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Things are seldom what they seem: media dragon masquerades as blog ...
Blogs allow you to share your opinions and expertise with the world. Writing a blog is like writing a public, online diary. If you like to share your opinions, your hobbies or your skills with others, why not write a blog? Talk to the world : The Man Who Sold the Cold War River

Interactive beats static
A blog is also a powerful business networking tool, she says. Blogs fit into the social networking tools and many will develop global networks with like-minded people.

THE hype over blogs focuses on gossip and radical politics. What many people miss is the power of the blog as a marketing tool for small business and an alternative to e-newsletters.
BUSINESS BLOGS
workingsolo.com.au
blog.completepotential.com
trevorcook.typepad.com
www.benjaminchristie.com
www.nobledentist.com.au/blog/index.php
www.frankteam.com.au/blog
blog.nowhiring.com.au
www.barrett.com.au/blogs/suebarrett
lukegoodwin.blogspot.com
Blogs offer superior features to static websites, sometimes cost nothing and are easy to use. They also increase a company's chances of being found in web searches, saving money on search engine optimisation.

• Media Dragons and blogs save time and energy; [Idris and I have innate insurmountable difficulties: I'm feminist and he's a health food enthusiast, all I want to do is eat biscuit after biscuit, he won't eat sugar, wheat, eggs, milk, or processed food Best personal blog 2007; Slav Andy Warhol claimed everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. Warhol was well aware of the media circus in the 1960s, but he may not have known that 40 years later people would become famous for being a reality show villain, blogging about celebrities or stepping out of an SUV sans undergarments. Everyone has a blog these days it seems--TMZ, Perez Hilton, Gawker, Huffington Post, Drudge Report, the Fug Girls. But the way to go from blog obscurity to infamy Fifteen Minutes Of Infamy]
• · The report observes that blogging is growing as a tool for promoting not only online engagement of citizens and public servants, but also offline engagement. It describes blogging activities by members of congress, governors, city mayors, and police and fire departments in which they engage directly with the public. It also describes how blogging is used within agencies to improve internal communications and speed the flow of information. Wyld develops a set of lessons learned and a checklist of best practices for public managers interested in following in their footsteps. He also examines the broader social phenomenon of online social networks and how they affect not only government but also corporate interactions with citizens and customers businessofgovernment@us.ibm.com The blogging revolution: government in the age of web 2-0; SQL Scalability Experts Launches Katmai App Compat Blog
• · More quickly than most anyone imagined, blogging is growing up. From the blogosphere's anarchistic roots, a professional cadre is emerging that is creating an industry whose top-performing businesses now earn serious money. Blogs are turning profitable; INVESTIGATIVE ORIGINAL BLOG REPORTING ON JAMES DOBSON comes via TMV co-blogger Shaun Mullen on his own excellent blog Around The Sphere Blogging Roundup October 29, 2007
• · · POLITICIANS are better equipped than judges to determine the appropriate balance between freedom of the press and protection of sensitive information before the courts, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says. Press freedom up to politicians - Ruddock;When it comes to disasters, no one does it better than California. California wildlifes: Climate change or not?
• · · · What People Search For - Most Popular Keywords
Millions of searches are conducted each day on popular search engines by people all around the world. What are they looking for? A number of major search engines provide a way to glimpse into the web's query stream to discover the most popular search keywords or topics. Searches; Technoratis
• · · · · There are no true readers today, only would-be writers -- Blogs changed all that. Blogging tools are as easy to use as email, and importantly, cost nothing. Type your words, press a button and your blog is updated Everybody Writes; Appropriate scaffolding and careful seeding of content will prove more useful. A complete taxonomy, for example, may overwhelm a small set of potential early adopters. Is Emergence (aka Messy) a Problem in the Enterprise? Is There a Midddle Ground?
• · · · · · Bill Ives Central European Photography 1918 - 1945; Tom Lehrer on Sociology on YouTube

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Life is not about fairness and you will only drive yourself mad trying to find it all the time - Today, I can’t decide, Czech beer or a glass of Australian red …
Ach ... after the entire week of colourful events in Canberra at Bentley Suits and episodes spilled by the Nissan NXR which leaked more oil than Sadam Hussein’s oil wells … it was nice to come back to Sydney in one piece …

Young, Eastern, working class, dirty, rude and sexy Also note the way HarperCollins announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Jeff Sharp's NY film production company Sharp Independent to collaborate on the development and production of motion pictures based on Great titles like Cold River Stories are central to human intelligence and memory. Cognitive scientist William Calvin describes how we gradually acquire the ability to formulate plans through the stories we hear in childhood. From stories, a child learns to ‘imagine a course of action, imagine its effects on others, and decide whether or not to do it’...Cognitive scientists have established that lists, in contrast, are remarkably hard to remember. Silver River: the beat goes on and on …

Arts and Science in Action & Theory Best Magazines Revealed

In this ever digitalizing age, it's great to see there is still a role for great writing, great photography, great art design and great production values. The magazine market continues to innovate and excite. I thought I'd share my current top ten with you - some brilliant examples from the US, Europe and New Zealand...

• Top Ten; [The success of online participatory media—video-sharing sites and corporate wikis alike—depends on the quality contributions of a small core of enthusiasts How companies can make the most of user-generated content ; One sees strange fantasies in the water . . . The publicity-shy property magnate Denis O'Neil has had to step up to the ring as residents oppose his plans for a marina at Rose Bay The Reluctant Millionaire: Is Media Dragon emerging from a media Ice Age? ]
• · The Minister for Arts and Sport, Senator George Brandis, has released further details of some important enhancements to the Government's new Australian Screen Production Incentive package, which was announced in the 2007-08 Federal Budget (see 2007 WTB 19 [795]). The new package includes a Producer Offset and a Location Offset MORE DETAILS ON NEW FILM INDUSTRY TAX INCENTIVES ; The arts and Letters Members Profiles
• · Before you become a critic, have you dared to act? Trust life to take you where you need to go. The most successful are those who act for others -- and have stopped counting. Be too busy to complain. Make your wishes worth fulfilling. I feel that in art as in life, the more you know, the better your opinion; Your secret is safe with Us and Media Dragon Dumpster Diver Discovers Stolen Artwork
• · · The Rotterdam Natural History Museum has appealed for somebody -- anybody -- to give it a single crab louse for its collection, amid fears they may be dying out. It does#not mean that small and unpopular insects are less important scientifically; THE last stands of Sydney's blue gum high forest could soon be gone if scientists can't find a way to combat the spread of an insidious insect infestation spreading through three states Bird and bug a deadly threat to gums
• · · · Berjaya Group Bhd has launched a legal action against the administrator of its once-listed CarLovers Carwash for keeping it in administration for three times longer than necessary and this had cost the company millions of dollars, "The Australian" newspaper reported yesterday Berjaya Launches Legal Action Against Carlovers' Administrator; ONE of John Howard's best mates and business confidants is embroiled in a multi-million-dollar insolvency dispute involving his son-in-law PM's mate in insolvency dispute
• · · · · An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. Plutarch said that in Greece about 2,000 years ago. Isn’t it time we learned? Because that’s the threat we’re facing If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people. Have an Escape Route ; Writing in Foreign Policy, Drezner and Farrell (2004) hit upon an amazing reality of modern life. Today, unlike at any time in the advance of history, people simply no longer need to leave their houses to participate in a revolution. With the advent of new technologies, new means can be used to foster online engagement, in both the individual and collective sense, and to create new dialogues between government and citizens (Reece, 2006) Overcoming public speaking surprises
• · · · · · Everything about freedom in the world has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, except the way we forget about it Berlin Wall ; Central Europe is a fascinating place and I should know, I come from there. Ravishing countryside, hospitable people and men who wear nothing under their skirts Living art

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Things are seldom what they seem: poor masquerade as rich ... Jozef Imrich is nothing if not rich.

I can spot a revolutionary from 100 paces. First clue: Everyone else thinks they're crazy, dangerous or ridiculous.
-Anita Roddick

George Will is a very dangerous writer and a man who is not freaked out by age ;-) Being rich isn't all it's cracked up to be

Enough, already, with compassion for society's middle and lower orders. There currently is a sympathy deficit regarding the very rich. Or so the rich might argue because they bear the heavy burden of spending enough to keep today's plutonomy humming.

Furthermore, they are getting diminishing psychological returns on their spending now that luxury brands are becoming democratized. When there are 379 Louis Vuitton and 227 Gucci stores, who cares?

Citigroup's Ajay Kapur applies the term "plutonomy" to, primarily, the United States, although Britain, Canada and Australia also qualify. He notes that America's richest 1 percent of households own more than half the nation's stocks and control more wealth ($16 trillion) than the bottom 90 percent. When the richest 20 percent account for almost 60 percent of consumption, you see why rising oil prices have had so little effect on consumption.

Kapur's theory is that "wealth waves" develop in epochs characterized by, among other things, disruptive technology-driven productivity gains and creative financial innovations that "involve great complexity exploited best by the rich and educated of the time." For the canny, daring and inventive, these are the best of times — and vast rewards to such people might serve the rapid propulsion of society to greater wealth.

But it is increasingly expensive to be rich. The Forbes CLEW index (the Cost of Living Extremely Well) — yes, there is such a thing — has been rising much faster than the banal CPI (consumer price index). At the end of 2006, there were 9.5 million millionaires worldwide, which helps to explain the boom in the "bling indexes" — stocks such as Christian Dior and Richemont (Cartier and Chloe, among other brands), which are up 247 percent and 337 percent respectively since 2002, according to Fortune magazine. Citicorp's "plutonomy basket" of stocks (Sotheby's, Bulgari, Hermes, etc.) has generated an annualized return of 17.8 percent since 1985.

'Positional economy'

This is the outer symptom of a fascinating psychological phenomenon: Envy increases while — and perhaps even faster than — wealth does. When affluence in the material economy guarantees that a large majority can take for granted things that a few generations ago were luxuries for a small minority (a nice home, nice vacations, a second home, college education, comfortable retirement), the "positional economy" becomes more important.

Positional goods and services are inherently minority enjoyments. These are enjoyments — "elite" education, "exclusive" vacations or properties — available only to persons with sufficient wealth to pursue the satisfaction of "positional competition." Time was, certain clothes, luggage, wristwatches, handbags, automobiles, etc. sufficed. But with so much money sloshing around the world, too many people can purchase them. Too many, in the sense that the value of acquiring a "positional good" is linked to the fact that all but a few people cannot acquire it.

That used to be guaranteed because supplies of many positional goods were inelastic — they were made by a small class of European craftsmen. But when they are mass-produced in developing nations, they cannot long remain such goods. When 40 percent of all Japanese — and, Fortune reports, 94.3 percent of Japanese women in their 20s — own a Louis Vuitton item, its positional value vanishes.

James Twitchell, University of Florida professor of English and advertising, writing in the Wilson Quarterly, says this "lux populi" is "the Twinkiefication of deluxe." Now that Ralph Lauren is selling house paint, can Polo radial tires be far behind? When a yacht manufacturer advertises a $20 million craft — in a newspaper, for Pete's sake; the Financial Times, but still — cachet is a casualty.

'Marks of opulence'

As Adam Smith wrote in "The Wealth of Nations," for most rich people "the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves." Hennessy understands the logic of trophy assets: It is selling a limited batch of 100 bottles of cognac for $200,000 a bottle.

Enough, already, with compassion for society's middle and lower orders. There currently is a sympathy deficit regarding the very rich The Man Who Sold the Cold Rich River; A Lexus In Every Garage

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It seems everyone wants to get on the innovation bandwagon, and Media Dragon is no different. Why innovation matters

There's a writer's trick for getting a grasp of large stories. You follow one person around and tell the story through his or her eyes. ... Turn off the television, turn on your brain
Being a citizen of a democracy means paying attention to what is relevant

LAST WEEK I flipped on CNN after I got home from classes, expecting to hear the latest update on Iraq, or what was going on in Turkey after the first Islamist president was elected after decades of secular rule. Instead, I watched "the most trusted name in news" excitedly read off the ever-so-taboo details of now former Senator Craig's star-crossed bathroom romance. Then, CNN updated me on the astronaut love triangle. For a moment I felt as if I were back at my high school cafeteria busily gossiping over the tawdry details of last weekend. Surely these stories rank last in relevance and importance to domestic and world affairs.

• Media of Schadenfreude; [I am astonished that some people (and they are not all economists) still believe that consumer decisions are rational and not emotional. Yet here are two more compelling reasons why this is just not so; one from an English philosopher and the other from a German psychologist Go with your gut; Jozef Imrich is a Czechoslovak Australian struggling with his own humanity and his contradictory persona of an iceman, a fascinating amalgam of hot and cold ;-) International Bookshops and Cold River ]
• · If you're looking for a job, here's a new way to stand out from the pack of prospects. The hottest way to land your dream job is to write a blog. Blogs Recommended For Job Seekers As Best Way To Stand Out; It wasn't the subject of Scott's story that stood out; it was the way he was telling it on his LaughingSquid blog. He reported the story by updating the ... Journalism is Burning Or How Breaking News is Broken
• · · Ha ... The weirdness that is Burning Man; AT 107 she is probably the world's oldest blogger and cyber granny Olive Riley may also lay claim to being the oldest YouTube user. World's oldest blogger
• · · · Enterprise Blog and Wiki Success Story from Traction Software - UK’s National Health Service (NHS) Orkney Bill Ives; Digital exchanges Coming to your inbox near you
• · · · · Charter 77 - Same as 69 only you get more explosive memoirs Why we have sex; There is a great moment in Hari Kunzru’s novel Transmission when a young Indian woman working in a Bombay call centre, finds she has developed an Australian accent as the result of mimicking the customers she speaks with everyday. Consumer advocate Paul English has started the Gethuman movement. His website lists the keys that you need to press to talk to a real person on many business and government phone numbers... Human Touch

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It seems there is no end to rise of the Google phenomenon Rise and Rise of Google

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It is official, Central Europeans are huge readers of blogs, many downloads of Media Dragon in the past few weeks, and we read that even books like Cold River are popular ... Czechs read an average of 16 books per year, putting the country in the top three in Europe in terms of readers.



More than 80 percent of Czechs go through at least one book per year, according to the poll done by the National Library and the Institute of Czech Language and Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Sweden and Finland have similar numbers. Czechs on average keep about 274 books at home and spend about 1,300 Kč ($67) per year to buy new books. Big home libraries the rule, not the exception - in the thick of a literary movement, Czechs are some of Europe's biggest readers

Australia’s experience with multiculturalism may be an interesting reference point for Europe and the Czech Republic. Mingling of peoples of different heritages and cultures in Europe has not always been positive. Throughout history, the conquest of various peoples and places has often resulted in oppression and exploitation of minorities.

Yet multiculturalism is of growing significance, with the development of the European Union and the Schengen Agreement, which gives EU residents more freedom to travel quickly across country borders. There’s a new wave of economic migration across Europe, and it affects all of the countries. Australia's history with immigrants may help the Czech Republic and the rest of the EU