The Eclectic Chapbook

• Book Fair & more (5#) -

  Florida Book Review's live blogging compilation page
  of the Miami Book Fair 2009, including the panel on
  Urban Noir, which was the main focus of my interest:
  
  -- Almost halfway down the page at the Sunday, Nov. 15, 12: 28 PM timestamp, the Urban Noir material begins with Jamie [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:35am EST
  

• SoFlo: Buzzing & Biting (3#) -

  Cigar Buddies, The Dead Lady Lawyer &
  Something Gonna Bite You in the Butt . . .
  
  Sigmund Freud once said:
  "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
  
  True enough, but sometimes
  it isn't; and some folks live for that stuff.
  
  Sports columnist Dave Hyde shares his' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:43am EST
  

• Mez: Dark Contingency (5#) -

  Meredith Kercher Case -
  
  Rudy Guede has begun his appeal. Summations which will include the other two defendants, Knox and Sollecito, will begin Friday. This is the first time Guede has shared his story on the public record.
  
  "there's a black man in the house" ::bbc::
  [rather [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:09pm EST
  

• Fanciful News Alleged -

  Too Much Pistachio in Their Rose Water ?
  
  OFCOM is reportedly investigating Press TV, an overseas apparatus of Iran's current regime, which is based in an enchanted neighborhood of London, due to carping criticisms and finicky nitpicking by the British public about the channel "breaching accuracy and impartiality guidelines."
  [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 1:54am EST
  

• SoFlo: Press Clips (5#) -

  True Crime & Samizdat . . .
  
  An Intriguing Swap: A crime reporter from London is exchanging crime beats with a crime reporter from Baltimore, home of the hit TV show The Wire, according to reporter Dominic Ponsford.
  
  In Cuban Samizdat this weekend, The Miami Herald [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 12:43am EST
  

• SoFlo: When You Become Option Three (2#) -

  Scott Rothstein Case -
  
  A careful study of Special Agent Gillies' remarks at his press conference seems to suggest that there may have been some money laundering involved in this situation. That may not be what Gillies intended to imply; but that is what I have inferred, and it' [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 2:07pm EST
  

• SoFlo: Nothing Left But The Sizzle (5#) -

  Scott Rothstein Case -
  
  The story that people here are buzzing about; but his law firm PA was shuttled into terminal Chapter 11 today.
  
  The gossip currently circulating is about the Morocco connection. A new resort opened there called Mazagan, and speculation is rife that was Rothstein's' [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 7:12pm EST
  

• Iran: Net Control Squeeze (3#) -

  Recent Iranian state security agency message
  sent out in email to ISP internet providers in Iran:
  
  "Dear operator, you are currently operating illegally and against national interest in cyberspace and should you continue these activities you will be determined a criminal according to computer criminal laws and you will" [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:11am EST
  

• Havana's Cyber Sea Wall -

  Ted Henken, a professor at Baruch College is engaged in an academic study of the Cuban Blogosphere's development and its potential social implications, according to a Tuesday article in The Miami Herald written by Juan O Tamayo.
  
  No link to the article here because the newspaper's management now requires [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:07am EST
  

• Face Off in Tokyo -

  The Captured Creature . . .
  
  Japanese police have arrested the long-fugitive suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, in the murder of British language teacher Linsday Hawker whose naked body was found in a bathtub filled with sand two years ago.
  
  In the interim, he has undergone extensive cosmetic surgery to [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:03am EST
  

• Champions For Chumps? -

  Are our local mainstream metro-regional newspapers really the defenders of Democracy and the only things that stand between us and Dictatorship?
  
  Or . . . are they:
  
  "threats to democracy, championing the overdog, misrepresenting democratic choices, defending business, the police and local elites from those who seek to" [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 9:46pm EST
  

• SoFlo: Beaming Her Up -

  Scott Rothstein Case -
  
  COO Debra Villegas has been named in a lawsuit brought by William Scherer of Conrad & Scherer on behalf of client D3 Capital Club investors, alleging that she has been engaged in the scurrilous transfer of real estate properties for the purpose of shielding them [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 6:10am EST
  

• The Destiny of 9 November (4#) -

  Feeling torn between the broken glass and
  the broken wall? You shouldn't have to . . .
  
  Another file for the Life Can Be Complicated folder -
  
  One can't help feeling appalled at the success this project has enjoyed: the replacement of a somber day of solemn commemoration [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 5:11pm EST
  

• Bookish: Killing Our Stories? (9#) -

  Ben Macintyre tells us
  that the internet is killing storytelling.
  
  A provocative and worthwhile
  essay at the UK Times from Nov 5th.
  
  "The internet... does not really 'do' narrative."
  
  :: This link is iffy; or try this alternate.
  
  ******************************************
  # In an excerpt from [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 2:21am EST
  

• SoFlo: The Maybe Hustle (3#) -

  Scott Rothstein & Alias "Regret" . . .
  
  The colorful lawyer who dressed in Damon Runyonesque style and talked like he thought of himself as a comic book character has been in seclusion and out of the public eye since he returned to Florida. Meanwhile, the TD Bank [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 6:26pm EST
  

• Discovering Cuba -

  Our Neighbor, Yoani Sanchez . . .
  
  Word comes in today via our local 6-degrees community network that Cuban state security agents yesterday attempted to forcibly abduct our neighbor across the straits, Blogger Yoani Sanchez; and that when they couldn't push her into their vehicle, they beat her up.[...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 5:56pm EST
  

• SoFlo: Rothstein Case Goes Noir (2#) -

  The bank that held the supposedly missing millions says they intend to cooperate with authorities who are investigating the matter. The lawyer, Scott Rothstein, was operating an investment business on the side. TD Bank maintained the account for it, according to a report at the Sentinel.
  
  There's also' [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 7:10am EST
  

• SoFlo: Law Firm Upheaval -

  A prominent law firm in Fort Lauderdale has been the subject of many rumors, allegations, and speculations since the beginning of this week while the senior partner has been out of town.
  
  The law firm entity has now divorced the senior partner who supposedly returned today from Casablanca, Morocco.
  [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 11:49pm EST
  

• Vanity Cult Magazine -

  Neal Ungerleider reports that
  the Al Qaeda Cult is publishing magazines:
  
  "Issue 11 of Sada al-Malahim... a dense little bastard of a magazine, clocking in at 73 pages of text, graphics and basic-Pagemaker design."
  
  He seems surprised, but the cult also produces videos and a variety of cult [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 11:40pm EST
  

• Iran: Mind Swap -

  And only Atlas could perform such a feat . . .
  
  Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is planning to take control over all media, communications and information coming out of Iran. They expect to produce their own Alt-Universe version of News in the future.
  
  By spring, they intend to' [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 11:31pm EST
  

• Around The Net (4#) -

  Arab Bloggers from 19 countries
  are getting ready for a meetup in December.
  
  # Phantom town appearing on
  Google Maps and an explanation of sorts.
  
  # Megan Garber gives us the latest rundown on
  the WaPo Pundit Contest: it's in the Finalists phase.
  
  #' [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 8:46pm EST
  

• Mez: Two Years On (4#) -

  Meredith Kercher Murder Case -
  
  It's been two years since Meredith Kercher, a young university exchange student from south Metropolitan London, was savagely murdered in Perugia, Italy. And her family is hoping the case will come to an end soon.
  
  The trial often seemed to progress in a' [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 11:43pm EST
  

• Elusive Ghost Story (2#) -

  Remember the song Stella by Starlight ?
  
  Over the weekend, evidently, many people were disappointed to discover that they couldn't get a DVD version of the movie The Uninvited (1944) for Halloween.
  
  The movie is a classic ghost story and a real gem. Consequently, they are campaigning' [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 3:08pm EST
  

• SoFlo: Bookish Notes (4#) -

  It was a dark and stormy night . . .
  
  Got a juicy story or a cracking good yarn?
  
  All you need is a writing implement in good condition and the seat of your pants applied to the seat of your chair in front of it, because it's' [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 5:23pm EST