17
Feb 09
I’ve heard there’s been some concern over Facebook. Something about privacy. Or the fact that Facebook takes everything it can get its grubby little hands on.
Furthermore, Amanda French (Ph.D) notes,
Facebook claims it can do whatever it wants with your content if you put a Share on Facebook link on your web page. Unbelievable–and unique, as far as I can tell. People can post links in Facebook to your content just by copying and pasting the URL, but if you want to save them a few keystrokes by putting a link or a widget on your site, Facebook claims that you’ve granted them a whole mess of rights. Count me out.
More…
16
Feb 09
I’ve never bought into the “technology makes you stupid” canard, because… it’s really stupid. In short, it goes like this: You have too many things to keep track of (for instance, I’m currently rocking Daft Punk’s Alive 2007 on my iPod, and have my cell phone on my desk, seven tabs open in Firefox, and two Gchats going), and so you can’t just focus on one task. Since multitasking is inefficient, you cause “stress and frustration and lowered creativity … when you’re scattered and diffuse.” That’s Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, in a Wired interview.
More…
16
Feb 09
Today’s Yesterday’s (fuck, I should keep up on my feeds) “The Two Progressivisms” post on 538 is interesting, and mostly dead-on:
[Rational] progressivism has its philosophical underpinnings in 18th Century, Enlighte[n]ment-era thought. It believes that politics is a battle of ideas. It further believes that through the use of reason and the exchange of ideas, human society will tend to improve itself through scientific and technological innovation. Hence, it believes in progress, and for this reason lays claim to the term “progressive”. … The project of rational progressivism, then, is to propagate good ideas and to convert them, through a wide and aggressive array of democratic means, into public policy.
Radical progressivism is more clearly distinguishable from “conventional” liberalism and would generally be associated with the “far left” — although on a handful of issues such as free trade, it may find common cause with the “radical” right. Radical progressivism embraces the tradition of populism and frequently adopts a discourse of the virtuous commoner organizing against the corrupt elite. It is much more willing to make normative claims than rational progressivism, and tends to view conservatism as immoral and contemporary American liberalism as amoral (at best). Its project is not reform but transformation.
The full post is really interesting, but if you don’t feel like reading there’s also a nifty little chart. In the spirit of facile dichotomy, here’s where I landed on the progressivist spectrum:
I guess I’d call myself a “depressive progressive” or something.
12
Feb 09
Yesterday It was two days ago. But it was a perfect example of why having a Nurse Girlfriend is pretty great:
Me: Hey, is breathing salt fumes bad for you?
Nurse Girlfriend: Well, I’d assume it’s not very good. When were you breathing salt?
Me: No, my throat hurts. Earlier I was driving with the window down and cars were kicking up salt from the road.
NGF: Maybe. Are you feeling sick?
Me: Well, I’ve been kind of achey… and tired… and some people at work have been out.
NGF: I think you’re just getting sick.
There’s a good chance that I would not survive on my own.
12
Feb 09
At Caroline‘s urging, I watched The Wackness a while back, and loved it. Now, the studio’s spreading the love all the way to Amsterdam:
WIN A TRIP TO AMSTERDAM AND A BAG OF MARIJUANA!
Yes, you heard us correctly! We’re offering the chance for you to win a fabulous weekend break for 2 to the city of smoke itself, the beautiful Amsterdam. But that’s not all… the lucky winner will also be able to pick up a complimentary bag of skunk from legendary Amsterdam café, Hill Street Blues.
Hidden within one of the first 1,000 DVDs of The Wackness is a Golden Ticket. Find the Golden Ticket and you win!* It’s that simple.
And you don’t even have to buy a DVD–just email competitions@revolvergroup.com with the subject line “Golden Ticket”. That… is pretty cool. (HT: Boing Boing)