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 Wed, 2 Mar 2005 20:06:47 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/2005/03/02/200647.php bookofjoeSometimes you find the most interesting things in the most unlikely places.The New Yorker arrived today, and I was idly paging through it when, in the Talk of the Town section, I came upon a short item about Margaret Atwood's new invention.Who knew the great Canadian author, whose most recent book, "Oryx and Crake," is a masterpiece of dystopian fiction, was also a tinkerer?She has created a machine that allows an author to remain at home while autographing books in faraway bookstores, anywhere on the planet.It's a two-way video hookup with a robotic pen arm at the bookstore end.The author sits at the kitchen table in pajamas and makes a personalized inscription for the book buyer by writing on an electronic screen; in a distant mall, the robotic pen replicates the message on the title page of the fan's propped-up book.Atwood came up with the idea last spring during an expensive and exhausting three-week publicity tour for "Oryx and Crake."She says the invention will be manufactured by a new company called Unotchit ("You no touch it").The author believes the device will increase both the safety of the writer-reader interaction -- "My germs and my bio-material won't be in the same place as your germs and your bio-material" -- and its profundity: "I'm more likely to be gazing deeply into your eyes as I'm signing on the screen."From the article:And she insists that there will be no apprecialble lessening of an autograph's authenticity, because writing is already only a distant cousin of thought. "The mind is a device that is thinking out the signature," she said. "The hand is the extension of the mind, and the pen is the extension of the hand -- so the pen is at two removes from the author's mind already. This thing is just another remove."Atwood plans to launch her invention this fall."We've just built a clunky, Model A prototype of the machine, and we don't have a name for it yet," she said. Well.She's come to the right place for marketing advice.Call it the RightAway.Not bad, eh?[via Tad Friend and the New Yorker] Culture26230@blogcritics.org Wed, 2 Mar 2005 20:06:47 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/01/222854.php bookofjoeBoy, this just won't go away.I thought we'd finished with it on January 26 and I was certain February 18 was definitely the last time I'd be revisiting the subject.But no, here it's March and like a bad penny it just keeps turning up.On December 17, 2004 President Bush signed into law the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which contained a provision banning cigarette lighters on U.S. airplanes after February 14, 2005.The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) couldn't get its ducks in a row quite that quickly, it turned out: the ban was pushed back, to begin this coming April 14.The TSA planned to prohibit matches as well (current policy allows a passenger to carry on up to four books of matches).However, the TSA was unsuccessful in banning matches: the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) resisted the inclusion of matches in the prohibition (matches were not addressed in last year's law banning lighters).The OMB said the TSA needs to complete a cost-benefit analysis of banning matches first.Starting April 14, lighters will be confiscated by screeners.Lighters have long been prohibited from being packed in checked luggage, since they contain flammable liquid.Matches, however, continue to be allowed in checked luggage, as well as apparently surviving for the time being as authorized carry-on.The question of what to do about smoking lounges has arisen, what with the coming tightening.Should matches be banned as well, some have proposed wall-mounted cigarette lighters.Why not wall-mounted cigarettes?You'd have puffing stations, where you'd insert your cigarette of choice and light it, sort of like with a car lighter.The question about what to do with foreign travelers transiting the U.S. who have legally brought lighters from abroad has also arisen.The confiscation of swish Dunhill and Cartier lighters will light a real fire should they pick the right -- or wrong -- person.Can you imagine Catherine Deneuve being hauled off for intensive questioning? Culture26194@blogcritics.org Tue, 1 Mar 2005 22:28:54 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/28/160603.php bookofjoeThis superb writer's February 17 column, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal's online OpinionJournal.com, is must reading for anyone who has any involvement whatsoever with the internet.Long story short: Noonan says that as of today blogs rule and MSM drools.Everyone who writes for Blogcritics should be smiling by the time they've finished reading her piece.I know I was -- still am, in fact. Culture26130@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:06:03 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/28/155614.php bookofjoePETA takes another scalp -- even though this one's in the inert, lifeless form of a gummi snack.Kraft's Trolli Road Kill Gummi candy (above) -- shaped like flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels, complete with tire treads -- is no more.New Jersey animal-rights activists said the candy encouraged children to be cruel to animals, and threatened petition drives, boycotts and letter-writing campaigns unless production was halted immediately.Kraft complied and plans to stop production and then sell off its remaining inventory.The candy hit store shelves across the U.S. last summer.I'm reminded of something a Louisiana lawyer once told me, in passing: "You never see a dead animal on the road in Cajun country."Think about it.Full disclosure: no animal products were used in the creation of this post. Culture26129@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Feb 2005 15:56:14 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/28/124009.php bookofjoeDave Pollard, on January 4, wrote a very interesting post in his blog about the blogosphere.He took a lot of the recent survey results and reports and information from a variety of online sources and blogs to come up with some very interesting statistics that he then rendered graphically (above and below).Here are a few fun facts from his post:• There are 100 "A-list" bloggers -- they get an average of 150,000 hits/day• There are 2,000 "B-list" bloggers -- 2,500 hits/day average• "C-list" bloggers number 18,000, with 500 hits/day average• Up-and-coming bloggers number 80,000, averaging 100 hits/day• The other 5 million bloggers average 3 hits/dayI find it interesting that to move up to "Up-and-coming" status you have to have over a 30-fold increase in traffic.The next two steps require multiples of 5 each.The final push to major-league status requires a 60-fold increase in traffic.Pollard went on to calculate that the average B-list blogger, with an average 90-seconds-per-visit, gets 62 hours/day total of reader attention.He compared that to a total of 170 reader-hours/day for the average newspaper article.Thus, the average B-list blogger gets about one-third the total reader attention/day as the average newspaper story.But look at it another way, as Pollard did: no matter how many hours a day you're putting in on your blog, it can't exceed 24; if you make it onto the B-list, then you're getting several times more hours worth of attention being paid than you invested.With the rapid increase in blog readership that's occurring (top), Pollard estimated that in less than three years (conservatively) the average B-list blogger will get significantly more reader attention than the average US unsyndicated newspaper article or column.As for the A-list, he projectd daily reader attention about equal to that of the average US daily paper.Pretty impressive for a bunch of girls and guys sitting around in their pajamas, he wrote.Sitting here in my PJs, it's hard not to agree, what? Culture26119@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Feb 2005 12:40:09 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/28/100414.php bookofjoeI just ran across this website.It purports to search the web for sites that have plagiarized your work."Defend your site with a plagiarism warning banner to warn potential plagiarists against stealing your content."I tried it out and I must say it is impressive: the first page of results (which appeared in less than a second) showed my latest bookofjoe post, which only went up 32 minutes ago.For comparison, Google takes a day to index my posts.But what's this?In small print at the very bottom of the page it says, "© 2005 Indigo Stream Technologies, providers of Google Alert."So this is yet another Google experiment/project, so far under the radar it's not even marked beta.I love Google. But I digress.I really have no use for Copyscape, nor do I care about people "stealing my content."Self-importance is the enemy of happiness in my opinion.Believing that what you have to say is so valuable that if others use it without attribution you must take action is simply another form of self-importance.Please, steal my content.All of it.Every day, every minute.It's your for not even a song.I guess I'm not really the target market for Copyscape, huh? Culture26112@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:04:14 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/27/203620.php bookofjoeThat's what Chuck Abate of PlantFind.com did, according to a New York Times article by Elizabeth Olson that appeared in last Thursday's Business section.PlantFind.com is an online company that connects buyers and sellers of landscaping and nursery goods.When Abate joined the company last fall, his job was to raise capital.He went to vFinance.com to find investors, spending a total of $350 to connect with individual investors who provided $500,000 in funding for his company.Abate said the process was relatively simple.He told the Times, "It was pretty easy to navigate."Maybe I need to wander over to vFinance.com and have a look.Waiting for the virtual Godot doesn't seem to be having much of an effect on my bank balance.Here's a link to the Times story. Culture26092@blogcritics.org Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:36:20 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/27/195443.php bookofjoeThis exhibition of 16 of the great Italian master's paintings from the final four years of his life has created a sensation.It's perhaps the highlight of the year's museum shows, and here it's only February.Caravaggio, born in 1571, was at the height of his fame, considered the most original and powerful painter of his day, when in 1606 he killed a man in a duel.With a capital sentence on his head he fled Rome, never to return.During the next -- and final -- four years of his life, spent on the run, he created his greatest works, 16 of which have been assembled in this nonpareil show.Many of these paintings have never before left their homes, and were obtained for the exhibition only after extended and difficult negotiations.The show opened last Wednesday at London's National Gallery, and will be up through May 22 in the Sainsbury Wing.Gallery hours are 10 a.m.- 6 p.m every day, Wednesdays until 9 p.m.Admission requires a ticket. Culture26044@blogcritics.org Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:54:43 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/27/115148.php bookofjoeCould be happening sooner than you think if Dr. Samuel Gosling of the University of Texas has his way.Gosling has made a career out of studying animal personality, and has come to the conclusion that dogs share four out of the five personality traits psychologists use to understand human behavior.The question of whether or not dogs have a meaningful personality is controversial among scientists, even if dog owners have no doubt whatsoever that it is the case.Human personality is measured according to five variables: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to new experience.Gosling has found that only conscientiousness -- which measures trustworthiness, selfishness and dependability -- is absent in dogs.Who knows?Perhaps when Gosling comes up with his canine version of the Myers-Briggs, he'll make it so one of the profiles is WOOF. Culture26043@blogcritics.org Sun, 27 Feb 2005 11:51:48 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/26/193838.php bookofjoeDaily inoculations of The Financial Times and a weekly dose of The Economist have furnished me with enough material to offer a bit of language arbitrage, as it were, between the American and English versions of the mother tongue.Without further fanfare, then:donut = doughnutsoybean = soyabeanglitters = glistersjewelry = jewellerythere it is = Bob's your unclemath = mathsfinish [first] = come [first]blocked = furred-upwhine = whingedisappear = go missing Culture26040@blogcritics.org Sat, 26 Feb 2005 19:38:38 EST