Monday 16 December 2013

Another brain dropping

"Bono is the tax our ears pay for listening to Larry Mullen Jr. and The Edge."

Wednesday 30 October 2013

The pleasures of merely circulating

From The pleasures of merely circulating:

Now, when I hit upon an article that starts me thinking, I excerpt a sentence of it on Twitter and start firing off aphoristic tweets. I don’t worry about ordering my thoughts into a sequential argument, or revising my first impressions much. I don’t try to build toward a conclusion; rather I try to draw conclusions that seem to require no build-up, no particular justification to be superficially plausible. And then, more often than not, I will monitor what sort of reaction these statements get to assess their accuracy, their resonance. At best, my process of deliberation and further reading on the subject  gets replaced by immediate Twitter conversations with other people. At worst, tweeting pre-empts my doing any further thinking, since I am satisfied with merely charting the response.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Monday 28 October 2013

Why Are Americans so Divided? Why Are We so Angry?

Why Are Americans so Divided? Why Are We so Angry?

It’s ironic that less than two decades ago we thought that the Internet would bring us closer together and turn our planet into a kind of small village.  Without a doubt, digital technologies have empowered citizens  and democracies.  But, as we’ve been learning, these empowered citizens express lots of different opinions, and while their diverse opinions contribute to civic engagement, the ensuing dialogues are often anything but civil.  The Internet is now amplifying voices who previously struggled to be heard, and helping like-minded people to find each other and self-organize as activist communities who share a common interest or passion.  Our technology-mediated, free-for-all conversations are just as likely to polarize the discussions as to bring us together.
We should not be surprised.  

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Choosy

2 things that struck me looking through the latest National Geographic. it's the 125th anniversary edition:

1. Founded in 1888, photos weren't added until 1905 when the editor needed to fill some space.
2. In 2012, for every shot that made it into the magazine, a further 1,331 didn't.

Time to be a little more choosy, methinks.

Thursday 17 October 2013

Brain dropping (an occasional series)

"Rock Band is paint by numbers for grownups."