eerie,

If you like the Wikinomics concept you should start reading the Howard Rheingold sites, Smartmobs and The Cooperation Commons blog. Davison's Thoughts Illustrated blog too.

Here's a PDF for you:

http://www.rheingold.com/texts/OpenWorld.pdf

The Vitalis book will be fabulous! I went for one of his book talks on it.

Can't believe you're putting money in Hirsi Ali's overflowing pocket by buying her book though.

Well, tell us soon what you think about "Infidel". I'm looking forward to that.

Dear e,

Abu Aardvark's Qahwa Sada site had a big discussion of Vitalis' book, incl. a long post by the author.

--MSK

On the topic of US-Saudi relations, you might find this interesting too:

http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Hand-American-Hegemony-International/dp/080142884X

Thanks for the links, guys.

MSK, thanks for reminding me about the book forum! I was wondering why it seemed so familiar.

". She'll be in my neck of the woods sometime soon for a book signing, wonder if I should make an appearance?"

How resounding can a "yes" get?

I managed to get about half way through The Time Traveler's Wife some time ago and found the faux-philosophic aspect of the story more than a little wearying. If you're looking for a fictitious and thought-provoking discussion of the conflict between free will and predestination, this is not the place to look for it. But the book was a runaway bestseller so what do I know?

Bah, waste of your time meeting the hypocritical little migrant slut.

Humbug, go.

And wear your "hypocritical little migrant slut" t-shirt.

I still have mine from the Christopher Hitchens introduces Mother Theresa book tour.

Go, and continue the series that started with Irshad Manji! You are somewhat less likely to be a believable undercover reporter, but aren't you already thinking about what questions you could ask her? Something on refugee policy and hypocrisy, perhaps?

Bollocks.

In person events in this age have one purpose.

Networking.

You are not a reporter and whatever the ignroant whankery otherwise, this place is not a news site. Question, t-shirts, are a waste of your time.

Attend if there is some professional or personal angle, else, ignore the hoi poi and congenitally innocent hippies - your time is better served should you wish to respond to her by writing a review / critique.

Meanwhile, I have to find new ways to lose large amounts of money.

No point being provocative in that situation. At best you get a canned answer, at worst the whole room jumps on you for daring to question the Kool-Aid being served.

Meanwhile, I have to find new ways to lose large amounts of money.

Ah...

At best you get a canned answer, at worst the whole room jumps on you for daring to question the Kool-Aid being served.

Or you get a non-answer of the sort that tells you what you wanted to know anyway.

I disagree that in-person encounters accomplish nothing - at the very least, they can be entertaining in a way that words on a printed page rarely are. And certainly, attending in-person and writing a critique are far from mutually exclusive.

GO!

. . . .AND network, AND write a critique. And observe, observe, observe. You dont have to wear a t-shirt or ask a provocative question.

80% of life is showing up, the rest is writing about it. It isnt all spreadsheets you know.

The non-answer tells you fuck all, it's to be expected in such venues.

The purpose of such events is networking. one rarely learns anything from such encounters that one did not already know (if one has the slightest skills in research). Public events are about relationship building, and sometimes exchanges.

As for entertaining, my dear, well, I am sure Eerie has better sources of entertainment. Indeed I know she does, even leaving aside the corrupt exapts.

It could be that she might find some attendees interesting in a positive cost-benefit anal, but I doubt it.

And re Eerie, ah.

Well, yeah rather fucked. But I am supposedly up to speak at an event w a key figure from Liars Poker. Compensation.

Indeed I know she does, even leaving aside the corrupt exapts.

Well, one must make do when one's favorite corrupt expat lives on a different continent.

"at worst the whole room jumps on you for daring to question the Kool-Aid being served."

Well, in my view, that is the point of asking such questions.

Done poorly, as usually seen on college campuses where a student activist launches into a windy, hostile, self-righteous, harrangue driven by being high on two minutes of microphone glory, this accomplishes nothing.

Done well, usually politely with brevity, the whole room has a moment of real thought.

The idea of a lone bombthrower, figuratively speaking, at such gatherings reminds me of an old Howard Baker campaign ad (yes, I'm really dating myself here): in the ad, in aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis, I think, some Middle Eastern person (very clearly stereotyped, with a thick accent) at a campaign event asks Baker hostile (but, well, not necessarily wrong) questions about American role in the region. Baker responds by saying only that he has to defend Americans and the whole gatheirng erupts in cheers--except for the questioner.

A bit shocking that this sort of thing was considered appropriate then...but people are more or less the same.

eerie,

This is your mission, if you choose to accept it.

Go to the Hirsi Ali appearance and try to play yourself off as the next ManjiHirsiAliSultan! See how long you can pull it off, and write about people's reactions, etc. Bonus points if you manage to get a reporter to actually believe you or an offer for a book deal.

... or would that just be too cruel?

Of course I could beat them at their own game...and likely do a better job cornering the politically active male market.

Not interested in playing though.

Re
Done well, usually politely with brevity, the whole room has a moment of real thought.

Bah, waste of bloody fucking time, except for whankers and academics (if there is a difference).

Normally one gets either pre-packaged brevity or rambling nonsense.

Such events are not for bloody knowledge, you idiots, they're for networking.

I can't see this being genuinely useful for her, so my advice is pass, bloody waste of valuable time. Leave that for the silly ideologues, hippies, lunatics and other time wasters.

Ignore him, he's only a subregional director. Or something.

GO.

Ha! Who can ignore Collounsbury ?

"Bah, waste of bloody fucking time, except for whankers and academics (if there is a difference)."

There is, though admittedly from personal experience I can attest that it is slight at times. Nor are they, come to think of it, mutually exclusive categories.

In any event, not everyone needs to network as much as business types. Eerie, do what you want to do unless there are good career reasons to be reticent.

Having just returned from watching Richard Perle get pounded into hash by three Muslims (one journalist, two academics) and an auditorium full of people, to the point that he literally fled before the event was scheduled to finish, my opinion is reaffirmed that such events can be far better theater than anthing one is likely to find on TV. Besides, events like that aren't generally a huge time commitment - an hour or two, maybe, almost certainly less time than it would take to read the book. (Bonus: you aren't putting money into the pocket of someone you likely detest.)

EL has put her finger on why I go to these sorts of events - much quicker than reading the person's book. And if you've read the book, don't bother to go, because it's always a rehash. It's also useful at times if you are new to a field to figure out who the playas are and what their positions are (esp for academic book talks) because they'll always stand up and spout their practised question that they ask at every such event.

Eva Longoria -- How did they succeding in necklacing Perle? Loved to have been there.

I'm sure it was the usual partisan rara moment.

Convincing to the convinced, irritating to the middle, outrageous to the sympathetic.

Or, otherwise, self-fellation for the partisans and the sympathisers, boring to the mere observers.

Waste of fucking time overall for anyone not in the realm of whanking on, as in business. Well, business has its own realm of whankery events, the sort of things I speak at, but I would not be so idiotically self indulgent as to tell people w/o specific career interest to come hear me speak (or others).

A bit of fucking realism you silly whankers, bloody hell, you people really are internet nerds.

off topic:

coming to my going away party? if you don't, you might not see me for six months. imagine what life would be like...

How did they succeding in necklacing Perle?

Will try to write more about that later, once the hamantaschen are safely ensconced in the oven (not to drag Iran into the discussion again, but at times it just happens that way). But I should make a correction - since I posted my original comment, my equally geeky friend who attended the lecture with me informed me that Perle ditched out early (for which he was roundly booed) because he had another commitment, on a much friendlier conservative AM talk radio show. I will give him credit, though - he took whatever everyone dished out and stuck to his guns, as it were.

you people really are internet nerds.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Honestly, though, you've never been taken over, even for a moment, by the urge to see someone who participated in a plan that you thought was moronic, if not outright evil, and that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the creation of nearly 4 million internally displaced people and refugees, squirm a bit? I mean don't you think a bit of squirming is the least the guy could do to atone for his stupidity, even if you believe he had the best of intentions? If you can't stand the heat, get out of Washington.

No.

Never. Atoning for stupidity means money or something material.

Some hippies and intellectuals getting all worked up in an auditorium doesn't do jack.