The Comics Journal index -- research tool, frequency, bibliometry for graphic novels

[Some of you may know me as a bit of bibliometry head -- even the word 'bibliometric' is kind of funky and outdated... like "cyborg"... anyways... I reckon it's still very apt because so much of interest is still tied down in printed form without an electronic / digital component. (Sadly too, it's worth noting, a significant ratio of scanned or digitized books are being scanned as image-only or in non-OCR versions).]

To the point of this post now. I found an index of The Comics Journal (link) built by Peter Coogan in 2003. It indexes issues 2-142, and is really nicely done. I ran the index through Matthias Hunning's TextSTAT (God bless him and his software!) and have below provided a frequency list for all terms appearing at least 5 times. To use this well (attention comics researchers!) you'll need to consult Coogan's codes for the types of articles, because some of his symbols rank very high on the word count list (the top 2 terms are, in fact, article-type symbols and not actually terms from the TCJ citations). I think I found this index through ImageTEXT... or maybe the english.ufl.edu pages anyway.

Now go use TextSTAT and do more cool things with it! Let the texts' word frequencies and term connectors tell us what the text is about and where to find concepts!

Here's the list. First whole term (either word, letter, or number) is the "term" for which the second number describes a frequency count in the index. For example
DC 282
Means the term "DC" occurs 282 times in Coogan's index.
or in
1988 715
the term "1988" appears 715 times.

The list is in order from greatest to least frequency.

---

N 3248
R 2173
Comics 1474
Jul 1073
of 1025
and 989
The 986
the 956
Apr 827
1989 751
1988 715
Sep 712
1986 681
Aug 665
Dec 628
1985 614
Feb 608
1987 597
Oct 569
1991 558
L 545
May 544
Jan 524
1981 516
Nov 488
1982 475
1990 464
I 463
Marvel 437
to 419
Jun 415
Gary 414
in 409
comics 394
Groth 382
Dale 370
Luciano 368
2002 368
A 358
Mar 355
E 351
1984 339
C 335
Comic 328
1983 324
at 309
Harvey 294
DC 282
see 271
1980 268
1979 262
on 251
New 251
Censorship 223
Michael 216
Bill 210
Fiore 194
H 189
for 188
1978 187
Art 186
21 185
In 184
130 182
a 181
23 178
John 170
For 169
142 168
Jack 165
Dead 163
An 163
Frank 162
with 159
Creators 159
2000 157
1977 154
Jim 153
Interview 153
Awards 152
140 151
Deaths 151
117 150
Lawsuits 149
Kirby 146
Book 144
From 142
22 141
141 140
Journal 140
20 138
1 137
Richard 136
Steve 135
115 134
Dean 134
15 132
also 132
Funnybook 131
Alan 131
1976 129
19 129
Roulette 129
Artist 126
Decker 126
129 125
25 123
Dwight 123
Sherman 122
116 122
100 121
To 120
125 119
120 118
24 118
Two 116
Superman 114
123 114
from 114
art 112
137 112
16 111
Part 111
Group 110
On 109
121 109
First 109
17 108
Carter 107
Ellison 106
12 105
Miller 105
Editors 104
rights 104
138 104
119 103
18 103
Scholz 103
zzz 102
Panel 102
Guide 101
14 99
143 99
With 99
Dies 97
136 96
Animation 96
132 95
Diamond 95
118 95
Robert 95
Disney 95
113 94
126 94
63 94
122 93
Light 93
Mark 92
Underground 92
114 92
David 92
13 91
Editorial 90
Cartoon 90
D 89
Of 88
Star 88
11 88
Moore 87
133 86
139 86
Thompson 85
Man 85
Win 84
10 84
Conventions 84
World 84
And 83
Cartoonists 82
Age 82
110 82
Harlan 81
242 81
strips 81
124 81
Will 80
Kim 80
248 80
128 80
127 80
101 79
245 79
American 79
What 78
Strip 78
Eisner 78
Press 78
105 77
Howard 77
8 77
Thomas 76
9 75
vs 75
226 75
6 75
69 75
14-15 74
Gene 74
Peter 74
Museums 74
16-17 74
Rick 74
246 73
Sept 73
225 73
Media 73
26 73
dies 72
History 72
Dave 72
3 72
102 72
104 72
Bob 71
Distribution 70
95 70
111 69
Mike 69
1975 69
12-Nov 69
Is 68
Friendly 68
comix 68
Metal 67
Rob 65
2 65
71 65
Smith 64
109 64
Phillips 64
Golden 64
112 64
Distributors 64
134 63
News 63
99 63
as 63
Rich 63
White 63
70 63
Lee 63
British 63
Buyer's 62
76 62
Frank's 62
Tom 62
Dick 62
67 62
89 60
103 60
T 60
Batman 60
Greg 60
America 60
Kane 59
Heidi 59
Ratings 59
Comix 59
Three 59
92 59
by 59
MacDonald 58
War 58
Scott 58
107 58
Rodi 58
88 58
or 58
George 58
Retailers 58
97 57
Pekar 57
96 57
Not 57
Life 56
Joe 56
Cartoonist 56
13-Dec 56
EC 55
Crumb 55
Up 55
Comico 55
77 55
Death 55
dead 54
Wolfman 54
Violence 54
U 54
Magazine 54
Ted 54
106 54
Marschall 54
27 53
Roy 53
Dark 53
108 53
Byrne 53
98 53
Out 53
94 53
81 52
29 52
66 52
64 52
131 52
13-14 51
Don 51
10-Sep 51
Heavy 51
Swamp 51
Gil 51
French 51
Beck 51
53 50
20-21 50
Knight 50
Yon 50
All 50
Hither 50
Now 49
17-18 49
7 49
Sim 49
Column 48
74 48
39 48
Books 48
King 48
18-19 47
Shooter 47
Alternative 47
65 47
Thing 47
Canadian 46
15-16 46
Editor 46
Stan 46
Museum 46
Kenneth 46
Sues 46
5 46
More 46
Gerber 45
City 45
Terry 45
Publishing 45
Saunders 45
Space 45
Captain 45
30 45
Letter 45
31 45
Case 44
My 44
Warner 44
Original 44
Strnad 44
4 44
Fred 44
Story 43
Histories 43
82 43
72 43
Andrew 43
Publishers 43
Korkis 43
Sum 43
75 43
57 43
Corrections 42
At 42
Marvel's 42
84 42
M 41
Newave 41
Creator 41
Writing 41
movies 41
Women 41
Stephen 41
241 41
48 40
Four 40
Monaco 40
Artists 40
Al 40
Stewart 40
Doonesbury 40
Fanzines 40
Black 39
Sales 39
87 39
58 39
21-22 39
4-Mar 39
It 39
Time 39
Barks 38
Paul 38
23-24 38
85 38
93 38
68 38
Caniff 38
50 38
Marv 38
Archie 38
Good 38
Carl 38
Chaykin 38
Duck 38
Leaves 37
William 37
Price 37
34-35 37
S 37
52 37
Over 37
Sanderson 37
Doug 37
Raw 37
86 37
Best 37
an 37
Fleisher 37
Spider-Man 36
40 36
Big 36
International 36
Other 36
comic 36
Print 36
Survey 36
32 36
Walt 36
41 36
73 36
Returns 36
X-Men 35
Dagilis 35
Criticism 35
Roger 35
Marilyn 35
Bethke 35
Charles 35
Still 35
Reviews 34
80 34
Wonder 34
44 34
Another 34
Show 34
Kreiner 34
cartoons 34
Jones 34
Little 34
Mouse 34
24-25 34
Brothers 34
Comicopia 34
43 34
Stallman 33
Capital 33
Summer 33
Trina 33
83 33
Todd 33
Old 33
O'Brien 33
42 33
WAP 33
Love 33
Are 33
47 33
50 33
Buddy 33
90 33
38 33
Kids 32
Humor 32
79 32
Cat 32
30-31 32
WaRP 32
Austin 32
P 32
Spotlight 32
91 32
movie 32
29-30 32
Illustrated 32
Kurtzman 32
Martin 32
Wood 32
Just 32
Bhob 32
You 31
Review 31
Suit 31
over 31
Adventure 31
Some 31
Gleanings 31
Real 31
Wins 31
Mad 31
Small 31
Strips 30
Wars 30
Movie 30
No 30
9-Aug 30
Milton 30
York 30
Ed 30
35-36 30
Giordano 30
National 30
62 29
Superheroes 29
Robbins 29
37 29
Copyright 29
Direct 29
Down 29
Brought 29
Be 29
Hour 29
18-20 29
Pini 29
High 29
37 29
Woman 29
28 29
34 29
61 29
Science 29
59 29
Spurgeon 29
AIDS 28
Russel 28
Jay 28
Loren 28
So 28
industry 28
Stop 28
Syndicate 28
Maus 28
Second 28
Wertham 28
Swipe 28
Adventures 28
That 28
Again 28
Fantagraphics 28
Marketing 28
Fandom 28
Eclipse 28
Japanese 28
Legal 28
Foster 28
55 28
sales 27
Quotes 27
One 27
Inc 27
8-Jul 27
Blackthorne 27
56 27
artist 27
29 27
56-57 27
78 27
Do 27
Who 27
Tales 27
other 27
Kelly 27
Freund 27
Bad 27
Kevin 27
Horror 27
Daredevil 26
By 26
Yronwode 26
Denny 26
32 26
Swiping 26
Russell 26
Ralph 26
Hunt 26
Mickey 26
Wilson 26
Charlton 26
O'Niel 26
Revolutionary 26
Award 26
Robin 26
25-26 26
Something 26
about 26
TV 26
J 26
Wally 26
State 26
Listings 25
Film 25
Drawing 25
19-20 25
books 25
Low 25
Independent 25
11-Jul 25
Graphic 25
54 25
Your 25
6-May 25
age 25
It's 25
Takes 25
Warren 25
27-28 25
Adult 25
Line 24
Grant 24
Stories 24
Leonard 24
35 24
How 24
Bart 24
Green 24
Sketchbook 24
Obscenity 24
Politics 24
Image 24
Murray 24
Bissette 24
Annie 24
36 24
Letters 24
Spiegelman 24
Code 24
Does 24
Pogo 24
Blood 24
Edelman 24
Evainer 24
39 23
28-29 23
Angouleme 23
Pictures 23
Hal 23
Work-For-Hire 23
Buckler 23
Master 23
guidelines 23
33 23
Chris 23
60 23
45-48 23
Breathed 23
Mantlo 23
22-23 23
Strange 23
Scene 23
Future 23
Canada 23
Matt 23
Tracy 23
editor 23
Storytelling 23
Ken 23
His 23
out 23
33 23
Rights 23
Dan 23
strip 23
Agents 23
Funny 23
Piranha 23
45 23
Trek 23
Color 23
Rifas 23
Cerebus 23
Announces 23
Fiction 22
Market 22
TNJ 22
Jerry 22
Television 22
book 22
Claremont 22
Features 22
McFarlane 22
46 22
Times 22
San 22
Fan 22
Mr 22
Correction 22
2-Jan 22
Day 22
13-15 22
Beaty 22
Music 22
Making 22
James 22
Night 22
Cartoons 22
Publisher 22
Bullets 22
Update 22
Donald 22
Wendy 22
Past 22
Adams 22
Company 22
Barrington 21
Changes 21
Turtles 21
Friedrich 21
Brian 21
Sienkiewicz 21
Williams 21
40-46 21
African 21
Epic 21
Society 21
Q 21
This 21
Years 21
Fratz 21
Dr 21
Dennis 21
Draw 21
UK 21
Top 21
Morrisey 21
Business 21
Innovation 21
Catalano 21
Testimony 20
42-44 20
Court 20
Movies 20
51 20
Nostrand 20
Into 20
1974 20
Defense 20
Superhero 20
26-27 20
25-27 20
Prices 20
About 20
7-Jun 20
13-Nov 20
But 20
Seduction 20
88 20
Mice 20
Gilbert 20
Cartooning 20
Against 20
Neal 20
Vietnam 20
Plagiarism 20
49 20
Political 20
View 20
Krigstein 20
Last 20
Take 20
28 19
81 19
Rogers 19
Darcy 19
Con 19
Trudeau 19
7-May 19
Gordon 19
40-48 19
Benefits 19
Splendor 19
We 19
Can 19
Public 19
Sunrise 19
Money 19
Dawson 19
Writers 19
Spirit 19
12-Sep 19
Homosexuals 19
Off 19
Classics 19
Baney 19
Larson 19
Geppi 19
Sullivan 19
English 19
Distributor 19
41-44 19
Red 19
Diego 19
Sue 19
Trade 19
Williamson 19
40-41 19
Eternity 19
Argentine 19
Phil 19
Meet 18
press 18
Rocketeer 18
Tony 18
Savage 18
17-19 18
Patrick 18
France 18
Ward 18
Rabbit 18
Wild 18
Freedom 18
Freelancers 18
Profile 18
41 18
Round-Up 18
Sex 18
Contract 18
creators 18
B 18
Detective 18
Frederic 18
Miracleman 18
Reply 18
Effort 18
Lost 18
Pasko 18
F 18
Lamberti 18
Novels 18
Wochner 18
Law 18
Stump 18
Sack 18
Controversy 18
35-39 18
Glenwood 18
Asterix 18
Under 18
Dog 17
33-34 17
Waiting 17
37-38 17
Runs 17
Picture 17
Detectives 17
43-48 17
Young 17
Allen 17
Snyder 17
Jeff 17
38-39 17
Its 17
Donning 17
51 17
TRUE 17
McEnroe 17
Boy 17
Bunny 17
Shadow 17
52-53 17
Jr 17
Rip 17
Novel 17
South 17
Way 17
Burbey 17
Danger 17
Fans 17
Loses 17
58-59 17
15-17 17
18 17
Expense 17
Brown 17
Goes 17
Gladstone 17
16-18 17
Barrier 17
Mutants 17
Attack 17
Patten 17
File 17
Back 17
Action 17
Corporate 17
Parody 17
49-62 16
Million 16
Russ 16
Cover 16
Largest 16
Theater 16
10-Aug 16
Simpsons 16
Libel 16
it 16
Labor 16
Trial 16
Founder 16
Films 16
Have 16
Literacy 16
Titles 16
Gold 16
Protection 16
Steel 16
27 16
Fall 16
Adaptation 16
School 16
37-40 16
Among 16
35-38 16
Rejects 16
Battle 16
suit 16
Protest 16
cartoonists 16
Lone 16
Blast 16
is 16
fiction 16
Reuben 16
Gaines 16
Bloom 16
Popular 16
Hernandez 16
Me 16
Steven 16
46-49 16
Jackson 16
Ripper 16
135 16
Secret 16
Graphics 16
Get 16
Potential 16
Shop 16
11-Sep 16
75 16
CBG 16
Keith 16
Things 16
Hugo 16
Quits 16
32-33 16
McGregor 15
Perez 15
Marshall 15
Heroes 15
Jaxon 15
Publications 15
Genre 15
Empire 15
Titans 15
49 15
People 15
Translation 15
Larry 15
Leon 15
Decline 15
Paper 15
Most 15
34 15
8-Jun 15
Deni 15
Work 15
Arts 15
Wasserman 15
Alex 15
into 15
films 15
16-19 15
Sam 15
Toth 15
Industry 15
Look 15
Reading 15
Innocent 15
Len 15
41-42 15
Well 15
Weirdworld 15
Elfquest 15
West 15
Great 15
Stack 15
Uncle 15
Poetry 15
creator 15
County 15
new 15
Men 15
Vigilantes 15
according 15
52 15
Crime 15
Ahead 15
Giffen 15
Jeffery 15
Moebius 15
Legends 15
Craig 15
Flagg 15
Western 15
Live 15
100-106 15
Genesis 15
Edgar 15
Klaus 15
Amazing 15
Barry 15
Printing 14
Charlie 14
Success 14
45-47 14
10-May 14
Run 14
Than 14
End 14
79 14
Street 14
Kent 14
Conan 14
Veitch 14
Reprints 14
Name 14
Reid 14
Daniel 14
Mutant 14
Viz 14
dispute 14
Crisis 14
Fantasy 14
Planet 14
62 14
Capp 14
Hurlant 14
Nostalgia 14
41-46 14
Hey 14
76-79 14
Tintin 14
Confidential 14
Vortex 14
Eagle 14
Kiss 14
Return 14
Rude 14
Kirby's 14
Lawsuit 14
Drugs 14
Visual 14
Exhibit 14
Petition 14
Ninja 14
McConnell 14
58 14
V 14
Before 14
Nancy 14
Weirdo 14
work 14
Berke 14
Yeh 14
Potter 14
Horse 14
Buscema 14
Fire 14
Renegade 14
Super 14
Power 14
Values 14
Panter 14
Vs 14
Ethics 14
Has 14
List 14
71 14
Steadman 14
publishers 14
As 13
Britain 13
92-94 13
Why 13
11-Oct 13
Formula 13
United 13
31-32 13
Boyd 13
30-33 13
wins 13
Mainstream 13
36 13
President 13
Samuel 13
Garry 13
Perversion 13
APE 13
Via 13
Ownership 13
Dell 13
Raymond 13
44-47 13
Everything 13
Gen 13
Amendment 13
Blackhawk 13
Ron 13
Critics 13
Taboo 13
show 13
Chaos 13
Without 13
14-Dec 13
censorship 13
Strikes 13
Today 13
0 13
Eye 13
Present 13
Fund 13
Opening 13
Cosmic 13
Wein 13
Slave 13
up 13
Cliches 13
Festival 13
Fires 13
Only 13
Clifton 13
retailers 13
Flash 13
Aardvark-Vanaheim 13
35 13
Through 13
Foreign 13
Bludgeoned 13
Reference 13
Arthur 13
European 13
Plant 13
Duckman 13
40 13
Bard 13
Report 13
Voice 13
Bud 13
case 13
Fantastic 13
Jewish 13
Maltese 13
Companies 13
Manga 13
Fight 13
Tex 12
Morality 12
109-114 12
Clay 12
Close 12
Block 12
Distant 12
Tale 12
35-41 12
Bagge 12
Crazy 12
Deluxe 12
Notes 12
85 12
Randall 12
Hold 12
Merger 12
Radio 12
38 12
Fantasies 12
DC's 12
artists 12
Abner 12
Funnies 12
Jenette 12
Watchmen 12
Saba 12
Miller's 12
Dream 12
46-47 12
ducks 12
Dealers 12
Writer 12
Reynolds 12
Hulk 12
Catalan 12
Dreamer 12
Social 12
Revisited 12
Pacific 12
Change 12
121-124 12
discuss 12
Right 12
12-Oct 12
Soil 12
Magic 12
48 12
Kalish 12
Debate 12
Dallas 12
Obituaries 12
31-33 12
Tarzan 12
30-32 12
Groening 12
news 12
off 12
House 12
II 12
Matrix 12
go 12
Shot 12
Studios 12
Ad-ing 12
These 12
Tim 12
Valiant 12
45-51 12
94-95 12
AARGH 12
Texas 12
Drops 12
Zine 12
Murder 12
K 12
respond 12
Unfavorable 11
Vendetta 11
Gardner 11
Jacobs 11
IADD 11
Bailey 11
Rodman 11
38-41 11
Cashwell 11
Association 11
Orphan 11
Settle 11
not 11
Blues 11
83 11
30 11
Mexican 11
SPX 11
39-40 11
Virtually 11
41-50 11
Erotic 11
Year 11
Talk 11
Warped 11
Signs 11
Hell 11
Puts 11
59 11
Lucca 11
Computer 11
Mary 11
50-52 11
3-D 11
53 11
Eight 11
Stolen 11
Prince 11
sues 11
Mighty 11
Gods 11
Siegel 11
74-75 11
Cruse 11
ICAF 11
Quarterly 11
47-52 11
Behind 11
Otherwise 11
Attention 11
Sells 11
102-104 11
Rockets 11
38-48 11
works 11
Fear 11
Pirates 11
Soviet 11
Catron 11
Launches 11
Rall 11
Threatens 11
Comic-Con 11
Appeal 11
Hitler 11
Sad 11
Pat 11
Peanuts 11
Max 11
80 11
Smithsonian 11
voice 11
W 11
Gallery 11
Truman 11
Policies 11
McEown 11
Teen 11
Universe 11
Force 11
benefit 11
Help 11
Universities 11
They 11
Folds 11
46 11
Wrong 11
Fleetway 11
Cancellation 11
Gravett 11
Simonson 11
Was 11
Sexism 11
Pulls 11
Kid 11
Gerry 11
Dutch 11
23-25 11
Cracked 11
Benefit 11
Chicago 11
Pulitzer 11
Earth 11
Yeates 11
return 11
Bizarre 11
his 11
63 11
Convention 11
Romance 11
Like 11
Read 11
Prize 11
Collection 11
Opera 11
Colon 11
Goodwin 11
Contracts 11
Awaits 11
Eisners 10
Lloyd 10
Lynda 10
Lomax 10
McCloud 10
Draws 10
Gay 10
Encounters 10
Call 10
Accounting 10
Delacorte 10
London 10
film 10
Jimmy 10
Verdict 10
Wither 10
Memories 10
Short 10
Gun 10
allegations 10
Allan 10
Dooley 10
Full 10
Eastman 10
Aircel 10
64-67 10
Coalition 10
9-Jun 10
Classic 10
Shorts 10
Sanitized 10
Artwork 10
Better 10
against 10
Went 10
Kanigher 10
43-44 10
Zone 10
Greene 10
Dori 10
Singer 10
Late 10
Display 10
team 10
Die 10
Margaret 10
Offers 10
reprint 10
Arn 10
Ingels 10
Watterson 10
Homes 10
Kimball 10
Field 10
Religious 10
Fisher 10
Stupidities 10
Topps 10
2001 10
Lady 10
Hit 10
76 10
Higher 10
Carol 10
Animated 10
47-56 10
Faces 10
Antboy 10
Plays 10
Collections 10
Chester 10
Biographies 10
Distractions 10
Nelson 10
Banned 10
Strzyz 10
Blondie 10
Too 10
Thor 10
Fanny 10
Nominations 10
48-51 10
Hobbes 10
Said 10
Cleveland 10
Rocket's 10
Pierce 10
Former 10
107-111 10
Calvin 10
97-100 10
Schwartz 10
Bernard 10
Kingdom 10
Make 10
27-31 10
Furriners 10
Lying 10
Rise 10
44 10
Minimalism 10
Nation's 10
Words 10
Missing 10
Where 10
Diversions 10
101-106 10
Riggenberg 10
Horrors 10
Lovers 10
Switzerland 10
leave 10
Busted 10
Fleming 10
Her 10
54 10
Bullseye 10
any 10
Rock 10
Credit 10
See 10
Union 10
million 10
Stars 10
14-20 10
Their 10
Philips 10
Ray 10
Ducks 10
Beginners 10
Zap 10
Singing 10
20 10
Communications 10
Mason 10
95-96 10
Doran 10
Lightning 10
89 10
Kong 10
67 10
Quality 10
53-56 10
Series 10
Garbage 10
Buck 10
Syndicates 10
Watch 10
Manhua 10
13-16 9
That's 9
files 9
Pornography 9
34-38 9
controversy 9
Recent 9
Nuclear 9
65-67 9
Miracle 9
Uncensored 9
Libraries 9
Pay 9
Jon 9
33-36 9
43-52 9
Balloon 9
Hembeck 9
Hewitson 9
Speaking 9
29-37 9
Evangeline 9
Spotlights 9
Laws 9
Infamy 9
Hero 9
105-110 9
Toronto 9
Buys 9
Repentant 9
Sol 9
Speaks 9
Friedman 9
Popeye 9
Seda 9
58-101 9
Foundation 9
Teenage 9
Headaches 9
Ernie 9
Feldstein 9
Orchid 9
Hollywood 9
Circus 9
Euro-Comics 9
Justice 9
23 9
Progress 9
Marc 9
Beatty 9
Judge 9
Third 9
Police 9
74 9
40-42 9
Simon 9
Pathos 9
Worst 9
Suckers 9
Katz 9
Skip 9
Generally 9
Casey 9
Trapped 9
University 9
Touch 9
After 9
Vacation 9
battle 9
Hiroshima 9
Guild 9
Exhibition 9
Harris 9
53-55 9
Tripping 9
Opens 9
Miscellania 9
Long 9
St 9
52-55 9
Iron 9
down 9
Kennedy 9
Mills 9
6-Jan 9
Claim 9
now 9
Collins 9
Domain 9
87-96 9
Conway 9
O'Connel 9
42-43 9
Five 9
Reflections 9
Kahn 9
Graham 9
Defenders 9
Violent 9
Eyestrain 9
England 9
CrossGen 9
Encyclopedia 9
Mature 9
Kane's 9
Corto 9
Omaha 9
G 9
Royalties 9
91-94 9
Final 9
Road 9
Education 9
speaks 9
Grass 9
47-49 9
Did 9
Johnson 9
Song 9
Our 9
Alive 9
Christian 9
Eric 9
61 9
9-Jul 9
X 9
Sold 9
German 9
Kitchen 9
Cancels 9
Beautiful 9
Deitch 9
Greatest 9
Promises 9
Fit 9
Game 9
Truth 9
80-125 9
this 9
Acquires 9
Presents 9
Ghostbusters 8
writing 8
Appreciating 8
41-43 8
Starbucks 8
Herge 8
Wizard 8
Set 8
If 8
Elfland 8
69 8
Sysoyeve 8
Bite 8
Spawn 8
Floyd 8
Kerry 8
Yellow 8
Controversial 8
Interviews 8
Gaiman 8
Pierre 8
Fate 8
Brownstein 8
Complete 8
Jennings 8
Humility 8
64-65 8
state 8
28-32 8
attention 8
97 8
Pail 8
45-46 8
ends 8
17 8
Brand 8
Megaton 8
Use 8
Portfolio 8
15 8
USA 8
Easy 8
Kat 8
23-28 8
44-45 8
Censored 8
Central 8
Cook 8
Krazy 8
85-86 8
Team 8
Shit 8
Wayne 8
claim 8
Works 8
Liberty 8
libel 8
Arak 8
Far 8
Weird 8
Hosts 8
32-34 8
Isabella 8
Bust 8
109-122 8
newsstand 8
Never 8
25 8
27-29 8
Very 8
Cretin 8
Connoisseur 8
When 8
Raises 8
Center 8
Veteran 8
story 8
Annual 8
Alien 8
Go 8
Bernie 8
ComicCollector 8
Gibson 8
Alley 8
Gerber's 8
Paralogia 8
more 8
cartoon 8
Hires 8
Yorker 8
Survivors 8
be 8
Rev 8
North 8
Organized 8
Roots 8
Directory 8
Gets 8
Bravo 8
Preview 8
Fox 8
Katchor 8
Sake 8
Davis 8
worst 8
Clothes 8
Moon 8
Bat 8
la 8
Puck 8
Store 8
Worth 8
Guggenheim 8
but 8
Problem 8
31 8
media 8
Gottfriedson 8
39-41 8
Wagner 8
Chuck 8
Fired 8
84 8
Saga 8
Alfred 8
Sacred 8
Ultimate 8
Kupperberg 8
90 8
de 8
Supreme 8
Uyacheslau 8
Tax 8
Glut 8
Hard 8
Quiz 8
response 8
88-93 8
Lampoon 8
99-100 8
Trident 8
MOMA 8
Tundra 8
60-61 8
Engelhart 8
Arnold 8
Culture 8
Kinney 8
Dixon 8
avoids 8
Keeping 8
54-55 8
Sacco 8
Bugs 8
Offer 8
Cannon 8
Beyond 8
Sweep 8
Contest 8
115-120 8
Hammer 8
20-22 8
Across 8
Own 8
Shoe 8
writer 8
Monster 8
Children 8
Wolfman's 8
Kay 8
Gladiator 8
Senior 8
50-51 8
24 8
questions 8
Sweet 8
Gerard 8
Levitz 8
Mel 8
Raiders 8
McCay 8
Fifty 8
Begets 8
culture 8
Quest 8
Policy 8
Newspaper 8
Boltinoff 8
47-51 8
10-Jul 8
Edward 8
Trademark 8
Bouquet 8
issue 8
Crane 8
Comic-Book 8
Dracula 8
Retires 8
Queen 8
Mayer 8
Judgement 8
Italian 8
65 8
Am 8
Lonely 8
Buyers 8
Harold 8
Pioneer 8
Reborn 7
Fog 7
Victory 7
Hong 7
lawsuit 7
Prix 7
Kratophanies 7
Phantom 7
91-100 7
Amsel 7
Ali 7
Timespirits 7
Fruit 7
due 7
29-33 7
Tributes 7
Alters 7
Considered 7
definition 7
Grim 7
Blanc 7
Sikes 7
48-54 7
Lookin 7
Rius 7
11 7
Plans 7
under 7
God 7
Vision 7
Mean 7
Creig 7
46-48 7
Bethesda 7
Offing 7
Carrot 7
Stout 7
Rat 7
Mars 7
Job 7
59-64 7
1999 7
Masters 7
Anthology 7
Bottom 7
Era 7
Gum 7
CBLDF 7
Boils 7
Northstar 7
Exhibited 7
Sons 7
Questions 7
NYC 7
Whole 7
Invention 7
Fly 7
Drew 7
Milkmen 7
51-53 7
Winners 7
fired 7
Howell 7
55-60 7
Those 7
Shuster 7
Editor's 7
Wasteland 7
Checklist 7
55 7
51-55 7
53-59 7
19-22 7
Institute 7
43-46 7
discussion 7
Uncertain 7
Modern 7
Kraft 7
Flessel 7
100-108 7
Superfolks 7
Terms 7
Hired 7
domain 7
54-58 7
Starr 7
Reprint 7
Showcase 7
37-42 7
Careening 7
Ends 7
Content 7
19-26 7
Cwiklik 7
Post 7
Archives 7
Cooper 7
72-92 7
Grand 7
108-110 7
54-62 7
Confessions 7
among 7
Jesse 7
Responds 7
Days 7
Fine 7
Dear 7
Strike 7
Stage 7
Huneryager 7
literacy 7
Packaging 7
Silly 7
Sheldon 7
Guy 7
use 7
classic 7
Brennert 7
37-44 7
Word 7
Fantasia 7
Brunner 7
56-65 7
64 7
Dispute 7
Derangement 7
31-45 7
Relevancy 7
Bushmiller 7
Edition 7
Plowright 7
Elsewhere 7
hit 7
Levin 7
Speakeasy 7
81-84 7
Holds 7
Askegren 7
Marvels 7
55-56 7
Producer 7
Aids 7
Beetle 7
Differences 7
Yummy 7
Bell 7
36-40 7
Blackmore 7
123-124 7
Coloring 7
Much 7
Debuts 7
Kung-Fu 7
33-35 7
Geerdes 7
Named 7
Fur 7
Barr 7
Hysterical 7
Service 7
goes 7
Playing 7
Crackdown 7
Nam 7
Article 7
contract 7
trade 7
11-Aug 7
Intelligence 7
Delany 7
calls 7
12 7
Chronology 7
Denise 7
Kobylak 7
white 7
Inspired 7
Osamu 7
Buxley 7
Salad 7
Comments 7
Keeps 7
Mixed 7
Bland 7
Barbarian 7
Powerman 7
Realism 7
Taxes 7
26-28 7
Sickles 7
Eyes 7
69-72 7
Flowers 7
16 7
42-45 7
Projects 7
Racism 7
117-122 7
51-56 7
111-112 7
Puma 7
Educational 7
Creation 7
Noel 7
publications 7
home 7
Everett 7
Keyhole 7
Wesley 7
Jacob 7
Ignorant 7
Special 7
Question 7
Turner 7
Liquid 7
72-85 7
Automatic 7
68-70 7
Letterman 7
45-55 7
Arrow 7
86-87 7
26 7
Merchandising 7
Fuchs 7
Shade 7
46-50 7
Wolf 7
Curb 7
Lust 7
Adam 7
Escape 7
Gekiga 7
Randy 7
Cub 7
Along 7
80-87 7
Wolverine 7
Newsstand 7
Shatter 7
Agency 7
Scenes 7
Warlock 7
Druillet 7
Mysteries 7
Girls 7
Honored 7
Mongrels 7
Woody 7
Printer 7
32-35 7
Format 7
Implosion 7
Louis 7
Could 7
Closing 7
Louise 7
48-49 7
McKenzie 7
Gilman 7
Storer 7
Dreadstar 7
interview 7
36-37 7
Invasion 7
52-66 7
Slow 7
Designer 7
Hits 7
5-Mar 7
Infinite 7
Cutey 7
113-117 7
Homages 7
Conte 7
Expert 7
Plastic 7
Featured 7
49-50 7
Expo 7
Syndication 7
Woodring 6
Valerian 6
titles 6
CIA 6
Naked 6
Backs 6
Bringing 6
Tucker 6
57-61 6
Ismet 6
Here 6
Advance 6
Ways 6
Chalk 6
81-83 6
Loubert 6
83-88 6
Galleries 6
Rocky 6
We're 6
Lord 6
Private 6
Cult 6
Painless 6
Pop 6
Thinking 6
111-114 6
Documentary 6
Boon 6
13-Oct 6
Lenny 6
Upon 6
Meaning 6
36-43 6
Away 6
legal 6
21-23 6
Squeak 6
Mort 6
Zapiro 6
Version 6
Cavalieri 6
Evil 6
Control 6
Swipes 6
Boards 6
Bushmiller's 6
Destination 6
Critical 6
Koons 6
Gaimen 6
49-51 6
Receives 6
10-Jun 6
Exhibits 6
UKCAC 6
Copyrights 6
Everywhere 6
87-88 6
distributed 6
Finest 6
Korean 6
Mayhem 6
Tezuka 6
Micronauts 6
Lies 6
Brad 6
Gluckson 6
50-58 6
110-111 6
Shows 6
111-115 6
Zaffino 6
Moral 6
Cards 6
nationally 6
Joey 6
refuses 6
Longtime 6
50-56 6
Joins 6
Mod 6
Tejanos 6
Szukalski 6
updated 6
Propaganda 6
end 6
Ditko's 6
57 6
He 6
Girl 6
Agent 6
Influence 6
Garfield 6
Joy 6
Awful 6
Marada 6
Gammill 6
Give 6
Cats 6
Zombies 6
Vampire 6
45 6
68-71 6
Amy 6
38-40 6
animated 6
Cochran 6
animation 6
Reynoldo 6
Dinosaur 6
may 6
Makes 6
Lawrence 6
Historical 6
Unions 6
Franco-Belgian 6
Kitsch 6
parodies 6
There's 6
Schultz 6
47-48 6
Nexus 6
Ghost 6
Star-Lord 6
Leaders 6
Courage 6
Dull 6
Silent 6
61-62 6
Quagmire 6
Stevens 6
5-Apr 6
Aid 6
25-31 6
Stereotypes 6
Henderson 6
Round 6
Colleen 6
Crusaders 6
Begin 6
118-119 6
Historic 6
89-96 6
take 6
SF 6
Romita 6
Champions 6
Spectre 6
66 6
Ian 6
Symbol 6
Cut 6
95-97 6
Meets 6
Betty 6
does 6
Europe's 6
Beginnings 6
Survive 6
42-50 6
Feminism 6
Pap 6
far 6
Collectors 6
82-91 6
70 6
Mind 6
Brotherman 6
Illiteracy 6
14-18 6
Mullaney 6
80's 6
notice 6
Weekly 6
Toren 6
Piracy 6
48-53 6
68 6
Skin 6
Hood 6
Face 6
Nazis 6
Capsule 6
Zippy 6
86-88 6
Schulz 6
Premiere 6
Interviewed 6
Quit 6
Absurdist 6
8 6
World's 6
Maturity 6
Page 6
Women's 6
112-113 6
Seriously 6
Number 6
Games 6
Fun 6
104-106 6
Even 6
kids 6
creative 6
Challenges 6
Editorials 6
Forum 6
Wants 6
Don't 6
wizard 6
37-39 6
work-made-for-hire 6
Blue 6
Buy 6
Christopher 6
Li'L 6
demands 6
Lawyer 6
Feature 6
Morgan 6
Album 6
Babbitt 6
Family 6
Bakshi 6
36-39 6
Temple 6
Myth 6
110-112 6
Saints 6
Wendel 6
Completed 6
Reed 6
just 6
Crabb 6
Danny 6
Chasing 6
Eco 6
Script 6
Sexual 6
Ls 6
54-57 6
Manager 6
CMAA 6
Fisted 6
94 6
Ads 6
Comicology 6
54-74 6
Sword 6
debuts 6
Night's 6
6-Mar 6
64-85 6
Around 6
56-59 6
Stone 6
Locust 6
March 6
Dope 6
characters 6
Consumer 6
Says 6
Batiuk 6
Style 6
Rules 6
44-46 6
Justin 6
122-123 6
Deep 6
Theodore 6
Menace 6
Bang 6
Shots 6
148-152 6
spoof--how 6
Judith 6
Obscurity 6
Worden 6
Auctions 6
flap 6
Hedd 6
Form 6
Clash 6
42 6
Machine 6
Joseph 6
Ditko 6
Alternatives 6
44-48 6
Smallville 6
51-58 6
Fifteen 6
Moves 6
Visions 6
Calvo 6
Aren't 6
14-Nov 6
Taking 6
Harrison 6
Auth 6
37-41 6
Eros 6
Tries 6
Circulation 6
Berkeley 6
Sea 6
Suspends 6
Ronald's 6
Resigns 6
Julie 6
77 6
Norman 6
104-107 6
Sale 6
Shock 6
Favors 6
Kenn 6
Racist 6
Personal 6
Reality 6
Mister 6
Ever 6
Revolution 6
Learning 6
Reader 6
Turmoil 6
100-102 6
Ben 6
Croc 6
22-24 6
Starts 6
auction 6
Devils 6
Miracles 6
Evry 6
direct-sales 6
Midsummer 6
109-112 5
Redux 5
5 5
Beatty's 5
DeCandido 5
72-73 5
140-143 5
Walker 5
Facts 5
Zot 5
Elitism 5
86-89 5
Apathy 5
Nights 5
52-54 5
Watson 5
Realized 5
76-105 5
Drag 5
Rudy 5
Defective 5
Arkham 5
Remote 5
Personnel 5
Excerpts 5
Dressed 5
Advertising 5
ownership 5
Gulacy 5
31-34 5
Cheated 5
Bilal 5
Myra 5
Frogs 5
Withdraws 5
Magazines 5
Quartuccio 5
Seven 5
Place 5
Troubles 5
Copi 5
Literature 5
Lives 5
78-95 5
13 5
IV 5
Varnay 5
Apartheid 5
Worthy 5
Totleben 5
Pants 5
Consequences 5
Wrightson 5
Wanted 5
Corruption 5
Grenoble 5
121-123 5
Ho 5
Updates 5
Fi 5
Overstreet 5
154-161 5
107-110 5
Connection 5
Sound 5
Vault 5
Abel 5
Diary 5
Skinn 5
Osborne 5
Berg 5
Trekkin 5
60-81 5
57-59 5
Any 5
Research 5
Munoz 5
Legion 5
35-37 5
Sturgeon 5
PMSC 5
Premier 5
Shadows 5
Correspondent 5
Oliphant 5
Pinkwater 5
Come 5
Promoted 5
Guardineer 5
Cable 5
Laughing 5
Atlantic 5
Who's 5
Madness 5
Keane 5
Resuscitation 5
Covers 5
given 5
Riffs 5
Parties 5
Rings 5
Britain's 5
Paperback 5
54-56 5
Underneath 5
88-96 5
Rex 5
Dik 5
Serials 5
Jorge 5
Jackie 5
Deadly 5
Byron 5
Nomination 5
Alcala 5
Solo 5
Colguhon 5
Duffy 5
they 5
60-62 5
Los 5
Revives 5
Nat 5
Everybody's 5
cons 5
Trouble 5
Boring 5
Rene 5
Moonshadow 5
Jam 5
Fandom's 5
Hunters 5
Entertainment 5
Confusion 5
51-78 5
Counterfeit 5
14-Jun 5
Farewell 5
119-128 5
Citizen 5
Beer 5
Yves 5
Message 5
Vol 5
Markets 5
Seuss 5
Ballantine 5
objections 5
Seized 5
Undergrounds 5
Conspire 5
Guidelines 5
Hamilton 5
FBN 5
Media's 5
101-103 5
receives 5
94-96 5
Quezada 5
Hello 5
panel 5
Continuity 5
Assassin 5
Time-Warner 5
Doctor 5
Batmobile 5
Yomiuri 5
O'Neil 5
Edge 5
Hack 5
Shang-Chi 5
Moench 5
Famed 5
Revenge 5
108-109 5
Harps 5
Dez 5
Blade 5
Ambience 5
upsets 5
41-48 5
Refuses 5
Circle 5
Clashes 5
Dare 5
Character's 5
73-91 5
Morrison 5
artist's 5
Derivative 5
Washington 5
Wasted 5
21 5
Nixon 5
Neverending 5
Shouts 5
Elementals 5
47-50 5
Issue 5
Optimist's 5
Deadline 5
Neil 5
114-119 5
Rascals 5
Youngs 5
Freak 5
Browne 5
Franklin 5
Hellman 5
Elric 5
75-96 5
Graphix 5
Greenberger 5
Accuracy 5
Knockabout 5
figures 5
Phillip 5
75-107 5
Kind 5
Elektra 5
Stanton 5
85-90 5
June 5
Nemo 5
Wind 5
78-79 5
Trolls 5
Semper 5
Bryan 5
Heintjes 5
Thousand 5
103-104 5
Order 5
raises 5
Sep-00 5
vintage 5
Schlockification 5
57-62 5
56-61 5
Jose 5
Step 5
Ironfist 5
Haining 5
Stay 5
Chinese 5
Tree 5
Art's 5
Fanzine 5
Contemporary 5
Kounter 5
Morrie 5
Yeowell 5
Newsletter 5
Dunn 5
Florida 5
Pint 5
Roth 5
Responsibility 5
interviews 5
cover 5
continued 5
Filmation 5
Creativity 5
Illustrator 5
Exaggerated 5
What's 5
Ava 5
Retailer 5
Activities 5
31-35 5
36-42 5
Mythos 5
Stuff 5
Ploog 5
52-59 5
novels 5
106-107 5
Hindrance 5
97-102 5
63-73 5
16-22 5
Canuck 5
Sonja 5
Farside 5
Eisner's 5
Coverage 5
Recollections 5
memo 5
Peddler 5
Mini-Series 5
Cancer 5
Duo 5
Possibilities 5
Radecki 5
Awe-full 5
Jaffee 5
Matthew 5
Diana 5
Mario 5
59-65 5
November 5
Achieved 5
Wooley 5
96-97 5
Common 5
Visionary 5
Pariah 5
Admits 5
29-34 5
Unicorn 5
Darguard 5
Mourns 5
Funnybooks 5
Teeth 5
help 5
48-73 5
Milo 5
Galton 5
Creative 5
Kiddiebook 5
Switches 5
MacNelly 5
Titan 5
Herman 5
Chaland 5
Appalachian 5
Thoughts 5
Portrait 5
Recovery 5
115-116 5
Tomorrow 5
Rabbits 5
Premiums 5
Bolton 5
Cool 5
Grouses 5
Ambassador 5
Hogarth 5
controversial 5
Energy 5
China 5
67-70 5
Losers 5
53-58 5
There 5
Z 5
97-98 5
19-23 5
Catalogs 5
Generic 5
Intellectual 5
Hobson 5
Poe 5
Once 5
66-68 5
88-95 5
Rosenberg 5
Twisted 5
Dylan 5
Malibu 5
Krypton 5
Gate 5
grammar 5
Licensing 5
Trash 5
Cost 5
Sterenko 5
Moore's 5
Powers 5
Mautner 5
115-118 5
Barney 5
Girlfriend 5
permission 5
Virgins 5
McKean 5
120-121 5
Saavedra 5
Shall 5
Myths 5
Liberals 5
Dealer 5
Human 5
announced 5
Subterranean 5
Denis 5
PCP 5
Muhammed 5
Exiles 5
Casper 5
63-64 5
102-103 5
Modernism 5
Shimbun 5
Vigilantism 5
Worlds 5
Brodsky's 5
Jacques 5
Living 5
Sinatra 5
Gasping 5
Weather 5
17-Dec 5
63-66 5
Gasoline 5
Dragon's 5
8-May 5
Announced 5
Colwell 5
Conservatives 5
69-83 5
distributors 5
Club 5
after 5
Play 5
Critic 5
Jamie 5
Dredd 5
Fawcett 5
p 5
outrages 5
80s 5
Mutt 5
Forgotten 5
56-64 5
Hand 5
Rodney 5
Exuberance 5
Margulies 5
Animal 5
Ms 5
Viva 5
Side 5
Bernstein 5
Chronicles 5
93-96 5
Definition 5
Jason 5
Response 5
Scorchy 5
Doubt 5
article 5
Kochalka 5
Smut 5
Thunder 5
Remember 5
109-110 5
53-54 5
one 5
Sable 5
publisher 5
Dynamic 5
Looking 5
112-114 5
Restrict 5
ABC 5
Few 5
Boop 5
Camouflage 5
Honkytonk 5
Couch 5
Elvis 5
Karmichael 5
Louses 5
Tonra 5
70-71 5

silversword occult search

Silversword -- a Google Custom Search I built to help folks find more authoritative sources for occult inquiries. "When your practice demands a higher level of fidelity and quality, start here." It pulls from digitized book projects and archives, so you get a lot of academic primary sources. Also pulls in reprints and English editions of various old sutras, grimoires, bestiaries, church commentaries, etc. It's strongest (at the moment) in Hermetic areas, but I'm trying to boost its neo-pagan trove. Might be moving into the mystical streams of established religions more heavily later. I've added refinements (advanced search tabs) for finding info in local meetings, covens, other points of contact, one that looks specifically in academic sources (peer review journals, etc.). There's a few other minor bells and whistles I'm building into it. Definitely not for the light-hearted wanderings through geocities Wiccan pages or through eBay vendors trading rune cards or iron-on Thelemic charms...
Here, try it: Codex Gigas anyone?

Links to the tool:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=009941892632664145530%3A6gsiybgpl5c
or tiny url:
tinyurl.com/299qb5

(note: re-posting because the last post had a Hindi title)
(link to also see: nonagnostic)

qat war in yemen?

Disinfo has a few items on qat... kind of interesting.

Recent news is: Yemeni farmers and Yemeni authorities are at physical conflict over qat crops -- a new tax has been imposed -- who stands to profit? (other qat news here: link)
I've become slightly interested now in the role of qat in the Middle East and Africa. Has kind of a marijuana stigma to it -- it's thought that it makes for poor students, bad personal habits, lazy husbands, etc. But its effect is buzzy, like coffee -- and coffee/tea is well regarded: makes you quick and focused.

Maybe worth watching the developments.

sharepoint foray

Just starting to tinker with Microsoft's Sharepoint at work... in a way the whole idea has been slow to catch on... but in another, this idea is a little ahead of its time. Well, maybe not ahead of its time so much as ahead of the bureau-kultur it's moving into. I like the possibilities -- something more collaborative and news-feed-like than e-mail, and more authoritative and focused and definitive than a wiki space... and with a hint of MySpace-for-the-office. I'm intrigued.
This at codejedi.net): Brinety Spears on SharePoint... wasn't she some kind of showman from the 90s?



Anyways. The social 'web 2.0' for the workplace is getting real -- with real tools that may help us to share ideas better. That's good.

Wonder why Google Apps hasn't struck a similar corporate or bureau nerve? Is the friendliness and freeness off-putting? Do we prefer our sinister software powerhouses to be more grim and bald-faced about their intent to make money?

Interestedly watching, I remain...

STAR-TIDES site: live!

Lots of folks have been working hard to get the STAR-TIDES project running, and now they've got a site: http://www.star-tides.net/
Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support is all about using low-cost, culturally and environmentally sustainable technologies to solve problems related to disaster relief and refugee situations.
see also:
disastr
hexayurt
appropedia
sleepbreeze
NDU


...
Comment:
This is government, business, academia, and volunteers from other camps choosing to do good and find real workable solutions that go far beyond mitigation of disasters. This work may have positive repercussions on microeconomic environments in the developing world -- giving folks there a chance to use infrastructure and tools which come very cheap to us as a springboard for doing business and trading with others in their communities in a way that has less negative impact on their ecosystems, is individually empowering and frugal, and builds alliances locally and globally. This is a good thing.

cross stitch generator

Excellent tool from darklilac that shouldn't be forgotten!
http://www.darklilac.com/upload.jsp
You plug in your images, you get a PDF done with thread spaces counted and colors all pixelated for you... all colors needed assigned a name/number so you can find it in your hobby store. It's all CC too...

---From the site:---

Upload an image or enter the URL for an image to create a cross stitch chart. The image will be interpreted as "1 pixel = 1 cross stitch". It is STRONGLY recommended that you edit the image to an appropriate size and number of colors using an image editing tool such as Paint or Photoshop. The cross stitch chart will be delivered in PDF format. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. You can get the Adobe Acrobat Reader here. Hint: smaller images make better cross stitch charts. The maximum image size is calculated by multiplying the width by the height which must be less than 140000 pixels and a file size less than 2048000 bytes. Acceptable file formats are .gif, .jpg, .jpeg and .png.

स्ल्हिस्तोर्य.org

independent state of caledon

मिल्द्ल्य इन्तेरेस्तिंग...

Steampunk enclave in SL:

http://www.slhistory.org/index.php/Independent_State_of_Caledon

सिल्वेर्स्वोर्ड ओक्कुल्ट सर्च

google cse: silversword

Find yourself exhausted in the search for quality commentary on the grimoire of Pope Honorius? don’t fret. here’s a tool for those hard to reach “occult” places, when you get tired of stumbling over flaky sites selling chintzy trinkets:

tinyurl.com/299qb5

’silversword occult search’

ओक्कुल्ट सेअर्चिंग इस एअसेद विथ सिल्वेर्स्वोर्ड!

स्पूक कोउन्त्र्य रिसर्च

spook country: google cse

September 21st, 2007

find yourself exhausted in the search for archival sources reporting government sub-contractor’s activities in particular black ops? need authoritative analysis of de-classified documents? want to know what your representatives in congress say about anti-grav propulsion technology?

maybe you just wonder who-knows-who between the Blackwater bunch and the Rendon Group.

tinyurl.com/23zmc5

you need you some [spook country research]

linking for index: STAR-TIDES; DISASTR

http://www.star-tides.net/

http://project.star.tides.googlepages.com/

http://disastr.org/

-
tides, star-tides, disastr, eitp

we.find live

http://wefind.woodyevans.com/

we.find is a professional research company specializing in finding, interpreting, and delivering information.

Led by Woody Evans, an information professional with military, corporate, and academic research experience, we.find is there when Google it just isn't good enough.

Specialties:

• Business and Economics
• Social Sciences
• Geopolitics
• Humanities
• Technology

Whether you're a writer who needs facts checked, a business owner who needs demographic or market data, or a government employee with special research needs, you'll find an ally in we.find.

We've got sources.

---

new review, old music: wu tang

"...This album has a quality that is rare in rap: quiet. There is enough room in "Careful (Click, Click)" to hear drain grates dripping, feet sliding on pavement, and other odd, icy, city sounds. This all comes behind plaintive lyrics and eerie, droning cries. The quiet, or the space (which reappears at intervals all along the journey), doesn't so much evoke emptiness, but becomes just enough to clear the space and establish a nearly fairy-tale quality in these urban and gothic songs... Yes, I'm biased toward this album. Wu-Tang Clan has ably evoked the ghosts of my past and a longing for the wonder of my childhood—a wonder and a love for cities, and for urban decay. But it doesn't stop there. It has demanded, again, that I mature enough, again, to shed any rose-tinted view of life in the city. I cannot believe that I have been alone in feeling this wonder; and I cannot believe that I will be alone in wandering carefully through the street-worlds of "The W" for a long time to come. And I won't be the only one changed when the time comes for leaving the place, the album, as a more respectful and more adult listener..."









(read the whole over @ Juked)

we.find coming soon

Watch this space.

I go live and legal next week.
...be open for biz then.

Research excellence. Information to the people.
Surgically precise search technique.

More on all this soon... More on the "why" of it...

I've got a son due soon, and a wonderful wife at home to take care of; and, besides providing for them, I've got to man up and get out of blue-haired bureaucracy. I've got to push my limits, innovate, dare, and make my own way.

It's starting now.
Wish me well.

everything is miscellaneous

David Weinberger is just awesome.
Check out his Google TechTalk:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2159021324062223592
http://ghostfeet.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/everything-is-miscellaneous/

He starts sticking it to librarians at about 19:05, and he doesn't really let up -- he even tears into Gorman and Dewey. He obviously has affection for libraries and what we've done to organize information objects in the past... but today's a new day.

"Everything is metadata."
This is a Morville-level event.

ghostfooting at

http://ghostfeet.wordpress.com/

A friend recently moved to Wordpress. I love the look, the ease of use. I'm setting up a new camp there too, at least until/if I restore wordpress on woodyevans.com.

Yo ho ho, as they say. Thanks, J.

wiki ethics more

'Following revelations that a high-ranking member of

Wikipedia's bureaucracy used his cloak of anonymity to lie about being a professor of religion, the free Internet encyclopedia plans to ask contributors who claim such credentials to identify themselves.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in interviews by phone and instant message Wednesday from Japan that contributors still would be able to remain anonymous. But he said they should only be allowed to cite some professional expertise in a subject if those credentials have been verified.

"We always prefer to give a positive incentive rather than absolute prohibition, so that people can contribute without a lot of hassle," Wales wrote...'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070307/ap_on_hi_te/wikipedia_credentials



---

See also wiki ethics for public librarians.

my myspace comment

At Library Journal this February...
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6413453.html
...in which I chide the hype, rant a minute about putting it all to better use.

My 0.02, for what it's worth.

terr-ist-isms

Infosthetics on vizzing the state of the union, here and here.

They're RFIDs, Not "Arphids"

Just up at LJ. I've got a competing p.o.v. (taking almost, but not quite, the opposite position) under consideration at AL. What can I say? The evidence led me to change my mind.

zipit linux?

Can anybody run Linux on this Zipit wifi device?
http://www.zipitwireless.com/

How does it work out? How do you think this would play in the field for relief workers, post-hurricane?

How feasible is it to build-in an RFID read/writer?

If it did work well as mobile device, who out there can think of an authoritative, free, text-based medical database?

http://woodyevans.com/blog/index.php/?p=19

note pad

Yes, this will remain an open notebook. I'm scribbling: what if pixels were searchable? Metadata for pixels, some how auto-generated, or generated for 1 pixel according to the elements of its neighbors. You won't search for discrete images, but your search will turn up images in which a statistically significant number of pixels meet the criteria. Is this using a hammer to turn a screw, creating far more metadata than we can handle in order to execute jobs that could be done much more simply in another way?

ISHUSH is Moving

==update==
this is still my backup blog.
tech probs at we dot com, so for a while i may camp here.
---

Follow me over to WoodyEvans.Com. The party continues there, 'til real, real late at night. ISHUSH has been fun, but now I'm homesteading in new territory.

It'll be about a week until I sort out all the technical bits, but do drop in.

- WE, 09 Oct 06.



















p.s.....

I intend to let ISHUSH stand here for as long as it will. I may even, sometimes, add bits to it, develop bits, and move bits around. It'll be an archival-bank-type-thing for what I was thinking on this year. It's going to slow-burn, now, down to smoke and cinders... kind of like StreetMeatStation did. So.

drm again -- and a book, to start

The "internet of things" is coming -- what kind of a place do we want it to be?

rootkits for books? drm and print media?

From comments following on a recent post at reBang:

1. Woody E Says:
   September 28th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

   Books don’t run root-kits on people.
   DRM movies do run root-kits on people’s computers.
   Thassa crucial difference, sho!

2. csven Says:
   September 28th, 2006 at 4:19 pm

   C’mon, Woody. You know better. DRM is no more about rootkits than any other piece of software, because ANY software can have malicious code in it.

   Are cars weapons? Some people use them as transportation. Some people use them as bombs. All depends on what the person does with the technology.

   This is really about people and their behavior. Nothing more. Nothing less. It would be possible to have a fair DRM system, but there are a few problems in getting there:

   1) most of the people behind DRM systems don’t create the content they’re trying to protect; they’re protecting profits.
   2) most of the people accessing content using DRM hacks probably don’t have a clue about Intellectual Property laws and if they do probably don’t really care; they only care about getting something for free.
   3) deciding what’s “fair” depends on whether one is a consumer or a content provider, and there are way more consumers.
   4) the two sides are, for the most part, polarizing the issue.

   We’ll see if Sony’s new e-book makes inroads. If it does, it’ll be interesting to see if some people change their tune (of course I’m referring to those who don’t have other sources of income).

Librarians, where do you stand on this? Should the current impossibility of using books to run rootkits on readers necessarily exclude print media from the DRM debate? Are the old-fashioned copyright laws good enough -- or should readers get the kind of rights Cory Doctorow argues for in re: digital content? And is it hypocritical not to provide such usage rights to readers if you take a similar stance against DRM? Where are you on this?

5 cell phones in the library

...busted. Roger has put down a challenge after reading my post with the QR haiku... And I lack the ketai to rise to the occassion*. Can somebody help him out?

--

*We had a volcanic dispute with Sprint, over at my house. We don't like them too much anymore. They probably don't like us, either. Regardless, investigation has revealed that we live in a dip into/outof which no cell towers will give/get good signal. So we wait.

Listening: Andrew Bird
Shushing: used cars, new cars, cars, trucks, cars. where's my solar-powered jetpack?

QR code in action

Could it work for libraries too? Imagine programs using QR for scavenger hunts... Using them to solve puzzles, find clues that send them off to read certain books... How about a "real life" choose-your-own-adventure tale? Let your patrons forward the notices to each other through phones... Play "guess the poet"... Link to public-domain novels online... Link to Project Vote Smart pages... Not to mention some of the previous ideas -- useful grafitti, this could be.
(Vid via Smoothplanet.)

from Anousheh Ansari's space blog:

"I always knew in my heart that I would go to space, but did not know exactly how. But I kept telling everyone how much I love space and I want to go to space, and finally found the way... My destination tomorrow will be Earth… But the Earth is not the same Earth that I left. It is a little bit better now because there is more love in it. I can see it from your written words that are sent to me in the emails… I only hope that I can help grow this wave of positive energy that we have started and to make sure it touches more and more people."



















--

Reading: The Kite Runner, Ken Wilber's stuff, and Watership Down
Listening: Chinesepod.com (...newbie lessons...)

for your consideration: joe scarborough doing his job

...speaking truth about power:

new fiction

New fiction (by me) up at 971 MENU. It's a short, "From Florida".

for your consideration: keith olbermann doing his job

...speaking truth to power:

haiku in kaywa qr-code

UPDATE:

"Warm engines cool. The rain hits, hissing, steaming on metal.
Write on foggy glass"

Decoded with the KAYWA Reader from the screen ;-)
Cheers!

Jerome Chevillat did it. J, if we're ever in the same city at the same time, I'll buy you a drink.



--

Just experimenting. You can use your cellphone camera to read the haiku (if you download the free QR reading software).

arphid melodrama?

I appreciate the dangers of RFID chips in passports, I really do.
A bad idea? Almost certainly.

But hasn't anybody ever heard of tinfoil?
If the policy makers make bad policy, hack the effect.
Come on, people!

banned books week post 9/11

So a patron wanders in because she saw our sign about Banned Books Week.

"Hi," she says. "I saw that it was Banned Books Week. What the heck is that?" Her worried brow made it clear she thought it was the week the library banned its books.

"Well, since the terrorist attacks on our nation five years ago, the federal government," (here the blood drained further from her face, causing her cute little brown specs to stand out in high contrast) "has started requiring all publicly funded libraries to discard or ban one-tenth of one percent of our collection that has some sympathetic leanings toward the ideology of terrorist organizations." I give her a cheery grin. "See? And we'd rather not throw our books away, so we just ban them for a week."

"What?"

"Just kidding!" Then I told her all about the ALA and how zealous we librarians are to prevent such a thing. You gotta have fun with this, right?

2 library program idea

RFID tags aren't toys... Arphid tags are!

From the badlands east of Hattiesburg, we welcome Doc Coyote and her troupe of Happy Hairy Hackers.

Learn! How to manipulate data on RFID chips.
Explore! The wonders of interactive "arphid" projects.
Meet! Local hacktivists with an eye to make the Internet tangible.

Doc Coyote is an old hand at making, breaking, and re-writing RFID chips with home-made, hand-held RFID reader/scanners.* She'll teach you how to build your own with parts from WalMart and RadioShack for less than $30. So bring your soldering iron and an open mind to your local library this Friday night at 6:30.** Go ahead, take the red pill! And welcome to "the Internet of things!"

*The library in no way assumes any responsibility for any theft, fraud, invasion of privacy, or distribution of misinformation that its patrons may participate in after learning these skills.
**Library patrons are strongly discouraged from using any skills learned at this program to manipulate the RFID chips in library books. If such tampering can be proven, any guilty patrons would be excommunicated from the library forever and ever and ever and ever. And ever.

orderly global economies / drm: redux in situ

I posted on the question of intellectual property and global economies here [link], and posted a video of Cory Doctorow at LIFT 06 speaking on DRM here [link]. Great comments followed both posts.

The conversation bleeds over to reBang blog [link], where Sven, Cory, The Mad Natural Historian, and I get into an discussion about all this in the context of a contest design posted at BoingBoing, following on one of Sven's post about how designers are exploited under the auspice of an "open source" contest.

Librarians not only have to worry about the impact of root kits on our computer systems, but we've also got to wonder about the fallout of DRM and IP law on our lending policies. How long before we're forced to buy restrictive licenses for [what we used to call] books at a jacked-up "institutional" price?

I don't know if small libraries could survive that. What do you think?

--

Weather: hot, wet, windy.
Reading: The 39 Steps again and again and again.

Vinay Gupta: worldchanging

You should get to know Vinay Gupta and his hexayurts project.

At Mind is Moving blog, he keeps a page detailing the idea. Hexayurts have been written about in the New York Times, and were featured at Strong Angel III.

It's a quick & endemic diaster relief project that uses simple materials to make a very sturdy shelter -- no complicated international NGO bureaucrastructres required. An excellent design makes duct tape and cardboard into roomy hexagonal shelters.

What he's done, as Surgeon Captain Peter Buxton, O.B.E, put it, is make "teaching people how to use materials that are availabe for them" primary over shipping in materials and techniques from developed countries (see vlog link below). This really does empower those who are affected by disaster.

Nominate this man for a Genius Award!

Here's Vinay's vlog from Strong Angel III [link].

Some questions come to mind... I wonder about modding the hexayurt for the needs of specific environments -- for instance, how would they have fared in SE Louisiana after the hurricanes of 05, in such a wet environment?

Might these structures be cheaply chipped, so that they become spimey (trackable in space/time for recycling, usage statistics, and info on wear and tear)?

Or might they be outfitted with arphids so that a collection of structures in a community could ooze info about which families live in which yurts, etc.?

How tough/expensive a task would it be to outfit these structures with a solar panel and basic wiring?

How tough/expensive a task would it be to use the structure of the walls (the fiber itself) as part of a water filtration system, Katavolos style?

What's the max lifespan for this structure?

The hexayurt is simple, elegant, and eminently helpful.

















This could be a world changer.

Cory Doctorow on Digital Rights Management

Cory Doctorow, novelist and former EFF man, breaks it down at LIFT 06. Now I think I get DRM.

14 comics: Rushkoff

Why do I have this dreadful (and not-yet very deeply explored) suspicion that Testament and Club Zero are very like Waking Life and What the Bleep?

Is it because the "story" is utterly sacrificed to the "ideas" the author is trying to share? I love ideas (and Rushkoff's work is mostly full of cool and good ideas), but I love stories more -- and, yes, the best stories are able to communicate ideas without the audience feeling like "uh-oh, I think this is some kind of statement or idea or something... I think I'm supposed to be getting it or something..."

Maybe it's because I don't like being instructed in what constitutes cool. Maybe I like to be shown, not told.

The characters in Testament read like walking barcodes. These aren't people with an array of terrible and wonderful and meaningful particularities; these are cliche cardboard people that the author musn't realize he's parodying. I really don't think he meant to parody the counter-culture he's writing about -- I do, in fact, take him at least that seriously.

I mean, who care'ss about all this Torah-as-metaphor stuff? We get it already! And it's atemporal and all that too. Eternal struggle against the forces of singular domination, yada yada yada -- we get it!

What Testament should have been was a story that started as a story -- instead of a manifesto that got a spackling with plot.

Well. I won't be buying any more comics by Mr. Rushkoff -- but I might check them out from the library some time, see if future attempts make for better stories. And good luck to him... his non-fiction rocks, after all.

1 library program idea

LEARN the art of sousveillance, "watching from below"!
BECOME an active watcher of watchmen!
REALIZE the potential of ketai!

Sousveillance means you're watching the cameras that watch you. In a world of total surveillance by 'the man', why not take back the streets and turn the panopticon culture on the corporate-government overlords who would seek to see all?

In this library program, you'll learn how to use ketai, or cellphone-camera-gadgetry-culture, to manifest your right to watch the world around you. Police abuse? Thing of the past! Detention without charge? No more! Now you've got streaming video documentation of every breach of your civil liberties!*

So bring your cell phones, digital cameras, laptops, baggy clothes, offensive hats/buttons/teeshirts, loud music, and bad attitudes to your library this Saturday afternoon at one o'clock.

Cookies and punch served to a soothing background of techno-ambient musical compositions by local DJs and electronic artists.^


*No guarantee or assumption of liability for indefinite detention implied.
^If we don't play your track, we're not dissin' ya!

1 happy world: forget the 5th amendment or any of that other stuff

It just gets in the way!



"

Associated Press 09:45 AM Sep, 17, 2006

The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing.

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.

Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.

"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure."

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide -- 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said.

"

check The Hedrons

Remember Sleater-Kinney? The Hedrons owe a lot to S-K, sure, but they've also innovated. "Be My Friend" has a story (tho that's a generous word here) that grabs you and involves you with the, um, narrative. It at first annoys in the same way that R.E.M.'s "Diminished" from UP annoyed during the first 100 listens -- it seems to pretend to know too much about an extremely unlikely predicament, and thereby barred the listener from immediately identifying with the situation. But that's not what The Hedrons do, after all. They somehow convice you that they really mean it. Repetitive and occasionally too full of vocal affectations that remind of the worst dog-days of the 1980s? Less than 1/3 of the time. Really bold? At least half the time. Worth listening to? F*ck yeah! Do it!

http://www.myspace.com/thehedrons

well, what sort of punishment, then?

No, we won't be pushing people around.

But we might be kicking them out. Even thinking of screwing some beady-eyed LED-flashing faux cameras to the ceiling and support struts. It's getting out of hand.

If books are for use, then libraries are for use. But for use for what? And who's to use the library? I'm liberal when it comes to social software and new media in libraries. But I'm conservative as hell when it comes to caring for the books (actually, the information, in whatever media) and the patrons.

Students are getting too loud. I'm stalking through the stacks like a fascist, hushing grown folks, asking them not to smear potato chips on pages, asking them to leave if they can't follow our rules.

This is changing things, and I don't like it. I didn't become a librarian to police people. I shush? Shush your damn self. We're all students here.

who blogged this? banned books from above.

I think it was The Lipstick Librarian. Anyways. Tell me Google ain't our friend.

http://books.google.com/googlebooks/banned/

comments on orderly global economies and intellectual property

Update: David (of Simulation Weblog) has weighed in on this with some really good points. Read the comments of this post for more -- & Librarians take note:

"...Sometimes growth comes from efficiency. (Look how EBay recycles junk! or - sorry! - how Google cuts down on the number of trips we have to make to reference libraries). What if we applied modern database/ surveillance/ simulation techniques to road traffic management instead of surveillance, for instance - how much gasoline, time and lives might this save?"












The conversation continues...

--

In response to this post (link), Sven Johnson had plenty to say. It was worth posting as a new entry.

--

csven said...

I disagree with the words, but agree with the idea. In today's world I'd use:

"Respecting intellectual property is a cornerstone of an orderly global economy"

There is no protection. Not from hackers and not from corporate corruption. Rather than fight corporate greed by trying to break DRM which protects their precious media, I say people should ignore their product altogether. Much of what's being fought over is a luxury. No one needs the latest Britney Spears mp3. No one needs to watch whatever movie they can download from Pirate Bay. Worse yet, there is still greed behind those activities. Whether it's a Russian website selling lower cost music (bc they have almost no overhead and a giant legal loophool) or whether it's Pirate Bay raking in bushels of ad money (which they don't like to talk about), someone is getting rich. And you can be sure a fair amount of that dirty money isn't going to social programs to feed the poor or organizations trying to stop the AIDs epidemic in Africa. It's most likely just going into some other corrupt person's bank account.

The best way to react imo is to a) buy the offerings of truly independent artists and b) respect their work by giving them control over it's distribution. Don't do it because it's the moral or ethical thing to do; that removes pragmatism, and I'm very pragmatic. Do it because our collective behavior will either help us or harm us in the years to come. Because just in the way cheap goods purchased by the working class sent their jobs to low-wage countries, the day will come when all things will be pirated as easily as an mp3. And the effects of that technology rippling through our social systems faster than we adjust to accomodate them will result in economic chaos. Something is going to rip if we're not more thoughtful.

Because I don't believe people can stop themselves, and because I believe selfishness trumps, I expect that we'll see some very difficult times ahead. The cornerstone will, in effect, crumble. How or even whether we reinforce or replace it is the real question in my mind.

Woody Evans said...

If we accept that disrespecting intellectual property really amounts to theiving, I have to ask: why is stealing a threat to the global economy?

Using strong arm tactics to gain rights (by way of legal loopholes, like you mention they do in Russia), doesn't seem so different from bending international treaties to invade a country for its resources (or whatever other reasons). These moves can destablize the system in the short term, but WHY do they threaten the longterm stability of the system?

Morality aside, how is theft bad for the global economy?

csven said...

If there's no incentive, progress slows. If nobody respects the inventiveness of creators, then the creators won't invest the energy. That's the lesson of the Soviet Union afaic.

Assume for a moment that you've spent three years developing something. You've sacrificed for this creation; not just time and money but perhaps a marriage. And your reward? Someone takes your work and claims it as their own and profits from it. And you have no recourse because that theft is acceptable to society; society approves of the tricksters and the bullies.

Do we really want social Darwinism? Do we really want to remove the protections that intellectual property laws are supposed to provide?

The United States is the powerhouse it is today because of those laws. Unfortunately, they've become corrupted. The solution is not to wrestle product from the corporations, because there are ways to profit from that attention. The solution is to remove those politicians who votes are being effectively bought by corporations. The solution is to stop giving any attention to the products offered by those corporations. Ignore them. Entirely.

The opposite of love isn't hate - it's apathy toward the individual.

The opposite of IP corruption isn't cracking DRM - it's apathy toward the product.

There's a very good reason so much money is spent on advertising. We should not underestimate the power of turning our backs on companies and their offerings. Apple is a good example. I don't own an iPod. I don't purchase my music through iTunes. The reason I don't is because I don't like the restrictions. So I ignore their product. What's baffling is seeing a bunch of iPod owners angry over the DRM. Huh? Like they didn't know this going in? And they're angry with Apple because they purchased something which clearly limited their options? I think it's idiotic. Nobody forced them to purchase this luxury product. What happened to taking responsibility for our own actions? They shouldn't blame Apple, they should kick themselves for giving Apple the market. Apple's dominance is a result of their attention and nothing else.

Now, I'll agree that there are times when IP laws should be set aside. South Africa and Brazil weighed those laws against the AIDs situation in their countries and took action. There's nothing wrong with this and afaic it was the right thing to do; there's a time when excess profit (and by no means were these companies in danger of going bankrupt) should be set aside for the common good in just the same way that IP laws are for the common good. But access to music, movies, software, etc is a long way from that situation. We live in a world where the privileged use the word "need" far too often. No one needs most of what's being taken. All we're doing is teaching younger generations a behavior that will have a dampening effect on the future.

Woody Evans said...

Okay, it makes much more sense when you put it like that. Respecting intellectual property keeps the innovators innovating. Without respecting their intellectual property the innovative lose an important carrot, feel undercut and cheated by the pirates...

The thing is, as important as it is to fairly reward innovation and to keep encouraging it with law and money, I don't necessarily agree with the assumption that innovation will decline if piracy goes up.

I think need is what drives innovation, not the promise of legal rights or recognition, or financial reward. I think 1.3 billion Chinese hack innovations from Korea, Japan, and the West because they have a need -- imagined or not -- for those goods and goodies. Obviously if we're talking about breaking a patent on a water filter, it's a much stronger and more 'real' need than digicamming a blockbuster in the theatre and selling burned discs of it... Certainly there exists wildly different levels of "need" in the world, and the attempt to solve probelms that comes from that need can be as simple as selling copied movies, or as horrifying and selfish as the common folk remedy for male AIDs victims in rural Africa -- which amounts to incest and rape of minors in the belief that sex with a virgin heals the disease.

What you said (csven) about times when i.p. laws should be set aside for the greater good -- maybe the way forward is to create a more lenient legal evironment in the first place. A Creative Commons for patents?

csven said...

"I think need is what drives innovation, not the promise of legal rights or recognition, or financial reward."

Then how do you explain the economic disaster in the former U.S.S.R.?

My mother is German. When the wall fell she heard quite a bit from friends back home about how difficult it was for the former East Germans to adapt to a society in which they couldn't simply walk away from the jobsite when they felt like it. If they ran out of bricks to lay and the truck wasn't there with more to unload, they didn't wait... they bailed. They had no incentive to wait for more and no initiative to determine when they might be needed. Their basic needs were usually met and so innovation crawled forward. They had no experience with the products being developed in the West, so they didn't perceive a need for them. And when they desired something, they could find that item on the blackmarket - which is where organized crime incubated until the system collapsed.

"I think 1.3 billion Chinese hack innovations from Korea, Japan, and the West because they have a need -- imagined or not -- for those goods and goodies."

I don't know if you've been keeping up, but the Chinese are becoming increasingly concerned with the effects piracy is having on their own development. Chinese software companies are often hit so hard they can't stay in business. If there's nothing to be gained, they don't even try. They're now trying to use the same means as companies like Valve and MS to ensure that their fellow countrymen don't put them out on the street. But we all know that software verification systems can be circumvented.

The Chinese are now reaping what Communism has sown: people don't think piracy is wrong. How is China going to stop it now when it's so firmly a part of their culture? How do you convince a billion people to change their habit and pay for what they can get for free? Is the Chairman going to make an argument for Capitalist innovation where people are rewarded for their ideas??? If not, he needs to. Otherwise China is in real trouble. The world is leveling. Labor is making demands. Salaries are rising along with lifestyles and expectations - and much of it is based on old industrial technology. Meanwhile, those smart Europeans are pushing new rapid-manufacturing solutions forward (the kind of thing you get from a system that rewards innovation) and in the not-too-distant future products made in China will be more expensive and less attractive than those which are RM'd at home.

"Certainly there exists wildly different levels of "need" in the world,..."

I disagree. People only need a few things; among them are food, shelter, safety. No one needs what Pirate Bay offers. No one needs Apple to change their business model to give them unlimited use of the content tied to their devices. All those protestors should be protesting real issues - like this one: Blood Diamonds.

We need to get our priorities straight. Music and movies aren't anywhere near being a priority.

...maybe the way forward is to create a more lenient legal evironment in the first place. A Creative Commons for patents?

I've been arguing for this since before Napster (because I was aware of MPEG Layer 3 almost immediately - being a filmmaking buff, I was following its development). I downloaded some music back when a search for "mp3" yielded maybe 30 returns. But it didn't take me long to realize that we had some serious problems. And the patent issues I've known about for much longer, given my occupation.

Yes, we need to fix the system. I've never defended corporate activity in this arena. But I also won't yield to those who take a militant approach; mainly, because it doesn't work. The way to fix this is to use the power we have: with our votes and with our pocketbook. But the sad truth is that people are lazy. Far easier to download whatever you want and excuse it (often with outright lies) than make a real effort to fix the system.

csven said...

"...with our pocketbook"

Correction: with our attention (because that's how corporations can still leverage what people steal).

Woody Evans said...

"Yes, we need to fix the system. I've never defended corporate activity in this arena. But I also won't yield to those who take a militant approach; mainly, because it doesn't work. The way to fix this is to use the power we have: with our votes and with our pocketbook. But the sad truth is that people are lazy. Far easier to download whatever you want and excuse it (often with outright lies) than make a real effort to fix the system."

Now you've got me worried. If the issue is as serious as it seems to be and the only thing that can change it is political will, things look pretty damn bleak.

csven said...

Agreed. Because now boycotting (or stealing from) a company may not be enough. In today's technological world, attention has value. I can't imagine that some piece of music hasn't already been sold for advertising purposes that didn't include as part of its valuation the number of illegal downloads that the music label has tracked.

So even if people think they're hurting the labels, they may not be. This is where the whole "I wouldn't buy it anyway" turns around and bites the pirates in the arse - because one could then say "Well, you still put money in their pocket. Nice job keeping the greedy suits in control."

--

Further comments are welcome.
And if you don't know Sven, you ought to.

Ricky Gervais on Creationism vs. Evolution (and stuff)

stingray cult

Dead stingrays with their tails cut off have been found in Australia, sparking concern that fans of naturalist Steve Irwin may be avenging his death. (link: news.bbc)

Remember Biko

18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977

5 kirkyan timesuits

Seems there's new action on the kirkyan front. Sven's been writing about kirkyan weaponry, picking up on a thread from some of Warren Ellis' work in Second Life and putting a proper kirkyan face on the matter. Seems his post may even be garnering interest from our military-industrial overlords. Don't ask how I know that.

It's bombs, then, not books. And this is gung-ho, buddy, gung-ho. Forget "kirkyan timesuits for books".

The notion of the kirkyan is now picking up weight and heft from deep pockets. And publishers, monied as they are, are squabbling with writers are squabbling with readers are squabbling with libraries about what the future of the book is going to be -- the debate has no direction, no coherent vision for the future. Meanwhile, the kirkyan has predictably taken on a much less benign demeanor. And it may now be that it has means to become actionable.

Show somebody how to educate more people and not much happens. Show somebody how to blow more people up, and the princes perk up and take notes. I still say let's have books, not bombs. I hope to remain so naive and idealistic until the end.

But here's an insider's tip, for free: The money? The smart money is on the viridian kirkyan that, for one thing, cleans up your oil spills.

Sven's notion has traction. It's a solid notion and it's going to grow and become increasingly useful. Librarians are ahead of the curve on this matter, though, because we already truck in kirkyans daily. The e-book is but a crude example of what's to come. You guys know that.

But to give the notion a name and talk about its attributes is helpful. Kirkyan books. What can a kirkyan book do that an e-book, a cell phone, a page of paper, a radio signal, a stack of html on a server can't?

Can libraries save the world? This question has something to do with whether or not we can co-opt the kirkyan for the good of all and build autopoietic networks of goopy, clinging, smart (well, at least as smart as a retarded dog) books, that kind of crawl in and out of our nervous systems, onto and off of our shelves, into and out of our phones, and swarm all the hell over Africa and rural China.

Let's get cracking. Most of you "next-gen" bastards are already off to a walloping good start.

orderly global economies

"Protecting intellectual property from piracy is a cornerstone of an orderly global economy" (O'Connor 381).

Is this neccessarily so? Why or why not? I'm trying to sort it out.
Comments welcome.

--
O'Connor, David E. Encyclopedia of the Global Economy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.
--

Reading: about the antipopes
Feeling: overworked, underutilized.

10 teaching: b.i. platform

Today our library classroom got enlisted for a somewhat unusual endeavor.

A biology prof wants to use our classroom and laptops to demonstrate a cellular animation website and have the class do an assignment based on it -- in the library. We do frequently get profs bringing down their classes for instruction in library databases and use of the catalog, etc. But this will be the first time they've come to use our classroom as their own.

I'll take 10 or 20 minutes to demonstrate finding good biology resources in our databases and reference collection, but then it's out of my hands!

I think it's just delicious that they see us as a platform for their own uses. Maybe it's our smartboard...

Steve Irwin, rest in peace

He pulled the stingray's barb out of his heart before he died.
Thanks for the enthusiasm, Steve. Rest in peace.