Friday, February 22, 2002
Kevin, YES!
Tom's musings notwithstanding, I will stand before you and say YES! Kevin, we would love a tool like that. And maybe we can make you famous for it too. A guy I worked with told me he saw googlewhacking gary on a national news show last night talking about googlewhacking. Anyone hear this? I suppose I could go snoop around as I've been working on a proposal for the last 70 hours, but if it's so, that bodes well for us all. This particular colleague doesn't blog (yet) but I'm encouraging him to. So I don't think his national googlewhacking story was a dream.... but hold on, lemme go look....
Helen,
I agree with some of what you have said. The developing economies of this world need better computer software. But is Office, Dreamweaver, and AfterAffects, or even XP required software. Millions of users around this world are running Linux and open source software that they haven't paid for. We have computers around here that are running only freeware and open source software. What is happening in Vietnam and other countries where piracy is happening is not literacy, it is theft. The Lord of the Rings on DVD is not about literacy, it is about making a buck illegally.
I agree with some of what you have said. The developing economies of this world need better computer software. But is Office, Dreamweaver, and AfterAffects, or even XP required software. Millions of users around this world are running Linux and open source software that they haven't paid for. We have computers around here that are running only freeware and open source software. What is happening in Vietnam and other countries where piracy is happening is not literacy, it is theft. The Lord of the Rings on DVD is not about literacy, it is about making a buck illegally.
the inescapable blunder of wonder
Kevin, if you hacked something together, it might solve the practical problem for Jeneane, me and others who are concerned with access to their stuff that blogware has made so easy to render/expropriate in one seductive pushbutton slip of the digit. It might not address the issue of what blogware's actual agenda/principles/objectives/priorities are vis a vis notions of intellectual property, etc. Where, one has to bl/wonder, does it think after all it is going? To what end, quotha? To wit: more on this with Jeneane and Razer noted here, complete with stolen Razer logo & all rights abjected.
the relentless wonder of plunder
Jordon! One is aghast. To employ the parlance of the young and callow, whassup?
You impart here - of all the digital fora in the world! - "if you make anything cool, it will be pirated and stolen". Well, I jolly well hope so. Ideas improve. The meaning of words [ideas, cultural artefacts, SOFTWARE] participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. Guy Debord. Ninety Freaking Sixty Seven.
Theft is implicit in the manufacture of all art, marketing, preternaturally decent stuff.......
Why O Why when appropriation ought be regarded as the most significant and enticing theoretical informant of contemporary culture, should copyright law and plainly menopausal fear-of-plunder become increasingly odious?!
Heavens. Those INSOUCIANT Vietnamese DARING to promulgate a sub-economy that would afford information literacy to those who can least afford it.
Personally, I think it all went wrong with the printing press. All those PEASANTS daring to acquire lexical dexterity. Preserve Mr Gates' right to keep Melinda in garters now. Halt the burgeoning will of third world constituents to participate in the digital cultural economy now.
The field of cultural production ought be open to all players, Jordon. If a couple of folk in Chiang Mai get Office XP for free, freaking great, I say.
I trust that you attained full permissions and/or adhered to minimum Fair Use restrictions when you reproduced yahoo content, btw.
You impart here - of all the digital fora in the world! - "if you make anything cool, it will be pirated and stolen". Well, I jolly well hope so. Ideas improve. The meaning of words [ideas, cultural artefacts, SOFTWARE] participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. Guy Debord. Ninety Freaking Sixty Seven.
Theft is implicit in the manufacture of all art, marketing, preternaturally decent stuff.......
Why O Why when appropriation ought be regarded as the most significant and enticing theoretical informant of contemporary culture, should copyright law and plainly menopausal fear-of-plunder become increasingly odious?!
Heavens. Those INSOUCIANT Vietnamese DARING to promulgate a sub-economy that would afford information literacy to those who can least afford it.
Personally, I think it all went wrong with the printing press. All those PEASANTS daring to acquire lexical dexterity. Preserve Mr Gates' right to keep Melinda in garters now. Halt the burgeoning will of third world constituents to participate in the digital cultural economy now.
The field of cultural production ought be open to all players, Jordon. If a couple of folk in Chiang Mai get Office XP for free, freaking great, I say.
I trust that you attained full permissions and/or adhered to minimum Fair Use restrictions when you reproduced yahoo content, btw.
Easy client-side tool
If you really want this I'm sure I could hack together a client-side tool to pull down the archives page in chronological order fairly easily. after all, the text is all up there in a fairly clean format.
Thursday, February 21, 2002
i'd sign
Hey Tom, I'd sign up in a second. I totally agree. Give us more options on the output side of things--the same easy way you've given us pushbutton publishing. It would add a whole new dimension. Just think, if Locke had been blogging EGR over the years, it would have been quite a task to unearth just the right archives for Bombast. As more and more useful content--repurposeful content--comes out of blogs, the likes of Blogger and Moveable Type and others could really differentiate themselves by giving us new ways to free our thoughts from the confines of the Web (and did you ever think we'd be talking like that? Irony is an absolute.)
Just out of my ever-pressing fear that the folks at Blogger may suddenly decide it's not worth it to do what they do, I go into my archives every so often, copy the text out of every entry, and paste it into word. And that really sucks, because, first of all I do it blog-chronology style (i.e. backwards from the hard copy world), but I figure at least I'll have a copy of everything if something were to happen to the archives.
I'd love to press "export to MSWord?" or "export to PDF?" or something.... and voila!
And as you said, searching within the posts would be cool, because we could search up every instance of, say, "broadcast" on this site and how easy would it be to write an article on the death of mass marketing with the assistance off of the search results from gonzo enagaged, quotes just ripe for the picking from all those amazing brains assembled here.
And stuff like that...
And other stuff we haven't thought of...
I've worked 80 hours since Monday. Billed 70 hours the week before. I need to go lie down now. Someone remind me to add a couple folks to this lovely blog when I come to tomorrow--they've emailed me and I don't have the strength to do it tonight...
sleep well,
j.
Just out of my ever-pressing fear that the folks at Blogger may suddenly decide it's not worth it to do what they do, I go into my archives every so often, copy the text out of every entry, and paste it into word. And that really sucks, because, first of all I do it blog-chronology style (i.e. backwards from the hard copy world), but I figure at least I'll have a copy of everything if something were to happen to the archives.
I'd love to press "export to MSWord?" or "export to PDF?" or something.... and voila!
And as you said, searching within the posts would be cool, because we could search up every instance of, say, "broadcast" on this site and how easy would it be to write an article on the death of mass marketing with the assistance off of the search results from gonzo enagaged, quotes just ripe for the picking from all those amazing brains assembled here.
And stuff like that...
And other stuff we haven't thought of...
I've worked 80 hours since Monday. Billed 70 hours the week before. I need to go lie down now. Someone remind me to add a couple folks to this lovely blog when I come to tomorrow--they've emailed me and I don't have the strength to do it tonight...
sleep well,
j.
blogware activism
Jeneane, thanks for noting my thoughts on emancipating content from blogware. I do think this is going to be a more pressing concern as more people blog for more kinds of purposes, including the physicians, engineers, etc. that Dave Winer mentioned. Perhaps an open letter is in order, from the blogging communities to the blogitects - Winer, Ev, et al - asking that they match their splendid gift of ease of use going in with equal ease upon exit. Right now, as Virgil would have it, facilis est descensus averni... If someone with technical skills could create a form/petition that could gather names, email addresses, etc., it might get their attention...just a thought...
something I predicted way back when, like maybe a month ago
My own words right back at me from the elanceur blog, via the now deceased Fishrush (link omitted out of respect for the dead):
"Smart companies will get wind that employees are blogging during work hours and imagine the possibilities. A major motion picture will feature a character who blogs. The character will be a psychopathic alcoholic intellectual head case. The part will be offered to Jack Nicholson, who will turn it down because bloggers don't get cute chicks. Some company, somewhere, will take Gonzo Marketing to heart and underwrite some blog, somewhere, somehow. Please. Community blogs--or "party blogs" like Gonzo Engaged--will grow in residents and in numbers, morphing into their own form of blogging. These forms will separate from one-man blogs, which will lean more toward journal and journalism than community." - Posted by christophe ducamp on 12/22/01; 9:48:24 from the @elanceur dept.
Huh. whatda ya know. I still really believe the last one anyhow. Aren't we doing just this? Isn't that why most of us have this blog and our own?
What will come next?
See Tom's thoughts--I really dig them. Wouldn't it be great to be able to dump your acrhives to MSWord? Or an e-Book? imagine!
ah well.
for another night I guess.
"Smart companies will get wind that employees are blogging during work hours and imagine the possibilities. A major motion picture will feature a character who blogs. The character will be a psychopathic alcoholic intellectual head case. The part will be offered to Jack Nicholson, who will turn it down because bloggers don't get cute chicks. Some company, somewhere, will take Gonzo Marketing to heart and underwrite some blog, somewhere, somehow. Please. Community blogs--or "party blogs" like Gonzo Engaged--will grow in residents and in numbers, morphing into their own form of blogging. These forms will separate from one-man blogs, which will lean more toward journal and journalism than community." - Posted by christophe ducamp on 12/22/01; 9:48:24 from the @elanceur dept.
Huh. whatda ya know. I still really believe the last one anyhow. Aren't we doing just this? Isn't that why most of us have this blog and our own?
What will come next?
See Tom's thoughts--I really dig them. Wouldn't it be great to be able to dump your acrhives to MSWord? Or an e-Book? imagine!
ah well.
for another night I guess.
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Yahoo! News - Pirate's heaven in Vietnam
Nearly every software title, film and album is available on the streets of this city, which itself is a backwater compared with Saigon. Windows XP sells for 25,000 VN ($1.67), the same as Red Hat Linux. Windows Me is cheaper, but it doesn't sell well. "Buggy," said a woman who ran one of the stores. A disk containing 35 music-compression and recording applications goes for 35,000 VN ($2.33).
Norton appears to have a strong edge over Symantec in terms of market share, and Visual Basic looks to be the toolkit of choice. The folks at Macromedia should be glad to know that Dreamweaver is incredibly popular too.
_____________
This is totally nuts. The Vietnamese govt may think it is doing the right thing but what company is going to invest in Vietnam when you know that if you make anything cool, it will be pirated and stolen. That being said, I read somewhere that outside of North America and Europe, only 1 in 4 copies of software are legal. Does that make us subsidizers of overseas competetion?
Nearly every software title, film and album is available on the streets of this city, which itself is a backwater compared with Saigon. Windows XP sells for 25,000 VN ($1.67), the same as Red Hat Linux. Windows Me is cheaper, but it doesn't sell well. "Buggy," said a woman who ran one of the stores. A disk containing 35 music-compression and recording applications goes for 35,000 VN ($2.33).
Norton appears to have a strong edge over Symantec in terms of market share, and Visual Basic looks to be the toolkit of choice. The folks at Macromedia should be glad to know that Dreamweaver is incredibly popular too.
_____________
This is totally nuts. The Vietnamese govt may think it is doing the right thing but what company is going to invest in Vietnam when you know that if you make anything cool, it will be pirated and stolen. That being said, I read somewhere that outside of North America and Europe, only 1 in 4 copies of software are legal. Does that make us subsidizers of overseas competetion?
Thanks for all the sleuthing, Jeneane. Here's a Google footnote - while Fishrush may have succumbed to the depths, the Five Fish list lives on in Google's cache. Also, Clay has a non-blog site where he demonstrates firmly he is a figment of no one's imagination.
P.S. How are you liking Blogger Pro? Less downtime, more features? Intravenous echinacea for no additional charge?
P.S. How are you liking Blogger Pro? Less downtime, more features? Intravenous echinacea for no additional charge?
As promised, here's the info on google from Dane Carlson, who emailed me earlier answering my many questions on the art and science of google. (I summarized below):
JS: Does anyone know--and can anyone enlighten me--on how google works in keeping/compiling results? See here's the thing. Lately I've been doing my vanity searches, and I generally get 10 pages of results, but when I click on page 10, it really comes about that I have 6 pages of unique hits. Which is cool. I'm good with that.
DC: You're seeing the filtered Google results. Google does this to save us time and energy. On page six of the Google results for Jeneane.Sessum http://www.google.com/search?q=Jeneane.Sessum&hl=en there's this little phrase at the bottom: "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 52 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.."
Click that. Now the first 990 results of the 2,610 are available (Google only lets you see 990 results for any search). These are the unfiltered results. The reason Google only returns 52 results at first is because it is comparing where the words Jeneane Sessum appear on each of the pages in relation to all of the other content there. So, if you're included in lots of blogrolling lists, but not mentioned elsewhere in the content, Google will realize this and only return one or two pages with that specific template. For example, Saltire only comes up twice, even though it really occurs dozens of times in the expanded results because your name always appears between Andy Chen and Paul Boutin.
JS: But even more strange lately, it seems like I'm losing hits that used to come up. Like, I was in the 2,600's for number of results returned a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm in the 2,500s, even though folks have been linking to allied fervently. Same with Gonzo Engaged.
DC: It's doing well, but not all the hits it has gotten register on Google. Google loves weblogs -- she likes to read from them everyday. Reading Gonzo Engaged was last spidered by Google on Sunday, Feb 17, 2002. I know this because of this page: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fgonzoengaged%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F. Unfortunately, for the non-weblog world, Google's appearance usually only happens once a month or so. Search engine optimization specialists (that haven't quite figured this secret of weblogging out yet) rejoice when Google finally visits their site. Now here's where it gets really neat. Since Google only visits most sites once a month, the Google database is usally only updated every month (every 28 days actually).
That update is coming up soon -- this weekend, most likely. After this weekend and the Google dance, you should see quite a few more links to your websites.
JS: So, do some hits/results disappear from Google after a time? Why? What can I do to boost my blog's "findability"? And ultimately, the number of results returned?
DC: All webpages stored in Google hava a PR (Page Rank) score. The score for each page is somewhere between one and ten. Reading Gonzo is a 6. Dave Winer's Scripting News is an 8. Google sometimes doesn't show pages in your results that have low PR scores. That doesn't mean that they're not there -- just that Google really doesn't think you're that interested in seeing your name on a bunch of PR 1 pages.
JS: Any tips from this search maven novice would be appreciated.
DC: Here's something else you can try. http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://gonzoengaged.blogspot.com This will show every site (in this database) that's linking to Reading Gonzo.
I hope that this answers some of your questions, and sparks new ones! I really enjoy reading you. Cheers,
Dane.
JS: Does anyone know--and can anyone enlighten me--on how google works in keeping/compiling results? See here's the thing. Lately I've been doing my vanity searches, and I generally get 10 pages of results, but when I click on page 10, it really comes about that I have 6 pages of unique hits. Which is cool. I'm good with that.
DC: You're seeing the filtered Google results. Google does this to save us time and energy. On page six of the Google results for Jeneane.Sessum http://www.google.com/search?q=Jeneane.Sessum&hl=en there's this little phrase at the bottom: "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 52 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.."
Click that. Now the first 990 results of the 2,610 are available (Google only lets you see 990 results for any search). These are the unfiltered results. The reason Google only returns 52 results at first is because it is comparing where the words Jeneane Sessum appear on each of the pages in relation to all of the other content there. So, if you're included in lots of blogrolling lists, but not mentioned elsewhere in the content, Google will realize this and only return one or two pages with that specific template. For example, Saltire only comes up twice, even though it really occurs dozens of times in the expanded results because your name always appears between Andy Chen and Paul Boutin.
JS: But even more strange lately, it seems like I'm losing hits that used to come up. Like, I was in the 2,600's for number of results returned a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm in the 2,500s, even though folks have been linking to allied fervently. Same with Gonzo Engaged.
DC: It's doing well, but not all the hits it has gotten register on Google. Google loves weblogs -- she likes to read from them everyday. Reading Gonzo Engaged was last spidered by Google on Sunday, Feb 17, 2002. I know this because of this page: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fgonzoengaged%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F. Unfortunately, for the non-weblog world, Google's appearance usually only happens once a month or so. Search engine optimization specialists (that haven't quite figured this secret of weblogging out yet) rejoice when Google finally visits their site. Now here's where it gets really neat. Since Google only visits most sites once a month, the Google database is usally only updated every month (every 28 days actually).
That update is coming up soon -- this weekend, most likely. After this weekend and the Google dance, you should see quite a few more links to your websites.
JS: So, do some hits/results disappear from Google after a time? Why? What can I do to boost my blog's "findability"? And ultimately, the number of results returned?
DC: All webpages stored in Google hava a PR (Page Rank) score. The score for each page is somewhere between one and ten. Reading Gonzo is a 6. Dave Winer's Scripting News is an 8. Google sometimes doesn't show pages in your results that have low PR scores. That doesn't mean that they're not there -- just that Google really doesn't think you're that interested in seeing your name on a bunch of PR 1 pages.
JS: Any tips from this search maven novice would be appreciated.
DC: Here's something else you can try. http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://gonzoengaged.blogspot.com This will show every site (in this database) that's linking to Reading Gonzo.
I hope that this answers some of your questions, and sparks new ones! I really enjoy reading you. Cheers,
Dane.
I Miss Shirky
You know, without Clay around, this thing's gotten too quiet. We need someone to stir the pot. Where's Sanders when you need him?
I got a great response on how google works (esp. with blogs)--I've asked if I can blog it and will post soon. Really informative.
Gotta go take my medicine. Still sick. If you haven't heard what I sound like sick yet, and goodness knows that's about as exciting as it gets, go over to Gary's blog and hear my message.
I got a great response on how google works (esp. with blogs)--I've asked if I can blog it and will post soon. Really informative.
Gotta go take my medicine. Still sick. If you haven't heard what I sound like sick yet, and goodness knows that's about as exciting as it gets, go over to Gary's blog and hear my message.
Monday, February 18, 2002
Also, Sitemeter is a free tool I discovered because Gary Turner uses it. If your site is getting google click-throughs, it says so on its "referrals" page. To help you get set up, it has a javascript generator that auto-adds the necessary code to your blogger template. Cool, huh?
Googling & a couple of fishy links
Bloggers archives have been erratic recently, so the Google spider may have missed the archive pages once they fell off the bottom of the main blog. (My original Googlewhack double prize hit on my blog has vanished for the same reason).
This article claims surfers are snubbing search engines in favour of direct links. My suspicion is that as they only mention relative and not absolute figures is that they are hiding the fall off in interest in corporate sites by phrasing it that way.
Also, I bet as Google takes over from other feebler engines, it is taking searchers to blogs first, instead of straight to the 130,000 corporate sites they monitor.
Also, a very clueless article that defends pop-up ads as less annoying than other kinds of intrusive shouty ads. So thats OK then.
This article claims surfers are snubbing search engines in favour of direct links. My suspicion is that as they only mention relative and not absolute figures is that they are hiding the fall off in interest in corporate sites by phrasing it that way.
Also, I bet as Google takes over from other feebler engines, it is taking searchers to blogs first, instead of straight to the 130,000 corporate sites they monitor.
Also, a very clueless article that defends pop-up ads as less annoying than other kinds of intrusive shouty ads. So thats OK then.
A google question
Does anyone know--and can anyone enlighten me--on how google works in keeping/compiling results? See here's the thing. Lately I've been doing my vanity searches, and I generally get 10 pages of results, but when I click on page 10, it really comes about that I have 6 pages of unique hits. Which is cool. I'm good with that. But even more strange lately, it seems like I'm losing hits that used to come up. Like, I was in the 2,600's for number of results returned a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm in the 2,500s, even though folks have been linking to allied fervently. Same with Gonzo Engaged. It's doing well, but not all the hits it has gotten register on Google.
So, do some hits/results disappear from Google after a time? Why?
What can I do to boost my blog's "findability"? And ultimately, the number of results returned?
Any tips from this search maven novice would be appreciated.
-j.
So, do some hits/results disappear from Google after a time? Why?
What can I do to boost my blog's "findability"? And ultimately, the number of results returned?
Any tips from this search maven novice would be appreciated.
-j.
Sunday, February 17, 2002
Friday, February 15, 2002
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Mischief Marketing
Ran across this free text today: Mischief Marketing. May be a little retro and not Gonzo at all, but the clue -ed-innedness of applying straightforward marketing concepts (like take a bath before going out on sales calls) seems to me to give this book a place in the conversation. Plus, the author uses Paypal to collect payments from those of us with a conscience regarding innaleckshual prop'ty and fair compensation. RB knew enuf not to do it this way. He'd still be broke and living down above the NA meeting on Pearl Street instead of ensconced in those fabulous Boulder digs.
How about Gonzo government?
The biggest spender on advertising in the UK is the British Government.
Surely some mistake. Isn't the business of government far better suited to the 'little platoons' that Gonzo can harness?
Surely some mistake. Isn't the business of government far better suited to the 'little platoons' that Gonzo can harness?
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
The We in Us, Part 2
I think I have everyone added to the team lineup. If your blog is not listed on the "blog bog" to the left, please email me your blog's name and url, as I use my steroid high to try to catch up. thx! j.
The We in Us
Oh, and I am so sorry I've been slow on adding new team members to the list on the sidebar. I am so behind at work I've got hives, and my baby girl and I are sick. But soon I will have everyone up. If you don't want to be listed, email me. In the mean time, please forgive me for being so slow. -j.
tooting our own horn
Hi Denver--No I wasn't familiar with the5k until I saw your email, but I've since registered so I can submit us in April. You guys may have noticed the sxsw logo on the side navbar. I registered us for that a while back. When I searched us up on google last week there was a sxsw page of the People's Choice Award Finalists, and we were listed. As a strange sidenote, we were listed in the cached page, but not the regular linked page, so I couldn't get the blog to link to that exact page of fame. Nonetheless, I'm claimin' it for us. So there.
The more the merrier--especially since our premiere Fishrush award giver has fallen off the planet.
j.
The more the merrier--especially since our premiere Fishrush award giver has fallen off the planet.
j.
Monday, February 11, 2002
I wonder if the famed 2% are the same 2% who respond to (spam) advertising?
And maybe *this* is why the Soviet Union collapsed: it rid itself of credulous consumers!
Certainly Alan Greenspan seems converted to the idea that sufficiently credulous consumers, kept flush with his easy money, are all that is required to keep an economy (and a civilisation) afloat.
Must be an honorary PhD in there somewhere . . . . . . . . .
"The thirsty drink beer - the hungry drink Steinlager!"
- New Zealand Beer Advertisement, from Saatchi & Saatchi.
And maybe *this* is why the Soviet Union collapsed: it rid itself of credulous consumers!
Certainly Alan Greenspan seems converted to the idea that sufficiently credulous consumers, kept flush with his easy money, are all that is required to keep an economy (and a civilisation) afloat.
Must be an honorary PhD in there somewhere . . . . . . . . .
"The thirsty drink beer - the hungry drink Steinlager!"
- New Zealand Beer Advertisement, from Saatchi & Saatchi.
Adieu, Dave Van Ronk
We lost Dave yesterday to the big C. I didn't even know he was sick. Catching some of his gigs in Greenwich Village back in the '60's are among my more treasured memories. Treat yourselves to a listen.
Note to my contemporaries (wake-up call to smell-the-roses department): We're used to having lost some of our best songsters to drugs and booze. Now we're starting to lose 'em to natural causes.
Confessions, continued
Kevin, guess I over-reacted to the whiny leftie bit, but I must say, your post brought forth a great call-to-arms from Frank, guillotines notwithstanding. It sure is fun sometimes to feel like a pissed-off student again.
Since Frank set the tone for confession, I might as well step in line. Yes, Kevin, I'm afraid its true. I went from the great street marches--the real deal with the snarling police dogs and the hysterical, expectorating townspeople--to the whores' writing desks--not P&G, mind you, but might as well have been. Too bad Rageboy wasn't around to set us straight and shame us into our senses. But we'll take a revolutionary whenever he happens to pop up, even if our jock straps are halfway up the wall.
Note to my contemporaries (wake-up call to smell-the-roses department): We're used to having lost some of our best songsters to drugs and booze. Now we're starting to lose 'em to natural causes.
Confessions, continued
Kevin, guess I over-reacted to the whiny leftie bit, but I must say, your post brought forth a great call-to-arms from Frank, guillotines notwithstanding. It sure is fun sometimes to feel like a pissed-off student again.
Since Frank set the tone for confession, I might as well step in line. Yes, Kevin, I'm afraid its true. I went from the great street marches--the real deal with the snarling police dogs and the hysterical, expectorating townspeople--to the whores' writing desks--not P&G, mind you, but might as well have been. Too bad Rageboy wasn't around to set us straight and shame us into our senses. But we'll take a revolutionary whenever he happens to pop up, even if our jock straps are halfway up the wall.
Hegelian? Moi?
Who can say? it is very hard to conduct controlled experiments in education. It is often claimed to be unethical to not give all children the benefit of the wonders of the radical new findings of the research. The 'teacher effect' is rarely taken into account - almost any wacky scheme can work well in the hands of a dedicated and inspired teacher who believes in it and can carry the students with her by responding to their needs. Most research into 'new methods' is done one-to-one in parallel with existing classroom teaching, not replacing it, and the extra attention in itself can be enough to make a difference. When the same scheme is imposed by fiat to be implemented by teachers who are busy enough already with their existing workload, the real problems then show up. And extra funding can cover up the inefficiencies.
Which way up is
Might the coincidence of funding and theoretical fatuousness be merely that? Or must everything adhere to the dialectic of Mr. Hegel, Mr. Marks?
Only 2%? Wimps!
I keep hearing it's the top 5% that we should all fear/tax/whatever. Certainly Robespierre, Stalin and Pol Pot managed to get rid of more than 2%.
Public education's decline has corresponded strongly with it's maximum funding, and indulgence of fatuous theories of learning, particularly of reading. Public libraries' decline corresponds with their abandonment of literature in favour of 'community service' - the false and patronising idea that a community can only comprehend books that represent their current situation, and not the greatest that has been written.
Tom, I did not mean to give offence; the whiny lefties bit was meant in jest; Perhaps I should have said whiny would-be authoritarians. The bit about marketeers being like the apparatchiki in their contempt for the masses they supposedly serve was what struck me. I well remember from college the most ardent marxisant student union activists heading off to work in FMCG marketing for P&G.
Public education's decline has corresponded strongly with it's maximum funding, and indulgence of fatuous theories of learning, particularly of reading. Public libraries' decline corresponds with their abandonment of literature in favour of 'community service' - the false and patronising idea that a community can only comprehend books that represent their current situation, and not the greatest that has been written.
Tom, I did not mean to give offence; the whiny lefties bit was meant in jest; Perhaps I should have said whiny would-be authoritarians. The bit about marketeers being like the apparatchiki in their contempt for the masses they supposedly serve was what struck me. I well remember from college the most ardent marxisant student union activists heading off to work in FMCG marketing for P&G.
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