[blogpower awards] state of categories on friday

This is the state of play, as of Friday, concerning the Categories for the awards. Naturally, the categories need reducing - maybe 12 altogether. Please comment over at Blogpower [sidebar]:

Possible categories:

Shameless self promotion [8]
BestProse [7]
BestLayout and style [7]
Best Ranter [5]
Politically incorrect [5]
Sadly missed [5]
Prettiest blog [5]
Sadly Missed [5]
Tastiest blog [5]
Award for services to blogging [5]
Blogger we feel most sorry for [5]
Best Blogger [4]
Best Blogpower blogger [4]
Best Blog name [4]
Humorous post [4]
Under-rated [4]
Most unintentionally humorous [4]
Worthy blog [4]
Most over-rated [4]
Best Post [4]
Most curmudgeonly [4]
Best Fisker [3]
Most original blogger [3]
Best Political Blog [3]
Likely to be under security surveilance [3]
Collegiate blogger [for Blogpowerers] [3]
Likely to still be blogging 10 years from now... [3]
Best Blog by country [3]
Best Template [3]
Best Swearer [2]
Best Cultural Blog [2]
Best Transgender blog [2]
Slowest to load [2]
Best Expatriate blog [2]
Gracious loser in such a competition [2]
Most humorous blogger [2]
Prolific blogger [2]
Unintelligible [2]
Pre-pubescent language [2]
Weird blog [2]
Idiotic blog [2]
Moaner [2]
Best Award Scheme [1]
Prolific [1]
Diverse [1]
Fatwa-worthy [1]
Prolix blogger [1]
You could take home to your mother [1]
Link-whore[1]

Certain categories might be combined here. Remember that the final selection is posted this evening.

I have switched off comments on this post as they should more properly be put on the Blogpower version of the post.

[ségolène] still very much a chance

The headline said:

Ségolène Royal plaide pour une opposition constructive

… and well might she plead for this. She wants another shot five years from now, her personal popularity still intact. All she needs now is to separate herself from the "mad as a hatter" policies and infighting of her beloved left and she'd possibly be in.

Let's face it - Sarko is on a hiding to nothing. He was hired to do unpleasant things. No matter how well he does that, even including leftist women on his team, that will make him more unpopular. I know some French women and they don't like him - physically, as a man, that is. "Looks" is a huge factor with them.

Segie looks better. All she has to do is sit back, incapable of being attacked and enter, the queen, five years later.

[spamming] sometimes it's much more

I genuinely was not going to run another post on this topic but certain things have happened.

From the comments on the last post it is abundantly clear that it's a huge problem but even more worrying is that they're getting past the usual checks and balances. In other words, it is a human or a number of paid employees doing it with a stock pasted message. The captcha is then negotiated by hand.

I don't say it's right but my approach to anyone coming to this site is as follows:

1] If it's a "good site here" compliment and url, I ignore the guy. Especially if he does not have a standard embedded name above. They're getting better. They go into a long blurb now about how you "captured their thoughts exactly" etc. and then the url. Always the url.

2] If he comes back some other time and it's different, with no url, then I visit.

3] If I see his message anywhere else in the sphere, I go back and delete him completely.

4] If it was just a message and a standard embedded name link, then Google has done some of the filtering work already and I'm more likely to visit but after some little time.

5] If he's already in someone's sidebar, I'm also more likely to visit.

Old Friends

Sometimes our own friends have been drawn into something and they recommend us to visit such and such a site and join up. One therefore unwittingly visits.

I'd lay money our friend doesn't know what he's actually into and feels that we're off our brain to suspect the scheme. He'd be hurt that we suspect him of something nefarious but nothing could be further from the truth.

It's not that we suspect him. It's the scheme which is "all wrong". We merely have to sniff the air and pick up that unmistakable whiff. Here are some of the signs:

1] If there are some high-sounding but ultimately meaningless messages like "the world connected in cyberspace - a world in peace and understanding" etc., that's pure Djwahl Kuhl speak;

2] Formless, meaningless aquas and light pastel shades, so beloved of the "enlightened" and suggesting peace and mutual tolerance and understanding - this is a known front for these people;

3] Any talk of money. Any suggestion that this thing is connected with money, then colour me gone, even if it's just an offer to go "premium". Once you're in, technically you can stay "free" but it defeats the whole purpose of being in the scheme in the first place. Certain vital information access is denied you unless your "upgrade". Get out quick.

4] Graphics of characters in that hentai, postulating style, especially with black as a dominant colour, with bland expressions which leave you with a feeling of coldness;

5] Any suggestion of rewards for introducing your friends to the scheme.

My only advice here, as already mentioned, is "get out now, while you still can".

[spamming] litigation the slow way

They appear to have sprung the Seattle Spammer:

Alleged spam mogul Robert Alan Soloway was arrested on Wednesday after being indicted by a federal grand jury. The man the Washington State Office of the Attorney General has dubbed the Seattle Spammer was given an August 6 trial, during which he is set to face 35 charges related to suspected fraudulent Internet activities.

Now multiply him by all the botnets out there and it's a very sorry tale. Some get in to the system now in the normal way, even through word verification, such as a recent pest named Alex or Alec, who's been troubling some of us.

Perhaps this is the answer to spammers - it certainly cuts out the long expensive litigation. I found this one interesting:

A widely used technique to fight this technique is the 'poison' CGI script. The script creates a page with several bogus email addresses and a link to itself. Spammers' software visiting the page would harvest the bogus email addresses and follow up the link, entering an infinite loop polluting their lists with bogus email addresses.

[blogpower awards] categories so far

Over at Blogpower, [click on pic], the current state of play on categories is being shown. Please get over there sometime this evening to comment on these. The timetable for the awards over at Blogpower is:

Friday, June 1st, 21:00, London time: categories are posted for your perusal and comment, strictly for 24 hours.

Saturday, June 2nd, 21:00, London time: Final categories are posted and Nominations invited for each category. Meanwhile we advertise the awards.

Tuesday, June 5th, 21:00, London time: Nominations close.

Wednesday, June 6th, 21:00, Freepolls for Voting are posted at Blogpower

Wednesday, June 13th, at 21:00: Freepolls are closed and results are readied for posting, although these will be patently obvious from the running tallies anyway.

A.S.A.P: Final results in each category are posted.

[interconnectedness] ignore it at your peril

Lady MacLeod was actually talking about the horror of living in a war zone with no chance of escape:

There’s one thing about violent death you don’t see on the cinema screen, you can’t get from a book, and that’s the smell. I have been to a couple of war zones, but I knew I would be leaving.

The desperation that must come when you know you can’t leave; you can’t get your children to a better, safe life. The death of hope is by far worse than the physical death of the body.

.. but the main thesis of her piece was that:

I think the universe pushes together the people and circumstances that have business to be done. Not destiny, I don’t think our lives are preordained. I think we have choices.

which she then proceeds to try to negate to an extent. However, Agatha Christie agreed with her thesis and this is seen in this excerpt from a Harley Quin story:

"You say your life is your own," went on Mr Satterthwaite to her, "But can you dare to ignore the chance that you are taking part in a gigantic drama under the orders of a divine Producer?

Your cue may not come till the end of the play; it may be totally unimportant, a mere walk-on part, but upon it may hang the issues of the play if you fail to give the cue to another player.

The whole edifice may crumple. You, as you, may not matter to anyone in the world but you as a person in a particular place and context may matter unimaginably."

She sat down, still staring at him.

Douglas Adams hit the nail on the head with his facetiously stated but quite seriously intended "fundamental interconnectedness of all things" [Dirk Gently].

Then lastly, in a slight shift from the above but still germane to the issue - the whole life system of Australian aboriginal tribes [kourri] was based on the notion of the "oneness" of your environment and everything and everyone in it and you in the context of all that.

What we have here is the enormity of the human ego versus the enormity of the universe. Zaphod Beeblebrox can go into a cabinet which shows him the universe and his place in it but emerge unscathed, ego intact but as everyone who's read that book knows, he did it with help.