Dailyskew baseball and Skew.DailySkew.com

Just a quick update on two of DailySkew.com's sister sites:

Baseball.dailyskew.com has now graduated to Google Page Rank 3 and continues to improve with IZEA's RealRank daily thanks to Damian Hospital's daily steroid scandal coverage, Yankees Spring Training coverage, and Diamond Mind Baseball simulations. Damian is known for deconstructing MEDIA spin coverage.

Skew.DailySkew.com which was reduced to Page Rank 0 by Google due to advertising issues, has seen its RealRank slip daily (even with timely daily postings) until yesterday as a resurgence of Internet surfers hit the infamous Carmen Kontur Gronquist post which Damian wrote a while back in anticipation for a second wave of hits. What an overmind he is.

FYI- the average number of readers has not decreased, just the rankings. Skew.DailySkew.com is still the happening place to be until Tony Vahl can dedicate himself to daily updates on the other blogs, including this one.

Anyway, thanks for all of your support.

How do they know?

Here are some random quotes I've heard over the years:

"People are clearly inspired by Barack Obama's message. That's why they're voting for him."

"McCain needs to reach out to conservatives; they won't vote for him otherwise."

"America wants change!"

"It's the economy, stupid."

"No team will sign Barry Bonds because of the court case and the public outrage against him."

I have a simple question: How on earth do commentators, pundits, news anchors, and all else KNOW what Americans are thinking, feeling, and wanting?

What. Did they talk to five people walking by before going on the air to get a feel for public sentiment? Do they look at a poll where a majority of people say one thing and then project the image that 100% of the people feel that way?

As one of the few people walking on this blessed earth with a brain, I tire of these tactics. I tire of seeing the effects of these tactics on John Q. Public -- around water coolers, at supermarkets, etc. Average folks tend to parrot what they're verbally fed.

I wish intelligent analysis was considered profitable by the MEDIA.

No religion or politician can have them all

Submitted by an anonymous reader. This may seem like a simple point, but I thought it was important. Here it is:

I was watching the documentary on Mormons the other night on PBS (I believe it was a repeat), and it occurred to me, as they discussed a gay man and "apostate" woman who had been excommunicated, that Mormons attract certain Enneagram personality types better than others. As they mentioned in the documentary, the LDS culture is communal in nature, not individualistic. Types such as six, two, and nine are more likely to be drawn to the LDS church than other types. Of course, other personality types appear in the church membership, I'm sure.

Now, if the leaders of that religion decided to be more accepting of homosexuals, they would gain some members, and some different personality types ... and lose others, who are more traditionalist.

Look at it another way: there are people out there who will never vote for any of the current presidential candidates. They would rather die than vote for a Democrat or Republican. There are some who will vote for an independent candidate, and others who will choose not to vote at all.

No one politician can attract 100% of the public to his or her campaign. No one politician can get the majority of all nine personality types to buy into his or her message. Any politician or leader who claims that type of following (Castro, Saddam) is doing so by force.

Anytime an organization claims to have near 100% support from the public, consider what is forcing people to feel this way. And if there is no apparent force (military, impending doom of some sort), then you know that the spokesperson for that organization is LYING.

The alternative to PPP

To: DailySkew
From: Loyalist
Subject: PPP

I just read about Damian's problems ... how Google giving his blog a page rank of zero has killed any opportunity to make money through PPP. I also read somewhere that Google was a legit alternative to the PPP way of making money.

Well, I decided to try Google ads on my blog, and....

Day one -- Google ads bring in $0.69 in ad revenue!

Day sixty-one -- uh, I'm still holding firm at $0.69!

WOOOOOOOOOOH!

Google wins! THEEEEEE Google wins!

THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Vulcans are not Democrats

The following was submitted by an unnamed Trekkie:

The Democrats are illogical -- choosing between a candidate with too many skeletons in her closet to mention and another who is a Captain Kirk with zero substance.

Logically, Democrats would have chosen a solid governor with a good track record over the two candidates who are left. Unfortunately, that party wouldn't know a Vulcan if they mind-melded with one.

Wow. Tough crowd.

Our litigious society

The following was submitted by the man known only as The Borrower:

Crazy world. Here are some examples:

1. At the park, pushing daughter on swing. Back, forth. Another little girl is on nearby swing. She stops swinging, and looks at me. I look back, and look away. She wants me to push, but I refuse. Do not want to be accused of anything -- after all, white male with beards are not allowed to touch other people's daughters. I am target for lawsuit.

Filipino mom gets up from bench, walks over, and pushes her daughter. She sits back down. Her daughter stops again. Filipino mom has to get up again, after waiting to see what I would do. This happened three times. Finally, I told my daughter it was time to go.

I am certain Filipino mom would not sue me, but I never take chance.

2. Walking towards mailbox. Woman wearing black strap sandals and naughty shorts, walking tiny grey dog, also heading towards mailbox.

I slow, and let her go first. Do not want to be accused of anything. She checks her mailbox hurriedly, clearly intimidated by beard. I am from Honduras, but beard makes me look Middle Eastern. Live in racist society -- I dare not say anything.

She leaves. I walk up, and spot a mailbox that appears slightly open. I consider checking, and stop. I do not want to be sued for mail tampering. I consider asking the woman if she left her mailbox open, but do not. I do not want to be accused of harassing her.

Thank you, Borrower.

***

There are some that suspect The Borrower is a composite character. Others have suggested that Tony or Damian are actually the Borrower. And some have said his speech patterns are reminiscent of a certain character from Watchmen!

Rest assured: The Borrower is someone we know, and there's a little bit of the Borrower in each person who exhibits Enneagram personality type six.

"All hail the New York Giants!"

Congratulation to the 2007 New York Giants, and the '72 Dolphins.

***

"This shows just how tough it is to go undefeated, doesn't it?" said Shula, whose Dolphins finished 17-0 as champions of Super Bowl VII. "New England came so close, and yet you know this is going to be one of their toughest losses ever—maybe their toughest."

Former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris told ESPN that when Burress caught the go-ahead touchdown, "A tear came to my eye. I'm very humbled at what the New York Giants were able to do as an underdog."

To all the LMESPN talking heads, writers, and Patriots players who, during the season, ripped Don Shula, Mercury Morris, or proclaimed how great the Pats were when it was obvious they had some lucky breaks along the way to 18 in a row (The Ravens game, the first Giants game, the Chargers playing with an injured quarterback) -- eat it and weep.

Next time Shula expresses an opinion, show him some respect. Next time Morris is quoted about a team pursuing the undefeated season, respect his accomplishment. Next time a team wins ten road games in a row, show them some respect.

Sheesh.

Thinking out loud: Yahoo taken over by MSN good news for PPP?

One has to wonder if MSN will look for other properties to take over, like PayPerPost, to increase their advertising revenue. With the combined market share of MSN and Yahoo, they could clearly give blog advertisers a shot in the arm, and reduce their dependency on Google Page Rank.

***

If I were MSN, I would consider using a side-bar format for PPP blog ads -- where PPP ads would not appear in the main search results, but would appear in a sidebar titled "Reviews," or something like that. A web surfer, in my opinion, is more likely to click on a paid review than a paid ad box on Google's search engine.

Just a thought -- free of charge. I'm sure they've considered it. I hope they consider it further.

In such a format, MSN could charge a fee to companies like PPP to appear in the Reviews section; so they wouldn't have to acquire them, per se.

Of course, the folks at Google could pursue a similar strategy, if they were so inclined....