Shilling, Astroturfing, Google Bombing and Other Dubious Practices

How far do you trust those five-star book reviews at Amazon.com and other book sites? Finlo Rohrer in the span style="font-style: italic;"BBC News Magazine/span a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8118577.stm"writes about the practice of span style="font-style: italic;"shill reviewing/span/a where individuals are paid to write positive reviews for a publisher. br /br /Other (rather nice!) terms for the practice include :br /span style="font-style: italic;"/spanblockquotespan style="font-style: italic;"Amazon bombing: Concerted effort to change Amazon sales rankings by simultaneously buying product/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Sock puppetry: The act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one's self, allies or company (New York Times)/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Astroturfing: Formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behaviour (Wikipedia)/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Seeding: Process of placing viral marketing such as videos in forums etc/span/blockquoteOf course, we book buyers are really not so naive as to believe all the hype. Or are we?br /br /span style="font-size:78%;"(Picked up this story from Ellen Whyte's span style="font-style: italic;"Facebook/span page.)/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7912730-1908056602604899814?l=thebookaholic.blogspot.com'//div

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Liberals put diversity ahead of fairness

a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/06/30/left_dodges_moral_debate_on_ricci_case.html"David Paul Kuhn:/abr /br /blockquotepIt took the story of one firefighter to expose the tension between fairness and affirmative action./p pThe nation's four most prominent liberal justices ignored that tension Monday. By consequence, the liberal justices decided that equal outcome should trump equal opportunity, when the two values compete. And in that decision, supported by a chorus of liberal analysts, American liberalism continued decades of thinking that places diversity, not fairness, as its first principle./pp.../ppIn the end, the Court's conservative majority prevailed in yet another 5 to 4 vote. But it's the minority's dissent, supported by the Obama administration, which stirs up liberalism's ongoing avoidance of affirmative action's negative "real-world" implications./p pThe uniform liberal Court view on affirmative action takes on a heightened resonance today. Democrats hope President Obama marks the beginning of an enduring political majority. A primary aim of either party, when seeking sustained dominance, is to shift the courts to their side. Had today's Court been left leaning, liberals should be troubled to know, the Court would have almost certainly upheld a policy that denied a promotion based on the color of those promoted./p pThe Ricci case gets to the core of the American ideal of "the pursuit of happiness" as an "inalienable right." This right was most egregiously denied to blacks through slavery. It was not until the 1960s that the nation finally confronted and outlawed discriminatory practices. Affirmative action was instituted to correct past inequality./p pNearly a half-century later, liberalism faces new questions. In the time of the first black president, when white men's unemployment rate increases at twice the rate of black women in this recession, liberal thought has remained hinged to an earlier era./pp...br //p/blockquoteAffirmative action should be limited to recruiting and making sure the doors are open for all. But once people are on the job they should be judged by their performance and attitude. One of those attitudes is the willingness to apply oneself to study and workout so they can be the best. Denying promotion to those who strive to be the best is gross unfairness.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5051247-7389049044819005273?l=prairiepundit.blogspot.com'//div

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Not Loving God with all our Mind

This is from an April 9, 2009 report from Barna Research. If it is accurate, it explains much about the sterility and banality of American "Christianity."br /br /----------br /br /Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan.br /br /Although a core teaching of the Christian faith is the divinity and perfection of Jesus Christ, tens of millions of Christians do not accept that teaching. More than one-fifth (22%) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17% agreeing somewhat. Holding the opposing view were 9% who disagreed somewhat and 46% who disagreed strongly. Six percent did not have an opinion on this matter.br /br /Much like their perceptions of Satan, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either. Overall, 38% strongly agreed and 20% agreed somewhat that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.” Just one-third of Christians disagreed that the Holy Spirit is not a living force (9% disagreed somewhat, 25% disagreed strongly) while 9% were not sure.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14410967-1888540431763781919?l=theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com'//div

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Going on the field is underwhelming

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3598/3558294715_d7798aa1e7.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 375px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3598/3558294715_d7798aa1e7.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /Had the chance several weeks back to watch batting practice on the field in Oakland. Of course, we were only invited on the field for about the last 15-20 minutes, and it was while the visiting Diamondbacks were in the cage. Some thoughts about watching from the field:br /br /-It's not that cool to go on the field when the only place you get to stand is the warning track right in front of the backstop.br /br /-The foul territory at the Oakland Coliseum is bigger than Zach's porn collection.br /br /-The most interesting part is getting to see the trajectory of the ball off the bat and the movement it takes when hooking or slicing. It also makes you realize just how far it is when they hit one out.br /br /-The group of guys hitting was Eric Byrnes and a bunch of bums. Unless of course those bums were really good players that I just didn't recognize. Byrnes is pretty much a bum himself.br /br /-There were a lot of Arizona fans on the field with us. They pretty much all looked like douche-bags. You know, D'Bags. One of them was a woman who I later noticed was wearing a jersey that said FTNSSFRK or something like that on the nameplate. I suppose that indicates that she likes fitness. Real cool. I thought about getting Zach a Giants jersey with the same name on back.br /br /-There's really nothing like grass on a baseball field. Can I get some in my yard please?br /br /-Overall I was pretty underwhelmed by the experience. Next time I want to shag flies.br /br /Now for some more pictures:br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2451/3558284913_11dfd827e9.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 375px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2451/3558284913_11dfd827e9.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3559092694_9238315054.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 375px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3559092694_9238315054.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3559119116_cc3d8622f9.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3559119116_cc3d8622f9.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3322/3558303613_1c005a6a8e.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3322/3558303613_1c005a6a8e.jpg" alt="" border="0" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19679634-2493730346834646689?l=zachls.blogspot.com'//div

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Will it work?

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gv10x5ZDreY9X_vxexS6oPyllujn3gLkSO3p6NsI6tfoA2cLntrUUQIv_-I5NzRU5ndAyxEduxwO30FbACXQ_QMT3VZO9Opj99xxTnNRoidR45GleUchKW0YhyS6fSghCY4dl5gWRpE/s1600-h/tax_bombshell.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gv10x5ZDreY9X_vxexS6oPyllujn3gLkSO3p6NsI6tfoA2cLntrUUQIv_-I5NzRU5ndAyxEduxwO30FbACXQ_QMT3VZO9Opj99xxTnNRoidR45GleUchKW0YhyS6fSghCY4dl5gWRpE/s320/tax_bombshell.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353167081506365842" //abr /pToo busy at the moment to think this one through, so here's a question: /ppWill a Labour version of the em'Tax Bombshell'/em campaign from 1992 (em'cuts bombshell/em'?) do for Gordon Brown or Alan Johnson what it did for John Major?/ppOn the admittedly adventurous assumption that it's possible, do Labour really want to win an election in the way that Major did? I suppose a low-majority Parliament would be less awkward for Labour than the Tories, Maastricht rebels and all.br //ppBut surely Labour - communications-wise - are totally stuffed? I'm conscious of all of the really solid stuff - the economy, the MPs expenses, the irresistible siren call of emchange/em, the disenchantment with a squabbling party (squabbling over what, exactly? If Labour could do itself one huge favour, it would be to deselect loads of it's prominent faces - they really are a complete dead-weight)./ppBut for me, the whole error is compounded by the contrast with Obama. For Labour, it's like there's a fantasy world in which their great plans - all cooked up behind closed doors - will somehow be greeted with a fanfare of approval and that the only thing we've not quite got is Blair's ability to empresent/em these emsolutions/em./ppMaybe I'm oversimplifying here, but I really don't think any political party will ever run a successful campaign on any issue again until it learns that ideas have to emcome/em from the public in some way - that the public need to be involved in the process. /ppI'd never argue that you can earn respect or votes by asking people what you should emdo/em in office, but I'd suggest that Labour could do worse than asking people to emdescribe the problems/em, or to collaboratively map out coherent proposals for change, and ensure that plenty of their own people are there in the mix providing the political ballast, saying things like em'no-one will vote for that'/em or em'newspaper owners have something of a veto over that./em' /ppIf you want to be cynical, it's a way of emlooking/em like you're listening. Or if you want to be a bit of a lefty, it's a way of breaking the monopsony on policy advice that is provided by civil servants, pollsters, think-tanks and pressure groups. /ppEither way, it'd be nice to see Labour even trying to make an effort to look like this fucking obvious possibility has vaguely occured to at least one person in the Victoria St HQ. I'd strongly suggest - with one possible exception - that it hasn't. em(You know who you are, don't you, matey?)/em/ppIt's probably too late, and there are probably too many new factors that dwarf the em'non-inclusive policymaking' /emproblem. But take a look at ideas like a href="http://www.debategraph.org/"www.debategraph.org/a or a href="http://www.mixedink.com/"www.mixedink.com/a - again, not panaceas, but pointers to what a positive e-democracy could look like, and online indicators of what a possible emoffline/em approach could be./ppLabour could do worse than trying to at least look like it doesn't think of itself as a bunch of wizards that know all of the answers. /ppThat really would be too much of a lie to get away with./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12478668-2278524196788196805?l=nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com'//div

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An apology in advance

I would like to apologize to readers, in advance, for the neglect this blog will suffer from over the next two weeks. I will be on the road and won't easily have access to the internet during that time. What complicates things is that the lap top I use has a problem. It works fine with wireless internet connection only. It won't connect otherwise. And I know the main hotel I will be in insists you connect by wire, not wireless.br /br /But, even if the connection is solved, I will be on the run from morning until late at night. So my time will be very limited until I return home.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/23782041-1249470478447633847?l=freestudents.blogspot.com'//div

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The 8 Habits of Highly Successful Creative People

Dina Zaman just sent me this link to a href="http://www.kerismith.com/WishJarTales/womenwriters.htm"an inspiring piece on writer/illustrator Keri Smith's blog/a.br /br /Smith talks about how at times when she feels low, she finds herself drawn to inspiring books, mainly biographies :br /blockquote style="font-style: italic;"...that speak of survival, triumph over adversity, and the need to create through all else. /blockquote She mentions the journals of women writers including May Sarton, Annie Dillard, Natalie Goldberg, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou and Colette, and asks herself :br /span style="font-style: italic;"/spanblockquotespan style="font-style: italic;"How did these women find the constant courage and confidence to believe in themselves? /span/blockquoteShe believes the answer lies in the many similarities they share, and draws up a list that I think should be useful to the rest of us :br /ulli span style="font-style: italic;"All possess a obvious passion for nature, a connection with something greater than themselves, many of them connect this with memories of childhood. Several bought houses in the country to encourage this./span/lili style="font-style: italic;" There is a deliberate connection to other artists/writers/creators, a sharing of ideas, or a need to be coinspired by someone who is also creating. Creative gatherings, dinners, support groups, cafe meetings, letter writing, afternoon teas./lili style="font-style: italic;" They all seem somewhat “comfortable” with solitude and have a need or at least the ability to spend quality time alone. /lili style="font-style: italic;" There is an capacity for self motivation, all find various ways to shift perception get a fresh perspective on the world and their lives. Inspiring walks, travel to foreign lands, learning new skills, reading, cooking, exploring, /lili style="font-style: italic;" All experience pain, they choose to feel it intensely. They also move triumphantly beyond it creating a well of strength from which they draw from./lili style="font-style: italic;" They possess the ability to see magic in the ordinary, the gift of mindfulness./lili style="font-style: italic;" All have moments of gratefulness and compassion./lili style="font-style: italic;" They all do something decadent to pamper themselves regularly. May Sarton bought fresh flowers for herself every week! That nourishment theme again.br //li/uldiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7912730-4504983880258850700?l=thebookaholic.blogspot.com'//div

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