Ghostblogging for Businesses

Malcolm Sheppard writes,

Most blogs are like whale carcasses. They drift ashore from parts unknown, look like they’ve been dead for weeks, and they stink. Man, do they ever stink. That’s because intelligence and business savvy don’t necessarily indicate writing ability. There’s no shame in that, either. Expecting a blog to turn a manager into a writer is like expecting MSPaint to turn one into an artist. Skill matters. That’s why recycled clipart and truncated, “Powerpoint English” emanate from the brainiest desks in the world.

I want to go on record to say, I would not blog for someone else–except for money. Maybe books or italian food with coffee. No, only money. And here I am for free. What’s wrong with me?

Shakespeare at 444

Well, yesterday was Shakespeare’s 444th. Several blogs have related lists and links. Semicolon has a long list, with a nice meme from a while back.

Let me pass on a recommendation from Terry Teachout on strong biographies. He says Park Honan’s Shakespeare: A Life is one of the best on the bard.

Do you think a Manga version of Shakespeare’s plays would inspire your young man or woman? CliffsNotes has four plays available for your perusal.

Earlier this month, I posted a few quotation quizzes asking if the phrase came from Shakespeare or the KJV Bible. If you missed it then, you can find it here.

And from our Science desk, we may have found an avid Shakespeare fan among the other primates.

Publisher Sues Prison Chief Over Book Ban

Prison Legal News, a nonprofit publisher, is suing the Massachusetts Department of Correction Commissioner over a prison book policy that allows “only approved vendors to send books to prisoners.” The publisher is not on the list and believes the list is unconstitutional. I think prisons ought to have tight controls on inmate reading, even though that could lead to problems like this perhaps or a subtle indoctrination of another kind.

Film Director Teams with FBI on Civil Rights Cases

For his documentary on a black Louisiana man who was murdered for whistling at a white woman, Keith Beauchamp is teaming with FBI officials to uncover crimes from the distant past.

Beauchamp believes he’s able to coax more from potential witnesses because he doesn’t carry the stigma often associated with law enforcement officers. Images of billy club-wielding policemen breaking up rallies and protests are still etched in many memories.

“For the first time in history, they are allowing a filmmaker to assist them in setting up a justice-seeking atmosphere that will allow eyewitnesses who may have information to feel comfortable coming forward,” Beauchamp said of the FBI.

The filmmaker also knows what it’s like to fear police. He says in 1989 he was beaten by an undercover police officer for dancing with a white friend in Baton Rouge.

Back2Press Books For Failed Authors

The Wicked Witch of Publishing, herself a three-time author, has launched a publishing company aimed at putting out of print books back on the shelf. Back2Press Books invites authors to join “THE 100,000+ CLUB” if they own the rights to their already published book and that book sold over 100k while in print.

“The problem is that publishing companies are content, even ecstatic, if a book sells more than 10,000 copies, let alone 100,000. Rarely do they continue to promote a proven bestseller at the expense of the newer books currently in the pipeline. After months or even years of helping to fill the publisher’s coffers, the 100,000+ bestseller eventually dies an unnatural death from negligent homicide,” says Scanlon [WWP].

WWP is the author of a book on the cure for jet lag, which appears to be the real deal and is available again at a discount prior to the official publishing release.

Hoopla!

I’m delighted to report that I have received verbal (actually e-mail) acceptance of one of my novels by a new publisher.

I’m going to be discreet about naming names at this point, before a contract has actually been signed. I’ll say that the publisher is a newish Christian house, and that I will be their first fiction author.

The novel is West Oversea, the third volume in The Saga of Erling Skjalgsson.

Sleaze in Masquerade

Thinking this was today’s review (it’s actually last Friday’s), I will proceed to link to the NYT’s review of Expelled.

One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry. . . . Mixing physical apples and metaphysical oranges at every turn “Expelled” is an unprincipled propaganda piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike.

Typical. In other news, Richard Dawkins explains himself and why Intelligent Design isn’t a scientific theory in the LA Times.

Entities capable of designing anything, whether they be human engineers or interstellar aliens, must be complex — and therefore, statistically improbable. And statistically improbable things don’t just happen spontaneously by chance without an explanation trail. That is what “improbable” means, as creationists never tire of assuring us (they wrongly think Darwinian natural selection is a matter of chance). In fact, natural selection is the very opposite of a chance process, and it is the only ultimate explanation we know for complex, improbable things.

I know I have much to learn about modern evolutionary science, but I don’t buy this non-chance argument. Regis Nicoll comments on the above.