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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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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

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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