Information Saving the World

As loath as I am to use a New York Times story as proof, this one does prove what I said earlier about the information revolution, and what the implications are.

Smart Guy Alert

This blog is very good: Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics' Horserace Blog. And by 'good' I mean 'he thinks like I do'

The above link is an example of what I like. His main point in that post is that despite the blog's unfortunate title, the primaries are not a horse-race to the general voter. The voters only start paying attention very close to the actual election. The pundits and political junkies (like me) think that voters are paying attention like we do. Note, they don't.

What this means, in short, is that early polls are not worth much. Candidates - like Obama and Giuliani - who wait for the month before Iowa/New Hampshire to start spending mucho dinero and to levy their best attacks are being very smart.

He also gives some good info about the effects of Negative Campaigning (something I've wondered about for a while).

Blog, Wiki, and Youtube

I forget if I've made this point before but my resumption of intermittant blogging has reminded me of the interplay of these three devices: Blogs, Wikipedia and Youtube. All three are democratic: anyone can create a blog/edit wiki/upload a pic. Blogs allow the most freedom of expression (content can be cheezily G rated or nasty nasty nasty). And when I blog I usually keep two windows (tabs) open on my browser to allow easy referencing access: Wiki for words and Youtube for images/movies.

We'll see how many of these devices are around in 5, 10, 50 years. I have a feeling that all three will grow stronger and more present as long as we continue to be free. They may not have the same names, but the media form will be around.

Rant: The Evil, Blogs

Why do people hate blogs? I hear this from people and it's in the same tone people used to have back in the 80s when they talked about answering machines. While I don't feel old, I realize that because I grew up in the transition time between in the years between when virtually all phones were corded (and many rotary! glad that died a swift death), and when people reacted strongly to leaving a message on an impersonal machine.

As I've mentioned before, while we don't have our flying cars in the 21th Century (yet), we have made enormous mind-boggling futuristic advances in communication and computing technology. But no flying cars. I'm actually happier to have my palm tero - wireless phone/Internet/color computer - which is probably more powerful than the system that launched the Apollo missions.

Anyway, this was supposed to be about blogs. Right, OK. So, people hate blogs. Who hates? So far the resistance has come from two groups:

1. Politicians and Old Media Employees
   
2. Old People (anyone above 60)

The latter group hates blogs for the same reason they hated answering machines. They have no idea what blogs are, so let's hate it! It's a stupid word to begin with (any decent word that starts with the B-L diphthong? Colors don't count). And it's a synecdoche for everything bad in new technology. And because info-technology is evolving very very fast, there's a lot to feel uncomfortable about. A blog is seen as just a way to waste time on the tube-ridden internet, and bloggers are the punk ruffians who have made the internets - and by extension the outside world outside of Archie Bunker's living room - a bad place.

We can ignore this group. They will soon pass into irrelevancy.

It's the first group - Politicians and Old Media Employees - who actually know (a bit) what blogs are, and don't like 'em. Back in 2006 my comments on this matter would have been prescient and interesting. Now, they're just a post-mortem. Because in the past 18 months, The Man has gone from fear to acceptance on blogs. They use 'em (badly, usually) and have gotten to understand that blogs are the newest incarnation of the technology tidal wave.

Sadly, this has led to many blaming blogs for early deaths - an epidemic, like Satanism in the 70s and comic-book-fuelled-child-delinquency in the 50s - without recognizing that blogging is no different from the 24/7 news stations. Except that CNN/FOX et al. have stopped doing actual news and have gone to entertainment while blogs have the chance to be the real 24/7 news that TV can't manage. Because TV costs a lot, requires made-up bimbos to read cue-cards, and is seen as a medium of entertainment and not information.

If anything, I hope blogs will finally kill off 24 hour news stations. Everything started going downhill (culminating with Chris Matthews) when news was perceived as 'profitable.' Viva la blog.

Backpost finished 4/11/08. I had just the first line (bolded). I've expanded it... all over the place. That's why it's now a 'rant.' And as far as I know, I've said much of this before as well.

Biur Biur Biur

It turns out that the "Biur Chametz" dude (dudette?) is a friend of mine. He/She links to my post, and comments on it, here. Our conversation will soon be featured on the Fox telecast of "When Blogs Collide!"

Other Blogs

I just did a short morning's scoot through a bunch of other frummie blogs out there. I think I'm one of the only losers left on blogger. Everyone else's blog is shiny. Mine is the blog equivalent to a 1970s General Motors rustmachine while everyone else is driving 2004 GMs. As soon as I find out how they did it, I will cease to suck.