Quick Roundup 112

[Gus Van Horn blog]

By Gus Van Horn from Gus Van Horn,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Light Blogging Possible

From now until Wednesday, I will be busy enough that I may post less regularly than usual.

Google Ads

I have briefly fooled around with the ad filter for Google Ads, but have so far found (incorrectly, I hope) that the only way to be selective with the ads is to blacklist individual URLs. It also takes far longer than the advertised four hours for such ads to disappear.

Given the kind of ads I have been drawing as pro-war blogger, this filtering strategy strikes me as being about as effective as -- oh, I don't know -- treating every single terrorist as if he were a lone criminal rather than an enemy combatant in the service of a death cult.

I have only two questions at this point: (1) Why would any of my regulars -- besides the occasional blogger in need of material -- click on any of these ads? (2) How useful is this to me as a someone who wants to generate income?

I don't expect to agree with every ad that gets placed here, but this is a little ridiculous.... I will either find a better way to filter or I will drop Google Ads.

Karl Marx wins "Greatest Philosopher" at the Beeb.

Reader Apollo notes, "The BBC decided to do the 'Greatest Philosopher in our Time Vote'. And of course Ayn Rand wasn't even mentioned, and even worse Aristotle wasn't number one." [link added] Unfortunately, given the cultural climate of Europe, I find neither the omission nor the final result too surprising.

Ain't Nothin' on Mine!

After asking, "What's on your iPod?" Craig Ceely notes a strange coincidence: The Beirut Bombing and the introduction of the iPod share an anniversary.

My wife got me an iPod for my birthday recently. And then she exchanged it for a better one she found at the same price. The fun will begin Thursday, when I have some time to iron out a kink and figure out which software is best for making it talk to my Linux computer!

Greg Packer

Somehow, I don't think that Ayn Rand was thinking about this guy when she used the colloquialism "the man in the street" in some of her writings and lectures.

He's not just another face in the crowd at concerts, book signings, and sporting events. Somehow, over the course of 10 years, one man has managed to become the media's go-to guy, quoted more than 100 times in various publications, including several prominent newspapers. Greg Packer is the "man on the street."

Packer, 40, of Huntington, N.Y., arrives early to media events. His latest accomplishment: being 15th in line in Washington, D.C., to pay his respects to former President Ronald Reagan. "I'm the best person to come to -- anywhere," says Packer. "I always give time, and I always have an answer."

While Packer says "honesty is very important to me," he does admit that about 5% of the time, "I'm making stuff up to get in the paper." A Boston newspaper, for example, quoted him as saying he had a ticket for the 1999 baseball All-Star Game there when he really didn't.

For awhile, this guy was getting into the papers so often that the Associated Press put out a memo for its reporters to avoid him! And yet he still gets in!

Of course, if I were Jackie Harvey, I'd probably be thrilled that someone from Noodle Food is doing so well at getting an Objectivist perspective out to the popular media.

Your contribution has been matched by: Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan

<a href="http://www.imao.us/archives/006462.html">Via IMAO, there is a link to some Democrat blogger who first gets wildly paranoid about whether the donation matching site for the Democratic Party has been hijacked. Then he and his pals suddenly talk tough about crime. Then he tells other potential pranksters exactly how to do the same thing!

Now if you click that link, you'll see that ANYONE is able to select an amount and leave a message for the donor that they will be matched with. This will allow two grassroots donors to come together and possibly build a lasting relationship via their donations. This is a GREAT idea, that's why I wanted to be a part of it. BUT what happens is that as the person making this pledge, I don't have to submit a credit card or be verified in ANY WAY. Let me say that again, the person making the pledge is not verified in ANY WAY! That person also doesn't have to put money in upfront, so they can submit cute messages like I got and suffer nothing. This is a gaping hole in the plan and allows other donors to get these stupid messages and defeat the purpose of the matching program.

Yeah. No verification. Sort like the way you birds would have it at the polls on Election Day!

This was a surprise? Yeah. Yeah. I know.

-- CAV

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/002062.html