Tuesday
(1)Far from replacing newspapers and magazines, the best blogs - and the best are very clever - have become guides to them, pointing to unusual sources and commenting on familiar ones. They have become new mediators for the informed public. Although the creators of blogs think of themselves as radical democrats, they are a new Tocquevillean elite. Much of the web has moved in this direction because the wilder, bigger, and more chaotic it becomes, the more people will need help navigating it
- Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom
Hello Perry
I would not disagree with any of that except for the last part. I could be totally wrong in this interpretation but I think that the Internet is becoming more tame, less chaotic and in an odd sense, smaller.
On a completely unrelated point. Were you on bus carrying a duvet on the Kings road last Sunday?
Eamon Brennan
Posted by Eamon Brennan at February 17, 2004 08:09 PM
That was indeed me, encumbered with duvet!
Posted by Perry de Havilland at February 17, 2004 08:29 PM
Ah well
I suppose the price of fame is that you would end up getting stalked one day.
:)
Eamon
Posted by Eamon Brennan at February 17, 2004 08:47 PM
Wow, I wish I could stalk a real Samizdatian one day...
Posted by Brock at February 17, 2004 09:12 PM
Curiously, judging by the British press, blogs may well be virtually unknown to all but Guardian readers. Here are the stats:
Newspaper / periodical No of articles
containing the
word 'blog(s)'
The Guardian 265
The Times 16
The Telegraph 12
The Independent 11
Spectator 2 (both by Steyn)
I'd always thought that blogs were dominated by freedom-loving types like myself, duvet-fetishist PdH and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. And yet 'The Guardian' beats 'The Telegraph' by over 20 to 1 on the frequency count.
Any ideas as to why 'The Guardian' rules in blogistan?
Posted by Charles Copeland at February 17, 2004 09:19 PM
Brock: We are not Samizdatians, we are Samizdatistas.
Charles: certainly the Grauniad has embraced blogs far more that any other UK paper... which makes it amuzing how they managed to ignore the most popular British pundit blog for so long 
Posted by Perry de Havilland at February 17, 2004 09:36 PM
The world (a yank) wants to know why someone would carry a "duvet" around. Seems to be some sort of a "quilt."
Just a thought I had whilst wondering if the next edition of the book will be updated RE the marvels of technology, specifically the Internet, and its effects on moving the process along a bit faster so that a country can validate as eligible for democracy.....I have such strange thoughts late in the afternoon whilst chasing the latest irrelevant political rumors in this part of the world....
Posted by Steve at February 17, 2004 10:32 PM
Steve: The world (a yank) wants to know why someone would carry a "duvet" around. Seems to be some sort of a "quilt."
At the risk of stating the obvious, because I had just purchased it.
Posted by Perry de Havilland at February 17, 2004 10:40 PM
A 'duvet' is just a quaint Britishism for what is properly known as a 'doona'.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at February 18, 2004 03:16 AM
Not certain what the intent of Perry's comment is but the cultural divide seems to be widening on the matter of "duvets."
What's a "doona?" A search of 28 Internet dictionaries, The King James Bible, and assorted collections of Fables via Sherlock and Watson (seriously; Mac utilities) yielded nada. Google was more generous suggesting it's a bedding duvet (which brings us full circle) decribed as a natural organic alpaca wool comforter.
Now we're getting somewhere. A "comforter" is a quilt or blanket (of sorts) on this side of the pond that one huddles beneath in bed when the ambient temperature is chilly. So, may the world assume that Brits, especially rich and famous authors, wander about the chilly countryside wrapped in blankets instead of top coats or over coats to keep away the chill? ;)
PS I ordered the book from Amazon but they failed to give me the Samizdata discount. This clearly isn't my day.
(...wanders off to his minimum wage janitorial job at the Cato Institute...I hope they have the target range open this evening so I can relieve some of this pent up frustration...)
Posted by Steve at February 18, 2004 04:54 AM
Don't just read the quote, read the whole book. I've just finished it and it was excellent.
Posted by Jonathan L at February 18, 2004 07:08 AM
"doona" is an Australianism I think. Certainly it is the standard word in Australia - I am just not sure if it is used anywhere else.
Posted by Michael Jennings at February 18, 2004 08:48 AM
I thought a comforter was what Linus carried around with him (van Pelt, not Pauling).
Never heard of a doona.
Unless it's slang for "downie" which I think might be Scottish for "duvet" - itself regarded as a poncy English word up here.
Confused? I am.
Posted by Andrew Duffin at February 18, 2004 12:17 PM
Here in the States, what Linus of Peanuts carried around is called a blanket, or more specifically a security blanket.
A comforter is something stuffed (usually with feathers).
Posted by Ted Schuerzinger at February 18, 2004 02:00 PM
"Wow, I wish I could stalk a real Samizdatian one day... "
I think I saw Brian Micklethwait's brother cycling round a roundabout in Oxford once.
Posted by anon at February 18, 2004 03:35 PM
