July 2008 – Page 3 – Stilgherrian

18 July 200818 July 2008

So this is human sexuality?

I’m fascinated by the rich variety of the human sexual experience — and by the widespread denial about same.

For all that Cardinal Pell, bless his little silk knickers, thinks that sex only happens between (one) man and (one) woman who are married, have the lights turned off, and are not enjoying the experience but are breeding to better the Catholic Church, actual experience proves the complete opposite. Humans have and enjoy sex in pretty much every combination that can be imagined.

I was therefore fascinated with a massive spam comment which I’ve just deleted, which purported to list “What people search for” on the porn sites it was promoting.

Continue reading “So this is human sexuality?”

17 July 2008

How about we do episode 6 tonight?

I’ve decided that I’ll resume doing Stilgherrian Live Alpha and will record episode 6 live on the Internet tonight at 9.30pm Sydney time. See you then.

17 July 200817 July 2008

Links for 13 July 2008 through 17 July 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 13 July 2008 through 17 July 2008, gathered with moss like a rolling stone doesn’t:

Flat Earth News: The official website for Nick Davies' book, which various people have suggested I read.
Straw man | Wikipedia: "A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position." Tagged as a reminder to certain blog commenters.
Zappos.com: Who'd have thought that people would buy shoes online? Who'd have thought that a company would use Twitter and other social media to do great customer service (or so I'm told)?
Journalism: A Toxic Culture? (Or: Why Aren’t We Having More Fun?) | contentious.com: Amy Gahran helps explain why journalists are so defensive about their craft these days, and posits that they have "Priesthood Syndrome".
The plastic buttons we push | Amit Gupta likes you!: How do you make a living? Is it by pushing plastic buttons all day?
Is Social Media The Ultimate Buzz Kill? | Awake At The Wheel: Are we becoming so addicted to telling people about what we're experencing that we actually forget to experience it?
Principia Discordia Hardback | Synaptyclypse Generator: The central Discordian text, "Principia Discordia", is once more available in hardback. I am well pleased.
DIY carbon change | Unleashed: "Sometime in the last two weeks I stopped believing in government," says Mark Pesce. If governments are failing to respond to this vital issue, then we can ignore them and handle this ourselves.

16 July 200826 August 2020

Note to “old media” journalists: adapt, or stfu!

[I promised Crikey that I’d write something about the Future of Media Summit 2008. This rant is what emerged. You can also read it over at Crikey, where there’s a different stream of comments.]

What is the future of journalism? To judge by the discussion at this week’s Future of Media Summit held simultaneously in Sydney and Silicon Valley (and every other “new media” conference I’ve been to lately) it’s endless bloody whingeing. Whingeing about how journalism has standards and bloggers are all “just” writing whatever they think.

The panels in both cities covered the same, tired old ground. The new “participatory media” and “citizen journalism” would never be Real Journalism, because Real Journalism is an Art/Craft/Profession. Real Journalism involves research and fact-checking and sub-editing. There’s a Code of Ethics. But “these people”, as bloggers get labelled, these people just sit around in their pyjamas and write whatever comes into their heads.

Bollocks.

Continue reading “Note to “old media” journalists: adapt, or stfu!”

16 July 2008

Exhausted by the Future of Media

Whew! The Future of Media Summit 2008 was exhausting yesterday! I’ll be writing something this morning, but I’m not sure what yet. Stand by. Meanwhile you can get a taste of the action by reading Mark Pesce’s thoughts on the Future of Live Television (Part 1, Part 2), and Erin Moss’ notes on the Sydney Future of Journalism session and plenty more linked from the Future of Media Blog. Plus of course there’s the Summize feed of everyone’s Twitter traffic.