Loose Links (Tuesday)
Today's links come via Francophone sites.
¶ From Édouard at Sale Bête, I learned of an interesting new site, East Village Blog, that, like Sale Bête, is authored by an American - in this case, Doug H. of Bandarlog. Doug appears to be a good reporter who's very tired of what appears to him to be a liberal sclerosis at both the New York Times and Le Monde, where he worked for a spell. It is breathtaking to me to read such fluent writing in a foreign language; I can hardly post a comment without recourse to the dico.
¶ Édouard also had a link to a disturbing short film put out by the ACLU. Its simulation of a dystopian future in which it's impossible to order a pizza without paying surcharges because you're overweight has been rendered with a light but deadly touch. How will we maintain our privacy alongside the Internet? Anonymity is certainly not the answer. Nor is legislation likely to help out anytime soon, as Tom Zeller's story in today's Times shows. I suspect that privacy will continue to be what it has always been, a commodity that is paid for, but with this difference: direct payment.
¶ Finally, something funny that appeared over the weekend at De Bric et de Blog: Trying to plug in an appliance, Veuve Tarquine had a bit of excitement that sparked a very creative bit of blogging.
¶ Housekeeping Note: You may have noticed that to continue reading some of the longer posts on the Daily Blague, you must follow a link to Portico, my Web site. As the number of links to Portico increases, so does the extent of the reformatting. This morning, I've cut most of the post about Sunday's MET Orchestra concert (below) and pasted it where it will more or less permanently remain at Portico. In the process, I noted that, owing to recent CSS changes, my long page on Mozart's K. 563 had been rendered unreadable (white text on a white background), I decided to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
Comments
The Zeller story struck a chord--today I got yet another e-mail from someone named Larry Stern (this being perhaps the sixth or seventh such message) asking me to update my contact information (address, phone number, etc.) via a site called plaxo.com. I have no idea who this Larry Stern person is; I thought that I was being smart in finally reading the entire message, which told me how to un-subscribe (which I did); now I fear that, as Mr. Zeller's article suggests, it will only result in more unwanted missives, my having acknowledged that my "e-mail address is current and has a live person behind it." I only hope that it won't lead to more e-mails offering me the opportunity to purchase viagra at discount prices (which I have been getting with some regularity at both my home and office e-mail addresses).
Posted by: jkm | February 1, 2005 11:04 PM