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, 1 Jun 2005 13:30:58 EDT 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/2005/06/01/133058.php timelineWell this weekend I got the chance to attend my brother's high school graduation. Considering the fact that he left home because he didn't want to come home by 2 am and didn't want to finish school it is surprising he made it and on time as well. It was held at large indoor arena with 400 kids graduating and with the typical bad speakers that you would expect. Then they started to read the names and give out the diplomas...Mostly it was the usual clapping and that's fine but then as they got out of the honors students we got the added joy of fog horns. As if this wasn't bad enough large groups would start yelling and screaming (and I do mean full screaming) so loud that you could not hear 5 or 6 kid's names over the damn loudspeaker. It didn't happen over my brother's name but I felt sorry for the parents and kids that came here only to have it all messed up by thoughtless people. What is wrong with people when they are so self-involved that they only think their friends and themselves matters and to hell with everyone else? Culture30428@blogcritics.org Wed, 1 Jun 2005 13:30:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/17/003432.php timelineRemember growing up and trusting the news? It didn't matter if it was CNN or ABC, you knew that they did their best to check out the facts and report them accurately. Today, it seems like you can't go a month without some news station admitting to making up stories or putting out lies as facts. Is this what we can expect from the once noble press? The ones charged with keeping the world honest but can't stop lying themselves?If you don't like Bush, it does not give you the right to make up documents about him being AWOL. If you don't like the US being in Iraq, it doesn't give you the right to lie about POWs and their treatment to try to turn the world against the effort. Being a journalist is not about changing people's minds to your ideology. It's simply about reporting what happened.It is time for the men and women of the news industry to step back and remember that the news should always be about facts; not spin or personal feelings. Politics29598@blogcritics.org Tue, 17 May 2005 00:34:32 EDT