Saturday, August 14, 2004

5X5 Interview: Deborah Wassertzug, Columbia Librarian  [yeah, it's Gawker] 3. I don't know about liberal or conservative biases in the media, but it seems to me there's just a rampant case of laziness (and stupidity) in the profession. Why do you think people continue to plagiarize when their colleagues keep getting caught? A reference question I've received with alarming frequency the past couple of years is "How can I get the number of undocumented immigrants in New York City?" These people were not laughing when they asked me this. Or they were, but it was over email, so I did not hear them. As far as plagiarism goes, I offer my own words for consideration: A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself, dude. 4. Media coverage will obviously be pretty intense for the RNC in NYC. Do you think there's a problem with giving bloggers, so-called "amateur journalists," access to the events? There is a huge problem, IF they're writing about anything other than bloggers and their blogs. When I open up a nice blog to accompany my morning coffee, I don't want a blogger's take on current events, for crying out loud! I want photos -- photos of them with other bloggers, photos of them wearing blog-related t-shirts and hats, drinks in their hands. And I want links leading to links that take you to still more links -- like when you take a photo of someone taking a photo of someone taking a photo of someone who's snapping a picture of someone pretending to "hold up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa (get far back enough, you'll wind up with a satellite photo of Italy). I want big media to tell me what to think; I want bloggers to create a labyrinth requiring hours to unravel and yielding an untidy ball of mixed metaphor. Is that so wrong? 8:02:57 PM    comment []

Barlow. Whether you like him or he drives you nuts, John Perry Barlow is incapable of being boring. From his interview with Reason, on reality TV, intellectual propetry, and his decision to leave the Republican party: "If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that... [Lessig Blog] 3:05:51 PM    comment []

Reason: John Perry Barlow 2.0. "We’ve got two distinct strains of libertarianism, and the hippie-mystic strain is not engaging in politics, and the Ayn Rand strain is basically dismantling government in a way that is giving complete open field running to multinational corporatism." [Hack the Planet] 3:04:31 PM    comment []

New Sounds. Pop songs, New Sounds-style are in store on tonight's program. Hear fractured reinventions of tunes you know by Brave Combo (a polka- tinged rendering of Gade/Blooms's "Jealousy"); guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel (George Harrison's "Something"); and more. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 9:56:30 AM    comment []

R.I.P., Julia Child. Julia Child, the French Chef for a Jell-O Nation, Dies at 91. The television chef, who introduced cassoulet to a casserole culture, died at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif. By By REGINA SCHRAMBLING. [The New York Times > Dining and Wine] Julia Child dead at 91. On CNN Ms. Child Departs the Nation's Table. Julia Child was mesmerizing, especially for TV viewers who had never boiled an egg but savored her delight in life's bounty. By By FRANCIS X. CLINES. [The New York Times > Opinion] TV chef Julia Child dead at 91. On CNN International: Europe [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] In memoriam Salon remembers Julia Child. From our archives, a profile By Kathryn Kellinger. And, last but most asuredly not least, Salon Blogs' own Julie Powell remembers and mourns, over at The Julie/Julie Project. She was no bending reed, of course.  She had no use for silly, fear-driven food fads; she could be set in her ways, even mulish, and when she wanted to she could be withering.  That’s fine.  That’s good even.  We don’t need saints.  Who changes their life under the influence of a saint?  Okay – don’t answer that.  But the point is – Julia was so impressive, so instructive, so exhilarating, because she was a woman, not a goddess.  Julia didn’t create armies of drones, mindlessly equating her name with taste and muttering “It’s a Good Thing” under their minty breath.  Instead she created feisty, buttery, adventurous cooks, always diving in to the next possible disaster, because goddammit, if Julia did it, so could we. This morning, I was writing about lobster murder.  As anyone who’s here will remember, Julia’s instructions for Homard a l’Americaine were particularly troubling.  Now, bisecting a living lobster is not an easy thing to do – not for the cook, and certainly not for the lobster.  I still feel a little bad about it, and this morning I was writing something maybe a little resentful about how I had visited this torture on a crustacean on Julia’s directive. She told me I could do it, so I did, and it was hard.  I don’t ever, ever want to do it again – not for her, not for anybody.  But it was important that I do it once.  Killing that lobster made me face up to a lot of stuff that bothers me – stuff about responsibility, and hard decisions, and carving (bad word, maybe) a place in the world I can be comfortable in.  I would not have done it without Julia to tell me – "Go ahead – What could happen?" I'll be sure to cook with butter tonight. 9:56:08 AM    comment []

A French Employee's Work Celebrates the Sloth Ethic. The author of a slacker manifesto whose title translates as "Hello Laziness" has become a heroine by encouraging workers to adopt a strategy of "active disengagement." By By CRAIG S. SMITH. [The New York Times > International] 9:37:55 AM    comment []