Jason Clarke

The ‘Pay-per-Gate‘ saga, which I’ve written about twice before, has now crossed over into the local media here in Maine. Today, both the Knox County VillageSoup Times and the Portland Press Herald ran variations on the story.

Prediction: homemade how-to videos, such as the ones featured on Turtlesoup.tv and at Ctrl+Alt+Chicken, will rise up in a big way in the second half of 2006.

Back in November of 2005, in a comment on his blog, I challenged Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson to write up a post on the “10 Flaws, Problems, or Issues with Ruby on Rails.”

Hansson replied to my comment, stating “That’s a good idea. When 1.0 is out I’ll assemble a list of the 10 things we need to do better.”

I’m a bit late on this, but since Rails 1.0 came out back in December of last year, I’m wondering if Hansson might like to revisit my request and consider writing the post I suggested.

Every blogger out there should understand that when one of us is threatened with a lawsuit, we’re all threatened. That’s not a cutesy cliche- it’s a serious point to keep in mind whenever we begin to forget that there are many members of the old guard- institutions such as government agencies and media outlets- with enough resources and fear to make life very difficult for individual bloggers or journalists.

I’m raising all this because I’m sorry to report that Lance Dutson, the blogger who is following an ongoing saga of incompetence and alleged harrasement by the Maine State Office of Tourism and some of its contractors (dubbed ‘Pay-per-Gate’), announced today that he’s been threatened with a lawsuit by Warren Kremer Paino, the advertising firm retained by the state’s Tourism Office.

He was served with the warning via letter on Saturday, mentioning it on his blog Sunday. Today, he upped the ante, publishing the letter on his blog.

The threat of a lawsuit is, allegedly, not the first tactic employed by the subjects of Lance’s ongoing reporting. He has previously written on his blog about attempts by various parties to contact his clients (he’s a web developer by trade) and even his wife’s employers in apparent attempts to disrupt his business.

If those accuastions of harrasment prove true- and let’s be clear, as they’re being described, they’re bordering on illegal, particularly for agents of a state government- then they make the appearance of a threatening letter from a law firm appear all the more ominious- not to mention devious.

Although he’s receiving some initial support from the Committee to Protect Bloggers, he deserves as much of our support as possible as he faces off against a corporation that appears ready to sue in order to silence him.

I strongly encourage any blogger reading this to promote this story in any way possible- link to it, share it, pass it on- so that in rallying around Lance, we make it that much harder for another independent publisher, blogger or otherwise, to be threatened not only with his blog, but with his livelihood.

“A return to some sort of balance, in which the world looks a bit more like the eighteenth century than the twentieth, is likely to be a good thing.”

So says Glenn Reynolds, perhaps better known as InstaPundit, in the conclusion of his new book, An Army of Davids (view it on Amazon.com).

While that may seem a strange statement to make, you’ll be hard-pressed to disagree with it after reading Reynolds’ brisk, yet thoroughly fascinating treatise on the future of life, from blogging to space colonization.

I’ve been a big admirer of Reynolds blog for a few years, yet I always got the sense that blogging was just one of the Tennessee Law professor’s many hobbies. I think I’ve been proven right, in that quite a few of them- from beer brewing, to music, to an interest in space, nanotechnology, and life extension- are on display in Davids, as Reynolds proves to be a likeable and intelligent guide through some pretty far reaches of technology.

Beginning with the tremendous impact that blogging has wrought on top-down institutions such as government and big media, Reynolds uses the “Army of Davids” metaphor repeatedly to advance his theory that loose, decentralized networks of individuals will be the diriving force behind a multitude of amazing changes taking place over the next 30-50 years. When I say “amazing”, there’s not much hyperbole there- the colonization of space (seriously!) is one such dramatic change that Reynolds hopes will be come about thanks to the power of the individual bypassing the beaurocracy of a government.

Reynolds also describes some trends that, rather than being powered by the “Army”, will instead benefit it: If scientists succeed in slowing or even reversing the aging process, Reynolds argues that the single individual will become even more empowered, leading to a dramatic increase in personal productivity, creativity, and the like. These are just two examples- the singularity, space elevators, and artificial intelligence are also discussed.

If you think the topics of the previous paragraphs are the stuff of science fiction, I might’ve agreed with you just a few days ago. But after finishing Army of Davids, I’m excited to learn more about some things I once thought of as fantasy that Reynolds argues are already well underway.

The book is a quick read- I digested it in just a couple hours- but that is far from an insult. Rather, I suspect Reynolds’ conversational, at times swift-moving prose and frequent long-form quotes are designed to assume the reader’s intelligence, rather than condescend to it. Supplementing the wide variety of subject matter are copious citations, especially helpful when Reynolds cuts broad strokes through his often unfamiliar (to many) subject matter.

On his blog, Reynolds has, on at least two occasions, referenced reviewers who met with confusion as the latter half of the book veered away from blog-related topics and moved into more scientific and even sci-fi-esque territory. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with the book transitioning into trends of the near future. Because Reynolds is perhaps best known as a blogosphere celebrity, I’m guessing some readers expected the book to remain media-centric. However, I’m pleased that Reynolds guided his book away from a pleasing yet tiring re-hash of recent memory and instead took a risk by exposing readers to a some tip-of-the-iceberg stuff that I, for one, would likely have never learned of otherwise.

So if you’re expecting a light read about the impact of blogging, look elsewhere. But if you’re interested in the extension of trends that blogging is only a small part of, you’ll probably learn a great deal- and become pretty excited- about the future that An Army of Davids foretells.

The Poetry Foundation has a beautiful, feature-rich website that includes a nifty tool called their Poetry Tool, which lets you browse their extensive collection of hosted poems based on a variety of criteria such as first line, subject matter, author, etc.

I was recently browsing the Poetry Tool and found this beautiful poem by Robert E. Hayden, Those Winter Sundays.

If you want to check it out for yourself, you can listen to an mp3 of me reading the poem, or read it right here:

Those Winter Sundays

Robert E. Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Just got another email from Adholes, the worthless advertising news site. You may remember my post from three weeks ago, where I complained that Adholes continued to send me email messages after I had attempted to unsubscribe twice.

Well I’ve now tried to unsubscribe three times and they are continuing to send me messages. Again, this is the very definition of spam. Therefore, Adholes is engaging in not only unethical, but illegal practices in order to get their message out.

If they even care, Adholes may want to contact Netmodular.com, the third-party service they use to send their messages, and ask them what’s going on.

Alright, I’m off to try and unsubscribe for the fourth time!

UPDATE: Jeesh, these people are clueless idiots. I just spent a few minutes trying to follow their directions on ‘deleting’ my account with them- which, according to their instructions, involves logging in, changing my name to “delete”, removing my email, saving my account, and then logging out of my account.

That would be awesome, except…Their system won’t let me remove my email, nor is there an option to ‘logout’ of my account…so, wow. Just when you think incompetence can’t get much worse, it often surprises you.

Adholes, you are conducting yourselves quite poorly, and I can’t be the only person out there with these problems.

Veronica Mars is new tonight for the first time in weeks, I’m burned out on the Internet, and exhausted on top of that. So tonight, I’m going offline to spend time relaxing with my two favorite women. Thankfully, one of them is real.

Hey, parents: Have you watched countless hours of Sesame Street and/or Muppet movies with your child? If you’re anything like me, your mind begins to wander a bit as you’re enjoying the 23rd consecutive viewing of the one where Zoe’s tutu flies up in the tree. Because I’m curious about how things work, my mind tends to wander towards the how of both the show(s) and the movies, specifically the world of puppetry, which I find pretty fascinating. To me it’s one of those things that is way under-appreciated, especially considering how much happiness it brings to our children.

For example: have you ever thought about how Big Bird is brought to life by a pupeteer? Think about it for a sec. Is there somebody inside of him? Okay- that sounds like an easy answer. But, keep in mind he’s 8 feet tall. So is Carroll Spinney just a really tall guy? I doubt it- I’d like to believe there’s a bit more magic at work.

Enter the relentless power of the web and the people who make it. Today, a few of my long-standing questions- including how Big Bird is played, and trust me, the answer will surprise you- were answered thanks to The Muppet Wiki, a huge collection of information, trivia, and insider info on all things Muppet, from Big Bird to Kermit to over 1,000 other characters of varying acclaim. Besides providing great historical insight into the creation and development of the Muppets, the site has quite a few really interesting nuggets that I think might interest parents, and their kids, who consider Jim Henson’s world a great and really interesting place.

Checking out Jason Calacanis’ site, I noticed a link to an amazing commercial that aired during this past Sunday’s Oscar telecast. I meant to post about the ad myself but it was lost in the shuffle, before I found it again. When I first caught this spot during the Oscars, I was simply mesmerized- for the entire two minute length- a virtual eternity for TV advertising- I sat there, continually freaked out in an entertaining way. Not recognizing the star of the spot, for most of the time I was convinced it was a promo for an upcoming TV show until the reveal came at the end.

The “commercial” was just that- a commercial- but it was also a 2-minute long short film for the American Express card directed by and starring M. Night Shyamalan, director of The Sixth Sense among others.

The commerci-short is part of the credit card giant’s “My Life, My Card” campaign, which I’ve already admired via its print iterations in Entertainment Weekly. Its print counterparts, while not as captivating, are classy, understated spots that feature interesting black and white photos of celebs (such as Ellen DeGeneres brushing her teeth) and personal comments from them.

Besides the genius of the ad, American Express and whoever its agency is are further proving they “get it” by posting the ad on the homepage of the campaign’s website, mylifemycard.com, for all to see.

Take two minutes and check out this amazing commercial/short film. If you admire Shyamalan’s unique brand of upscale spookiness, you’ll really dig the spot.