Hard-rockin Ted and wife, Shemane, co-authors of the now-classic cookbook Kill It and Grill It, ought to appreciate this gift item recommended by Bowhunter Magazine...

Mosquitoes give bowhunters fits on early season bear, caribou, and deer hunts, and the primary defense has been Deet-based insect repellents. However, Deet has its drawbacks that make it less than ideal for bowhunting. Now, after 17 years of research, Bug Band announces its new, all-natural Geraniol Insect Repellent that has a "fruity" odor that repels insects but not deer or bears.

from: Great gifts: if you're shopping for a bowhunter, you can't go wrong with this list of gift ideas by Dave Samuel
source: Bowhunter, May 15, 2004
via: HighBeam Research

Foreign Policy isn't a regular entry in my reading stack, but I lately I find myself looking for insight deeper than that provided by the average talking head. This piece adds a depth of background that daily news coverage usually isn't able to touch. Click on the world's longest article title, below, to read the whole thing.

"Al Qaeda Is a Global Terrorist Organization"

No. it is less an organization than an ideology. The Arabic word qaeda can be translated as a "base of operation" or "foundation," or alternatively as a "precept" or "method." Islamic militants always understood the term in the latter sense. In 1987, Abdullah Azzam, the leading ideologue for modern Sunni Muslim radical activists, called for al-qaeda al-sulbah (a vanguard of the strong). He envisaged men who, acting independently, would set an example for the rest of the Islamic world and thus galvanize the umma (global community of believers) against its oppressors. It was the FBI -- during its investigation of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa -- which dubbed the loosely linked group of activists that Osama bin Laden and his aides had formed as "al Qaeda." This decision was partly due to institutional conservatism and partly because the FBI had to apply conventional antiterrorism laws to an adversary that was in no sense a traditional terrorist or criminal organization.

The following analogy blew me away -- from Hash Route to Sand Hill Road?

Although bin Laden and his partners were able to create a structure in Afghanistan that attracted new recruits and forged links among preexisting Islamic militant groups, they never created a coherent terrorist network in the way commonly conceived. Instead, al Qaeda functioned like a venture capital firm -- providing funding, contacts, and expert advice to many different militant groups and individuals from all over the Islamic world.

from: Al Qaeda: the mere mention of al Qaeda conjures images of an efficient terrorist network guided by a powerful criminal mastermind. Yet al Qaeda is more lethal as an ideology than as an organization. "Al Qaedaism" will continue to attract supporters in the years to come -- whether Osama bin Laden is around to lead them or not. (Think Again) by Burke, Jason
source: Foreign Policy, May 1, 2004
via: HighBeam Research
Copyright © 2004 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Yale literary superstar Harold Bloom has a new book out called Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? According to this NPR review, not in the latest book by Harold Bloom. Glad to hear it. Yay! I did buy the book, however, as it lists a bunch of people who apparently hate Ralph Waldo Emerson. Bloom loves the guy. I do not.

Bloom's hierarchies and smack-downs are the perfect literary criticism for an age when Americans pay lip service to the importance of books but few of them can be bothered to pick one up. Bloom clearly thinks that the literary end times are upon us, and his despair, unlike his enthusiasm, is catching. Bloom sees himself as some sort of Noah before the flood, marching his favorite poets aboard the ark of his library two by two. At heart, he reads like a high-culture Nick Hornby, more comfortable listing and savoring his favorites than laying out a case for them. Read him if you must, enjoy him if you can, but under no conditions give him as a gift, the way so many people do. He makes less well-read people feel like idiots and the erudite feel like the last of some noble, dying breed, as Bloom surely believes himself to be. Only if people fall for this guff does he stand a chance of being right.

from: Review: Harold Bloom's "Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?" reported by David Kippen
source: NPR Special, 6 October 2004
via: HighBeam Research

Doc Searls and Jim Thompson recently gave me (yes, gave me) an iPod and a slick little microphone to go with. Maybe after I get this damn site launched I can even set it up and mess around with the thing. Leave you little voice messages here. Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Podcasting is a system developed by former MTV host Adam Curry. He realized he wanted to have radio shows on his iPod that whenever he plugs it in, he would just get the latest version up, say, DAY TO DAY, so that wouldn't have to constantly go download things himself. So it's just an add-on piece of software that lets you subscribe to online radio shows or people who have playlists of new songs every day like Roger McGuinn's "Folk Den." And then you just see a playlist on your iPod and it would say, for example, DAY TO DAY and you'd press it and there would be the last few segments.

from: Analysis: Apple unveils new product by Alex Chadwick
source: NPR Special, 28 October 2004.
via: HighBeam Research

The following is from a recent article in Business Week...

Finally getting a handle on blogs? Get ready for the next wave: podcasting. In the past three weeks the blogosphere has been buzzing about software that enables do-it-yourself radio. Since Sept. 28, the number of listings that mention podcasts on Google has jumped from 24 to nearly 14,000...

Podcasting is the latest example of how grassroots technology is getting around big media... "Personalized media is the next frontier," says Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. From blogs to podcasting, it's a frontier that keeps expanding.

Yeah, the suits are doing their best to love it. They're really trying hard, you can tell.

from: A Deejay You Can Download by Heather Green Edited by Ira Sager
source: Business Week, October 25, 2004.
via: HighBeam Research