*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
This message was sent via Eszter's List. Please feel free to forward
to others, but please include this introduction. For more information
about Eszter's List, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see
http://www.eszter.com/elist
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

In this issue: intertwining E-LIST & E-BLOG
Web site recommendations: IT/politics/misc

Some people read both E-LIST and E-BLOG, some people read just the list,
others just the blog (and billions out there read neither.. go figure).
Although there's a reason for maintaining them separately, I'm going to
merge some of the content. With this issue I'll start posting the entire
contents of a blog entry at the end of the list, just to give E-LIST
readers an idea of what the blog is about.

There's lots of good stuff out there, increasingly I find sites via blogs.
See my thoughts on this on my blog, of course:)
The New Year is finally here, blog on
http://www.esztersblog.com/archives/00000159.html

Please keep sending me stuff and thanks to those who do!

Association of Internet Researchers 4th annual conference CFP
http://aoir.org/2003/

Dust or Magic Conference: Creative Work and Workmanship in Cyberia
http://publishing.brookes.ac.uk/emedia/dustormagic/index.html

Teen Cleared in Landmark DVD Case
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/01/07/dvd.johansen/index.html

Professors Vie With Web for Class's Attention
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/technology/02WIRE.html
(as always, the NYTimes requires free registration)

Trying to map blog networks
http://radio.weblogs.com/0114726/2003/01/02.html#a176

Google Loves Blogs
http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/googleblogs.htm
&
an example of this (much of my blog traffic is via Google as well..
and sometimes I'm amazed at how quickly my entries get indexed)
http://www.esztersblog.com/archives/00000160.html

Lots of interesting material for librarians and other "information
junkies"
http://marylaine.com

Web site/ISP to be shut down due to law suit (another DMCA victim)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57011,00.html

Troubles among Amazon's reviewer community
http://www.dancingbadger.com/amareview.htm

Is the Computer Desktop an Antique?
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2075219

Eight e-mail mistakes that make you look bad - a good recap
http://www.bcentral.com/articles/komando/115.asp?cobrand=msn&LID=3800

Spiritual Connection on the Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/28/national/28RELI.html
(this comment is a bit suspect though: "who has been studying religious
Web sites for more than a decade" .. since 1991? hmmm...)

"webloggers [..] serving as an early warning system for traditional
journalists"
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56978,00.html

An Online Course Gets Students Thinking About Drinking
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/parents/conversation/articles/25ALCO.html

Divided We Stand??? - on today's political book networks
http://www.orgnet.com/leftright.html
&
an earlier piece on this: The Social Life of Books
http://www.orgnet.com/booknet.html

A New Antisemitic Myth in the Middle East Media: The September 11 Attacks
Were Perpetrated by the Jews
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SR00802

Scientists Develop Remote-Controlled Rats
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/rats020501.html

Gay Focus at Holocaust Museum
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/04/arts/design/04HOLO.html

Joe Chemo: A Camel Who Wishes He Had Never Smoked - great little
anti-smoking site, especially geared toward kids
http://www.joechemo.org

The rise of "super-size" at American fast food restaurants
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46261-2002Dec27

Research about merit-based financial aid (especially Georgia's HOPE
Scholarship)
http://www.terry.uga.edu/hope/home.html

Postdoc in demography (bottom of page)
http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/anthro/news-events.html

Images of pre-prohibition era products that used cocaine
http://wings.buffalo.edu/aru/preprohibition.htm

Need the official US time?
http://time.gov

Facts behind topics that come up in some of our favorite TV shows
http://www.footnote.tv

Managing supermarket queues :)
http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?030113ta_talk_parker

Today's quote:
"I always say ... keep a diary, and someday it will keep you." -- Mae West

Recently on Eszter's Blog:
Bloggies 2003
Google does seem to love blogs
The New Year is finally here, blog on
Mp3 player recommendations?
Continental DiViDes
Memories
Movie: Chicago
Welcome to 2003
See them here: http://www.esztersblog.com

A recent blog entry: The thinking behind movie ratings (12/29/02)
See http://www.esztersblog.com/archives/00000151.html for underlying links
or to comment

I saw Catch Me If You Can last night upon the recommendation of a friend
of mine, but I'm not here to tell you about that movie. I enjoyed it, it
was entertaining, but the most long lasting effect from that movie-going
experience comes from some of the previews.

You've all seen it before: "This preview has been approved for all
audiences". I saw a preview for a movie that is all about featuring in the
most gruesome and practically more-real-than-life-itself manner accidents
that can happen to us on a daily basis. I had to wonder about not only
what sicko would make such a movie but what deranged mind would approve it
for all audiences?! (I will spare you the details because I don't want to
inflict on you the kind of graphical description that I was involunteerly
subjected to last night.)

So this started me thinking about movie ratings and how much they tell us
about the values of the society in which they are implemented. Growing up
in Europe, I was used to seeing shows on TV with fairly elaborate physical
intimacy scenes [I have to avoid the s word here to make sure my blog
doesn't get censored by too many]. So it's been a shocker how prude
certain regulations are in the US. But perhaps it's even more of a shocker
that in grave contrast, violence of all sorts is fully acceptable. How
else could some of those previews possibly be "approved for all
audiences"?

Catch Me If You Can has a rating of PG13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned -
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). It took me a
while to figure out why it did not get a G (General Audiences - all ages
admitted) rating in light of the G-rated previews we saw. The movie barely
has any physical intimacy scenes and there are certainly no images of
people without clothes on [I'm avoiding the n word here as well]. Then I
realized the likely culprit: the f word is spoken twice! That must be it.
Hearing the f word will corrupt our youth much more than seeing the most
lurid horrible violent scenes. How could I miss that?!

You have to wonder what kind of values are being advocated when people
losing body parts and being killed in the most ghastly ways is completely
acceptable for general audiences but seeing two people express love and
affection for each other is a grave sin from which we must protect the
next generation. Only one question remains, I guess: what is going to
protect me from the kind of generation that grows up on such values?

(cc) Eszter Hargittai
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0