So over at Long story; short pier today there are two posts that get me thinking. First - a link through to Momus on photoblogging - just a taste:

You may be a brilliant writer, like Ian Penman, and you may have a blog stuffed with lively wordplay and interesting opinions. But the world is already full of opinions, of commentaries on commentaries, glosses on glosses, and spins on spins. Photos, in a world where the word-snake dines on its own tail, give me hope. Maybe photos can break the ever-narrowing vicious circles of language. Break them with textures, colours, forms; the peculiarly irreducible specificities of the visual world.

That was Momus. I have not thought about this yet - I mean, I think two things when I see that - I think, good lord, it's 1903! and I think, I like that. I hope I come back to it.

And below this, another post, this by Kip, the writer of Long story; short pier.

The samizdata fuck-off.

The FCC, defying the will of 98% of the thousands upon thousands of Americans who wrote and faxed and emailed and overloaded their phone systems, has voted to ease the rules restricting media ownership. “Our actions will advance our goals of diversity and localism,” is the money quote from FCC Chairman Michael Powell. Yeah. And bank mergers have ever and always been about better service and cutting costs.

Orwell fatigue’s setting in.

Yes it is.

This was a foregone conclusion, of course. As are the justifications, the money quote - "advance the goals of diversity and localism" - the....

My head hurts.

I don't have anything to add. What Kip says, I like that.