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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Google: Search the contents of the book

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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