Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Radio Hoder. Podcasting is my new passion. So here it is, my first podcast in English, which is basically just a test. (What the hell is podcasting?) I'll try to make a real one next week about serious subject matters related to Iran and Persian blogosphere etc. So please subscribe to the feed and keep in touch. Here is the feed for my temporarily titled "Radio Hoder": http://hoder.com/podcast Meanwhile, you can also listen to my first podcast in Persian which is much longer and has more substance as the first show. Podcasting could be the next media revolution in Iran and I'll try to introduce and promote it as much as I did for blogs. By the way, the music you are hearing in the begining and the end of my English podcast is a by Hossein Alizadeh, the greatest traditional Iranian musican of all time. I'll write about it more later. [Editor: Myself (English)] 10:13:22 PM    comment []

Iran: We can repel U.S. attack. On CNN [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 6:56:17 PM    comment []

Limbaugh, Franken: Something in common?. People don't always judge a book by its cover. Often, they're more swayed by how many pages it has, a Dartmouth College professor studying Amazon.com's customer reviews has found. [Missing Links] [CNET News.com] Mikhail Gronas, an assistant professor of Russian Language and Literature at Dartmouth, wants to know why people read certain books, what drives those reading decisions, and what lies behind readers' reactions. Gronas has been studying reviews posted on the retailer's Web site to get a quantitative measure of taste (from the number of stars assigned by readers to a book), along with a qualitative assessment (from the personal commentary provided by readers). Readers often begin their reviews on Amazon by citing how many pages a book has, said the professor, who proposes that concerns about how long it will take to read a book impact what readers think. 6:52:33 PM    comment []

Seymour Hersh: "In my interviews, I was repeatedly told that the next strategic target was Iran." [Scripting News] 6:49:38 PM    comment []

Google aims to outsmart search tricksters. Company to introduce new controls to prevent people from manipulating search rankings using blogs, other Web pages. [CNET News.com] 6:49:35 PM    comment []

Purloined Domain Name Is an Unsolved Mystery. In the latest case of Internet names being hijacked, panix.com saw its name slip out of its control and become the center of a cyberhunt to get it back. By TOM ZELLER Jr.. [NYT > Technology] See also coverage from over the weekend here at A blog doesn't need a clever name. 7:24:48 AM    comment []

On Rathergate, DRM, and Fair Use (Donna Wentworth). Ernest, Ed, and Seth have kicked up a storm about CBS using DRM presumably to stop critics from copying and pasting portions of its report on the "Rathergate" scandal. I've now added a few more thoughts over at Deep Links, and the Gray Lady herself has weighed in [reg. req.]. [Copyfight] 7:23:45 AM    comment []

U.S. Is Punishing 8 Chinese Firms for Aiding Iran. The move is part of a broader effort by the White House to identify and slow key elements of Iran's weapons programs. By DAVID E. SANGER. [NYT > International] 7:23:38 AM    comment []

That Magic Moment. The White House plan to sell Social Security privatization is modeled on the selling of the Iraq war. By PAUL KRUGMAN. [NYT > Opinion] 7:19:28 AM    comment []

A Closer Look at the Greensboro News Experiment. The local business journal in Greensboro, N.C., has an in-depth article about the local newspaper's decision to become much more interactive with its readers. This experiment is getting more interesting all the time. [Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.] 7:19:02 AM    comment []

Nine Servings of Fruit and Vegetables?. Many busy Americans may be stumped by how exactly to manage the new dietary guidelines for Americans released last week. By MARY DUENWALD. [NYT > Science] 7:18:55 AM    comment []

Sound + Vision. In the 1970s, David Bowie released a series of albums that changed the sound, look and subject matter of rock music forever. His 1977 album Low, produced in collaboration with composer Brian Eno, was recently named the best album of the 1970s by Pitchfork. Elvis Costello recently called it one of the greatest albums ever in Vanity Fair. In terms of critical acclaim and popular success, I could compare him to Kurt Cobain, Bruce Springsteen, maybe REM. In 1983, David Bowie starred in the vampire movie The Hunger. In 1986, he starred in the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth as Jared the Goblin King. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I know music fans. I was too young to be tuned into indie rock debates at the time, so I’m curious to ask if anyone remembers. How did Bowie fans react to these roles? [Crooked Timber] 7:16:38 AM    comment []