http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 2 Dec 2003 16:16:46 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/02/161646.php AugustineOn November 27th my blog was seven months old. So, to celebrate its birthday, I devised a quiz for me. But if you take out the words me, my and I and substitute you and your, it becomes a quiz for you.Augustine's Quiz for Bloggers Wondering What to Blog About1. Should I blog about what makes me angry? 2. Or should I blog about what makes me happy and/or sad? 3. Or should I blog about what I do and see and hear in my day-to-day life? 4. Or should I report on what others are doing in their everyday lives? 5. Or should I blog about the Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything? 6. Or should I see if there are Bloggers Anonymous meetings to cure my addiction to blogging? My Answers to the above Quiz: 1. All I have to do is read a newspaper or turn on the TV and my rage rises like a rocket and keeps on climbing. And there's enough fuel for a daily or even an hourly blogrant. But, I ask myself: am I really a natural-born ranter? Isn't my sputtering rather feeble compared to the inspired apocalyptic rants being posted by some world class ranters? And I must admit that, alas, ranting is not what I'm best at.2. What makes me happy and/or sad is most often private stuff, raw material which I may or may not transform into something which may or may not be art - gnovels, paintings, whatever. Not regular blogging material, in other words. 3. No. I don't want to blog about my everyday life. Not every day. Maybe just once in a while.4. No. I'm not a good reporter, not objective enough. Too emotional (see No.1). 5. Hm. Now that's more like it. That makes my little two dimensional brain excited. I'll get back to you on that one.6. No. I don't need to be cured. I can stop any time I want. This proves I'm not addicted. Culture10618@blogcritics.org Tue, 2 Dec 2003 16:16:46 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/11/09/193625.php AugustineLET'S LAUGH SPAM OFF THE NET - Hoisted with their own petard. by AugustineAmongst all the trash I have to delete every day before I can read my genuine e-mail, there's a lot of spam offering to rid me of spam if I will purchase their services. And I ask myself: why in heaven's name should I pay for spam-blocking or spam-cleaning when the very existence of spam is a crime? A crime like stalking, mugging, obscene phone-calling, assault, robbery, invasion of privacy, fraud, etc. They spy on us, steal our e-mail addresses, break into our websites, flood our private space with their rubbish. Maybe some spam-control systems work fine and maybe spamming will be declared illegal one day. I discovered SpamCop, a good place to report spammers, and this site tells you how to 'mung' or spam-block your e-mail address so it can't be harvested. But I've had a more fun idea:What would happen if all of us - and I mean hundreds of thousands of bloggers - started making fun of spammers, using their own spam, their own words, to laugh them off the net? For one thing, Google and all the other search engines would pick up these words from our blogs and that would create chaos among the spammers because nobody would know which was their product and which our jolly japes. I'd like to hear what other people think: could it be a deterrent? I've made an experimental spamcollage, with special attention to the 419 Fraud gangsters who think I'm an easy touch - they send me offers of billions of dollars every day, each with a new see-through tale, a new alias and a new country of origin - some are even bringing God into their stories. I imagine them sitting around in their ill-gotten villas, competing to see who can come up with the best scam, falling off their chairs laughing as they visualise the suckers who will line up to offer them full access to their bank accounts. Well, bloggers, let's show 'em who has the last laugh, heh heh. Put your creative hats on and start recycling spam in amazing new ways. This post also appears at Open Source Politics Culture9972@blogcritics.org Sun, 9 Nov 2003 19:36:25 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/27/074157.php Augustine"Problems cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." Albert Einstein "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." Sydney J. Harris "I don't search, I find." Picasso A while back I posted a first sketchy outline of the idea of a Bloggers Parliament . Since then I've clarified and elaborated it and the project is now up and running and people have started joining. This is an open invitation to you, whoever and wherever you are, to come and be a Collector and Creator of Solutions. They don't have to be world-size solutions, they could be small, simple and practical. A 'Eureka!' you had while taking a bath. Or some deep philosophical answer that came to you as you walked in the woods. Whatever. But they must be solutions to specific problems. Here are the guidelines which appear on the BP home page. What is the Bloggers Parliament? A flexible assembly of bloggers who are interested in finding and selecting from the blogosphere or from any other source - including their own thoughts - feasible solutions to current problems in the world. Members of Bloggers Parliament can be thought of as talent scouts, finding those elusive needles - solutions which can get right to the point of a problem - in the daunting haystack of information. This is not a chat room, discussion forum, soap-box or fund-raising scheme, nor can it be used to advertise or sell any products or services. Our focus is only on the collection or creation of specific imaginative, relevant, informed, constructive and perhaps unorthodox solutions which could, if applied, really solve specific problems. Our personal Collection of Solutions , which will be added to regularly, is an example. But you need not agree with our choice of solutions in order to join this Parliament - you may have very different solutions to the same problems or choose to concentrate on other problems. The voting process will choose which ideas to include in eventual Solution Packages. How do I join? If you agree to the above principles and aims, you apply to become a Member of Bloggers Parliament simply by saying you want to join and entering your name and the URL of your site in our Comments box. Once you are accepted we put your name on the blogroll of MBP's and it remains there as long as you actively participate in this project and keep to the guidelines. We reserve the right to remove your name from the list of members at any time if we feel you are not keeping to the spirit of this project. How do I participate once I am an MBP?1.Somewhere on your own blog, create a section headed: Bloggers Parliament.2. Near the heading insert a link to Bloggers Parliament and our logo (a new one is being designed). 3. Below the heading insert your name followed by Collection of Solutions. For example: Joe Blogg's Collection of Solutions. 4. All solutions that you post should go under the above headings, followed by the Category of Problem you are addressing. Choose from the list below or add new categories, if you wish, but tell us what they are so we can add them to the list. 5. Look at our Collection of Solutions for an example of a format you can adopt for presenting your entries. Include the following: General category of problem . Specific issue within that category. Title of the Solution. Author or source of the solution. Date you selected it. 6. If the idea is one you have found on the internet, give a brief quote or summary and add a link to its source. It's not enough just to give the link: you must say in a few words what this idea proposes as a specific solution to the specific problem. The same goes for ideas you find from any sources outside the internet: always give the source and a brief, clear and specific summary. Avoid long discussions of the problem: this is about solutions . 7. If the solution is one that you have thought of and/or are actually using in your own work or daily life, follow the same format given above. Specify the problem and how your idea solves it, or would solve it. Summarize this in a short paragraph and give a link, if necessary, to a page on your site where the solution is fully elaborated. If you don't have your own blog, or only occasional access to the internet, let us know a URL to which you could occasionally post your solutions and where other people could read them.What happens next? When a reasonable number of people have joined and collected a reasonable number of solutions to given problems, Voting Days will be announced inviting everyone, anywhere, to vote on the best solutions published in all the participating Members' blogs. The voters will be asked to vote according to the titles of solutions and categories of problems. Voting Days will be held here on the Bloggers Parliament Home Page and votes can be cast in our Comments box. This system may change in future if the project grows but for the time being we'll start small and simple. And then what? After a good number of solutions have been gathered and several Voting Days held to choose the best, we will put together several Solutions Packages to be presented to the media, world leaders, experts, or anybody likely to give them serious consideration. Let's see where this will lead. No predictions, no expectations - just travelling hopefully. Categories of Current Problems (You can add new categories. Tell us and we'll add them.)1. On-going conflicts, wars and post-war chaos.2. Threats or dangers to individuals, countries or the planet.3. Local issues specific to one country or area.4. Race or religious conflicts.5. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy.6. Health & environment problems, local or global.7. Economic imbalances/ Money/ Unemployment.8. Lack of communication and/or reliable information.9. Corruption and crime: on small or vast scale.10. Individual and collective morality & responsibility.11. Technology: problems it causes or that it could solve. 12. Psychological blocks and blind spots. 13. Spiritual issues.14. Problems in Education, Arts or Culture. ******************************************************************Please remember Bloggers Parliament is about collecting solutions and not about discussing the problems. ******************************************************************This post is also at Open Source Politics. Culture9536@blogcritics.org Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:41:57 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/17/193112.php AugustineA Halloween Message (in advance) The non-human section of the animal kingdom is often so much more interesting than the mixed up messed up human one. I envy animals' blithe ignorance of human weirdness. I admit I'm only a simple cartoon creature but even I can tell what's weird and the cult of horror is very weird indeed. The worship of horror films, horror books, horror images, violence merchandise. And the worship of the creators of the Horror & Violence Industry - those real vampires who gobble up the dough that consumers eagerly stuff into their insatiable gullets. For the fix of adrenalin they get from watching Special Defects: repulsive studio-excreted aliens and grotesquely made-up actors overpaid to torture, rape, shoot, decapitate, abuse, disembowel, dismember and generally do evil as slowly and sadistically (let me count the ways) as the twisted imaginations of their authors can conceive."Oh come on!" horror fans will say, "It's only innocent fun, fake frights. We know it ain't real." But that's exactly the point: lured into a painstakingly realistic yet fake violent horror world, human sensitivity becomes blunted. The boundaries between what's real and what's fake become blurred. And when real horror happens in the real world - as it does every day - immunity sets in. Cynicism. 'Cool' irony. Indifference. Bewilderment: "This can't be real, it's just like a horror movie." A zombified society, passively allowing itself to be hypnotised by every cunning conman with a used monster to sell.Come on, wake up! Don't censor the purveyors of horror and violence. That's what they want, it makes them feel like rebels. They're not rebels, they're just noisy, spoiled, megalomanic brats. Ignore their tantrums, take away their allowances and above all, stop worshipping their excrement. Oh allright, their shit. And if you crave horror, look around at the real world - you're sure to find some. But it won't be thrilling. Video9289@blogcritics.org Fri, 17 Oct 2003 19:31:12 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/11/201753.php AugustineThe French film WINGED MIGRATION is an extraordinary experience. To call it a mere documentary is misleading because it has everything: drama, adventure, travel, pathos, art, romance, comedy, tragedy and ecstatic beauty that lifts you out of your seat and into the air to fly alongside these unbelievable beings we call birds. Who needs science fiction and digitally created other-worldly creatures when we have such a species living alongside us here on earth and looking down on us from the sky? Directed by Jacques Perrin, the film took four years to make, using planes, gliders, helicopters and balloons as well as land vehicles and ingenious camera technology to follow the migration of numerous bird species in seven continents and forty countries from the Arctic to the Amazon, flying low over the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, and getting stuck in the oil bogs of industrial wastelands. There are no special effects and no need for any since those provided by nature are spectacular enough. When the soundtrack is only birds' cries and other mesmerising environmental sounds it's wonderful. But the narrator's heavily French-accented voice is unfortunate, especially since the information he imparts is minimal, and the background music to the birds' odyssey is an equally poor choice. But the quality of the film overrrides any such minor quibbles. There has never been another movie which allows you to fly close-up, beak to beak, with flesh and blood avian angels whose appearance - whether drop-dead gorgeous, awesome or comical - no designer could have imagined. Nor are we accustomed to seeing our world from a bird's-eye view and it's shocking, frightening and breathtakingly stunning. Don't miss this film even if you have to fly for miles to see it. Video9099@blogcritics.org Sat, 11 Oct 2003 20:17:53 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/04/234002.php AugustineTony Bliar got a seven minute standing ovation at the Labour Party Conference. Seven minutes. Standing. Ovation. This is from his own party members, many of whom are very unhappy indeed with the PM's policies on nearly everything from Iraq to health care. So I started ruminating about The Panache Effect or, if you prefer, The Rabbit Caught in Headlights Effect. It works like this: human animals are easily seduced. All that is required on the part of the seducer or hypnotist is confidence, certainty and a persuasive voice. The words that the voice is speaking don't really matter very much. They might even be completely meaningless, as long as they are delivered with panache, authority, repetition and certainty . The seducer must be absolutely certain that he/she is absolutely right. This certainty produces a kind of blueish Panache Halo which can extend into very large spaces and is irresistible. Reason and logic are no defense against it. You can mistrust and detest the seducer but you're trapped in those headlights and might find yourself applauding and cheering for seven minutes or longer. History, as well as everyday life, is replete with examples of this effect. But what can we do to resist it? Could uncertainty be the antidote? Could the honest expression of honest doubt ever be enough to wake up a hypnotized audience, anywhere, anytime? Politics8925@blogcritics.org Sat, 4 Oct 2003 23:40:02 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/26/220014.php AugustineHere's my first tentative outline of the Bloggers Parliament project, which I first proposed in my 'non-presidential manifesto' post (Blaugustine, Sept.14). It has also been posted in the WorldView section of Open Source Politics. If anybody's interested in taking it seriously, why not post this on your own blogs so that a momentum is built up and, who knows, it may actually get somewhere. I would suggest that the ideas be expressed in as few and as clear words as possible. I'm making a separate page on my site to start collecting ideas I come across (or think up) which really might be solutions to one or more of the problem in the categories listed below. I discovered one yesterday by Aron Trauring: His 'Modest Proposal' could solve the Israel/Palestine conflict. BLOGGERS' PARLIAMENT PROJECT1. To collect the best ideas from the blogosphere which offer feasible solutions to current major problems in the world.2. Each person who agrees to become a member of Bloggers' Parliament becomes a mini-collection center for those ideas (including their own) which they select as the most relevant and appropriate solutions to the problems in any or all the categories listed below. Obviously their choices would reflect the bloggers' own views.3. After each member has collected a maximum of, say, five ideas per category, they are posted on their own blogs under a Bloggers' Parliament heading. 4. The entire blogging community (members and non-members of the Parliament) is then invited to vote for which of the solutions collected by all the MP's best fit the specific problems.5. From the results of the voting, a short list is drawn up and a Solution Package is prepared.6. The Bloggers' Parliament then presents the Solution Package to the world media, world leaders and/or anyone else who will listen and who may have the means and power to implement the ideas.7. Que sera sera. This plan is still in embryonic form. The logistics of it need working out but if enough people are interested, I think it would find its own structure. CATEGORIES OF PROBLEMS for which new ideas/ solutions are wanted:1. Current wars, post-war chaos, and ongoing conflicts. 2. Threats and dangers to individuals, countries or the whole planet. 3. Local issues, applying to specific countries or areas. 4. Race or religion conflicts. 5. World poverty, hunger, illiteracy. 6. Health & environment problems, local and worldwide. 7. Economic imbalances. 8. Lack of communication and/or reliable information. 9. Corruption and crime (small as well as huge). 10. Individual and collective morality/responsibility. Politics8707@blogcritics.org Fri, 26 Sep 2003 22:00:14 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/26/192823.php AugustineFor reasons best known to himself, the so-called 'illusionist' (delusionist?) David Blaine is suspended above the Thames inside a transparent cage in which he intends to remain for 44 days without food. He has already been thus displayed for 20 days and Londoners don't seem to appreciate his....what do you call it? Self-sacrifice? Masochism? Self-promotion carried to insanity? He's not doing it for charity, for protest, for a crusading cause or, as far as we know, for fun. Apparently, he is very successful back home in America but here....well, so far, things thrown at his see-through prison include: eggs, golf balls, laser pens, fireworks and catapulted pink paint-bombs. He has a security staff to try and maintain order in the rowdy crowd. All this must cost a packet. What can be going through his head as he so theatrically, uselessly and expensively starves?(Photo: Evening Standard, London 9/26/03. Workman tries to cleans paint thrown at Blaine's box). Culture8705@blogcritics.org Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:28:23 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/04/095926.php AugustineSeptember 3, 2003Today I went for a stroll with a friend to Highgate Cemetery, famous resting place of famous bones such as those which used to be Karl Marx. Why is it that people who want to reform the world usually end up leaving it worse off than it was before? Their world-changing ideas might (or might not) be excellent but if those who have the ideas also get the power to implement them, something always goes drastically wrong. Maybe human beings just can't be trusted to handle power. We've seen again and again that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, yet we are still persuaded that poweris essential if we want to achieve anything or change anything. What if the opposite is true? What if powerlessness is the essential condition for changes that are constructive rather than destructive? You know, the old Zen concept that it's when you stop struggling and straining that you suddenly hit the target. Politics8083@blogcritics.org Thu, 4 Sep 2003 09:59:26 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/01/085410.php Augustine Politics7995@blogcritics.org Mon, 1 Sep 2003 08:54:10 EDT