Mitch has a column at Red Herring alerting us to the Bush administration’s opening shovel-loads in its undermining of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yes, I’m confused by the issue also. That’s why I’m recommending Mitch’s column…

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I’m looking forward to the second BloggerCon.

In announcing it, Dave says he’s going to ask each of the moderators to work “Nuking the Echo Chamber” into the discussion. Dave asks: “How do we methodically and systematically overcome the tendency for echo chambers to form and self-perpetuate?” I’m still stuck on the prior question: Are there echo chambers? Are they what we think they are? Are they common? Does their existence mean that participants have closed their minds, or are they conversations that serve a different, but legitimate, social purpose?

What I liked most about last year’s BloggerCon was that it brought together a great bunch of people who shared an enthusiasm for blogging. A conference devoted to openly debating the topic “Blogs: Pro and Con” might also be useful, but it wouldn’t diminish the value of BloggerCon. We believers need a chance to get together, too. Sure, BloggerCon permits contrary points of view, but it’s distinguishable from the “Pro or Con” conference in tone and topic. And that’s a good thing. BloggerCon helps build community and advance thought by letting us be passionate, without having to back off, argue for fundamental principles with which we already agree, and persuade others of the legitimacy of our enthusiasm.

That’s exactly what many alleged “echo chambers” do. And it is not only a good thing but is a requirement for building social groups.

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Some folks have started a futurist/singularity/cosmic sort of blog. I’m not much of a believer in the thought-is-software idea and have only achieved enlightment a couple of times in my life and then it came in the form of a pill, but the site is lively in the Bucky way and is full of colorful illustrations.

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I’ll be on the road through Wednesday, researching an article for Wired on how we end-users are going to find the snapshots we’re looking for when we each have 25,000+ photos on our desktops.

I’m leaving tonight to visit Corbis on Monday. They have a few million photos, so they’ve given this issue some thought. I’m particularly interested in how they create and manage the taxonomies and other metadata.

Then, after traveling all day Tuesday, I’ll spend most of Wednesday in the Iron Mountain hole in the ground where Corbis stores its prints and negatives.

The article is not about Corbis, though. Corbis, I hope, will give a way into some of the issues. I’ve already spoken with a bunch o’ folks about what’s going on in this field. If you know of someone I should talk with about how we’re going to manage the oceans of digital photos we’ll be storing, let me know…

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Excuse me, but technically speaking, aren’t bees animals and doesn’t beeswax come from one end of the bee or another?

And while I’m on the topic, when the movie credits boast “No animals were harmed in the making of this movie,” does that mean that they served only vegetarian food to the cast?

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Denounce.com updates the discovery that if you tilt Pepsi bottles just right, you can see if they’re winners in the iTunes contest.

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Salon this morning is running an article of mine about the “echo chamber” meme, i.e., the idea that the Net encourages members of groups to listen only to their own opinions. I think it’s a confused meme that diverts attention from the real echo chambers, beginning with the mainstream media.

And then there’s the extreme case of a president who doesn’t even read the newspapers:

I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. … I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves. … And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world.”

Joe Conason points out that maybe this is why the President thinks we invaded Iraq because Hussein wouldn’t let inspectors in, that he (W) has been cutting discretionary spending more than Clinton did, and that his new budget “cuts the deficit in half in five years.”

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Am I proud that I find this about Osama and this about razor blades funny? Nah. But I might as well admit that I sort of like this, too:

Iowa Resident Has Opinion Month Too Late
STORM LAKE, IA—Four weeks after the Iowa Democratic caucus, livestock farmer Darryl Welch, 48, expressed an informed opinion about the candidates Monday. “I like what John Edwards says about rebuilding international alliances to fight terror, but I think some of the programs he supports would mean higher taxes,” Welch said Monday. “I wish I’d have said that to all those AP reporters, instead of telling them that I didn’t know who I wanted to vote for yet.” Unfortunately, Welch’s opinions will not be relevant for another three years and 11 months.

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Via BoingBoing comes this timely meme from a Twin Cities blog: Send a bouquet of flowers to one of the gay couples getting married in San Francisco. Flowers on the Bay will deliver your bouquet to a random couple. Anonymity seems to go both ways in this case, so it’s suggested that cards say, “With love, from Boston, Massachusetts.” “Call it The Big Gay Bouquet call it Flowers from the Heartland. Call it whatever you want, but help us get this off the ground. ”

I called Flowers on the Bay (1 888 217 9119) but the line was busy. They just called back and recommended Mariner & Co. flowers at 800-797-7744. It’ll cost you about $50.00. Mariner alone is doing 30-50 deliveries a day. “It’s just fantastic,” says the very nice woman at the store.

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Scoble writes about his Corporate Weblog Manifesto. Good stuff. (Via Doc via Loic.)

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