Archives for September, 2003
Interview with the creator of Google News
Because we get 100,000 articles a day. A human editor couldn’t read that many. We have people who try to create an aggregate of what’s been done in the media on a given topic and they write a report about it. Journalists do that all the time, and they do an extremely good job. But imagine doing that for every story in the world, every time. We want to give you speed in addition to timeliness.
He goes follows up with this
I want this to be a force for a democracy. I want us to be an honest broker, and I want newspapers featured on our site to get traffic from us. … There’s never been a more controversial time on the planet. I think it’s great to be a news source at this point because there’s so much hunger for news. You see a lot more diversity in the news coverage on our site than on others. I think the diversity is a mirror to the diversity of opinion there is worldwide. One of the things that makes us objective is we show all points of view. Even if you disagree with one, we give you both — the majority and the minority point of view. The ones you don’t agree with are education. It’s nice to know what the other side is thinking. You’ll see left-leaning ones as much as much as you see right-leaning ones. Frankly, the software doesn’t know the difference between left and right, which is good.
Interview with Eugene Peterson in Christianity Today
The deeper problem, Peterson said, is that two things that are basic to the Christian life run counter to the American ethos. First, the Christian life is not about us, but about God. It is not like giving ourselves a makeover. “We’re in on it, but we’re not the subject or the action,” Peterson said. Ever notice how in the Bible, we always come in after a preposition? God with us, in us, for us. In an individualistic, commercial culture, where the self is the center of everything, an autonomous agent of transformation, we have lost this grammar of shalom—what Peterson called “prepositional participation.”
The second principle of the Christian life that runs against the grain of American culture, Peterson said, is that the ways and means must be appropriate to the ends. “We can’t participate in God’s work if we insist on doing it our own way.” He cited two examples of “doing the right thing the wrong way”: congregation and Scripture. We consider both to be our matters, not God’s. Instead of forming communities that embody self-denial, sacrifice, and patience for God to become present in them, we form “consumer churches,” using commercial methods to attract people and cater to their wants. And rather than reading Scripture as a way of “listening to God revealing God,” we treat it as information for us to process to become more successful and enlightened people. In both cases, the ways and means—bowing to the gods of salesmanship and efficiency—are out of sync with the ends—forming a community of believers submitting to God’s work within them.
Candidates fail to use Net successfully
The online-funded and Internet-energized candidacies of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark have drawn a lot of attention to the power of digital campaigning.
So why haven’t local candidates taken better advantage of the Net?
Presidential hopefuls have drawn on three basic mechanisms to promote their candidacies: Web sites, e-mail lists and Web logs. They have drawn some criticism for spamming, but in reality their use of e-mail has relied on a filtered “friends and colleagues” network, which has forwarded e-mail among known parties.
Locally, though, the Net remains underused by candidates. This is surprising in Washington, which with Oregon has the strongest Internet usage — with 68 percent of the public logging on — in the U.S., according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And the Net reaches a more-educated public, which is likelier to vote.
A few of the candidates on the Sept. 16 ballot had Web sites. They’re an important first step, but Web sites hardly tap the power of the Internet. They tend to be the online equivalent of a campaign brochure.
Nothing from candidates reached my mailbox in terms of e-mail “doorbelling” that the presidential candidates have leveraged. And a potentially powerful political tool — the Web log — is virtually nonexistent on the local level.
Curious as to why, I talked to some local political organizers. The nagging term “resources” kept coming up. Candidacies are expensive. Candidates are crushingly busy. Internet “presence” takes time and money.
While that may be true, it ignores the relative efficiencies, particularly financially, of the Web. Consider the possibilities…
Here is the rest of the article
Sadly it is the same here in Saskatoon. None of the local candidates are using the web well. It is embarrasing really. Even the mayor can’t be bothered with even putting up a website.
I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
I finally got around and created an Amazon Wish List.
Parker Vector Rollerball Pens
I don’t hold onto a lot of possessions really tightly. Wendy and I have given away a lot of stuff and I really don’t think that much about it. Actually a lot of my friends are like that. Today was Spicy Soup today and one of the things that is really cool about it is a lack of money never really ever keeps anyone away. Someone else just buys it because we know it all evens out. Several times I have gone to pay for things only for the person behind the till to tell me it was already taken care of. Cool stuff. Back to the pens. We never really grew up with much money and one thing that I always cherished was that I would save some money and purchase a five dollar Parker Vector Rollerball pen and I felt like I was worth a million dollars. A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wouldn’t mind one again and I couldn’t find them anywhere in Saskatoon. Actually I was dismayed by how bland most pens look now and how much molded plastic goes into them. I found some pens on eBay (they are hard to find online) and have been bidding on and off on them. I got “sniped” earlier today for a stainless steel one but I am waiting for the right one to come along. Who knows, I may like it so much that I may give up the blog for a while and go back to writing things out longhand. Oh wait, a decade of notebook computers and using Palm’s has taken away my ability to write anything. So maybe the blog will live another day.
David and Melissa Hopkins Are Expecting
That is so cool. The Monkhouse gets a little more crowded.
Have someone that is hard to shop for?
oneshare.com allows you to purchase a single share and have it framed for someone in about 100 different companies from Apple and Amazon.com to Caterpillar and Harley Davidson. It is a legal share and kind of a cool idea.
Next Indie Allies Meetup in 14 Days
Head over to the IndieAllies Website and make sure you sign up and vote for the next Meetup location. The list is at 1320 people and growing. It doesn’t cost a thing and is a great way to connect with some other postmoderns near you.
David Gray
Wendy and I have heard Matt and Jesika Reimer talk about David Gray and seeing him in concert but we had never heard his music. A couple of weeks ago we were at Todd and Corina (a former Chokecherry Festival Princess) and I asked who I was enjoinging playing on the CD player and it was David Gray. After passing on his CD a couple of times (it was $25.99), we finally found a reasonably priced one at McNally Robinson yesterday. What an amazing CD.
Two Realities
Tom Friedman servies up this on Iraq today as well
“You talkin’ to us? This is your war, pal. We told you before about Iraq: You break it alone, you own it alone. Well, you broke it, now you own it. We’ve got you over a barrel, because you and your taxpayers have no choice but to see this through, so why should we pay? If you make Iraq a success, we’ll all enjoy the security benefits. We’ll all get a free ride. And if you make a mess in Iraq, all the wrath will be directed at you and you alone will foot the bill. There is a fine line between being Churchill and being a chump, and we’ll let history decide who you are. In the meantime, don’t expect us to pay to watch. We were all born at night — but not last night.”
Oh, I suspect if the U.S. manages to secure some new U.N. resolution giving more cover to the U.S. reconstruction of Iraq, we will scrounge up a few Indian or Turkish soldiers and maybe a few dollars, but nothing that will make a real dent in the $87 billion price tag the Bush team has presented to the American people.
Sorry folks, we broke it, we own it, and the worst thing we could do now is start shortchanging ourselves. There is a move in Congress to fully finance that part of the $87 billion for U.S. troops in Iraq, but to slash the $20 billion for Iraqi schools and reconstruction. That would be a big mistake. It is that $20 billion that is the key to getting out and leaving behind a reasonably stable, self-governing Iraq.
As if this weren’t enough for one week, the U.S. public also got a lesson in wars of choice. It was administered by David Kay, the former U.N. weapons inspector who has been leading the U.S. team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Last week Mr. Kay gave an interim report indicating that in four months of searching in Iraq he has found none of the W.M.D. that President Bush cited as his principal reason for going to war.
What this means for the American people is this: The war to oust Saddam Hussein was always a war of choice (a good choice, I believe). But democracies don’t like to fight wars of choice, and, if they do, they want them to be quick sprints, like Bosnia, Kosovo or Grenada — not marathons. Knowing this, the Bush team tried to turn Iraq into a war of necessity by hyping the threat Saddam may have posed with W.M.D.
With Mr. Kay’s interim report, it is now becoming clear that this was not a war of necessity at all, it was a war of choice, and, on top of it all, it was a war of choice that is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. And, because the Bush team chose to start this marathon largely alone, the free-riding world is going to let us finish it, and pay for it, largely alone.
Iraqi Family Life
An excellent article about Iraqi family complexity at Baghdad Burning.
Worship Freehouse Injury Report
It was disclosed today that Todd Peters played the guitar and lead worship with a broken knuckle. He may not be the most talented rock star but his is among the toughest. Sure David Crowder is richer but is he tough enough to play with a broken hand. I don’t think so. Link
Stealth Disco
So wrong on so many levels. I’ll have to try it at Soularize. Via Joi Ito
Emergent Political Advertising
Steven Johnson has a great blog post about grassroots political ads created with desktop tools. He created a cool quicktime mock ad for the Clark campaign. I think some of the Canadian elections ongoing should take Johnson’s ideas seriously. It kind of reminds me, there is an election coming up here in Saskatchewan. That being said, none of the Saskatchewan campaigns have even bothered to blog. I won’t get my hopes up.
Speaking of election blogs. The Ontario election has turned into a landslide so there probably won’t be any analysis of the impact of the Liberal blog and non-official blogs like Warren Kinsella’s had. While I am talking about the Ontairio Liberals, they have the most annoying URL. Is it www.liberal.on.ca, www.liberals.on.ca, www.ontarioliberals.ca, www.ontarioliberals.on.ca, www.ontarioliberal.ca, or www.ontarionliberal.on.ca. It is the last one, despite the fact that one the title bar it says, Ontario Liberals. My advice to the Ontario Liberal Party, get all of them for the next election. Oh yeah, www.choosechange.ca also works.
Really Bad PowerPoint Presentations and How to Avoid Them
Here is a PDF of Seth Godin’s e-book. As he says in the book, pass it along but If you find it helpful, buy the PDF for $2 from Amazon.com. The problem isn’t PowerPoint but rather how we use it and he offers up some rules for better PowerPoint. Link to Seth Godin’s website and his blog.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- Messy Faith: Daring to Live by Grace by A. J. Gregory October 28, 2008
- Rediscovering Church: The Story and Vision of Willow Creek Community Church by Lynne Hybels October 26, 2008
- The Teeth of the Tiger, A Novel by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell October 26, 2008
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
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