Posted 11:47 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Although each man is born naked, he arrives with a vast inheritance, often in the form of baggage. Those of a mixed cultural background have a larger wardrobe with which to clothe their identity. The cultural choices they make are therefore rather more personal. First and foremost, I consider myself British. English, Arab, Swiss, and even European are all conflicting labels I can apply to myself in part. And in part is the problem with them—they are far too narrow and limiting. The word British on the other hand has notions of a civic model of inclusion. What holds society together is not common religion, race, ethnicity, language or even culture, but common attachment to the rule of law and to the idea that we are all rights-bearing equals. Admittedly it is a romantic idea used to get the Empire to pull together in two World Wars, but the idea is still there all the same.
- Yahya El-Droubie

I can’t think of a better way to spend a week night than catching up with colourful characters from the past. Tonight I caught up with Baden Appleyard. Baden is a Brissie born and bred pilot who also flies above the corridors of justice as a lawyer with experience in IT, Privacy and Tax law and cyberlaw. Back in the mid 90s Baden discussed the finer points of creative commons, MP3, and other concepts including how to sell wine without bottles with trailblazers such as Lawrence Lessig. There is no blogger who is not familiar with Lessig Blog. The fruits of Lessig labour are reflected on search engines looking for Creative Commons. How amazingly fortunate for Cold River to be right below The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
Whether in Brissie or Sydneyrella, when you are having a communal meal with Baden you meet people from all different backgrounds, and all walks of life. I tend to also always, always, uncover some fascinating stories and people. There are many things to be appreciated about Maria full of ballet grace ;-D. What is it about individuals like Baden that one feels so engaged in a conversation and feels a sense of being appreciated for who we are?
This week seems to be filled with arrivals and departures of travellers who are invading Sydney not just from Brissie, Canberra and Prague, but also my former director of the Public Accounts Committee, Patricia Azarias, will swap New York for the village by the harbour. Patricia has been recently appointed as the Director of the Internal Audit Division at the United Nations. We were the Dream Team 1992-2000; small dedicated team producing 8 reports staging conferences, seminars, round tables

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Don't Fear the Double Dragon
Will somebody please help the Los Angeles Times' David Shaw get a grip? What do bloggers want? That’s a question Freud might have posted on his web site if he were alive today ... As bloggers we are learning to be less concerned about what people think of us. We are learning to be less reliant upon both the affirmation and the criticism of others. Running, like a river beneath and icy surface there is a deeper and truer virtual life waiting to be acknowledged ;-D

In yesterday's (March 27) Los Angeles Times, media reporter and critic David Shaw demonstrates Oscar Wilde's maxim that modern journalism is important—if only because it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
Giving every indication that he's read a lot of stories about bloggers but not that many actual blogs, Shaw disparages the form as the error-filled rants of amateurs in his piece, "Do Bloggers Deserve Basic Journalistic Protections?" It's a "solipsistic, self-aggrandizing journalist-wannabe genre," Shaw writes.

Jack Shafer does a great job ripping apart David Shaw's sloppy, wrong-headed blogger-bashing column
• The Dragons of Expectation False Dichotomies: Laying the Newspaper Gently Down to Die [Hiding behind my sunglasses A Good Whacking — Jack Shafer whacks David Shaw ; Ansearch A new age of searching ]
• · Editor & Publisher reports that JimJeff GuckertGannon will be included in a panel to be held at the National Press Club on April 8th Meet the future of Journalism: Cannon-Cockert ; Often the coolest gadgets aren't the cheapest or most practical, they're the ones that make your tech-head friends green with envy, like Fossil's Wrist PDA. Watch this space: Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs
• · · Blog back in anger - the online sticky note ; A person who wants to lead the orchestra must be willing to face the music Publish and don't be damned - WAM!NET
• · · · So Liz Smith was having dinner with Nicole Kidman at New York's Four Seasons and it seems the actress really likes to pig out. In blog's era, is there room for Liz Smith? ; Ron Hogan, who writes a literary blog called Beatrice.com, recently began a second blog, Beatrix: A Book Review Review On the Internet, 2nd (and 3rd and . . . ) Opinions ; Beatrix ; A Book Review Review
• · · · · The truth about the tabloids ; Nora Paul: A decade after digital news trailblazers discussed the Internet's promise as a cutting-edge news vehicle, only some of those forecasts have become reality. 'New News' retrospective: Is online news reaching its potential?
• · · · · · We want this to be the place where a community of regional bloggers and their many interests can be found. Blogging in Southwest Virginia ; With an index of more than 370 million blog and news feed articles in seven languages, Bloglines is already one of the largest wells of dynamic web information. Popular online blog and news feed aggregator site Bloglines.com is one step closer to its goal of a universal inbox for dynamic Web content with the launch of a package tracking service Wednesday Bloglines

Posted 7:58 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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"Bach" is the German word for a little stream or brook. Of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven said: "His name should not be Brook, it should be Ocean." [Schwarzenbach (black brook in Vrbov) Without History: Marta Chamilova]
-via Boyton on Bach’s Birthday

A NEW Book Club for Busy People Blog who know that a bad day writing is better than a good day in the office... Sometimes We Read

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Kiss Me Like a Stranger
Sexual-excess memoirs often have a spiritual-discovery aspect to them, as do illness memoirs. Spirit-of-place memoirs often shade into the ethnic-identity memoir, which can, in certain instances, merge with the food memoir ...

The memoir has been on the march for more than a decade now. Readers have long since gotten used to the idea that you do not have to be a statesman or a military commander - or, like Saint-Simon or Chateaubriand, a witness to great events - to commit your life to print. But the genre has become so inclusive that it's almost impossible to imagine which life experiences do not qualify as memoir material.

• Every Life's Worth A Story... (But Do You Have To Publish It?) [There is no such thing as Women's Writing. Just as there is no such thing as Left-Handed Writing, Red-Headed Writing, European Writing, Northern Hemisphere Writing, or Writing from the Planet Earth. All of these categories are so large as to be meaningless The Stupidity Of Women's Writing (Whatever That Is) ; Catherine Keenan meets Rick Gekoski, whose quest for ever more rare and wonderful books has led to the Booker prize The treasure hunter ]
• · A convicted murderer and prison escapee led a secret life as a Chicago-area poet for nearly two decades Chicago Poet Was Mass. Murderer ; Tasmanian Tiger ; The Dragon curve (the paperfolding sequence) was discovered by physicist John Heighway and described by Martin Gardner in 1978. It is defined as follows: we fold a sheet of paper in half, then fold in half again, and again, etc. and then unfold in such way that each crease created by the folding process is opened out into a 90-degree angle. The Crakow Cathedral still has surviving Romanesque fragments including the St.Leonard crypt. The massive prehistoric bones suspended by chains to the left of the entrance are supposedly the bones of Krakus' dragon legend has it that when they fall the end of the world will be at hand Hunting hidden dragon curves in Bratislava
• · · Once movies can be delivered directly into the home all the cheap popcorn and clean floors in the world won't matter Is The Movie-Going Experience Running Out Of Steam? ; The intimate details of Hitler's life - from his fear that his lavatory might be poisoned to his habit of scratching his neck until it bled - are obsessing Germans once again amid a huge revival of interest in the Nazi era Hitler books 'show new obsession gripping Germans' ; Czech Republic ranks second in Europe in Ecstasy use Ecstasy
• · · · Amazon.com Knows, Predicts Shopping Habits ; Of the 300 or so foreign books that are translated into English and published each year in the United States, it is not difficult to imagine why Bloomsbury's Children's Books chose to publish a translation of Valérie Zenatti's When I Was A Soldier The experience of an outsider "looking in" ; Bolsheviks at the Australian Academy of Ballet The Kirov Ballet owes its name to Jozef Stalin
• · · · · Unpredictable life: Crowded House drummer dead: Paul Hester; They say the blues is the devil's music: Byron Bay provides blues and roots with a few laughs along the way Charisma comes in all shapes
• · · · · · Narrators of first-person claptrap like this often greet the reader at the door with moist hugs and complaisant kisses. I won't. I will not endear myself. I won't put on airs. I am not that pleasant. The older I get the less pleasant I am / A way to get very rich very easily and speedily by taking full advantage of the infinite gullibility of homo sapiens: Round up of Weekend Book Reviews ; Many psychologists are traumatised by the stories of those they help Putting therapists on the couch

Posted 10:31 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Two small tsunami waves hit the Perth area this morning, triggered by a huge earthquake in waters off Indonesia. Tsunami waves reach Perth

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Surfing paradise suffers second disaster
A three-metre-high tsunami struck Simeuleu Island near Aceh minutes after the huge earthquake that struck off Indonesia's western coast, Kyoto.
And the fate of around 5000 people living on the isolated Banyak islands close to the epicentre of the massive earthquake remains unknown, as aftershocks continued to rattle Sumatra today.

A centre of ancient and remote communities surrounded by magnificent surfing beaches, Indonesia's Nias island, is ill-equipped to handle the double-disaster of another huge earthquake on top of last year's devastating tsunami.

• Panic as quake strikes tsunami region [Google & Thousand Links to Quake ; Tsunami's lessons taken to heart ]
• · They have been shifting the load to the private sector and blaming each other - states versus national - for shortcomings, demanding coherent integrated solutions and cooperation Lessons from life of Paul Hester ; In 2004, 10 boys from a school labelled the worst in Australia for violence decided to prove their critics wrong, creating inspirational school leaders by trekking the challenging Kokoda Track. Kokoda Challenge
• · · Thousands of property investors hit with land tax bills for the first time are also receiving hefty bills for back tax - for which they did not know they were liable. Back tax on land catches investors ; Australand says the city's strict development rules all but barricaded it out of the CUB site, but the reality is more complexUnder lock and key
• · · · Our new nightmare: the United States of America The Australians Speak: 2005 survey ; Rejection: Turning point in Western history
• · · · · Reality check for those in the Federal Government who want to introduce voluntary voting; A group of MPs studying Canada's prostitution laws is seeking $200,000 in federal funds to visit European cities with red-light zones and legal brothels Silver chain of sound: MPs want $200,000 for hooker junket ;
• · · · · · Now that David Hurley has made a comeback, taking back the reins at A Current Affair, we can clear up one of the great misquotes of recent political history. Twenty years ago Hurley was press secretary to former NSW premier Neville Wran during the Rex Jackson affair and was quoted as telling a reporter: "We're eating a turd sandwich on this one and we're gonna have to say it's yummy" Whichever way you slice it ; Gap mystery: police unsure if car dealer jumped ; Flexible work practices NSW police detectives in work practice row

Posted 9:25 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Antony Loewenstein is back from Sri Lanka, Czech his fearless ideas at AL: A Chance to Confront our Worst Social Ills

Digby gives us the latest version of "bluggers suck" and "journalists r000l" from the LA Times's David Shaw, who writes a column about why bluggers aren't high-minded journalists like him so they therefore don't deserve reporters' privilege Journalist, Heal Thyself

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Tories plan to beat ‘bias’ by bringing in bloggers
The Conservative Right is to turn to new American campaigning techniques and the internet to try to revive the party and overcome what it sees as opposition from the metropolitan Establishment.

Only weeks away from the general election, senior Conservatives will open a new front today in the battle for ideas by creating a website advocating “social conservatism”.
It will invite people to bypass the media and put forward their own views on how the party should evolve. The faction behind it denies that it is “rocking the boat” in the pre-election period and says that in the early weeks the website will be used to campaign for a Conservative victory. It wants people to use the increasingly popular practice of “blogging” — writing online diaries — to break the power of the broadcast media.

• The website — conservativehome.com — is being started today by Tim Montgomerie - via a provider of a snapshot of the latest online news and buzz across the political spectrum Memeorandum [Shelly Horton ; Elizabeth Spiers, editor-in-chief of mediabistro.com Coolest Blog]
• · Blog burnout spreading ; Dave Pollard says the blogging popularity curve's long tail shows that it is "just" a logarithmic curve and not a "power law" curve after all Wagging the long tail
• · · Bill Ives: Longest Running Bloggers Meeting: Montreal ; A-List: Female bloggers doing top-notch work in the mainstream poliblog format
• · · · The ethnic diversity to be found within the male bloggers of the activist, lefty political blogosphere should serve as an obvious lesson to all bloggers that it is indeed our actions that determine the diversity of our blogosphere, no matter what type of diversity we are discussing (gender, income, race, creed, ideology, etc) Diversity and the Two Lefty Blogospheres ; Garrett Graff Scott McClellan does not read blogs...if you were wondering; via Boyton: The Blog Cycle.
• · · · · Les Carlyon: Soon we'll have only 18 readers but they'll all be millionaires Words of wisdom come up against marketing strategies ; Dare we begin to believe? Hopeful signs on the road to defamation reform
• · · · · · Thomas Nelson Publishers Corporate Blogging Guidelines, Draft #2 ; TV reporter earned money from state via Jay Rosen

Posted 12:21 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Ye shall know the Truth,
and the Truth shall make you angry
- Aldous Huxley

Commonwealth warns States it may render void the GST agreement So, what options do the States have now?

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Carr's 10-year reign 'killed 200'
Mike Carlton gives a ringing endorsement: Bob Carr is the best, most accomplished Premier I have encountered in more than 40 years of observing politics in Macquarie Street.

NEW South Wales Premier Bob Carr was yesterday accused of being responsible for the deaths of almost 200 people through his Government's mismanagement. “He has ratted on the people of NSW," he added. The report card coincides with an advertising campaign launched by the State Opposition, showing Mr Carr and Labor as a tired rat on a slowing exercise wheel.

Bob Carr's record is a litany of lies and broken promises which have brought unnecessary physical and economic hardships for people in NSW.
• Collateral Damage [You can’t do anything except get on with your life ... Labor Premier Bob Carr did not offer a word of remorse over the deaths but mobilised hundreds of heavily armed riot police ; Bob Carr has long blamed immigration for Sydney's creaking services, but experts are now blaming his services for pushing people away Immigration myth exploded as Sydneysiders flee ; He's a self made man in the sense he's a complete construction. I don't want to die in the job but I want to stick around for some time to come: I count the improvement of State Education as the proudest single achievement. I didn't do that well at school, until the last year or so Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr is the first to admit his political fortunes have surprised even him ; Parents too poor to outfit students ]
• · As propaganda: Adolf Hitler had hoped to use the 1936 Berlin Olympics to promote all things Aryan. As stage for self-promotion: no politician, least of all an Australian one, can resist the temptation to line up with winners. As career path: such is the kudos enjoyed by sports stars that American wrestlers can become state governors, Australian distance runners Gold Coast mayors All the boys come out to play when the game is political football; Libya has adhered scrupulously to its WMD commitments and its dismantling of its previous programs has offered a powerful, positive example to other countries Gaddafi's rehabilitation now complete, the US is expected to reopen full diplomatic relations with Libya this year
• · · The Liberal state MP Robyn Parker has accused a party colleague and Reverend Fred Nile of exploiting the abortion debate for political gain ; Mark Ballard of the Baton Rouge Advocate obtained a Louisiana database that pinpoints places on state roads that [the state] suspects are so defective and so poorly maintained that they cause crashes or, at least, contribute to wrecks. The Abnormal Locations Report identifies more than 12,000 spots ; Mayoral meals cost taxpayers thousands
• · · · Records show buyer got back property for less than airport paid Depreciating Deals: Taxpayers lost out in land swaps ; The UN has again attacked the Howard Government's record on race Geneva v Canberra
• · · · · New laws to target casino chip gangsters ; Hassan "Sam" Harb - owner of Strathfield business Sam the Paving Man Paving business owner under ICAC probe
• · · · · · MP hurt in street scuffle with girl ; Ban gay parent books from school: Stoner

Posted 10:05 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Stories remind us of who we are and from where we came. They mark the trajectories of our lives; they show us our loves; our hopes; our obsessions; our fears. Most of all, our fears. Children understand fear better than adults, perhaps because the fears of childhood are darker and more primitive. Fear of being abandoned, like Hansel and Gretel. Fear of loss. And fear of the beast - be it wolf, dragon, ogre - which is, of course, the fear of adulthood and, lurking inevitably behind, the fear of death... A significant, secret part of us still wants to believe in magic that can change lives; love that can save us; heroes and heroines who can overthrow the ogres of our fear.

The debate about The Da Vinci Code has generated a great deal of interest in the life of Christ and the origins of Christianity. The two men who changed the course of history are the focus of this documentary Jesus and Paul: the word and the witness

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Seeking Sister, Self, and the Spirit
I didn't expect it to become a book

It is not uncommon for someone to respond to the death of a loved one by attempting to understand that person's life better, or trying to find "God," or trying to find out more about one's self. In Julie Mars' A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister (Greycore Press, due out in mid-April), the author manages to do all three when, following the death of her beloved older sister from cancer, she embarks on a pilgrimage of going to Church every Sunday for 31 weeks.

In terms of writing, if not life, this was virgin territory for me. But the biggest challenge (and scariest problem) for me was cutting and editing. Cutting this text felt different than editing fiction -- more bloody and far more painful, but, in the end, I had to pick up my pen and go at it. After a while, I realized I was equating editing with lying, with making the story prettier or more hopeful than it really was, disrespecting the project I had assigned myself.
• Pilgrimage of spiritual equilibrium [Unwanted Memories of Aga's grave Ageless Aga ; It's not about drugs, definitely. The drugs are there but the story is about Maria and to show the people that this story can happen to anybody. It's so close to you that you don't even know Maria Full of Grace ]
• · A powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war - the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict 'War Trash' Wins PEN/Faulkner Prize ; Nearly half of teachers have suffered from mental illness Stressful job
• · · Debutante balls are thrown by doting fathers who want to shore up their class-standing Rites of Passage; To be able to do something positive is a great motivator Risking Social Siberia.
• · · · We travel most ... when we stumble and we stumble most when we come to a place of poverty and need (like Haiti, perhaps, or Cambodia); and what we find in such confounding places, often, is that it is the sadness that makes the sunshine more involving or, as often, that it is the spirit and optimism of the place that makes the difficulties more haunting Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign ; Let him who is without sin cast the first stone A time to return to the true path
• · · · · Poverty can be hard to tackle if you can't define it Why poverty persists - even in the boom times ; Book Fairs: Show Off Promotion leading everyone into temptations
• · · · · · Dan Brown's once-humble life has been turned into a paperback circus Decoding Dan ; 19 Entertainment owns the format rights to Pop Idol, here known as American Idol, and pulls in an estimated $1 billion annually in merchandising, ad sales, sponsorships, etc." along with a simple personal message,"WOW! What's a hit worth?

Posted 10:29 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I think the reason gamblers habitually gamble is to lose. Because they know they have to lose, it's the law of averages. I'm not talking about bookies or gentlemen gamblers. I'm talking about the compulsive, neurotic gambler. Pain is what he's searching for. The emotion of pain. It's much greater than the emotion of pleasure. Bigger, larger, stronger. Therefore more interesting.
-Walter Matthau

John Howard's apparent rebirth as a centraliser sits oddly with his conservative credentials. But each issue should be taken on its merits...The search for a federal system that is supple enough to serve our economic and social needs today and into the future is far too important to be sacrificed to political argy-bargy. Canberra falls out of love with the states

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Australia doesn't need states
Australia would be better off without state governments, Prime Minister John Howard declared yesterday as he strongly backed Treasurer Peter Costello's demand that the states abolish $2.5 billion in business taxes.

Speaking on radio about the federal-state tax deadlock, Mr Howard said it would be better if Australia had no state governments - adding that it was "unrealistic" to wish for that now.
"If we were starting Australia all over again, I wouldn't support having the existing state structure," he said. "I would actually support having a national government, and perhaps a series of regional governments having the power of, say, the Brisbane City Council (Australia's most powerful local government).
"But we're not starting Australia all over again, and the idea of abolishing state governments is unrealistic."

There is a historical irony in the making of the reversal of the federal history of the 20th century: in 21st century the ALP defends the existence of states whilst the conservative Howard Government are the centralists ;-D
• The Joy of Federalism [When we have 29 energy regulators in the country, is it any wonder that there is a brawl about whether it is possible to make an appropriate investment and a reasonable rate of return? Alarm bells on infrastructure ; Water restrictions are in force across the country. Power outages have become a fact of life during summer. The conditions of our major roads is such a worry we are talking tolls – yet a creaky and expensive rail system does not provide a feasible alternative to the large trucks that are doing the worst damage. Stuck on freeway car parks ]
• · former Governor General Sir William Deane Australia's multiculturalism: time for assessment and renewal ; Dr. Klaas Woldring is a former Associate Professor from Southern Cross University [Proportional Representation system] Why was there a by-election in Werriwa anyway?
• · · Castle restitution drags on (and on) as two families fight for justice and their reputations: Schwarzenberg and Liechtenstein families (My first western bread put on the table came from working at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna back in August 1980 - Similarly, the government refuses to give land to my Pecharcik side of the family grandfather’s land boasts the therapeutic hot springs in Vrbov) Waiting & freezing ; An ongoing struggle with depression and the likelihood of adverse findings in a new report on the oil-for-food scandal is raising questions about the political future of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. UN chief fights demons within
• · · · Abortion case a Kafkaesque nightmare ; Journalist Matt Price has highlighted in The Australian today, the humiliating nature of revelations about Tony Abbott's contraceptive methods, revealed by his former girlfriend on A Current Affair last night. Astonishingly frank Kathy Donnelly
• · · · · In Praise Of Soeharto The Despot, Anthony Loewenstein We know your people love you ; A Review of God Under Howard Marion Maddox
• · · · · · Gravy Train: David Blunkett, Indepen Consulting Ltd. and the "Identity" speech; Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. 24 March 2004 is the anniversary of the assassinaion of Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Goldámez archbishop of El Salvador Southerly Buster: Romero

Posted 10:28 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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It's a universal law of capitalism: when an industry faces a new and significant threat to its profits and powers it turns to the government for protection. Well, bloggers who write on current events are challenging the mainstream media (MSM), the most politically well-connected industry in America James Miller believes he sees a gathering storm for blogs ... The coming war on blogs? The Business of Blogging

The Blog, The Press, The Media: From Meet the Press to Be the Press
The Economist just said it: the "the traditional notion that the media play a special role in informing people is breaking down." Rising up: government as a "purely neutral" news provider, credible where a sinking press corps is not.

As Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, has put it, the administration does not think that the press has "a check-and-balance function". This is a fundamental change of attitude compared with previous administrations and makes this one's use of fake news different.
I agree: a fundamental change is afoot, and we have to try to understand it. The Economist zeroes in on why the "special interest" charge matters. Listen carefully-- they're catching on:
If there is nothing special about the press, then there is nothing special about what it does. News can be anything--including dressed-up government video footage. And anyone can provide it, including the White House, which, through local networks, can become a news distributor in its own right. Given the proliferation of media outlets and the eroding of boundaries between news, comment and punditry, someone will use government-provided information as news.

The President represented the people, the press represented the public.
Why two reps, why these two words? Because the same Americans who believe in popular sovereignty (election to office) believe too in public opinion (government by discussion.)
• Boundaries, Crosslines, De-certification [Reconciling conflicting objectives - New Open Source Journal on Freedom of Information Freedom of information and data protection ; The launch of a pioneering project, OurMedia provides free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software. Forever. No catches Open Source Project Offers Free Storage For Digital Media ]
• · New University of Florida Study Ranks States' Records Access Laws - The project's panel of experts, known as the Sunshine Review Board, compared the state laws for 30 categories of legal provisions related to records requests and ranked them on a Sunshine Index for openness Sunshine Week: Study Details Public Access to State Records ; Get Assistance from a Federal Depository Librarian: Government Information Online Pilot Project Gov't Sponsored Project Offers Expert Virtual Reference Services
• · · Experiences of a Street Car Conductor Digital History ; Digital reel explodes on Amazon
• · · · View your words constructed out of images selected pseudo-randomly from an Amazon Web site; Newcopia is a commenting system where people can come and discuss the latest additions in Bills and Research from Australian Parliament House. NewCopia; Sheila Lennon writes a story about a musician. She writes it in an HTML editor so she can fill it with links. Not only that, she read it aloud in her first Podcast. Multi-Talented observers
• · · · · Steve Rubel has some great advice for bloggers: get on the Oprah Winfrey show. And writes an open letter to Oprah asking her to bring bloggers on board (and to start her own blog). How to become influential ; A9.com searches more than the web—we have a library of columns that you can add to your column list (the list of buttons you see on the right of search results). Amazon's search engine has lots of tricks
• · · · · · The State of the News Media 2005; Peek is AlterNet's blog of blogs, pointing out what's buzzing in the blogosphere. Peek: The Blog Of Blogs

Posted 1:53 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Most people could put together a team to lift a body, put it in a box, put it in the ground, or deliver it to a crematorium.
-Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, MLC at NSW Parliament, backs do-it-yourselves funerals

Perhaps the NSW Department of Fair Trading was feeling a little bruised when it completed its consumer guide on arranging funerals. In most cases, cemeteries and crematoria will not deal directly with anyone other than a funeral director Digging up dirt

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Carr's decade of lost opportunities
If the Carr Government was a Broadway show getting the sort of reviews that have lately been coming its way, producers would be quietly lowering the curtain.

In reality, the Government's 10 years have been characterised by largely wasted opportunity, false starts, unrealised promise, half-hearted effort and timidity. Given a choice between spin and substance, the Government more than not has opted for the former, convinced that papier mache is less electorally risky (but not necessarily more affordable) than solid carpentry. In part, this is because real changes are guaranteed to offend some, particularly those with interests vested in old methods that benefit the few at the expense of the many. An unproductive bureaucracy weighed down by a Government commitment not to force out those who are unnecessary, comes to mind. And this from a Government played off a break by trade union mates whose obstinacy retards reform of education and public transport, to name but two.

• Spin v Substance [ What a farce. Labor state treasurers spat the dummy and walked out of a meeting that affects 20 million Australians ("States defy deadline to wipe out taxes", Herald, March 24). No wonder we are looking for alternatives to how we are governed ... one is a tax, the second a duty and the third is a levy Answer to tax stoush is to abolish state governments; Business sounds warning on infrastructure ; Defaults on home loans and credit cards have plunged to historic lows despite record household debt, a sign that Australians are taking more care with credit. Swimming in debt, but we're not drowning ]
• · For Europe, for ourselves, and for humanity, comrades, we must make a new start, develop a new way of thinking, and endeavor to create a new man The Wretched of the Earth ; The Utilities Minister, Frank Sartor, says that the former Liberal premier Nick Greiner - now the chairman of a powerful international water and infrastructure provider - reported adversely to him about a company fighting to get access to the city's pipes and sewers. Water firm in grab for $500m effluent subsidy, says Sartor
• · · The excruciatingly personal details watched by the nation on prime time television may have softened Tony Abbott in the eyes of the voters Sting in the tale ; So surreal that if it had been a plot for a novel, publishers may well have rejected the storyline as being ridiculously over-blown In the Name of the Father, Part 2
• · · · Thirty years on, Vietnam and its people are still living through very tough times Vietnam: 30 Years On ; Kofi Annan’s plan for revitalisation Kofi Annan’s plan for revitalisation
• · · · · New liberals justify their policies by pointing to the danger of social engineering. Republicanism: a trap for progressives? ; Peter McDonald and Rebecca Kippen Reform of income tax in Australia: a long-term agenda
• · · · · · Call it an ROTC program for the CIA: young researchers are trained to analyze global conflicts in the interests of national security ... Many social scientists say a new government program will turn fieldwork abroad into spying. Can secrecy coexist with academic openness? Cloak and Classroom ; Mr Ruddock will meet his NSW counterpart, Bob Debus, to produce a report on uniform defamation laws, following a meeting of Attorneys-General this week. Mr Ruddock said the States and Territories will take a second look at three key issues: jury trials, correction orders and the ability for corporations to sue for defamation Interview: Philip Ruddock

Posted 1:47 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Bruce Lowry of Novell told The Economist that he can imagine blogs "completely replacing press releases within 10 years." It's a bold thought; does it hold water? Will Blogs Replace Press Releases?

The Blog, The Press, The Media: It’s time to stand up for Google
Is Google bashing the new cool?

I could have easily substituted the opening quote as the headline here but I’d rather make a positive statement, despite some failings, Google is still one of the good guys, and it’s time to stand up for Google.
Many of you who don’t follow political blogs may be wondering what I’m talking about, well in short form here it is: Political blogs, in particular leading conservative blogs and bloggers has stirred up a storm in a tea cup over the inclusion of a “Nazi” website as a source for Google’s News service (since removed) mainly on the grounds that their blogs had not.

Never let the real facts get in the way of a good conspiracy story.
• Google is still one of the good guys, and it’s time to stand up for Google [ Dan Gillmor on Google ; Google testing new ad formats ; Principal claims she was harassed Web spy student ends up suspended ]
• · Petr Partyk criticized a city bureaucrat on a web discussion forum, and now faces prison over it. What’s more, he says the comments were written by someone else. It looks absurd, but according to a decision by the Prague 7 district court he could be in prison for 75 days for libel. Man goes to prison over website comments ; Judges Urged to Determine if Crime Occurred in Leak Case Media Groups Back Reporters In Court Filing
• · · Popular as the uncensored bastions of ideological chest-thumping, Web logs have emerged in the debate over Terri Schiavo's fate as something more mature: a place where people struggle to make sense of their complex and contradictory feelings. Rantings and ravings still rule the day in the blogosphere, as it's known, with plenty of political sniping. Blogs Become Sites for Soul-Searching on Life-and-Death Question ; Is linking really stealing?
• · · · The Role of Ethics In Weblogging ; Perish the thought: Fake name. Fake reporter. Fake news agency. And now this ... Fake Marine Plame & PropaG: NO Military Service for Gannon/Guckert
• · · · · The boundary between the mainstream media and the new online underground is increasingly porous Fourth estate 'second rate'; The documentary Touching the Void was a box-office hit, but before its success the written version had languished on bookshop shelves Tails, you win: Into Thin Air
• · · · · · How to Make a Living as a Poet ; Google: Family memories develop out of thin air

Posted 2:09 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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We are glad the general public is more and more aware of the fact that investing into NGO’s is sort of business culture. Citizens of Slovakia can decide what happens to their taxes Petr Bokuvka: Two Percent: To The Ones Who Need Them

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: An Invisible Government
In every existing government we find clamor, abuses of power, newspapers with triumphant, lying headlines, lies of every kind in public life. This being the case, someone like me, who understands nothing of politics, is compelled to think about politics and despair of ever understanding it, is compelled to envision something entirely different.

I’ve always found it rather strange that after an election, nearly all the party newspapers proclaim victory even if they’ve been defeated. If I were a party leader, I would proclaim the truth in big red letters. If we had suffered a major defeat, the headline in my paper would read: “Major Defeat for Our Party.” I can’t see why every party newspaper instead finds it necessary to display exultant, triumphant headlines after each election. The few exceptions after the recent elections were remarkable indeed.

• Natalia Ginzburg: Major Defeat for Our Party [This weekend, three guys carrying bread tried to push past police officers guarding Terri Schiavo's hospice. It's good they were arrested, because if they'd fed her the bread, she would have choked Culture Vultures ; Central to the last federal election was the question of risk. John Howard portrayed Mark Latham as ideologically extreme, erratic and dangerous. He cast himself as the embodiment of reassurance, especially on interest rates. He was the safe option The changing of the risk factor ]
• · Troppoarmadillo Roulette: Police in the US can't pull people over at random, since this has been ruled a violation of the bit in the Constitution dealing with unjust and discriminatory search and seizure. Blogger Ken Parish: Drug testing v alcohol testing v petrol sniffing; Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Roadblock-sobriety checkpoints ; The judicial system is being undermined by lawyers who talk to the media, attorneys-general who do not defend the courts and superficial and inappropriate performance indicators (also link is available to the entire speech) Chief judge hits back at court critics
• · · GST fight hots up on both sides ; Brothel scandal engulfs tax office ; Death, Taxes and Secrets Google on Secrets
• · · · James Giffen — facing an $84 million forfeiture and the rest of his life in jail — is mounting a stunning defense to charges he siphoned $78 million in Mobil's money to despotic President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well as money laundering, mail and wire fraud and tax evasion. Superspy ; Petr Bokuvka Is paying for education like paying for sex?
• · · · · Jan Carnogursky would be too modest to mention the sacrifices, such as frequent imprisonment, that he made on this movement's behalf. But we ought to remember the evenings when the Carnogurskys waited desperately for smuggled shipment of medicines that a vicious regime had denied their son. Just like medicine was denied to my sister Aga. Like double dragons, Slovakia's reformers have been doubly brave The Bridges of Bratislava ; Winning Back Europe's Heart
• · · · · · Protesters stormed the presidential compound in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, seizing the seat of state power after clashing with riot police during a large opposition rally. President Askar Akayev reportedly fled the country and resigned Kyrgyzstan President Resigns ; Vibrant Cities Find One Thing Missing: Children

Posted 6:44 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Easter is relevant to us today because it's all about hope rather than just The DaVinci Code ... In Easter - an irrational jolt to the complacent, winter-tired soul - we recount how God gives us life again and again where we believed there was only failure and death. Through Easter, we remember how Jesus, the original blogger, defined power: power based on sharing, on healing, on feeding, on giving, on including, on extending compassion, on blessing, and on reacting with dignity and non-violent resistance to external threats. The celebration of Easter reminds us that things could be, and should be, very different; that in the end, good always conquers evil, that love can prevail.
Calling the day of the Crucifixion ‘Good’ Friday is a designation that is peculiar to the English language. In German, for example, it is called Karfreitag. The Kar part is an obsolete word, the ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes, and it meant mourning. So in German, it is Mourning Friday. And that is what the disciples did on that day—they mourned. They thought all was lost. I think we call it Good Friday because, in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest good there could be. Why do we call it ‘Good’ Friday?

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Branches of Palm: Stations of the Cross
Any other day of the year, they are simply a war memorial, a homeless shelter and a jail. But this Good Friday, they'll become stops in a symbolic retracing of Christ's final steps and reminders of everyday suffering.

The modern observances are becoming more popular among religious leaders trying to make the lessons of a 2,000-year-old crucifixion relevant today.
"It's just to bring to the surface suffering," said Linda Zeorlin, associate director of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph's Peace & Justice Office. "It's to keep the awareness, keep it smack in the face."
In Kansas City, the stops on the Good Friday procession are varied, from the federal building to a business that typically offers one-day gigs for the unemployed.
Along the way, the prayers and testimonies from participants will touch on many issues - war, economic inequity, unemployment, the death penalty, homelessness and government wrongdoing.

It was where, of course, the ultimate cry of human longing ran headlong into the silence of God, and was left, the cry was left out there like a huge, red hook trying to reach up into the heavens, but nothing received it. It's a day of being touched by the void; it's the day of the abyss ...
• Way of the Cross [The challenge of Easter goes beyond the church Google on Pope at Easter ; Hoppy Easter ]
• · Sydney Eyes turn to rising Son ; Jesus behaved like any rebbelious blogger The radical new challenge of Easter
• · · The Slavic Easter Monday tradition involves women getting buckets of water thrown over them and, if that isn't enough, getting beaten with a stick made from willow (Vrbov). In return the women, no doubt grateful that the men had made them fresh again, give the men glasses of schnapps, chocolate, sweets, money and decorated eggs. Girls give Easter eggs to their "whippers ; There's more to Easter eating than leg of lamb and chocolate bunnies. There are other things like hard-boiled eggs, sunka (smoked ham), klobasy (smoked sausage), slanina (smoked bacon), cvikia s krenom (a mixture of grated beets, horseradish root, salt, and vinegar) Green Thursday; White Saturday; Wet Monday
• · · · God made the world or he didn't In Love With Death ; The Random Acts of Kindness
• · · · · A historical foundation stone may have to be reconsidered after the discovery of a 16th century German map that used the word "Australia" 259 years before the explorer Matthew Flinders bestowed the name on the continent he had just circumnavigated. Terra Australis or New Holland as Australia Nation's naming mystery ; The fondest dream of the information age is to create an archive of all knowledge. You might call it the Alexandrian fantasy, after the great library founded by Ptolemy I in 286 BC The Great Library of Amazonia
• · · · · · NSW parliament staff have in-house yoga classes to help them de-stress, and even midwives say there's evidence that prenatal yoga can help women cope with childbirth. Yoga ; Henry James isn't famed for making people laugh, but when he's guarding his turf an evil sense of humor can rear its toothy head. As promised, funny Henry James

Posted 4:41 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Charlie Lynn’s political philosophy embodies the belief that courage, hope, fortitude and endurance are all nurtured by conviction. The strong and united community is supported by a continuity of a great tradition. He believed that it is not wealth and power and organisation that hold a society together but its Christian faith.
Please note that Channel 9 will be screening tonight their 'Dareing the Kokoda' program which involves a group of young blokes from Punchbowl Boys High School which had been written up as the worst school in NSW. For the school and its community, the change was immediate and profound and for the boys testing themselves to the limit, the discovery of a new reality and a new attitude.
There are two men who put the Kokoda Trail or Track back on our radar screens again. One of them is Charlie who at Easter 1991 began organising the heart-wrenching Kokoda trail tours. The other man is James Cumes who around Easter 1995 published His-story about the WWII experiences. The boy who was born in Beenleigh became a man on Kokoda trail. Just as Tolstoy wrote about the Napoleonic wars with which he was familiar, so, in his story Haverleigh, we are intimately told about a war near the Australian shores

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Epicentre Cannot Hold
O'Farrell swore at the speaker of parliament today after a question was ruled out of order during question time.

Speaker John Aquilina ruled Opposition Leader John Brogden could not ask Assistant Planning Minister Diane Beamer if she had been "lying her head off". As he prepared to make a point of order, Mr O'Farrell called to Labor MPs across the chamber, "He's the f...ing joke", in a reference to Mr Aquilina.

• Liberal MP swears at speaker [Carrnage in NSW: The Reader Issue 87 wonders whether Bob Carr is a dead man walking ; Google on Unparliamentary Language ; This Easter will see a number of senior liberals meeting to discuss what is happening with the NSW Party. J-Bro seems to be suffering under a weight of half way blues and everyone is hoping he will break out of it soon. A small group of MPs, staff and party officials will be meeting in the Blue Mountains this weekend to discuss the matter. Blue Mountains Link ]
• · For those interested in this continuing debate, Andrew Leigh and Justin Wolfers have a new paper (PDF) comparing the performance of polls and betting markets in predicting election outcomes. Blogger John Quiggin ; The trouble with responding to unserious wannabes like Currency Lad (below) is that the real issues tend to get lost or neglected altogether. So let me take a step sideways and address some of the matters arising from the Terri Schiavo case. Blogger Tim Dunlop ;
• · · My life has been a very fortunate one, Ian Glachan told the NSW Parliament in his farewell address two years ago. I was fortunate to have worked for him when he was a chair of PAC. The most relax MP with the most caring wife in the world: New era for Glachan ; One year on and Clover is only just beginning to fight
• · · · Or is insecurity the message the United States is conveying to the world? Security Check: The view from here ; The 'Wolf' has been shown the path to the henhouse. It's hard to imagine peaceful development under his leadership Dismay at Wolfowitz's nomination
• · · · · Why Don't We Have Senators Like This? ; The U.S. needs Senators like this
• · · · · · Black Economy or Real Economy? New figures released by the Reserve Bank show that hundreds of thousands of low-to-middle income earners are burdened with massive housing debts Australians saddled with massive housing debts ; New Jersey philanthropist Herbert Axelrod has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for tax evasion Axelrod To Jail

Posted 4:09 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Back in the early 1970s during the Tatranka folkloric days and later at the horticultural college periods we used to spent quite a bit of summertime in Morava, one summer we even managed to invade East Germany. Ach, heavy google hitters on the web, I remember well those Morava and East German moments of causing teachers headaches with our ideas of western-disco-kitch-dress-revolutions at night. However, during the day we headed to places along the Morava River where we explored the unusual labyrinth of underground passages and domes of Moravian caves and the Moravian beauties disguised as tourist guides. We were told all about the romantic caves such as “Nature's Temple" and the "Virgin Cave" . I still recall how the underground spaces were richly decorated with stalactites and stalagmites.
As teenagers in East Germany, Dresden and Leipzig seemed to us such a huge contrast between the natural beauty of Morava and the industrial smog of the German city. It is rather hard to believe that an underground movement was born in Leipzig at the time since even to us bridges, main stations and restricted areas were a risk to photograph. Our very own Jozef Kein led a procession of Tatran boys though pubs filled with strange alcoholic and other temptations ;-D
In 2005, Reading rather than drinking fever hits Leipzig

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Neighbours with Sleeves Rolled Up
Economists are beginning to recognise that money really doesn't buy you happiness. Is depression and unhappiness already at boiling point at Point Piper, Bellevue Hill or Darling Point?

It is tough trying to work out if life is good. It is usually only when something goes wrong that you realise it used to be great. For many of us, peer comparison is a useful way to judge how we are travelling.
We check to see if our cars are in the same price bracket and if our children are on the same school waiting lists. If we have a similar quality of living to our mates, we reason, then we must be doing all right.
We also like to be reassured on an international level. It is with a warm, smug glow that we read a recent report from the human resources group Mercer telling us that Sydney is in the top 10 cities in the world for quality of living. It is one of the few times when just physically being somewhere can be made to feel like an achievement.

But governments are still holding on tightly to their belief that standard of living is the same as wellbeing ...
• Living in a wealthy, safe, stable city may be bad for your wellbeing [ Bohemian librarian, Casanova, the 18th-century lover who would breakfast on 50 oysters, has been vindicated by a study that proves they really are aphrodisiacs Pearly wisdom: oysters are an aphrodisiac ; A chewing gum which the makers say can help enhance the size, shape and tone of the breasts has proved to be a big hit in Japan Pueraria mirifica: Chewing gum can 'enhance breasts' ; My father used to keep Seven busy hives at our garden: Honey can be a strong ally in the fight against MRSA Antipodes: The healing power of honey bees ]
• · An advertisement for DirecTV recounts the baby boomer life cycle as a succession of instantly recognizable TV moments A Life in Reruns: Watch Out, the Ending Goes Quickly ; Advertising – old media, new media, internet or not – still sells goods by manipulating public attitudes about beauty and status. The New Pitch Under the Sun
• · · Relatives. We’ve all got them. And some are reviving the entrepreneural spirit in the former communist countries... While it takes a village to bring up a child, it takes a global village to make any family business tick and make them priceless. Family businesses are a time-honored tradition and my cousins continue the whole and retail exchange culture our grandfather Pekarcik (meaning baker rather than publican) which he created in the High Tatra Mountains area. M-I-M: Textrend: Mixing Business & Family; Troika: Maria, Ana and Helena, so Slovenskej Vsi (from Slovak Village), with the surname of Kiss keep up with the latest trends in the complex trade of textile and fabrics. Slovak Republic is lucky to have a growing number of successful and thriving businesses. Dovoz, velko a maloobchod s poahovmi látkami. Luxusné froté vrobky, dekorané vankúe, ozdobné prestierania, obrúsky, irok sortiment obrusov. A New Age Way of Doing Business in Bratislava: M.I.M., s.r.o. - Tupolevova 16
• · · · If you believe the truth is stranger than fiction and trust in the power of confession, then Letting Light in through the Cracks is for you; A book about a Friendswood dentist convicted of murder for running over her cheating husband is inaccurate and sensational, according to a defamation lawsuit filed Tuesday against the author and publisher Book about Clara Harris case draws lawsuit
• · · · · There are several forbidden topics for publishing in China, including politics, sex, the military and state secrets Leaks: Banning Cold Rivers In China (But Not Effectively) ; A sign of the times; it is now quite common for an ambitious writer to announce that they will prepare their new proposal and/or sample chapter in time for Frankfurt or London Who are you writing for?
• · · · · · The remixing metaphor applies to almost any area you can think of: music, politics, culture. Life Isn't Just as You Want It? Remix It! ; Are crime shows influencing real-life juries? The CSI Effect: Juries Want More

Posted 11:58 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. Search for peace and democracy starts with sunlight U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Greatest Game
For connoisseurs of intelligence fiction a few titles epitomize the essence of the craft. Rudyard Kipling's Kim is perhaps the most well known. John le Carré's The Spy Who Came In From the Cold has become an icon of the anti-hero spy.

No spy novel can capture the twists and turns that a genuine spy goes through in pursuit of his mission of treachery and betrayal.

If precedence is an indicator, one thing seems certain. As long as the Great Game continues, we can expect more fiction and non-fiction books about this calling. As Kipling wrote, When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before ...
• The Myth and Reality of Espionage Reality of Espionage [Spy books are at home in the White House. Our Literary Leaders ; Small step in the right direction ]
• · Did Abbott fire prematurely? ; The chequebooks have been flying around the tabloid television corridors of A Current Affair and Today Tonight as they gobble up every last morsel of the Tony "who's your daddy" Abbott DNA fatherhood saga Pregnant pause
• · · Their victory lies in the death of innocent civilians, ours lies in its lawful prevention Terror suspects on loose, warns spy chief ; The second man arrested over a plot to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy Sydney Chinese business family and hold her ransom for $800,000 was an illegal immigrant who had obtained a legitimate driver's licence and business and tax file numbers Kidnap sidekick not here legally
• · · · The $35 billion GST agreement between Canberra and the states is in doubt, after the states rejected Peter Costello's ultimatum to abolish business stamp duties States defy deadline to wipe out taxes ; State treasurers Eric Ripper, Paul Lennon, Andrew Refshauge, Ted Quinlan, John Brumby, Terry Mackenroth and Kevin Foley: the political pantomime cannot mask growing problems with fiscal equalisation, the system designed to give each state or territory the same capacity to provide public services Big states hit hard in fight for federal funds
• · · · · The Premier, Bob Carr, yesterday launched a double-barrelled assault on the Grants Commission's methodology used to carve up the GST funding pie between the states, as it became clear that the treasurers' meeting in Canberra would yield no more than the usual ritual squabbling Taken for a ride: NSW pays price for providing services ; It has been now two years since the United States, UK and other countries invaded our nation 2 Years On in Iraq
• · · · · · The son of the owner of the Orange Grove factory outlet has told the Independent Commission Against Corruption the Carr Government minister Joe Tripodi was "a coward and a liar" for not supporting the centre. Tripodi a coward, ICAC hearing told ; Those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism Using Terry Schiavo issue for their political gain

Posted 11:43 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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A blog is a bowl and we can pour pieces of our souls into it, as an offering to others, for whomever will hear. Julie Leung's eclectic garden

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Media, Politics & Sex
After first being blase about American Gigolo, I am now gaga over it ;-P Try to imagine Richard Gere in American Gigolo, and substitute Jeff in the gay version. He’s professional, he’s smooth, he’s never late, he’s not strung out, his appearance is immaculate. He provides perfect illusion and fantasy. As any pro will tell you, this is hard to maintain, because it is such an act, and so stressful.

Gannon has nothing to worry about unless his clients turn on him, like they did on Richard Gere in American Gigolo. Boy, was that upsetting! But that won’t happen as long as Jeff has something juicy on his admirers. When you think about it, Jeff Bulldog Gannon is in the Juice Business, the mother’s milk of journalism. I say, give the guy his press pass back, and let him go gonzo.

• via Barista: "Aggressive Verbal Dominant Top" Seeks Submissive Male Who Can Reinstate White House Press Pass [ZoomInfo: has a free search engine as well as fee-based services, provides users with search options New Search Engine Profiles 25 Million People ; Resume Data ; Reporters still anything but shy at news conferences ]
• · Digital memories: cheap to take, cheaper to lose ; Obtaining government data is becoming more difficult
• · · Comprehensive Blog Policy Statement How To Blog And Not Lose Your Job ; Blog-linked firings Prompt calls for better policies ;
• · · · Collecting news bias examples Slanted Journalism is Everywhere ; It's prime time for blogs on CNN's 'Inside Politics CNN's Woodruff was initially skeptical of segment on blogs
• · · · · The Seduction of Secrecy: Toward Better Access to Government Information on the Record "Where's the outrage?" asks AP chief at "Secrecy" panel ; People have long considered the press sensational, rude, pushy, and callous. But in the last 17 years, they have also come to see the press as less professional, less moral, more inaccurate, and less caring about the interests of the country Critic: Talking about "the media" is beginning to seem absurd
• · · · · · Someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to produce a document accusing journalist and activist William Arkin of serving as a spy for Saddam Hussein Fake cable accuses NBC journo Arkin of being a spy for Iraq ; Time Magazine: The Decency Police

Posted 8:29 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I naively bought into the notion that the wholesale use of journalists and media executives by the CIA, for example, written about by Carl Bernstein in Rolling Stone, was an impediment to a free press. I uncritically accepted the notion that administering chemicals, electric shocks, and prolonged isolation illegally to unwitting victims to test theories of behavior modification suggested that an agency that purportedly existed to "gather intelligence" was coloring a little outside the lines. I Was a Victim of the KGB
Ach, I was a victim of the Bondi train breakdown . But, after the strange detour, I was rewarded by exchanging a few ideas with a former MP, who is now in his 70s, and out of all places over at the blood bank of the Red Cross fame ;-D (I blew his anonymity as he prefers to stay incognito.) It was a day filled with another former MPs who is subject of 50,000 word thesis. I also noticed an interesting development at the State Library which now issues a magnetic card to anyone who wants to use the internet (minus - email). Users are required to fill in their address and provide contact details as well as a proof of ID under the less known Aussie Patriots Act ?!...

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Policies and participation
Evidence of the disengagement of civil society is everywhere. Members are fleeing the political parties, leaving control in the hands of careerist insiders. Parliaments are losing respect and politicians are cynically regarded. Corporations are run by unrepresentative boards.

Democracy is the compelling ideology of our time. We all have an innate urge for community. As one institution breaks down, resourceful Australians have shown in the past that we can renovate some and build others. I know that many parliamentarians, journalists and ordinary citizens share these concerns.

• John Menadue Helping voice the personal and public disquiet: Stop complaining and do something about it [Yesterday's effort, in which he claimed the Carr Government had blood on its hands over the deaths at the Waterfall and Glenbrook rail disasters and deaths caused by hospital waiting lists, signals the fight is going to get dirty. Brogden rolls up his sleeves for state putsch ; South Australian Liberal director Graham Jaeschke, the former head of the Queensland party, has been be parachuted into the top job in NSW A great career move ; Turnbull calls on Carr to recycle Sydney sewage ]
• · Army allegedly failed to investigate kickback scandal ; Australians implicated in Iraq kick-back scandal Axis of Oil ; If a small proportion of the energy and capital that has been devoted to the dangers following September 11, 2001 had been lavished on the problem of AIDS, I feel sure that the world would be a better and probably a safer, certainly a kinder, place Threat of terrorism overblown, says Kirby ; Activist Legislators: The boundless overreaching behind Congress' new Schiavo bill
• · · Zalman Shoval How the Saudis got to be 'special'; This is either an act of provocation by America, or an act so insensitive as to look like provocation ... Wolfowitz is US deputy defence secretary and widely regarded as the chief intellectual architect of the Iraq war. An arch "neoconservative", he is probably Bush's most hawkish advisor and, in some diplomatic circles, an incendiary figure. The Intelligence Made Me Do It: 'The World Bank will be hated'
• · · · Frank Luntz, Los Angeles Times The Lexicon of Political Clout ; History of floods caused by servants, first the BBC, and now COSTA: The Minister for Economic Reform has triggered alarm for the Carr Government by stating up to 20 per cent of the state's 340,000 public servants might be surplus to requirements. Too many workers in Costa's empire
• · · · · The man who once flaunted the biggest muscles in baseball, Mark McGwire, is now the smallest coward in Washington Home-run heroes come off as zeros before Congress ; Owen Harries, Prospect Magazine Power and Morals ; Paternity shock: Health Minister Tony Abbott today said he was numb after learning he had not fathered the baby boy he gave away 27 years ago Surreal and Bizarre twist in love-child tale
• · · · · · Ignoring the truth about American Communists: Since the end of the Cold War, documents released from American and Soviet archives have convinced most Americans that long-disputed spy charges against Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, Lauchlin Currie, and Harry Dexter White, among others, were accurate, and that hundreds of Americans worked for Soviet intelligence services during the 1930s and 1940s Professors of Denial ; Cab ride cost $312, but return trip was just fine ; Business supports the NSW Government in its attempt to end the significant unnecessary cross-subsidisation of other states with taxation collected from NSW businesses and residents, the business group said. The State Chamber of Commerce chief executive, Margy Osmond, called on the Federal Government to take a lead in reforming the GST carve-up Business firmly behind Carr in tax onslaught against Costello

Posted 8:28 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Tina Brown: We are in the Eggshell Era

The Blog, The Press, The Media: We're not the Stasi. We're the people

We are in the Eggshell Era, in which everyone has to tiptoe around because there's a world of busybodies out there who are being paid to catch you out -- and a public that is slowly being trained to accept a culture of finks. We're always under surveillance; cameras watch us wherever we go; paparazzi make small fortunes snapping glamour goddesses picking their noses; everything is on tape, with transcripts available. No matter who you are, someone is ready and willing to rat you out. Even the rats themselves have to look over their shoulders, because some smaller rat is always waiting in the wings. Bloggers are the new Stasi. All the timidity this engenders, all this watching your mouth has started to feel positively un-American.

• Bloggers are the new Stasi Hungry Media Fill Up on Rice [ The Second Rule Of AdSense Is That You Can Now Talk About Earnings ; Google code-innovations ; Google AdSense ]
• · The federal government has set up a committee to pave the way for more Australians to live the telecommuter lifestyle. However the move won't go as far as recent legislation in the United States which requires government departments to support teleworkers Thou shalt telecommute ; It's crazy knowing you are part of this exchange of ideas with people all over the world. Xeni Jardin is one of four bloggers from around the world behind Boing Boing, last week voted the best overall weblog. All four of us are eccentric people, with odd sets of interests that mesh together - (Say that again Xeni ;-P) Boing - best of the blogs ; FEC Considers Restricting Online Political Activities
• · · Media bashing is still primarily a right wing phenomenon My Bias for Mainstream News ; Under the Federal Government's model it will be a judge rather than a jury who will decide whether an opinion is "reasonable". Defaming the dead ; Down in the depths of the netherworld: Requiem for the Gingrich Revolution — David Brooks drives a stake through the Class of '94's cheatin' heart. Masters of Sleaze
• · · · Should the FEC Regulate Political Blogging? ; Government Funds Color Press Group’s Objectivity Astroturf politics: If a political gaffe consists of inadvertently revealing the truth, then Sean Treglia, a former program officer for the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, has just ripped the curtain off of the "good government" groups that foisted the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill on the country in 2002 John Fund's excellent piece today tells the story of how liberal foundations managed to slide under anemic media radar
• · · · · Michigan State Police warn: blogging could mean jail time ; Via Blog Herald ; Before it took up marketing, the labour movement held some considerable political assets in its organisational structures and the sense of belonging to a movement with a cause to promote that many Australians felt Politics and community-building online
• · · · · · A lot of commentary has pointed to the ability of the right to mobilise on a grassroots level as well as a more academic level with things like right-wing think tank Right-wing mobilisation and left-wing conscience raising ; Slaughter At The BBC BBC to axe nearly 4000 jobs

Posted 8:26 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Memory remains, and the images I have created and still not molded in flesh. They will leave their harsh mark on me, it is true! But my heart is left me, and the same flesh and blood which Likewise can Love and suffer and desire and remember, and this is, after all, life. On voit le soleil! Well, good-bye, brother! Do not grieve for me Dostoevsky On Terri Schiavo

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Paranoia at Large: Athena of 'Stinging Sensation'
Nick O'Malley, Workplace Reporter, touches on what many of us have known for many years. There are Hitler’s little helpers in many management and leadership positions.

One in 10 Australian managers are deceitful, cold-hearted manipulators bent on attaining power for its own sake, new research shows. Devoid of empathy, they are reckless and leave a trail of wrecked careers, corporate destruction and a legacy of fear.
A psychotherapist with the consultancy Banks Management Group, Dr Glyn Brokensha, has coined the term "powerpath" to describe such managers to differentiate them from criminal psychopaths. He describes powerpathic behaviour as being on a continuum - all of us behave in such a manner occasionally, but powerpaths take it to an extreme.
Dr Brokensha said powerpaths, typically articulate, charming and confident, thrive in businesses with autocratic management cultures where they can curry favour with peers and superiors, while causing misery for those who report to them.
"You'll get senior management say, 'So-and-so is really good. He has cleared out all the deadwood, all the non-performers.' And then find three years later that the deadwood has not been cleared out. He has cleared out anybody who knew what he was, anyone who opposed him," he said. "He is actually a glib non-performer himself."

• Beware the office powerpath - the boss who leaves a trail of destruction [Mother of all mysteries: why she killed her family ; A Link Between Intelligence And Suicide? ]
• · The birth of Attention Deficit Trait. Think being busy and working harder is working smarter? Maybe, maybe not. You may just have ADT. I would venture to say all regular bloggers have this and according to this ComputerWorld article it is addictive. Attention Deficit Trait ; Google on ADT
• · · Programming junkies will plough through this story Send in the clones: Desperate programmers ; Audiences for America's evening newscasts has been declining for some time. It's not difficult to see why. Maybe it's time to try something different - a thinking person's news program? Looking For A Better TV News Model ; Oh, And Flickr Goes to Yahoo..
• · · · As one of the newest Saudi writers to make a buzz in literary world, Yousef Mohaimeed has quickly proven that he has both the talent and the incredibly good nose to stir things up Journey into Mystery: Saudi Censorship Starting To Crumble ; The Automatic Critic Who needs critics anymore? They're unreliable. The latest web services will do your cultural sorting for you. Describing or categorizing any new cultural product is taxing and time-consuming Connecting the Dots
• · · · · I've heard that 42 per cent of statistics are contrived to suit a purpose. I agree 100 per cent Lies, damn lies and statistics ; Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the elusive, jet-setting Chinese-food-loving son of Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has been sighted here, there and everywhere since Spike reported last week that he had been spotted dining with his entourage at The Golden Century. But Soccer NSW is one group less than pleased to see him back. Scarlet Pimpernel
• · · · · · Maybe you pine for the sound of the pirate voice whispering: Tatoo. It began with people tattooing themselves. Then folk started sticking junk in their faces. Such measures were once the sole preserve of brawlers and sailers and creatures of the night, but today, every kid from Cranbrook to SCEGGS has a Tibetan dragon cuddling his bicep and a metallic booger swinging from his nose Out on a limb ; Australian Red Cross could only make 17th place on the table with total revenue of $374.5 million Charity sector worth $70b a year: report

Posted 6:06 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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There have been times when an individual murder has set forces in motion that have changed history. The most dramatic example was the 1914 shooting death of the Hapsburg heir to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Francis Ferdinand, at the hands of a Serbian assassin in Sarajevo, which triggered World War I. When killers rule

A secret service dossier based on Soviet interrogations of the Führer's staff shows how he swung between humour and hubris What the Butler Saw in a Bear Pit Bunker: Funny Führer

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Russia Today
The old Soviet secret police kept their apartments, dachas, and pensions. Their victims, Anne Applebaum explains, remain poor and marginal ...

The more we are able to understand how various societies have transformed their neighbors and fellow citizens from people into objects, and the more we know of the specific circumstances that led to each episode of mass torture and mass murder, the better we will understand the darker side of our own human nature.

• The Gulag: Lest We Forget [Why don’t they listen to us?” Poor and working class America is turning away from the Left’s messages of hope and change. Lillian Rubin on a widening gulf... Speaking to the Working Class: the strange intensity of political polarization ; Representing the disadvantaged in Australian politics: the role of advocacy organisations Democratic Audit of Australia ]
• · Thousands Protest Iraq War Across Europe ; From Casablanca to Kuwait City, it is good to light a fire under their feet From Prague Spring to Arab Spring ; Iraq could be entering its most dangerous phase, argues Aldo Borgu, and that has implications for Australia’s commitment Iraq: A two-way street ; Patrick Barkham, The Guardian: Could Tony Blair Lose The May Election?
• · · Women in politics: destroyed by the media or slowly changing the status quo? Some Like It Cool ; On the use and abuse of power: a snapshot of ‘an extraordinary woman in an extraordinary time’ The Natasha Factor
• · · · If the consequences weren't so serious, Senator Ross Lightfoot would be the biggest joke in Parliament since Bill Heffernan ran away from the media down the stairs during his ill-fated Justice Kirby allegations three years ago Interview: Jenny Macklin; Is Westminster Dead in Westminster (and why should we care)?
• · · · · The estimates committees will become even more important after 1 July, according to Stephen Bartos, but they are already under pressure The trouble with Senate estimates; Five days after telling Congress that the emperor had had no weapons of mass destruction, David Kay, said "We were almost all wrong" in thinking that Saddam Hussein had possessed WMD Intelligence Gap If you want an image that captures what American politics will be like over the next few decades, imagine two waves crashing down upon us simultaneously, each magnifying the damage caused by the other. The Do-Nothing Conspiracy [David Brooks, New York Times]
• · · · · · "Little Eichmanns" and "Digital Brownshirts" Deconstructing the Hitlerian slur ; Thomas Lifson, The American Thinker Judicial Activism's Perfect Storm

Posted 5:57 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Why, with eight million bloggers, does the MSM remain the one to define Blogs, Blogging, and Bloggers to the world? Can we not organize a presentation outside the hallowed halls of the sphere? Citizen Blogger

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Magnificent Obsession
I tell them why it is such a good quote, and exactly what it means to me and the book

Jonathan Harr, the author of A Civil Action, spent eight harrowing years plowing through a stack of legal documents as high as a three-story building, and nearly went broke in the process. Posing what he calls “the dumbest questions in the world,” Richard Ben Cramer conducted more than 1,000 interviews to research What It Takes: The Way to the White House. For Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immersed herself in the love lives of drug dealers, while Ted Conover actually went to prison — as a guard — for Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing.

In fact, each writer’s sensibility — Michael Lewis’s ironic worldview, Eric Schlosser’s muckraking zeal, Alex Kotlowitz’s empathy for the unfortunate — is part of what he (or, in rare instances, she) is selling.
• New new journalism: Boynton [via Joi Ito Blogger denied entry by DHS - "Blogging ain't a job"; Michael Froomkin of Discourse.net has a real problem with the ledes in may news stories these days: Back in or on the way out?]
• · Journalists belong in the gutter becase that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets. - Gerald Priestland, British broadcaster. BBC Radio, 19 May 1988 Tagging gutters: 'Folksonomies' to Organize the News ; Blogger moves on: In another case of a blogger getting to find her dream job, Jade Walker of 'Blog of Death' and more has taken a job on the AP's Web site Farewell, My Friends; Hello, AP
• · · Australia is to get its first monthly mass-market News and current affairs magazine; I was happily surprised by last year's blog reader survey. This year's survey continues the trajectory of happy surprises. As Trent Lott and Howell Raines learned, the blogosphere's numerous voices can capture and amplify ideas that are too complex or contrary for traditional organizations to see or speak Howard Dean, Dan Rather, George Bush, Eason Jordan and Jeff Gannon ; Blogging, Journalism and Credibility Jay Rosen
• · · · Her last marriage, to Mr Stokes, ended 10 years ago Media Billionaire's ex-wife earns $17 an hour as shop assistant ; Joel Achenbach has thoughtful things to say about women bloggers and journalists Women on the Op-Ed Page ; Blog Sisters ; Blog Misses: MS Magazine
• · · · · Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee block an investigation into how Gannon/Guckert got daily access to the White House Another pass for Gannon; Members of Congress wasted hours and hours by grabbing hold of a phony issue and refusing to let go Congress Invites Confusion to Its Session ; It's said, often and rightly, that reporters aren't big on good news. There’s something we hate even more: a Big Bad Trend that goes away, or worse, gets fixed. It's possible -- just possible -- that is precisely what's happening with the corporate crime wave that dominated financial news for the past four years. CEO Predators Tamed?;
• · · · · · via Doc Searls: So just as blogging transforms who is involved in journalism, might it not also transform who is involved in marketing? Today's paper is tomorrow's fishwrap ; LocalBrand Ambassador Blogger

Posted 5:50 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Many mammals and birds are capable of altruism. But human beings extend their generosity far beyond immediate blood relatives Charity begins at Homo sapiens

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: One Matchless Time
Meet the Faulkners:

Now I realise for the first time, looking back from the vantage point of his mid-fifties, "what an amazing gift I had: uneducated in every formal sense, without even very literate, let alone literary, companions, yet to have made the things I made. I don't know where it came from. I don't know why God or gods or whoever it was, selected me to be the vessel.

• The Making of William Faulkner [English vs. American Theatre Criticism - The great drama critics were not always fair but they were inevitably interesting. Today we have critics better at writing consumer guides than at engaging art. The Butcher of Broadway; Love of the strangest kinds Bloomsbury's final secret ]
• · A veteran of the vibrant 1960s poetry scene, Camille Paglia argues that critics can no longer read, poets can no longer write, and the unacknowledged legislators of our age are writing advertising jingles for peanuts Rhyme and reason; Your eyes probably hurt just thinking about it: Tens of thousands of Japanese cellphone owners are poring over full-length novels on their tiny screens Books on cellphones take off in Japan
• · · The Redeemer Baptist story began in 1974, when around 30 families broke away from the Castle Hill Baptist Church in Sydney’s west, reaching out to local bikie groups, street kids, and others in need, offering live-in support and care Unholy devotion ; arlier this year, British advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi declared that 2005 will be the Year of Painting and accordingly mounted an exhibition called, The Triumph of Painting (art critic John McDonald suggested it might just as easily be called The Triumph of Marketing!) The Art of illumination
• · · · Movies can do all kinds of things: make us laugh or cry or stir us up in ways we don't expect. But sometimes it's good to see a film that simply allows actors to strut their stuff Film: Being Julia ; Whatever happened to the age-old Christian precept, "Hate the sin and love the sinner."? Denial of funeral contradicts human dignity
• · · · · Who is your global or virtual neighbor? In an age where egocasting, dynamic ranking and global awareness is abundant, Preople will tell you, definitely and undeniable, what your place, your ranking and your relation to all the other people in the world is in one number: Preople Ranking; For a different view on book retailing, the San Jose Mercury News profiles the Tennessee-based Book Market chain: "no-frills deep-discount bookstores that pop up in vacant storefronts, remain open for just a few months, then close Opportunistic Book Market; Latest Books & Books
• · · · · · In a piece on Günter Grass, he writes that "literature today, left solely to its own devices, is no longer able to discover the truth." A voice from beyond ; I will visit a graveyard this week. will walk softly on the sacred ground to the place that marks a life. It's almost all that is left, all I can touch to remind me that once I had a brother. Life and death … and love and literature

Posted 5:42 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Many mammals and birds are capable of altruism. But human beings extend their generosity far beyond immediate blood relatives Charity begins at Homo sapiens

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: One Matchless Time
Meet the Faulkners:

Now I realise for the first time, looking back from the vantage point of his mid-fifties, "what an amazing gift I had: uneducated in every formal sense, without even very literate, let alone literary, companions, yet to have made the things I made. I don't know where it came from. I don't know why God or gods or whoever it was, selected me to be the vessel.

• The Making of William Faulkner [English vs. American Theatre Criticism - The great drama critics were not always fair but they were inevitably interesting. Today we have critics better at writing consumer guides than at engaging art. The Butcher of Broadway; Love of the strangest kinds Bloomsbury's final secret ]
• · A veteran of the vibrant 1960s poetry scene, Camille Paglia argues that critics can no longer read, poets can no longer write, and the unacknowledged legislators of our age are writing advertising jingles for peanuts Rhyme and reason; Your eyes probably hurt just thinking about it: Tens of thousands of Japanese cellphone owners are poring over full-length novels on their tiny screens Books on cellphones take off in Japan
• · · The Redeemer Baptist story began in 1974, when around 30 families broke away from the Castle Hill Baptist Church in Sydney’s west, reaching out to local bikie groups, street kids, and others in need, offering live-in support and care Unholy devotion ; arlier this year, British advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi declared that 2005 will be the Year of Painting and accordingly mounted an exhibition called, The Triumph of Painting (art critic John McDonald suggested it might just as easily be called The Triumph of Marketing!) The Art of illumination
• · · · Movies can do all kinds of things: make us laugh or cry or stir us up in ways we don't expect. But sometimes it's good to see a film that simply allows actors to strut their stuff Film: Being Julia ; Whatever happened to the age-old Christian precept, "Hate the sin and love the sinner."? Denial of funeral contradicts human dignity
• · · · · Who is your global or virtual neighbor? In an age where egocasting, dynamic ranking and global awareness is abundant, Preople will tell you, definitely and undeniable, what your place, your ranking and your relation to all the other people in the world is in one number: Preople Ranking; For a different view on book retailing, the San Jose Mercury News profiles the Tennessee-based Book Market chain: "no-frills deep-discount bookstores that pop up in vacant storefronts, remain open for just a few months, then close Opportunistic Book Market; Latest Books & Books
• · · · · · In a piece on Günter Grass, he writes that "literature today, left solely to its own devices, is no longer able to discover the truth." A voice from beyond ; I will visit a graveyard this week. will walk softly on the sacred ground to the place that marks a life. It's almost all that is left, all I can touch to remind me that once I had a brother. Life and death … and love and literature

Posted 4:59 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Australia's longest-term detainees may soon be released into the community under a major change in Government policy being spearheaded by John Howard Howard set to free 120 detainees

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Naked Eye: The Political Script
The script runs along these lines. On May 25, 2005, Bob Carr will become the longest, continuously serving NSW premier, breaking the record of his esteemed predecessor, Neville Wran.

Wran's unexpected announcement precipitated a power struggle at the conference, all in living colour on television. It was Labor's equivalent of the Tet offensive during the Vietnam war. And it meant the best candidate to succeed, Barrie Unsworth, enjoyed little honeymoon with the voters, courtesy of the raw conference manoeuvrings. Labor learned not to repeat this experience.
Bob Carr is unlikely to depart the premiership while a job remains to be done. He is unlikely to leave unless his government is comfortably on the ascent. He is unlikely to contemplate departing until he can see that the most pressing issues – in rail, health and policing, for example – are no longer in need of solutions. In Parliament, Carr remains dominant. In the polls, he remains preferred premier by the length of Maroubra beach. And there are two milestones that beckon. On March 1, 2007, Carr will beat James McGowen's record as NSW Labor leader. On January 18 of that year, he will eclipse Sir Henry Parkes' record (over five separate terms) as NSW premier.

• For Carr, a devoted historian, these dates may prove irresistible. Carr unlikely to relinquish reins - Stephen Loosley [Carr and Brogden in support slide ; Hand-held fingerprint devices, shoe-print databases, portable identikit equipment and scores of new crime scene investigators will all form part of the forensic science law enforcement package. It's a big investment, but it's an investment in smart policing Police get $26m scientific edge over criminals ; Debus set on ending lawyers' immunity ]
• · Precious cargo of democracy: Naked Eye of the Sun Herald fame, the invisible political torch, lists today how many days state MPs have sat this year (s(i)x days). Under the partisan Soviet style headline Carroff - again we learn that Premier is heading overseas next month, his eighth trip abroad since the March 2003 e(l)ection. (Ach, while the Parliamentary Clerks are often referred to as Marco Polos or Pacific Islanders,) Ministers exploring the universe under Greiner were called the Travelling Wilburys ... ; Premier Bob Carr has been reminded of the election-winning health promise he gave exactly 10 years ago today to halve the State's hospital waiting lists or resign. He delivered the pledge on March 20, 1995, at the official launch of Labor's election campaign which resulted in a shock one-seat victory over the Coalition led by Premier John Fahey. What about your pledge on hospital waiting lists, Mr Premier ; Premier's new deal for young workers ; Premier Bob Carr has revealed he no longer plans to retire to New Zealand There's no place like home: Love Affair
• · · Senators line up for attack on Lightfoot ; Senate numbers behind PM's inaction: Labor ; Lightfoot's friendly gesture
• · · · Life or death battle, and death looks like winning: Two years after the invasion of Iraq the rate of US soldiers being killed is averaging 18 a week, almost double the rate in the first year after the war No time for rejoicing as Iraq toll keeps climbing ; Labor holds Latham's old seat
• · · · · He'll be known as the man who killed ATSIC, but Geoff Clark says he's made a difference for Aboriginal people. I walk through a crowd and somebody will throw something at me, somebody will spit on me, bump me, somebody will kiss me. That's what life dishes up. I don't think I'm different from anyone else Under the skin ; Each week as many as three Australian children are abducted by their parents and spirited away across international borders International abductions by parents on the rise
• · · · · · Hefty Tasmanian politician Dick Adams spent six minutes in Parliament last week extolling the virtues of the parliamentary librarian before sticking the boot into the cleaning service and the staff canteen Dirty politics
Jobs go as backpackers work for beds - National - www.smh.com.au Jobs go as backpackers work for beds ; Daily Terror exposes Aliens: 'Illegal' backpackers earn up to $800 a week

Posted 4:54 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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You're Never Fully Dressed Without A True Smile! Give the audience the truth, the actor's director and new head of NIDA tells Angela Bennie, and the magic of the theatre will be assured. Director of the boards

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The digirati: Daring Path Breakers
If Gutenberg's printing press heralded the age of mass reading, then the internet gave birth to the age of mass writing - every kind of writing imaginable, and a lot that couldn't be imagined.

Creative writing (poetry and short stories), articles, opinion pieces, political commentary, multimedia, blogs (web logs or diaries) and even longer works such as novels, are all there jostling for their own e-readership and, just possibly, instant fame.
If politics is your bag, however, consider contributing to crikey.com.au, a cheeky site claiming to be Australia's leading independent online news service which has been digging the dirt on Australian politicians, media barons, big business and high-flyers since it was established in 1999. Crikey even pays its contributors: $15 for items of up to 250 words (for the daily section) and $30 for items exceeding 500 words which are run on the public website (send articles to boss@crikey.com.au).
NewMatilda.com, a recently established site with similar goals, seeks writing that contributes to public debate. Some pieces are commissioned and paid for, but the site thanks writers for donating their work (both finished articles and ideas to enquiries@newmatilda.com).
Jacketmagazine is a poetry site run vy John Tranter who has also begun another website called Australian Literature Resources.
Another site worth visiting is dotlit, the online journal of creative writing established in 2000 by the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology.
Other independent sites that accept contributions include AustralianReader.com, which claims to showcase "Australia's best new writing" and accepts unpublished material and works published by small and independent presses whether fiction, non-fiction, poetry or plays.
Another Australian site, Skive.com, has attracted some exciting new writing since it was established by Matthew work.

• The Literary Horizon Dilemma ; [Cracks appear in cage regime ; Harvard-Google Project Faces Copyright Woes Precious Cargo of Literature ]
• · +he Future Beautiful: 10 Lessons for First-time Documentary Filmmakers. ; As this society grows, it becomes more unequal: An essay concerning the origins, nature, extent and morality of this destructive force in free market economies. Definitions. Paradoxes and omissions ... Robert Reich points out that the superrich live in a parallel universe to the rest of the country
• · · Maestro J. Randy Taraborrelli: From the bestselling author of Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot and Madonna: An Intimate Biography comes the groundbreaking biography of the royal family of Monaco, full of triumphs and tragedies, romance and heartbreak Once Upon a Time; They stormed the barricades in Les Miserables and now many of our music theatre stars plan to protest at the demise of the annual Sydney Cabaret Convention, on the Town Hall steps Life's not a cabaret, old chum, in Moore's new city of villages ; As Byron Bay groans under the weight of tourists, Catharine Munro discovers that the conservation-minded coastal town's greatest problem is itself Byron Bay: Beauty and the Beast
• · · · To rival one of Dostoevsky's characters so narcissistic he cared more about an ounce of his own body fat than the lives of 100,000 of his own countrymen Best Read After St Patrick’s Day ; Gossip writer Ros Reines: Politics and Film Industry Mix Kidman's intimate date with Gaddafi
• · · · · Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away. 13 things that do not make sense: The placebo effect ; In a world with millions of refugees, numerous war zones and huge areas devastated by natural disaster, aid agencies and militaries have long needed a way to quickly erect shelters on demand. Need a Building? Just Add Water
• · · · · · Australians go shopping for the thrill of the purchase rather than the pleasure of using the goods. Homes are stacked with CDs that have never been played, novels that have never been read, clothes that are rarely worn, and food that is thrown out at the end of the week: Out with the old, in with the takeaway - Danger of excess in our throwaway culture ; From kid in a candy store to thoughtful consumer A bulwark of the economy - consumer spending

Posted 5:38 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Chatswood will never be the same Join The Party [The music may stop now and then, But the the strings will remain forever]

Life Begins @ 40: Many, Many, Happy Returns Minna ;P
Ach it was not so long ago when I celebrated my 40th at the Iceberg Club among the Martins and the Lofties of this world ... Friend derives from a word meaning free. A friend is someone who allows us the space and freedom to be ...

Eric Partridge's book, Name Your Child shows "Minnie from the German 'Minne', meaning love. A Scottish variant of this is Minna. And Mina is an English pet-form of Wilhelmina.
If every friend is a new door to a different world than in Minna’s world friends are like flowers in the garden of life. For years I have misspelled your name, but our families can never say that we misspent time with you and those cheeky boys. The memories of Elizabeth Bay come flooding back with Steve and Leonsky taking over the balconies wherever you went. We cannot take it for granted that the most exciting time for my girls was to walk down the isle at St Marks as your flower girls. The images of them dancing at the Royal Boat Club will give godfather Steve a bargaining position at their 21st ;P.
Words can never express the joy we experienced by sharing simple meals at McKell Park, Nielson Park, Esplanade Park in Helsinki. How can this Bohemian and his family forget the Finnish baptism in properly stoked sauna or the risque crossing of that freezing lake peppered with ramshackle cottages referred to as the summer house. The lake was round like a circle it had no end, that is how long we hope to be your friends. Frienship not only makes the world go round, it makes the eating and drinking worthwhile. I recall well how the Finnish nights merged into days, but only the stars know why vodka starts to taste like voda (water) after a while ;D Especially, when uncle Yusi is around!

I still have no idea who polished all that wine during Steve’s 30th?! If Helina pleaded not guilty how does Lauren plead? Shared sorrow is half sorrow, shared joy is double joy:We cried until we had to laugh!
• Forgotten Lessons of Helsinki: Human Rights and Folklore: UnFinnished Identity: The Next Exciting Chapter of Gifts;D [Years ago, many Finns emigrated to the Americas and the Antipodes. Altogether some 30,000 Australians have Finnish blood in their veins: The Finns settled mainly in Sydney ; The world's consciousness of Findland are myriad and magical like friendship. Consider the Moominland stories of Tove Jansson, the building and furniture design of Alvar Aalto, the writing of Aleksis Kivi and the inspiring compositions of Jean Sibelius. And where else can you eat reindeer stew? Virtual Finland ; Land of Finns: ]
• · The Charter 77 & the Helsinki Effect: Charter 77 was based on the Helsinki Charter! True friendship is sitting together in silence and feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had Literary strangers are just friends waiting to happen ; Best friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere
• · · A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out A friend is one who walks in when others walk out: Rinnemarket ; Backyard of Riverside Loop: Can’t Fool(er) Sugar and Spice
• · · · A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself: Caves Beach: HiStory ; Woman means business when she lowers her goggles on Caves Beach: Watch out Aleksi and Anton
• · · · · C. S. Lewis: Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like politics ...
It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival - Minna Canth (1844-1897) was a Finnish playwright, novelist and essayist as well as an energetic fighter for women's rights and social justice Minna Canth's Spice Cake ; Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life The Best of Finnish Cooking

Posted 5:37 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Politics: By the time you get to the top, you're already corrupted. Pity.
-Janis Ian, American Troubadour in SMH Good Weekend on Jozef's Name Day - 19 March 2005

George F. Kennan, a diplomat and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who formulated the basic foreign policy followed by the United States in the Cold War, died last night at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 101 Long Telegram: Outsider Forged Cold War Strategy

Eye on Politics & Media Marshals: Carr's Long Haul: Taking Toll
There has been no open society in NSW, no Creativity, no Solidarity. There was, first of all, the meticulous efficiency of the Carr Sound Bite, which will keep the media machinery oiled for years to come.

He has a fear of being the swimmer furthest out off Maroubra because a shark might take the outrider. Anne Davies and Gerard Noonan look at the risk-averse Premier's decade in power.
When Carr became leader of the Opposition, you had state Labor governmentscollapsing because of economic irresponsibility. That is seared into Carr's mind. Asked to nominate his worst political moment, Carr does not hesitate: February 2004; that sweltering day when the Sydney rail system experienced what he calls "a general nervous collapse".

• Minus The Bakers Dozen [The Prime Minister has three media advisers; Bob Carr has five Tight and tireless grip on public perception ; I look forward to contesting the 2007 election: (You sneeze and Carl's there with a tissue) Extras audition daily for the lead ; Inadequate early warning systems and a dysfunctional work environment mean that it is only a matter of time before a Campbelltown-Camden-like crisis cripples other hospitals Threat of sick-hospital syndrome spreads in NSW; CityRail's transit officers (dressed in Stasi style uniforms) will come under scrutiny by the State Government after hundreds of complaints from commuters Complaints prompt rail staff inquiry ]
• · The blogosphere is gobsmacked by Eugene Volokh’s startling admission that he approves of this Iranian style justice: Intuitive Barbarity ; via Digby ; Werriwa: Labor expected to retain Latham's seat
• · · Ukraine admits exporting missiles to Iran and China ; What Iraq's checkpoints are like
• · · · The Bush administration's campaign against openness The Age of Missing Information ; The Liberal senator accused of smuggling cash, bribing officials and carrying a concealed weapon in Iraq faces censure or suspension from the Senate if he is found to have breached pecuniary interest rules. Register slip may hurt Lightfoot ; Money man says senator in the clear
• · · · · Chopper project should be reviewed: expert ; Just how much worse can Australian defence procurement get? Navy Seasprite helicopters are just the latest billion-dollar lemon in a procurement history pockmarked by acquisitions that run into cost and delivery overruns and fail to perform as promised. The $6 billion Collins-class submarines were too noisy and couldn't carry the torpedoes bought for them. The last of the Anzac-class frigates arrived 15 years after the first, its original communications obsolescent. The $1.2 billion over-the-horizon radar came five years late. The Bushranger utility vehicle is 10 times less reliable than the army wanted but its only rival was twice as bad again Getting fizzle for our extra bucks
• · · · · · Geoff Shaw is a man of considerable and many strengths but one, catastrophic weakness A $3000 fine, but a judgement that will last a lifetime ; Electors vote in substantial shadow of its missing man

Posted 5:33 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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W hat the recent Gannon/Guckert episode and the Williams/Gallagher/McManus payola scandals have in common are that both provide evidence of the Bush administration's willingness to subvert the traditional watchdog function of the media by just about any means available An Indecent Proposal

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Uncle Sam's blog
The Internet appears to be the medium through which future international political opinion will be influenced most significantly

The Bush administration's latest budget contains a significant increase in spending on ''public diplomacy" -- government-sponsored programs to communicate with the citizens of other countries through the media and cultural and educational exchanges. The increase has been met with a sigh of relief from foreign policy watchers who believe public diplomacy is an essential pillar of American ''soft power" and have watched that pillar slowly crumble since the end of the Cold War.
During the Cold War, the US Information Agency led America's public diplomacy assault, broadcasting Radio Free Europe to Soviet Bloc states, broadcasting the Voice of America throughout the world, and sponsoring numerous alternatives to state-sponsored media in nonfree countries. The agency was dissolved in 1999 and its programs absorbed into the State Department, where critics say long-term public diplomacy efforts have been starved for attention in a department culture that is focused on short-term solutions to immediate crises.

• Cold Voices : Joichi Ito, founder and CEO, Neoteny and Ethan Zuckerman, founder, Geekcorps: While we're building great new tools to build communities, we've done very little to ensure that people around the world have access to them Emergent Democracy Worldwide [How do you establish trust between between strangers on the Internet? Identity federation is one way to create a community of trust, but it relies on establishing the trust domains before the interaction Negotiating Trust ; Out of Many Blogs]
• · We want OpenSearch to do for search what RSS has done for content ; Google Hommage an OS X Google Google X Roses are red. Violets are blue. OS X rocks. Homage to you Googlex (dissappeared)
• · · Hackers foiled in attempt to plunder bank ; href="http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/parameters/05spring/payne.htm ">The media, in the modern era, are indisputably an instrument of war ; Subscribers Only (The New Republic) This week's hysteria over kids and "new media" is just that: hysteria
• · · · Top award for bringing the war home Paul McGeough named the 2004 winner of the Graham Perkin Award ; As Dan Rather’s old-media world fades out, the future is beginning to look weirdly like the past Premodern Amerika ; Overnight Success? The enduring myth of the overnight success is as old as publishing itself
• · · · · People talk about stories that resonate but aside from audiobooks and author readings, novels are silent - People talk about stories that resonate but aside from audiobooks and author readings, novels are silent People talk about stories that resonate but aside from audiobooks and author readings, novels are silent ; Czech out Mark of ex-Troppo fame who has a new blog: Redrag is his Solodom Blog
• · · · · · Talk about blog of mouth, this one is travelling around the net like wildfire What does it mean to be a professional blogger? ; The answer to that question was once easy. Until Jozef Imrich left Parliament House ;P in 1990s AD What Is a Journalist? ; Playgirl Editor-in-Chief Outs Herself as Republican!

Posted 11:00 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Now is the time for all good men & women to come to the aid of their Blogosphere Experiment in Democracy

Invisible Democracy & Markets: Clouds over Democracy Start to lift
We the Bloggers, in order to form a more perfect Blogosphere, hold these truths to be self-evident: Free Thought and Free Speech are the cornerstones of Free Societies and Free People

Why a Blogosphere Democracy? Throughout our history, high-minded tools and actions have often been slandered and oppressed by those who wouldn't benefit from them--to mention a few: Science, Religion, Arts, Philosophy and specifically the study of Rhetoric which has never recovered, the Printing Press, Democracy, etc., etc., etc. To that end, the following proposition is a mere outline to establish an inclusive organized system to benefit the overall Blogosphere; all constitutional decisions should be clarified and ratified by the Foundation Board, Elected Congress Members, and engaged Bloggers (see below). Issues of concern to the Blogosphere can be addressed in this system as determined by the Members of the Board and Congress; likewise, individual Bloggers can appeal to their representative for action. The Blogosphere Democracy, in the hands of the Foundation Board and Congress of Bloggers, can achieve a democratic voice (Congress), support (Foundation), unity (Union), and advances (Guild) for the Blogosphere while finding methods of defending (Bureau) it.

• Ach, Out of Many
• · Understanding the Process of Economic Change ; Rafsanjani to Buy Some Good Publicity
• · · In its first four years, the GST has collected $194.58 billion for distribution to the states. A partner at KPMG, LachIan Wolfers, says although that revenue is broadly in line with federal Treasury's expectations, it has grown faster than inflation and gross domestic product. [Hard Copy of Business Review Weekly, 17/03/2005, Page 20] State love their cake, too
• · · · When Hamlet's father was killed, his right to the throne and the fortune of Denmark were usurped by Claudius (his uncle, who married his mother). If only they'd had a family trust, none of the brutality that followed would have happened. [Hard copy of Australian Financial Review, 17/03/2005, Page 20] Face to face with a question of far-reaching implications
• · · · · Information Technology Minister Vladimir Mlynar has denied wrongdoing over the use of state funds to establish a company to operate an Internet portal for the government Minister denies misuse of money ;
• · · · · · The Irish are exporting more than woolens and property funds to the Czech Republic, and the trend is just bound to grow, say figures on both sides of the Irish Sea. It's highly probable that potatoes were planted in the Czech lands for the first time in the garden of their college. The pub is the meeting place for many Czechs, and the social cornerstone of a lot of Irish life is also in the pub Irish investment, culture on the rise ; Prague gets in touch with its Celtic roots

Posted 7:20 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Pat Buchanan: Freedom and democracy are on the march. So, says President Bush. And, surely, something is on the march on the unpredictability of revolutions An essay on a heterodox perspective on the meaning of war: The key to the accelerated pace of empire building over the past decade is the “open spaces” resulting from the demise of the collectivist states (USSR, Eastern Europe and Asia) and their overseas dependencies and allies in Africa and elsewhere Closed Spaces

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The endless quest for ethics grail
In ancient Greece the philosopher Plato considered any form of rhetoric, or what we might call persuasion, to be spin. Being fond of the simple truth he would have called a spade a spade, and spin would be lying.

But in the 3rd century BC the art of persuasion started to appear. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato’s, saw the value of the art of persuasion in the political arena and wrote treatises on rhetoric, or what we might call spin today.
In the following centuries the sophists became masters of rhetoric, and taught this sometimes black art to the politicians and lawmen of their day. (The sophists would be able to tell their charges how to explain their New Year stay in a friend’s Spanish villa; articulate how your partnership in a law firm is not a conflict of interest with your role as leader of the opposition . . . in addition to allowing you to sound off on complex issues such as 24-hour licensing, stem cell licensing or human cloning).

• Sophists: an ancient version of Celebrity Big Brother . . . or First Minister’s Questions [A conversation with Larry Diamond on Rial Politik What to do about Iran's nuclear revolution? ; Who Should Apologize to Whom? Where is the country that Bill Clinton, a former president of the United States, feels ideologically most at home? Believe it or not, the country Bill Clinton so admires is the Islamic Republic of Iran ; Encounters is an electronic journal of political science featuring prize-winning articles by non-english language political scientists from around the world, is out The inaugural issue]
• · Mike Steketee The Right's friendly new face: Mark Arbib & Kelli Field ; Back in February 2005 Naked Eye of Sun Herald fame noted that queues were forming for Bob Carr’s seat. For the third time in recent months, Premier Bob Carr has attended his local branch meeting, spreading good-will among the comrades of Maroubra. Among the application to join the branch is Mark Arbib. Official rumours Fire began to sizzle when penalties faced the chop ; The inside word...; Sydney train driver charged over threatening letters Sour Grapes on Trains
• · · Malcolm Turnbull's tax adventures ; In new democracies and closed societies, The Open Society retains its freshness and relevance The Open Society Revisited
• · · · Ian Thorpe isn't swimming at the Australian Titles and World Championships in Sydney this week, but at the weekend he made a very astute remark when he warned about the perils of over exposure Thorpe in drowning pool; One hears the groan every four years: only one Olympic bronze medal for one billion people. Are Indians born losers?
• · · · · However, tonight on the radio the US military denied troops killed Iraqi general US troops shoot dead Iraqi general: police ; The assassination of Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov Thanks from the new Czar ; How Has War Changed Since the End of the Cold War?
• · · · · · Belgium confronts its colonial past ; The Techno-Politics of the Indonesian Crisis: An Opportunity Lost

Posted 7:18 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Let's pause and take a deep breath, appreciate it for what it is. This is the dance of democracy. This is as close as we come to a kind of a sacred time in this country. Election Day, where people go and pull the curtain behind them, no one but you and the electronics -- or however you vote -- just you and the ballot. This day votes only talk, everything else walks
-Dan Rather

Bloggie awards 2005: Everyblogger is a Winner

The Blog, The Press, The Media: How to blog by tony pierce, 110

1. write every day.
2. if you think youre a good writer, write twice a day.
3. dont be afraid to do anything. infact if youre afraid of something, do it. then do it again. and again.
4. cuss like a sailor.
5. dont tell your mom, your work, your friends, the people you want to date, or the people you want to work for about your blog. if they find out and you'd rather they didnt read it, ask them nicely to grant you your privacy.

• Read Tony and understand [ New kids on the blog ; Random reality bites ]
• · BlogTalk Vienna 2004 Blogs, Bandwidth and Banjos: Tightly knit bonds in weblogging ; BlogTalk Sydney 2005 iBurst will, as the official wireless connectivity partner of Blogtalk Downunder
• · · Troppoarmafillo is losing a fine voice - Thank You, and Good Night (But I Hope Not Goodbye) Mark Bahnisch Future in Solodom ; Defamer
• · · · Shauny Bloggies 2005 Aussie Winner and Grinner ; The Project for Excellence in Journalism Report on the State of the American News Media
• · · · · Calling a Kettle Black: Bloggers, spammers face clampdown ; Books, books, everywhere and not a thing to read Big is beautiful for indies
• · · · · · Give voice to the truth, and we show ourselves responsible... "revelation" doesn't stand in opposition to "investigation," but that our apprehension of the truth always requires of its suitors a humility and reticence alien to both the insatiable curiosity to which Minogue points and the boisterous confidence of many partisans (right, left, and center). The truth, so understood, offers itself to theologian and journalist alike, and unfolds itself to those who attend patiently to the complexities that truth entails. What's Gone Wrong With the Press ; From the founder and CEO of Technorati's posting today: Technorati is now tracking over 7.8 million weblogs, and 937 million links. That's just about double the number of weblogs tracked in October 2004. In fact, the blogosphere is doubling in size about once every 5 months. It has already done so at this pace four times, which means that in the last 20 months, the blogosphere has increased in size by over 16 times. Technorati ; Bob Wyman (a former Microsoftie and founder of PubSub) has posted an interesting rumination on the future of blogging and Microsoft's impact on the medium Red Couch of Domination ;P; Beginning in 2006, Microsoft says it will ship with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading Poynter Online - The Next Big Thing in Online Type

Posted 6:44 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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St Jozef’s Day: Test You Alcohol Knowledge

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Sexy yawns: It's been emotional
Joanna Bourke is not afraid to deal with the so-called irrationality of human behaviour

Historians tend to come in two sizes: the micro-specialists and those who prefer a broader canvas. Joanna Bourke leaves you in no doubt where her sympathies lie. "I'm not one for writing the same book over and over again," she says breezily. "Others can correct any mistakes I've made. Life's too short for second editions."
In a subject area where turf wars and back-stabbing are often the norm, Bourke's attitude is unusual. But you can't accuse her of not putting her money where her mouth is. As professor of history at Birkbeck College in London, she is currently supervising 12 Phd students. "Most of them are writing theses that argue against me," she adds. Bizarrely, she appears genuinely pleased by this.

• An Intimate History of Killing [Improbable research: Decision scientists are analysing the gospels and asking what Jesus would do, and why The Hidden Sexuality of the Human Yawn ; Gardening in her undies is now out-of-bounds for one young Scot Asbowatch V: War on a G-string ; The Greatest Dirty Joke Ever Told ]
• · Breasts a treasure chest worth $2.2bn ; Sure now, it may well have escaped your notice, but today is St Patrick's Day, which most people would say is marked predominantly by the consumption of a fair bit of the amber fluid - or dark brown fluid, if drinking Guinness, of course Cad é mar atá tú? Kiss me, I'm rich; Childcare facilities needed for MPs: ALP
• · · Contrary to the most recent installment of hearsay and speculation, the NY Post's Keith Kelly says that Bob and Harvey Weinstein are negotiating with Rob Weisbach--currently at Simon & Schuster--to run a book unit at the company they form after their (rumored but assumed) exit from Disney later this year when their contract expires. The unnamed source says, Harvey is still very interested in creating a book division at the new company It's Official: Miramax Rumors Continue; Russians harbor a deep suspicion toward political autobiographies. From Dawn till Dusk
• · · · Exposed: A College Town's Love Affair With Old Books - and New Writers ... Writing a book demands blood, sweat and tears, but it's hard to imagine a comfier place to open a literary vein than Charlottesville It's Not Just London and Paris: Charlottesville Under Cover ; A conversation on why the recent rash of biblical fakery is about so much more than money. Forgery Fallout
• · · · · Race is not the only factor ; A review of books on just war Between Pacifism and Jihad ; Distributive Justice and the Law of Peoples
• · · · · · Companies and co-workers are often put in a difficult spot when love rears its ugly head, as last week’s firing of Boeing CEO shows How to handle an illicit affair at the office ; Few Tips to Cope With Life's Annoyances

Posted 8:44 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Senior Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot smuggled $25,000 into Iraq on behalf of Australia's biggest oil company and armed himself with high-powered pistols for protection Senator Lightfoot with Kurd fighters and an AK-47. Senator Ross Lightfoot has had more than a passing interest in Iraq during the past 12 months. He's been there twice – last year with a Woodside Energy representative and then in January with an Australian-based representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Simko Halmet. ; Lightfoot tells Senate: I didn't do it : Google on Lightfoot

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Project talks stall despite backlog
A high-level committee of eminent business leaders and five NSW Government ministers established by the Premier to fast-track urgent infrastructure projects has not met for 18 months, despite a backlog of public works.

The NSW Infrastructure Council was set up by Bob Carr in 2001 in response to private sector concerns that not enough was being done to build road, rail, water and energy facilities.
News of the council's demise comes in the wake of Mr Carr's failed attempt last Sunday to sell the 2004 capital works budget announcement as a new $30 billion infrastructure program.

• Coordination Unit [The Tax Office is cracking down on lawyers, accountants and other professionals using trusts to avoid paying tax, as John Howard insists the Government has been "very tough" on the rich Trusts under hammer as PM hints at tax cut ; We're beating the black economy: Tax Office Shades of black ; Eastern Europeans entrenched in black economy ]
• · The annual allowance for senators and members ; Larry Anthony moves from youth portfolio to childcare company, ABC ... ABC Learning Centres Ltd
• · · Diploma phonies used me: engineer ; OECD studies consistently indicate that failure to make an effective transition to permanent work or to full-time study is associated with long term risks of marginalisation Local investment: national returns ; Jennifer Talhelm of The State reviewed campaign contributions to South Carolina state lawmakers during the final six months of 2004, finding that “36 cents of every dollar … given to House and Senate lawmakers in the last two reporting periods of 2004 was tied to businesses, PACs or other special interest groups South Carolina Contributions
• · · · The F6 motorway from the Sutherland Shire to the city could be revived after the Roads Minister, Michael Costa, overturned his predecessor's decision to dump the $700 million road Scully buried it, now Costa resurrects F Six ; Casualizing, cobbling and e-Coping: Back to future cottage industries for older workers?
• · · · · Police Minister Carl Scully said he had written to Labor MP Jan Burnswoods, who chairs the upper house standing committee on social issues, requesting her committee to carry out an inquiry into the unrest About face: government now backs riot inquiry ; NSW Police officers involved in the Macquarie Fields riots today backed police chief Ken Moroney but condemned the state's opposition leader. Police back Moroney and blast Brogden
• · · · · · Argument raged today over immigration officers removing children from schools and locking them in detention centres Outcry over school 'raids' to detain children; Don't deport my son, detainee mother pleads

Posted 7:17 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Even if you're not Irish, you're in luck this St. Patrick's Day because we all have a dispensation to drink (Why is not the same allowed in 2 days time on 19 March for Jozef’s Day?). For me, St Patrick is even more special as it is my confirmation name. Yesterday over Vivien’s expresso a group of magnificent seven ; ) discussed the underdogs mentioned in the book Dirt Cheap. Irish and Slavs have always been the underdogs and I assume that is one of the reasons I chose the name at the age of 16. On the light note Andy noted how everything is possible. Although St Patrick’s day falls in the Lenten season, the 40 days prior to Easter restrictions of meat and alcohol, which are in place during Lent, these by some miracle were lifted and people would feast on the Irish meal of bacon and cabbage and drowning it with beer...
Here's what's cooking for St. Patrick's Day Shave or waste tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day, when everybody's Irish

A three-leafed clover Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day
It is a holiday known for wearing green and drinking. But why, when St. Patrick’s Day has roots in religion and politics? The Leprechaun; The Shamrock

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17, the religious feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and a day when those with Irish lineage celebrate their heritage.
A lot of legends surround the story of St. Patrick, yet there is not a lot of definitive information.
He was born in Britain and came to Ireland through slavery. He worked as a shepherd for more than six years. During that time he was alone with only sheep and his thoughts on top of a mountain. He turned to God for companionship.
St. Patrick, in his own writings, said that while dreaming he heard a voice, which he thought to be God, told him to leave Ireland. He escaped and returned to Britain, where he devoted his life to God by becoming a priest.
Then St. Patrick had another dream in which a voice told him to return to Ireland as a missionary and convert the Irish to Christianity.
One of the best-known stories about St. Patrick is how he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Since there are no snakes in Ireland, and most likely never were, this tale is thought to be a symbolic metaphor of St. Patrick bringing Christianity to the country, driving out its pagan beliefs.

• Snakes and Symbols [St. Patrick's Day may be about celebrating the Irish, but it's actually... ; Trinity -- the Father, Son and Holy Ghost ]
• · Irish or no, Imrich or no: Nine ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day ; For many, St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to drink beer St. Patrick's Day Recipe
• · · St. Patrick's Day is rich with myths and legends regarding Irish customs. In addition to wearing something green and wishing on a four-leaf clover, other Irish customs include kissing the Blarney stone and searching for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow Dishing up ways to enjoy St. Patrick's ; If it seems everyone is wearing green today, consider that the number of Americans who claim Irish ancestry is second only to the number who claim German ancestry St. Patrick's Day by the numbers
• · · · A new twist on St. Patrick's Day favorite ; The story of how St. Patrick's Day came about is full of myths and legends The folklore of St. Patrick's Day
• · · · · Some Bad Irish Luck For St. Patrick's Day ; IRA caught in the shifting tides of history
• · · · · · Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. Piping Hot Customs and Traditions; The History of St. Patrick's Day

Posted 6:30 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The secret of biography resides in finding the link between talent and achievement. A biography seems irrelevant if it doesn’t discover the overlap between what the individual did and the life that made this possible. Without discovering that, you have shapeless happenings and gossip."
-Leon Edel, Paris Review interview (Writers at Work, Eighth Series)

Read a deep meaningful story; prepare for the inevitability of death (list to do things ;D High Tatra Mountains Living Best for your Heart

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Stuck on the same page: Mining the Fertile Field of Culture
Hey, nobody said blogging has to be profound: I'm not sure when it started, but I've become a serial book-unfinisher

My friend B is all hot on a fancy spy novelist named Alan Furst. He eagerly thrust into my hands one of Furst's books, Kingdom of Shadows. Gave me the he's-so-good-you're-so-lucky-to-be-reading-him-for-the-first-time talk. I have long believed B to be smarter than me, so I obediently set to work.
Sure enough, the book has sex, death, trains and double-crosses in far-flung corners of Nazi-occupied Europe. I made it to page 101 before I completely ran out of interest: "Draw the room," Novotny said. "Don't forget the elevator for the shells." I realized I had forgotten who Novotny was or who he was talking to. So much for Alan Furst.

• The Serial Book-Unfinisher [If an alien reality existed, as Hegel thought, then we would not exist Cooking for Aliens ; Time Out for Hunger - Dine Out & Make a Difference. On Sunday, March 20th, New York's top restaurants will help feed New Yorkers in need by graciously donating 10% of their day's proceeds to the Food Bank For New York City. Could Sydney Be Far Behind? ]
• · Rethink publishing ... and expand the market with books people want What Would Make People Buy More Books? ; iterary first novels are almost impossible to introduce into the marketplace. Bookstores will only order them in small quantities, if at all, and it is difficult to get reviews, especially in places that really matter. Additionally, getting a bookstore reading for a first fiction author is an effort that would make Sisyphus proud The Catch-22 Of First Time Fiction
• · · The television industry is repeating an ancient joke that kids enjoy when they first learn to count: "Why is Ten scared? Because Seven ate Nine." Ten nervous after Seven ate Nine ; Axed and ridiculed in its first year, Neighbours has gone on to become a national institution. Launched by the Seven Network on March 18, 1985, Neighbours struggled for four months before a quiet, ignominious cancellation. In an extraordinary move, Channel Ten bought the show, relaunching it to an indifferent audience and sceptical critics Almost as Old as our Orwellian 1984 Marriage
• · · · Sophie Masson Favourite Aussie authors? Aussie battlers ; In conjunction with Paris's Salon du Livre, which opens Friday, the European Union announced results of a survey confirming that exponential title expansion is occurring in multiple markets. Britain leads Europe in issuing 120,000 new books a year; Germany is second with 80,000 titles; and Spain, France and Italy each published 60,000 to 70,000 new titles. Paris Fair
• · · · · Harlequin is planning its own line of upperbacks, for books targeted at women in the "'next' stage of life." Of course their idea of a premium price is $5.50, up from their usual $4.99 Publishers aim for the next big thing; The Czech Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a man who published a Czech language translation of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," ruling he did not seek to propagate the book's racist ideas Czech Court Rejects Mein Kampf Publisher Conviction
• · · · · · The people of the Andamans have a unique way of life. True, their material culture does not extend beyond a few simple tools, and their visual art is confined to a few geometrical motifs, but they are hunter-gatherers and so a rarity in the modern world A Family Tree in Every Gene ; I can't die yet. There are many men I must kill first. (Yojimbo): Indian film makers called on Tuesday for a ban on actor Shakti Kapoor after he was filmed offering a woman help with her acting career in exchange for sex and later implying the practice was common. Bollywood Actor Caught In Sex-For-Career Sting

Posted 12:05 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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This is a dynamic landscape, where the changes come by the day, by the hour. The force of popular will is now driving what was at first a dewy American project. It is a scenario developing amid tears, violence and near unprecedented public freedom of expression. Its mid-term consequences are still unclear, but few observers have kept pace with events
- Nicolas Rothwell; 2005

For 24's producers, in their fourth season of constructing a save-the-world scenario that must be completed in one day, the use of torture is about "real-time" drama, not politics: In the post-9/11 world, they can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Tyranny of the Minority
The latest brouhaha at Harvard, home of the perpetually offended, is over a motivational speech telling women that they can have it all: career, marriage, and children.

Women, you can have it all -- a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career. We are a new generation of women. We got to set a new standard of rules around here. To my men, open your mind, open your eyes to new ideas. Be open.

• Heteronormative means treating heterosexuality as the norm [Beside being rife with errors obvious even to lowly bloggers, the Times piece treats Saadi like a legitimate if colorful businessman, when he's essentially Uday Hussein. His father-in-law is chief of Libya's sinister security apparatus, & his family has simply looted the country & squirreled billions of dollars away in European banks while Libya remains impoverished & unfree. Saadi Gaddafi is jockeying to buy the controlling share of a well-known British soccer club for $300 mil; Matilda Walzblogging]
• · Iran has been developing nuclear weapons under the cover of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Tensions are building and there has been speculation that the United States might invade Iran as it did Iraq. That is improbable, given the formidable costs it would entail: Defusing Nuclear Iran ; via Austhink
• · · Senator Jon Kyl: Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, which I chair, held a hearing on a major threat to the United States, not only from terrorists but from rogue nations like North Korea. One Way We Could Lose the War on Terror
By Jon Kyl ; James Taranto: Is There a Doxy in the House? Walter Cronkite's Foreign Policy Wisdom
• · · · Coalition MPs insist on tax cuts ; D. Francis, Christian Science Monitor As Corporate Taxes Shrink, Who Pays?
• · · · · A fully developed [consumer-driven health care] market would be chaotic, to say the least, and in such a system continuity of care would be virtually non-existent Doctoring the Market ; Ron Menchaca and Glenn Smith of the Charleston Post and Courier investigated South Carolina’s agency that oversees law enforcement, finding “endemic failures in the state’s system for tracking police officers that allow problem cops to keep their badges despite histories of misconduct and even criminal behavior… Problem Cops
• · · · · · Throughout much of the Cold War, people feared above all else a global hot war, the third great one in a century of devastating world wars; and we crept up to it more than once -- most desperately, there can be no doubt, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 Are We in World War IV? ; Swift-moving trains routinely kill people when they crash on the nation’s railroad tracks — and local governments have almost no power to slow them - 77 percent of all fatal accidents on the nation’s main rail lines occurred when trains ran at speeds of 45 mph or higher: Speed often factor in fatal trainwrecks

Posted 12:02 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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This week a man in Moscow has broken the world record for the longest time spent in ice cold water Oddly Enough: The Virtual Amen and Awomen of Ice Cold River Kabbalah

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Orwell rolls over in his grave
The New York Times features an important investigation on the U.S. government's increasing production and distribution of fake news stories to TV news networks across the country

. Any doubt that the current administration yearns for a bigger, better Pravda can be put to rest with some of the mind-boggling hypocrisies chronicled here. Remember last month how the Government Accounting Office (GAO) said federal agencies may not produce prepackaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials"? Well, on Friday, the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget told all executive brand agencies to ignore the GAO findings because they failed to distinguish between propaganda and "purely informational" news segments.
"Purely informational"?!? Have you seen any of these things?

• I just did what everyone else in the industry was doing [Many blogs try to explain things like what is going on in the news and this is what makes them useful to many readers Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes drunk; Last newspaper reader is expected to croak in 2040 Newspapers in the digital age ]
• · D. Rogers, SF Chronicle: Because they're surrogates for the public, they can get close to the action when emergencies break out. They benefit from the California Shield Law, which allows them, in most instances, to keep secret sources secret Not Whether Bloggers Are Journalists, It's Which Are ; Blogs and Books Correlate on Politics
• · · Webdiary, you and me ; Should I even be here? asks Borzou Daragahi. Certainly there are high-minded reasons to keep returning. ... If journalists like me stop coming to Iraq and honestly covering this ongoing war, then who will? But I have to be honest with myself about what draws me back to Baghdad again and again, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a kind of compulsive behavior. For its combatants and chroniclers, war is the ultimate extreme sport ... On the Edge: The lifestyle of a Baghdad correspondent is awful
• · · · Fuzzy and Dangerous Logic Revisited ;
• · · · · When I need to work up my nerve to write a tough column, I try to think of myself as Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit, giving a kung fu kick to any diabolical mastermind who merits it. Dish It Out, Ladies ; Gold: Silent majority doesn't buy claims of media liberal bias
• · · · · · No Trust For MSM Until They Police Themselves: If the mainstream media can't investigate their own screw-ups, no wonder they don't understand why the public increasingly doesn't trust them to investigate anything Why Rathergate and Easongate Are Still Open ; The Times They Ain't A-Changin': Will the NYT cut off free access to its site? Can Papers End the Free Ride Online?

Posted 8:13 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Tax reform should be added to the eternal certainties of death and taxes. A medium-sized open economy in an increasingly integrated and competitive global trading system, Australia must always improve and update its tax system in response to economic change here and abroad. Such need was highlighted last August when the Reserve Bank governor, Ian Macfarlane, noted "the nature of a first-rate democratic country" involved constancy in economic reform A tax reformer's job is never done

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Fifteen judges join secret summit on terrorism
The High Court judge Michael Kirby and ASIO chief Dennis Richardson have presented powerful, conflicting views on the balance between fighting terrorism and individual rights in an extraordinary closed-door conference in Sydney.

Senior judges, top public servants and lawyers joined Mr Richardson, the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, and the air force chief, Air Marshal Angus Houston, to discuss the implications of the war on terrorism for the rule of law. The unprecedented meeting at the weekend covered highly sensitive issues including the right of terrorist suspects to an open trial, detention without charge, the doctrine of pre-emptive strike and even the use by the Bush Administration of targeted assassinations on terrorist suspects.

• Doctrine of pre-emptive strike [Carr funding spin offers little light at end of tunnel ; Professor Ed Blakely, who was appointed to the panel in 2003 after he helped rebuild New York in the wake of the September 11 attacks, said long-promised strategies to revive under-performing road and rail corridors and suburban centres were urgently needed City overhaul loses fizz, says Carr's planner ]
• · In Melbourne Confidential Chris Masters profiles the murder of Terence Hodson and his wife, and reveals new evidence that links gangland killings with the corruption that has plagued the Victoria Police. For legal reasons, two versions of this program will be screened – one in Victoria, the other throughout the rest of Australia Melbourne Confidential – Four Corners ; Controversy follows the US giant Halliburton wherever it goes but little is known about its Australian operation A profit powerhouse
• · · This Sunday Jana Wendt looked at Cornelia Rau's tragic 10-month journey through our prison and immigration detention system Cornelia Rau: A case of neglect ; Millions for programs, but results are sparse ; Tensions between the supporters of two Sydney football clubs who clashed violently on the weekend escalated overnight when a car was firebombed and a clubhouse was peppered with bullets. Sydney Club riot
• · · · With the Federal Government introducing legislation this week to safeguard Telstra services in the bush, and the Communications Minister talking up a proposal on the separation of the telco's retail and wholesale divisions in a bid to boost investor confidence Interview: Helen Coonan ; Closer communication is needed between intelligence agencies and the federal police about when intelligence services should provide assistance, a parliamentary report recommends Spies and police need to get along
• · · · · Context is all for Hitler's swastika ; The mask slips ... Looks like Germany's getting itchy to take over the world again Hitler Revisited ; The Mongers Among Us: Where Do Civilians Get Off Leading Us into War? by Russ Wellen Speaking truth to cowards
• · · · · · Webdiary: Iran Crisis ; A medium for everyone’s voice ; The Nature of Democracy ; The State Government has big plans to redevelop areas of the city Psst: Sydney's future is on the line

Posted 7:50 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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It is not often I am asked to compile links for a particular book. Well today I was asked by one of the colourful characters at Ville of Hurst who has reread Da Vinci Code three times and is familiar with the issue of the Catholic Weekly. How many people around us are being treated like non-people or like they do not exist? In this book there are no surprises for me - I know how incompetent and unkind most managers are towards their charges. Media might be peppered with massive skill shortages yet most workers travel to work in the red rattler train style afraid of being sacked at the end of the day. Is this smart practice? Whether you work on the ground floor or the underground it seems that Only inconspicuous cleaner is a good one. Ach, in hard-core irony style one wonders how many suspicious and caprious bosses are only after perks rather than the responsibilities that comes with a true leadership. Like Orwellean pigs inside those fat barns they fail to acknowledge real or virtual lesser human beings ;-)
There aren't many authors or journalists being sought for interviews by both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, but The Australian's Elisabeth Wynhausen is a little unusual. Her new book Dirt Cheap is an expose of life "at the wrong end of the job market" and involved the author working in a string of low-paid jobs incognito. Wynhausen has now been interviewed by both Boss magazine and the Socialist Alternative. Surely a first? Everyone keen on dirty deeds

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Art of Surviving
Over a period of ten months Elisabeth Wynhausen went undercover and worked as a factory hand, an office cleaner, a retail worker and a kitchen hand, moving from state to state and attempting to live on her meagre earnings.

Dirt Cheap - Life at the wrong end of the job market is the inside story of what it is like to work twelve-hour days on a factory line sorting eggs at a battery hen farm; of working a split shift of thirteen hours cleaning a nursing home for just over ten dollars an hour.
As Elisabeth discovers that many so-called 'unskilled' jobs actually require an incredible amount of skill, so too does she learn that exposing the conditions of low-wage work can be sheer hell for your lower back, not to mention your morale.
Caustic, courageous and often funny, this is a unique view of class, power and middle management seen from the other side of the serving counter, and a very personal experience of what it is like to be under-paid, under-appreciated and part of Australia's emerging underclass.

• His Greed and Heart and Mind of Ston(e) [I came to Dirt Cheap, Elisabeth Wynhausen's account of a year working for minimum wages, fully expecting to hate it. An Australian knock-off of Barbara Ehrenreich's best-selling Nickle and Dimed seemed eminently cringe-worthy ; ISBN: 1405036443; Pages: 240; Price: A$30.00; Imprint: Macmillan Australia: Dirt Cheap: Life at the wrong end of the job market]
• · Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market Julie McCrossin: Life Matters ; by Edmund Campion in Online Catholic: God under Howard
• · · Life at the wrong end of the job market ; The class system is alive and well ; Underclass expose just doesn't work
• · · · In her new book, Elizabeth Wynhausen learns how hard it is to live on the minimum wage Masters & Slaves ; Life at the Bottom; A slippery slope to inequality
• · · · · The final of Lit Idol took place on March 14 at this year's London Book Fair, the world's leading publishing business event Lit Idol 2005 UK ; Bruce Elder, who "agrees", and Susan Wyndham, who "disagrees" Writers' festivals are a waste of time ; Increasing sex frequency from once a month to at least once a week provides as much happiness as a $US50,000 ($63,000) a year rise Sex better than cash in the happiness stakes

Posted 6:04 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet state ended, Japan Inc. turned out to be insolvent, and look at those elections in Iraq. Why can’t journalists see the news coming at them?... A First Draft of History? Call the rewrite man!

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Age of Extremes: The Paranoid Style in Politics
In constructing DiscoverTheNetwork.com, we resolved that we would make it an informational site useful for all, regardless of political persuasion

In politics men who make speeches do not go out of their way to explain how differently they would speak if the enemies they had were larger in size or different in character. On the contrary whatever enemies they fight they paint in satanic terms, so that a problem sufficiently difficult to begin with in a liberal society becomes complicated further by the inevitable perspectives of political battle.

Traditionalist historian John Lukacs laments the direction of conservatism in America ... From Joseph McCarthy finding treason in the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths to Richard Nixon speaking up for the silent majority to George W. Bush complaining about those who ''think they're all of a sudden smarter than the average person because they happen to have an Ivy League degree,'' the right has consistently won elections by talking the language of Power to the People
• The Plain People of the Internet: You're not serious! [The Sex Pistols created some of the least boring music of the modern age out of the experience of being bored A Philosophy of Boredom ; Bush misread Camus Outside View: Bush, Camus and Sartre ]
• · The richest man in Parliament wants his Point Piper neighbours to pay more tax - to make room for tax cuts for everybody else. Juraj Janosik: Tax the rich and give to the poor - Turnbull does a Robin Hood ; Slavoj Zizek: A small note – not the stuff of headlines, obviously – appeared in the newspapers on 3 February. In response to a call for the prohibition of the public display of the swastika and other Nazi symbols, a group of conservative members of the European Parliament, mostly from ex-Communist countries, demanded that the same apply to Communist symbols: not only the hammer and sickle, but even the red star. This proposal should not be dismissed lightly: it suggests a deep change in Europe’s ideological identity. Heidegger can’t be pardoned for his Nazism, but Lukács and Brecht are excused for their engagement with Stalinism The Two Totalitarianisms ; During the Stalin years in Russia everything labelled veal was actually chicken. You can imagine what everything labelled chicken was ... Did perestroika herald "the end of history"? The collapse of the experiment initiated by the October Revolution is certainly the end of a history The Age of Extremes ; But after a lifetime of suffering it's too little, too late for some. Following her brother's death, Humhalova explained, her family members were treated as enemies of the state. Victims of occupation recognized
• · · In a collision between two radically different visions of how cities should grow, claims under Oregon's new law are pitting neighbor against neighbor, rattling real estate values, unnerving bankers and spooking politicians Anti-Sprawl Laws, Property Rights Collide in Oregon ; Things have not improved since 1990s as inspectors have discovered one in 10 child care centres fail to meet national hygiene standards and 14 per cent are unsafe Sydney Kids at risk in unhealthy centres
• · · · I'll just be glad to see the old terrorist put in the ground and sink straight down to hell. Have you carried out Cold River? On Arafat's death, a cold river of memory ; Terrorism Research Center ; Bin Laden blueprint blotted out
• · · · · Australia would be better off if more young people downed books and took up tools. But it begs some big questions Trading places ; Ultimately the lie is an instrument of power Traffic levels far outstrip predictions
• · · · · · In many ways Max Weber's predictions have proved accurate, with the world united into an iron cage called globalization. Dr. Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. It is perhaps the least enduring of his famous statements, in part because it is oblique and in part because it is too specific. It is often trotted out to condemn patriotism. What is actually implies is this: when something seems good in itself, though its value cannot be divorced from its use, that thing will be easily and frequently abused. Patriotism, benevolence, and--back to the matter at hand--free speech fit the bill. The Calvinist Manifesto ; Labour are in power...but the tories still get to take the blame ... Boris Johnson: Both the Government and IRA seem content to ignore due process of law, and both are wrong

Posted 6:02 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Mark Schaver provides another useful list (Amerikan bias): The most useful Web sites for reporters

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The blog next door
I think one of our real challenges today is finding ways to have debates about culture in public.

Politics is endlessly debated. So is sports. But where are the frank public conversations about art and about culture? Not just someone spouting an opinion. Not just another self-promotion or evangelical sermon. How do we get the public engaged in talking about art? We have to promote the conversations wherever we can.
To me, art is about wrestling with ideas, about engaging with creativity in a vigorous back-and-forth that leaves me changed in some way. I love that an encounter with really good art usually provokes more questions than answers and sends me out looking for more.

• Is there a Better Case for the Arts? [The buzz among librarians and investigative journalists this week was the Choicepoint situation ChoicePoint to stop selling consumer information ; If this story is right, it's even scarier than the Choicepoint situation Hackers have gotten in to Accurint]
• · It only seems fair. I've written How to Save CNN How to save blogs from ourselves; Blogs provide the ultimate platform of one-to-many communication that encourages openness, honesty and integrity yet quickly punishes the use of the spin of old. Why Establishment figures enter the blogosphere
• · · Political Insider Jeremy Wallace ; Mover and Shaker in Politics Katherine Harris' blog
• · · · Incredible Blogs ; Google Mobile
• · · · · To help "grassroots" journalists, bloggers, students and other Web publishers without formal journalism training to write more accurate and informative content. Wikis on journalism ; Observer the First Sunday Newspaper has a Blog
• · · · · · Information and Research Services, Parliamentary Library (PDF file): The advent of the internet and mobile phones have made communication easier and quicker, but the change is not necessarily for the best. Do Australians have a legal right to privacy?; Russian Dolls

Posted 6:01 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Among the Balinese, there is no word for art. They just say ‘we do things the best that we can.' Which is a nice way to think about what we all do... You know, I do know how to prepare for old age: For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceeding well prepared for my old age 10 Things I Have Learned

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Plot Twists In Store: Crazily Beautiful

With profits in the publishing world pretty flat in recent years, big publicity budgets are largely limited to the heavyweights in the writing world, the proven novelists (such as Stephen King) or famous memoirist (such as Bill Clinton). Everyone else gets about $5,000 to $10,000 to promote their title, if they're lucky. Many get nothing at all... The days when it was enough for an author to launch a Web site and give away some tote bags are over. An unknown writer today has to be an imaginative entrepreneur, with strong marketing skills -- not just a wordsmith

• It's An Author! It's A Marketing Whiz! Wait! It's Both! [Libraries 'in scandalous state' Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance in the scandalous Libraries Now) ; Madame Bovary was introduced to the concept of love through ploughing through “the refuse of old libraries”. The concept of love that she formed was a distorted one – of love as involving “gentlemen brave as lions and gentle as lambs, too virtuous to be true, invariably well-dressed, and weeping like fountains.” And it was because she had this hopelessly idealistic concept that she made such a terrible and tragic mess of her life Love's complications ]
• · A tour of First World War battlefields and burial grounds in Eastern Europe: No one comes to mind – none of Celine's or Remarque's heroes are as distinctly memorable as Schweik. They are too self-absorbed, because the war frustrates them. Schweik, meanwhile, frustrates the war with his hypnotic prattle, and in the process he frustrates the sense and order of the world to date. Schweik has no regrets. He laughs and dances on the graves. He is a nihilist, because it's the only way to survive. His creator would end up as a Red Army commissar Not a living soul around ; The Lady Who Owns Venus... The Glass Castle, A Memoir
• · · Former Prime Minister Milos Zeman couldn't have hoped for better timing to launch his memoirs, How I've Erred in Politics: Zeman takes on cohorts in book ; Waterloos: Communism's ubiquitous and maligned high-rises, are here to stay, so what should the state do with them? Panelaks
• · · · Character assassination in France is less of a sport than in Britain, because the French care less about character, and in the culture that gave us Les Liaisons Dangereuses it is hard to inflame prurient sentiment by saying that a man has slept with a woman not his wife In the long term media imposture is no less dangerous than totalitarian imposture ; Lawyers for Change Maybe we are crazy. Maybe we will change the world
• · · · · Basic training in the world of opera So You Wanna Be An Opera Singer... ; Worn down by community pressure, board members of the Lodi Valley Historical Society resigned so that the organization can accept a more than $500,000 bequest that included a condition that the entire governing board step down Basic Bequest
• · · · · · Rocker David Byrne is touring with his current instrument of choice - a computer loaded with PowerPoint. Byrne is most interesting when he goes off on flights of fancy that illustrate why he is called the Renaissance man of rock. PowerPoint is a symptom of a long train of thought that started picking up steam during the Enlightenment David Byrne: PowerPoint As An Instrument Of Art ; Just as I was getting used to edu-tainment (education that's entertaining), eater-tainment (restaurants that sell themed experience), and enter-tailing (retailers with an experiential eye), along comes another contender for audience time and attention: agri-tainment: Agri-tainment: Farms and Entertainment

Posted 12:27 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The Life Gold Pass travel scheme for retired federal MPs has cost taxpayers more than $12 million in the past decade. Retired MPs have virtually ignored a 1996 Government directive to use frequent flyer points acquired on their gold pass to reduce travel costs to taxpayers. According to Department of Finance figures tabled in Federal Parliament this week, $10.2 million worth of frequent flyer points remain unaccounted for since the 1996 Howard Government directive that gold pass holders use the points where possible to ease the burden on taxpayers. Since 1996, only $32,164 has been saved by gold pass holders using frequent flyer points Ex-MPs fly free, ignore frequent flyer

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Getting Down to Brass Tax
Politicians are digging their heels in over dividing the tax spoils

The amount of tax we pay is more than twice the size of the New Zealand economy, so it's not surprising the issue keeps barging to the top of the political agenda.
Australia's golden run of strong economic growth has been kind to federal and state coffers. Tax income for all levels of government will be about $275 billion this financial year, having swelled from $196 billion in 1999-2000.
Despite the surge in revenue, Australia's overall level of taxation as a percentage of gross domestic product still compares favourably with most advanced economies. At 31.5 per cent of the economy, Australia's tax take is well below the average of 36.3 per cent for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - which includes 30 of the world's richest nations.

• Tax freedom day - from January 24 in 1901 to late April ; What ends up in a bloke's pocket It's not just about tax, PM insists ; It took an amusing word picture from Paul Keating this week to cut through the tedious game of buck passing between the Labor-ruled states and the federal Coalition Government over the GST Give the horse a lump of sugar and it will do a jump for you ; [Sinn Fein MPs stripped of parliament allowances ; Groping MP faces sex assault charge ]
• · The story of Brenton Banfield's rise and fall as Labor's candidate for Mark Latham's seat of Werriwa is the story of a useless, corrupt political machine run by useless, corrupted people. An insider has written the story. It is stunning. A former Wran government minister titles it Stitching up a Decent Man and mailed the story this week to his branch members, 10 days before Werriwa votes. Ironically, Kim Beazley went through the motions of "launching" Labor's Werriwa campaign only yesterday. Polling day is next Saturday. Beazley is fortunate the Liberals aren't running a candidate. Or is he? Labor renders Werriwa indefensible ; Rodney Cavalier, in a full and varied life, is chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. The Carr Government appointed him four years ago. One of his most agreeable perks these days is to host the chairman's lunch on the opening day of Sydney's New Year Test match. A year ago an animated Mark Latham shared the limelight with John Howard, the two seated either side of Cavalier. This January, Latham went missing Bitter truths the party just won't be told
• · · Last year the shoppers and business owners along Oxford Street in Ingleburn spoke of aspiration and climbing the ladder of opportunity. Yesterday, barely two kilometres from the troubles at Eucalyptus Drive in Macquarie Fields, the talk was less ambitious - giving kids hope, skills and jobs; just a fair chance in life. Labor milks local credentials as byelection drive begins ; The Premier, Bob Carr, took the extraordinary step yesterday of seeking a judge's permission to intervene in a firm's controversial court fight to dismantle Sydney Water's monopoly Carr gets hands dirty over sewers
• · · · Police have arrested the alleged head of a crime syndicate and are investigating "1000 possible suspects" after seizing thousands of fake credit cards, passports and NSW driver's licences in a large identity fraud bust Police smash huge identity fraud ring ; Allan Frederick Hathaway Man still suffering after police assault ; Two retired police detectives have been charged with leading double lives, moonlighting as hit men and carrying out gangland executions Ex-cops killed for the Mafia ; Police commissioner Ken Moroney has emerged as the Opposition's No. 1 target as a political inquest begins into the Macquarie Fields street riots. The Opposition has decided to stop regarding "Uncle Ken" Moroney as a protected species and to go for his scalp over his handling of Macquarie Fields and his "cosy relations" with the Carr Government Moroney to face inquiry over riots ; Front-line police still seething over the Macquarie Fields debacle had two words on their lips yesterday - leadership and resources, or, more accurately, a lack of both. Kelly made us look an embarrassment [Mike Carlton: The faces of Macquarie Fields are fascinating: missing teeth, broken noses, a sullen, truculent glare that somehow combines defiance and defeat. And that is just the women]
• · · · · Exclusive Forty pages of private testimony: Premier Bob Carr has denied he called for the Orange Grove factory outlet to be "screwed over" but he was convinced that corruption was involved in its planning process, he told the state's anti-corruption watchdog. Revealed: Carr's secret testimony to Orange Grove inquiry [Mr Carr said he had lunch with Mr Lowy once or twice a year.] Guilty: There is a problem with defence lawyers using every trick in the book to string things out for their clients Carr backs criticism of defence barristers
• · · · · · A couple of political milestones are grist to the retirement rumour mill A decade of Labor, but Carr's no also-Wran ; NSW Premier Bob Carr has staked his political future on a plan to spend $30 billion rebuilding the state's schools, hospitals and rail network. The move follows criticism that the Government has failed to invest enough in the state's ageing infrastructure since its election in 1995. Bob's Billions ; Last Year exactly Tony Harris explained why Building a Better Future is unlikely to happen in the immediate future... The Need for Policies to Tackle the Chaos

Posted 12:26 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Tim Dunlop has a way of getting everyone’s attention and this entry illustrates why: Those damn rightwingers and their collectivist behaviour: 1001 uses for a blog
Dan Gillmor notes that the Internet is a foundation of democratic society in the 21st century, because the core values of the Internet and democracy are so closely aligned: Blogging and Democracy

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: Down-On-Its-Luck
Once I was blessed; I was awaited like the rain
Like eyes for the blind, like feet for the lame
Kings heard my words, and they sought out my company
But now the janitors of Shadowland flick their brooms at me
Thats where the title of this blog came from: once adored

You have to get noticed to get promoted. You have to get noticed to get hired. You have to get noticed to get fired. It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”
No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice. Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage

• Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career [ ; Men have a real thing for the hypertext link]
• · P.P. McGuinness: Time to go, Mr Ramsey The decline of once great figures who do not withdraw themselves from the scene when they should is often the stuff of tragedy, no less in journalism than in other pursuits. What used to be a sharp critical intelligence turns into pure curmudgeonry, analysis is replaced by prejudice, reference to other authorities becomes lazy quotation of passages supportive of these prejudices, and care for fact and detail is replaced by bluff and rhetoric Is Alan Ramsey about to be spiked? ;
• · · Internet bloggers should enjoy traditional press freedoms and not face regulation as political groups Lawmakers: Hands off Web logs ; Seven years after it was created, the Arts & Letters Daily website now attracts 100 million hits. We need deeper, better thinking, and better analysis, to understand this great cultural moment The thinking person's big hit
• · · · Very few Americans read blogs with any frequency Blogs Not Yet in the Media Big Leagues ; Whether they are seeking immortality or just letting off steam, Web bloggers are multiplying in number and are seemingly affecting American media and political insiders, at the very least. Most Half Full Glass Ever
• · · · · Ryan Sager writes a powerful column in today's Tech Central Station that exposes the big money behind campaign-finance reform and the BCR Checkbook Democracy; Simon Jenkins in The Times, like most people who it seems only read the lunatic fringe of the American blogosphere, is not impressed by blogs Under my keyboard the desk shakes. The bloggers are on the march
• · · · · · Government Quietly Warns Utilities To Beef Up Their Computer Security Hackers Target U.S. Power Grid ; Literary supplements are changing in two Israeli dailies. How will the new editors wield their enormous influence on the local book world? From lit crit to lit chic

Posted 8:15 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Dawn of a new earache as inner-city corellas rise to top of pecking order ... a mixture of long-billed and little corellas

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Art of Darkness
Evil repels us, so why are we so fascinated by its horrors? Angela Bennie explores the allure of theatre's great villains

One of the most notorious ideas to come out of the very troubled 20th century is the philosopher Hannah Arendt's notion of "the banality of evil".
The famous phrase was the result of Arendt's observations of Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem for genocide. At the heart of his defence was Eichmann's claim that he did what he did because he was just following orders; he was really just doing his job

We still have Hillel’s great dictum, ‘In a place where there is no-one, you at least must strive to be someone.’ So go for it. Write! At least you know you won’t be burnt at the stake or sent to Siberia anymore!
• Anatomy of evil [Mystic separates the fad from the divine Kabbalah, a kind of Jewish mysticism, is going through a faddish and commercial phase ; The buzzword is early intervention, and with scant scientific back-up anxious parents are seizing on treatments to keep their children in the race to achieve Growing pains ]
• · Memoirs are our modern fairy tales, the harrowing fables of the Brothers Grimm reimagined from the perspective of the plucky child who has, against all odds, evaded the fate of being chopped up, cooked and served to the family for dinner. What the memoir writer knows is what readers of Grimm intuit: the loving parent and the evil stepparent may in reality be the same person viewed at successive moments and in different lights. And so the autobiographer is faced with the daunting challenge of describing the narrow escape from being baked into gingerbread while at the same time attempting to understand, forgive and even love the witch
'The Glass Castle': Outrageous Misfortune ; Daphne Guinness meets the scriptwriter behind TV's hit Spooks and asks him why a solitary life as a novelist appeals. GNBN depicts the sleazy rather than stylish side of espionage. George and Charlie are stuck in a grotty London photo lab, unaware they are both MI5 spies until they receive an order from HQ to kill each other. Then bloody, and black, humorous twists unfurl Master of mind games ; Australia's tallest peak has been unlucky with names. Explorer Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki seriously overestimated the linguistic skill of Australians when he named the NSW landmark after Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The "z" soon went missing, as did the correct pronunciation. The z was officially put back in 1997, but the pronunciation has remained a wayward kozi-os-ko, not kosh-choosh-ko. Now Australia's Polish ex-servicemen are angry at suggestions the mountain might have dual names, the second to be Aboriginal. We should respect tradition, says a spokesman of the name bestowed by Strzelecki in 1840. However, after being here as long as 60,000 years, Aborigines might just have the edge in the tradition department. Now, what is the Polish for "mole hill"? Naming rights
• · · Not so many years ago the federal public service was a no-woman's-land if you happened to be married Back off, battleaxes - only sexist pigs need apply ; The lies that complicated the extraordinary life of World War I veteran Marcel Caux are put to rest in a book to be released this week Digging the dirt
• · · · The best clowns tell us truths, and laughter sugarcoats pure acid. Uys, with his mixture of hope and despair, of satire both inspiring and corrective, is a very necessary clown. Erections and Elections, The Big Laugh ; Some new movies show sex in explicit detail, but are they sexy? It's being sexy that's really tough
• · · · · Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer Offers a Unique Perspective on Benjamin Franklin, France, and the Birth of America The Great Improvisation ; Publication of Robert Beattie's long in the works book NIGHTMARE IN WICHITA: the Hunt for the BTK Strangler has been accelerated even further BTK book could hit store shelves next week ; In true paperback style, the story of how one of the greatest finds of the past 100 years has been compromised by alleged illegal and unethical practices began with a woman. Bones of contention
• · · · · · Booksellers caught up in the myriad details of running both a bricks-and-mortar and virtual bookstore may give little thought to the importance of affiliate programs, but as anyone who has spent time surfing the Web knows, affiliate links are as commonplace on websites as billboards are on highways The Importance of Being Affiliated ; MediaBay's growing affiliated line of digital audiobooks MediaBay to offer Penguin Group (USA) Audio Titles via Download

Posted 12:13 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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If natural born leaders are also natural born liars, can we really hold it against them when they do what comes naturally? This is the dilemma I faced under communism and later at the Bear Pit Politicians Lie, They Admit -- For a Host of Reasons

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Federalism/Feudalism: I stayed alive just so I could see this Moment
John Howard has turned out to be as much a centralist as Gough Whitlam, according to Kenneth Wiltshire

DURING the life of the Howard governments, one of the most remarkable transformations in the history of Australian politics has occurred. The Liberal Party, once the champion of states’ rights, has become centralist.
This cannot be explained simply because all of the state and territory governments are controlled by Labor. The prime minister has, for some time, been describing states as ‘service deliverers’ with little role to play in national policy making. The conditional funds which come from Canberra, about half of all federal transfers to the states, have had more and more conditions attached to them, in a manner that almost makes the Whitlam government pale by comparison

• Unveiling the unknown: A shift in the centre of gravity [Democratization is a process, not an event. Sadly many political apparatchicks are clones of the tropical Dutchman, Joh, who had no idea about the separation of powers. This post from Iraqi blogger Ali makes the process the big game in his country Dangerous games ; Democratic Audit of Australia: ANU Freedom of information law in need of overhaul (PDF version) Australia has an economy in crisis and a government in denial. After growing without interruption for 14 years, the economy is running into growth limits All smiles, but there's plenty of work to be done ]
• · Has suicide become the pop culture flavor of the month? Recent weeks produced an odd flurry of news stories suggesting that the notion of taking your own life suddenly seems courageous, respectable, even chic The ‘suicide solution' suddenly seems trendy ; The veteran 2UE radio broadcaster John Laws and his 2GB rival Ray Hadley face being charged with contempt of the Independent Commission Against Corruption following on-air tirades yesterday about witnesses in the Orange Grove inquiry. Laws, quoting a report in the Herald, said that while Ms Beamer replied to questions 30 times with "I don't recall", she was "100 per cent sure her decision to close down Orange Grove was based on merit. Can I see a pig fly by the window there? ; Australians love a political true believer - as long as he's among us, not above us: Just days before celebrating a decade in power, Bob Carr's NSW Labor Government remains in the political doldrums, trailing badly in the polls True Blue Reshuffle fails to boost Carr ; Google on Political Suicide
• · · What it means for the actual victims of an advocate's negligence in court proceedings doesn't bear thinking about, which is precisely the approach of the High Court majority. High Majority ruling gives the minnows little chance ; Finally, you'll be elected to Parliament, win government and be able to fix all of the things you used to whinge about. You'll have made it. And you'll be surrounded by bloody lazy whingers telling you what you should do. Be What you Want to be Power Whinger! Chris Holley gives a rundown on skilling up in whingeing
• · · · Christopher Dickey: An Arabian Spring: Can People Power Prevail? ;
• · · · · Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone is considering a seasonal workers visa for foreign workers to pick Australian fruit Is it time to import fruit pickers? ; Australian governments engaged in a major reform program in the 1990s, culminating in the formation of the National Electricity Market (NEM) which commenced operation on 13 December 1998. Today, the NEM supplies electricity to 7.7 million Australian customers Energy futures for New South Wales
• · · · · · The powerful rumours that so often sweep through Adelaide can be devastating Power & pedophilia ; The Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Wendy Abraham, announced that one of its chief political advisers, Randall Ashbourne, will be charged with abusing his public office Government Adviser Charged

Posted 11:22 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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What you can find without leaving your desk(top). A good way to find public information online is by using this service from Pacific Information Systems. With links to almost 5,000 public records databases, it's the largest free collection of public records databases on the Web. Note: these are links to databases, not the actual databases themselves Free Public Records Access

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Murals of Management
I've been hearing voices. I can't get them out of my head.

True journalists will happily drop whatever they're doing when news breaks or crisis hits. I think we too often exploit that and take it for granted. We come to rely on dedicated people to consistently go the extra mile, even just to get us through our daily business. Every routine thing becomes a crisis and requires extra time and energy from key people... People are better journalists and managers when they have a life outside of work.

• Morale, Motivation and Balance: Messages for Managers [Soldiers are trying to make sure their version of the truth from Iraq gets out.Even though for many, that truth doesn’t include revealing their identities, their online diaries are becoming an increasingly popular way for anyone with an Internet connection to “listen in” on the war zone. Blogs of War ; Clusty Imrich ...]
• · Jacob Weisberg at Slate articulates the whole bloggers as journalsts debate with a headline that reads, rather profoundly: Who Is a Journalist?Anybody who wants to be; Czech out this collection of resources that Phil uses on a regular basis arranged under different topics. It should make your life quicker and easier if you're not sure which search engine to use for which type of query, and for created a search strategy Search engines
• · · In the opinion pages of The Australian, Bret Stephens questions the shortcomings of journalists and the media, observing that journalists have a difficult time distinguishing "significant facts" and don't think very hard about "which stories are most worth telling" Media in the quagmire ; Media Watch: Liz Jackson; BlogPulse Highlights
• · · · Can Coporates Blog? ; Technorati accused of blog censorship
• · · · · 15 non-white male blogging voices ; White editors are often like the coaches they cover. They have an 'old boy' network and they take care of their friends Ethics Corner: One Black List That Shouldn't Be Short
• · · · · · Threats to the status quo are always ripe for reform: Bloggers were one of the big political successes of the 2004 election. This motley group of opinionated writers used their cyber soapboxes to attack and defend the presidential campaigns and the two major parties. Bloggers Beware; Roger Simon thinks that politicians aren't dumb enough to go after bloggers ; Google personalizes news site

Posted 11:21 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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There's not a woman turns her face
Upon a broken tree,
And yet the beauties that I loved
Are in my memory;
I spit into the face of Time
That has transfigured me.
-W.B. Yeats, The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

Literary Entrepreneurship Salon has an interesting interview with Dave Eggers, whose comments on procrastination remind me of some of my blogging bursts On procrastination

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Performance Under Pressure
Athletes under pressure model good behavior for writers to follow.

Sally Jenkins is an award-winning sports columnist for The Washington Post whose years of reporting and writing about athletic performance has led her to see a provocative connection between those of us who test our limits on a keyboard instead of a football field. In an e-mail interview, Jenkins describes what athletes can teach writers about improving performance. The author of five books, including "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life" with cyclist Lance Armstrong, Jenkins has also worked at Sports Illustrated.

• How and when did you make the connection between writing and performance issues? [Scientists may have found what makes a tune catchy, after locating the brain area where a song's "hook" gets caught. When familiar tunes played, the cortex activity continued during the blanks - and the volunteers indeed said they still mentally "heard" the tunes. Researchers have previously argued that catchy songs work by causing a "brain itch" that can only be scratched by repeating the tune How tunes get stuck in your head ;Stark Young, letter to Thomas Wolfe: Not many of the living are so real as the dead that are beloved Art of Living ]
• · W. Somerset Maugham, Don Fernando: To write simply is as difficult as to be good When Rivers Are Digital, Where's The History? ; anadian literature has been hot in recent years. But where does this writing come from? Tracing CanLit Back To Its Source ; Canadian Double Dragon capturing the crown for grown-ups Every Reading Experience Doubles
• · · MP3 blogs, where fans post beloved niche songs and comments, are safe middle ground in the downloading wars. Some labels even see them as a marketing tool Music's cease-fire zone ; David D'Arcy is one of only a few reporters who understand and have been covering the complex Nazi era art restitution story and he is a respected arts reporter. No print media have yet reported the story that appears below; Artnet News is the first to report publicly. Lining Up To Support D'Arcy
• · · · Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble, Misha Ketchell Crikey ; Attention Buzz Aldrin, Richard Bach, Margaret Wise Brown, Douglas Coupland, Bob Dylan, Bill Gates, and Others: Czechs Are Waiting. The Authors Registry has posted a list of about 300 writers for whom they have collected--but have not been able to pay through--$100,000 in royalties Authors Sought
• · · · · One of our favored rumored candidates for an executive position at Harper has gotten the job, as the company announced yesterday that Miramax Books president and editor-in-chief Jonathan Burnham will join as publisher of the Harper imprint, reporting to Michael Morrison. His starting date is "being determined." Harper Plus Again, with Burnham; Avalon Absorbs Shoemaker in Full; Anansi is Minus Sharpe
(Source: Publishers Lunch) Anansi boss Martha Sharpe suddenly quits ; The Impac Award, the "world's richest literary prize The Longest Shortlist
• · · · · · Amazon Publishes its 2004 Bestseller Lists ; Jason Leopold's book critical of journalists OFF THE RECORD has been cancelled shortly before its planned release, according to the Washington Post. Click through for the whole complex story.
From the Could Have Seen This Coming Department

Posted 11:11 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The Lord knows how to give generously, but He has no idea how to distribute things evenly among His children. Parents often mumble these words beneath their breath as they struggled to bring their children into a real world. Angela Schwindt makes a wise point - While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.
If you study to remember, you will forget, but, If you study to understand, you will remember. We need to understand that in distribution of power dwells out greatest potential for suffering and joy in life, in art, in literature ...
Ropo Oguntimehin once observed that education is a companion which no future can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate it and no nepotism can enslave

Eye on Academics & Teenage Tempers: WE Don't Need No Education
This special feature is brought to the Google Lovers By Political Theory Buffs As Robert Frost said: Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper.

Academic news and debates: Academici is about networking with academics and researchers across continents and about content, facilitating (free of charge) the exchange of ideas, discussing research findings. A Southampton professor will unveil a new plan that could revolutionise how academics and the public view research. From The Chronicle of Higher Education, postdocs are becoming more common, but do they help new Ph.D.'s get jobs or merely keep the planes circling? More on the new online publication Inside Higher Ed. High-school programs that offer low-income students personal instruction and postsecondary degrees are rife with good intentions and challenges. A new movement is increasingly grabbing attention: democratic schools. What happens when children get a say in their own education? O brave new world, that has such edutainment coordinators in it! College students at no greater risk of alcohol-related problems than peers. A student writes a controversial article about athletes for an investigative journalism course at Rutgers, with widespread fallout. So what if Johnny and Susie, as the song says, “don’t know much about history”, is it really such a big deal? And historians are still divided about the meaning of the Shoah in the context of the development of western civilisation

There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to angelship.
-Mark Twain
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
-W. B. Yeats
Education is bitter but the fruit is sweet. (Adopted Aristotle: The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet)
-Agustin Marissa
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.
-Galileo
If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.
-Slavic proverb

Posted 7:47 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper.
- Robert Frost

Eye on Academics & Teenage Tempers:
This special feature is brought to the Google Lovers By Political Theory Buffs

Academic news and debates: Academici is about networking with academics and researchers across continents and about content, facilitating (free of charge) the exchange of ideas, discussing research findings. A Southampton professor will unveil a new plan that could revolutionise how academics and the public view research. From The Chronicle of Higher Education, postdocs are becoming more common, but do they help new Ph.D.'s get jobs or merely keep the planes circling? More on the new online publication Inside Higher Ed. High-school programs that offer low-income students personal instruction and postsecondary degrees are rife with good intentions and challenges. A new movement is increasingly grabbing attention: democratic schools. What happens when children get a say in their own education? O brave new world, that has such edutainment coordinators in it! College students at no greater risk of alcohol-related problems than peers. A student writes a controversial article about athletes for an investigative journalism course at Rutgers, with widespread fallout. So what if Johnny and Susie, as the song says, “don’t know much about history”, is it really such a big deal? And historians are still divided about the meaning of the Shoah in the context of the development of western civilisation

Posted 7:08 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I’m confident that like me, many of you have spent time pondering what made a bunch of wild eyed dreamers like the founders of our country believe their sacrifice would be worthwhile. What ever made them think they could break free of the world’s mightiest colonial power and establish a new country – without eventually losing the freedoms that are uniquely ours? What confidence caused this goal to grip their souls so firmly they were willing to pledge their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to attain it? To put it succinctly: they were trusting that a free populace would be willing to accept personal responsibility in their lives and thereby the direction of their country. They trusted that those who came after them would wisely choose this light load over the oppressive burden of an intrusive yet seemingly protective government .
-Orrin Wagner
We Might As Well Move Back: Was Bush right after all?

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Blogger makes White House debut
On Monday the White House allowed Garrett Graff, editor of FishbowlDC, to attend its regular press briefing - the first recognised internet diarist given a pass. Here is an extract from his blog of the day:

We'd been warned by a regular White House correspondent over the weekend that the 'zoo' of the briefing would likely leave us knowing less and being more confused than when went in. Having sat through it now, we have to agree. Watching it on television doesn't quite do justice to the uselessness of many of the exchanges back and forth, nor the intensity of [press secretary] Scott McClellan's withering gaze, nor the frustration boiling up in the reporters' voices as they butt their heads up against a rhetoric wall.

• Blogger heads for historic day at White House [Google: Blogger breakthrough ; FishbowlDC ]
• · The NSW Assistant Planning Minister, Diane Beamer, vowed not to meet anyone or take phone calls from lobbyists for or against the controversial Orange Grove project in Liverpool after receiving a "corruption warning" from the office of the Premier, Bob Carr. Beamer can't recall events 30 times ; Google On Orange Grove
• · · Canadian MP Monte Solberg has come under fire after he posted comments to his blog mocking Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin as Paul Martin Luther King and urging him to take his “hairy knuckles back to Selma, Alabama Canadian MP under fire for blog entry ; Offending the sensibilities of the politically correct
• · · · When Dan Rather signs off tonight, ending 24 years as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," it will mark a changing of the guard in more ways than one In new era of reporting, blogs take a seat at the media table ; Canberra's attack on federalism is a blow to experimentation. Celebrate diversity, if it's all the same to you Tough Love or Tough Luck?
• · · · · NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said he hoped the western Sydney suburb of Macquarie Fields would quieten down following the arrest of Jesse Kelly All seems quiet on south-western front: Moroney ; Police probably made mistakes in their handling of the Macquarie Fields unrest, NSW Police Minister Carl Scully said today We made mistakes in riots: Police Minister ; He is not Ned Kelly, as the Police Minister, Carl Scully, said. He is not Jesse James, either. However, Jesse Kelly could have acquired the mystique of his famous namesakes if police had let him remain on the run Triple-0 call sounds warning ; Google on Kelly
• · · · · · Taxes: who do you believe? Election promises and the $1 billion tsunami relief package may prevent any far-ranging tax cuts in this year's Budget, says Treasurer Peter Costello, despite estimates he'll be sitting on a $10 billion surplus. We're a light taxing nation, claims Costello ; Australia's taxpayers were not getting value for money, the Australian Democrats said today after an OECD report revealed the government had bucked the global trend by increasing the tax burden markedly in recent years Our taxes go up while others go down: report ; OECD Table (PDF - version

Posted 7:07 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Your favorite thing about having a blog may soon be this - they naturally attract search engine traffic ... Increase Traffic To Your Blog From Search Engines - The Top 5 Tips
Dinosaur Blog: Richard Neville, of East Gosford, obviously inspired by the ludicrous mathematical diversions that have been appearing in this column lately, throws another one into the pot. There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't It's called a newspaper!

The Blog, The Press, The Media: McCrum: Stop Whining About The State Of Media
Enough of these tracts about there being too many books published and too few classics

In an age of rampant capitalism, in the middle of a colossal information-technology revolution unparalleled since Gutenberg, it would be surprising if there was not a colossal overproduction. No more classics? Possibly the hyperactivity of the marketplace makes good books harder to detect, but there's no evidence that good books are missing their audiences or that writers today are any worse, or any better, than 50, even 100 years ago.

• When did the barbarians last read a book? [ ASIO goes Google in spy search ; Media Dragon is because you Google it: It's going to be an interesting couple of years in the search engine world Google and the Mysterious Case of the 1969 Pagejackers ]
• · What do Gareth and Shauna have in common with Jon Bon Jovi and Billy Ray Cyrus? They all got married at Graceland Chapel! ; So Mothership, set your alarm! via What’s New Pussycat
• · · Gianna is Back! ; Technorati adds "related tags"
• · · · Look Who's Blogging Business Blogging ; Should online publishers have the same rights and responsibilities of traditional news publishers? Apple wants online publishers to "Blog Different" ; Dot-con job: How InfoSpace took its investors for a ride
• · · · · What's wrong with TV network news in Australia? It's clear there is something of a crisis in TV news and current affairs. Big money is being spent to secure personal stories, talents are being shuffled around like the proverbial deckchairs, presenters are being cosmetically overhauled and yet, still, the viewers are turning off TV News In Crisis ; Web logs feed appetites for food information and inspiration Going blog wild ; Call us cynics. Blogs may be hip and trendy, but they don't do diddly-squat for most people's businesses 7 Practical Tactics to Turn Your Blog Into a Sales Machine
• · · · · · Nightline on (US) ABC is airing a program tonight on blogging. BL has more and Andy Carvin says that he might be featured ... If You Can't Beat 'Em, Blog 'Em: Blogs On Nightline Tonight;
Say "I'm sorry" about Bush in many languages. Traveler Apology Shirt
I'm Sorry ; Bush bloopers

Posted 5:24 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Bloggers uncover that someone working as a reporter in the West Wing is also advertising himself as a $200-an-hour gay escort — someone whose name, a year earlier, had appeared in the U.S. attorney's subpoena of White House documents during the investigation of the Valerie Plame-CIA scandal Sex, lies and spies: This isn't news?

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Nations of Grazing Sheep
As politicians pad their pockets, will the electorate wake up? How we see what those before us saw? My favorite politician was John Hatton while Bob Dylan’s was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who reminded me of Tom Mix, and there wasn't any way to explain that to anybody.

The scandal revolving around the question of just where Prime Minister Stanislav Gross got the money to pay for his apartment is rocking the country. Or is it?
Political scandals are nothing new. But here, one thing is certain: Politicians never resign. No matter what. Intoxicated deputies (both while in session as well as behind the wheel), corrupt ministers, and a prime minister and president who lie are all allowed to keep their jobs. Small wonder then that Gross refuses to step down, despite demands from the opposition that he do so.
Despite recent entry into the EU, in the Czech Republic most of the major pillars of democracy are decaying, not growing. This is because the legislative, executive, and judicial pillars have all coalesced into a ruling caste that has self-preservation and enrichment through associated corruption as its only priority. For example, early on in the crisis, Gross' major ruling coalition partner, the Christian Democrats, declared the Cabinet to be defunct — yet, for some inexplicable reason, they still refuse to leave it. Also at the Cabinet level, the culture minister has initiated a witch hunt against the nobility, calling it a class whose post-1989 acquisitions via legal restitutions should be "re-examined" so as to possibly return them to the state that stole them in the first place. As such, the Supreme Court, with judges now appointed by President Vaclav Klaus, has taken back property from the Colorado-Mansfeld family, to whom the same court awarded it three years ago. The court said the previous court did not have the right evidence. In refuting the most basic of judicial principles, namely, a verdict based on given evidence at the time, the Supreme Court is now a bunch of kangaroos.

• Taxing Times Among the Political Kangaroos [ France has method to deal with corruption; Exposing the Myths: Manufacturing Public Opinion ]
• · Ali Mazrooie, a top member of the main reformist party, Iran Participation Front (Jebhe-ye Mosharekat) is the newest well-known politician who has started to write a weblog Iran Participation Front; The Winds of Political Change … And Why You Almost Never Feel Them Coming
• · · George Bush’s “ownership society” leaves out the things we actually own — our bodies, our privacy, our dignity, our bedrooms Who Owns What? ; If Republicans were true to their stated principles of smaller government, free-market economics and the "ownership society" touted by President Bush, they would do something quite alien to their traditional practice: They would support the spread of labor unions instead of trying every trick to foil workers' efforts to organize To succeed at shrinking government, you've got to empower workers
• · · · Black Bourgeoisie at 50: Class, Civil Rights, and the Cold War in Black America ; Eucalyptus Drive and the Kelly Gang: Police sorry for ignoring alleged bashing by fugitive ; For Anthony Muilwyk, a metalworker and union delegate, surely a black eye was not unusual Even union delegates have feelings: judge
• · · · · GST Greed Give us GST share and we'll cut tax: Carr ; In the time-honoured manner of leaving essentials to last, the rules of engagement to provide the next phase of NSW electricity generation are finally taking shape. If the state gets it wrong, we will face power blackouts within a few years or out-of-control electricity prices Balancing demands of power
• · · · · · The Minister for Women, Sandra Nori, scrolls a (first) virgin honour roll to mark International Woman’s Day: Tracey Menzies: NSW Woman of the Year! ; With the help of the internet, users are learning about what they are taking, with beneficial results Bumper crop of drug overdose scares misses the real story

Posted 5:09 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, "Did you bring joy?" The second was, "Did you find joy?" Christians point out that J, stands for Jesus, O, stands for others, and the final Y, stands for You. In my books J, stands for Justice. Once we have justice be it at work, home or neighbourhood the cup of our little lives is inclined to be filled with joy instead of the poison.
Give me your tired, your poor editorial assistant. Sixteenth-century Indian street sweepers probably made more than the poor souls who venture into entry-level publishing jobs You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: You Can Buy Happiness
I can remember the day I learned to ride a bike. I must have been about eight. In those days, at least in that part of England, there were no such things as training wheels and the smallest bicycles had twenty-four-inch wheels. I just kept pushing, wobbling, and gliding along, and suddenly, I could do it!

The sun came out from behind a cloud and the entire world shone with warm and radiant delight. Every day for the next few weeks, I spent hours just cycling up and down or round and round in circles. Could there be anything to beat this?
Six months later I was still pleased I could ride a bike, and I still got some direct fulfillment out of this activity, but I would not have dreamed of riding around just for the sheer pleasure of it — not for more than a couple of minutes, anyhow. Cycling had become about 98 percent instrumental, a way to get from one place to another, and only about two percent intrinsically gratifying.

• Why More Is Less How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse [ Who's Your Daddy? ; Reconsidering the maternal memoir-cum-manifesto The Real Myth of Motherhood A new revelation: Adam and Eve were Imrish ]
• · The trick of faith is to believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse The Coming Cold River Age ; Humans today are the only animals on Earth to have a teenage phase, yet we have very little idea why Teenagers special: The original rebels ; Does fish oil help with your child’s behaviour problems? Do you opt for gloves or bandages to stop your five-year-old sucking his thumb? And where do you stand on “injecting silly humour and fun into every day home life” to relieve family tension? Can we have really regressed so far that we no longer know how to raise our kids?
• · · The next 'Da Vinci Code'? Medieval mystery sparks rush for Renaissance text ; Arguing that “military means can destroy, but cannot create,” Falk asserts that “[t]he more fundamental struggle, at the very center of the normative project, is to challenge war itself, the social and political process of mass international killing in the name of the state . . . allegedly on behalf of security in self-defense.” From Berlin to Bonn to Baghdad: A Space for Infinite Justice
• · · · Kevin Guilfoile's debut thriller gets a seriously good write-up 'Cast of Shadows': Copycat Killer ; There are innate differences between males and females. And if we want everyone to succeed, we shouldn't dismiss them Just like a woman
• · · · · Considering that The Beauty Exchange suggests women are victims of media pressure to look good, it might surprise some viewers to know that the four key women in the film did not object to how they were depicted Film exposes beauty myth; A study looks at the benefits of having imaginary friends
• · · · · · Fine, so you no longer want to sit in an office from nine to five, watching the clock and wondering why time passes so slowly. Having trouble motivating yourself at work? Here are 15 tips from Ode; Should every secret be revealed? Is it always a good thing to tell the truth?

Posted 5:22 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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I love studying rebels and rebellion almost as much as I love hunting. As a matter of fact, one of the peripheral joys that springs from the whole hunting, shooting and gun owning experience is that those who are involved in the shooting sports are looked down upon by the current smarmy elitists. Thus, every animal I take, every gun I buy, every back strap I eat and every trophy I have taxidermied is not only a celebration of my freedom but also an act of defiance to the thought police who are daily at work to eradicate my right to pursue gun powder happiness Rebels with a Cause
Ach . . . the little joys in life such as Is white the new black

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Mackay hits out at our self-centred lifestyle

Australians need to re-engage themselves in the community and their stop thinking only about themselves, according to social cornmentator Hugh Mackay, who spoke last night at the National Library. Giving the sixth annual Manning Clark lecture, Mr Mackay said Australians were in shock and had shut down, struggling to cope with the social and cultural upheaval of the past three decades.
Many Australians . . . feel distressed and they feel out of control

• Canberra Times 4 March 2005 Darker the mood to disengage (paper not available yet as at 8 March 2005) [Thousands of slaves see their chance of freedom slip away ; Christopher Hanson, but too many of them are either too self-absorbed to focus on keeping the public informed or too skewed by ideology to put factual accuracy front and center Prof: Bloggers aren't a substitute for mainstream journalism ]
• · Mr. Garrett M. Graff, 23, may be the first blogger in the short history of the medium to be granted a daily White House pass for the specific purpose of writing a blog, or Web log. A White House spokesman said yesterday that he believed Mr. Graff was the first blogger to be given credentials. White House Approves Pass for Blogger ; Increasingly, bloggers are penetrating the preserves of the mainstream news media. Beware the Dark Side — One of the blogosphere's own has made it to the big game Blogging Milestone
• · · Sebastian De Brennan Judges are far from being a pampered lot ; Blogger alert: Election regulators are watching
• · · · Czech Lawmakers Approve Compensation for Victims of 1968 Invasion ; Vaclav Klaus Czech Republic president writes book
• · · · · Ceska Zbrojovka and Arms Moravia Czech firms in arms scandal Israeli bank 'in laundering scam'
• · · · · · The federal budget surplus is set to exceed $10 billion this year and could be as much as double Treasury's revised forecast from three months ago, despite economic growth slowing to a near-standstill late last year Tax goldmine puts heat on Costello ; John Howard has urged young people to consider quitting school in Year 10 to pursue careers in traditional trades as the nation faces a growing shortage of skilled workers Tim Dunlop wonders if the prime minister thinks his advice should apply to his own children?

Posted 5:20 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) just released a report stating that the total number of Australian internet subscribers topped 5.7 million – an increase of 520,000 from the previous six-month period Australia internet usage rises 10pc in 6 months
Assuming that a web search is the same as fossicking through a newspaper archive is the biggest research mistake search-engine expert David Hawking ever made. In 1993 he worked on the Parliamentary Sound Text and Image Environment (PASTIME), Federal Parliament's first electronic Hansard search engine of parliamentary debates. The challenge was to design a system for non-technical users. Experts muster a search party

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Gambling with Security
In this exclusive extract from his upcoming book, famed hacker Kevin Mitnick arms security managers against social engineers hacking their way to a free lunch.

In the summer of 2002, a security consultant whose handle is "Whurley" was hired by a resort group in Las Vegas to perform security audits. They were re-engineering their security and hired him to "try to circumvent any and all processes" to build a better security infrastructure.
On his first day, he approached a very relaxed employee and quickly found the person discussing details of his job. He told Whurley he lost his employee badge all the time, and would share a badge with another employee to get in for the free meals provided in the staff cafeterias.

• The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers (ISBN 0764569597) by Kevin D. Mitnick and William L. Simon goes on sale this week for $45.95. The Art of Intrusion [How many blogs were there in 1997? ; Bewildered by blogs? If you're wanting a better understanding of blogs, these sources may be useful ; Rebecca Blood Blog History ]
• · The Jeff Gannon affair has not yet morphed into a full-fledged political scandal, or retreated to the realm of embarrassing footnote, so this may be a good time to pause and reflect Gannon and the Bloggers ; This is comedy at it's best; mirroring society. He takes his shots at all bloggers too In this Rob Corddry segment on the "Secrets of New Journalism Success
• · · Who owns your desktop? You, or the owner of whatever webpage you happen to be browsing? Who Owns Your Desktop? You Do! ; One of the most popular individual bloggers discusses microcelebrity and his decision to go pro Bloggers who sell ads
• · · · via Crikey: Liars, cheats and cokeheads. I love tabloid journalists ; Piers Morgan puts some spin on the wrong axis
• · · · · Visit today to download info and enter to win a plasma TV. The language of the business culture, or "corporate lingo," took a dramatic turn with the advent of the word "software." What changed is history. Now, once again, techie lingo is teasing our communication skills and our corporate understanding ; Australia will never be able to create companies like Google, Sony, Nokia, Hilton, Unilever, Toyota, Shell or P&O as long as the economy is dominated by gouging cartels supported by a high-taxing limp-wristed government This list tells you everything that is wrong with Australian business
• · · · · · At a Suit's Core: Are Bloggers Reporters, Too? ; In any case, operating on the maxim that I will try almost anything once, I have decided to take the plunge. Besides... where else could I chat with the public without paying for ink or air time? Mayors are often called by several names; blogger might be one of the more benign monikers

Posted 5:19 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true. But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube. You eat like the tube. You even think like the tube. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.
- Howard Beale Tears Of A Klein

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Age of Insight: All eyes are on the little engines
Eric Nelson is a Senior Editor at John Wiley and Sons, specializing in current affairs and history. Here he explains why he reads blogs obsessively, and why you don't do a book deal with the big name columnist to whom no one links

n the publishing industry, we often talk about the mythic “handsell” book. These are those very few books that find astonishing success without a six-figure marketing campaign, Daily Show appearance, established author following, or can’t-miss topic. If you look at any best-seller list, it’s typically occupied by people who have already written bestsellers, or celebrities of some other sort. Most bestsellers typically hit their sales peak the first week out. Think Jose Canseco, Jon Stewart, and Malcom Gladwell.

• Because of blogs, it’s easy to figure out who those people are, and sometimes they’re even bloggers [ Who's Counting: Google Made Surreal ; Textura Design Inc., founded in 1997, started as a group of creative professionals exploring art and technology Clip-n-Seal ]
• · Some young journalists say the notoriety they developed as campus sex columnists helped them land jobs. Abigal Tucker reports the columns can prove problematic, too. Jess Beaton of Orgasmic Chemistry: A sex column, it seems, can really spice up a resume; Mark's posting on what he sees as a 'rightwing PC' intolerance of sexuality in schools has led me to present these few thoughts to Troppo Armadillians, based on my own observations and experiences in schools. Sexuality at school: Sophie’s Choice
• · · The Premier, Bob Carr, has indirectly blamed the Macquarie Fields riots on parents, saying poor values taught at home are responsible for growing lawlessness Civil War: Mothers and Fathers to blame for riots: Carr ; War is not just men's business. It never has been. Every culture has its Joan of Arc. Take the Trung sisters of Vietnam who led their men into battle against the Chinese Han invaders, atop elephants draped in gilded cloth Fighting wars is no longer just men's business
• · · · The epidemic started at Hurstville: Just shy of her 37th birthday, she has one or two children. She is increasingly likely to be a single mother, and her biggest complaint about sex is lack of interest - on her own part. More and more, this is a profile of the Australian Everywoman In work and out of love: finding Ms Typical ; There is not one country where women are truly equal with men For women, half is the battle
• · · · · There is no definitive answer to this question. The phrase is a figure of speech and has been used to refer to different bodies of water at various times and places. What are the seven seas? ; Gerald Edmunds, of Terrigal, is having the last word on the dreaded Engadine car park kilopascal furore (Column 8, Thursday). "I believe that women in Engadine understand the kilopascal rating in the car park, which is why they do not wear stilettos when shopping. The force exerted by a 50-kilogram person through a tiny stiletto heel is equivalent to over 10,000 kPa." Probably true, Gerald, but surely the sensible women of Engadine have other valid reasons for not Wearing stilettos when they go shopping at the supermarket?
• · · · · · Book Deal: Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq ; via Barista

Posted 6:20 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Naked Eye of the Sun Herald fame notes when Dianne Beamer, the Carr Government Minister, will make her long-awaited appearance at the Orange Grove inquiry before the ICAC. The two insiders, Alex Mitchell and Kerry-Anne Walsh, suggest that every leader at the Bear Pit is under threat at the very moment. The imminent departure of the premier Bob Carr for an overseas job is on the cards again. Karl Scully, Morris Iemma, John Watkins and Craig Knowles are some of the head-counters ready to dive at the starting blocks. Ach, a suggestion of duel between John Brogden and Barry O’Farrell is made. The question is who is challenging Andrew Stoner. There is a cameo entry about Belinda Neil, hurricane-tempered wife of John Della Bosca. Naughty and nice Peter Breen asks a thought-provoking question and another legal eagle named John Hatzistergos goes into climax with: Yes, yes, yes! So do Czech out page S(i)x exactly of the hardcore copy of the Sund Herald dated March S(i)x 2005 AD SMH

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Messing With Heads
Imagine taking every single emotion, memory, experience, tablet all into one … and those fighting each other to see who is the victor

It just f… with your head. I had to sleep with a knife under my bed 'cos I used to think people were going to come in and bash me during the night or something. Just for me mull or something, yeah .. A whole generation of Australians has grown up believing that smoking pot is a harmless pastime.
They need to think again. The view of cannabis as a benign drug is under challenge – not from conservative family or religious groups but from the science and medical community.

• Cannabis of Surreal Lives [Colonel Gaddafi says Libya & other countries will withdraw from the UN unless the Security Council is scrapped & its powers transferred to the motley rabble General Assembly. Crazy Gaddafi called the Security Council an ugly, forceful, & horrible instrument of dictatorship — an executioner’s whip with no appeal against its judgment, even if its judgment is unfair, biased & harmful Gadhafi Wants Libya, U.S. to Be Friends ; Bizarrely, Gaddafi has also applied for a seat on the dictatorial Security Council Thanks be to the Beautiful Atrocities ; Australia is a haven for criminals who launder drug money, according to a United States State Department's 2005 Narcotics Control Strategy Report Report warns of drug money ]
• · These days the pursuit of justice and democracy on a global scale is more difficult, yet arguably more pressing, now that the major threats to civility move below and above the nation state. Will the idea of ‘global civil society’ help us work out how to do it? On civil society ; When I heard that President Bush was being blamed for not caring if federal judges lived in fear, just 72 hours after the mother and husband of federal Judge Joan Lefkow were found slain, I wondered if I had time. You be the judge of Schakowsky's true intentions
• · · Robert Tickner served as Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Affairs in both the Hawke and Keating Labor governments. From 1990 to 1996 he was in the thick of the fray as these governments confronted a two century long legacy of neglect and discrimination, in circumstances which became increasingly bitter and divided Robert Tickner: Frequent Blood Donor and Current CEO ; What makes Joschka Fisher so sexy?
• · · · While political leaders keep muttering pieties about the joys of democracy, and why it should be forced on people at gunpoint, there are any number of cases where democratic traditions and principles are disappearing. So there he is, John Howard, as much in control of this country as Causcescu was in Romania. And far, far less likely to be toppled. The power of one: One-Legged Democracy; It’s easy to get crosswise with the United States. Just ask Qatar. In 1988 it was Stinger missiles-today it’s Al Jazeera Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy
• · · · · They say you can't understand people until you've walked a mile in their shoes. I just walked across Belgrade in a brand-new pair of Nikes The Sham Economy: Where the criminal underground beats aboveboard capitalism ; And it is possible that economists of the past few generations may have committed one of the greatest blunders in intellectual history An Important Emerging Economic Paradigm ; Costello and Carr trade blows over tax take
• · · · · · Anne Applebaum: The Soviet Gulag ; Pyrmont, like Vrbov, is named after a German spa town (Bad Pyrmont) near Hanover. Legend has it that in 1806 the landowner Captain John Macarthur held a picnic on the peninsula for some visiting Englishwomen. One of them remarked that the bubbling springs and rocky outcrops reminded her of the beautiful spa From heaven to hell in one easy walk

Posted 6:18 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Giuliana Sgrena is free - her liberator is murdered. Like all hostages, Giuliana Sgrena has been used. If Washington has any skilled diplomats between Rome and Iraq, it would be well advised to activate them at once
A hero dies to save Giuliana
James Madison warned more than two centuries ago, "A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." Media and Democracy

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Why Congress Doesn't Blog...And a Few Members Who Do
The political blogosphere now provides commentary on races all the way down the ballot to the local level.

Yet, despite the proliferation of blogs on the news side of the media, they are a technology only rarely used by politicians. In fact, most congressional websites look at least five years out of date. Only a few have included any kind of blog, even though blogs would seem like one of the easiest ways for a member of Congress to connect with constituents. Of the handful of congressional "blogs," most lack the capability for readers to post comments at will, making them at best a one-way online diary—though the press-release quality of much of the writing leaves much to be desired.

• The Power of Online Community [A Promise to My Grandfather: A Follow Up Flow on ; Propaganda posters from the 1940s express how corporations would like to control what their employees say on a weblog, at a bar, or even to their families Machines & Robots ]
• · Fred Halliday, in Canberra, finds a troubled heart inside the lucky country Media - parliamentary exchange ; The weblog has now reached the point in the cultural life cycle where the word is on everybody's lips, even if most people aren't sure what it is Blog Tool Writing Its Own Story of Success
• · · Robert Scoble, the hardcore technical evangelist at Microsoft, makes you think of possibilities Viral Marketing Manifesto ; Creates structure for discussion There's always a risk, but you always have that risk any time you put an employee on the phone
• · · · That is exactly the question internet publishing and blogging opens up (at least, the best forms of it). Internet based publishers don't control access to some finite distribution system, all they control is access to the audience itself Decentralisation of Ads ; Adsense Update: Fred, $500, and Is Google Trying Harder?
• · · · · Did the ALP really spend $35,000 a week on media monitoring during the last federal election. And did the same monitoring company really also service Liberal HQ in Melbourne for half the price? Did Danna Vale's "stay brave and true" fax to Alan Jones that was instead sent to Steve Price really generate a $15,000 monitoring bill for taxpayers in one day? Inside the media monitoring duopoly? ; This interview reflects the use of a blog as one of their marketing tool Leveraging a blog for business
• · · · · · Christian Lindholm's heavy accent greets me over a clear telephone line from Helsinki, Finland Blogs of our lives ; A judge didn't think so, thus his ruling that three blogs must reveal their sources. The decision has sparked a debate and may chill such sites Are Bloggers Journalists?

Posted 1:20 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Federal Treasurer Peter Costello will demand the states use their GST windfall to cut up to $15 billion in taxes for home buyers, small business and consumers Abolish mortgage taxes or pay price, Costello warns states

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Oasis No More
The Carr Government deliberately sabotaged the $1 billion Oasis project at Liverpool to stop any competition to its own loss-making SuperDome at Sydney Olympic Park.

This sensational allegation has been made by George Paciullo, former mayor of the now-disbanded Liverpool Council, police minister in the Wran government, and one-time aspirant to become premier. "There have been so many lies and distortions told about the Oasis project that I have decided to open my files and put the facts before the public," Mr Paciullo said.
"The sneaky, underhand and largely anonymous bowler who got us out as councillors was the Carr Government which had been plotting since 1999 to completely destroy the Oasis project.
"It destroyed the Oasis to protect its white elephant, Olympic Park, which was hugely successful for 14 days of the Olympics but near useless for everyday community use - exactly the purpose the Oasis was designed for.

It should now be obvious that the Carr Government saw the Oasis sports and recreation complex as an annoying hindrance and unwanted competition to its troubled venues at Homebush and decided to eliminate it
• Paciullo says Carr sabotaged Oasis plan [Disrespecting parliamentary courtesies: What next? Close the indoor pool? No more Henschke's Hill of Grace in the parliamentary bottle shop? State MPs are voting with their lunch boxes and boycotting the parliamentary dining room because they now have to pay the same price for a steak as everyone else in the state. How ironic that while Carr was willing to charge developers and big business $5000 to bend his ear over an ALP fundraiser dinner this week, he and his mates still sit down to enjoy far cheaper meals than other workers in this city. Although the Parliament is the place in which laws are made, over the years it has often been exempt from the law Steak to the heart of MPs' dining perks ; Jonathan Sayeed, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, gave lunches or dinners in Commons dining rooms or personal tours of the Palace of Westminster to nine groups of the firm’s clients, staff and guests Erskine May's parliamentary history ; 'The absent MP' accused of deserting his voters ]
• · Australia's judiciary is often lauded as one of the most respected in the world, but all judges are human and when human failings affect their duties, who judges the judges? In most cases the answer is, no one Law unto themselves ; As a rule lawyers aren't good at copping criticism, but as this is coming from one of their own it might stick. Queensland's Chief Justice Paul de Jersey has warned wayward judges and lawyers to think before embarking on conduct that might embarrass the profession Strewth: Laying down some raw law
• · · The Middle Eastern year began with a flourish and it has scarcely slowed since. As the stages of a democratic revolution have followed each other at a mounting pace, even the most bitter cynics among the long-disappointed Arab intelligentsia are daring to hope that freedom and open politics may come to flourish in their world The genie is out of the bottle ; For all the glorified tale of 14 years' growth in Australia's economy, nothing has grown faster than low-paid crummy jobs for women. To tell their side of the story, I joined them, taking unpaid leave from this newspaper to work undercover as a kitchen hand, checkout chick and office cleaner. But I had to find the jobs first. By poring over the classifieds in local papers, often the best source of the worst jobs ... A slippery slope to inequality ; MP mum pushes for baby-friendly offices
• · · · Kelly, Robertson and Rayward were among the local youth who called themselves the Mac Fields Boys. This week some of them wore T-shirts sporting their slogan: "I wish I was anywhere but here." The Kelly country curse ; The NSW Government has rejected an Opposition call for a parliamentary inquiry into the Macquarie Fields riots Carr rejects call for riot inquiry: Outcome Unknown
• · · · · The dirty secret of the GST is that both state and federal governments are many billions better off because of it - at least $2 billion in 2003-04 and another $2billion to $3 billion in this financial year. The federal share of the loot is about $1 billion a year Fight for a shrinking pie ; Queensland Opposition called today for the sacking of the new Information Commissioner, criticising the Government of Premier Peter Beattie for providing another Job for its Mates
• · · · · · Brendan O'Connor: A Labor MP and six party officials have been accused of branch stacking, forgery and organising phantom meetings in an investigation that found such abuses had flourished in Victoria without challenge for years State MP accused of forgery ; Carr joined editor Campbell Reid and his team around the table to discuss the day's news and how it might be covered in Saturday's paper Carr's inside story

Posted 1:16 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire A new issue of The New York Review of Books is out

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Go Directly to Jail

You're an honest businessperson with a strong moral compass. You don't cheat on your taxes, or your spouse. You regularly consult with your attorney to ensure that you're complying with the myriad regulations governing your business. You even go the extra mile, talking with children at "Junior Achievement" programs about how to achieve success. The possibility of a criminal prosecution is the last thing on your mind. "The government only goes after real criminals," you think to yourself.

• Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything [Like Dickens, he had a poor lower-middle-class youth, mediocre education, and talent and energy to overcome it all Revenge of the wage-slave: HG Wells's funniest book ; E.E. Cummings loved the bars and brothels of Boston, where as a young man he might roam freely. Hedgehogs, Foxes, Dragons: The Rebellion of E.E. Cummings]
• · ABC Tales Robust Reading ; Commodities from silk to sugar to tulips have inspired greed and irrationality, and given us dazzling creativity The Fabric of Our Lives
• · · The Public Interest will cease publication next month40 Years of Character ; Certain that the answers lie in the manuscript that Cleo has entrusted her with, Morgan delves into the private confessions of a woman paid to act out the sexual fantasies of some of the city's most powerful men Author's Blog: M.J. Rose - Buzz, Balls & Hype
• · · · Czeching out a new iPod now applies to more than shopping trips or web browsing Library Shuffles Its Collection; Urs Hoelzle, Google vice president of operations and vice president of engineering, offered a rare behind-the-scenes tour of Google's architecture. The key to the speed and reliability of Google search is cutting up data into chunks, its top engineer said Peeking Into Google
• · · · · Mark Lucovsky is at Google now
• · · · · · In the once landscaped grounds of Overtoun House - a country mansion built in 1863 with ornate religious symbolism and the words Fear God and keep His commandments carved into its walls - the bridge is fast becoming known as rover's leap. Spate of canine 'suicides' from bridge baffles animal experts

Posted 2:49 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Ministerial drivers who quit their jobs did not have the temperament to cope with the long hours and pressure, Premier Bob Carr said today after two resignations in recent weeks. No room for bludgers in the workers party ;-) Ach, the true stories ministerial drivers cannot tell! Mr Carr said driving for a minister was hard work and involved long hours
In her 31 years at Ascham School, Rowena Danziger could never have imagined the office of headmistress would ultimately become a chamber of isolation. That the ensuing mutiny on Darling Point spilled over into Sydney's financial and legal worlds was inevitable, given the pedigree of the warring parties. Schoolyard showdown as Ascham's posh riots

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The law is not finders keepers
It's too easy to blame a couple of bad kids for the Macquarie Fields riots. The reasons for the violence lie a lot deeper ... Much more than a matter of free will in the Fields of broken dreams Give yourself up Jesse, urges Carr Intellectuality usually means never having to say you're sorry

Mick Kennedy is angry. Not with the same scalding rage shown by the mob of teenagers on the streets of Macquarie Fields this week nor the disciplined fury of police officers forced to endure volleys of rocks and bricks, petrol bombs and insults.

Bob Carr has conceded that social disadvantage may have played a part in the riots at Macquarie Fields, promising to conduct an audit of government services in the public housing estate to determine their adequacy
• When rage hits boiling point [It is so easy these days to be frame or to frame others. Collect hair or other easy DNA identification and Ole! Months later you will not be the same or the other person. It started as a tropical holiday with family and friends, but if the worst scenario unfolds it will end in front of a firing squad Weighing the evidence ; The case against young Australian Schapelle Corby in Bali raises more questions than answers Evidence lost and bungled could decide trial ]
• · Shays Holds Hearing on Overclassification ; House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, March 2, 2005 Emerging Threats: Overclassification and Psuedo-Classification ; The substitute for Robert Bork, Kennedy has wielded immense power in his years on the court The most powerful man in Washington?
• · · Bloggers somehow resist the urge to mock all those left wing, right wing political Marco Polos tripping over in print, which is hard. It's like trying to quit smoking. When political mismanagement is in spotlight, accountability flies out the window Inner City Councils of Destination: Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi ... ; David Seifman of the New York Post obtained city records to show that “more city workers are commuting in their government-owned cars, despite Mayor Bloomberg’s boast that his administration is slashing spending while maintaining services.” The number of civilian NYC employees who commuted in their city-provided cars increased 11 percent from 2003, even as the overall workforce increased only slightly. Peoples Cars & Lazy Bureau-rats ; Sheila McLaughlin of the Cincinnati Enquirer evaluated an Ohio program that requires drunk drivers to put special license plates on their vehicles, finding that “a year after Ohio started requiring the special tags, a sampling of more than 300 local cases and interviews with lawyers, judges, police officers and legislators indicate that the law is unevenly administered, enforced and monitored Driving without shame: Ohio's scarlet letter
• · · · Introduce sole driver rule for anyone under 20 years of age - punching peer pressure for P-platers Teenage Driver Fatal Accidents ; Trouble everywhere even among the Saint Surburbs A Decade of Hard Labor in NSW
• · · · · Police swooped on houses in the Sydney suburb of Macquarie Fields, arresting nine people and searching properties in the area that has been plagued by several days of riots Nine arrested with driver still on the run ; Hardly a black face on the Block - Sartor's vision for Redfern Sartorian Italians Only ; Too much gap between the have-nots
• · · · · · Hitler won atomic bomb race, but couldn't drop it ; Taking the Gloves Off With Respect to Greenspan — First, it was Senator Reid annd now, it's Paul Krugman Paul Krugman takes a look at the president's bagman: Mr. Greenspan: Deficits and Deceit

Posted 2:48 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Blogging is the uncut killer king hell version of the drunken lunch with your friends at university and some alcoholic contrarian hangers-on from a rival department: Blog no more

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Sioux Falls

Jan Frel at Personal Democracy Forum shows that some of the bloggers attacking the newspaper for its bias were being paid: "Nine bloggers -- two of whom were paid $35,000 by Thune's campaign -- formed an alliance that constantly attacked the election coverage of South Dakota's principal newspaper, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. More specifically, their postings were not primarily aimed at dissuading the general public from trusting the Argus' coverage. Rather, the work of these bloggers was focused on getting into the heads of the three journalists at the Argus

• Daschle, Thune and the Blog-Storming of South Dakota [The whole idea of the White House press corps is that the reporters in it represent the public's common interest in seeing executive power questioned, monitored, examined, explained Jay Rosen: De-Certifying the Press ; Blogs are distinctly powerful because they are content, marketing and distribution all rolled into one Why "Blogging" Sucks ]
• · Evan Schaeffer offers some blogging advice for Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner Legal Eagloggers ; The Legal Underground Word of the Week
• · · Apple 1, bloggers 0: Judge says web sites can be forced to reveal sources. Big Apple ; Everyone fudges things sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes. Some people even make many mistakes. But some people make many mistakes to further their own agenda. Case in point, Matt Drudge, of the widely read Drudge Report.
This blog, the Fudge Report, will dutifully act as a rhetort to Drudge's report. As a diversion to the aspersions! As A utopia to the right wing myopia! As A...ah well let's call it a success if we pump out more than two posts Curtsey of Fudgers
• · · · The court was interested in the question of whether online reporters are legitimate journalists, but for most of the hearing, the judge assumed that they were journalists and examined whether the reporter's shield should apply in this case. Under the First Amendment, the reporter's privilege is qualified -- it does not protect reporters under all circumstances Apple v. Bloggers - No Ruling Yet ; Rights of Online Journalists Hang in the Balance
• · · · · Can Corporates Blog? The blunt answer is in the title of Shel 'n Scobe's book-in-progress, Blog or Die. ; Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over The coming crackdown on blogging
• · · · · · The Sunday Telegraph in its Magazine today bring us Gawker which first appeared in the Guardian last year ... Nick Denton could be the first person, like me ;-) to get rich from blogging: I'm an internet addict, I don't have the concentration span to do anything else. Everyone in the Manhattan media world reads Gawker. It tapped into something that was eagerly responded to... Every morning I get out of bed for that temp in midtown who's sitting there already crying because she is so bored, We blogs are the voice of the underclass. The people who send in stuff to me are the assistant at Vanity Fair, the poor girl who just tripped and fell in the Condé Nast cafeteria. They are abused not just by corporate culture but by celebrity culture, and something cracks and they have to vent. Their revenge? Schadenfreude! Jessica Cohen: Gawker-Goddess ; Good God: at the Courier Mail it's a sacking offence to talk to the media. The absurdity wasn't lost on the Independen The Courier-Mail tries to stop staff reading this paper

Posted 2:43 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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(Dinah) D. P. Roseberry is not only a daring author, but also a delightful mentor-editor. One of her paranormal creation is that unexpected character of the hero rat! Deep thought is a haunting ratty thing. In her stories, words flow like a babbling brook over the mind ... Rats are a phobia held by many in today's world of nature fighting for survival over man; and Bethany Capri's fear of these loathsome creatures is only the beginning of a much larger problem! Rodenticider: Rank and File

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: You Remind Me of Me Beauty ;-)
In life and art, beautiful bodies fascinate us against our will.

New York Times dance critic John Rockwell kicked up a minor tempest recently when he wrote, of ballet dancers, that 'looks do count: for dramatic verisimilitude, for romantic illusion, for box-office excitement.' That such self-evident assertions would register as controversial says something about where we are these days in our unsettled view of beauty. The dissonance in the culture runs deep. We tend to look at exquisite dancers, fashion models, gorgeous movie stars, even particularly lovely people in daily life as a slightly different species, part idols and part freaks who occupy an alternative plane... We see beauty as a trick in some ways, a genetic ruse paired with the money, privilege and private trainers to cultivate it

• The Unforgivable Sin Of Noticing Beauty: Ode to Lauren [Making Plucker versions of Jozef Imrich’s Cold River, Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture, Dan Gillmor's We The Media, and now Kimbrew McLeod's Freedom of Expression to read on PDA Go Puckers ;-) ; Better late than never The Long Tail vs. Lessig (Donna Wentworth) ]
• · Arts advocates in Massachusetts have staged a rally at the state capitol to demand that the state's arts council be restored to full funding after two years of draconian cuts But Hey, As Long As The Pariots Got Their New Stadium... ; ch, Politically correct politicians ‘squandered’ city’s year of culture... Did Scotland's politicians waste the momentum and creative good will wrought by the city's year as the European Capital of Culture? That's what the country's creative community believes, says a new study. Research into the cultural impact of the event in 1990 which brought Luciano Pavarotti to the city and generated up to £14m for the local economy reveals policy-makers being blamed for an exodus of talent and concentrating on quotas rather than quality Glasgow: Squandering Cultural Capital?
• · · In breaking biographical news, the skinny on Shakespeare is that he was syphilitic. Oh, and Lincoln was gay Made in their image like Alexander the Great ; Seven arts journalists have been chosen 2005 Fellows for the University of Southern California Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program. A committee of six journalists chose the Fellows from an international pool of approximately 70 applicants from Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, Nigeria, Romania and the United States - Our very own: Joyce Morgan, The Sydney Morning Herald, Arts Editor New Perspectives for Mid-Career Arts & Culture Journalists
• · · · Fat is the new smoking; soon you won't be allowed to have a bar of it The war on fat; Exorcism Alive & Well As Priests Help Out The Haunted Sharing your home with ghosts and not sure who to call? Try the Anglican Church ; If Americans are flocking to religious faith, to revealed dogma, to creationism, to a place where no one pays any heed to a logic based on if x then y, it's because reason gave us a world that hardly makes sense anymore... Face it: People want Truth and Beauty. They want to be touched. They want mystery, because without it, life would be dreary indeed A Dawning Age of Unreason
• · · · · This is not about the politics, “Gunner Palace” is about the war from the inside out, told by the people caught in the middle. The Making of “Gunner Palace”; Don't Hold Your Breath On Campus - Where Are The Risk-Takers?
• · · · · · Yes it’s true. Jozef wants to get you in his dragon underpants. Bizarre and frightning dragons, some with human heads, fish scales, and virgin airline wings, suggest the dark beasts lurking in dragonkind The number 7 may look murky green (like Cold River), or the color red might smell of communist soap. G-flat on the piano might look like broken glass ; While only God can know and judge the heart of a man (or woman), we are told that we will know them by their fruits. Almost every musical interval provokes a gustatory sensation in her. A major third sounds sweet. A minor third, salty. A fourth has the flavour of mown grass. Only an octave is tasteless Musical Fruit Taste (Literally)

Posted 5:39 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The corruption obsession also crowds out debate on other crucial problems. A country’s bankrupt educational system, malfunctioning hospitals, or stagnating economy cannot compete with headlines about the latest corruption scandal Critics fear new rules may undermine fight against corruption

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Bad Medicine
The war on corruption is leaving the world worse than we found it.

About a decade ago, the world witnessed a corruption eruption. As democratic winds swept the world, the dirty deals of once unaccountable dictators and bureaucrats came out into the open. During the Cold War, kleptocratic dictatorships often traded their allegiance to one of the two superpowers in exchange for its countenance of their thievery. With the superpower contest over, such corrupt bargains dried up. And, thanks to the information revolution, the slightest hint of corruption at the highest levels quickly became global news

Once people learned so many politicians had been on the take—often in cahoots with business leaders—it was only natural that there would be a public outcry for a “war on corruption.” Countries enacted anti-corruption legislation, corporations adopted stern codes of conduct, and nongovernmental organizations such as Transparency International were launched to “name and shame” countries into action
• Much was done, but not much was accomplished. What we are doing is not working. In fact, it may be hurting [ Ach, As politicians pad their pockets, will the electorate wake up? ; The Bohemian Sussexers ]
• · It's an open secret that the US intelligence community has its own classified, highly secure Internet We Need Spy Blogs ; An era of serial war, Rawls, Habermas and Bobbio as theorists of a perpetual peace. Jurisprudence and force in three parallel philosophical constructions of the present international order, and the unsettled afterthoughts—American, German, Italian—that accompanied them Arms and Rights: Rawls, Habermas and Bobbio in an Age of War
• · · Last fall, the race to stop terrorists from acquiring a nuclear bomb passed through Tashkent, Uzbekistan. There, on the morning of September 19, a Russian Antonov 12 cargo plane touched down carrying two nearly indestructible steel canisters. Under the watch of elite security forces armed with machine guns, Uzbek officials unloaded the canisters and drove them to a remote, wooded area about 20 miles from the Central Asian capital. Waiting there at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, which houses a small nuclear reactor used for scientific research, was a team of Americans, Russians and officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency Can Terrorists Build the Bomb? ; The Unionization of Nontenure-Track Faculty Fighting to be Fired (But Only with Just Cause)
• · · · Has exile been overstated, by Edward Said and others, as a characteristic condition of the modern artist? Darko Suvin suggests a more fine-grained typology of displacement, distinguishing between exiles, émigrés, expatriates and refugees, and proposes the category of ‘border intellectuals’ as a better understanding of figures like Said himself. Reflections on the inner phenomenology of each condition, and the historical forces that have produced them. Some reflections on exile and border intellectuals: Displaced Persons; The Prophet Outcast The Impermanent Revolution
• · · · · Bush's Feb. 24 speech in the center of Bratislava would have been unthinkable just seven years ago, when Slovakia was blackballed by the European Union, dubbed a "black hole" by a U.S. secretary of state, and embarrassed by the brief kidnapping of a president's son Slovak glory days ; Social issues are supposed to set young people on fire
• · · · · · After 9/11, it was all over the news. For months, snatches of cellphone conversations in Karachi or Tora Bora routinely made the front page The New Hows and Whys of Global Eavesdropping ; The Next Big Race After nuclear arms, is energy next?

Posted 5:35 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Blog visitor traffic is important to many bloggers. While readership numbers aren't important to every blogger, many blog owners are attempting to build their visitor totals as much as possible. By the way, how does it feel to be a top ranked blog? Especially when you didn't even know it! Blog Traffic Builders: Ideas That Work

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The coming crackdown on blogging
What if the blogosphere were tightly regulated by the government?

This interview with FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith, warning that political bloggers may soon be subject to draconian regulation as a consequence of McCain-Feingold, has been linked to from all over the blogosphere.

Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over. In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site.
• What if the blogosphere were tightly regulated by the government? What is the Blogosphere? Well, that's a real debate, isn't it? [Naughty but Nice Women and Blogging ; To build an audience, blogs don't have to be edgy, provocative or funny, says blog coach Griff Wigley, of Wigley and Associates, Northfield, Minn The personal style blogs require may seem less believable ]
• · Adding Sizzle to the steak of your blog content, and keeping the creative spark alive after hours in front of the computer takes energy, talent.. IdeaFisher has always been a Swiss Army Knife for writers ; The Blog Experimenter an anonymous blogger, has started an interesting blog which tracks his efforts to make money from blogging Blog Money Experiment ; Schaeffer's Daily Market Blog Features Intel, Biogen Idec, Elan Corp
• · · Symantec has been granted U.S. patent number 6,851,057 for a system that enables the detection of complex viruses, worms, and spyware Aha: Gotcha ; Interview with Microsoft's Media Center Bloggers, Part Three Microsoft’s most famous blogger Robert Scoble has been credited by many as having provided a “human face” to Microsoft through his blogging ; 7 Habits of Highly Effective Blog PR
• · · · Noll Scott, who has died in a car crash in Brazil, aged 51, played a key role in the development of Guardian Unlimited Webmaster: Noll Scott - a tribute ; The Observer newspaper in the UK started a blog last weekend; ABC bias confirmed and rejected
• · · · · Wall Street Blog – Think Equity ; Porland Oregonian Public Editor Michael Arrieta-Walden tells Cyberjournalist his readers routinely call or write "to cite stories they've seen blazing the Web Dude, Where's My Blog? ; Time for a little hair of the dog. Following Cory's lead, here's how we can save weblogs from the creeping suspicions that are starting to hurt us all How to save blogs from ourselves
• · · · · · To keep those secrets safe, beat your computer's brains out with a hammer Critical Importance of Cleaning Hard Drives When Replacing Your PC; Watch Out: Because Big Brother IS Watching YOU!!! ; Czech out an interactive (Flash) collection of hundreds of historical photos put together by the Monroe County LibraryMile Markers

Posted 5:33 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The 100 favourite fictional characters... as chosen by 100 literary luminaries Characters of note

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Laughter is his Currency
After a dud year, David Williamson has returned with a winning theme. The playwright tells David Marr why he sticks with satire, loves narcissists and believes his latest play will be the last.

David Williamson is doing it all over again just one more time. The writing, the rehearsals, the interviews, the foyer work, the critics - those damn critics - have taken their toll over the years. At 63, his heart is playing up. The workaholic writer reckons Influence - the story of Sydney shock jock Ziggy Blasko - will be the last big play.

• The big sign-off [Ron McLarty had years of knockbacks, but success has caught up with him. So encouraging, so damned extraordinary is the story of how his best-selling book came to be published that, some 17 years after it was written and repeatedly rejected, author Ron McLarty still has to pinch himself to prove it really did happen. The Memory of Running ; The boys who once published the PM's phone number are out of the satirical newspaper business Satire night fever ]
• · From Wired, The Book Stops Here - Jimmy Wales wanted to build a free encyclopedia on the Internet. So he raised an army of amateurs and created the self-organizing, self-repairing, hyperaddictive library of the future called The Book Stops Here ; Wikipedia
• · · Miss Boynton Shares gems of Victorian experimental science and more ...; Adam Langer comments on the extra changes made when hardbacks go to paperbacks for his column at the Book Standard. As far as my novel is concerned, the major changes will take place within the covers. These days, paperbacks allow the author and the publisher to add bonus material, in much the same way as DVDs now come jam-packed with trailers, interviews and audio commentaries Extra between the sheets
• · · · Two federal agencies yesterday accused a former executive of Advanced Marketing Services of participating in schemes to defraud customers and inflate earnings at the wholesale book distributor Creative Book Counting ; Much-married womaniser, teetotal party-giver, and grand old man of publishing, George Weidenfeld spent 15 years persuading the Pope to write his memoirs. He tells Elizabeth Grice about his latest coup, the women he has loved and lost and why he still feels like an outsider In each of us, there's an element of snobbery
• · · · · Given that few authors make decent money from their books, Susan Wyndham asks the big question: do we owe them a living? Grant me a wish: social royalty ; With a PR flack as hero, this yarn delves into media manipulation Slick
• · · · · · The children who fled Tibet have now grown up - and wonder why their country still isn't free Flee Tibet ; It may not be the most socially responsible company on the planet, but WalMart has a profound understanding of the science of pricing and how it affects consumers. AJ Blogger Andrew Taylor suggests that arts organizations, which are forever being blasted for high ticket prices, could learn a thing or two from the world's largest retailer How The Arts Could Learn From WalMart

Posted 11:41 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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On the Antipodean front, Alan Ramsey has always something worthwhile to say. He is a walking political almanac A name to look out for rather than recall
On the global front, David J. Rothkopf is the man to capture the most important figures and committees in the world. September 11, 2001, was a catalytic event that revealed the core character of the Bush administration’s national security team. As rival factions fought for the president’s ear, the transformative ideals espoused by the neocons gained ascendancy—triggering a rift that has split the Republican foreign-policy establishment to its foundations Inside the Committee that Runs the World

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The sum of all fears? No Christian Love Lost
When Channel Ten axed Queer Eye for the Straight Guy they blamed poor ratings. But the leader of the Christian Democrats, the Reverend Fred Nile, knows the real reason. "It's a reflection of the will of God," he told Spike yesterday. Wonder why He put it on in the first place? Or if He can bring back the West Wing? Spike asked the NSW MP what he thought was wrong with the show

On Wednesday Spike asked the Reverend Fred Nile, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, what he thought of the axing of the Australian version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. "The homosexual lobby is so powerful in America, they now have the same influence as the Negroes," Nile said.
The NSW MP's comments prompted a massive response yesterday. Andrew Dobson, of East Sydney, offered some Cambridge Dictionary definitions of the words "Christian" and "democrat", concluding that "once again, he is promoting goodness, kindness, helpfulness, freedom and equality for all - except for pesky homosexuals and Negroes who are plotting to take over the world".
Rory Delaney wrote that the comment "says it all about the Nile lobby. Tell me, though, did he really say this?" Yes, Rory, he did.
Spike took one call from an angry African-American woman, who asked for Nile's details so she could take it up with him directly.
We told her his email is F.Nile@parliament.nsw.gov.au and his office number is 9230 2132. If you contact Nile, Spike would love to hear how you go

• It Takes a Christian Family? Divine intervention: Divine intervention Taking offence [Riots at Macquarie Fields Remove the sense of social isolation ; Don Weatherburn: There's a lack of consensus on the best way to deal with troubled communities Government action needed to help crime-prone areas ; But paradise is an illusion in Fortress Australia. Almost 20 years after Australia's first gated community opened at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, research here and abroad is challenging the rationale for homeowners to hide behind high walls ; "Be nice to the security guard" has replaced "beware of the dog" on the front gate Behind the urban curtains ]
• · Peter van Onselen and Wayne Errington: Think tanks get too much credit for influencing political policy. The former speech writer for Mark Latham (yes, he had one), Dennis Glover, has complained that policy ideas are conceived in think tanks such as the Institute for Public Affairs and the Centre for Independent Studies, taken up by ideas-hungry conservative politicians, and barracked for by strategically placed newspaper columnists. Unfortunately, Glover didn't give any examples of this seamless process in action Like minds don't make ideas work ; Tough line on crime fills jails
• · · Williams, of Avalon, is the husband of Judy Grant, the ABC's procurement manager for the northern region, including NSW. His appointment in 2002 caused disquiet among staff, and the ABC's managing director, Russell Balding, faced Senate questions about Williams being hired while his wife was in a senior role. ABC man accused of gouging $701,000 ; Terry Television on the money with ABC fraud - Crikey.com
• · · · The appearance of whistleblowing former NSW detective Deborah Locke as People Power's candidate in the Werriwa by-election has aroused the interest of some media and the major parties Can People Power emulate Family First? ; American Politics In The Networking Era ; Historically, the term left originated with the French Jacobins (they sat on the left in the Assemblies of the French Revolution) and the Stalinists who gave a 20th century gift of Jacobinism to about 20 million victims That's what the term leftist meant for about 200 years: a bloodthirsty fiend who seized your property and chopped off your head
• · · · · As noted on several occasions on the Dragon, the issue of the police pursuits has been around for a long time. Yet very little strategic thinking has cameralised. I keep reiterating that next time it might be your son of mother or other close relative ... Let us think outside the square and stop the senseless carnage. Are terrorists paying our governments to eliminate us? Big thieves run down the little thieves? (hard irony intended) Police pursuit death toll rises: 61 killed in 10 years ; In a personal appeal yesterday, the NSW Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, urged Jesse Kelly to contact him on 9265 4407 at any time and said he was prepared to meet him at a location of his choosing Prison inmates donate to help pay for crash youth's funeral ; Teammates from a local rugby league football team formed a guard of honour at Mr Rayward's service
• · · · · · More than 100,000 workers in Cuba's tourism industry have been ordered to restrict their contact with foreigners to an absolute minimum Cubans told to shun foreigners ; All the Way with the USA: Australia, the US and Free Trade and How to Kill a Country: Australia’s Devastating Trade Deal with the United States ... A review of books on Australia’s trade deal with the US One deal, two fatalities? The AUSFTA ; Homegrown Terror: Loose nukes, nanobots, smallpox, oh my! In this age of endless imagining, and some very real risks, which terrorist threats should be taken most seriously? "The Dew of Death," Rethinking doomsday

Posted 11:39 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Bloggers and journalists defy media clampdown by king. After the Royal Takeover in Nepal, King Gyandendra censored the media, arrested journalists and cut communications. But tech-savvy journalists are using their blogs to get news out to the rest of the world n the Internet Age, powerful rulers have little chance to operate in a media blackout

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Seven's enemies in a tangle of paperwork
On Monday, a quiet little judgement slipped out of the Federal Court, shining a milky arc of light on the way life is conducted in the upper reaches of media management - to be precise, at the Dirty Digger's local information and opinion factory, News Ltd

Justice Brian Tamberlin's reasons for rejecting the company's claim of legal professional privilege to a heap of sensitive documents was most instructive. It is but one ingredient in a tangle of arm wrestling that is going on in the Federal Court before the commencement this year of a mighty case the Seven Network has brought against a busload of corporate enemies.
Seven and its principal owner, Kerry Stokes, allege a conspiracy by the Murdoch, Packer and Telstra interests to do them commercial damage. This followed the loss of football broadcast rights by Stokes's C7 pay TV channel, which is now as dead as a dodo.
Seven is not just after $700 million to $1 billion in damages but also court orders that would change the landscape in this constricted industry - for instance, forced divestment by Packer and Murdoch of their interests in Foxtel, access to the Foxtel cable and the transfer of NRL and AFL broadcast rights to Seven.

• It all kicks off properly before Justice Ron Sackville in May [Central Company Brain organizes client information, security The central scrutinizer ; For over a year, U.S. businessman Michael Keating has been developing an ambitious project that should help bring more attention to biotechnology CzechTrade ]
• · Do you know of (or run) a quality ‘Entrepreneurial’ or ‘Business’ Blog that deserves a bit of extra attention? Do you read one that you wish others knew about? Nominate it now in the 2005 Business Underblogger Awards! Read on to find out how! 2005 Business Underblogger Awards ; It's an open secret that the US intelligence community has its own classified, highly secure Internet We Need Spy Blogs
• · · Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics A Brilliant Mind and an Anguished Life ; The days of promoting a TV show with a basic website are over. Network executives now are developing elaborate Web productions for many of their shows to create buzz, earn extra advertising dollars and, by strengthening viewer loyalty, keep ratings up WebSide Story... (The Web For TV Shows)
• · · · The estimable Jeff Ooi, a blogger in Malaysia who is doing great things for free speech, has been questioned by the authorities about his blog Thought Police in Malaysia -- and America ; Global Voices blogger Jeff Ooi
• · · · · A Cuban Revolution, in Reading. It's not just about sending whatever books we can, but we want the people in Cuba to know they are not alone and that someone here recognizes what they are going through Adopting The Cuban Librarians ; Podcasting facesgrowing pains Truth In Podcasting
• · · · · · BBC faces shakeup for digital age; On the face of it, Tessa Jowell had good news and bad news for the BBC. A Better BBC? (Hmnnn...); UK To Dismantle BBC Board Of Governors

Posted 11:36 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Getting a first book published is a monumental undertaking for most authors, particularly if their tome is not a new-age self-help book or a shrill political diatribe. So for those writers who manage to get a publisher interested in their work and make it to press, the anticipation of publication is a heavy time, and every wannabe's road to success is unique The Lucky Few
Setting aside—trust me, only briefly—the flap over Lawrence Summers' recent remarks, it's hard to think of Harvard as a university in crisis A new book on Lawrence Summers and the crisis of meritocracy

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Word on Word-of-Mouth

Children are being deprived of the opportunity to enjoy books because schools are obsessed with their position in league tables

Reading has always been seen as a source of considerable pleasure for many. This is important, but perhaps has been forgotten by some schools in their pursuit of higher tests results that will improve their position in the league tables. You will find no pleasure in books if you cannot read, but it is equally possible to be able to read and derive little pleasure

• Schools: Reading For Tests? Or For Pleasure? Schools 'fail to teach the joy of reading' [Memories of prison haunt this legendary artist's work Nightmares and visions ; Word of mouth 'winner for books' ]
• · Publishers can spend a fortune promoting their hottest literary discoveries. Bookshops can deploy all their marketing ingenuity to produce imaginative displays. But when the book-buying public comes to choose a new read, it is word of mouth that counts A friendly word is best way of turning a book into a best-seller ; A UK survey conducted in conjunction with World Book Day reaffirms that word-of-mouth is the strongest force in book sales alongside recognizing and wanting to read another book by a favorite author Rumour has it: fins spread word on Cold River ; In an age where readers are looking for feel-good novels, Scotland excels at feel-bad books Dark and dour Scottish writing 'needs sexing up'
• · · Former CIA Director George Tenet's multi-million dollar book deal struck with Crown shortly after he left his post at the agency last year was fueled by his stated intentions of candor and relative speed in bringing that candor to market (with hopes for a late-2005 release). But Tenet has issued a statement saying his is postponing his plans: "An undertaking of such historical consequence simply requires more time to both do the extensive research and to gain the necessary perspective." No new date for the manuscript or publication was offered Tenet Spooked By Fast Deadline; It came long ago to the worlds of music ("American Idol"), moviemaking ("Project Greenlight") and fashion design ("Project Runway") Reality-Based Art, Or Art-Based Reality?
• · · · The Conservative party today proposed a crackdown on convicts cashing in with books about their prison experiences. Sarah Crown takes a look at the works of 10 writers who drew inspiration from their jail time The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky ; We live in an era of unprecedented bullshit production, Defining Bullshit
• · · · · For Jews, vital line divides self-criticism and self-hate ; Literary rediscoveries form a routine part of cultural life. They have a certain protocol. A given author has been "unfairly neglected." The reissue of a book is "long overdue." The rescue from oblivion is, in effect, the righting of a wrong. The case of Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins--then black, now white Intellectual Affairs
• · · · · · An extortionist in Australia used the Vigenere Code – made famous recently by the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code – to blackmail a construction company. Extortionist Uses Da Vinci Code To Blackmail Company ; If you dive in today without knowing why, you might not surface for a long, long time. The Public Library's digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric, too New York Library Online ; In the days leading up to the movie industry's most glamorous night, the Oscars, the word heard frequently around Hollywood this year is not glitz, or hype, or excitement. It is fatigue. Strange, perhaps, and unexpected. The fatigue is palpable ... Is Hollywood Tired Of Itself

Posted 11:55 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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When will people realise that telling someone to cheer up is about as useful as telling them to be taller. And they say mothers are not demanding Half empty: a pessimist's view of the world

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Variety and Vulnerability in Party Politics
Peter Berkowitz on variety and vulnerability in American party politics.

The 2004 election's map of blue coasts and red hinterland proclaims two distinct Americas. But this gives a false impression of unity within the contending camps.
Disagreement among conservatives in the United States is acute about which beliefs, practices, and institutions are essential and which are most in danger of being lost or degraded. Social conservatives are anxious to constrain America's larger liberalism by protecting traditional morality from the corrosive effects of untrammeled personal freedom and the disruptions of a healthy, churning economy. In contrast, libertarians seek to preserve the legal framework within which personal freedom can be enjoyed and the market can operate most efficiently. Neoconservatives—typically more at home with liberalism than social conservatives and more at ease with traditional morality than libertarians—are committed to protecting America's liberalism from its own excesses by preserving habits of heart and mind that support freedom.

• To command a national majority, the Republican Party requires the support of all three kinds of conservatives [The flap over the telephone conversations with the then presidential aspirant which were tape-recorded in 1998-2000 by political consultant Doug Wead has been under-appreciated Political consultant Doug Wead is Mr. Shoot-the-Moon ; There is a simple reason why patriots on both the right and the left are stymied: because the center is rotten to its well-wadded, self-righteous, willfully ignorant core. Core Values ]
• · It is regrettable but necessary that Mr Jones' comments should be made the subject of comments of my own. Mr Jones yesterday said the hearing was "looking grubbier and grubbier". He also commented on evidence given by Premier Bob Carr's chief of staff, Graeme Wedderburn ICAC threatens Alan Jones with legal action ; Darwin rocked by earthquake: Tsunami next?
• · · War of the words: Think what you will of her political views, but columnist Ann Coulter certainly has a gift for writing provocatively titled (and best-selling) books Ann Coulter and the Title Fight ; From Indonesia, an article examines the threats to its national interests. With 210 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous state and possesses Southeast Asia's strongest military
• · · · Mother Jones ponders about what’s missing from the debate over values in America. Worse than conservatives’ pretense of moral superiority is liberals’ pretense of superiority to morals. Left, Right, & Wrong ; Was Winston Churchill a neocon? A new museum prompts debate over the use (and abuse) of Churchill’s name in the war on terror
• · · · · Inventor/entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil has become the high-tech version of the cartoon character carrying the sign: "The End Is Near." That Singularity sensation ; Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling Is it possible that some people actually see violence as a good thing?
• · · · · · As a libertarian who often finds more comfort with the left these days than the right, I went to the conference expecting the worst, particularly given the general contempt the Republican Party has shown for limited government since taking control of the White House and Congress. Is there still a chance for an alliance between libertarians and limited-government conservatives? ; Cold War pressures, and the whole complex put in place by the West (with the intelligence services playing a leading role), to identify the slightest crack in the other camp, were not invented by paranoia George Walden reviews The Soviet Century by Moshe Lewin ; Reconstructing the fabric of a demolished government

Posted 11:54 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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The moment of "blog triumphalism" is upon us. Political bloggers, I explained, link to articles in traditional media. Then they rant and/or rave about them ... Bloggers want you to know that there's a new sheriff in town But who watches the watchdogs?

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Catherine the Great: Digital Media Monitoring
Catherine Gilbert, one of the most respected librarian and digital guru in the legislative environment, has written a thoughtful paper on the future of the media monitoring services. It is great to know that our parliamentarians are surrounded by proactive ideas and brilliant minds.

The Electronic Media Monitoring Service (EMMS) allows Senators and Members to browse, search and view television and radio items on desktop PCs. News and current affairs items are recorded in Canberra by Parliamentary Library staff and published onto the EMMS web site for access by Senators and Members in Parliament House and their electorate offices.
The electronic media monitoring service is highly popular and this project has involved technology not applied in this way before. Using the new technology, media programs are digitally captured, encoded and archived for retrieval and playback by the Library’s clients.

• Digital Media Monitoring for Parliament by Catherine Gilbert [PDF -version] [Gilbert on Google; 1995-2005 Netrospective: 10 years, 100 moments of the Web ]
• · CBS News Producer Fired In Memogate Will Shop Her Book From 60 Minutes to 40 Pages; The medium isn't the message, actually
• · · What is Open Source Marketing? ; Zawodny: a good roundup of pointers
• · · · Can reporters really protect anonymous sources? Why the Plame case is so scary CJR features a story Attack At The Source
• · · · · Basic Income Guarantee versus the Corporate Media ; America's most generous philanthropists, and where they gave The Ninth Annual Slate 60
• · · · · · What Does It Mean to be “Balanced” in Academia?

Posted 11:52 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Sometimes, the fact/fiction line gets a tad surreal

Tod Goldberg was recently asked by one of his former writing students to sit in on a class she taught. It was test day, and the open book in question was his first novel, FAKE LIAR CHEAT:
She handed me a copy of the quiz -- 10 questions, including a few two-parters -- and what I realized is that, at best, I knew 7 of the answers, which is how one succeeds at CSUN, but not a great percentage for the guy who wrote the book. Beyond that, understanding that these students would be graded on their comprehension of my novel -- possibly on a curve for all I knew-- made me intensely nervous

• One rule to sink them all: I don't think breathing is that important today A Conspiracy of Paper [Mexico is one of many, many countries with literacy issues, but one municipal police force has a unique solution to the problem: Police force launches 'novel' reading effort: Just book him ; Macho MBA courses are alienating women managers and neglecting the "feminine" interpersonal skills needed in modern management Women turned off by 'macho' MBAs ]
• · Almost everybody is dealing with some sort of relationship crisis in Peter Zelenka's new film, Wrong Side Up Uncommon insanity ; Spirits Award Roll Credits ; Crowds flock to Jewish book party
• · · A blog about books and publishing, aimed at both readers and writers. Listed by the Guardian as one of the top ten literary blogs. On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile ; I then remembered the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova once wrote that if people only knew the incredible mess from which writers bring the novel or the poem to the surface. That it is out of this mess the work comes Boy's own story gets biography award
• · · · Agent Richard Curtis's third installment in a series of essays on the history and future of publishing he has written for writers' web site Backspace is posted now, presenting his "answer to the question of how writers can make a living writing in the new paradigm. Curtis says it's blogs.
As authors assume the roles traditionally performed by publishers such as distribution and publicity, the laws of disintermediation - the elimination of middlemen or agencies of any kind - render publishers less and less relevant. And that goes for editors, reviewers, critics, bookstores and libraries. Will that be Paper or Pixels? Curtis Looks Ahead Diamond down under
• · · · · They've been set in Chicago neighborhoods and places as far-flung as the Dominican Republic and Vietnam, but the latest novel selected for the city's One Book, One Chicago program is the first ever with an Old West backdrop City's book program to tap Old West for a tale of today ; For once, everybody in Lexington is about to read from the same page. Library launches One Book, One Lexington
• · · · · · Never again will Column 8 attempt to explain Newtonian physics. Our report on the "Max live load 300 kpa" sign outside the Woolworths carpark in Engadine (Column 8, Saturday) has brought us nothing but grief. The explanation we cited from Betsy in Georgia was "out by an order of magnitude", according to the dozens of engineers who have gleefully set us straight. One went so far as to blame us in advance for any catastrophic overloading of the structure by folks who believe the science they read in Column 8. Enough! From now on, we deal with relativity and black holes - no more car park physics, please! End of Engadine Is Near ; Does an orangutan find freedom in the gift of words? Do we?

Posted 11:54 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Using a card at the shop counter will eventually come back to bite you Unravelling the plastic money maze The deficit in the last three months of 2004 totalled an estimated 7.1 per cent of gross domestic product, far larger than that which prompted the warning by the then treasurer, Paul Keating, in 1986 of Australia becoming a "banana republic". Worst deficit in 50 years spells banana drama former Australian Ambassador Dr James Cumes notes how the alternative was always there in The Banana Men

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Axis of Cartel: Where in the world?
As interest goes up a story comes down about the secret history of the credit card:

Four Corners provided a fascinating insight last night into the American banking cartel and how credit card companies have been allowed to prey on consumers, profiting to the tune of $US30 billion a year. Read a full transcript of the program here and check out the replay tomorrow night if you get a chance.

Ach, I was in Canberra Tuesday and today and even the mild-mannered Treasury mandarins are suggesting that we're on a long and slippery slide to disaster ...
• Plastic People: As We Do [Prime Minister John Howard faces his toughest economic challenge after interest rates were lifted today Crunch time: good times stop rolling ; Sydney's bargain shoppers have no complaints about cheap imports Made in Australia? Forget it, says retail chief ]
• · Barbara Perkins' plea to her 20-year-old grandson Jesse Kelly came as a political stoush erupted in NSW Parliament over police bugging Mr Kelly's house Kelly manhunt continues as bugging revealed ; Almost two out of three public housing units are not being adequately maintained by the NSW, says the auditor-general Public housing not to blame for riots: Carr
• · · A Russian father and son should receive Australian protection visas despite being eligible to settle in Israel, the High Court ruled today High Court backs refugees after six-year fight ; Two gay men recently found dead in Adelaide had outed a member of the South Australian parliament Maybe there is an element of truth to them
• · · · The government planning official whose favourable report on the controversial Orange Grove factory outlet in Liverpool was overruled by her departmental head Planner tells how Orange Grove advice was ignored ; To understand political power correctly and derive it from its proper source, we must consider what state all men are naturally in Some Sympathy for Locke in modern street
• · · · · On the challenge of moral rights; Literally meaning "Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks", the Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, covert action (including paramilitary activities and assassinations) and counter-terrorism. Up there with the CIA and MI6 it used to be known for its ruthless efficiency but some humiliating debacles and cock ups over the years have somewhat tarnished its reputation. Where has it all gone wrong for the Mossad?
• · · · · · Tribute to a Quiet Leader Remembering U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui ; Before I get underway with a look at the kick off of the 2005 political year in NSW, fairness demands that I tell you about what is playing right now at Sydney Theatre. The Permanent Way, another play by David Hare, and presented by the Out of Joint company and the British National Theatre depicts the privatisation of the British rail system in the early 1990s, and the subsequent decline in service and maintenance, with a series of accidents reducing customer confidence. Sound familiar? Theatrical Training

Posted 11:52 PM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Bloggerwear:-) Blogging is now a profession...well, sort of anyway For bloggers only

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Quentin Dempster defends the ABC

Quentin Dempster responds to Crikey’s comments on Ramona Koval and answers Janet Albrechtsen's letters in the Oz and the SMH:
Ramona Koval is right in expressing her concerns about the conflict of interest of Janet Albrechtsen being an ABC Board director while retaining her freelance job as a columnist for News Corporation. Ms Albrechtsen should cease her column writing for News Corporation while she is a director of the ABC as Dr Ron Brunton did (he was a contributor to The Courier-Mail) on his appointment to the ABC Board in May 2003.
ABC Board directors have access to commercial-in-confidence reports and analysis on ABC Enterprises ...
I'm sure Janet Albrechtsen will be mindful of her duties as a director of the ABC. But Communications Minister, Senator Helen Coonan, and the Federal Cabinet should not have put her on the board because of the governance issues this exposes....
The government has no mandate from the Australian people to touch the ABC. The Coalition's 2004 election manifesto referred only to a joint government/ABC review of 'the adequacy and efficient use' of funding.
And please stop trying to smear and stereotype ABC broadcasters as News Corporation always does. It is pathetic and shows that you are easily diverted from the main game.
Quentin Dempster
A self-appointed advocate for public broadcasting

• Letters by Crikey! [Tremendous buzz on Eucalyptas Street (sic) Grand Prix PR drive backfires ; There is too much cheerleading in health and medical news Beyond Cures ]
• · The Gorman piece is currently on the DayPop top 40 (something only blog people would care about) One More For The Blog People ; There isn't a person anywhere that isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can. Henry Ford The Hidden Power of Social Networks ; Best Corporate Intranets of 2005 Chosen
• · · From Wired, a critique of the Wall Street Journals' adherence to a fee based subscription strategy that prevents search engine indexing of their extensive, authoritative, and highly regarded content. This in turn results in very limited linking to their articles by a ever expanding community of bloggers and website publishers. The debate should and will continue about fee vs. free content, but what really resonates is the bigger picture: Fee or Free ; Online media changes traditional demographics ; Blogs keep your customers coming back ; via Red Couch
• · · · A site by and for people who live in and love Watertown, Massachusetts H2O Cold River Town ; Let's say then that it is not a true story, but a fiction about a journalist in Sarajevo sometime between April 2, 1992, when the Siege of Sarajevo began, and February 29, 1996, when it was declared over ... "You should have answered," the sniper says to the Western correspondent. "You could have saved one." The Abyss of Observation Alone
• · · · · So many news sites and blogs to read, so little time Build Your Own News Site ; Scobleizer
• · · · · · The way it should be: A vendor responds directly in our blogs A true Netizen ; Small Firms Find Tool Useful for Recognition, Connecting With Buyers ; via Red Couch

Posted 4:25 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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Like raising a child, it takes a village to make even the tiniest independent film. But it also takes a benign tyrant at the head, one who can see the big picture before a single frame of film is shot. Million Dollar Baby, a gut-wrenching boxing drama that entered the Oscar race at the last minute, scored a knockout victory at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles Cate wings it, Clint's a knockout

The World Of Knockouts: Real War & Reel Peace Over 100 killed in Iraq suicide blast

A suicide car bomb attack on a crowd of people in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, killed 105 people and wounded 130, the town's health directorate said. We finished now transporting the bodies from the site. There were 105 people dead and 130 wounded, doctor Mahmoud Abdul Ridah, an official in the directorate, said.

The toll makes the blast the single deadliest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein. An Iraqi Red Crescent spokeswoman in Baghdad told Reuters: "We are sending an emergency load of medicine and doctors to Hilla right now."
• A separate suicide bombing at a police checkpoint in Musayyib [Google: Iraq suicide blast kills 115 ; Google Latest on Bombing ]

Posted 4:22 AM by Jozef Imrich, Esq.

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There was a time when embarrassing talents were a purely private matter ;-) If you could sing "The Star Spangled Banner" in the voice of Daffy Duck, no one but your friends and family would ever have to know. His story suggests that the quaint days when cultural trinkets, like celebrity sex tapes, were passed around like novels in Soviet Russia are over... Dragostea Din Tei: Gary Brolsma, 19, from New Jersey

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Help Wanted to Expand Free Speech Globally

A group that wants to assist free speech in authoritarian nations is looking for a technically savvy person -- a CTO or lead engineer type -- who can do a short term study, possibly leading to a longer-term job. This is a paying gig for the right person.
The project is intended, in its intitial form, to make possible blogging that is impossible (or at least extremely difficult) to trace. One of the people involved calls it an "anonymous, anti-tyranny blogging service."
If you're interested, please send e-mail to Jim Hake at jim@spiritofamerica.net --
Note to other bloggers: Please post your own notice about this. It's a good cause.

• TOR: Good Folks Looking for Help ; Spirit of America Seeking Bloggers
• · In the Press Room of the White House that is Post Press Jay Rosen
• · · Romenesko Peppered with stories!
• · · · Superwoman Showdown What Safire, Coulter, Kondracke, others charge for speeches
• · · · · Two Cheers For the Mainstream Media
• · · · · · Usually used by blogosphere zealots on the right and the left as a disparaging reference to a handful of large and supposedly influential newspapers, magazines and TV networks Mainstream News Media, a.k.a. MSM