Shanti’s Dispatches

(via 37 signals)

It seems all the cool bloggers got to spend the weekend in Paris.

I’ve seriously been thinking about starting a fund that people can donate to so that I can attend blogger conferences.

You know, like Kottke’s micropatronage effort.

Why would anyone actually want to donate to this effort? Certainly beats the hell out of me.

Maybe If I threatened to boil and eat a cute little bunny rabbit, it might work.

Oh wait, somebody’s already done that.

You’ve heard of PR, well, now there’s BR. eyes currently rolling to the back of my skull

Vic Gundotra: In defense of the company I love

Mary Hodder of napsterization.org sez traditional conference panels should go the way of the dinosaur:

I’m sitting here at a conference that I flew all the way to Paris for.. for two days, and damned if it isn’t full of panels, broadcast mode all the way, telling the audience how it is. And well.. it’s so freaking undynamic. Because it’s not a discussion. These are bloggers. They know a lot. They know what it is. These 300 people make media every day on their blogs and yet, panels are here giving us time to email the office, our cats or the mailman about a critical lost postcard.

This audience is creative, bright, thoughtful and our brains are being numbed to death by one-way talk about how blogs are about losing legacy control and we’re all taking it back. Somewhere there is a tragi-comedy in here. It’s time for a revolt. Please, please, please can we do all conferences from now on differently? For the love of transparency, aliveness, I hope we can.

(via dave)

“Get over yourself and drop the MSM’ bullshit, please“:

“If you use the term MSM in a unironic way to denote the 'Mainstream Media' I will write you off as a quack, unsubscribe from your RSS, and stop reading your blog.”

Update: It’s supposed to be pseudo-ironic. Jeez, sometimes I just can’t take the ironicalness of so much irony. It’s like a Michael Moore flick (or Eminem song) gone mad.

Half the time here in the blogosphere we’re joking (being ironic), the other half we’re serious.

I only have two words for ya: plausable deniability

(via kottke)

Thank you, Surreal Life, thank you.

Wired’s piece on WikiNews had me shaking my head.

A Note to the WikiNews folk:

Guys, it’s called a weblog.

For what you’re doing (timely, relevant meta-reporting + original reporting), the best software is blogging software, like WordPress.

I know Wiki’s are great for things like encyclopedias, but not news. Sorry!

Unborn Baby Ornament - US Troop Model:

Protect our troops - from the womb to the war. What if the fetus you were going to abort would grow up to be a soldier bringing democracy to a godless dictatorship?

You really have to see the image.

It’s like when you accidentally taste some really bad milk … then you want everyone else to have to experience it too =)

Jeff Nolan’s Google history:

okay, I’m going to come clean… here’s my search history for the last 24 hours:

barbara boxer idiot

barbara boxer clueless moron

in-and-out burger 4×4

midget porn

midget porn donkey

midget porn bullwhip

midget porn barbara boxer

howard dean insanity

Cops tv show theme music

Mine was the exact same! crazy!