January 31, 2003
Read This Website, Not Mine
The language may sometimes be harsh, and the message may sometimes be unduly pessimistic, but Bill Quick should be read by every one, every day. I comply.
January 30, 2003
Comments on Comments on the Preliminary, Shoddy Analysis...
[moved to a new post for space reasons]
[edited extensively]
Charles G. Hill wrote:
I'm not sure exactly when you're supposed to add those ten to achieve the desired effect, and I have some general qualms about futzing with blogrolls — the ninety or so blogs I list are there because they are regularly read, not because I think I stand to gain anything from their presence...
I certainly didn't intend to imply that adding any random, additional blogroll links at any time will increase one's incoming links. My interpretation of these data is that websites with a high-quality blogroll (where quantity of good links can add to quality) are recognized as more valuable to readers and are, therefore, more likely to be linked. If I am correct, adding random sites to the 90 or so that Mr. Hill finds most read-worthy would not increase the value of his weblog to his readers and, at the least, not increase the number of linking sites. On the other hand, if he identified 10 additional weblogs that both he and his readers found worth visiting, Mr. Hill might expect a few more incoming links.
To give an example of this, even when I knew I'd read everything on a given day on InstaPundit, I would often return to the site because I knew that many of the weblogs that I liked to visit (and whose url's I hadn't yet memorized) were linked on his site.
Bigwig wrote (in the comments below):
[Y]ou need to factor in the age of the blog, as well. Those lists tend to grow over time.
Perhaps, but I'm not so sure. I wrote, "Obviously, I'm not in MBE territory yet", recognizing the fact that this site has not been around long enough (or, more likely, is not good enough) to fulfill the prediction implied by my analysis. Similarly, Cyberangel, who (in Mr. Hill's comments) wrote, "Ha! I defy you both & have no one linked to me! Yet. :)" appears to have been around for only three-ish months.
However, once a weblog is established (however that may be defined), as those in the MBE would seem to be, I see no reason to expect that the ratio of ingoing-to-outgoing links will necessarily increase over time. At an extreme, while InstaPundit may be reluctant to add more links, new websites like mine will continue to link to him. But are most established sites close to that extreme?
Next, in my comments, Mr. Hill wrote, "As long as you don't factor in the age of the blogger. I'm already depressed." Please don't be depressed, at least in this respect: I hope to test next the number of incoming links based on webloggers' age (controlling, if possible, for the age of the blogs themselves). I expect that my hypothesis, that blogger age correlates positively with incoming links (and hits), will be borne out. I may even seek testimony from Mr. Quick, Mr. Den Beste and Mr. Reynolds. (Thanks to Frank J. of IMAO for the idea!)
Finally, for tonight, Kevin McGehee (who, note, is on my blogroll) wrote (in Mr. Hill's comments):
To my utter mystification, and in utter confoundment of Oscar's number-crunching, I am linked by a great many more blogs than are in my blogroll.I live to contradict the statisticians.
Well, outliers exits, and Mr. McGehee may well be one. (However, he may not realize how many incoming links he's forgone by failing to link to this site.) But, of course, I would never predict that all the sites on the MBE would have more outgoing than incoming links. Even at the heights of the blogosphere, not everyone can be above average within the sample, so I don't consider my analysis confounded. For what it's worth, InstaPundit (second to Dave Winer) receives 515 more incoming links than can be explained by his outgoing generosity. As noted below, I'm down about 135 at this point.
A Preliminary and Shoddy Statistical Analysis of the Heights of the Blogosphere
Having read weblogs for awhile now (starting a few months prior to 9/11/2001), and having played with this site for a couple of weeks, I've been pondering the effect of "blogrolling." More specifically, I wondered whether sending outgoing links generally results in incoming links. An ideal test of this hypothesis would require obtaining a complete (or at least random) sample of blogs and counting their incoming and outgoing links. I've no time for that.
Instead, procrastinating, I copied the latest iteration of the Myelin blogging ecosystem ("MBE"), parsed the data, and removed the obvious non-blogs and duplicate entries. The MBE is a ranking of the 500ish most-linked-to and the 500ish most-linking sites identified. Of these joint 500s, 180 weblogs feature in both categories (i.e., are both popular and generous). Obviously, these sites are going to have both more incoming links and more outgoing links than the average weblog, but it's not obvious to me that those with relatively more outgoing links will also have relatively more incoming links (i.e., the more generous of these 180 will also be the more popular).
(New Poll Shows Correlation Is Causation.)
They are. For each additional 10 outgoing links in their blogrolls, these sites receive an average of 4 more incoming links than their peers (a result statistically significant at the 98 percent level).
For what it's worth, this analysis would predict 134 incoming links to this young site. Obviously, I'm not in MBE territory yet. Or it may just reflect a lack of quality.
Update: The number of sites in both MBE categories is 177, not 180. I missed a few duplicates.
January 29, 2003
Help Wanted
This site needs a slogan. It's name is rather blah, a simple statement of fact. Via Bigwig, of Silflay Hraka, I stumbled into The Advertising Slogan Generator. Let us see how it does:
First try, “Oscar Jr. Just Feels Right.” Well, that's not true -- I don't feel right at all tonight.
Let's sloganize again. "Nothing Sucks Like An Oscar Jr." Hmph.
"Gonna Be a While? Grab an Oscar Jr." Interesting. I might be able to live with this one.
"Let The Oscar Jr. Take The Strain." I don't know.
Another try: "Absolut Oscar Jr." I like it, but it will probably get me a trademark violation complaint.
"Take Two Bottles into the Oscar Jr.?" I detect a pattern here. Does the Sloganizer know me?
Last try: "Oscar Jr. Really Satisfies." I doubt that it's true, but I like it -- bingo.
Do any of these really work? Anyone willing to sloganize a better one? Ah, random nonsense weblog content, it's the wave of the future.
Hey, maybe that should be my slogan?
More Pleasant Surprises
My thanks to the super-creative Tony Pierce for including this site under his "January Links." I'd send him some money for his car fund, but that might look like a quid pro quo. It won't look so bad if I wait awhile, right?
And the best Page links here, in addition to humoring my latest conspiracy-theory. Okay, she's the only Page I know of, but she's very good.
January 27, 2003
Must Read
If anyone stumbling onto this site hasn't already read it, please read this terrific essay by Bill Whittle, War. It's a very long post, but well worth the time.
An Even Younger Weblog
Via Bill Quick, I learned of a new weblog, Memento Mori. It's written by Aurora Leigh and was inspired by the PBS blogging show:
As I was watching our local PBS station the other night, I saw a show on this blogging thing. Apparently people with opinions are no longer restricted to foisting them on their nearest and dearest. Well, thought I, I have opinions. Moreover, my nearest and dearest are about ready to pick me up by the head and spin me around to my neck snaps if I don't stop explaining why their opinion on Iraq is the dumbest thing since Pepsi Clear. I am surely an undiscovered blogger waiting to happen.
She's off to a great start, with actual, substantial and excellent posts (something to which I aspire, if I ever get caught up on my sleep). She, too, has started out by borrowing InstaPundit's blogroll (I've since returned it). And she's been added to mine. Welcome.
January 26, 2003
Superbowling
20-3 at the half. Grooviness.
I'm glad to note that the Chaos Overlord is also cheering on the Bucs. For some strange reason, the blogosphere seems to be dominated by Raiders fans.
I'm off to watch the rest of the game in the company of fellow football fans, adult beverages and appropriate foodstuffs.
Update: Ah, goodness. The laughing-stock team I spent most of my childhood cheering for wins the Super Bowl, 48-20. Patience has its (eventual) rewards.
January 25, 2003
Why Do So Many Journalists Use Similar Blogger Templates?
Here's the new weblog (allegedly) published by the great columnist Dave Barry, the design of which is blamed on journalist and Dot Con author Ken Layne.
Is it me, or does this look strangely similar to the mysterious site of A. Beam, namesake of Boston Globe journalist and weblog critic Alex Beam? (Scroll up on Instapundit for much more on the old and amusing Alex Beam controversy.)
Perhaps it's just a coincidence. Or is Ken Layne the mastermind uniting 'old media' with the Blogosphere?
Update: Page, in fact, the Last Page, (an excellent site that I recommend, hence its existence on the massive blogroll) carries forth the torch on this blog-investigation. I assure you, dear reader, that we will get to the bottom of this. Or my name isn't Oscar Jr.
State of the Weblog Address:
While the War on Terror creeps along, the economy continues to recover, and Laurence Simon again prepares to shelter Rufus from the cold weather, it is time to address the state of this weblog.
The state of this weblog is messy.
1. Comments are down and have been for most of the day;
2. Permanent links to posts no longer function, perhaps because
3. The archive file no longer saves to the server.
I’d like to blame all of this on the “Sapphire” or “SQL Slammer” worm, but it’s more likely due Blogger problems or, even more likely, to my own incompetence (or, more charitably, novice-competence).
Update: Well, comments are working again. Permalinks function, but go to the post below the one intended. And the archive saves, but won't save to the correct directory. Any advice?
Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined
I haven't been to a Hooter's restaurant since I was a kid (thanks for the oysters, Dad!), but this is an intriguing development that could revive the air travel industry:
Today, Hooters of America, Inc. announced that an entity owned by its chairman Bob Brooks has acquired Winston-Salem, NC based carrier Pace Airlines. Brooks intends to establish a charter air service that will operate under the name Hooters Air in the future to provide leisure travel services for the golf industry and to serve Myrtle Beach, SC as a prime destination. The extent to which the famous restaurant's brand representation will be used in that operation, beyond the name, is a work in progress.
Research Project: What's Moxie?, or Why It Pays to Read 'About Me' Pages
I learned something new today. As everyone knows, moxie is:
mox·ie n. Slang 1. The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage. 2. Aggressive energy; initiative: “His prose has moxie, though it rushes and stumbles from a pent-up surge” (Patricia Hampl). 3. Skill; know-how. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
I've always assumed that the name of the well-known and excellent weblog moxie.nu related to the above definitions. It does, but not, as I suspected, directly.
Continuing his crusade to disparage the king-of-all-soft drinks, Dr. Pepper, Andrew Stuttaford (who, when on a roll in NRO's Corner, can be as prolific as Glenn Reynolds) asks, "What's Moxie?"
What’s Moxie? Well, claims made on some of its early labels included the following:"Contains not a drop of Medicine, Poison, Stimulant or Alcohol. But is a simple sugarcane-like plant grown near the Equator and farther south, was lately accidentally discovered by Lieut. Moxie and has proved itself to be the only harmless nerve food known that can recover brain and nervous exhaustion, loss of manhood, imbecility and helplessness. It has recovered paralysis, softening of the brain, locomotor ataxia, and insanity when caused by nervous exhaustion. It gives a durable solid strength, makes you eat voraciously, takes away the tired, sleepy, listless feeling like magic, removes fatigue from mental and physical over work at once, will not interfere with action of vegetable medicines." [emphasis added]
Moxie, it seems, is a previously unheard of (by me) soft drink. This set-off my internal researcher. Could Moxie the beverage be related to Moxie the weblog?
Yep.
Why moxie.nu?
Moxie was a trademark for a mass produced soft drink back in the 1800's. It allegedly cured all that ailed you including "paralysis, and softening of the brain". That claim alone made it good enough for me. The former trademark has now become a part of our vernacular, defined as energy, pep, courage and determination. I'm hoping for some guilt by association. Yes, and you can still buy it in some parts of the country.
Recovers loss of manhood -- wow, that's Moxie.
Euro-Mockery Roundup
Steven Den Beste discusses the recent emissions from Euroland:
The rhetoric just keeps getting stranger and stranger. I think there really must be something wrong with the water in Europe; have they all gone collectively insane over there?And:
Of course, that was like a red flag in front of a bull; to actually suggest that France and Germany are decadent, self-absorbed, decrepit, pretentious has-beens is simply intolerable.Even though it's true.
And:
France is on its, what, fifth republic since then? Something like that? (And we're still working on our first. I guess we're falling behind.)
Meanwhile, Andrew Stuttaford pens (well, keys) these great lines:
That's just another reminder that, when it comes to really trying to secure the peace, most of today’s European leaders manage to blend the humility of Marie Antoinette with the statecraft of Neville Chamberlain. They are all about words, nothing about deeds.
On Winds of Change, Trent Telenko reports that France is dead.
Vodkaman Stephen Green also discusses the decline of France, and assigns partial blame:
What the hell went wrong? Frankly, I think it’s partly our fault.If you’re going to learn from your mistakes, they really ought to hurt. Drink too much, and you’ll spend the wee hours discovering what bathroom tile feels like on your knees, and become entirely too familiar with the inside of your buddy Brien Ferguson’s toilet bowl. Come morning, you’re stuck between the competing desires to chew aspirin or take a Brill-O pad to your tongue. Lesson learned – don’t mix six White Russians with a cocktail tray full of Zombies.
France has been overindulging for over half a century now, and we’ve been the overly-helpful friends, holding their hair while they puke and making them Bloody Marys the next morning.
You’re broke after losing to the Germans? Buddy, we can spare a few billion dimes. Can’t get a handle on those Viet Cong, old friend? Let us step in for you. Nasty Soviets? We’ll man the Fulda Gap. You don’t want NATO headquartered in Paris anymore? No biggie, there’s always Brussels. Islamofascists are threatening all of Western Civilization? You can try paying them off, but we’re happy to do the dirty work when that fails.
Finally, the CounterRevolutionary and Jessica's Well have created topical graphics.
Update: I forgot to include this hilarious post by Bigwig, "Hoist by Their Own Petain."
The modern Vichian motto might as well be ignorez, retarde, apaisez. Ignore, delay and appease describe the French character as well as anything else, excepts perhaps "Unions, Vacations and Occasional Showers!".
Update the update: ScrappleFace archnemesis Frank J. of IMAO prefers the Axis of Assclowns to the "Axis of Weasels":
I don't see why France and Germany can't be just like one of those African nations I’ve never heard of either.And, maybe we can forget about Canada while we're at it, though we'll probably need a moat first or something.
Good Grief!
GOOD GRIEF! Yesterday's traffic's was over 60, again! Hmm. I blame the cold weather, keeping people close to their nice, warm computers. . . .
Oh, and the many fellow readers of ScrappleFace who stopped by yesterday to see the New York Post post.
January 24, 2003
Yesterday's News Today
It's great to see this spread from the keyboard of ScrappleFace to a New York tabloid.
Even Less than Usual
I'll likely be working into the morning hours tomorrow (er, today), then returning to the office, so I've no time to post anything more. How, again, do so many of my favorite webloggers manage to find the time to write several posts daily?
January 23, 2003
More Pleasant Surprises
My thanks to Anna, the belligerent bunny proprietress of the delightfully quirky Belligerent Bunny Blog (bunnies, national defense, and other interesting stuff) and, apparently, some robot ("ROLO") under the control of Dave Trowbridge, proprietor of the very good Redwood Dragon (who is, alas, "tipping over into the anti-war camp, even as it becomes inevitable." No tipping here, though, please.) for throwing kind links this way. And after another late night at work, I could use a potentially discerning robot.
I'd add Anna, Mr. Trowbridge, Mr. Hill and Bigwig to the blogroll, but I think that's how they all arrived here, anyhow. It's time for an Oscar Jr. Circle of Reciprocity (twice the links and no traffic jams).
Also, this site received its first Google search hit today (nothing shocking in the search, alas, though Andrew Stuttaford should be alert). I've read elsewhere that one needs to register with the search engines for such snooping (not that I mind, I guess). Have Mr. Trowbridge's robot and this Google fellow ever been seen together?
January 22, 2003
Touring the Web
Be forewarned: posting after working until midnight cannot be a good thing.
A day late... Charles G. Hill yesterday had a nice post in honor of Martin Luther King Day in which he links to another post he wrote following a visit to Selma, Alabama. In his comments, I wrote (edited for idiocy):
I think too much attention is paid to race these days (we really do all get along pretty well), but it's good to be reminded of how far we've come. Thanks.
If any of my family members or friends accidentally click on the link to this site that I sent you, Carnival of the Vanities is a weekly self-selection of webloggers' own favorite posts. This week, it's hosted by Meryl Yourish, and the concept is wholly to be blamed on or credited to Bigwig. Many of the posts are, as usual, great reads.
Via Bill Quick, I took The WildMonk Iraqi-War Personality Test. It will probably surprise no one that I'm either a "Patriot Hawk" or a "Warmonger" (the views from the right and the left, respectively, according to the quiz). It may surprise some that I scored a 10 out of 10 on the site's rationality scale.
Bedtime for this bozo.
January 21, 2003
Touring the Web
David Warren appraises President Bush and, briefly, Donald Rumsfeld. Very good. Warren, Mark Steyn, Michael Ledeen and Victor Davis Hanson are among the best columnists writing today.
Meanwhile, "The Agonist" tosses a rather odd challenge at Tacitus and, improbably, Insta-Glenn Reynolds.
But as I condemn ANSWER will you of the Right condemn people like Falwell and others of his religious extremist ilk who say that the United States' immorality made us deserve 9/11?Especially I challenge Tacitus and Instapundit to do this. Will you condemn them as loudly as I do those in ANSWER? Will you do what ever you can to minimize their power in your political party, as I try to minimize those from ANSWER in my own?
If you do not, and if you don't do it as loudly as I do, you are no better than those from ANSWER and the Radical Religious Right.
The Agonist could use a research assistant.
January 20, 2003
Weblogging Lesson #1
I sure didn't realize how many webloggers check their referral logs. I created the blogroll on Saturday using a list of favorite sites, a few of which I knew were out of date. Sunday, taking a break from work, I clicked on each and every link to verify that my reader (me) would be visiting the writer's current site and that blogrolling.com would catch the updates. And, of course, I read a bit of each weblog along the way.
Suddenly, the site started getting a bunch of hits -- all of which were apparently from my favorite webloggers (since nobody else knew of this site's existence). Craziness. Is this a case of accidental blogger fishing?
And do I owe them all tips for wasting their time here?
Update: I hope this post doesn't make me sound ungrateful. Thanks to everyone for visiting, and I hope to give you better reasons to do so in the future.
January 19, 2003
Pleasant Surprises
Thanks to Charles G. Hill and Bigwig of the respective, very worthy weblogs dustbury.com and Silflay Hraka for stopping by and leaving comments. This is fun stuff.
Update: Bigwig's now given this site a kind welcome and its first link. If he (and fellow-bloggers Keharr and Woundwort) continue to write posts as fun to read as The Money Dance, the beach house won't be so far off.
Update the third: I shall do my best to refrain from calling the result of this a hraka-lanche.
Update the update: Thanks, too, to dustbury proprietor Mr. Hill for also giving this site a link. In this post, he notes the value of commenting, "some small comfort in knowing that I'm not just talking to myself here." He was, of course, the first to comment here. Thanks!
Touring the Web
Crazy penguins are at it again.
The penguins start swimming in circles early in the day and rarely stop until they stagger out of the pool at dusk.The six penguins from Ohio started it all, Tollini said, apparently convincing the others to join them for the watery daily circuit.
In a comment on this post, Bill Quick succinctly lists the reasons for our upcoming war with Iraq:
...I'll tell you this one last time, and then I will simply post a copy every time you claim there is "no connection" between Saddam and the War on Terror. Here it is in simple, easily digestible points:1. Islamofascist terrorism cannot exist in any meaningful way without the support of rogue governments.
2. We know those governments that support terror in many different forms include Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Pakistan.
3. We can only win the War on Terror by destroying those state regimes that support terror.
4. The best strategy for destroying those regimes is to attack, conquer, and control Iraq first.
5. Why? Because that would remove Saddam, his regime, and any possibility that he might attain nukes in the future, or that he might transfer WMD technology and systems to terror organizations now in existence - like Al-Qaeda or, more likely, Hamas.
6. It would also allow us to free the Iraqi people from a brutal and deadly despotism, and to set up a nascent democratic state in the heart of Middle Eastern tyrants, it's very existence serving to destabilize the regimes of our enemies.
7. It would also give us a secure base for our military power, one within easy reach of the entire middle east, but not subject to the whims of various middle eastern tyrants.
8. It would also give us control of Iraq's oil, which would effectively negate the major weapon of our primary enemy, the Saudi economic oil weapon.
9. Iraq is the key to fighting and winning the war on terror. Unless you address these points, I will simply assume you are beyond rational argument on the issue, and just post this following every comment of yours in which you claim there is no connection between Saddam, invading and conquering Iraq, and the War on Terror.
Handy.
First tobacco, now chocolate? On NRO, Andrew Stuttaford writes, "the totalitarians of 'public health' are now eyeing your chocolate bar."
Finally, please don't miss the usual greatness from IMAO.
January 18, 2003
Touring the Web
For some reason, I've been closely following the ongoing saga of Laurence Simon and his neighbor's abandoned cat, Rufus. Given that Lair and his wife already have four cats, I'm guessing they'll take Rufus in, too. Regardless, I hope Rufus finds a better home than his former one.
Meanwhile, Steven Den Beste has a typically great post about the U.S. Navy, its recent movements and the imminence of war. SDB writes,
And that's not even everything the Navy has sent, nor have I even mentioned the Air Force or the Army both of which are also deploying huge forces now.All these ships can reach the Gulf in less than two weeks. This is no joke; this is real. This is no bluff. This isn't just posturing. You don't deploy these kinds of forces in this kind of numbers unless you're really serious. And you do not send a force like this to a theater to sit on its ass for six months and only then go into combat. In the ideal case, they get sent at the last possible instant both because that maximizes readiness and because it minimizes the window of risk to the men and ships from enemy air, missile or submarine assault.
They're really going to start fighting, and soon.
Den Beste later reduces the "less than two weeks" claim, but this post points to progress in the war.
Jonah Goldberg is funny again here:
When I read this, I feel the need to smash their guitar against the wall of the Delta House.
Finally, Andrew Stuttaford (who coined the term "Nurse Bloomberg" following Bloomberg's push for New York City's upcoming smoking restrictions) discusses another episode of government nannyism. Stuttaford points to this post by Jacob Sullum which discusses a bill moving through the North Dakota legislature that provides for jail time for those who purchase or sell cigarettes (other than for "religious purposes"). The bill is being pushed by a yet another Republican.
