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July 13, 2005
Here’s an explanation of globish, first in English and then in globish. Very cool.
About ten years ago, someone — I think a German — proposed a language that permitted speakers to mix in words from whatever language they want. So, you might say, “The ganze monde capiche this lingua.” It’s up to you. But I’ve lost the reference… (T Byfield has found a related, or possibly identical, effort.) [Technorati tags: globish GlobalVoices]
The Boston Globe has introduced a new section called Sidekick which gathers all the newsotainment into one big dumbed-down mini-tabloid. It is, of course, my new favorite section.
Its middle spread runs content from users, including interesting photos and a selection from a few blogs. The website has more user-generated focus. It could use links to more blogs, though, IMO. And why not encourage Bostonians to post photos to Flickr with a “BostonGlobe” tag if they want it to be picked up by the paper?
Is Sidekick the ultimate answer? Will Dan Gillmor pick up a copy, say, “Looks like the citizen journalism question has been answered,” and close up shop? Nah. But it’s a step or two in a right direction. [Technorati tags: BostonGlobe CitizenJournalism]
Rick Santorum continues to affirm that Boston’s “sexual license” and “sexual freedom” (Has he ever been to this city? Puhleease!) created the environment that led to an epidemic of clergymen raping children.
Notice that Boston does not have any more non-clergy-related child abuse cases than anywhere else. So, what Santorum is actually saying is that a sexually permissive environment (again I must laugh) will lead priests astray. Priests in disproportionate numbers.
If Santorum were thinking this through, instead of just trying to raise his ratings with his ultra-conservative constituency, I believe he would come to the conclusion that since priests work in a sexually repressed environment, sexual repression, not permission, fosters a statistically significant tendency toward child rape. I mean, that’s if you want to connect the statistics about child rape with vague characterizations of the “environment,” which is probably a mistake to begin with.
Or, if may put my argument differently, in the words of Barney Frank, Rick Santorum is a jerk. Wait, are the jerks the ones who use the mass rape of children for their political advantage? Yup, they are.
[Technorati tags: RickSantorum]
More seriously, CapitolBuzz reports that a victims’ group has responded to Santorum’s ridiculous theories.
Susan Crawford reminds us to submit nominees for PublicKnowledge.org‘s IP3 awards. IP3 stands for Intellectual “Property”, Information Policy and Internet Protocol. (The quotes around Property are mine. Can we please never ever refer to ideas as “property” again since the metaphor is not only inapt, it also tils the playing field in favor of the forces of suppression? Thank you.)
Anyway, last year’s winners were Rep. Rick Boucher, (D-Va.); Danger Mouse, creator of the Grey Album; and Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, so these are pretty cool awards. Not to mention Susan is one of the judges, another sign of wisdom.
Nominations are due by August 1. Send them to ip3nominees
publicknowledge.org ASAP.
Who would you nominate? [Technorati tags: ip3 publicknowledge SusanCrawford]
My site was down for aboyut 19 hours, starting at 5pm (-5GMT) yesterday. Sorry. And if you sent me any email during the time, you might want to resend.
July 12, 2005
I didn’t know Dick Sabot, but thanks to posts by Ethanz, the Velveteen Rabbi and the obituary in the Berkshire Eagle I miss him. [Technorati tags: DickSabot]
Henrik Schneider points out that an Hungarian woman living in London went to a public webcam in Covent Garden and used her cell phone to record her observations and feelings. A colleague videotaped a monitor displaying the webcam footage and an Hungarian news channel, NNTV.hu picked it up. You can see her report (in Hungarian) using the webcam as her video studio here.
Global Voices has undergone a total redesign. Nice job! (By the way, it’s reachable at http://www.GlobalVoicesOnline.org, as well as at the harder-to-remember http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/
Here’s an example of the sort blog coverage Global Voices’ daily roundup offers:
Crossroads Arabia points out two interesting developments from Saudi Arabia. First, the Grand Mufti of the mosque in Mecca–Saudi Arabia’s highest religious figure–has condemmed the London bombings. Second, government officials will apparently start arresting and charging clerics who issue fawtas that justify terrorist acts.
[Technorati tag: GlobalVoices]
Rocketboom today features a snippet of Steve Garfield‘s interview with Molly Krause about H20, a really interesting Berkman software project that I’ll be blogging more about today. The full interview is here.
By the way this is a very funny Rocketboom. [Technorati tags: rocketboom h20 berkman SteveGarfield MollyKrause]
Rick Santorum said in 2002 that Boston’s liberal culture is to blame for the fact that an outrageous number of Catholic clergymen have raped children: “While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.” Interesting theory.
And he’s standing by it. When Bryan McGrory in a column in The Boston Globe asked Santorum’s office to elaborate, an aide replied: “It’s an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases. I think that’s what the senator was speaking to.” Oh yeah, at Harvard and MIT we have people minoring in Child Molestation.
If Santorum believes what he’s saying, he’s irresponsibly stupid. If he doesn’t, I’ll see him in Hell. [Thanks to CapitolBuzz for the link.] [Technorati tags: boston santorum ]
A reader suggests some nasty, adults-only, Santorum-bashing humor from Savage Love – the results of a contest looking for a sex-related definition of the word “santorum.”
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