Accept no substitutes

Month: April 2006 (Page 3 of 4)

Universal Digital Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Just turned in answers for an email interview with Christian Hall of .Net (UK). Most were about the Blooker, but there were also a few about blogging in general. One question got me thinking (see below). What if every bit of Free Software carried the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within it? There are versions in over 300 languages so it could be truly viral in a good sense, discovered and read worldwide.

+4: How can blogger’s rights be improved?

i wish there were a way for technology to somehow embed the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in every piece of software produced. even more
so i wish that every country might live by the principles therein.

http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm

Roger Hannay Memorial Concert – Sunday

Sally writes to remind us of our neighbor, Roger Hannay’s memorial concert tomorrow:

As announced in the Chapel Hill News on Wednesday,

“A concert celebrating the life of Roger Hannay will be presented at 2 p.m. April 9 in Hill Hall. Hannay, a composer and professor at UNC, died in January at age 75.

“The concert will be a retrospective of his compositions from 1947 to 2005. Admission will be free, and a reception will follow the concert.”

Janet’s daughter Dawn has worked hard to make this concert a reality. I’m sure it will be wonderful, and I hope to see some of you there.

Season of Peeps

Pink Peeps of WikipediaAs Easter approaches, I am reminded that we are in High Season for Peeps.

Dr. Fun has done a great job on Peeps humor over the years.

BBC needs a copy editor, Mr Scooter

Found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4885100.stm
at 9:57 EDT (US) and still there at 10:22 pm [Note site reads: Last Updated: Friday, 7 April 2006, 02:16 GMT 03:16 UK ]

Pre-trial court papers cite Lewis “Libby” Scooter as saying he was told to tell a reporter Iraq was “vigorously trying to procure” uranium.

Mr Scooter, former chief-of-staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, is facing trial in connection with another leak.

He is accused of lying to prosecutors probing the naming of a CIA agent.

Former diplomat Joseph Wilson – husband of the agent, Valerie Plame – wrote a high-profile article in the New York Times in July 2003 casting doubt on a key White House claim about Saddam Hussein’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Mr Libby reportedly says in court papers filed on Wednesday that soon afterwards, Mr Cheney told him to pass information from the classified National Intelligence Estimate to Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter.

MySpace – Fear and Acceptance

MySpace is the second quickest growing site on the Internet over the past year (WashingtonPost.com reports), having grown 318% since last February to take the place as the 10th most visited site on the Net. Number one in growth, but lower in rank, is Blogger.netcom (thanks for the correction, Justin) at 528% and 27th in rank.
At the same time, MySpace is the target of a series of voodoo warnings including an overly cautious warning from Governor wannabe and current NC Attorney General Roy Cooper advising parents to shutdown their kids social networking.
Collegue Debashis Aikat in much more sane, in the quotes, except that he claims that “American young people have so much pressure to make friendships.” Err what does that mean? Kids don’t need or want friends? Kinda misses the point of being human, which does translate into online social behavior. Like the song says, more or less, “People Need People.” Most in productive and rewarding ways in fact.
Oh, Moral Panic, you may be rooted in statistically improbable fact, but you dog our waking and sleeping moments as if you were so much more real.

BBC-TV Blooker story

WillR reports that he saw the BBC-TV Blooker story last night. It’s online now (or for now). They did a cute trick with video effects that makes it look like you are seeing the series of interviews in a QT player on a large Mac OS X box. You may be, in fact. Well, almost — you can only watch the BBC stream in WinMedia or Real. Julie Powell, our Blooker winner is there, I am there, Russell Davies of Bacon, Egg, Chips & Beans, the anonymous Iraqi blogger (not Saleem Pax) and a rather confused editor from a traditional publisher in LA.
WillR sends this link which didn’t work so well for me. I did a search on Blooker on the BBC site and found the video link in this context which worked fine for me.

01:02:03 04/05/06

Journalism School Dean Tom Bowers reminds us that this evening (or very early morning) at two minutes and three seconds after one a.m. the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
If we were to use the US 12 hour clock and were to celebrate based on EDT, we’d have two chances to celebrate — a.m. and p.m.
But if we were to celebrate using GMT, it would be more proper to celebrate on the fourth of May at 01:02:03 that is 01:02:03 04/May/06 aka 04/05/06 since most of the world lists their dates as day/month/year rather than the US’s month/day/year.

Worldwide Blooker Coverage

BBC’s Outlook gave worldwide air to the Blooker Prize. Mark McCarthy writes from Khartoum where he is working with Humanitarian Information Center for Darfur – Sudan:

So I finish a jog along the Blue Nile and climb into my truck. It’s dusk and I can get the BBC on the AM dial at night so I give it a try. Who is that? I know that voice. What the …. Why is Paul on my radio in Khartoum? Am I going mad?

Over 120 stories on the Blooker are out now and I’m in a few of them. Odd to see myself in a Dutch paper and in Australia and in South Africa in slightly different takes on the Blooker.

First Commercial Radio on IPv6 Goes Down in Flames

Ken alerts us that IPv6 late-comer, Virgin Radio, is claiming that they are the first commercial radio station to simulcast using the IPv6 protoco. Unlike, WXYC and WCPE both of which have been on IPv6 since November 2004, Virgin is off the air after their servers have gone down in flames (according to their website).

They say:

These streams are temporarily unavailable.
Note that due to a serious fire, our IPv6 streams are currently down. Find our normal IPv4 ones by visiting our normal listen page.

Blooker and Jones on NPR Marketplace

Between returning from the University of Pennsylvania and heading up to Boone for the Odyssey of the Mind competition, I did a bit for Marketplace about the Blooker. Several of my collegues heard it, but not me. Stephen Fraser sent me the link to the story (my/Blooker part begins about 3:30 into the 8:24 segment. Lasts about 1 minute).

Not as bad as I feared.

UPDATE: Stephen sends this better link (if you only want to hear the Blooker segment).

Cooker beats Hooker to win Blooker

As seen in Guardian UK: [with some corrections and additions]. More Blooker winner stories here. And the official Lulu Blooker announcement is here.

Diesel, death and dinosaurs

Overall winner and winner of non-fiction category

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
Julie Powell (Penguin) [and Little, Brown in hardback – pj]
Source blog blogs.salon.com/001399

[A great blook isn’t a website shoveled onto paper. Julie and Julia successfully makes the transition and grows as it goes having learned from the blog readers. The deeply personal story here, the story of an obsession, leads us all to see what could be trival and indulgent as a personal and as it turns out communal art, an art of transformation and of conquest (of egg dishes and of selfdoubt). – pj]

Runner-up

Biodiesel Power
Lyle Estill (New Society Publishers)
Source blog www.biofuels.coop/blog

[This blook too is about obcession and drive and community. The blook is printed and bound in the most environmentally friendly manner true to the last drop of ink to the higher goals for the writer. This attention to detail, to harmony inform the writing and the story telling while the self-reflective humor in the stories keep the blook from become preachy and sour. – pj]

Fiction winner

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Cherie Priest (Tor Books)
Source blog http://wicked-wish.livejournal.com

[I am not a reader of the gothic, but this blook captivated me with its gusto, its invocation of a dark South both in mountains and in swamp. Priest can tell a tale and she can write a sentence that competes with the best out there. Stephen King should be very afraid. – pj]

Runner-up

Hackoff.com: An Historic Murder Mystery Set in the Internet Bubble and Rubble
Tom Evslin (dotHill Press)
Source blog www.hackoff.com

Comic books winner

Totally Boned: A Joe and Monkey Collection

Zach Miller (Boxcar Books – self-published through Lulu.com)
Source blog www.joeandmonkey.com

[I teach people about the same age as Joe. I thought this comic blook was a non-fiction documentary. The humor cuts to the bone. It’s that true. That’s why it hurts but you laugh. – pj]

Runner-up

Dinosaur Comics: Huge Eyes, Beaks, Intelligence, and Ambition
Ryan North (CatPrint)
Source blog www.qwantz.com

[A single set of illustrations manipulated into dozens of different stories by the words alone. The art, i mean the skill and imagination, dazzles me at every page turn. Everyone I hand this blook to is delighted and laughing. – pj]

Blooker Winners are out!

It’s Monday somewhere. Specifically in the UK. Stephen Fraser is a little upset that the word of the winners is out already, but hey Lulu didn’t plan an awards ceremony so Monday is midnight GMT if you are a leading UK paper. The Telegraph has their story here. The Independent has theirs here. And USA Today has their story here.

Who was the overall winner? The person who worked as nanny to the only two-time winner of the Booker Prize.

I’m waiting til Monday here in NC to announce any more than that.

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