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BuzzMachine
by Jeff Jarvis
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September 30, 2002
Torch torched
: Robert Torricelli quits the race and manages to turn it into a bottomless egofest. The man ruins the the Democratic party and manages to act haughty about it. What a dickdork.
So who'll replace him on short notice? Former Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bill Bradley Rep. Bob Menendez are the names on the list so far.
I wonder what the residency requirement is in NJ. Can Bill Clinton run?
Or how about Bruce Springsteen?
: The Republicans are becoming all too accustomed to winning elections in court, not at the polls. They're threatening to stop anyone from replacing Torch on the ballot. How undemocratic (small d) can you get? We voters in New Jersey deserve the right to vote for a candidate of our choice. This is not Florida!
: Torch's opponent's TV commercials are still running in prime time. Kicking a horse after it's down.
: Not that I'm suggesting this, but Torch would have done his Democrats a better service if he'd torched himself. We'd elect a dead man (a dead man defeated John Ashcroft, remember). But trying to find a live one is way harder.
Another era bites...
: I walk by the famous Howard Johnson's on Times Square today and it's closed by order of the Health Department. Damn. An icon falls. And I didn't get to have that last taste of HoJo's fried clams.
Let me kiss my diploma
: The MIT Open Courseware program is turbo cool. I thought I'd take a class at MIT using its open-source class materials. I now think better of it. I think I'm glad I graduated college when I did.
I was, for a brief while, a philosphy major. But it was nothing like this.
Here are notes from MIT's problems of philosopy class: II. The Problem of Evil
Remember, we're considering the existence of a certain kind of God, a God who is perfect in every way. By hypothesis, this God is omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good (I'll abbreviate these characteristics as "OOG").
1) If God exists, she'd be OOG. [By hypothesis]
Now surely if an OOG God exists, there ought to be no evil in the world. Here's why: Since God knows everything, she knows when there is going to be an earthquake, or terrorist attack, or a lynching. Since she is all-powerful, she could prevent it if she tried. But since she is wholly good, she does try. Thus the earthquake, terrorist attack, lynching, etc. is prevented. So:
2) If an OOG being exists, there would be no evil. [from 1]
Suppose, then, that:
3) God exists.
You should conclude that:
4) There is no evil. [From 1-3]
But the truth is that (as the Dostoevsky reading and current events make vividly clear):
5) There is evil.
But note that (4) and (5) are contradictory. You can't reasonably believe both that there is and there is not evil in the world. As a result, even many religious people have felt compelled to conclude:
6) [An OOG] God does not exist.
This is the problem of evil for theism. Unless there is a way around the problem, theists have reason to give up their belief, on pain of irrationality.
Note that the argument, as presented, has the form of a reductio ad absurdum.... Does not compute. Does not compute. Does not compute....
Torch torched
: Robert Torricelli quits the race and manages to turn it into a bottomless egofest. The man ruins the the Democratic party and manages to act haughty about it. What a dickdork.
So who'll replace him on short notice? Former Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bill Bradley Rep. Bob Menendez are the names on the list so far.
I wonder what the residency requirement is in NJ. Can Bill Clinton run?
Or how about Bruce Springsteen?
: The Republicans are becoming all too accustomed to winning elections in court, not at the polls. They're threatening to stop anyone from replacing Torch on the ballot. How undemocratic (small d) can you get? We voters in New Jersey deserve the right to vote for a candidate of our choice. This is not Florida!
: Torch's opponent's TV commercials are still running in prime time. Kicking a horse after it's down.
: Not that I'm suggesting this, but Torch would have done his Democrats a better service if he'd torched himself. We'd elect a dead man (a dead man defeated John Ashcroft, remember). But trying to find a live one is way harder.
Another era bites...
: I walk by the famous Howard Johnson's on Times Square today and it's closed by order of the Health Department. Damn. An icon falls. And I didn't get to have that last taste of HoJo's fried clams.
Let me kiss my diploma
: The MIT Open Courseware program is turbo cool. I thought I'd take a class at MIT using its open-source class materials. I now think better of it. I think I'm glad I graduated college when I did.
I was, for a brief while, a philosphy major. But it was nothing like this.
Here are notes from MIT's problems of philosopy class: II. The Problem of Evil
Remember, we're considering the existence of a certain kind of God, a God who is perfect in every way. By hypothesis, this God is omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good (I'll abbreviate these characteristics as "OOG").
1) If God exists, she'd be OOG. [By hypothesis]
Now surely if an OOG God exists, there ought to be no evil in the world. Here's why: Since God knows everything, she knows when there is going to be an earthquake, or terrorist attack, or a lynching. Since she is all-powerful, she could prevent it if she tried. But since she is wholly good, she does try. Thus the earthquake, terrorist attack, lynching, etc. is prevented. So:
2) If an OOG being exists, there would be no evil. [from 1]
Suppose, then, that:
3) God exists.
You should conclude that:
4) There is no evil. [From 1-3]
But the truth is that (as the Dostoevsky reading and current events make vividly clear):
5) There is evil.
But note that (4) and (5) are contradictory. You can't reasonably believe both that there is and there is not evil in the world. As a result, even many religious people have felt compelled to conclude:
6) [An OOG] God does not exist.
This is the problem of evil for theism. Unless there is a way around the problem, theists have reason to give up their belief, on pain of irrationality.
Note that the argument, as presented, has the form of a reductio ad absurdum.... Does not compute. Does not compute. Does not compute....
September 29, 2002
Flash forward
: I'm having a bad flash forward right now, after watching tonight's premiere of American Dreams: I fear that 40 years from now. somebody will make a show about how everything in America changed not in November 1963 but in September 2001 and we--you and I, real people today--will be turned into period pieces, made quaint in our clothes and attitudes and lives, stereotypes in stereo.
The '60s were my time; I am their child. I was in third grade in 1963, when JFK was killed; I was in high school during Vietnam and the '68 elections; I marched in protest against that war; I was ready to risk jail or my citizenship to fight against the fight (and I was saved only by the luck of numbers: my birthday and lottery).
Now I'm looking at a show that is going to turn much of that time into a cliche.
But then, I get the exact same feeling when I watch protest marchers on the news today: anti-capitalism, anti-trade, anti-Americanism, anti-war, anti-meat. They mock a time of real protest worse than any TV show ever could.
Flash forward
: I'm having a bad flash forward right now, after watching tonight's premiere of American Dreams: I fear that 40 years from now. somebody will make a show about how everything in America changed not in November 1963 but in September 2001 and we--you and I, real people today--will be turned into period pieces, made quaint in our clothes and attitudes and lives, stereotypes in stereo.
The '60s were my time; I am their child. I was in third grade in 1963, when JFK was killed; I was in high school during Vietnam and the '68 elections; I marched in protest against that war; I was ready to risk jail or my citizenship to fight against the fight (and I was saved only by the luck of numbers: my birthday and lottery).
Now I'm looking at a show that is going to turn much of that time into a cliche.
But then, I get the exact same feeling when I watch protest marchers on the news today: anti-capitalism, anti-trade, anti-Americanism, anti-war, anti-meat. They mock a time of real protest worse than any TV show ever could.
September 28, 2002
Here was New York
: Note that Here Is New York has exhibitions in lots of cities around the world. But note also that the New York Prince Street gallery, the original, is closing at the end of this month and they will stop taking orders for prints. So order now. And get the amazing book, the best on 9.11 to date.
Here was New York
: Note that Here Is New York has exhibitions in lots of cities around the world. But note also that the New York Prince Street gallery, the original, is closing at the end of this month and they will stop taking orders for prints. So order now. And get the amazing book, the best on 9.11 to date.
September 27, 2002
Do not pass go
: Make your own, personalized Monopoly game.
Mapping the 'sphere
: A pretty nice metasearch engine that places the results in a confusing yet intriguing map at Kartoo.
Do not pass go
: Make your own, personalized Monopoly game.
Mapping the 'sphere
: A pretty nice metasearch engine that places the results in a confusing yet intriguing map at Kartoo.
September 26, 2002
Guns 'n' roses
: I think this is a little sick, though I can see Glenn Reynolds et al love it: In Toronto, a weekend-getaway travel company is pushing a Charley's Angels tour: The morning starts with a visit to a private gun club. Here you polish your gun shooting skills with personal, side-by-side firearm instruction. You learn basic gun safety and how to load your own magazine, then you fire-off 50 rounds of ammo at a paper target. The target is yours to take back as a souvenir.
Then off you go to Stillwater Spa, one of the hottest spas in Toronto, for a manicure. Relax in the whirlpool, have a cold drink and enjoy being pampered for a couple of hours.
After the manicure, trot back home, get dressed to the nines and get ready for a night on the town. Dance, meet new people and party the night away....
Program includes:
- Firearm instruction
- Use of protective eye and ear wear
- Use of handgun, ammunition and paper target
- Use of whirlpool, sauna and other Stillwater Spa facilities
- A manicure treatment at Stillwater Spa Will it be long before the girls on Sex & the City are armed? Is gun chic on the way? Please, no.
Nick Denton fact-checks Google's ass
: Here.
Just what we need: Four Saddams
: ZDF, the German TV network, says it has proof that Saddam uses doubles, long rumored. They analyzed hundreds of photos in their archives and determined that he has sent out at least three doubles lately, each surgically enhanced and each trained in Saddam's mannerisms. One source said that the real Saddam was not seen in public, on TV, from 1998 until last Saturday. Will W get the right one?
: Babelfish translation here.
Blog the prom
: Metafilter points to a high-school student who's getting in trouble for blogging from school. I was in the office again today, balling my eyes out. Lets just say one of the options is to have me expelled from the school. I was gasping for air half the time I was in there. I had to write this affidavit telling them everything I knew about my blog, how long I had been posting from school, who else from my school had a blog and everything. I was crying the entire time. And don't you dare joke me for crying. I mean, you'd cry too if you had a PERFECT perm. record and then have it screwed up in high school and mess up your chances of getting into the college of your choice. If true, this is obnoxious and the kid should fight. He's cleary smart and eager and he should be encouraged to develop those talents, not called before HUAC and made to name names because of it.
Why, in my day, I brought the ACLU into my junior high to fight a dress code (I was defending the rights of girls to wear slacks, not my right to wear sandals and socks). Defending free speech is a much better cause.
Enron
: The update from the auction this morning: Plastic Enron beer mugs sell for $14 each.
Infamy has a value.
Guns 'n' roses
: I think this is a little sick, though I can see Glenn Reynolds et al love it: In Toronto, a weekend-getaway travel company is pushing a Charley's Angels tour: The morning starts with a visit to a private gun club. Here you polish your gun shooting skills with personal, side-by-side firearm instruction. You learn basic gun safety and how to load your own magazine, then you fire-off 50 rounds of ammo at a paper target. The target is yours to take back as a souvenir.
Then off you go to Stillwater Spa, one of the hottest spas in Toronto, for a manicure. Relax in the whirlpool, have a cold drink and enjoy being pampered for a couple of hours.
After the manicure, trot back home, get dressed to the nines and get ready for a night on the town. Dance, meet new people and party the night away....
Program includes:
- Firearm instruction
- Use of protective eye and ear wear
- Use of handgun, ammunition and paper target
- Use of whirlpool, sauna and other Stillwater Spa facilities
- A manicure treatment at Stillwater Spa Will it be long before the girls on Sex & the City are armed? Is gun chic on the way? Please, no.
Nick Denton fact-checks Google's ass
: Here.
Just what we need: Four Saddams
: ZDF, the German TV network, says it has proof that Saddam uses doubles, long rumored. They analyzed hundreds of photos in their archives and determined that he has sent out at least three doubles lately, each surgically enhanced and each trained in Saddam's mannerisms. One source said that the real Saddam was not seen in public, on TV, from 1998 until last Saturday. Will W get the right one?
: Babelfish translation here.
Blog the prom
: Metafilter points to a high-school student who's getting in trouble for blogging from school. I was in the office again today, balling my eyes out. Lets just say one of the options is to have me expelled from the school. I was gasping for air half the time I was in there. I had to write this affidavit telling them everything I knew about my blog, how long I had been posting from school, who else from my school had a blog and everything. I was crying the entire time. And don't you dare joke me for crying. I mean, you'd cry too if you had a PERFECT perm. record and then have it screwed up in high school and mess up your chances of getting into the college of your choice. If true, this is obnoxious and the kid should fight. He's cleary smart and eager and he should be encouraged to develop those talents, not called before HUAC and made to name names because of it.
Why, in my day, I brought the ACLU into my junior high to fight a dress code (I was defending the rights of girls to wear slacks, not my right to wear sandals and socks). Defending free speech is a much better cause.
Enron
: The update from the auction this morning: Plastic Enron beer mugs sell for $14 each.
Infamy has a value.
September 25, 2002
The latest reality show: Selling off Enron
: You can listen to the Enron auction right now (midday Wednesday). Sony 27-inch TV just sold for $300.
: Thanks to Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers for pointing me to the auction. I've been listening off and on all day long (while doing more productive things, of course). It's riveting. This is what becomes of crooks. The loot is so telling: Not just the chairs, lined up like those Chinese clay soldiers in an archeological dig, but lots of Enron briefcases and balls and best of all, beer coolers with the Enron log and the slogan, "Ask why." Indeed.
I look forward to the auctions for not only the companies but also their executives.
I want to pitch this as a reality show for the Home Shopping Network.
: The show is going into overtime tonight and they're not nearly done unloading all the servers and laptops and chairs. It starts again Thursday morning. Tune in.
The latest reality show: Selling off Enron
: You can listen to the Enron auction right now (midday Wednesday). Sony 27-inch TV just sold for $300.
: Thanks to Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers for pointing me to the auction. I've been listening off and on all day long (while doing more productive things, of course). It's riveting. This is what becomes of crooks. The loot is so telling: Not just the chairs, lined up like those Chinese clay soldiers in an archeological dig, but lots of Enron briefcases and balls and best of all, beer coolers with the Enron log and the slogan, "Ask why." Indeed.
I look forward to the auctions for not only the companies but also their executives.
I want to pitch this as a reality show for the Home Shopping Network.
: The show is going into overtime tonight and they're not nearly done unloading all the servers and laptops and chairs. It starts again Thursday morning. Tune in.
September 24, 2002
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
: Here is Tony Blair's paper detailing evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Spam, another solution
: I'm sure someone will tell me what's wrong with this but I come to think we are all attacking spam from the wrong direction.
We are trying to make lists of spammers and their tricks so we can block them.
We should instead be trying to get ourselves off the lists of email addresses the spammers are using.
How?
I want someone to invent an email function that lets me easily and manually bounce email from spammers so they think I don't exist and so they don't want to waste time and money sending me spam and so they take me off their lists.
Surely, this can't be hard.
I mark a bunch of email in the morning and direct my email to send bounce messages to all of them.
The program sends a (faked) bounce message via my mail server.
The spammer counts this as a bounce and takes me off the list.
And that's one fewer spams I'll get the next morning. One by one, piece by piece, we kill the cockroaches.
Make sense?
: Update. Gotta love this Internet. Within minutes, I got an email from Danny Jobe pointing me to Mailwasher, which does what I want and for free. The key description from their web site: MailWasher works directly with your email server, exactly like your email program does. But there is one important difference: you can tell MailWasher to delete a message at the server, without downloading it - or you can bounce an email back to the sender so that it looks as though your address is not valid. Bravo!
So much for the future of journalism
: Here's the list of luminaries Columbia's president appointed to a commission to rethink the future of Columbia Journalism School and thus journalism itself.
Don't hold your breath for anything new to come from this.
Though there are unquestionably some smart and capable people on the list, the cast as a whole is quite predictable.
And you will not find any emissaries from the future of any weight, experience, or credibility. I could nominate people here in blogdom but that would take on the air of blogrolling for the sake of aw-shucks links back to me; you make the list. I could nominate people who have changed journalism and reporting and commentary using the tools of this new medium and the new relationship with the audience they create, but what's the point.
Too bad. Opportunity lost.
: See also Columbia J's interim dean, David Klatell on Romenesko, responding to Michael Wolff's excellent column on the future of Columbia J and journalism. The guy completely misses the point and the point misses him. Wolff was writing about a new vision for journalism education and media study; the temp dean whines about Wolff not listing the school's name-brand alums. Forest, meet trees.
Google news
: Google's automated news is cool but Nick Denton points out the fatal flaw in how it works.
Missed opportunities
: Old blogging pal Thomas Nephew gives me the punchline I should have gotten myself (I'm so ashamed!) for the HAL Internet-connected refrigerator post below: You overlooked the chilling possibilities of a wired fridge: “Open the refrigerator door, HAL….” It's catching: Tony Blair has been hanging out with George Bush too much lately. He, too, now says "nuc-u-ler."
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
: Here is Tony Blair's paper detailing evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Spam, another solution
: I'm sure someone will tell me what's wrong with this but I come to think we are all attacking spam from the wrong direction.
We are trying to make lists of spammers and their tricks so we can block them.
We should instead be trying to get ourselves off the lists of email addresses the spammers are using.
How?
I want someone to invent an email function that lets me easily and manually bounce email from spammers so they think I don't exist and so they don't want to waste time and money sending me spam and so they take me off their lists.
Surely, this can't be hard.
I mark a bunch of email in the morning and direct my email to send bounce messages to all of them.
The program sends a (faked) bounce message via my mail server.
The spammer counts this as a bounce and takes me off the list.
And that's one fewer spams I'll get the next morning. One by one, piece by piece, we kill the cockroaches.
Make sense?
: Update. Gotta love this Internet. Within minutes, I got an email from Danny Jobe pointing me to Mailwasher, which does what I want and for free. The key description from their web site: MailWasher works directly with your email server, exactly like your email program does. But there is one important difference: you can tell MailWasher to delete a message at the server, without downloading it - or you can bounce an email back to the sender so that it looks as though your address is not valid. Bravo!
So much for the future of journalism
: Here's the list of luminaries Columbia's president appointed to a commission to rethink the future of Columbia Journalism School and thus journalism itself.
Don't hold your breath for anything new to come from this.
Though there are unquestionably some smart and capable people on the list, the cast as a whole is quite predictable.
And you will not find any emissaries from the future of any weight, experience, or credibility. I could nominate people here in blogdom but that would take on the air of blogrolling for the sake of aw-shucks links back to me; you make the list. I could nominate people who have changed journalism and reporting and commentary using the tools of this new medium and the new relationship with the audience they create, but what's the point.
Too bad. Opportunity lost.
: See also Columbia J's interim dean, David Klatell on Romenesko, responding to Michael Wolff's excellent column on the future of Columbia J and journalism. The guy completely misses the point and the point misses him. Wolff was writing about a new vision for journalism education and media study; the temp dean whines about Wolff not listing the school's name-brand alums. Forest, meet trees.
Google news
: Google's automated news is cool but Nick Denton points out the fatal flaw in how it works.
Missed opportunities
: Old blogging pal Thomas Nephew gives me the punchline I should have gotten myself (I'm so ashamed!) for the HAL Internet-connected refrigerator post below: You overlooked the chilling possibilities of a wired fridge: “Open the refrigerator door, HAL….” It's catching: Tony Blair has been hanging out with George Bush too much lately. He, too, now says "nuc-u-ler."
September 23, 2002
The morning after
: Forget the Emmys. People are talking about the Sopranos. And the best place to listen in is in the NJ.com Soprano's forum (full disclosure: one of my company's sites). It's great reading for true fans.
The morning after
: Forget the Emmys. People are talking about the Sopranos. And the best place to listen in is in the NJ.com Soprano's forum (full disclosure: one of my company's sites). It's great reading for true fans.
September 22, 2002
Meanwhile, in Germany
: The election is incredibly close. Bild speculates that the Greens are saving Schroeder. It appears that the Social Democrats and Greens will govern again even though the Conservatives won more than the Social Democrats. Note that the Greens are now almost 9 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, Yahoo offers you the change to build your own chancellor.
: Update: Schroeder and the Greens win. Note that they did this in part by opposing war in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in Germany
: The election is incredibly close. Bild speculates that the Greens are saving Schroeder. It appears that the Social Democrats and Greens will govern again even though the Conservatives won more than the Social Democrats. Note that the Greens are now almost 9 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, Yahoo offers you the change to build your own chancellor.
: Update: Schroeder and the Greens win. Note that they did this in part by opposing war in Iraq.
What's for dinner, HAL?
: The long-blathered-about Internet-connected refrigerator is here. LG is touting it not just on its web site but also spending money marketing it in magazines.
Now on the one hand, this may seem like an almost-forgotten hangover from a too-long brainstorming session in those go-go Internet years. But the simple summary of what you can do with this thing actually looks sensible:
Watch TV. Play MP3s (through four speakers). Leave messages for your family. Read email. Check your calendar. Look at screensaver family snapshots. And, of course, get recipes.
: The one thing the spec doesn't list -- which, surely, it must -- is wireless networking. For that's what makes all this feasible. I'm now sitting on my couch with laptop literally on lap thanks to wireless. Wireless means the refrigerator wouldn't have to be cabled. High-speed wireless (802.11a) means the refrigerator can even play video.
Wireless networking is getting cheaper and cheaper and is spreading like West Nile.
Now Toshiba has announced wireless chips for TVs, stereos, and DVDs. LG, by the way, also has an Internet-connected microwave, washingt machine, and air conditioner for very remote remote control.
From a geek perspective, this is as fundamental a change as HTML: Just as HTML separated content from display, allowing any browser anywhere to display content, wireless networking separates content from devices, allowing any device anywhere in a network to play anything.So your refrigerator can play a song from the Internet or a show from your TiVo or a movie from your DVD or a voicemail from your email or a page from your PC (at home or at work).
It's really happening -- slowly, gradually, but that's the way these things are supposed to happen, at the speed of the market, not at the now-laughable "speed of the Internet." Even if slower and quieter, this is a revolution nonetheless.
: And this, once again, is what makes AT&T Cable so incredibly stupid for trying to limit cable-modem customers to one IP -- that is, one device. They would stop you from using that refrigerator ar that Internet-ready TV. Old, dead companies just don't get it.
What's for dinner, HAL?
: The long-blathered-about Internet-connected refrigerator is here. LG is touting it not just on its web site but also spending money marketing it in magazines.
Now on the one hand, this may seem like an almost-forgotten hangover from a too-long brainstorming session in those go-go Internet years. But the simple summary of what you can do with this thing actually looks sensible:
Watch TV. Play MP3s (through four speakers). Leave messages for your family. Read email. Check your calendar. Look at screensaver family snapshots. And, of course, get recipes.
: The one thing the spec doesn't list -- which, surely, it must -- is wireless networking. For that's what makes all this feasible. I'm now sitting on my couch with laptop literally on lap thanks to wireless. Wireless means the refrigerator wouldn't have to be cabled. High-speed wireless (802.11a) means the refrigerator can even play video.
Wireless networking is getting cheaper and cheaper and is spreading like West Nile.
Now Toshiba has announced wireless chips for TVs, stereos, and DVDs. LG, by the way, also has an Internet-connected microwave, washingt machine, and air conditioner for very remote remote control.
From a geek perspective, this is as fundamental a change as HTML: Just as HTML separated content from display, allowing any browser anywhere to display content, wireless networking separates content from devices, allowing any device anywhere in a network to play anything.So your refrigerator can play a song from the Internet or a show from your TiVo or a movie from your DVD or a voicemail from your email or a page from your PC (at home or at work).
It's really happening -- slowly, gradually, but that's the way these things are supposed to happen, at the speed of the market, not at the now-laughable "speed of the Internet." Even if slower and quieter, this is a revolution nonetheless.
: And this, once again, is what makes AT&T Cable so incredibly stupid for trying to limit cable-modem customers to one IP -- that is, one device. They would stop you from using that refrigerator ar that Internet-ready TV. Old, dead companies just don't get it.
September 21, 2002
Heading for a blog primary
: I have new competition in my bid for president via Fox and the blogosphere. This guy has a platform already. But who ever believes a platform?
Larry Summers, post-PC hero
: Harvard President Larry Summers is proving to be the hero of the post-PC era.
This week, he deftly, carefully, and even reluctantly asked whether all the anti-Israeli belching at Harvard and elsewhere in the academic left is a sign of a growing antisemitism. But where anti-Semitism and views that are profoundly anti-Israeli have traditionally been the primary preserve of poorly educated right-wing populists, profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities. Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent....
And some here at Harvard and some at universities across the country have called for the University to single out Israel among all nations as the lone country where it is inappropriate for any part of the university’s endowment to be invested. I hasten to say the University has categorically rejected this suggestion....
I have always throughout my life been put off by those who heard the sound of breaking glass, in every insult or slight, and conjured up images of Hitler’s Kristallnacht at any disagreement with Israel. Such views have always seemed to me alarmist if not slightly hysterical. But I have to say that while they still seem to me unwarranted, they seem rather less alarmist in the world of today than they did a year ago.
I would like nothing more than to be wrong. It is my greatest hope and prayer that the idea of a rise of anti-Semitism proves to be a self-denying prophecy -- a prediction that carries the seeds of its own falsification. But this depends on all of us. Says Glenn Reynolds: "Harvard is lucky to have Larry Summers as its President at this important moment in its history. He may yet save its soul from the corrosive forces of hatred and irrationalism, despite the best efforts of some of its students and faculty."
I will take it a step further: This is the same man who was unafraid to spar with Cornel West over the quality of his scholarship, unafraid to say that criticism of a black man is not racist if it is academically honest and reasoned and not ill-willed; it is merely criticism.
Now he says that criticism of Israel can be antisemitic if it is shrill and tyrannical and ill-willed.
In each case, Summers has the courage to question PC orthodoxy, to put himself in the line of PC fire, to pit reason against mob emotion.
Some months back, I noted, hopefully, the end of the PC era. We're ready for it to end, to call bull bull and bullies bullies. But this new post-PC era needs a spokesman, a leader.
That is Larry Summers.
Hello Mullah, Hello Fatwa
: Stephen Green has an f'ing brilliant fireside song for the upstate New York terrorist campers: Hello Mullah, hello Fatwa
Here I am at Camp al-Qaeda
Camp is very entertaining
But when I'm home I'll have to do some 'splaining
I went hiking with bin Laden,
He has got this kidney problem
You remember that guy Omar?
He got hit last night by some Air Force bomber.... Here comes the bandwagon: I get more support for my candidacy (below): Jeff: I never even heard of you before, and I think you're the best candidate for President (of whatever). Not telling your qualifications or policy positions is a giant plus in my book, because now you won't have to repudiate any of them after the election, plus, you can't be accused of waffling or flip-flopping.
You have my unswerving support in your run.
Dave Ivers
P.S. I teach American Government (among other things) at Eastern Michigan University I wish my professors had been so sensible.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull goy
: The maker of the Christian veggie movies explains to Beliefnet why us goys are unfunny: For some reason, certain cultures seem to be funnier than others. Many of our funniest writers and performers come from the Jewish culture. The African-American culture also produces wildly funny people. White, middle-class Christian America doesn't. Canada manages to turn out some insanely funny white people, but we're not sure how they do it. We middle-American Christians tend to be insurance salesman and administrators. Very nice people, but not very funny people. : But at least we have more fun than Muslims, according to this.
: But, of course, PETA freaks have even a less of a sense of humor than Christians or Muslims.
: You see, the truth is, I should be Jewish. I look Jewish. I love Yiddish. I think Jewish. I hope I'm funny (or at least funnier than your average Congregationalist). And I think Jewsweek is one of the best sites on the Internet.
The Friendship Calculator
: Matthew Yglesias gives a name to my friendship calculations, below, and also offers some good suggestions (while also making me feel like an old fart, which is very easy for him to do, that whippersnapper): Jeff Jarvis' friendship calculator is a fun exercize, but I think I'm noticing a generation gap in his scoring system. Jarvis says you give two points to a person if you have them on your IM buddy list, but only one if you have their home phone number. Speaking for myself and — I think — most of my friends, this is backwards. I've got a giant IM list including most of the Independent's editor's, Chuck Schumer's entire staff (well, everyone who was on his staff 18 months ago), folks from high school I haven't spoken to in hears, an ex-girlfriend, etc. By contrast I've only got the home telephone numbers written down (well, stored in my cell phone) of about a dozen people — that's less than my Chinese takeout master list! Maybe this is just a special circumstance of being at college where you can look up everyone's phone number with a simple UNIX command, but then again maybe I'll be like this forever. One way or another, IM is definitely primary, low-commitment, low-hassle — the telephone spells friendship gold. The HBO way: More on why HBO is so good (see my earlier post below). Ev summarizes a key point from a Fast Company story: It illustrates the advantages media companies who's customers are their audience, instead of advertisers, have in creating good stuff—and, therefore, getting the audience that everyone craves in the first place. A quote: "When it comes to creating hits, there's TV -- and then there's HBO. The difference is that the last thing HBO programmers think about is making a hit. At the networks, it's the first thing (and, some might argue, the only thing )." And the man in charge of original programming at HBO explains: That sensibility boils down to one principle, says Albrecht: "Ultimately, is it about something? By 'about something,' I mean not just about the subject, or the arena, or the location, but really about something that is deeply relevant to the human experience. Sopranos isn't about a Mob boss on Prozac. It's about a man searching for the meaning of his life. Six Feet Under isn't about a family of undertakers so much as it's about a group of people who have to deal with their feelings about death in order to get on with their own lives. The next question is, Is it the very best realization of that idea? Is it true to itself?" In short, it is art. But it also sells.
Guvment
: Ken Layne has the kinds of tales of Government Time-Wasters and Random Idiocy that turn less-sensible people into libertarians.
Heading for a blog primary
: I have new competition in my bid for president via Fox and the blogosphere. This guy has a platform already. But who ever believes a platform?
Larry Summers, post-PC hero
: Harvard President Larry Summers is proving to be the hero of the post-PC era.
This week, he deftly, carefully, and even reluctantly asked whether all the anti-Israeli belching at Harvard and elsewhere in the academic left is a sign of a growing antisemitism. But where anti-Semitism and views that are profoundly anti-Israeli have traditionally been the primary preserve of poorly educated right-wing populists, profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities. Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent....
And some here at Harvard and some at universities across the country have called for the University to single out Israel among all nations as the lone country where it is inappropriate for any part of the university’s endowment to be invested. I hasten to say the University has categorically rejected this suggestion....
I have always throughout my life been put off by those who heard the sound of breaking glass, in every insult or slight, and conjured up images of Hitler’s Kristallnacht at any disagreement with Israel. Such views have always seemed to me alarmist if not slightly hysterical. But I have to say that while they still seem to me unwarranted, they seem rather less alarmist in the world of today than they did a year ago.
I would like nothing more than to be wrong. It is my greatest hope and prayer that the idea of a rise of anti-Semitism proves to be a self-denying prophecy -- a prediction that carries the seeds of its own falsification. But this depends on all of us. Says Glenn Reynolds: "Harvard is lucky to have Larry Summers as its President at this important moment in its history. He may yet save its soul from the corrosive forces of hatred and irrationalism, despite the best efforts of some of its students and faculty."
I will take it a step further: This is the same man who was unafraid to spar with Cornel West over the quality of his scholarship, unafraid to say that criticism of a black man is not racist if it is academically honest and reasoned and not ill-willed; it is merely criticism.
Now he says that criticism of Israel can be antisemitic if it is shrill and tyrannical and ill-willed.
In each case, Summers has the courage to question PC orthodoxy, to put himself in the line of PC fire, to pit reason against mob emotion.
Some months back, I noted, hopefully, the end of the PC era. We're ready for it to end, to call bull bull and bullies bullies. But this new post-PC era needs a spokesman, a leader.
That is Larry Summers.
Hello Mullah, Hello Fatwa
: Stephen Green has an f'ing brilliant fireside song for the upstate New York terrorist campers: Hello Mullah, hello Fatwa
Here I am at Camp al-Qaeda
Camp is very entertaining
But when I'm home I'll have to do some 'splaining
I went hiking with bin Laden,
He has got this kidney problem
You remember that guy Omar?
He got hit last night by some Air Force bomber.... Here comes the bandwagon: I get more support for my candidacy (below): Jeff: I never even heard of you before, and I think you're the best candidate for President (of whatever). Not telling your qualifications or policy positions is a giant plus in my book, because now you won't have to repudiate any of them after the election, plus, you can't be accused of waffling or flip-flopping.
You have my unswerving support in your run.
Dave Ivers
P.S. I teach American Government (among other things) at Eastern Michigan University I wish my professors had been so sensible.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull goy
: The maker of the Christian veggie movies explains to Beliefnet why us goys are unfunny: For some reason, certain cultures seem to be funnier than others. Many of our funniest writers and performers come from the Jewish culture. The African-American culture also produces wildly funny people. White, middle-class Christian America doesn't. Canada manages to turn out some insanely funny white people, but we're not sure how they do it. We middle-American Christians tend to be insurance salesman and administrators. Very nice people, but not very funny people. : But at least we have more fun than Muslims, according to this.
: But, of course, PETA freaks have even a less of a sense of humor than Christians or Muslims.
: You see, the truth is, I should be Jewish. I look Jewish. I love Yiddish. I think Jewish. I hope I'm funny (or at least funnier than your average Congregationalist). And I think Jewsweek is one of the best sites on the Internet.
The Friendship Calculator
: Matthew Yglesias gives a name to my friendship calculations, below, and also offers some good suggestions (while also making me feel like an old fart, which is very easy for him to do, that whippersnapper): Jeff Jarvis' friendship calculator is a fun exercize, but I think I'm noticing a generation gap in his scoring system. Jarvis says you give two points to a person if you have them on your IM buddy list, but only one if you have their home phone number. Speaking for myself and — I think — most of my friends, this is backwards. I've got a giant IM list including most of the Independent's editor's, Chuck Schumer's entire staff (well, everyone who was on his staff 18 months ago), folks from high school I haven't spoken to in hears, an ex-girlfriend, etc. By contrast I've only got the home telephone numbers written down (well, stored in my cell phone) of about a dozen people — that's less than my Chinese takeout master list! Maybe this is just a special circumstance of being at college where you can look up everyone's phone number with a simple UNIX command, but then again maybe I'll be like this forever. One way or another, IM is definitely primary, low-commitment, low-hassle — the telephone spells friendship gold. The HBO way: More on why HBO is so good (see my earlier post below). Ev summarizes a key point from a Fast Company story: It illustrates the advantages media companies who's customers are their audience, instead of advertisers, have in creating good stuff—and, therefore, getting the audience that everyone craves in the first place. A quote: "When it comes to creating hits, there's TV -- and then there's HBO. The difference is that the last thing HBO programmers think about is making a hit. At the networks, it's the first thing (and, some might argue, the only thing )." And the man in charge of original programming at HBO explains: That sensibility boils down to one principle, says Albrecht: "Ultimately, is it about something? By 'about something,' I mean not just about the subject, or the arena, or the location, but really about something that is deeply relevant to the human experience. Sopranos isn't about a Mob boss on Prozac. It's about a man searching for the meaning of his life. Six Feet Under isn't about a family of undertakers so much as it's about a group of people who have to deal with their feelings about death in order to get on with their own lives. The next question is, Is it the very best realization of that idea? Is it true to itself?" In short, it is art. But it also sells.
Guvment
: Ken Layne has the kinds of tales of Government Time-Wasters and Random Idiocy that turn less-sensible people into libertarians.
September 20, 2002
Friendship
: Nick Denton recommends Trillian -- the UberIM that handles AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and IRC all at once. I just started using it today and so far, I concur.
Nick also put up a screenshot of his chattin' buddies and I'm flattered to see my name there.
But I can't say anything about it. That would be tacky. Nick also says it's not Etiquiettely Correct (EC) to thank a blogger for a blogroll link (and so even though I'm honored to be part of his selective list, I won't say a thing, not a thing).
Wonder who's on his speed dial.
: Which leads me to a whole new calculation of friendship in our modern age. Want to rank the people you really care about and vice versa? Add up these points:
- 1 point if the name is in your email address file.
- 2 points if the name is in your IM buddy list.
- 1 point if you gave them your secret, personal, nonwork email address.
- 1 point if you have what they tell you is their secret, personal, nonwork email address.
- 1 point if you bookmarked their blog.
- 2 points if you blogrolled their blog on your blog.
- 2 points if they blogrolled your blog on theirs.
- 1 point if you know their home phone number.
- 1 point if you gave them your home phone number.
- 3 points if you gave them your mobile phone number.
- 3 points if they gave you their mobile phone number.
- 10 bonus points if they ever sent you money on PayPal.
Now add it up and see who your true friends are.
Vote for me!
: I'm announcing my candidacy for President.
I've been thinking about the post below (ever since I posted it, 2 minutes ago), about Fox' new reality show that will pick a presidential candidate.
And I've decided to run for your support as the candidate of the Blogosphere.
The rules say that I have to fill out questionnaires and submit a video and present the testimony of 50 members of my community who will support me.
Well, this is my community. Will you support me?
My qualifications? I'll fill you in later. My policies? Ditto. I'm media-savvy; that's what really counts to get started, right?
Vote for me!
(Or if you don't, I'll throw my support here or here or here or here but not here, cuz he's a ferner.)
: Here's one vote.
The guy who eats the sheep testicles gets to rule the world
: Variety reports that Fox is going to create a reality show to pick a presidential candidate. "It's like a cross between 'The War Room' and 'American Idol,"' [producer R.J.] Cutler told Daily Variety. "We will be making available to every American who is qualified, by virtue of the Constitution, the opportunity to run for president."
Just as "American Idol" went searching for undiscovered musical talent, Cutler said "American Candidate" will be on the hunt for untapped political and leadership skill.
"We're trying to see if there's a young Abe Lincoln out there, somebody whose vision could turn on the public in an exciting way," he said.
The series will be seeking "the Jesse Venturas of the world, finding messages people want to hear," added Kevin Reilly, FX's president of entertainment. "Hopefully, we'll find some very qualified civil servant who lacks a power base and maybe also a plumber from Detroit who (tells) it like it is."
To land a slot on the show, applicants will have to fill out questionnaires, provide videotapes in which they explain why they would make a great president and put together a group of 50 supporters from their community who will serve as sponsors....
The number of semifinalists will be whittled down each week, based on a point system that will factor in competition results, live audience response and telephone/Internet voting. Each episode will originate from all-American locales such as Mount Rushmore or the Statue of Liberty.
The final episode will be an "American Candidate" convention, held on the National Mall in Washington around July 4, 2004 -- about the same time the Republicans and Democrats will be prepping their conventions. In a live episode, viewers will then determine the winning candidate from among three finalists.
The winner will then decide whether to launch an official campaign. If he or she decides to make a run, a series of "War Room"-like specials will be produced following the candidate through Election Day. This is brilliant. No, really, it is frigging brilliant!
This will help set the agenda in the next presidential election. Every big-party candidate will be compared with the candidates here; every "issue" will be contrasted with the issues discussed by the real people on this reality show; every American who wants to vote for "none of the above" will now have a candidate running on that slate.
It makes a statement about democracy (and its openness) and our parties (and their failures).
It is truly democratic.
And it will surely be entertaining (especially when, yes, scandals and skeletons are found in the pasts of the TV candidates, too).
You'll hear pooh-poohing about this. Ignore it. This will be the best thing that could happen to democracy.
The Digitallenium
: On NPR this morning, a guy who's trying to preserve artifacts and memories from an Indiana piano-turned-gramophone factory noted that the 19th century was the first that was photographed and the 20th was the first that was recorded.
And this leads to the obvious:
The 22nd century is the first to be digitized.
Nearly everything we do -- our media, our communication, our memories -- can be stored and searched and analyzed.
How this affects our lives will be the subject of NPR reports in about a hundred years.
Wag nags: Mags' flags sag -- gag! -- as rags snag Dag bags, mailbags lag
: Here's an embarrassingly naive piece complaining about how magazine cover design has fallen.
There's one reason and one reason only: Newsstand sales. Yes, celebrities sell; that's why they're there. Yes, coverbillings sell; that's why they're there. It's marketing. It's business. This is the same sort of person who whines about movies being in color. Hey, progress hurts.
Nonetheless, the piece does give us a nice sampling of some beautiful old covers.
If you want to see (and buy) lots of great old covers (from my employer, Conde Nast), go to CondeNastArt.com. [via BoingBoing]
Warspamming
: VNU reports that Nokia warns of a new trend -- warspamming: Another problem that has presented itself in recent weeks is that of 'warspamming'. Simply by logging into an unprotected wireless network and finding an open simple mail transfer protocol port, spammers can send their messages to 10 million names while remaining completely anonymous, as well as avoiding heavy bandwidth costs. [via Corante]
Damn
: Wood s lot is doing off the air. No idea why. Maybe the amazing Woodman needs a life or a meal; he found phenomenal stuff, excerpted it wisely, and designed it beautifully. Damn. [via Follow me]
Great moments in pop culture
: I can't tell apart their smokey, been-around-the-track voices but either Courtney Love or Houston the porn star just said on Howard Stern that her dog died from eating her sample breast implant.
Friendship
: Nick Denton recommends Trillian -- the UberIM that handles AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and IRC all at once. I just started using it today and so far, I concur.
Nick also put up a screenshot of his chattin' buddies and I'm flattered to see my name there.
But I can't say anything about it. That would be tacky. Nick also says it's not Etiquiettely Correct (EC) to thank a blogger for a blogroll link (and so even though I'm honored to be part of his selective list, I won't say a thing, not a thing).
Wonder who's on his speed dial.
: Which leads me to a whole new calculation of friendship in our modern age. Want to rank the people you really care about and vice versa? Add up these points:
- 1 point if the name is in your email address file.
- 2 points if the name is in your IM buddy list.
- 1 point if you gave them your secret, personal, nonwork email address.
- 1 point if you have what they tell you is their secret, personal, nonwork email address.
- 1 point if you bookmarked their blog.
- 2 points if you blogrolled their blog on your blog.
- 2 points if they blogrolled your blog on theirs.
- 1 point if you know their home phone number.
- 1 point if you gave them your home phone number.
- 3 points if you gave them your mobile phone number.
- 3 points if they gave you their mobile phone number.
- 10 bonus points if they ever sent you money on PayPal.
Now add it up and see who your true friends are.
Vote for me!
: I'm announcing my candidacy for President.
I've been thinking about the post below (ever since I posted it, 2 minutes ago), about Fox' new reality show that will pick a presidential candidate.
And I've decided to run for your support as the candidate of the Blogosphere.
The rules say that I have to fill out questionnaires and submit a video and present the testimony of 50 members of my community who will support me.
Well, this is my community. Will you support me?
My qualifications? I'll fill you in later. My policies? Ditto. I'm media-savvy; that's what really counts to get started, right?
Vote for me!
(Or if you don't, I'll throw my support here or here or here or here but not here, cuz he's a ferner.)
: Here's one vote.
The guy who eats the sheep testicles gets to rule the world
: Variety reports that Fox is going to create a reality show to pick a presidential candidate. "It's like a cross between 'The War Room' and 'American Idol,"' [producer R.J.] Cutler told Daily Variety. "We will be making available to every American who is qualified, by virtue of the Constitution, the opportunity to run for president."
Just as "American Idol" went searching for undiscovered musical talent, Cutler said "American Candidate" will be on the hunt for untapped political and leadership skill.
"We're trying to see if there's a young Abe Lincoln out there, somebody whose vision could turn on the public in an exciting way," he said.
The series will be seeking "the Jesse Venturas of the world, finding messages people want to hear," added Kevin Reilly, FX's president of entertainment. "Hopefully, we'll find some very qualified civil servant who lacks a power base and maybe also a plumber from Detroit who (tells) it like it is."
To land a slot on the show, applicants will have to fill out questionnaires, provide videotapes in which they explain why they would make a great president and put together a group of 50 supporters from their community who will serve as sponsors....
The number of semifinalists will be whittled down each week, based on a point system that will factor in competition results, live audience response and telephone/Internet voting. Each episode will originate from all-American locales such as Mount Rushmore or the Statue of Liberty.
The final episode will be an "American Candidate" convention, held on the National Mall in Washington around July 4, 2004 -- about the same time the Republicans and Democrats will be prepping their conventions. In a live episode, viewers will then determine the winning candidate from among three finalists.
The winner will then decide whether to launch an official campaign. If he or she decides to make a run, a series of "War Room"-like specials will be produced following the candidate through Election Day. This is brilliant. No, really, it is frigging brilliant!
This will help set the agenda in the next presidential election. Every big-party candidate will be compared with the candidates here; every "issue" will be contrasted with the issues discussed by the real people on this reality show; every American who wants to vote for "none of the above" will now have a candidate running on that slate.
It makes a statement about democracy (and its openness) and our parties (and their failures).
It is truly democratic.
And it will surely be entertaining (especially when, yes, scandals and skeletons are found in the pasts of the TV candidates, too).
You'll hear pooh-poohing about this. Ignore it. This will be the best thing that could happen to democracy.
The Digitallenium
: On NPR this morning, a guy who's trying to preserve artifacts and memories from an Indiana piano-turned-gramophone factory noted that the 19th century was the first that was photographed and the 20th was the first that was recorded.
And this leads to the obvious:
The 22nd century is the first to be digitized.
Nearly everything we do -- our media, our communication, our memories -- can be stored and searched and analyzed.
How this affects our lives will be the subject of NPR reports in about a hundred years.
Wag nags: Mags' flags sag -- gag! -- as rags snag Dag bags, mailbags lag
: Here's an embarrassingly naive piece complaining about how magazine cover design has fallen.
There's one reason and one reason only: Newsstand sales. Yes, celebrities sell; that's why they're there. Yes, coverbillings sell; that's why they're there. It's marketing. It's business. This is the same sort of person who whines about movies being in color. Hey, progress hurts.
Nonetheless, the piece does give us a nice sampling of some beautiful old covers.
If you want to see (and buy) lots of great old covers (from my employer, Conde Nast), go to CondeNastArt.com. [via BoingBoing]
Warspamming
: VNU reports that Nokia warns of a new trend -- warspamming: Another problem that has presented itself in recent weeks is that of 'warspamming'. Simply by logging into an unprotected wireless network and finding an open simple mail transfer protocol port, spammers can send their messages to 10 million names while remaining completely anonymous, as well as avoiding heavy bandwidth costs. [via Corante]
Damn
: Wood s lot is doing off the air. No idea why. Maybe the amazing Woodman needs a life or a meal; he found phenomenal stuff, excerpted it wisely, and designed it beautifully. Damn. [via Follow me]
Great moments in pop culture
: I can't tell apart their smokey, been-around-the-track voices but either Courtney Love or Houston the porn star just said on Howard Stern that her dog died from eating her sample breast implant.
September 19, 2002
J-school OD
: Here's lots more about the Columbia J-school navel-mining, this from nearby NYU. [via Romenesko]
J-school OD
: Here's lots more about the Columbia J-school navel-mining, this from nearby NYU. [via Romenesko]
September 18, 2002
News: the new pornography
: A new study says that news is the No. 1 Corporate Timewaster online, beating porn and the other porn, shopping. 23 percent of surveyed workers said news is the most addictive online content. [via I Want Media]
: Nick Denton says IM is the root of all goofing off.
I'm glad somebody's happy
: Everybody I know is grousing... about work, the economy, stocks, neighbors, even church.
But Ev is happy.
Free speech loses something in the translation
: Emmanuelle (sporting a sporty new design) relays reports of a bizarre trial in bizarre France, accusing writer Michel Houellebecq of incitement to religious hatred for saying what he thought about Islam: Yesterday in court, Houellebecq denied inciting racism, but argued that “the Koran was inferior to the Bible as a literary work,” and that “he had the right to criticize religions as long as he doesn't attack followers of the faith.” His lawyer argues that the case effectively re-establishes the notion of blasphemy, despite the fact that France is a secular state and has no such law. Shucks: I have never liked a description of me better. Matt Welch calls me a "populist media executive."
Power from the people!
A rabbi, a priest, and a...
: Nick Denton has two great punchlines ending posts here and here.
Speak!
: Bill Quick starts a personal speaker's bureau. I'll bet he'd be good at speechifying and so would some other bloggers. I can name five.
News: the new pornography
: A new study says that news is the No. 1 Corporate Timewaster online, beating porn and the other porn, shopping. 23 percent of surveyed workers said news is the most addictive online content. [via I Want Media]
: Nick Denton says IM is the root of all goofing off.
I'm glad somebody's happy
: Everybody I know is grousing... about work, the economy, stocks, neighbors, even church.
But Ev is happy.
Free speech loses something in the translation
: Emmanuelle (sporting a sporty new design) relays reports of a bizarre trial in bizarre France, accusing writer Michel Houellebecq of incitement to religious hatred for saying what he thought about Islam: Yesterday in court, Houellebecq denied inciting racism, but argued that “the Koran was inferior to the Bible as a literary work,” and that “he had the right to criticize religions as long as he doesn't attack followers of the faith.” His lawyer argues that the case effectively re-establishes the notion of blasphemy, despite the fact that France is a secular state and has no such law. Shucks: I have never liked a description of me better. Matt Welch calls me a "populist media executive."
Power from the people!
A rabbi, a priest, and a...
: Nick Denton has two great punchlines ending posts here and here.
Speak!
: Bill Quick starts a personal speaker's bureau. I'll bet he'd be good at speechifying and so would some other bloggers. I can name five.
September 17, 2002
The United States of Amedia
: Study media and you will study America.
You will study what America thinks and likes and watches and reads and says. Especially today -- in the era of the Internet, the first medium owned by its audience -- you will find us reflected in our media. We are what we watch.
That is my advice for the Columbia Journalism School as it gazes at its navel, trying to decide its fate.
That is the same advice Michael Wolff gives in a smart (as usual) column in New York this week about Columbia's School of Journalism. The university's new president recently halted the search for a new dean of the J-school and instead ordered a search of (or for) the soul of the school: What should a journalism school teach today? he asked. Wolff answers.
Wolff advises that they study "media," not "journalism." It's good advice.
"Journalism" is a synonym for "what editors think you should know." It is a deadening word. It is castor oil in dense, dark bottles of type. "Media," on the other hand, is a synonym for "what we the audience want." It is lively and colorful and provocative and entertaining and actually interesting.
Journalism is inward looking; it's inside baseball; it's about us and how we do what we do in the business of journalism. Media is outward looking; it's about listening to the audience.
Journalism is a craft, a trade, a skill. I went to J-school and I did learn things there (mostly from a sports writer who taught us how to write crime stories and also from actually working on newspapers). I learned how to write a lead and ask a question; I learned the tricks of my trade. But then I became a TV critic and started a magazine about media and now I oversee a bunch of eagerly interactive web sites, which is really just about playing host to the audience's party. I made the shift from journalism to media long ago and never regretted it.
For media is the study of the people. Media reflects what the audience thinks (contrary to common assumption, media does not lead; media follows). To study media, you have to respect that audience; you have to care what the audience thinks; you must listen. And once you pass that barricade of snobbishness, you will see that we the audience have good taste (given half a chance to watch good shows, we will), and good sense (how many idiots have we voted out of office?), and even intelligence (note my screed on HBO, below).
To study media, you will have to leave other prejudices behind -- for example, that TV is a cultural wasteland (rubbish; TV produces more quality entertainment than movies and books combined today); or that the mass audience has nothing to say (look at weblogs especially or at the forums on my site and you will eavesdrop on amazing conversations).
If you study media, you will find yourself studying much more. You will get to the very core of democracy and how we as a nation come to decisions (whether that is electing presidents or starting wars or ending them). You will understand the very essence of commerce and capitalism and how we make choices and calculate value (read: brands). You will get a new window on our society and its every aspect (e.g., the state of the modern family and of religion and of education and of work).
All this was true before, but it is truer now with the Internet. For now, at last, the audience itself has a medium and a voice. Now there is something worth studying.
: And please don't send me email reminding me that "media" is/are plural. I used to be a copy editor, too. It just doesn't sound right to say "media are" in a discussion such as this.
And the winner izzzzzzzz...
: The Online Journalism Awards finalists are announced. How boring, as the name indicates.
My baby's new dad
: Entertainment Weekly has a new editor.
The United States of Amedia
: Study media and you will study America.
You will study what America thinks and likes and watches and reads and says. Especially today -- in the era of the Internet, the first medium owned by its audience -- you will find us reflected in our media. We are what we watch.
That is my advice for the Columbia Journalism School as it gazes at its navel, trying to decide its fate.
That is the same advice Michael Wolff gives in a smart (as usual) column in New York this week about Columbia's School of Journalism. The university's new president recently halted the search for a new dean of the J-school and instead ordered a search of (or for) the soul of the school: What should a journalism school teach today? he asked. Wolff answers.
Wolff advises that they study "media," not "journalism." It's good advice.
"Journalism" is a synonym for "what editors think you should know." It is a deadening word. It is castor oil in dense, dark bottles of type. "Media," on the other hand, is a synonym for "what we the audience want." It is lively and colorful and provocative and entertaining and actually interesting.
Journalism is inward looking; it's inside baseball; it's about us and how we do what we do in the business of journalism. Media is outward looking; it's about listening to the audience.
Journalism is a craft, a trade, a skill. I went to J-school and I did learn things there (mostly from a sports writer who taught us how to write crime stories and also from actually working on newspapers). I learned how to write a lead and ask a question; I learned the tricks of my trade. But then I became a TV critic and started a magazine about media and now I oversee a bunch of eagerly interactive web sites, which is really just about playing host to the audience's party. I made the shift from journalism to media long ago and never regretted it.
For media is the study of the people. Media reflects what the audience thinks (contrary to common assumption, media does not lead; media follows). To study media, you have to respect that audience; you have to care what the audience thinks; you must listen. And once you pass that barricade of snobbishness, you will see that we the audience have good taste (given half a chance to watch good shows, we will), and good sense (how many idiots have we voted out of office?), and even intelligence (note my screed on HBO, below).
To study media, you will have to leave other prejudices behind -- for example, that TV is a cultural wasteland (rubbish; TV produces more quality entertainment than movies and books combined today); or that the mass audience has nothing to say (look at weblogs especially or at the forums on my site and you will eavesdrop on amazing conversations).
If you study media, you will find yourself studying much more. You will get to the very core of democracy and how we as a nation come to decisions (whether that is electing presidents or starting wars or ending them). You will understand the very essence of commerce and capitalism and how we make choices and calculate value (read: brands). You will get a new window on our society and its every aspect (e.g., the state of the modern family and of religion and of education and of work).
All this was true before, but it is truer now with the Internet. For now, at last, the audience itself has a medium and a voice. Now there is something worth studying.
: And please don't send me email reminding me that "media" is/are plural. I used to be a copy editor, too. It just doesn't sound right to say "media are" in a discussion such as this.
And the winner izzzzzzzz...
: The Online Journalism Awards finalists are announced. How boring, as the name indicates.
My baby's new dad
: Entertainment Weekly has a new editor.
September 16, 2002
Dr. Blog
: Woods Lot (which finds no end of amazing stuff from all corners of the web world) points us to a sympathetic scholarly paper on bloggering from the University of Oslo. (I just discovered I'm in the bibliography. Mom would be so impressed.)
The ratings that count
: Here is what the audience is saying about last night's Soprano's season premiere, on my NJ.com Soprano's forum. They're unenthusiastic.
: Update: But now the defenders of last night's episode are piping up.
: Soprano's, the Jersey bus tour.
: Something they could use on the Soprano's in this tight economy: do-it-yourself casket kits [via WSJ].
The W Network
: Doesn't Fox go overboard broadcasting every single speech by George Bush that he makes? Are they all news?
Death to paperwork
: The Palm Beach Post reports that copy paper stores in the mailroom of the anthrax-infected tabloid HQ in Florida spores and that copying machines then distributed them throughout the building: According to the FBI's reconstruction of events, AMI employees unwittingly distributed the clinging spores throughout the building when taking reams of copy paper to every department in the building, including AMI's library, executive offices and such publications as The National Enquirer, Weekly World News and National Examiner, which were published in the building.
When the copy paper was inserted into the machines and used to make copies, investigators believe, the spores dislodged and were "aerosolized" into the atmosphere by the whirring fans and other moving parts of the high-speed copiers. Blogcritics: I'm delighted to have my first piece included in Eric Olsen's Blogcritics.com. It's the piece about HBO and the Sopranos, below. It felt good to write about show biz again.
: Also, note the bad news: Eric is abandoning his other blog because he has a life; the good news: he's now devoting his considerable energies to Blogcritics.
Dr. Blog
: Woods Lot (which finds no end of amazing stuff from all corners of the web world) points us to a sympathetic scholarly paper on bloggering from the University of Oslo. (I just discovered I'm in the bibliography. Mom would be so impressed.)
The ratings that count
: Here is what the audience is saying about last night's Soprano's season premiere, on my NJ.com Soprano's forum. They're unenthusiastic.
: Update: But now the defenders of last night's episode are piping up.
: Soprano's, the Jersey bus tour.
: Something they could use on the Soprano's in this tight economy: do-it-yourself casket kits [via WSJ].
The W Network
: Doesn't Fox go overboard broadcasting every single speech by George Bush that he makes? Are they all news?
Death to paperwork
: The Palm Beach Post reports that copy paper stores in the mailroom of the anthrax-infected tabloid HQ in Florida spores and that copying machines then distributed them throughout the building: According to the FBI's reconstruction of events, AMI employees unwittingly distributed the clinging spores throughout the building when taking reams of copy paper to every department in the building, including AMI's library, executive offices and such publications as The National Enquirer, Weekly World News and National Examiner, which were published in the building.
When the copy paper was inserted into the machines and used to make copies, investigators believe, the spores dislodged and were "aerosolized" into the atmosphere by the whirring fans and other moving parts of the high-speed copiers. Blogcritics: I'm delighted to have my first piece included in Eric Olsen's Blogcritics.com. It's the piece about HBO and the Sopranos, below. It felt good to write about show biz again.
: Also, note the bad news: Eric is abandoning his other blog because he has a life; the good news: he's now devoting his considerable energies to Blogcritics.
September 15, 2002
The HBO Weltanschauung - or - Why we love The Sopranos
: There's a reason the return of The Sopranos is getting so much hype and praise. There's a reason that HBO's original dramas and comedies get so many awards. There's a reason we as a nation are taking to these shows with enthusiasm, embracing them like oracles of the age. The reason:
Honesty.
HBO's Weltanschauung -- its world view -- is the most honest you can find on TV. And it's not a pretty view.
Analyze the lineup:
: The Sopranos is all about corruption, how a family, a business, a relationship can be corrupted by greed, power, sex, selfishness, evil.
: Six Feet Under is about family -- a family who might as well be dead, like the dead they care for
: Sex and the City says we're all terribly lonely -- and as if that's not bad enough, we're all terribly horny, too.
: Curb Your Enthusiasm tells the story of an everyman -- and says that every man can be an ass.
: Oz shows a world drained of any redeeming virtue; it invents hell.
: The Wire finds too many similarities between the means and motives of criminals and cops.
: Arli$$ says sports is show biz and show biz is bull.
: Project Greenlight took real show biz executives and exposed them for the obnoxious boors we always suspected they were.
: Taxicab Confessions brings grim, sad reality to reality TV.
: Mind of the Married Man makes Berman's view of marriage look like Mormon propaganda.
No, it's not pretty, not at all. Yet we love it -- because it speaks to us, it speaks for us, it reflects our view of life, it reflects a view you won't find elsewhere on TV or in movies. It's honest.
Compare this to the story in the Wall Street Journal on Friday about how ABC/Disney is trying desperately to appeal to middle America by rounding off every edge from every show. ABC is trying to pander to us. This is not creativity. This is corporate committee think, and committees always kill creativity. This has no voice, no vision. This is essentially insulting to every single one of us in the audience -- it says that we can't feel for ourselves, that we can't appreciate the message of art, that we want to be pandered to, that we're all just so much cultural tapioca, media mush. Says the Journal: It's the opposite of the strategy earning industry praise and envy for HBO, where writers and producers create shows such as "The Sopranos" without much corporate interference. Also, in managing by consensus, ABC runs the risk of turning out middle-of-the-road shows rife with compromises. Many breakout hits -- "Seinfeld," "Hill Street Blues" and ABC's own "NYPD Blue" -- don't test well or flout the conventions. You see, H.L. Mencken was dead wrong. He said: "No one in this world... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." But plenty of network executives have done just that.
HBO, on the other hand, is giving us, the great masses of plain people, the audience, credit for our considerable taste and intelligence by giving us quality shows (that are even worth paying for). But they aren't the first to do that; NBC, in its heyday, gave us lots of quality and smart shows; alonside all the reality kitsch now filling the air (an overdose that will fade away like all fads before) there are many good shows on TV now (and they rise to the top of the ratings because we, the people, we Americans, do, contrary to popular assumption, have good taste).
No, what's truly remarkable about HBO's lineup is that it has the courage to be so dark and often depressing.
And what's remarkable about America today is that we have responded to this so eagerly. We're eager to be depressed, eh?
That says much about our true national psyche.
On the outside, we're waving flags and fists; we're buying cars and homes and keeping the economy going; we're playing the strong, silent types.
But on the inside, we're pretty damned miserable, depressed, angry, lonely, and frustrated -- we're a mopey mess -- and watching HBO is our group therapy. We know the truth that HBO's show speak about corruption is fully realized in Enron, Anderson, Worldcom, Tyco, et al. We know that show biz is bull and reality can be sad. We as nation -- where too many of us are either posting personals online or searching for porn online or now getting divorces online -- are too often lonely. It all rings true.
That's why we love HBO.
Mind you, honesty doesn't have to be dark and depressing and sad and angry -- just some/much/most of the time. It's not the mood that matters; that's not what truly speaks to us. Instead, it is the willingness, the courage to be honest that grabs us.
That is the secret to Howard Stern's unprecedented popularity and success. He's honest, unflinchingly, bravely honest. And funny.
So there is a moral to this story: If you give us credit for our intelligence and if you give creative talent the room to create and if you don't try to lie to us, we the audience will respond and you will succeed. HBO is the proof.
The HBO Weltanschauung - or - Why we love The Sopranos
: There's a reason the return of The Sopranos is getting so much hype and praise. There's a reason that HBO's original dramas and comedies get so many awards. There's a reason we as a nation are taking to these shows with enthusiasm, embracing them like oracles of the age. The reason:
Honesty.
HBO's Weltanschauung -- its world view -- is the most honest you can find on TV. And it's not a pretty view.
Analyze the lineup:
: The Sopranos is all about corruption, how a family, a business, a relationship can be corrupted by greed, power, sex, selfishness, evil.
: Six Feet Under is about family -- a family who might as well be dead, like the dead they care for
: Sex and the City says we're all terribly lonely -- and as if that's not bad enough, we're all terribly horny, too.
: Curb Your Enthusiasm tells the story of an everyman -- and says that every man can be an ass.
: Oz shows a world drained of any redeeming virtue; it invents hell.
: The Wire finds too many similarities between the means and motives of criminals and cops.
: Arli$$ says sports is show biz and show biz is bull.
: Project Greenlight took real show biz executives and exposed them for the obnoxious boors we always suspected they were.
: Taxicab Confessions brings grim, sad reality to reality TV.
: Mind of the Married Man makes Berman's view of marriage look like Mormon propaganda.
No, it's not pretty, not at all. Yet we love it -- because it speaks to us, it speaks for us, it reflects our view of life, it reflects a view you won't find elsewhere on TV or in movies. It's honest.
Compare this to the story in the Wall Street Journal on Friday about how ABC/Disney is trying desperately to appeal to middle America by rounding off every edge from every show. ABC is trying to pander to us. This is not creativity. This is corporate committee think, and committees always kill creativity. This has no voice, no vision. This is essentially insulting to every single one of us in the audience -- it says that we can't feel for ourselves, that we can't appreciate the message of art, that we want to be pandered to, that we're all just so much cultural tapioca, media mush. Says the Journal: It's the opposite of the strategy earning industry praise and envy for HBO, where writers and producers create shows such as "The Sopranos" without much corporate interference. Also, in managing by consensus, ABC runs the risk of turning out middle-of-the-road shows rife with compromises. Many breakout hits -- "Seinfeld," "Hill Street Blues" and ABC's own "NYPD Blue" -- don't test well or flout the conventions. You see, H.L. Mencken was dead wrong. He said: "No one in this world... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." But plenty of network executives have done just that.
HBO, on the other hand, is giving us, the great masses of plain people, the audience, credit for our considerable taste and intelligence by giving us quality shows (that are even worth paying for). But they aren't the first to do that; NBC, in its heyday, gave us lots of quality and smart shows; alonside all the reality kitsch now filling the air (an overdose that will fade away like all fads before) there are many good shows on TV now (and they rise to the top of the ratings because we, the people, we Americans, do, contrary to popular assumption, have good taste).
No, what's truly remarkable about HBO's lineup is that it has the courage to be so dark and often depressing.
And what's remarkable about America today is that we have responded to this so eagerly. We're eager to be depressed, eh?
That says much about our true national psyche.
On the outside, we're waving flags and fists; we're buying cars and homes and keeping the economy going; we're playing the strong, silent types.
But on the inside, we're pretty damned miserable, depressed, angry, lonely, and frustrated -- we're a mopey mess -- and watching HBO is our group therapy. We know the truth that HBO's show speak about corruption is fully realized in Enron, Anderson, Worldcom, Tyco, et al. We know that show biz is bull and reality can be sad. We as nation -- where too many of us are either posting personals online or searching for porn online or now getting divorces online -- are too often lonely. It all rings true.
That's why we love HBO.
Mind you, honesty doesn't have to be dark and depressing and sad and angry -- just some/much/most of the time. It's not the mood that matters; that's not what truly speaks to us. Instead, it is the willingness, the courage to be honest that grabs us.
That is the secret to Howard Stern's unprecedented popularity and success. He's honest, unflinchingly, bravely honest. And funny.
So there is a moral to this story: If you give us credit for our intelligence and if you give creative talent the room to create and if you don't try to lie to us, we the audience will respond and you will succeed. HBO is the proof.
September 14, 2002
Society of 9.11 Survivors
: I wish someone -- I wish I -- had started a society of 9.11 survivors for one purpose: to thank the police and fire fighters and PATH and subway and World Trade Center workers who saved our lives, thousands and thousands of us.
I wish such a society existed for the anniversary so we could have gotten together to share our stories of that day and since and to share our gratitude and just to know that we're not alone.
I wish I had not thought of this too late. Is it too late?
Take the point, blogger
: Matt Welch finds the blog of the times -- by soldiers in Afghanistan.
Instapundit readers, take note
: The good idea to which the generous Mr. Reynolds links is below under the headline, "Go West, Old Men." Welch and Layne link likewise, for obvious reasons. It's about their L.A. paper.
 Every picture is worth a thousand cheers
: From the arrest of terrorist scum in Pakistan. [via Focus]
: Details of the arrest from a Pakistani paper: There were three raids between Sept. 9 and 11 in Pakistan. In one, a grenade and gun battle ensued. Sitting in a black sedan, four agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) watched intently as a posse of Pakistan military intelligence and police officials climbed a narrow staircase to enter a second floor apartment of a four-apartment building in Karachi's posh residential district of Defence Society early morning on September 11....
"The Pakistani was such a motivated extremist that he inscribed Allah o' Akbar with his blood on the wall before he died of bullet wounds on the chest and the neck," according to a police official who confessed that the scene disturbed him emotionally....
Karachi police and other security officials suspect that the eight Yemenis arrested during the recent anti al-Qaeda crackdown may include the two Yemenis who are believed to have aided Khalid Sheikh in the killing and subsequent decapitation of [murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel] Pearl's body. What he says: Reid Stott speaks the truth about Eunice Stone and the (young, male, Arab) bozos at Shoney's who thought that terrorism is is a joke and that Americans are the butt of that joke.
: See also Donald Sensing, whom Reid quotes: Listen up: If you are of Middle Eastern appearance and you talk or act in any way that makes me think you are a potential threat to my safety or that of my countrymen, be forewarned: I will profile your tail from here to Timbuktu. I will rat on you like the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Paper: The Blue Man Group produces a beautiful September 11th memorial (which I just found via Bear): a video montage of the papers that fell on one neighborhood -- far from the World Trade Center -- on September 11, singed remainders and reminders of the lives there.
One life, one death
: I'm sure I was one of many bloggers to get email pointing us to a memorial site for one beautiful young woman named Shiri, one of too many victims of too many terrorist attacks in Israel. There are far too many Shiris.
Beats Graceland
: Via Die Zeit, a link to a phenomenal site mapping the tombs of the pharoahs, the Theban Mapping Project. Launch the atlas and don't miss the 3D tomb.
Reason No. 4,786,547 why AT&T is a dead empire
: AT&T screws its cable modem customers. Big time.
Amen
: From one of my favorite blogs -- Holy Weblog -- comes a link to a parody of those obnoxious billboards that purport to speak for God (which is just as obnoxious as bumperstickers speaking for God; they're just as stupid but they're a lot bigger). At SaysGod.com, here are alternative billboards:
- I never said, "Thou shalt not think." —God
: You're not tracking those bloody footprints in here. —God
: I'm flattered you liked my book so much. Now why don't you read something new? —God
: I don't blame video games when my children start shooting each other. —God As Goober used to say: Surprise, surprise, surprise!: Andrew Sullivan is becoming a self-parodying cliche. Who can be surprised that he says today: "It seems clear to me in retrospect that Bush's summer strategy has been really, really smart."
: Or was it Gomer?
Autobiography for short attention spans
: Clay Waters' 100 things about one blogger. 82. My parents say I learned to read and talk off Sesame Street when I was around 3, which means I grew up pretty much without a Southern accent. I sound like Grover instead. Cheaper and far more entertaining than therapy.
Copeland's law
: Henry Copeland decrees: Site traffic multiplies in proportion to outbound links. Henry says he and I are thinking in parallel on how blogs work as a community-of-the-whole (below). Except his thoughts are smarter.
: As I think about it, Copeland's law stands in many other arenas: The more email you send, the more email you receive. Or simply put: The more you interact, the more you interact.
Society of 9.11 Survivors
: I wish someone -- I wish I -- had started a society of 9.11 survivors for one purpose: to thank the police and fire fighters and PATH and subway and World Trade Center workers who saved our lives, thousands and thousands of us.
I wish such a society existed for the anniversary so we could have gotten together to share our stories of that day and since and to share our gratitude and just to know that we're not alone.
I wish I had not thought of this too late. Is it too late?
Take the point, blogger
: Matt Welch finds the blog of the times -- by soldiers in Afghanistan.
Instapundit readers, take note
: The good idea to which the generous Mr. Reynolds links is below under the headline, "Go West, Old Men." Welch and Layne link likewise, for obvious reasons. It's about their L.A. paper.
Every picture is worth a thousand cheers
: From the arrest of terrorist scum in Pakistan. [via Focus]
: Details of the arrest from a Pakistani paper: There were three raids between Sept. 9 and 11 in Pakistan. In one, a grenade and gun battle ensued. Sitting in a black sedan, four agents of the United States Federal Bureau | |