Friday, December 23, 2005

Shark Video. Watch this astounding video of a shark in the Seattle aquarium. [Emergent Chaos] 8:49:31 AM    comment []

Gooooood morning, Weblogistan!. More than 100,000 active weblogs in Iran -may be undermining, or at least are relieving, the mullahs' grip on the population, particularly among the educated, techno-friendly young generations, writes Ben MacIntyre in London's The Times today. According to the article, Farsi has become the second most used language in the blogosphere even ahead of French, and Weblogistan -that's how Iranians call it- has become an oasis "of noisy and irreverent free speech." Little Green Footballs wonders if the blogosphere will ultimately bring down the mullahs, and USS Neverdock thinks the anger reflected in their posts, usually discussing issues that are forbidden for them in real life -especially for women-, should be encouraged so that a regime change is possible. Six Days writes "Good luck, and may the truth set them free, and the mullahs packing. I looking forward to drinking Shiraz wine with miniskirted dark eyed beauties in a bar in Tehran, klezmer band optional;" meanwhile, Ultima Thule says it's good to see that the desire towards freedom is present even in people living under such a hard regime. By by Pajamas Media staff in Barcelona. [PJM - Top Stories] To what extent are we telling oruselves the stories we want to hear about blogging in Iran, CHina, and other places? 8:49:05 AM    comment []

Ikea opening attracts homeless, unemployed. Is waiting in line for over a week to get a gift card for cheap furniture "extreme endurance" or thrift? I don't know but I almost feel dirty in perpetuating this story about the frenzy in Massachussetts about the opening of a new store. The Swedish chain was awarding gift certificates ranging from $500-5,000 to the first five customers, who stood in line for as many as 12 days. First in line and the top winner, Mike Rice, flew from Georgia to take part in the contest, which turned intense. Third-in-line Jeffrey Beaudette, who stood in line for seven days, told the Boston Herald: “If you look at the five of us now, no one’s really talking to each other. Hm. Six to twelve days for $500 to $5,000? I wonder what the hourly rate on that works out to on that. The suits in Ikea's publicity department are clearly doing their job. Reminds me of another wiseguy publicity stunt, Elite Designers Against Ikea. [Stay Free! Daily] 8:49:04 AM    comment []

Crypto man. After reporting on America's spying operations for 25 years, James Bamford is speaking out against Bush's FISA runaround. He says the wiretapping is illegal. [Salon] 8:48:17 AM    comment []

American’s demand the US Senate schedule hearings on Iran. The US Senate is paralyzed on Iran. After months of inaction, last Friday the Senate passed a weakened version of Senator Santorum’s bi-partisan resolution condemning Iran’s President’s recent statements on Israel. Yesterday, I posted a detailed, behind the scenes report on the resolution that has been largely ignored by the US media. Senate democrats refused language that: supported the people of Iran's desire to exercise self determination over the form of government of their country and supported a call for a national referendum in Iran with oversight by international observers and monitors to certify the integrity and fairness of the referendum. More surprising is that Senator Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee had not cosponsored either resolution. We learned that a majority staffer objected to condemning the entire government of Iran and the call for a referendum with international observers. He reportedly said that we should be condemning President Ahmadinejad (vs. the entire government) and that "Iran just had elections and they chose the current leader." Such statements show a complete lack of understanding of the Iranian government’s electoral process. The regime chooses which candidates are permitted to run for office that they approve of and even these are fraudulent. Even Iran’s leaders agree they are fraudulent. While we failed on this resolution, Senator Santorum (the author of the resolution that failed and the author of the weakened version passed last Friday) has also authored important legislation on Iran stalled in the US Senate, since February. That bill: The Iran Freedom and Support Act S. 333 is designed to hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran. To this day, Chairman Lugar has failed to call for hearings on the bill. So after receiving yesterday’s report on the situation, several Iranian satellite broadcasters (NITV and SOS Iran) asked their listeners, which include millions of Iranians, to call Chairman Lugar’s office and their own Senator’s office demanding hearings on the Iran Freedom and Support Act. Blog Update: The Corner warned that Senate democrats were playing politics with the future of the people of Iran. Dean’s World called “deplorable” the US Senate’s “betraying democratic values.” Ed Driscoll appeared shocked, saying: Regime Change Iran? I'm In Favor. Atlas Shrugs asked her readers to call Lugar’s office demanding hearings. By DoctorZin for Pajamas Media. [PJM - Top Stories] 8:47:41 AM    comment []

Aristocratic Right Wing Blogosphere Stagnating. MyDD argues that the "Aristocratic Right Wing Blogosphere" is stagnating. "I expect that the liberal and progressive blogosphere will continue its unborken twenty-month rise in relative traffic". The problem? Too many Glenn Reynolds wannabees. Here's an excerpt from MyDD. "Of the twenty-four liberal blogs in the top quintile, Dailykos, TPM Café, Smirking Chimp, Metafilter, BooMan Tribune, MyDD, and Dembloggers are full-fledged community sites where members cannot only comment, but they can also post diaries / articles / polls. By comparison, there are no community sites among the top twenty-four conservative blogs. None, zip, zero, nada. This is particularly stunning when one considers the importance of the Free Republic community to the conservative netroots. While it would appear that there are hordes of Glenn Reynolds wannabe's among conservatives in the netroots, Redstate.org sticks out as the only success story for a community oriented blog within the conservative blogosphere. In fact, of the five most trafficked conservative blogs (over 200,000 page views per week), only one, Little Green Footballs, even allows comments, much less the ability to actually write a diary or a new article." By MyDD. [PJM - Best of the Blogs] 8:47:19 AM    comment []

Commuter-Blogs. Oh, the daily commute, the daily commute, what to do on your daily commute... We all try not to think about it.  We try as hard as we can not to think about how we could better use those hundreds and hundreds of hours spent traveling to and from work every year, because it just leads to frustration.  Whether you're one who dreams of sipping daiquiris in the Caribbean, spending more time with the kids, or clocking some extra overtime hours, it's probably safe to say you wish your day didn't start and end with a 40 minute [fill in type of transportation – bus, subway, car – here] ride.    Photo from Flickr.com // by seanich Photo from Flickr.com // by oceanhug Many of us use this frustrating abyss of time spent on public transportation each day to do things like listen to our iPods, work on the latest Sudoku puzzle, or read last week's New Yorker (with hopes of becoming socially conversant in time for the significant other's office holiday party). Others simply listen. Observe. Document. You may think they're staring into the crowd because they're spaced out at the end of a long day, but really, they're absorbing the conversations and interactions going on around them, only to regurgitate their reflections, perceptions and observations for all to see on the World Wide Web. Meet the Commuter Bloggers. From the London Tube to the DC Metro, Chicago's CTA to San Francisco's BART riders – every city has a good one. And of course, New York City's subway system has a few worth checking out, including a commuter photoblog. So check out these Top 10 feeds to read about your ride... [TopTenSources] 8:41:08 AM    comment []

All the World's a Podcast. It's incredibly easy to create and syndicate your own audio content. Here's how. By Michael Calore. [Wired News] 8:39:16 AM    comment []