my brothers eye, originally uploaded by ashleyspirals.
I really like the textures and uses of colors that one might not otherwise associate with an eye. The blues, greens, and even yellows (particularly in the eyeball itself) are really great. It’s amazing to me the talent that I’m able to find while just browsing around on Flickr. Such a great way to postpone actually doing homework too.
I’m reading Aristotle’s “The Politics” right now for a class on Democratic Theory. In Book 3, Chapter 4 he writes something that I found to be quite applicable to current American politics and specifically to the Democratic reaction to Barack Obama’s victory in the elections. In this chapter Aristotle writes that:
Hence this too has been rightly said–that it is not possible to rule well without having been ruled. Virtue in [each of these] cases is different, but the good citizen should know and have the capacity both to be ruled and to rule, and this very thing is the virtue of a citizen–knowledge of rule over free persons from both [points of view].
This spoke to me in realtion to the estatic reaction among Democrats to Obama’s election. Suddenly a mass of people has decided that they need to be involved in politics, community service, and day to day political news. Certainly part of this is due to the ever-worsening economic situation, but it seems undeniable that part of it is also a result of Democrats now being the “rulers” to use Aristotle’s language. What I wonder is where was all of this political activism during the past 8 years? There were certainly just as important of decisions being made during this time, but instead of being involved in the process the mass of Democrats seemed to be largely apathetic to the daily actions of George Bush.
To me a disturbing number of Democrats, perhaps epitomized by some of those currently serving in Congress, are happy to extol the virtues of the American political system when they control the presidency and both houses of Congress, but once the other party gains control they revert right back to decrying how disastrous that party is for America and how broken the system is. This kind of hypocrisy just doesn’t sit well with me and is one of the main reasons why I largely abstained from voting for candidates in this past election: they’re all equally hypocritical and despicable.
There’s been a lot of coverage and talk over Walter Isaacson’s article for Time Magazine that was title “How to save your newspaper,” but I found this article on [in plain sight] particularly interesting. This article makes a point that others have made when it says that:
Simply put, newspapers cannot be saved. They are big bloated, convoluted corporate anachronisms that derive their strength and power from an economic model of news information that is in rapid and steep decline. These corporate entities were built and grew powerful in an age when new information was remote, precious, scarce, capital.
That age is over.
Today fresh information is immediate, cheap, abundant, available. News happens and is distributed in real time – worldwide – before lumbering outfits like the New York Times even have a chance to think up a catchy headline.
It is the age of micro-news and rapid dissemination of information and the sooner we get accustomed to tools like Twitter and blogs and the sooner we work at making this authoritative and filled with quality content, then the sooner we will be able to move past outdated models of journalism. All of this though (in my mind at least) will require a global technology revolution where tools Twitter are adopted in various countries so that blogs will cover wide swaths of territory (both literally and metaphorically). I see this as perhaps the best way to ensure that the decline of print journalism will not result in the decline of world news.
News about e-books just keeps coming. This from a New York Times article today about mobile versions of Google Book Search and Amazon Kindle books:
In a move that could bolster the growing popularity of e-books, Google said Thursday that the 1.5 million public domain books it had scanned and made available free on PCs were now accessible on mobile devices like the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1.
Also Thursday, Amazon said that it was working on making the titles for its popular e-book reader, the Kindle, available on a variety of mobile phones. The company, which is expected to unveil a new version of the Kindle next week, did not say when Kindle titles would be available on mobile phones.
Interesting to see if this catches on or not. The next few years could be quite interesting in terms of the digital consumption of books (although I cannot envision putting paperbacks down).
Link via Google and Amazon to Put More Books on Cellphones – NYTimes.com.
These are my links for February 6th from 14:16 to 14:23:
The New Republic’s Energy and Environment blog has an article today about Ken Salazar, the new interior secretary, and his effort to repeal one of the last-minute Bush administration laws. In the closing months of the Bush administration they passed a bill that would open up large tracts of Bureau of Land Management land in Utah. The problem is that Salazar has simply stalled the opening of these lands for drilling, which is currently a legal practice. From the article:
Unfortunately, there’s an underlying problem that still needs fixing. In offering the leases for sale in December, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was simply acting in accordance with the new resource-management plans for its lands in Utah. These plans, which the Bush administration rushed to complete before the end of last October, leave about 80 percent of the BLM’s 11 million acres in Utah open to energy development. If the BLM continues to manage its Utah lands according to these guidelines, which are supposed to last for 20 years, then this week’s environmental victory will only be a temporary one. Conservation groups are challenging the management plans in court, and their lawsuits may well be successful. But the Obama administration needs to start drafting replacement plans that take into consideration the sensitive nature of Utah’s red-rock country by putting more of it off-limits to drilling.
I would love to see the Obama administration expand federal protection through not only Utah but much of the other semi-protected federal lands in other states. Traveling through Southern Utah during my Freshman year here at Whitman was simply amazing and truly created a new sense of environmentalism in me. I only wish that the lands stay pristine so that others can have the same experience that I was fortunate enough to have.
Link via Utah Drilling Stopped. But For How Long? – Environment and Energy .
It’s good to see Obama pushing the Democrats again to think in a new way and to push for something other than the same solutions. At a Democratic caucus retreat he speaks of how “the scale and the scope of [his stimulus plan] is right.” It’s refreshing to see a President speak candidly and eloquently in front of cameras and microphones. No longer do we have a bumbling man behind the mic. Despite the grim economy it’s refreshing to see and hear Obama as our President.
http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1155201977
This semester I became the Web Manger for the Whitman Pioneer, the student run newspaper on campus. In the Fall the paper launched with a new print template designed by Andrew Witherspoon and before the first issue went to press for the second semester the Pioneer paid to have its website redesigned largely from the ground up. The results went live today with the first week’s content.
While the design is not quite done (there will be some modifications to the sidebar, category, and search pages) it is largely finished. Hopefully this will help to push the Pioneer forward into a new year and into a new medium for journalism. This design allows us far more flexibility for adding content; we are actually in the process of adding such things as photo galleries, blogs, video, etc. For now you can view the new design and read through this week’s articles. You can also find the new Whitman Pioneer on Twitter where updates will be pushed out concerning the site as well as perhaps some news that may not make it into the print edition. Check out the design and fire away in comments or on the site; we’d love to hear what you think of it.
Read more about the Pioneer at the About page and on the CoPress wiki.
There’s a great piece on e-books on Ars Technica that is written by John Siracusa. The article is quite long (weighs in at 7 pages) but is also quite good. IN it John writes that:
And so, a sad end for the eReader that I knew (née Palm Digital Media, née Peanut Press). But this story is not just about them, or me. Notice that I used the present tense earlier: “people don’t get e-books.” This is as true today as it was ten years ago. Venture capitalists didn’t get it then, nor did the series of owners that killed Peanut Press, nor do many of the players in the e-book market today. And then there are the consumers, their own notions about e-books left to solidify in the absence of any clear vision from the industry.
I particularly agree with the last sentence here. I think that the lack of consumer information and knowledge is really holding ebooks back. The other factor I think is just a simple lack of experience on the part of the consumer with ebooks. People already read news and such on digital displays, but I think many people (myself included) would balk at the thought of reading an entire novel on a digital device. There’s just some connection that I think most people have to physical books and I think a large portion of consumers will not be convinced until they use ebooks. For that to happen companies need to publicize them and present a clear and consistent message.
Link via The once and future e-book: on reading in the digital age – Ars Technica.
Mashable has this article up about Twitter’s astounding growth in 2008. Apparently visits to the site were up 752%! According to the article many of those gains were in the later part of the year (I was one of those who joined). To me it’s just unbelievable how a company can go from 500,000 monthly visitor to over 4.4 million in just the course of a year.
