Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
1031 …tis the Season …A Muley Moment
0814 …wife blogs anonymously, maligns hub”s opponent, hub wins…
Writes Like She Talks continues to be my go-to source for what Jeff Jarvis has aptly dubbed the Cleveland Plain Dealer/Blogger kerfuffle and that was what led me to surf over to Mallary Jean Tenore’s omnibus post. There Tenore quotes Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg saying something that I find astounding:
The blog — which was the idea of Jean Dubail, assistant managing editor/online — will likely be re-introduced in a few weeks with new bloggers, under the agreement that they can support campaigns but not get paid, Goldberg said.
How lacking in self-esteem, how sycophantic, would a blogger (or any writer) have to be to willing to work for Goldberg for free?
The bloggers certainly wouldn’t do it for the traffic. Wide Open, working with four, high-quality bloggers, was pulling in less than a 800 visitors a day.
And I don’t see a lot of glory in proclaiming: I’m Susan Goldberg’s bitch.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the border between science and spirituality by John Horgan.
a metaphysical theory known as emanationism, which posits that the clear light of the void fractures in to multiple forms and declines in intensity as it devolves through descending levels of reality. [Lurianic Qabalah?] p. 23
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Five questions to prioritize you most vital goals:
Which of the items I have listed will best help to achieve my long-range and intermediate high-priority goals?
What will help yield the greatest long-term results?
What will give the highest payoff?
What will happen if I don”t do each of these projects today? Whom will it effect? Will anyone suffer?
On a long-term basis, which items will make me feel best if I accomplish them? p. 85-8
I’m doing my best to stay on top of events in Myanmar/Burma and it’s not surprising that the best sources are not inside the United States. I’m reading The Independent, The Guardian, The BBC, Irrawaddy, New Mandala and the Asia Times. I’ll daily post a digest of headlines from stories I just couldn’t get to.
Today’s batch includes:
Detained Human Rights Official: Pakistan ‘The Next Burma?’
Face of Australian Idol becomes face of Burma protest
Burma’s people demand both rice and rationality
Stop the financial support for Burma’s Junta
Keeping the Flame Alive Over Radio, Internet
Persecution in Burma
How Burma’s Generals Think
William Jans is Burma Bound
Myanmar PM leaves on official visit to Laos, Vietnam
Myanmar natives gather to support homeland
UN envoy optimistic Myanmar regime and Suu Kyi could meet soon
Myanmar’s prodemocracy leader ready to cooperate
Myanmar Junta, Suu Kyi Edge Toward Talks
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi says ready to cooperate with govt
Unlocking the Mysteries of Myanmar
Video Dateline: Myanmar:
And from the blogosphere:
Exiled Media Essential to Reporting Events in Burma, Say Journalists
Eyes of the World (For the people of Burma)
Burma Update: November 8, 2007
Vietnam urges Myanmar to cooperate with UN envoy
Burma (Myanmar) Suu Kyi to meet party colleagues
UN special envoy ends second Myanmar mission
A return to status quo is unacceptable: UN
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is ‘A Coup Has Occurred.’
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
1224 McClatchy editors on discomfort
1216 USF student SPJ members explore whether bloggers=journalists
0845 For Wide Open 2.0
To me there is something very sad about all this. The Plain-Dealer may have had good intentions; but it”s not enough to have good intentions. You also need good ideas, accurate perceptions, and at least some degree of online sophistication. You have to have some distance on your culture, too- as in “That separation is so well established in the newspaper world that it usually goes without saying.”
What I have not heard from anyone at the Plain Dealer is why they aren”t a little more suspicious of Congressman LaTourette”s response to the big revelation about $100. I understand that the official line from the newspaper is “we didn”t bow to pressure” and that they”re rolling their eyes in the newsroom over the online commentary that says they did, but…
The Congressman didn”t have to be outraged and demand action to correct this alleged injustice. What he could have said is “Politics-and political opinion-ain”t beanbag. People have the right to express themselves and be heard in the newspapers. I”m glad that Clevelanders like Jeff Coryell are engaged in the issues, and trying to get others to pay attention. I recognize that when people get engaged in politics they also give money to those they support. This is normal. This is democracy.” He could have said that, but he didn”t.
Instead he rejected the engrained ethics of a vigorously democratic political culture and made a fuss about a writer already publicly identified as a political opponent. Why? What does the editorial page of the Plain-Dealer have to say about that? Has it lost its voice? Jay Rosen
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
The problem, in my view, is that Diadiun isn”t listening and learning. That, you”d think, would be the fundamental qualification for his job. Indeed, that is what journalism most needs today – new perspectives, new understanding of the public, a new relationship with that public, and new ways of serving it. But instead, Diadiun just defends the paper against an accusation of buckling to political pressure and lashes out at the bloggers as aliens to the newspaper ways. Jeff Jarvis
In the mid-’80s I carried a Shell Discredit card in my wallet. The card was to remind me that I was boycotting Shell Oil, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, which was a major supporter of the apartheid government in South Africa. How much my small act accounted for the ending of apartheid I can’t know, but the act itself was encouraging and correct.
Twenty years later I find myself in the position of once again boycotting a major oil company: Chevron.
From Alternet:
Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma’s natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma’s Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.
The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.
Chevron’s role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: “Sanctions haven’t worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma’s regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It’s really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers.”
The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal’s exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.
Ah yes. The loopholes. And how do such loopholes happen? Well…
[Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice served on the Chevron board of directors for a decade. She even had a Chevron oil tanker named after her. While she served on the board, Chevron was sued for involvement in the killing of nonviolent protesters in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Like the Burmese, Nigerians suffer political repression and pollution where oil and gas are extracted and they live in dire poverty. The protests in Burma were actually triggered by a government-imposed increase in fuel prices.
I really do try to not listen to conspiracy theorists. I keep telling people that our troubles are not all about oil. But it’s really hard to do that when you read stories like this one week after week.
Feck.
Are you feeling uncomfortable yet?
If not, I’m worried about you. If you’re not squirming in uncertainty from time to time nowadays, you must not be close enough to the edge. In response to a question in the Sacramento Bee newsroom last week, Melanie Sill said, “If you’re in a newsroom and the editor doesn’t say that change is needed, you should leave.” Howard Weaver
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the border between science and spirituality by John Horgan.
“… Smith sees enlightenment as an ideal that can be approached but never attained by any mortal… “Even Christ said, “Why callest thou me good?”, [Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19.] he explained to me.” “Does anyone presume to top that?” Smith shook his head. “Just in principle, I don”t think it”s possible,” he said. “The mortal coils are too tight”.” p. 22
Happy birthday Have Coffee Will Write! Three years and going strong – here’s to many more.
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Seven questions for identifying your high-priority immediate goals:
Of my long-range and intermediate high-priority goals, which should I work on today?
What projects will give the highest return for the time invested?
What projects, if left undone, will represent the greatest threat to my survival with the company or the survival of the company itself?
What projects does the boss consider the most vital?
Which items in my previous daily action lists are grass-catcher list should I work on today?
What do my unifying principles suggest?
What has not been considered that will help yield long-term significant results? p. 83-5
I’m doing my best to stay on top of events in Myanmar/Burma and it’s not surprising that the best sources are not inside the United States. I’m reading The Independent, The Guardian, The BBC, Irrawaddy, New Mandala and the Asia Times. I’ll daily post a digest of headlines from stories I just couldn’t get to.
Today’s batch includes:
China no sure bet on Myanmar
Don’t Give Up On Myanmar, Said Syed Hamid
CORRECTED: Myanmar minorities flee for more misery in Malaysia
UN human rights envoy, barred since 2003, set for Myanmar visit
Myanmar PM to visit Vietnam this week
Bangladesh unlikely to import hydro power from Myanmar
Myanmar junta trashes UN’s talks offer
Burma’s junta plays the game, but always to win
Total targeted over Burma ties
Burma’ military junta crushes movement but embers of resistance
Students criticise Burma oil link
Burma’s Amazing Grace
Gem Traders Unfazed by Burma Turmoil
Wartime Courage by Gordon Brown: part four
Video Dateline: Myanmar:
And from the blogosphere:
Myanmar minorities flee for more misery in Malaysia
Congratulations for Myanmar and UN
Myanmar rejects talks with ‘big power bullies’
Myanmar: UN Envoy Stresses Need to Lift Restrictions
Asia Times: China no sure bet on Myanmar – Bertil Lintner
RI Guest Blogger: Eileen Shields-West on News from Burma
A Keyhole into Burma – Goldfinger
Burma on 6.11.2007
Burma Update: November 7, 2007
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Herstory of women in Rock and Soul.
Powered by Wordpress | Design by Ash Haque
XHTML Strict | RSS Entries
