Outsourcing users to Bangalore

An American startup is paying people in India to sign up for its service so it can show it has 1000s of users.

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Uncovering a mysterious blogger

This article on Streetsblog , a progressive pro-bicycle and transit website, is fascinating. The lengthy piece, worth reading in its entirety, explains how Streetsblog staff uncovered the identity of a hyperactive negative commenter with his own website, Commuter Outrage. Evidently the man behind Commuter Outrage, a twenty-something conservative who works in a civilian job at the Pentagon, was digging up material for his screeds during work hours using his employer's (and the government's) resources, and Streetsblog's questions about these practices quickly led the secretive fellow to disappear the entire Commuter Outrage website. Instructive were the easy-to-understand steps taken by Streetsblog staff to uncover the man's identity, along with evidence that suggested he was blogging on his employer's time. Also interesting was the fact that the attacks by Commuter Outrage and its putative staff (really just this one fellow, apparently) were not some right-wing consp...
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I keep making notes on this chapter but I'm clearly having trouble with it. The main problems are that it's an interstitial chapter -- it's between the road trip and the arrival at the cabin -- and that it has to bear a lot of burden of exposition. In the past I would have simply tried to write through it, painstakingly leading the reader through moment after moment more as a way to discover for myself what happens than to actually say anything interesting. But I don't have time to do that, nor would it be interesting. Get to the point! -- except that I'm not sure what the point is. Q: What are the points? A: First, introduce three characters. Second, Shaun's antipathy toward Seth. Third, the setting. Fourth, Hap's dilemma. Q: What else? A: Each time a new character is introduced, must reveal -- through language -- Hap's attitude toward him. Q: But what is important about that? A: Because of the male readership this book is supposed to ...
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Reader review: 'Unexpected... a diverting read'

My friend Lisa B wrote a very nice review of HOW THEY SCORED . An excerpt: After the men gather, the plot picks up steam and their interactions increase, with Pritchard quietly portraying a shifting dance of male alliance and competition. Their picaresque sex tales start to cast a subtler light on their characters. The story of the Serbian fashion model ends poignantly. A tale of a threesome takes an unexpected turn, with the storyteller unable to perform, feeling both sentimental about an old girlfriend and ambivalent about the suddenly aggressive behavior of his current one. In short, the scorekeeping of these men becomes less about tallying up sexual conquests and more about assessing their own strengths and weaknesses -- and the elusiveness of their desires. Wow, thanks Lisa!
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