Blog Summit to be Live Blogged
Waukesha - Wisconsin area bloggers have apparently entered an introspective stage in the lead up to the first annual Blog Summit to be held here in Waukesha this weekend. There has been a notable uptick in blog posts related to the subject of blogging ever since the Summit was announced.
The bloated ranks of speakers and panelists continues to hemorrhage as several bloggers blogged about their feelings on the diversity of the individuals on the agenda. With blogs bringing about a semi-public status to certain individuals and giving them a feeling of credibility and even celebrity, they are now eager to scratch this itch with a more traditional public forum.
Not willing to shirk their ideas, however, several blogs have pledged to live blog the Blog Summit. Right off the Shore came out first, promising to offer comments throughout the day. Letters in Bottles upped the ante, promising a live blog with no more than 10 minutes between posts. While Owen from Boots & Sabers is on the panel, Jed will be live blogging to Boots & Sabers from the audience.
The Recess Supervisor was excited saying, "The live blogging will probably be much more interesting than anything anyone has to say. These people are blogging for a reason; I can't imagine they'll be very good at public speaking."
Dennis York thinks it will be quite useful for anything Jessica McBride has to say. McBride has noted that she is going to stay the course of her blog, not allowing for any questions or comments to her remarks. Instead, it will be left to the live bloggers to offer feedback, which McBride will be reading with her laptop while on the panel, then allowing her to respond in person in real-time to anything any of the live bloggers have said.
Jeff Mayers from WisPolitics has expressed some concern over the trend. "I am worried that everyone might resort to reading and posting to their blogs while we cease any and all conversation. The only difference between any other day and our blogging would be the fact that we'll be sitting in the same room."
State Representative Mark Pocan will likely provide the first fluke of the event, quickly approaching Elliot Stearns and asking him if he's seen Murderball under the assumption that he is a liberal.
Some have expressed disappointment in the event due to some notable absences. Ragnar Mentaire has said he won't attend due to Bill Christofferson's vacation. "I was hoping to see Bill and Sykes duke it out a la Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly at that one panel discussion, but with Bill out of town I just don't see any reason to attend."
Others have said that it was a poor excuse for Ragnar and that he just didn't want to give away his identity. And while the Recess Supervisor has expressed interest, other anonymous bloggers like Max Power are not planning to attend.
This has lead to some minor outcries, with accusations that anonymous bloggers are hiding something and are not credible bloggers. Power responded saying, "if anyone wants to question my credibility I would simply refer them to my post on Government Choice as a sample of my infallible and hard-hitting blog. Besides, most of us already know the identity of many of these anonymous bloggers."
The first of its kind in Wisconsin, no one really knows how this is going to go off in the end. In the meantime, Max Power is urging people to stay tuned to his blog, where he will be live blogging about the live blogging at the Blog Summit. "I hope to bring to the people a bloggers perspective on the bloggers perspective on the Summit."
Until the Summit, one can only expect a continued uptick in the number of blogs inanely blogging about blogging and the blog summit.
posted by Max Power at 10:18 AM
3 Comments:
Ignorance is apparently bliss at the Wisconion. Do a google search on nuclear suitcase and get an education.
I'll await your apology.
8:29 PM
Okay Max, I'll even do the research for you.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76990,00.html
Who Has Them?
Usama Bin Laden allegedly has already purchased a number of nuclear suitcase bombs from Chechen organized crime groups and there have been reports that he has backpack bombs.
Some nuclear suitcase bombs may have been developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There is a fear that some of the devices may be sold to terrorists. Russian scientists have testified they are "absolutely sure" suitcase bombs were created, though the Russian government has steadfastly denied their existence.
Former Russian National Security Adviser Alexandr Lebed in 1997 alleged that up to 100 portable bombs that looked like suitcases were unaccounted for since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. He said the devices have an explosive capacity of one kiloton — the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT — and could be activated by a single person, killing as many as 100,000 people.
11:42 AM
Ragnar,
Using Fox News as your source is not a great way to engage a hippie, liberal, granola-eating, tree-hugger like myself; but I'll play your game.
Let's review from Fox News:
Briefcase Bomb Yield: 10-20 tons, or 0.01-0.02 kilotons
Backpack Bomb Yield: 3-5 kilotons
It appears the reason for a large difference is an a-bomb needs a larger sphearical shape for a larger blast. A briefcase has a very narrow depth, putting a limit on the sphearical size of the core. A backpack, however, can have a much larger core.
For reference:
Nagasaki: 20 kilotons; Deaths: 70,000
Finally, I also found this here through the wonders of google.
If a bomb in the 10- to 20-kiloton range (the likeliest terrorist bomb) were to be exploded near ground level or in a ship in the harbour, the areas of blast, heat, and burn damage would be much smaller, perhaps reaching out to only one-tenth of the distances estimated for the one-megaton air-burst. The numbers of immediately killed and severely injured people would be counted in thousands, not hundreds of thousands.
Exploded on land, the bomb would vaporize all people and buildings in the immediate vicinity, and make a crater that might be as much as one hundred metres in diameter. If in the harbour, there would be a crater in the harbour floor and a tidal wave. The outstanding feature would be a radioactive downpour because much of the water in the harbour would be made radioactive and thrown high into the air as fine and coarse spray.
The explosion at ground level of this type of bomb would probably not cause a firestorm, so rescue operations for the injured might have some degree of success.
Now let's look at what you said:
A briefcase size device would be enough to destroy New York City, killing millions in one stroke
So no, I will not apologize. I am standing by my decision to accuse you of greatly exaggerating something for the purpose of striking fear into people.
A briefcase size device would be lucky to wreak havoc on a single city block at 0.01-0.02 kilotons. A backpack device as described by Fox News at 3-5 kilotons would be smaller than anything we've ever seen, and it would kill people in the thousands, not hundreds of thousands and certainly not millions as you suggest.
Do your research and pick your words more carefully. There is a big difference between saying "thousands could die" and saying "millions could die."
4:04 PM
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