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Most of us don't like risk and uncertainty. That's too bad, because there's no shortage of either.

The free world has a responsibility to help Cubans mastermind a "velvet revolution" of their own Castro vs. Cuba

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Young man Luther
In the first of two articles on The Latham Diaries David Burchell discusses the relationship between politics and the media

I ut off buying The Latham Diaries when they were first released in mid-September. There are some journalists and novelists for whom writing appears to be a kind of therapy. Their plan, it seems, is to ‘work through’ their anger, traumas and personal disturbances on the page, the better to fight through the fog of their own complicated personalities to the glimpsed rays of sunshine beyond. I’ve got no particular problem with this approach to self-help, except one. If you insist upon using art as your therapy, hang the results on your own wall; don’t ask me to hang it on mine.

• The Latham Diaries [I've been trying to get Tony Harris, friend, some time colleague, Auditor General and Fin Review columnists to post on Troppo for some time. He sent me the fantastic piece you see below the fold - which he published in the Fin on Saturday. Bob Carr, Marcus Aurelius and PPPs ; A Former Police Chief Calls for Drug Sanity ; Elections Around the World ]
• · John von Doussa - Democratic Audit of Australia, Australian National University Human rights and national security ; John Quiggin We will find ways of getting by without cheap oil and coal Price matters
• · · How can a country that victimises its greatest living writer also join the EU? Turkey: Salman Rushdie ; Beattie moots tax on interstate migrants
• · · · Only 9 per cent of Australians attend church The future of Australian secularism ; Overtly Christian parties might be polling modestly, but their influence is broader God and the New Zealand 2005 election
• · · · · A review of private rental support programs: final report ; Giving Australia: research on philanthropy in Australia
• · · · · · Immigrant satisfaction: what is it? does it matter? ; Michael Gordon introduces Ali Mullaie, one of the refugees he interviewed on Nauru for his new book, Freeing Ali: The Human Face of the Pacific Solution Freeing Ali

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Wags are saying it's all the Parliamentary Library's fault. On Tuesday they published a paper in PDF version called Crossing the floor in the Federal Parliament 1950-August 2004 – and that evening he walked.

Eye on Politics & Taxes: ICAN - Independent Candidate Advisory Network launched
The independent MPs in the House of Representatives today launched ICAN - the Independent Candidates Advisory Network to provide advice, support, and a focal point for people interested in standing as true representatives of the people at future elections.

Peter Andren, Member for Calare, Tony Windsor, Member for New England and Bob Katter, Member for Kennedy launched ICAN at Parliament House this morning and introduced former Telstra Country Wide Manager Mr Gavin Priestley, as the co-ordinator of ICAN.

• We Can [After a record-breaking 10 years in office, Mr Carr has taken a consultant's job with the state's biggest infrastructure investor, Macquarie Bank, known as the Millionaires' Factory, for an undisclosed fee. Carr should be banished from Tower, Debnam says ; It's impossible not to join the howls of outrage about former NSW Premier Bob Carr’s decision to sign on as a $500,000-a-year, part-time “consultant” to Macquarie Bank, the very financial institution that, over the past ten years, has pocketed more than $1 billion from NSW government “public-private partnerships” More corporate Labor sleaze – outrageous but hardly surprising; Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress ]
• · The Federal Government has failed to provide adequate public consultation on proposed new anti-terrorism laws Lack of debate an 'abuse of power' ; From nuclear weapons to climate change, the Vietnam war to urban segregation, the prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling’s leaps of lateral thinking are weapons of enlightenment Games of enlightenment ; Barnett & Isabel Hilton’s definition of the threats to democracy fails to convince Roger Scruton Democracy or theocracy?
• · · Carmody unveils major tax compliance reforms ; For decades so secret it did not even officially exist Web of intrigue: MI6 reveals (not quite) all online
• · · · GAO Examines Program to Create Governmentwide E-Rulemaking System ; As Australia heads into a long hot summer, the threat of terrorism weighs heavily on the nation’s consciousness Make laws, not war
• · · · · Large Business and International homepage Commissioner's speech - 13 October 2005 Commissioner's speech on large business and compliance ; In September 2004 the Commissioner announced he had appointed Kevin Burges to conduct one-on-one interviews with representatives of large corporates to get a picture of their experiences and concerns about Tax Office audits Burges report ; We regard some current Australian Tax Office practices more as an attempt to harass and intimidate corporates than a genuine effort to obtain relevant information Carmody unveils tax compliance reforms
• · · · · · Antony Loewenstein - In praise of... Harold Pinter We bring torture and misery : We have brought torture and misery in the name of freedom Harold Pinter winning the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature

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Sean Ashby didn't let knockbacks from retailers deter him in his quest to manufacture retro Australian swimwear. If at first you don't succeed, create a website

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The destruction of democratic discourse
About 250 people attended The Media Center's We Media conference last week at The Associated Press, with that number swelling to about 300 during Al Gore’s keynote address. We Media conference blog includes analysis of Al's speech, as well as analysis and reports on all the sessions.

Al Gore acknowledged that there are serious problems with our political system. He argued that the internet has the potential to serve as a medium through which normal citizens, like me, can be heard. He is absolutely right. He is also right that we must protect the freedom of the internet.
Quoting the German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, Gore describes what's happened as "the refeudalization of the public sphere." The result is a situation in which most Americans sit on the sidelines while a wealthy few control the news and advertising outlets and, in turn, politics. Gore claims that such a radical reconfiguration of the "marketplace" has fogged and unfocused the public discourse and has profoundly hindered America's abilities to reason and make choices. As a solution, Gore wants to return public forums to the people. Recently, he launched Current TV, an independent news and information network where average citizens participate and "the meritocracy of ideas" reigns.
On the morph blog, the We Media Conversations and Collaborations continue to generate deeper discussion. Also, nearly eight hours of podcasts from every session are available for download

• Reviews so far have been rave: Gary Goldhammer of MarCom Interactive said in his Below the Fold blog: "The 2005 We Media conference was a gorgeous blur, a non-stop serenade from modern media pioneers, practitioners and a few procrastinators about the coming Collaboration Age.” You can see other comments at Media Center
• · Jon Garfunkel says there are three sorts of bloggers -- he says these categories are "three distinct definitions, which are larger circles of inclusion." Bloggers: Some Formal Definitions; Jay Rosen Times Report on Judith Miller is Up: Key Passages
• · · At Newspapers, Some Clipping; Gore sees the Current TV channel as "a chance to democratize the medium of television" by blending new Internet technology with old-fashioned television. Al Gore hopes to 'democratize' TV with new channel
• · · · I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. Al Gore's Code Red: An alternate universe ; The potential power of many: we the Webdiary
• · · · · Julianne Schultz, editor, Griffith Review: There is no public policy rationale to abolish the cross-media ownership laws. We are about to go back to the 1960s just as the rest of the world is leaping into a new century of media diversity and choice. Removing cross-media laws is an answer to yesterday's question. Independent media on cross-media ; Media Ownership Regulation in Australia ; Xmedia posted An outline of the parliamentary history of the media ownership reform Timeline: media ownership 1991-2003
• · · · · · Ari Sharp: Another win for Kerry and Rupe ; The Sydney Morning Herald on Cross Media Ownership

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The only ghetto that can hold you down is the ghetto of the mind

At 82, novelist Kurt Vonnegut is talking not just about his own death, but The planet's demise:
In 1976, he described himself as having "the low-keyed amiability of an old family dog. In general his appearance is tousled: The long curly hair, mustache and sympathetic smile suggest a man at once amused and saddened by the world around him... As an actuarial matter, writers of fiction have done their best work by about the time they're 45, and I guess Tolstoy was an exception, and there have been some others, but anyway, friends of mine who've lived this long have customarily written crap. Just to have something to do. And like Twain, whom he once noted grew bitter toward the end of his life, Vonnegut is also more cynical than he has ever been. A Man Without a Country is shot through with despair for the Earth's poisoned fate and disappointment in the American body politic. Indeed, he says he considered an alternate title for the collection, The Fifty-First State, to evoke "the state of denial," which is, he says, America's natural state

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: When celebrities act like politicians, and politicians act like celebrities.
On the evening of Sept. 29, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and actress Angelina Jolie got together at the Kennedy Center for a gala sponsored by a group called the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

You can watch a video of the event or read a transcript here.) Just another excruciating Washington benefit dinner, you say. But pause for a moment to contemplate the silliness of the state-of-the art mélange of politics, celebrity, and corporate public relations that such an event represents.

• Condi, Hillary, and … Angelina? [Who Hates Their MTV? How the rebel network sold its soul for bimbos, princesses and bucks ; Theories are beautiful, usable things--unlike explanations using miracles ]
• · The Trouble With Films That Try to Think ; Rather than harming the other, Buddhism would have us cultivate compassion. This is no easy matter, but some definite steps are outlined: tolerance of suffering, forbearance and forgiveness The Seven Deadly Sins: Anger ; The Da Vinci Code Cult A Critical Look at Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code
• · · The streets are dark in the Shadowrun roleplaying game, and the masters of those streets are the shadowrunners. Deckers, elves, mages, dwarves, riggers, mercenaries, trolls, samurai, orks, and shamans take on the jobs that the megacorporations don't want to dirty their hands with. It's a hard world, and it takes more than strength to survive. It takes guts The Mass-Media Dragon; Money, money, money. Everyone wants more, but, alas, the second million won't do for you what the first one did, nor will you be as willing to take the same risks to get it Who's Counting: Risks and Rewards
• · · · An offshoot of Match.com is taking a "scientific" approach to matchmaking by unearthing users' "love map" via a questionnaire Better Loving Through Chemistry?; The ideal of a soulmate, someone with whom one can combine love, fidelity, emotional intimacy, and togetherness, is a contemporary reinterpretation of romantic love. At least at the level of ideology, finding a soulmate has replaced other reasons for long-term partnerships and marriage The `soulmate' curse
• · · · · Why Americans can't write political fiction ; Altruism suggests that suicide terrorism is a phenomenon of group psychology and organizational behavior Altruism at heart of suicide attacks
• · · · · · Once Upon a Deadline: No roads will close, no crowds will cheer and you might not even notice the participants run past, but Sydney is hosting a marathon of sorts - Their list of places to visit includes a Surry Hills tattoo parlour, the casualty department at St Vincent's Hospital, the Museum of Contemporary Art, poolside at the Bondi Icebergs and aboard a Sydney ferry They're off and writing; America's latest, and most unlikely, self-help book says that anyone - even an accountant - can use the principles of rap music to achieve commercial success Yo! It's the hip-hop way to business bling ; Jason: New Wave Marketing

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This has been quite a week for literary coups. My book has been downloaded at different parts of my publisher’s world map in the last two weeks including Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Findland, France, Germany, Holand, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, and UK. As Natsume Soseki noted: A storyteller is a person who lives in the triangle which remains after the angle which we may call common sense has been removed from this four-cornered world Ugly Escape: The Three-Cornered World

The complete unexpurgated scripts of the original TV series MontyPython.net

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Singing Neanderthal
Music moves the human body (our feet tap, our bodies sway) and the human heart (our emotions beat in time to a song’s pulse).

Every child in every society creates music, defined to include song and dance: it’s a fundamental activity of Homo sapiens.
And it’s a mystery too, full of questions in major and minor keys. Major: Why and when did music evolve? Why is music of all kinds capable of stirring our emotions, transporting us into our past after a few chords? Minor, but not unrelated: Why some days, rifling through my CDs, do I pass Vivaldi, Satie, even Springsteen, in a craving for (wait for it….) Hall and Oates?

• Emotional power [The paradox of the era since 1945 is that the greatest tragedy in Jewish history has had two utterly different consequences. Benefits of Diaspora ; Iraq: Learning the Lessons of Vietnam ]
• · Gerald Murnane's obsessive imagination ; Yoga study from American Council on Exercise, finds benefits. For My Soul Mate Gwynne ; Now, brace yourself for this. Don't panic. Don't freak out - Around 2,000 people died in 9/11. Around 10,000 have died from Hurricane Katrina. Around 100,000 died during the great Tsunami. Around 60,000,000 died in all of World War II. I cannot even fathom the impact of 150,000,000 deaths, can you? The media is selling us despair and death - How to stay calm: Bird Flu - The greatest human tragedy in history
• · · Digital technology will help alternative filmmakers ; Top 25 film scores of all time
• · · · Carry On Don't Lose Your Head, The Origins and Common Usage of British Swear-words ; Samuel Johnson: Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment A World Turned Upside Down
• · · · · Film: Enron — The smartest guys in the room ; Hungarian Literature Online
• · · · · · Angus Wilson: Sir Edgar smiled. 'For a man of your years you have a curious expectation that life runs smoothly,' he said New Humanities ; Martha Nell Smith on Democratizing Knowledge

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Yoga study from American Council on Exercise, finds benefits. For My Soul Mate Gwynne

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From the October 10, 2005 Yahoo! Search Blog: "Today we've begun the integration of blogs in Yahoo! News Search Yahoo Adds Blogs to News Search

The Blog, The Press, The Media: A Capitol Hill Presence in the Blogosphere
Lawmakers Try to Balance Value of Openness With The Medium's Blunt Tone

"Suddenly the plane just started dropping," wrote Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "We did this amazing zigzag in -- sort of spiral down very fast -- and my ears felt horrendous," she said, describing the final approach to the Baghdad airport. "It was like a bad Disneyland ride as we veered left, right up and down to avoid an 'incoming' . . . and I have to admit my stomach was in my throat."

• Bad Disneyland ride [An Australian economist who looks remarkably like Ned Kelly" Anonymous comment safe ; Andrew Olle John Doyle gets serious ]
• · Business Blog ; After Crikey expressed regret about publishing Mark Latham's reference to his fling 17 years ago with Sunday Telegraph editor Jeni Cooper, a journalist sent through the following: The idea of someone from The Sunday Telegraph getting upset about their 'private life' being made public is just too funny for words. The only narcissism here is the hide of anyone working for Rupert Murdoch to complain about anything All's fair in love and war
• · · The End User: The new Net is a wide effort ; Russian prince Vladimir Odoevsky predicted blogging in his 1837 novel: Houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to communicate, Such menial activity, though, is carried out by the butler.
• · · · Land of the cable free ; Bookmarklets Every Blogger Should Have
• · · · · Google Librarian Center ; RollYO is a new search engine tool that lets you customize your searches
• · · · · · Breaking News Coverage Resources: Bush Picks Miers for High Court ; Adgenta Blog Ads - First Impressions Review

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Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
-Dag Hammarskjold

Can you ever think too much about freedom? Not in my book. Paperback Edition

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Lets see where fate takes us
David Williamson is one of this country's acutest social observers. His latest assessment of the state of Australia's soul appears in the form of the 2005 Sir Rupert Hamer Lecture at Melbourne's Swinburne University, which has been reworked as an article in today's edition of The Bulletin.

If Australia were a ship, where would it be headed? The easy-going assumption of aspirational Australia that the destination is unending prosperity (and more cut-price deals) will not save us from the rocks of an uncertain future. David Williamson reports.

• Cruise ship Australia [Finnish apartment living ; Life is not about risk management. Life is about love On love and life without fear ]
• · Trends are hot. Cool isn't. As culture morphs worldwide at Internet speed, forecasters fight to stay ahead of it all Fads are so yesterday; Scouring websites for a life-long partner can be like looking for a needle in a haystack .... Dating websites promise many things - friendship, casual sex, even the chance to form life-long relationships. Forget meeting people in bars, cafes, at work or by chance. These days, finding your mate is believed to be as easy as switching on a computer and logging onto the internet Love Bytes: Live life now before its to late
• · · Is Jon Stewart the Next Oprah? PW's book magazine for "civilians," or rather, "the consumer child of the legendary book industry trade magazine," has landed: PW BookLife ; Ernst Gombrich wrote his Little History of the World in just six weeks. Its combination of gravity and grace evokes the man himself History man
• · · · David Dale: Entertainment Blog ; It’s like everybody is hip now. It’s so exhausting. There’s no discovery Fads are so yesterday
• · · · · Expert on Irony Wayne C. Booth, Critic Who Analyzed Rhetoric, Dies at 84 ; Irish stylist springs Booker surprise John Banville's novel The Sea takes £50,000 prize
• · · · · · After two years of blogging, I have decided to take a break from it. I've grown weary of the constant requirement for new content, which takes away time, energy and attention from other projects that I want to pursue Cyber Dust to Cyber Dust and Report from a Freshman; Everyone says books sell because of word of mouth ; What is AuthorBuzz?

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Bob Carr is a bright fella. So is former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge. So, arguably, is a bevy of other former federal and state cabinet ministers like Peter Reith, Larry Anthony, Richard Alston, Graham Richardson, Alan Stockdale and Terry McEnroth. But "bright" is definitely not the best description of their sense of judgment, timing and probity in catapulting themselves from influential positions in government to influential positions in the business world.
Carr's announcement yesterday that he was joining the Millionaire Factory, Macquarie Bank, as a consultant less than three months after retiring as NSW Premier is, as Stephen Mayne puts it in today's edition (for subscribers only), a disgrace. "Just look at the $1 billion plus Macquarie and its investors have made from the Eastern Distributor toll road between the city and Sydney Airport which the incompetent Carr Government presided over. The Millionaire Factory may as well have said, 'Thanks for the billion Bob, now here's an undisclosed amount of money for you, to help us try and suck in the next bloke'."
We called Bob Carr's office this morning to ask him to explain/justify/spruik his new role. He's overseas and therefore unable to apply his considerable verbal dexterity to the task – no doubt it would include words like "trust," "responsibility" and "reputation." To which we would add these words: shonky, conflicted, inappropriate, the wrong look, money-grabbing, undiplomatic, grasping ... you get the idea. via email Crikey

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Should politicians say what they really think?

David Cameron wants to restore the British public's trust in politicians by making them more independent. Cameron, the Conservative Party's youngest
leadership contender, argues that MPs ought to have more opportunity to stand up for what they believe in instead of being forced to toe the party line.

• Political Drive [ Where there is no vision, the people perish ; The rise of the Aussie intellectual? ]
• · Politicians fiddle over ports, roads, rail, power and gas ; Andrew Bartlett Sausage Factory gears up
• · · Sellers beware - taxman wants a share ; Students from poor families face huge, often insurmountable, financial hurdles to get a university education Talent and drive, but no money? Forget uni
• · · · So what qualities does a would-be mogul require? Stressed for success ; Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Pierre Omidyar, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, Sivio Berlusconi, George Soros and Carlos Slim Helu. The FT Top 25 Billionaires: 1-9
• · · · · Vern Hughes Mental health - it’s time for a new paradigm; Orange Grove defence bill passed $1 million
• · · · · · As America becomes more polarised, its political writing is getting worse Fools' gold ; Under the existing rules and conventions, what private citizen Bob Carr chooses to engage himself in now that he has departed the political realm is matter of his own choice and judgment entirely Changing camps raises hackles

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Can you ever think too much about freedom? Not in my book. Cold River is of such cruel destruction that it will sweep anyone away Paperback Edition

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Veteran journalist and new blogger David Kline learns the bitter truth on O'Reilly's conservative talk show and speaks out in his own blog O'Reilly Factor Guest Exposes Sneak Attack on Bloggers

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Blogging to Boost Your Biz
According to blog-tracking firm Technorati, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added every day

Blogging is the latest innovation to take the Web by storm. According to blog-tracking firm Technorati, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added every day. And 30% of all 50 million Internet users are blog readers. In short, a lot of people are reading and writing blogs.

• Create a Blog to Boost Your Business [The integration of blogging culture into mainstream publishing is inevitable Getting into bed with bloggers ; Blogging has come a long way from its roots as simple online diaries. Now corporations are getting in on the act Blogs go corporate ]
• · It's the End of the Blogosphere As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) ; Blog Watch
• · · David Sifrey’s epiphany occurred when he read “The Cluetrain Manifesto”, a book published in 2000 that quickly became a bible in certain Silicon Valley subcultures The life and soul of the internet party ; A generation has grown up using the internet as its primary means of communication Young blog their way to a publishing revolution
• · · · ‘Smart at Love’ Blog Gets Public Makeover after it’s Declared a ‘Loser’ by Blog Experts: How Blogs Are Changing Your Business Smart at Love blog ; Google unveils blog search engine
• · · · · Peter Henning, a professor at the Wayne State University Law School, is not just teaching courses on corporations, white-collar crime and criminal procedure, he’s documenting his findings on a law professors’ Web blog and providing an essential research tool for lawyers, journalists, professors and students WSU law professors’ document white-collar crime in blog ; For Indian authors, blogs are not just another expression of creativity — they are an intrinsic tool in creating awareness of their work A midsummer night’s blog
• · · · · · I'm kidding. Really, I am. Then again, if someone really thinks it's worth $2.5 million (or heck, even half of that), I'll take it Zawodny: My Blog Is For Sale ; The Wild West days of the Internet's digital frontier could be tamed, as bloggers await the outcome of a lawsuit in which one of their own was sued for comments posted on his Web log or "blog." Blogs vs. the law

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There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.
- John Andrew Holmes

A guy was in a cave, looking for treasure. He found an old lamp, rubbed it, and a genie came out. The genie sai "I will grant you three wishes, but your ex-wife will get double." The man agreed, and said "I wish I had a mans on." The genie granted it, and his ex-wife got two mansions. The man said "I would like a million dollars." The ge ie again granted it and his ex-wife got two million dollars. Then the man said, Scare me half to death.
We dislike in others those qualities we have not accepted in ourselves. Letting me be

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: What If Gene Were a Genius?
What if Shakespeare had been born in New Jersey in 1973?

Critics sometimes complain that my columns lack intellectual depth. So today I thought I would examine fundamental epistemological questions of life in a contextual fashion, by postulating alternative realities and extrapolating likely results. What if Freud had been a woman?
Sex would not be considered the primary force that drives human behavior. Instead, it would be Fear of Having a Large Behind. All men would be haunted by a condition known as "penis shame." The mind would not be divided into the Id, the Ego and the Superego but the Shoe-Desire Region, the Weeping Center, and the If-You-Don't-Know-What-You-Did-Wrong-I'm-Not-Going-to-Tell-You Lobe. Also, sometimes a dried apricot is just a dried apricot.

• What if [Crime and Punishment The rape of more than a million German women by Russians was a strictly guarded postwar taboo Now the world knows; Popes and preachers were once the main beneficiaries of human gullibility. We humans are naturally gullible ; Neves, a lithe woman wearing knee-high white boots, tiny shorts and a singlet, has suspended herself upside down from a smooth steel pole on the dancefloor Generation sex]
• · Rationale of the Dirty Joke A joke, unlike a tale, wants to be brief. As Freud observed, it says what it has to say not just in few words but in too few words: I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother The history of jokes and those who collect them ; E.L. Doctorow began his writing career with a spectacular failure The Time Travels Of E.L. Doctorow
• · · Passing on the Love of Journal Writing ; It was unusual that a matter concerning a parliamentary question was entrusted to an assistant to the Chief Clerk, but there was the haunting fear that the question would, one year, be rephrased in a manner that would, Heaven forbid, call for a variation in the Minister's reply Westminster Underground
• · · · In honor of a theme of memoir, this issue’s contest allows you a chance to write your own short work of memoir about masks Autobiography of a Face Masking It ; A history of Wall Street from the inside What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It
• · · · · Are McMansions Going Out of Style? ; Politics, professionalism & the pleasure of reading
• · · · · · Reading Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading was for me like the uncanny experience of looking into a mirror and seeing someone else's face Book Lust ; Great non-fiction gets slimmed down ; I wanted to read 'adult' books was the impression that YA books were like medicine. They were moralistic, and you were supposed to read them to learn something Debut YA Novel Crosses Boundaries

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The Web has become a very powerful creative medium ... [and a] very popular consumer medium. Where the two meet, opportunity explodes
-McKinney's Brad Brinegar

If you want to understand exactly how the federal government's "reform" plan to abolish the cross-media ownership rules will denigrate Australian journalism and curtail media diversity, here it is. Eric Beecher categorically states How media "reform" will kill genuine debate

The Blog, The Press, The Media: The Blogosphere as a Carnival of Ideas
Both group blogs and the many hundreds of individual academic blogs that have been created in the last three years are pioneering something new and exciting. While blogging won’t replace academic publishing, it builds a space for serious conversation around and between the more considered articles and monographs that we write.

In July 2004 an anonymous blogger revealed his identity when he allowed his photograph to be taken at the Democratic National Convention. "Atrios," the writer of a prominent left-wing blog, Eschaton, turned out to be Duncan Black, an assistant professor of economics at Bryn Mawr College. Black had worried that a trenchant political blog might be perceived as inappropriate for a young academic and also wanted to avoid invasions of his personal and professional life. He went public only when he had quit the academy to join Media Matters, a watchdog organization.

• Media Matters [A reflection on journalism, journalism education, and academic values The Media World as It Is ; Students are being told to watch their digital profiles Cleaning Up Their Online Acts ; The America Online unit of Time Warner agreed yesterday to buy Weblogs, the owner of 85 Web sites that serve as hosts to the popular online diaries called blogs. AOL Will Buy Weblogs ]
• · ; The progressive animal rights organization has a ruthless approach for getting coverage in the mass media -- with enviable results Whatever It Takes ;
From today it will be legal for your bosses to trace your internet use, screen your emails and watch you with a hidden camera Memo all: the big brother of bosses may be watching
• · · Sources tell me that Judy Miller is telling friends that she has made a $1.2 million book deal with Simon & Schuster Making Faux Martyrdom Pay: Judy Miller Lands a Book Deal ; Freed Reporter Says She Upheld Principles Book Deal may be heavy on cheesy dip
• · · · By David Ranii: Last year, Internet advertising revenue rose nearly 33 percent to $9.6 billion, according to data collected by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Revenue in the first quarter of this year rose 26 percent compared with the same period a year prior, for the ninth consecutive quarter of growth Web Draws in Advertisers ; Searching for Answers
• · · · · Jay Rosen: Just one man's opinion, but now is a good time to say it: The New York Times is not any longer--in my mind--the greatest newspaper in the land. Nor is it the base line for the public narrative that it once was. Some time in the least year or so I moved the Washington Post into that position... News Comes in Code: Judy Miller's Return to the Times ; Tim Porter The essence of what makes a great newspaper has nothing to do with paper. It has to do with being a great community voice, reporting a story very well, and gaining the trust of your audience and your marketers. No, I wouldn't say that print media is on its way out. … I would say, however, that it better be very well justified if it is going to exist. … I think we've seen the passing of print as the medium of news delivery. There are plenty of examples where print was the best we could do because it's all we had. But the online medium is better. Developing and building new communities
• · · · · · Best of the New Web; When blogging meets heckling ; In 2001, Adam Mathes discovered the practice of googlebombing The ethics of googlebombing ; CNet has named Robert Scoble in its list of the Top 100 blogs Media Blogs in News.com's Blog 100: Robert Scoble

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On the road it is more important to be wise than to be right. That truism holds for politics.

German sociologist Max Weber described the work of politics as a strong and slow boring of hard boards Why do it? It's the politics, stupid

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Espionage Case Breaches the White House
Undetected for 3 years?

Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history. Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years

• Who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity [SPY in the House of Bush ; US officials brace for decisions in CIA leak case ]
• · Interview: Prime Minister John Howard; Putting Charity Through the 'What's in It for Me?' Test
• · · Chief Justice John Roberts, meet party girl Anna Nicole Smith Roberts will face a diet of legal hot potatoes ; O'Reilly's Sneak Attack on Bloggers! ; O'Reilly calls Media Matters "assassins" and "the worst" among "most vicious" political websites O'Reilly bashes Media Matters
• · · · The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear a case to determine whether states can use tax incentives to attract businesses in a major test of economic development policies Justices to mull business tax lures ; In effect, the court said the tax break for Chrysler unconstitutionally interfered with interstate commerce. The war between the states ; Bottom-Up Versus Top-Down Lawmaking
• · · · · Court to rule on tax breaks; States use incentives to lure businesses ; THE ULTIMATE TROJAN HORSE?: She's polite. Shy. Smart. Modest
• · · · · · In just a generation, the lower and middle ranks of the American working class have suffered a precipitous decline in their living standards and job security The misdirected rage of middle America ; The anti-war left has not explained how tyrants should be stopped Calling for peace is the easy option

Stephen King, On Writing

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It's hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it's true.
-Stephen King, On Writing

This week, after years of effort, I finally gazed upon my coveted first book contract and suddenly realized it wasn't a period at all. It was a comma at best, maybe even a dreaded semicolon! In the News and First Timers
Cold River is a paperback First Timer as the eBook publishing contract expands to cover paper edition. The world isms created is ours, a look in the mirror, certainly, the way a good Shakespearean comedian can be so funny because they make fun of some little quirk that we identify with because we thought that idiosyncrasy was ours alone Papier: If upon a summers night

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: A Homecoming
Once upon a time, Clayton James Cubitt took fashion photos like this for a living. Once upon a time as in a month ago.

His family didn't have much - his Mom lived in a trailer, earnt $6.95 an hour giving out food stamps in a hardscrabble town.
In Louisiana. When his family was homeless, and the town demolished so completely that only one building remained, he hired a car and charged the batteries on his camera and laptop and went home.
Sometimes art is all you can do, because it is a search for the truth, because there is some chance it will reverberate down the centuries when all the mewling cliches and excuses and lies from greedy, ugly parasitic people have gone. Go here, scroll to the bottom, and work up. I know its annoying, but time really does run forwards and in this case its rules should be obeyed. These photographs are part of a coherent body of work, with pictures, words, heartache, compassion, despair and rage all jammed and soaked and smashed together until it is some organic thing, sentient and calling. But here's one I feel I can take out:

• Why documentary is important [via soulful reel guru Barista ; My Real Vienna with no family ]
• · Writing is an art, publishing is a business and oftimes a broken business at that. Publicity and First Time Authors ; In the early middle ages, blue really was the new blac Peter Stothard
• · · Belarus is one of the most repressive and bizarre regimes in Europe. But Tom Stoppard, on a recent trip to the capital, Minsk, found a thriving opposition and a hunger for art that challenges the 'national psychosis' Accidental tyranny ; Live E-Panel - First Time Authors and Publicity; Loving books, hating words
• · · · Alan Bennett's childhood was distinctly unliterary. He learned his craft from performing and writing comedy, writes Nicholas Wroe. Bennett later came to value the 'clarity and determined ordinariness' of Larkin Sketchy beginnings ; Topple The Mighty is a new book about knocking down statues of unpopular leaders. So it is not on the official reading list for Tony Blair's Labour Party conference this week. Topple the mighty
• · · · · Our surburbs are filled with men and women who have been treated badly all their married lives. They don’t tell anyone, because there is shame in being treated badly. This proves the point about feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day Beyond Sadness ; This proves it wrong depressioNet provides a comprehensive online resource for Australians living with depression and our families and friends to come for information, help & support. depressioNet ; Do you need a job to find a job?
• · · · · · In the era of always-on connectivity, could the technology we surround ourselves with potentially harm us? Call in sick ; It will be surprising if The Proposition doesn't ruffle feathers and get people talking Film: The Proposition