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Bloggers have lost jobs, friends, and even spouses over things they revealed in their journals. Bloggers have to make the conscious decision from the start that what they write today may come back to haunt them tomorrow, and be OK with that choice. That’s the warning from one of the best veteran bloggers. They share their tips and experiences.
Corporate Engagement is peppered with colourful insides of many topics. So czech (sic) out those three veterans Trevor Cook , Keith Jackson, Ben Haslem Corporate world without boundaries

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Trevor Cook
What is the state of Australian blogging? Trevor Cook notes that overall, he is 'pretty bullish about the state of blogging and podcasting in Australia.’

This is a difficult question to answer - it goes to the heart of what blogging is about (fat heads vs long tails, media rivals or new ways to fill gaps in the landscape and so on), it is hard to get evidence of how many Australian blogs there are because a lot of people use US services (blogger, typepad etc) and it hard to judge the influence and impact of blogging in Australia....

• The state of Australian blogging [ Feedster has produced a top 500 blog list ; My Mate has a blog: Donald J. Trump Donald the Blogger: You’re fired; Quick spring cleaning tips for your blog ]
• · James Governor: Should we solve one-click subscription by turning the HTML off? The web browser as a coccyx, HTML as an appendix ; As marketeers we are living through fascinating times
• · · Darren Rowse More on Blog Pay Rates ; Blogger Earns $16K in August ; 'The State' (Columbia, S.C.) Launches Community Blog, Citizen Journalism Push
• · · · Personal blogs, media blogs, and organisational blogs Disruptive and non-disruptive blogs ; Websites contain many things, but not the answer to all question Value the fruits of free speech; State Rep. Daylin Leach said the Web site was being pulled "permanently." He had vowed Thursday to put it back online Blog by legislator to remain off-line
• · · · · James Cherkoff on how 'citizen hacks' are challenging the might of corporations the world over You, too, can become a global broadcaster ; Today, when you lose a customer, you don’t lose just that customer, you risk losing that customer’s friends In Blogs & Blogging, Marketing & PR ; Citizen-journalist bloggers in knickers-in-twist shock ; Writing individual websites – or blogging as it is better known – is helping young Syrians re-engage with politics, users say, with dozens of web logs or "blogs" coming on line in the last year, promoting freedom of speech Focus on freedom of speech through the internet
• · · · · · A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy ; Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy

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I did not sleep very well last night. I was haunted by the faces of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the US Gulf Coast on Sunday. I kept seeing an African American woman holding two babies, screaming into the camera. I know all about dying ... Help us, we are drowning

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The hurricane from Hell
It's a sight that even had hardened news reporters saying they couldn't believe their eyes. One said:

It just didn't look like America any more, little babies taking a bath under a water spigot that had just been turned on. What they were referring to was how a hurricane had turned parts of America into a Third World country in the space of four days. The famous world-class city of New Orleans has descended into anarchy, with dead bodies floating by in water that covered 80 percent of the city, looting, gun battles in the street, houses set on fire. An Australian couple, stranded in the city on tour, were forced to go to the Superdome in New Orleans and said they feared for their lives. A Canadian tourist told the Associated Press he didn't know if he'd get out alive: I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire

• The fear and frustration grew inside Flooded Orleans [Hurricane Katrina Interview: Alexander Downer ; Thousands of Blogs Cover Hurricane Katrina's Impact ; Both sides of the anti-terrorism dialogue must give ground Listening, not lecturing, is the answer ; List of bloggers who've been posting from/near/about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Live from Katrina ]
• · It was a golden run. For hard-hat man John Roberts, the job of building Sydney’s Olympic stadium was a shining reward for a lifetime of toil. For Multiplex, the company Roberts had founded 40 years earlier, it was a launch-pad to even dizzier heights – the $1 billion contract to redevelop the spiritual home of soccer, England’s Wembley stadium Road to Wembley ; Lobbying is out of control
• · · Siek Toon Khoo and John Ainley examine how attitudes influence decisions to continue with school and education beyond school Attitudes, intentions and participation ; Restructuring and governance in the Australian health system 2004–05 (Re)form with Substance? ; How Al-Qaeda defeated New York Ground zilch
• · · · Colourful personality, Moira Coombs, describes the excision process and its legal implications Excising Australia: Are we really shrinking? ; Timetable for the next Australian elections
• · · · · How effective has the United Nations human rights system been in promoting human rights observance by Australian governments?; After the New Economy Actually existing capitalism
• · · · · · Young revisionists in South Korea are rethinking who the villains and heroes were in the Korean War. The Unwanted General; A look at the unintended consequences of the Kremlin's power grab over Russia's regions Beyond Siberia ; Mikhail Khodorkovsky Jailed Tycoon Plans to Run for Office

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Communication is all about sharing a (hopefully) passionate story with another. In doing so we often use shorthand — jargon, references to other cultural material to give additional flavour or ‘back story’, even clothing. Nonverbal communication: What’s your story?
A growing number of social scientists fear that marriage may be on the rocks and few doubt that matrimony, as we have known it, has undergone a wrenching period of change in the past several decades Can Marriage Be Saved? From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives The Purchase of Intimacy

The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions. Warning: Sometimes in Marriage Situation Ignorance is bliss

Art of Living & Saddest Father's Day Across Frontiers: Follow Your Heart!
For some unknown cultural reason we have not been taught and reinforced to address our emotional health in the same manner as our physical health. This is a mistake. I identify with people’s loneliness; I have been there many times; after all I am a Man Without A Country as the old Czechoslovakia no longer exists ... Migrants are often its greatest victims of that stange cold feeling in the bones Loneliness must be one of the most painful experiences of life. It can gnaw away at the very soul of a person's being. What is tragic is that, when a lonely person becomes desperate for human contact, others often sense it and are scared off or repulsed by it. The lonely soul hence becomes the avoided soul and so a downward spiral begins which can push people to despair ...

In western culture we are raised and constantly reinforced to believe that proactively attending to our physical health is appropriate and responsible. Such old sayings as: 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" persist in our culture. Regular physical malady we diagnose the ailment and develop a course of treatment. In short, we develop a plan and take action! Occasionally, we determine that the physical ailment cannot be addressed independently. Thus, we seek professional help from a health practitioner.

• It's Ok to Need Help Peter Bakowski and his poetry on loneliness succeed in raising public interest The loneliness of the long-distance poet
[Winning when you knew you were going to win all along is Boring with a capital B. No one wants to play a game that they can win every time. Scoring with a sure thing is fun.. but only for about 15 minutes If you can no longer trust your instinct that tells you that you are right, get out; Raising awareness, increasing the dialog about cancer, building internal and external excitement Blog For Hope ]
• · David Kipen writes his farewell review ... For book critics, keeping a diary couldn't be more unnecessary. Any critic worth his oats adds to his serial public autobiography with every book he chooses and every review he writes. A perfect book for making you miss California ; Storytelling is Dana Adam Shapiro's weakness Never lost for a story ; From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives The Purchase of Intimacy
• · · MJ Rose: Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination What's New in the World of 16.3 Million Blogs? ; Susan Schwartzman: Book Publicity News; A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette 'A polite librarian is a good librarian'
• · · · The trend to put very young children in long-day care is leaving us with a behavioural time bomb I just want my Mummy ; Modern dads revel in hands-on parenting; Elisabeth Lloyd tells us a story why some feminists hate “The Case of the Female Orgasm,” and why they shouldn’t. I float here an analysis of why many women and feminist bloggers and journalists are so enraged with me. And trust me, there are lots of unhappy campers: More orgasm
• · · · · Meanwhile: Let's put a collar on the thief of time ; Polka Dot Mittens: nursing students don't just drink all the time
• · · · · · And that is exactly what Kamal Aboukhater, the producer of the movie Blowing Smoke, has just done Doing it my way, all the way... ; Tough times for lords of the manor

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Three things distinguish living from the soul versus living from the ego only. They are: the ability to sense and learn new ways, the tenacity to ride a rough road and the patience to learn deep love over time.
-Clarissa Pinkola-Estes "Women Who Run with the Wolves"

The effect of Hurricane Katrina in terms of human lives is appalling, and its destruction of property and infrastructure devastating. Time isn't just money in this catastrophe. It's lives... American bewilderment turns to fury as the richest nation on earth fails to rescue its own people from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina
The foretelling of a deadly disaster in New Orleans: Civic arrangements work or they fail. Leaders are found worthy or wanting. What's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi today is a human tragedy. But take a close look at the people you see wandering, devastated, around New Orleans: they are predominantly black and poor. The political disturbances are still to come. Bodies, gunfire, chaos and anarchy in New Orleans' streets

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Neil Mann
The States are losing not just a Mann, but also a strategic Thinker:

Well it’s time for me to say goodbye to you all. I start a new phase of my public service career from Monday, 12 September when I transfer to the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs to head up their new Compliance Policy and Case Coordination Division. I can certainly say that it isn’t without some regret that I leave GST. Looking back over the past twenty two months and seeing everything we have achieved as a line, I am very positive about the future for GST.

Like Collingwood coach Neil Mann, who sought to inspire players before a 1955 semi-final by releasing a crate of magpies in the centre of the MCG, younger Neil is leaving the office on a positive note. The Goods and Services troops appreciate his common sense views on zero alcohol policy. Good on ya Neil as even John Tadros supports the sentiment ...
• I know that many executives, like Kathleen Gibbings, will miss the easy-going leadership style of Neil Mann Speech by Neil Mann; No ifs or Buts [Months before John Brogden's racist, sexist slur, which led to the end of his career as NSW Opposition leader this week, his opponents were plotting his demise and seeking to install their own candidate How Brogden fell into a Machiavellian plot ; Nothing gained in pointing the finger ; Ah, the tears of crocodiles ; Such lack of discipline takes the cake]
• · This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog The Interdictor; Bookseller Relief Fund Book Industry Responds to Katrina's Catastrophic Effects
• · · If you read one thing about New Orleans, read this email to Boing Boing by a rescue worker. And the waters shall cover the sea ; via Barista
• · · · Harry Heidelberg's Sydney Opposition is in a political sense only ; My objective is more to make observations which could even be helpful to the Webdiary operators Webdiary Watch #1 ; Webdiary watch #2
• · · · · Dream of city life gives way to need for space ; Steep housing costs spark skills exodus ; Mystery millions: Crocodile Dundee swept up in tax net
• · · · · · It's more than a question of rebuilding our political leadership. We have to rebuild our shattered faith and sense of purpose as Liberals O'Farrell a target of whisper campaign ; When it comes to smear campaigns politicians should look no further than over their shoulders Private lives, public scandal ; A secretive police taskforce has for the past seven months been investigating serious allegations against officers of the Wood royal commission Taskforce explores case that cost three top careers

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Dreaming of a rapidly growing and increasingly important independent media Dreamers & Doers
The wire services on which newspapers like these tend to rely for breaking news are coming under increasing pressure from blogs - particularly in the area of technology news Blogs beat the wires

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Citizen? Journalist? She's Both
Emily Metzger, a community columnist for the Shreveport (La.) Times, is using her personal blog to convey the passion, urgency and anguish felt by so many other journalists during the tragedy along the Gulf Coast

I don't care how many efficient federal or state press conferences announce that the relief process is underway. It's not enough. I don't care how many dry, well-fed but no doubt anguished officials proclaim to the world that help is on the way. It's not enough. There are still thousands of people trapped in New Orleans and they're starting to die. Whatever's being done is not enough."

• Human Tall [Emely Metzger ; Unbelievable story here, received via a trusted friend ; Katrina update | Jon Lebkowsky ]
• · more via Tim Porter : Prescient Reporting ; Want to know what it's like to be a reporter right now in New Orleans? I'm scared. I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm getting out of here Dangerous Ground in New Orleans
• · · Finding Purpose in Journalism ; Katrina Coverage: Dining at the Media Buffet
• · · · Catallaxy on Margo Kingston Making Citizen Journalism Pay ; Aussie newspaper blogger goes solo Margo Kingston ditches Fairfax and goes solo ; When reporters don't stand up for rights, we all lose liberty Press freedoms aren't free
• · · · · Over at the Blog Herald, Duncan Riley detects a generational change in blogging ; Deep in the midst of this saga, I am increasingly thinking about what will happen if one of my neighbors accidentally stumbles across it. Writing About Real People ; Did Sydney's Daily Telegraph go too far in hounding disgraced Liberal MP John Brogden? The moral balance of daily journalism is more like a playground seesaw than the demure scales of justice we'd love to claim. The ups and downs can be brutal: Brodgen chase sparks ethics row
• · · · · · Are you a blogger? Know of a prize-worthy Weblog? Want to see what's captured bloggers' attention in other countries? Submit Your Favorite Weblogs and Podcasts ; A weblog covering security and security technology: Trusted Computing Best Practices Schneier on Security ; Google's entry into net phone has set the industry abuzz Google Talk makes a big noise

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Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family—but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything.
-Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock [Steve, Minna & Helina your soulful friendship is impossible to describe. However, in the context of the bestseller, Friends are like bras, a good one never lets you down ;-)

Last week, I was told to watch out for Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini. But it seems that readers did more than just watch—they also bought the book. Why Do Men Have Nipples? shot to No. 2 on the Adult Fiction chart. Ironically and tragically, I actually have four nipples. Will that make Cold River a bestseller too when it finally comes out in forest version? There is a degree of anxiety that comes with releasing your memoir in paperback version. All those years of shaping the story are distilled into a surreal monogragh, waiting for the world to pass judgment Alert and over-alarmed

As a nation that is – or rather, as 20-odd million people (or is that 20 million odd people?) on our wide brown island continent How are we going?

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Bias of Survivorship

I remember in eighth grade watching a movie in class about a man who had had a heart attack and went out jogging to try and kill himself. Much to his surprise, he survived and kept on running and became so fit and happy that he no longer wanted to die. Another guy had lost his foot and somehow found a way to run. The moral is if these guys could do it, against all the odds, so could you.

• Space to dream: Literary Life [Bill Leak's powerful first novel deals with the ruinous effects of alcoholism and drug addiction Picking up the pieces ; Josef K: Roberto Calasso turns his elliptical style of enquiry to Franz Kafka in K. But examining Kafka's work can be tricky, however devoted you are Special K ]
• · The Tragedy of the Political Exiles ; The feeling of inferiority makes people/men either timid or audacious. [...] Like a pendulum, they swing between a fear of inferiority and a claim to superiority Melancholy and the ‘other’
• · · Emotions as Reasons in Public Arguments ; Caught between loyalty and sedition: Patriotic politicians who have dissented during wartime
• · · · Women 'eye property in divorce' ; What should a new faculty member value most about his or her institution? Salary? Library holdings? Student SAT scores? Health plan? Believing in Parking? ; The politics of parking; The number 1888081808881 is interesting on several counts ; Body politics: why are we obsessed with our flesh?
• · · · · Uma Thurman is just crazy about her Louis Vuitton bag Are you a branded slav(e)? ; Another Slav, James Surowiecki dives head first into the politics of tipping Czech Please
• · · · · · Everyone knows looks shouldn’t matter. Beauty, after all, is only skin deep Looks Do Matter; Baby study suggests beauty is not in the eye of the beholder

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Margo Kingston has a unique position in Australian journalism. She's one of our most senior reporters but over the last three years her focus has been a weblog on public affairs - Webdiary. Until last week, Webdiary was the property of Fairfax but no longer. After spending most of her career at the company, Margo Kingston is unplugged. We find out why she left and what she plans for Webdiary Margo, Unplugged

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Democracy at Risk
Democracy at Risk reveals the dangers of civic disengagement for the future of representative democracy.

The authors, all eminent scholars, undertake three main tasks: documenting recent trends in civic engagement, exploring the influence that the design of political institutions and public policies have had on those trends, and recommending steps that will increase the amount and quality of civic engagement in America. The authors focus their attention on three key areas: the electoral process, including elections and the way people get involved; the impact of location, including demographic shifts and changing development patterns; and the critical role of nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations, including the philanthropy that help keep them going.

• How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It [A page on constitutional law case book reviews ; If the law is an ass the law professor is a donkey ]
• · The NSW Liberal Party is taking time to heal its wounds after the apparent suicide attempt of former Opposition Leader John Brogden, newly elected Liberal leader Peter Debnam says NSW Liberal Party is healing ; Politicians and journalists have to live in each other's pockets. They naturally become close Peter Coleman: Candid remarks bite back; The question everyone's asking is: did the Telegraph go too far? State Libs healing: Debnam <
• · · Empire' only became a dirty word in the twentieth century Emancipation & empire, from Cromwell to Karl Rove ; Beyond imperialism: the new internationalism; Empire: a blunt tool for democratization
• · · · Once a liberal pin-up and intellectual leader of the global human rights movement, Michael Ignatieff has fallen out badly with some of his best friends and colleagues No more Mr. Nice Guy; We may have seen only a hint of hip-hop's political promise Hip-Hop Voting Bloc?
• · · · · I just returned from a lovely little respite from the usual grind and its daily dose of news alerts and fire alarms A tale of 4 ethics ; 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America': Who's No. 1?
• · · · · · The history wars ; A Geoffrey Robertson Hypothetical: Australia under attack ; The sacrosanct seats of the lords of creation: n 1925, in the ‘bear pit’ of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in Sydney’s Macquarie Street, Millicent Preston-Stanley gave the first speech made by a female Member of Parliament (MP) in this state and only the second in any Australian parliament Preston-Stanley and Women MPs

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How a media Web site is changing the face — and pace — of media culture
The Romenesko effect

The Blog, The Press, The Media: New around here, stranger?
If you came here in search of information and are curious to know what else this blog has to offer under normal circumstances...

This week, there was a significant event. Margo Kingston, a professional journalist who pioneered blogging on her Webdiary site for The Sydney Morning Herald, has severed connections with Fairfax and gone independent. She is a new phenomenon — the stand-alone journalist. Kingston's site relies heavily on her contributors. She is passionate, partisan, often annoying and, as one of her former bosses once remarked to me, "impossible to manage". Kingston is not a "respected journalist", and while I disagree with her as often as I agree, I mean that as a big compliment.

• Webdiary [Jay Rosen; News outlets, online journalists struggle to fill post-storm ...]
• · "The wall between you, - the audience, - and the circus is coming down," McFarlan declares. It's a three-ring sign of the times: Thanks to new media, we have all become the messengers But what are we saying? ; Blog links for Katrina survivors and families
• · · Can you do a Wayback on that? The Wayback Machine is a free web service that allows people to view archived versions of websites. It consists of around 40 billion web pages that have been archived since 1996 The Wayback Machine The Wall Street Journal Online discussed how US lawyers have used the service to obtain copies of old web pages for use as evidence in areas such as domain name litigation, where proving the content history of a website may be important. Content
• · · · Lib-web-cats is a directory of libraries worldwide Online, Searchable Directory of Libraries Worldwide ; Google wants to be your best friend on your computer ; How Yahoo! will be the center of the million-channel universe
• · · · · Blog Faces Lawsuit Over Reader Comments

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Barry O'Farrell and Peter Debnam are locked in a close contest to succeed disgraced former NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden If outside experience, professionalism, and long-term survival matters - Peter Debnam it is! A month ago it was Bob Carr and John Brogden. Now, in the space of the winter parliamentary break, the state has lost a premier, a deputy premier, and the opposition leader Angela Cuming on a proposition

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Shattered Brogden's suicide bid
Democracy allows that we are led by fragile leaders

John Brogden was rushed to hospital last night after an apparent suicide attempt, one day after he resigned in disgrace as the NSW Opposition Leader. He was found at his Pittwater electorate office some time before 11pm with self-inflicted stab wounds. He is believed to have been in a drug-and alcohol-induced stupor, and was taken by ambulance to Royal North Shore Hospital.

• Turning 'Unknown' Into 'Unknowable' [Crikey: Political leaders have to go and eat turd sandwiches while smiling ; A suicide attempt by former NSW opposition leader John Brogden has left his family, friends and Liberal party colleagues shocked and distraught Brogden suicide attempt ; Brogden's sordid past revealed ]
• · By Gregory Lyon and Jean du Plessis Names such as Hannes, Rivkin and, more recently, Vizard have thrown the spotlight on insider trading. In light of the prosecutions arising from these high profile cases this book is timely The Law of Insider Trading in Australia; A minority, however vocal, cannot impose its will on the rest of us if we decline to permit it. Not even if the President seems to side with them; he is, after all, merely the first among equals, and he will not own that flag much longer. Reluctant Leaders; Policy Parade
• · · Back in 1999 at a conference on infrastructure in Sydney, Hon Graham Hill made me realise that tax could be a very fascinating area to study. It is with great sadness to learn of his the sudden passing of the, Judge, Federal Court of Australia. Graham was made a Judge of the Federal Court on 1 February 1989 and had a long and highly distinguished involvement in the field of taxation, not only on the Bench but also as an educator, a much sought-after speaker and an author. He had a vast depth and breadth of knowledge of taxation, and was always willing to impart that expertise and knowledge to others Death of the Hon Graham Hill ; Appeal could end tax minimisation
• · · · Greg Maddock 'Whistleblower of the year' named ; Ashley Lavelle: Labor’s problems are symptomatic of a crisis in international social democracy – a crisis of declining electoral support, falling party membership, and of a lack of ideas and purpose The crisis in federal Labor ; Paul Williams analyses Peter Beattie’s two weekend by-election defeats No more Mr Nice Guy?; The first part of this revised brief discusses the 141 by-elections for the House of Representatives since Federation, including the most recent for the New South Wales division of Werriwa Research Brief 1: House of Representatives by-elections 1901 to 2005
• · · · · If we refuse to discuss torture, then we lose the opportunity to publicly explain the reasons why torture is so objectionable, argues Ben Saul. Torture irreparably damages human dignity, devalues human life, and corrupts the institutions of our democracy Torture degrades us all ; Peter Jennings argues that both sides of the anti-terrorism dialogue must give ground Listening, not lecturing, is the answer
• · · · · · Dr David Clune (head of the research area) and Stewart Smith provide an overview of desalination plants and technology from around the world, including case studies, in the context of current NSW government policy Desalination, waste water, and the Sydney Metropolitan Water Plan ; Towards a new Australian suburbanism ; Refugees and regional settlement: balancing priorities

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Ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled and indeed honoured to announce that there is a vital and cataclysmic new trend in the world of blogging. We are the Nonentity Bloggers. Join us today. We don’t want your money. We don’t want your time. We don’t even want your linky-lurve. We just want your sense of acute embarrassment. Jarvis Cocker-esque blogging non-manifesto

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Rivers of Data: Disturbance never stops
Clearly the internet is on the verge of providing one of the three elements through the micro-marketing ability of blogs - a better phrase would be word-of-mouth or the already cliched word-of-blog, but it really is the old 'you tell ten friends and they tell ten friends' and so on, except that on the internet those friends may number in the Hundreds or thousands

The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arouse the sleeper, to shake the complacent pillars of the world. He reminds the world of its dark ancestry, and shows the world its present, and points the way to its new birth. He is at once the product and the preceptor of his time.
– Norman Bethume, 1939

• Apropos Take a Risk on Variety [It is ironic that the growth of one of the most powerful means of publication of human thought had largely remained unhyped untill "Salam Pax" appeared on the scene during the build up to the Iraq war in 2004 Blogging Teams Together (Part 1) ; Though blogs do not offer the enterprise-level integration with e-mail, calendar, file directories, Web conferencing, wireless, voice and fax collaboration channels, they are useful for specific team-collaboration needs Creating Interaction Vortexes (Part 2) ; A series of fictitious entries have tested the integrity of the co-operatively produced online encyclopedia Wikipedia over the past fortnight Wikipedia worries ]
• · The blog originated in January as a catch basin for mental detritus, for the kind of stuff not good enough for print, but too good to waste on casual conversation or, worse, mere thinking. Bloggers And The Commentariat ; via the freshest well in blogosphere Boy-n-ton
• · · This is a series of essays on the future of journalism and some of my ideas on how advances in technology have changed the way that we report and write the news Fixing Journalism ; Crimes along a route Chicago
• · · · Back in April, Gyles J delivered judgment in Seven Network (Operations) Ltd v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd [2005] FCA 476 The Full Court's Kokoda trek ; I-don’t-know-what-literature-is-but-making-love-you-all attitude Bad reading
• · · · · Heath Eiden is finishing up a documentary about Howard Dean's campaign, and raising money directly from people who'll get the finished DVD. Interesting approach, and it could work with all kinds of topics Grassroots the movie ; As Dan Gillmore noted this is pathbreaking stuff is joining the Media Evolution: Participatory Culture Foundation
• · · · · · Talk is cheap - unless it's political talk on the radio, and then it's influential Talk Radio ; The ever-reliable Missing Links

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John Brogden's future as state Opposition Leader is under a cloud after he was forced to apologise for an alcohol-fuelled night during which he pinched one journalist's bottom, propositioned another and referred to Bob Carr's wife as a "mail-order bride" My foolish, boozy night: Brogden tells The extraordinary confession My racist disgrace Grand old man of NSW politics" seem hollow and premature Toughest test awaits disorderly Brogden
Brogden steps down Brogden falls on his sword

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: History lessons, passed and failed
August, in eastern Europe, means anniversaries:

The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 that divided the region into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence; the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961; the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 that crushed Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring; the birth in 1980 of Solidarity, the Polish trade union which dealt a death-blow to communism; and the Soviet coup of 1991, where hardliners locked up Mikhail Gorbachev to preserve the Soviet Union, but ended up giving Boris Yeltsin the power to destroy it.

• Remembering, and rewriting, the past [The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken: What if Christ spoke at a GOP fund-raiser? ; Martin Peretz on the philosophy of disengagement ; The London bombs expose the failure of Britain’s multicultural model, but also pose a challenge to Europe’s sense of identity Europe’s answer to Londonistan ]
• · The relations between philosophy and anthropology People Power ; Actors always tell us that that they prefer the role of a villain to that of a saint. Preachers, too, relish opportunities to denounce vice more than they do ones to laud virtue Humility: the enemy of philosophy
• · · There can be no sacred cows in philosophy Shaking Shibboleths ; Boynton who always draws attention to others defines The Perfect Husband: MEEEdia Dragon
• · · · Gary Sauer-Thompson Liberal democratic values; Tim Dunlop The wholly inappropriate Koran
• · · · · What do Jimmy Carter, Bill Weld, Saddam Hussein and Winston Churchill have in common? In Lying for a Living at OpinionJournal Daniel Akst has some fun with politicians who have tried their hand at fiction, including the man who apparently wants to have a go at being governor of every one of the United States: Lying for a Living ; Alex Rusli, 34, who goes under the aliases of Irwan Irwan and Edwin Sanjaya Jo, a restaurant owner of Waterloo Man charged over fake ID documents ; Though my “propensity to read High Court transcripts” is seemingly notorious, I’ve been slack recently High Court garage sales
• · · · · · For all the talk of a "progressive" tax system, we all know that the clever rich find ways of avoiding the taxman in ways that the battlers simply can't Real tax reform ; A forum for political discussion for Western Sydney and beyond In the hope of provoking some discussion from across the political spectrum, the aim is simply to provide a forum for people to debate the issues of the day Marginal Rates

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People don’t really want to think about the luck or lack of it that fetched them up with their particular set of parents. They emotionally need the story of the fetching up to be or at least seem inevitable. They yearn to see what is as somehow the story of what was meant – by God or fate or karma – to be. It appears to me that adoptive families provide reassurance to the biologically familied, and the illusion that they have a more ‘natural’ and necessary story, even though their presence wherever they’re present is just as whacky, improbable and arbitrary as that of the adopters and adoptees.
– Daniel Menaker

How To be a Perfect Author; Win Editors And Impress Marketing Staff You've sold your first book. Now what? Good news: Da Vinci Code ripoffs are growing scarce and women are allowed to write serious books again Looking For The Post-Da Vinci Cold River

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Book-shedding
Ra for Ben Macintyre, who simply can't let go of any books, as he admits in 'I have never been able to get rid of a single book, old or new, read or unread' in The Times:

I write as one who has never been able to bring himself to get rid of a single book, old or new, read or unread. Long ago I gave up trying to order my shelves, and I now leave the books to multiply unhindered, double-stacked, or wedged in horizontally

• Books Do Furnish A Room via Saloon [Making up a brand new game for public transportation The overall goal here is to get an entire car at rush hour wearing paper hats ; via the omnipresent Barista Purloined straight from Surfacing is this lovely game ; A new way to borrow audiobooks from the library involves no CDs, no car trips, no fines and no risk of being shushed Libraries Offering Audiobook Downloads]
• · Though some authors seem to know instinctively the best, most expeditious, ways to get rejected, others require a primer Helpful Tips: How To Guarantee Rejection; Some Tried and True Tips for Ensuring Rejection tongue in cheek - Screwtape Takes the Comm ; Book Misjudged by Its Cover Gets (What Else?) New Cover
• · · The tension between fertility and materialism is one of the great unresolved dilemmas of our time, not just for women, but for society In Praise of Female Sexuality ; As I sit at my desk writing this in the comfort of my home, I have done a lot of reading about and a lot of looking at pornography One or two words on the sticky subject of pornography
• · · · The No and the Yes Models Negotiating Sex ; The cultural fascination with corpses, plastic surgery and healthy living suggests we are objectifying ourselves Body politics: why are we obsessed with our flesh?
• · · · · Finding Things to Do In Your Spare Time ; At one Swedish library, you can borrow books—and a lesbian A new perspective on life
• · · · · · Bezos discusses her debut novel and her love for her husband's laugh Amazon Ranking #1 ; Spirit in Exile An Australian poet reviewed. It makes a change

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Commmodity companies are now as sexy as dotcoms used to be. Mining giant BHP Billiton may have announced an Australian record profit result, but that didn't stop its share price slipping as resources stocks were sold off BHP Billiton shares drop despite profit Whether the world economy is on the cusp of a super cycle that will eclipse the post-war boom led by Japan and Germany is a subject of keen debate in resources circles World's biggest digger issues growth alert

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Antony Loewenstein
As many of you know, I'm currently writing a book on Israel/Palestine for Melbourne University Publishing, due in May 2006.

The following letter appears in this week's Australian Jewish News. It's written by Federal Labor MP, Michael Danby. Its agenda is clear. Why is a member of parliament trying to stop the publication of my book? What is he afraid of? History doesn't look kindly on such attitudes. And we all know what other historical individuals favoured this behaviour

• Censorship of Note [Tim Dunlop said it all: Michael Danby is entitled to his views. But if he has problem with Antony's book he should excercise his right to free speech and criticise it (preferably once it's, you know, written) and not try and Curtail Antony's. Undue influence ; Peter Botsman: The best way to get ahead in the NSW Labor Party is to become a friend, lover, wife or number-cruncher for the dominant right-wing faction known as the Terriga 'Arrogant, unelected brats' ruling ALP ]
• · David Hornik: Venture Blog ; Melbourne Writers Festival session for the keynote speaker John Ralston Saul, talking about the collapse of globalism, attracted 1800 readers. Craig Rowley of Webdiary fame captured the power of the huge ideas in the post entitled They devour their reason and scarce think: the globalists come to the island nation
The story of the last five years, as John Ralston Saul provocatively argues in the Collapse of Globalism is more its retreat than its advance. Kerry O'Brien of the 7:30 Report wondered last night what kind of democracy there might be in the XXIst century ... He also asked John Ralston Saul whether he believed the global pendulum would now swing back towards protectionism. ‘But as we all know nothing in its extreme is particularly good. Exchanging one brutalism for another is not the answer. ‘Listen, you know, the odds are with those who are conscious and who do not feel there are powers, forces at work that they cannot shape.’ Globalisation's decline 'calls for leadership' ; We all should learn from failure—but it's difficult to do so objectively. In this excerpt from "Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail The Hard Work of Failure Analysis ; LobbyingInfo.org tracks lobbying activities, 'revolving door' of politicians and lobbyists Congressional Revolving Doors
• · · The Australian Crime Commission has shrugged off court challenges to its investigation of offshore tax havens and will continue interrogations and the seizure of assets Tax hounds shrug off challenges ; The Prime Minister, John Howard, has flagged a further round of tax relief for high-income earners Top earners can expect more tax relief; The top marginal tax rate of 47 cents in the dollar cut to 35 cents and other rates reduced. Turnbull denies treading on Treasurer's toes
• · · · You can tell a thriving business by the tense of the conversations taking place—companies whose conversations focus on the future will be the more successful Poor Conversations Equal Disengaged, Dissatisfied Workforce ; More than 10 years after the landmark royal commission into NSW police, the same corrupt activity continues Judge to hunt down bad police
• · · · · Both lawmakers opted to rent or lease rather than seek reimbursement for using their personal vehicles Congressional Cars ; Farmland Tax Breaks ; John Howard once told Peter Doherty that if he wanted to influence politics, he needed to take his concerns public. Now, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist has done so - in spades Speak up, says PM: so hear this
• · · · · · Assassination As A Tool Of Foreign Policy: Against Foreign Assassination ; For Foreign Assassination ; After I give my evidence here today there's half a chance I'm going to get knocked I might be killed too, declares murderers' mate

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Shel Israel and Robert Scoble point to Media Dragon in their acknowledgement - what an honour to be among the heavyweights: ‘I know your (sic) busy, but would suggest a new book for your reading list (coming out soon). "Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers" by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. Excellent read about blogging and its impacts’ Acknowledgement
The brilliantly daring Harry Heidelberg links to Media Dragon

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Shel Israel & Robert Scoble
Blogging Is Becoming Ruder Than Talk Radio, Despite Its Openness and Possibility

"If you've come to "Naked Conversations" expecting to find two middle-aged white guys talking in the nude, you're in the wrong space," is the lead of the soon-to-be-published book on corporate blogging, co-authored by Shel Israel and Microsoft blog evangelist Robert Scoble. Now, says Israel, "I just need to find an ending that's just as good.

• Bloggers Secretly Want Love and Respect [Robert MacMillan says one of the more tiresome debates in the blogging community is what defines a blog. Why assign a definition? "It lets bloggers identify themselves as practitioners of a rigid format, which then, ironically, allows the corporate world to figure out how to use this amazing medium for ends that have little in common with the spirit of the first-generation bloggers." Defining blogs seems to accomplish two goals ; One in six Americans visit blogs ]
• · Fairfax appoints new heads ; Australian journalist Margo Kingston has relinquished her role as a webdiarist for the Sydney Morning Herald, online news provider Crikey reports. Margo Kingston gives SMH the flick ; Don Arthur compiles a variety of link. You know you've made it when someone creates a blog just to send you up! Margo Kingston's Webdiary
• · · Google gets in on instant messaging ; Political campaigning is moving with technological times with podcasting becoming the latest way to attract voters Podcasting hits the political trail ; Google sold itself on being anti-corporate but is becoming the opposite Search giant may outgrow its fans ; Perfect 10 claims that "under the guise of being a 'search engine,' Google is displaying, free of charge, thousands of copies of the best images from Perfect 10 Google sued over nude picture rights
• · · · Long viewed as the voice on high that lectures readers, the traditional editorial page typifies the old style of newspaper journalism. But in today's digitally networked, broadband era of media, a more conversational model is gaining ground Modernizing the Editorial Page ; Mark Jurkowitz recalls when media controversies stayed entombed inside the journalism world. Now, they instantly erupt into national scandals that bounce around the media echo chamber and often penetrate the broader public consciousness The Romenesko effect: How a media Web site is changing the face — and pace — of media culture
• · · · · I think they're all worried that they may have to become religious pamphlets in order to survive Berkeley Breathed On His 'Jailed Journo' Comic Strips ; Distribution is not king. Content is not king. Conversation is the kingdom. Who wants to own content? ; A call for an open-source ad tag
• · · · · · Duncan Riley at BlogHerald has already outlined three generations of bloggers spanning just seven years Blog Buzz Can Be Misleading ; Newsweek magazine's web site will work with blog search engine Technorati to provide links and integration of blog content into stories Newsweek Embraces Blogosphere; The Journal of Public Trust