Making people stupid

Making people stupid

Philistines (in the original French)

(And, from the right-wingers:  The perfect wedding gift)

Bloggers: fess up on freebies, or be fined $11,000

Did you get a free book for reviewing?  Did you get any other sort of gift?  Do you get an Amazon affiliates kickback?

Fess up, or the FTC will fine you $11,000.

FTC to enforce disclosure in blogging

Practical ethics requires that a blogger disclose when he has received a gift or compensation from a firm that he subsequently blogs about.

For example, consider the case of a blogger recommending a book that he received as a gift from a publisher or an author; or a blogger selling a book and receives a kickback from an online bookseller; or a blogger promoting Bible software in exchange for a chance to receive a luxury leather Bible.  Such bloggers are ethically required to disclose the gift, kickback, or lottery chance.  To do otherwise would be to deceive the blogger’s readership, who otherwise would expect a disinterested opinion.

These ethical guidelines will soon be legally enforced in the US by the Federal Trade Commission.  The FTC’s guidelines are available here and it is expected to become final this summer.

Deborah Yao of the AP writes:  “It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight.”

(By the way, this blog does not receive compensation or commissions from any posts that it makes.  This blog does not receive free books or other gifts that it subsequently blogs about.)

Five books meme

I want to acknowledge some excellent responses to the five book memes taggings that I made:

Tzvee

Judy

Craig

Kevin

David

Rachel

These posts are worth reading.

People who hate pseudonyms

Case 1:  Here, here, here, here

Case 2:  Here, here, here

Well, I like being pseudonymous.  If I used my pseudonymity (ala April’s Mom) to exploit others, then I would be in the wrong.  But I ask all those who figure out my identity to keep it to themselves.

How an Iranian Diplomat to the UN World Conference on Racism celebrated Holocaust memorial day

By shouting “Zio-nazi” at Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: 

Article

You tube footage

This is my life

From alarm clock to leaving for work in five minutes.  Just like Tomonori Jinnai.

(Note:  even if you don’t follow all of Jinnai’s techniques, note his superior tie knotting technique.)

Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qin4UptOEsI

Links: Folktales and Talmudic Comics

Here are some interesting links I’ve come across:

• The Defense Language Institute’s Folktales from around the World.
• (Indeed, the entire set of the Defense Language Institute’s cultural briefings and language tutorials are worth inspecting).
• Talmudic Comics

(Hat tips:  Entropic Memes, Menachem Mendel)

What I learned from Aristotle about snarkiness

I don’t think I have a snarky or sarcastic personality in person.  But it is easy, especially in casual writing, to slip into a snarky mode.  For 2009, I am trying to not be snarky – and that is one of the primary reasons for starting this blog – to express my opinions about things that matter to me.

Apparently, I am not the only one who has disavowed snarky writing.  Like David Denby, I think snarky writing is “ruining our conversation.”

In the Rhetoric, Aristotle famously discussed the bases for argument:  appeals to ethos (authority), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic).  Although one could consider snarkiness as a special form of “pathos”, in my mind (and I think Aristotle’s) snarkiness is not a valid form of argument. 

I’m a passionate guy – passionate about everything!  My writing (I hope) transmits that passion – so there is plenty of pathos here.  And I hope to both sometimes speak as an authority and frequently refer to academic authorities – so there is plenty of ethos here.  And of course, most important is reason, and I trust you will find no shortage of logos here.

But help me keep my resolution – if you find me slipping into snarkiness, call me on it please!

A brief non-introduction to this blog

First things first: this is not a blog about Aristotle; rather it is a blog about the topics that interested Aristotle, including art, ethics, logic, philosophy, poetry, rhetoric, science, and truth.  We are all indebted to Aristotle for opening our eyes and interest in these areas, but we need not slavishly follow Aristotle in all matters – rather we can celebrate what we learned from Aristotle.

There are many excellent blogs out there that discuss blogging (including “memes”, contests, awards), the effect of the Internet on contemporary society, and current events, so fortunately, this blog will not need to spend time on those topics.