“Private bloggers or websites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, and the ministry – which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance – said 74% of all sites had already registered.” A nice reminder that despite China’s economic growth, it is not free. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | China orders bloggers to register with government
Reuters: Indian government reverses a crippling fine imposed by a Hindu temple, on a family whose baby pee-ed while its mother was praying.
The first of the gambling IPOs, PartyGaming (which are in the UK because it is illegal in the US) is about to go out for $9 billion (5 bn GBP). As I wrote before, I noticed that a large percentage of comment spam was coming from affiliates of these companies with pending IPOs. I suspect that, like porn, conversion rates for gambling affiliates are such that they can’t afford to advertise on Google and therefore resort to things like comment spam to scam Google. In other words, because CPA affiliate programs like the poker sites’ don’t appeal to sites with any readership (a medium traffic site can go for Adsense CPC advertising and a big brand site will opt for CPM revenues with guaranteed income based on readership) their affiliates tend to be low end sites. Low end sites would normally have to buy traffic, but if the cost of…
Blogebrity is obviously a fake, but even though that that is fairly widely known, it still spreads. A magazine that launches it’s site as part of a competition to create the best meme, where the only content not ‘coming soon’ is a list of the people most likely to help drive this particular meme, bloggers, oh cummon. The wonderfully sarcastic strapline, worthy of Andrew Orlowski “isn’t it about time that someone talked about bloggers” will make any blogger gullible enough to believe it, regret having been so vain. Regardless of the scam, Blogebrity is really, really interesting: it’s a weblog with ZERO content which has grown faster than almost any other. This is not a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes, here the Emperor knows he is naked but the people cannot see it. Strip away the graphics and rearrange the content and what do you have: A two column…
Imagine if someone sailed up the Hudson and made off with the Statue of Liberty's crown. The marble frieze, hacked from the Parthenon, Greece's greatest treasure, is 'owned' by the British museum. And now, a moron of a judge, (vice chancellor Andrew Morritt) has ruled that: the British Museum Act – which protects the collections for posterity – cannot be overridden by a "moral obligation" to return works known to have been plundered. " In effect this means that museum pieces are protected by the law, even if the law was broken to acquire them. It means that museums can receive stolen goods, something which is illegal for everyone else. This creates a moral justification for the Greeks to plunder the UK at some point in the future, I guess. But it gets worse. This ruling was based on: Four drawings that "were stolen from the home of Dr Arthur…
Answer, write a blog about Gawker – do it well, show that you can write and it will end up on their radar. Which after all is a repeat of Gawkers’ method itself: Write a gossip column where the initial subjects are other gossip columnists, hacks and flacks, then it will get noticed by the people who promote stuff. Down right PReditorial! Flattery will get you everywhere. Chris Mohney did just that, with arguably the longest ever resume: Gawkerist: Nick Denton Finally Pays Us to Stop Blogging
If it is clear, Manhattan will flood dramatically with sunlight just as the Sun sets precisely on the centerline of every street. Usually, the tall buildings that line the gridded streets of New York City's tallest borough will hide the setting Sun. This effect makes Manhattan a type of modern Stonehenge. Via Nick Dentonlink » tags: [architecture] [nyc] permamark in: Wists
Salman Rushdie attacks an article in the Guardian by Dylan Evans which proposes a moderate atheist stance. The problem with the moderate stance is that there is no compromise between belief and non-belief in the context of religion
Arianna Huffington: "Now that the Democrats have won the battle over the nuclear option" Oh please – this was a bi-partisan victory a victory for moderation. Claiming it as a win for the Democrats just does not do any good at all. link » tags: [politics] permamark in: Wists
Byron LaMasters reports on the Stem Cell debate in Congress. Bush has threatened to Veto on the grounds that: He opposes that which “destroys life in order to save life”. By logical extension, this means that Bush is opposed to most defense spending.