Saturday, March 19, 2005

We want you to learn what we have learned and then make the world a better place.

via iddybud

"If you want to understand the blogger mentality, think of us as evangelists. We're zealots. We want to bring you in. We want you to use our tools. We want you to learn what we have learned and then make the world a better place. We are the idealists. We are into, you know, truth and justice and so forth. We have a passion for news, and maybe that can act as a reminder to the professionals that somewhere deep inside of your core is that same passion. That's the thing that unites us. That's the bond that we share. Rather than looking at it as an adversarial relationship, let's look at the ways we can help each other, because God knows we have much bigger problems to solve."
-Dave Winer

Reducing Blogger and "Hello" frustration

An excellent, step-by-step guide to peaceful blogging, at Pratie Place.

Blogging, Journalism and Credibility | Rebecca MacKinnon

The Nation

excerpt from The Nation article:
I am delighted that Ed Cone is here, because I think his newspaper in Greensboro [North Carolina] is doing some very innovative work in finding a way to use blogging as an effective, transparent open-sourcing methodology for connecting with its communities. And I hope that one of the results of this meeting will be to inspire more newsrooms to think creatively and go to the purse-holders in their news organizations and make the compelling case for why this helps us and why we need to make the investment for the technology and the newsroom time and resources to make all this work.

Today's Musical Selection: Cosmic Music: Meeting Angels Through Sound & Music

allmusic [Cosmic Music: Meeting Angels Through Sound & Music]

Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, for 2 string orchestras 15:29
Performed by: Christopher Warren-Green

Samuel Barber Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11 7:01
Performed by: Richard Hickox

Tobias Picker Old and Lost Rivers for orchestra 6:33
Performed by: Christoph Eschenbach
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


Arthur Honegger Pastorale d'été, symphonic poem for chamber orchestra, H31 8:08
Performed by: Jesús López-Cobos

Lars-Erik Larsson Lyric Fantasy, Op 58 10:03
Performed by: Ulf Björlin

Erik Satie Gymnopédies (3), for piano, complete (also orchestrated by Debussy): Gymnopédies (2) 5:35
Performed by: Paul Tortelier

Lord Benjamin Britten Sea Interludes (4) from Peter Grimes, for orchestra, Op. 33a: Moonlight 4:36
Performed by: Libor Pesek

Gustav Holst The Planets, suite for orchestra & female chorus, Op. 32, H. 125: Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age 9:29
Performed by: Sir Charles Mackerras

Tift Merritt photos


Tift Merritt photos

Greensboro Teach-In

We're blogging!

YesButNoButYes

Where good taste and humour are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore.

excerpt:

Finally, Transbuddha, one of my favorite irreverent blogs, actually produced a series of seven posts examining female sterotypes in advertising from around the world (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7). It's not the most scholarly of examinations, but the point is made.

The ad agency I work for regularly claims the heritage of having one of the very first women Creative Directors in the 1930s. Doesn't seem like we've come a long way in the last 75 years.

Posted by Scaramouch

Gothic Lolitas reign

Charlotte Observer | 03/18/2005 (Registration required)

Gothic Lolitas reign Demure or dominatrix? Whatever it is, trend is moving into mainstream Laura M. Holson

t did not take long for Twinkle Lam of Dallas to realize that she had a problem on her hands.

Lam, 23, moderates an online discussion group about Gothic and Lolita fashion, a style of dressing -- imported from Japan and featuring Victorian-era calf-length skirts, bloomers, aprons, lace bows and ruffled petticoats -- that has attracted a following in America.

For the most part, discussion on www.livejournal.com/community/egl, a blog of about 2,500 ardent adherents to Gothic and Lolita fashion, revolves around questions like where to buy chunky high-heeled Mary Jane pumps or how to fashion Bo Peep collars. But over the winter, the polite exchanges gave way to angry, often profane declamations.

the704.com

the704.com

Rich Barrett describes the vision and thrust of this excellent blog:

Hi. I've just started a creative community web blog called the704.com, and I'm looking for contributors (writers, artists, creative people, people interested in what's going on in the city) from the Charlotte area that would want to take part.

The704.com is basically a free-form daily discussion centered around the creative community of Charlotte. Ideally, contributors would post entries about upcoming or recently experienced arts events in the area, gallery shows, local music, theater, current events, as well as photos, drawings, paintings, poems, anecdotes, personal design projects, tips they want to share, books or movies or things they've found on the web that may be of interest to other creative people.

I'm open to people posting about pretty much any subject they feel like. Ideally the sum of the individual entries will paint an interesting picture of the people who live in Charlotte and the things that interest them.

The site just launched and will evolve as it goes along. Please check it out, feel free to read entries and post comments if you have them, and if anyone is interested in being a contributor please send me an email at rich@the704.com and introduce yourself.


Register for the Blogging Teach-in

Register for the Blogging Teach-in
March 19 at 10:00 a.m. at the Nussbaum Center
Greensboro, NC

Robert?

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Never Suppress a Generous Urge : Bloggers helping bloggers

The American Street (see the new design!)

Follow through on all your generous impulses. Do not question them, especially if a friend needs you; act on his or her behalf. Do not hesitate!
Don’t sit around speculating about the possible inconvenience, problems, or dangers. As long as you let your reason lead the way, you will be safe.
It is our duty to stand by our friends in their hour of need.


— Epictetus: The Art of Living, A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell (© 1995 HarperSanFrancisco)

From my friend, Billy the Blogging Poet:

do something good for a change

Jini Hoggard is soon to have surgery for breast cancer. You can read her story at Jini’s Journal Several fundraisers are being planned. Jini is the wife of Greensboro citizen journalist, David Hoggard, of HoggsBlog.com a struggling contractor who does more than his part for Greensboro, North Carolina. Those of you who can’t come to the fundraisers may contribute to the Hoggard Family by using the contribute link on this page.

Well over 1000 people read BloggingPoet.com every day. If Ya’ll could send a couple of dollars each it would go a long ways to help out the Hoggard Family in this time of need.

As my old friend, Yellow Dog, would say, “A wag of my tail to Ed Cone.”


Give if you can. Pass it on to those who can. Learn from the experience. Good health is never a guarantee…

As Epictetus says…never suppress a generous impulse.

Free Online Novels

Those that got past the gatekeepers...
(via novelist and poet, Billy)

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Indo-Europeans Declare War on South Carolina

and YOU may be next!

I bet you don't even know any Indo-Europeans, who are really only known for their roots, and maybe their berries, but you will soon! So you better arm yourself with knowledge.

Here is a primer on their strange language and ways, shuffled together by Cal Watkins one winter night in a flash of inspiration.

Elegant Jeremiahs: The Sage versus the Wisdom Speaker

The Sage versus the Wisdom Speaker

"nearly all cultures have praised and elevated wisdom, [and] perhaps the only subject which is universally admired is wisdom -- not only in the Bible, or by the Greeks, but among the Hindus and Japanese, the Polynesians and the American Indians, the Hausa and the Xhosa, peoples of Africa. All peoples with few apparent exceptions admire wisdom, hypostatize and personify it, practice or say they practice it, teach it to their children, and use it to face or smooth away the irritations and dangers of everyday life."
-Morton Bloomfield (Chaucer)



Benchmarks of Fairness

Benchmarks of Fairness
Welcome to the website for the Benchmarks of Fairness, a system for assessing the fairness of health sector reform in developing countries.


also (to whom it may concern):
The Department of Population and International Health
...seeks to improve global health problems through education, research, and service from a population-based perspective.




Jimmy Massey: The Healing of One Man's Soul

Tour de force by the great iddybud:

John Edwards: iPod President podcasts next week!

World's Most Beautiful Man and First Blogger President: Smart, Hip, Wise, Good, Beautiful
Poverty to End Soon
World Put on Alert that help is still on the way


"Next week John Edwards will participate in an exciting new medium: podcasting. He will answer your questions and update you on his family and projects. Do you have a question for John Edwards? Click here.

What is podcasting? It starts with an MP3 file that will play on your computer or portable music player - but it acts like a subscription. This means you are alerted when a new podcast becomes available - and you are always kept up-to-date with the newest broadcast.

How do I get started? Download free software for your Mac or PC at iPodder.org. Then check back here at One America: next week we will provide a link to download John Edwards' podcast! "


via Ed Cone

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Take the Verbal Intelligence Test at SimilarMinds.com

Your overall percentile is 94% which means you scored higher than 94% of the people who have taken this test. The internet population tends to be more intelligent so your percentile might be higher if the test taking sample was perfectly random.

Take the Verbal Intelligence Test

OUTFOXED: Clips

Make your own movie! The Outfoxed interviews are available under a Creative Commons license allowing anyone to sample them freely in their own works. Even Fox News. You can download them in high-resolution with BitTorrent from Torrentocracy, or in a variety of formats from the Internet Archive.


-Watch the full-length trailer (Quicktime, Windows Media) or the teaser trailer (Quicktime, Windows Media).
-Bill O'Reilly lied about a few things on Tim Russert's show, so here is a point-by-point rebuttal with scenes from Outfoxed. (Quicktime, 14MB)
-"O'Reilly at His Best" (Quicktime)
-Howard Dean outfoxed Sean Hannity on the convention floor Monday night, July 26th! Watch Hannity bumble and squirm on video.

Daily Kos :: Framing vs. Fencing: A post-Lakoff analysis

Some limitations of Lakoff's "framing," and the evolving Republican strategy to fence voters off from Democratic ideas, leaders and values -- before the debate even begins