"Bliss it was in that atrocity to be alive, but to be on the internet was very heaven."

"I just got a form-letter blog pitch from a PR agency congratulating me on my “bludgeoning career“.
I’m going to assume they meant “burgeoning”.  I’m also going to assume they sent this form letter out to hundreds of other bloggers.  Which is kind of hysterical....
My reply:  That’s very kind of you, but honestly I haven’t bludgeoned anyone publicly in years.  And I was certainly never so adept at it that I would have considered it “a career”.  I do appreciate the recognition though.
Surprisingly, there has been no response from the PR agency."

A sad loss.  I kept meaning to post more about her stuff.

Wow, a student took my advice!

See if this is already installed on the host? latex2html grows irksome.

"I'm dreaming of a new blog called Studies Do Not Show with Rosenberg, Mark Liberman, Andrew Gelman, and Cosma Shalizi as founding contributors..." I'm flattered, but also seriously tempted.

But, but, but, Pandora was never _in_ the box!  ETA: Andy was making a joke which went over my head.

To evaluate. Not sure it'll work on cscs.umich.edu.

I'm there.

The end of an era.

Mark Penn, flaming innumerate.

Ans.: No, unless you by 'ruining' you mean "making obvious to non-economists that the debate exists".

"Do people get naked?

Ywis, sum tyme ther ys nakedness and bodye-payntynge, and yet it ledeth nat to the synne of lecherie for the bodye payntynge is moostly pictorial narratifs of the punishementes of purgatorie (and yit sum still falle into errour and sinnes of the flesshe, the which is lamentable but pardonable).

Where can I buy a Pardon?

Pardones are soold at several posiciouns around the feeld. Yf ye aren anticipatinge a particularlie elaborate synne, ye must consult the central pardon offyce."

Yes. (Also, a good description of why "bloggers rambling over the phone" is not worth watching. [Sorry, HF.])

"people think it takes years of study at an Ivy, and then more years at a J-school, to learn how to use a phone and structure a story. I learned the basics of journalism during a three month internship, at an alt-weekly... when I was 19"

I think Steve misses a possible (and valuable) role for professional journalists: as interface specialists between various specialized sub-communities and the broader public; ones, moreover, who are not agents of their subjects (unlike PR flacks).