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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, February 27, 2002
The Man Behind the Curtain
Chris : I don't necessarily think the Bushies came up with this particular proposal, and they may have been just as surprised by its timing and gist as others. What I do think possible is that, behind the proposal--the gas that forced it out of the hose, if you will--was Bush administration pressure that the Saudi's do something to address Israel.
Why do I think so? So far the Bush administration has played the world diplomacy game very well; its accomplishments since 9/11 will be Kennedy School subject-matter for a long time -- proof that such effective manipulations are not beyond them. In addition, the Saudis have been lambasted in the U.S. media for indirect 9/11 responsibility. That gives the Bushies leverage, which they may have used to get the Saudis positively involved. If so, I think it's appropriate that Prince Abdullah first revealed his Israel idea to Thomas Friedman of the Times--because Mr. Friedman is perhaps the leading Saudi lambaster.
Now, on the other issue, I think there's been a lot of disinformation about the supposed "office of disinformation"-- as there has been about so much in this war, including Camp X-Ray. This in turn merely highlights the Pentagon's need to conduct some serious information warfare itself. Perhaps they didn't go about it well at first bat, but they'll get it right, I hope. Nonetheless I'm happy the press gave full swing to its cudgel of suspicion.
I've got a Get-out-of-Silicon-Valley-free card and am using it to spend a long weekend in New York, so may not be able to counter your inflamed response right off, but I'll see you here on Monday.
PS. If Reagan had taken Gorbachev up on his total disarmament proposal, we'd have been left with no nuclear deterrence against the current crop of global madmen. Reagan gave Gorbachev's desperate gambit (country running out of money/government about to collapse/etc.) the "no" it deserved.
Prince of Peace
Mac: I doubt very much that the Bushies had anything to do with the Saudi proposal. Just two days ago, Colin Powell was calling it a "minor development"; now that Sharon considers it "interesting," its status in State Dept circles has hurriedly been upgraded. I know that Bush and Powell aren't always the best of chums, but the White House would never intentionally embarrass Foggy Bottom like that.
What you seem to be hinting at is that it is a shockingly good idea -- too good, almost, for the Crown Prince to have suddenly thought it up himself. Pre-1967 borders in exchange for complete peace with the institutional Arab world. It reminds me of Gorbachev's out-of-the-blue proposal at Reykjavik in 1987: total nuclear disarmament in exchange for the US abandoning Star Wars. We could have ended the Cold War two years early if Reagan had agreed to that one. I just hope Sharon is more trusting. If it works out, the Crown Prince will have not just short-circuited a certain war on the West Bank, but taken away one of the fundemental props that Islamic terrorism relies upon, and the post 9/11 world will suddenly seem a lot rosier. Every international leader, it seems, has the capacity to surprise us with Solomon-like solutions.
In other news, I see Rumsfeld has disbanded that awful Office of Strategic Intelligence, the one formed in too much haste after 9/11 that last week leaked plans to plant false stories in the foreign media. It's an enormous shame that the idiot running it couldn't see the distinction between good information warfare (ie. the idea of putting up billboards in Pakistan detailing the World Trade Center deaths) and bad information warfare (telling lies). Anyone who thinks an institution like the Pentagon can get away with the latter needs their head examined. Think of all the journalists who cover that place, the ones who are already rending their garments because they're not allowed to cover operations in Afghanistan with any degree of freedom. Thank God Rummy had the sense to know that you can only push the media so far. But really, he shouldn't have allowed the proposal to circulate -- and leak -- in the first place. Isn't he supposed to be running a tight ship?
Daily Blah for... Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Geek Chorus
Chris: At least Bush knows the meaning of "is."
I think some (especially Oxbridge and Ivy-league) journalists resent Bush types because, despite lesser scores on spelling tests, the Bushies have gone on to accomplish historic things and the laude journalists have ended up hot air generators in the white-collar minimum-wage zone. It's just so darn unfair, isn't it? I should be the one making a state visit to Tokyo!
I also think the intelligence/grades/studiousness charges are largely trumped up by lefties to discredit politicians they can't attack on policy--because the policies are popular or hard to take simplistic swipes at. It's a tired technique, this trolling through old grade books and lexicons. It mirrors the 80s conservative strategy of investigating Democrats for past instances of softness on crime. Instead of looking for death-row pardons, you look for Cs and incorrect vocabulary word usage.
Bush does seem prone to the verbal faux pas, but I don't see the deeper meaning you do. Even Tony Blair commits linguistic errors, and the Queen is not grammatically perfect either--and it's her English.
What interests me about Bush this morning is--what did he have to do with the Saudi proposal on Israel (Arab-world recognition in exchange for Israel's withdrawal to pre-1967 borders)? Although the Bush administration surely didn't author the proposal, I wonder if they aren't behind Saudi Arabia's apparent desire to get involved.
--Mac
A Plague of C-students
Mac: You missed one in your litany of Bush's Japanese screw-ups: "For a century and a half, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times," he said in an address to Tokyo lawmakers. A century and a half? Shurely shome mishtake, unless that whole Pearl Harbor thing was just an early screen test for Jerry Bruckheimer. Sure enough, his aides cleaned up the mess again, and on the White House website the speech is incorrectly transcribed as saying "for half a century ..." So add history to the list of things Bush doesn't know squat about. Not very comforting, is it?
Understand, I'm not attacking Bush because he has a good-ol'-boy accent. So did our last President. Neither of them were exactly characters from Faulkner. Both had some of the best educations the world has to offer. The difference is Bush was a C student, and what's much worse, appears to take pride in the fact that he was a C student (remember his speech at Yale last year?). What concerns me is that he appears to have no impetus to learn, to notice and correct his mistakes. It suggests that behind the scenes, in the Oval Office chats we won't know about until after this administration is over, Bush sits and nods his way through important policy deliberations, trying his best to look intelligent and interested in time-honored C-student fashion. It suggests that Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld are really running the show. Is this not something to be ringing the alarm bells about?
As for Enron, I think Lewis has the genesis of a fair point: Congress and the country are searching for scapegoats; Lay and Skilling are the most convenient targets. Obviously this (like Bush) is disingenuously simple-minded; there simply had to be more people involved in this conspiracy. But Lewis' alternative seems to be: let's scapegoat all Enron employees instead (except for "lowly clerks, some blue-collar types out in the field, the mentally incompetent"). The answer lies somewhere between these two extremes, and it's going to take a lot of hard-nosed investigation to determine exactly where. But I'm inclined to think most of these non-senior managers are innocent through incompetence. They probably breezed through their days like most working stiffs, their minds elsewhere, and didn't notice the subtle clues that heavy stuff was going down because they spent their meetings trying their best to look ... intelligent and interested. I suggest we start a fund to look into the cause of and cures for C-student-itus.
--Chris
Vern, Git Mah Shotgun
Chris: I don't fancy myself as having "raged". The $300 tax was, apparently, a whopper on Krugman's part. It's a shame to see it repeated here, and elsewhere. OK, you win, Bush has a funny accent--and we cain't take serously peeple with furny accents, ken we?
Here's what the Times says on Bush's verbal gaffe (and just yesterday I said "Jane's Addiction" when thinking "Alice in Chains" -- roast me for it!) : "By saying "devaluation," Mr. Bush inadvertently alluded to discussions in the international marketplace suggesting that a way out of Japan's economic crisis would be to devalue the yen against the dollar, making Japanese products cheaper in other countries. If Mr. Bush was briefed on the Japanese economy before the trip, both words probably came up."
For the record, Bush also mispronounced the Japanense word for competition Kyoso (saying, "Kyosho") and the name of Japanese scholar Inazo Nitobe (saying "Nitoybe"), clearly proving a lack of skill at foreign relations. He did, apparently, correctly use the phrase "chomping at the bit" in discussions with Chinese leaders--which caused however interpretive chaos.
Moving beyond such puny pecadillos, the thing that catches my eye today is Michael Lewis's column on Enron (disclosure: saw this cited on another web site)--in which he speculates that many, many non-senior management Enron employees must have colluded in the various shenanigans, and far from being victims, aren't these now 401K-less workers part of the consipiracy? He writes:
"Why are Enron's employees, who helped perpetrate one of the great corporate frauds of all time, more deserving of reparations than, say, Enron's creditors or, to expand the field of vision, actual poor people who never worked at Enron?"
--Mac
Errata & Fermata
My friend Mac, he of the fabulous Daily Blah redesign, had some issues with the previous two posts. On the tax question, he slammed the New York Times' Paul Krugman, who is indeed my source for this story. "Stop listening to befuddled economists and talk to your CPA," he rages (as if I have time to talk to that guy more than once or twice a year), before offering what seems to be a quote from some unknown source on how line 47 is not a snatch-back but an opportunity for those who missed out on the refund to get theirs. Since I do not know better, I bow to Mac on this one. Then he lays into my commentary on Bush's Asian trip, thus:
"Why is it serious people can mock Bush's accent and feel good about it? I could get comedic mileage out of Blair's lilting English tones, but what is the point? Regarding the Yen matter: that a simple syllable swap ("value" for "fla") by the President causes a minor currency tempest (one that was by the way quickly cleared up), shows how much power he weilds on behalf of the US. If Bush says devalue, then, surely, there will be devaluation.
"One suspects deeper motives in your Bush nitpicking--that you just don't like the guy, and it's in the tradition of Guardian lefty-ism to hide the real issues behind a patina of school-yard swipes. The real issues being Korea, China and Japan. Starting off, South Korea is a place known for protests (and it is thanks to the US that they have the ability to conduct them, unlike the terrorist North). At the end of Bush's visit, S. Korea's President Kim proclaimed "We were able to reconfirm that there was no difference of opinion between Korea and the United States." In China -- though he did fail to get a hoped-for missle agreement -- Bush broadcast remarks to the whole nation about religious freedom and democracy, while maintaining a united front with Chinese leadership on terrorism and North Korea. Perhaps the trip comprised a certain amount of damage control re: the Axis speech, but it was hardly a hostility-fest."
My my, such defensiveness! It's amazing how many people I've encountered recently who will press Bush to their bosom like an overprotective parent at the first hint of bullying. Come on, Mac, George is a big boy now, he can take criticism. I'm quite happy for you to make fun of Blair's lilting tones. Most Brits do that all the time anyway, even his supporters. Mature democracies know that mocking their leaders is part of the deal, even if -- especially if -- you agree with their point of view.
That said, have you ever, in your entire life, or could you ever imagine yourself, ever, ever, ever mistaking the word "deflation" for "devaluation?" Okay, yes, maybe, if you were drunk off your face, or it was first thing in the morning and you hadn't had coffee and your bleary eyes were having trouble reading the fine type of the front page. But if you were at a state function with the Japanese Prime Minister, for crying out loud, wouldn't you be a bit more careful about what you said? We're not just talking about a slip of the tongue. Bush did not correct his statement at the time; his aides had to clean up the mess after him (and not for the first time over slipped words, I might add). Wouldn't that suggest that he simply doesn't understand the difference? You say it shows how much power he wields. Yes, I know how much power he wields. I am very afraid of the power wielded by someone with the nuclear football in one hand and a garbled lexicon in the other. The power he wields is precisely the reason he should guard his tongue, and why we should take him to task when he doesn't.
Anyway, because I feel like giving Mac the right of reply, or rather because I'm desperately experimental about anything that might keep this blog interesting, I've given him the keys to the place so he can post on his own. I, of course, will respond to his response in the most scathing and brilliantly intellectual manner possible. Let's see how this works. It could become a very revealing, gripping, Socratic dialog, or it might just be a couple of blowhards arguing about Bush.
Daily Blah for... Friday, February 22, 2002
Asia? I never even knew her
What a busy little Asian trip Mr. Bush had. Here's what he did on his winter vacation: mistakenly use the word "devaluation" for "deflation" in Japan, thereby sending the yen into a death spiral; irritate the heck out of South Koreans by refusing to answer any of their questions about the "evil" state to the north, and confuse the heck out of them by repeatedly discussing the Korean "pen-inch-ula"; alienate the Chinese by banging on about the greatness of America, a nation "guided by faith" (how would we like it if Jiang Zemin came over here and lectured us all on the value of a one-party system and the glories of Maoist marxism?) All in all, a pretty successful trip -- if its aim was mainly to drive up sales of Bush masks worn by angry protestors. He did a wonderful job of that in Europe, too.
Give that $300 back!
Oh, brilliant. Remember the $300 tax cut we got from that nice Mr. Bush? Turns out it was just an advance on taxes we're going to pay this year anyway. If you peruse your Form 1040, which I know you've just been dying to do, so go ahead, I give you permission -- you'll find a curious thing on line 47. If you got a $300 check, you have to pay -- guess what -- an extra $300 in taxes. What a coincidence! Now I'm glad I didn't participate in any of the boycotts that sprung up last summer, where indignant Democrats were sending the checks back to the government or passing them on to charity. I'm guessing a lot of people are going to blow a gasket when they come to line 47. Could this be the "no new taxes" of the second Bush administration?
Must Show Nothing But Curling
Of course, there's another death in the news I'm mourning, like all journalists: that of Daniel Pearl. I simply cannot believe the Pakistani group that held him was so incompetent as to lose their prize, the only thing in their favor. Threaten to kill your charge, by all means; send his pregnant wife an ear or finger if you have to. But for Allah's sake don't kill him, you bloodthirsty idiots.
There's a lot of rage in the media about this senseless killing. And some of it, quite rightly, is directed towards a certain cable news outlet that chose to show the Olympics instead of staying on top of the Pearl story. Here is a zinger of an article in the Washington Post about it. It is particularly noteable because the Post -- and its charming little magazine, I think they call it Weaknews or something -- often collaborates with said network. Is there trouble in paradise, chaps?
Daily Blah for... Thursday, February 21, 2002
Goodbye, Morse
The British actor John Thaw, who played the morose yet insightful Inspector Morse among a host of other roles on British TV, died today. Inspector Morse solved an improbably large number of murders in and around the colleges of Oxford. Anyone who watched it and didn't know that beautiful city would presume it had a higher per capita homicide rate than South Central L.A. By the time I went to study there in the early 90's I expected to be met by tutors who poisoned their wives, and vicars who jumped (or were they pushed?) from church steeples; the University chancellor himself would, no doubt, be shot in the middle of a ritual procession to the Sheldonian theatre. Alas, none of it came to pass, although the college always had an uproarious time gathering in the TV room every Thursday night for the sole purpose of spotting geographical continuity errors. ("Did you see that? He was on the High Street a second ago, now he's walking past St. John's! What were they thinking?")
In many ways, Morse as portrayed by Thaw was the embodiment of the British character: solid, thoughtful, appreciative of the fine things in life (ie. real ale) and bloody miserable. Still, when I think wistfully about all that I left behind, his face jumps to mind almost as often as those of family and friends. I'll miss him.
Thanks for the Image, Mr. Edison
Want some cool wallpaper for your desktop? Try this. (For those who don't know how, right click on the image and choose "set as wallpaper". Simple.) I've been staring at it for the past few days now, and it never fails to fascinate. See how clustered together we are? How we cling to coasts and major rivers? And, most poignantly post-9/11, how much darkness there still is in the world?
Extra! Extra!
Daily Blah regulars -- of which there are precious few at this time, but just you wait, world -- will notice the site has undergone a radical redesign. This is due in no part to me, but rather to my friend Mac, Silicon Valley professional and HTML design wizard. "Notice how only the big box containing stories resizes when you expand/collapse your browser?" he says. "Nice." Indeed it is. Thanks, Mac. I will be number one again, oh yes I will ...
Daily Blah for... Monday, February 18, 2002
Don't mention the Garden State
Some days, when the rules and rituals of my adoptive American home seem largely self-evident to me, I feel like a modern Tocqueville. And then there are days when I read stories like this and shake my head in disbelief. Why the hell would a guy in Galveston have such a huge problem with the state of New Jersey that he would shoot his girlfriend for daring to speak its name? Is it general-purpose Mason-Dixon hatred for the Yankees, or some peculiar long-running rivalry between Jersey and Texas? Could someone explain that to this confused immigrant, please?
(2/11/02 - Galveston) - We all have words that make us cringe. But one
man's aversion to certain words nearly killed a woman. A Galveston man is
on trial for nearly killing his former girlfriend because of the words she
was about to say. The man says the words make him crazy.
There are apparently four words that make this defendant very, very angry,
including state names such as "Wisconsin" and "New Jersey." In fact "New
Jersey" is apparently what set this case in motion.
He stands accused of aggravated assault. On March 9, 1999, prosecutors say
Thomas Mitchell had a confrontation with his then-girlfriend of four years
at his Texas City apartment.
Mo Ibrahim/Prosecutor: "In his opinion, he looked in her eyes and he
thought she was going to say the word 'New Jersey.' Then he went in his
bedroom, got his gun, loaded it. She knocked on the door and he answered it
and shot her three times."
The victim, Barbara Jenkins, survived and will likely testify against
Mitchell when testimony begins on Tuesday.
While Mitchell's attorney declined comment, she may have a tough case to
defend. Prosecutors say more than a half dozen people witnessed the
shooting. A handgun was discovered in Mitchell's car. And he reportedly
gave incriminating statements to police.
Prosecutors say there are other words that Mitchell does not like, words
like "Snickers" and "Mars Bar." Defense attorneys may question Mitchell's
sanity at the time of the shooting, but court-appointed psychiatrists have
examined him with similar results.
Mo Ibrahim/Prosecutor: "Two independent psychiatrists have examined him and
both deemed him to be sane and competent."
But no one can say why the words "Snickers," "Mars Bar," "Wisconsin," or
"New Jersey" may set Mitchell off. Defense attorneys will likely call their
own psychiatrist to explain what prosecutors say is indisputable evidence
that Mitchell pulled the trigger.
Mitchell does have a long history of mental illness, and the defense is
hoping that some of the witness statements he gave police after the
shooting will be suppressed. They are also asking that probation at least
be an option for sentencing if in fact Mitchell is convicted. Prosecutors
say they did not seek a conviction on attempted murder charges, since
attempted murder and aggravated assault are both
second-degree felonies, punishable by two to twenty years. All they have to
prove under the charge of aggravated assault is that he used or exhibited a
deadly weapon in the course of the assault.
Daily Blah for... Thursday, February 14, 2002
Kill Your Blog
Is it just that I'm noticing stories about weblogs more since I did mine, or is everybody following my lead? This morning Business 2.0, our sister publication (also based in S.F.), has an online column about the phenomenon. Dylan Tweney, the author, makes an interesting point: if you don't update your blog every day, it withers on the vine. He should know -- he kept one for two years' straight, then found out he was devoting too many waking hours to it. I know what he means. First of all, I've let things slip in the last week or so -- just look at those dates when I didn't post! -- and secondly, I feel guilty writing this drivel right now when I should be working (I have three stories to work on this week, no less).
Flak Protection
One of the biggest hassles in this business, as I've hinted at before, is the constant barrage of phone calls from PR professionals (we call 'em flaks, as in the damage an fighter plane sustains from anti-aircraft guns). Dan Gilmour of the San Jose Mercury News, in his open letter to PR people, has an excellent idea: don't call at all unless the journalist has specificially requested it. Otherwise, e-mail. And don't send attachments, for gawd's sake. I'm inclined to agree with every word. It's about time we poor pressured hacks had a bill of rights to protect us from too much PR.
Daily Blah for... Tuesday, February 12, 2002
So Long, and Thanks for all the Dish
Not so long ago I made a list of ten writers whose footsteps I would be very happy to follow in. Top of the list was Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a series I have loved ever since it made its debut on BBC radio in the late 70's. I was lucky enough to interview Adams some months before he died of a sudden and tragic heart attack in Santa Barbara last year, and one of these days I'll get round to posting a condensed version of that interview here as my tribute. In the meantime, it appears Tech TV also did a big interview with Adams less than two weeks before he left us for good. That show will be broadcast this weekend: here is a preview
Daily Blah for... Friday, February 08, 2002
Introducing the latest heir of the dancing baby: Move it!
Daily Blah for... Thursday, February 07, 2002
I'M NOT NUMBER ONE! I'M NOT NUMBER ONE!
All things must pass, as a certain ex-Beatle sang. My dizzying moment at the top of the pops was just a little more fleeting than his; a day later, back in San Francisco in a torrential downpour, I find my article has slipped to number two (behind the Google programming contest) and dailyblah.com has slipped to number 42 (behind the "what font are you?" quiz). Bugger. Time to do what all mainstream media types must do when ratings plunge. Celebrity nudes, anyone?
By the way, it seems this site thinks I'm being satirical. Who, me? No, really, they seem to believe everything in my blog (eg. the "I'm number one!" stuff) is a subtle and clever satire on the sort of crap that usually pervades such personal websites. I'm shocked, shocked to find satire is going on here!
(your ratings, monsieur. Ah, thank you very much.)
Oh, and it turns out I'm Times New Roman. Shame. I much prefer Bodoni, or at least Palatino ...
Daily Blah for... Wednesday, February 06, 2002
I'M NUMBER ONE! I'M NUMBER ONE!
Sorry, I do apologize for that terribly gauche display of self-satisfaction. But you see, I'M NUMBER ONE! on Blogdex. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, that's not strictly true. The article I wrote is number one, the most linked-to Blog link in the world; DailyBlah.com itself hovers at a respectable number 39 (I'm also up in the dizzying heights of fame on a rival Blog list, daypop). More conceited prancing to follow; I'm in Orange County on assignment and I can't really talk right now. But in the meantime, I just want to say to all those bloggers who have expressed envious feelings about my pole-vault to the top: don't hate me because I'm a mainstream journalist. Hate me because I'M NUMBER ONE!
Daily Blah for... Tuesday, February 05, 2002
A note to all the pedants: yes, I'm aware my archives page is still 404. I'm working on it.
No sooner do I mention Jonno than Jonno writes to me:
"Just a note to let you know that (1) i claim no influence or responsibility
regarding how certain of my minions might be comparing your blog to that of
mine and others, (2) the whole concept of blog popularity contests gives me
the heebies too, and (3) i enjoyed your article. so there."
What an incestuous little world this Blogging business is. It reminds me of a reading technique supposedly employed by politicians and other masters of vanity, dubbed "Washington fast-reading". To wit: you don't read the latest hot gossipy inside-the-beltway bestseller, you simply pick it up in a bookstore, flick straight to the index and look up your own name. By informing us the moment someone links to us, Blogdex has turned us all into Washington fast-readers.
Bloggers, evidently, have lives, but you've got to wonder how much time they spend in them.
I wake up to news via e-mail from Emily that I'm number 124 on the MIT media lab's revered Blogdex. By the time I check it out myself, I'm number 107. Woo-hoo! At this rate, I'll be in pole position by the end of the day. "Be afraid, be very afraid if you get on the front page," she says -- not a phrase journalists are used to hearing, as a rule -- "cos then you really will be inundated. When you find yourself click on sources and you can find out what people are saying about you."
What she should have said was:
"Be afraid, be very afraid. You can find out what people are saying about you."
This, as anyone who has read Alice in Wonderland knows, is more of a curse than a blessing. Right now, six other bloggers are saying things about me, and their comments vary from the snide to the envious to the neutral. James Arnett writes:
"An interesting proposition: see how an actual Time Magazine journalist compares to more impromptu webjournalists like say,Michele and Jonno."
Fair enough, I think. But then he adds:
"For my money, I'd vote for Jonno and Michele."
Not realizing the obvious (that he knows these people and he doesn't know me; that I'm a faceless corporate goon to him, of course he's going to side with the little guys) I furiously click on Jonno and Michele's links and immediately look for faults to pick with them. Finding the odd spelling mistake and embarrassing recitation of song lyrics, I smile. Then I check myself. What am I doing? This isn't a popularity contest. I'm not running for class President. Who am I, Tracy Flick?
Meanwhile, Molly notes in her blog: "It's nice to see that a real-life journalist has just as much mundane stuff going on as the rest of us." You'd better believe it, Molly. Right now I'm battling off PR flacks on the phone, wondering what to have for breakfast and whether I should go grocery shopping before I fly to Orange County tonight.
And Daniel Taylor, a.k.a. The Dreaded Purple Master (nice to see that love of purple runs in the Taylor genes -- I'm obsessed with that color too), opines wistfully: "Boy, I wish I could advertise my blog in Time magazine." Be careful what you wish for, Daniel. I'm getting showered in mail (including some helpful soul who pointed out, in answer to my last post, that my hosting company will only handle 100,000 hits a month). This thing is getting too big. I never intended it to compete with anything -- heck, look at how minimalist this page is -- but now my competitive urge is coming to the fore. I feel like I need to preemptively hire a manager, a publicist and a team of writers.
And I still haven't had breakfast.
Very strange. A couple of readers report that my blog has gone 404 (file not found), yet now at 2am -- and don't ask me what I'm doing up at that time -- Daily Blah is loading smooth as ever. I can only conclude that my hosting service was ill-prepared to meet the deluge of curious surfers after eighteen months of inactivity and a few weeks of -- what, maybe five or six hits a day? What really worries me (yeah, like I'm really worried by all this attention) is that four million or so subscribers have yet to get hold of the magazine. Since it's got the Olympics on the cover, they might even read it. Can my hosting company cope? Have they spotted the sudden flurry of activity and recalibrated their whatchamacallits to deal with it? It's all up to you, NoMonthlyFees.com. Don't let me down or I'll burn your ass in print.
Daily Blah for... Monday, February 04, 2002
Debbie Russell writes to ask: where are some of the best places to get news stories from around the world? Good question, Debbie. Or rather, it's one I can easily answer by cutting and pasting a few of my bookmarks and adding a pithy comment to each. Let's go.
BBC News. This is my new homepage, edging out CNN since September 11th when my corporate bretheren in Atlanta got just a wee bit too patriotic and unquestioning for my news tastes. Besides, it loads fast, there's a wonderful news ticker at the top of the page, they pack an extraordinary amount of world news and weird news on one screen, and there has seldom been an occassion where I've fired up my browser to do something else and haven't been distracted by a BBC story.
Ananova. She started out as a gimmick, but the green-haired virtual newsreader is turning into the best source by far for quirky and underreported stories. About half of the e-mail forwards I get from my friends started life as Ananova reports. Besides, she's rather sexy. It's not exactly Naked News, but you can still get lost in those peepers.
Wired News, Slashdot and NTK are my favorite sources for tech news.
A quick plug for Time.com. It's more than just the weekly magazine, folks. There's up-to-the-minute news analysis from a very smart bunch of cookies, too.
And finally, let us not forget Drudge. Sure, you have to take his massive headlines with a pinch of salt, and his conservative leanings pepper the page. But he's a great one-stop resource for just about everything news related: wire services, columnists, local papers, the mainstream news sites. Ultimately the man is a news junkie, and as such, his heart's in the right place.
The e-mails on my blog column are starting to pour in. The first eagle-eyed readers -- the ones who are so eager to read my words of wisdom that they check it out online on a Sunday night, when the magazine doesn't even hit newstands until Monday -- write to point out I have broken links. Sheesh. Well spotted, guys. I've fixed 'em.
Daily Blah for... Sunday, February 03, 2002
I should mention I'm starting an entirely new blog at a different location: FutureDaze. The subject of this blog: anything and everything I can gather on original, up-to-the-minute and exciting visions of the future. See, ever since the release of Blade Runner it has become apparent that our vision of the years ahead is largely bankrupt. Even now, we tend to imagine dystopias rather than utopias (something which has only been heightened by post-September 11th fears and paranoias). Quite simply, the future needs to become fun again -- because if we can't picture the way we want things to be, how can we ever make sure we're on the right road to get there? FutureDaze is an exercise in creating a collaborative future. I want as many people as possible to contribute forward-looking dreams. Everything goes, and the more specific the better: if you have a hunch we're all going to be driving around in flying cars by the year 2070, or if you think the first manned Mars landing will take place before 2030, let me know. Send your optimistic future snippets to cdt@well.com; I'll post them on the blog, and we'll get a dialogue going.
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