a thaumaturgical compendium

The Declare Yourself votor registration PSAs are powerful, but is it only me or can the fetishization of apathy be read by some of the target audience in a resistant way?

Of these, I prefer the most subtle (pictured above). It’s not that the other messages are not masterfully put together, only that I find them too obvious to be compelling.

I do recognize the value in “Rocking the Vote,” but I would be less ambivalent about such efforts if they clarified the reason such votes matter. The problem is not voter registration, the problem is that many people (especially the youth) find nothing in presidential campaigns that they can really get behind. That’s not surprising, both candidates for the presidency remain yet again moderate conservatives. I have to fight on my own not to be apathetic about that.

Yet Another Blogging Survey: Prospecting the Blogosphere. At some point, we will hit respondent fatigue. Given that, I wish that these surveys were getting at a narrower, theory-driven focus. The last thing we need is more demographic data, and more “why do you blog” questions. (Unless, of course, that is the actual point of the survey, in which case it can delve into that a bit more deeply.) I get the feeling that this is one of the “let’s ask a bunch of questions, do a regression, and see what sticks” sorts of instruments.

But, it is out of my alma mater, so you should go take the survey.

Glancing at my server logs for the last month, I notice that my traffic more than doubled during the month of June. “Cool,” I think, “my amazingly incisive posts must be drawing in an ever-widening audience.” Then, very quickly, the truth becomes clear. Most of the growth is due to robots hitting my wiki, in order to be listed on the “referrers” page[1].

For the uninitiated, the reason most spammers leave comments and trackbacks on blogs, and now wikis, is not because they expect your visitors to all of the sudden have a hankering for Cialis that they never realized they needed, and click on the link. Largely, it is an attempt to increase the number of links going to their site, and thereby increase their ranking on Google. It is a systemic problem, and one that demands a systemic solution.

In my case, I turned off my referrals on the wiki. Traffic has already died down somewhat, and no doubt will continue to do so. I could have created a blacklist system—a filter that did not allow certain addresses or certain words in the URL —and this has proven to be relatively effective for many blogging systems. However, this is a local solution to a global problem. It seems to me that a more global solution might be possible: anti-spam googlebombing.

Right now, if you spam a lot of blogs, you are likely to be added to a blacklist. This list is then distributed, and many weblogs can block your messages. While this is a very workable local solution, since there will always be a substantial number of weblogs and wikis that are behind the curve in terms of protection against the black arts, the spammers will always profit from their techniques.

Some might suggest that Google should allow blacklisting of those who use these techniques to manipulate their ranking. But if I were Google, I would avoid this like the plague. While there are certainly blatant violators, the line between spammer and not is often an ambiguous one, and sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease.

But there is something we could, as a community, decide to do about this, rather than trying to ignore the spammers and hope that they will go away. We could make the blacklist more active, by creating a googlebombing page for those who manage to make the blacklist. Each of the items on the list would be linked to a chosen “safe site” rather than their original hyperlinks. Then every person who searched for animal porn (and anyone out there will tell you from their logs that people are actively seeking this) would be turned instead to this designated site or set of sites. If even a thousandth of the blogs out there uploaded a single webpage that included these false links, it would serve as a serious slap to those who spam.

fn1. Actually, that’s about half the hits. The other half are from US military proxies that are blocking soldiers’ access to the real porn sites while leaving me relatively high up on Google for porn-related terms.

I’ve given up all pretenses of this being a real blog. It’s all about the quiz. Here’s an extraordinarily incisive example: 20 questions to a better personality (from Kara, as usual). Me:

You are a WRCL—Wacky Rational Constructive Leader. This makes you a golden god. People gravitate to you, and you make them feel good. You are smart, charismatic, and interesting. You may be too sensitive to others reactions, especially criticism. Your self-opinion and mood depends greatly on those around you.

You think fast and have a smart mouth, is a hoot to your friends and razorwire to your enemies. You hold a grudge like a brass ring. You crackle.

Although you have a leader’s personality, you often choose not to lead, as leaders stray too far from their audience. You probably weren’t very popular in high school—the joke’s on them!

You may be a rock star.

And gosh darnit, people like me.

Blacklily8 writes that books and articles written by professors at state institutions should be barred from copyright protection:

This whole affair is really no different than state highway workers deciding to sell traffic cones on eBay. No one would have a problem calling that theft, yet we tend to side-step the issue when it arises in academic contexts.

Similar exasperation at professors profiting from textbook sales is seen in a recent thread on Slashdot.

Some part of me really wants to be sympathetic to this position. I hate that textbook publishing remains one of the most (if not the most) profitable publishing sectors, at the expense of students who have little choice in the matter. I am equally disdainful of large journal publishers who do not pay the authors for their work (in fact, some charge the authors) and then profit from the libraries who must buy subscriptions. I agree that this is a problem.

There are professors who actually do make a tidy sum of money writing textbooks for profit. Are they doing this on the university’s clock? That really depends. I challenge you to find a professor—at least at the pre-tenure level—who works less than a 60-hour week. They don’t exist. So which 40 hours, and 10 months, belongs to the state. I can say that I spend more time teaching than doing research or writing, and the research and writing that I do has not been for profit. But if the state decided that my next textbook or novel—potentially written during the May-August dry months when I get to choose between the grocery and paying my rent—belonged to “the people” simply because I draw a paycheck from the state, I would not be happy about that.

The analogy above is false. What if one of those highway workers decided to write a textbook (“A Survey of Highway Safety”) or a thriller (“Orange Cones, Red Blood”), and sold this to a publisher. Should this be permitted?

Blacklily8 pooh-poohs the complaints of professors everywhere who plead poverty. OK, don’t cry for the profs. But this proposal alone would not be enough. Writing a textbook is not something that is done “for fun,” nor is it in the job description. Would you also require faculty to write texts? If not, only non-professors (or professors at private universities) would be writing our texts. How does this solve the problem?

I’ve heard all the stories of professors making a bundle from textbook royalties, and I don’t doubt that there are some out there who are profiting on the backs of students. But stripping all faculty of their ability to make ends meet by moonlighting during the summers and weekend is definitely the wrong way to go. If you don’t like the textbook system, take it out on those who profit from that structure, not on public university faculty.

My Terry Teachout Cultural Index is 68. (See jump for breakout.)

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What if we gave an Independence Day gift to the new Iraqi Government: our own Declaration. I mean, we don’t really use it any more, and we wouldn’t have to give them all of it. Just the best parts:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of [this] Colon[y]; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King [George II of America] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over [this State]. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

[...]

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

[...]

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

[...]

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

[...]

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless [Islimicist Terrorists], whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

[Our Amrican bretheren] have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of [a free Iraq], in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of [this colony], solemnly publish and declare, That [Iraq is], and of Right ought to be [a] Free and Independent State[]; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the [American Hegemon], and that all political connection between them and the [United States], is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as [a] Free and Independent State[], they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.