A Personal Critique On Popular Blogs and Their Commentaries

As I intimated in a couple of earlier blogs, one of my avid avocations when I get the opportunity has been to cruise around the obstacle-ridden racetrack popularly named as the blogosphere and like the proverbial fly on the wall to scan through the different entries and the often juicier commentaries allowed. And some popular ones can typically boast of upward to 200-300 comments in one post. Quite a few registering over a 1,000 comments. Very good traffic figures, indeed. If that’s the paramount target.

But personally, I find the present prevailing format quite cumbersome and exactingly confusing, no different from having to wade through thick clutter to get at the gist of where things stand. Granted most everybody in the blogosphere have ripe opinions about most issues and are avidly and readily expressing them.

But what about those who simply want to read and learn from the discussions?

Blog surfers are invited to visit some of them to get a taste first hand how at times wading through the main blog entry and the ensuing commentaries, and at times updates on the main entry, can be a very daunting task especially for visitors severely restrained by time limits or maybe suffering from some kind of attention deficit.

Especially in hotly-commented sites, when one enters in the middle of a discussion, no thanks to time constraints or time differentials, one feels no different from having stumbled into the middle of a fierce gunfight. Think OK Corral. Bullets are whizzing by every which way, not really knowing whether they hit the targets or not. Or whether they are simply stray bullets fired from a gun and not really intended to hit any target. Just shots fired.

And most riveting blog entries no doubt are floated out to stir up and to engender wholesale animated discussions on controversial or hot-button issues of the day.

How are the readers helped in their dilemmas, problems, unease, nagging questions, etc. about the differing issues that are being propounded?

Personally, I believe many are confused and none the better off than when they initially chanced upon the discussions. I know that’s how I feel at times.

Many blogs, not unlike a number of those listed on the links on the right, have simply abandoned the idea of allowing comments after their entries. Aided in their decision by the nasty development of having commentators using the ready access and space to litter with indecent, defamatory, silly, at times outrageous remarks. And there is also the universal problem of spams forcibly inserting themselves and littering blogs through comments.

Now, wouldn’t it be nicer to have some kind of order to this madness, for maximum penetration and effects?

Some organized format so that those coming in at any point of the discussion can easily grasp some sense of direction and purpose of the discussion. And in the process learn and be educated.

Many are familiar with the debate format which makes provisions for a more orderly and dispassionate discussion, analysis and assessment of different and differing issues.

I propose we make accommodations to use this format or something similar to it, incorporating such salient components as a list of “givens”, a little intro on the realities in which the question exists, a definition of terms and issues to frame and limit discussions/commentaries to relevant points, etc.

No doubt a welcomed departure from or a modest improvement on the present free-wheeling, open-thread type discussions that permeate and contribute to the gathering disorder of the entire sphere.

A healthy development for this much-touted salvific interactive medium.

The Happiness Index Revisited

Here’s a very interesting, though findings are not novel, latest report on a poll on happiness from the Pew Research for the USA. Download complete report on pdf here.

Could the findings apply to other countries as well? Why not?

Being still a nation of immigrants, it ought to be a microcosm of the population make-up of the world.

And maybe more arguable than the one where the beleaguered country of the Philippines scored highest among its more progressive neighbors?

Some very interesting correlations between certain factors such as income, religiosity, political affiliations and beliefs, etc. Now remember just correlations, meaning factors going together or found together, but not necessarily one causing the other.

And another qualifier, the survey did not measure happiness based on psychological characteristics or life events down to the individual’s level, such as being happy because of a promotion, owning a new house, or losing a boyfriend, etc.; rather the field of happiness is measured in demographic and behavioral traits.

Income and Happiness

Well, obviously our conventional wisdom about happiness not being bought by money may have to be rethought and re-aligned. Why?

Because the report shows that increasing incomes also signal increasing happiness. As incomes rise to certain levels, happiness also rises.

It is then hard to imagine how very poor sectors of a population could show significant levels of happiness as a behavioral trait.

Political Affiliation

To be applicable for our purposes we may have to replace this category with whether a person has conservative or liberal political beliefs.

For some reasons those who are conservatives show a greater percentage of being happy than those who are liberals.

Does this explain then why when one visits the different political blogs, or even those which occasionally write about local or world politics, those on the left, or more appropriately those on the hard-left, engage more in hateful, belligerent, and negative rhetoric than the other side? Remember it is just a correlation.

Religiosity

Those who are quite open about their religious faiths and attend services frequently tend to be happier than those who don’t. And even within different religious affiliations, the correlation still is that those who frequent more services are happier than those who don’t.

Discover also findings on other factors such as Marriage and Parental Status, Race and Ethnicity, Age and Gender, and Work, Education, Health, Geography, and Miscellanceous.

Finally, here’s a quote from the report about this statistical technique called multiple regression analysis:

One way to find out is by way of a statistical technique known as multiple regression analysis, which gauges the relationship between each factor and happiness while controlling for all the other factors. That analysis shows that the most robust correlations of all those described in this report are health, income, church attendance, being married and, yes, being a Republican. Indeed, being a Republican is associated not only with happiness, it is also associated with every other trait in this cluster. Even so, the factor that makes the most difference in predicting happiness is neither being a Republican nor being wealthy - it's being in good health.

The same regression analysis also finds that education, gender, and race do not have a statistically significant independent effect on predicting happiness, once all the other factors are controlled.

There Is No Blogosphere

I knew it. And implied so with posts here and here. There could not possibly be something we can call the blogosphere.

The hodge-podge in content and purposes of weblogs are just too diverse and undefined as to be readily categorized as one discrete entity.

One cannot think of any uniformity or unifying factor that could possibly link together this very unruly glob that is exponentially growing in numbers and variety. Consult Technorati about this.

True, weblogs use technologies that may be adjudged similar but then these are the same technologies already extant in the world we have known for quite a while as The Internet or The World Wide Web.

Consider several definitions of Blogosphere on the Web:

• The totality of weblogs or blog-related webs. (From Wikipedia.
www.fullcirc.com/community/interactionterms.htm

• used to describe the world or community of blogs and blogging
www.fzelders.nl/weblog/

• Blogosphere (alternate: blogsphere) is the collective term encompassing all weblogs or blogs; blogs as a community; blogs as a social network. Weblogs are densely interconnected; bloggers read others' blogs, link to them, reference them in their own writing, and post comments on each others' blogs. Because of this, the interconnected blogs have grown their own culture.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere

They describe it as a community, a social network, interconnected, and a culture.

But honestly, can it be described as a cohesive, mutually inclusive community of bloggers/writers sharing common aspirations and purposes?

We know that within this expanding universe are all the seeds of divisiveness, exclusiveness, cliquishness, belligerence, bellicosity, differences, even callousness as one would not find in an interconnected social community, sharing the same culture.

Even within the smaller spheres of political blogs, glaring differences likened to night and day are already exhibited. Not only in language but even in approaches and core purposes. And Powerline highlights this utterly glaring difference with its comment on a Washington Post column done by one of its executive director named Mr. Jim Brady. Both, by the way, share this sentiment about there being no blogosphere.

We obviously are driven to commit the same mistakes over and over again. And yet Ms. Patricia Wallace, author of Psychology of the Internet, had emphatically inferred and cautioned that with our forthcoming universal use of the newest medium, the electronic interpersonal medium, we have the opportunity to blaze a new more civil and more polite trail because we have in our collective grasp the power to control and direct its development. An opportunity maybe already lost in the conduct of our personal and global face-to-face relationships wracked with many undesirable developments.

3D Illusions

In the 90's at the height of the tech boom, this one particular technology caught the "eye" of many as the newest art form that was expected to soon invade the other areas of visual wonders such as cinema and video.

They were called 3D illusion images, or stereograms, and required a special technique of viewing them to arrive at the hidden images.

Books and big posters got printed showing them and challenging viewers to discover the hidden images.

I actually secured a book which essentially was a collection of works by different authors and waited breathlessly for the explosion.

Indeed, there was a "bust" or explosion, but instead this became an ancillary victim among the many, laid waste when tech stocks careened downward at the start of the new century.

But anyway, test your visual acuity and look for the hidden 3D images in these images taken from here:

1.

2.

3.



If unsuccessful, please drop a line and will be glad to show some techniques.

UPDATE:

I have about a 100 of these glossy images which because of copyrights cannot be reproduced here. They can be viewed personally.

Rene Barrientos: Manny Pacquiao’s Precursor

Before the era of multi-million dollar purses, coupled with equally astronomical PPV deals, another world champion boxer from Mindanao started his pugilistic arts not very far from the inauspicious origins of the current boxing idol. This unassuming, though quite strapping and muscular, guy started honing his boxing skills in the town of Marbel, north of General Santos, but still within the Cotabato region.

This boxer who carried the name of Ireneo Barrientos, but shortened to Rene Barrientos as an appropriate boxing handle, lists his birthplace as Balite, Aklan, in the Visayas Region. It can be surmised that not unlike many of the Christian residents of the Cotabato region which has been traditionally and predominantly Muslim, Rene’s family resettled in the area. Which place had been renowned for holding alluring promises for those who dared. The tempting enticements of a very hospitable climate, fertile agricultural lands and enviable homesteads, which had earned the huge Cotabato basin the distinction of being the rice granary of the entire country.

In October 10, 1962, Rene made his first professional fight in Cotabato knocking out a fighter named Charlie Kid in two rounds.

Of his 48 professional fights, this would be the only one held in Cotabato, because after this he was ready to move on to bigger places and greater heights.

He moved to the Northern Mindanao city of Cagayan de Oro to be managed by one of its more popular boxing enthusiasts, Dodong Almirante. This partnership would lead Rene to a world championship and beyond.

Standing at about 5’7” and fighting at a comfortable 130 lbs, (ideal for a junior lightweight or super featherweight), Rene in many ways then was also like Pacquiao. Add to that the fact that he was also a southpaw with a very mean left.

Though maybe minus the extravagant financial rewards now very common among boxing champions, Rene took hold of his highest crowning glory by grabbing the vacant WBC Super Featherweight Word Championship in a bruising 15-rounder that ended in a unanimous decision. This was against a fighter named Ruben Navarro in front of a hometown crowd in Manila, on the 15th day of February, 1969.

Though nothing compared to the frenzy and mania created by the latest Pacquiao conquest, the nation was nevertheless ecstatic for having a world champion.

Unfortunately, about a year later, Rene lost that title to a Japanese fighter named Yoshiaki Numata on a split decision and under a fight that was held in Tokyo, Japan on April 4, 1970. Many would claim that it was a hometown decision, and unfortunately during those years, Japanese officials were notorious for being partial to their fighters.

Though stripped of his rightful crown, Rene would continue to fight until the 70’s, already into his 30’s, and losing only one more fight, again on a split decision. And you guessed right. To another Japanese boxer in another Japanese venue. But the chance for another world title never showed up again.

Today, Rene continues to live with his family in Cagayan de Oro, ensconced among many friends who have stayed loyal to him all these years.

Look him up, if perchance you find yourself in the very hospitable gateway to Northern Mindanao. And see how he sizes up with the current idol.

Rene among friends in his adopted hometown: (CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE)