Quotulatiousness

November 21, 2009

Ah, those deniers are causing a ruckus again

Filed under: Environment, Media, Science — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:08

Don’t they realize that the science is settled, all the wiser heads are in agreement, and you can’t disturb their complacency with facts?

Elizabeth sent me a link to this round-up of MSM reporting by James Delingpole, telling me that I was behind the coverage:

Meanwhile, the Climategate scandal (and I do apologise for calling it that, but that’s how the internet works: you need obvious, instantly memorable, event-specific search terms) continues to set the Blogosphere ablaze.

For links to all the latest updates on this, I recommend Marc Morano’s invaluable Climate Depot site.

And if you want to read those potentially incriminating emails in full, go to An Elegant Chaos org where they have all been posted in searchable form.

Like the Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses scandal, this is the gift that goes on giving. It won’t, unfortunately, derail Copenhagen (too many vested interests involved) or cause any of our many political parties to start talking sense on “Climate change”. But what it does demonstrate is the growing level of public scepticism towards Al Gore’s Anthropogenic Global Warming theory. That’s why, for example, this story is the single most read item on today’s Telegraph website.

What it also demonstrates — as my dear chum Dan Hannan so frequently and rightly argues — is the growing power of the Blogosphere and the decreasing relevance of the Mainstream Media (MSM).

If it turns out that these documents and email messages are genuine, it will set back the Climate Change/Global Warming lobby quite a long ways . . . unfortunately, it will also taint a lot of other scientists who have not been involved in the mass PR campaign to push the CC agenda.

There’s also the chance that this is a sting operation designed to publicly discredit the skeptics — who have been so cunningly designated “deniers” by certain MSM outfits — by putting an irresistible temptation out there, with just enough “real” data to appear to discredit CC, and then to reveal that the most explosive and incriminating stuff is actually faked.

November 18, 2009

Busy with work this morning

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: — Nicholas @ 08:55

Hoping to get a chance to do a bit of blogging later today. Check some of the fine blogs listed in the blogroll over to your right if you’re looking for interesting reading material.

October 28, 2009

Sorry for the reduced rate of posting

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: — Nicholas @ 18:13

I came down with something yesterday morning (not Swine Flu H1N1) that knocked me off my feet for the last 24 hours or so. Feeling much better now, but still backlogged with things I should have gotten done yesterday.

October 24, 2009

The oddity of PJTV, Bloggingheads, etc.

Filed under: Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:19

Chris Taylor asks a question that has bothered me too:

Why would you duplicate the worst aspects of the medium?

I need somebody to explain the appeal of PJTV and Bloggingheads.tv. I thought this whole “citizen journalism” thing was about bringing greater depth, detail and context to the news the major media cranks out into the airwaves. Taking the time to write from a specialist’s perspective, to fill in the background that a beat reporter would not even realise they are missing. And all of that married to the ability to receive and remark upon news stories and opinion, anywhere there is a wired or wireless net connection.

The move to try and push this discourse into video from text is ridiculously misguided. The most compelling video isn’t watching two talking heads debate the issues of the day; if it were, the local candidates debates during elections would rival strip clubs for popularity and revenue-generating possibilities. Compelling video is watching the events occur, unfiltered; not having a vacuous talking head try to interpret the events long after they have actually occurred.

Exactly. I rarely watch online videos of the PJTV/Bloggingheads type, partly because I find them generally boring and partly because they take up too much of my time. If I’m web surfing on my lunch break, I don’t want to devote ten or twenty minutes to watching talking heads . . . I’ve got limited time, and the spoken word is far slower than reading the same information in text form.

Worse, sometimes the talking head is someone whose writing I appreciate . . . but their onscreen personality detracts from the message they’re trying to communicate. There’s a reason the mainstream media have tended to feature certain kinds of presenters for their news and opinion programs: they’re able to communicate in pleasant well-modulated voices, they appear dignified on camera, and dress well. They don’t fidget, they don’t twitch or scratch their noses . . . they’re performers in a specific kind of professional performance. Bloggers generally do not fit this profile at all: they’re writers and thinkers, not performers. And it shows.

October 23, 2009

WordPress plugins to consider

Filed under: Technology — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:27

Charles Arthur looks at a few recommended plugins for WordPress blogs:

First, there’s been another upgrade to WordPress (it’s now at 2.8.5). The WordPress blog describes it as a “hardening release”.

Much more important, in my view, is the release of the WordPress Exploit Scanner plugin. Plugins are little extensions to WordPress; and Exploit Scanner is probably the next one you should install. (The first you should install, in my opinion, is Dr Dave’s Spam Karma 2 – which weeds out spam comments more effectively than anything I’ve ever seen, and is specific to your blog.)

The Exploit Scanner does a number of things: it compares your files against an MD5 hash of the WordPress files for whatever version of installation you’re running; it finds examples of suspicious code in your files – three principal ones being the use of “invisible” text through CSS; the use of iframes to embed code from other sites; and base 64 encoding, which can be used to obfuscate entire programs. It will also look through your posts and users to see if there’s anything suspicious or spammy about them.

October 22, 2009

Jamie Holts, call your office

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: — Nicholas @ 14:04

I’m getting comments posted on the last item at a rate of about one per minute (32 at time of writing). This would be great, except they’re all coming from the same IP address, and they’re looking more and more like spam.

They’re getting repetitive . . . and rather contradictory:

  • At 1:01pm — Thanks for posting the article, was certainly a great read!
  • At 1:02pm — I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
  • At 1:03pm — I like your site and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links.
  • At 1:04pm — I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work 🙂
  • At 1:06pm — I’m just getting started with my new blog. Would you want to exchange links on our blog-rolls?
  • At 1:12pm — Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.
  • At 1:14pm — Great post. I will read your posts frequently. Added you to the RSS reader.
  • At 1:20pm — I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
  • At 1:26pm — I discovered your homepage by coincidence.
    Very interesting posts and well written.
    I will put your site on my blogroll.
    🙂
  • At 1:27pm — I’ve been reading along for a while now. I just wanted to drop you a comment to say keep up the good work.
  • At 1:30pm — A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks

And so on . . .

I’m just letting them accumulate in the spam filter for the moment, but on the off-chance that there really is a “Jamie Holts” . . . you might want to check your machine.

October 21, 2009

Site admin

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 09:59

I’ve just updated to the latest version of WordPress . . . there may be a few stylesheet glitches until I notice ’em and fix ’em. Apologies if this causes any display issues for you.

If you do spot something, please let me know.

October 20, 2009

FTC guidelines require me to inform you that . . .

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Media, Politics — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 17:46

. . . I have received no free materials, no payment, and no promised service in exchange for blogging. Others, like Daniel Kalder may end up having to splash nonsense like the start of this post across all their book reviews posted online:

In a fascinating interview conducted with Richard Cleland of the FTC, books blogger Edward Champion exposed the manifold incoherencies in the guidelines. Read the whole thing, for yea verily, it abounds in absurdity. What leapt out at me was the blanket assertion made by Cleland that “when a publisher sends a book to a blogger, there is the expectation of a good review”.

To which Champion replies: “I informed him that this was not always the case and observed that some bloggers often receive 20 to 50 books a week. In such cases, the publisher hopes for a review, good or bad. Cleland didn’t see it that way.”

“If a blogger received enough books,” said Cleland, “he could open up a used bookstore.”

Got that? Good Lord, the man’s a genius! I never realised this criticism lark could be so lucrative! Yes indeed, in Cleland’s brave new world a review copy is compensation, and a review from a blogger is a priori an endorsement, even if negative. Mysteriously the FTC does not require newspapers to disclose how they come by the books they review, or any other freebies their journalists might receive. And yet to pick one obvious example, almost all travel journalism actually is built on the kind of payola/payback system Cleland ascribes to book reviewing, so I can’t see why not.

October 17, 2009

Blogger, know thyself

Filed under: Humour, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 20:29

Gerard van der Leun knows blogging well. Perhaps a bit too well:

“THE 27 DAILY AFFIRMATIONS FOR BLOGGERS”

  1. When I post under an assumed name, I can get in closer touch with my Inner Sociopath.
  2. Through block-quotes and fisking I have the power to transform even the most harmless statements of my enemies into concrete evidence of their evil plans to enslave mankind and rule the world.
  3. In all humility I do not seek to rule the world. I seek only complete agreement and total capitulation.
  4. I assume full responsibility for my posts, especially the good ones that are just links to someone else’s posts.
  5. If, after publication, one of my posts should appear irresponsible, I will be responsible enough to make it disappear, along with the Google cache of it.
  6. Being more confused about the First Amendment than I am about copyright, I am free to reveal the obscene number of hours I blog at work, and the URL of my secret blog where I post the truth about my coworkers’ hygiene, bodily functions, porn-surfing habits, and gender reassignment surgeries without being fired. I know my rights.

September 19, 2009

Light blogging today

Filed under: Soccer — Tags: — Nicholas @ 15:14

Just got back from the first half of Victor’s soccer tournament weekend. His team’s record so far, a win (4-0), a tie (2-2), and a loss (2-1). They’ll need to win both of tomorrow’s games to have a chance to be in the final.

Update, 20 September: T’was not to be. Another 2-1 loss followed by a very evenly matched 0-0 tie. Due to some upsets on Saturday, both teams in the second game had the chance to advance to the final . . . with a win. The tie knocked both teams out.

September 17, 2009

Admin update

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: — Nicholas @ 13:18

Sorry for the broken page display over the last half hour or so . . . I’d miscoded a URL and it broke the sidebar template, so that the sidebar appeared in place of the main blog body at the point of the error. I think it’s fixed now.

September 6, 2009

Some good advice from the WordPress developers

Filed under: Technology — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 09:04

WordPress blogs (like this one) have been recently under attack by a worm tailored to a weakness that existed in older versions of the blogging software. Here’s the scoop.

Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts.

The tactics are new, but the strategy is not. Where this particular worm messes up is in the “clean up” phase: it doesn’t hide itself well and the blogger notices that all his links are broken, which causes him to dig deeper and notice the extent of the damage. Where worms of old would do childish things like defacing your site, the new ones are silent and invisible, so you only notice them when they screw up (as this one did) or your site gets removed from Google for having spam and malware on it.

In short, if you haven’t already upgraded your WordPress blog to the current version, you’re inviting trouble.

September 4, 2009

How many blog checkmarks would you need?

Filed under: Books, Media — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:38

Jacob Sullum looks at the quaint, old-fashioned notion of internal fact-checking:

When I was a “reporter-researcher” at Fortune during college, the Time Inc. policy was that one verification by book was worth two verifications by newspaper. If I’m remembering the color scheme correctly, the former was a “red check,” which was good enough on its own, whereas the latter was a “black check,” acceptable only in pairs. I may have the colors reversed, but the point is that we all assumed books were more reliable than newspapers (or other periodicals). That was a mistake, I think. While some books categorized as nonfiction, such as reference works and peer-reviewed releases from academic presses, go through some sort of fact checking, the vast majority do not. (They are generally reviewed by lawyers with an eye toward possible libel issues, but you can get lots of things wrong without risking a lawsuit.) In fact, judging from the finished products, I’d say most books are barely edited, let alone checked for accuracy. By contrast, newspaper stories typically are reviewed by two or three editors before they see print. It’s true that books take longer to produce, which gives a conscientious author more time to catch mistakes. Then again, they are a lot longer than newspaper stories, so there is more room for error.

So, how many checkmarks (of a murky shade of orange) would be required for blog references? Can any blogger count that high?

August 23, 2009

Happy 5th anniversary to Gods of the Copybook Headings

Filed under: Cancon, Media — Tags: — Nicholas @ 17:12

Publius notes the fifth anniversary of the blog:

The critic, of which this blog has many, may say that The Gods of the Copybook Headings is Publius’ Star Trek V. Publius being Publius. Rambling historical asides. Rants against the government. Circuitous pieces of logic that somehow link obscure references to The Fountainhead, Reflections on the Revolution in France and a rather too detailed understanding of Trek arcana — though I am piker compared to people I have met. Trust me. It all makes sense. Just another few paragraphs, it will all come together. As we note this blog’s fifth anniversary — or blogversary as I called it after year one — one is compelled to ask how have we lasted so long. I say “we” not referring to Publius’ multiple personalities, or imperial sense of self, but you and me.

I keep writing because I’m an eccentric. It’s either this or talk to the TV. Whatever person is sitting next me, they tuned out awhile back. I sometimes have no idea why any of you keep showing up. Some of you, I know, are fellow eccentrics. Objectivists, monarchists, atheists, non-mainline Christians, Anglophiles and others caught in a kind of time warp. Pardon the pun. I say eccentric as in “deviating from the recognized or customary character.” Ever been told you were born at the wrong time? Yeap, I get it about once a week. Right now JS Bach’s Concerto in C Minor for 2 Harpsichords is playing on my iTunes. Exactly. The word you’re looking for, the WFB word anyway, is discomfiture. Sometimes you’re embarrassed, sometimes you’re embarrassed for other people.

July 18, 2009

Testing the WordPress iPhone utility

Filed under: Administrivia, Books — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 18:45

Just trying out an iPhone app that allows posting to the blog remotely.

If things work as expected, there should be a photo of some light summer reading below:

Update: Yep, looks like it worked. And yes, Herodotus is next on my reading list after the latest Theodore Dalrymple.

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