Annie Leibovitz May Lose Copyright to Photos

New York magazine has an interesting story about how photographer Annie Leibovitz has made such a disaster of her finances that she may lose her homes and the copyright to all her work. She's made millions while accumulating millions more in debt. Here's one of the craziest anecdotes about her profligate spending:

When [her daughter] Sarah started eating solid food, a rigorous journaling policy was instituted, in which every bite and bowel movement was to be committed to an unlined black notebook purchased from the Swedish stationer Ordning & Reda. Kellum regularly ordered replacement books from Stockholm so that the journaling could easily continue from one book to another. Once, when an order got lost in customs, Leibovitz insisted on having two notebooks sent from Stockholm via a special type of courier service called "quicking." It was essentially like buying a seat for a parcel on the next plane. The shipping cost alone came to $800.

The cheapest black notebook I could find on Ordning & Reda's web site sells for around $23 dollars (169 Swedish kronar).

Scott Rosenberg's 'Say Everything' Covers Blogs and 9/11

I'm currently reading Scott Rosenberg's Say Everything, his new history of blogging that digs deeply into the origins of the medium and why it has become so successful. Rosenberg, a founder of Salon.Com and an online acquaintance of mine for many years, has written a fascinating book that begins with chapters on early web diarists and bloggers such as Justin Hall, Jorn Barger and Joshua Marshall.

Say Everything by Scott RosenbergThe introduction to Rosenberg's book centers on how bloggers covered the 9/11 attacks, an important moment in the early history of the medium. He mentions that one of the first blogs to break the news was MetaFilter:

At 8:58 a.m., Metafilter, a popular group blog, posted a link to a one-line news bulletin on the front page of the CNN web site, but CNN did not yet have a full story posted.

I was reading MetaFilter when TV networks reported that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, so I made one of three front-page posts that appeared on MetaFilter within two minutes of AP's first news alert. In my haste, I posted that a plane had struck the World Trade Center in Chicago. MetaFilter publisher Matt Haughey removed my post quickly and saved me from considerable shame, but you can still see a comment that documents my egregious mistake: "Just as an FYI, it's New York City, not Chicago."

So let the history books show that I was there for a pivotal moment in the history of blogging -- spreading false information.

On the next page, Rosenberg mentions a story New York Times reporter Amy Harmon wrote that day about how people were using the web during the attacks. Harmon quoted me about a mailing list I started that morning:

"This unfathomable tragedy reminds me of the original reason the Internet was invented in 1969 -- to serve as a decentralized network that couldn't be brought down by a military attack," said Rogers Cadenhead, who said he set up the WTCattack list because most of the Web sites reporting news had ground to a halt. "Amateur news reporters on weblogs are functioning as their own decentralized media today, and it's one of the only heartening things about this stomach-turning day."

The mailing list is still archived on Yahoo, but I've never gone back and reread the early messages. The attacks brought a bunch of new bloggers into the medium who covered terrorism and Islamic extremism and favored an aggressive pre-emptive U.S. military response to the attacks. They soon were dubbed warbloggers, and among the most prominent were Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and Andrew Sullivan.

I'm Thinking About Sex at This Very Moment

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, in her satin tights fighting for your rightsWe're having a discussion on the Drudge Retort about how often men and women think about sex. Member2586 commented that "Rudov is right, women are as interested or even more interested, in sex as men are."

He's quoting Marc Rudov, a self-described "antifeminist" who writes often about how men are getting the short end of the stick on issues like child support, alimony and relationships. Rudov's written a book with the full-of-win title Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables. The book offers advice on "how to know in advance she'll be safe for you, compatible with you, and have real orgasms -- so you don't waste your time." I'd like to buy a copy to leave at someone's house in a conspicuous place right before he hosts a big gathering.

I'm surprised that some Retort users disagree with the idea that men think about sex significantly more often than women. A 2004 survey found that 43 percent of men think about sex several times a day compared to 13 percent of women. Seventy percent of men think about it at least once a day, compared to 34 percent of women.

Men also have more sex partners. A 2007 survey found that 29 percent of American men reported 15 or more sexual partners in a lifetime, compared to 9 percent of women.

Perhaps I'm a sad freak who's been using the Internet too long, but I don't think I've gone a day without thinking about sex since the first time I saw Lynda Carter in her satin tights fighting for your rights.

Texan's Ad: 'You Will Never Silence Me'

While stopping in Liberty City, Texas, recently to eat at the binding arbitration Whataburger restaurant, I found an interesting display ad in the Longview News-Journal. The ad, which was almost a half-page in size, read as follows:

Amos Snow, III
Longview, TX 75605

Apparently, I'm an enemy of the State.

I'm a Navy veteran, who for 7 years served my country in the forgotten conflicts of the '80s. I'm a small business owner who provides jobs within the community and provides finished goods to other manufacturers or end-users. I'm a Texan who has pride in our fiscally conservative state and local leadership. I'm an American who chooses to exercise the rights guaranteed in our most sacred documents, The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

The office of the President of the United States and the Congressional leadership, has determined that if my views are contrary to their agenda, I'm to be "ratted out" by those who know me or hear of my opinion or views concerning their policy agenda.

I'm paraphrasing, but as John Hancock reportedly said when signing the Declaration of Independence: let me sign in a manner that the King can surely read without his spectacles:

My name is Amos Auston Snow, III and I do not agree with the irresponsible spending policies of the President or Congress. And as an American, I will oppose their attempt to bring fiscal ruin to our great nation.

Call me an "enemy" and rat me out if it suits you; but you will never silence me.

Snow's fear of being ratted out appears to be related to the White House request for people to forward chain emails containing false claims about health care insurance reform. Texas Sen. John Cronyn (R.) characterized the request as "asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech."

The White House Reality Check web site was launched to debunk some of the wild claims being made about the proposed legislation.

Assuming that Snow is a Republican, I'd be curious to find out if he bought any newspaper ads during the eight years in which President Bush's massive spending turned a $128 billion surplus into a $490 billion deficit.

Telemanjaro: The World's Largest HDTV

I attended Sunday's match between Chelsea FC and Club America at the new Cowboys Stadium, the $1.15 billion facility that opened a few weeks ago in Arlington. I expected the stadium to be huge, but Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has managed to construct a facility that is enormous even by the overcompensating standards of big-boot, tiny-johnson Texas excess.

Cowboys Stadium has the largest roof in the world that isn't supported by columns. Two arches twice as wide as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis support the roof, which is tall enough to hold the Statue of Liberty inside. The facility also has the world's largest retractable roof and the largest movable glass doors at each end zone. I don't know why these doors are needed, unless the facility is hoping to schedule meetings of the Transformers. From the outside, the stadium looks like a cross between the Legion of Doom headquarters and a Decepticon. I'm concerned that the first time the Dallas Cowboys lose a big game, the stadium will rise up in anger and reduce the Texas Rangers' ballpark next door to rubble.

During the match a massive thunderstorm raged outside, with lightning striking so close that fans gasped. Under the closed roof, you couldn't even tell the storm was bad. The stadium is larger than nature.

Inside, the view is great even from the upper deck cheap seats, which is where I sat, and the whole place is air conditioned. As the crowd of 57,000 filled out -- the stadium holds 82,000 -- blasts of cool air on my back kept the place comfortable. The carbon footprint can't be pretty. I'm guessing that every day this facility operates, the Earth's lifespan is shortened by a day. This is a fair trade.

The most amazing feature of the stadium is the world's largest HDTV, which hangs from the ceiling and faces both sidelines. Smaller side TVs hang off the sides.

The TV deserves its own name, so I've been calling it Telemanjaro.

Telemanjaro is 160 feet wide, 72 feet tall and lit by 300 million bulbs. The picture quality is flawless. From the upper deck, Telemanjaro occupies up so much of the view that you cannot see one-fourth of the fans in the stadium. It's tough to find a picture that conveys the enormity, but here's one by Erik Grande.

Telemanjaro, the world's largest HDTV, at Cowboys stadium, photo by Erik Grande

The field is fully visible, but it competes for your attention with Telemanjaro. The entire soccer match was broadcast on the TV as it happened. Occasionally, I glanced up to get a better view of play. Several minutes passed as I gazed in slack-jawed awe, forgetting to look back down at the field

Although this sounds like a knock against Telemanjaro, it's actually the best experience I've had watching a game from the uppermost deck of a large stadium. You don't miss anything from the nosebleeds. The gigantic screen sees all and knows all. Speaking of which, one of the Club America players desperately needs to exfoliate.

I attended the game with four other people, none of whom can afford Cowboys tickets in this economy. Making the impulsive decision to relocate from Florida to Dallas, I tried to commit us all to buying season tickets before we left the event and breaking the news to our respective spouses after we got home. (Private note to Chad, Eric, Greg and Mom: Your priorities are seriously out of whack.)

As a child of a generation raised on television, I cannot help but regard Telemanjaro as the pinnacle of human achievement. I felt a strong compulsion to worship Telemanjaro and to buy the products it advertised to stay in its favor.

Anyone who visits Dallas should make a pilgrimage to see Telemanjaro, no matter how many organs you must sell to afford Jerry's ticket prices. Fun fact: As much as two-thirds of your liver can grow back if removed.

The TV hangs above the players and weighs 660 tons, which initially made me fear that an accident might crush more than a dozen pampered millionaires to a fine paste.

But I realized quickly that Telemanjaro loves us and would not harm us, as long as we keep watching.

Daily Kos Shoots Down Anti-Gun Control Diary

I skim through 50-100 stories a day published on Daily Kos as I consider items for Watching the Watchers. To minimize bandwidth use, a Java application that I wrote saves a cached copy of each story on my server. Because of this cache, I end up seeing stories that were deleted from the site.

Photo of handgun by Robert Nelson, licensed under Creative CommonsI'd heard for years that a lot of user-submitted stories are deleted from Daily Kos because of the viewpoints they espouse. So far, I'm not finding that to be the case. I've seen around 30 stories that were deleted. With one exception, they were all duplicates of another story, stories removed by the author, or test posts and other junk.

The only exception was a story that ran Saturday, titled Why Do You Want My Gun?. The story, which I've reprinted on Watching the Watchers, is a first-person account by a gun-control advocate who got robbed:

Back in 1993, I was 21 years old and worked as a clerk in a 7-11 convenience store. One evening, while working the swing shift, I was robbed at gunpoint. ...

If you've ever been unlucky enough to be held at gunpoint by a stranger, you'll understand the enormous amount of fear that you experience. I wasn't able to return to work because I was too scared they would come back. Up until that point, I had been a solid supporter of gun control. However, things changed overnight. I wasn't able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time because I was having nightmares about it. I would wake up feeling completely panicked and scared. I have never felt that way in my life prior to this incident.

The story received 220 comments on Daily Kos before it was deleted with the following tags, which I think were assigned by site admins: "troll diary, donut depot, gay hating gun nut diarist, please distribute donuts evenly across all faceless comments, 3 donuts per comment only please." The comments can't be displayed, but you can see some of them on the user page for Faceless, the author of the piece. (Kos users call some comments donuts to signify they are worth zero in the site's recommendation system.)

Though I disagree with the conclusions drawn by the author of the story, I think it was a mistake for a site admin to remove it. There are a variety of viewpoints on gun laws and the Second Amendment within the Democratic Party. It's wrong to dismiss the author as a troll spreading anti-gun control propaganda simply because the person relates the kind of experience that turns some people into an opponent of gun control.

Credit: The photo of the handgun was taken by Robert Nelson and is available under a Creative Commons license.

Remembering the RSS Wars

I was clearing out old saved web pages when I found an amusing weblog post from the syndication wars. Here's Robert Sayre back in 2006:

RSS iconI just left a response on Mihai Parparita's blog, hitting back at Mark Pilgrim, after he decided say that I am full of ---- about everything. Well, that's not very nice, but I've certainly said and written some not-very-nice things myself. It's refreshing to hear it out in the open, instead of backchannel conversations.

I'm so tired of all this crap, and I'm as guilty as anyone. Where do the problems come from? Are the people involved intrinsically bad? I don't think so, at least I hope I'm not intrinsically bad, and I don't think anyone else is either. In fact, most of the usual suspects are really productive people. Dare Obasanjo, Sam Ruby, Mark Pilgrim, Dave Winer, Tim Bray, Joe Gregorio, Rogers Cadenhead, etc, etc. These are all people that tend to, in other areas, get ---- done without much controversy, but can turn into the most obstinate jerks on a syndication mailling list. You wouldn't believe the ---- people say behind each other's back, either. It's much worse than what you encounter on the unpleasant mailing lists.

Why is it that they are drawn to this cesspool we're calling a conversation? I think it's a combination of two things: one is that the subject is mostly semantics. This allows for lots of conversation, and not much technical testing. In most open source projects, there are usually some reasonable metrics to test a proposed solution. The second problem is that software companies are guilty of first-order abuse of the term "community." There is no community.

Hacking on Wordpress last Thursday, I was surprised at how much fun I was having. I haven't had fun working on anything remotely related to syndication in a long time, other than working on Mozilla. You know, that's what I'm going to do from now on. Have fun.

When I rediscovered this post, I was excited to make Sayre's list of jerks, since I didn't figure I would rate a mention back then. All my efforts were not in vain.

Sayre went on to work for Mozilla and is still there today, so I guess it really was more fun than fighting over RSS like the Sharks and Jets. I think that after 10 years, the continuously burning RSS flamewar has finally burned itself out. These days, if you want to design a web format with people who are full of ---- about everything and could possibly be intrinsically bad, the place to be is HTML 5.