Monday, May 22, 2006

A Little Present

So, I'm going to let the gentle readers of Poetry Snark decide for themselves what's going on at this blog. It does have a rather fetching title: The Iowa Writers' Workshop is Totally Corrupt

Me? I think it smells like ginger...

(Thread. Discuss.)

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

R.I.P. Stanley Kunitz

Brother made it to 100. Let's hope Billy Collins doesn't.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

But seriously folks...

Look, by now you've all heard about governmental efforts to allow internet service providers to regulate what content their subscribers can view... right? Well, if you haven't heard about it, you should. In a nutshell, here's what's happening: if the bill in question goes through, then all internet service providers will be able to legally guide you toward web sites that pay them enough money. Right now, we have "net neutrality," meaning, for one, that popular sites naturally rise to the top of search engine results.

The coolest thing about the web is that it is--for the most part--a true meritocracy, where sites are successful only because people actually want to go there (as opposed to almost all other media, whose popularity is determined primarily by marketing). If this bill goes through, then this aspect of the net will largely vanish, creating a "pay to play" system, where sites like this one could never have gotten popular (I know, I know, some of you probably think that in this case, that wouldn't have been so bad).

Anyway, there is still a chance to defeat this heinous bill. I've included a link toward the bottom of the left sidebar that says "Save the Internet." If you click on that, it will take you to a website showing you how to easily take action to sign their petition and contact your representatives at the same time in about 30 seconds. You can also get the code to insert the "Save the Internet" image and link into your own blog or website. Scroll down and look on the left. Then click on the link, and check it out.