be a Corporate Blog Evangelist
Read both popular blogs, as well as blogs in your industry. Learn how to find them using a variety of tools, listen to the conversation.

Depending on the company DNA, creating and growing a business blogging program may be an easy or a difficult task.
Evangelists have a tough job in front of them as the program requires high and broad corporate approval. Articulating a vision to adopt a two-way, informal communication tool is a challenge when the medium associated with 'teens'.

• Two-way, informal communication [Trevor Cook recommends Too much information; surf the noise and much more; Okay, I admit it. I have a crush on Jane. Chances are, those feelings are not shared by Joe Klein. Ragheads ; Why haven't e-books caught on? ]
• · I'm in no mood to pick up the pen. Show her where the pain is beautiful, swollen, hot ... On Valentine's day, I guest-blogged over at that great website MurderSheWrites.com, about my experience with an unpublished writer who'd just finished his first manuscript How Dare You Not Read My Manuscript?; The wonderful Scots writer A L Kennedy has some hilarious yet realistic answers to these questions on her website: via katharine weber ; Computer technicans are threatening chaos at fast-food outlets, supermarkets, banks and airports unless they get a pay rise Geek threat: we'll take you down
• · · Leo Morris writes ‘If newspapers treat blogs as they should, as a technological innovation instead of a threat, perhaps they will enable a leap, too. Blogs will evolve as well -- they have to.’ Two worlds ; The Big News: Shrinking Reportage ; Of all the unhappy trends I have witnessed – conservative swings on television networks, dwindling newspaper circulation, the jailing of reporters and "spin" – nothing is more troubling to me than the obsequious press Lap Dogs Of The Press
• · · · This is the West Indies, this is that realm which once, in its innocence of history, mistook the lantern of a caravel for a light at the end of a tunnel and paid for that dearly -- it was a light at the tunnel’s entrance. This sort of thing happens often, to archipelagoes as well as to individuals; in this sense, every man is an island.... Art And Capitalist Relations And Why Publishing On The Web Might Be Interesting ; You are Channel Seven. Your hot new title for 2006 is Commander in Chief How will Australian TV cope with the internet? TV is a medium of ideas
• · · · · Blogging doesn't get any easier, however many times or years (4 years in June 2006) you've done it. We know that Media Dragon isn't the Oprah of blogging. We post links that span a broad ironic gamut, from experimental to the more mainstream, and we're not quite a household name. But we'd like to think we've achieved a measure of success precisely because we've pursued our vision. I don't know whether my mission is ironic or profetic. Or is it just pathetic? Alas, stones having been thrown, when some bloggers found out the best kept secret on the web Top 100 political blogs (#441 worldwide) ; One Asteron flack recently noted that, “Media Dragon is no joke. By some measures - such as the site Blogstreet - the antipodean dragon is the most influential blog site among the 13 million out there.” However, Cold River and its ranking on Amazon is flooded with irony. So I plan to use it as much as possible before it's outlawed Amazon from Hell v Cold River ; International Herald Tribune, France In the Internet era, the old media, like newspapers and television, are sometimes seen as dinosaurs, about to be rendered extinct by aggressive predators Old and new media meet but can't make connections
• · · · · · Upstartle runs Writely.com, which helps people access and edit documents from any computer on the internet Google edges closer to taking on Microsoft ; Whether economic, political, or religious in nature, our world is structured by ideas. And these ideas move so quickly through our media today that they are often accepted before they have been examined for truth. Modern media has the emotional power to make ideas feel true even when they are not. A single moment caught on film can render an entire story somehow “truthful” to an undiscerning audience. Investing in the Industry of Influence

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Now We Are Talking: the barbecue is burning with organic eye fillets as I am locked out when I open a door for my Czech mate the front door bangs and the sound carries over the Wonderland Park. It is amazing how much the potential of burnt meal gets one’s adrenolyn rushing through your body. Without any doubt absailing had come in handy as I was up two floors from the concrete ground and standing next to my barbie searing the meat again in less than a minute. How embarrasing, however, to lock both of your hands between balcony bars ;-) Aouch! To blog or not to blog - here's some link love ... To blog or not to blog

A Change of Scenery, but Not of Purpose, on This Column's Long Journey. Good morning, Government department workers!
Bloglossary: Find terms used in blogs

The Blog, The Press, The Media: You're Only as Good as Your Next One
Gary was a loner in Congress and his overly cerebral nature alienated some people. Hart has a brilliant mind but has not been able to fully contribute to the country he loves, which is a tragedy.

When I was in office, the morning TV shows were dedicated to public policy," says former Colorado senator Gary Hart. "You'd turn on the 'Today' show and they'd have serious discussions of health-care problems and Cold War issues, and they'd have people from Congress on. Now it's all about lifestyle. It's cooking, it's dressing, it's celebrity-oriented, it's promotion of other television programs on the network, it's sensationalism. I think the heirs of William Randolph Hearst have taken over the whole industry

• Hart remembers when morning shows covered serious issues [The A+ list of Aussie bloggers ; Top Ten Sources is a new site that finds best blog sources on a topic ; Lulu expansion Five more European sites ! 1,000 new titles a week ! ]
• · So Long Mr. Jeeves, Ask.com is Here Gary Price's explanation on Resourceshelf ; Study: people misinterpret tone in e-mails; Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down
• · · Skipease: a blog about skip-tracing, public records and people finding ; Second Annual Blog Appreciation Day
• · · · One By One Media, LLC; Media companies across the world jockey for the best of the new internet businesses: Chris Sharkey, Audrey Hunt, Stayz, b5 media, Darren Rowse, Shai Coggins Online buying frenzy: big business swoops ; Try this on for size: According to researcher eMarketer, the ad market for podcasts will grow to $300 million in 2010 from $80 million this year Podcast Riches?
• · · · · Newspaper stories about five drug-related murders in Nuevo Laredo on Tuesday were buried after editors were threatened by drug cartel members "If we publish it, we die. It's that simple," says editor ; Today, if we want to get a message into the public’s conversation, we just make a post on a blog. If The Wall Street Journal goes after a client, we don’t have to accept that anymore. Let’s post the documents we gave The Journal; let's show the interviews the newspaper decided not to show. It used to be I would schmooze you and I was your flack "You're not God anymore"
• · · · · · What is it about blogging that causes so many of the people who do it to believe they've been anointed to an online College of Cardinals, with their own personal stone tablet engraved with The 10 - or possibly 20 - Commandments of Blogging? You're not really a blogger if ... ; Like the Internet, blogging has been over-hyped Has blogging peaked?

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McMurtry Thanks Booksellers at the Academy Awards:
The Oscar goes to somebody who should have gotten it a couple years ago, but got screwed over in favor of somebody else who got screwed over before him. At the 78th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, several of the Oscar-winning films were based on books -- Brokeback Mountain, Memoirs of a Geisha, Capote, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Constant Gardener, and Tsotsi. While Steve may be happy to see happy hot nipples, I'm pleased that Cold River is attracting a few inquiries from American film makers. Like the law, the Cold River is not designed to make us honorable, only bearable ... It is Vidal that it is not enough to succeed. Others must fail! By the way, in his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay, Larry McMurtry acknowledged the role of books in film, and he offered a paean to All the booksellers of the world

Why must great literature from Macbeth to Madame Bovary to Anna Karenina have all those sad endings? Time to cheer things up. Rid the world of all the negative consequences that limit us all. Given the freedom, tireless media dragons fail To Cuddle Cold River: Defeat is Victory, Death is Life

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Omen: Licking Your Way to Marriage
Don't worry. It won't last. It never does ... I asked my wife how she feels about this topic, and she answered: "Arrrrmg muuuumm baaaarrrr arrrr muuum."

It's cruel what I've done to my husband. Though, in my defense, I can honestly say I didn't set out to trick him into marriage. It just kind of, er, happened. I mean people age. Responsibilities pile up. I can't very well be doing that morning, noon and night, as I'd led him to believe in our brief courtship. Plus, it's tax season. I'm not exactly in the mood when one part of my brain is adding up mileage between Pittsburgh and Bethlehem.

• It can't cut you slack. LOL! What a bunch of women. Cruel, cruel, cruel... [Gerardo Barranquero is the nervousy person telling nervousy jokes for the nervousy people sitting at the Asteron resting room on 24th floor how sex on the first date is apparently on the rise Great Sex-pectations ; The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, brain surgery. I want to make clear at the outset - I was the first Czech writer who used to have a moustache that made Tom Selleck envious. Making Love in Public-- An Interview with Phyllis Curott, The Love Spell; Plenty of Smelly Fish? First date mistakes: too much neck hair. Rude to wait staff. Lateness. Too many mentions of ex. Saying, “My third marriage wasn’t my fault” Chasing Daylight: Picky, Picky; There is a universal law about growth: everything is either growing or dying. Remember to live with passion! What are you willing to do to create the new relationship you desire? ]
• · Watermark Books in Wichita, Kansas, is nearing the 30-year milestone, but still brimming with youthful enthusiasm. Founded in 1977, the store has relocated twice, once in the early 1990s, and 10 years ago, when it also added a café. The 5,000-square-foot store now anchors the oldest strip mall in Kansas, Lincoln Heights Village, which features many locally owned stores. Hitting the High Watermark in Wichita ; Halos of deceitful, misguiding light, filling people's hearts with both fear and delight Taking Stories to Bed
• · · Czechs Living Abroad - Thousands who fled communist rule remain abroad despite law Few Czech émigrés reapply for citizenship ; Life is first boredom, then fear. Whether or not we use it, it goes, And leaves what something hidden from us chose, And age, and then the only end of age - Philip Larkin Bohemian Alex is all about Sweeter sixteen
• · · · Pejman Yousefzadeh tells us why war, coffee, fair trade and show business are all intertwined The coffee wars ; At first blush, it strikes me that most women believe that there is something sexy about being rich, as in me ;-) ... List of my peace brothers who happen to be rich men. Am I not God anymore? Ranking of world's billionaires by Forbes: # 1 Jozef Imrich
• · · · · Everyone who goes to the movies knows how good Cate Blanchett is, which is why the Australian production of “Hedda Gabler” in which she’s currently touring is such a hot ticket. All about Cate ; Philip Larkin - There certainly is a cult of the mad these days: think of all the boys who’ve been in the bin—I don’t understand it. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Hardy—it’s the big, sane boys who get the medals. The object of writing is to show life as it is, and if you don’t see it like that you’re in trouble, not life. A thought that is sweet and sharp abides in my soul, a wearying and a delightful burden ;-) Promise is the capacity for letting people down - Dedicated to Lauren
• · · · · · A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left. One of the most moving things about Petrarch’s life was his intense desire to read, along with the precious rarity of good books Rereading the Renaissance ; The cult of the mean girl Minna Monaghan - It happens to the best of women even who celebrate 40 something birthday in March ;-) Naked ambition : How much do women care about other women? ; Septuagenarian sex. When it comes to women’s sexuality, the line between emancipation and oppression is wafer thin Sex and the Seasoned Woman

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I haven’t fallen off the edge of the earth. I am recovering from another series of strange coincidences so I have not been replying to my emails. I am finding lately that emails drain me - not sure why ... What is going on so many people around me are in hospitals or undergoing some kind of treatment - radiology is a word on many lips

Writing is like crime. The page is about what you can get away with. We break and enter, transgress, autopsy the living and dead, rob, exchange identities, lie, confess, steal. The arts of writing and successful crime are the same. Opportunity. Robbery. Seizure. Con. Misdirection. Theft. Fiction is a form of fraud, the most elegant, exquisite and complicated forms of creative fraud.
-Kate Braverman

You know you need to clear your head once you start having less than divine dreams with writers like Miranda Devine By George, Hollywood's out of touch

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Speaking truth to power
How is it that some liars, thieves and moral midgets like Gerardo Barranquero are perceived by Asteron and other times by other companies as exemplars of probity and virtue?

Why is it that some people who really do possess the 'right stuff' are perceived as dishonest, untrustworthy and not up to scratch? What is it about human perception that allows us to attribute good qualities to bad people on some occasions, and on other occasions to ascribe bad qualities to good people? In the 1980s, when I was a current affairs interviewer with a certain amount of inside knowledge of the virtues and peccadillos of many for the political and corporate doyens of the time, How could some 'Crooks in Dark Suits', as I came to know them, hold such enormous sway over the polity, over the investment community, and over the backroom boys and girls who often bankrolled their apogean journeys into the corporate, and "'sometimes political, mainstream? Conversely, why were many patently talented 'Honest Joes and (Jozefines) left out in the cold river? Why did many perceive them to have suspect motives, negative qualities and unappealing personalities? Did they look, behave or talk differently?

• CHARISMA. Magic, Appeal, Influence, Magnetism, Aura, Radiance. You can't define it The bases of social power [A deputation of Australian independent film-makers will head to Canberra next week to argue for tax changes that they say will allow them to compete internationally and lead to a surge in local film investment Push for tax break on local filming ; The New South Wales Parliament makes the video and audio material available on the following conditions: i. The material shall not be used for: political party advertising or election campaigning; satire or ridicule… Some guidelines have reached Media Dragon regarding the NSW Parliament's exciting new Video Hansard]
• · Two days after St Jozef’s day on 21 March to coincide with Harmony Day I will become part of taxing Antipodean history: Thank you Sharmini Taxing Times ; America's Most Admired Companies, 2006 from Fortune. And the winners are...
• · · Fishing for talent in a sea of change ; Cold Blackwell of Water Have I hit the mark?
• · · · When a bohemian barman who's told by a broken hearted wife that her husband Scott Reid is cheating on her discovers she is ready to jump the harbour Bridge, he marries her, convinced that God will honor his good intentions and make the couple fall in love. But can it really be that simple? Heart of glass; As child care grows harder to find and afford, parents are pressing for reform. But who should pay - and what are the costs of getting it wrong? More than six in 10 young people in NSW are putting off having children because they cannot afford to get on the housing ladder, a Daily Telegraph survey has found. The website study has found 63 per cent have delayed starting families because house prices have soared. Putting a Price on Our Children
• · · · · Do Writers Need Web Sites? by C.S. Paquin; Another new free archive from Newspaperarchive.com, here are pages of newspapers carrying stories about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The stories are searchable. Titanic Newspaper Archive
• · · · · · Saturday partners in crime swimming across the Bondi Bay, Dave Kelly the Irish Captain and Ian, Jonesey, (required oxygen mask after bluebottles bit him ;-) do note this 2005 World Shark Attack summary ; #1 song on this date in history from Billboard charts, back to 1940 ; Memories of Lauren ;-) 1984 ... "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder