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Ach, it is Friday night and there are so many Ritzy stories to tell, but not yet ;-) Like politicians, partners in crime are never so human as when they're going through a huge sea change. So it was tonight. Ritz was awash with taxing stories, emotion, goodwill and goodbyes ;-)

‘You know you've made it when you are on the radar of’ Bespacific as they are just amazing virtual techo-political eavesdropping creatures Downing Street Memo Continues to Provoke Responses from Hill and Med

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Citizen Journalism: From Little Trickles Big Stream Flow
The patron of the fifth estate, Gandhi, observed that 'whatever you do will seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it; everything we do is futile, but we must do it anyway.'

Many souls got to be a fifth estate pioneers when the world wide web was born. An early trickle became a tidal flood. Fifth estate philosophy tends to be along the lines of the long twisty tail: 'If I have one reader, just one single solitary reader in the entire world, then I am happy, I consider that *success* by my own definition.' Sometimes if one drops a pebble into the ocean of indifference some things just tend to happen. As Lao Tzu pointed out: 'How did the great rivers and seas gain dominion over the hundred lesser streams? By being lower than they.'

Our Citizen Journalism Pledge Gets Panned, Praised
• A blogger does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all [I mean, 300 camcrews outside a courthouse to see what Kobe Bryant is wearing when the judge sets his hearing date, while false information used to send our country to war goes unchecked? Horror movie right there on my TV ; A big report on a popular problem — sleep disorders — was a big story across the media but most failed to mention who commissioned and paid for the research Media caught napping ; A party mix of amusements, from virtual art galleries to TV trivia to talk radio for your iPod, plus some of the best humor writing on the Web 50 Coolest Websites 2005 ]
• · Tim Dunlop Said the bishop to the blogger ... ; The most important day of the year in the Oz blogosphere or Ozplogistan as the Master, John Quiggin, has called it … ach and many happy tripple returns soon to Media Dragon too ;-) Blog birthday
• · · How not to do it ... If you follow media news at all closely, you've read about the Los Angeles Times editorial page's abortive experiment with creating wikitorials ‘Here is the Times' worst mistake and its most predictable:’ Wiki cooties and the death of editorials ; via About Last Night One million and counting; I'm 45. I remember a time when Playboy was the pornography of choice for young men everywhere. Now, sheesh Independent Film Making: prOn for the teenagers
• · · · 2005 TechnoLawyer @ Awards: Final Results ; via Barista How the Web changes your reading habits
• · · · · Fairfax demands $100m cut ;
• · · · · · I’m sorry I acted the way I did in the email. It was wrong of me and only hope you accept my apologies. Behaving the way I did shows me in a pretty bad light Not hate mail ; Overuse turning `The Long Tail' concept into a tall tale

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Cynicism aside, last night did witness one genuinely moving bipartisan moment. Margo reports that just before Irwin rose to speak to Parliament on the Migration Amendment (Detention Arrangements) Bill 2005, Bruce Baird scribbled her a quick note and despatched it via a PH attendant. After she'd read it the two shared a private smile across the chamber, as if to say: 'Tonight we're on the same side, comrade.' Not quite the Christmas Truce of 1914, but a reminder that politics doesn't always have to be a war. [Ach and her husband Geoff Irwin, a Member of the NSW Parliament (1984-1995) was one of the kindeness and finest man in the Bear Pit and even the opposition Members like Andrew Tink or Ray Chappell would second that ...] Julia Irwin: Welcome to the trenches, Johnny's come-latelies

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Truer words were never spoken
How democratic is parliament? A case study in auditing the performance of parliaments

In this discussion paper John Uhr ranks parliaments against four key values – political equality, popular control of government, civil liberties and human rights and public deliberation. The Senate emerges in a positive light, particularly in relation to proportional representation, scrutiny of legislation and the committee system. Uhr rates negatively the low number of private members’ bills, questions of ministerial responsibility, Question Time and the government’s political donation proposals, and points to the danger that the Howard government might use its majority in the Senate to reduce democracy within parliament.

The achievements of the civil rights movement stand witness to the power of hope, harnessed rightly, as an engine for positive social change. Hope enables individuals and communities to embark on the pursuit of difficult goals where success may be far from certain, and sustains their resolve through adversity or setbacks that might otherwise cause them to lose heart and give up. The Politics of Hope ) For some, hope is just wishful thinking that is frequently disappointed. But others see hope as the kind of positive emotion that can serve our most rational ends ...
• Any democracy you want, as long as I am in charge? [Senator Brian Harradine's valedictory The Father of the House takes his leave ; John Howard made unexpected concessions last week to avert a backbench revolt in parliament. But why is crossing the floor seen as such a major step? Paul Rodan looks at the precedents Crossing the floor: a short history ; Over the course of the last six months, we've seen everybody's talents, we've seen where the match-ups take place Ferguson tipped to lose in Labor reshuffle ]
• · Behind the multicultural curtains Tanya Plibersek: a triumph of hope despite experience, Rebel 4? ; There are no judicial checks on Australia’s system of mandatory removal How Australia reversed the burden of proof ; Nearly 500,000 mentally ill men and women are now locked up in America's jails. That's 10 times the number who remain in its psychiatric hospitals The New Asylums
• · · One rate for all would boost investment, cut unemployment Hail, flat tax ; Charge ex-Strathfield mayors, says ICAC
• · · · Colorful former owner of Sparta Praha soccer club and ex-convict Petr Mach returned to the limelight this month - Millionaire ex-con says he gave a top deputy gifts, holidays, loans Police chief resigns after scandal ; WWII commentaries note the fate of former Czechoslovak citizens Rethinking the postwar expulsions ; The Australin Capital Territory is the first Australian jurisdiction to have a Bill of Rights Review of the first year of operation of the Human Rights Act 2004; John Fitzgerald argues that democracy matters in Australia’s dealings with China A lesson in diplomacy
• · · · · Robyn May, Iain Campbell and John Burgess : The rise and rise of casual work in Australia: who benefits, who loses? ; Lee Ridoutt, Chris Selby Smith, Kevin Hummel, Christina Cheang look at how employers value and use qualifications in their business decisions. Their research indicates that qualifications are considered more important for higher-level occupations and employers use them predominantly to recruit new employees and to ensure regulatory compliance. Employers regard qualifications as a signal of potential for future learning and skills acquisition, not as a signal of immediate competence What value do Australian employers give to qualifications?
• · · · · · Opposition presses NSW Govt over damning Cityrail report Question Time; Rail staff typically have no idea where trains are, how late they are running or when they will arrive. RailCorp's management and staff were "making a serious effort" to help passengers, but a "quantum leap" was needed to improve a communications system that often gave "inaccurate, incomprehensible or incomplete" information Trains lost in the twilight zone

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“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”
— Samuel Johnson quoted in Boswell’s “Life of Johnson.

I worked on my book proposal for almost a year and a half, under the constant tutelage of my agent, David Miller. David isn't the gum-chewing money-grubber that the word "agent" may conjure up. He is my first reader David Weinberger's New Book via Naked Shel and Robert

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Life is a Random Draw: Dragon Tamers
Damian Kringas reads the riot act to the country's literary elite.

Recently I met an old woman in a bookshop. She was looking through the new release section. "Why is every book over $25?" she asked with a sad face. I don't work in a bookstore, but I instantly felt her pain. Books are far more expensive than they should be.
There is little monetary compassion in the literary world: you're either in the disposable income loop or not. I'm a small independent publisher, so out where I am, you can't even see the loop. Outsiders are regularly ignored, abandoned, laughed at, so I felt her pain. And I took the opportunity to explain why new, mainstream books often find themselves on the ugly side of $25.
One, it's not GST. Two, it's not the internet. Three, modern publishing is unlike most industries, in that products are manufactured solely on the Russian roulette principle. That is, for every six books published one will take off. And the one that works has to pay for all the ones that didn't. It's sort of like having a caravan-load of unemployed relatives over for dinner every night. Every book that sells has to pay for all the flops and slow-movers that end up on sale in the middle of a shopping centre walkway. Four, the consumer is the last in a line of hands which juggle a literary work from idea to shop shelf. First there's the author, then the literary agent, publisher, distributor, bookseller and finally the customer. Everyone before the eager reader takes their sizeable cut.

• Thinking inside the Book Book publishing needs updating [The first generation to watch television, anywhere, is always rocked and shocked by it. Its power, coming through a box in one’s own living room, telling you things you didn’t know with a calm, un-coercive authority never found in the home, the classroom or the street, is giddying. Thinking inside the box ; When it comes to dirty laundry, we've all got something to hide, and thus it ever was - If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the characters in Desperate Housewives are remarkably reverential. Desperate, moi?]
• · (Via Catherine the Great) - Michael Gorman, about to make a guest appearance at Umbrella 2005, tells Elspeth Hyams it is essential to assert the core values of librarianship Updating the eternal ; It had to happen - there's dark side to our search for Sydney's shortest street. An example: James Cartwright, of Wattle Grove, innocently suggests that "Marshall Street, Paddington (Column 8, yesterday) is a highway compared to Druery Lane at Hurstville, which connects Albert Street and Days Avenue. In the street directory it measures at less than 1mm 'long'. Now that's short …" But wait - what if we're all being had? Who can we trust? Is there to be fieldwork after all?
• · · Amish communities routinely practice the institution of rumspringa Thanks, But We’ll Do It Ourselves ; These days, I rarely get a chance to sneak out for a pint anywhere other than my own lounge, but one night last week I hopped on a bus to Islington in search of a place called the Prince Albert Bar room philosophy
• · · · Do you really want to spend your summer with Boris and Natasha? Reading Cold War and Hot Peace; UK village restaurant voted best in world
• · · · · Here is a list of questions that artists might like to answer for themselves Questions for artists ; “Get a mental lift by bending over backwards” 11 Steps to a Better Brain
• · · · · · Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Also Form ; A 13-year-old girl whose fantasy novel became an international bestseller has triggered a boom in teenage publishing Schoolgirl's dragon breathes new life into teen publishing boom

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The insider insider travelling stories have captured the public's imagination and the carrtoonists covering ‘Yes Traveller’ have been drawn into the unfolding drama. The transcripts are pinpoint accurate in their dissection of the best of all possible political worlds. As one punter cheekily notes, ' The task of responding to and resolving parliamentary inquiries should be outsourced. That way, the vendor will be paid only when the job is completed, according to the agreed requirements and timelines. This will also allow the government to get rid of those useless backbenchers, thus saving the country a heap of money.' So Lisa Pryor and Gerard Ryle are the most talked about duo at the Parliamentary cafeteria and the grassy areas of the Botanic Garden. It is all about the competency of certain parliamentary committee managers and the ‘Yes Minister’ principle. The meeting in Brussels did not start well for the two state politicians who had travelled half way around the world to find out about genetically modified food. NSW Parliament can waste money on inquiries with the best of them Brian and Tony's excellent European adventure

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Pushing an Issue Under the Carpet
If only more of our senior public servants and department heads were so frank and fearless as Harry Evans... Most of us are often unaware about stories such as the one told by Avelyn Gogos so it seems like an absurd fiction ...

When Avelyn Gogos gave evidence at an inquiry into disability services, it was in the hope she might get her autistic son, Dean, into a group home. She didn't know what people inside the political system know - that calling a parliamentary inquiry is often a way of pushing an issue under the carpet and keeping backbenchers busy

At many levels, the processes of political processes are found to be sluggish and lacking impartiality. They are found also to be frequently incompetent.
• Still waiting for peace of mind [World Travel [ ; Some parliamentary managers, Marco Polos, have been overseas twice or more during 2003-2004 period. The inquiry system in NSW is flawed, but it's a nice little earner for politicians MPs travel the world, inquiries go nowhere ; More than a year after NSW MLCs Tony Kelly and Brian Pezzutti returned from a European trip, they presented to Parliament hundreds of pages of transcripts of meetings entitled European and United Kingdom perspectives on agriculture, genetically modified food and rural development ; Perhaps you could repeat that?; Final report ; Marco Polos; A few ideas for the parliamentary suggestion box ; Unlucky timing - Tony Catanzariti ]]
• · British Prime Minister Tony Blair sees himself, not dissimlarly to NSW Premier Bob Carr, as an environmentally caring leader. The facts, of course, bring no such confidence, but our media prefers to play along with their delusional games Blair's (lack of) power; I’m too jaded and cynical to feel more than a brief pulse of anger at the news that Philip Cooney, the White House arachnid who dishonestly doctored US government reports on global warming, has followed his heart and joined Exxon Mobil. No, not even a whiff of corruption there…Monsieur Martin Pike has left Northcote Knob in suspended animation and taken to foreign policy via Barista
• · · The gang's all here ... last night, Senator Harradine, 70, the last Cold War warrior, unionist and father of 13, stood in the chamber that was his mainland citadel to bid farewell to national politics. Father of Senate says cheers for 30 years ; Phone-tap leak from chief's office: Brogden ; The demise of the Australian Democrats demonstrates what happens to politicians who decide the electorate owes them a living The Democrat party is all over
• · · · Jason Method and James W. Prado Roberts of the Asbury Park Press raised questions in the airplane death seven years ago of a pilot who was about to buy Marlboro Airport Accident or Sabotage? ; Jailed former HIH director Rodney Adler has not breached his corporate ban by getting reports on investments and business interests while in prison, Australia's business regulato Adler's jail mail cleared by watchdog
• · · · · There needs to be a balance of power - someone to make sure the company is running well and someone to make sure the board is checking up on what he's done Dual roles ; Damian Lataan asks, "What's happened to us?" That's the thing, isn't it? Something HAS happened to us. We are not the nation we were five years ago. My observation is that we have allowed ourselves to become lazy and frightened. Whatever happened to the healthy Aussie skepticism? Whatever happened to famous Aussie antipathy for authority? Democracy, the God that Failed
• · · · · · City projects face value checks ; Carr unveils Sydney shake-up plan ; Campaign for Sydneyrella

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It's one thing to react to the news of the day, but too often columnists forget they are also part of the media Inside the political spin machine [Tim Dunlop via Hugh Martin]

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Dotcom Bloom: Content is King
Passionate new media guru - Robin Good explains how passionate amateurs, empowered by technology and linked to one another, are reshaping business, politics, science, and culture Google Wallet Set To Become The New PayPal

As access to powerful and low-cost new media, electronics and digital technologies becomes easier and easier thanks to innovation and lower and lower prices, creating value, products and good content is not anymore the exclusive property of large corporations, or financially equipped teams of investors. Amateurs professionals are figuring out in more than one way, that they too can be effective and even sustainable products creators without needing to tap into large budgets, expensive machinery and highly paid professionals.

When search engines can change the lives of pastry chefs, a technology transformation clearly is under way. These online guides were once merely the means to a destination, the robots that could quickly fetch a site from the Web haystack.
• Change Agents With The Balls: The Rise Of The Amateur Professionals, Prosumers, Pro-Ams [In the USA, the problem is that journalism enrollments are mushrooming and enrollment in science and engineering is dangerously low. Wake up, Prof. Philip Meyer -- You're Dreaming ; Weblog Watch started in response to criticisms of weblogs as vapid, self-obsessed hot air We stick together via Antony ]
• · The web seems poised to blossom with stand-alone news sites Dotcom Bloom; The Culture of Connectivity and Immediacy How "search" is redefining the Web — and our lives ; Major social culture changes are occurring as the impact of ubiquitous computing and connectivity become so everyday, so normal, as to be perceived as commonplace, standard, old hat History Repeats Itself (just a little faster each time)
• · · Bloggers have stormed the figurative media Bastille, critiquing existing news stories from a hundred thousand angles, fact-checking through Google from their home computers, even forging their own brand of coverage that is quickly gaining legitimacy Journalism as traditionally practiced has been a lecture, almost completely one-way, from journalists to readers ; Eleventh Annual Euro RSCG Magnet and Columbia University Survey of Media Finds More than Half of Journalists Use Blogs Despite Being Unconvinced of their Credibility
• · · · Chris Hanson has an interesting article in the print edition of today's Washington Post that examines the reasons for the recent Newsweek debacle. Newsweek's mistake is only the latest example of a deepening crisis in American journalism. Too often these days, reporters and editors seem unable or unwilling to perform a basic duty - sifting rumor from fact, salesmanship from independent analysis - and instead become conduits for falsehoods, half-truths, and propaganda Can Bloggers Scoop the MSM? ; Knowledge From the People, For the People; Hyundai Perks of the job: a half-price car
• · · · · What Do They Want? ; When a blogger does an original Q&A or piece of reporting on his or her blog they needed to be applauded ....read...and CLONED ; Dad Talk : A Dad Overcomes Male Post Partum Depression; Daddy Talk Down With Male PPD: Do You Know Me?
• · · · · · Dark Blogs Case Study 01 - A European Pharmaceutical Group ; Wonders of the Web – Blogging

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Perhaps no one at the Shire on any freezing day appreciates my daughters’ abilities to get up at 4 am in the morning to go swimming and their ability to laugh as they drink hot chocolate and put on their swimming gear on or to go for a run in the evening more than Media Dragon.

Not only do these kind of moments bring happy memories, they transport me to our teenagehood days of the High Tatra Mountains variety. The vivid deja vus are sweet because we (the royal we) recall those days running through the snow with Tono Zivcak and whoever else was brave enough to run to Kezmarok and Tvarozna and Poprad. The air was freezing, but we sweated like pigs. Strange how the freezing air can take you to skiing even though we have not seen the real snow in ages ;-) We had so much fun skiing all over, especially in the powder ... We didn’t really care about doing anything cool; we just wanted to have fun. We loved spreading eagles even though they were the hardest tricks especially if you do them right. We went as high as we could and spread our legs. Today we would break every bone in our bodies. I mean I have hardly ever been sick (When I left Parliament after 20 years I only took a few days off - Greg McGill the Financial Controller might be the only other guy who is rarely sick ) yet I fell of a bicycle in Brissie two years ago - surreally it happened at almost zero speed yet broke both arms and now I have a plate in a right arm. So security detectors have fun with Media Dragon wherever he goes ;-)
Maybe one of the reasons I never get sick (knock on J curve or Wood) is because I love what I do. I love research and sharing information and coming across new ideas, new ways of doing things, new ways of fighting curiosity... I can survive on five hours sleep or less. But I drink like a fish. Mostly water though with a twist of lime or lemon. A coffee a day in a company of colourful character(s) who know where most of the bodies of absurdity of life are buries - Whether one is at the snowy High Tatra Mountains or the beerholding Bondi Iceberg or the dry Thorpish Scarecrow Shire there is never a shortage of stories ...
From Cold Slavic Mountains with unashamed passion for entertaining stories

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Geoff Berry of Queenscliff thought that ‘the purpose of Senate inquiries was to get the problem off the front pages - oops!’

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert Kennedy and Public Confidence in Democracy
Ach, Sorry, members and clerks only

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Elective Monarchy: 'King John' under fire
The Australian Parliament has deteriorated into a form of elective monarchy where the Prime Minister "rules all he surveys", says the most senior public servant in the Senate, Harry Evans [and Linda V.]

In remarkably frank reaction to Herald revelations that parliamentary inquiries are being ignored by the Government, Mr Evans, the Clerk of the Senate, says it is time the public insists on better representation. Writing in the Herald today, he argues: "We no longer have parliamentary government in any meaningful sense of the term." On radio yesterday, Mr Evans likened John Howard to a king and said people needed to be more sophisticated about what they expected from their elected representatives. "There is in Australia an enormous concentration of power in the Prime Minister," he told 2UE. "People don't realise this, that we really have a sort of elective monarchy where, you know, you elect the monarch and … [he] rules all he surveys."

It is not just Senate inquiries that are spurned by the Government - it has ignored 27 of its own committee inquiries. Many public inquiries have been replicated in the federal and state arenas over the past decade. And the two levels of government often duplicate something else, too: inaction once the inquiries are completed.
The NSW and federal parliaments carried out inquiries into the issues of salinity, genetically modified foods and the dangers of railway crossings.
• Senate boss blasts PM's monarchy [Parliament should be a place of debate, not a rubber stamp for the prime minister A day spent in the public gallery would shock the founding fathers; Thatcher in trousers Backbenchers complicate a tricky stretch ]
• · Revealed: Thornley Planned Privately Owned Faction a Year Ago - "Thornley First" ; Lay off the cheap grog at NSW State Parly! In defence of cheap grog at State Parly; The Parliamentary Reds
• · · The "ayes", not to mention "musts" and "mays", have put paid to public participation in development issues New planning code: trust us, we're the experts ; The Left Bank's well of ideas runs dry
• · · · The hero of the day is now a product being ripened by a platoon of PR agents, managers, stylists and personal trainers. There's a buck to be made with this boy Doug's grateful, but armed forces must make way for market forces ; In December 2004, Australian MP Andrew Refshauge was backed into a corner. In the light of the poor academic performance of indigenous students, he could no longer insist that the ‘one size fits all’ approach to school curricula is the best model Parent Power
• · · · · Laurie Taylor championed the 1960s sexual revolution; now at last he can be uproariously honest about it Freaked out ; On a satirical act that would fit perfectly in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 or George Orwell's 1984 Killed in Iran, banned here
• · · · · · Barack Obama makes the best case for liberal politics in recent memory Barack Star ; Start with the prevailing disposition of power, trim your principles to fit, and you end up with an organization stood on its head The United Nations system: 60

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A few stray notes and savvy observations:
If you really love me, then let's make a vow....
Repeat after me: I'm gonna be free.

Unlike the American reviewer, the French critic counts himself a man with a mission to dispense justice; like God -- or Zeus, if he is an unbeliever -- he wants to humble the powerful and exalt the weak. First, there is the typical European phenomenon of a distrust of success. In addition, the foremost concern of the French critic to justify his function in his own eyes induces in him a strong desire to be useful. Sometimes he manages to be so.
- François Truffaut, What Do Critics Dream About?

A journalist spends too much time covering a story that gets too little space so it can be skimmed by a reader who has too little time. ...A journalist looks down on celebrities until the day he becomes one. ...Journalists are more curious than anybody, attacked by everybody, and lent money by nobody Real journos rarely advertise on escort websites

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Literary Fallout Continues
Arthur Miller had the curse of empathy, even for the enemy. Humans justify themselves, even bad humans, and he always wanted to know how and why

Arthur Miller died on Bertolt Brecht's birthday. There are two ways in which this means nothing at all: I'm sure Arthur didn't plan it, and the two playwrights, apart from being universally described, and self-identified, as "political writers," don't have all that much in common. But their difference is interesting. Arthur Miller's was a great voice, one of the principal voices, raised in opposition, calling for resistance, offering critical scrutiny and lamentation--in other words, he was politically progressive, as politically progressive is best defined in these dark times. He demanded that we must be able to answer, on behalf of our plays, our endeavors, our lives, a really tough question, one that Arthur wrote was the chief and, in a sense, only reason for writing and speaking: "What is its relevancy," he asks, "to the survival of the race? Not," he stipulates, "the American race, or the Jewish race, or the German race, but the human race." outcome. There is, in other words, reason to hope, and change is possible. Arthur was a grieving pessimist, but what truly progressive person isn't?

• Kushner on Miller [Some art forgers try to enter the “soul and mind of the artist.” Succeed or not, they can become very rich Fakes, Frauds, and Fake Fakers ; Then the market demanded such a talent; now, the market is hostile To be a young Mozart today is nothing like the 18th-century ; The Happiest Sound... ...is a digital sound! ]
• · Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town Someone Comes To Second Life ; When Paulo Coelho was 17 his parents sent him to an asylum because they thought he was psychotic. Now he's the world's biggest-selling novelist - but, he says, some people still don't understand him A mystery even to himself ; Catholics are richer but less fruitful
• · · He delighted in the names of people and places, and in most cases I have kept the original Spanish names he used, for example, Río Frío instead of Cold River The Bandits from Río Frío ; Elizabeth Kostova is working on a new book and hopes it doesn't take 10 years to write as it took Cold River to write ;-) The author and the Impaler
• · · · E-publishing 'poster girl' and suspense / erotica / psychological drama writer M.J.Rose has been dodging labels like these since the release of her first novel Lip Service in 1998 Self Service: An Interview with M.J. Rose ; Bill Ives who has a multidimensional view on the art of life presents Exploring Food Blogs ; Housecleaning Blog
• · · · · Mark Bazer is mad as hell and he can't take it anymore. He's decided to go with the open letter option, bringing his gripes to the masses. Why? Because he wants a paperback copy of THE DA VINCI CODE, dammit: Some things can be carried a bit too far via Supertalented Sarah Weinman; Bombshell Blowback Miami Herald staffers explode over Bombshells book hype ; My world fell apart
• · · · · · The line between Internet-fame and real-world celebrity is blurring, and not everyone in the blogosphere is happy about it. Internet fame is suddenly more respectable, says columnist ; Dennis Hwang

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Is the situation better at the state levels? Most of the parliamentary committees have been politisized to a larger extend than ever before. It is a political trend not even the most powerful forces in democracy can stop - not even Flatlines ... So huge compliment to Gerard Ryle and Lisa Pryor for compiling a timeless read for future generations How a burgeoning political machine evolved
Millions of taxpayers' dollars have been wasted on more than 70 parliamentary inquiries whose recommendations have been ignored and left to collect dust. A Herald investigation has found that the Federal Government has not replied on time to a single public inquiry out of the 62 it has ordered in the House of Representatives since December 1998. It has given no reply at all to almost half of them. Democracy denied
Australia's darkest chapters: the brutal mistreatment of about 500,000 children in orphanages and children's homes We were given hope, and we got nothing

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: From the Bottom-of-the-Harbour to Out to Sea Tax
To some with a sense of history, this week's events hark back to the 1980s, to the days of the notorious "bottom of the harbour" tax schemes, and to the 1990s when mass-marketed agribusiness and film schemes were all the rage

The bottom-of-the-harbour tax schemes were a murky affair, deliberately designed to avoid company tax by stripping a company of its assets before tax was payable, or using another company as the entity which became liable for tax but ensuring it never had sufficient assets to pay money owed. These were closed down by legislation.

• Dodgy schemes are destined to fail with our intolerant taxman [The national law firm Deacons is preparing to attack the Tax Office in the Federal Court this morning over its raids relating to alleged tax haven promoter Philip Egglishaw Legal firm to sue over tax raids ; The blitz on tax havens and money laundering is already bigger than the bottom of the harbour investigations that shook the Fraser government Tax raids eclipse '80s blitz: minister ; *Crikey: Alex Mitchell's cracking Adler scoop ; How Alex Mitchell got the inside inside story on infamous corporate crook, Rodney Adler... ; Chapter and verse on a 'friendly' bio ]
• · He has been detained twice, firebombed once and defied the orders of the Soviet secret police and corrupt African warlords. But his tireless and sometimes dangerous activities are part of a mission he regards as sacred: to uphold the memory of his people and of the time when they were forgotten by the world. As a Jewish American whose family fled the Nazis and dispersed across the world, this vow is his birthright. Star of David ; Freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood has arrived in Melbourne in high spirits, saying it was "bloody good" to be home He's back: Wood arrives in Australia
• · · Remarks by Greenspan reflect concern that disparities in wealth may destabilize the economy Rich-poor gap gaining attention ; While pretending to help his children with their homework, Rodney Adler was secretly passing on instructions relating to his business ventures Today's lesson: the harder cell
• · · · Eugene Volokh (Law, UCLA) opines on evolutionary biology and religion, and Pharyngula correctly notes that most of the discussion is a tissue of confusions and mistakes. On Not Understanding Science ; Eighty Years After Scopes, a Professor Reflects on Unabated Opposition to Evolutionists Ruse on evolution
• · · · · Providing homes with electricity and heat from the sun is getting more buzz than it has in decades It's Getting Cheaper to Tap the Sun ; Good old Sir Bob, branded eBay as an electronic pimp and condemned the auctions as against the spirit of the event Geldof smartmobs eBay ; As the scale of Labor's victory became clear yesterday, the Chief Minister, Clare Martin, told reporters she had been given a mandate to push policies that included jailing habitual drunks who refused rehabilitation This is Labor's Territory, in a landslide
• · · · · · A secretary named Jenny Amner accidentally spilled ketchup on a Richard Phillips, a senior associate at the law firm Baker & McKenzie Executive vs secretary in case of spilled ketchup ; Blogging Iran, by Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation Democracy and Human Rights Front in Iran ; A former prisoner, Neil Heuston, claims his case for compensation, based on the proven corruption of the police officers who had him convicted, is being obstructed on technicalities Man fights for payout after 10 years in prison

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When I remember bygone days I think how evening follows morn; So many I loved were not yet dead, So many I love were not yet born. -Ogden Nash Telling Others What to Think ... The phenomenon of blogging: why would anyone write a book on that?; and "are professors really that mercenary? Why Would Anyone Write a Book on That? Why not Surreal Vienna? Blogger explains how "Cold River" probes the coldest resources of the human heart and soul. The river reflects our culture's dark side but also washes it away ... Another sad anniversary again, and I'm not dead yet, though I was having my doubts on Saturday night ... As a reader of Media Dragon, you can help to create a bohemian record by being that milestonish 50,000th visitor at Szirine on the 25th anniversary of the tragic Iron Curtain escape 7/7 2005 The most unlikely True Story you'll ever read The Blog, The Press, The Media: Loose lips that launched the ship [Wen Media Dragon was born,] journalism was not a popular profession. Bank managers seemed to have a better future and many business journalists saw newspapers as a quick stepping stone into stockbroking.

BHP and most leading companies looked down on reporters and would not talk to them. In the early 1960s, the Sydney press were not allowed into annual meetings, so I began turning up and requesting entry, threatening to return with a proxy. At one meeting, I was so irate at being rejected that I climbed into the roof of the stage and reported from there.

The past four decades have been a wonderful adventure. We have seen a series of brilliant entrepreneurs who inspired the business community: people like Rupert Murdoch, the Packers, Richard Pratt, Frank Lowy, retailer Gerry Harvey and transport magnate Lindsay Fox. • Robert Gottliebsen [via Hugh Martin Gotty says goodbye ; It is a little odd to see a man who is allergic to the press sitting on the board of one of the world's most prestigious media companies Dan Gillmor The Annals of Corporate Misbehavior ] • · At the height of the 2004 presidential campaign, ABC’s “The Note” was the hot political Web site for the chattering class. The New Yorker anointed it as a “must read.” Best Political Blogs: DC Journalists Pick Their Favorites ; Do You Know Your Rights? Think bigger than blogging, however. This is important for all people doing bottom-up media, of whatever sort For Freedom’s Sake ; The Dangers of Blogging • · · Warren Bickford is an accredited business communicator based in Regina Canada: Perhaps it is time to shed some light into the darker corners of our profession. We have powerful tools in our hands and we know how to use them. As communicators, we make tough ethical decisions every day. Should we be burning our “spin” cards in the streets? The Dark Side: 10 list of trends and issues that communicators should be concerned about ; Las Vegas Review-Journal - Nor was it simply its status as an afternoon paper, the equivalent of the village blacksmith of daily journalism. The Sun faltered because it wasn't run well... It wasn't TV that drove the Las Vegas Sun out of business ; Let's hope the Los Angeles Times' interactive editorial leads directly to the interactive tax return • · · · Henry Sidgwick spent his life on one of philosophy’s most difficult problems: how can we be happy and at the same time pursue fairness? Each [is] to count for one, and none for more than one ; Liberty and responsibility really do go together, says Virginia Postrel. The more freedom we have, the more virtue in learning to make responsible choices Consumer Vertigo ; The Web is learning new tricks every day ... Tracking useful sites By Sree Sreenivasan New to Media Dragon - DoubleTrust is based on the simple premise that trusting two authorities is better than one • · · · · "Public Beta" is just a euphemism for: "We're just trying this out. Why RSS and Folksonomies Are Becoming So Big ; amNewYork editor out after using material from WP website Editor quits over story attributions • · · · · · One of the benefits that ought to arise from the existence of the blogosphere is that of fact-checking. False claims can be refuted quickly, and, we might hope, not repeated thereafter. Sadly it doesn’t seem to work out that way, as the following examples show. Fact-czeching in the blogosphere ; Unlike when blogs first started, fact-checking is now receiving sustained attention in the mainstream press and at websites like factcheck.org Some errors are innocent, uninnnnntentional while others ... How two incorrectly used punctuation marks can set off a firestorm of discussion and debate. Journalists versus bloggers: the difference is fact checking?; Don't worry, like cockroaches, one day bloggers will inherit the Earth Sincerely Flattered ; Fact-czeching verb and usage

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There are similarities in how Australia reacted to the Chamberlain and Corby cases ... What do the Chamberlain and Corby cases have in common? Prisoners of a nation's prejudices
I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this kind of facts not only ironic, but absurd even blood-boiling! A businessman from one of Indonesia's wealthiest families has escaped with a seven-year jail sentence after murdering a waiter who told him the credit card he was using had been rejected. Adiguna Sutowo shed a few tears but appeared largely unmoved as judges in the Central Jakarta District Court read out the sentence to a room packed with some of more than 100 hired thugs he brought with him. In a country where heavy sentences are routinely handed out for small offences, and money can sometimes influence a verdict, the case has created huge interest Super-rich murderer jailed for seven years

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Topless pub gets government cash to lift area's image
A TOPLESS pub in north Queensland has been given a $500,000 federal grant to help the Atherton tablelands develop a pork-barrel image.

The pub, known locally as "The Stump", received the grant in November 2003 to help it build a conference centre. Within months, the hotel - famed for Wednesday night performances by the "Stump Bikini Babes" - had applied for 21 poker machine licences, to be housed in the old breakfast room and general meals room.
When local hoteliers complained to Mr Anderson that the Stump had been given an unfair advantage, they were assured that the grant could not be used to buy, install or build space to house poker machines.

• The Political Light on the Stump! Red Light Over a Stump [Now I realise that government spending is all about priorities, dollars here mean less dollars there Daily Flute ; Google is the best Govt defends 'bikini babe' pub grant ; Floored by a right hook Artless Anderson bowls them over ; $500 000 to install pokies in a skimpy bar rob - how long have you been in australia? you celtic catholic connolly commo ;-) ]
• · Why not tax superstar athletes, rock stars and movie directors like we tax C.E.O.'s? Raise the Price of Fame ; How to win the tax game
• · · Police probe: the mysteries remain ; The Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Madden has denied breaking any laws during a meeting with the Bulldogs rugby league club last year, and says he would have no choice but to resign if convicted I stand by what I did: police deputy ; Watchdog had to bug police to act
• · · · A new website can help you sort out your super Grave: Wisdom of the ages ; Cradle: Cheaper child-rearing
• · · · · Pouring cold river on the $7million upgrade of Town Hall station in Sydney Town Hall upgrade superficial, Opposition says ; Naming and shaming" troublemakers as young as 11 is seen by some as a way to restore order There goes the hood
• · · · · · Up to 13 detainees at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre are believed to have slashed their wrists in the latest incident of self-harm to hit the centre Detainees attempt self-harm at detention centre ; Nine days into Douglas Wood's captivity, Australian troops raided the palatial Baghdad home of Sheik Hassan Zadaan late at night, in an apparent attempt to rescue the hostage Revealed: Australian raid to free Wood

Big Fish v Little Fish

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Every lazy Sunday lunch at nanny June's with Richard and Rosie hypnotizes Media Dragon as does the the thrill of reading Sunday papers ;-) 

The Sunday Terror reports that random drug testing of staff and sniffer dog patrols at Parliament House are being considered after traces of cocaine were detected outside the offices of senior Liberal and Labor MPs Sniffer Watchdog 

On a totally different issue, David Draper, the food and beverage manager at Parliament House for the past 23 years, has been suspended on full pay pending the outcome of the investigation. 

 His son, Justin, also was suspended reports Alex Mitchell inside the Naked Eye of the Sun Herald today. The Clerk of the peasant house, as Johno Johnson used to cheekily refer to the lower house chambers, Russell Grove and the Clerk of Parliament John Evans have hired a big legal gun to represent the Parliament in this dispute. David and his son were accused of bullying (as reported in the Daily Terror on 2 June 2005?) 

I have known David for many, many, years and he certainly struck me as one of those managers who always exceeded my expectations, especially in my role as the Clerk to the Public Accounts Committee. He was known as the can-do-manager. 

The drama around our first ever teleconference at the Strangers Dining Room (staged for the drawcard of our conference on infrastructure, Sir Alistair Morton, who spoke from London, could fill a book or two ... Yet David accommodated us with a smile during the entire process). One can only go by ones own past experiences and mine were always pleasant whenever I dealt with characters like David Draper or Allan Beverstock or Stafford Bennett.

 As they say in the Czech lands, little fish gets always swallowed by a big fish...

Speaking of Czechs, Media Dragon dined in two places last night at the red light district. Ironically, both of the places run by Czechs are situated extremely close to the abodes of the former and the current Clerks of the Legislative Assembly. 

I gather that when Grahame Harris Cooksley is not based at Mcleay St then he is barring his soul at Newport ... while Russell David Grove is a stonethrow away from 29 Orwell Street bohemian beer cafe. Doma is a great place right on the corner of George Orwell and Homer Simpson Springfield Avenue. There is no absinth like Czech absinth they say: at Doma you will taste not only the best tatar but also Staroplzenecky Absinth (70%). Media Dragon spies report that Sydneysiders are partial to Czech feast and beer as well as other wicked liquids on tap. 

Short walk from Orwell who started writing 1984 in 1942 is another world at 42 Kellet Street, here the classier restaurant offers a real Prague experience. People, places, party, faces this is the blood-life of Prague. So many great dishes and bread dumplings yet so little time ... rich pickings from duck pate to Crepes Suzette Prague ;-)

Behind Parliament's bar room brawl - Sydney Morning Herald

 Fashion has become more and more entwined with celebrities and fashion reporters have become more and more entwined with stars, but the three savvy waiteresses had the nerve to be as tall as Media Dragon and dressed in that modern X factor fashion along with the drop dead smile ... Watch them pouring Green Fary Absinth that strange creation of the Bohemian dating back to 1538. You read it right - 1538! The idea of a funeral arrangements for Media Dragon after a few absinth start to sound frighteningly sensible ;-) Ach, I have it on the highest authorities that Homer and Jerry pinched most of their lines from Good Soldier Svejk who was partial to beer and absinth Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Pitch Kings: A Long Way Up Jaroslav Pelikan asks who owns the Good Book

Decades after his [Slavic-born] aunt stumped him with a casually posed question, Tall me, vot do you tink of Bible? Jaroslav Pelikan, PhD’46, has set out to answer his “dear Aunt Vanda.” In Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages (Viking), Pelikan, Yale’s Sterling professor emeritus in history and a prolific author on historical Christianity, begins to address his title question by taking a look at the modern Bible. Its reader, whether Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise, he writes, “has the right to expect ‘the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.’” Yet, in addition to the proliferation of English translations, significant differences exist among sects and religions—Christians include the New Testament, for example, and Roman Catholics also add the Apocrypha. John the Baptist, for example, exclaims, “Do not imagine you can say, ‘We have Abraham for our father.’ I tell you that God can make children for Abraham out of these stones” (Pelikan’s italics). “Interpreters of this passage,” he writes, “were often puzzled about what connection, if any, there is between ‘children’ and ‘stones.’” Retranslating the passage, however, reveals a play on words: in the original “children” is banim and “stones” ebanim.

• Who can lay claim to the Bible? [Australian filmmakers tour the Danube to unlock the mysteries of one of the 20th century's most influential thinkers. By using the river as a theme, The Ister creates a visual palimpsest, a kind of cinematic hypertext to the questions raised by river, poem, and philosophers Time and the Cold River; At times I am sick of how tied to the bottom line my students are, how unimaginatively selfish they are, how often they ask that insulting question, "What's in it for me? So, What's in It for Media Dragon? ] • · The season of clichés is upon us, with end-of-school speeches - perversely called Commencement: be alarmed ; That's what I felt as I walked the aisles of Book Expo America last weekend in New York City Paranoia and pity • · · John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reports Record Revenue, EPS and Cash Flow for Fiscal Year 2005 Wiley Rises ; There's old stereotypes, and then there's the newer old stereotypes: The hypnotic eye • · · · Author and historian Rex Lipman reveals how one soldier hoodwinked the public over the role Britain played in the Battle of Waterloo 190 years ago. This has now been established because, many years after the publication of Siborne's history -- and his death -- his grandchildren, unaware that what they were doing would destroy their grandfather's credibility as a historian and expose his flagrant dishonesty, presented all his writings, notes and correspondence to what is now the British Library Wellington's win gets the boot ; New Dawn, a look at six great enigmas of ancient civilisations • · · · · The topic Why Theatre? was apparently very good on 11 June at The Parade Theatre NIDA. While I was waiting for the end of the semester acting presentations today I was a fly on the steps at NIDA. Once a term parents are allowed to watch their teenage girls (mostly girls especially 14 - 15 vintage) Australia has many creative teachers! No teenage story has captured the imagination of actors than a fight with local government ;-) Addicted to theatre - A portrait of the artist as a young mess ; Paulo Coelho's admirers say he offers happiness to mankind, his critics that he writes New Age tosh • · · · · · Who's Mentally Ill? Nick Pas? Scott? Watson? Deciding Is Often All in the Mind ; And you'd have to be crazy: Mental illness is the new normal You'd Have to Be Crazy

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What began as the ultimate outsider activity—a way to break the newspaper and TV stranglehold on the gathering and dissemination of information—is turning into the same insider’s game played by the old establishment media the bloggerati love to critique. The more blogs you read and the more often you read them, the more obvious it is: they’ve fallen in love with themselves, each other, and the beauty of what they’re creating. The cult of media celebrity hasn’t been broken by the Internet’s democratic tendencies; it’s just found new enabling technology Terry Teachout on culture in the age of blogging

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Bloggers Without Borders : Thick skin has its rewards
Aren't reporters without borders citizens of the world? The questions rise anew: in journalism is there a craft identity not based in the category of nation, and are there universals in a practice like reporting the news?

Our new world of weblogs and citizens' media is all about possibilities -- many of them unrealized, I grant -- while the world of the big, old media is increasingly about worry: fretting over declining revenue, resources, audience, quality, trust. That is one good reason for big media to embrace the small, rather than trying to recapture the old: It's optimistic, energetic, new, open, growing, and fun; it's the medium in the better mood and that's catching. In short: Bloggers make better barmates.

There were over 2,000 credentialed media here in Santa Maria covering the trial, and as with high school, there was a definite pecking order. All the cliques were represented: the hotties, smart people, rebels and burnouts. Like high school, everyone was keenly aware of where they stood on the social ladder, and spent most of their time obsessing over it. Here's a handy guide (which you can clip and use for future celebrity trials)
• One Tribe in Press Nation: PressThink Wins an Award; [Parliamentary Press Gallery from SMH stars to the shadow nobodies inside the AAP Baristanet Exclusive; State of the art]
• · Abolish Michael Kinsley! Why editorial pages are obsolete ; It used to be that the longest unprotected border in the world was that between the United States and Canada. Today it's the one between fact and fiction. If the two cozy up any closer together The National Enquirer will be out of business The Interactive Truth
• · · Communications minister Helen Coonan yesterday confirmed what Crikey predicted a few weeks ago – that the government plans to water down the media ownership laws this year. Senator Helen Coonan has a lot on her plate A Conversation with the Minister; Between Lawyers Dennis re How is a Blog Like a Legal File?
• · · · Michael Jackson case as a replay of the Victorian era’s great sex trial? Not So Wilde: A little analogy is a dangerous thing ; Teen blogs on forced trip to ‘ex-gay’ camp
• · · · · Google's grip on the Australian online search advertising market is about to tighten, with the launch of a new function that will enable clients to choose the websites on which they want to advertise Google puts new spin on net ads ; Google is today a diverse, mighty and seemingly omnipresent force ... Once simply a little engine that could, Google is today a diverse, mighty and seemingly omnipresent force. It is the brand name for finding stuff on the web, a master of infusing itself into our lives and is constantly rolling out innovative services to keep us hooked Searching for gold ; Tim Porter When do newspapers still have the edge on breaking news?
• · · · · · London's biggest stockmarket float for years has been overshadowed by advice from Washington that the four dotcom millionaires behind the venture risk arrest and prosecution in the United States US to crash $11bn online poker party ; Washingtonienne's hard-earned rise to the middle Meretrixocracy ; A profile of Ana Marie Cox, aka Wonkette: Glimpses

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Sizzling performances boost Angelina and Brad in the sexy stakes. What does a naked chef, a desperate housewife, and a couple called Mr and Mrs Smith each have in common? They all made it onto Who's list of Sexiest People for 2005 Palasis Who's sexy in 2005

Ach, struggling tennis ace Mark Philippoussis has joined a list of my "rich and thick" family Look who's richer, thicker

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Consumer Book Report
Hmmmmmmm Consumer reports are bustling from every nook and cranny ... Amazon.com to Thank Customers with 10th Anniversary Event Featuring Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, and Bill Maher Best-Selling Media Dragons and Never-before Seen Footage

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So things are all right after all, and I shall wind up my defense of criticism by observing that excessively kind notices, coming from all sides and lasting a career, can sterilize an artist more effectively than the cold shower that wakes one up to real life. That must have been what Jean Paulhan had in mind when he wrote, 'Bad reviews preserve an author better than alcohol preserves a piece of fruit.’
-François Truffaut, "What Do Critics Dream About?" (courtesy of Cinetrix)
At Amazon I am looking for bad reviews only ... Be brave! Pour Freezing Cold Water on my thick skin:-) Amazon Egozone
• Galley Boy [Our publishing correspondent talks to the prosecutor turned CNN and Court TV personality Galley Girl: Talking With Nancy Grace; Far from being filled with dreams and hope, children today view studying hard and becoming a white-collar worker as a path synonymous with drudgery and despair. In every previous period of the postwar era there were companies and industries in which youngsters longed to work. But today there are no salaried posts to which children aspire Writer gives voice to a generation full of despair ]
• · USA Today's Bob Minzesheimer recommends a shortlist of Father's Day purchases. Second only to Christmas, the run-up to Father's Day is bustling at many bookstores For Dad; Laptop makers are finding new ways of making multimedia features more accessible Slick book
• · · Dusty gems of the weekly rentals in your local video store Top five losing your virginity films ; Two doctors say they have uncovered an anatomy lesson hidden in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel's ceiling ... Putting heart and soul into it Michelangelo's body of work seen in new light ; Christos Tsiolkas started writing a non-fiction book about the Balkans, but it grew into a novel European vocation
• · · · The talk-show queen has beaten Mel in the power ranking. Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey reigns supreme among celebrities, according to Forbes magazine's power rankings of the top 100 celebrities released today Oprah's power trip ; Film directors' `making of' Web offerings stoke fans' zeal Meet the new kids on the blog
• · · · · disgraced New York Times reporter learns his identity has been stolen by an all-American hunk who killed his wife and three children. The result is the most unlikely "True Story" you'll ever read The journalist and the murderer ; via Ketchum ; A Blog, Like Marriage, Is For Better Or Worse. Is One Right For Your Organization?
• · · · · · New project works with blog authors to transform their blog material into a completed book in 90 days From Blog to Book in 90 Days ; Music raises pulses, but it can also raise vast sums of money and prompt real social change Live 8: Politics of rock