Saturday, March 12, 2005

A gentle reminder from Kosso.  

I let my iPod play random tunes on today's beach walk, and it chose a wonderful song, a demo of podcasting we did at Berkman on 12/14/04. It's a group rendition of The Gambler, and it's good! 

Ed Cone quotes Allen Johnson raising an important question. Whatever happened to the courtesy wave? Well that's a Southern thing, people up north don't do it as much. You're driving by and see a group of kids by the side of the road, so you smile and wave, and they smile and wave back. It seems like such a small thing, but it makes you feel so damned good. I wish I understood why. On Thursday I was walking down the beach, a small plane approaches, doing the beach route, it seemed so close I could practically touch it, so I waved and smiled. And the plane dipped its wings! I laughed out loud. Maybe it's just the point-touching thing. Inside each of us we're a point, that's where our soul lives, and when you wave-and-smile you touch the other person's point, and when they wave-and-smile back your point is touched, and that feels good, and, at its most basic level, is what being human is all about.  

5/2/97: "I believe that I am a point located, most of the time, about three inches behind my eyes and centered between my ears." 

Rex Hammock summarizes the online politics conference.  

Key line from the California blogger decision, and it explains why bloggers are now getting so much sympathetic coverage from the pros. "Whether he fits the definition of a journalist, reporter, blogger or anything else need not be decided at this juncture for this fundamental reason: there is no license conferred on anyone to violate valid criminal laws." Isn't it funny how the "objective" journalists go positive about the rights of bloggers, and their role as journalists, only when their own livelihood is threatened? 

Another report by MSM where the bloggers are now journalists. Their conflict of interest with respect to blogging is so huge, they have absolutely no credibility on the subject. 

Onfocus: "I didn't quite understand the appeal of the subscription component of podcasting before, but now I see that if there's a program I always want to catch, podcasting is very handy." 

Don Park: "I got invited to another MSN Search Champ get-together in Seattle. Unfortunately, I won't be there this time because I got too many things on my plate." I won't be going either, for a variety of reasons.