Books are back, and their pages are filled with politics, biography, and history
Like a battleship, book publishing doesn't turn on a dime, so the old year's trends don't usually determine a new year's books. However, conversations with literary agents, who are always trying to sniff out what publishers want, turn up a few trends in publishing that may affect our reading in 2004 and beyond.
· The readers are back [ courtesy of http://www.boston.com/ae/books 1/1/04]
· TOP TROIKA: AMAZON, BLOGGER & GOOGLE
[ via Graceful Amazon: Thanks Jeff Bezos ]
Saturday, January 03, 2004
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have done—so I feel for you. 1st. Live as well as you dare. 2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold a slight sensation of cold, 75 degrees or 80 degrees. 3rd. Amusing books. 4th. Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea. 5th. Be as busy as you can. 6th. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you. 8. Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment. 9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you. 10th. Compare your lot with that of other people. 11th. Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best. 12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence. 13th. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree. 14th. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue. 15th. Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant. 16th. Struggle by little and little against idleness. 17th. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice. 18th. Keep good blazing fires. 19th. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
Sydney Smith, letter to Lady Georgiana Morpeth (1820)
101 Things to do in 2004: Say Thank you to worst enemies for spreading stories
The "Me" in Media: Me and My Story
Since we are embarking on a New Year, a New Years resolution is in order if you have not already broken it...
The rise of mass media in the last half of the 20th Century turned us all into consumers and took away much of the natural human inclination to be creators, performers, singers, musicians and storytellers.
Today, the rapid proliferation of inexpensive professional-quality media-making tools, paired with the drastic decrease in the cost of content distribution is leading to a quiet, but quite real revolution in the quantity and quality of " amateur" content. It's the democratization of media, the "Big Flip" as Clay Shirky calls it, and we think it's going to play an increasingly important role in how unknown writers make, share and consume media.
I don’t think that I’m a natural writer by any stretch of the imagination...
Attempts to produce the Great Australian Story remain, on the evidence of the latest catalogues. Here is love, death, history and memory, childhood, adolescence and old age. Here is some beauty, some truth and a certain amount of ambition. The business of writing is to fail every day, anyway...An incredibly well written story, which is heavily marketed, has a much greater chance of getting made than a script sitting on a writer's shelf which has been read by one or two producers. And following that: The writer who heavily markets his well written script has a much greater chance of getting hired to write other stories and/or sell his/her other scripts.' And probably even more accurate is: 'An excellent incredibly talented writer will never become successful (outside of some freak stroke of luck), unless he/she markets him/herself aggressively.
I hope writers who haven't achieved their full
potential will look at the last year and make the resolution to double or triple their efforts this year in marketing their talents. So Writers czech out these articles:
· Why Mass Media Is Failing Writers: Brilliant! Dazzling! Extraordinary! [via Idea Flow]
Move Over St. Francis de Sales
Many booksellers serve as patron saints of favorite authors, but Susan Wasson of Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, went beyond typical high-volume handselling with Kris Radish's Elegant Gathering of White Snows. Bookworks sold nearly a third of the entire first printing of the title, which was originally published by Spinsters Ink. Wasson also (with Spinsters' permission and blessing) sent a copy to Bantam, which bought the rights. Bookworks went on to sell nearly 400 copies of the Bantam edition. To date, the bookstore has sold over 1,100 copies of Radish's novel.
It was wonderful to see the women bonding, Kris [Radish] was nearly in tears. Susan gave the book its initial push, but now it's taken off on its own merits.
· Radish Novel [via BookWeb ]
Sydney Smith, letter to Lady Georgiana Morpeth (1820)
101 Things to do in 2004: Say Thank you to worst enemies for spreading stories
The "Me" in Media: Me and My Story
Since we are embarking on a New Year, a New Years resolution is in order if you have not already broken it...
The rise of mass media in the last half of the 20th Century turned us all into consumers and took away much of the natural human inclination to be creators, performers, singers, musicians and storytellers.
Today, the rapid proliferation of inexpensive professional-quality media-making tools, paired with the drastic decrease in the cost of content distribution is leading to a quiet, but quite real revolution in the quantity and quality of " amateur" content. It's the democratization of media, the "Big Flip" as Clay Shirky calls it, and we think it's going to play an increasingly important role in how unknown writers make, share and consume media.
I don’t think that I’m a natural writer by any stretch of the imagination...
Attempts to produce the Great Australian Story remain, on the evidence of the latest catalogues. Here is love, death, history and memory, childhood, adolescence and old age. Here is some beauty, some truth and a certain amount of ambition. The business of writing is to fail every day, anyway...An incredibly well written story, which is heavily marketed, has a much greater chance of getting made than a script sitting on a writer's shelf which has been read by one or two producers. And following that: The writer who heavily markets his well written script has a much greater chance of getting hired to write other stories and/or sell his/her other scripts.' And probably even more accurate is: 'An excellent incredibly talented writer will never become successful (outside of some freak stroke of luck), unless he/she markets him/herself aggressively.
I hope writers who haven't achieved their full
potential will look at the last year and make the resolution to double or triple their efforts this year in marketing their talents. So Writers czech out these articles:
· Why Mass Media Is Failing Writers: Brilliant! Dazzling! Extraordinary! [via Idea Flow]
Move Over St. Francis de Sales
Many booksellers serve as patron saints of favorite authors, but Susan Wasson of Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, went beyond typical high-volume handselling with Kris Radish's Elegant Gathering of White Snows. Bookworks sold nearly a third of the entire first printing of the title, which was originally published by Spinsters Ink. Wasson also (with Spinsters' permission and blessing) sent a copy to Bantam, which bought the rights. Bookworks went on to sell nearly 400 copies of the Bantam edition. To date, the bookstore has sold over 1,100 copies of Radish's novel.
It was wonderful to see the women bonding, Kris [Radish] was nearly in tears. Susan gave the book its initial push, but now it's taken off on its own merits.
· Radish Novel [via BookWeb ]
Something strange and important has happened to the system of picking presidential candidates. Influence that was supposed to move from political insiders to the broad public has been captured by activists, pollsters, pundits and fundraisers -- not exactly the people the reformers had in mind. The new system removes the useful peer-group screening that once operated but fails in its promise to give power to the people.
· A terrible way for America to pick a president
Toward the end of the Weimar era, the German center collapsed, and politics degenerated into a battle between Communists and Nazis. It was literally a street fight, with beatings overtaking ballot boxes.
On the Internet, too, the center is relatively weak. Instead, the political Web sites that draw enthusiastic crowds include the left's MoveOn, whose name derives from the Clinton-era anti-impeachment mantra; and the right's Free Republic, once described by Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online as "knuckle-scrapers," suggesting a picture of ape-like creatures walking with one hand brushing the ground and the other holding up a political placard.
· The Great Surrender [ via Mobocracy ]
Congress thinks it knows the optimal fraction of the television market that can be owned by one media firm. Reed Hundt thinks he knows better than consumers themselves how much they want to pay for fiber to their homes. Michael Copps thinks he knows how to manage phone lines and how to allocate spectrum.
Unlike his detractors, Michael Powell thinks he knows less than the market. And in my view, that makes Michael Powell a man of rare and precious wisdom.
· Hayek
Clerics who will not toe the line have a necessary role in an effective democracy
· A terrible way for America to pick a president
Toward the end of the Weimar era, the German center collapsed, and politics degenerated into a battle between Communists and Nazis. It was literally a street fight, with beatings overtaking ballot boxes.
On the Internet, too, the center is relatively weak. Instead, the political Web sites that draw enthusiastic crowds include the left's MoveOn, whose name derives from the Clinton-era anti-impeachment mantra; and the right's Free Republic, once described by Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online as "knuckle-scrapers," suggesting a picture of ape-like creatures walking with one hand brushing the ground and the other holding up a political placard.
· The Great Surrender [ via Mobocracy ]
Congress thinks it knows the optimal fraction of the television market that can be owned by one media firm. Reed Hundt thinks he knows better than consumers themselves how much they want to pay for fiber to their homes. Michael Copps thinks he knows how to manage phone lines and how to allocate spectrum.
Unlike his detractors, Michael Powell thinks he knows less than the market. And in my view, that makes Michael Powell a man of rare and precious wisdom.
· Hayek
Clerics who will not toe the line have a necessary role in an effective democracy
Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been, An Almanac Reader?
It has come to this: the FBI has warned law enforcement organizations across the country to beware of anyone carrying almanacs, particularly if the books have been annotated in suspicious ways. They did at least acknowledge that some almanac toting may simply be the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities.
The same Washington team that urged (successfully) a pre-emptive war on Iraq is now urging strikes on Iran and Syria. Welcome to the Brave New World. And God help us all. The USA PATRIOT Act is as despotic as anything Hitler came up with – even using much of the same language... how their rights were going to be suspended only for a brief time – was precisely the language used by Hitler after the Reichstag fire.
· Bizzare: Killer was hired as Air France guard [ via Guns-and-Butter-and-Almanac: Military surplus sale ]
You stare at the photos and see the cost of the war
· Fallen soldiers' photos [ courtesy of Romenesko ]
It has come to this: the FBI has warned law enforcement organizations across the country to beware of anyone carrying almanacs, particularly if the books have been annotated in suspicious ways. They did at least acknowledge that some almanac toting may simply be the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities.
The same Washington team that urged (successfully) a pre-emptive war on Iraq is now urging strikes on Iran and Syria. Welcome to the Brave New World. And God help us all. The USA PATRIOT Act is as despotic as anything Hitler came up with – even using much of the same language... how their rights were going to be suspended only for a brief time – was precisely the language used by Hitler after the Reichstag fire.
· Bizzare: Killer was hired as Air France guard [ via Guns-and-Butter-and-Almanac: Military surplus sale ]
You stare at the photos and see the cost of the war
· Fallen soldiers' photos [ courtesy of Romenesko ]
Yesterday and Tomorrow: Rich and larger than life look to the High Court for lifelines
Abe Saffron complained that the SMH had dubbed him Mr Sin and suggested he had an unsavoury reputation. Clive Evatt, for Saffron, presented an interesting analogy by drawing on Alexander Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin, in which a humorous remark by Onegin led to a duel in which Mr Lenski dies. The jury looked puzzled.
The defamation industry has never looked more protracted, technical and therefore buoyant.
· Defamation driven megalomaniacs
It's the kind of thing that makes your stomach sink. CBS once was the gold standard among network news divisions and '60 Minutes' was the gold standard among television news programs. I am stunned that they've done this.
[via To lose your reputation, as CBS now has done]
Jozef, I am in no position to preach, coming from an Australia that positively slavers to do its American master's bidding. Nevertheless, bear it in mind that you are inviting me to leave the country where I was born to take up residence in the belly of the Great Satan, and that I might have reservations about doing so...
Let us not make ourselves miserable talking about politics. i>
· NY Books [ via Chosen One]
Abe Saffron complained that the SMH had dubbed him Mr Sin and suggested he had an unsavoury reputation. Clive Evatt, for Saffron, presented an interesting analogy by drawing on Alexander Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin, in which a humorous remark by Onegin led to a duel in which Mr Lenski dies. The jury looked puzzled.
The defamation industry has never looked more protracted, technical and therefore buoyant.
· Defamation driven megalomaniacs
It's the kind of thing that makes your stomach sink. CBS once was the gold standard among network news divisions and '60 Minutes' was the gold standard among television news programs. I am stunned that they've done this.
[via To lose your reputation, as CBS now has done]
Jozef, I am in no position to preach, coming from an Australia that positively slavers to do its American master's bidding. Nevertheless, bear it in mind that you are inviting me to leave the country where I was born to take up residence in the belly of the Great Satan, and that I might have reservations about doing so...
Let us not make ourselves miserable talking about politics. i>
· NY Books [ via Chosen One]
G2004GLE GURAL Tim Dunlop's blog has become required reading
Not just for people inside politics, but for all Amerikans, Europeans, and Australians who like to know what's reeeeeally going on.
Tim'd like to see the blogosphere become part of contemporary culture. He is trying to tap into everything that's going on in the world today. Such a blogger isn’t for everyone, any more than a politician like Vaclav Havel or a journalist like Margo Kingston suits all tastes. In my eyes, Tim could add that slight touch of vulgarity—the common touch, if you like—that so often helps to bridge the emotional gap between blogger and readers. (smile)
· Take-no-political-prisoners style of reporting [ see also Sex and scandal have knocked real news off front pages, but not on BackPages]
· In 2004 expect to see more soulful writing by Gianna: a must-read for women who care about politics [see also Accuracy means more than getting the words right. For James, it means placing words, and facts, in the proper historical perspective ]
· Favorite Blogs of 2003 [ via How Appealing--the most amazing resource in the blogosphere ]
Not just for people inside politics, but for all Amerikans, Europeans, and Australians who like to know what's reeeeeally going on.
Tim'd like to see the blogosphere become part of contemporary culture. He is trying to tap into everything that's going on in the world today. Such a blogger isn’t for everyone, any more than a politician like Vaclav Havel or a journalist like Margo Kingston suits all tastes. In my eyes, Tim could add that slight touch of vulgarity—the common touch, if you like—that so often helps to bridge the emotional gap between blogger and readers. (smile)
· Take-no-political-prisoners style of reporting [ see also Sex and scandal have knocked real news off front pages, but not on BackPages]
· In 2004 expect to see more soulful writing by Gianna: a must-read for women who care about politics [see also Accuracy means more than getting the words right. For James, it means placing words, and facts, in the proper historical perspective ]
· Favorite Blogs of 2003 [ via How Appealing--the most amazing resource in the blogosphere ]
Friday, January 02, 2004
Castro Oil Satire & Cat
The Cuban authorities have launched an inquiry into how the official newspaper of the Communist party ran a front page photograph of Fidel Castro which appeared to have been doctored to make him look like Adolf Hitler.
· My cat's a communist [blatantly pinched from Castro as Hitler]
Always a fun read is Bill Safire’s end of the year column. This year is no different.
· Safire Office Pool [ courtesy of Google ]
The Law & Order Index: Watching reruns could make you rich! [ via A peculiar New Year's ritual ]
[via Another Likely Way For Me to Die ]
The Cuban authorities have launched an inquiry into how the official newspaper of the Communist party ran a front page photograph of Fidel Castro which appeared to have been doctored to make him look like Adolf Hitler.
· My cat's a communist [blatantly pinched from Castro as Hitler]
Always a fun read is Bill Safire’s end of the year column. This year is no different.
· Safire Office Pool [ courtesy of Google ]
The Law & Order Index: Watching reruns could make you rich! [ via A peculiar New Year's ritual ]
[via Another Likely Way For Me to Die ]
Political Junkies Freewheeling 'Bloggers' Are Rewriting Rules Of Journalism
They used to be known as the boys on the bus: the big-name columnists, network TV producers and reporters for large-circulation newspapers who had the power to make or break a presidential candidate's reputation. Now they've got competition.
In the 2004 election, the boys (and girls) on the bus have been joined by a new class of political arbiters: the geeks on their laptops. They call themselves bloggers. Their mission: to remake political journalism and, quite possibly, democracy itself. The plan: to make an end run around big media by becoming publishers on the Internet.
· US Today overview of political blogs [ via US Today]
· Making yet another impressive, but vain attempt to shame the shameless [ courtesy of NRO'S Crystal Ball: great predictions for 2004 ]
· Paradox: Political parties more orthodox; religions more fluid [blatantly pinched from Electronic Voting Firm Hacked: 2004 Election ]
They used to be known as the boys on the bus: the big-name columnists, network TV producers and reporters for large-circulation newspapers who had the power to make or break a presidential candidate's reputation. Now they've got competition.
In the 2004 election, the boys (and girls) on the bus have been joined by a new class of political arbiters: the geeks on their laptops. They call themselves bloggers. Their mission: to remake political journalism and, quite possibly, democracy itself. The plan: to make an end run around big media by becoming publishers on the Internet.
· US Today overview of political blogs [ via US Today]
· Making yet another impressive, but vain attempt to shame the shameless [ courtesy of NRO'S Crystal Ball: great predictions for 2004 ]
· Paradox: Political parties more orthodox; religions more fluid [blatantly pinched from Electronic Voting Firm Hacked: 2004 Election ]
Be Cool: Read eBooks
Love Apple
2003 was a champagne year for Apple, perhaps the best so far of a vintage laid down, as all Silicon Valley legends should be, by two teenaged geeks in a garage in Palo Alto, California.
· A Day
[ via Made-to-measure eBooks for millionaire customers: Only $21,100]
CalaCode builds on its web client connections
A small Australian company is getting some big internet hits in the US.
When the US Navy ordered email software over the internet, they didn't know they were buying from a 22-year-old Australian living in the bush.
· @Mail
· The Coming Dot-Com Goldmine
[ courtesy of Eurosavant.com ]
Love Apple
2003 was a champagne year for Apple, perhaps the best so far of a vintage laid down, as all Silicon Valley legends should be, by two teenaged geeks in a garage in Palo Alto, California.
· A Day
[ via Made-to-measure eBooks for millionaire customers: Only $21,100]
CalaCode builds on its web client connections
A small Australian company is getting some big internet hits in the US.
When the US Navy ordered email software over the internet, they didn't know they were buying from a 22-year-old Australian living in the bush.
· The Coming Dot-Com Goldmine
[ courtesy of Eurosavant.com ]
The Survival Instinct
My interest in survival began early, when I was a child and learned what my father had done in the war. That he had lived while so many others had died seemed to me to have so much meaning. I heard the stories over and over and could never seem to plumb their mystery. His survival made me believe that he had some special, ineffable quality. I felt urgently that I ought to have it, too.
· Deep Survival [ courtesy of @River ]
My interest in survival began early, when I was a child and learned what my father had done in the war. That he had lived while so many others had died seemed to me to have so much meaning. I heard the stories over and over and could never seem to plumb their mystery. His survival made me believe that he had some special, ineffable quality. I felt urgently that I ought to have it, too.
· Deep Survival [ courtesy of @River ]
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
- T.S. Eliot
Steve and Minna Still the Best
A simple sparkler can reach a temperature of up to 2,000 degrees - that’s 15 times the boiling point of water. A simple word and a hug can warm the heart that gets thousand times the boiling point of water.
It would be difficult to find a lovelier friends with bubblier conversations than Chez Monaghans. Part of what makes Sydney unique is that friendship arises from this amazing melting pot and from shared universal values and beliefs. Last night we enjoyed floods of French moets and rivers of Finnish milk and Antipodean honey...floods like that turn on light bulbs (smile).
Sydney blew away any suggestion it needed the Harbour Bridge to tell the world how it felt last night, with celebrations across the city that defied being summed up in one word...
· Eternal Friendship [via Fireworks ]
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy.
I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
-Charles M. Schulz
CARPE DIEM - Seize the Moment! Celebrate Art of Friendships
No one on their death bed wishes they had spent more time at the office. The saying tugs us towards "proper" priorities, reassuring us that it is not work or worldly success but family, friends and love that really matter in the end. Few of us would disagree. Yet how many people behave as if it were true?
· Couldn't even begin to imagine linking a better story [The Age]
Bob was one of the few men that could make me cringe, get me mad, cry (with laughter) and have me laughing until it hurts. Hot, dry and sad things ...Bob Monkhouse is dead , which is a sad, if not unexpected thing. He was very good at the one line thing. He made us laugh. They say that laughter is the ...
· Monkhouse
- T.S. Eliot
Steve and Minna Still the Best
A simple sparkler can reach a temperature of up to 2,000 degrees - that’s 15 times the boiling point of water. A simple word and a hug can warm the heart that gets thousand times the boiling point of water.
It would be difficult to find a lovelier friends with bubblier conversations than Chez Monaghans. Part of what makes Sydney unique is that friendship arises from this amazing melting pot and from shared universal values and beliefs. Last night we enjoyed floods of French moets and rivers of Finnish milk and Antipodean honey...floods like that turn on light bulbs (smile).
Sydney blew away any suggestion it needed the Harbour Bridge to tell the world how it felt last night, with celebrations across the city that defied being summed up in one word...
· Eternal Friendship [via Fireworks ]
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy.
I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
-Charles M. Schulz
CARPE DIEM - Seize the Moment! Celebrate Art of Friendships
No one on their death bed wishes they had spent more time at the office. The saying tugs us towards "proper" priorities, reassuring us that it is not work or worldly success but family, friends and love that really matter in the end. Few of us would disagree. Yet how many people behave as if it were true?
· Couldn't even begin to imagine linking a better story [The Age]
Bob was one of the few men that could make me cringe, get me mad, cry (with laughter) and have me laughing until it hurts. Hot, dry and sad things ...Bob Monkhouse is dead , which is a sad, if not unexpected thing. He was very good at the one line thing. He made us laugh. They say that laughter is the ...
· Monkhouse
Marketing Plot: Cold River is about hot exposure on Google
I want to wish you all a happy New Year. I also want to thank you for being a valued visitor and friend. At Media Dragon, 2003 was a breakout year. We are now sponsored by environmentally friendly makers and marketers of savvy scooters. We have vaulted to number 5, 8, & 10 on Google for the highly treasured keywords "cold river" We are also being recognized even more in the industry by large players like the Sydney Morning Herald.
I know you will enjoy links and investigative reporting scoops in 2004. Be sure to read Jozef's eBook Cold River and his forthcoming profile of the city of my exile: Sydney.
Have a terrific 2004
Jozef Imrich
Co-Presidente
THE FIGHT FOR GOOD
The success of the Tolkien books and now films are rooted in the clear, compelling moral logic of his stories: good against evil...
· Rejecting Dilday's critique of the cult movies [ via Open Democracy]
· Library beefs up its eBook collection... [blatantly pinched from Ideas that will matter in 2004...]
PS: Consider a position with the Open Democracy as they are opening savvy global workshops in 2004.
I want to wish you all a happy New Year. I also want to thank you for being a valued visitor and friend. At Media Dragon, 2003 was a breakout year. We are now sponsored by environmentally friendly makers and marketers of savvy scooters. We have vaulted to number 5, 8, & 10 on Google for the highly treasured keywords "cold river" We are also being recognized even more in the industry by large players like the Sydney Morning Herald.
I know you will enjoy links and investigative reporting scoops in 2004. Be sure to read Jozef's eBook Cold River and his forthcoming profile of the city of my exile: Sydney.
Have a terrific 2004
Jozef Imrich
Co-Presidente
THE FIGHT FOR GOOD
The success of the Tolkien books and now films are rooted in the clear, compelling moral logic of his stories: good against evil...
· Rejecting Dilday's critique of the cult movies [ via Open Democracy]
· Library beefs up its eBook collection... [blatantly pinched from Ideas that will matter in 2004...]
PS: Consider a position with the Open Democracy as they are opening savvy global workshops in 2004.
Scientists Measure Pollution in Humans
Davis Baltz shops for organic food and otherwise tries to live as healthy as he can. So he was shocked to learn that the pollutants collecting inside his body sounded much like a Superfund cleanup site: pesticides, flame retardants and other nasty, man-made chemicals turned up in a recent test.
· The Day After: Shock Horror [ courtesy of Google Naturally]
Britain's town centres float on a sea of alcoholic excess. Can alcohol be restored to its better role as a lubricant of life rather than unconsciousness?
DRINKING TO OBLIVION
Growing old is compulsory - growing up is optional.
A new Dutch invention can make scooters, cars, busses and other vehicles no less than 50 percent more efficient and thus more environmentally friendly. Better still, the technology is already available; it all comes down to a smart combination of existing systems.
· E-traction: the whisperer [ via Driving Back to Future ]
Davis Baltz shops for organic food and otherwise tries to live as healthy as he can. So he was shocked to learn that the pollutants collecting inside his body sounded much like a Superfund cleanup site: pesticides, flame retardants and other nasty, man-made chemicals turned up in a recent test.
· The Day After: Shock Horror [ courtesy of Google Naturally]
Britain's town centres float on a sea of alcoholic excess. Can alcohol be restored to its better role as a lubricant of life rather than unconsciousness?
DRINKING TO OBLIVION
Growing old is compulsory - growing up is optional.
A new Dutch invention can make scooters, cars, busses and other vehicles no less than 50 percent more efficient and thus more environmentally friendly. Better still, the technology is already available; it all comes down to a smart combination of existing systems.
· E-traction: the whisperer [ via Driving Back to Future ]
The Year That Was
The Net now makes it possible to take the pulse of readers by tracking what types of stories they search for and e-mail to friends. Many sites have taken advantage of this interactivity in creating year-end features. Rather than just pick and tell readers what the "Top Stories ofthe Year" are, journalists can now easily ask readers their opinion.
Here is MSNBC.com's survey and CNN.com's survey.
Most E-Mailed Articles of 2003
The brave New South Wales newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald is taking a leaf out of the city of New York. I expect other sites to imitate it in the future. At least, I hope they do. The New York Times has mined its 2003 e-mail data to create a smart series of slideshows showing the Most E-Mailed Articles of 2003. Iraq
and Jayson Blair were among the popular stories, not surprising, but so were from tales of sushi memos and yarns about talking fish.
And the Times was kind enough to waive the usual charge for archived articles and let users read these treats for free.
The slideshows include: Most E-Mailed News Articles ; Most E-Mailed Opinion Articles ; Most E-Mailed Magazine Articles ; Other Fare From the Top 100.
Top searches of 2003
Yahoo and Lycos have posted excellent summaries of the
top searches of 2003. In addition to overall searches, they've broken downthe searches by category --everything from the Top Jennifer Searches tothe Top Iraq-related searches.
Top Yahoo searches of 2003
Yahoo's top news searches were:
Cloning, Hurricane Isabel, Saddam Hussein, Laci Peterson, Affirmative Action, Elizabeth Smart, Jessica Lynch, Iraq War, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Rush Limbaugh, Cold River (smile)
Lycos' Web's Most Wanted 2003
Iraq War, Kobe Bryant, Space Shuttle Columbia,
Federal Do-Not-Call List, SARS, Michael Jackson arrest, MS Blaster/Lovsan Computer Virus, First Human Clone, Super Bowl XXXVII, Laci Peterson, Media Dragon (grin)
Amazing how different the lists are, eh? I never would have guessed.
Google usually does its own wrap-up of the year-in-search, but it hasn't posted its 2003 round-up yet (as at 1/1 2004). Here's last year's
2002 for comparision.
Google and Czech this page in the coming days for the 2003 summary: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Have a happy New Year's!
The Net now makes it possible to take the pulse of readers by tracking what types of stories they search for and e-mail to friends. Many sites have taken advantage of this interactivity in creating year-end features. Rather than just pick and tell readers what the "Top Stories ofthe Year" are, journalists can now easily ask readers their opinion.
Here is MSNBC.com's survey and CNN.com's survey.
Most E-Mailed Articles of 2003
The brave New South Wales newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald is taking a leaf out of the city of New York. I expect other sites to imitate it in the future. At least, I hope they do. The New York Times has mined its 2003 e-mail data to create a smart series of slideshows showing the Most E-Mailed Articles of 2003. Iraq
and Jayson Blair were among the popular stories, not surprising, but so were from tales of sushi memos and yarns about talking fish.
And the Times was kind enough to waive the usual charge for archived articles and let users read these treats for free.
The slideshows include: Most E-Mailed News Articles ; Most E-Mailed Opinion Articles ; Most E-Mailed Magazine Articles ; Other Fare From the Top 100.
Top searches of 2003
Yahoo and Lycos have posted excellent summaries of the
top searches of 2003. In addition to overall searches, they've broken downthe searches by category --everything from the Top Jennifer Searches tothe Top Iraq-related searches.
Top Yahoo searches of 2003
Yahoo's top news searches were:
Cloning, Hurricane Isabel, Saddam Hussein, Laci Peterson, Affirmative Action, Elizabeth Smart, Jessica Lynch, Iraq War, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Rush Limbaugh, Cold River (smile)
Lycos' Web's Most Wanted 2003
Iraq War, Kobe Bryant, Space Shuttle Columbia,
Federal Do-Not-Call List, SARS, Michael Jackson arrest, MS Blaster/Lovsan Computer Virus, First Human Clone, Super Bowl XXXVII, Laci Peterson, Media Dragon (grin)
Amazing how different the lists are, eh? I never would have guessed.
Google usually does its own wrap-up of the year-in-search, but it hasn't posted its 2003 round-up yet (as at 1/1 2004). Here's last year's
2002 for comparision.
Google and Czech this page in the coming days for the 2003 summary: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Have a happy New Year's!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)