Koufax Award Winner: Daily Kos

One of my favorite daily information resource for U.S. politics, the website Daily Kos, just won the Koufax Award for Best Blog. It deserves the award for so many reasons, writes Dwight Meredith: "The biggest reasons are the community moderation and the constant innovation in the way the site works to build community. I like what (Daily Kos founder) Markos Moulitsas writes for the most part, and think his brevity and summaries are terrific. Many of the front-page regular posters are also excellent. Members of the Daily Kos community have effectively taken on issues as investigative journalists, researchers, and activists. Daily Kos is proving that blogs and bloggers can make a real difference in the world."

Other award winners:
Best Pro Blog: Talking Points Memo
Best Writing: Hullabaloo
Best Post: "If America Were Iraq, What Would it be Like?" by Juan Cole
Best Series (tie): "The Rise of Pseudo-Fascism" by David Neiwert and "Cheers and Jeers" by Bill at Daily Kos.
Best Group Blog: MyDD
Most Humorous Blog: Jesus' General
Most Humorous Post: Poker with Dick Cheney by the Poorman
Best Expert Blog: Informed Comment
Best Single Issue Blog (tie): TalkLeft and Grits for Breakfast
Best New Blog: Mouse Words
Most Deserving of Wider Recognition: Suburban Guerrilla
Best Commenter: Meteor Blades
Congratulations go out to all these great bloggers. Rock on!

Object Graph Dictionary

Interesting idea - this ObjectGraph Dictionary. A word search engine which works like Google. The founder explains it in his blog.

Blog pioneer launches podcasting service

Podcasting has become one of the major buzzwords in the music industry in the past year or so. The relatively new concept allows anyone to create a homemade broadcast, meant to be downloaded and heard on MP3 players. Now, a start-up company called Odeo hopes to become your one-stop-shopping destination for all-things podcasting. Odeo hopes to turn a profit through selling podcasting content, as well as advertising, and down the road, software to create podcasts. The New York Times turned a spotlight on Odeo, as the company made its official debut today at the Technology, Entertainment & Design Conference in Monterey, CA. Co-founder Evan Williams, one of the pioneers of weblogging, told the paper that he predicts the popularity curve of podcasting could mirror what has happened with weblogging over the last five year, especially with the growth of the portable MP3 player market. He also told the Times he believes podcasting will co-exist with traditional radio, especially if podcasting becomes much like TiVo, where listeners would listen to a radio broadcast at their own leisure. From the NYT article:

In podcasting, there are already a number of small commercial efforts to create audio programs especially for listening to as mobile downloads. And there are both hardware and software systems that make it possible to convert over-the-air and Internet radio broadcasts for mobile storage and listening on MP3 players. One recent example is Radio Shark, a small device that sells for $70 and enables users of Macintosh computers to automatically record over-the-air radio programs and convert them to MP3 files for later, on-the-go playback.
The enterprising Weblogger Adam Curry, a former MTV host, has created a podcast show called Daily Source Code, in which he plays music and chats about whatever is on his mind. The show, free so far, has several thousand daily listeners, he says.
Last week, Audible.com, which in 1994 pioneered the idea of using the Internet to download audio books and other audio material to personal computers, said that it would soon join the podcasting movement. The company, whose business currently includes distributing popular radio programs like "Car Talk" on a subscription basis over the Internet, now says it intends to make its software and distribution system available to people who want to produce their own podcasts.

The new youth craze: self-mutilation

Sad, sad, sad. Apparently there is a trend of self-mutilation among teenagers spreading. In Britain, health care researchers estimate that one in 10 teenagers engages in addictive self injury. On the Internet, there are scores of websites (with titles such as "Blood Red," "Razor Blade Kisses" and "The Cutting World") featuring "famous self-injurers," photos of teenagers' self-inflicted wounds and descriptions of their techniques. The destructive practice has been depicted in films targeting young girls and teens (such as "Thirteen"). There is even a new genre of music - "emo" - associated with promoting the cutting culture.

Tributes for Hunter

The son of the recently deceased legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Juan, says that his father has been thinking of suicide for a long time.

"One thing that he said many times was that, 'I'm a road man for the lords of Karma.' It's a cryptic saying. But there's an implication there that he may have decided that his work was done and that he didn't want to overstay his welcome; it was time to go." Thompson was on the phone with his wife we he shot himself. She was at a health club, and he asked her to come help him on his writing. He set the phone on the tabletop, still on, and she heard clicks that sounded like he had started typing. But the clicking noise was her husband loading and cocking the .45-caliber handgun he used to take his life. She said she didn't hear a gunshot before she hung up. Thompson's son, daughter-in-law and 6-year-old grandson William were at his home, but the adults thought a book had fallen on the kitchen floor and didn't give it much thought at first.

Plus: The web mourns the death of the "King of Gonzo":: the blog tracking service Technorati lists 12,209 current posts dedicated to Hunter. Countless newspapers also honor the memory of this great author with tributes. some great ones are published in the Guardian, the Los Angeles Weekly, San Francisco Weekly. Good reads also here, and here.

California's deadly winter storm

One of the busiest freeway in the L.A. area, the 101, on Monday night: no cars, but two feet of water.

O men. I feel like living in Europe. Crappy, nasty weather. Rainfall like crazy - for the seventh day in a row. And the damages are huge:

Snow, mudslides and unrelenting rain were blamed for at least ten deaths as a series of lethal and destructive storms pounded through California, authorities said. Mayor James K. Hahn urged President Bush to declare a federal disaster in Los Angeles, where damage to public and private structures, including at least 96 homes made uninhabitable, was estimated at $10 million. Dozens of streets throughout Southern California were blocked by mud, snow, rocks and debris. More than 50 roads and freeway lanes in the Los Angeles county remained closed or restricted by storm damage.
Rising floodwaters and sliding mud invaded dozens of homes, toppled others, interrupted commuter rail service and snarled highway traffic. A cloudburst and clogged drains left about two feet of water standing on the Hollywood Freeway in Hollywood on Monday night, halting traffic in both directions at Santa Monica Boulevard. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded in the water, and traffic backed up for five miles in both directions, remaining at a standstill in spots even five hours later. Power outages were reported throughout Southern California. Hail pelted several areas and thunder rumbled across the region. Power outages were reported throughout Southern California. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the West Coast is in the thrall of El Niño, a cyclical oceanographic and meteorological phenomenon in which Southern California often gets heavier rain than usual.
About a dozen homes were evacuated Monday because of flooding and mudslides. A sodden hillside gave way in Bel-Air, carrying a swimming pool that dumped water into three homes on Roberto Lane. A city engineer fell to his death in a sinkhole in Sun Valley on Sunday. Despite the Presidents Day holiday, there were more than 300 traffic crashes on rain-slick roads in the county during a 14-hour period that ended Monday morning, the California Highway Patrol said. That's four to six times the normal amount for a 24-hour period without rain. Several streets and highways were closed throughout the Los Angeles county due to flooding or debris blocking the road.

The good news: The storm is coming to and end. According to the forecast we should even see some sunrays very soon. Halleluja! Plus: The pictures from the devastation throughout Southern California.

Surfin' USA

Field day for surfers in the flooded streets of Huntington Beach.

If everybody had an ocean
Across the USA
Then everybody’d be surfin’
Like californi-a
You’d seem ’em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin’ USA

From the 1963 released song "Surfin' USA", the first Top 10 hit by the Beach Boys.

The wettest season ever?

Southern California residents face a seventh day of downpours in what may be the region's wettest season ever. Storms that began February 17 have saturated the area, raining faster than the ground can handle and sparking mudslides and floods. Between July 1 and today, 33.87 inches (86 cm) of rain had fallen on downtown Los Angeles, the third-wettest period in history. "Los Angeles hasn't seen this amount of rain in this amount of time in 115 years", National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro said. The record, 38.18 inches, set between July 1, 1883, and June 30, 1884. If it continues to rain, this record could even be broken.

Do Europeans work less because they believe less in God?

Calm down, my (atheist) friends, I did not become a subscriber of the Christian Science Monitor. But since this story is so hillarious, I have to mention it:

Researchers are reexamining whether there might be a link between religious belief and economic performance. Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard University, examined the connections between faith and work ethic in light of divergent trends he found in the United States and Europe. Religious belief in North America has "been amazingly resilient" amid big economic gains, he says, disputing the notion that wealthier countries necessarily become less religious.
But abroad, Ferguson noted that a decline in European working hours coincided with a decline in faith. "Americans don't in fact do better work than Frenchmen," he wrote. "They just do more work. A lot more." Between 1979 and 1999, the average U.S. working year lengthened by nearly 4 percent. Yet in Germany, France, and Spain, that figure dropped by at least 10 percent. "Europeans now seem to believe in holidays, not in holy days," he adds. This divergence, Ferguson, argues, coincides with a period of European de-Christianization, and American re-Christianization.

O mai. These lazy non-believers. What can we say? They're European. Plus: It's time again to suggest another name change for the French fries. How about sinner's fries?

No sex please, we're Alabaman

Only in America:

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday a constitutional challenge to an Alabama law that makes it a crime to sell sex toys. The law prohibited the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." First-time violators can face a fine of up to $10,000 and as much as one year in jail.

At least cucumbers are still allowed. So far.

For Oscars, all bets are on

Five day before the Oscar Awards show Paddy Power, the leading Irish bookmaker that is expanding in Britain, has posted a full slate of pre-nomination odds and is currently offering even money for "The Aviator" to win best picture, with "Million Dollar Baby" at 6-to-4. The company is even taking bets on which designer will dress the best actress winner. It favors Calvin Klein, at 7-to-4 odds, because best actress favorite Hilary Swank models Calvin Klein underwear. Here are the odds:
BEST PICTURE
Even "The Aviator"
6/4 "Million Dollar Baby"
BEST ACTOR
2/7 Jamie Foxx ("Ray")
BEST ACTRESS
8/11 Hilary Swank ("Million Dollar Baby")
BEST DIRECTOR
4/7 Martin Scorsese, "The Aviator"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
11/8 Thomas Haden Church, "Sideways"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
11/10 Cate Blanchett, "The Aviator"
Plus: According to MSNBC betting websites - also popular: Oscarwatch and Gold Derby - make accurate predictions for winners.

U.S. ready for woman president

More than six in 10 voters believe the United States is ready for a woman president in 2008 and 53 percent of the voters think Senator Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat, should try for the job, a nationwide poll has found.

No. 1 terrorist

German protesters call President George W. Bush 'No. 1 Terrorist'. Good point. But what's new?

Calculate your social insecurity

The Democrats have posted a neat Social Security calculator. You enter your average annual salary and year of birth. The calculator shows your promised annual Social Security benefit vs your total annual benefit under the Bush privatization plan.

U.S. CEO's make big bucks

Corruption and greed in corporate America? No, no, it's not that bad. The debacles of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia etc. were misleading. Fact is: the managers really deserve every penny they earn. They even deserve more. Guess what? They got it. Chief executives at many of the biggest U.S. companies got an average 5% raise last year. Now they earn an average of $10.7 million. That's around $42,700 per work-day. In a survey of 50 large American companies, restricted stock and other performance-based incentives constituted 41 percent of long-term CEO compensation, up from 18 percent in 2003. The percentage was the highest since 1994.

Oscar politics

From Washington Whispers:
Usually Hollywood borrows from Washington for on-screen drama, but now studios and stars are using cutthroat political campaign strategies to win the Oscar. The latest twist: Washington-trained campaign strategists have been hired for the battle for best actress. Insiders say they're involved in a vicious whispering, E-mail, and rumor campaign to help - or sink - Hilary Swank, star of Warner Bros. "Million Dollar Baby", and Annette Bening, star of Sony's "Being Julia". It's so hot, said one consultant, that the attacks could lead to a surprise winner.

Politically correct dating

Some people might think: If I have to accept a Republican in the White House I certainly don't wanna have one in my bedroom. That's why they search for Mr. or Ms. Right only on politically correct dating services, such as the Democratic Singles Network. Because we love blue!

America - plastic surgery country

Cool. People in the U.S. like themselves rather fake and flawless that natural and wrinkly. Americans spent $12.5 billion on cosmetic procedures last year, most of it out-of-pocket. The demand for plastic surgery jumped 44%, compared with 2003. Prices range from $146 on average for temporary microdermabrasion to remove fine lines and acne scars, to nearly $6,000 for a long-lasting face lift. Liposuction was the most popular surgical treatment among men and women with 478,251 procedures done last year. Cheers!

End of print?

The Beatles would sing: I read the news today, o boy... The rumor goes (again) that the era of print has come to an end. Discovered in the Washington Post:

The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself. (...)
The changes come as circulation totals have eroded steadily for nearly two decades and as newspapers no longer play the central role in daily life they once did. Newspaper executives argue that an emphasis on readership better reflects what newspaper companies are becoming -- multidimensional media conglomerates with growing Internet sites and stakes in television, radio, magazines and other businesses. (...)
"Print is dead," Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? "Get over it," meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism.
As advertising declines, newsrooms find it more difficult to afford overseas bureaus, extensive national operations and other editorial additions that help produce an authoritative daily report. As they cut back, they risk sending readers elsewhere for news, leading to further circulation declines and lower ad rates.
Adding to the industry's woes is the advent of new free sources of news, many of which appeal to younger readers and time-strapped families. Some papers, including The Washington Post, are trying to respond to the challenge by distributing free commuter tabloids, filled with abbreviated stories and entertainment news, as well as community papers. The Boston Globe's corporate parent, the New York Times Co., recently announced plans to buy a 49 percent stake in Metro Boston, a free paper that circulates in the New England city. (...)
Classified advertising, specifically help-wanted ads, is a bellwether of how newspapers are regarded as effective advertising tools. Increasingly, employers are using other resources to recruit workers.
Morgan Stanley estimated that, from 1998 through the end of last year, revenue generated by Internet help-wanted ads would grow 400 percent. During the same time, revenue from newspaper help-wanted ads was projected to drop 40 percent.
Many newspapers recognized the Internet's combination of threat and potential early on and have plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into Web sites of their own, hoping to keep readers, even if they don't leaf through the actual paper. (...)
The good news for newspaper Web sites is that, after the 2001 dot-com crash, Internet advertising has roared back, exceeding previous highs. Total Internet ad spending in the first six months of 2004 was 40 percent higher than in the comparable period in 2003, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The sobering news? Internet advertising still accounts for only about 3 percent of total ad spending each year.

And not to forget: the threat of the blogs...

The world is a city

Let's look at the bright side. 1. The human race will not disappear in the near future. According to a new UN report, the world’s population will reach 6.5 billion this year, and could reach 7 billion in 2012 and stabilize at 9 billion in 2050. 2. Because of the global urbanization trend we will never feel living alone again. 50% of the world's population will live in cities in 2 years. That's up from 30% in 1950. U.N. Commission on Population and Development estimates that number will be 61% of the global population by 2030. 20 cities now have 10 million or more inhabitants, compared with just 4 - Tokyo, New York, Shanghai and Mexico City - in 1975 and just 4 - New York and Tokyo - in 1950.

The king of Gonzo is dead

Another one of my heroes is gone. Shocking and sad: Hunter S. Thompson, renowned American journalist, novelist and the king of Gonzo, fatally shot himself tonight at his Colorado home. He was 67. His 1971 book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," adapted from an article written for Rolling Stone magazine, chronicled Thompson's drug-hazed misadventures in Las Vegas while covering a motorcycle race and established him as a cult celebrity.

Memorable quotes:

We'd be fools not to ride this strange torpedo to the end.

Being shot out of a cannon is always better than being squeezed through a tube.

Plus: His biography, his books, his articles & essays, his sports column archive, his interview with "Paris Review" (part 1 & 2), some pictures. Plus: Hunter, the champion of fun. And more links.