The now very tired debate[] going on between MSM and the journalistic Blogosphere went another round recently thanks to this piece by Christian Kerr in The Australian and some mud thrown back.
I distinctly remember a time when I enjoyed reading The Australian. It hasn’t been that way for a while, and they seem to just keep putting nails in the coffin, becoming more and more conservative and petty (among other adjectives).
Here is a post in reply by the blog being heavily trashed by Kerr. I hope this unavailing and pointless slinging match is abandoned by both sides soon.
Update: More of the same sentiment from Andrew Bartlett.
A while ago I was asked by my employer to write a short article on something web related to add some decent content to the company’s new website. I ended up writing a short article on blogging for business promotion which included a short (and very incomplete) list of what I think are essential elements that must be included to count a website as a blog.
I am sick of stumbling across websites labelled as blogs which are missing one or more elements which I believe are essential to the blog paradigm. This miss-labelling is particularly prevalent within traditional media organisations and other businesses who want to have a blog because it’s now the done thing.
Today I found an article by Merlin Mann (via Daring Fireball) which is a much better, and more comprehensive (even if slighlty different) list of what he thinks consitutes a good blog. I can’t say (as he suggests I should) that I disagree with any of it but, that doesn’t mean this blog meets the mark (or, neccesarily that I’m trying to have it meet the mark).
As far as I’m concerned we’ve got a good two weeks of summer left, but the past week or so[] has seen a decided - and somewhat unwelcome - swing to autumn. The English summer, all four weeks of it, was a glorious experience - but the leaves are now falling.
The long summer days of latitudes above 51° 30′ really are something to treasure. It’s a new and delightful pleasure - if only it wasn’t so fleeting - to get off work at five (or so) and have a full 4 hours of daylight left to play with. Picnics in London’s oasis where the bright blue sky and impossibly elastic twilight provide a catalyst for the friends, cheese and wine to coalesce into memories that should last a lifetime.
I must get around to taking some pictures of the estate we live in before the summer leaves disappear entirely.
The English autumn will be a new experience to enjoy, and the winter has its own charms which I can look forward to, but the summer will be missed. How time flies.
I’ve just been reading a post about the legal status of pepper spray in Australia[], which seems to also serve a secondary purpose, which is airing the author’s views on gun ownership for personal protection. While I believe in the ideas of liberalism, I tend to tread a line somewhere between classic and social or modern liberalism. The so called nanny state is something to avoid, in my opinion, but placing legal restrictions on the ownership and use of personal firearms is not what I would consider nannying. Indeed, I believe one of John Howard’s most courageous actions as Prime Minister was the changes made to firearms laws after the Port Arthur massacre.
Continue reading ‘Guns for personal defence? No thanks.’