The Old Mill
Interfor Field Sawmill, Courtenay, British Columbia. Photo taken Boxing Day 2003.
You Don't Have To!
Timothy Noah, on what he believes to be a bribery scandal involving the Republican Congressional leadership: “Now your next question, Mr. Attorney General, is going to be, "How on Earth am I supposed to get a Washington Post reporter to reveal his sources?" Dude, you don't have to!”
Yiyang Hao
This is a response to a comment to geekgirl's response to Dave Pollard. Yes, a response to a response to a response. This response of mine should appear here. But it doesn't. Oh well.
The Bar Gets Raised Further
Jim is manning the Carnival of the Canucks today. He has promised to cover the “to cover the other half of the country”, presumably meaning everything West of Toronto. (I'm kidding.
The Costs of Blogging
This is too good: Tom Mangan says don't believe the blogging hype:
Blogging is not free. It has a cost, paid out in time spent on things that don't get done because the blogger is busy typing and linking. Every minute doing this is a minute not doing something else, whether it's tending to their kids or devising strategies for world peace.
Corrections
Kaye Trammel has some rules for corrections in weblogs.
Never delete a post. Never. If you no longer agree with the post then use the strikethrough HTML option: [strike];. If you post something controversial one day & then pull it down the next you are telling your readers that you don't have the backbone to say what you say on your blog. Say it & stand by it.
I Don't Really Care That You Are Queer
If you ever wanted a music video of two silly women singing about their gay boyfriends (with a ukulele no less!) in a wide variety of settings, this is your lucky day.
Less Guns, More Bobbies
Philip Johnston: “Since the time of Robert Peel, it has been accepted that, if the police are to have the consent of the public, they should be unarmed. Peel even decreed that truncheons should be hidden from view. Although the police today are less community-based than many would wish, to give every bobby a gun would change their character for ever.”
The Concept Of A Brunch Date
Eric McErlain: “It shines light on a phenomenon that I can’t understand, which is the concept of a brunch date—especially for a first date. What sense does that idea make?”
Jessica
Joseph Jaffe: “Jessica is educated, affluent (within the context of a young, upwardly mobile professional with zero dependents and little to zero concerns) and ambitious. She’s climbing the corporate ladder and uses the Internet to help her with her ascent in a variety of ways.
Why Not Just Ask The Humans?
Thomas K. Landauer: “if you want the machine to agree with the humans, why not just ask the humans? Everyone would be happier.” Landauer's argument is compelling because he seems generally skeptical about machines doing work humans can do more effectively, if not more efficiently, a skepticism I share.
They Should. But They Do Not.
Ryan Overbey: bloggers “need to take a lesson from academics- who have a clear sense of propriety, who make effort (for the most part) to argue with substance and arguments rather than ad hominem and sarcasm.”
Certainly Not In The Burkean Sense
Mark Schmitt: “Bush is not conservative in the least, certainly not in the Burkean sense in which conservative means respecting a pre-existing order and our duty to future generations, or even in the vulgar sense of merely favoring a smaller government.”
Quotes
Jay links to some quotes on freedom, and the latter highlights this passage from the former:
Time-Savers
Dave Pollard has some time-savers for bloggers. This article is (rightly) making its way around—I've seen it at least three times on weblogs I read, but oddly enough, I saw it first at the originating weblog. The tips that caught my eye follow.
Jay isn't going to like tip #1, which is to read less (the amount of weblogs he reads seems to be increasing logarithmically).
Identifying With People Who Write
Tom Mangan on why editors should start weblogs for themselves: “The more you write, the more you identify with other people who write, and the better chance you have to make constructive changes to their copy vs. reflexive responses to your pet peeves.”