Posted 8:03 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.
- G. K. Chesterton Everlasting Man, 1925

The bells of freedom are ringing: How do you begin to contain the emotion of contributing to freedom for the very first time in over 50 years. And for many - the first time ever in their life? How do you contain the emotion of seeing a day arrive that you have dreamed of for many tortured, horrible, murderous nights...
Some assorted quotes from Iraqis on the eve of elections

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Great Freedom: Just Another Word?
Polls open in country's first free vote in a half-century. Bush's freedom had better be more than a song. Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other...

A string of suicide bombings and mortar attacks, some targeting lines of Iraqi voters waiting to cast their ballots in the first free elections in half a century, have killed at least 16 people and wounded at least 52 more.

Like most Americans, I've never had to be brave to vote. I just show up at the polls, negotiate the ballot, grab an "I voted" sticker and drive home satisfied that the world will continue to turn on its axis in the usual way. We're not the kind of people that kneel to terror & the sights of blood & beheadings.The people have accepted the challenge; democracy & elections are not a luxury for Iraqis, it's an issue of life or death.
• Historical Times [The election in Iraq is without precedent. Never, not even in the dying days of Weimar Germany, when Nazis and Communists brawled in the streets, has there been such a concerted attempt to destroy an election through violence - with candidates unable to appear in public, election workers driven into hiding, foreign monitors forced to 'observe' from a nearby country, actual voting a gamble with death, and the only people voting safely the fortunate expatriates and exiles abroad. ; Iraq's election takes place in extraordinary circumstances, and it poses extraordinary difficulties For the Triumph of Evil' ; Election in pictures; via cigar in sand ]
• · When you read that Jordan’s King Abdullah is taking steps to organize new elections in his country, with regional election districts that look a lot like Iraq’s, you realize just how wrong my friend Peggy Noonan is when she writes that President Bush’s inaugural speech “forgot context.” Freedom Over Cynicism; [The Long Road to a Vote ]
• · · Winston Churchill was born in the grandest private house ever bought with public money... In the great drama, he was the greatest of them all Why the world is still in the shadow of Churchill ; [I've only come to realise recently that Thailand is very much a fledgling democracy itself ]
• · · · Democrats agonizing over finding their way back from their 2004 presidential defeat got a lesson in how not to do it in the Senate vote to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. Searching for a spine: A second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience; [There was a death in Washington recently that received far less attention than it deserved: the New Democrat philosophy of Bill Clinton is dead. This is a truly extraordinary development; one that should not be allowed to pass so quietly. The Strange Death That No One Cares About]
• · · · · Anthony Wilmo writes that everyone in NSW from the Premier down is gambling with their lives stepping on to a train in Sydney. Taking us back to the good old days when the NSW Government was handing out steel contracts to BHP; G. K. Chesterton: It is terrible to contemplete how few politicians are hanged: Christian Berthelsen, Jim Herron Zamora and Todd Wallack of the San Francisco Chronicle used state campaign finance records to show that four political consultants have benefited from their association with state Sen. Don Perata: “they have collectively grossed $1.4 million from campaigns and political funds associated with Perata over the last 10 years Influence, family and political favors
• · · · · · G. K. Chesterton: When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale. Sean O’Neill of the The Times of London used Britain’s new Freedom of Information law to obtain records showing that “almost £900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers British Police Protection

Posted 1:01 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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While I managed to read most of the weekend papers, I even read the Daily Terror on Saturday from cover to cover at the Grind on Cronulla Beach and between my barbecue duties during the weekend two-day Athletics competition - 8 am to 6 pm. After the daylight of swimming and althletics in the most humid weekends of all, we also coped with the night invasion from Gabriella's Godfather and co. Steve tends to boast several world trips in a year and each takes less than 80 days. Steve is like me he loves reading and he seems to also spend more time reading blogs than the actual newspapers or magazines. I just spent several hours walking through my favourite blogs all classified in my odd way on the left side. I start at the Nota Nota Bene and move down gradually till I read the very last links. Some blog entries, I just scan, others I re-read several times and occasionally if the spirit moves me I go through the commentariat baptism of left v right wing fire. Like most bloggers, I dream of being on my death bed with a blog in my hand (smile). Without any doubt, the coverage of election in Iraq on a number of blogs is just unbelievable. Touching. Inclusive. Like a conversation over an espresso. Some write with such passion that one feels transported to the trouble spots of Iraq. The words and the images are rather moving. Let us hope that the people of Iraq move in the right direction in 2005. A direction of freedom and forgiveness ...
Voters flock to blog awards site: Voting is under way for the annual Bloggies which recognise the best web blogs - online spaces where people publish their thoughts - of the year Bloggies

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Iraqi Election Bloggrage
Buzzmachine compiles a roundup of blogs covering the Iraq election.

Friends of Democracy has citizen correspondents in each province filing reports, mostly in Arabic, which are translated and posted here. Michael J. Totten is acting as anchor-blogger through the election. Note that they will have a webcast show about this starting at 2p ET Sunday and it will also be aired on C-SPAN.

The election in Iraq this coming Monday is easily the biggest story of the year thus far and could arguably be one of the most consequential events since the attacks of September 11 or the fall of the Berlin Wall. Given its importance, you would expect the mainstream media to devote a significant amount of resources to covering and analyzing the run up to the election. But aside from a few notable exceptions, that just isn't happening - especially in the major daily newspapers across the country.
• Unbelievable Coverage from the Ground [Mainstream Coverage: What little coverage we get of the Iraqi election is either bundled into or completely overshadowed by astonishingly negative stories that get front page treatment with blaring headlines. ; The Blog Search Engine]
• · John Cameron MeMo The verdict on the ABC News revamp ; [At the end of this column each week I ask you blogfans to let me know what bloggers are most in need of mention in this space.]
• · · Bill Haas says he may kill himself; [Norwegians might want to use a reality check before trusting directions from Microsoft's online MapPoint service. Ultimately, Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble posted a blog item of his own, apologizing for the error ]
• · · · The Blog's New Role in Crisis Communications So, why a blog in a crisis? ; [Extreme bloggers are so hip and cool they can make fun of the poor and disadvantaged while working out of paneled bank offices Beware of the Blog ; Tim Blair ; Jolly Jelly Fish on Australia Day ]
• · · · · Tekrati Debuts Directory of Industry Analyst Weblogs Analyst blog directory and special report debut in conjunction with New Communications Forum 2005 ; [Tekrati ;]
• · · · · · If you've been wondering who was behind The GM Fastlane Blog, General Motors' step into the public blogosphere by executive blogger Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. Insights On GM Executive Blog ; [Don't call Jossip a blog, even though, well, it is. Hauslaib prefers "online magazine." B**g as a dirty word]

Posted 9:03 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Bob: Minister are you lying the foundations for a police state?
Jim: You know, I'm glad you asked that question.
Bob: Well Minister could we have the answer?
Jim: Well yes, of course, I was just about to give it to you, if I may. Yes as I said I'm glad you asked me that question because it's a question that a lot of people are asking, and quite so, because a lot of people want to know the answer to it. And let's be quite clear about this without beating about the bush the plain fact of the matter is that it is a very important question indeed and people have a right to know.
Bob: Minister, we haven't yet had the answer.
Jim: I'm sorry, what was the question?
- Big Brother (Yes Minister / PM series)

The first day of a new emergency calls system in NSW had been beset by problem Police calls redirected in triple-0 bungle

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It
Sir Humphrey: The police have suffered an acute personnel establishment shortfall.
Jim: They what?
Sir Humphrey: They're short staffed.
- The Death List

State MPs who rort their parliamentary allowances will no longer have to face the Independent Commission Against Corruption under far-reaching changes recommended to Premier Bob Carr. In the Sun Herald editorail (not available on line) Philip McLean writers that the concept may have taken a battering over the past few years - with, for example, untruths told about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq-but trust and integrity in public life should still matter to the Australian people. That is why we view with concern a proposal to partially exempt NSW politicians from the purview of the state’s anti-corruption watchdog. While it remains just a proposal, it is disturbing to think that our politicians would even contemplate a change to allow them to live by a different set of rules.

It's little wonder that in the middle of a damning and damaging inquiry into (NSW premier) Bob Carr and his government he's talking about weakening the ICAC. Man of 1,000 masks: But the real one was hard to find John Brogden is trying to find the real reason behind the latest salvo on ICAC.
• One Law to Govern the public service - Mps included [The Bush administration "spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton between 1997 and 2000," including $88 million in fiscal year 2004 How to Win through Spin ; Public relations firms; Mercy Buckets Source Watch ]
• · In all of Iraq, Jumana Hanna was the bravest witness to the horror of Saddam's regime ; [Election Under the Shadow of Violence; Fighting broke out yesterday at Sydney polling booths where expatriate Iraqis cast their votes for today's historic election in the strife-torn country. Police cordoned-off Queen St, Auburn; When I look at the ink on my finger -- this is a mark of freedom Iraqis in Australia cast first votes in election ; Iraqi exiles cast first votes in election ]
• · · The Labor whip Roger Price broke tradition to ban TV and print camera people from filming caucus members going in and out. He even tried to ban reporters gathering in the usual place on the way to the Caucus room. Huh? They stood their ground, and on the way in to rubber stamp Beazley (Price is a Rudd supporter) he barked, "No cameras. And no approaching anyone." (He did allow filming, by one shooter on behalf of all, of Beazley and Macklin arriving. Burial or praise of Labor's new Caesar? No comment ; [Who Do You Trust? ]
• · · · Alex Mitchell and Kerry-Anne Walsh, in their Naked (Mirror) Eye on 30 January 2005, ask readers to meet Mutt ‘n’ Jeff. Jim Maher, former press secretary to just exited NSW Treasurer Michael Egan, will not be going to Kabul as agent-general as suggested by the Sun Herald last week. He is joining Nathan Vass, whose position as communications director at Egan’s Department of State Development ended abruptly last December, to form a corporate communications partnership called Maher & Vass. Already it is being affectionately nicknamed Mutt ‘n’ Jeff. [New Hampshire judge suspended for groping five women quits Dumbest move ever ; NSW Treasurer Andrew Refshauge has signalled tax relief for families while hinting at greater spending on the State's beleaguered rail network. Treasurer signals tax relief; Underdog takes on Tripodi for place in Carr's cabinet ; Scully risks all in power play for his faction mate ]
• · · · · Families sending their child off to start school this week can expect to spend up to $150,000 on that child's education over the next 13 years Parents hit by mounting education bills; [The student-to-staff ratio in our state schools is 15 to 1, higher than any other state or territory and above the national average of 14.6 to 1. NSW pupil ratios the 'worst in Australia' ; Between 1995 and 2002, 634 people were charged with murder in NSW. About two-thirds (422 people) were refused bail. Of those, 83 people who pleaded not guilty won their cases. And despite spending more than a year in custody for a crime they did not commit, the former inmates are entitled to neither compensation nor counselling. One in five prisoners charged with murder and refused bail will later be cleared of all charges and released. ]
• · · · · · NSW would do what it could to help the Federal Government keep an eye on Mamdouh Habib, Premier Bob Carr said today. It's a matter for police and their counter terrorism unit. We will cooperate with commonwealth police but it is not a matter that I will direct or give a public account of; Mr Habib has some chronic medical conditions as a result of his incarceration that we're going to get taken care of, or at least have specialists take a look at Mr Habib's legal team today painted a picture of a broken man trying to reclaim his life; Google: Canberra shackled and shamed by Habib

Posted 8:50 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The average adult has about five liters of blood living inside of their body, coursing through their vessels, delivering essential elements, and removing harmful wastes. Without blood, the human body would stop working.
Blood is the fluid of life, transporting oxygen from the lungs to body tissue and carbon dioxide from body tissue to the lungs. It’s as hard to find a universal blood donors as it is to find a great espresso. According to Karl Landsteiner, my blood type, type O blood, is said to be a universal donor. And so is the blood of Peter the Great (smile)
One of the reasons my blood at the Red Cross Bank has a consistently good level of hemoglobin is because I tend to discover great baristas not only in the virtual world, but also in the real world. Robust, fragrant, and surprisingly versatile, espresso is more than simply the world's favorite beverage, it is hearty and distinctive ingredient in its own right, enhancing the flavors of everything from cakes and cookies to candies, ice creams, and sauces. Without any doubt, Richard Calabro is one of Australia's finest Baristas. Every drop of his espresso shows a burning passion and the photo mosaics on the walls ooze out with smiles and exotic atmosphere from every single shot. At summer time, Richard surrounds himself with bohemian artists who are part of the furniture at his cafe Grind down on Cronulla Beach. On Saturday and Sunday, it is there that coffee lovers congregate from all over Sydney to go and experience his charm, charisma and of course his famous blend of coffee, all garnished with latte art! In Richard's words "It's like Mona Lisa in a cup" If you are lucky, he may even play you a song on the guitar... Robust espresso props go out to this amazing Barista who is a true testament to his craft!
At the Nulla Grind, Richard treats coffee addiction with respect. In fact, he will show you how to elevate your coffee drinking habit to a higher level of sophistication. During the week Richard explains what it takes to become a world class barista... Well, it takes a great passion for espresso, dedication, technical skill and a way of making people feel relaxed and welcome. Behind the cool facade of a great barista serving cup after cup of perfection lies years of practice and dedication. It is not something that is learned simply by reading a book or watching a instructional video, even though they might be a good source of inspiration :) First of all, to make a perfect cappuccino you first have to start by making a perfect espresso.
I am happy to say that if you really want to stand out from the Coffee Crowd Richard will show you how to create your very own signature drink. This is an opportunity of a lifetime to learn the rich skills and useful techniques from the man who not only practices, but also preaches. Email Richard at espressoheads@hotmail.com or ring him on 0403 844 533 to book your spot at his espresso of mona lisa classes. Ach, in April 2005 you could find yourself sleepless at the World Barista Championship
[I'd Rather Be At Grind Espresso Bar - Base of Royal Rydges Hotel 20-6 Kings Way; Cronulla NSW 2230]

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Red Cross Calling: Royal Blood Transfusions
This year marks the 90th anniversary year of the Red Cross on Australian shores - 90 years of Australians helping Australians.
Australian Red Cross proudly announces the attendance of their Royal Highnesses, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark at the Australian Red Cross 90th Anniversary Gala Event to be held on 2 March 2005.
In June 1859 Dunant, a Swiss national, witnessed the horrifying aftermath of the Battle of Solferino - a fierce and bloody conflict in Northern Italy between 300,000 soldiers, among them ten thousand Czechs and Slovaks, from Imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian Alliance. Convinced that the power of humanity could be engaged to alleviate suffering and distress on a global scale, Dunant founded the International Committee of the Red Cross in October 1863.

Typically, each donated unit of blood - referred to as whole blood - is separated into multiple components, such as red blood cells, plasma, platelets, and cryoprecipatitated AHF (antihemophilic factor). Each component can be transfused to different individuals with different needs. Therefore, each donation can be used to help save as many as three lives.

In a quirky twist the agency and crew behind the Australian Red Cross’ new TVC also star in the ad ...
• Do as we do: BMF art director Andrew Ostrom gives blood in the new Red Cross ad ; [credits: Red Cross ; One enchanted evening... ; To purchase tables please contact Robyn Dinners on 02 9699 2000, robynd@marksonsparks.com, or visit www.marksonsparks.com and click on 'One Enchanted Royal Evening'. www.marksonsparks.com ; There may be no greater act of bravery for someone with a fear of needles than to donate blood. Of course, it's this kind of giving that is so important to maintaining the Red Cross's life-saving stocks. In many ways giving blood is like blogging. I assume that is why not many politicians give blood or blog on a regular basis ... Icon links to Red Cross ]
• · Brett Sheehy can be proud of his four years in the Sydney Festival director's seat Thanks for the memories
• · · He is the all-time giant of Russian literature, who shaped the literary heritage of the world’s biggest country. But now Alexander Pushkin’s legacy is in danger of being tainted by an argument over whether some of his early work is pornographic, and whether his ‘adult verses’ even came from the pen of the ‘National Poet’. Russian literary giant Pushkin labelled as a peddler of porn
• · · · Christopher MacLehose warns, 'Publishers are sheep. They think: something is going on in Japan. They're right. But there has always been something going on in Japan. Lonely pleasures of fiction from Toky
• · · · · Claudia Karvan is considering a leading role in Footy Legends, the feature film that is expected to propel director Khoa Do towards mainstream success. Do, who was celebrating his award as Young Australian of the Year last week, has pulled together a promising potential cast for his new movie - the follow-up to his critically acclaimed independent film The Finished People. Footy Legends
• · · · · · For a rather long time now -- approximately, since the Berlin Wall came down, the name Durs Grünbein (b. 1962) has been the answer to the question: who's the leading young poet in Germany ? From The burning issue in The Guardian by James Fenton

Posted 5:55 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The danger of hyping a good thing into the ground. Slate's Shafer likes to think of himself as a slow blogger

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Blog Overkill

Chill, blogophiles; you're not the first to do what you're doing. Thomas Paine was basically a blogger — in 1776

Sometimes I'm so slow -- as this Wednesday dispatch from a Friday-Saturday ["Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility"] conference proves -- that I resemble a conventional journalist," says Jack Shafer. He writes: "The premature triumphalism of some bloggers indicates that they haven't paid attention to how Webified journalists have become. They also ignore media history. New media technologies almost never replace old media technologies, they merely force old technologies to adapt and find new ways to connect with their audiences

• Jeez. Take a pill, all you blogomaniacs [Jay Rosen - It’s Decency Jack Shafer Lacks. ; grooming - More sources are great, but we need to arrange them better]
• · Jill Abramson writes after attending the blogging conference: Big Wigs From the Blogging & Journalism Conference Say What They Found; [Rick Edmonds : Not so long ago -- three or four years -- online operations were a business afterthought at newspapers. Revenues from the sites were tiny, one percent or less of the total.An Online Rescue for Newpapers? ]
• · · I try to look at big issues that I don’t think are being well covered and then cover them," he says. Taxes was just one of the big issues I looked at and said, boy this is just not well covered at all. David Cay Johnsto: doing investigative work his entire life ; [When is a multi million dollar organization forced to react to a rag-tag group of bloggers "waging politics online? Rat Bags ]
• · · · Cash For Comment; Ministerial Positions for Great Spins: Now that two syndicated columnists have admitted taking government money for promoting certain points of view, is the growing scrutiny of all commentators long overdue? Pundit Payola: Williams, Gallagher Were Wrong, But What's Right?
• · · · · The Imagining the Internet Predictions Database examines the potential future of the Internet while simultaneously providing a peek back into its history Searchable and browsable database of over 4000 predictions made about the Internet ; [A new First Amendment Center Online research compilation examines the ins and outs of filing requests for government information Freedom of Information Database ]
• · · · · · I'm often asked how I stay motivated to blog every day (well, almost every day). I tell them that if you have a passion for something, then the motivation will just come naturally Staying Motivated ; [Critics and supporters debate success of fast-rising PublishAmerica Self Marketing Void]

Posted 4:53 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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We like to believe in progress, but the truth is that the electronic age may be just a return of the manuscript age, and the print age may come to be seen as a 500 year abberation -- an island of fixity in an ocean of loss.
-Michael Gorman

A multi-million pound lottery grant has secured for Scotland the most important literary archive to become available in the last 100 years. Lottery saves literary who's who
Over 3000 visitors to a Washington DC arts festival picked up postcards (just like this one) inviting them to share a secret anonymously

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Editors: there is no Gentleman's Safety Net
M .J. Rose's January at Buzz Balls & Hype presents what, for Mad Max a heartbreaking letter from an anonymous
literary writer.
Dynamite Dexter, Sad Saxe and many others out there may not admire Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE.

But what started the fire that lead to TDVC becoming one of (if not the) bestselling hardcovers in modern history was not some by-the-numbers calculation by some hooded group of marketing executives, but the passion--yes, I'll say it again: the PASSION, and follow-through, of one editor; of his belief in an author's talent; of his confidence that the author had a book in him that could catch fire at a larger level.
If Jason Kaufman had NOT taken Dan Brown with him to Doubleday; if another editor, equally smart and talented but perhaps less personally invested in Dan's career--me, say--had inherited, edited and published it, THE DA VINCI CODE almost certainly would not have become anything like the phenomenon we all know it to be now.

• An editor's passion guarantees NOTHING--except, perhaps, an honest chance [The Quills Awards are a consumer-driven celebration of the written word created to inspire reading while promoting literacy ; Wait. Let me get this straight Flickr coincidence; Wikipedia: Unusual articles ]
• · Prague's leading-locale status for Hollywood films is under threat unless government does more to keep them here, say producers Lights, camera, inaction; [The self-published books that go on to become bestsellers are few, but they never cease to inspire ; Self-publishing companies are in the business of selling dreams. But what if the dream becomes a nightmare? ]
• · · Every day for eight months Tomas Radil cheated death Dark humor marks concentration camp survivor's tale ; [The imminent return of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has sparked a debate over anti-terror laws which could stop him from making money from selling his story. Proceeds of criminal legislation may well cover any payment to him ]
• · · · Hottest Young Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie: On his way home from the airport to his home in Sydney, Stuart Beattie had a homicidal thought while sitting in the backseat of the taxi... First Novel: A 35-Year Literary Odyssey ; [THE ULTIMATE SCREENWRITING EXPERIENCE SINCE 1996 ]
• · · · · Roll out the red carpet: the publishing industry is trying to apply some glitter to its image with a new book awards program that is a cross between the Oscars and the People's Choice Awards. Quills Literacy Foundation ; [Steve Martin ]
• · · · · · My auntie was married to Jozef Slivka: I'm interested in human culture, what we do, where we have been, what we have left behind, what we have learned or not learned from past experiences. Ruins are a window into human histories, they tell the stories of the past through the stark presence of objects and architectures. An Exhibit of Judaica in honor of the opening of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale

Posted 6:27 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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It can happen, and it can happen everywhere. I do not intend to nor can I say that it will happen...it is not very probable that all the factors that unleashed the Nazi madness will again occur simultaneously but precursory signs loom before us...It only awaits its new buffoon (there is no dearth of candidates) to organize it, legalize it, declare it necessary and mandatory, and so contaminate the world.
-Primo Levi Drowned, pp. 199-200
What is Levi's main point here about memory?

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Gray Zone: Wal-Mart's Telling 'Statement'
As you may know, Wal-Mart makes an exception to its anti-union stance in that bastion of freedom, China.

BBC story provides the basic facts. (The Chinese "union" is controlled by the government, and "represents" workers accordingly.) Then read Harold Myerson's Washington Post column (reg req) to understand the meaning of it all, which I summarize with this apt quote: When a company such as Wal-Mart is so plainly comfortable with authoritarianism abroad, it tells you something about that company's values at home.

• If in Rome ... [Gillmor; A former Mr Fixit who moved in a shadowy world between crooks, police and politicians, Fayez (Frank) Hakim has died aged 74. Hakim: Death of a one-time godfather ]
• · Young Australian adults want to have children but job and relationship insecurities are holding them back, says a major Federal Government-funded study of the country's low fertility rate. Only 8 per cent say they never want children
• · · A brief truce within the federal ALP broke down dramatically last night, with senior frontbenchers accusing one another of plotting to bring down deputy leader Jenny Macklin. ALP united - in the spirit of bickering
• · · · I grew up on tales from concentration camps. My parents remembered Gulags and Ukraine of Stalin. They remembered Holocaust of Hitler. Holocaust literature must be sampled, interspersed with other reading. If you dive into it for several months at a time, you wind up wanting to kill yourself Remembering the end of horror that was Auschwitz ; Survivors and their children and their children's children continue in their private and largely silent struggle None of it is over. I doubt the alphabet will ever end
• · · · · No more secrecy as Sydney investigates how open it has been Town Hall Lord Mayor, Clover Moore ; Orange Grove inquiry told of Trojan horse warning

Posted 3:59 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Dylanesque times at the wettest Blue Mountains:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide,
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Link of Links

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The River is Real, the Word is still Fake
The world has, to its shame, failed more than once to prevent or halt genocide - for instance in Cambodia, in Rwanda, and in the former Yugoslavia

The world has not absorbed the lessons of the Holocaust, and genocide occurs today as if it had never happened. That was the message delivered to a historic session of the United Nations on Monday by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who is a Holocaust survivor.

• Sixty years on, lessons of Holocaust ignored [A 'Tsunami' in Private Giving This shameful indifference we must remember ; High Hopes, Hard Facts For the dead it is too late, but it is not too late for today's children, ours and yours ]
• · Simple things should be simple. Complex things should be possible. -Alan Kay If you stumbled out of bed in the dark this morning, fell over the cat, found no milk in the fridge for your porridge, had a row with your partner, received a rude letter from the bank, got covered in snow at the bus stop and finally arrived at work in time to be made redundant, you will already know that today is the most depressing day of the year. It's The Moustache That Matters; [New beginnings: Sometimes I look at taxes similarly Left Brain Matters: Telling the Tax Story; My old work address in Manhattan (45th and Madison) has 169 stores within 5 miles. Put your address into the Starbucks locator and see what your Starbucks density is.Ashes to Ashes ]
• · · Tim Porter: After a road trip, it takes me a while to get caught up on my reading, electronic and other. Here's what caught my eye: Reading List: Bloggers, Economics, Humans and Pogo ; [Movies. No matter their theme, budget, or cast, they all start out in pretty much the same way. They start out with dreamers—just like you—sitting in darkened theaters around the world and imagining what it would be like to see their names scrolling up the credits after the words The Year of the Screenplay]
• · · · Google headhunting Ben Goodger Dragon and Fox Fire; [Google and the Video ]
• · · · · You and Jack Benny taught me about generosity toward other comedians, about the appreciation of the plight of the pro, as valuable as any lessons I ever learned. The Man in Front of the Curtain
• · · · · · When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have the second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me; William Faulkner
Fear not, faithful Mac believers. We have found it. We have found what seems to be the only copy of a public TV broadcast on that very day. It was recorded and preserved by Scott Knaster, the "legendary Mac hacker", as Amazon puts it. There is no holding the Apple: EveMac Coming Soon

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Congratulations to the winners of 2005 Best Media Dragons Overall: Australian Blog Awards Reasons You Will Hate Me
And the First Annual Best of Blog (BoB) Awards!
Confessions of sore tropical winner/loser Parish

Posted 9:44 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The Milton Keynes Partnership in UK, a local development consortium, is set to become the first public body to use a 'blog' - a type of online diary - to engage local people with its work, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
The local Labour MP Brian White has proposed the blog to involve residents in shaping the long-term development of Milton Keynes.
This could set new standards for the way public sector bodies communicate with the public," White told E-Government Bulletin. More traditional methods of citizen consultation, such as publishing press releases and leaflets, have left the public feeling isolated from the decision-making process, he said. "People grow frustrated because they feel powerless without an effective voice. It can seem pointless to get involved. A blog could help reconnect people.
The Milton Keynes Partnership was launched earlier this year, drawing together representatives of local government, the voluntary sector, the business community, and the health service
A blog could also form part of a permanent record of the discussions and decisions that will shape the future of the city, White said. "All public sector organisations need to recognise that that they provide the historical archives of the future. A blog could be a valuable record of what people thought at the time. Plan to Use Blog for Public Consultation, E-Government Bulletin, Issue 176, 13 December 2004

Eye on Politics & Law Lords:
The lives of seven people could have been spared if the NSW Government had heeded earlier warnings that the rail system was unsafe, a coronial inquest has found.

John Raymond Burt, Marie Genevieve Goder, Mark Hudson, Andrew Ludmon, James Ritchie, Yi Zhang and driver Herman Zeides died when a train derailed 2km south of Waterfall railway station, south of Sydney on January 31, 2003.
Handing down his findings today, Justice Peter McInerney said the lives could have been spared if the government had heeded warnings from his earlier inquiry into the 1999 Glenbrook train crash that the rail system was unsafe.
Mr Carr said his government had already responded to recommendations from the Glenbrook report. "We've given a full account of that.

• Waterfall [Google: Lives lost through 'government inaction; Mr Roozendaal, who had the support of the Premier, Bob Carr, withdrew his candidacy after it became clear Mr Tripodi had secured more votes in caucus Tripodi to get ministry]
• · Harry Heidelberg on Leadership: Who do you exclude today, who will you include tomorrow? Bob Carr has no kids, he doesn't drink, he doesn't care for sport and he doesn't have a drivers license. Did anyone say these things mattered to his ability to lead? No. We are most interested in how he runs the state. We started caring when the trains stopped working. The same standards should be applied to all. Hell, we have plenty of those be it gender, religion, sexual orientation, race, national origin, marital status, age, and it goes on
• · · Boy's club mentality of the party Gillard: Susan Ryan: Boys' club left back in the '50s; [He acts like an old-time Baptist minister. But his revival meetings feature not hellfire and brimstone but sermons about racism and the horrible failings of American society The intellectual capacity of women ]
• · · · The New Math: 28 + 35 = 43 The only thing we have to fear is fear itself ; [Dependent on the Kindness of Strangers ; A FIVE-month-old baby was patted down by police in front of startled shoppers after a store owner complained a $5 toy gun had been stolen from his shelves Outrage as cops frisk babies]
• · · · · Arnaud de Borchgrave: For three years, we have been reminded we are a country at war — first against al Qaeda and its global affiliates, then against Iraq's bloody tyranny that was an integral part of transnational terrorism. Almost 1,400 American servicemen and women have given their lives in a war President Bush deliberately avoided mentioning in his Inaugural address. It was a classic case of censorship by omission. But why? Revolutionary idea . . . on bridge too far? ; [Fire and freedom captured the headlines of the president's stirring inaugural address, but it was a handful of words toward the end of the speech that are likely to have the most profound impact on the daily lives of millions of Americans. After a nod to landmark legislation like the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the GI Bill of Rights, the president said, "And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time. . . . We will . . . build an ownership society." A 'cure' worse than the cold river ; Tod Lindberg: Bush's complex personality confounds experts ]
• · · · · · Freedom by its nature must be chosen and defended by citizens and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities The New Bush Doctrine, by George Soros ; [A one page tax return, one day: Taxpayers may one day fill in a single-page tax return instead of a book-sized TaxPack, Assistant Treasurer Mal Brough said yesterday. "That is a distinct possibility - that people who have simple tax affairs like PAYG workers will have the opportunity to use a single-page tax return," Mr Brough said. Reforms ; A bank robber has been allowed to claim the cost of a pistol used in a hold-up as a legitimate business expense ]

Posted 7:37 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Mark your diaries as many gurus from different corners of the world will be sharing their stories at Blogtalk Downunder Conference which will be held in Sydney, Australia from May 19th-22. The conference will be hosted by the UTS Centre for Language and Literacy. Also note that Conference organizers are accepting submissions of abstracts until the end of next week and papers by 28 February Among the drawcards are Mark Bernstein whose essay is the biggest hit at the moment Writing for the Living Web. Another speaker was named in UK as one of the Web's "Hot Faces" (right between Beck and Bowie), and Sweden's Internet World ranked her as one of the world's Top Ten Bloggers. She was once Goth Babe of the Week. Rebecca Blood draws karma and cool crowds. The superblogger status goes to Thomas N. Burg, the founder of Blogtalk. Thomas, who swims and lectures at the Danube University Krems, had to issue a press release stating that the Conference was not held in Austria but in Australia. Krems is a delightful city a shortish drive (by Australian standards 80 km) from Vienna or Morava River.

The Blog, The Press, The Media: A Question of Detail and Trust
Richard Lambert discusses the state of journalism in Britain. His general drift is that media businesses should operate with to the same sort of standards for corporate responsibility that are set for other institutions

Although most media groups are happy to make high-minded statements about their commitment to their viewers and readers, only a very few take their corporate responsibilities seriously enough to spell them out in detail, and to disclose the standards against which their editorial decisions should be judged.
Even fewer then report back on how well they have met their key performance indicators. The oil and the chemical industries have not been able to get away with behaviour like this. Why should the media be different?

The media is owned. The blogosphere isn't. We together are building it. The media have to try to get us interested in what they do, but the blogosphere is constructed out of our interests. It's ours not (just) in the sense of ownership but in the sense of what we care about and what we are.
• Guardian Media No Strings Attached [Credits: Onora O'Neill challenges current approaches to accountability, investigates sources of deception in our society and re-examines questions of press freedom. ; The Encyclopedia Britannica is a $350M operation, but Wikipedia is kicking its butt without having a single employee ]
• · Newspapers that charge for their sites
• · · My very great mate Verne Kopytoff of Chronicle fame writes: Before the southern Asian tsunami hit, the PunditGuy blog was an Internet unknown. But after its owner posted video clips of waves turning buildings into splinters, the Web site's modest traffic leaped 500-fold. Bill Nienhuis: Web logs come of age as source of news ; Bloggies 2005
• · · · Photos from Iraq via bloggers
• · · · · Blogging continues its march on the mainstream. It's considered essential to consume a steady diet of weblogs to keep up with what's hot on the Web. Blogger at Work ; [Buzz Index ]
• · · · · · Google revolutionised the internet. Now it is hoping to do the same with our phones. Clearest and sweetest sound on earth coming near you soon Google gears up for a free-phone challenge to BT ; [Google greatly advances its web search by raising the word limit to 32 words. It almost accommodates every letter in the Slavic Alphabet ]

Posted 10:11 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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We are the ALP, we are the alternative government of Australia, and frankly, right now, we are in a God-awful shambles.We need to patch this up straight away in order to lift ourselves out of the muck and become a viable alternative government for this country. This country deserves better than we are currently delivering.
Leadership aspirant and shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd didn't need a psychic to tell him this was not his time

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Tsunami Toll passes 280,000
Brat Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, get tons more coverage than the anonymous victims of tsunami these days ...

The tsunami that erased dozens of coastal communities in Aceh, Indonesia, killing more than 228,000 people in the country, may have taken a toll on another group that has dogged security officials in the region for years

Ghosts stalk Thai tsunami survivors. At such times religion is very important because there is nothing else ...
• Toll of Biblical Proportion [We can do nothing to ward off the spirits Tsunami Tragedy ; A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. Josef Stalin said callously For us, that's a tragedy. The rest is news]
• · Amid the media din about the tsunami, Dan Rather's implosion, and the usual grim news from Iraq, an amazing story has been unfolding - but has received scant appreciation from the chattering classes. Democracy is on the march. I would rather live in an undemocratic country with constitutional rights, fair courts, and a government that upholds the rule of law than live in a democratic country without those things. I'd also rather live in a republic where democracy is tempered and cooled through deliberation and debate. After all, direct democracy is little more than the rule of the mob with ballots instead of torches. Democracy has to be good -- not perfect; Lack of transparency in party funding, and the troublesome issue of internal party democracy. Australian political parties in the spotlight
• · · The Nation, here's a list of the Bush Administration's Ten Most Outrageous Scandals thus far uncovered by government investigators Annals of Outrage ; [Open parties? A map of 21st century democracy. The traditional political party is dying Can it reinvent itself in a way that matches transformations of society, technology, and personal identity?; Soros should revive the old liberalism]
• · · · Has America morphed into a nation of Tony Maneros, collectively dismissing the future? Nation is behaving as if the end is near
• · · · · Tim Dunlop is Not Happy: Suggests that in Politics You cannot be Partially Pregnant especially when it comes to Leadership Ironic, isn't it? Mark Latham is criticised for saying too little too late and Kim Beazley for saying too much too soon. How is your sense of timing, Kevin? (Letter to SMH 24 January 2005 by Peter Williams, Epping); Britain's struggling Conservative opposition struck new difficulties yesterday when it was reported that even its new campaign director, the Australian Liberal mastermind Lynton Crosby, believed the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to be unbeatable. Lynton Crosby ... helped engineer Australian Liberals' win ; How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Faceless Omnipotent Oppressors: I’m sure a psychiatrist would have a field day analysing the relationship between Premier Carr and public sector infrastructure. Or maybe it should be a marriage guidance counselor. Carr slams school funding report I've seen very silly arguments from time to time but that's the silliest one ]
• · · · · · A state-of-the art particle accelerator switched on at Lucas Heights yesterday by the federal Science Minister, Brendan Nelson, will play a vital role in the worldwide detection of clandestine nuclear testing. Minister aglow over new reactor ; [The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that in making a routine traffic stop, the police can permit a trained dog to sniff the car for drugs without the need for any particular reason to suspect the driver of a narcotics violation. I assume the judge susspects that if you are a successfull drug runner you are unlikely to be catching public transport ;-)]

Posted 1:09 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Flourish a sprig of wattle. Bone up on the lyrics of the national anthem ...

One of us wants to write, one of us wants to sing, one of us wants to get exceptionally fit. One of us wants find enduring love in another. One of us wants to draw and paint and sculpt and take photographs. One of us wants to do absolutely nothing... Link of Medlow Bath fame: the divided River of US

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: We Are All New Australians
As one of the Czech mates once said, after a few glasses of Becherovka, You know we are all Australian some new some old, but some of us were just born in wrong places.

The Governor-General, Major-General Michael Jeffery, has called for school children to be taught Aboriginal culture to better understand Australian history.
He flagged the idea yesterday during a dawn ceremony at Uluru to kick off the week's Australia Day celebrations. He said it was important all Australians learned more about Aboriginal culture and urged education authorities to introduce a uniform indigenous culture curriculum. Major-General Jeffery said he had a strong desire to see the best aspects of Aboriginal culture being enshrined in our education system.

My city of exiles, Sydney, is a place of multiple identities, where one in four residents were born in wrong places and more than 140 languages are spoken, no matter how tragically. The Museum of Sydney, corner of Phillip and Bridge street, a stone throw away from the Circular Quay brought all the questions what this dynamoic city ultimately will mean to our children and each of us alive and dead. Czech it out...
Australia did not rise from the ashes of revolution or civil war. Aside from Anzac Day, which carries a solemn significance unsuited to a day of celebration, there is no momentous event that serves to galvanise national pride. January 26 commemorates the day Governor Arthur Phillip sailed into Sydney Cove in 1788 with a fleet of convict ships and colonised the fifth continent in the name of a British monarch.
Of greater import is the fact that the founding of our first city entailed the subjugation of the indigenous population by a European civilisation. For Aboriginal Australians, January 26 is not, and will never be, a day of celebration.
• Many cultures and Australia Day [Goggle of Uluru; Australia Day was an opportunity to acknowledge the country's generosity of spirit in response to the Asian tsunami disaster Australia Day about friendship ]
• · Boy, was I wrong. Or more precisely, ignorant about how to tell the world that the book is out! When writers and would-be writers asked him to read and comment on their work, William Faulkner used to tell them that he only read the bible—a lie finer by far than those of which blurbs are made Blurbs for Goops: It Happened One Night Cold River Came Out ; [A review of books on copyright ; Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been catalogued. For book lovers: Readerware: because Cataloguing and Reading Is Sexy; -) ]
• · · Police believe the Sydney home of Nicole Kidman may have been bugged following the discovery of a listening device opposite her Bugging Nicki Darling Point mansion bugged; [Monk used in net sex sting; Moviegoers can thank Austin Powers for killing off the martini-quaffing sexoholic The silly spy whose mojo overpowered James Bond; New device to treat chronic pain also brings pleasure to his female patients Freud of Orgasmatron ]
• · · · A new documentary hitting video store shelves this year may explain why Cold River is No Longer An Oprah Favorite. I get paid for being myself on television, and that connects to a lot of people because people see themselves in me All About Oprah Inc. ; Who tells Oprah "no"?
• · · · · Prof John Sutherland Booker chairman `gags himself ' until winner is named ; As longtime readers know, we're not only interested in what's happening every day, but in how traditional news organizations decide what to cover. Ooooh Index of controversiality by Comrade Mikhail Gronas
• · · · · · Publishing ideas come and go in such fleeting fashion ... New York publisher faces fierce opposition to al-Qa'eda tome ; Pick up a Penguin? Not easy these days. But with walk-in bookshops doomed, soon it will be hard to pick up anything. Penguin books were scarcer than Penguin's teeth. No more bookshop idyll ]

Posted 8:19 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Political history is vital and enjoyable so we should focus on teaching it properly
As long as children are children, there is hope. Young people have a natural curiosity about where they and their families come from. They are always interested in how the world began, in where castles, machines or flags come from. Even six-year-olds are ready to embark on the adventure of tracing their ancestors and thus gaining a sense of real history.
Guido of Rank and Vile victories acts as a guiding librarian and political historian who focuses his torch on the vital issues and observations of the day. Today. Tomorrow. We need more than just a leader.
If following Guido blog leads readers to present future tense, Cut Price Commentariat tends to put no-frill, relaxed insider’s insider, sign posts along the road less travelled Whoever leads, I beg of you Labor, change! Give Australia the reason it needs! What’s wrong here? Is it just me who thinks that the idea of factions binding their members to vote certain ways in a vote which defies the factional makeup, is crazy? It’s a ballot between two Right-wingers! For the words of the prophets were written on the leadership walls The Triumph of Gesture Politics

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Dark Side of Journalism We Can Never Escape
Can a single woman without children become Prime Minister? Strictly short in stature Glenn Milne certainly doesn't think so... Have a look at Altered Statesmen on the ABC for insights in to the shortcomings of great leaders! If you want to view weaknesses of Crocodile Dundee knife proportions czech out the documentary.

No one person can encapsulate everyone's life experience. A man doesn't know what it's like to be a woman, a person with children doesn't know what it's like to be a person without children, a person from a wealthy background doesn't know what it's like to grow up on a housing estate. In terms of whether being childless counts in politics, well, someone better explain that to (NSW Premier) Bob Carr, and whether being single counts in politics, well, someone better explain that to (South Australian Premier) Mike Rann

• Marital status of women in politics ; [Reflecting the views of the factional chieftans ; It is better to be talked about than not to be talked about; Ech ... Crikey! Latham is a Winner ]
• · The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers Summers' remarks on women draw fire ; [You look at foreign affairs through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe How the west followed Bin Laden's script ]
• · · Conservatives no longer believe in Australia's tiered federal system because the states were wasteful and inclined towards socialism Federalism isn't working: Abbott ; A new push to create more states in Australia is coming from country people who think they are being ignored by the big cities ; Issues Great and Small: Nick Greiner; [Tsunami toll passes 230,000]
• · · · No issue, not one, threatens to do more damage to the Republican coalition than immigration Samuel Francis: on weak reasons for immigration control ; [ The cutting edge of illegal immigration used to be L.A. Now, it's Owensboro ; The Ethics and Culture of nomands ]
• · · · · The question of Lincoln's sexuality can never be answered. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be asked. Every generation and country, it seems, gets the Lincoln it deserves The gay Lincoln controversy What's wrong with The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. The Gay Emancipator? The author answers Andrew Sullivan. Honest, Abe? [The Inquisition worked "fact finding" pretty much like the American Congress works such things. In other words, after deciding what the "facts" were, they set out to find them. And, in this case, they "found" that Girolamo Savanarola was a heretic ; Chinawords searches for words to honour Comrade Zhao Shall we abolish the political copyright? ]
• · · · · · Histories of the Hanged; Britain's Gulag: At one level, the story of what we allowed to happen to Kenya is a giant corrective. Britain may sneer at French frailties in Algeria or Israeli raids inside the West Bank, but, in the wrong place at the wrong time, we were full, functioning members of the wild bunch. Civil service integrity and ministerial piety went for nothing. The press was too dozy. Parliament - putting gallant warriors like Barbara Castle and Fenner Brockway to one side - was pretty toothless. Ministers ritually covered their backs. In the midst of the war, draconian anti-terrorist laws were introduced, suspending the human rights of subjects, imposing collective punishments ; [My truth is as valid as yours, whatever the evidence It is fashionable to say 'my truth is as valid as yours'. But it's not true ; Sun Herald, 23/01/05, by Alex Mitchell and co: The 20th annual report of the NSW Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Fund for 2003-2004 has been sent to MPs giving details of their booming super scheme after an 18.2 per cent return. Among shares held by the fund are $168,582 worth of James Hardie Industries NV... But Aussie shares dropped to 35.62 per cent of the protfolio to 35.62 per cent last year while more international stocks were added. Super Time for State Mps (not on line) (Trustees of the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Fund: Mr Campbell, Mr Humpherson, Mr McLeay, Mr Mills and Mr J. H. Turner); With Michael Egan shuffling off to become an unlikely amateur fisherman, the diminutive former state treasurer leaves a substantial legacy in the increasingly politicised senior ranks of the NSW public service. Three of Egan's former staffers have key roles outside Treasury. His most recent chief of staff, Michael Coutts-Trotter, got in just in time, being recently elevated to the lofty ranks of Sir Humphreydom as director-general of the Department of Commerce. Mark Duffy, another former chief of staff; the former Egan press secretary John Lee ... Sir Humphreydom ]

Posted 7:47 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Inauguration Blog Images 2005 Majestic Austrio-Hungarian, Roman, Empire Scenes [Deja Views of my forefathers]

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Bos(to)nians Not Outraged by NYT Co.-Metro Deal
Boston Globe Globe ombud Christine Chinlund says she's received just seven e-mails and one phone call about the New York Times Co.'s plan to buy part of Boston Metro.

Maybe the racial slurs used by Metro execs were an aberration -- but maybe not, she writes. The Globe and its Times Co. parent need to find out before they buy in to the operation, she adds. "If they find something systemically rotten, the deal should be canceled. If there are no new revelations, and a clear promise to do better, there may still be an argument for getting out -- but perhaps a better one for staying in

• Okrent: Circ story could have been more candid re NYT's practices (NYT); Seattle Times editor: We're forced to make painful cuts in content (ST); TV section cutbacks anger some Akron Beacon Journal readers (ABJ); Getler says WP did the right thing in re-reporting Hanna story (WP); Clark says the ethics code is taken seriously at the Times-Union (FT-U); Oregonian's '04 errors included misreporting first publisher's name (O); Some papers have databases that track and categorize errors (SacBee); San Diego Union-Tribune offers survey on controversial photos (SDU-T) [Credits: still life - Romenesko ]
• · If you're reading this, I have already looked upon the face of God. And I pray that he has nodded his head in a positive way. In my last days, cancer changed me. I believe it made me a better man. It brought me closer to my wife and daughter. It made me more compassionate to mankind Lifelong dream ends in final column But maybe I can hear a few prayers coming my way, writes ; John Whiteside, who died over the weekend Words on the Whiteside of Life ; [Reading their stories on rather regular basis, I feel I knew these writers Ex-Boston Globe columnist Nyhan dies after shoveling snow ]
• · · No Place to Hide: America's New Surveillance Society: New Brave Digital World; [Beheading the Messenger... ; Photoblog: Student's provocative pictures of dorm life lead to his eviction and fuel discussion over a photojournalist's rights and responsibilities]
• · · · Johnny Carson and An Era Remembered ; [via Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc. ]
• · · · · Why am I bidding Op-Ed readers farewell today after more than 3,000 columns? Two bits of counsel might help explain the path I'm now taking A Columnist’s Farewell; [At last I am at liberty to vouchsafe to you the dozen rules in reading a political column: Beware the pundit's device of using a quotation from a liberal opposition figure to make a conservative case, and vice versa... Never look for the story in the lede... Do not be taken in by insiderisms: Where they lede, do not follow]
• · · · · · Blogging pioneers unite in online journal boom ; Bill Ives Searches High and Low on the Blogging Ground ; [Rather than competing for audience, the increasing synergies between movies and games are delivering big returns Joining Forces]

Posted 6:27 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Ministers of course have a whole range of dazzling qualities including ... um ... well, including an enviable intellectual suppleness and moral manoeuvrability.
- Sir Humphrey, The Death List (Yes Minister / PM series)

The real power of Jazz... is that a group of people can come together and create... improvised art and negotiate their agendas... and that negotiation is the art
- Wynton Marsalis from 'Jazz, a film by Ken Burns.'

If you gotta ask what kind of jazz and blogging Backpages is passionate about you just have to open the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald or Wrong Side of Death...
When Alice Walker was eight, growing up in Georgia, her brother shot her in the eye while playing with a pellet gun. A passing white motorist in the Jim Crow South refused to stop, and by the time she reached a doctor, her right eye was blind. Yet she came to see the wound as a gift. On a spiritual level it's as though with my sighted eye I see what's before me, and with my unsighted eye I see what's hidden. It's illuminated life more than darkened it. Redemption songs
You really don't understand the internet until you understand blogging craze for folklore music. Once you do, then you should have a conference on blogging ... William Hung has met his match and the unstoppable NumaNumania continues as even the Japanese get into the game. This is something from Vychodna Folkloric Festival held each year in July. Words like 'Dragostea din tei' or 'Love in the lime-tree' and nu m iei 'you don't take me away with you' rock Wanna sing??? Dragostea Din Tei (Romanian Macarena Gypsy song on the lips all over the world: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference especially if they make you laugh!)

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Double Dragon: Someone Had to Sing it
You know a dream is like a river, ever changing as it flows.

And a dreamer's just a vessel that must follow where it goes.
Trying to learn from what's behind you and never knowing what's in store
makes each day a constant battle just to stay between the shores.
And I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry.
Like a bird upon the wind, these waters are my sky.
I'll never reach my destination if I never try,
So I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry.

• Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tides. [credits: write locally; publish globally I'll never reach my destination if I never try; Hornby's love of reading, flair for writing There's bound to be rough waters, and I know I'll take some falls ]
• · Man reduced to nothing, to being a mere survivor, is not tragic but comic, since he has no fate. Imre Kertész’s bleak vision Beyond Good and Evil ; [Love for Sale: A Global History of Prostitution For the words of the prophets were written on the Iron walls ...]
• · · Here it is again, that great Aussie trumpet blown so powerfully that the rest of the world drowns in the spittle. Australia stops our feet from getting wet. That's it [ The Sundance Film Festival Independents turn in the sun, and Hollywood takes note ; At a nation's heart: Dance as if no one's watching. Love as if you'll never get hurt. Sing as if no one's listening. And live like heaven on earth. Mexico's best-known painters did more than create great works of art - they helped define a nation Walls of fame]
• · · · A previously unknown 1892 novel by McCullogh, which tells the tale of a man who sleeps until 2000... [is titled] 'Golf in the Year 2000, or What We Are Coming To,' and predicted the advent of both golf carts and golf professionals... Other ideas were the digital watch, high-speed bullet trains, working women who dressed like men and a large glass screen that plays images, much like a television. Book of Predictions 1892; Northern Tanganyika 1953, the year Aga was born The Lesson is We can All Be Subhuman
• · · · · A study into the case of a statue of the Madonna reported to have shed tears of blood a decade ago near Rome concluded the event has no human explanation. There's the hand of G-d here Tears 'beyond human explanation' ; [Gloria Steinem surprised the world when, at 66, she signed up for an institution she had spent previous decades attacking: marriage 'Feminism? It's hardly begun ]
• · · · · · A Czech man is being taken to court after he hid in a restaurant bathroom until the employees had left and then hooked up beer kegs directly to his mouth. This is almost as good as winning the race number 13 during the Bondi Iceberg season. Your handicap is your strength or weakness. A tall man with a glass eye who holds a record by drowning 256 beer in a week was known around the Iceberg Club as Lofty. Being fit is not always an advantage ;-) Only in Moravia: Man from Morava River hides out to scull kegs; [Over a year, a family of four spends around $4,135 on alcohol, guzzling on average 44 slabs of beer, 14 bottles of spirits and 77 bottles of wine]

Posted 7:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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We Interrupt Our Usual Broadcast...

... to confirm our suspicions that once they were sticks and stones we feared would break our bones today it is the Sitting Premiers' Call Center Trade Union breathing down the phones
• Raising of the white flag? Google realises, in its digital bones, the news from the leadership invades the air like factionalistic fallout
• • ALP a 'G-d awful shambles': Rudd pulls out

PS: The necessary emotional fever for fighting a factional war cannot be turned off like a water tap. Enemies must continue to be found. Media Dragon Scoop: Transcripts of Factional Proceedings - Premiers Telephone Conversations 14 to 24 January 2005 (security password required)

Posted 1:38 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Left: 'Determined bastard' widens support?

Like John Quiggin, Chris Sheil thinks Mark Latham was shabbily treated, but that's now bye the bye. Before us, we already have a decision that may turn the next election.


Kim Beazley has started a hot favourite, but Back Pages is endorsing Kevin Rudd. If the deputy position is spilled, Julia Gillard would be added to Back Pages’ ticket...


I've never seen a nasty streak, but ice water does run in his veins. No more Mr Nice Guy


Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Pining for loss and stability, Labor backs Beazley
Tight-lipped Rudd rallies faithful, but Kevin Rudd will end speculation today on whether he will run for the party's top job

Solid Kim Beazley has a predictable lead in public opinion as preferred successor to the mercurial Mark Latham, although it's interesting that the combined vote of the two "new generation" candidates is bigger than Beazley's.
Beazley is getting the benefit of being the best known of the possibles. As he's the only one of the three who's much in the public mind, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are polling quite well with voters in the circumstances.
One could also see the result as a metaphor for the thinking of caucus members: they might like generational change but don't trust it just now.

But it's academic. Beazley is headed to victory. The question is whether Rudd and Gillard decide it's worth making a fight of it. Rudd, who will announce his decision today, faces that issue most acutely. Gillard has ensured he has to make his decision before she makes hers. He also has more to lose.
• Conundrum for the challengers [ Beazley's home state is Howard's strongest base ]
• · Matthew Parris, Times of London America's Might is Draining Away; [David Brooks, New York Times: If you want to understand America, I hope you were in Washington on Thursday. I hope you heard the high ideals of President Bush's inaugural address, and also saw the stretch Hummer limos heading to the balls in the evening. Ideals and Reality ; 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2004 ; When Pentagon officials were killed on 9-11, their families got an average $1.5 million in death benefits from a special fund. When GIs are killed overseas fighting terrorists, their families get $12,420. That's right, barely enough to cover funeral costs. What's wrong with this picture? Everything ]
• · · As The Guardian's James Meek reminds us, Bush's rhetorical flourish owes its existence to a quote from a Russian novel. One of the models of American leadership is that of Moses, leading God's chosen people - then the Jews, now the Americans - towards a promised land, following a pillar of fire. At one point, according to the Bible, Moses was shown a sign: "Behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. But the key fire passage in the Burning Bush speech - We have lit a fire as well; a fire in the minds of men" - actually has its origins in a novel by the 19th century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, ; The Devils, about a group of terrorists' ineffectual struggle to bring down the tyrannical Tsarist regime. Ach, I once knew a dog Bessie named after the American Hollywood icon Bessie and the Russian Devil: Besy, 1872 (The Devil/The Possessed]
• · · · Kim Beazley's race for the Labor leadership was all but cemented last night as senior right-wing officials urged his chief rival, Kevin Rudd, to withdraw from the ballot for the sake of party stability. ; Factions? Knock me down with a feather, but we don't have factions in our part. "It's really faded," insisted a straight-faced Premier Bob Carr Ministrial Pool from factional heaven swon in ; [Drug abuse by any other name MI6 ordered LSD tests on servicemen, Guardian ; The National Interest is invariably rivetting, but on Sunday 23 January 2005 it was even more so Terry Lane: Always Pointing Out the Most Important Issues of the Day: Politicians use increasingly sophisticated techniques to win our hearts and minds. Is political advertising a threat to the quality of Australia's democratic system? The art of political persuasion [credits: Political parties are using the electoral roll to build up detailed data banks on the interests and concerns of voters but the files are exempt from both the Privacy Act and Freedom of Information legislation. Keeping track of voters ; (Thanks Dr Cope]
• · · · · Online Interview With Author of New Book on Surveillance Society: As a follow-up to Bespacific January 19 posting, Washington Post Examines Data Aggregator ChoicePoint, again from the Post, an online interview with Robert O'Harrow Jr., author of No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society; North Korea is the most secretive country in the world today, with its main railway lined with walls so high that its foreign passengers can't see the countryside ]
• · · · · · The swirling political rumour though is that the Parrot is prepared to support Frank Sartor for Premier. All he needs to do is build a new water supply dam for Sydney and name it after the Parrot. The Egan Diaries - a retirement reflection ; [When a lawyer blows a whistle; The case of an attorney who was fired includes questions about ethical behavior and legal technicalities ]

Posted 1:31 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Is Anyone in America Not Writing a Screenplay? Weekend in the Blogosphere

The Blog, The Press, The Media: My Yahoo Ticker: Controversy opens Harvard blog meet
An invited group of bloggers and journalists began a two-day conference Friday morning at Harvard University amid cold weather (3 degrees) and controversy.

Alex Jones, head of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, acknowledged "contentious" comments have been made about the event's guest list of about 50 people.
Among the critics was a conservative blogger who said the meeting "is a hopelessly biased group of center-left academics/journalists who are once again getting overwhelmed by the marketplace." That statement was made to Ed Cone, one of the conference's participants.

• I see it as a chance for a handful of bloggers who get journalism and journos (journalists) who get blogging to explain this real slow to the journos who don't get it yet [Credits: still life - Blog here, blog there, blogs are everywhere ; grooming - The Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists]
• · Strange what people find interesting. My excuse is that I crossed the Iron Curtain: Follow the same rules as one would walking down the street: Don't make eye contact with someone who seems crazy: When Bloggers Make News: As Their Clout Increases ... ; [Why credibility matters even if you write for free Blog nice, everyone; Listen to the "Blogging, Journalism & Credibility" conference (BJ&C) ]
• · · Media Matters’ chart showing the relative numbers of liberal and right-wing commentators deployed in the cable networks’ inaugural coverage No room for progressives on cable news inauguration coverage ; [Maine newsman who uncovered Bush DWI is now a trucker ]
• · · · SIliconValleyWatcher has the scoop: Google is opening up API support for AdWords. [Isohunt is a BitTorrent search engine, one of the many sites the MPAA is attempting to scare and/or litigate out of business. But the fellow behind Isohunt isn't folding his tent and going home, he's fighting ]
• · · · · Senators trying new communications tool: Blogs
• · · · · · Blog Search Engine Boosts Traffic and Searces Via New Toolbar

Posted 1:23 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Hence the despotic and all-absorbing power of art, as also its astonishing power of soothing: it frees from every human care, it establishes the artifex, artist or artisan, in a world apart, cloistered, defined and absolute, in which to devote all the strength and intelligence of his manhood to the service of the thing which he is making. This is true of every art; the ennui of living and willing ceases on the threshold of every studio or workshop.
-Jacques Maritain, Art and Scholasticism
Lets be friends ;-)

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Mes llibres, mes lliures means (roughly) More books, More freedoms
Born, alas, in an evil time,
I missed that pleasant haven,
For the hair has grown on my upper lip
And the clergy are all clean-shaven

On this day in 1950 George Orwell died, aged forty-six. Whatever Orwell achieved in his last years seems over-balanced by what he suffered. Against the acclaim earned by the two famous novels -- Animal Farm in 1945 and 1984 just seven months before Orwell died -- stands a withering series of personal challenges. In 1945, a little more than a year after their adoption of a one-month-old boy (their only child), Orwell's wife died on the operating table

• Orwell on Orwell [That you can't have it both ways?What are the flour and salt, and what is the fool's mistake? ; Natural Phenomena Named After Frank Zappa ]
• · Dearth of Slovak on contemporary Czech TV a pity, says Czech language expert Prior to the split of Czechoslovakia, Czechs and Slovaks understand one another's languages without any difficulties whatsoever; [At Lunch with John Grisham: The Lawyer Enters a Plea of Lucky]
• · · Right now most of you feel your job in life is to be a promising college applicant. But that means you're designing your life to satisfy a process so mindless that there's a whole industry devoted to subverting it. No wonder you become cynical. The malaise you feel is the same that a producer of reality TV shows or a tobacco industry executive feels. And you don't even get paid a lot. What You'll Wish You'd Known
• · · · Sponsored by the Darker Side of River - Powell.com: Too often are literary awards arbitrary, dull, or meaningless. Too rarely are they determined by an NCAA-style Battle Royale of bloodthirsty competition. It’s time for a change. Rosecrans Baldwin and Kevin Guilfoile announce The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books The Rooster, The Dragon ... ; [Czech born Tomas Straussler or Tom Stoppard and London Library” The library I love ]
• · · · · Phaswane Mpe, who died late last year at 34. If I’m carrying a lot of money, I’ll carry it in a book. For some reason criminals don’t like books," he laughed. "There was one day, I had just come back from Germany, where I received a stipend, so I ended up not having to use my own money. I had about €1 000. I carried it inside The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, which I was reading at the time, and walked quite safely to deposit it in the bank Among much else, it shows one of the advantages of literature not being highly regarded by one and all; [ via Literary Saloon
• · · · · · Like the little gural of Tatranka folkloric fame, whistling children save ancient language Silbo, the ancient whistle language native to one of the Canary Islands ; [What is your ancient Element? Air like me?; Shorter than Czar Peter the Great or Thomas Wolfe but taller than Gene Roddenberry How tall are you? 188cm or 6’2?]

Posted 2:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Surviving the Death of the Universe: A neat extreme futurist piece considers the last days of the universe: So on some day in the far future, the last star will cease to shine, and the universe will be littered with nuclear debris, dead neutron stars and black holes. Intelligent civilisations, like homeless people in rags huddled next to dying campfires, will gather around the last flickering embers of black holes emitting a faint Hawking radiation Escape from Universe of Dirty Tricks
The political universe is out of control, in a runaway acceleration Why has the unpopular Michael Egan suddenly resigned as NSW Treasurer, to be replaced by the affable Andrew Refshauge?

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: History will Judge Us Kindly?
Torture thrives when those who make the policy are convinced that they possess a moral superiority that should not be constrained by regulation. From Argentina to Iran and Central America, Isabel Hilton excavates the logic as well as the gruesome precedents of America’s moral collapse at Abu Ghraib

As Iraq gears up for elections on 30 January, torture of Iraqis by Coalition troops hits the headlines again. In the USA the first contested trial over the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib results in a ten-year sentence for US Army specialist Charles Graner. Meanwhile in Germany, at a trial of British servicemen, photographs are shown apparently revealing another torture scandal in Iraq. How could such things be allowed to happen? Is this the work of 'a few bad apples' or evidence of a policy? What can we do?
At times like this we need cool analysis, reasoned argument and a sense of perspective. We want to remind you that openDemocracy has provided in-depth coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal and the larger issues of torture in our debate 'After Image: the meanings of Abu Ghraib'.

• Torture: who gives the orders [Arab Mirror; After image: the meanings of Abu Ghraib ]
• · Young Labor does one function - it teaches people how to hate other members of the Labor Party: Nick Grimm spoke to Rodney Cavalier, a former New South Wales education minister, who these days is a Labor Party historian and commentator: Well, what we're witnessing is something seriously bad in the history of any political party, and that's an intersection of the collapse of belief and the collapse in organisation. But as belief has disappeared as a crucible, careers and jobs and the prospects of the glittering lights have replaced them. And so people are lining up in terms of where they nail their colours to the mast – not in terms of what they believe, but in terms of what opportunities they perceive will fall their way, in terms of what faction they join. Labor leadership outcome remains uncertain; History will be kind to me for I intend to write it: In 2006 New South Wales will celebrate 150 years of irresponsible government]
• · · Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal Liberty Bell Ringer: A Case of Mission Inebriation? ; [ Five steps for defeating terrorism ]
• · · · Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Jerusalem Post Saudi Arabia's 'Democracy'; [From Saudi Arabia, Islamic pilgrims bring cosmopolitan air to unlikely city Mecca: The Cultural Capital of Islam]
• · · · · Best and Worst Inaugural Speeches An interesting feature in the Post today rates the best and worst Presidential inaugural speeches of all time. Inaugural: High and low of Gural Dance ; President Bush's speech was impressive, and also frightening to those who suspect that he really meant it. Imperial Roman: No Country Left Behind; No Barbarian Left Behind; [Whether by amending the language regarding covert action or by adopting new language specifically tailored to special forces, Congress should ensure that covert military operations be held to at least the same standard of accountability as the CIA's covert actions. The risks inherent in the types of missions that the Pentagon envisions for its special forces are at least as serious as those arising from the CIA covert operations that prompted the restrictions now in place. The rules, therefore, should be just as strict. The Rise and Rise of Shadow Barbarians and Warriors ]
• · · · · · David Marr with Aban Contractor and Tony Stephens: The extraordinary public assault on Latham by Bob Carr, Queensland's Peter Beattie and the WA premier's proxy, Attorney-General Jim McGinty, was mounted knowing Latham had made up his mind to leave - sometime. They were using the media to pressure him to do what he had already decided to do, but do it quickly ; Premier Bob Carr has ordered his new cabinet to become proactive in solving problems with the public in a major push to bounce back in the opinion polls; [History of Us ]

Posted 2:32 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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[Television] business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side ...
Hunter S. Thompson
Misquoted

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Winter of Black Art: What women want
It is summer of 2005 and the unthinkable has happened in Australian television. The landscape of our vision will be without the benefit of Jim Waley. Numero 1, veteran Jim, has been reporting and presenting news and current affairs since beginning his career as a cadet journalist in regional radio and television even before the the Prague Spring of 1968 and even before Mark Ferguson was born. Channel Nine will be like a channel, the deeper part of waterway, without water or opera without the songs those operatic, fat, old man sing.

Sixty is old in terms of the way of thinking of Kerry Packer (around 68), Nine CEO, David Gyngell (early 40s) and John Alexander, the CEO of PBL, who's around 54!
So what about those older people on air: Peter Harvey in the Sydney newsroom, Laurie Oakes from Canberra, Jana Wendt and Helen Dalley, are their times up?
Laurie Oakes would be the last person to be flicked by Nine, if there's any sense still left at Willoughby. He brings credibility to Nine News, and The Bulletin at ACP. Without him they would struggling.

Like being surrounded by vultures: Yes, we're in a war. We have our armies and weapons. They have their armies and their weapons and you look at it as two armies at war. The spokesman was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald Friday as saying Jim Waley was not ' dumped' but could not say what his future with Nine would be. Jim Waley has been dumped as presenter of Channel Nine's 6pm news bulletin, to be replaced by his understudy, Mark Ferguson. It's like we haven't come out of the barbarian age
• Prefering to tread water Marking Jim [Credits: television life - 'Where Thieves and Pimps Run Free...' ; grooming - Waley and Nine's youth obsession]
• · A blog isn't any one thing for people, but I do like the idea of a blog as a house -- or as the facade of the house that says something about the person inside; or its front porch. I keep all sorts of stuff here, and there is even more on the inside. Colourfull thoughts on blogs by Stuart Henshall Giving Up Traditional Blogging [We’re taking suggestions: What does liberalism stand for? Anybody who's ever had to raise money knows the meaning of the phrase "elevator pitch": You're in an elevator with a potential moneybags, and you have, say, seven floors to tell him why he should write you a czech ... The Liberal Media Agenda; This did not necessarily make the backlash more palatable or justifiable. The backlash is something rightwing people do. Like "kempt hair" and "couth behaviour", references to a "leftwing backlash" are rare indeed But the notion that a backlash from the right should first be provoked by a lash from the left certainly made the backlash more logical]
• · · Amid the media din about the tsunami, Dan Rather's implosion, and the usual grim news from Iraq, an amazing story has been unfolding — but has received scant appreciation from the chattering classes. Democracy is on the march. The Right Side of Media story ; [It's a good time to step back and examine a commonly argued, yet totally fallacious, concept from left and right and beyond Any Way You Look At It, You Lose]
• · · · The backstage peek may comfort many of us who wish we spoke as clearly as NPR interviewers and guests. On the other hand, it might disturb folks who think they're hearing exactly what was said. Pulling Back the Curtain ; [Vandalism more likely than data harvesting says administra Australian company takes blame for Panix domain hijack ]
• · · · · Daughters of the 1950s political prisoners remain silent. This is unfortunate for them -- and for society at large. Being the daughter of a political prisoner during the 1950s in Czechoslovakia meant being "bad." After all, the family of a political prisoner was considered unworthy to coexist within communist society. The sustained silence surrounding the experiences of the "daughters of the enemy" suggests that the true horror, or irony, of their situation may never be heard. Silence of the Political Lamb ; [Our Stories ; Killings on Czechoslovak border during Communist era examined in new report ]
• · · · · · I've been following some of the coverage of the Blog Credibility Conference Change is gonna come ; [Notes on Harvard Journalism/Blogging Conference ; After spending $170 million to create a program that would give agents ready access to information on suspected terrorists, the bureau admitted last week that it's not even close to having a working system. In fact, FBI may have to start from scratch. ]

Posted 1:05 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I want you to know you are looking at a blanket woven from human hair, made for the Nazis in Auschwitz. It was the only thing I had when repatriated back to Czechoslovakia.
The blanket is Horak's Auschwitz. Time has worn it down and dirt has been washed away, but stains persist.
I still don't touch it now. Maybe by washing it in shampoo I was able to wash out the basic filth, the filth you can touch, but as for the emotional filth - I don't think so.
You can't get rid of Auschwitz. Never (Horak derives from a word Mountain in Slavic)

This weekend John McDonald, who is the new Sydney Morning Herald’s visual art critic, serves a thought provoking essay on page 9 (not on line yet) in the section of Spectrum 22 January 2005. John argues that civilised society relies on its rule-breakers. It is one of history’s ironies that the barbarity of terrorism seems to licence barbarous acts on behalf of the civilised world, aas demonstrated by the premeditated abuses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, let alone the ongoing carnage in Iraq. In Australia, refugees and asylumn-seekers are treated as barbarians, as a threat to our civilisation that has to be kept behind bars. Who are today’s barbarians?
When anthropologists asked this question in 1971, the most popular candidates were politicians. They were felt to be duplicitous and opportunistic: laying down rules for everyone, and constantly breaking them...
Here’s the paradox: As long as we are in the dark, blind to our source, we remain the ‘lowest world’, a world of darkness, suffering and evil.

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: G-d's Hand: Wait and See
Human success at social cooperation results from three distinct personality types: Cooperators, Free Riders, and Reciprocators

Whether it is barn-raising or crafting a business plan, humans are among the few creatures that are able to work well cooperatively. According to an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, our success at cooperation results from three distinct personality types.
In any given group of people, youl find three kinds of people: Cooperators, Free Riders, and what we call Reciprocators. Cooperators do the most work and Free Riders do as little as possible, but most of us are Reciprocators. We hold back a bit to determine the chances of success before devoting our full energy to a project. We found that these traits remained fairly stable among people, and you could reliably predict how a group might perform if you know the percentage of each type of person in that group.

• Who We Are When We Work Together [credits: His name is synonymous with Cold River: He's just not that into you if he only wants to see you when he's drunk Losing Mr. Wrong ; Human communication proceeds from two fundamental assumptions - that the people you interact with are both co-operative and truthful in intent Admit it, the truth is in denial ]
• · David Dale nominates the country's genuinely real Australian idols - the top 50 who, for better or worse, really matter to the world. New Advanced Australians; [Can we talk about sex differences in math and science aptitude without yelling? The New Advanced Sex Scorecard ]
• · · Words may be a clue to how people, regardless of their language, think about and process emotions Slavic Languages may be clue to all emotions ; [ And a proverb a day may make you healthier ; Children love to be alone, because alone is where they know themselves, and where they dream. Roger Rosenblatt]
• · · · The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.David Bohm: Dumbed down and robbed of the old taboos, contemporary art has lost its ability to move or stimulate us, writes John McDonald. The battlelines were drawn when Ivan Massow, the chairman of London's Institute of Contemporary Art, described much of the work shown in the gallery as pretentious, self-indulgent, craftless tat that I wouldn't even accept as a gift
• · · · · The masks of Malawi They know their own culture is disappearing ; Guggenheim's global vision costs it a benefactor
• · · · · · The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. Elizabeth Hardwick: I think there is a little battle just beginning between people who are social scientists and passionate about understanding the mind, yet who are creative and write stories, versus 'writers' without such a knowledge or drive to understand our human nature in such a particular way Evolutionary fiction-fiction that is informed and written through the lens of an evolutionary understanding of human nature-is better ; [Problems with the "missing link" evidence: On the level of Wisdom, past, present and future have not yet been separated Hence, on this level, one can see the future just like the past and present Kabbala was the key for Albert. Nowhere have the celebrations of Albert Einstein's life provoked as much tortuous soul-searching as in Germany ]

Posted 7:14 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Cory Doctorow found himself asked for a list of the names and addresses of every single person with whom he’d be staying in the U.S.
Doctorow sounds Rather Russian

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Either a Predator or Target: Publisher Out of a Bind
Bloggers and media in historical discussion about the end of objectivity ...

John Fairfax Holdings clearly wants to be a predator in the wake of any relaxation of Australia's media ownership laws

A truck driver walks into the restaurant and orders a hamburger, a cup of coffee and a piece of pie.
As he sits down to eat, three rough looking bikers also come in. One grabs his hamburger and begins to eat it. Another picks up his coffee and spills it on the floor. The third one takes a bite out of his pie, then mashes the rest on the plate.
The truck driver says nothing, gets up, pays the cashier and leaves. One of the three bikers turns to the cashier and says:
"Not much of a man, is he?"
"Not much of a driver, either", said the cashier. "he just ran his truck over three motorcycles."
Moral of the story? First, action speaks louder than words. Second, a smart person will choose his own field of battle. The field where the odds are better.
• Fairfax tries predatory role: analyst [Credits: spying life - This Sydney institution is still a place to plot and to spy (and be spied upon) Fit for a Prince ; machiavelli grooming - John Laws, John Howard, Jeff Kennett, James Packer, Gough Whitlam, Graham Richardson, Mark Taylor, Bob Carr, Peter Collins, Bob Muscat, Trevor Kennedy, Ita Buttrose, Liz Hayes, Stephen Loosley, Carla Zampatti, Mike Munro, Nick Whitlam, Barry Humphries, John Singleton, Bruce Gyngell and Anne Fulwood. Trevor Sykes noted this week how the media world was too small. Fairfax directors Ron Walker and Mark Burrows lunched at Machiavelli restaurant in Sydney, while at an adjacant table sat Kerry Packer and son James with their investment guru Ashok Jacob. Machiavelli Ristorante Italiano]
• · I don't think Belle de Jour is a call-girl. I don't think he's even a woman A real sex scandal; [Print it out, send it to Harry Reid, or just read it and weep. Sydney might have 34 surf beaches, but Salon has compiled 34 scandals from the first four years of George W. Bush's presidency -- every one of them worse than Whitewater. Surf the scandal sheet; Every month it shows up in the list of top page views Free Porn Magic for You! ; Czech Composers Free Porn ]
• · · They threatened to run for the border if Bush was re-elected. But how many did? Today, as the President is sworn in on the steps of the Capitol, Andrew Buncombe meets the Americans who are choosing to begin new lives in self-imposed exile Vesely in Slavic languages means "cheerful" or “joyfull”
• · · · In her charming, "Mash Note to the Blogosphere," Arianna Huffington writes: "When bloggers decide that something matters, they chomp down hard and refuse to let go. They're the true pit bulls of reporting. The only way to get them off a story is to cut off their heads (and even then you'll need to pry their jaws open)." Charming, right? Mash Note ; further developed by Jay Rosen ; [Like It or Not, Blogs Have Legs]
• · · · · It’s one thing to have people looking at your sex tapes, but having people reading your personal e-mails is a real invasion of privacy Defining privacy: Paris Hilton’s Blackberry was hacked ; [Google Page Ranking ; Blogging, Journalism & Credibility ]
• · · · · · Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal Nancy McKinstry; Member of Wolters Kluwer Executive Board discusses transformation into information and solutions provider. The company’s role is to help filter the relevant content and deliver it in an easy format. Professionals need to be able to digest information in a certain way, so while the internet gave us the growth in information what we hear them to say is help me understand what is important. Paying close attention to the local market is what sets the company apart from its competitors. Our approach is to leverage things that customers do not see Content is King: CCH Publishing

Posted 7:07 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Death, with its undercurrents of farce, is brought to mind in Simon McBurney, Marcello Magni and Jozef Houben's A Minute Too Late. The production might be described as a kind of fantasia on the idea of dying. Simon, aptly characterised by the critic Michael Kustow as "a compendium of our clumsiness in the face of death", meets up with undertaker Jozef, is offered a lift and is borne away in a hearse, its back seat occupied by a splayed corpse. As in the Fawlty Towers episode where the dead guest that Basil is trying to smuggle out of the hotel becomes a stage prop, the corpse slumps over their shoulders as the vehicle gathers speed, and has to be shoved back.
Look at me - I'm dying!

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: One Death, One Book, One Sandwich
One writer you should know before we are swallowed by the dark matter

Consider whether this is a man,
Who labours in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a crust of bread
Who dies at a yes or a no.
Consider whether this is a woman,
Without hair or name
With no more strength to remember
Eyes empty and womb cold
As a frog in winter.

• Is anything sadder than a train; [Primo Levi Primo ; Primo ]
• · Everything you thought you knew about the universe is wrong. It’s made of atoms, right? Wrong. Atoms only account for a measly 15% of everything that exists. The mass of the universe consists of something so mysterious and elusive that it has been dubbed ‘dark matter’ Dark Stories; [A Different Planet: Titan of Cold Rivers ]
• · · I'm a huge fan of the Soprano. One of my favorite exchanges: Meadow: “Are you in the Mafia?”; Tony: “I'm in the waste management business. Life is putting the Prozac to the test
• · · · Feel the ripple in the zeitgeist? Two new slogans are busily burrowing their way into popular cult. Steven P. Jobs introduced one last week: "Life is random." It's attached to the iPod Shuffle, Apple's teeny new music player. The second comes from Malcolm Gladwell, a writer known for seeing revolutions in small things. The slogan is "Blink, don't think. These two marketing aphorisms - ad-phorisms, if you will - pull so insistently at the brain that they feel more like an affirmation than a pitch, and bear a slight tang of wisdom. You couldn't control all the choices; you couldn't control all the noise: Life is a random blink
• · · · · One Book One Sandwich continues. All Sandwich residents are urged to read "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick. As part of One Book One Sandwich, special events include. Massachusetts town is reading Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea under the banner of, One Book, One Sandwich? ; [What is Bush Reading ; Kabbalah of Numbers ]
• · · · · · Cutural concepts go in and out of style, sometimes quite swiftly. It was fashionable a short while ago to proclaim we had entered an age where the old cultural certainties had been thrown into disarray; it has become just as fashionable now to dismiss the postmodern as yesterday's news Relativism is still relevant ; [Cat Lovers Collection :-) ]

Posted 10:05 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Jozef Banas supplied information to the secret police on the movements of foreign journalists when he was employed in the press division of the foreign ministry. At Media Dragon, we were hardly surprised to read last year that Jozef Banas was unhappy with the decision of the Memory of the Nation Institute to publish the files.
Last week a Slovakian secretary of state, Jan Hurny, a member of the same party, resigned following allegations about his past as an StB agent. Jozef Banas is to address a parliamentary session this week with respect to his listing on the Stb files. While in Poland Jozef Oleksy resigned after being found guilty of lying about collaborating with Communist secret services Blood Sucking Fleas

A western Sydney schoolboy has received a back-to-school cheque addressed to "Mrs Passed Away", 15 months after his mother died. I'm not in a position to make a personal apology because it wasn't an envelope that I addressed. Fair go; Bob Carr Ministry has Business and AAA on Side

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Gillard, Rudd canvass colleagues
A Three-Horse race for Labor's federal leadership seems likely. As we all know, a week is a long time in politics ... Labor faces an excruciating dilemma. It is running scared, scarred from its experiment with generational change and paying the price for a decade or more of not replenishing its talent pool. It has reached the point where only a handful of caucus members have any employment experience outside politics or the union movement It is a party with few choices and those that it has are flawed

KIM Beazley is holding on to the votes of many of the caucus members who backed him at his last failed leadership attempt, but support was last night building for Kevin Rudd.
The former opposition leader flew to Sydney yesterday to continue lobbying for votes, breaking with his tactics of 2003 by calling caucus colleagues directly rather than relying on close factional allies to do the work for him.
But while he remains the frontrunner, the race is tightening, with Mr Rudd's supporters last night claiming they already had about 30 of the 44 caucus votes he would need to scrape through and win.

I wouldn't have blamed him for either, or both, of two highly personal reactions: psychic depression, or Get Stuffed. As the leader of the Labor Party, Mark Latham can't afford either. He has to summon his courage and grit out the next three, and possibly six, years. It will be the toughest time of his life: tougher than his testicular cancer, tougher than pancreatitis, tougher than losing the 2004 election. Whatever, Latham was the victim
• Numbers All Over The Floor [Google links to leadership challengers; Gillard is game as contest gets ugly; The Australian federal election of 2004 is a long way distant from the 1840s of Karl Marx, but his arguments still resonate. Many in the Labor Party and on the Left have blamed the 'selfishness' of families with mortgages who overwhelmingly voted for the Coalition and who supported John Howard because they believed that the Coalition was more likely than the ALP to keep interest rates lower The collapse of communism and the failure of socialist states around the world revealed the Left's vision to be unattainable ]
• · Bush begins 2nd term today amid stiff security; Bush Avoids Iraq in Inaugural Speech George Bush aka Orwell launches term with vow to spread freedom; [ The anchor of King's dream; The anchor of Economic dream]
• · · The Pentagon has hit back at claims by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh that US commandos have been carrying out covert operations inside Iran. There is plausible deniability - of course they [the Bush administration] don't want it known- Seymour Hersh Intelligence coup: Until the Government Denies it; [Being a 007 can be glamorous and boring all in the same day As a city police officer, never try to arrest the mayor; A political artist on trial A professor facing possible charges of bio-terrorism speaks in Toronto]
• · · · This blogger holds many bitterweet memories of the Czechoslovak army: Compulsory military service was introduced by Emperor Franz Jozef in 1868 when the Czech lands were part of Austria-Hungary The last conscripts have left the Czech army ; There is never a shortage of idiots, but, War and Principal Vidmar takes the cake! Idiot of the Year
• · · · · CNN.com - Wave of suicide blasts kills at least 25
• · · · · · The identity of Australians could be subjected to unprecedented scrutiny under the biggest security protection plan since the failed Australia Card; Authorities are scouring Boston for four Chinese nationals and two Iraqi men who may pose a nuclear threat to the city Two Iraqi; via Czech Amerikan: Four Chinese nationals sought in terror probe
[I am going to be sleeping in my bed in Massachusetts tonight and I feel perfectly safe doing so
-Mitt Romney; Massachusetts governor]

Posted 7:55 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: WOW. What a Surf. What a Read. Of Sydney’s 34 surfing beaches, Cronulla is probably the one you will visit first. If you are a serious surfer that is ... No Glamarama here!

It is good to discover new surf, but it is even better to meet new dragons. You get an insight into lives lived other than your own. Double Dragon is on Hollywood’s lips New Year New You: New Dragon Tail Newsletter
We all know the joy of stumbling across a real gem of a bookshop. Cronulla might have the best surf, but Bondi has the best bookshop in the world. Czech out Gertrude and Alice at 40 Hall Street down by the Beach. Shelves and shelves of books from all genres. Even has a non-fiction room called the Hemingway room, which boasts an amazing chess table for patrons to sit and play; lots of other games are also available. The cafe-bookshop-rumpus-room all in one is just soooo bohemian one just does not want to leave, even if your teenage daughters czech mate you at the chess table three times in a row (smile) - Karma everywhere like no other ... Calling all bookworms

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Koorie Dhoulagarle: Aboriginal Spirit
Our country correspondent one and only, Gianna . Forget about reading Readers’ Digest and dive into the Country Digest. This story deserves the widest of readership in the blogosphere.

"Take a look in the bedrooms back there," he said to me. I hesitated, feeling uncomfortable at the idea of going into a stranger's bedrooms. "Go on, take a look."
So I dutifully ventured to the rear of the house and looked in the bedrooms. In one, there was a neatly made double bed. In the next, there were three single beds, again perfectly made up. Each bed had a teddy bear sitting on the pillow.
I came back and touched the man's shoulder. He had tears in his eyes. The baby ate another biscuit and listened as the man and I got talking about the plight of the suburban Aborigine. He told me how it felt to have grown up with no links with his traditional culture and yet, not ever feeling part of white man's Australia either. He said he'd once had a group of Italian friends staying with him. Over dinner, they had got into a spirited conversation between themselves, but had stopped talking when they noticed him crying. They'd asked if he was upset that they were talking in Italian. He had said no, he was upset because he had lost his own language.

• There's More To Life [credits: ATO rules on business and pleasure; Taxman can no longer give artists the brush-off]
• · Hollywood icons are a peculiar breed. Their shelf life is not so much short – although most often it is – as it is defined by the sheer abruptness of the end. Few screen legends are afforded graceful long goodbyes Don't box me in; [ Master refreshes Machiavellian monster]
• · · The music industry has done the "unthinkable" and turned a dollar from online sales
• · · · It's a Hardluck Life: Those who returned say life post-tsunami has new meaning ; Couple says miracles saved them; Strong Currents: Father Drowns
• · · · · Ach, the pharmaceutical Jekyll and Hyde, caffeine can be a wonder drug or a health disaster. When rubbed onto skin caffeine and green tea it can stop skin cancer in its tracks ... The new pleasure seekers
• · · · · · Whether it's sunny or raining, and we needed last night’s rain, there is usually plenty to do around the Cronulla beach specially during the summer. Many good places to be entertained and do some shopping. A creative way to feed the thousands in the Shire through the miracle of the Kuchina ... We mentioned it in passing once but will blog about it again: Cucina Delight - Indulge your passion for food - Nina and Michael Alfredi will soon have a new fish supplier in Michael Egan Apolitical Number 52 on President Avenue: Cucina of Caringbah

Posted 8:17 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.
-Gen. George S. Patton

NSW Godfather Bob Carr and his new apprentice John Watkins today gained first hand experience of Sydney's late-running trains.
Mr Carr and Mr Watkins were almost 10 minutes late for a media appearance at Sydney's Central Station after the train to Waterfall they were travelling on was delayed. [We've got a plan in place to do that: AAP is actually for real]. Yes Minister re-run series are back harder, grittier and more entertaining than in living political memory As one observer noted re-arranging deck chairs on the infrastructuresque-titanic will do some wonders for the people of NSW ... Boilermaker Bill on Carr's reshuffle Left winger Ken Booth had a Treasury stretch in the 80s

One of Australia's three richest men, alongside Kerry Packer and Frank Lowy, he said: "The time has come to take on new debt to help secure our nation's future. Debt is good. At least the right kind of debt is good Debt is good, business leader Richard Pratt

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Hidden Wounds: conspiracy of silence
This was sent to me this week by West Point chaplain, let us never forget. Lets us take out the politicians off the ugly picture in Iraq and think...
"I don't think Americans understand what the country is asking of these soldiers," he said. "They are doing wonderful things over there. Soldiers aren't afraid of bullets, they are afraid of being forgotten."

There are two rules that warriors have lived by across the centuries. Rules that were learned the hard way and passed on from generation to generation. The first rule is that it is okay to weep at a funeral. Every warrior society has understood the need to mourn the loss of a comrade.
The second rule that warrior societies have always understood is that it is not okay to weep at the memory of battle. A warrior who does is like a firefighter who weeps at the memory of fire or a pilot who weeps at the memory of flight. The firefighter and the pilot can mourn comrades killed in fires and crashes but still find satisfaction in what they do. Combat is what warriors do, and if the memory of battle is unbearably painful to them, then they will have great difficulty doing it again. Like a widow dealing with the loss of her husband of 50 year, the veteran must come to terms with what has happened, and he must de-link the memory from the emotions.
Extracted from "On Combat" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, with Loren Christensen

As we often point out, political assessments are frequently viewed through changing lenses. The war in Iraq saw some of the most frightening days over the disastrous Christmas season. An Iraq soldier killed an American policeman during his leave. Two Australian soldiers have also been injured this week. But the war is in such a bad shape that the Iraq election is viewed as positive news. It would help if more western politicians were like soldiers and served more time telling the troops on the ground that their efforts will not be forgotten. Will Opposition leaders be brave in countries like US, Britain and Australia and visit the troops on the ground? We disapprove of torture whether done by Sadam or George. Havn’t we learnt anything from history?
• Dave Grossman on War [Review; Mercy Buckets Psychology of killing]
• · Can you imagine this in Sydney? (smile): The Salem Statesman-Journal reports that Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s office has billed the Statesman Journal $2,084 to respond to a public-records request for e-mails and other correspondence between the governor’s staff and former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s consulting firm The newspaper used the e-mails and Kulongoski’s daily calendar for a Dec. 19 package of stories documenting the Goldschmidt firm’s unmatched access to the governor’s office; [Tim Novak and Steve Warmbir of the Chicago Sun-Times used city contract records to show that the sister of a top aide to Mayor Richard Daley was able to win a city contract for minority and women-owned businesses despite the fact that her company, Toltec, had to purchase supplies from a white-owned firm and subcontract the work to another white-owned contractor Sister gets sweet deal]
• · · Journalists sure do have a hard time of it. Forget reporting from war zones and natural disaster zones, it seems some of the worst conditions hacks have to endure are here at home. On Tuesday, at the less than exotic locale of Ingleburn Park, a gaggle of reporters were obstructed by police and threatened with arrest after Mark Latham's resignation speech, according to the federal secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Chris Warren.
"These actions are in direct violation of press freedom, and we urge the NSW Government to take all steps necessary to ensure respect and promotion of a free and independent media in NSW." NSW police media had no comment yesterday. With hard labor times: The Rise of the Underdogs
• · · · Crime doesn't pay? It does for the Mafia, which is raking in $172 billion a year in Italy alone - nearly as much as General Motors does worldwide. Costa Nostra, N'drangheta and Sacra Corona Unita
• · · · · It is a fascinating coincidence that the release of the 1974 Whitlam cabinet documents, which establish conclusively when and how foolishly the Great Man began to commit political suicide, came just before Latham's own political suicide. P.P.McGuinness is the editor of Quadrant magazine and a great mate of Bob Carr; Editorial states how Mr Carr is fast running out of chances. This is the team which must dig NSW out of the deepest hole it has been in for several decades. Cabinet reshuffle the Premier's last big chance; Son of tram driver, guard and railway fettler and friend of Packer family ]
• · · · · · Mike Steketee: Good reasons to doubt Beazley again ; [ The ailing ALP desperately needs a makeover if it is to win back its supporters. Marketers spell it out Brand Labor ]

Posted 8:07 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Attempt to create a Meme:-) How About A Blog Day on the seventh day of the seventh month ... Number Seven is the only number which stands for completness. We have the 4th of July, we also have the French Revolution in July. How about Bloggal Digital Revolution on the first Sunday of July? (smile)

As journalists have been duped so often, admittedly duped, how can anyone say the media system in America is working? In times of foreign crises, the press doesn't report. It is politically exploited. It is supposed to reflect truth and reality but, by treating politically motivated White House words with face-value reverence, it is distorting that truth and reality and succumbing to patriot games. Patriot game, media shame

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over
Jay Rosen announces that "Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over" -- and of course it is.

I have been an observer and critic of the American press for 19 years. In that stretch there has never been a time so unsettled. More is up for grabs than has ever been up for grabs since I started my watch.
Bloggers vs. journalists is over. I don't think anyone will mourn its passing. There were plenty who hated the debate in the first place, and openly ridiculed its pretensions and terms. But events are what did the thing in at the end. In the final weeks of its run, we were getting bulletins from journalists like this one from John Schwartz of the New York Times, Dec. 28: "For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs.

• Ending One Fruitless Debate [Credits: still life - Explode the Newsroom: Six Ways to Rebuild the System ; grooming - Our Velvet Revolution A growing number of Americans are beginning to identify with the pro-democracy activists whose courage opened much of the world to freedom in the final decades of the 20th Century]
• · It was encouraging to read about transparency, public relations ethics and the insidiousness of spin at various points of this PR Blog Week; via Defining Participatory Journalism
• · · Jay Rosen on PR need to be transparent ...
• · · · She wanted to stop reading it- but she had nothing better to do! Produced by average people who seem to think their lives are interesting. Guess It Was Inevitable: The Blog T-Shirt ; Gillmor Gang
• · · · · Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers Committee to Protect Bloggers
• · · · · · While Iraq's many newspapers get little notice in the American media, the country's citizen bloggers are drawing increased attention, as reporters in the United States try to gauge views within that country during the lead-up to this month's elections. One reason for the interest: Many of the Iraqi bloggers' postings are written in English, unlike the commentary in local newspapers. Reporters read blogs and crikeys. A lot. Bloody Oath ...

Be warned, that some of the entries on these lists are extremely out of date, so please send in any additions or corrections to lists@crikey.com.au. Crikey of Lists:
Journalists who never sold out: the veterans who remained true to the profession for more than 15 years ; Journalists who made it in management ; Journalists now in corporate/govt affairs positions ; Journalists to PR agencies ; Ex journalists who have worked for politicians ; Working Journalists Who Have Worked For Politicians

Posted 5:37 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Google: Search the contents of the book

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital Dragon

There was a time when researching a high school or college term paper was a far simpler thing. A student writing about, say, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, might have checked out a book on the history of aviation from the local library or tucked into the family's dog-eared Britannica. An ambitious college freshman might have augmented the research by looking up some old newspaper clips on microfilm or picking up a monograph in the stacks.

• River Campus Libraries [credits: Work avoidance is one of the major paradoxes of the writing profession ; Literature of Tennis: It was safe to assume ear plugs were required in the delivery room. Focus of attention shows Maria's in with a shout ]
• · Great sexpectations: Vacation stress and partners' differing desires can push passion to the wayside here are a hundred ways bad sex--or no sex--can happen to a good vacation; Nice handwriting, but
• · · Google will introduce new technology controls to thwart people using blogs to manipulate rankings in its search results
• · · · People don't always judge a book by its cover. Often, they're more swayed by how many pages it has, a Dartmouth College professor studying Amazon.com's customer reviews has found. Limbaugh, Franken: Something in common?
• · · · · Havel, Lou Reed: A friendship goes public for art
• · · · · · Reel River; via Movie Maker

Posted 11:34 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-Pericles (430 B.C.)

It was as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he worked the room at half-time in the premiere of the light Prokofiev opera. NSW Premier, Bob Carr had a big smile on his face at the Sydney Opera House Tuesday night: The Love of Three Oranges

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Battle for Political Headlines: Latham v Beazley v Egan
Looking for Webdiarists' choice for Labor leader
I’m certainly not the first to notice the fact that some amazing political battle for media attention and primary real front page story space is being staged in Sydney and its media satelites Down Under Who is trying to drown whom ... and why?

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has a chance to win the federal Labor leadership over Kim Beazley, says NSW ALP president Senator Ursula Stephens.
Senator Stephens said Mr Beazley, the former leader who yesterday became the first caucus member to throw their hat in the ring to replace Mark Latham, was not necessarily a shoe-in.
"At this stage I think the situation is still very uncertain, because although Kim has indicated his intention to run for the leadership ... I know there are others who actually are considering their options," Senator Stephens told ABC radio.

Daily Terror rightly points out that NSW Treasurer Michael Egan is the state's longest serving in 150 years. After delivering 10 Budgets and seeing out 27 years in Parliament, he said he had tired of combative politics.
• Rudd in with chance to beat Beazley: senator [Chances of Beazley; Mercy Buckets Costa off the rails as Carr reshuffles ]
• · Like potholes after a southerly storm in Sydney spin doctors will surface to explain the sound bites Spinmeister and Power
• · · Eleven government bodies massively misspent public funds, breaching the Constitution, an audit has found "The closer one gets to elections or wars, the further one gets from the truth." -- Tony Blankley
• · · · In the Courier Mail, 19/01/2005, Letters section Grace du Prie writes: The think tank members who thought up the idea of different fines for different income earners compare this to the tax system. It's fair, they say, people who earn more will pay more. Aren't the wealthy earners those who evade taxes more successfully? A proposal to punish people based on income is flawed "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer." -- Henry Kissinger
• · · · · Artists accuse city of biased grant system, politician says his venue deserves the cash Prague: it's a fight over money. It's a fight over financial transparency. It's a fight over art "[Politicians] -- they'll give you everything you want to your face -- and then, as you walk away, they'll shoot you in the back because it's fun to watch you die." -- Bob Crandall, former president, American Airlines
• · · · · · Nobody else conveys so much through the slightest angling of eyebrows, the merest twitch of face muscles, the faintest curl of lip, the millimetre-perfect positioning of shoulders. His qualities are often debated. What is certain is that he would be a very bad poker player. Why we need a strong state more than ever "Politicians and bureaucrats are hopelessly addicted to running other people's lives." -- Geoffrey Neale

Posted 11:26 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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In 2004, readers voted with their clicks on what stories mattered most--whether for hard news on viruses or lighter fare on unexpected uses of everyday technology
Never underestimate RSS and Atoms. Surfers go online to do two things. Pick up email or surf for specific information. Booming Blogs!

Tracking Trends Great & Small: Wrapping Up 2004; Looking Forward
Young people are feeling overworked, overstimulated and ready to get away from it all, and they're heading for the figurative hills and taking design inspiration from mountaintop lodges. Though they might not be able to climb a mountain or hike through a forest in their backyard, they're living out their yearnings for nature through fashion, home decor and blog trends

It’s a contemplative time of the year. If you send out one of those traditional Christmas or New Year’s letters to family and friends, you’ve reviewed the good and bad occurrences in your life and decided what you wanted to include. It’s generally time to take stock of what we’ve achieved and to look forward to goals for the new year. The media outlets tell us what have been the hot stories, topics, and trends of the year, while the search engines report on the most popular search terms. In case you’re interested, Google’s annual Year-End Zeitgeist can be found at [http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2004.html ]; Yahoo!’s Top Searches 2004 is at [http://tools.search.yahoo.com/top2004]

• The Hot Stories of 2004 [As a marketing consultant in London, I get a lot of blank, glazed looks when I talk about blogs, blogging, the blogosphere or even the much more respectable sounding Citizen's Media or the 5th estate A Growing Voice: Citizen's Media is one term, and the 5th Estate is another ]
• · Unlike earlier promises of self-publishing revolutions, the blog movement seems to be the real thing. A big reason for that is a tiny innovation called the permalink: a unique web address for each posting on every blog. Ezine Trends For 2005 - Email Publishing Predictions
• · · No Gadget Safe From Home-Style Hacks; [Check out John Battelle's predictions for what's coming up for us next year A Look Ahead ]
• · · · Born Again Christian No Barrier to Divorce ; [With the new year a new national defense law came into effect in the Czech Republic - one that marks a change from most such regimes in the Western world in that it no longer discriminates between the obligations of men and women On the War Path ; Bohemian Women Warriers ]
• · · · · Can you blog something that doesn't exist?
• · · · · · New Link: Christmas Traditions Around the World

Posted 11:13 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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We Interrupt Our Usual Broadcast...
...to ask you to digest slowly Google entries about the latest labor leadership changes as this is the kind of political event that one doesn't soon forget.
But, first things first, the politician who encouraged me to write more about politics after reading my Prague's Second Spring is also taking radical steps after his Second Coming to Parliament. Johno Johnson, the former father of the Upper House, used to humouresly describe MPs elected in the lower House as peasants. This particular MP entered Parliament the second time as the lord. (smile) The ageless lord and commander from Cronulla with the egar smile of Michael Egan is diving off Carr's Ship; Waving not drowning: Profile by Sir Humphries (sic)
Kim Beazley has announced he will stand to take back the Labor leadership, vowing he has the "energy and commitment" to unite the party in the wake of Mr Latham's retirement. Politics of one long Weekend cut short

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Claiming the leadership : I’m a Third Time Lucky Here Myself?
Kim Beazley launched his third bid to reclaim the Labor leadership. The timing of the return of the Webdiary is almost surreal and so are some of this week's headlines or observations inside the commentariat ...

About an hour after Latham announced his resignation, Kim Beazley, predictably, announced that he wanted another shot at the top job . I guess he'll probably get in now, as well. Which, as I said in my previous journal entry, I really don't like the idea of. I'd much have preferred that Mark Latham as leader, with Rudd my preferred second choice.

One wonders whether the heat of speculations and backstabing, will be transformed into an oasis of strong alternative government ... are leaders born or created?
• Google with Hundred Leaders [Web links to leadership Changes; Gough Whitlam said today it was a tragedy Mark Latham's "agonising ailment" had cut short his public career Labor leader's early exit 'a tragedy']
• · FBI surveillance experts have put their once-controversial Carnivore Internet surveillance tool out to pasture, preferring instead to use commercial products to eavesdrop on network traffic Spy Games; [Politics of Spying How Top Spies in Ukraine Changed the Nation's Path]
• · · This is light looking at the ghost graffiti of Gustav Husak at the Svit chemical factory First signs of protest in world's top secret state: Kim Jong-il, defaced with graffiti demanding freedom and democracy; [The problem is that slower trains don't necessarily equal safer trains Ghost of Glenbrook Puts Carr off Track ]
• · · · The significant point is that it has placed a clause in the Accenture contract insisting that the company promise to be a "good tax citizen". This clause will not just be used for Accenture, but in all multi-million dollar procurement deals at the ATO. The "Good Tax Citizenship" clause will be standard in such contracts. Accenture for software and development services related to its upgrade project known as the Change Program
• · · · · Tax Compliance Costs
• · · · · · The new brave federal sentencing world: In the course of linking here to all of last week's newspaper stories about, Illiterary, Booker, I suggested it would be interesting to assemble in one place all the quotes from judges that appear in the articles. One of my terrific students (crawler :-) did me two better: she assembled quotes not only from judges, but also from prosecutors and defense attorneys, addressing last week's remarkable developments. ; [via Professor Douglas A. Berman ]

Posted 11:11 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Though Jesus Christ, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. all expressed similar thoughts, they didn't have the misfortune of living in a world with Fox News.
-Laura Billings
Mountaintop: via A Penny For ... Blog Business Summit: Debunking the Blog Superiority Myth(?)

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Fishing Expedition
The Internet in general and the blogosphere in particular are a means of harnessing open-source information. So we'd like to invite the blogosphere to help answer some of the questions Thornburgh and Boccardi left dangling.

1) Which spy agency Professor Bunyip works for? Friends of Five Ways offer $1 billion reward ... (smile)
2) Who is Michael Smith? The report identifies him only as a "journalist" in Texas.
3) Who is George Conn? When Burkett first spoke with CBS, he claimed that his friend Chief Warrant Officer George Conn was the source of the documents ostensibly damaging to President Bush, but that Conn would not confirm this if pressed. Only later did Burkett change his story.

• The editors of the Weekly Standard invite the blogosphere on a Fishing Expedition [Credits: still life - Apparently my site has been hacked - Tim Blair caught in the net; grooming - Billabong of Bunyip]
• · Before bloggers were nobodies. White House Gift For Endorsement; If You are trying to generate internet buzz, you could do worse than bill yourself as a a "coffee-drinking, erotic cowgirl."; [viaInstapundit]
• · · Everyone is talking about Clint Eastwood's new movie, Million Dollar Baby (trailer). What you may not know however is that the movie was based on a short story in a book by the name of Rope Burns: Stories From The Corner by the late F.X. Toole (aka Jerry Boyd). Back in 2000 Toole gave an amazing interview on Fresh Air about spending the last 20 years of his life as a cut man and the last 40 years of writing while trying to overcome his fear of rejection before getting his first book published at age 70. Freddy Krueger: a devil of a digital dragon
• · · · To blog or not to blog? That's the question Brad Feld, a managing director at Mobius Venture Capital, asked himself last year before launching his personal Web diary, dubbed Feld Thoughts. He wondered if anyone would be interested in his musings about bear watching in Alaska, the latest movies he's seen, and, of course, what it means to be a venture capitalist. Cover Story: My Life as a Blogger
• · · · · CES: Confessions Of A Bluetooth Skeptic
• · · · · · It was brought to my attention that a website named Bloglines was reproducing the Trademark Blog, surrounding it with its own frame, stripping the page of my contact info. It identifies itself as a news aggregator. It is not authorized to reproduce my content nor to change the appearance of my pages, which it does Trademarks and Bloglines ; Bloglines in Trenches

Posted 10:10 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Prague Spring on a Different Planet i've been to the mountaintop - martin luther king jr. - 1968

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: My Love, My Winner of the Golden Globe
Don't you just love my way of finding an excuse to explain how much I identify with the new mini-series Love My Way?

Well, every aspect of the show continues to surprise me. Last night’s episode entitled A Different Planet could have been based on the tragedy in my family. As the death of a young person is the worst possible thing that can happen to any family. In September 1975 my sister died at the age of twenty-two of rare variety of leukemia. All the dreams all the potential all the mystery turns into ashes. When the most tragic events happen in the family, everyone is pulled ever so intimately together and then in many strange ways torn apart. There would not be a mother walking on this earth who would not be touched by Claudia’s portrayal of a mother who has lost her girl. It is impossible to act with such heart-wrenching expressions as Claudia displayed without trully experiencing the unbearable loss. One is left with the urge to protect her until the pain is all but gone. There is a saying: No tears in the actor, no tears in the viewer. I remember that raw, out of this world howling of my mother and sisters Gitka, Eva, Lidka ... My tearful aunties Sidka, Anna, Julia and the faces of uncles who could not hide the deep animal shooting pain.

After Love My Way I could not sleep so watched Danny Deckchair. It is a light comedy which is filled with dreams of Iron Curtain proportions. I remember having a number of dreams along the lines back in the communist Czechoslovakia. In fact, an attempt was made to execute similar kind of escape, but sadly there are no survivor to tell his story. This is a blown up tale for any child at heart who ever dreamed of taking off. Rhys Ifans play an Australian who almost becomes a Member for Clarence (still the story is very little on politics - but the speech Danny Morgan give at the Town Hall is rather impressive. At one point during his inspirational waves Danny reminded me of Boris Johnson). Miranda Otto as (parking cop) Glenda Lake and Justine Clarke as Trudy Dunphy make the movie what the movie what life should be all about - with a big dream and a little attitude, anything's possible. This film was inspired by Larry Walters, who tied 42 weather balloons to his chair expecting to lightly float into the air. He armed himself with a six pack of beer and pellet gun (in this movie they used scissors (my, my, even thesaurus could not help me find the spelling of sizors for this taurus) to cut off the balloons one by one to come back down slowly. However, he shot up into the air far faster than he expected, and dropped the gun after shooting out a few bullets. Would I see it again maybe with someone who has not seen it yet ...
• Love My Way [credits: Google @ Golden Glow ; Gold Rush keeps the Australian flag flying high Geoffrey Rush won a Golden Globe ]
• · The ATO's Public Taxation Ruling: carrying on business as a professional artist (TR 2005/1) is a giant leap towards a new kind of status, says National Association for the Visual Arts director Tamara Winikoff, who led the campaign. Art can be taxing
• · · Red wine with fish? Never! Naked woman tells post office patrons to repent Post Office Abuse: Peach blossom luck... ; Iraq abuse case Nothing wrong with piling up naked prisoners or leashing them; First there was Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room, then there was Kathleen Turner in The Graduate. Now the Royal Opera House, that bastion of high culture, is resorting to nudity of Diva in order to seduce opera patrons to dive in the Cold River
• · · · LeRoy's work, called "brilliant, gifted and profound" by Vanity Fair, explores the complexities of human need without passing judgment on the needy or resorting to cliche. From street urchin to literary rising star
• · · · · Can you marry books? Because I’m head over heels in love with this Eco’s book on Beauty. There are two Umberto Ecos living in the same skin.
• · · · · · The universe is made up of stories not atoms - muriel rukeyser Telling it like it is to the Young: Dead in the Deep water

Posted 5:43 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Salvos of political comments swimming in the digital waters: The Webdiary is Back!
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a handy weapon for both sides to wield as his message continues to resonate today (sometimes for the wrong reasons) King's words claimed by many Today is a better, but oppression still remains
Certain politicians try very hard to be all party manifestos and all fashions at all moments in history - and the majority of them fail, some of the time (depending on which fashions and moments and policies they choose).
Gov. Schwarzenegger's bold four-point agenda: Fixing California The Austrian American who has a great gift for fiction would appreciate the reality Down Under ; Derailed Supremo of Supremos

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Left Hand, Meet Right Hand
The same human rights principles that once guided me in the Soviet Union remain the cornerstone of my approach to the peace process. I am willing to transfer territory not because I think the Jewish people have less of a claim to Judea and Samaria than do the Palestinians, but because the principle of individual autonomy remains sacred to me--I do not want to rule another people. Honoring Democracy ]

Typically we criticize our politicians as shortsighted, looking only to the next election, unwilling to take any short-term risk for the long-term nation-al interests. But today's politicians--notably George W. Bush but also some of his Democratic opponents--are fighting for long-term stakes. Sure, they make compromises and back and fill with the wind. But they are also acting with an eye to what America will look like 20, 30, even 40 years out.

• Hands and Eyes on the future [Journalism's vacation from the truth ; Paid to help, or paid to blog - there's a difference ]
• · You don't see headlines like that every day even though it happens in various forms often: Canada's immigration minister Judy Sgro has resigned over allegations that she agreed to help a pizza shop owner avoid deportation in return for free food Canada minister in garlic bread, pizza scandal; In public service, managers are addicted to giving Higher Duty Allowance to blood relations or characters who buy the large quantity of beer and vodka during Friday UnHappy Hours ... [It's worse than I thought. Web logs, or blogs, are the hot new medium for commentary. So many have sprung up that one can only tend to a narrow selection or a digest of highlights. Trying the hot medium]
• · · Sutherly Buster presents: Gay bombs: US secret weapon plan OR Planet Pentagon Bombards Earth with Sex Rays! Shingles are up at Titanic Newtown ; [Sex trafficking at its worst is the slavery of the 21st century, yet it has become one of the world's growth industries. ]
• · · · Titan's sea views are out of this world: Scientists are describing Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, as a frigid world of coastlines, wind, mists, and blocks of ice strewn about the landscape Titan site has orange haze, hints of a purring shoreline ; First Image from Titan: Titan may have icy lakes and cold rivers
• · · · · The United States is now rivaling those who burned the Great Library of Alexandria as cultural destroyers. Having deliberately built a base upon Babylon, a new report from the British Museum notes: damage to the dragons decorating the Ishtar Gate, one of the world's most famous monuments, from attempts to prise out the relief-moulded bricks
• · · · · · We say in Slovak, the more languages you know, the more times you are a human being. Jan Figel, the new EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, will manage a budget of EUR 16 billion [Jan Figel’s father was a bitter anti-communist following the "disappearance" of Jan's uncle in 1953, which was linked to the Slovak secret police]. David Ferguson speaks to him for the Slovak Spectator ; [My baby wants to know if she is more / American than Czech, to which I say / that she is what has never been before, / a perfect blending of the two, the play / of what is best in both in one good girl. Prague Poetically Political ; Némirovsky's drama of the Exodus and the Occupation is low-key and human in scale and it has the kind of immediacy found in the diary of Anne Frank ]

Posted 4:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I'll die as I've lived, with a book in my hand.
-Machado de Assis

The idea of blog policies itself is controversial. Personally, I don’t believe that bloggers need to subscribe to any particular set of policies, or even have a policy at all. The only freedom we really have lives in the few square centimeters inside our skull, and if we don’t have that, all the other freedoms are worthless. Blogs are uniquely a product of a writer’s mind, and should be unfettered by any rules that they have not thought out themselves. What’s interesting to me is what kind of rules bloggers think up for their blogs, if and when they decide to have them. Die with Blogger policy in your hand (via the best spider - Bill Ives)

The Blog, The Press, The Media: While We Were Sleeping lots Happened: The Naked Blogger Corp ...
It's not just big government that has trouble reforming itself. So do big organizations of any sort.

The scandal over CBS News' attempted election-eve hit job on President George W. Bush is only the most recent sign. Two investigators asked to look into the case, former Associated Press chief Lou Boccardi and former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, took the Al Capone approach -- nailing the defendants on some technicalities. But lopping off a few midlevel heads, or the "retirement" of Dan Rather, won't solve the problem.

That problem runs deep, so deep that many of my colleagues in the business, for the most part well-meaning, talented people who truly feel a sense of public obligation, simply don't recognize it. It rests on their assumptions about the way the world works, assumptions that are widely shared in the nation's newsrooms and thus rarely challenged.
• Media need to consider alternative realities [Liberal Jacqueline frequently blogs naked! Of course, I frequently sleep naked, so is that the same as blogging in my pajamas?]
• · The Gillmor Gang with guest Adam Bosworth
• · · The flip side of adulation for winners is often contempt for people with cumulative misfortune, who routinely slog through murky quasi-netherworlds and do their best to keep from going under. Far from Media Spotlights, the Shadows of "Losers"; [Love is on the Blog Streets I would not walk across the street to piss in your mouth if you were dying of thirst]
• · · · Know what’s worse than being fired from your job at the paper because your bosses discover your blog? ; Exalead, a company that powers AOL France's search (I was introduced to its founder by Alta Vista founder Louis Monier - yup, he's French) announced today that its stand alone search engine has surpassed. the 1-billion-pages-indexed mark
• · · · · Know what is worse laughing or crying over the human condition. I am clearly for the first: not because it is more pleasant to laugh than to weep, but because it expresses more contempt and condemnation than the other
• · · · · · Blogging is a cultural phenomenon too fascinating to ignore. Enjoy the guilty pleasures of short attention spans, imrich or embrace the instant punditry; be daring dragon; [Technorati serves up its version of tags ; Del Icio ]

Posted 4:05 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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If literature is dead, someone forgot to invite Haruki Murakami to the funeral.
-Jay Rubin on the Literary King of 21st Century

They say there are three ways of achieving immortality: rear a child ( Alex and Gabbie), plant a tree (in Vrbov, Prague, Sydney, Adelaide and Brissie) or write a book (Cold River). I might have done all three, but it took the Velvet Revolution at 32 to bless me with a bambino and it took almost twenty years to write the damn book. Now I read in the evil Guardian that some smart alecsia (smile), Helen Oyeyemi wrote her first book in seven months while studying for her A-levels. By the time she got her results, she had signed a two-book, £400,000 deal. There are sooo many books in the world I haven't read, sometimes I feel as if they're all piled on top of my head weighing me down and saying, Hurry up... Hurry up those foreign distribution rights for Love My Way as my family in Prague and Hight Tatra Mountains deserves to digest a performance set in another world yet so close to the bone!!!

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Now, there would be time for everything
The War on Libraries: Save and Burn, a Film Review

There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another.

All librarians should see this film, and I am sure they will feel like I do that librarians must leave their beautiful houses of culture, and join the fight to protect them from the despots East and West who will eventually destroy them. One librarian talks about how the Book of Kells was protected from the invading English, being moved from site to site, even in a building used by the invaders as a headquarters.
• Libraries: The DNA of Literature [Lindsay Waters examines questions at the very heart of book-based culture Bonfire of the Humanities ]
• · Secret Agent Richard Curtis presents his view of Spying in the Twenty First Century in an essay on Backspace (spies only). In the first part, he describes the two paradigms of contemporary publishing: the traditional model built around tangible objects such as books, warehouses, and stores; and the new model he describes as "virtual". The move from one model to another is underway and will impact the entire industry including authors, agents, editors, booksellers, and readers. 21 Century Vox: Part I ; Part 2: Paperbacks: The Long Tail that Wagged the Dog; Third article is still in a draft, galley, version, but it will soon stream from this web site The Rise of the Airport Model: Double Dragon Publishing
• · · It's Not Exactly Like They're Flying Off the Shelves Here Why it’s become so easy to write off our literary magazines ; [The Long Tail is about the economics of abundance -- what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone. The idea, basically, is that online retailing is allowing customers to explore their own tastes in ways hitherto not available. And what they find, as they continue to explore, is that they actually enjoy all kinds of weird stuff which they hardly knew existed -- because it isn't available on main-channel TV stations or supermarket bookshelves. This leads on to the idea that the sum of expenditure on all these little niche markets. The tail of Cold River can equal or exceed the value of the heavily hyped blockbusters ]
• · · · Online literary mag founder has made a name for herself with snarky, literate book reviews, thoughtful author interviews and a trend-tracking blog Jessa Crispin has a promiscuous love of literature All's fair in love and escape
• · · · · It is On Tonight: I can’t explain my current obsession with Love My Way. It maybe million things such as the performance which is peppered with streaks of endless darkness ... yet the scenes seem to be filled with raw and painful spiritual journey. Most of all the story explores the randomness of life and the bloody mindedness needed to carve out a place in the world. Georgia Toomey of In Style Magazine fame (Nov 2004) looks at the heartbreaker in the making, Claudia Karvan who led a little girl’s secret life among the iron lace. Claudia recalls her early life at her parent’s terrace in Woollahra Sydney. Pedestrian rite of passage: I need a stiff Vodka just to settle my nerves
• · · · · · What are you reading? And perhaps more interestingly, what are you going to read next? Your Next Escapist Step; [A memoirs of struggle through pain and social injustice. These struggles map the tangled laces of the Iron Curtain - the complexity of escape; its twisted fears, its desperate dreams. Escapes can be sad, disturbing, filled with hard core irony and absurd all at once: the emotional debris of an entire dysfunctional and tragic escape packed into each one. “If you haven’t turned pages of Cold River how would you possibly know whether your life was awful or good...” Powells My Pall ; If you can't say anything nice, ask your Significant Other if he read Cold River at Powells .. . It's Not Exactly Like They're Diving Off the Shelves Here, Either... See, the life of a writer is a perilous one, the chance of being published is slight and receiving an advance is even more remote. You’d think that maybe after you’d sold a few books things might get easier, but let me tell you, writing, like pimping, ain’t easy ]

Posted 7:04 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Elen Nagler was elected last week as a delegate from the 35th Assembly District to the California State Democratic Party Convention, and as the alternate representative from the district to the Executive Board of the State Democratic Committee.
I shared with Ellen the following snippet from Yes Minister / PM. I am rereading the Yes Minister and PM series for the fourth time. By way of lightish backround, the first book of the Yes Minister series I ever read was actually an autographed copy (by Sir Humphrey and the Minister) courtesy of Dr Russell Cope who has hosted them for luncheon and eventually catalogued the books at X collection of the NSW Parliamentary Library stack (Cleverly, Dr David Clune refers to the stack as dungeon).
Humphrey: There are four words you have to work into a proposal if you want a Minister to accept it.
Sir Frank: Quick, simple, popular, cheap. And equally there are four words to be included in a proposal if you want it thrown out.
Sir Humphrey: Complicated, lengthy, expensive, controversial. And if you want to be really sure that the Minister doesn't accept it you must say the decision is courageous.
Bernard: And that's worse than controversial?
Sir Humphrey: (laughs) Controversial only means this will lose you votes, courageous means this will lose you the election.
- The Right to Know

Josef, (sic)
I will print out that dialogue and keep it before my eyes at all times. Wonderful!
Posted by: Ellen Dana Nagler at January 11, 2005 12:25 PM
Bringing courage Home :-)

Indeed, Ellen the reason I am so fascinated with politics is because as with crime, abuse of power or stuff ups, there are no boundaries...as a result, the literature will never dry out of political stories. Mind my words: Never!

In the context of the NSW transport mentality we share this with you:
Sir Mark: We'll offer to call him Transport Supremo, shall we.
Sir Arnold: Yes, much more attractive than Transport Muggins.
...
Jim: After all we do need a transport policy.
Sir Humphrey: If by we you mean Britain that is perfectly true, but if by we you mean you and me and this department we need a transport policy like an aperture in the cranial cavity.
- The Bed of Nails; Yes Minister / PM

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: A Fistful of Contractors:

Hot off the press. In the bad old Czechoslovakia something along these lines would have to come off the back of the truck before an ordinary man in the street would be able to read it. In a real democracy anyone can read it ...

Since the first civilian contractors started operating in Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq there has been growing public scrutiny of their activities. While most of the attention has been paid to the activities of contractors doing reconstruction work such as Halliburton, Parsons, Fluor, et cetera, growing attention and concern has been paid to the operations of those private military and security firms (herein referred as Private Military Companies, or PMCs) who provide security for such firms, as well as for Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) workers, nongovernmental organizations, and western media.

• The Case for a Pragmatic Assessmentof Private Military Companies in Iraq [When the sun comes up, I have morals again. Elizabeth Taylor Culture of negligence a danger to patients
• · And God said: Let there be Satan, so people don't blame everything on me. And let there be lawyers, so people don't blame everything on Satan. George Burns Sir Mark Thatcher: Mumsy's Boy; Thather’s escape raises questions about Straw’s role "I didn't accept it. I received it." Richard Allen, National Security Advisor to President Reagan, explaining the $1000 in cash and two watches he was given by two Japanese journalists after he helped arrange a private interview for them with First Lady Nancy Reagan. ]
• · · They gave me a book of checks. They didn't ask for any deposits. Congressman Joe Early (D-Mass) at a press conference to answer questions about the House Bank Scandal. Pressure grows to strip Thatcher title
• · · · [Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master. Rev. Jesse Jackson ] I'll make it really simple for everyone: the way to oppose torture is by opposing torture. That's how you do it. You don't do it by voting for the torturer, attacking the people who won't, and then saying "oh, but torture is bad; [God, if I click on one more left-leaning blog that has a post about how bloody wonderful it is that Andrew Sullivan is opposing torture, I'm going to put someone in a stress position Via Tim Dunlop ]
• · · · · The reason most people want to become clerks at the Parliamentary table is to wear clothes they would not be caught dead in otherwise. Speaking of being caught in the Yes Minister episoded, buses donated to East Timor by the NSW Government in 2002 have never been used Yes Minister: Commuters out, squatters in as Timor gift fails road test ;
[MPs Accountability: All Australian MPs receive a minimum listed salary of $106,770 a year with an unaccountable electoral allowance of between $27,300 for city MPs and up to $40,000 for rural and regional representatives which is solely an extention of salary. With major parties able to guarantee new candidates upper house seats, it would be of interest to know how many have changed their residential address from the city to country following knowlwdge of being selected as a candidate ...
- Rod Charlton, Oatlands: letter to the editor Sunday papers ]
• · · · · · The Totally Unauthorized Tribute: Not That There's Anything Wrong with That Do the time, pay the fine: you've earned it after all: John Quiggin ; [ John Quiggin Commentariat: Attributing Thousand Dollars Towards Tsunami ]

Posted 6:51 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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As the SMH Icon rightly noted, there was no need for Media Dragon to post a photo of a lost boy last week. Help Needed - N\o More! Swedish Boy Found Alone After Tsunami Reunited with Family

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Credibility Gap: Jerry Seinfield Look a Like
At its best, at its most influential, America developed an ethic that journalism should be fair and balanced. But what the marketplace has wrought, the marketplace now seems destined to tear asunder.

Objectivity as an ideal for American journalists is a relatively new concept. (Let us stipulate that "objectivity" is a troublesome term and set aside, for the moment, the debate over the nature and achievability of objectivity. Suffice it to say we are talking about the idealized notion of objectivity that the average American holds in his or her heart).

• Market-Driven Objectivity and the State of the Media [The Bush administration sucks, its re-election casts a cloud on the judgment of mainstream America, the war is a disgrace, and we deserve the hell we're headed for Narrative Chic & Kowtowing to the Bush Bashers ]
• · UNESCO conference on freedom of Speech in Cyberspace; [The reaction to Kitty Kelley's book is summed up best by your sentence: "If it lacked respectability among 'legit' journalist, the readers didn't care." Journalists -- both print and electronic -- hammered Kelley's book, but it flew off the shelves anyway. Why? Because a lot of people these days are not so much interested in being informed as being entertained -- and having their ideas reinforced]
• · · We had to give them water so that they could get hold of themselves and continue An Iranian Cleric Turns Blogger for Reform
• · · · Dart-throwers should have tougher hides Heartaches of Journalist Bloggers ; [What they do, it seems to me, is the reporter is supposed to be humble; a reporter is supposed to ask questions and not be a know-it-al Know-it-all Instapundits]
• · · · · I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. The other Marx: Media Bloggers Association names new members
• · · · · · Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we here in Kosland are at the cutting edge of technology. As Markos noted early last month, many Kossacks have already ditched Internet Explorer in favor of the vastly superior FireFox browser What's on Your Hard Drive? ; Hard core Science and the Latest Scientific News - from New Scirus Search Slave
[So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'
Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer. ]

Posted 6:39 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no reponsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap. Then you finish of as an orgasm !!!Amen!!! Awomen ...
-In George Constanza's words
Authorsden Mentor: My advice: write until your fingers bleed to staunch a wounded heart. Truth and beauty is all we know, and need to know. Write what you know. A thousand rejection slips do not mean failure. 1942-2005: Gerald Grimmett (in memory of)

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: In the famous words of some past film reviewer: I laughed. I cried.
The first clue was my handwriting on the stamped envelope. They use your own postage to deliver the bad news. A slip of blue paper confirmed my suspicions. Thank you for your submission. We are sorry that it does not meet our editorial needs at this time. The Editors

Rejections are hard enough to take, it's even more dispiriting to be turned down by a form letter.
I've got half a mind to send a boilerplate reply of my own: Thank you for your rejection. I'm sorry that it does not defeat my literary dreams at this time. The Writer.R

Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the hell happened. Cora Harvey Armstrong
• Over the years, I've been a student of rejection [My girlfriend always laughs during sex - no matter what she's reading. Steve Jobs (Founder: Apple Computers - this explains why he invented iPod) How Well Is Your Library Serving these Kids? Pop Goes the Library’s iPOd]
• · Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships. Sharon Stone Oh Yeah? Says Who? No more anonymous reviews, please; Beach patrol ... police keep a protective eye on sunbathers at Cronulla beach. Thieves who take shirt from your back at Cronulla by Angela Cuming
• · · Mark Latham and his unruly Labor mob are not the only ones enduring the thrills and spills of his leadership. It has also been a roller-coaster ride for those in the business of bringing out books about the Opposition Leader.
During Latham's honeymoon period last year there were six on the go, with two sympathetic biographies out before the election disaster. But another one, by a former Herald journalist, Bernard Lagan, begun before Latham became leader, has become a political thriller.
"It's a book in search of an ending," Lagan said amid this week's feverish speculation about Latham's future. "We don't know what the end is going to be."
The project has dragged on a lot longer than he expected when he set out to tell the inside story of Latham's ascendancy.
At least his publisher, Allen & Unwin, is patient. Until we know what's happening, to some degree it's very hard for us to be committed to a publishing date, said the editorial manager, Rebecca Kaiser Ach, The never-ending story [Many publishers never see the irony in this saying: If you can't laugh at yourself, make fun of others. Bobby Slayton]
• · · · Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place. Billy Crystal, "City Slickers" Left Wing Erotica: Between Hard Covers
• · · · · The statistics on twisted sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they are okay, then it's you. Collection of Tongue Twisters
• · · · · · Good childhood traditions of High Tatra Mountain remembered: Hot on the heels of yesterday's announcement that Oxford University is to torture religious people in the name of science, news reaches us that researchers at Hull University have been dragging unfortunate students up mountains and making them answer questions while putting their hands in buckets of cold water. Cold baths help sweatiness and stress, say researchers ; We do not recommend you start dressing up The modern Scotsman the lovechild of Iceberg B***

Posted 1:16 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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On Cronulla Beach and in churches, Sydneysiders have joined the rest of the nation in observing a minute's silence today as a mark of respect for more than 160,000 lives claimed by the Boxing Day tsunami.
At 11.59am, Australians around the country fell silent, exactly three weeks to the minute after the earthquake struck.
Brotherhood of Men and Women Mourns Tsunami Victims

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Ring of Remembrance: Minute's silence brings us together
Can a day of mourning add anything to what people are already doing? Professor Richard Bryant, a psychologist from the University of New South Wales, thinks it can. "Formally recognising the day gives a lot more weight to the recognition that this terrible thing did happen," he says. "It gives more weight to a communal sense that we care."

It is only the second national day of mourning in Australian history. The first was held on October 20, 2002, to commemorate the Bali bombing. A day of mourning has no legal status; there was no such commemoration for the 1977 Granville train disaster, Ash Wednesday or the Port Arthur massacre. It seems that we have one when the government deems it appropriate to the public mood.

• What difference does a mourning day make? [Reflection ]
• · Surfrider's Rings of Remembrance
• · · Giving to charity is for life not just for Christmas; [We and They ]
• · · There's no check I can write that will stop my government from destroying a city in order to "save" it.

Posted 10:59 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I really shouldn't take the bait, but if you read three of the stories out of 100 on Google you would feel rather tempted to predict that the symbolism behind this madness will bring new policies dealing with Iraq ... I can recall seeing at least a dozen dead Iraqis in pictures from the paper or in news magazines. Like the grey, bloated tsunami victims mentioned above, these bodies did not have the benefit of a jacket over their heads. Their dusty faces were caked with sand and fully visible. Three corpses lie in a river
Some see Andres Raya, shot dead after killing an officer, as war victim. Others claim gang link. It was a simple burial, with no military honors and no 21-gun salute. The 19-year-old Marine corporal died in a gun battle with police in his hometown of Ceres in Stanislaus County Sunday. Turning Point of Iraq War Too Close to the Skin of Homeland.
Andres Raya had a U.S. Marines sticker and a cross on his bedroom door -- symbols that family friends said reflected his dedication to his country and his community.
But the teenager who wanted to become a firefighter in his small town, and work alongside police officers, shot and killed one officer and injured another -- images recorded by a convenience store camera.
For a kid who wanted to grow up a hero, Andres Raya's life ended in the worst possible way.


Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Beyond the Manger: Unbearable Strangeness of Evil
Christopher Dawson wrote just before the World War II in The Catholic Attitude: It to War has been the fault of both pacifism and liberalism in the past that they have ignored the immense burden of inherited evil under which society and civilization labour and have planned an imaginary world for an impossible humanity. We must recognize that we are living in an imperfect world in which human and superhuman forces of evil are at work and so long as those forces affect the political behaviour of mankind there can be no hope of abiding peace.

Marjorie Suchocki noted that original sin "is the grip the past has upon us." We live under an immense burden of inherited evil. The sins of the fathers (and mothers) really are passed down from generation to generation. And each generation adds its own. In classical Christian terminology, this is the taint of original sin.

• Boys Don't Cry: The burden of inherited evil [Are All Sins Equal? Theologian J.I. Packer Says No, And He's Right! ]
• · Mahmoud Abbas has been elected President of the Palestine Authority to succeed Yasir Arafat. Will this make any difference? Is the creation of a Palestinian state nearer? Are the possibilities of an Israeli-Palestine agreement nearer? Many hope so, but the chances are thin. Life After Arafat
• · · Yesterday's genius, today's fool, tomorrow's what? Reading the pages of foreign-policy journals, between the long tracts on Bush's "failures" and neoconservative "arrogance," one encounters mostly predictions of defeat and calls for phased withdrawal — always with resounding criticism of the American "botched" occupation.Triangulating the War ; [No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason Not In Our Name statement ]
• · · · As the world political configuration moves toward multipolarity, each regional power center is constrained to push for the greatest reach that it can achieve in its geographical area until a stable configuration emerges. Is post cold war development dead? We are reminded of a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which a wizened old man is offered to the collector of dead bodies in plague-ridden London. "I'm not dead," the geezer wheezes. "I'm getting better!" Replies the hulking young man trying to give him away, "You're not fooling anyone, you know. You'll be stone dead in a moment." Croatia Enters a Problematic Phase of Development
• · · · · The lone undercover agent in a sting that sent dozens of black people to prison on bogus drug charges in Tulia was convicted today of one of two perjury counts: Tom Coleman; [28 Prisoners from Iraq's Abu Ghraib escape]
• · · · · · If we give up our lawn mower races, the terrorists will have won. Provisional Sinn Fein condemns the arms trade Report on arms exports reveal Irish complicity in trade

Posted 10:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The London Book Fair has added a new feature to the highly successful Academic, STM and ELT sector of the show. The e-Content Pavilion and seminar theatre will offer Information Professionals, Knowledge Managers, Librarians and Publishers the opportunity to view an exclusive selection of the very best online information management content all in one place Featuring: Blog: The Forest Gump of Literature

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Zephyr Teachout: The Valley of the Blogging Shadow
Once referred to as “possibly the world's greatest reference librarian?(American Libraries, February 1995 page146), Cecil Adams has been answering questions via his alternative newspaper column, The Straight Dope, since 1973...

Every year, the Machine-Assisted Reference Section of the American Library Association puts out a best-of list of recommended free web reference tools. This year's list is full of gems, showing us that the web continues to offer richly rewarding FREE content to support a wide range of research topics. Every library that maintains lists of best-of-the-web for their users should review this list.

• Best of the Best Virtual Times [Blog Abuse: Will it ruin free speech as we know it? ]
• · Hey, you sound familiar Zephyr Teachout (not relation to Terry): Is Daily Kos the new Armstrong Williams?; Daily Kosts and Double Trouble: the Worst of the Worst of Virtual Times ; Blogging for Dollars: Hang Daily Kos, but not for taking money from Howard Dean ; [Have you, at any time, taken money from the Bush administration in exchange for promotion of the administration's policies? This column is not for sale ; Hewitt on Blog]
• · · A civil-rights group will try to deflect an "asteroid" from hitting bloggers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said yesterday it would defend bloggers' right to protect anonymous sources who disclosed that Apple would release a product code-named "Asteroid." Bloggers' rights up for debate in Apple lawsuit; [Hard choices: researcher vs. blogger? ]
• · · · Instructional Headline of the Day: Iain Ferguson of ZDNet Australia points out that no matter how modest a blog may be deemed, the instant accessibility to potentially mass audiences that the medium provides calls for the blogger to exercise responsibility Blog today, gone tomorrow ; [Terminal Big Bad Bollandness of Being Dull Blog Modified version of course :-) ]
• · · · · We can't count the number of times various manifestos have been read to us by communists in our lifetime. A powerful good spirited global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed, so begins the often quoted and influential book, The Cluetrain Manifesto. Light switches
• · · · · · A Bunch of Blogging Pastors: Mark Daniels observes that they're a more diverse bunch than some might expect, only proving C. S. Lewis's observation that when Christ enters people's lives, God gives them the confidence to be their own unique and quirky selves Are They for Real? Dive in and Find Out

Posted 9:50 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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So, here we are. To steal John Lennon's cheery thoughts on the subject: another year over, a new one just begun. It is the time of year where every newspaper, every magazine and every TV station thinks it has a duty to look back over the last twelve months and nod knowingly about contemporary culture and changing times.
But frankly, what is the point? We live in a replay culture ... When popular nostalgia gets as far as the mid-noughties and the beeb gets around to making I love 2004, probably some time next March, what will it be getting nostalgic about? What will stand out as the crazy trends that, older and wiser, we will look back on and mutter I can't believe we liked that . . ?

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: More Than a Hunch: The Tipping Point
Anyone who does a lot of public speaking knows there are certain questions that inevitably arise from the audience in a Q&A. In my case, lecturing on pseudoscience and the paranormal, I am almost always asked:

What is my position on the afterlife? ("I'm for it"), have I ever encountered a mystery that science cannot explain? ("Paris Hilton"), and have I ever been skeptical of something that turned out to be real?
For the final question I have a serious answer: intuition.

As a skeptical scientist, I have always treated with disdain the notion that one can intuit a truth about reality. Scientists should employ the logic of Mr. Spock, the deductive reasoning of Mr. Holmes, and the rational calculus of Mr. Data. Hunches, guesses, insights, feelings, and intuitions lead to misdirection and error. Thinking things through rationally and systematically is ...
• Royal Road to Reality [Only expensive new cars park here: Jaguars, Mercedes, BMWs and Rovers. Everything here looks clean. Sun Damage ]
• · The Indian Ocean tsunamis may yet prove to be our Lisbon earthquake, our 21st century equivalent of that moment on 1 November, 1755 when the Enlightenment’s faith in the perfectibility of human society was squashed by a mere flick of the cosmic finger Humanity's search for the meaning of life ... and of death ; [A Sri Lankan Buddhist blames it on bad karma. A Muslim imam sees it as a test from God. A Wiccan high priestess sees only Mother Nature's natural cycles, while a Catholic bishop and Jewish rabbi stress the charitable response to disaster Deadly Tsunami Resurrects the Old Question of Why ]
• · · We have been to the Neverland, and now we shall always believe. The world speaks many languages, but it dreams in English. The Fellowship of the Ring ; [With the current crop of television shows such as CSI and WITHOUT A TRACE forensic investigation is taken to a new level. Are We Traceable? ]
• · · · Why are we so scared of offending each other? That is what a civilised society should be able to do. And, if we keep our nerves and carefully explain to all citizens that being offended is an occupational hazard in a free society, then my guess is that in 10 years' time - if it's good enough - Bezhti will be playing to audiences of unoffended Sikhs all over Britain I don't mean to be rude ... ; [The stronger sex While 70-year-old men have the hearts of 70-year-olds, those of their female peers resemble the hearts of 20-year-olds swimmers in the Morava River]
• · · · · There's a reason why you can't remember much of anything from eighth grade science class. There's also a reason why you'll never forget the big eighth grade camping trip. It simply has to do with the fact that the camping trip is part of a story in which you were a key player. The reason you might not remember much about science class is that there's not much of a story there. It was boring.
Story writing impacts reader experience ; [They say opportunity only knocks once, but for Cold River it is knocking again. You take your two index fingers, and one and one equals the power of 11. This is not your average run of the mill review of an escape Best Book Reviews ; More Book Reviews ; And even more ]
• · · · · · Terry firmly believed that books in the future would be read electronically. Sadly, The Bell Tolls for E-Book Pioneer Terry Sheils ; [The discovery of a new species of human astounded the world. But is it what it seems? Bones of contention ]

Posted 5:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Life is a great mystery. Is everybody a different person when they are with somebody else?
Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy

The Moment of Escape: Just One Single Moment Can Change Everything
Everything we see and our brains themselves would just be parts of this simulation.’ Oxford University philosopher Dr Nick Bostrom echoes the thoughts of sci-fi writers and scientists alike. The simulation hypothesis is not sci-fi, it’s serious academic thought. Ach, Are We Real?
Despite various reservations, the following question seems to be in order: How likely are you to read Cold River, based on a real story, this year? Will you be a different person after you read it? If in fact by the end of the year, you find yourself ordering the story of Iron Curtain crossing, you might be able to shift some of the blame onto us. It seems that the simple and apparently mundane act of asking a question can lead to a very intentional response by the respondents or consumers.



By chance or good fortune, Cold River's 15 Minutes @ Digital Palm Reading keeps on Ticking
[ Number of people, mostly in their twenties, who attempt suicide in the world each year: 10 to 20 million; number who actually succeed: about 1 million --- Number of people who attempt to get published in the world each year: 100 to 200 million; number who actually succeed: about 10 million ...
-Source John Croucher, Professor of Statistics; and Media Dragon, Professor of Number Crunching]
Believe it or not - our other book - Sex at the Gate is selling like hot cakes: There is No Discount Like Double Dragon Discount: Dirty Thirty %

Posted 8:41 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Senior opposition leaders have called for the resignation of Police President Jiri Kolar [Party Affiliation: Member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 1982-89] so many times in the last three years that most political observers have lost count. Bugging is not the problem of the Czech police alone but of the police forces in all post-communist countries including NSW (smile) So now you understand that the average person would object to being wiretapped? In this country, the order to wiretap a person is issued by a judge, and only in the most serious of criminal cases...

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: How to win at Politics
Jonathan Jones has written a book on art and politics entitled: In Machiavelli's Florence. For 500 years his name has been synonymous with ruthlessness, manipulation and backstabbing. But could the much-maligned Machiavelli tell us the truth about politics in our time? Jonathan Jones on why Brown and Blair have much to learn from a 16th-century thinker

The 16th-century political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli knew how to get rid of a troublesome minister, even a chancellor. Modern leaders fret and fuss and fall out. They make promises and break them and time their speeches to upstage one another. Really, it's all so lily-livered. In Machiavelli's Florence, Tony Blair would have had Gordon Brown quietly poisoned by now, and if not, he himself would be food for eels in the river Arno.

When you say Yes in some Slavic languages it does sound like the river Ano! While Arno is rather dangerous, Machiavelli's Restaurant in Sydney is more familiar with political assasinations than is the river Morava. Media Dragon have survived Morava River, but will we (royal we) survive the pure bipartisan poison pouring from the Macquarie and the SusSex streets? Only time will tell ... (smile)
For Machiavelli, the feud between Blair and Brown would not have been a thing of shame and embarrassment. It would satisfy him like a bleeding slab of Tuscan steak. This is it, he might tell the Labour MPs frightened for their futures; this is the life you chose. Try to relish it, washed down with a nice glass of chianti. As for what Brown said to Blair - what a prude it exposes Brown to be. The chancellor is reported to have told the prime minister that there is nothing Blair could ever say now he will believe. Is this supposed to be criticism, Machiavelli might ask? Because a true politician would savour it as praise.
• Classic political manual The Prince ; [Anthony Sampson's second survey of the British establishment, Who Runs This Place?, finds little that has changed for the better Down the corridors of power ... Who Runs This Place?]
• · Och, Yech: Out of ancient disasters, forebears may have colonised new lands Tsunami survival tales hint how our ancestors crossed the sea
• · · Tony Mauro, USA Today SCOTUS: Serving 25 Years or More is Too Long; [Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: After the Dan Rather scandal, American journalism will never be the same. MSM Requiem - ]
• · · · The U.N. needs a good smack in the face, says New York City Councilmember Simcha Felder. Relationship between the UN and New York City; [Root Causes: An Interview with Wangari Maathai The recent Nobel Peace Prize winner talks about sowing the seeds of democracy in Kenya]
• · · · · Nazi Germany established its collaboration government in Vichy France and recruited French politicians, soldiers and police to administer a truncated and compliant state... When plasma is in short supply, the opportunist buys and sells blood. When food is scarce, he hordes food and gouges the hungry ... the journalists who sell their professionalism for prestige, access to power and job security; the academics and scientists who prostitute themselves for large corporations so that polluters may pollute or that neighborhoods may be paved and people and animals may have the last dime of profit squeezed out of them. But the gladiator collaborator is still not the foundation of empire. That distinction belongs to the sixth degree of collaboration, the merely compliant. Us. All of us. No empire can exist without collaborators: Six Degrees of Collaboration; [In the latest of a string of gaffes, dysfunctional Harry, 20, wore a red and black swastika armband and an army shirt with Nazi regalia at the party at a friend's house on Saturday. He has been allowed to get away with murder. Prince Harry wears Nazi swastika ; Google links to Potty Harry stories in the Nazi Uniform ]
• · · · · · Shock at the Asia disaster. Tears shed in grief and joy. Relief for the survivors. When the tsunamis hit, around 800 Czech citizens reportedly were staying in Sri Lanka, 300 were staying in Thailand and a handful, including legendary singer Karel Gott Tsunami and Bohemian Gott

Posted 8:29 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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You go to spin alley, the place called spin alley. Now, don't you think that, for people watching at home, that's kind of a drag, that you're literally walking to a place called deception lane?
- Comedian Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire with hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, Oct. 15, 2004.
Lisa Stone traces the origins of spin and the history of how journalists have dealt with it. Lisa describes how the web are changing the fabric of journalism Not a stone left unturned: History of Spinmeisters

The Blog, The Press, The Media: A Cover-Up Is a Cover-Up
Like other powerful institutions confronted by scandal, CBS News is still fighting real reform. And still refusing to admit they have a problem.

LARGE AND POWERFUL INSTITUTIONS do not react well to internal scandal, especially when that scandal threatens to erode a central pillar of the institution's authority. The first reaction will almost inevitably be denial, followed by various efforts to isolate and minimize the scandal, to protect leadership, and then to adopt only such "reforms" as are forced upon it. Genuine accountability and reform typically only accompany a crash so spectacular that no one can persist in the cover-up.

It is impossible to count the number of times I thought about writing something along these lines. The scandal of Abu Ghraib is therefore a sign of both freedom's endurance in America and also, in certain dark corners, its demise. The facts you find out first, the images that are initially imprinted on your consciousness, the details that then follow
• Scandals: what's the difference between Bernard Francis Cardinal Law and Dan Rather? [Let’s Blame the Readers Is it possible to do great journalism if the public does not care? ]
• · Blogs are strongest when they are politically diverse, when they are committed to insurgency rather than power, when they belong to no party. I'm particularly worried that the blogosphere has become far more knee-jerk, shrill and partisan since the days when I first started blogging. Some of that's healthy and inevitable; but too much is damaging. In challenging the Main Strem Media, MSM, we should resist the temptation to become like them
• · · Blogs are better, supporters write, because, among other things, they are transparent. No hidden agendas, not hidden biases. Everything is out in the open Well, not really ; [Justices hear arguments about anonymous speech on the real Bunyips of the Web The John Doe has fought to remain anonymous, arguing that releasing his or her identity would be a breach of the right to privacy and anonymity ; [Do I know how my son Tom feels? I do not. Only five million people on the internet know how my son Tom feels. Barrista’s Wishing Well ]
• · · · GM's vice chairman now has a blog ; [I told you so Being interrupted by an email can make stressed workers more productive ; Your Call (and Rants on Hold) Will Be Monitored]
• · · · · Joi Ito provides a selection of clippings from a Good article in BusinessWeek about the future of the New York Times. (Requires registration.) The Times is facing a crisis ; [I like the latest suspect who is about to fly in the shoes of the naughty legal eagles David Marr (size 10), Stuart Littlemore (size 11) and Richard Ackland (size 9 1/2) Media Watch shoes close to being taken Liz Jackson (size 8?)]
• · · · · · As the electronic services librarian at SUNY Cortland, Karen A. Coombs shares her expertise Using Web Server Logs to Track Users Through the Electronic Forest; [Media Bloggers Association - Legal Defense Fund ]

Posted 8:29 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Every movement, every age has its own unique human rights battle. Fifty years ago, blacks fought for their civil rights, then women for theirs, then environmentalists for the right to clean air, water, and food. And now in this age of systematically distorted information, we face a new human rights battle – one that we can no longer ignore. This battle is for the The Right to Communicate It’s a battle for openness, transparency and democracy. It’s about citizens winning real access to the mass media. Czech out the trends ...
A conversation with Bruce Sterling. Everybody's his own smuggler; everybody's got cousins offshore who send money and gifts home. So it's not like a state conspiracy to pilfer; it's more like the Dutch and hashish. You just don't look real hard, and the traffic takes care of itself. A lot of the retailers who are behind the flow of fakes are refugees who lost everything. They were living out of car trunks.
Now they blog and live out of kiosks ..

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Literary Iceberg On Polish Horizon
Funny Business with the Nobel Prize for Literature: Waldemar Zyszkiewicz sees a common "red thread" (so to speak) of affinity to or even membership in the Communist Party. The Czech Jaroslav Seifert (1984) had a prominent position in the Czech Communist Party. The same was true of José Saramago (1998) in the Portuguese Communist Party, Gao Xingjian (2000) in the Chinese, Dario Fo (1997) in the Italian, and yes, Elfriede Jelinek, last year's winner, in the Austrian.

Finally, an interesting shot that he takes at Imre Kertész and Elfriede Jelinek, the 2002 and 2004 laureates respectively, whom Zyszkiewicz clearly puts into the "just not-bad writers who struck it lucky" category. How is it, he asks, that so many people had never ever heard of these two writers before they came out of nowhere to win the Nobel Prize? - and here is speaking not of the general public but of literary critics, professors, people who should have known about them.

It seems that without any changes wrung out the Swedish Academy by Nature, no author of conservative views has a chance at the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not even if they create an unquestioned masterpiece
• NAMING NAMES - AND AFFILIATIONS ; [Michael Monbeck The Great Books' Greatest Lesson ; Midway through one of Barry Cohen’s earlier, funnier books he reminisces on a bizarre, fruitless issue that consumed the Whitlam Government at one time ... After Progress? The Four Questions of Global Politics ]
• · The big ideas of 2005 - #57 Jan/Feb 2005 ; [The clerk next door might sign on as bill@aol.com but also cruise chat rooms as Armaniguy, Cool Breeze and Thunderboy. In effect, they bury a part of themselves alive They begin secret lives in desperation]
• · · People say a bank clerk's life is monotonous. but it is nothing to compare with a novelist's Midnight Oil ; [The Secret Lives of Just About Everybody ; Wolf people suffer from one of the world's rarest genetic diseases: Their entire bodies are covered by a thick coat of fur Heart braised in lemon sauce]
• · · · The cat is out of the bag 100 Bloggers: An Introduction & Invitation to Blogging [It would be funny if it weren't true Great Publishing Adventure ]
• · · · · Like Glenns Rants, I got a bee in my bonnet, or perhaps a bug in my ear or isbn in my URL search to monitor my book Cold River: just enter http://isbn.nu/1894841069 Subscribe to Book Price Changes at isbn.nu ; [Get Ready for New ISBN 1 January 2007 ; You know you're a librarian when.... ; Why are women drinking so much? It's not just stress and spare cash - it's really down to sex The love drug]
• · · · · · Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Posted 9:02 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Chrenkoff of right wing intelligence fame provides yet another Tsunami round up while Indonesia's Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, put a No Longer Welcome sign yesterday by pulling the political plug on foreigners Foreigners should get out of Aceh as soon as possible
From Sparta to Nicaragua, disasters alter political history. History suggests that South Asia's tsunami tragedy could engender regional political fallout.
Christian Science Monitor: Ancient Womangroves;
The coastal trees and shrubs saved hundreds of lives in India by protecting villages from the waves. Mangroves

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: An Inescapable Part of the Spooky Repertoire
You can make the argument that we’re better off with him (at large). Because if something happens to Bin Laden, you might find a lot of people vying for his position and demonstrating how macho they are by unleashing a stream of terror.

CIA number-three man AB "Buzzy" Krongard said: Let’s say you and I want to blow up Trafalgar Square. So we go to Bin Laden. And he’ll say, ‘Well, here’s some money and some passports and if you need weapons, see this guy’.

Saying it's OK to have bin Laden around is like saying it was OK when the Nazis ran France. Obviously, many French preferred it that way; hence the strange thinking about bin Laden. You might also find that if you kill its head, the snake dies
• Let Bin Laden stay free, says CIA man ; [The Most Powerful Weapon of Terror is the Internet Digital Jihad ; There should be a way of minimising a damage done by the digital Jihad... Together, grassroots/Internet activists have just moved three major American mountains Together, We Moved Three Mountains Lets stop the normalisation of horror. Back in 1968 Czechoslovakia went through the normalisation process and in 2004 the country I was born in no longer exists. Gone. Finished. Kapito. Erazed.]
• · Nightmares don't last this long, so the death and destruction must be real The Scent of Fear ; [This is pure unadulterated copying. Mark Bahnisch at Troppo Armadillo did the heavy lifting of actually finding this item from the Times via The Australian, and I am just going to post the whole thing. It is beyond boggling. It is beyond boggling ... ]
• · · The modern institution of civil and human rights, and particularly the writ of habeas corpus, began in June of 1215 when King John was forced by the feudal lords to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede. Although that document mostly protected "freemen" - what were then known as feudal lords or barons, and today known as CEOs and millionaires - rather than the average person, it initiated a series of events that echo to this day. First They Came For The Terrorists...; [The plan of dragging the Soviets into economic bankruptcy, which bin Laden emphasized, was a plan orchestrated by the United States which in reality supported the Afghan jihad militarily and financially. The horns that come out later outstrip the ears, implying that an able apprentice outdistances his master Richard A. Clarke: Against All Enemies
• · · · In politics, as in show business, you reach for golden oldies when you are not brimming with fresh ideas. Gov. George E. Pataki understands that. So when he delivered his State of the State address to the Legislature last week, he trotted out a few crime-fighting proposals. On Justice, in Politics and on Stage ; [The Changing Settlement Experience of New Migrants Theatre of Exile ; Forget all the snide remarks - the Brits love Australia, more than any other country except their own Antopodean Stage Respected even in the Morning ]
• · · · · Sometimes it is easy to forget that the era also produced truly horrifying Cold War schemes like Project Pluto: a low-altitude cruise missile, powered by an atomic ramjet that carried multiple hydrogen bombs and puked out chunks of radioactive debris, killing everyone along its flightpath Pluto: Triple Dragon ; [Boing Boing ]
• · · · · · Until two weeks ago, Smith Thammasaroj was a prophet without honor Today, Smith is being lionized for his foresight after the devastating Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami; [Lindsay Moran read "Harriet the Cold River Spy" as a girl and dreamed of growing up to join the CIA. After graduating from Harvard, she did just that Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy ; David McKnight is a senior lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is part of the Allen and Unwin publishing empire. It is also true that in 1968 the Australian communists were the first in the world to condemn the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. David McKnight joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1972 at the age of 21 out of unashamed idealism but with a full awareness of the tragedy that was Stalinism. I was confident that socialism did not automatically lead to Stalinism. I had enjoyed George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 but also his idealistic Homage to Catalonia. Socialism and equality seemed so obviously the answer to the world's ills. By the late 1980s my views had changed. Both the problems and solutions were not so simple any more. I drifted out of the Communist Party and by 1991 the party itself dissolved. Russified Marxism Blowing its Cover ]

Posted 6:34 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Communism is a cow of many; well milked and badly fed... [Ach, a perennial link to the neverending debate]
Oh, and I’ve got a joke for you Jozef.
A Czechoslovakian midget, on the run from the secret police, frantically pounds on a stranger’s door. It opens a crack and a suspicious eye peers out.
“What do you want?”
“Please, I’m desperate. Can you cache a small Czech?”
Thank you, thank you. Don’t forget to tip yer waitress. She’s taking me out after the show.
Comment by Nabakov — 11/1/2005 @ 8:57 pm
God and money vie for people's affections

Invisible Hands & Markets: World On Brink Of Ruin
Dan Ackman describes anatomy of the forthcoming economy:

Alan Greenspan, that Matador of the Money Supply, the esteemed Impresario of Interest Rates, has suffered precious few slings or arrows over his many years as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Even the White House has had to offer its critiques off the record for fear of roiling the markets or upsetting the chairman's Elvis-in-Vegas-like following. So when the chief economist of one of the world's most prestigious banks calls Greenspan a bum, that's a big deal

• Money Supply ; [One morning, Gregor Samsa awoke to find that he was working for the federal government. The agency's job is to safeguard the merit system, prevent the intrusion of partisan politics into the federal workplace and protect federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, Notably retaliation for whistle-blowing ] (A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. -Proverb)
• · Mark Steyn: Coalition of the Giving
• · · Inveterate readers of this blog know that we ran several posts on the tax problems associated with Oprah Winfrey's giveaway of 276 new Pontiac G6 sedans to members of the audience Partial Indian Giver ; [With all due respect to the group, whose members generally deserve a great deal of respect, the membership of the commission tells me that we are not likely to get anywhere significant, be it good or bad, on tax reform. By the way, no tax practitioners only preachers ... ] (He who goes to law for a sheep loses his cow. -Proverb)
• · · · The helicopters are taking off and landing now in the tsunami-shattered villages and towns. The sick are being taken for treatment. Clean water is being delivered. Food is arriving. Soon the work of reconstruction will begin Tsunami tragedy exposes the myth of the UN's moral authority
• · · · · An expert on the economic side of transition offers his observations on some of the lessons learned in Central Europe for the rest of the region. (Paid Subscription required) Reform: Speed Doesn’t Pay: by Jeremy Druker [The foolish sayings of a rich man pass for wise ones. Proverb, Spanish]
• · · · · · The Problems of the Super Rich: As Mark Twain said in Tom Sawyer: "Being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time. However, Pejmanesque weeps for them: I'm sorry, but when push comes to shove, who wouldn't want these problems? The Trouble of Refering to Yourself as Imrich (A rich man is either a scoundrel or the heir of a scoundrel. -Proverb)

Posted 6:00 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I am not a serf; I am not a slave Slav; I am not an indentured servant. I am a free man with the right of freedom of expression. The company does not own me, body and soul – conforming to their rules at work is to be expected, but in your own time and space? How can anyone be expected to go through their personal life in fear of saying the wrong thing? No-one should ...
Ellen Simonetti, the blogger who was fired by Delta because of her site, Diary of a the Flight Attendent has started a list of blogophobic companies and is looking to establish International Bloggers Bill of Rights

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Myths On Boards
If you are really quiet, you might hear the wringing of hands of corporate secretaries and general counsel everywhere. The idea that boards might blog or use some similar web technology to communicate directly with shareholders may sound frightening, but it's a development whose time has come.

Many shareowners have been frustrated over the years by what they see as a wall between them and their elected representatives, the board of directors. They feel that they have no input into selecting director nominees, no meaningful choice in their election, and, generally, no hope of ever hearing from or exchanging views with them

• Why Corporate Boards Should Blog [ 10 Excuses for Boards NOT to Blog]
• · The mainstream media ended its silence this morning on the racism of The New York Times' prospective new partner With a Nixon-esque non-denial denial [I am outraged at this - if my employer want to control my life, determine what i write in my own free time, then i suggest that they make with the reddies - cos the only way that ANY company will ever tell me what to say and what not to say is if I become a spokesperson of that company. How much do celebs get to 'endorse' products and companies. Yeah.. Bring on a slice of that action. Waterstone's sacks employee over blog Reg Req - Melissa Swan's Ukraine Blog; Blogging Behind China's 'Great Firewall'.]
• · · Tripling Users in Ditital waves Remember my Name Babe: Morphing Media ; [Some fascinating stuff here Selection of files released under Freedom of Information in January 2005 ]
• · · · The CBS Report ignores the heart of the controversy, refuses to draw conclusions, and strengthens the hand of Mary Mapes and Dan Rather. Whitewash ; [Blog about Blogs ]
• · · · · St. Andrew's Face Morpher lets you upload a photo, and then morphs that photo so the person looks more caucasian, or afro-caribean, or older, or younger.. Or drunk ; [More open network cameras Canon's network attached cameras that have pan, tilt and zoom controls]
• · · · · · Unbelievable and fascinating. This is the circa 1998 internal message board used by the support staff of a Florida call girl ring, foolishly left unsecured so Google could crawl it [A few tidbits from around the blogs]

Posted 5:04 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I just received an email asking to locate relatives of this boy. I rather error on the wrong side, but I trust that the email is not part of some hoax. Lets hope the SMH and other papers splash this picture in order to find his relatives. Our hearts go for his scared face and soul ...

Looking for his family

The boy about 2 years, from Khoa Lak is missing his parents. Nobody knows what country he comes from. If anyboy known him please contact us by phone 076-249400-4 ext. 1336, 1339 or e- mail : info@phuket-inter-hospital.co.th


Update: I was just informed that the boy is with his extended family in Sweden and there is even a story that goes with this. The thought was there ...

Posted 8:42 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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$14m: now that's a good score: Shane Warne thanks the crowd at the MCG for helping the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal match raise more than $14 million for the relief effort. Ponting delivers for the world

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Red state, Blue state, Purple state
Tod Lindberg is thinking as Media Dragon is thinking

Would-be tyrants and freedom fighters alike take note: The essence of democracy is not simply an election. It's an election held in the expectation that there will be a subsequent election.
In a mature democracy during election season, each side campaigns as hard as it can. But each side does so in the knowledge that, win or lose, victory or defeat is subject to reversal at the polls in the next election. You win some, you lose some.

• Great Iraqi expectations [By Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Thoughts on government propaganda ... Who Can You Trust? Sometimes I get up feelin' good, but greed gets me down Trust But Verify ]
• · Democracy is the most humane and desirable form of government yet devised by humankind. From Afghanistan to Ukraine, democracy's recent successes have exceeded expectations. It deserves American support wherever it has a chance of taking hold. When and If Democracy fails; [Afganistan by Polish Australian blogger ]
• · · A roundup of the sea of stories and resources available for assisting the victims of the earthquake/tsunami that occured Sunday in Asia: The Tsunami Disaster in Asia, 2004; [Search Engine/Blogosphere Response to the Earthquake/Tsunami ]
• · · · United Nations: All documents from 1993 available; [The indictment of Hillary Clinton's 2000 campaign-finance director, David Rosen, may pose a threat to the senator's presidential bid Hillary Scandal; Top phrase of '04: A panel of linguists has deemed - red state, blue state, purple state - the phrase that most colored the nation's lexicon in 2004 ]
• · · · · Forget Elvis sightings. Latham too sick to make statement: Carr ; [Missing, in action - He looked fine to me: Federal Labor's leadership black hole during the tsunami crisis has attracted critical attention, but what of this state's own media-savvy leader, Bob Carr, and his disappearance over the past month? Carr did a bunk in mid-December (just before an ICAC inquiry into the controversial Orange Grove affair resumed) and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Every query - the Herald's asked eight times - has been met with a stony "the Premier's on private leave". Word on the street is that he's been in Gay Paree, and naughty Opposition types have suggested the green Premier's been trying out for a UN environmental agency job in Geneva. He's on deck today, according to his office, after private leave.]
• · · · · · Espionage is not a sentimental business. It was enough to make the CIA salivate. At the height of the Cold War, the CIA swooped in and offered a deal: stay in place, spy for us, and when the time comes we will set you up for life in the US. A cold-war operative asks Supreme Court to restore his pay, raising questions about court's role in intelligence matters. Can a secret agent sue to enforce a contract he agreed to keep secret? Spy vs. CIA: It's a shot in the dark ; [An ex-CIA agent talks about the real life of a spy and why she left the agency. Lindsay Moran, 35, wrote about her experiences with the CIA In Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy Little cloak, less dagger ]

Posted 8:29 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I had the guilty pleasure of being able to walk for 20 km with my daughter Gabriella yesterday along the beaches of Cronulla. We treated ourselves to the most amazing views, even the green algae among the sculptured rocks peppered with honey cones looked rather stunning in the golden light. In a great place like Sydney, with thousands upon thousands of parks and beaches, it is extremely uncommon for any single place to stand out from the crowd. Cronulla is a rare paradise, a feast for your eyes. The waves are renowned for creating fine surfers. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'place of pink seashells', but it's mainly sand that you'll see here enormous dunes that stretch away to Kurnell in the north-east. The surpassing power of pictures ...

The Holiday Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Time Is a Weapon: The next bad cover
Former CIA officer Lindsay Moran has written a damning account of her time with the agency, which is, she says, chauvinistic, blinkered and has learnt no lessons from September 11. Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy could not have a worse cover ...

Although it was approved for publication by the agency's review board, the book has been savaged in print by some of the CIA's old hands. The main charges levelled at Moran, who graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature, are that she was guileless and opportunistic. One critic labelled the book "Nancy Drew Joins The CIA"; another suggested the jacket sleeve should say: "Read how a spoiled Ivy Leaguer tried the spy game for a laugh".

• No way to run a war on terror [Knowing the Beauty of a Book by its cover ]
• · A 20-year-old US man is selling advertising space on his forehead to the highest bidder on website eBay http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4161413.stm [What a fool does in the end, the wise do in the beginning. Proverb, Spanish]
• · · [A friend to everybody and to nobody is the same thing. Proverb, Spanish] No Picture Tells the Truth. The Best Do Better Than That [Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies. Proverb, Spanish]
• · · · [Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. Proverb, Spanish] Jared Diamond, author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "Collapse," says that if America doesn't change its ways it'll go the way of the Cold River
• · · · · Distilling dialogue for movie subtitles challenges translators
• · · · · · Scientists in Germany say the secret to a long life is ... laziness. It took them over 10,000 years to tell us you can sit on your backside and do nothing. Do nothing, live longer [As Fred Allen rightly observed: I don't want to own anything that won't fit in my coffin.]

Posted 8:02 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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On Blogging: It is a sad fact of human relations that unqualified adulation often produces from the adored one contempt and a kick in the chops.
-Heather Mac Donald in Slate
Dan Gillmor writes: In a thought-provoking blog posting, Mitch Ratcliffe discusses the ever-relevant topic of journalists and their conflicts of interest. Free Speech Belongs to Us All

The Blog, The Press, The Media: !!!Crikey!!! Rare Chance to Score Yourself a Digital Affair with Saint Stefan
With Crikey nearing its fifth birthday, love is in the air ...

With our fifth anniversary beckoning, the challenge is on to come up with a list of our best stories from the Crikey website since it all began on February 14, 2000. Here are 80 personal favourites of the editor's to kick things off. If you have any suggestions on what should be added, please email boss@crikey.com.au.

Few topics inspire trips to the crystal ball like technology, although hasty predictions have often only provided future generations with quotes for cocktail party chat. What is the future of Crikey? And what's the internet's future? It depends on whom you ask
• Australian Idol: Favourite hits from the Crikey archive [New Voices is a pioneering program to seed innovative community news ventures in the United States New Voices; Personal democracy ]
• · The Importance of Being Permanent The Web is the first medium where the publisher can put something in a place that it can be found forever
• · · Blogs and message forums buzzed this week with the discovery that a pair of simple Google searches permits access to well over 1,000 unprotected surveillance cameras around the world - apparently without their owners' knowledge. Google exposes web surveillance cams
• · · · Believing that the Iraq war is wrong is legitimate dissent, and Stone might even be right, this may be an unwinnable situation. But feeling any kind of satisfaction when you hear of victories by the "insurgents" means you have crossed the line from dissent into disloyalty. Rationalizations walk. If you are rooting for the insurgents - you are one. Limits of dissent; [ The fight against terrorism could go on indefinitely unless the U.S. adopts imaginative new strategies ]
• · · · · From Salon: will diversity continue to flourish in the wake of LiveJournal purchase by blogging start-up Six Apart?
• · · · · · James Wolcott - the blogger who consistently moves the earth ; [Another rocker Technorati Wins it All ]

Posted 7:41 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Ash Wednesday Memories Reblazed

At least eight killed on peninsula    At least eight people have died in bushfires on the Eyre Peninsula as a spate of blazes spread across South Australia. ... ...

Blaze Spreading Raging Wildfire - links by Google

Posted 3:43 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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You know Bernard, I sometimes think our Minister doesn't believe that he exists unless he is reading about himself in the paper.
- Sir Humphrey, A Question of Loyalty

Arthur Chrenkoff: The outpouring of international solidarity and assistance to the victims of tsunami continues. So does outpouring of words. Strange words. Disturbing words

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The road to nowhere fast: Logical Blind Spot
Love has as few problems as a motor car. The only problems are the driver, the passengers, and the road.
- Franz Kafka
Was Lincoln Bisexual?
In a Web-only exclusive, the author examines C. A. Tripp's long-awaited, hotly contested book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln—and ponders American sexuality a century before Kinsey. The father of us all, Gore Vidal graces Vanity Fair online with a Nero Wolfe investigation of the vexing mystery. The young Lincoln had a love affair with a handsome youth and store owner, Joshua Speed, in Springfield, Illinois. They shared a bed for four years, not necessarily, in those frontier days, the sign of a smoking gun’s only messy male housekeeping. A maiden trapped inside a male body

In an endless embarrassment for the Carr Government, Sydney's rail network has lurched from crisis to standstill over the past year. Trains rarely run on time and complaints have trebled in recent years. The network has struggled to find extra passengers, adding only about 5 million a year to the 268 million carried in 1996-97.

• Soaring car sales and ever more unreliable public transport create a vicious circle ; [Power stance by state irks business Repeat: The current economic orthodoxy, that debt has no place in the development of a strong vibrant economy, is holding back NSW and should be discarded ]
• · The files reveal a meticulous attention to detail, a sly sense of humour and a fear of the press within the British civil service. Britain's Home Office had not one official cat, but a whole dynasty of mouse catchers, one of which nearly insulted the Queen
• · · I blogged about the communist glorification craziness a few days ago and now even the brilliant Louis Nowra adds oil on the moral fire: Turning communist tyrants into chic motifs of popular culture mocks their victims The moral blind spot that has allowed killers to become kitsch (Thanks Louis) The Greek Orthodox epiphany celebrations have always held special spiritual meaning, but none more so than yesterday. A reminder to respect our earth ]
• · · · A hunt for a scalp rather than a search for truth ...Sacked director wins job battle ; [Canberra Times on December 22, 2004 How the House of Lords has exposed Howard's ASIO Act; Not since the early days of the Cold War have proliferation experts and the general public been so attuned to the threat of nuclear weapons--and with good reason. There are more than 28,000 nuclear devices in existence today The Next Nuclear Wave ; North Korea has launched an intensive media assault on its latest arch enemy The long hair, the wrong scalp of haircut ]
• · · · · No one exposes the UN better than Diplomad. Enough here to inspire a new series of MASH and YES, COLD RIVER. UNICEF proudly boasts it has sent the one item desperate people most want, UNICEF Director Carol Bellamy! Yes, she arrived, took a tour, and gave a press conference. Just think how many people were saved by UNICEF flying Bellamy and her entourage out here first class, putting them up in a five-star hotel, and flying them up and back to Aceh, and then back to New York. Makes you want to rush out and buy those UNICEF cards and go out collecting money for UNICEF doesn't it? Carol Bellamy ; Audits Criticize U.N. Handling of Oil-for-Food Only 400 pages released out of 58 audits ; More UN slicksters involved in bribe taking ]
• · · · · · Muriel Gray believes that life under Tony Blair, where the Prime Minister and his Cabinet can simply ignore the land’s law lords and where indefinite imprisonment without trial is acceptable, is like a horror story of irrational anarchy We were taught at school that Franz Kafka’s The Trial was a dark satire on bureaucracy ; London Calling ... Boilmaker Bill Busting on Boris’s website ; [Crikey! ]

Posted 3:41 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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In democratic politics, sometimes opposition comes from unexpected quarters. There is a view that Australia's democracy may be diminished after July 1 when the Coalition parties achieve a majority in the Senate. This is an exaggeration in that it overlooks the extent to which federal governments (whether or not they have a Senate majority) are constrained by the states and the legal system. I think everybody is in favour of lower taxation. But you have got to pay for certain things. It's a question of striking a right balance and we always do that

Invisible Hands & Markets: He Pulls The Strings
The most significant trend is going to be a heightened emphasis on ethics and reputation risk. Ironically, the biggest risk is the insularity of directors and senior managers, who are constantly ambushed because they don't know enough about what's going in with ordinary people in the real world

Corporate ethics, increasingly rebellious consumers, an advertising boom and a possible relaxation in rules governing cross-media ownership are just some of the issues predicted to dominate marketers' attention this year.
Number one on the list, especially in light of corporate Australia's response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, is increased scrutiny of the behaviour of the business world, according to marketing experts.

• Corporate citizens placed on notice [It's a pleasure, of the schadenfreude variety, to sit back and watch the credibility peel off our principal institutions with no help from their usual critics. Our corporate CEOs, for example, have gone from rocking to reeking in a mere two years. The Collapse of Credibility ]
• · Gates calls Free Culture fans commies
• · · Joseph Nye, the Harvard academic who coined the phrase "soft power" to describe indirect US influence in the world, likes to recall the dining deliberations of a family in India to explain what he means Is the World Falling Out of Love with US Brands?
• · · · Amway's income trickles Down Under as $53m bonus
• · · · · The tax break for employer-provided health insurance—worth about $140 billion per year—is larger than several welfare programs combined. But it doesn't work very well Free-Lunch Health Insurance: A simple idea for insuring some of the poor
• · · · · · France remains a highly stratified society in both the social and economic sense. The wealthiest 10% of the French income ladder are 50% richer than their Swedish counterparts and the upper quarter of the French income ladder is not brought down by the tax system the way it is in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany...today many of France's wealthy citizens occupy privileged spots at the core of the "welfare state." This is one of the key reasons they tend to support it. Is French taxation progressive?; [Tax reform an old game--and tricky ; Tax Time Again: Any Linux Solutions? ]

Posted 3:35 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave it to him.
-Graham Greene
Do youse want to be a writer? Write as if you were drowning. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients ... Write Till You Drop

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: So Many Books: Forgotten moments in the history of reading
City Journal is running a fascinating piece by Jonathan Rose on the role the classics have historically played in the lives of working people. Will Crooks (b. 1852), a cooper living in extreme poverty in East London, once spent tuppence on a secondhand Iliad, and was dazzled:

What a revelation it was to me! Pictures of romance and beauty I had never dreamed of suddenly opened up before my eyes. I was transported from the East End to an enchanted land. It was a rare luxury for a working lad like me just home from work to find myself suddenly among the heroes and nymphs of ancient Greece." Nancy Sharman (b. 1925) recalled that her mother, a Southampton charwoman, had no time to read until her last illness, at age 54. Then she devoured the complete works of Shakespeare, and "mentioned pointedly to me that if anything should happen to her, she wished to donate the cornea of her eyes to enable some other unfortunate to read.

• The Classics in the Slums [Another vote for homeschooling ; We're Your Key to the Media Dragons]
• · The Lost Night is after all a true story about an unsolved murder, and friends and family will undoubtedly learn more than they ever cared to know about, for instance, my past sex life. Disclaimer: It’s not all that graphic, in case you’re titillated We thought you were pure, we thought you were different. We were wrong ...
• · · A Picture of the Future, You're not in It: When the second wave of al-Qaeda attacks hit America." A leading expert on counterterrorism imagines the future history of the war on terror. A frightening picture of a country still at war in 2011 Ten Years Later ; Liquid Sculpture
• · · · Let's throw the book at publishing They say there are three ways of achieving immortality: rear a child, plant a tree, or write a book
• · · · · At the dawn of this psychotic decade, I proposed, on instinct, that we should call it the Uh-Oh's. Decades need names. How else are we map their unique zeitgeists in our subsequent reflections on them? Imagine, for example, how awkward our historical recollections would become if we could not refer to "the 60's," a decade which needed no adjective, unlike, say, "the Roaring 20's?" The name is the frame, and the frame says it all. A Tale of the Uh-Oh's: Amelia Takes A Fall
• · · · · · If a picture speaks a thousand words, a love letter speaks a thousand more For passionate readers and lovers of words, a letter is irresistible

Posted 10:51 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Like food clothing and Sydney address, blogosphere has its fashion and 2005 sees a crop of new Asian blogging stars. Asia Blog Awards 2004: Full Official Results

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Superhuman Stamina of Scoop: The Year in Investigative Reporting
Scoop lives up to its name and even reaches beyond the definition of scoops and off the record stories ...

Last year was a good one for investigative reporting and computer-assisted reporting, with solid stories and projects throughout. Although this site is highly subjective (and usually doesn’t cite stories that aren’t publicly available on the Web), it did reference some great work. The highlights include the Miami Herald’s series on the practice of setting aside convictions, the AP’s work on farmland tax breaks, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s examination of the marine park industry and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s investigation of Washington’s crime lab, plus many others. Lots of good sports CAR work too, particularly by USA Today and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

For those folks interested, I’ve put together a page of The Scoop’s 50 most-cited news organizations in 2004.
• Links to the investigative stories ; [When Deputy Health and Human Services Commissioner Gregg Phillips and private consultant Chris Britton helped write the $1 billion legislation to privatize Texas' human services system, they apparently did so partly with an eye on profit Their own: Self Interest Prevails ; Laboratory of Scoops]
• · via David Tiley: To outsiders, the destruction of Dan Rather as CBS anchor is grotesque. We see a raddled, addled sycophantic, ranting mediascape in which Right wing zombies promote a war of aggression and demonise dissent. Pinning down hypocrisy;
• · · I started first by asking Robert, generally speaking, what business blogs are about. If you're to remember anything, its this: they're about relationships. He cites his own blog and talks about how readers have become pretty intimate in Robert's life. We've been there as he's been hired, fired, married and so on. The same needs to be done with business blogs: one must build a relationship with the community. He said when you create a blog, you create a transparency. Interview: Robert Scoble on Blogs, GM; [More Scobleizer Blogosphere: please write better RSS headlines ]
• · · · Does George Bush sometimes wear a portable defibrillator? Is Dick Cheney suffering from congestive heart failure? You won’t find out by reading this, but both stories have been making the rounds on the Internet. Is there value to certain types of non-nutty Internet speculation that the mainstream media, for the most part, refuse to touch? ; Barista served an entre concerning cowards in the blogosphere Healthy speculation: Dual Identities ; Last year, Tim Blair also stirred the possums and other billabong beasts by posting a one-liner saying, IMRE, er, I mean Professor Bunyip - is back! ; Sooner or later, the Professor Bunyip hunt was going to be off Exclusive snap above the puppet table :-) The great Australian scholar has been an adjective for four years, but this year he has metamorphosed into a blogger who is scared to reveal his identity in case the totalitarian government arrests him or the Uni's financial controller will not provide bread on the table ... - In this context, Levy writes - He is the prime embodiment of the deep crisis in our society where proven lies have the same value as truth, where simplistic ideas prevail over real intelligence, and where connnivance and network of friendship count for more than genuine scholarship -. As they say, a devil's bargain is always a fool's bargain ... (IP: Thanks IP address and Bernard-Henru Levy)
• · · · · Never stop swimming til you reach the ocean of cash for comments. The wisdom of his words must surely spread beyond this little watering media dragon hole in cyber space. By not disclosing the $240,000 he received from the U.S. Department of Education to promote No Child Left Behind, Armstrong Williams violated a provision in his syndication deal with Tribune Media Services (TMS) that says TMS must be notified when "a possible or potential conflict of interest arises due to the subject matter of (his columns) and the social, professional, financial, or business relations of (Mr. Williams)," says a TMS statement. "Tribune Media Services today informed Armstrong Williams that it is terminating its business relationship with him effective immediately. "I'm part of this media elite club and have to be more responsible" (NYT); Critic: How many other pundits are on the Bush admin payroll? (Letters); NABJ blasts Williams' $240K deal with U.S. Education Dept. (NABJ); via Romenesko Poynter
• · · · · · Tom Jackson writes in his piece on Dave Barry and deadlines that sports columnist Jim Murray once likened column writing to being married to a nymphomaniac: The moment you finish, you have to start all over again. "What he left out was the element of time. The deadline muse is a relentless mistress, but having seen the unmotivated results of having lived apart from her for nearly two weeks [during the holidays], I am reminded that she exists for my benefit. Chatological Humor ; Nymphomaniac Offering readers broccoli and dessert

Posted 10:48 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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It ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones.
- Tom Waits
This Is Not A Love Story - Words To Bring To A Knife Fight as suggested by Gianna

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Born to Motivate on every Alameda
As the rest of the world awakens to the treasures of reasonably priced books, the bookseller states the obvious that we need smarter thinking on book prices....

December and January look very similar on the high street. The big bookselling chains have replaced their front-of-store festive discounts with January sales. A cynical consumer may question the difference between a bestseller at half price before Christmas (an Offer of the Week) and a bestseller at half price after Christmas (a January sale).
The danger is where a half-price discount on a hardback becomes endemic, and the perceived value of the product ebbs away. Instead of stimulating more book buying, the offer merely encourages everyone to wait for a half-price offer in one chain or another. Once an expectation of discounting has become embedded in a consumer's mind, it is very hard to dislodge: the carpet and furniture retailers, with their endless sales, ensure no one except the deluded buys a sofa at full price.

• Profits at any price [I sit and read everything and anything from magazines in the doctor’s surgery to junk mail. You never know when new words are going to turn up. These are the words of the editor of the Aussie Bible, the Macquarie Dictionary. Sue Butler wants to get rid of the Spanish word ALAMEDA - meaning public walkway because none of us use it. Words we must keep include Dapto briefcase and Coraki Handbag both are expressions for a cask of wine. Bush chook and dunny budgie can be confusing which one is a blowfly or emu? Word pirates? String 'em up]
• · On stage and off the Sydney Festival has made a magnificent start
• · · Today's literature has little time for the masses Ebbs and flows in Malay literary fortune ; [Amira El-Noshokaty reviews one of the more interesting activities to have graced the literary scene during 2004 A place for writing' in Egypt ]
• · · · Book biz website takes on industry mainstay
• · · · · The quintessential collection… Mardy Grothe has labored lovingly in the word yards of paradoxology Oxymoronica: The longest way round is the shortest way home
• · · · · · Slovakia clinched the Hopman Cup for the second time by beating Argentina 3-0 in Saturday's final in Perth Slovakia seal Hopman Cup success: Pubs around Blava and Tarty are filled with singing voices; via My blog will be Deleted by Tomorrow One of the best song lyrics sites on the web. Search through many song lyrics: Czech out the words to Cold River [All the money you made / Did you need it, babe ]

Posted 7:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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In the United States, most people know that when the president's State of the Union address is broadcast, it is time to turn off the television. State of the Union addresses are required to be so boring as to put the viewer to sleep with the first five minutes of airplay.
Czechs have an utterly different tradition. Listening to the New Year's speech by the president has often been a cause for pride and reflection, as was the case during the days of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk's First Republic or in the post-Velvet Revolution era with Vaclav Havel. Czechs took stock of themselves and their country and then debated what the president was trying to tell them.
Klaus' mind was clearly influenced by 1950 secondary school textbooks from communist Czechoslovakia, which spread red nationalism

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Talk on the Wild Plastic Side
Two old friends to chat in public about crossing borders. Reed's band, the Velvet Underground, was a major influence on the Plastic People of the Universe

It's not clear if Vaclav Havel is a bigger fan of Lou Reed or if Reed is a bigger fan of Havel. The two of them will be together for Stage Talk, as the series of public conversations at Svandovo divadlo is called.
When rock musician Reed was in Prague for a May 2000 concert, he had high praise for then-President Havel. "I think in this world it is very rare to have some heroes. I think President Havel is a real genuine 100 percent hero," Reed told The Prague Post at the time. Havel, on the other hand, has credited Lou Reed's music with helping to set off the chain of events that ended in the Velvet Revolution.

Wives of jailed Cuban dissidents held a holiday party Saturday for the children of political prisoners, handing out gifts paid for by a powerful exile group in Miami. The allotment wasn't to go out, or enjoy ourselves, because we are full of pain. It was to provide two hours of happiness to our children From my recollection of my time at Traiskerchen (sic) and Villawood the children were the ones who seemed to suffer the most ... They were the innocent victims. As an adult, one copes with just about anything, but babies ...
• The arrest of the Plastic People in 1976 led to Charter 77, which Havel was closely involved with [The Velvet Underground became the Velvet Revolution: Public lectures are Becoming part of Velvet renaissance: Meet the new Fockers & Intellectuals]
• · Within the cacophony of debate on globalization and its effects, there is a chorus of debate about politics and the nature of democracy itself If there is a single barometer of the political situation in a given country, it is elections; [As a former soldier I know that sin seldom strides into our lives announcing its hostile intentions. Sin prefers stealth, camouflage, or even better, to appear friendly. As General Thomas Aquinas taught, when we do evil we always will to act under the aspect of the good. Three Faces of Greed: Another vice that looks like a virtues ; Three Figures of Knowledge and Power ]
• · · Best Electoral Law Irony Blogging Can Buy Barbara Boxer ; [The Economist explains why the new Congress could be one of the most interesting on record]
• · · · Robert Novak Rising star John Boehner, Rising Star ; [Was Lincoln Look-alike Gay? ]
• · · · · NELSON MANDELA announced Thursday that his only surviving son has died of AIDS, going public with his grief in order to help remove the enduring stigma of the disease. In Mandela's South Africa, 600 people die every day as a result of the silence rooted in shame. Nelson Mandela's loss
• · · · · · When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Washington mounted its largest covert aid program since Vietnam to help the Afghan resistance; when Somalis were starving in the early 1990's, President George H. W. Bush sent 25,000 American troops to help relief efforts; when Serbs were massacring Bosnian Muslims in the mid-1990's President Bill Clinton (belatedly) directed the United States Air Force to bomb Serbian positions, which led to the Dayton accords. Brothers in Alms ; [Government pledges of relief top $3 billion. Why some recipients say, 'No, thank you.'The shifting politics of global giving]

Posted 7:18 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The difference between the poet and the mathematician was that the poet merely tried to get his head into the clouds while the mathematician tried to get the clouds into his head - and it was his head that split.
-G.K. Chesterton
Strange bedfellows: Behind the Gates & CES ‘05 Scenes: How to Spend the Next 77 Minutes

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Red Carpet Blitz - Lightning
Brian Bailey is worth digital salt with his suggestions on how to be a better blogger. Especially his proposition to develop an authentic voice. On the Seventh day in the New Year Brian develops eight very salient brainy points on how to drive traffic.

1. Use Categories (Dewey classification system will do fine :-)
2. Use Titles (Blues literature is acceptable)
3. Publish During High Traffic Times (Get run over - every one loves a loser)
4. Syndicate Your Entire Post (Solicitation and selling your soul to the highest bidder is fine)
5. Click Your Own Links (Careful you do not go blind, though)
6. Develop an Authentic Voice (Write about what makes you different)
7. Tell Us Who You Are and How to Contact You (Stalkers love this one)
8. Don't Be Afraid to Promote (see position 4)
9. Comment on Other Sites and Your Own (Ach see position 4 and 7)
10. The More You Write, the More You'll Have to Write About
Google gals love it whent you are faithful - so frequent posts help. Make sure you say sorry often - Gals prefer the imperfect blogger. Who really needs digital perfection? Spill Czeching errors are allowed. Spelling mistakes give the impression of a blogger who juggles million things at once

• Building a Better Blog: Put up a Shingle and readers will Czech in [Vaporware Phantom Haunts Us All ; Voting According to Vlado: Kekoc Superstar ]
• · Cash for Comment TV version White House paid commentator to promote law; [The relationship between happiness and technology has been a perennial subject for social critics and philosophers since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. But it’s been left largely unexamined by economists and social scientists. Can we trust people to know what makes them happy? ]
• · · For all the big talk in the blogosphere, if this happened it would pretty much spell the end of political blogging. Without a copious supply of online newspapers and magazines providing the raw material, there are very few bloggers who would have anything left to say. A pinprick in the sphere ; [Theatre of the Absurd ; Tsunamis Resources and links ]
• · · · Blogging, Journalism and Credibility ; [You say what you can vouch for and what you cannot; it's as simple as that. Poynter ]
• · · · · In normal times, people come to univerisities to learn things, these are extraordinary times: Universities (such as) Chicago, Harvard, Northwestern don't have a clue - we need to go out and find things, bring people here who are doing interesting things. (I'm richly paraphrasing) Best Law Money Can Buy ; [Lessig on Creative Communists ]
• · · · · · Freedom of Observation ; [Now for a EuroSavant exclusive! OK, not an "exclusive" in a "reporter" sense, but rather in what we can perhaps call the "weblog" sense of telling you about a truly "exclusive" article that you wouldn't have heard about otherwise - or, if you had, wouldn't have been able to read, unless you happen to read Czech. Nemcova German; Hugh Martin: Newish Blog Down Under with Heart]

Posted 7:07 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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sit up fed up low down go ‘round
down to the bar at the place I’m at
sitting’ drinking’ superficially thinkin’
about the ris’d out blond on my left
and then I said hi! like a spider to a fly
remembering what my little girl said
she was coming flirty
she look’d about thirty
I would have run away, I I was on my own
- absolut sydney, bondi beach rd, pub-lic chic hotel sleepy by day good karma by night
front> public bar back> bistro (fast) garden
top/\ lounge music selections regis room/\ restaurant lounge
food for memories

This weekend was the weekend dedicated to memories. Catching up with born again friends from childhood such as Taylor and czeching out the old sceneries gives a new meaning to retro scent of suntan lotion, tar perspiring diesel-petrol, tiny invisible curtain of sea flakes and seagul’s fluro droppings. Indeed, invading Bronte and Bondi area is one sure-fire way of making Alex and Gabbie to recall the parts of summer that mattered during their childhood years of the entire 1990s.
Ach, Reverend Jim Whild and Greg Job were inclined to spread the word about McKell, Bellevue Hill and the Centenial Parks being the triangle of our clayton backyard. Back then, we were carless and we could ignore those 1 hour parking $3 - $4 signs ...
Living in the appartment block forced us to plan our school holidays outdoors among the cyclone of Australian summer fashion. I spare you the details and painful visuals of father and two sunburnt daughters walking for two hours to reach their beachish destination.
Woof, Woof! We treated ourselves to the most remote and laziest places in the Sydneysider’s world. Who can forget the stray siestas and the hungry mouths to feed? Sweet sounding accessories - are we there yet - sticky hands of gelatto, smiling colours of utopia in our eyes, and a range of board games appealed to the memory making senses: the touch, the taste, the sound, and the most memorable of all scents. Only in Australia one can comes across soft hearted rangers who would close their eyes to our bondi blue tent along the shark spots on the harbour from Nielson Park to ocean green Bronti.
Altogether the childhood memories come to us as hilariously crazy with their Tatranka proportions exaggerated to points that only seem possible in dreams ... The best people watching beaches in the world, filled with snobbery and humility, are in Sydney. But the beauty of our summer recollections is that with enough people watching and bohemian storytelling in one long walk, to inspire a Czechoslovak army, the recovered time has made our world of make-believe real for us.
There seems to live a sense of fun in playing to be gypsies on the real life beach stage and that sense pushes you to invent stories and dancing steps no one has ever thought of ... The fairy tale clouds drew Cindarellas (Sydneyrellas) while the political clouds painted white man policy called Snow white. The sandstones and the rocks of Sydney are peppered with faces of Ned Kelly especially around the Gap area. If you look hard enough you will see also Robin Hood in cracks of cement footpaths at Tamarrama. Juraj Janosik look-alike with a long pony-tail served behind the bar of the old Iceberg club. The girls remembered many little details from the past even I have forgotten ... Long live kindegarden and school holiday memories!
You have a much better life if you have less material people around you but people who dare to share their imagination (smile)

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: More Thesbian Politicians: New Leaf for Clover
Clover Moore is teaming with 15 other prominent women for a charity performance of the bohemian unbearable monologue of being ...

Now that Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" has traveled the globe, her stomach has a thing or two to add.
Ensler, the woman who transformed the vagina from a hushed "down there" into a marquee word that tumbles from the mouths of the highest-profile celebrities, has come to accept her private parts But it was with some horror, she says, that she looked down at her "not-so-flat, post-40s stomach" and realized her self-hatred had simply crept upward.
Thus was born "The Good Body," Ensler's new play about her own navel-gazing and the extreme efforts women make to shrink, starve, cover and fix their smallest imperfections. Her message? Learn to love your body, then get on with the bigger business of life.

• Charity Performance Down Under: Vagina Monologues [May you have the courage to fail, because it is the courage to succeed The Tatranka Roots of Dialogue; Once Upon a tropical time, there was the Story Bridge peppered with Antipodean Veteran Storytellers ; Beyond Bondi blue and blogging Bits & Pieces: Belting Out as a Media Dragon I come from a rich family of six so I had to belt out stories during our meal times ...]
• · Stardust as Starbucks Fingers in one's ears, while drowning out other decafenated voices ; [Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right ]
• · · Many exile years passed, and I fell into the evil ways of the Book Addict, always seeking a new source of Read... Best of Talking Books is part of the cable TV invasion into the best that literary programs down under seem to offer. Caroline Baum is the antipodean Oprah ... Foxtel’s win is the ABC’s, the public broadcasters, loss. The ABC does know how to influence friends ... (hard core irony intended) I watched it on Saturday and I am impressed Ovation to Cable Initiative [Foxtel rocks as OVATION is Australia's only Arts channel. OVATION is unique in providing viewers with the best of local and international programming; So that $50 Java 1.2 book I finally threw away I could have bought directly from the author for $2.50. Grrr]
• · · · Ryszard Kapuscinski is one of those miracle writers. Every time you pick up one of his books, you're stuck until it's completely finished. As a child in Warsaw, Ryszard Kapuscinski grew up thinking starvation, poverty and cruelty were facts of life. As we prepare to mark 60 years since the end of the Second World War, he recounts his incredible story of survival - and warns that we are still just as vulnerable to ignorance and hatred Escapes and Wars are proof that man has failed ; [Apart from his unique performance as a disabled explorer, 16-year-old high school pupil Janek Mela became the youngest person ever to conquer both poles within a year Death Wish: One-legged Pole conquers Poles]
• · · · · A consequence of one of the worst natural disasters in human history has been to initiate one of the most conspicuous bouts of compassion that the Western-style democracies have ever seen. National governments give the impression of attempting to outbid one another in funds committed to disaster relief. Independent of this, citizens seem to be donating generously to international charitable organisations. There have also been calls for manifestations of public empathy D’oh, Gerard
• · · · · · A roll of London toilet paper the Beatles refused to use because it was to hard ans shiny has surfaced on eBay for auction @ $98,500. Yes Minister series continues ... The toilet. The john. The loo. The commode. The porcelain throne. You know it is a silly season when the police put out a news alert headline Explosion in toilet block - Bondi and nearly get Watkinsed in the media rush of blood. The porcelain throne ; Ach, the cheeky TFF heard an interesting yarn concerning former Wallabies coach Alan Jones. Apparently, Alan’s personal assistant contacted Bob Merriman, the chairman of Cricket Australia, and said: “ Mr Jones was wanting to know where he will be sitting at David Hookes’s funeral tomorrow.” Merriman, who has been on the receiving end of some Jonesy’s broadcasting barbs over the years, was quick to reply: On his arse, like everyone else. [Great toilet paper debate: over or under ]

Posted 6:59 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Because the road is rough and long, shall we despise the skylark's song?
- Anne Bronts

Compared to other disasters across the board, this is nowhere near as bad as those inflicted on the planet in years gone by. After all, more than 3 million died in China's 1931 Yangtze River floods and 655,000 died in the 1976 Tang-shan earthquake - although both figures were hushed up. Jonathan King puts the Indian Ocean killer wave into perspective, globally and historically World's long dance with death - I can speak freely because of the tsunami

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Schtick: Mark Coultan
Amazing irony which is unlikely appreciated by the architects of the Charter 1992. The memorundum of understanding was supposed to create a level playing field, however, the objective has been deliberately misunderstood and twisted to suit the ones who must be obeyed.
The stories of the independent members of parliament are seldom told because, given their druthers, they’d prefer to focus on the issues rather than personal profiles. Their professional lives are often unremarkable, they are usually teachers in the local public school like John Hatton or surburban architects like Ted Mack, except for the passion with which they give their time and energy to the spirit of democracy.
Most independent members of parliament enter politics because something trully evil happen in their local area where they work, live and try to make ends meet. They know that it only takes good people to stay on the sidelines too scared to rock the boat for the evil to thrive. They open their ears to whistleblowers and their hearts to the downtrodden and destitute. John Hatton displayed outstanding integrity when in 1976, the Wran Government with only a majority of one, offered him an extra $4,000 a year as assistant minister with a car, and a world trip. Mr. Hatton declined.
Ted Mack, the former member for North Sydney resigned from the parliament so that he would not be entitled to the generous parliamentary pension, which he strongly disagreed with.
Clover Moore is giving all her energy at the moment to implementing the Lord Mayoral Minutes of November 2004. Despite what many carpetbaggers suggest, Clover wants the City of exiles to lead by example and to develop and expand best-practice standards of public transparency and accountability in relation to its tendering and contractual arrangements. “Open, transparent and accountable governance is a basic democratic right and integral to public trust in our political system. Public trust is no longer something we that can be taken for granted.” [BTW, a main road in London, Exhibition Road, will have its traffic lights and kebs taken away in an experiment aimed at encouraging drivers to have more consideration for pedestrians and Boris Johnson on his bike]

Back in 1993 the NSW Parliament passed an amendment to the Election Funding Act that was supposed to tighten a series of loopholes. It was part of a deal with the independents who held the balance of power during the Greiner and Fahey governments.
But the legislation contained a section that completely changed the way state politics is funded in NSW. The legislation was put on the table one week, and brought on for debate at 1.50 one morning of the next. After three speakers it passed the Legislative Assembly by 2.03am.
The changes established what is called a "political education fund" in NSW. But the money didn't go to schools to educate children about democracy or the electoral system. It didn't go to the parliamentary library, it didn't go to the electoral commissioner, and it certainly didn't go to the various schools of government in the various universities around Sydney.
Instead, the money went to the political parties. In a single stroke, public funding of political parties was doubled.

• John Murray: A short, sharp political education [If you were serious about political education, you'd start with how the electoral system works. The trouble about ticket voting is that it takes power away from voters and gives it to party bosses. Theatre of Politics - Democratic Audit: Who Law Makes the Law Maker? ; Arguments for socialism: Self Interest One - socialise loses and privatise profits If you give more peanuts to a house full of monkeys, you just get bigger monkeys! ]
• · Robert Wainwright captures my thoughts in his story on the Division of Labor: Labor controls all state parliaments, but the relentless electoral windmill is still turning
• · · Didn't I say that this guy needs to be watched like a hawk? (Sigh) I guess we reap what we sow. Raising the gavel with a grin, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter opened his first hearing Thursday by allowing more criticism of the Bush administration than his predecessor and by questioning some of the Patriot Act's police powers. Shape of Things to Come?
• · · · Paul and I have been thinking of writing a political novel. It will be a bad novel because there won't be any nuance: the villains won't just espouse an ideology we disagree with - they'll be hypocrites, cranks and scoundrels. Worse Than Fiction ; [It's nearly 150 years since convicts last lived in filth aboard prison hulks on London's River Thames, freezing as they awaited deportation to Australia. The bad news for Britain's contemporary spivs, drunks, pilferers, blasphemers, rascals, ne'er-do-wells and prostitutes, however, is that the hulks might be on their way back. Second Fleet is Coming ]
• · · · · Activists beat off coastal developers
• · · · · · Antipodean examples are railing soon under freedom from information Police probe peeping pom ; Any thought that the Labour Government's public relations spin machine would be derailed by the resignation of David Blunkett is wrong. The small pool of senior officials who are trusted by the politicians to deal with intelligence and security matters seems to be a very small one. Are these really the best people available ]

Posted 6:57 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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A dead soldier's family tries to retrieve his email: This sort of begs the question; have you made arrangements for your email after death? If you were to die today would you want your family to read your email?

The Blog, The Press, The Media: They Think No One Is Watching: Conduct Unbecoming
Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?

For anyone interested in technology, US politics or the media, 2004 was the year of the blog. During the 2004 election those seeking the grubbiest dirt in American politics turned not to CNN, but to the likes of Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan and Daily Kos. Bloggers played a pivotal role in the downfall of Dan Rather, the veteran US reporter and presenter. And Webster's made "blog" its word of the year. But beyond the hype, is there money to be made from this increasingly popular internet trend?
Certainly some think so. BlogAds is an online agency that allows businesses to buy advertising space on blogs. Prices range from $2,200 a week for the top spot on the hugely popular DailyKos.com down to $10 apiece for hundreds of smaller weblogs. The draw for advertisers, says Henry Copeland, Daily Kos chief executive, is clear: "A blog like Daily Kos gets around 2m page impressions [full pages viewed] a week. We help advertisers to reach these."

• Niche appeal of the blogging business [Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands? Blog Like No One is Watching ]
• · Young Web whiz blogs his way to big bucks: A 24-year-old Portland blogger has turned a home-grown Web project into big bucks. In 1999, Brad Fitzpatrick launched an online posting site using money he saved from mowing Portland lawns. It grew into LiveJournal.Com, one of the earliest sites for creating personal blogs - online web diaries. Six Apart, TypePad buy Danga Interactive
• · · The medium may be new but the impulse is timeless. When Peter Griffin, a communications consultant and writer, heard of the tsunami on December 26, his first instinct was to ‘‘pack my bags and rush.’’ But he stayed on in Mumbai, setting up the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami weblog. The blog has got over a million visits through Tuesday, creating a piece of net history. Relief blog records a million hits ; [Tsunami blogspot ]
• · · · George Lakoff urges Democrats to pay closer attention to language The framing of political battle for ideas ; [Business Web logs are double-edged A leaked corporate speech has surfaced]
• · · · · Crusading journalist John Pilger grew up in a household that was, as my mother used to say, absolutely committed to the underdog Conscientious objector ; While the sea may have killed tens of thousands, western policies kill millions every year. Yet even amid disaster, a new politics of community and morality is emerging. The other tsunami ; The Asian tsunami has dominated the media for several days because it is a simple but dramatic story that broke between Christmas and New Year, usually the deadest time of all for news The issue is our humanity, not God's divinity ]
• · · · · · The world turns to citizen journalists for eyewitness accounts and more as the crisis continues to unfold. Taking Tsunami Coverage into Their Own Hands ; [Digital cameras blew the lid off Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and exposed a major scandal, and now with the Asian tsunami disaster people with digital cameras and video recorders have delivered the first and most vivid accounts from the scene Blogs' offer the world a fresh view; There cannot be many babies named after disasters Beating the odds, a baby boy called Wave ; As Bill O'Leary sees it, a little knowledge would have gone a long way to saving lives. Through sea sense or sixth sense, one brave Australian sailor's actions saved dozens of lives Survivors thank man who read the waves ]

Posted 4:00 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Greek tragedy is the tragedy of necessity; i.e., the feeling aroused in the spectator is ‘What a pity it had to be this way’; Christian tragedy is the tragedy of possibility, ‘What a pity it was this way when it might have been otherwise.’
-W.H. Auden, The Christian Tragic Hero (courtesy of terryteachout)
Hollywood exposed life behind the Iron Curtain and defended the nation's interests abroad: Villawood ferreted out spies and subversives

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Paperback Writer is coming, look busy!
Lennon & McCartney's "Paperback Writer" is one of the hippest & catchiest songs the Beatles ever recorded. Some women kiss and do not tell; they are called ladies. Some women tell but do not kiss; they are called liars. Some women kiss and tell; they are called best-seller paperback writers...

[Announcer's voice over p.a.: Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a warm Mad Max welcome to LYNN VIEHL!!! Crowd roars as LV enters, STAGE RIGHT, and sits in a chair across from The Host, who is wearing a handsome Brooks Bros. Haz-Mat suit. Interview begins.]

• When you decided to call yourself Mad Max, were you thinking of "mad" in the American sense, as in irate, or in the British sense, as in kooky-fanooky? [A citizen's e-mail suggestion that prosecutors check out a supposed television drama in which a mother got away with drowning her children started a series of mistakes that led to the reversal of Andrea Yates' capital murder convictions Testimony from the state's expert witness, psychiatrist Park Dietz, was false. ; Back in 2001, I began my short essay with a story I read about in the paper, in the train, on my way to work. I read it and I could not believe it, and I read it again. Then perhaps I just stared at it, at the newsprint spelling out the story of A----- of Houston who killed all five of her children. Not in a burst of gunfire, but by methodically drowning them in the bathtub. Wave of cold inhumanity ]
• · No matter how vivid your recollection of an important event may be, it's very likely what actually happened was quite different. Today is Twelfth Night when tradition dictates that the Christmas decorations are put away until next year. Precious memories
• · · Biography, both popular and literary, is hot and readers' appetites for life stories show no sign of cooling. Just as we love to stickybeak into other people's houses, we love to know how other people live - no detail is too sordid, no information too personal. Fortunately, celebrities are proving to be accommodatingly exhibitionist ; [Vowels are overrated. Of course, with a name like mine, I have to say that. Polish consonants have gained wider acceptance, even to the point of humour: the optometrist asks the Pole if he can read the letters on a displayed card: CZWIXNOSTAC. "Read it?" asked the Pole. "I know the guy!" Our consonant companions ]
• · · · Like the city, it's big, bright and expensive. But the Sydney Festival's critics say financial obligations and lack of a geographic heart are holding it back Arts and soul ; [Cool students are flocking to creative arts schools]
• · · · · The Cold War was largely a battle of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda. Ideology served as the lens through which both sides viewed the world, defined their identities and interests, and justified their actions. Oral History: Isms in Czechoslovakia ; CNN Interactive, Cold War ; Cuban Missile Crisis: What would you do in Kennedy's shoes? ; Songs About the Cold War From the 80s
• · · · · · If you don't stop Googling yourself, you'll go blind Quote from the Netherland ; [via Tis Allemaal Nicks ]

Posted 3:03 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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An Australian Artist and an International Hunger Fighter James Cumes Blogs about A Silver Lining
Another Matter of History: Why do our leaders seem so small compared with the World War II generation?

The Prime Minister, John Howard, today pledged $1 billion over five years to the Indonesia's tsunami reconstruction, the largest donation made so far for the relief effort. Howard promises $1 billion in aid
Flashbacks, survivor guilt, grief and fear will dog millions of survivors of the tsunami, with some experts warning these problems could prove harder to resolve than the physical damage...
Survivor Guilt is the worst of all

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Tremors point to a frightening future
However isolated they may seem, earthquakes may be closely linked

Like two bookends of calamity, earthquakes at Bam in Iran and off Sumatra in Indonesia have delineated a year of unusual seismic ferocity - a year, one might say, of living dangerously.
Twelve months, almost to the very hour, before Boxing Day's extraordinary release of stress at the India-Burma tectonic plate boundary, a similar jolt at the boundary of the Arabian and Eurasian plates devastated one of the most celebrated of Persian caravan cities.

• Tsunami Ripples [An Indonesian tsunami survivor rescued after five days at sea has another reason to celebrate She'll have her first baby in less than six months ; Natural disasters bring out the best philanthropic instincts in the human soul. Unfortunately they also seem to bring out the most insufferable theological drivel from the human brain. If we have reason to doubt the point of our existence in this world, surely we would understand it even less in that one]
• · Thomas Friedman Only Iraqis Can Liberate Themselves ; Two True Pictures of the Terror War
• · · Tim Dunlop has a knack for stories with legs, a large number of legs enters the trickiest topics of all: Insurgency lotto numbers in Iraq; [Bush Fuses Orwell, Kafka ]
• · · · Miracle of survival can't take away suffering of a family ripped apart
• · · · · Putin Demotes Adviser Critical of the Kremlin; [What the hell is going on? Is spectrum of workers revolution invading the world. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Ulyanov rather than John Lennon stare at me from every magazine my oldest daughter opens courtesy of the Big Pond Music ads for Telstra. There's a whole phenomenon going on with Che Guevara that's really difficult to explain. You have kids -- who don't even know who Che Guevara is, wearing his clothes. Che Guevara to Cubans is a murderer. The revolutionary medicine preached by Che Guevara is growing and 2017 is coming near you; Secret file gets to the bottom of toilet paper The Loo paper campaign, which would be at home in an episode of the comedy Yes Minister
• · · · · · A Chilean judge is investigating 10 secret police who worked under the former dictator Augusto Pinochet on a disinformation scheme Sydney court scene in 2008? ; Just amazing what the atrocious bloggers find: Harassing, Annoying, & 'Bad Guy' Identifying Chemicals

Posted 2:59 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I decided to quit the blogging grind & devote my life to philanthropy. However, I've since learned that one needs vast sums of money in order to do this. Anyone with extra cash, feel free to send large, 6-figure donations, thanks. Go ahead and quit, quitter. Nobody likes a quitter. Quitter. Oh god, NOT reverse psychology. STOP!

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Dragons and Foxes Draw Fire
Michael Gerson, the chief speechwriter during the president’s first term, is expected to be replaced by William McGurn of The Wall Street Journal. How will the change impact the White House message? Bush Gets a New Voice for Second Term Bogey without Bacall

There is a line among the fragments of the Greek poet Archilochus which says: 'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing'. Scholars have differed about the correct interpretation of these dark words, which may mean no more than that the fox, for all his cunning, is defeated by the hedgehog's one defense. But, taken figuratively, the words can be made to yield a sense in which they mark one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general.

• Is It Sink Alone or Swim Together For Bloggers? [Eric Margolis: Here are what will be the big stories of 2005, according to my cloudy crystal ball Deliver us from evil ]
• · How To Down a Jetliner From Your Back Yard And other news from the techno-frontier. From sexuality to liposuction to surveillance to cloning, we're being overrun by technologies full of implications about who we are and how we should live You and I are cultural and political creatures living in an age of science and technology
• · · Australian Blog by Kekoc - Vlado ; Battle of the Media
• · · · Dan Gillmor: Ultra-controlling, old-school media policies are less than pointless. They are counterproductive. Media Cluelessness at Wal-Mart
• · · · · I Googled this, or I Googled that, or I Googled you Defining Google ; [Defining digital words. Blogs are only a vehicle, like paper. You can write poetry or use it for your grocery list.]
• · · · · · Don't close the book on libraries

Posted 2:46 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I don't want to own anything that won't fit in my coffin.
-Fred Allen
I understand that Charles W. Henderson of the Silent Warrior fame also subcribes to this idea of realistic expectations! Death bed is like publishing, a tough industry, and it can be a heartbreaking enterprise ... But rarely do you get a rejection. So far, the death bed issued me with only one serious rejection letter. It is so ironic that the one rejection all of us really do want is coming sooner or later whether we like it or not.

I detest life-insurance agents; they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so.
- Stephen Leacock

Literary Gems: Movers, Shakers and Sex Symbols
Storytelling is like sex, every day, every hour or every minute - I don't think people ever get tired of it ... Feeling dehydrated after a sleepless night? Ha ha ha, the literary doctors recommend to drink more water from the cold river (Suzish smile)
BookAngst; BookBlog; Flogging the Quill; I Love a Good Mystery; Magnificent Octopus; Mental Multivitamin; Mom & Pop Culture; NextBook; storytelling; The Sheila Variations

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: And on the Seventh Day ... Keep The Sunny Side Up
Carrie and co have inspired a book which pushes women towards the wrong kind of man

Haven't the writers of Sex and the City made men suffer enough? First we had to feign interest in their show while the women in our lives were addicted to it. But that apparently wasn't harmful enough to our relationships, so now the new book by S&TC writers Greg Berendt and Liz Tuccillo is convincing women to take anything less than constant male affirmation as proof that He's Just Not That Into You.

Our Virtual Literary Rose These authors read educating blogs hoping to find confirmation that they're on the right path to success. But when those blogs tell the truth, they get angry. It's like pregnant woman dissing mothers of toddlers for complaining about the terrible twos. Perhaps those who haven't yet given birth shouldn't hang out at the playground if they don't want to know what the future might hold.
• Dork-boys cop it in new battle of the sexes [The best steel always goes through fire and water. Until people are touched by life in a very tough way they tend to lack humanity. W h a t a d i f f e r e n c e one link to Silent Warrior of sniper fame makes Czech out how Real Sniper Boys’ Stories made Headlines in the world; Real boys do cry no matter what Wran says]
• · Off the Record: Lee Siegel's picked up another critic job - he's signed on as books critic for The Nation. But he's also holding on to his TV critic's job at The New Republic. And he's going to be twice-a-month art critic for Slate. He’s doing something very brave, New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier said, on the phone while traveling in Chicago. He’s trying to earn a living as a freelance intellectual. Brave New Critic At Large ; He carried two concealed weapons, a wry, deadpan sense of irony and a lightning wit, both of which held no respect for pomposity or rank. An Artist & A Fighter in the Theatre of the Absurd
• · · An infuriating know-all. A squat moon-faced hunchback. An overrated 24/7 professional expat. A squinting git. Ol' no eyes. Clive James: icon or con? [Parliamentary life has become part of the literary fabric of the Digital Ocean I have lived in a world of whispered conversations and secrets. I have lived in a world of murder, corruption, bribery, crime and fear]
• · · · Run For Cover or Dust Jacket John Unsworth Fires Literary Canons ; [What, after all, have silence and exile ever done for Author but get her scorned as midlist, damned as a writer's writer, omitted between 'Oates' and 'Paley' on Barnes & Noble's shelves? Exile ; via Next Book ]
• · · · · Best Literary/Book Blog
• · · · · · Envy and hostility ran high, until, on Friday, October 13 1307 - the original unlucky Friday the 13th - hundreds of Templars were arrested in France. One of the problems with secret societies - especially the kind whose members exert a shadowy influence on the course of world events is that they can be a bit difficult to track down [Now that the judgement has been handed down I can frankly comment about the case. It's often the case ... Man Fined for Hiding his Salami ]

Posted 1:59 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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ASIO take note: This is rather surreal, as the Orwellians are coming ... if your network administrators do not get their security act together. Any googler can Kafka with your security camera be it business office, railway stations, or a vet and even beyond ... There is nothing bad and power-seeking governments fear more that a virtuous and self-controlled population... Introducing the mentality of Bigheads
Speaking of self controlled population and camera heads, an irate CityRail guard had to be restrained by workmates when he tried to punch an elderly passenger in Sydney's Mortdale I asked what was the defect and he wanted to know whether I was thick and told me to 'use my f---ing brain During the melee, a CityRail staffer was also seen trying to prevent a passenger from recording the incident using a mobile phone camera. CityRail guard 'tried to punch elderly passenger'

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Problem with Tsunami and Putin
The big picture and little captions of tsunami updates by Polish Australian blogger Arthur Chrenoff

Among the many ironies of that moment was that the conservatives’ man of the hour has been, at best, a dubious ally in the war on terror. Even as Putin seemingly endorsed Bush, Russia was finalizing its deal with Iran—widely viewed as the chief terrorism-sponsoring state—to help launch that country’s nuclear reactor, despite American and European concerns that it would be used for weapons development. Russia has also remained on amicable terms with North Korea and Syria, and it almost certainly circumvented the sanctions against Iraq to supply weapons to Saddam Hussein’s regime right up to the invasion.

• An unreliable ally, an unlikely democrat [Give them a country, they want the world War & Peace Prospects for 2005]
• · And the US has dropped out of the top 10 freest economies in the world, according to the Index of Economic Freedom Hail Estonia! ; [Geographically Close to Zolitude: Naturally, out of curiosity I asked one of my classes if they liked living in the suburbs. No, they all said, with an almost choral degree of harmony. Why not? I asked. There's nothing to do, they replied. A reflection on the philosophical realities of a life in the Latvian labyrinth ]
• · · A NY Times article talks about the fine-line people are walking in this time of tragedy: Don’t capitalize on the tsunami, please ;
• · · · The politics of disaster: Corrupt governments such as that in Burma are only adding to the suffering of their people; [Elections of Disaster: You would think the story would have died by now. What looks like raw exit poll data has been posted by someone on a website Raw Exit Poll Data Leaked ; I d-d-don't care who's got the n-n-numbers brother, as long as I g-g-get to c-c-count the v-v-v-votes. - Stammering Senator Patrick Kennelly, when told before an ALP Caucus meeting that the Left had the numbers Keep counting till you win election ]
• · · · · How the Left Betrayed My Country - Iraq
The opening lines of the Communist Manifesto - "A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism" - were initially translated as "A frightful hobgoblin stalks through Europe".
• · · · · · Germany has an 18-year-old MP - Julia Bonk, a member of the Saxony legislature ; [ We spend a lot of time in the office these days and the more time we spend with people the more likely we are to strike up close bonking relationships with them ]

Posted 1:46 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Pretty proud of your blog's traffic numbers? Czech out BoingBoing's stats and Jump off the Lomnicky Stit, St Stefan’s Cathedral, the Gap or the Harbour Bridge
Borrowing a famous laugh line from the 1967 movie, "The Graduate," I want to say one word to you -- just one word (well, four, actually): Google, Amazon, and Media Dragon We BoingBoinged 3000 entre on MMMedia Dragon
[Full Disclosure: ... even my Mamka does not read my blog ... However, my cousin did show it to her once. I gather that was enough for her ... While other people have a life I have a living blog :-)]
On a more positive side, this year, MMV AD, The Australian Red Cross not only gave me a savvy clock, but also presented me with a priceless sticker which states I’m One in a Million... If only I can get the marketing department to agree to celebrate Red Cross' 75 years of saving antipodean lives with XXL T-shirts. - At $29.99 they would sell like hotcakes!!!
[Life Clipping: Gabriella laughed when I stood on the scales which creamed error On my second attempt, performed shoelessly, the faulty scales recorded my weight as 107 kg. (Try to explain to your offsprings that muscle is heavier than fat) No way could I have put four kilos since October 2004! My hemigloben was 145 and my oxygen is in excellent supply. My blood pressure read 110/75 or visa versa (sic) and the needle loves me a few times a year:-)]

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Something Else: Moments of Comparison
Indeed, the Dewey decimal system fails Barista's family missionary position. The Library of *Congress* details it far better.
(This time I'm not sure who made me say that ... but they also ran away.)
- Sedgwick, The Master and Commander and Something Else a Gavernor-in-Waiting

It is a boon to enthusiasts, experts, motormouths, attention seekers and underminers. Pure spiritual generosity coexists with pure verbal evil. "All human life is here displayed".
It is particularly useful for people who are isolated, by temperament, place, resources or particular circumstances. We form communities that have nothing to do with where we are, or what we look like. It is not that you can be anyone you want to be - there are other forums and game spaces for that - but that you can be the you which needs to interact with the world. That sentence conceals huge complexities.
The internet is a fabulous antidote to self obsession and self pity. I have my list of blogs which give me the perspective to get my life back under control. A few posts ago, I called it contact with grace.
Some people have remarked that Barista is hard to categorise. I have no problem in my own mind - I am basically collating the magazine I would build if I was an omnipotent editor. Magazine blog - "magablog". But I am beginning to reconceptualise the whole enterprise, partly to share it with guests and create some stable columns.

• Instead, I reveal the direction of my curiosity. [People who work at journalism full time ought to be able to do a better job of it than people for whom it is a hobby. But that's not going to happen as long as we "professional" journalists ignore stories we don't like and try to hide our mistakes. We think of ourselves as "gatekeepers." But there is not much future in being a gatekeeper when the walls are down ]
• · A great deal of that criticism had come from bloggers, who in turn were egging the mainstream media on in a story that ultimately would not go away. The stench from DeLay's sleaze was too much in the end even for the Republican majority that had been so casually consigning ethics to the trash heap. I'd give two blogs special credit. One is Talking Points Memo. The other is the Daily Delay. They kept up the pressure, and made a difference. DeLay Rule Overturned: Bloggers' Symbiosis with Mainstream Media; [brought to us by Dan Gilmore who is No Longer Responsible to Dead Trees
(First Comment at Dan’s Den dotes on the fact that Now we're doin' it. This is _so_ much like 1776, I can't believe it. We can speak and make ourselves heard.
We're no longer outnumbered by the House and Senate. And it's a really, really great day.)
• · · Forecast 2005: For Newspapers, Competition Too Big to Ignore ; [A 3-and-a-half year old free tabloid launched by a Swedish company that believes the future of newspaper profits lies in giving away the news. The Times Buys Another Container ]
• · · · 60 Minutes is no longer cutting edge to me. Do you ever feel like you are way ahead of the news?
• · · · · Cable War: Can Murdoch Outfox CNBC?
• · · · · · The annual release of cabinet papers under the thirty-year rule (itself an absurdity - why not make it five years?) has been pushed off the front pages by the Asian tsunami disaster. Left hypocrisy over Whitlam papers

Posted 1:44 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The history of the commemorative silence is debated, but the originator may have been a Melbourne journalist and first world war veteran, Edward George Honey, who was living in London in 1919. "During the War, we observed what we called the 'three minutes' pause'.

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Books Beat

People say that life is the thing," said Logan Pearsall Smith, "but I prefer reading." According to a recent biography, Cary Grant felt much the same. That witty sophisticate looked forward to an old age spent reading in bed.
Neither man was a mere couch potato. Reading is a way of getting around the world — and through time. If we only live, we know one life; if we read, we know innumerable lives in our own times and in several past periods. So get up and read.

• [Many Hollywood actors would have stormed out of the meeting. Cheadle offered to call Smith and Washington personally. "You read some scripts, and you know you have to be a part of it For Cheadle, story comes first ]
• · · You can't collect $9 million in $10 contributions. You get it in chunks of thousands. Nobody turns over thousands without wanting something back. That's evil We need more philosophers like this one
• · · · When humanities scholars gaze in the mirror, what is reflected? Scholars Mull Their Separation From the Mainstream River
• · · · · Don Quixote at 400: Still Conquering Hearts [In this ambitious tome Shlain sweeps the millennia, suggesting that all of the puzzling or bizarre human behaviors seen nowhere else in the animal world boil down to a simple economic truth: women need iron-rich food (meat) that only men can acquire; and men need sexual access to women. How Women's Sexuality Shaped Jozef Imrich ]
• · · · · · Why Truth Matters: If I know anything, it is that I don't know everything and neither does anyone else Double the power of your truth ; [Double Dragon: True to Literary Life ]

Posted 1:45 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Mark Steyn: This bulletin is for all areas of the Pacific basin except Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California. ... This earthquake is located outside the Pacific. No destructive tsunami threat exists. At that point, the tsunami was still an hour away from Thailand, and several hours away from Somalia. But whoever issued that bulletin either never thought to call anyone in the Indian Ocean, or had no one in his Rolodex to call.
On Tsunami's Shore
Catastrophes unleash great human energies, Michael Gove reports from the shores A land already drowning

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: We Are The World: Is Nothing Sacred...?
We are the world and Tsunami help is coming with no strings attached...
The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats.

Well, dear friends, we're now into the tenth day of the tsunami crisis and in this battered corner of Asia, the UN is nowhere to be seen -- unless you count at meetings, in five-star hotels, and holding press conferences.
Aussies and Yanks continue to carry the overwhelming bulk of the burden, but some other fine folks also have jumped in: e.g., the New Zealanders have provided C-130 lift and an excellent and much-needed potable water distribution system; the Singaporeans have provided great helo support; the Indians have a hospital ship taking position off Sumatra. Spain and Netherlands have sent aircraft with supplies.
The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats. Just today the city's Embassies got a letter from the local UN representative requesting a meeting for "Ms. Margareeta Wahlstrom, United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General's Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Tsunami-afected countries." Wow! Put that on a business card! And she must be really, really special because she has the word "coordinator" twice in her title!

• More UNreality . . . But the Dutch Get It [Act of God; Bill Picked up By UN? ]
• · Ed Brenegar I'd say the United Nations has failed, and has failed for a long, long time
• · · Bill Gates and Bono Demand A Better Deal for the Poor in 2005
• · · · William Pfaff On all sides, the fanatics had a good year ; [Celebrating Political Metaphor ; ]
• · · · · Mr. Obama may indeed be destined for political stardom, but before Obama fever fully takes hold it's worth noting how little national attention has been given to the senator he's replacing: Peter Fitzgerald. The Unsung Maverick: Sen. Peter Fitzgerald took a stand against corruption and pork. ; [Briton Ian Colledge, 29, is a keen diver who has traveled widely in southeast Asia. He was on a diving trip to Thailand with his Czech girlfriend, Petra Vesela (ironically, vesela means happy), when the tsunami struck the island of Surin Neua. Since then he has been keeping a Web log for CNN.com He lives in Prague and is writing his first novel ]
• · · · · · MI6 double agent was 'betrayed by a journalist' - What’s new! The games adults play

Posted 1:43 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Over the past 50 years, we've been having a big debate over two rival economic systems. Conservatives have tended to favor the American model, with smaller government and lower taxes, but less social support. Liberals have supported programs that lead to the European model, with bigger government, more generous support and less inequality A Tale of 2 Orwellian Systems

Invisible Hands & Markets: Buy Asian: Intimate outsiders with Invisible Hands
As a Starbucks-aholic, I must admit that when I think "Sumatra" I think coffee. But I honestly have no idea if Starbucks' Sumatra blend actually does come from Sumatra, and if much (or any) of the money I give them each morning ends up there. N.Z. Bear has a good idea: let's help the tsunami victims by bolstering their economy...

Aid is only a part of the development picture...
The true insignificance of aid is revealed by the fact that trade contributes almost $US1.7 trillion to the developing world, making free trade an imperative – hence the emergence of the slogan "trade, not aid".

• Don D'Cruz: Free trade more precious than foreign aid [Buy South Asian! ]
• · It is Official: Women don't like to work; [Do Tourists Come to Us Mainly for the Cheap Beer?" Stags and Hens in Prague]
• · · What's really amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size of it. Combine enough nonhits on the Long Tail and you've got a market bigger than the hits. Take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are. Capitalism without Capital
• · · · In America, we rarely declare "victory" over a problem. Once an issue becomes a target of collective concern, it stays on the political landscape, even if substantial progress occurs. Congressional committees, interest groups, government agencies and journalists all acquire a stake in "attacking" the problem... Millions of young Americans are too footloose to want a home. Some old Americans are too feeble to handle a home All this serves as useful background to the controversy surrounding Fannie Mae, the nation's largest mortgage company

Posted 1:36 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Blogging is dancing to a new beat. Given the ticklish nature of the latest blogging flirtations, hop aboard the blog bandwagon ... If you proscratinate you'll probably find it crowded when you do. Everyone's been saying that blogs are hot. Well, despite the fact that a supposed 62% of us don't actually know what a blog is
The best editor in America today isn't a journalist. He's Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, also known as the "Instapundit." He's endangering my livelihood. Instathreat; [Just as professionals built the Titanic and amateurs built Noah's Ark, it was amateurs with bare hands who crossed the Iron Curtain ... ]

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Invasion of the Blogs: Raising Ticklish Questions

Dan Gilmor, a respected Silicon Valley newspaper columnist, has left his position at the San Jose Mercury News to become a "citizen journalist." Gilmor published We, the Media, last summer, a look at the burgeoning grassroots journalism movement. I commented on it when it came out. Bloggers are the center of this phenomenon. Time magazine even awarded the Powerline blog as a "blogger of the year" for its investigation of Rathergate. Here's a moderate to liberal traditional news magazine recognize quality journalism in a blog by conservative lawyers from Minnesota. When the mainstream media takes notice like this, it means a corner has turned.

• Citizen Journalism/ Citizen Leadership [There comes a time in the life of every writer when he asks himself -- as Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Hemingway all surely asked themselves -- if he has any booger jokes left in him. The Last Laugh: Jozef We Hardly Knew You! ]
• · If the line between bloggers and journalists has blurred, it's because too many journalists aren't doing their jobs and it was left to bloggers to find the truth of the matter I think you are an irresponsible journalist wanna-be with poor writing skills at best
• · · Jeff Jarvis writes marginalizing your own public : I smell an editor with a grudge at work in The New York Times' wrong-headed story on blogs today Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate
• · · · · Despite the fact that Big Media in general appears to be reconciling itself to the Blogosphere, there remain Big Media denizens who are having more than a little trouble adjusting to blogs. Mainstream Meltdown ; [Journalists shouldn't be cheerleaders]
• · · · · · We dream in digital ink 43 Things to do in 7 different ways ; [Little tiny winie blogs ]

Posted 1:33 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Forecasting the big books of the coming year is a bit like forecasting the weather: You know there'll be rain and wind, but you don't know when or how much. There will be hot books and good books, and maybe even a few that are both, but there are bound to be surprises, too.
-Dave Mehegan

Year on year, there are no great waves of change, just odd ripples. The recent explosion of literary weblogs has to be the most encouraging development in recent memory. Hail the "litblogs," which offer critique, comment, passion and show how to learn to stop worrying about the past and love the future

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Endings are a catharsis: We Are All in the Business of Buying Time
They give meaning to what comes before, and change us from the way we were. They also inform us whether something was empty or full Steve Winn ponders endings:

Endings define and disappoint, gratify and frustrate. They confer meaning and confirm the structure of what's come before -- in a movie, a sonata, a work of fiction. But they also kill off pleasure, snap us out of the dream and clamp down order on experience that we, as citizens of the modern world, believe to be open-ended, ambiguous and unresolved. It's a delicious paradox. Fairy tales, adventure films, mystery stories and Mozart symphonies all gain velocity by pointing us at one ending, toying with our biology of anticipation and racing off toward some new false conclusion and then another and another before finishing themselves off ...

• A Meditation On Endings [No exile should be denied the chance to buy extra creative time. Like sea breezes, bushfires, and new year resolutions films about exiles are part of Sydney festival summer ]
• · Since it is the buying time of year czech out this two links: The death of Simon Raven, at the age of 73 after suffering a stroke, is proof that the devil looks after his own. He ought, by rights, to have died of shame at 30 or of drink at 50. Written on my birthday in 2001 Once a plain death notice, the obituary has become an entertaining art form Death, the ineluctable final bow, is the subject of harrowing series entitled Who Will Look After Media Dragon How you love people, how you talk to them and your friendship with them - that is all that remains in the end
• · · No literary(-related) event is too small! If someone tickles me, I turn into a lone commando unit with a mission to assassinate As a behavioral and physiological phenomenon, tickling is a bag of riddles. The Mystery of Ticklish Laughter: Pleasure or pain? Social response or reflex [The secret lies in the cerebellum, a region at the back of the brain which predicts the sensory consequences of movements and sends signals to the rest of the brain instructing it to ignore the resulting sensation - This is why we unknowingly love our lives to be unpredictable!!!]
• · · · Millionaire musicians to lose Irish tax free status
• · · · · The anti-Fictionalist: I’m sick of faking it. (P.K.) Philosophy in Questionable Taste Alfred Hitchcock aspired to lift a curtain on the mystery of the living clock: It is rare man whose past does not come to haunt him. Not much left in the existential tank so far as the I am my dream - I am my hell reality is concerned. You gotta have some kind of faith
• · · · · · Amy Campbell Trends inside 2004; The top 100 Word Spy words Last year, I earned a cute looking Red Cross clock (three dabbing strikes of a needle and anyone can get one - smile) Even teenagers like the retro look. Next idea for the marketing section to consider is to czech out this savvy T-shirt. I will not only give blood, but also $50 if it goes towards a good cause - This Red Cross t-shirt tickles many of my dispositions. The classic army green works beautifully alongside the red and white of the logo.; Welsh surfer rode tsunami to safety

Posted 8:25 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Google Ranking while Helping Tsunami Victims
International aid organizations:
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
United Nations' World Food Programme
Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders (donate!)
CARE International
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

UK/Europe:
Disasters Emergency Comittee (DEC) - comprises a raft of aid agencies, including the below and others
British Red Cross
Save the Children UK

North America:
American Red Cross
Canadian Red Cross
Save The Children

Anders Jacobsen: Webloggers: Give to tsunami victims and I'll give too!

Posted 2:12 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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At my maiden, 1982 to be precise, Parliamentary Press party, I had a lively discussion on the subject of parliamentary culture with the self-appointed psychopolitical guru Ron Fisher, the senior chamber attendant, who liked to spring surprises and witty observations. Like ministerial and parliamentary chauffers, the chamber attendants are often in the know. He summed up his connection to Parliament by stating that one does not have to be mad to work in Parliament, but it helped. It is great to know that in 2005 the ABC of Australian fame is educating viewers by screening a series entitled Altered Statesmen. Last night the show started in a Hollywood style with Ronald Reagan rather than JFK. Lisa Pryor states that You do not have to be insane or drug addicted to lead a nation, though it helps. @ MD, we hope that the parliamentary intellectual, Catherine Watson, who once sent me a rather unparliamentary-like email will be watching the series (smile)
According to the series, some of the most powerful politicians of the twentieth centure were unbalanced, depressive, alcoholic or even senile. History proves that any party that dominates the system for long falls into the corruption trap...

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: You are wrong. No You are wrong!
Despite what politicians whisper in your ear during the parliamentary press gallery party, it is OK to like Citizen MEdia Dragon. So many riches, so many opportunities to astonish us, and provide return on bohemian investment ...

Thank God for Citizen Girl. Girl is a self-possessed, moral, intelligent, and open feminist who is not a militant-chic refugee from Lillith Fair or an NPR-tote-bag carrying blue-stater in a hemp dress. She isn't a loveable oaf like Bridget Jones who only obsesses over weight and boys and little else. McLaughlin and Kraus pull it off because they are so wry and so spot on.

The finale to Citizen Girl comes when Girl discovers that the company she works for is nothing more than a shell company for an Internet porn site--one that charmingly encourages men to simulate rape and violence toward women who are provocatively dressed as executives. Oh, and it's run by a successful woman. Girl has had enough: "This is the lazy choice, with your skills you could be making money and a difference," she tells the woman behind the curtain. Can one really do both? Well, McLaughlin and Kraus sure have.
• Citizen Girl [Waist-band-and-ironing-board adverse ]
• · Survivors against all odds. Now, imagine if every single day there were headlines in every newspaper in the world and every television show saying: "29,000 children died yesterday from preventable diseases and malnutrition" ... If the story were told that way every day, the goodness of human beings would rebel quickly against these social systems that made all this suffering possible, suffering far far far far far in excess of all the suffering caused by tsunamis and other natural disasters Where Was God in The Tsunami? And where has humanity been? ; [The images play over and over in Jasmin Hasic's mind. Haunted by Horrific Memories ]
• · · Numbering the Dead: A culture in agony ; [Tim Blair: Useful Tsunami links - 1 and 4 January 2005 ]
• · · · The twisted limbs of the frail girl in a blue dress were caught in a garden fence by the sea. She may have already been dead, but no one stopped to check -- there was too much tragedy going on all around, as the water kept coming. The tragedy still hadn't dawned on me until I came upon the girl in the blue dress, caught in a fence
• · · · · It becomes harder and harder to deny that there is a problem at the United Nations when we read International Herald Tribune reports that Kofi Annan met in closed door session with supporters in the Manhattan. What's interesting about the "secret" meeting between Kofi Annan and "veteran [American] foreign policy experts" is how short a time it remained secret An Axe in the Frozen Sea of UN
• · · · · · What do pumped-up athletes, power-hungry politicians and lovers of fast cars have in common? Too much testosterone, or is that just a masculine myth? Hooked on the hard stuff

Posted 2:02 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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A Much Needed Fresh Air and Oxygen in Linking; Blogs of the Year from Fimoculous; Google Zeitgeist from Google; Top Searches from Yahoo Search; Search Scrapbook from AOL Search; Web's Most Wanted from Lycos; Favorite Weblogs of 2004 from Kottke; Best Blogs from Matthew Tobey; Favorite Blogs of '04 from Radio Free Blogistan; Best Blog from Washington Post; Most Cited Blogs from Intelliseek; Best of the Blogs from Deutche Welle International; Best of the Web from Spasticrobot; Most Blogged Items from BlogPulse; 150 Most Popular Tags from Flickr; 2004 Weblog Awards from Weblog Awards; Top News Sites of 2004 from Newsknife; Top 10 Web Diversions from Amy Campbell...

The Blog, The Press, The Media: