It's a sad day when an innocent's death must be celebrated as a victory by anybody. But when that innocent had previously expressed her wish to die in this circumstance, and the unholy monster of politically fundamentalist Christianity had lumbered in, spewing vitriol and lies and maligning Michael Schiavo, and the manifestly corrupt Tom DeLay has used the situation as a massive distraction from his own crimes, and hundreds of herd-animals with crosses are kneeling and praying and letting their kids get arrested for a bunch of other herd-animals with cameras and microphones?

And when there's only one branch of government left that's not in the pocket of cross-wielding thugs and it is under attack? Perhaps violently? Cf. Tom DeLay today:

Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo’s friends in this time of deep sorrow.

(And there's more, as always, that we won't bore you with.)

In this unfortunate circumstance, Terri Schiavo's death is a victory. It is a victory, of course, for Terri Schiavo, who, in this circumstance, never wanted this, a vain (and not particularly religious) woman who sad, nonsentient remains had been transformed into a political football, her slackjawed picture everywhere. You think this is something she wanted?

Bob Friedman's paradoic living will sheds light on just what happened in this case.

* In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.

* I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts.

* I want my wife to ruin the rest of her life by maintaining an interminable vigil at my bedside. I'd be really jealous if she waited less than a decade to start dating again or otherwise rebuilding a semblance of a normal life.

* I want my case to be turned into a circus by losers and crackpots from around the country who hope to bring meaning to their empty lives by investing the same transient emotion in me that they once reserved for Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy and that little girl who got stuck in a well.

* I want those crackpots to spread vicious lies about my wife.

* I want to be placed in a hospice where protesters can gather to bring further grief and disruption to the lives of dozens of dying patients and families whose stories are sadder than my own.

* I want the people who attach themselves to my case because of their deep devotion to the sanctity of life to make death threats against any judges, elected officials or health care professionals who disagree with them.

* I want the medical geniuses and philosopher kings who populate the Florida Legislature to ignore me for more than a decade and then turn my case into a forum for weeks of politically calculated bloviation.

* I want total strangers - oily politicians, maudlin news anchors, ersatz friars and all other hangers-on - to start calling me "Bobby," as if they had known me since childhood.

* I'm not insisting on this as part of my directive, but it would be nice if Congress passed a "Bobby's Law" that applied only to me and ignored the medical needs of tens of millions of other Americans without adequate health coverage.

* Even if the "Bobby's Law" idea doesn't work out, I want Congress - especially all those self-described conservatives who claim to believe in "less government and more freedom" - to trample on the decisions of doctors, judges and other experts who actually know something about my case. And I want members of Congress to launch into an extended debate that gives them another excuse to avoid pesky issues such as national security and the economy.

* In particular, I want House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to use my case as an opportunity to divert the country's attention from the mounting political and legal troubles stemming from his slimy misbehavior.

* And I want Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to make a mockery of his Harvard medical degree by misrepresenting the details of my case in ways that might give a boost to his 2008 presidential campaign.

* I want Frist and the rest of the world to judge my medical condition on the basis of a snippet of dated and demeaning videotape that should have remained private.

* Because I think I would retain my sense of humor even in a persistent vegetative state, I'd want President Bush - the same guy who publicly mocked Karla Faye Tucker when signing off on her death warrant as governor of Texas - to claim he was intervening in my case because it is always best "to err on the side of life."

* I want the state Department of Children and Families to step in at the last moment to take responsibility for my well-being, because nothing bad could ever happen to anyone under DCF's care.

* And because Gov. Jeb Bush is the smartest and most righteous human being on the face of the Earth, I want any and all of the aforementioned directives to be disregarded if the governor happens to disagree with them. If he says he knows what's best for me, I won't be in any position to argue.

It is also a victory because it represents a massive defeat of the Christian right in this country -- and they haven't had a defeat in quite some time.

Through the sheer, unyielding strength of our corporatist-right media, which can be critical of religious nutjobs abroad but, strangely, not at home, and through their 2004-derived political influence, they thought they could reject the rule of law in this country. We saw nothing less than an attempted mini-coup-d'etat in the last weeks, and the resilience and continued legitimacy of our judicial system, the last political institution largely unsullied by Christian fanaticism in this America, is a victory.

Their noses are bloodied. And they'll be back. But today is a day to celebrate.

RIP, Ms. Schiavo.

I broke up with my boss yesterday. Don't stay in abusive relationships, people.

Word.

Here.

Three Denver residents yesterday charged that they were forcibly removed from one of President Bush's town meetings on Social Security because they displayed a bumper sticker on their car condemning the administration's Middle East policies.

The three, all self-described progressives who oppose Bush's Social Security plan, said an unidentified official at an event in Denver last week forced them to leave before the president started to speak, even though they had done nothing disruptive, said their attorney, Dan Recht.

Democracy for Iraqis, or whatever, but authoritarianism for the US.

Fucking Blogger eats it. I haven't been able to post all day.

Here.

A must-click.

Listen to this:

Thursday, April 21: Phoenix at the Great American.
Friday, April 22: Gary Wilson at Bottom of the Hill.
Saturday, April 23: Josh Rouse at Bimbo's.

These are three great shows. In three days.

Rule.

...now if the Wedding Present weren't already sold out. Fuck.

Here.

[L]et me congratulate the scientific team at Birmingham University in England, whose researches have led them to the thesis that acne may be a kind of evolutionary contraceptive. In mimicking the symptoms of illness, the scientists speculate, pimples might form a sexual no-go zone that prevents humans from reproducing before they are physically and psychologically ready for it.

Zits as a Darwinian cold shower: It is a theory that many teenagers will find immediately convincing.

[Via Kos]

A Democrat in name only. From Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Lieberman, your Republican colleague from Connecticut in the House, Christopher Shays, had this to say. "This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy. ... There are going to be repercussions from this vote [on Schiavo's constitutional rights]. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them."

You agree with that?

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN, (D-CT): I don't. But that's a very credible and respectable opinion for Chris to take. See, I think--and Chris was there on the floor of the House, so maybe he heard in the debate some things that I didn't hear following it from a distance. The fact is that, though I know a lot of people's attitude toward the Schiavo case and other matters is affected by their faith and their sense of what religion tells them about morality, ultimately as members of Congress, as judges, as members of the Florida state Legislature, this is a matter of law. And the law exists to express our values.

...blah blah blah

Please, can we get someone to run against this clown in the CT primary? I've had enough.

I have a half-day off from my unbelievably bad job (yes, it's true) because today is Good Friday.

Good Friday, according to the trusty Wikipedia, is

a holy day celebrated by Christians on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion. Mainstream Christian churches view Christ's crucifixion as a voluntary and vicarious act, and one by which, along with his resurrection on the third day, death itself was conquered.

Yikes.

Christians are nutty.

I'm totally gonna commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus by goin' shopping, taking a nap, cleaning my room, getting a haircut, and playing Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within on my PS2.

...yeah, love that Wikipedia. Check out this absolutely fascinating entry for 'shibboleth.'

...I'm wondering if there is a way to convince my boss that I need to have Jewish holidays off too. Jews for Jesus? Yeah, I know they're just nutty. But isn't there some religious sect somewhere that celebrates all of 'em?

Why do they gotta call Schiavo a vegetable anyway? Why not, like, a fruit? Or a rock? Or, like, um, a loveseat? Armchair?

I wonder why the lack of sentience in humans is associated with vegetables instead of the billion other nonsentient things on the planet.

If Schiavo is a vegetable, can she be safely eaten by a vegetarian?

(Only at Salto do you get this level of insightful analysis.)

How can it continue to be so consistently good?

Check out this clip on the Schiavo brouhaha.

It's...perfect.

Here and here.

[Via Eschaton]

My roommate Aaron found this avocado:



Oh dear.

Is it warm in here?

...I should mention that Aaron wants to build and design your website, or help create your advertising campaign, etc. He's good. Tell him you're from here so I can get my cut.

This is very interesting.

Kirstan Horton has watched Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 730 times in the last two years. This has led him to build replicate stills from the film using everyday objects around his studio.

It's surreal. Check it.

[Via APS]

The most interesting new regular series I've found in quite some time is the "Diagnosis" column from the New York Times Magazine, fresh each Sunday.

Check out last week's column.

Each one I've read (maybe three now?) has been bizarre and fascinating.

Someone sells their sister's diary on eBay.

Some therapist somewhere is gonna make a killing on these people.

($66.00)

[Via Minty]

Who said this:

This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy.

Answer here.

This whole thing is gonna blow up in the Rethug's faces.

Americans broadly and strongly disapprove of federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, with sizable majorities saying Congress is overstepping its bounds for political gain.

The public, by 63 percent-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case. Congress passed such legislation and President Bush signed it early today.

That legislative action is distinctly unpopular: Not only do 60 percent oppose it, more — 70 percent — call it inappropriate for Congress to get involved in this way. And by a lopsided 67 percent-19 percent, most think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.

This ABC News poll also finds that the Schiavo case has prompted an enormous level of personal discussion: Half of Americans say that as a direct result of hearing about this case, they've spoken with friends or family members about what they'd want done if they were in a similar condition. Nearly eight in 10 would not want to be kept alive.

In addition to the majority, the intensity of public sentiment is also on the side of Schiavo's husband, who has fought successfully in the Florida courts to remove her feeding tube. And intensity runs especially strongly against congressional involvement.

Included among the 63 percent who support removing the feeding tube are 42 percent who "strongly" support it — twice as many as strongly oppose it. And among the 70 percent who call congressional intervention inappropriate are 58 percent who hold that view strongly — an especially high level of strong opinion.

The chickens will come home and roost on they ugly heads.

Here. It's important, you slacker.

Someone's actually started the company that is the premise behind the (excellent) David Fincher movie The Game.

This is beautiful.

I'm waiting. Someone buy me an adventure.

Everything is on the net. Everything.

When a team of police, federal agents, and a drug-sniffing dog burst through the front door and scoured every corner of the house, the woman and her boyfriend figured they knew who had turned them in. So she struck back: In the shadowy realms of cyberspace, she publicly identified the informant who she suspected had ratted on her boyfriend, landing him in court on drug possession charges.

On a website launched seven months ago from the North Shore, the woman posted a note saying her alleged informant, a 27-year-old man from the Tewksbury area, was a ''narc" who made a practice of snitching on others to minimize his own legal problems.

''In this day and age, you can't be a rat and not have people know," said the woman in an interview, speaking on the condition that her name not be used. ''I think it kind of opens up people's eyes in town to people who are doing shady deals."

The website, which was launched by Sean Bucci, who is battling his own marijuana charges, has quickly become the largest online database of its kind. It currently holds more than 800 profiles of alleged informants, and new additions appear frequently, posted by people who want to take revenge on federal agents, former friends-turned-snitches, and others who they believe have informed on them to law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement officials worry that the site will impede their ability to use undercover agents and informants, who often provide information critical to criminal cases, especially those involving drugs. And they worry that criminals might use the site to find out the names of informants, which could imperil the people whose information is posted there.

Via monsstRACHAHAKAaa.

Read Digby.

...actually, this is important enough to reprint:

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.

This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

This issue gets to the essence of the culture war. Shall the state be allowed to interfere in the most delicate, complicated personal matters of life, death and health because a particular religious constituency holds that their belief system should override each individual's right to make these personal decisions for him or herself. And it isn't the allegedly statist/communist/socialist left that is agitating for the government to tell Americans how they must live and how they must die.

One of the things that we need to help America understand is that there is a big difference between the way the two parties perceive the role of government in its citizens personal lives. Democrats want the government to collect money from all its citizens in order to deliver services to the people. The Republicans want the government to collect money from working people in order to dictate individual citizen's personal decisions. You tell me which is the bigger intrusion into the average American's liberty?

And there's more. And it's heartbreaking.

The Friday lunch crowd at Jimmy's Eastside Diner was starting to dwindle. Jerita Collins, a waitress everyone calls Shorty, was carrying several plates when she noticed the television behind the counter airing a Washington, D.C., news conference featuring House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

''It is now 1 o'clock on the East Coast, the time preordained by a Florida state judge to allow for denial of food and water to Terri Schiavo,'' the Texas Republican declared. ``That act of barbarism can be and must be prevented.''

Across the bottom of the screen CNN noted a judge temporarily stopped Terri Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed because Congress had issued subpoenas for the brain-damaged woman to appear in Washington.

As DeLay spoke, Shorty stared at the TV and shook her head. ''This is wrong,'' she said. ``This is incredibly wrong. How can they interfere like this?''

Shorty, 57, a waitress at the Biscayne Boulevard diner for 35 years, should know.

''Two years ago,'' she said, ``I had to make the same decision for my son. It was the hardest thing I ever did. You don't plan on your children dying before you do. You don't even want to think about it.

''But if you love your child,'' she continued, tears welling up in her eyes, ``sometimes you have to let them go.''

Shorty's son, Jerry, was 36 when he died in 2003 from pancreatic cancer. He wasn't married. He had one child who was a minor, so the decisions fell to her.

''Toward the end, he didn't want to be kept alive,'' she said. ``But I wanted him to live. I didn't want him to go. The hospital, they had to tie his hands down so that he couldn't pull his own tubes out.

'After a while, I realized he was ready. I told him how much I loved him and I didn't want him to continue to suffer because of me. He couldn't talk anymore, so he wrote me a note. It said, `Forgive me.' And I looked at it and I said, 'For what? For dying?' And he shook his head yes.''

He died a few days later, on Dec. 29, from a heart attack. By then, Shorty had signed directives for her son's care, including instructions not to resuscitate him if his heart stopped.

On the TV, another politician talked about saving Schiavo.

''These politicians,'' Shorty hissed, her hands trembling with emotion. ``They're just playing a game. It's not about her anymore, it's about them getting what they want. It's about them wanting to look good in front of the people who are pro-life. I'm against abortion, too, but I believe each person has their own right to decide. You know in your heart what is right for you and you have to live with any decision you make.''

Goddamn spineless Dems. Goddamn them.

Don't you have more important shit to write about?

Rudey has the first and last word.

At this point, I believe this is not a joke.

An 18-year-old US student is today behind bars after police uncovered his plot to raise a zombie army and attack his high school. The wannabe Papa Doc Duvalier's chilling plan was uncovered after the youth's grandparents discovered his written proposal for the outrage in Winchester, Kentucky, lex18.com reports.

Mercifully, William Poole was cuffed before he could execute his macabre scheme. He faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge after investigators discovered "materials at Poole's home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police".

Naturally, the fledgling Baron Samedi has claimed that the writings were nothing more than a short story he penned for his English class. He said: "My story is based on fiction. It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, [and] the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies."

Alert the Grammar Police.

"It didn't mention nobody who lives in Clark County, didn't mention [George Rogers Clark High School], didn't mention no principal or cops, nothing. Half the people at high school know me. They know I'm not that stupid, that crazy."

Despite his protestations, the authorities have wisely decided to cage the miscreant youth. Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill noted: "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky."

Accordingly, a judge last week reflected the seriousness of threatening your high school with annihilation at the hands of the undead by raising Poole's bond from one to five thousand dollars at the request of prosecutors. He is currently reflecting on his folly in the Clark County Detention Center.

The same story, without the excess of (justified) British snark, is here.

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, SALTO DEVOTEES AND SLAVISH ADHERENTS, PEOPLE NEAR AND FAR, HEAR YE, HEAR YE, HEAR YE:

I totally lost my cell phone.

And all of the precious phone numbers it contained.

And, of course, I didn't ever, like, write down those numbers elsewhere.

I can't pretend that most of the people who visit here aren't my friends and acquaintances. So anyway, to make it short:

SEND ME YOUR NUMBERS, PEOPLE.

Even if i haven't called you in way too long. Even if we haven't established a "phoning relationship."

Please. Pretty please.

Email or use the email thing on the right. Or call me sometime very soon (but not quite yet, the new one's not on 'til tomorrow). Probably don't put fone numbers in comments, hm? Or you'll be getting crazy late-nite drunken calls from monSTREPPomonSSSTRchaka, which are, to put it mildly, a bit unsettling.

Blogging is more fun when you have a job.

Joe Lieberman sux.

As it happens, Mr. Lieberman stated clearly what was wrong with the bankruptcy bill: "It failed to close troubling loopholes that protect wealthy debtors, and yet it deals harshly with average Americans facing unforeseen medical expenses or a sudden military deployment," making it unfair to "working Americans who find themselves in dire financial straits through no fault of their own." A stand against the bill would have merged populism with patriotism, highlighting Democrats' differences with Republicans' vision of America.

But many Democrats chose not to take that stand. And Mr. Lieberman was among them: his vote against the bill was an empty gesture. On the only vote that opponents of the bill had a chance of winning - a motion to cut off further discussion - he sided with the credit card companies. To be fair, so did 13 other Democrats. But none of the others tried to have it both ways.

It isn't always bad politics to say things that aren't true and claim to support things you actually oppose: just look at who's running the country. But Democrats who engage in these tactics right now create big problems for a party that has been given a special chance - maybe its last chance - to remind the country of what Democrats stand for, and why.

I need a strong alcoholic beverage.

Here.

And concerning below, perhaps you should visit stopfakenews.org and sign their petition.

In a rather good article about the coming vacancies on the Supreme Court, this paragraph is slipped in near the end:

Earlier this year, the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents thousands of large firms such as the Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc., said it was going to change its practice and actively support conservative judicial nominees with money for television ads and grass-roots mobilization.

Corporate dollars and ultra-conservatism openly hand-in-hand. Hail capitalism.

I hate this bullshit.

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

Propaganda is alive and well in the internet age. Don't be fooled. Educate yourself.

And a lot of red-staters (and a goodly number of blue-staters) will eat. it. up.

...and I almost forgot to mention that the freakish idiot who is governor of California does the exact same thing (in a rather disgusting emulation of the propagandistic tendencies of that one guy with the little mustache whom he "admires"):

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has acknowledged making several videos masquerading as news stories to promote its agenda, creating an uproar from Democrats and labor leaders in a controversy parallel to one ignited by the Bush administration.

``When the governor produces official government propaganda and tries to fake it to look like news it's very, very corrosive to democratic values,'' said Barry Broad, a labor lobbyist who compared it to efforts by totalitarian regimes.

Criticism initially focused on a video promoting labor regulations altering workers' meal breaks. But the administration later said it made videos on Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape state government, stall rules that would increase nurse staffing at hospitals and alter teacher pay and tenure requirements, said aides to Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles.

Fuck this authoritarian chump.

A new record from the Bay Area's Orange Peels is about to come out after five years of waiting. I've been...impatient.

Allen Clapp, the genius behind the band (and the musician behind one of my all-time favorite records, One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain, see here and here), has created a podcast that previews some of the new record's tracks and explains why it's been five years since So Far.

Check it.

Got it.

Oh dear.

Here.

Tanya has an update on Rick(y) Schroder, who I remember fondly from Silver Spoons. Dude had video games in his house. This was, like, the epitome of cool for, like, a video-game-obsessed six-year-old or whatever.

And it turns out he's a crazy Mormon.

He should hook up with Blair.

Outsider topiary art.

Tour buses and the odd wandering group are now a part of the Fryars' routine at home. At the suggestion of a friend they have put up a donation box by the driveway and printed brochures. Mr. Fryar said that on one occasion someone left $5,000 in the box.

I'm so excited that I've found a place to play vintage pins.

Alameda's Lucky Ju Ju looks like they have a whole friggin' bunch of hott pins. From their "about" page:

There are almost 20 machines set on free play, we ask for at least a $5/person donation to help cover expenses (rent, electricity) and there is a cooler if you want to bring beer or soda.

If you are under 21, you must have an adult with you

We have high score cards on most machines so you won't have to carve it into the machine if you get one. Thanks for your interest.

Ecstasy.

A nice summary here.

[Via Alterman]

Listening to Todd Rundgren and writing.

Here.

I'm telling you right now that you just don't want to click here.

The head that was removed from Manar in the operation which ended early Saturday had developed no body, and was capable of smiling and blinking, but not independent life.

...or, for that matter, here. Yow.

Fascinating.

In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void, a harrowing account of near death in the Peruvian Andes. It got good reviews but, only a modest success, it was soon forgotten. Then, a decade later, a strange thing happened. Jon Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air, another book about a mountain-climbing tragedy, which became a publishing sensation. Suddenly Touching the Void started to sell again.

Random House rushed out a new edition to keep up with demand. Booksellers began to promote it next to their Into Thin Air displays, and sales rose further. A revised paperback edition, which came out in January, spent 14 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. That same month, IFC Films released a docudrama of the story to critical acclaim. Now Touching the Void outsells Into Thin Air more than two to one.

What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations. The online bookseller's software noted patterns in buying behavior and suggested that readers who liked Into Thin Air would also like Touching the Void. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, wrote rhapsodic reviews. More sales, more algorithm-fueled recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in.

Particularly notable is that when Krakauer's book hit shelves, Simpson's was nearly out of print. A few years ago, readers of Krakauer would never even have learned about Simpson's book - and if they had, they wouldn't have been able to find it. Amazon changed that. It created the Touching the Void phenomenon by combining infinite shelf space with real-time information about buying trends and public opinion. The result: rising demand for an obscure book.

This is not just a virtue of online booksellers; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries, one that is just beginning to show its power. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).

Read it all.

[Via FOM]

...is very, very good. Remarkable.

Here.

Get better soon, Edwyn!

...send your get-wells here.

...more here.