Month: May 2005

Over at Scared Monkeys, I saw this bitchily clever LA Weekly report that, far from panning out, Arianna Huffington’s much touted “blogging” venture seems destined to be a bomb. Judging from today?s horrific debut of the humongously pre-hyped celebrity blog the Huffington Post, the Madonna of the mediapolitic world has gone one reinvention too many.…

Speaking of disrespect, I almost forgot about an incident shortly before the November election in which Stefan Sharkansky claimed to be snubbed by Dave Winer: Dave Winer refused to shake my hand because I’m a Republican. He also told me that he’d be more comfortable with the Iranian mullahs possessing nuclear weapons than with George…

After the last panel finished and Glenn Reynolds made his closing remarks, I meandered over to the bar across the street from the Belmont campus and joined another sort of session in progress… Sittting to my right were Sean Hackbarth and Blake Wylie: Here’s the view to my left: Front left is Henry Copeland chatting…

Yesterday morning I started with Dan Gillmor’s Citizen’s Media panel (good summary at Scared Monkey via Glenn Reynolds), and I heard grim stories about litigation against bloggers. That kind of stuff that makes my blood boil, and I wanted to hear more but then my cell phone rang, and I had to run out in…

As Doug Petch earlier did a comparison between his Cingular air card and Glenn Reynolds’ Verizon air card, I thought it only fair to point out that I have them both beaten. This game failed even to open up! No doubt about it, my Sierra 750 is slowest! Hey I’m STANDING in line at the…

During Henry Copeland’s presentation yesterday on making money with blogs, there was much discussion of blogs as influencers, their niche, sense of community, even trickling down. At one point Glenn Reynolds was described as being “like a cisco router,” and was asked whether he’s a “figurehead.” Glenn conceded that he’s like the figurehead on a…

An evangelical Christian I am not. But I have been sitting here experiencing La Shawn Barber’s panel on Faith-Based/Evangelical Blogging, and I have to say there’s more feeling in this room right now than in any other panel I’ve experienced so far. During the discussion of definitions and terminology, I described myself as a “Pantheist”…

I should remind readers that BlogNashville is not all about partying. The past couple of days have been pretty intense, especially the CARR crash course in working with numbers and spreadsheets (something so new to me it makes my head spin). I learned a lot, and now I need to get the latest version of…

BlogNashville formally opened with tonight’s panel discussion on blogs and journalism. Sisyphus, a super milblogger, did a great job of liveblogging the discussion. Here he is at the party held later at Wolfy’s: And here’s Les Jones with Matt Sheffield: The best for last. Finally, I got to meet the guy I consider the blogosphere’s…

I was lucky enough to attend BlogNashville’s official Impromptu Dinner last night at the Sole Mio restaurant. Two long tables filled with bloggers is something I’ve never seen before, and I took some very impromptu pictures. With spontaneous, unposed photography, no one is looking, so I end up with results like this: Starting in the…

Dean Esmay shares an observation about “theocracy:” …..[A]lmost no one who talks in sweaty, jittery terms about “separation of church and state” and “theocracy” ever complains about religious figures who take political positions they agree with; they reserve it for religious people they disagree with. I’ve noticed the same thing, and I’ve also noticed that…

The Vanderbilt University campus is beautiful, and I’m afraid these pictures (taken on my morning run) can’t do it justice, as the sun created unwanted shadows, and my camera has no wide angle feature. But hell — it’s the best I can do for now. The place just radiates late victorian opulence (a brief history…

Here’s a fascinating medical legal cultural tidbit: NEW YORK (AP) – To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor. The FDA has…

At least that seems to be the idea here: I once heard of a debate between a Christian group and a Pagan group – it could have been a pretty un-constructive rant like event where one group tells the other group what’s wrong with it and visa versa – everyone would have gone home with…

I just got an email which is distracting me from a course I’m trying to take in Nashville. Anyway, I’m no good at math, and while struggling with the basics of Microsoft Excel, I now learn that a dead woman who (let me try to get this right) taught dogs how to play the piano…

Made it here to Nashville, and the room comes with free Wifi. And enough pillows. At home I’m lucky to get one.

That’s where I’m headed, but right now I’m sitting at my laptop at the airport (hardly a place conducive to thought — which is fine because the last post got “swallowed”). No idea what to expect from the BlogNashville event, but it will be great to meet some bloggers, as opposed to just knowing them.…

Texas seems to be much in the news today. According to The Daily Texan, a man named Ajai Raj was arrested for talking dirty to Ann Coulter: Shouts became so pervasive during the question-and-answer session that Coulter informed the organizers she would no longer take questions if the hecklers were not silenced. For a time,…

The 137th Carnival of the Vanities is posted at Fresh Politics — described as “a student-run political blog based out of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.” (Which I like, as my dad was on the Penn faculty for years, and I’ve always been partial to the place.) It’s a fresh (refreshingly fresh) way of…

The legislature of Texas has just passed a bill to ban “ribald” cheerleading: After an alternately comic and fiery debate ? punctuated by several lawmakers waving pompons ? the state House on Tuesday approved a bill to restrict “overtly sexually suggestive” cheerleading to more ladylike performances. The bill would give the state education commissioner authority…