Literature The Ghost of Miss Truman

Margaret Truman is a talented author, if she’s the one who actually wrote her fine detective novels. It’s a bigger if than most readers know ...

A bizarre phenomenon first observed in the 1940s became a crime-fiction epidemic by the 1990s. Famous entertainers, athletes, and presidential relatives began sitting down at the typewriter to bang out mystery novels. Or so they would have us believe. In truth, nearly every one of those celebrities made a deal through an agent or book packager, collected a nice advance for the use of the name, and left to a professional ghostwriter all the actual writing.
· Ghostwriting is a time-honored practice, but [Weekly Standard]

Elections 1 beer, 1 vote

For the Czech Republic, the significance of the recent Senate and local elections lay in a single contest. That contest was significant for two reasons. First, it was the only Senate race that produced a first-round victory: Vladimir Zelezny, director of the country's huge private TV giant Nova, ran as an independent candidate to defeat incumbent Senator Milan Spacek. Second, Zelezny's quick victory serves as proof that in the Czech Republic, serious challenges to democracy and to democratic institutions remain. This is best seen from facts concerning the race itself.

In the Czech Republic, as in all other post-communist countries, the greatest threat to democracy will always be an uneven playing field, whether it be due to poverty, corruption or a weak justice system. Wherever there is such imbalance, a powerful and greasy TV director will always beat out a good man, because for the average Czech voter caught in the middle, a beer and sausage will buy their vote. The fact that they, their children and grandchildren will be paying off the consequences means nothing to them.
· Vladimir Green [Prague Post]

Kollector of Throwaway Stuff Weekend of Colouful Exposures
Sydney Morning Herald reports how Sex can help economy. When the economy is down, sexual activity is lower as people get depressed and have less sex. If people have more sex, they will be happier and more motivated to work and, consequently, the economy will improve.

Meanwhile the new boss of two biggest radio stations has been using nude photographs of herself as an introduction to local advertisers. Alan Jones has issued a press statement denying certain rumours made outside Crikey.com in relation to these happy snaps.

Telstra is very unhappy about its association with the Brisbane’s Red Light District. Fortitude Valley Exchange.

Anyone who criticizes large corporations is likely to come under attack from Public Relations groups, known as PR watchdogs. As for hypocrisy, PR watchdogs keep the details of their own finances hidden to conceal the fact that their funding comes from the very industries that share a vested interest in attacking activists.

Diesel website which is modeled on a zine meets Indymedia style shows how one of the downsides of commercial free speech is its ability to destroy the significance of any and all words, phrases, images and symbols, by equating each and every one of them with sales. When the last word crawls gasping and bloody and clinging to life, a marketing team will sedate it, dissect it into tiny bits, and sell the last word organs at a discount table at a brightly lit department store.