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[ c|b ].extra
- BLOG HOME
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- posterous
- tumblr
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[ c|b ].newsfeed
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[ c|b ].is.ad.free
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[ c|b ].friendconnect
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« Thursday « September 30, 2004
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First Presidential Debate (2004)
(Google News/Search)
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So, who won? Seemed like a tie to me, but if anything we should now understand: these are two different guys.
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Internet powers tonight's Presidential debate
(CNN.com)
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Beyond this careful choreography, the audience is ready to jump on any gaffs, mistakes or juicy remarks that may slip past candidates' lips.CNN's editors will probably fix this before I finish blogging it, but when did 'gaffe' as in 'mistake' become 'gaff'? I sure hope Kerry doesn't make those kind of mistakes; rocket scientist Dubya certainly will. (treopost)
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« Wednesday « September 29, 2004
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Taxi
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"Chicago's" Queen Latifah and "Saturday Night Live's" Jimmy Fallon team up in this non-stop action-comedy.Two guys driving around in a car ... wow, how original.
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« Tuesday « September 28, 2004
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Social Networking Map: Black Bloggers
(Formica blog)
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I drew relationships between myself and anyone with whom I've communicated, and between those persons who seem to have a relationship ? in real life or online? as evidenced by back linking and/or comments left on weblogs. I realize that the Black blogosphere is vast (and continues to expand daily); I also know that there are a few key people (Huny, anyone?) who were left off the map. As time and my obsession permits, I'd like to draw a larger, more detailed map.I'm always late to these things, colored people's time, ya know. Cecily has started something that I've wanted to do for a while. It's a social networking map of some bloggers who just happen to be Black. It doesn't mean that they only talk about Black issues, or even hang out together, but it does represent one way to group bloggers along certain lines. Maybe arbitrary, maybe not. I think not. And I think it's important because by publishing on the Web what we're all actually doing is building is a web of knowledge, opinion, and perhaps even influence. Being able to see the bigger picture of is important to understanding the dimensions of that web. I hope Cecily doesn't mind if I take her work and run with it at some point in the future.
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The Age of iPod Politics
(Time.com)
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The problem is, American politics are un-American. At least, they no longer fit the a la carte ethos of iPod America. You and I can't each have our own President. We can't have our own Supreme Court or our own assault-weapons law. If you don't like the USA Patriot Act, you can't delete it from your digital playlist.My take: eventually, one ring will rule them all. This has been foretold, somewhere.
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« Monday « September 27, 2004
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Guide to Springfield USA
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A highly detailed map of the Simpsons' hometown.Hundreds of years into the future, we'll look back at "The Simpsons" as one of the greatest American literary creations ... and this map proves it.
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If RSS ain't broke...
(ZDNet)
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Gillmor: "Just as blogging drove the initial adoption of RSS aggregators, so too will moblogging (short for mobile blogging) drive the addition of rich media capabilities to the RSS information router."Another view of the rising tide lifting all RSS boats. Comparing RSS polling to E-mail polling is appropriate, I think. Feeds need to be deployed intelligently. Maybe aggregating 1000 newsfeeds into one isn't such a great idea. Contrast with: Bandwidth Cost of RSS. I learned a new term today, too: "iPod platform."
b/w: Scripting News
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« Friday « September 24, 2004
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My Tuesday with the World Economy Forum
(Joho the Blog)
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Weinberger: "These are smart people and I liked talking with them. They were willing to listen. Some, in fact, even agree to varying degrees. But they are riding beasts that are in agony, and the Internet will be a sticky stain on the bottom of their massive hooves.We are doomed."Weinberger is one of the Cluetrain Manifesto guys, and certainly one of the most thoughtful minds in the blogosphere. Hearing this report, of the discussion he shared with the power elite of media, sheds a tiny bit of light on why so much of today's media -- movies, TV shows, books, popular music, magazines, newspapers, etc. -- are so boring, deadening and dull: these media "barons" aren't interested in creating better product. They just want to stick with the same model that made them rich, even as technology's relentless progress changes the game every day. The way they solve that problem is by using their massive financial clout to have lopside laws written in their favor. Behold the invisible government. Assymetry is their game. They can only conceive a future where they are in control, and where they decide everything for the rest of us. It is possible to be totalitarian without jackbooted goon squads: just control hearts and minds, especially minds. Do that by controlling who gets to access to the tools. That's the vibe I get from "big media" these days. It's all about control.
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Kilts
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File under: 'Off-color Humor'I don't know why I find this so funny, but I read this on a joke website I landed on by accident while googling and I've been laughing all morning, so I had to blog it for posterity:
Why do the Scottish wear kilts?
Thanks, I'll be blogging here all this week.
Because sheep can hear a zipper from a mile away!
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« Tuesday « September 21, 2004
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The Invisible Electorate
(SFGate.com)
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Outdated polling methods seem innocent enough -- that is, until you realize it's the common way the U.S. political establishment renders America's nonwhite voters -- 40 percent of the American people, according to the latest U.S. Census -- statistically insignificant. That's more effective than the Klan's methods.All you have to do is look at how the Democrats treat the Black vote: they're only interested in our votes around election time, then play lip service afterwards. On the national level, politics is still largely a white, and a male game. Kerry or Bush, once in office, they'll still push an agenda that only considers white interests. Black, Latino and Asian voters must wake up and recognize these facts when considering their voting choices. What is the matrix, Neo? It's control.
b/w: negrophile.
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Movie listings
(kottke.org)
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"I've redesigned the movies section of this site."Man, that's a lot of movies! I have written, not quite as many movie reviews, a few that live on my site, as well as on Epinions.com, remember them? Kottke's implementation is a nice, simple approach that will play well in a "micro-content" world, but maybe I'm missing something: where's the crunchy, XML structure behind the scenes?
b/w: marc's voice
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The Benefactor
(PopMatters)
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The Benefactor reinforces a familiar capitalist power dynamic: when you have money, you can do whatever you want...[the players] were just told to show up and "play the game," difficult when you don't know the rules. When you strip away his rhetoric and flimsy efforts to transform banal activities like playing Jenga into "metaphors," what's left is... well, not a whole lot.I was trying to put into words what I thought of this show after 'skimming' -- which is possible with a PVR -- two episodes, but this review summarized my inchoate thoughts, and the truth of this waste of airtime, perfectly: the show is asinine. I had higher hopes, given that Cuban's always appeared to be one of the more interesting sports franchise owners, among other things, to burst onto the scene in recent years. Well, boy, was I wrong; not Dan Rather-type wrong, but just wrong that the guy was interesting. He's just another rich *sshole. Which begs the rhetorical question: can one become rich and not become an *sshole in the process, or is that part of the deal when you sell your soul to Satan's cousin, Mammon?
Now I'm drawn to watching the remainder of this show like a rubbernecker spying a 15-car pileup, or like a couch potato watching Jerry Springer: it's so bad you can't help but tune in again, just to see what stupid sh*t they'll come up with next. And the worse thing about the cast is: they take this crap. A game of Jenga for $1 million? A board of "advisors" made up of 6-year-olds deciding your fate, based on your favorite candy? (I will give Cuban a little credit for mocking Trump's show when he told the second graders that he'd meet them in his boardroom to decide which of his "companies" they can run.) What's that line from The Great Gatsby: the rich get richer but the poor get -- children.
These guys, with their hyperinflated egos -- Cuban, Trump, and later, on Fox, Branson -- flaunt their wealth in front of all our faces every day. Isn't that enough? Of course not, because now, with these reality shows they've proven that they can become social engineers, and turn normal, everyday people in literal playthings, simply because they can count on finding enough greedy people to fall for their offer. $1 million, to Cuban, a $250K job to Trump, come on, to multibillionaires like them is chump change. That's like me handing someone a $20 bill: here, dude, who's your daddy, who's your benefactor? Only thing is, I can't make regular people jump through hoops to get it. Moreover, I wouldn't want to. But to them, it is the ultimate game: human chess, played with volunteer pawns. It's the rich exploiting the not-rich for their entertainment and, no doubt, profit. Now where have we seen that before?
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« Monday « September 20, 2004
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The Lynching of Dan Rather
(GregPalast.com)
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Journalist Greg Palast: "This is not a story about Dan Rather. The white millionaire celebrity can defend himself without my help. This is really a story about fear, the fear that stops other reporters in the US from following the evidence about this Administration to where it leads. American news guys and news gals, practicing their smiles, adjusting their hairspray levels, bleaching their teeth and performing all the other activities that are at the heart of US TV journalism, will look to the treatment of Dan Rather and say, 'Not me, babe.'"U.S. mainstream media is all about the propaganda. But we have no one to blame but ourselves. Think about it: in this country it's not acceptable to openly discuss politics. So if you don't even talk about it with your friends, neighbors and colleagues, why T.F. should we expect our media to ask tough questions? We don't want the answers, because they're probably too complicated for our charge-now-pay-later minds to handle.
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« Sunday « September 19, 2004
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Bloggers Declare War on Comment Spam, but Can They Win?
(Online Journalism Review)
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Winer: "I think a blog is a publication, and publications have proven that letters to the editor are useful. But blogs with comments are not letters to the editor. Letters to the editor are edited, they're selected, and that selection process is a very important aspect of it."In full agreement here. While I do think that thoughtful comments can enhance a particular blog post/article/story, or whatever you call it, I think it's an incredibly rare occurence when unsolicited comments add to a weblog. Create your own blog -- you can still set one up for free in many, many places. On the other hand, spam, in all its forms, isn't going away, unless the general population of Net users becomes incredibly more discriminating, which is probably not likely. To be successful, spam, like any "marketing" pitch, only needs to hit its mark a tiny fraction of the time. Spam is a cancer tailor-made for Internet: it's a medium that enhances anonymity, which begets a lack of accountability, which, apparently, creates the perfect breeding ground for scam artists... and their victims: people looking for "deals" and easy answers.
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BBEdit 8
(Daring Fireball)
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The point of BBEdit is not just what it looks like or what it does, but how it feels.Just a post for my "inner geek." BBEdit is one of the reasons why I stay with the Mac. For all intents and purposes, it's my digital swiss army knife.
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« Friday « September 17, 2004
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Opening up TV, a new API
(counternotions blog)
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[B]egin to think of its TV programs not as inert spectacles confined to set airtimes and reruns, but as malleable digital applications: extensible, interactive and networkable.I love this kind of thinking. Sure, it may be a little naive to expect the TV dinosaurs to change, but just look at what PVRs are doing to the way folks watch TV: people are getting used to the notion of creating their own programming schedules, and since that represents progress for consumers its going to be the wave of the future. Haven't the TV networks learned that you can't fight progress?
b/w: PaidContent.org
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« Thursday « September 16, 2004
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Klaatu barada nikto
(The Day the Earth Stood Still Reference Library)
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There are no bad sci-fi movies, only bad sci-fi audiences...
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« Wednesday « September 15, 2004
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Chi Modu
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Striking photography of Hip Hop icons, and more.(b/w Lynne d Johnson)
b/w: Lynne d Johnson blog
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The Fragmentation of Fashion II
(Corante: Customer Intelligence)
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"Consumers' newfound freedom to customize their lives -- from burning their own music CDs to publishing political commentary online -- is throwing basic business models of many businesses into disarray."Welcome to the on-demand world. Of course, this notion that the consumers are in complete control is nevertheless deeply-flawed; consumers are now demanding customizations to products, they still do not control what products are actually created, nor will they ever. So how much choice do they really have? You can take the candy-apple-red SUV, or the cobalt-blue-with-silver-speckles SUV ... but who said the consumers wanted (or needed) an SUV in the first place? Wow, what choice.
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fragmentation of fashion
(gapingvoid blog)
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"It's not just the product. People have to love the process as well."
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« Tuesday « September 14, 2004
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In Memoriam
(UppityNegro blog)
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"This is Val, Aaron's sister. My family and I are still working out what we wanted to say and do on the site. But at this time, however briefly, I thought it was best to confirm that yes, Aaron did pass away. We found out for certain yesterday."
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Donald please?
(Blog Maverick)
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Mark Cuban: "Nice job on Leno last night Donald. At least you admitted that you hadn't seen The Benefactor. But saying that it will fail. That's a little much Donald, even from you."Trump, born-rich billionaire, goes on Leno to diss Cuban's show. Cuban, self-made billionaire, goes on his blog to respond. Cuban's show seems a little more 'hand-made' but authentic -- perfect for the roll up your sleeves and let's order takeout allnighter entrepreneur vibe he's trying to kick; while Trump's show is produced by the master of RealityTV puppets, Mark Burnett. I'm recording both shows on ReplayTV, but which story do you think is more endearing to this blogger? I mean, come on, I'm never going to -- and I'll never want to -- hang out in the Hamptons with Trump's snotty, American brahmin ilk ... but I'll take courtside seats and kick it with Cuban any day!
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« Monday « September 13, 2004
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BugMeNot.com
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Bypass compulsory web registration.A few people may have been wondering what these "bugmenot" links I've been including with some recent posts are. Well, bugmenot.com is a brilliant idea for a site that aggregates generic usernames and passwords for all of those ridiculous (mostly) newspaper sites which require "free registration." These registrations are shams: now your name, age, and E-mail address are in yet another database, yet another marketing company has the ability to spam you with offers you don't want, and worse of all, these registrations don't lead to better content. All they do is put up barriers to entry of these sites. Ancient thinking in a modern medium where the competition is just one click away. I might not speak for many here, but if the content is good, I'll pay; for instance, I'm an ESPN.com and a WSJ.com subscriber; but let me see what you've got first. For all I know the content I want could just be a rehash of AP/UPI wires. These newspaper sites would do better to build services around their content that people would volunteer to register for, than to put a big padlock on their front door. That's very inviting. Bug me not, indeed.
Related:
BugMeNot and the Value of Registration
News Site Registration
Damage In Web Design
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People's Republic of Mac
(Wired News)
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"It was user-friendly. It looked cooler than anything else around at the time."
As Laosan, sinophile and dedicated Windoze lemming, woefully (or sarcastically?) observes from the mainland: Mac-love is international. This rare photo of yours truly proves what I'm talking about: how many non-Mac users take photos with their machines? My Mac, picture here is SilverSurfer, is like a pampered pet in my home. OK, so there may be some truth to the whole cult thing, and perhaps, it really is the apple from the Garden of Eden, but in the end, it's a Mac thing, you wouldn't understand. Hahaha!
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Long-Standing Tensions Fuel Darfur Conflict
(NPR Morning Edition)
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(AUDIO) For decades, the black African farmers of western Sudan were in conflict with Arab tribesmen over grazing and farming rights.I've been looking for something that would give me an overview of what the problem is in The Sudan, and I found this audio report on what's fueling the explosive situation. More digging is needed, but from this initial NPR report, it doesn't sound like Darfur's good place to be, especially if you're Black. Sound familiar? (Windows Media or Real Player, required)
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Marketers Chase Consumers Into The Bathroom
(AdAge.com)
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[M]arketers like Sony Music, Unilever and Nintendo along with major liquor companies and TV networks have been systematically elbowing aside the hookers and cranks to get their own commercial messages in front of a demographic with its pants lowered and its zipper undone. Deodorant brands, recording artists, video games and automakers are routinely buying space on the doors of toilet stalls or urinal walls.Sometimes, marketing is just sh*tty. (Registration required, or just bugmenot.)
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British Comics
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For the file.
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« Saturday « September 11, 2004
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Gmail for cellphones
(Engadget)
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Possibly very useful.
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« Friday « September 10, 2004
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Bandwidth cost of RSS
(Scripting News)
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Winer: "In the last few months I've been paying steadily increasing bandwidth surcharges due to exploding use of my RSS feed. HTML access is also increasing at substantial rates." Also see: "RSS traffic is growing out of control" (Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger).Oh cry me a river: you want a lot of people to read you, but when you've crossed some undefined traffic threshold you complain that it's costing too much; well, get rid of your feed then and shut up! RSS is great, long live RSS, but if I'd have to guess, only bloggers, Internet 'power users', haxxors, and the Slashdot crowd are really using the technology regularly. The total size of the folks who even understand the basic concepts behind RSS is probably just a tiny fraction of total Net users. So it's going to be up to developers to fix this problem before Grandma figures out what those little orange XML buttons mean, because that's when you'll have a real bandwidth problem. RSS is a lot like push -- remember Pointcast -- and push, he died when admins saw their networks getting chewed up; aside, though, I do love the idea of RSS inside of corporate and organizational networks as a way to share information. When RSS concepts start getting baked into set-top boxes, ala concepts like BitTorrent+RSS, these issues better be solved, or no greedy VCs will make any money and the technology will die a quick death. On the other hand, I guess there really is a price to pay -- in real dollars -- to be a popular, A-list blogger, something I wouldn't know a thing about. But like that pop philosopher J-Lo once said, even if you were broke, my love don't cost a thing.
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« Thursday « September 9, 2004
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UPN unveils 'America's Next Top Model 3' contestants
(Reality TV World)
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UPN has unveiled the identities of the finalists who will compete on the upcoming "third cycle" of its hit America's Next Top Model series, and as the show's ratings continue to grow, apparently so does the size of its cast.Oh boy, now that's a foine-lookin' cast! Well, I know what my ReplayTV unit will be gobbling up this fall, besides new Dave Chappelles: Survivor: Vanuatu, The Apprentice, The Benefactor, NFL PrimeTime, and America's Top Model 3, that's more than enough television for any working adult to ever watch ... but then, I have the commerical-skip feature. Five shows, that's basically it for my fall TV diet.
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What Bush means to African-Americans
(WorldNetDaily)
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Star Parker: "...I want blacks to be as in-your-face back to the Republican Party as Bush is to the nation and the world. Ownership and choice are far more critical for blacks than for rich white men."She's got a take on this that I haven't really considered here, but it's definitely food for thought. If anything, the Republicans are predictable, and unapologetic about their narrowed focus; it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what they're going to do. And that predictability can be leveraged.
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« Wednesday « September 8, 2004
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Why I'm Black, Not African American
(LA Times)
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McWhorter: "I have gone along with using 'African American' for the same reason that we throw rice at a bride --because everybody else was doing it. But no more. From now on, in my writings on race I will be returning to the word I grew up with, which reminds me of my true self and my ancestors who worked here to help make my life possible: Black."Good point: there certainly are real Africans who have immigrated to the States in recent years, and they're way more 'African' than I could ever be; and it's not just semantics, there are some deep cultural differences. We are not all the same, we folks of African descent and phenotype, even though, in a European worldview, we're lumped together; but then again, I see no substantive differences amongst any of the so-called European cultures, I mean, if you've seen one xenophobic, patriarchal, pathologically belligerent, hypocritical, delusionally superiority-complexed culture, you've seen them all, so it's a wash, no? Since my mother's from Haiti, I always considered myself Haitian American, plantain bananas and all, and don't even get me started on how the 'local' bruthas and sistas talk about people from the islands, behind their backs. (Registration required, or use bugmenot)
b/w: Prometheus 6
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NewsByName.co.uk
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This site is a free non commercial news site with up to the minute news headlines collected from multiple news channels. Incoming news is automatically scanned for "names" allowing for charting, achieving and email alerts by name, showing you who's hot and who's last weeks news.
b/w: ResearchBuzz
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Black boys betrayed by racist school system, says UK report
(Guardian)
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Racism manifested itself most harshly in being over looked for answering questions, verbal aggression from teachers and harsher reprimands than for students from other ethnic groups for the same misdemeanour." The report says that relationships between black pupils and white teachers was generally characterised by "conflict and fear". One participant complained: "When it is white boys, it is a 'group' but when it is black boys it is a 'gang'..."See a pattern here? Anyone? Anyone?
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« Tuesday « September 7, 2004
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Some People, They're Stupid On Purpose
(Oliver Willis blog)
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Willis: "I don't write about race nearly as much as I should on this blog, and its something of a conscious decision because I have never wanted the rep of being 'the black blogger who writes about race.'"LOL! The only thing I don't like about Oliver Willis is that he's a Redskins fan. Everything else... cool with me. Someday, though, he might realize that he never has to write about race explicitly, in this country, nor should he even worry about it. The fact that he's black means that most everything he writes about will first be taken as a black perspective by the so-called mainstream (aka white people), no matter what subject he chooses to skewer. Sure, he doesn't want to be the black blogger that writes about race ... but seriously, does he not think that he isn't seen as a black blogger? Why sweat it? This is the pattern of this culture, of which blacks certainly do not dominate. Those are the rules, here, in the good ol' U.S.A. Just write about what you're into, let the rest take care of itself, for better or worse. Ephemeral words in cyberspace are meaningless, so why worry about negative critiques ... and why take positive ones too seriously, either?
b/w: negrophile.
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Election 2004: Freedom, Liberty, Freedom
(AlterNet)
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Over the first three nights, the Republican Convention speakers carefully crafted a tri-partite frame for George W. Bush's Thursday acceptance speech:
Night 1: The Global War on Terror defines our lives and our generation.
Night 2: With enough discipline, all Americans can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become prosperous. Those girly men have only themselves to blame.
Night 3: Kerry is weak, unpatriotic, antimilitary, against national security, without resolve, soft-hearted, confused, and totally unfit to be commander-in-chief.This is their gameplan. Let me try some simpleton responses, based on my simplified grokking of politics, statecraft, and moving the crowd. In response to:
1) The war on terror defines the Bush administration's failure to build coalitions with our allies and to find ways to negotiate with our enemies through diplomacy and economics;
2) With enough discipline the Bush Administration could balance our budget and fix our gargantuan trade deficit in about a decade, instead of spending us and our children into a dystopian, banana republic economic future;
3) George W. Bush shirked duty to his country, when called, and relied on family connections to hide his head in the sand like an ostrich. Questions?
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Cannabis extract shrinks brain tumours
(New Scientist)
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Cannabis extracts may shrink brain tumours and other cancers by blocking the growth of the blood vessels which feed them, suggests a new study.
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« Monday « September 6, 2004
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The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004
(Project Censored)
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« Sunday « September 5, 2004
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Powell and Rice cannot Overshadow Bush's Civil Rights Record
(BlackPressUSA.com)
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When you see President Bush arguing against affirmative action with the Supreme Court on Martin Luther King's birthday, symbolically, that sends a message to African-Americans about their outreach to the Black community.Granted, the Democrats aren't much better, mostly paying lipservice to Black votes they feel are in their back pocket, occassionally trundling out an Obama or two to keep hope alive, but when one listens to contemporary Republican leaders, and when one looks at what they've done, and what they're proposing to do, how can any self-respecting, half-sentient, semi-conscious, semi-literate Black person ever support these fascists? I know that Black Republicans will say we need to support both parties, in order to leverage our voting power, but show me one Black Republican who is more than a token, show me one Black Republican that has actually gotten something done. Hell, let me just throw out Colin Powell's name: has there ever been a more neutered Secretary of State in recent memory, at a time when the world is more volatile than ever? Don't get me wrong, Powell's problem isn't his ability, it's that he seems to be seated at the kid's table, along with Condi, meant to be seen but not heard. As far as I can tell, he's just slightly more effective than the hood ornament on a Hummer being driven by Rumsfeld and Cheney. Also, my blog really isn't a political blog... I have no idea why I'm posting all these political things. Must be the season, or something.
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Voting: It Ain't Worth It, Homie!
(The Boondocks (@ ucomics.com))
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"I'm George W. Bush, and I approve this message..."
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Stanford Tops San Jose St., 43-3
(GoStanford.com)
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Speaking of Stanford, we won a game last night ... but it's a long season!
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The Banality of Google
(Ftrain.com)
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And Satan said, "I will give you an algorithm to rank pages based on links." And they were like, "you totally read our minds! Did you go to Stanford?" And Satan said, "I will give you six years of press coverage by fawning, lazy journalists, and a million slavering blogger acolytes to command as you will... [and] that is how Google became the Jennifer Lopez of the Internet.
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« Saturday « September 4, 2004
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Finding Formica
(allaboutgeorge blog)
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George Kelly: "Cecily, normally over here, feels caught in between (no, not that kind) and will be over here until further notice."LOL! I think Cecily's one of the best writers in the blogosphere; her writing voice is always strong, engaging, and insightful. But I had to link (and trackback) to this post, on George's blog, about her caught in between status -- as she upgrades her blogging tools -- not only because I'm the real caught In between blogger, but also to see if I could create a conceptual Mobius Strip of circular references that comment on different things and same things simultaneously. (How will Google index this?) Also, I agree with Cecily: the increase in complexity of standalone blogging tools certainly makes hosted services look more attractive, and investors in blogging tools companies want to see increasing numbers of paid subscribers rather than rising number of free downloads. But it seems to me this is SOP for software developers: keep increasing the complexity so that people will need your services. Just ask anyone who's ever invested in an Oracle installation. Well, anyway, that's why I'm putting the finishing touches on my own system: I just don't want to keep up with someone else's shipping schedule in order publish unfiltered thoughts and comments online.
b/w: Internuncio
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Horrors of the Beslan atrocity
(Guardian UK)
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The events of the past five days in Russia have brought an international response of solidarity...Terrible tragedy, brutal, ugly. But when the Guardian says this nasty event has "brought an international response of solidarity" who is included in that group? I feel horrible for the innocent victims of this event, many of them school-aged children, but I certainly do not feel any sort of solidarity with Russians. Terrorism is a technique of the weak, so what have the Russians done to push people to these extremes? Is anyone asking that question?
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Two-hitter adds to Yanks' woes
(ESPN.com)
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That sucking noise is the Yankees evaporating into thin air ... paging Derek Jeter!
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« Friday « September 3, 2004
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Political Victory: From Here to Maternity
(washingtonpost.com)
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But one big difference in fertility rates remains: Conservative, religiously minded Americans are putting far more of their genes into the future than their liberal, secular counterparts.And the meek shall inherit the earth. Conservatives stay home making babies and raising families while all the rest of us are out having fun like blaspheming, childless heathens. Meanwhile all these little conservative tykes are being brainwashing with dogma, and eventually might end up like this! After all, we know that children never fail to live up to the dreams their parents have for them, and conservative kids always grow up to be conservative adults ... or serial killers. (Registration required, or use bugmenot
b/w: negrophile.
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Kerry Takes Off Gloves
(washingtonpost.com)
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Kerry: "Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without health care makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi royal family control our energy costs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Handing out billions [in] government contracts without a bid to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit."Solid. Can you feel it... the race is really starting to heat up. (Registration required, or try bugmenot.)
b/w: Ghost in the Machine
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Rove's Brain and Media Manipulation
(AlterNet)
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It's not enough to tar the opponent with accusations and innuendos. It's also necessary to tout Rove's candidate as a guy just this side of the angels. And so, the Bush campaign is combining out-of-sight stilettos and out-front verbal attacks with elaborate poses of ultimate goodness.Today must be "AlterNet Day" on [cIb]. Yeah, the current administration's propaganda machine is impressive in its effectiveness and its amorality. But if we have enough people in this country that can get duped by this garbage, if we have enough people who will let inconsequential news blurbs -- such as Swift Boat -- and petty issues that mean nothing sway their vote, then, perhaps we get the government we deserve, and I'm living in a land of zombies and stepford people.
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Unmitigated Gall
(AlterNet)
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Molly Ivins, on Schwarzeneggar, copping a line from another journalist: "He looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts."Ms. Ivins has a lot of other funny, insightful things to say in this must-read about how separated from reality the Republicans seem to be, if the just-completed RNC really is their pace-setting event. I'd like to say that the RNC was a dull, boring snoozefest, but I can't since I didn't watch a second of it. Did I miss anything?
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« Thursday « September 2, 2004
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Bush=Ford. Kerry=BMW.
(Landor)
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Mapping Bush and Kerry to well-known product and corporate brands reveals how each candidate is viewed and suggests brand strategies each can employ to potentially sway the critical undecided voter group.
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« Wednesday « September 1, 2004
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Immigrant Song.
(Ghost in the Machine blog)
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Ah-nuld: "If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican."I love the Ghost's re-construction of Schwarzenegger's patterned, well-rehearsed monologue at the RNC the other day, especially the part about: "If you're an immigrant bodybuilder who made it to the top of his field through hard work, discipline, and the judicious application of enough steroids to kill a small horse, then you are a Republican." Ah-nuld is an actor, and a body builder who used drugs to win in his sport. Furthermore, he became governor of Cali in one of the phoniest election scams in modern American history. Exactly what has he ever done, in the public eye, that is actually real? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
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Bush Daughters a Bust
(TalkLeft blog)
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Bush Daughters a Bust: Some quotes - "How crass were the Bush girls - no sophistication, no depth, no shame. Like father, like daughters. Karl Rove messed up on that 'speech.' Or this - "The Twins were a disaster, Laura was mechanical and stiff. Hopefully their disasterous performances will end the extended family campaigning."Apparently the reviews of FLOTUS and Bush Twins' RNC appearance did more harm than good. I've yet to watch one second of any of these propagandaventions; I guess I'm not missing much. Maybe, like I did with the DNC, I can review the highlights (and lowlights) of the RNC with my own ears if the speeches get posted on iTunes. For what it's worth, the soundbites of Ah-nuld sound like he really moved the crowd; he definitely does spew his well-rehearsed rhetoric with power and rhythm; maybe it's genetic.
b/w: hiphopmusic.com
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Kobe case dismissed at request of prosecution
(ESPN.com)
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The Kobe Bryant case collapsed Wednesday as prosecutors said they had no choice but to drop the sexual assault charge against the NBA star because the woman accusing him could no longer participate.Blockbuster. Now let the analysis of pundits rain down upon us explaining why this case fell apart. Moreover, given the cocksure fervor that local authorities displayed in pressing charges initially, why did they flake like punks in the eleventh hour? We all want the truth. Can you handle the truth, you know, the one where race had nothing to do with it? Oh, sorry, I think that was the fantasy.
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Indians 22, Yankees 0
(ESPN.com)
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Cleveland Indians routed New York 22-0 Tuesday night in the largest loss in the 101-year history of the Yankees.Yankee fans, uh, I think we have a problem. And October is just around the corner.
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