Once again, i am reminded why i am offended by Yahoo. Last fall, they decided to delete all of the content of the V-Day listservs that i moderated, for no reason, with no explanation. The best answer i could find was that we were denounced as pornographic (since we talk about vaginas) and a terrorist organization (since we talk about helping Afghani women). ::sigh::
By journalist Sydney J. Harris (and thanks to the pointer from Jeff, who loves to collect and distribute interesting readings):
It’s odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which “I” is capitalized; in many other languages “You” is capitalized and the “i” is lower case.
The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s leisure.
Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times; few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a “necessary evil,” it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice–that is, until we stop saying “It got lost,” and say “I lost it.”
During my dinner break out by the lake, i was rereading a section in The Unbearable Lightness of Being where the doctor talks about his relationship with women and his wife, discussing the possible roles of a man in the pursuit of women. As the book is wont to make me do, my mind quickly wandered from the book to a state of internal discussion about the descriptions of relationships.
We are trained to label all of our relationships with people – daughter, friend, student, lover, etc. These labels provide roles and those roles come with expectations. When one fails to live up to the expectations, one is seen as a bad daughter/friend/student/lover. Even within these labels, we have to evaluate the magnitude of our role there. I hated the middle school negotiations between friend and best friend. The latter implied a large committment, a stronger bond, and a greater responsibility…
i’ve runaway for a little bit, in order to work on my thesis. a dear friend of mine has lent me his little hideaway in the middle of the woods and i’m happily rejoicing, loving the beauty of nature while being productive. there’s something fun about having to choose to get online, through a very slow connection. it really does alter my relationship with the Internet when it’s not so very automatic. alas, it definitely alters my tendencies to babble incessently into this forum…
More corporate distrust pops up every day, and they still don’t get why a single online id is a bad idea… ::sigh::
Raffi posted a neat little google tidbit… mmm… networks…
he also pointed me to a nice little article that interviewed john underkoffler on Minority Report’s technology.
A few weeks back i was at a party where some people in the audience were doing activities that were not good for the community. So, the DJ decided to put a spoken word piece on, and i have to admit, i loved it. There is nothing better than an artistic response to a social situation.
I have to admit that i find it more unbearable to deal with the Internet every day. Rather than being a utopian environment, it brings out the collective worst in humanity. And yet hides the abusers behind a digital curtain, allowing them to be unapologetic and invasively abusive without any form of regulation to stop them. I’ve noticed a trend in my mail lately…. It used to be the case that my email was filled with messages about crazy new ideas, potential, excitement, check this out, wow, yippee. Good conversations, engaging thought, people becoming aware of the digital realm and its possibilities. Lately, it’s become the same bitchy environment that i live in on a daily basis. The he-said she-said has gotten out of control and the abuses are horrifying. My email is no longer primarily positive, but primarily negative or concerned. And for good reason.
On today’s list of interesting additions:
– spammers have stopped being apologetic ’cause the regulation just ain’t working, so they won’t suffer the consequences
– Microsoft is moving to a mandatory panopticon, with no user choice
– video games reduce brain activity (and what about TVs?)
– Carnivore continues to get more vicious
– surveillance is not just a sci-fi idea
Ok.. that’s enough. At least there are still some things out there to make me smile:
– a VW bug transformer!
– mathematical/multi-dimensional legos!
– Google’s mirror
Now, the question that needs to be asked is does my results on this one surprise anyone? I didn’t think so….
