Surfing the Middle East: Deviant Journalism from the Lost Generation

Over the years, Blogging the Casbah has been a number of things. And soon, it shall morph again . . . into a daily/weekly account of something that I'm calling "digital distribution", a strategy for self-publishing, giving the author full control, doing all the business, and keeping the entire margin with the exception of fulfillment. More on that soon. But until then, I'd like to share the hardcover graphic our team came up with for the Surfing the Middle East paper book.




Do you like it?

The Scoop on Mark Zuckerberg & Facebook

Speaking of Facebook, I was reading today why Mark Zuckerberg didn't sell it. Apparently he was offered 1.5 billion for it from Michael J. Wolf, former CEO of MTV Networks, and kindly refused. Why? Here it is from Michael's own words:

Mark had taken me on a walk around Palo Alto and shown me his apartment. And afterwards we sat down for lunch and I told him we’d be willing to pay as much as a billion-and-a-half dollars to buy Facebook outright. His answer was I think it’s worth a lot more, and besides, you’ve seen my apartment, I don’t really need that kind of money, and at the same time, I may never have an idea as good as this one, so I’m not that interested in selling.

Presently, Facebook is worth far more than a billion and a half dollars, with some of the latest valuations putting it at over $100 billion.

The Surfing the Middle East Facebook fan page

Hey guys, I'm having the time of my life updating my Facebook fan page with cool videos, project updates, and general smartassery. Such statements include:

Jesse Aizenstat: I'm sure going to miss this page . . . off to Mexico to buy a guitar: