Idiotprogrammer: Texas Literary Blog

Month: June 2004

  • Tip for Amazon Buyers

    This is one of those obvious things that I don’t know why others haven’t commented on it. I recently bought a collection of Medeival Troubadour Songs conducted by Thomas Binkley. It was one of the rare occasions where I paid retail. Amazon promises a date for your shipment to arrive. On your “check order status”…

  • Moore forbidden to advertise?

    Here’s a reason why campaign finance laws are going to be declared unconstitutional.

  • Antioxidants and Prevention

    Bob W’s Nutrition & the Immune System Weblog points to interesting data about the value of taking vitamin supplements. This is important reason for caution. It also raises the question of why the US media jumped so readily on the antioxidant bandwagon. It’s getting to the point where one never knows who to trust anymore…

  • Elena Lappin the Novelist

    Apparently, I was the last person in the blogosphere to read this article by Elena Lappin about her terrible treatment by US Customs, but here it is: For US immigration, my British passport was not enough of an identity. The officer said, pointedly, “You are Russian, yet you claim to be British”, an accusation based…

  • Kathleen Stolle and the Heartbroken Community

    A writer friend, Kathleen Stolle, who served in Albania with me as a Peace Corps volunteer between 1995-7, wrote about an amazing and tragic experience while teaching in Pogradec. Kathleen Stolle used to work as a journalist before Peace Corps, and actually came to my university via 10 hour bus ride to participate in a…

  • Spyware Solutions, Etc.

    I have been accumulating lots of technical links. Guide to Eliminating Spyware. Summary: Use both Spybot and Adaware. Terry Teachout on How Not to Sound like an Idiot. Teachout is a great critic who also writes a blog. Wow the concept! Bookforum is a nice-looking literary publication, with lots of book reviews. I think I…

  • Criticizing Induce

    Ernest Miller wrote an amazing critique of Hatch’s brief for his anti-piracy bill.

  • Bill Oreilly Bingo

    From Maddox, creator of the Best Page in the Universe has a great gripe about Bill Oreilly and phrases that makes his blood boil. Maddox is a vulgar comic genius.

  • Freedom of Expression has a Price

    From Berkley’s excellent China Digital News, I find Li Yong Yan’s excellent article about the inconsistencies of mainland China’s censorship: The Internet is supposed to be borderless and limitless in the exchange of information and ideas. But using sophisticated fire walls from capitalist Cisco and other vendors, China blocks all those overseas Chinese websites that…

  • No advocacy ads for CBS?

    MediaMatters reports that CBS accepted an advocacy-oriented ad complaining about Bill Clinton for 60 minutes . Huh? Aren’t they the same network that refused moveon ads? MediaMatters, run by the repentent David Brock, tends to blow things somewhat out of proportion, but I’m thankful that somebody is reporting on right-wing lunacy these days.

  • 2 Newsweek Covers

    According to Greencine, Newsweek used two different covers: one for its American edition and the other for its international edition. Take a wild guess which cover was not used for its American Edition. Gerald Peary is an excellent film critic that I only recently learned about. Read his essay about teachers in film: However, when…

  • Lying in Bed and Reading

    Stephen Greenblatt wrote a delightful review essay on Thomas Laquer’s book, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation There is a second modern innovation that similarly focused the anxieties attached to solitary sex: solitary reading. “It was not an accident” (Laqueur again) that Onania was published in the same decade as Defoe’s first novels. For…

  • Every single word

    According to Yoz, every single word of this novel is online. Well, yes, in a manner of speaking.

  • Happy Birthday Copyright?

    So when does the copyright for “Happy Birthday” expire? In 2030, according to Urban Legends: The Chicago-based music publisher Clayton F. Summy Company, working with Jessica Hill, published and copyrighted “Happy Birthday” in 1935. Under the laws in effect at the time, the Hills’ copyright would have expired after one 28-year term and a renewal…

  • Rumsfeld’s Fighting Techniques

    Illustrations of how Rumsfeld conducts hand-to-hand combat.

  • Hear my Songs!

    Here’s a playlist of legal music I made. From stuff I’ve been finding everywhere.