The US has promoted a “strong dollar” for eight years, and the dollar has consistently gained value against other currencies. For the last couple of months, we seemed to have backed away from that position.

Asked what he means by a strong dollar, Sec. of Treasury John Snow said: “You want people to have confidence in your currency. You want them to see the currency as a good medium of exchange. You want the currency to be a good store of value. You want it to be something people are willing to hold. You want it hard to counterfeit, like our new $20 bill. Those are the qualities.”

The Wall Street Journal continues, “More important than what he said was what he didn’t say. Asked whether the U.S. strong-dollar policy still refers to its value against other major currencies, he paused and responded: ‘We’re talking about these qualities that I enumerated.'”

The dollar’s decline has been “fairly modest,” said Snow.

The dollar has dropped 27% over the last year against the Euro and with “support” like Snow’s, will likely continue to slide. For exporters, a weak dollars mean more sales abroad; for US consumers and producers, weaker dollars mean more expensive imports. With the government concerned that the American economy will slip into a depression because people stop spending money in anticipation of cheaper goods next month or year (delation), happy exporters and some import inflation seem attractive.

Some additional notes: a) although the dollar has plunged, it is only back to the level of four years ago, b) weakening the dollar, we may just be exporting recession — Germany, UK, France and Japan will have more trouble exporting and their already tottering economies will be undermined by our move; this could bite us back if they buy fewer goods c) the biggest recessionary force in the US is the overleveraged and aging baby boomer, who will need to save rather than spend for the next ten years to get ready for retirement. $1 = 0.85 euros today.

Wednesday, journalist/blogger David Appel pitched his blog readers to support a story filled with “big politics, big science, and big money.”

David has been investigating a sugar lobbying group’s attempt to get Congress to kill funding for the WHO, which offended the sugar daddies. “Usually, at this point I’d query editors of various magazines and, usually, get assigned an 800 word story or so, paying anywhere from $400 to $1,000 or more.”

Instead, he asked 40 readers to donate $5 each, so he can publish the story on his blog. $200 “is a fraction of what I’d usually get for this type of work, but I want to try it for the idea of it all.” David is “a full-time freelance science journalist living in southern Maine… has appeared in Scientific American, Salon, New Scientist, Nature, Audubon, the Boston Globe, Discover, Psychology Today, and many other publications.”

Thursday, David reported “in just 24 hours, I’ve received $370 in donations from those interested in reading more about sugar, diet, and politics.” Congratulations David.

(Sidenote: I found this story on the site of Christopher Allbritton, who has raised $10,000 from readers to report from Iraq. After posting, I realized this was the type of thing I’d find on Hylton’s amazingly comprehensive blog. I cked. Yep. Hylton had it Wednesday.)

Swiss cow fun.

I promised Tamas I’d pass along my reactions to Matrix Reloaded. I’m saddened by the task now, because I know that Tamas, like me, brings high hopes to the movie. Unfortunately, the second movie is… terrible. The plot is as knotted, pasty and unmemorable as an overcooked plate of spaghetti. The 10-minute-long chases and kungfu sequences are, despite the painfully visible arc of rising hysteria and speed, predictable and boring. They prove that, although $300 million can be spent computer-generating “real” looking visuals, without a good plot and care-worthy characters, you’ve touch the viewer less than would a ride on Disneyland’s Peter Pan ride. It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got spirit. The music: bad. Zion: bad. Keano’s befuddlement fit the first movie — he was waking up. Now he’s fully awake, but still sleepwalking as an actor. The only characters who act human are Agent Smith and the French dude… who both are rogue programs. If you feel like sending a message to Hollywood, skip the sequal, rent the first Matrix and enjoy the real thing. Go see it with low expectations, and perhaps you’ll be pleasantly surprised and at least you’ll be able to join disessections of the movie. (That is the perverse thing about power laws, right? Even the bad hub wins if it is big enough.)

One piece of more amusing news today. The first two words in this article in the NYTimes are Rick Bruner, who I’ve known since Budapest. Loquacious and irreverent, Rick started blogging a year ago and was like a kid in the candy store. Rick’s faux pas is old news to bloggers, but now the Times has identified the cultural importance of the experience and spelled it out for print readers.

Wait. Gee, why do I find myself caring that Rick was words one and two in a NYTimes article? I guess this glee is a knee jerk reaction to the days when Newspapers Mattered. If the Times wants to delve into the cultural imporance of blogs, wouldn’t this be a good place to start: bloggers like Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan each get roughly 1% of the traffic of NYTimes.com, which publishes the collective work of 1000 print and online editorial staffers. Protoblogger Matt Drudge gets 33% of NYTimes.com traffic. When will these revolutionary ratios be examined in the paper?

Welcome to our new competitor and near namesake Blogadsnet.com. I won’t boost their page rank with a direct link, but you can access their beta site here. They’ve bought one Blogad already on Blogshares. We’re flattered by the imitation. As my wife said, “Now you are validated.” Thanks honey.

As part of my as-yet-unpatented “jetlag before your trip” program, I started work today at 5.15am. Let’s see, that 11.15am Central Europe time. If I can get up at 4am a couple times between now and next Monday, I’ll be well adjusted in Budapest/Vienna. The problem with this wake-before-the-birds strategy is that you blur by lunch, so I’ll probably sneak out to see the Matrix II at the 1PM showing. Later today, we’ve got a new server coming online dedicated to Blogads. Exciting.

Neat stats at Idlewords. (Via Heiko Hebig.)

I’ve gotten some helpful reactions from friends who have previewed my presentation for Blogtalk in Vienna next week. If you’d like to take a peek and a poke, drop me a line and I’ll send you the current draft.

The abstract: Unbridled media proliferation poses a perverse challenge for traditional advertisers: ad space becomes free but ineffective. Blogs, offering unique passion and hubness, may save advertisers. Passion: blogs command reader loyalty far greater than that inspired by traditional media and corporate online publishers. Hubness: network theory suggests that advertisers should, rather than blanketing entire demographic cohorts, seek out influential individuals ‘ and these folks are increasingly bloggers — who serve as network hubs. Finally, I review emerging tools that might make the metrics of passion and hubness tangible.

Blogger newbie, tech-guru and Pressflex shareholder Esther Dyson‘s brother George has been reading some of the early memos from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where they grew up. “A lot of what George has discovered in the archives is touchingly human – memos about the computer guys taking too much sugar at the Institute teatime in the great hall, discussions of where to put their offices – next to Goedel in a spare room, or in more spacious digs in the basement next to the men’s lavatory… (there was a certain prejudice amongst some of the scientists against mere engineers.) And my favorite memo – the one banning children under 10 years old from dining privileges!” Sounds a lot like blog fodder.

The singing is what gets me to church most Sundays; it feels good to hear folks yodel along to a simple organ. We also go with the hope that the kids can experience a community that gathers to celebrate the spirit, rather than education, commerce, entertainment or sport.

So this Sunday’s sermon surprised me.

Preacher Fran Ruthven talked, without notes, about her 11-year-old son’s cystic fibrosis, about the operation when he was one day old, about his rollercoaster ride since.

She said that now, looking back on her family’s terrifying experience and ongoing uncertainty, she can see God’s plan. I normally shudder when I hear people talk about God’s plan in relation to death, pain or evil, having once heard a fundamentalist preacher rationalize a Stalinist purge as part of God’s plan to launch a raft of Christians into Central Asia. (Yes, God works in weird and wonderful ways, brother.) I don’t buy that God sticks his nose into our daily business to do either good or evil.

But Ruthven knocked the ball in a different pocket. God wasn’t acting in the pain of her son’s illness. God was active and visible in the human responses to that illness: the doctor’s prayers, the community’s support. God is in man’s response to pain and evil.

I haven’t been surprised by a sermon in 30 years, but this one got me.