Month: December 2007

I don’t really like Bill Maher; I think he’s a man in a glass house throwing stones here, but it’s hard to argue with his choice of these 13 worthies. And hey look! Holland Christian High School Class of ’87’s favorite son made the list.

about us:

The propaganda model argues that there are 5 classes of ‘filters’ in society which determine what is ‘news’; in other words, what gets printed in newspapers or broadcast by radio and television.

Excellent article. Quick summary of the quick summary:

For something to be “news” it has to avoid being filtered out by

1. The interests of the owners of the news media
2. The interests of the advertisers
3. The credibility disparity between “official” spokespeople for governments and corporations, and everybody else
4. The fear of ‘flak’ — various forms of legal retaliation from powerful interests and their various think tanks and interest groups
5. The worldview pitting Us Against The Evil Enemy — once Communism, then various dictators, now Terrorism or Islamofascism.

UPDATE:

Come to think of it, I think Billy Bragg covered this territory once..

It says here, that the unions will never learn.
It says here, the economy’s on the upturn.
And it says here, we should be proud that we are free
And our free press reflects our democracy […]
And it says here that we can only stop the rot
With a large dose of law and order and a touch of the short sharp shock […]
If this does not reflect your views, you should understand,
that those who own the papers also own this land.”

— Billy Bragg, “It Says Here.”

Ramblefish: Familjen – Det snurrar i min skalle:
My favorite Swedish pop song, with lyrics and translation!

The Tumblelog That Goes Ping
A while ago I expressed frustration with my current blogging habits, which seemed to consist almost solely of quick links and quotes and stuff. In the comments, James suggested I embrace it, and maybe take a look at Tumblr, a service for doing what the kids are calling tumblelogging (i.e. what I’ve been doing anyway).

I’ve resisted blogging services so far in favor of just running my own blog from a Dreamhost account. But Tumblr does have a really nice, simple interface specialized to do the kind of blogging that I’ve been doing by default for months.

Of course, a real tumblelogger writes his own software for it, preferably in Ruby.

So I’ve got some things to think about:

Do I abandon the traditional blog format and WordPress software and follow the tumblelog path?

If I do that, do I take advantage of the slick and easy to use tumblr.com service, or host it myself?

If I host it myself, do I use some existing tumblelog software and enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor, or do I challenge myself and write my own?

Much to dither about.

UPDATE: OK, so I tried it for a day and I miss having a real blog, and the possibility of comments. It doesn’t feel right rambling into a tumblr account, and being able to ramble about random stuff is part of the deal. And comments are nice too.

I still feel like I want to change something. I don’t think I want to flip over to just blogging on tumblr though. Hm.