We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Good news… bad news We got a mention in The Times (link may not work if you are outside the UK) today in an article about blogging by Michael Gove. Excellent.
And they go our URL completely wrong. Bugger.
I called up The Times this morning and asked them to at least correct the URL for the on-line edition. And did they? Nope. It seems the wheels grind extremely slowly at The Times.
Oh, and Michael… I ready don’t think our antipathy to statist solutions to most things makes us ‘right wing’ as social conservatives we ain’t.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Is it possible that The Times of London is trying its level best to emulate that upstart imitator The New York Times in error rate ?? That’s a hell of a “record” to chase!!
Just a fancy:
Fraudians would explain someone’s perpetual tardiness as a subconcious act of control over one’s life. They would also use this explanation to understand someone’s repeated “mistakes” or the failure to correct them. It’s sort of the act of sabotage without having to really take responsibility for your actions. Could a newspaper and its writers be that devious or unawares? You tell me…just a thought…
OK birds – if you want to fly you know the drill:
left wing then right wing then left wing then right wing…
Now a new idea from Perry: no more “left wing” – no more “right wing”. Let’s try both wings together! Yes! Now isn’t that better?
Ideas can rise to greater heights if you don’t just think of left or right wings in isolation but consider all the processes together. :0)
Never assume a conspiracy when indolent incompetence is an adequate explanation.
I called them up, explained what the correct URL should be and was told they would take care of it. I assume the staff person I spoke to did not bother to do what they said they would, so presumably they are not paid enough to actually do their jobs. Oh well.
Print journos seem to have an almost instictive reaction to URLs and thus seem to always bugger them up. Subconciously, they don’t want to admit that internet really matters methinks. Another classic thing is to just forget the URL altogether.
You want an accurate description of the political spectrum? Look no further.
This is a cyber-typo verging on the deranged. And did you notice no mention of Glenn Reynolds? That’s like writing about the War without mentioning Churchill.
And right-wing? Norman Tebbit is right wing. Jean-Marie le Pen is right wing. Is political discourse in Britain so fubar that libertarianism is lazily filed away under ‘right-wing’ too? Methinks Samizdata has a mountain to climb, if even the allegedly educated intellectual elite make retarded mistakes like this.
I don’t consider myself right wing either, but being one of “these guys” in the sentence “If you think I am right wing, then you should see these guys” makes me feel empowered somehow. It makes me want to go and let out a long James Bond villain syle laugh, or something. Of course, it’s not as good as being a member of the neoconservative conspiracy, but I suspect this is something that will always elude me.
Steven,
Did you say a mountain? More like the flaming Himalayas, mate.
Register the domain; redirect the traffic to a porn site; make them pay!
Some people, you know, when they discover that their site is read by the staff of influential national newspapers feel… oh, what was that word? Hippy? Hoppy? Oh yes, happy.
Natalie, happy? Not really. Mainly annoyed at them missing the point. The article was really poor both in terms of the angle on the subject, as well as the method of research. We can always hope, they get it right next time…
Gabriel: Quite. The journalist seemed to have no clues whatsoever about blogging, unfortunately. One would think that there must be someone in the Times somewhere who did, but the editors failed to find that person.