Down With Love - World-of-Newave.info http://answers.world-of-newave.info/down-with-love.htm Latest news and articles about Down With Love en-us Copyright (c)2004-2008.§/Newave SARL. All rights reserved. webmaster@world-of-newave.com (Webmaster) Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:52:35 GMT Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:52:35 GMT Newave Lisa XML Engine v1.0 - http://www.world-of-newave.info/about.htm 60 http://www.world-of-newave.info/images/wi8831.gif World-of-Newave.info - Knowledge and Informational Database http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 88 31 {INTERNET > W} - That's Not 'Love' In the Air, Mister http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/that-s-not-love-in-the-air-mister-2008083484.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/that-s-not-love-in-the-air-mister-2008083484.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:12:12 GMT Being under the weather last week, I nearly got away with forgot to mention an embarrassing little adventure I had on Valentine's Day. Some days, I don't even have to leave my office to dork up the joint. Whoopee. There I was on Thursday afternoon, weeping softly at my desk, as is my usual custom. To cheer my mood -- and take my mind off my throbbing sinuses -- I was listening to a few MP3s. Specifically, I had Fatboy Slim's Better Living Through Chemistry queued up, and playing loud. Maybe I was in a techno mood. Maybe I was comforted by the promise in the title -- a little NyQuil (or tequila, or possibly lye) could be just the ticket to a happier, phlegm-free future. Whatever the reason, those catchy tunes were the only bright spot in a sad, sniffly, scratchy-throated afternoon. "It's uptempo, with a good beat. If I could dance at all without looking like an epileptic ostrich, I could dance to it." At least, they were. Until I re-learned, for the umpeenth time, that timing. Is everything. (Oh, and don't worry if you're not into ten-year-old techno electro nu break funk jungle house bass beats, or whatever the hell such songs are classified as nowadays. I'll walk you through the scant bits of info that are germane to the story. I promise not to bop or crunk or beatbox or anything along the way. Lord knows no one wants to see that. Also, I could break a hip.) So, there I was. Alone in the office. Weeping. Listening. Sniffling. Minding my own business. After a while, the song "Give the Po' Man a Break" came on. I like the song. It's uptempo, with a good beat. If I could dance at all without looking like an epileptic ostrich, I could dance to it. Good tune. But Fatboy's lyrics are not the highlight, so much. In fact, the only words in the entire song are those in the title. Three or four minutes in, the first vocal sample emerges: 'Gee po manna break! Gee po manna break! Gee po manna break! Gee po manna break!' No, Mr. Slim isn't revered for his enunciation, either. As a genre, the techno electro nu break funk jungle house bass beaters aren't typically 'Hooked on Phonics', as it were. It's usually easier to just call the tunes instrumentals, and treat the lyrics, such as they are, as another instrument or rhythm. That's what I do, anyway. But folks less experienced with the music might have a different view. Someone like, say, the new kid who started working in our office last week. Turns out he -- who I gather isn't so experienced with the Fatboy Slim oeuvre -- needed to ask me a question that Thursday afternoon. So he walked into my office. While "Give the Po' Man a Break" was playing. None of which is all that troubling -- except for one thing. Fatboy, you see, being an artiste, wasn't content to simply loop the same vocal sample over and over and over through the second half of his ditty. Instead, he reprised it in shorter and shorter versions -- treating it like another instrument or rhythm, just like I said. Me and Slim, we're on the same page here. The new kid, not so much. Of course, it might have helped had he poked his head into my office during the actual instrumental part. Or the part where the whole phrase is looped, as above. Or even the next step along, when the tune shouts: 'Gee po manna! Gee po manna! Gee po manna! Gee po manna!' That would have sounded like gibberish, sure. But the new kid would have probably figured I was listening to some funky Latvian pop music, or playing MP3s backward, or something. I have a bit of a reputation for doing weird shit around the office. I know. Go figure. But he didn't walk in at any of those points in the song. Instead, he came in toward the end, when the sample is really chopped down and rapid-fire. So when he appeared in the doorway, my speakers were veritably blasting: 'Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po!' Which, to the naive ear unwise in the ways of the late-'90s techno milieu, sounds an awful lot like a guy shouting: 'Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn!' At eighty decibels. Over a pulsing backbeat. On my speakers. I didn't realize the misinterpretation right away, of course. It took a while to deduce, from the way the kid opened his mouth to ask a question, then stared wide-eyed at my computer for a bit, and then backed slowly out of the room. But I eventually figured it out, and realized how it must have sounded from his standpoint. So now I've got a whole new genre of odd stares and wacky rumors to work through, no doubt. On the bright side, the new guy hasn't been back to ask me a question for a whole week. Looks like this po' man got a break, after all. Wherethehellwasi.Com That's Not 'Love' In the Air, Mister {new window}   Www.Wherethehellwasi.Com - Being under the weather last week, I nearly got away with forgot to mention an embarrassing little adventure I had on Valentine's Day. Some days, I don't even have to leave my office to dork up the joint. Whoopee. There I was on Thursday afternoon, weeping softly at my desk, as is my usual custom. To cheer my mood -- and take my mind off my throbbing sinuses -- I was listening to a few MP3s. Specifically, I had Fatboy Slim's Better Living Through Chemistry queued up, and playing loud. Maybe I was in a techno mood. Maybe I was comforted by the promise in the title -- a little NyQuil (or tequila, or possibly lye) could be just the ticket to a happier, phlegm-free future. Whatever the reason, those catchy tunes were the only bright spot in a sad, sniffly, scratchy-throated afternoon. "It's uptempo, with a good beat. If I could dance at all without looking like an epileptic ostrich, I could dance to it." At least, they were. Until I re-learned, for the umpeenth time, that timing. Is everything. (Oh, and don't worry if you're not into ten-year-old techno electro nu break funk jungle house bass beats, or whatever the hell such songs are classified as nowadays. I'll walk you through the scant bits of info that are germane to the story. I promise not to bop or crunk or beatbox or anything along the way. Lord knows no one wants to see that. Also, I could break a hip.) So, there I was. Alone in the office. Weeping. Listening. Sniffling. Minding my own business. After a while, the song "Give the Po' Man a Break" came on. I like the song. It's uptempo, with a good beat. If I could dance at all without looking like an epileptic ostrich, I could dance to it. Good tune. But Fatboy's lyrics are not the highlight, so much. In fact, the only words in the entire song are those in the title. Three or four minutes in, the first vocal sample emerges: 'Gee po manna break! Gee po manna break! Gee po manna break! Gee po manna break!' No, Mr. Slim isn't revered for his enunciation, either. As a genre, the techno electro nu break funk jungle house bass beaters aren't typically 'Hooked on Phonics', as it were. It's usually easier to just call the tunes instrumentals, and treat the lyrics, such as they are, as another instrument or rhythm. That's what I do, anyway. But folks less experienced with the music might have a different view. Someone like, say, the new kid who started working in our office last week. Turns out he -- who I gather isn't so experienced with the Fatboy Slim oeuvre -- needed to ask me a question that Thursday afternoon. So he walked into my office. While "Give the Po' Man a Break" was playing. None of which is all that troubling -- except for one thing. Fatboy, you see, being an artiste, wasn't content to simply loop the same vocal sample over and over and over through the second half of his ditty. Instead, he reprised it in shorter and shorter versions -- treating it like another instrument or rhythm, just like I said. Me and Slim, we're on the same page here. The new kid, not so much. Of course, it might have helped had he poked his head into my office during the actual instrumental part. Or the part where the whole phrase is looped, as above. Or even the next step along, when the tune shouts: 'Gee po manna! Gee po manna! Gee po manna! Gee po manna!' That would have sounded like gibberish, sure. But the new kid would have probably figured I was listening to some funky Latvian pop music, or playing MP3s backward, or something. I have a bit of a reputation for doing weird shit around the office. I know. Go figure. But he didn't walk in at any of those points in the song. Instead, he came in toward the end, when the sample is really chopped down and rapid-fire. So when he appeared in the doorway, my speakers were veritably blasting: 'Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po! Gee po!' Which, to the naive ear unwise in the ways of the late-'90s techno milieu, sounds an awful lot like a guy shouting: 'Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn! Gay porn!' At eighty decibels. Over a pulsing backbeat. On my speakers. I didn't realize the misinterpretation right away, of course. It took a while to deduce, from the way the kid opened his mouth to ask a question, then stared wide-eyed at my computer for a bit, and then backed slowly out of the room. But I eventually figured it out, and realized how it must have sounded from his standpoint. So now I've got a whole new genre of odd stares and wacky rumors to work through, no doubt. On the bright side, the new guy hasn't been back to ask me a question for a whole week. Looks like this po' man got a break, after all.
That's Not 'Love' In the Air, Mister [Where the Hell Was I?] {...} Life, from a comic perspective. Original articles, humor, & funny stories daily from an aspiring Boston standup comedian. {...}
Indexed: August 6, 2008, 11:12 pm - Page Size: 62KB
Category: Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W

]]> Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W {INTERNET > W} - Rarely Silky, Never Smooth http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/rarely-silky-never-smooth-2008089104.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/rarely-silky-never-smooth-2008089104.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:11:59 GMT I got out of bed this morning, as I manage to do most days. And, after the requisite creaking and grumbling and scratching of various unmentionables, I made my way to the shower. As is my custom on Wednesdays. Most Wednesdays. According to my New Years resolution, at least. Anyway, once I was squeaky cleaned and toweled dry, I ventured off to find clean underpants. They're the foundation of a healthy winter ensemble. But I found, to my still-dripping dismay, that there were no clean underpants in the drawer. Socks, yes. T-shirts, sure. Some sort of weird multicolored fuzzy thing that might be a scarf -- or a month-old sub sandwich? Check. But underpants were conspicuously and troublingly absent. "Somehow -- was it my darting eyes, the nervous tics, or the periodic dancing-Elaine-Benes-esque kicks I used to subtly extract my underwear from up my netherhole? -- people seemed clued in to my silky little secret." That is to say, normal underpants were absent. The only crotch-covering clothing in the underwear drawer -- just sitting there, waiting, smirking at me -- was the pair of emergency boxers. Silk boxers. Red silk boxers, with little hearts and "I LOVE YOU!"s printed all over. Clearly, I faced a dilemma. Would I don the cartoonish monstrosities, normally reserved for a ten-minute annual Valentine's Day stint? (Note: Don't ask about the stint. Just... don't.) Or would I choose one of the other, even less attractive, options? Wearing dirty undies? Going without altogether? Walking downstairs to the basement and fishing fresh underpants out of the dryer? Jesus. I'd already gotten out of bed and showered. What do I look like over here, fricking Superman? So I took what I thought was the easy way out, jumped legs-first into those novelty boxers, and crammed clothes on over top. It wasn't my finest moment -- and I had no delusions about what I was getting myself into. When a woman slinks herself into a set of silky undies, she feels sexy, and pretty, and self-confident. When I yank a flimsy set of love pants around my waist, all I feel is drafty. And bunchy. And self-conscious, to boot. The whole rest of the day, as I mingled at work and outside with the normals, I could swear that they knew. Somehow -- was it my darting eyes, the nervous tics, or the periodic dancing-Elaine-Benes-esque kicks I used to subtly extract my underwear from up my netherhole? -- people seemed clued in to my silky little secret. I couldn't get out of the office fast enough tonight, so I could race home and get out of those damned telltale pants. Now I'm finally, mercifully home, and free of their heart-encrusted clutches. Still, I put in a full day today. And I'm a lazy guy. So it's not like I'm going to bother to walk all the way down to the basement for fresh reinforcements. That's crazy talk. But the missus won't let me into the bed without underpants -- I mean, it's not Valentine's Day yet, now, is it? What's a sorry, slothful silkophobe to do? It's getting awfully drafty 'round these parts, and the dog is starting to give me funny looks. Good thing there's a brand new roll of paper towels on the holder in the kitchen. I'll wrap a few dozen of those around me toga-style and bluff my way into bed. And maybe by morning I'll have mustered the energy to swap out my Bounty boxers for something more conventional. Either that, or I'll be the most absorbent son of a bitch in the office tomorrow. At least they won't catch me sweating during another long staff meeting. And that's the sort of 'silky smooth' I can snuggle up next to. Wherethehellwasi.Com Rarely Silky, Never Smooth {new window}   Www.Wherethehellwasi.Com - I got out of bed this morning, as I manage to do most days. And, after the requisite creaking and grumbling and scratching of various unmentionables, I made my way to the shower. As is my custom on Wednesdays. Most Wednesdays. According to my New Years resolution, at least. Anyway, once I was squeaky cleaned and toweled dry, I ventured off to find clean underpants. They're the foundation of a healthy winter ensemble. But I found, to my still-dripping dismay, that there were no clean underpants in the drawer. Socks, yes. T-shirts, sure. Some sort of weird multicolored fuzzy thing that might be a scarf -- or a month-old sub sandwich? Check. But underpants were conspicuously and troublingly absent. "Somehow -- was it my darting eyes, the nervous tics, or the periodic dancing-Elaine-Benes-esque kicks I used to subtly extract my underwear from up my netherhole? -- people seemed clued in to my silky little secret." That is to say, normal underpants were absent. The only crotch-covering clothing in the underwear drawer -- just sitting there, waiting, smirking at me -- was the pair of emergency boxers. Silk boxers. Red silk boxers, with little hearts and "I LOVE YOU!"s printed all over. Clearly, I faced a dilemma. Would I don the cartoonish monstrosities, normally reserved for a ten-minute annual Valentine's Day stint? (Note: Don't ask about the stint. Just... don't.) Or would I choose one of the other, even less attractive, options? Wearing dirty undies? Going without altogether? Walking downstairs to the basement and fishing fresh underpants out of the dryer? Jesus. I'd already gotten out of bed and showered. What do I look like over here, fricking Superman? So I took what I thought was the easy way out, jumped legs-first into those novelty boxers, and crammed clothes on over top. It wasn't my finest moment -- and I had no delusions about what I was getting myself into. When a woman slinks herself into a set of silky undies, she feels sexy, and pretty, and self-confident. When I yank a flimsy set of love pants around my waist, all I feel is drafty. And bunchy. And self-conscious, to boot. The whole rest of the day, as I mingled at work and outside with the normals, I could swear that they knew. Somehow -- was it my darting eyes, the nervous tics, or the periodic dancing-Elaine-Benes-esque kicks I used to subtly extract my underwear from up my netherhole? -- people seemed clued in to my silky little secret. I couldn't get out of the office fast enough tonight, so I could race home and get out of those damned telltale pants. Now I'm finally, mercifully home, and free of their heart-encrusted clutches. Still, I put in a full day today. And I'm a lazy guy. So it's not like I'm going to bother to walk all the way down to the basement for fresh reinforcements. That's crazy talk. But the missus won't let me into the bed without underpants -- I mean, it's not Valentine's Day yet, now, is it? What's a sorry, slothful silkophobe to do? It's getting awfully drafty 'round these parts, and the dog is starting to give me funny looks. Good thing there's a brand new roll of paper towels on the holder in the kitchen. I'll wrap a few dozen of those around me toga-style and bluff my way into bed. And maybe by morning I'll have mustered the energy to swap out my Bounty boxers for something more conventional. Either that, or I'll be the most absorbent son of a bitch in the office tomorrow. At least they won't catch me sweating during another long staff meeting. And that's the sort of 'silky smooth' I can snuggle up next to.
Rarely Silky, Never Smooth [Where the Hell Was I?] {...} Life, from a comic perspective. Original articles, humor, & funny stories daily from an aspiring Boston standup comedian. {...}
Indexed: August 6, 2008, 11:11 pm - Page Size: 59KB
Category: Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W

]]> Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W {INTERNET > W} - I Recommend You Go to Hell http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/i-recommend-you-go-to-hell-2008089324.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/i-recommend-you-go-to-hell-2008089324.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:11:54 GMT No, not you. Of course not you. I'm talking about Amazon -- or more specifically, the 'Recommended for You' bug prank 'feature' on their website. That nasty little bastard can go straight to hell, and I hope as many pitchforks as possible poke it right in the ass on the way. "I thought from my previous experience that the worst thing Amazon could do is ignore me. I was wrong. So very, very wrong." Don't get me wrong. I like Amazon; I shop there all the time. And I appreciate automagical systems that can figure out what I might like -- when they actually work, that is. I only ask three things of a recommendation system -- or for that matter, a friend, spouse, or government -- and in the past week, Amazon has failed me on all three. Observe: 1. Pay attention to what I'm telling you. A few days ago, I logged onto Amazon, looking for some CDs. Here's the conversation (only slightly rephrased) that I had with the recommendation system: Amazon: Hi, Charlie! Welcome back! Can I help you find a CD? Me: Okay, sure. Amazon: I bet you'd like Bridge. It's by Blues Traveler! Me: Oh. Um, yeah, I don't think so. Amazon: No problem! How about Save His Soul? It's great! Me: I dunno -- who's it by? Amazon: Blues Traveler! Me: You know, I'm really not a Blues Traveler fan. Amazon: Say no more! I know of a great CD you'll love! Me: Fine. Just tell me it's not by- Amazon: The CD's titled Blues Traveler! Me: *sigh* Let me guess. It's- Amazon: That's right! It's by Blues Traveler!!! Gosh! Me: Look, seriously. Not a Blues Traveler fan. I swear. Amazon: But you said six months ago that you own Four. Me: Yeah... I did. But- Amazon: And that's by Blues Traveler! Me: I know. But it's my wife's, really. And I listed dozens of CDs I own. Amazon: I know how you feel! Probably like buying Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics. Right? Right? Me: Dude. I gave Four two stars. Out of five. Two. Amazon: That's more than one! Bet you'd love Blues Traveler's Greatest Hits. Betcha would! Me: No. I wouldn't. Look, see here? I'm telling you not to use Four to suggest music any more. Okay? I happen to own one disc, but that's it. No more Blues Traveler, got it? Amazon: Absolutely! Me: No greatest hits, no tribute albums, no cover bands, nothing. Okay? Amazon: You're the boss! Me: Great. So. Do you have any other recommendations? Amazon: Sure! You're gonna love this CD Zygote! It's super! Me: Okay, I'm game. What type of mu- Amazon: It's by John Popper! Me: Wait. Isn't he- Amazon: He's the lead singer... of Blues Traveler! Yippee! Me: God, I hate you. Amazon: How many copies should I put you down for? Me: I absolutely fucking hate you. Amazon: Don't forget One-Click Checkout™! It's the best! I nearly strangled my monitor with the mouse cord. Evidently, I should stop being so fricking honest with Amazon about the music I technically own. Lord help me if it ever finds out my wife has the entire Madonna catalog somewhere under our roof. Jesus. 2. Don't throw 'paying attention' back in my face. I thought from my previous experience that the worst thing Amazon could do is ignore me. I was wrong. So very, very wrong. See, I'm a big British comedy fan. Mostly the older shows -- Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Kiss Me Kate, Keeping Up Appearances, just about anything. The subtle stuff, the bawdy stuff, the outlandish stuff, it doesn't much matter. I once even managed to sit through nearly an entire episode of Are You Being Served?. Just once. And I called in sick to work for the rest of the week. But you get the picture. So, last night I was poking around Amazon again, trying to find a DVD with clips from the old Alas Smith and Jones show. I'm not even going to bother trying to describe it, other than to call it 'two-man sketch comedy' and point you to the BBC's take above. My wife walked in last night while I was cackling giddily over a Smith and Jones 'Swiss News' clip on YouTube, and -- after I replayed it and made her watch it -- all she said was: 'It's kind of cute. But not laugh-out-loud cute. You're weird.' Probably. But that's not important right now. The only important detail to note is that the show featured well-travelled Brit comedy stars Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. (Hence the name, you see. Clever ones, those British are.) The astute film buffs among you may remember Mel Smith from his role as 'the Albino' in The Princess Bride, where he tended lovingly to the Pit.... of Despaaaaiiiir. The less astute among you -- including me -- may not know that there's also a Mel Smith (a different Mel Smith, presumably, what with her evidently being a woman and all) who writes gay cowboy erotica novels, and sells them via Amazon. Astute or not, I'd like to believe that if my recent browsing history included the phrases 'John Cleese', 'British comedy' and 'Blackadder', but not -- I can't stress this enough, now, NOT -- any phrases such as 'burly cowhand', 'assless chaps', or 'rope my dogie, Tex', then you would probably guess the context of the 'Mel Smith' search correctly. As opposed to waiting until I logged in tonight and saying: 'Hi! Welcome back! Can we recommend 'To Love a Cowboy' for you today? It's a wild, steamy tale of a young boy and the older man he... no? Okay! How about 'Twice the Cowboy, Twice the Ride'? You'll lose yourself in... not interested? No problem! 'Stallions on the Range' it is!' A 'Mel Smith' search is one thing. But I still can't see why Amazon loaded up so far on gay cowboy fare. Maybe Blues Traveler fans watch a lot of Brokeback Mountain. I dunno. 3. Make me feel cooler by taking your advice. Following the Blues Traveler debacle above, I finally managed to straighten Amazon out regarding the kinds of music I like. And generally, those kinds fall into one big category -- old. I remember the days, back in the mid-to-late '80s, when I would laugh -- laugh! -- at people listening to the Beatles, or the Doors, or early Rolling Stones. 'Geez,' I'd say with a wrinkle-free sneer, 'some of that crap is twenty years old. Get with the times, already!' I still listen to a lot of the same music I did back then. Which was, it turns out, just about twenty years ago. It seems the sneerer has become the sneeree. Ouch. In my defense, at least I'm not listening to the drivel you probably cringe over when you think of '80s music. I figure it's pretty hard to point and laugh over somebody 'still' listening to a band, if you have no idea who the hell they were in the first place. I'd like to claim that was a carefully planned strategic decision; actually, it just turns out that I have weird tastes in music as well as comedy, apparently. The point is, this is where I thought Amazon might actually be able to help me, for once. So while I whipped up an order for a few CDs (by the Broken Homes, Royal Court of China and Buckwheat Zydeco, from 1988, 1989, and 1987, respectively), I asked -- nay, begged -- Amazon to find me something hipper. Something I'd like, but could brag about to all the young whippersnappers at the parties with their droopy trousers and ball caps askew. So I hit Amazon with my (ever so slightly) more modern preferences. I may have one foot in the auditory grave, but there are some bands I like that have seen the light of this millennium, if only barely. So I rated up my 'cool' bands, like Soul Coughing and the Propellerheads and the Crystal Method. Find me something like these, I told Amazon -- something good that I've never heard of, and that all the cool kids are into these days. The Recommendorator beeped and booped for a while, and finally spat out a name that wasn't simply the 'limited edition' version of one of the albums I'd claimed. Nor the import issue of the same album. Nor some Blues Traveler shit. Instead, the name was: 'Fluke'. Nice. I'd never heard of Fluke. The ratings looked good. I saw comparisons to Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers and the like -- another positive sign in my book. So I amended my order to include the suggested disc from this hot new act, this 'Fluke' that was no doubt all the rage at the raves and clubs and raves and yes-I-know-I-already-said-raves and clubs and raves and I-just-have-no-freaking-clue-where-else-kids-hang-out-these-days and raves where the kids are hanging out these days. Smugly satisfied with my newly purchased street cred, I eagerly awaited delivery of my CDs. They came today. Four CDs in total. The old stuff is great -- just like I remembered, catchy and clever and steeped in nostalgia. Better yet, the Fluke CD is awfully good, too. After a couple of turns through the disc, there are only a couple of songs that I'm 'enh' about, and three or four that really stand out as gems. As a newly-bought and never-heard disc, it's really quite a catch. And as a conversation piece and ticket to street cred, it's a steaming pile of dingo shit. Turns out this 'new' band that's all the rage with their new CD was, in fact, all the rage back in 1997. They released their first single back in 1988. And the Wikipedia blurb including the CD I bought is two full sections before 'Current work'. Damn it. Fluke's not new; I'm just old. And they happened to stay off my radar for, oh, twenty years or so. But I never would have realized the tragic depths of my unhipness, were it not for Amazon's trusty 'Recommendations' system taunting me with decade-old CDs and laughing and pointing. So thanks for zippo, Amazon. Take your ballad pop and your cowboy porn and your aging techno albums and shove them up your mail slot. Next time I want recommendations, I'm going to fricking Pandora. (But I can still come back to buy CDs, right? That Super Shipper Saving™ is awesome!!!1!OMGeleventy!) Wherethehellwasi.Com I Recommend You Go to Hell {new window}   Www.Wherethehellwasi.Com - No, not you. Of course not you. I'm talking about Amazon -- or more specifically, the 'Recommended for You' bug prank 'feature' on their website. That nasty little bastard can go straight to hell, and I hope as many pitchforks as possible poke it right in the ass on the way. "I thought from my previous experience that the worst thing Amazon could do is ignore me. I was wrong. So very, very wrong." Don't get me wrong. I like Amazon; I shop there all the time. And I appreciate automagical systems that can figure out what I might like -- when they actually work, that is. I only ask three things of a recommendation system -- or for that matter, a friend, spouse, or government -- and in the past week, Amazon has failed me on all three. Observe: 1. Pay attention to what I'm telling you. A few days ago, I logged onto Amazon, looking for some CDs. Here's the conversation (only slightly rephrased) that I had with the recommendation system: Amazon: Hi, Charlie! Welcome back! Can I help you find a CD? Me: Okay, sure. Amazon: I bet you'd like Bridge. It's by Blues Traveler! Me: Oh. Um, yeah, I don't think so. Amazon: No problem! How about Save His Soul? It's great! Me: I dunno -- who's it by? Amazon: Blues Traveler! Me: You know, I'm really not a Blues Traveler fan. Amazon: Say no more! I know of a great CD you'll love! Me: Fine. Just tell me it's not by- Amazon: The CD's titled Blues Traveler! Me: *sigh* Let me guess. It's- Amazon: That's right! It's by Blues Traveler!!! Gosh! Me: Look, seriously. Not a Blues Traveler fan. I swear. Amazon: But you said six months ago that you own Four. Me: Yeah... I did. But- Amazon: And that's by Blues Traveler! Me: I know. But it's my wife's, really. And I listed dozens of CDs I own. Amazon: I know how you feel! Probably like buying Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics. Right? Right? Me: Dude. I gave Four two stars. Out of five. Two. Amazon: That's more than one! Bet you'd love Blues Traveler's Greatest Hits. Betcha would! Me: No. I wouldn't. Look, see here? I'm telling you not to use Four to suggest music any more. Okay? I happen to own one disc, but that's it. No more Blues Traveler, got it? Amazon: Absolutely! Me: No greatest hits, no tribute albums, no cover bands, nothing. Okay? Amazon: You're the boss! Me: Great. So. Do you have any other recommendations? Amazon: Sure! You're gonna love this CD Zygote! It's super! Me: Okay, I'm game. What type of mu- Amazon: It's by John Popper! Me: Wait. Isn't he- Amazon: He's the lead singer... of Blues Traveler! Yippee! Me: God, I hate you. Amazon: How many copies should I put you down for? Me: I absolutely fucking hate you. Amazon: Don't forget One-Click Checkout™! It's the best! I nearly strangled my monitor with the mouse cord. Evidently, I should stop being so fricking honest with Amazon about the music I technically own. Lord help me if it ever finds out my wife has the entire Madonna catalog somewhere under our roof. Jesus. 2. Don't throw 'paying attention' back in my face. I thought from my previous experience that the worst thing Amazon could do is ignore me. I was wrong. So very, very wrong. See, I'm a big British comedy fan. Mostly the older shows -- Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Kiss Me Kate, Keeping Up Appearances, just about anything. The subtle stuff, the bawdy stuff, the outlandish stuff, it doesn't much matter. I once even managed to sit through nearly an entire episode of Are You Being Served?. Just once. And I called in sick to work for the rest of the week. But you get the picture. So, last night I was poking around Amazon again, trying to find a DVD with clips from the old Alas Smith and Jones show. I'm not even going to bother trying to describe it, other than to call it 'two-man sketch comedy' and point you to the BBC's take above. My wife walked in last night while I was cackling giddily over a Smith and Jones 'Swiss News' clip on YouTube, and -- after I replayed it and made her watch it -- all she said was: 'It's kind of cute. But not laugh-out-loud cute. You're weird.' Probably. But that's not important right now. The only important detail to note is that the show featured well-travelled Brit comedy stars Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. (Hence the name, you see. Clever ones, those British are.) The astute film buffs among you may remember Mel Smith from his role as 'the Albino' in The Princess Bride, where he tended lovingly to the Pit.... of Despaaaaiiiir. The less astute among you -- including me -- may not know that there's also a Mel Smith (a different Mel Smith, presumably, what with her evidently being a woman and all) who writes gay cowboy erotica novels, and sells them via Amazon. Astute or not, I'd like to believe that if my recent browsing history included the phrases 'John Cleese', 'British comedy' and 'Blackadder', but not -- I can't stress this enough, now, NOT -- any phrases such as 'burly cowhand', 'assless chaps', or 'rope my dogie, Tex', then you would probably guess the context of the 'Mel Smith' search correctly. As opposed to waiting until I logged in tonight and saying: 'Hi! Welcome back! Can we recommend 'To Love a Cowboy' for you today? It's a wild, steamy tale of a young boy and the older man he... no? Okay! How about 'Twice the Cowboy, Twice the Ride'? You'll lose yourself in... not interested? No problem! 'Stallions on the Range' it is!' A 'Mel Smith' search is one thing. But I still can't see why Amazon loaded up so far on gay cowboy fare. Maybe Blues Traveler fans watch a lot of Brokeback Mountain. I dunno. 3. Make me feel cooler by taking your advice. Following the Blues Traveler debacle above, I finally managed to straighten Amazon out regarding the kinds of music I like. And generally, those kinds fall into one big category -- old. I remember the days, back in the mid-to-late '80s, when I would laugh -- laugh! -- at people listening to the Beatles, or the Doors, or early Rolling Stones. 'Geez,' I'd say with a wrinkle-free sneer, 'some of that crap is twenty years old. Get with the times, already!' I still listen to a lot of the same music I did back then. Which was, it turns out, just about twenty years ago. It seems the sneerer has become the sneeree. Ouch. In my defense, at least I'm not listening to the drivel you probably cringe over when you think of '80s music. I figure it's pretty hard to point and laugh over somebody 'still' listening to a band, if you have no idea who the hell they were in the first place. I'd like to claim that was a carefully planned strategic decision; actually, it just turns out that I have weird tastes in music as well as comedy, apparently. The point is, this is where I thought Amazon might actually be able to help me, for once. So while I whipped up an order for a few CDs (by the Broken Homes, Royal Court of China and Buckwheat Zydeco, from 1988, 1989, and 1987, respectively), I asked -- nay, begged -- Amazon to find me something hipper. Something I'd like, but could brag about to all the young whippersnappers at the parties with their droopy trousers and ball caps askew. So I hit Amazon with my (ever so slightly) more modern preferences. I may have one foot in the auditory grave, but there are some bands I like that have seen the light of this millennium, if only barely. So I rated up my 'cool' bands, like Soul Coughing and the Propellerheads and the Crystal Method. Find me something like these, I told Amazon -- something good that I've never heard of, and that all the cool kids are into these days. The Recommendorator beeped and booped for a while, and finally spat out a name that wasn't simply the 'limited edition' version of one of the albums I'd claimed. Nor the import issue of the same album. Nor some Blues Traveler shit. Instead, the name was: 'Fluke'. Nice. I'd never heard of Fluke. The ratings looked good. I saw comparisons to Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers and the like -- another positive sign in my book. So I amended my order to include the suggested disc from this hot new act, this 'Fluke' that was no doubt all the rage at the raves and clubs and raves and yes-I-know-I-already-said-raves and clubs and raves and I-just-have-no-freaking-clue-where-else-kids-hang-out-these-days and raves where the kids are hanging out these days. Smugly satisfied with my newly purchased street cred, I eagerly awaited delivery of my CDs. They came today. Four CDs in total. The old stuff is great -- just like I remembered, catchy and clever and steeped in nostalgia. Better yet, the Fluke CD is awfully good, too. After a couple of turns through the disc, there are only a couple of songs that I'm 'enh' about, and three or four that really stand out as gems. As a newly-bought and never-heard disc, it's really quite a catch. And as a conversation piece and ticket to street cred, it's a steaming pile of dingo shit. Turns out this 'new' band that's all the rage with their new CD was, in fact, all the rage back in 1997. They released their first single back in 1988. And the Wikipedia blurb including the CD I bought is two full sections before 'Current work'. Damn it. Fluke's not new; I'm just old. And they happened to stay off my radar for, oh, twenty years or so. But I never would have realized the tragic depths of my unhipness, were it not for Amazon's trusty 'Recommendations' system taunting me with decade-old CDs and laughing and pointing. So thanks for zippo, Amazon. Take your ballad pop and your cowboy porn and your aging techno albums and shove them up your mail slot. Next time I want recommendations, I'm going to fricking Pandora. (But I can still come back to buy CDs, right? That Super Shipper Saving™ is awesome!!!1!OMGeleventy!)
I Recommend You Go to Hell [Where the Hell Was I?] {...} Life, from a comic perspective. Original articles, humor, & funny stories daily from an aspiring Boston standup comedian. {...}
Indexed: August 6, 2008, 11:11 pm - Page Size: 67KB
Category: Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W

]]> Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W {NORTH AMERICA > LODGING} - SPECTACULAR CITY VIEWS, Luxe home, Pool, Decks, Quiet (mill valley) $2000 3bd http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/spectacular-city-views-luxe-home-pool-decks-quiet-2008082274.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/spectacular-city-views-luxe-home-pool-decks-quiet-2008082274.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:08:25 GMT BEAUTY, TRANQUILITY, NEAR MILL VALLEY CENTER CAFES, EASY DRIVE TO SAN FRANCISCO ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` (Si parla italiano et francais as well as English) Beautiful 3,400 sq.ft. home in Mill Valley's most desirable and sunny area, on Mt. Tam's Middle Ridge/Blithedale Canyon. 2-3 Lovely large bedrooms, all with SF sunny views, one could be used as office. DSL, wireless.Photocopy machine, printer. One bedroom suite and another rose bedroom and bathroom on level one. On level two, a big, playful living room, breakfast room,1967 big, sunny kitchen and dramatic dining room. The view captured below one January morning is a telephoto city view over the green valley and is visible from almost every room in the house, especially the third-floor master bedroom with a 10' wide bay window. BEST Mill Valley weather, and every room of the house faces the sun (S/SE) for green hills & lovely city views. 5 min walk to Tamalpais trails, 20 min beautiful walk through the redwoods, by the creek, to cafes and village center piazza. 20 min drive to Marin Airporter, from there, 45 minutes to SFO. Wireless. Parking on street, possible garage spot ($50 a month). No pets; carpets totally free of history of same in case you are allergic.. Very High decks, pool that does not have lockable gates, washer/dryer. No smoking or drugs. *** Having lived in Europe, I speak fluent, if very imperfect, ITALIANO and FRANCAIS and would love to practice if you, too, speak one of these languages. No pets, The 10 minute drive from down town Mill Valley is a narrow and winding mountain road, not for the faint-of -heart, but spectacularly beautiful in the redwoods and by a lovely creek. Experience has shown me that I had better underline the fact that I can not accept any pets, no matter how loveable and well-mannered. I can send many more pictures if you would like to see more! $2000/wk. + utilities. Refferals, security and cleaning deposits. I am the owner and my name is Gayle. Email me or call me at 415-389-1218. More photos available. No Smoking at all. Fresh clean air, quiet, peaceful beauty, walking access to trails on Mt. Tam and closeness to Mill Valley center and to San Francisco are the delights this house offers. One week minimum stay. 4 people maximum. No more than four people, please. Sfbay.Craigslist.Org SPECTACULAR CITY VIEWS, Luxe home, Pool, Decks, Quiet (mill valley) $2000 3bd {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - BEAUTY, TRANQUILITY, NEAR MILL VALLEY CENTER CAFES, EASY DRIVE TO SAN FRANCISCO ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` (Si parla italiano et francais as well as English) Beautiful 3,400 sq.ft. home in Mill Valley's most desirable and sunny area, on Mt. Tam's Middle Ridge/Blithedale Canyon. 2-3 Lovely large bedrooms, all with SF sunny views, one could be used as office. DSL, wireless.Photocopy machine, printer. One bedroom suite and another rose bedroom and bathroom on level one. On level two, a big, playful living room, breakfast room,1967 big, sunny kitchen and dramatic dining room. The view captured below one January morning is a telephoto city view over the green valley and is visible from almost every room in the house, especially the third-floor master bedroom with a 10' wide bay window. BEST Mill Valley weather, and every room of the house faces the sun (S/SE) for green hills & lovely city views. 5 min walk to Tamalpais trails, 20 min beautiful walk through the redwoods, by the creek, to cafes and village center piazza. 20 min drive to Marin Airporter, from there, 45 minutes to SFO. Wireless. Parking on street, possible garage spot ($50 a month). No pets; carpets totally free of history of same in case you are allergic.. Very High decks, pool that does not have lockable gates, washer/dryer. No smoking or drugs. *** Having lived in Europe, I speak fluent, if very imperfect, ITALIANO and FRANCAIS and would love to practice if you, too, speak one of these languages. No pets, The 10 minute drive from down town Mill Valley is a narrow and winding mountain road, not for the faint-of -heart, but spectacularly beautiful in the redwoods and by a lovely creek. Experience has shown me that I had better underline the fact that I can not accept any pets, no matter how loveable and well-mannered. I can send many more pictures if you would like to see more! $2000/wk. + utilities. Refferals, security and cleaning deposits. I am the owner and my name is Gayle. Email me or call me at 415-389-1218. More photos available. No Smoking at all. Fresh clean air, quiet, peaceful beauty, walking access to trails on Mt. Tam and closeness to Mill Valley center and to San Francisco are the delights this house offers. One week minimum stay. 4 people maximum. No more than four people, please.
SPECTACULAR CITY VIEWS, Luxe home, Pool, Decks, Quiet {...}
Published: August 6, 2008, 10:08 pm - Indexed: August 6, 2008, 10:58 pm - Page Size: 7KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - Russian Hill Flat with the world’s best roommates! (russian hill) $925 http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/russian-hill-flat-with-the-world-s-best-roommates-2008086101.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/russian-hill-flat-with-the-world-s-best-roommates-2008086101.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:40:55 GMT HI! We are two twenty something ladies looking for the perfect roommate to join our fantastic digs in Russian Hill. Roommate number 1: Bay Area native and have been living in San Francisco for about 3 years. Work as a Buyer. Love San Francisco night life but typically just on the weekends. Love to bake but rarely cook. Try to hit the gym during the week. Addicted to shoes and wine (but who isn’t). Roommate number 2: 27 just moved here from Wisconsin. Literally still unpacking boxes ;) Work is sales in the health care industry. Working remotely but travel about 30% of the time. Regular at the gym, busy exploring all that SF has to offer, enjoys a good cocktail and a great night out on the weekends, loves to read a good book with a cup of coffee in hand, shopping (when I have the money that is!), and would love to learn Spanish and finally figure out how to cook! Basics about the apartment: • $925 for one bedroom in our three bedroom apt. + utilities and cable/internet ($60-$75/month) + $1000 security deposit • Huge remodeled kitchen with new appliances • Sunroom/ Storage • Patio complete with an area for BBQ and plants. • Storage space available •. Your room is feminine and pretty, midsized with closet. Current roommate fits a queen size bed, dresser and nightstand with room left over. • No laundry, but the Laundromat is literally 2 doors down. • Fabulous location and very close to public transportation (41, 45, cable car all on our block) • Preferred move-Anytime after September 1 all of September's rent is mandatory We will be setting up times to meet at our flat so you can have a look and meet us. If you believe you are: financially stable (we will require a security deposit), looking to stay long term, CLEAN (you must be willing to actually help clean the apartment), social, and an overall nice person then please reply. We are looking for a female 23-28. Please write back with some info about yourself, name, age, hobbies, whatever you think is good to know (Myspace or Facebook if you have one). We would like to set up meeting times sometime late next week. No pets. Sorry. Thanks and happy hunting. Sfbay.Craigslist.Org Russian Hill Flat with the world’s best roommates! (russian hill) $925 {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - HI! We are two twenty something ladies looking for the perfect roommate to join our fantastic digs in Russian Hill. Roommate number 1: Bay Area native and have been living in San Francisco for about 3 years. Work as a Buyer. Love San Francisco night life but typically just on the weekends. Love to bake but rarely cook. Try to hit the gym during the week. Addicted to shoes and wine (but who isn’t). Roommate number 2: 27 just moved here from Wisconsin. Literally still unpacking boxes ;) Work is sales in the health care industry. Working remotely but travel about 30% of the time. Regular at the gym, busy exploring all that SF has to offer, enjoys a good cocktail and a great night out on the weekends, loves to read a good book with a cup of coffee in hand, shopping (when I have the money that is!), and would love to learn Spanish and finally figure out how to cook! Basics about the apartment: • $925 for one bedroom in our three bedroom apt. + utilities and cable/internet ($60-$75/month) + $1000 security deposit • Huge remodeled kitchen with new appliances • Sunroom/ Storage • Patio complete with an area for BBQ and plants. • Storage space available •. Your room is feminine and pretty, midsized with closet. Current roommate fits a queen size bed, dresser and nightstand with room left over. • No laundry, but the Laundromat is literally 2 doors down. • Fabulous location and very close to public transportation (41, 45, cable car all on our block) • Preferred move-Anytime after September 1 all of September's rent is mandatory We will be setting up times to meet at our flat so you can have a look and meet us. If you believe you are: financially stable (we will require a security deposit), looking to stay long term, CLEAN (you must be willing to actually help clean the apartment), social, and an overall nice person then please reply. We are looking for a female 23-28. Please write back with some info about yourself, name, age, hobbies, whatever you think is good to know (Myspace or Facebook if you have one). We would like to set up meeting times sometime late next week. No pets. Sorry. Thanks and happy hunting.
Russian Hill Flat with the world’s best roommates! {...}
Published: August 6, 2008, 8:40 pm - Indexed: August 6, 2008, 9:38 pm - Page Size: 7KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals {LITERATURE > CYBERPUNK} - Recycle crayon-stumps by melting and die-cutting 'em http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/recycle-crayon-stumps-by-melting-and-die-cutting-2008088341.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/recycle-crayon-stumps-by-melting-and-die-cutting-2008088341.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:37:29 GMT Love this technique for recycling crayons-stumps: melt 'em down, swirl 'em around, roll 'em out, and stamp shapes out of them with cookie cutters. New Crayons from Old Ones (via Craft)... Boingboing.Net Recycle crayon-stumps by melting and die-cutting 'em {new window}   Www.Boingboing.Net - Love this technique for recycling crayons-stumps: melt 'em down, swirl 'em around, roll 'em out, and stamp shapes out of them with cookie cutters. New Crayons from Old Ones (via Craft)...
Recycle crayon-stumps by melting and die-cutting 'em - Boing Boing {...}
Published: August 6, 2008, 8:37 pm - Indexed: August 6, 2008, 9:56 pm - Page Size: 31KB
Category: Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk

]]> Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk {ISSUES > BIAS AND BALANCE} - On Fox & Friends , Corsi contradicted his own book with another false claim http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/on-fox-friends-corsi-contradicted-his-own-book-with-2008089832.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/on-fox-friends-corsi-contradicted-his-own-book-with-2008089832.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:49:48 GMT During the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor Bob Beckel said to Jerome Corsi, author of the recently released book The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality: "This book is full of innuendos, misstatements, lies. He says -- Mr. Corsi says, 'It's 300 pages, 600 footnotes, and I stand by every statement in this book.' Let me see if you stand by some of these statements, Doctor: 'Obama never revealed if or when he stopped using drugs.' That's a lie. The truth is that he said in his own book Dreams From My Father that he stopped when he got into college." As Media Matters for America documented, a July 30 WorldNetDaily.com article about author Jerome Corsi's forthcoming book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (Threshold Editions), asserted that the book "points out" that "Barack Obama admitted using drugs in his autobiography but never revealed if or when he stopped." In his book, Corsi falsely claimed that "Obama has yet to answer" the question of whether "he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college." But on Fox & Friends, Corsi contradicted his book's false claim by making another false claim, saying, "He fully admitted his drug use, both marijuana and cocaine. He says it continued through college." In fact, Obama did not "say[] it continued through college"; he wrote in his memoir, Dreams From My Father (Crown, 1995), that he "stopped getting high" shortly after moving to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate, following two years at Occidental College. During a subsequent discussion, Beckel said to Corsi, "You said that Barack Obama supported a bill that allowed mothers to kill their babies even after they were born. Now, were they gonna use knives, guns, or how were they gonna do that? And do you actually believe that to be true?" Corsi responded, "Well, it's true," and asserted that "Obama, on the floor of the Illinois state Senate, said that woman had an absolute right to abortion, to kill the baby even if it survived that abortion." In fact, during the floor debate on the bill Corsi was discussing -- which opponents said was unnecessary, as the Illinois criminal code unequivocally prohibits killing children, and said that it posed a threat to abortion rights -- Obama never said any such thing, as Media Matters noted in response to similar false claims by Corsi in several media appearances. Beckel later brought up several controversial comments by Corsi: "Can I give you a couple other Corsi comments just so that people can understand the person writing this book? Corsi on Muslims: 'Ragheads are boy-bumpers and clearly are woman-haters.' " Beckel further said, "Corsi on -- you called 'John Effing Commie Kerry. He married Teresa then he became a Jew.' You say about Hillary Clinton, 'Fat Hog' Clinton." Later in the discussion, Beckel asked Corsi, "How long ago was, 'Anybody asked Hillary why she couldn't stop B.J. Bill being satisfied? She's a lesbo.' When did you say that?" Corsi responded, "Bob, I never defend these comments. They're ancient history," and claimed, "Ad hominem attacks on me are a fairly low way of trying to get to the substance of what I'm saying." Beckel later stated, "Doctor, I have looked through a good part of your book. All I can tell you is, you say you have 600 sources. Most of those sources are people who have right-wing agendas who are against Barack Obama." Beckel also said to Corsi: "[I]f you're holding yourself out here to be an expert on Barack Obama and say the kinds of things you've said, you have to understand why some of us question not only your standing, not only the accuracy of your book, but also your history." From the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends: BECKEL: Mr. Corsi, with all due respect, usually I'm fairly lighthearted on this early morning show, which -- I love this show, Mr. Corsi, but I tell you, not this morning. This book is full of innuendos, misstatements, lies. He says -- Mr. Corsi says, "It's 300 pages, 600 footnotes, and I stand by every statement in this book." Let me see if you stand by some of these statements, Doctor: "Obama never revealed if or when he stopped using drugs." That's a lie. The truth is that he said in his own book Dreams From My Father that he stopped when he got into college. You want to respond to that? CORSI: Well, Greg, we have Barack Obama's testimony on that. What additional proof do we have? I mean, there's no indication that -- BECKEL: What proof do we have when you stopped using drugs? I mean, what does that mean? That's ridiculous. CORSI: Well, I mean, look, I'm not running for president. Barack Obama is. He fully admitted his drug use, both marijuana and cocaine. He says it continued through college. He began it in high school. BECKEL: He did not say it continued through college. That is just absolutely wrong -- CORSI: Yes, he does. I'm sorry, Mr. Beckel -- BECKEL: That is absolutely wrong. CORSI: He does. He said at Occidental College, he was continuing drugs. It's in the first discussion of his Occidental College days. BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): OK, besides the drugs -- BECKEL: Yeah, let me -- hold it, one more second. You said Malcolm X was his mentor in college. Malcolm X was dead 15 years when he got to college. What's the truth about that? CORSI: Well, obviously, he read Malcolm X. He has extensive -- BECKEL: Oh, I see. He read it. I got it. CORSI: Well, that's probably good enough. He had extensive discussions -- BECKEL: Oh, oh. CORSI: -- of Malcolm X in his autobiography. It goes page after page. He said Malcolm X was the person he resonated with more than any other African-American author that he read. GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): But Mr. Corsi, you believe -- BECKEL: Did you ever read anything by Hitler or anything like that, Doctor? CORSI: They didn't resonate with me, and I never said -- BECKEL: Oh, I see, I see. CORSI: -- in anything that -- Obama goes on -- BECKEL: And you know it resonated with Obama. CORSI: Well, he said so. Just read his autobiography. He says that -- what he says is -- BECKEL: I've read his autobiography, and I don't think you have. CORSI: Oh, no, I'm sorry. I about memorized his autobiography. And he says it -- BECKEL: Oh, really? CORSI: -- explicitly, he says directly that Malcolm X was the mentor that he resonated with most in reading. [...] BECKEL: I know I don't have much time here. Let me just make a couple other points you make in this book. You said that Barack Obama supported a bill that allowed mothers to kill their babies even after they were born. Now, were they gonna use knives, guns, or how were they gonna do that? And do you actually believe that to be true? CORSI: Well, it's true. Take a look -- BECKEL: Oh, come on. CORSI: Well, Bob, I quoted him from the Illinois Senate floor. This was a case of a baby that survived an abortion attempt late term, forced-labor abortion. And the nurse, who is very famous out in Illinois, held this baby for 45 minutes, took it from the linen closet, the baby had Down syndrome, until the baby died. BECKEL: The baby died -- CORSI: And Obama, on the floor of the Illinois state Senate, said that woman had an absolute right to abortion, to kill the baby even if it survived that abortion. BECKEL: That is blatantly untrue. CORSI: Well, you haven't looked at the case. I'm sorry. BECKEL: Can I give you a couple other Corsi comments just so that people can understand the person writing this book? Corsi on Muslims: "Ragheads are boy-bumpers and clearly are woman-haters." Corsi's -- CORSI: Well, you know, Bob, why don't you talk about the apologies that I gave? BECKEL: Just a second, just a second. I've listened to you, Doctor Corsi. CORSI: You can go ahead -- talk about the apologies -- BECKEL: Corsi on -- you called "John Effing Commie Kerry. He married Teresa then he became a Jew." You say about Hillary Clinton, "Fat Hog" Clinton. Quote, "Anybody ask why" -- CORSI: Bob, those are old comments, Bob. KILMEADE: Bob, let's just stick -- Bob, let's stick to this book. CORSI: Bob, those are old comments, long ago apologized for. BECKEL: Did you make those comments? Did you make those comments? CORSI: Bob, you're going back to things that are ancient. I've already -- BECKEL: You know, anybody who'd make those comments -- listen, I wish you well, because you need some help. CORSI: Well, Bob, look. If you -- you know, those are old comments. Why don't you go to the apologies for them? I said I wouldn't write anything that used anything extreme or impolitical speech. I haven't done that since those comments. Those comments have been long ago apologized for. You are going back to ancient history without talking about the apology. BECKEL: Excuse me, Doctor. How long ago was, "Anybody asked Hillary why she couldn't stop B.J. Bill being satisfied? She's a lesbo." When did you say that? CORSI: Bob, I never defend these comments. KILMEADE: Bob, Bob, let's talk about this book. CORSI: They're ancient history. KILMEADE: Can we talk about this book? Let's just talk about this book in particular. What's the one thing that you think Bob doesn't even know about Barack Obama? CORSI: Well, I don't think Bob appreciates how extremely leftist Obama is. And by the way, attacking me does not answer the arguments in this book. Ad hominem attacks on me are a fairly low way of trying to get to the substance of what I'm saying. KILMEADE: Bob -- CARLSON: But you understand why people may not -- I mean, why Bob would take issue with some of the things. CORSI: Well, Bob ought to look at the apologies. He ought to look at the whole record and not just go back to the original charges as if they have not been answered. ANDREW NAPOLITANO (co-host): Bob, we'll give you the last word, Bob. BECKEL: Doctor, I have looked through a good part of your book. All I can tell you is, you say you have 600 sources. Most of those sources are people who have right-wing agendas who are against Barack Obama. CORSI: It's not true. BECKEL: I'm telling you, these are not ad hominem attacks. Ad hominem attacks are made up. These are things you did say, and I think -- you may have apologized for them, Doctor, and a lot of us have said things we wish we hadn't said. But frankly, if you're holding yourself out here to be an expert on Barack Obama and say the kinds of things you've said, you have to understand why some of us question not only your standing, not only the accuracy of your book, but also your history. CORSI: Bob, this will be my fourth New York Times best-seller, hopefully, in the last four years. I've written eight books in the last two years, and you're going back to ancient history. I don't think that's fair. KILMEADE: Jerome Corsi, the author of Obama Nation. Bob Beckel. BECKEL: I'd love to talk to you again, Doctor Corsi. CORSI: Anytime. I look forward to it. KILMEADE: You know what? We'll do this again, because -- BECKEL: Any time, any place, anywhere. CORSI: You got it. Mediamatters.Org On Fox & Friends , Corsi contradicted his own book with another false claim {new window}   Mediamatters.Org - During the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor Bob Beckel said to Jerome Corsi, author of the recently released book The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality: "This book is full of innuendos, misstatements, lies. He says -- Mr. Corsi says, 'It's 300 pages, 600 footnotes, and I stand by every statement in this book.' Let me see if you stand by some of these statements, Doctor: 'Obama never revealed if or when he stopped using drugs.' That's a lie. The truth is that he said in his own book Dreams From My Father that he stopped when he got into college." As Media Matters for America documented, a July 30 WorldNetDaily.com article about author Jerome Corsi's forthcoming book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (Threshold Editions), asserted that the book "points out" that "Barack Obama admitted using drugs in his autobiography but never revealed if or when he stopped." In his book, Corsi falsely claimed that "Obama has yet to answer" the question of whether "he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college." But on Fox & Friends, Corsi contradicted his book's false claim by making another false claim, saying, "He fully admitted his drug use, both marijuana and cocaine. He says it continued through college." In fact, Obama did not "say[] it continued through college"; he wrote in his memoir, Dreams From My Father (Crown, 1995), that he "stopped getting high" shortly after moving to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate, following two years at Occidental College. During a subsequent discussion, Beckel said to Corsi, "You said that Barack Obama supported a bill that allowed mothers to kill their babies even after they were born. Now, were they gonna use knives, guns, or how were they gonna do that? And do you actually believe that to be true?" Corsi responded, "Well, it's true," and asserted that "Obama, on the floor of the Illinois state Senate, said that woman had an absolute right to abortion, to kill the baby even if it survived that abortion." In fact, during the floor debate on the bill Corsi was discussing -- which opponents said was unnecessary, as the Illinois criminal code unequivocally prohibits killing children, and said that it posed a threat to abortion rights -- Obama never said any such thing, as Media Matters noted in response to similar false claims by Corsi in several media appearances. Beckel later brought up several controversial comments by Corsi: "Can I give you a couple other Corsi comments just so that people can understand the person writing this book? Corsi on Muslims: 'Ragheads are boy-bumpers and clearly are woman-haters.' " Beckel further said, "Corsi on -- you called 'John Effing Commie Kerry. He married Teresa then he became a Jew.' You say about Hillary Clinton, 'Fat Hog' Clinton." Later in the discussion, Beckel asked Corsi, "How long ago was, 'Anybody asked Hillary why she couldn't stop B.J. Bill being satisfied? She's a lesbo.' When did you say that?" Corsi responded, "Bob, I never defend these comments. They're ancient history," and claimed, "Ad hominem attacks on me are a fairly low way of trying to get to the substance of what I'm saying." Beckel later stated, "Doctor, I have looked through a good part of your book. All I can tell you is, you say you have 600 sources. Most of those sources are people who have right-wing agendas who are against Barack Obama." Beckel also said to Corsi: "[I]f you're holding yourself out here to be an expert on Barack Obama and say the kinds of things you've said, you have to understand why some of us question not only your standing, not only the accuracy of your book, but also your history." From the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends: BECKEL: Mr. Corsi, with all due respect, usually I'm fairly lighthearted on this early morning show, which -- I love this show, Mr. Corsi, but I tell you, not this morning. This book is full of innuendos, misstatements, lies. He says -- Mr. Corsi says, "It's 300 pages, 600 footnotes, and I stand by every statement in this book." Let me see if you stand by some of these statements, Doctor: "Obama never revealed if or when he stopped using drugs." That's a lie. The truth is that he said in his own book Dreams From My Father that he stopped when he got into college. You want to respond to that? CORSI: Well, Greg, we have Barack Obama's testimony on that. What additional proof do we have? I mean, there's no indication that -- BECKEL: What proof do we have when you stopped using drugs? I mean, what does that mean? That's ridiculous. CORSI: Well, I mean, look, I'm not running for president. Barack Obama is. He fully admitted his drug use, both marijuana and cocaine. He says it continued through college. He began it in high school. BECKEL: He did not say it continued through college. That is just absolutely wrong -- CORSI: Yes, he does. I'm sorry, Mr. Beckel -- BECKEL: That is absolutely wrong. CORSI: He does. He said at Occidental College, he was continuing drugs. It's in the first discussion of his Occidental College days. BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): OK, besides the drugs -- BECKEL: Yeah, let me -- hold it, one more second. You said Malcolm X was his mentor in college. Malcolm X was dead 15 years when he got to college. What's the truth about that? CORSI: Well, obviously, he read Malcolm X. He has extensive -- BECKEL: Oh, I see. He read it. I got it. CORSI: Well, that's probably good enough. He had extensive discussions -- BECKEL: Oh, oh. CORSI: -- of Malcolm X in his autobiography. It goes page after page. He said Malcolm X was the person he resonated with more than any other African-American author that he read. GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): But Mr. Corsi, you believe -- BECKEL: Did you ever read anything by Hitler or anything like that, Doctor? CORSI: They didn't resonate with me, and I never said -- BECKEL: Oh, I see, I see. CORSI: -- in anything that -- Obama goes on -- BECKEL: And you know it resonated with Obama. CORSI: Well, he said so. Just read his autobiography. He says that -- what he says is -- BECKEL: I've read his autobiography, and I don't think you have. CORSI: Oh, no, I'm sorry. I about memorized his autobiography. And he says it -- BECKEL: Oh, really? CORSI: -- explicitly, he says directly that Malcolm X was the mentor that he resonated with most in reading. [...] BECKEL: I know I don't have much time here. Let me just make a couple other points you make in this book. You said that Barack Obama supported a bill that allowed mothers to kill their babies even after they were born. Now, were they gonna use knives, guns, or how were they gonna do that? And do you actually believe that to be true? CORSI: Well, it's true. Take a look -- BECKEL: Oh, come on. CORSI: Well, Bob, I quoted him from the Illinois Senate floor. This was a case of a baby that survived an abortion attempt late term, forced-labor abortion. And the nurse, who is very famous out in Illinois, held this baby for 45 minutes, took it from the linen closet, the baby had Down syndrome, until the baby died. BECKEL: The baby died -- CORSI: And Obama, on the floor of the Illinois state Senate, said that woman had an absolute right to abortion, to kill the baby even if it survived that abortion. BECKEL: That is blatantly untrue. CORSI: Well, you haven't looked at the case. I'm sorry. BECKEL: Can I give you a couple other Corsi comments just so that people can understand the person writing this book? Corsi on Muslims: "Ragheads are boy-bumpers and clearly are woman-haters." Corsi's -- CORSI: Well, you know, Bob, why don't you talk about the apologies that I gave? BECKEL: Just a second, just a second. I've listened to you, Doctor Corsi. CORSI: You can go ahead -- talk about the apologies -- BECKEL: Corsi on -- you called "John Effing Commie Kerry. He married Teresa then he became a Jew." You say about Hillary Clinton, "Fat Hog" Clinton. Quote, "Anybody ask why" -- CORSI: Bob, those are old comments, Bob. KILMEADE: Bob, let's just stick -- Bob, let's stick to this book. CORSI: Bob, those are old comments, long ago apologized for. BECKEL: Did you make those comments? Did you make those comments? CORSI: Bob, you're going back to things that are ancient. I've already -- BECKEL: You know, anybody who'd make those comments -- listen, I wish you well, because you need some help. CORSI: Well, Bob, look. If you -- you know, those are old comments. Why don't you go to the apologies for them? I said I wouldn't write anything that used anything extreme or impolitical speech. I haven't done that since those comments. Those comments have been long ago apologized for. You are going back to ancient history without talking about the apology. BECKEL: Excuse me, Doctor. How long ago was, "Anybody asked Hillary why she couldn't stop B.J. Bill being satisfied? She's a lesbo." When did you say that? CORSI: Bob, I never defend these comments. KILMEADE: Bob, Bob, let's talk about this book. CORSI: They're ancient history. KILMEADE: Can we talk about this book? Let's just talk about this book in particular. What's the one thing that you think Bob doesn't even know about Barack Obama? CORSI: Well, I don't think Bob appreciates how extremely leftist Obama is. And by the way, attacking me does not answer the arguments in this book. Ad hominem attacks on me are a fairly low way of trying to get to the substance of what I'm saying. KILMEADE: Bob -- CARLSON: But you understand why people may not -- I mean, why Bob would take issue with some of the things. CORSI: Well, Bob ought to look at the apologies. He ought to look at the whole record and not just go back to the original charges as if they have not been answered. ANDREW NAPOLITANO (co-host): Bob, we'll give you the last word, Bob. BECKEL: Doctor, I have looked through a good part of your book. All I can tell you is, you say you have 600 sources. Most of those sources are people who have right-wing agendas who are against Barack Obama. CORSI: It's not true. BECKEL: I'm telling you, these are not ad hominem attacks. Ad hominem attacks are made up. These are things you did say, and I think -- you may have apologized for them, Doctor, and a lot of us have said things we wish we hadn't said. But frankly, if you're holding yourself out here to be an expert on Barack Obama and say the kinds of things you've said, you have to understand why some of us question not only your standing, not only the accuracy of your book, but also your history. CORSI: Bob, this will be my fourth New York Times best-seller, hopefully, in the last four years. I've written eight books in the last two years, and you're going back to ancient history. I don't think that's fair. KILMEADE: Jerome Corsi, the author of Obama Nation. Bob Beckel. BECKEL: I'd love to talk to you again, Doctor Corsi. CORSI: Anytime. I look forward to it. KILMEADE: You know what? We'll do this again, because -- BECKEL: Any time, any place, anywhere. CORSI: You got it.
Media Matters - On Fox & Friends , Corsi contradicted his own book with another false claim {...} In The Obama Nation , Jerome Corsi writes that Sen. Barack Obama "has yet to answer" the question of whether "he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college." But on Fox & Friends , Jerome Corsi contradicted that assertion, stating that Obama "fully admitted his drug use, both marijuana and cocaine. He says it continued through college." In fact, both of Corsi's allegations are false; Obama wrote in his memoir that he "stopped getting high" shortly after moving to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate. {...}
Published: August 6, 2008, 2:49 am - Indexed: August 6, 2008, 11:15 pm - Page Size: 30KB
Category: Society > Issues > Business > Media > Bias and Balance

]]> Society > Issues > Business > Media > Bias and Balance {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - Kindle ... Or Is It Just Kindling? http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/kindle-or-is-it-just-kindling-2008088243.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/kindle-or-is-it-just-kindling-2008088243.htm Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:05:00 GMT News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Does Murdoch's Journal Have a Woman Problem? Yahoo Still Struggling With Its Numbers Motorola's Challenge for Its New Co-CEO Subscribe to Portfolio magazine Since the Kindle was launched last November, it has been the subject of careful dissection, review, and speculation by countless blogs and news outlets, sparking one of techland's all-too-frequent debates: Is Amazon's new e-reader a game-changer? More pressing than whether the answer is yes or no is why we're even talking about it in the first place. The game in question is reading, after all?not exactly a growth industry, as Simon & Schuster and Random House will tell you. While Amazon has yet to provide official sales figures, TechCrunch has a source saying that the online retailer has sold 240,000 of the e-readers in their first eight months on sale, for a total of almost $100 million in revenue. It's not difficult to imagine that, thanks to its aggressive Kindle marketing push (such as prime advertising space in the middle of Amazon's homepage), those 240,000 units represent a good portion of the total market for the device out there. Consider that the literate population of the United States is about 270 million, and that according to a 2007 A.P.-Ipsos survey, one in four people didn't read a single book in the past year. Of those who did read books, the average consumption was seven per year?too few by a long shot to warrant buying a pricey e-reader device. The Kindle is not going to make a reader out of a nonreader. Few will say, "Gee, reading books and magazines was prohibitively difficult before, but now that there's a $359 electronic reader available, I'm going to start!" A 2005 Gallup survey reported that 25 percent of people say they read at least part of 10 to 49 books per year, which would mean around 68 million qualify as having a motive, at least, to use an e-reader. Then there's the question of financial means. Only the top 18 percent of households make $100,000 or more, which seems like a reasonable cutoff for figuring out who would spend $359 (down from $399) during a recession on a highly discretionary device, even given a love for reading. Of the 12 million Americans with the means and the motive to purchase a Kindle, a whole host of other factors come into play. Count out the technophobes and Luddites, a demographic for which e-readers like the Kindle tragically self-select. The 2007 A.P.-Ipsos survey showed that the heaviest readers are female and over 50, while conversely, tech users skew young and male. Even those who play well with microchips have plenty of reasons for wanting to make reading a semiconductor-free experience. It can be difficult to unwind while interacting with a gadget, and many people enjoy the physical artifact of a book, relishing the feeling of accomplishment when pushing through something paper. So the Kindle's target buyer would be a person who reads so much that they have ceased instilling books and periodicals with nostalgic value?yet not so much that they are rarely far enough from a computer to really need a separate device. To top it off, one can imagine a single device (and Amazon account) being used by an entire household. And we're talking only about those that choose a Kindle, of course, rather than a competing device such as Sony's portable reader. So, all things considered, how many Kindles does that work out to? Two million? One million? Five hundred thousand? Jeff Bezos surely did a market-sizing exercise or two of his own before flying off the handle in excitement over e-readers, and he must have seen something more than a few hundred million in revenue (a mere rounding error to the company's $14.8 billion annual take) worth getting carried away over. Two surefire benefits for Amazon to having an installed base of Kindle users is that profit margins on e-books are very high, and given the ease of downloading content to the device from Amazon, they have a virtual lock on Kindle users' book purchases. Then there's the potential business from the academic market. Textbooks are so clunky, expensive, and universally loathsome to free-spending college students, one could imagine that demographic paying a pretty penny for a slender e-reader replacement. What other options does Amazon have for expanding the Kindle's market? One factor that could really change the game is if the Kindle dropped dramatically in price; companies currently write off their low margins on devices such as gaming consoles, iPods, and printers as marketing costs in return for selling in the high-margin content. But for this to be true with a Kindle, you'd have to believe that users actually read more than they otherwise would because they have a kindle. The data doesn't exist for this yet, but again, it seems unlikely. Book sales have been steady over the past several years; the Kindle also offers newspapers and magazines in digital format, but newspaper circulation has continued to decline over the past 20 years, and the magazine titles currently stocked by the Kindle store?such as Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Readers Digest, and the Nation?are some of the worst-faring out there. The bottom line? Designing the game-changing e-reader, it seems, is more like designing the game-changing harpsichord than the iPod. Wired.Com Kindle ... Or Is It Just Kindling? {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Does Murdoch's Journal Have a Woman Problem? Yahoo Still Struggling With Its Numbers Motorola's Challenge for Its New Co-CEO Subscribe to Portfolio magazine Since the Kindle was launched last November, it has been the subject of careful dissection, review, and speculation by countless blogs and news outlets, sparking one of techland's all-too-frequent debates: Is Amazon's new e-reader a game-changer? More pressing than whether the answer is yes or no is why we're even talking about it in the first place. The game in question is reading, after all?not exactly a growth industry, as Simon & Schuster and Random House will tell you. While Amazon has yet to provide official sales figures, TechCrunch has a source saying that the online retailer has sold 240,000 of the e-readers in their first eight months on sale, for a total of almost $100 million in revenue. It's not difficult to imagine that, thanks to its aggressive Kindle marketing push (such as prime advertising space in the middle of Amazon's homepage), those 240,000 units represent a good portion of the total market for the device out there. Consider that the literate population of the United States is about 270 million, and that according to a 2007 A.P.-Ipsos survey, one in four people didn't read a single book in the past year. Of those who did read books, the average consumption was seven per year?too few by a long shot to warrant buying a pricey e-reader device. The Kindle is not going to make a reader out of a nonreader. Few will say, "Gee, reading books and magazines was prohibitively difficult before, but now that there's a $359 electronic reader available, I'm going to start!" A 2005 Gallup survey reported that 25 percent of people say they read at least part of 10 to 49 books per year, which would mean around 68 million qualify as having a motive, at least, to use an e-reader. Then there's the question of financial means. Only the top 18 percent of households make $100,000 or more, which seems like a reasonable cutoff for figuring out who would spend $359 (down from $399) during a recession on a highly discretionary device, even given a love for reading. Of the 12 million Americans with the means and the motive to purchase a Kindle, a whole host of other factors come into play. Count out the technophobes and Luddites, a demographic for which e-readers like the Kindle tragically self-select. The 2007 A.P.-Ipsos survey showed that the heaviest readers are female and over 50, while conversely, tech users skew young and male. Even those who play well with microchips have plenty of reasons for wanting to make reading a semiconductor-free experience. It can be difficult to unwind while interacting with a gadget, and many people enjoy the physical artifact of a book, relishing the feeling of accomplishment when pushing through something paper. So the Kindle's target buyer would be a person who reads so much that they have ceased instilling books and periodicals with nostalgic value?yet not so much that they are rarely far enough from a computer to really need a separate device. To top it off, one can imagine a single device (and Amazon account) being used by an entire household. And we're talking only about those that choose a Kindle, of course, rather than a competing device such as Sony's portable reader. So, all things considered, how many Kindles does that work out to? Two million? One million? Five hundred thousand? Jeff Bezos surely did a market-sizing exercise or two of his own before flying off the handle in excitement over e-readers, and he must have seen something more than a few hundred million in revenue (a mere rounding error to the company's $14.8 billion annual take) worth getting carried away over. Two surefire benefits for Amazon to having an installed base of Kindle users is that profit margins on e-books are very high, and given the ease of downloading content to the device from Amazon, they have a virtual lock on Kindle users' book purchases. Then there's the potential business from the academic market. Textbooks are so clunky, expensive, and universally loathsome to free-spending college students, one could imagine that demographic paying a pretty penny for a slender e-reader replacement. What other options does Amazon have for expanding the Kindle's market? One factor that could really change the game is if the Kindle dropped dramatically in price; companies currently write off their low margins on devices such as gaming consoles, iPods, and printers as marketing costs in return for selling in the high-margin content. But for this to be true with a Kindle, you'd have to believe that users actually read more than they otherwise would because they have a kindle. The data doesn't exist for this yet, but again, it seems unlikely. Book sales have been steady over the past several years; the Kindle also offers newspapers and magazines in digital format, but newspaper circulation has continued to decline over the past 20 years, and the magazine titles currently stocked by the Kindle store?such as Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Readers Digest, and the Nation?are some of the worst-faring out there. The bottom line? Designing the game-changing e-reader, it seems, is more like designing the game-changing harpsichord than the iPod.
Get in-depth tech news coverage from Wired and read about how it is shaping culture, education, entertainment, communications and technology. {...}
Published: August 5, 2008, 6:05 pm - Indexed: August 6, 2008, 11:04 pm - Page Size: 47KB
Category: News > Breaking News

]]> News > Breaking News {ISSUES > BIAS AND BALANCE} - Boehlert: Trust me, John McCain doesn't know what bad press looks like http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/boehlert-trust-me-john-mccain-doesn-t-know-what-bad-2008087573.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/boehlert-trust-me-john-mccain-doesn-t-know-what-bad-2008087573.htm Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:54:12 GMT Did you know the big bad media are beating up on John McCain? For weeks, the campaign's media debate centered on whether the press was being too kind to Sen. Barack Obama -- whether it was fawning over the Democrat's historic run and drowning him in rapturous coverage. (Recent studies and analysis have cast that claim into doubt.) But now the narrative has been expanded to include the laughable notion that, following a string of McCain campaign stumbles, including botched staging and questionable photo-ops, the press has suddenly turned on McCain and is mocking the Republican. That the same press corps that branded McCain a maverick and for years worshipped his loose-talking demeanor, has now soured on the senator. Meaning, the love is gone. The New York Observer trumpeted that trend last week when it published a front-page article detailing the transformation from McCain-as-media-hero to "McCain-as-marginalized-victim" who's suffering "rough treatment" from journalists. The Observer piece came complete with an illustration that showed the press as a two-by-four-wielding playground bully setting his sights on a vulnerable and childlike McCain. (Run Johnny, run!) Aside from asking for the world's smallest violin, I'd like to make the point that rather than bemoaning the type of press attention McCain has been attracting, most recent Democratic candidates for president, who were pummeled and even savaged by the press, would pay for the kind of respectful coverage McCain has accumulated this summer. They would be rejoicing if the press ever treated them as kindly and as softly as it has McCain this campaign. Let me put it another way: When McCain gets regularly portrayed in the press as a serial liar the way Al Gore was in 2000, then he can complain about the press. When McCain is portrayed as an angry lunatic the way Howard Dean was in 2003, then he can complain. When McCain's war record is dragged through the mud while the press looks on for weeks too frightened to call out the partisan accusers, the way John Kerry's military record was, then he can complain. When McCain's campaign is defined by his haircut the way John Edwards' was, then he can complain. When McCain is portrayed as a cackling witch the way Hillary Clinton was this winter, then he can complain. When McCain is portrayed as arrogant and presumptuous the way Obama is today, then he can complain. But pretending that when the press simply chronicles McCain's disjointed campaign means that reporters and pundits have somehow turned on the candidate -- that they are attacking him and piling on -- is just ludicrous. It's true the McCain campaign has received some unkind press notices in recent weeks, but that's because the McCain campaign has been very poorly run. As The Atlantic's conservative blogger Ross Douthat conceded last week, "John McCain is running a staggeringly inept campaign." That's what Republican boosters were saying about the Arizona senator. But simply acknowledging the campaign's missteps, however gingerly the traditional media have done it in recent weeks, does not mean the press is being nasty to the candidate or attacking the GOP. What's happened in recent White House campaign cycles is that people have become so accustomed to the press openly mocking the Democrat that when that pattern is altered, however slightly, as it's been in 2008, it's perceived to be a massive shift. Since the media are simply not trashing the Democratic nominee as aggressively as in campaigns past, conservatives are claiming that's being unfair. They liked the old model where the press effortlessly adopted GOP spin about Democratic candidates being phony and untrustworthy. That worked for the GOP. Today, that model has been modestly tweaked, and the GOP is crying foul. That's expected. But it was distressing to see the New York Observer buy into the spin about the media turning on McCain. After all, the evidence to support the meme is quite thin. Yes, partisan Republican Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, assured the Observer that McCain "got slapped upside the head" by the media. But in terms of pinpointing actual instances of mockery, the Observer didn't seem to have much to work with. It did cite this recent cable chatter scene: "On a recent segment on Fox News' The Beltway Boys ... Morton Kondracke, countered a little later with this: "McCain did not have a great week. His visual was riding around in a golf cart with old George Bush the First." Mr. Kondracke waved his hands in the air, comically mimicking Mr. McCain at the wheel of a golf car. Mr. [Fred] Barnes crossed his arms and chuckled. That was the Observer's strongest piece of evidence of the media "mockery" -- of the "rough treatment" -- that McCain has had to endure? Kondracke waved his hands and Barnes chuckled. Oh, brother. I mean, how does McCain make it through the days with that kind of media venom flowing in his direction? I can't help thinking if Gore wouldn't have preferred suffering that kind of "mockery" as opposed to having MSNBC's Chris Matthews announce that Gore was so desperate to be president in 2000 that he would gladly "lick the bathroom floor" to get elected. Go read the Daily Howler's 2000 archives for a catalog that's as long as a fire station grocery list of the jarring insults and attacks the press leveled against Gore, who, at times, was portrayed in the press as pathological. And then compare those attacks to the light-as-a-feather mockery that McCain has supposedly had to deal with lately and tell me which is tougher. It's the same reason that I bet Clinton would have gladly been the target of a Fox News anchor's chuckle rather than having The New York Times print a news section analysis of her laugh and then watch lots of well-paid, deep-thinking pundits and reporters at The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Cincinnati Post, National Public Radio, Time.com, Reuters, Associated Press, Politico, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, among others, pontificate about her humorous outbursts. Indeed, way back in November 2007, months before the press really let loose on her candidacy, Greg Sargent amassed a sort of Greatest Hits of the media's phony attacks on Clinton. Read the list and try to think of a single event in the last two months in which the press, which we're told has turned on poor John McCain, ever concocted nonsense like this and targeted the GOP front-runner: * Hillary's alleged failure to tip the Iowa waitress * Hillary's phony southern drawl * The supposed 20-year-plan by Hillary and Bill to take over the world, or at least deliver them both the Presidency, as alleged by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta and denied by the one person who supposedly had first-hand knowledge of their dastardly plot * The baseless claim that Hillary eavesdropped on political opponents in 1992 * The bogus media claim that Bill Clinton accused Hillary's Dem rivals of "swiftboating" her * The media's hyping of Hillary's supposed refusal to release Presidential records, a tale that was taken apart in today's Washington Post and which wasn't matched by any similar media outrage about Rudy [Giuliani's] refusal to release his Mayoral papers. P.S. Don't forget the great cleavage debate of 2007. Yet we're supposed to believe the bullying press is now mocking McCain? Give us a break. You'll also note that with the Democratic trend with Gore, Dean, Kerry, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama, the caustic coverage candidates have had to endure almost always revolved around questions of character; being a liar, a phony, unhinged, or arrogant. By contrast, there has not been a single, sustained press narrative pushed by the media during this entire campaign season that has ridiculed or called into question McCain's character. Not one. For the press, that kind of character exploration of McCain remains taboo. But when covering Democrats, character assassination remains routine. Meanwhile, I can't help wondering if the press is being tagged as mean and nasty simply because reporters belatedly challenged one of McCain's many campaign lies. Because they decided to come out of their Bush-era shell and actually engaged in a rare bout of fact-checking, or what used to be called reporting, when a Republican tried to smear the character of his Democratic opponent. The lie McCain peddled in a television ad was that Obama canceled a trip to visit wounded U.S. soldiers in Germany because the Pentagon told him he couldn't bring reporters along with him. After some initial hesitation, NBC, along with The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, finally reported that McCain's central allegation was not supported by the facts. On the front page on July 30, the Post's Michael Shear and Dan Balz reported that McCain continued to make the allegation, "despite no evidence that the charge is true." That might seem like a simple thing. And unfortunately the press still allowed McCain's planted lie to dictate campaign coverage last week. But for the Beltway media amidst a White House campaign, the Post's reporting was different. As the Daily Howler noted: "Shear's report represents a major change in the mainstream press culture of the past sixteen years. In this report, the Washington Post, on its front page, directly challenges the latest slimy "character" charge against the latest Dem White House hopeful. This represents a major change in the way this newspaper does business." Quite simply, the Republican Party cannot afford to have the press become aggressive fact-checkers out on the trail. So in an attempt to intimidate the press back into the semi-crouch that has defined campaign journalism for the last decade, conservatives whine about how mean and nasty the media are for attacking McCain. But the far-fetched claim just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. In fact, it directly contradicts very recent testimonials from starry-eyed journalists on the McCain beat. "Covering McCain is a blast," wrote Ana Marie Cox, in a recent issue of Radar. "He genuinely likes reporters: He'll joke with us about our drinking habits, playfully request our cell phones in the middle of a call and tell some unsuspecting editor or parent that the phone's owner has just been hauled off to rehab, and engage in gleefully sarcastic banter about both our colleagues and his." And on MSNBC last week, Time's Mark Halperin, sounding like somebody putting off making an unwanted dentist appointment, assured viewers that, "McCain deserves scrutiny and he'll get some." Halperin couldn't quite say when that pending scrutiny of McCain would take place. (Stay tuned.) The truth is that the press not only has not turned on McCain but it continues to act as a key campaign ally in a way it does not for Democrats. I'm trying to imagine back during the 2004 campaign, when the debate about Iraq was raging: What if candidate Kerry had sat down for an interview on the CBS Evening News and promptly made an egregious factual error regarding the timeline of events there? Does anybody really think that rather than air Kerry's blunder, and in fact trumpet the misstep as news, that CBS would have cut away from his botched answer and replaced it with three separate spliced-together statements made by Kerry, one of which was the answer to a different question, and then not tipped off viewers that the interview had been heavily edited? Does anybody think CBS would have extended Kerry that courtesy? That's exactly the kind of oversized life preserver Katie Couric's Evening News threw McCain when he bungled the timeline of the U.S. military's surge in Iraq during a CBS interview. In an extraordinary act of kindness, Couric and company covered for McCain -- and violated CBS' ethical guidelines in the process. Yet today we're told the press has turned on the GOP candidate and that it's mocking John McCain? Trust me, if the press had turned on Al Gore like that in 2000, he'd be finishing up his second term as president right now. Mediamatters.Org Boehlert: Trust me, John McCain doesn't know what bad press looks like {new window}   Mediamatters.Org - Did you know the big bad media are beating up on John McCain? For weeks, the campaign's media debate centered on whether the press was being too kind to Sen. Barack Obama -- whether it was fawning over the Democrat's historic run and drowning him in rapturous coverage. (Recent studies and analysis have cast that claim into doubt.) But now the narrative has been expanded to include the laughable notion that, following a string of McCain campaign stumbles, including botched staging and questionable photo-ops, the press has suddenly turned on McCain and is mocking the Republican. That the same press corps that branded McCain a maverick and for years worshipped his loose-talking demeanor, has now soured on the senator. Meaning, the love is gone. The New York Observer trumpeted that trend last week when it published a front-page article detailing the transformation from McCain-as-media-hero to "McCain-as-marginalized-victim" who's suffering "rough treatment" from journalists. The Observer piece came complete with an illustration that showed the press as a two-by-four-wielding playground bully setting his sights on a vulnerable and childlike McCain. (Run Johnny, run!) Aside from asking for the world's smallest violin, I'd like to make the point that rather than bemoaning the type of press attention McCain has been attracting, most recent Democratic candidates for president, who were pummeled and even savaged by the press, would pay for the kind of respectful coverage McCain has accumulated this summer. They would be rejoicing if the press ever treated them as kindly and as softly as it has McCain this campaign. Let me put it another way: When McCain gets regularly portrayed in the press as a serial liar the way Al Gore was in 2000, then he can complain about the press. When McCain is portrayed as an angry lunatic the way Howard Dean was in 2003, then he can complain. When McCain's war record is dragged through the mud while the press looks on for weeks too frightened to call out the partisan accusers, the way John Kerry's military record was, then he can complain. When McCain's campaign is defined by his haircut the way John Edwards' was, then he can complain. When McCain is portrayed as a cackling witch the way Hillary Clinton was this winter, then he can complain. When McCain is portrayed as arrogant and presumptuous the way Obama is today, then he can complain. But pretending that when the press simply chronicles McCain's disjointed campaign means that reporters and pundits have somehow turned on the candidate -- that they are attacking him and piling on -- is just ludicrous. It's true the McCain campaign has received some unkind press notices in recent weeks, but that's because the McCain campaign has been very poorly run. As The Atlantic's conservative blogger Ross Douthat conceded last week, "John McCain is running a staggeringly inept campaign." That's what Republican boosters were saying about the Arizona senator. But simply acknowledging the campaign's missteps, however gingerly the traditional media have done it in recent weeks, does not mean the press is being nasty to the candidate or attacking the GOP. What's happened in recent White House campaign cycles is that people have become so accustomed to the press openly mocking the Democrat that when that pattern is altered, however slightly, as it's been in 2008, it's perceived to be a massive shift. Since the media are simply not trashing the Democratic nominee as aggressively as in campaigns past, conservatives are claiming that's being unfair. They liked the old model where the press effortlessly adopted GOP spin about Democratic candidates being phony and untrustworthy. That worked for the GOP. Today, that model has been modestly tweaked, and the GOP is crying foul. That's expected. But it was distressing to see the New York Observer buy into the spin about the media turning on McCain. After all, the evidence to support the meme is quite thin. Yes, partisan Republican Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, assured the Observer that McCain "got slapped upside the head" by the media. But in terms of pinpointing actual instances of mockery, the Observer didn't seem to have much to work with. It did cite this recent cable chatter scene: "On a recent segment on Fox News' The Beltway Boys ... Morton Kondracke, countered a little later with this: "McCain did not have a great week. His visual was riding around in a golf cart with old George Bush the First." Mr. Kondracke waved his hands in the air, comically mimicking Mr. McCain at the wheel of a golf car. Mr. [Fred] Barnes crossed his arms and chuckled. That was the Observer's strongest piece of evidence of the media "mockery" -- of the "rough treatment" -- that McCain has had to endure? Kondracke waved his hands and Barnes chuckled. Oh, brother. I mean, how does McCain make it through the days with that kind of media venom flowing in his direction? I can't help thinking if Gore wouldn't have preferred suffering that kind of "mockery" as opposed to having MSNBC's Chris Matthews announce that Gore was so desperate to be president in 2000 that he would gladly "lick the bathroom floor" to get elected. Go read the Daily Howler's 2000 archives for a catalog that's as long as a fire station grocery list of the jarring insults and attacks the press leveled against Gore, who, at times, was portrayed in the press as pathological. And then compare those attacks to the light-as-a-feather mockery that McCain has supposedly had to deal with lately and tell me which is tougher. It's the same reason that I bet Clinton would have gladly been the target of a Fox News anchor's chuckle rather than having The New York Times print a news section analysis of her laugh and then watch lots of well-paid, deep-thinking pundits and reporters at The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Cincinnati Post, National Public Radio, Time.com, Reuters, Associated Press, Politico, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, among others, pontificate about her humorous outbursts. Indeed, way back in November 2007, months before the press really let loose on her candidacy, Greg Sargent amassed a sort of Greatest Hits of the media's phony attacks on Clinton. Read the list and try to think of a single event in the last two months in which the press, which we're told has turned on poor John McCain, ever concocted nonsense like this and targeted the GOP front-runner: * Hillary's alleged failure to tip the Iowa waitress * Hillary's phony southern drawl * The supposed 20-year-plan by Hillary and Bill to take over the world, or at least deliver them both the Presidency, as alleged by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta and denied by the one person who supposedly had first-hand knowledge of their dastardly plot * The baseless claim that Hillary eavesdropped on political opponents in 1992 * The bogus media claim that Bill Clinton accused Hillary's Dem rivals of "swiftboating" her * The media's hyping of Hillary's supposed refusal to release Presidential records, a tale that was taken apart in today's Washington Post and which wasn't matched by any similar media outrage about Rudy [Giuliani's] refusal to release his Mayoral papers. P.S. Don't forget the great cleavage debate of 2007. Yet we're supposed to believe the bullying press is now mocking McCain? Give us a break. You'll also note that with the Democratic trend with Gore, Dean, Kerry, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama, the caustic coverage candidates have had to endure almost always revolved around questions of character; being a liar, a phony, unhinged, or arrogant. By contrast, there has not been a single, sustained press narrative pushed by the media during this entire campaign season that has ridiculed or called into question McCain's character. Not one. For the press, that kind of character exploration of McCain remains taboo. But when covering Democrats, character assassination remains routine. Meanwhile, I can't help wondering if the press is being tagged as mean and nasty simply because reporters belatedly challenged one of McCain's many campaign lies. Because they decided to come out of their Bush-era shell and actually engaged in a rare bout of fact-checking, or what used to be called reporting, when a Republican tried to smear the character of his Democratic opponent. The lie McCain peddled in a television ad was that Obama canceled a trip to visit wounded U.S. soldiers in Germany because the Pentagon told him he couldn't bring reporters along with him. After some initial hesitation, NBC, along with The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, finally reported that McCain's central allegation was not supported by the facts. On the front page on July 30, the Post's Michael Shear and Dan Balz reported that McCain continued to make the allegation, "despite no evidence that the charge is true." That might seem like a simple thing. And unfortunately the press still allowed McCain's planted lie to dictate campaign coverage last week. But for the Beltway media amidst a White House campaign, the Post's reporting was different. As the Daily Howler noted: "Shear's report represents a major change in the mainstream press culture of the past sixteen years. In this report, the Washington Post, on its front page, directly challenges the latest slimy "character" charge against the latest Dem White House hopeful. This represents a major change in the way this newspaper does business." Quite simply, the Republican Party cannot afford to have the press become aggressive fact-checkers out on the trail. So in an attempt to intimidate the press back into the semi-crouch that has defined campaign journalism for the last decade, conservatives whine about how mean and nasty the media are for attacking McCain. But the far-fetched claim just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. In fact, it directly contradicts very recent testimonials from starry-eyed journalists on the McCain beat. "Covering McCain is a blast," wrote Ana Marie Cox, in a recent issue of Radar. "He genuinely likes reporters: He'll joke with us about our drinking habits, playfully request our cell phones in the middle of a call and tell some unsuspecting editor or parent that the phone's owner has just been hauled off to rehab, and engage in gleefully sarcastic banter about both our colleagues and his." And on MSNBC last week, Time's Mark Halperin, sounding like somebody putting off making an unwanted dentist appointment, assured viewers that, "McCain deserves scrutiny and he'll get some." Halperin couldn't quite say when that pending scrutiny of McCain would take place. (Stay tuned.) The truth is that the press not only has not turned on McCain but it continues to act as a key campaign ally in a way it does not for Democrats. I'm trying to imagine back during the 2004 campaign, when the debate about Iraq was raging: What if candidate Kerry had sat down for an interview on the CBS Evening News and promptly made an egregious factual error regarding the timeline of events there? Does anybody really think that rather than air Kerry's blunder, and in fact trumpet the misstep as news, that CBS would have cut away from his botched answer and replaced it with three separate spliced-together statements made by Kerry, one of which was the answer to a different question, and then not tipped off viewers that the interview had been heavily edited? Does anybody think CBS would have extended Kerry that courtesy? That's exactly the kind of oversized life preserver Katie Couric's Evening News threw McCain when he bungled the timeline of the U.S. military's surge in Iraq during a CBS interview. In an extraordinary act of kindness, Couric and company covered for McCain -- and violated CBS' ethical guidelines in the process. Yet today we're told the press has turned on the GOP candidate and that it's mocking John McCain? Trust me, if the press had turned on Al Gore like that in 2000, he'd be finishing up his second term as president right now.
Media Matters - Trust me, John McCain doesn't know what bad press looks like {...}
Published: August 5, 2008, 5:54 pm - Indexed: August 6, 2008, 11:14 pm - Page Size: 28KB
Category: Society > Issues >