Saturday, February 28, 2009

RELAXING CAT

Morris the cat is taking a nap in a comfy chair.



I am relaxing after a great interview with Scott Holleran. The podcast will be up on Solid Vox next week.

Friday, February 27, 2009

NEW AMERICAN TEA PARTY

Have you attended a tea party lately? It is interesting to see some placards with text messages ("Atlas Shrugs, Atlas is Shrugging") that are referring to Ayn Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged. Here is an excerpt from Robert Tracinski's article, The Ayn Rand Factor In the Santelli Revolt. [Via Randex.]

In defending his stance against the bailouts, Rick Santelli referred to himself as an "Ayn Rander"—a reference to the great 20th-century novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, who is most famous for her ideological defense of laissez-faire capitalism. Similar references seem to be lurking behind nearly every expression of resistance to big government. Rush Limbaugh—whose coining of the term "porkulus" helped galvanize the right's resistance to the so-called "stimulus" bill—has frequently recommended Ayn Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged in recent months, as has conservative talk show host Glenn Beck. (RealClearMarkets, February 27, 2009.)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT

Google has now changed the widget under the section "EGO followers" to their own Friend Connect. Talking about Google, check out their new blog, Google Social Web Blog. [Via ReadWriteWeb.]

Related: My post, BLOGS I FOLLOW.

SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATE

Here is an excerpt from Michael T. Hull's story, Hawaii Small Business Advocate Leaves U.S. Small Business Administration [Via Randex.]:

There are over 27 million small businesses in this country. During these economic times, they will produce 100% of the net new jobs in the economy. We need to continue to be vigilant to ensure that policymakers understand the importance of small business to the economy and continue to hold out hope that we go more in the direction of creating a Galt’s Gulch (from Atlas Shrugged) rather than the opposite. (Hawaii Reporter, February 25, 2009.)


Related: My post, TIME TO GO ON STRIKE?

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT HOLLERAN

Stay tuned for the start of a new series of podcast interviews on Solid Vox. I will interview Scott Holleran on Friday, February 27, at 2 PM Pacific Time (Los Angeles) / 11 PM Central European Time (Gothenburg, Sweden) / 9 AM Melbourne time, Saturday.

Please feel free to send me questions for Scott Holleran and suggestions for future guests.

MIDWEEK 9 POST

I will try to stick to a regular posting schedule by designating every day with a specific topic / theme / category. I want to do this in order to get some guidance and support for my blogging. But I have to "warn" you that the publishing of posts will still be pretty flexible due the situation on a particular day.

I will start to send entries to the Objectivist Roundup again. I will continue to participate in the Friday Ark with photos of Morris the cat and sending yummy stuff to the Carnival of the Recipes. Yesterday was Pancake Day in America and here in Sweden you eat something called "semla".


Real Lent food: Semla and a cup of tea.

Talking about tea, read Roger Kimball's post, My favorite American, on Rick Santelli.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

EGO ON POSTEROUS

I have created an account on Posterous. [Hat tip to: RizzoTees.] I will test it out together with Tumblr and then probably start using one of the sites as my new start & homepage. I will look into to use Scrapplet later on in the future.

In the news:

STIMULUS PLAN AND TAX PAYERS CARTOON

Economic Recovery Explained...

STARBUCKS VERSUS STARCUPS

I wonder if Starbucks is preparing to enter the Swedish market in the near future? The company has started a lawsuit against a local coffee place in Gothenburg, Sweden, called Starcups. Our meeting place for entrepreneurs and business minded individuals, Blue Chip Café & Business Center, was located close to Starcups.

In the news: Starbucks sues to shutter Gothenburg's Starcups café - The Local.

In its lawsuit, Starbucks alleges that its name and Starcups “sound nearly identical” and that the logo Najafpour has chosen for his café is strikingly similar to the Starbucks trademark.

The choice of the Starcups name as well as Najafpour's decision to have a round, green Starcups logo can hardly be a coincidence, Starbucks claims. (The Local, February 23, 2009.)

Monday, February 23, 2009

POLITICUS SHIITAKE

This is shiitake!

  • I know a person who has been fighting against the Swedish Migration Board's irrational and immoral decision for many years. It is a death "sentence" if they throw out this individual out of the country and send the person back to the "homeland"... We have been in contact with media, politicians and others in order to raise awareness of this case. The person has had a small business operation for a long time and has created work for several Swedish citizens.



Please give me your examples of today's politics.

Related: My post, IMMIGRATION POLICY, WINE FREEDOM WEBLOG and MARK CUBAN AND INSIDER TRADING.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

ATLANTIS ON GOOGLE EARTH?

Have they located Atlantis on Google Earth? Technically Incorrect Chris Matyszczyk says:

Yet some who have seen it on Google Earth believe that this could be, yes, finally, no, unequivocally the lost city of Atlantis. A city where no one ever dies, everyone partakes of libidinous orgies from dusk till dawn, Bobby Ewing hangs out, and the property taxes never rise above $500. (CNET News, February 20, 2009.)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

CREPE WITH BLUEBERRIES

I found a recipe for (sweet almond) crêpes filled with blueberries and mascarpone cream cheese on a box of blueberries from an ICA grocery store. I have decided to use the "pancake" (crepe) recipe from my post, PALACSINTA BY GUNDEL and then use the filling recipe from the grocery store.

  • 250 gr. (8.8 oz) of blueberries.
  • 150 gr. (5.3 oz) of mascarpone cream cheese.
  • 1/2 dl (3.4 tablespoons) confectioner's sugar.
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla-flavoured sugar.

Flavor the mascarpone cream cheese with confectioner's sugar and vanilla-flavoured sugar. Add the blueberries to the cream and mix the ingredients together. Put the filling on the crepe and roll it as "cone" and then powder a little confectioner's sugar on it.



I had a glass of dessert wine with the crepes.

CHICAGO TEA PARTY

Rick Santelli is inviting you to a tea party in Chicago. [Hat tip to: @SmallBizTrends.] Are you coming? For more information, read Michelle Malkin's post, Tea Party U.S.A.: The movement grows.

Related: My posts, BOSTON TEA PARTY 1773 and IS THE MOB RULING CHICAGO?

CAT BLOGGER LOOKING AT THE DATA

Here is one reason why haven't been blogging for some days. Morris the cat has occupied the workspace and is stretching out all over the keyboard. I am not sure how he is predicting the future, but maybe you would find my new piece (The Challenge In Forecasting - Looking at the Right Data) on Open Forum a tad interesting in today's situation...

STOP THE MONKEY BUSINESS

What do you think about this cartoon by Sean Delonas, published on February 18, 2009, in the New York Post?


Image source: New York Post, February 18, 2009.

OK, time to cut out the monkey business and go to work... I will post a cat blog post soon!

Related: My post, MIND YOUR LANGUAGE.

Monday, February 16, 2009

BOOKS AND PRESIDENTS

I will start to use Plinky in order to get inspiration for a new "open thread" post in the beginning of the week.


It was my introduction to Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism.



Please tell me about your "eye opener" book!

How did you celebrate Presidents' Day (President's Day, if you mean Washington's birthday.)?

Please read my post, AMERICA'S BEST AND WORST PRESIDENTS, and then give me your suggestions on books on your favorite presidents. Have you read Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House by William J. Bennett?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

TIME TO SPICE IT UP

It is time to spice things up and buy chile pepper seeds for the new season.

In the news: America's love affair with chili peppers grows hotter. The Seattle Times.

Please send me your hottest recipes with chile pepper! Go to my other blog if you want to see some spicy pictures!

VALENTINE AND PINK CHADDI

How did you celebrate Saint Valentine's Day? I hope the "Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women" had a jolly good time, sending pink chaddis to Pramod Muthalik...

Next year, you should be able to buy a special gift for your Valentine. I will tell you more in the near future... I think the product has a great market potential.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

ADS POPPING UP

After reading the article in NewsWeek, Time to Hang Up the Pajamas, you could wonder if it is any use to try to to earn money from your blogging. [Editor's comment: Maybe Daniel Lyons, a.k.a "Fake Steve Jobs", landed some other writing gigs?] Here is an excerpt from the article:

I rationalized this insane behavior by telling myself that at the end of this rainbow I would find a huge pot of gold. But reality kept interfering with this fantasy. My first epiphany occurred in August 2007, when The New York Times ran a story revealing my identity, which until then I'd kept secret. On that day more than 500,000 people hit my site—by far the biggest day I'd ever had—and through Google's AdSense program I earned about a hundred bucks. Over the course of that entire month, in which my site was visited by 1.5 million people, I earned a whopping total of $1,039.81. Soon after this I struck an advertising deal that paid better wages. But I never made enough to quit my day job. Eventually I shut down—not for financial reasons, but because Steve Jobs appeared to be in poor health. I walked away feeling burned out and weighing 20 pounds more than when I started. I also came away with a sneaking suspicion that while blogs can do many wonderful things, generating huge amounts of money isn't one of them. (NewsWeek, Growing Rich by Blogging Is a High-Tech Fairy Tale, February 7, 2009.)


And here is my comment on the article:

Posted By: lyceum1776 @ 02/11/2009 10:32:18 AM

Interesting story. Did it not feel strange to blog as a "copy" of Steve Jobs? I think you could make money on advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsorship and in other ways. I am a "poor" capitalist at the moment, but I enjoy my blogging and it has lead to great things, in a material & spiritual way. With my experience and increased knowledge how social media is working, I could create workshops, engage in consulting projects and the spread the good word.

All the Best,

Martin Lindeskog - American in spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.
EGO blog - http://egoist.blogspot.com


I will test a mix of different advertising options and evaluate them during some time. My goal is to continue to build up the traffic to my EGO blog, publish interesting, enjoyable and valuable content and continue the conversation and exchange of ideas with my fellow bloggers, readers, and friends through this blog, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, LinkdedIn, etc.

I am especially interested in fostering my relation with BlogAds ("Blog advertising makes opinion.") and see if I could attract some new advertisers. I will place an ad on a blog sometime in the future. I will see if some of my future guests on my podcast show on SolidVox could be interested in advertising on EGO.

I am thinking of adding a "featured item" section on my blog, with books that I have discussed on my blog.

It will be interesting to see how it works out with the new premium ad feature by Chitika. Here are the latest "search engine visitors" coming to my blog:


If you are interested in how to produce free leads, using Google Adwords, check out this video by Mike Dillard. If you want, you could buy a designated Chitika ad space, directly from me. At the moment, I have an Alexa ranking of 467,918.

I am not allowed to encourage my readers to click on the ads provided by Google. I let my visitors to decide when to click or not... Please note that I don't control how the contextual ads come about and I haven't installed any "filter" to my Google AdSense account at the moment, blocking advertisements from certain URLs. As an example, I wonder why ads by Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology is popping up now and then, but what the heck: "Let 'em pay!"

Here is an excerpt from Mike Rosen-Molina's post, Project Wonderful, Blogads, FM Go Beyond Click-Through Ads:

Click-through ads remain the most familiar form of Internet advertising to most websurfers. Most ad services, including Google's AdSense, still operate primarily on this model. Unfortunately, the click is plagued by the potential for fraud, as some site owners resort to multi-clicking their own ads or setting up bots to do so for them. (You can see Google has tried to address in its terms of service agreement, which, for example, admonishes site owners against directing readers to click on the ads.) ...

"There's an industrywide discussion about the value of the click -- both how we're recording clicks and how successful it is," said Matt DiPietro, Marketing Manager for FM Publishing, one of several ad services pioneering alternatives to the click. "It's essentially the way that marketers have been trained to think of the market online, but it's something that's evolving as we speak."

If advertisers want to attract customers and bloggers want to make some money, it would behoove both sides to look for something beyond the click-through. But what else is there? At least a few companies have come up with some ideas. (PBS MediaShift, November 21, 2008.)


You could support my blogging in an easy way, subscribe to free trade publications! For example, check out Website Magazine. [Editor's note: International readers could perhaps use a new version of a postal service like a forwarding service provider.]

Please participate in the new poll, Support EGO by:

  • Checking out ads?
  • Placing your ads?
  • Sending donations?
  • Sponsorship?
  • Shopping @ EGO stores?

Scroll down the page and look at the bottom (right column). [Editor's note: Thanks for your participation and support! The poll will be up until my birthday, May 25.]

...and now a word from Donald Trump.

Friday, February 13, 2009

CAT IN THE BAG

I am borrowing my mother's Pentax Optio A40 digital camera. I had to get started with catblogging again! :)



Check out Friday Ark #230 at The Modulator.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

PRAISE DARWIN

What do you think of this kind of X-mas celebration in Whitehall, Ohio?


Image source: Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc.

Related: My post, CHARLES DARWIN 200 IN 6 DAYS.

MIDWEEK 7 WRAP

Time for a wrap of links. [Editor's comment: Talking about wraps, I look forward to test a burrito wrap at Chipotle Mexican Grill...]

Keeping up with prompts by Grant of Plinky. [Editor's note: I have a profile on Plinky.]

Via Gus Van Horn's post, Quick Roundup 402:




You Are a Whiteboard



You are a dreamer, a visionary, and a straight up idea person. You are very creative.

Even if the things you think up are a bit wacky, they often are brilliant.



You are an adept problem solver. You are always tossing around dozens of ideas.

You would make a good artist, designer, or architect. You do best when work feels like play.



[Editor's comment: I am a "crazymaker / visionary"! What do you think about the movie, Office Space?]

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

AMAZON KINDLE 2

I have added the new Kindle 2.0 to my wish list on Amazon. What are you reading on your Kindle at the moment? What do you want to read in the future? [Editor's comment: Maybe you could read EGO on Kindle in the future?] I have added the Kindle version of The Objective Standard: Winter 2008-2009, Vol. 3, No. 4, under the Resources section. Click on the "+ ADD TO amazon kindle" button.

Reading material on Kindle 2.0:


Monday, February 9, 2009

VOICES FOR REASON

Check out Ayn Rand Center's new blog, Voices for Reason. Here is an excerpt from Debi Ghate's post, Welcome to Voices for Reason:

Hello, I’m Debi Ghate, Vice President of Academic Programs. The team of ARC writers and I are excited that our new blog, “Voices for Reason” is now up and running.Visit us often as we’ll be sharing our take on today’s most pressing questions, and bringing other items of potential interest to our readers. It’s our goal to make VFR the go-to source for anyone interested in promoting and protecting individual rights, and for getting ARI’s unique perspective on the state of our culture. Every week day, we’ll be posting new commentary–on topics such as the financial crisis, environmentalism, foreign policy, free speech, property rights–commentary informed by Ayn Rand’s distinctive philosophical system, Objectivism. We’ll also be exploring what principled solutions Objectivism offers for tackling today’s political, economic and cultural problems. (blog.aynrandcenter.org, February 9, 2009.)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

SUBNOTEBOOK

I have got an offer to participate in a new business venture that will involve an article of clothing which convey a special type of information to the contemplator. We will create a network of sites and online stores. The commissioning body will let me use the subnotebook, ASUS Eee PC, for this initial start-up phase.

Related: My post, OPEN THREAD POST: LAPTOP, THINKPAD, NOTEBOOK ETC.

FELINE POST

I will start to engage in more cat blogging and carnivals when I get hold of a camera again.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

STAY TUNED

Prodos is working hard on getting the new Solid Vox studio up and running. Please stay tuned for new podcasts in the near future. John Cox, Jonathan Hoenig and Scott Holleran are booked for now.

Please feel free to send me questions for my guests and suggestions for future guests.

Stay tuned!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Thursday, February 5, 2009

SWEDISH CHEF SAID NO TO OBAMA

This is not really a Thor's (Thursday) day of thunder post, but here is a newsflash:

The Swedish star chef, Marcus Samuelsson, said no thanks to become Obama's White House chef. He said that the timing was not fitting his schedule and he wanted to concentrate on his business instead.

In the news:


Related my post, WHAT MUPPET ARE YOU?

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

WILL WORK FOR OLIVE

I got an email from ShoppingAds:

ShoppingAds is undergoing a revamping and in the process has redefined the requirements of quality and traffic volume for the publishers we work with. Due to this restructuring, we regret to inform you that we have had to deactivate your account moving forward.

Thank you kindly for your cooperation, and good luck with your future marketing endeavors.


So, I had to remove that ad space from the template.


Kirkwood

I will work for olives so I could add it to my Persian Lime Martin(i)! You could also pay for my services in precious metals, according to my post, SPONSOR AND SUPPORT EGO BLOG.


Blogger's Cycle

MIDWEEK 6 POST

Time for a midweek wrap:

Ayn Rand - Heroes of Capitalism.

Democracy Isn't Everything - Daily Dose of Reason.

Bailout of Keynesian Economics and Government - The New Clarion.

The End of American Civil Society? - Words by Woods.

Groundhog Day - John Cox.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

EGO TWINGLY BLOG PROFILE

Check out my profile on Twingly. EGO has a blogrank of 2 at the moment. You could do blog and microblog searches on Twingly.


Twingly Blog Search
ShowBlog=NO
blog:http://egoist.blogspot.com/ sort:inlinks
Most linked posts

DIGITAL CAMERA AND FLICKR

I still haven't got any new digital camera since it was stolen in 2006. I am using my mobile phone, but is has only a 1.3 mega pixel camera installed. I have added a Flickr badge on my blog. I am thinking of upgrading to a pro account. I have stored 197 photos at the moment. [Editor's note: Please give me suggestions on digital cameras and online photo services.]

Monday, February 2, 2009

PAJAMAS MEDIA AND BLOGADS

I have had Pajamas Media ads on my blog for a long time, but I took it down after I updated my template. At one point I earned some money but later on my blog didn't made the cut according to the new traffic requirements. My blog is belonging to the long tail of the blogosphere, as described in Justin Gardner's post, More On Pajamas Media Business Model:

Now, according to PJM’s own list of network bloggers, there are only 60 sites in the network. And probably only 20% of them hit that 1,000,000 impressions per quarter. Basically, a good rule of thumb is that you usually get 80% of your traffic from 20% of your posts/site/etc., so let’s just apply that reasoning here to PJM’s stated 29,000,000 cumulative impressions a month. (Donklephant, 02/02/09.)


Here are some other posts on the situation:


During the whole time, I kept my BlogAds space. Most of the PJ network bloggers signed exclusively up for ads served via Pajamas Media ad network, but according to the deal, you could keep your other advertising sources at a certain level, if you wanted. Here is my pitch on BlogAds:

Join the Second Renaissance! Reach international readers who are rational individuals and defenders of the Western world.


AYN RAND: BORN ON FEBRUARY 2, 1905

Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905. How will you commemorate her birthday? I think I will read a bit in the Facets of Ayn Rand by Mary Ann Sures & Charles Sures.

I am glad to see that Ayn Rand's birthday is listed on Birthday.se and BrainyHistory.

Related: My post, ATLAS SHRUGGED 1957.


Ayn Rand Centenary


Twingly Blog Search
"Ayn Rand"
microblog
Microblog search results for “"Ayn Rand"”

Sunday, February 1, 2009

POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVES

I have added a section with a sample of posts from the archives. I start out with listing my six annual blog reports. I will update the section now and then and rotate the list with new posts. I have now published 2320 posts. You are welcome to give me a list of your favorites.

THREE GOOD THINGS ON TWITTER

I think I could implement a system in order to write tweets on a regular basis. I will follow Jean Moroney's thinking tip and post three good things that happened during a day. I think that Diana Hsieh's suggestion to use Twitter for this matter is a splendid idea. You could read all the "good things" tweets if you do do a search on #GoodThing on Twitter.

SPONSOR AND SUPPORT EGO BLOG

I haven't become rich on my blogging yet, but I see great potential in this field in the long-run. I have gathered plenty of experience and knowledge of social media and the web (2.0?) during these 6+ years I have been publishing stuff in this electronic journal / weblog. My philosophical perspective has helped me to get a good grip of what's going on in the blogosphere. If you want to hire me for a talk / discussion / workshop or some other event on blogging and social media, please feel free to contact me by e-mail or via a social / business network, e.g. LinkedIn. As a "trader in matter & spirit," I am open to discuss different terms of exchange of values, i.e., delivery of service and payment. As a supporter of objective money, i.e., precious metals, my standard price is 1 kg / ~35.27 oz of silver (Ag) according to the buy rates at GoldMoney for a 1/2 working day (circa 4 hours, effective time).

In order to receive some monetary reward for my blogging, I have added several options for my readers, friends and supporters to show their appreciation in different ways:

Send a donation via PayPal. Scroll down to the bottom of the page (right column) and click on the "donate" button. I want to use John Cox's statement as an eloquent example on how to put it in a good way:

If you enjoy John's site, one way to encourage him is to make a donation via PayPal. It's money well spent and deeply appreciated. (www.JohnCoxArt.com)


Another way to give tip ("to insure performance") is to use TipJoy's service. I have set the micro-donation to the small amount of a quarter (25 cents). Want to buy me a cup of tea or coffee? Enter your e-mail address and click on the "tipjoy" button and you will keep EGO blogging! :)

You could also buy stuff from my wish list at Amazon. I have listed products that I can use as tools for my blogging, e.g., a digital voice recorder so I could store ideas and "note to self" tidbits, a camcorder for taking video clips on the move, and plenty of books for future reading.

If you want to become an EGO "ambassador" and walking "billboard," feel free to purchase stuff from my online stores. If you want to spread the good word, buy an EGO stamp and send a snail mail to a friend.

I don't think I will get rich on advertising, but I am happy to provide my readers with different products and services that could be of interest. I will write individual posts on the different advertising services. Please check them out!

Related: My posts, FREE TRADE PUBLICATIONS AND DOWNLOADS and BLOGGING AND ADVERTISING.