The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#1

Post by echair » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 3:21 PM UTC

The Curious History of the Kama Sutra
washingtonpost.com

Re: The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#2

Post by hobbs » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 5:41 PM UTC

Come again?

Re: The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#3

Post by jpeterson » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 5:47 PM UTC

There seems to be some governing dynamic at play here. Every social news site, regardless of its initial focus, eventually converges on sex, politics, and pictures of cats.

Re: The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#4

Post by fiaz » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 6:00 PM UTC

jpeterson wrote: post #3

There seems to be some governing dynamic at play here. Every social news site, regardless of its initial focus, eventually converges on sex, politics, and pictures of cats.

Indeed....a group is its own worst enemy:

http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

Re: The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#5

Post by marvin » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 6:48 PM UTC

What! I was tricked into upvoting this story around the 8th paragraph before I realized that this is nothing but a commercial for a fresh-from-print book. I expected that it was an article discussing the Kamasutra itself.

Call it what you will, but a book review that disguises itself as a genuine news story is dishonest, and I find it very annoying.

Re: The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#6

Post by hobbs » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 6:52 PM UTC

marvin wrote: post #5

What! I was tricked into upvoting this story around the 8th paragraph before I realized that this is nothing but a commercial for a fresh-from-print book. I expected that it was an article discussing the Kamasutra itself. Call it what you will, but a book review that disguises itself as a genuine news story is dishonest, and I find it very annoying.

http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Re: The Curious History of the Kama Sutra

#7

Post by josefresco » Thu, Jun 05, 2008, 9:10 PM UTC

hobbs wrote: post #6

marvin wrote: post #5

What! I was tricked into upvoting this story around the 8th paragraph before I realized that this is nothing but a commercial for a fresh-from-print book. I expected that it was an article discussing the Kamasutra itself. Call it what you will, but a book review that disguises itself as a genuine news story is dishonest, and I find it very annoying.

http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Excellent article and thanks for the link.

"PR people fear bloggers for the same reason readers like them. And that means there may be a struggle ahead. As this new kind of writing draws readers away from traditional media, we should be prepared for whatever PR mutates into to compensate. When I think how hard PR firms work to score press hits in the traditional media, I can't imagine they'll work any less hard to feed stories to bloggers, if they can figure out how."

That is why TC and Google (who both rely on the traditional PR/Media relationship) are so quick to bash concepts like PayPerPost which is basically what Paul is describing above, PPP provides direct access to the bloggers (no smoke and mirrors)