WV Newest City

AP reports there are 4,000 people gathered on Cranberry Mountian for the Rainbow Family gathering now. That makes it bigger than an city near it. Richwood had 4,000 at one time, but the population is now about half of the lumber and coal boom days.

I'd like to go see what it's all about. (I have family in Richwood). But I don't want to put up with the traffic or see what a gathering of 4,000 people and growing are doing to my favorite hiking area.

How the Web changes your reading habits

How the Web changes your reading habits | csmonitor.com

Suck.com

Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website

MIT Weblog Survey

iTunes tunes into podcasts

Apple - iTunes - Download iTunes

Apple's new release of iTunes includes tool for managing podcast.

FestivALL

The wrost part of FestivALL has been the heat and the parking, but the Sunday Gazette-Mail has a few parking and traffic tips in today's paper.

Rainbow Faimly Gathering Resources - The Book

Rainbow Family Book - Rainbow Gathering Ethnography - "This is a comprehensive study of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, also known as The Rainbow Nation and The Rainbow Family. The Family, committed to principals of non-violence and non-hierarchical egalitarianism, has been holding large non-commercial Gatherings since 1972. They gather to pray for world peace and to demonstrate the viability of a cooperative utopian community living in harmony with the Earth. They govern themselves using a Council whose membership is open to all interested parties. Money is not needed, all necessities are free at Gatherings. Everyone is welcome."

Reviews:

"In this book, Michael Niman skillfully leads us through the alternate universe of the Rainbow Family, a group of millenarian anarchists whose moveable feast takes the form of large annual gatherings in remote forests across the nation -- events that have alarmed and then baffled law-enforcement officials and observers from the media . . . . A riveting case study in postmodern American utopianism, People of the Rainbow will be compelling reading for anyone interested in popular spirituality, social movements, and contemporary American culture."

-- Michael F. Brown, Williams College

...All in all, People of the Rainbow is a Herculean attempt at a Quixotic task. His freedom of Information Act research alone is worth the price of the book. In spite of its flaws--and its polish--Mike Niman's detailed examination and clear assessment of the Family is a contribution that would make any Rainbow Warrior proud."

Stephen Wing, Ho!, All Ways Free

Ten of Thousand of Hippies Decend on Cranberry Mountain

(West Virginia Metro News)

Tens of thousand of hippies that are expect to converge on some of the most fragile areas of West Virginia.

West Virginia Metro News reports many of the hippies have already begun to gather near Cranberry Mountain and Cranberry Glades, the largest area of bogs in West Virginia. Bogs are acidic wetlands more commonly found in the northern areas of this country Canada, and Scotland. The bogs are so fragile that they are only accessible via a boardwalk and designated trails. You are not allowed to wonder the glades on your own. Yet they allow tens of thousand of hippies to camp there.

The National Forest Service asked the group to move last week because of environmental concerns. A site for the gathering in Randolph County was rejecting because of federal officials concerns regarding five different endangered species in the area.

Cranberry Glades is a federally protected botanical area. It is the home to unusual plants and animal, some are not seen this far below the arctic circle. Could they not find a big field someplace else?

raging red: Five Dollars and Fifteen Cents

Raging Red has a much better preview/review of '30 Days': raging red: Five Dollars and Fifteen Cents

'Supersize' guy offers new reality: '30 Days'

'Supersize' guy offers new reality: '30 Days'

I watched Morgan Spurlock's '30 Days' last night. It's the best new show on TV.

In his new reality show, "30 Days," Spurlock tackles some weighty issues -- such as racism, poverty and homosexuality -- and he does it in his documentary style (read: Michael Moore-lite). He literally throws himself into this project -- starring in one and then hosting the others.

The show features a diverse group of participants who are given the chance to experience life as a radically different person for one month, investigating first-hand a world vastly unlike their own. In the premiere episode, Spurlock and his girlfriend explore the life of the working poor by giving up their NYC lifestyle and moving to Columbus, Ohio (Flint would have been too obvious), to attempt living on minimum wage.

I've lived on minimum wage, and Spurlock did a good job and showing the realities of the lives of the working poor.

Reader's Choice Best Blog Awards

Congrats to the guys and girls at Maple Creative for winning an Honorable Mention Award in the Group Blog catergory over at Marketing Sherpa.

Blogger Burnout

Slashdot | The Rise and Fall of Blogs takes a look at the current state of blogging: ""Blogs have revolutionized information delivery. They not only made the world much more smaller, but a lot more personal, united and un-afraid as well. Events like the September 11 attacks and the Iraq invasion made news channels take a back seat. Wired claimed blogs to be what Napster was to music. They even have a wager on Weblogs outranking the New York Times Web site by 2007. People got paid to blog. Then they got fired for that. Some lost money for blogging their ideas. Most just hand out links these days. When was the last time your favorite blogger talked sense? Have blogs reached a saturation point? Blogging burnout is a humorous look at the rise and fall of weblogs."

Alpha geek Wil Wheaton says he is suffering from blogger burnout: "'ve also read and thought about another blogger I respect, Tony Pierce. Tony recently wrote a great post about what happens when bloggers experience blogger burnout. At one time or another, I have been guilty of every single entry on his list, right up until today. Starting right now, I will change that. I don't think everyone is going to be happy with these changes, but I think that will say more about the individual than it does about me. In fact, if you see me as a fellow blogger, writer, stepparent, privacy advocate, spouse, pet owner, poker player, [whatever] aficionado, geek, or human being, I'm pretty sure you're going to understand all of these things. As a matter of fact, if these changes upset or offend you, you should probably not be reading WWdN in the first place, and I hope you'll leave."

I've been blogging since 1999. Oncee's first law of blogging is, "When it stops being fun stop." I've only really faced blogger burn out once: during the great Blogathon of 2003.

Dave Peyton remembers Jim Tweel

Mountain Blog: Jim Tweel: What America is all about

It's been a long time since I've been to Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti House.

Another Day, Another Podcast

CBS Radio News Announces Podcasting

I tired listening to podcasts. As far as I got was to download a bunch a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I deleted them from my iPod. I just don't have time to listen to them. Music doesn't age like podcasts.

I'm sure podcasts would be useful if I spend a lot of time in the car, a plane, or on a train, but I walk to work.

Web Word of the Day Correction

Jim points out that I got the Web Word of the Day wrong. Jim says: "Actually, Heather Armstrong coined the phrase when she was fired for her blog which was already called Dooce."

You can find Heather's blog here: dooce.

A Mac with Intel Inside

The big news for us geeks yesterday is Apple is Switching to Intel. What does it mean? Not a lot really for the end user. You won't be able to go down to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap PC and install OS X on it. In a couple of years you will be able to buy a Mac with Intel inside. Your new Mac might be cheaper and faster.

Web Word of the Day

Raging Red brings us our web word of the day: dooced. The Urban dictionary defines dooced as, "to lose one’s job because of one’s website," or "Getting fired because of something that you wrote in your weblog."

This word comes from the case of Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti who posted a picture of herself in her uniform on her personal blog, Dooce.com. Her blog is now called Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant.

YAWVB - Yet another WV blogger

occasional posting guy says he is from C-town. His blog is My depressing life.

The State Journal in your news reader

The State Journal has a rss feed. All you have to do is add it to your favorite news reader. I've always like Bloglines over the stand alone apps like Newsgator.

Howard Finster

There are three works by GA folk artist Howard Finster currently on display at the Taylor Books Annex Gallery.

Finster painted the album cover for REM's Reckoning and the video for "Radio Free Europe" was filmed at Finster's Paradise Gardens Park & Museum in the early 80s. Michael Stipe has been a big fan and support of Finster for years.

Ezboard Inc. Victim Of Vicious DOS Attack

Ezboard Inc. Victim Of Vicious Internet Attack

There are many unanswered questions surrounding this underreported story.

Ezboard systems touted as the "largest online community network site on the planet", was virtually brought to its knees Tuesday as the result of "a very precise and malicious internet attack resulting in the loss of a significant amount of current and historical board postings and interrupted services across all systems", according to Ezboards' CEO, Robert Labatt's message to Ezboard members.

It's unclear how a denial of service attack would effect back-ups of data unless they were not completed in the first place.

Tuesday's attack caused denial of service errors throughout the system and affected millions of users across approximately 9,000 message boards. The attack resulted in massive data loss, both current and historical from message boards within the system. Many Boards also lost accumulated monetary funds stored within their communities that is used toward Board subscription services.

Or why some data is deemed safe while other data is gone forever.

abatt is ensuring Ezboards members that their personal information including credit card info remains safe and was not touched during the attack.

Most data using best practices should be on back-up tape, or other removable media. That tape should be archived on at least a weekly basis and stored offsite. One has to wonder about a company that would place fast and lose with customer's data, especially a paid service.

Service has been restored, but a lot of data is gone forever.

Most message boards were accessible within several hours of the initial attack yesterday and Board owners are currently assessing the amount of data loss in their communities. Ezboards is warning their members that although they will do their best in restoring lost data, complete data restoration may not be possible. Repairs will be underway for the next week to 10 days.

How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat'

Bog Woodward has a piece in today's Washington Post on How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat'. I never dreamed this mystery would have dragged on for so long when I first read All the President's Men in high school.