A number of bloggers have been dismayed to find that a white supremacist site site containing untruths shows up very highly (No 2 for me) when one does a Google Search for ‘Martin Luther King’. The site in question is martinlutherking dot org which I’m not going to link to and I’d ask you not to do so either.

Various bloggers, such as Robert Scoble have joined this campaign to boost genuine sites about Martin Luther King. The technique being used here is ‘Google bombing’ whereby a lot of links from different websites improve the search rankings of a particular website (explanation). ‘Google bombing’ is seen by some as morally questionable, and rightly so, but in this case it could well be the lesser of two evils.

I’m not just going to link blindly to the same links as everybody else, but these are some Martin Luther King Jr links I found worthwhile:

• The King Center: Martin Luther King
• BBC: Martin Luther King
• Wikipedia: Martin Luther King
• Nobel Peace Prize 1964: Martin Luther King
• The Seattle Times: Martin Luther King
• Martin Luther King‘s Letter from Birmingham Jail
• Martin Luther King: ‘I have a dream’ Speech

Update: If you do a search for “Hate site distorts King’s dream” you’ll find an article relating to the man behind the martinlutherking dot org name written way back in 2000. Again, I’m not linking there as the zdnet site contains a direct link, and links count as votes in the eyes of search engines.

I’ve given this post the ‘asterisk of special importance’. In an age where Google has largely replaced libraries as a source of information a huge number of young people must click on that site when researching homework and projects and the like. Hopefully most will be able to understand the motives of the website, but I fear a lot won’t.

Posted by Dave at 1:14 pm on November 21, 2006 and filed under Blogging, Links: bloggers.

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Part three in a hastily thrown together selection of links.

People who don’t do their drawings on paper:

indexed
Graph-like things on index cards.

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"
Hugh draws on the back of business cards. (His work may contain strong language at times.)

gapingvoid: how to be creative
Hugh’s ‘how to be creative’, his best selling blog post I think.

Posted by Dave at 6:22 am on October 26, 2006 and filed under Cartooning, Links: bloggers.

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A hastily thrown-together set of links.

We’re going away for a few days and so I’m just going to leave some links in the fridge for you to heat up. They are all of the vague theme of ‘being creative’.

Nick Page » Ideas and Creativity
Nick has written lots of books, mostly Christian sort of ones I think. This is where he answers the ‘where do your ideas come from?’ question.

DaveJeffery.com: Top 10 Creativity boosters
More ideas for getting ideas.

Posted by Dave at 6:00 am on October 24, 2006 and filed under Art, Links: bloggers.

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I am waiting for the opportunity to have lunch to arrive. In the meantime, various things I’ve read on blogs of a vaguely Christian persuasion over the last few days:

• Tractorgirl is coming around (in this post) to the view that the best blogs are not the “more oft read, better written ones”. She cites “Fineline’s journey into a new community and particularly into finding and experiencing a new church” as one such example. Interesting points. I think, by the way, that Tractorgirl’s wiblog is one of our very good and yet largely undiscovered Wiblogs, of which we have a number. Um… I love them all of course…
• Both Maggi Dawn and Ruth Gledhill have picked up on the Mad Priest’s blog today. His latest scheme is to invite nominations to be female bishops based upon their looks. Oooh, he’s a cheeky rascal that Mad Priest.
• Simon Says… says that the word ‘postmodern’ is one that Christians should stop using. I am in agreement with this. I’m going to start a book of things I’m in agreement with and put this in it.
• On a more serious note, Gerard Kelly’s tribute to the great writer and perfomer Rob Lacey. I know, I’m months behind on this, but I only found it the other day.

Posted by Dave at 1:35 pm on July 21, 2006 and filed under Blogging, Links: bloggers.

3 Comments

Various blogging goings-on:

Andrew the Tallskinnykiwi has picked up on our Wibsite Flannelgraph Season cartoons. I think we did them in about 2003. Good fun it was too. I know I am moving house and trying to downsize and get rid of stuff, but a full flannelgraph set is the one exception to the rule. I’d be very happy if I had my own.

Talking of Andrew, I notice from the comments that he says “i am still not sure whether to retire this blog or not”. If like me you enjoy reading the Tall Skinny Kiwi blog why not go over there and impart words of upliftment in the comments.

Meanwhile Paul is selling his Alternative Service Book on ebay (See
eBay.co.uk: The Alternative Service Book 1980 (used)). The sudden worldwide demand for ASBs is all Dyfrig’s fault – though I must take my share of the blame too.

Posted by Dave at 11:32 pm on June 13, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Links: bloggers.

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Refrains. Sweet mother of Vernon, I KNOW these are traditional parts of Christian public worship, but has anybody actually sat down and thought about what’s the point of them? Seriously.

Dyfrig goes back to the ASB.

(The ASB – the The Alternative Service Book 1980, now superseded by Common Worship as the book us Anglicans use for services and the like.)

Update: Maggi agrees.

Posted by Dave at 6:19 pm on June 12, 2006 and filed under Anglican goings-on, Links: bloggers.

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So says Tim Worstall. Also a previous post ‘Recycling Rubbish‘.

As I see it the flaw in Tim’s argument is that he measures everything in economic terms. Call me old fashioned, but perhaps there are some things in life that cannot be measured by their monetary value.

Posted by Dave at 11:45 am on May 18, 2006 and filed under Environment, Links: bloggers.

3 Comments

I’ve been speaking to the government in Southend this morning. Hence no time for cartoons, but here are some links I’ve found over the last few days:

The Dilbert Blog: Non Prophet Organization
Dilbert creator Scott Adams wants to know why Christians don’t become Muslims. How do we choose which prophets to believe?

Cut N Spray » Maya’s good friday
Great stencil art on a church door, found via Jonny Baker. Contains strong language.

Nouslife: Alcohol and depression
Andii has thoughts on why alcohol isn’t great as a depression remedy.

Map Gallery of Religion in the United States
These maps of religions in the USA have been floating around a few blogs for a week or two now. See religious adherents and church bodies in particular. Fascinating.

TallSkinnyKiwi: Emerjeans
“Its a good idea . . . but a little on the sexist side – what about the men?”

Posted by Dave at 2:46 pm on April 19, 2006 and filed under Links: bloggers.

2 Comments

I have been overwhelmed by the interest shown in my parsnip post. Some superb-looking recipes. Thank you. Usually (looking down my list of blog posts) I have to do something like announce I am getting married to get so many comments.

With this level of interest it is clear that parsnips are a subject upon which many of you hold an opinion and one that you are not ashamed to make known to the world. I’ve therefore posted some free parsnip images below the fold that you’d be most welcome to use on your blogs.

Thanks to Maggi for raising awareness of my parsnip plight on her top Anglican blog. [By the way, I assume you saw her post 'Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained'. I thought you had.]

Click ‘read the rest of this entry’ for the parsnip images along with code you can paste in.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Dave at 1:15 pm on March 29, 2006 and filed under Household hints, Links: bloggers.

8 Comments

Ken is one of our newest bloggers on Wibsite.com. He wanders around cities for recreational amusement:

This is all going to sound very nerdish and very unlike what most people think is fun, but I walk (or cycle) round cities for fun. I’ve been doing it for decades. I fill in my copy of the AtoZ so I know where I’ve been. I now have eleven A to Zs of London. And a couple each of Newcastle and Glasgow and Manchester, three or four street atlases of Brighton, and one-off maps of at least a dozen other towns, all with yellow lines of felt-tip pen filling in the streets I’ve walked on. I must be the only person in the world who thought that the day the A to Z company moved to coloured maps was a disaster. These days, with cheap(ish) digital cameras I even take quite a lot of photos. And (I’m really sorry about this) I take notes. In a little notebook.

No need for shame Ken. Diamond Geezer (a blogging example to us all) has, one suspects, been wandering around London taking pictures and writing things down in notebooks for years. Don’t know about drawing lines on the A-Z though.

Keep an eye on The view from Nunhead Station for more of Ken’s travels.

Posted by Dave at 7:00 am on March 25, 2006 and filed under Links: bloggers.

3 Comments

Thanks to M, Chris, Smudgie, Neil, Chas, Richard, Dave, Serena, Judah, Mike, Ian, Barrie and John for being among the first to use a cartoon from We Blog Cartoons. I suspect I have missed some people, but the stats take a day to come through and the various search engines only tell you so much.

I think Barrie puts it well:

I have posted this because I’d like to help him out, I read his blog every day and it always makes me think – although sometimes it makes me think ‘Why do I read this evey day?’

Good point Barrie.

Posted by Dave at 7:38 pm on March 24, 2006 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Cartooning, Links: bloggers.

4 Comments

How unimportant they are etc

Obviously rankings in blog charts don’t really matter and are entirely unimportant. In this post I will be looking at some of the charts that exist and demonstrating by my non-interest in them how I have no desire to be included amongst their lofty ranks.

• I was semi-interested to see that the Cartoon Blog has made it into the lower reaches Top of the British Blogs chart. This is calculated using a highly secret algorithm and I hardly had to bribe anyone at all.

• Another ranking system is the Technorati Popular Blogs chart. Currently one needs about 2500 sites to link to you to make it into the top 100, so it isn’t a particularly attainable goal. The Cartoon Blog is currently ranked 15625 out of 29.5 million which I suppose isn’t too bad. Not that it matters of course.

• The latest ranking list on the Technorati site is the ‘Most Favorited‘ list. ‘Favorited’. Hmmm. Currently one only needs to have 16 friends add your blog to their Technorati ‘favorites’ list to be included. Obviously if I was interested in blog rankings this would be a great thing to be included in. 16 people. I know 16 people.

The following button is just there for display purposes.

Update: Is it a bit sad to add your own blog to your own favorites list? I thought so.

I’ve also added Simon (demonstrating that my votes can be bought) along with others like Hugh and Darren who in my book deserve an extra little boost inside the top 20 ‘most favorited’ list.

I’d like to emphasise that I still see this ranking business as being wholly unimportant. Thank you.

Posted by Dave at 10:16 am on March 7, 2006 and filed under Blogging, Links: bloggers, Technical.

1 Comment