For half a century Ray Ives has essentially lived beneath the ocean's surface as a commercial diver. He's recovered wrecks, amassed countless trinkets and forgotten undersea lore More »
From Eric Dondero:
Meet Claver Kamau-Imani. In 2010 he founded Raging Elephants to introduce more Black Americans to conservative principles and bring a more multi-ethnic face to the GOP. He caused a bit of a stir when he had billboards put up over Texas emphasizing Martin Luther King "was a Republican."
From his bio:
Apostle Claver Kamau-Imani is considered one of the most dynamic speakers on liberty and offers a unique vision of political ideology from a Biblical perspective.
The fight against tyranny has a moral basis whether it’s on fiscal or social issues. It is this moral connection that Apostle Claver Kamau-Imani sees as the uniting force that can unite fiscal and social conservatives, including people of color.
On Saturday he brought the house down at a Tea Party event in Ohio.
From ConservativeNews.com "Tea Party Express Opens to a Crowd of Several Hundred at Ohio Stop – Patch.com":
Kamau-Imani flew in from Texas for the Avon event. He said he was not a Tea Party member, but a conservative who is “slightly left of” Libertarian.
He urged more racial diversity among conservatives.
Kamau-Imani who read passages from the Bible, elicited the greatest response from the crowd, drawing cheers.
“We're not supposed to be tolerant of moral behavior,” Kamau-Imani said to a cheering crowd. “You cannot surrender, you cannot compromise … We stand for compromise. Make a decision. Do you want to keep your republic or do you want to surrender?”
From Eric Dondero:
Over 2,000 attended the Tea Party rally with guest speaker Sarah Palin in Indianol, Iowa on Saturday. A cheering crowd shouted "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah," though she remains uncommital.
During the media availability Palin was asked about recent polls showing her trailing other GOP hopefuls.
She quipped:
"Polls? Nah... they're for strippers and cross country skiers," quipped Palin."
Note - Palin appeared unusually busty in a tight white sweater. See photo at Fox Politics.
Photo above from an event at a horse track 1 1/2 year ago.
Remember this day, friends. Remember when the cyborg beetles early first took flight in our labs and flew right into their world domination destiny. Look! Even now one of the brood is stealing a quarter, no doubt for financing purposes. More »
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi on seeing the divine image stamped on our being.
If you’re reading this, there’s already a good chance you know about Symphony of Science: John Boswell’s amazing collection of videos where he has autotuned the words of scientists and science promoters, creating a lovely and beautiful series of paeans to reality.
John has done something pretty cool: he’s taken the audio from ten different pieces he’s written (plus one bonus track) and put them all in one place to download. These are high-quality audio files, and the neat thing is that in exchange for the download he’s asking for donations to his project, whatever you think is fair. You can download them for free, but he’s hoping to raise funds to create more videos and promote more science.
I really love this project — as do a whole lot of other folks, too — so I expect his experiment in quid pro quo will do well. As you might remember, one of the songs, "Wave of Reason", has a line in it by me, too. I’m still really proud to have been included in this project to bring a love of science ...
(HealthDay News) -- Genetics may play more of a role in heart attacks than in strokes, a new British study suggests.
"A family history of heart attack appears to be a stronger risk factor for heart attack than a family history of stroke is for stroke," said study author Amitava Banerjee, a clinical lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Birmingham in England.
The findings should alter the way doctors predict a patient's risk of heart attack and stroke based on family history, the researchers said. And, "genes and genome-wide association studies may not be critical to the field of stroke research," Banerjee added.
Both stroke and heart attack are leading killers of adults in the United States.
For their report, published in the August issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, Banerjee's team collected data from the Oxford Vascular Study on 906 people who had heart attacks and 1,015 stroke survivors. Read more...
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Been very busy of late.
1) Post from the past: Of pigs, people and porcine polygenism.
2) Weird search query of the week: “kate gosselin before and after.”
3) Comment of the week, in response to Why Melanesians are blonde resolved?:
…Besides melianin production, tyrosinase (and hence Tyrp1) is at a key step of catecholamine synthesis. And anything effecting neurotransmitter synthesis has potential to significantly affect fitness. Pleiotropy is a rule rather than exception.
4) And finally, your weekly fluff fix. I met this “Kitler” in Coeur d’Alene:
What is the different between cyclic and Non cyclic in coating
This balletic work of aerial badassery is performed by Dante Ha, a professional stuntman who you can find in movies like The Dark Knight Rises and X-Men: First Class. Just try to do half of what he does. More »
I have a Lithium ion battery powered screwdriver that requires disconnecting when fully charged. (unlike its predecessor which remained on permanent trickle charge).
My new screwdriver sits nicely in its charger, but I am wondering with the mains power off (when the screwdriver is fully charged). W
Shortly I will be making up my solar panel. I have seen a reference to a diode being included in the panel to prevent reverse current flow. Does anyone know if this is an essential requirement?
For all of you New Yorkers out there: friend of Morbid Anatomy Jonathon Rosen has just alerted me to an amazing sounding class he'll be teaching as part of The School of Visual Art's continuing education series. He has also asked me to give a lecture as part of the course, so maybe I'll see you there!
This class is open and available to all; full details below. Hope very much to see you there!
Not for the Squeamish: The History of Artists and Anatomists
ILC-2196-A
T, Sep 20 - Nov 22
Hours: 06:30PM - 09:15PM
2.50 CEUs; $335.00
Course Status: Open
Location: TBA
Register for this class by clicking here!Temple of the soul or soft machine? The human body is a place where art, science, culture, politics and medicine intersect. This lecture/studio course will focus on artists from ancient to modern who use the body as a point of departure for personal, political, religious or scientific commentary, and will provide an opportunity for students to do likewise. The influence of traditional medical imagery on contemporary art-making and pop culture will be explored through the lens of history, culture and aesthetics. Examples will range from medieval manuscripts and obscure Renaissance medical surrealism through enlightenment era wax-works, Victorian charts and medical devices to Damien Hirst, the virtual human project, Bodyworlds, and beyond. Aesthetic surgery, genetics, biomechanics, medical museums, anatomy in movies, French underground comix and anatomical oddities will also be considered. Your assignment will be to respond to the lectures with several editorial artworks that incorporate medicine or anatomy-be it personal or political, singular or narrative, 2D or 3D, static or moving. Students may use the medium of their choice; projects are not required to be anatomically correct. Prerequisite: A basic drawing, photo-collage or photography course, or equivalent.
Jonathon Rosen
Painter, illustrator, animatorOne-person exhibitions include: La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles; Adam Baumgold Fine Art; Studio Camuffo, Venice
Group exhibitions include: Triennali, Milan; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; P.S. 1, Contemporary Art Center; Kunstwerk, Berlin; Exit Art
Publications include: American Illustration Annual, Print, World Art, LA Weekly, Eye (London)
Books include: Intestinal Fortitude, The Birth of Machine Consciousness
Clients include: The New York Times, Snake Eyes, Time, Rolling Stone, MTV, Blab!, Sony Music, The Ganzfeld, Details. Journal drawings for Sleepy Hollow, Tim Burton, director
Awards and honors include: Gold and silver medals, Society of Publication Designers; artist-in-residence, Harvestworks
Website: http://jrosen.org/
You can find out more--and register!--by clicking here.
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Dear friends, a client has a lightning rod with the down connection I believe wrong connected and confirmed by a friend, see attached picture pls. The rod goes through an aluminum pipe wich makes a large impedance on the rod. Acording to IEEE 124 1991 2.2.6 this should not be done, the thing is I
Yesterday, Macitynet showed off some pictures of the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch practically drowning in the now-famous iPhone 5 cases, pointing toward a thinner and wider design revamp. But MacRumors hired a designer to confirm the design. It's smaller. Significantly so. More »
According to Inside Facebook, Facebook is currently testing a translate button for international users to getting around the language barrier. Facebook will provide a button to translate users' comments on the fly. More »
Once in awhile I notice someone doing a particular task and wonder, “Why are they doing such a thing? Is it for monetary gain, self-fulfillment or something completely different?” These questions kept popping up prior to and following the TBEX ’11 conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) this past summer.
For those of you not familiar with TBEX and their conferences – it is the Travel Blog Exchange and their conferences bring travel-related bloggers, writers and media professionals together – explaining how everyone can ‘up their game’. There is a wealth of information to be gained during the sessions, but it’s not always everyone’s cup of tea. Now that the 2011 conference is over, it is remembered through scribbled notes on a pad, a multitude of ‘highlight’ blog entries written by attendees, some misplaced photographs or lost cellphone, and the odd drink coaster glued in one’s scrapbook. Oops, forgot to mention all the swag too.
Because of TBEX ’11, those simple questions mentioned above kept seeping in about travel bloggers. I wanted answers. But more than that, I wanted to know the motivation that drives the activity of blogging itself. A person will sit down and write volumes about their experiences to basically share with the whole world. There appears to be no profit earned from such an endeavor yet they continue churning out content day after day or week after week. Travellerspoint is a good example of such behavior with ~34,000 blogs onsite currently – few (if any) authors earn money let alone make a living through this outlet.
In order to explore (as it were) this section of the blogosphere, it’s important to reflect on it’s past. There was a time when blogging was a bright and shiny new outlet where people would voice their personal opinions on any topic that caught their attention. In a proverbial blink of an eye, blogs became ‘tailored’ to fit particular demographics – politics, travel, etc. Eventually someone had an epiphany moment. “We can charge our viewers real money to read our stuff!” With charging came marketing and link exchanges and affiliate programs and a plethora of other incoming-earning opportunities (if you’ve figured out how to tap into them). The ever-growing want to make a blog profitable turned into a snowball rolling down the hill with no end in sight. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – it’s simply reality.
So, with all these monetary avenues presenting themselves, why would someone not jump on the bandwagon? Michael Robert Powell (the candy trail…) stated: “Being an extreme global nomad – since 1988, I feel a need to make sense of my vast travel experience; blogging files my memories and brings order to the clutter in my head.” and “I don’t envisage “the candy trail …” being a commercially-viable blog. My crazy travel stories, raw expression and off-beat travels mean that I’m too far removed from the mainstream (however, my travel photography & art site, rather than my blog, is a possibility).” For another take on it Dave (The Longest Way Home) wrote: “I don’t actually consider it blogging. I write my travel journal about my search for a place to live. It started off as just a personal one then people started to read it. And so it developed. I write about my journey, I don’t churn out made for consumer efforts.” Two pretty good reasons considering the work involved in creating a ‘business’ around a blog.
Then come the respondents who never really intended to start a blog/site. They did have aspirations of becoming ‘writers’ but not ‘bloggers’. As fate would have it – as it so often does – these people either fell into it or were guided down the path to a new horizon. Vicki Hatfield (Come With Me…) fell into blogging by posting on travel forums. She said: “I found that sharing something I love with others who love it just as much was incredibly rewarding. That’s when I started the travel blog. I do it for the simple joy of creativity and the incredible sense of satisfaction that comes from having something I create enjoyed by others. Why don’t I try to make money from it? Because it then becomes a job. A duty. An obligation. It is no longer simply a living, breathing creative thing that I do simply because I love it.” Meg Pier (View from the Pier) was led down the path by her husband. Following four cancer scares within two year’s time, Meg quit the corporate world of investment managment and tried her hand at being a travel writer. Success did not come knocking at her door. She explained “My husband, God love him, suggested I create a website, a somewhat laughable endeavor for someone as non-technical as me, yet I was desperate to pour out my pent-up creativity and so was open to the idea.” She continues: “I soon realized I had a forum where I could write the way I wanted to write, and not have to fit into anyone’s formula of what constituted travel writing.” Regardless of how they arrived on the scene, these two women embraced the creativity blogging brought into their lives more than any monetary gains. A creative outlet was of greater importance to them.
Carrying on with that ‘writers’ theme, Greg Wesson (Greg Wesson’s Esoteric Globe) commented: “I spent about 2 years in my 20s trying to write a great novel. It was going to be my opus! The “Great Canadian Novel”, about life as a 20-something software engineer in a world overrun with baby-boomers. Everything I produced sucked.” Okay, not everything, but enough that Greg quit writing altogether – until he began traveling. E-mails to friends/family turned into a blog to be shared around the world. He ended with: “I’m not sure that my blog constitutes great literature, but at least I think it entertains a few and keeps the frustrated writer in me satisfied.”
When trying to generate income from a blog, certain sacrifices to its integrity tend to take place. They may or may not be intentional but they do happen. Some changes are definitely positive while others do not do justice to the author’s work. Because of the integrity aspects, this slightly different twist comes from Mary Anne Oxendale (A Totally Impractical Guide to Living in Shanghai) who is teaching abroad. She reasons: “[But] I don’t feel comfortable with selling. I have no desire to sell anything. I don’t want to change the tone and content of my writing to make a buck – and my tone tends to be too dry, dark and frank to make good ad copy. Like I’ve said before: teaching pays the bills so I can do what I really love without tainting it with the scramble to make money.” As stated earlier, turning a blog/site into a profitable entity is a business – one which requires time, dedication and ‘selling’ yourself to your readers.
Ultimately, there are scores and scores of travel bloggers who have willingly dedicated themselves to the ‘bloggers business plan’ and have seen rewards – large and small. (There wouldn’t be TBEX conferences if they hadn’t.) But, this article was to take a quick glimpse at the other side of the coin, per se. As you have seen, this is a very small group of participants. But, each has given their own individual explanation on why they do not blog for financial compensation. Blogging has become their creative outlet for self-expression and personal satisfaction – nothing more. Well, besides the sharing part with family, friends, followers and subscribers, which is part of the self-satisfaction thing too. It just helps to illustrate that not everything has to come with a price tag. So, in closing, Kris Kalav (The Beerman Chronicles) replied: “Quite honestly, blogging about my travels is a catharsis for me. It allows me to re-live the memories of what I’ve done, where I’ve been and gives my friends and family a chance to be completely bored for 10 minutes.” Sometimes people do things just because they can.
Thank you all for your answers. Once again, it has been a pleasure.
To read all of the participant’s responses in their entirety, please check out the The ‘Art’ of Blogging: A Panel Discussion.
For a synopsis of the TBEX ’11 Conference, please see ‘Taking Your Blog to the Next Level’ written by Kate Kendall of Travellerspoint and The Fetch.
© Gretchen for TravelBlogs, 2011. |
The ‘Art’ of Blogging: A Commentary |
No comment |
Post categories: Articles
Post tags: Creativity, TBEX11, travel blogging
1) Why do you blog about your travels?
Being an extreme global nomad – since 1988, I feel a need to make sense of my vast travel experience; blogging files my memories and brings order to the clutter in head.
Also I’m usually alone in life. I have no-one close; no set base, no social niche nor societal belonging, so I share my expressions – of travel, art, photography, writing, history, philosophy, sexuality & alcohol misadventures – with the vast, open, random void of cyberspace. And encouragingly, I get some nice feedback.
2) Why do you continue to blog without trying to make money from your efforts?
I don’t envisage “the candy trail …” being a commerically-viable blog. My crazy travel stories, raw expression and off-beat travels, mean that I’m too far removed from the mainstream (however, my travel photography & art site, rather than my blog, is a possibility).
Simply, I blog for myself and as updates for friends & family. And, if the public enjoys it too, great.
Why do I blog about my travels?
I don’t actually consider it blogging. I write my travel journal about my search for a place to live. It started off as just a personal one, and then people started to read it. And, so it developed. I write about my journey, I don’t churn out made for consumer efforts.
I also use it as a memoir of my life. Just like why we keep diaries. Without them, we really do forget the little stuff that made our day, week or time spent interesting, or not, as the case may be. Being on the road without a home, nor place to store things, I use my website as a place to hang my photographs to. All in all, The Longest Way Home has turned into my online home.
Why do I continue to blog without making any money from it?
Well, my website does make money, both directly and indirectly. More so from indirect sources. Two-dimensional “blogging” was never my thing. Advertising and text links are how most people think about it. I don’t. And while these things do pay for hosting, servers, photo-storage etc, I don’t consider the fact of owning a blog, profitable.
What I do outside of travel “blogging” generates income. I continue to “blog” because of the first question. Not for anything else. This is my story about my journey.
And, guess what? I have several thousand subscribers who enjoy reading my life’s work, and many imitators who try to copy it in some form. But, the bottom line is, write because YOU have something to say, not because of what you think it will get you or what others expect from you.
<h3Meg Pier
I began writing travel pieces for the Boston Globe about a decade ago, something I did as a fun aside to a full-time job as a PR executive in the financial services industry. When I had four cancer scares in two years (2006-2008), I decided to check out of my pressure-packed career and explore what really interested me–travel writing and photography. After 25 years as a Corporate mouthpiece, I aspired to find my own voice, and see if it resonated with people. I had a simultaneously naive and arrogant attitude that this would be a seamless transition and a lateral move at that and in no time I was sure to be the next Elizabeth Gilbert.
Needless to say, that was not the case. My areas of interest and style of writing did not immediately land me gigs at Nat Geo and the Black Hole pitching process to travel editors began to resemble the unrewarding PR work I had been doing. The five themed photography/quotation books I had self-published on Amazon, while now carried by about two dozen stores in New England, were not snatched up by the many publishers to whom I presented them. Some of the joy began to be sucked out of my carefully-crafted and heartfelt Love Letters to the destinations that had so moved me. I started to question if my “voice” was one anyone wanted to hear.
My husband, God love him, suggested I create a website, a somewhat laughable endeavor for someone as non-technical as me, yet I was desperate to pour out my pent-up creativity and so was open to the idea. The site began with me posting what were essentially pages from my photography/quotation books–a new image each day, captioned by an uplifting quotation. I made these available as a free subscription, mostly to former colleagues, with the intention only of hoping to inspire someone who might feel as lost, disconnected and frightened as I had. This combo continues to be the site’s “bread and butter” and the feature on its main page.
I soon realized I had a forum where I could write the way I wanted to write, and not have to fit into anyone’s formula of what constituted travel writing. I launched a series of new features, ones in which I could focus on the themes that matter to me. The “Compass Rose” column showcases articles about cultural traditions and spiritual practices, liberally sprinkled with quotes from those I meet. The “Peer to Pier” Q & As are in-depth interviews with people who strike a chord with me and have a message I want to share. Through the blog essay on my site, I am able pass along personal Life Lessons in the context of mini travelogues. Via the “Guest Room” column, I can provide a platform (albeit non-paying) for others who love self-expression and the sense of wonder far-away lands can elicit.
*Meg Pier’s comments have been ‘edited’ due to length. Above are her first 4 paragraphs published in context.
1) Why do you blog about your travels?
2) Why do you continue to blog without trying to make money from your efforts?
I never set out to have a travel blog. In my youth, when life was full of infinite possibilities and I was still blissfully unaware that the things we love don’t always translate into things we can make a living at, I had dreams of being a writer. However, real life gave me a choice: do what I loved and scrape by or do something practical and be a financial success. Right or wrong, I chose door #2. Today, I have a very successful career, but I do not find it interesting or personally fulfilling. To make up for that lack of passion in my work life, I dove headfirst into my passions in my personal life. I have an insatiable appetite for travel, a love for photography, and a hunger for the written word. I started with small trip reports on travel forums. I noticed over time that I gathered a “fan club” of sorts, individuals who waited for my next trip and devoured my report. I found that sharing something I love with others who love it just as much was incredibly rewarding. That’s when I started the travel blog. I do it for the simple joy of creativity and the incredible sense of satisfaction that comes from having something I create enjoyed by others. Why don’t I try to make money from it? Because it then becomes a job. A duty. An obligation. It is no longer simply a living, breathing creative thing that I do simply because I love it.
I spent about 2 years in my 20s trying to write a great novel. It was going to be my opus! The “Great Canadian Novel,” about life as a 20-something software engineer in a world overrun with baby-boomers. Everything I produced sucked. There were a few good bits here and there, but mostly it was populated with flat, two-dimensional characters in dull situations. So I gave up on writing my novel, and stopped writing.
When I started travelling, I started to write down some stuff and sending via email to friends and family. It made me very happy, and I found that I really enjoyed writing. I found that writing stuff – any stuff really – kept me more emotionally grounded and happy. I was a better person when I was writing than when I wasn’t.
So instead of the great Canadian software-engineer-based novel (which, frankly, Douglas Coupland had beaten me to writing – even back in my 20s when I was writing it originally), I decided to write stupid and funny little quips from my travels and publish them to the world. I’m not sure that my blog constitutes great literature, but at least I think it entertains a few and keeps the frustrated writer in me satisfied.
A Totally Impractical Guide to Living in Shanghai
I blog about my travels because I love to travel, because I’m a compulsive diarist and because I like the sense of community that can be built up through sharing your words with others who have similar passions. Everytime I pay my annual hosting fees I pause for a moment and think maybe I ought to try to bring in some money somehow, if only to break even. I was an Amazon affiliate for about a week at one point and made nothing. I have one affiliate ad up for MatadorU (which has yet to bring in even a penny since March because I barely acknowledge it let alone promote it) because I am a graduate of their writing program and respect what they do. But I don’t feel comfortable with selling. I have no desire to sell anything. I don’t want to change the tone and content of my writing to make a buck – and my tone tends to be too dry, dark and frank to make good ad copy. Like I’ve said before: teaching pays the bills so I can do what I really love without tainting it with the scramble to make money.
Quite honestly, blogging about my travels is a catharsis for me. It allows me to re-live the memories of what I’ve done, where I’ve been and gives my friends and family a chance to be completely bored for 10 minutes. Well, some like my writing.
I really don’t care about making money from my writing. If that were my goal, I would try to write a book, or submit my blogs to editors of magazines or even publishing houses. My writing is completely for the enjoyment of it.
To read the article about blogging without monetary gain, please check out the The ‘Art’ of Blogging: A Commentary.
For a synopsis of the TBEX ’11 Conference, please see ‘Taking Your Blog to the Next Level’ written by Kate Kendall of Travellerspoint and The Fetch.
Thank you all for your participation. Much appreciated.
© Gretchen for TravelBlogs, 2011. |
The ‘Art’ of Blogging: A Panel Discussion |
No comment |
Post categories: Panel Discussions
Post tags: Creativity, travel blogging
It's one thing to have some sort of "noble purpose" when you grab nudie pics from a person's computer. Extorting people for them and making money off their identities is quite another. That's what 32-year-old Luis Mijangos did, and it's completely vile. More »
Juan Carlos Murillo is a commercial airline pilot who suffered spinal cord injuries in 4 separate areas of his spinal cord. Doctors told him that his injury was "complete" and that he would never walk again. After completing four rounds of stem cell treatments at the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama, Juan Carlos is walking again, driving a car and has recently passed his commercial airline pilot physical examination
Original post:
Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury - Injured Airline Pilot Flies Again
