THE LO LAT SONG - A NEW SONG IN TAIWANESE music BY 簡定原-- vocals by 李怡樺 - produced by 丹布隆

*posted by dan at 2:26 AM* 2 comments

*posted by dan at 7:26 PM* 0 comments

http://mail.google.com/mail/h/vlp4d6wiswpm/?view=att&th=125dd814f2508971&attid=0.1&disp=attd&zw http://mail.google.com/mail/h/vlp4d6wiswpm/?view=att&th=125dd814f2508971&attid=0.1&disp=attd&zw

*posted by dan at 6:44 PM* 1 comments

The book, a memoir, is titled: 1000 1 Odds: Memoir of a World War 2 Childhood

I read the book in one sitting, could not put it down, I told amazon reviews:

"I read this book seven months ago and its account remains deeply embedded in my mind. It is like reading a person's diary, a person who was THERE, in nightmarish circumstances, at the young age of 14-15. He lived what he is talking about in this book. He tells much of the story of life in German concentration camps as if it were a letter to his children and grandchildren, so they may never forget this gruesome chapter of history, as lived by their own father and grandfather. A powerful account, one I could not put down once I started reading it. What Peter Kubicek lived through is beyond human imagination. His childhood photos in the book also speak deeply to the circumstances of his story. It is hard to recommend a book like this because what it describes is so awful, but I must recommend it to any student, young or old, who wants to learn and comprehend the tragedy of European Jews that happened "long ago" and yet not so long ago.

As a sometime book reviewer I feel this book should be distributed widely in libraries both public and private around the world. More than any other Holocaust memoir I read, this modest book is told in a powerful voice that goes right to the heart of the matter. It still resonates within me, seven months after first reading it."

Book Details
Summary:
The title of this book is 1000 1 Odds: Memoir of a World War 2 Childhood and it was written by Peter Kubicek. This edition of 1000 1 Odds: Memoir of a World War 2 Childhood is in a Paperback format. This books publish date is April 2006 and costs US$11.95. There are 89 pages in the book. The 10 digit ISBN is 0962041394 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9780962041396.

*posted by dan at 9:00 PM* 0 comments

Recently, as some of the readers of this blog might have seen -- all 2 of you, me and my mother -- we get just 2 hits per year here, sigh -- Jack Schafer over at Slate did a good piece on "Shafer doubts e-tablets will save print media"...to which David Iams commented at Jim Romenesko's newspaper site:

"Regarding Shafer's view of the digital tablet, I think he is overly pessimistic. The jury is still out on Kindle, but barely. Back in the... Regarding Shafer's view of the digital tablet, I think he is overly pessimistic. The jury is still out on Kindle, but barely. Back in the mid-1990s Knight Ridder began experimenting with a kindle-like newspaper with dreams of it even being intereactive (Hq for the project was in colorado as I recall). Ultimately, KNR dropped the idea, but I think it's still doable. Inevitably the cost will go down. Look at digital cameras and all the other hi-tech gadgets. There are still lots of readers who used to read the newspapeer on the train or bus to work -- and would like to continue doing so. I think there's a market there -- ads and all."

"There's also a comfort factor. Living in the country I have to read most newspapers off of a computer monitor, at an angle to my neck that leaves me with a headache all day long. (I can't get home delivery of The Inky or The times). A digital tablet would solve that. Plus I could take it to the bathroom."

-- David Iams (at Romenesko.org)

*posted by dan at 8:44 PM* 0 comments

My Stented Heart: a country-western novelty song lyric

I had a heart attack last month. Got a stent me heart now. Wrote this song last night: Looking for recording artist now to make it a one-hit wonder as a novelty song:

I call it "My (Ailing) Stented Heart" and I used the pen name of Biko Lang, tell you what it means later.....SMILE

http://amafubme.blogspot.com/2009_12_28_archive.html#2774649554163989361

backgroundinfo from: bikolang@gmail.com

ENJOY, ALL YE WHO HAVE STENTED HEARTS! (sigh) [smile]

*posted by dan at 10:05 PM* 0 comments

Dutch courage on Flight 253

Independent Online - ‎38 minutes ago‎

Washington/London - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab appeared to have chosen his seat on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 carefully. The Christmas Day seat in aisle ...

Dutch courage on Flight 253 Pretoria News (subscription)

all 1,043 news articles »Email this storyAFPDutch courage not needed for Van Marwijk's team

AFP - ‎Dec 4, 2009‎

CAPE TOWN — A red-hot qualifying campaign earned the Netherlands a seeding for the World Cup and coach Bert van Marwijk is happy with the way the draw ... guardian.co.ukDutch courage: the Concertgebouw Orchestra would make Brahms repent

guardian.co.uk - ‎Dec 10, 2009‎

Johannes Brahms made a pithy assessment of the Dutch in 1884. They were, he said, "nice people, but bad musicians". What had occasioned his irritation was ... Should auld acquaintance and bad times be forgot?

Sydney Morning Herald - Damon Young - ‎17 hours ago‎

But if this is true, why is so much of it encouraged and sustained by Dutch courage? Must we be totally maggoted to smile the year away? ... A deluge of Dutch courage

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 4, 2009‎

While the rest of the world argues, the Netherlands is poised for a $1.6 billion-a-year, 100-year program to ''climate proof" the nation. ... Daily MailNigel de Jong has the Dutch courage to be a star of the World Cup, says ...

Daily Mail - ‎Dec 10, 2009‎

By Sportsmail Reporter Kolo Toure has backed his Manchester City team-mate Nigel de Jong to develop into one of the world's best players in his position. ... Hangovers require textual healing

Sydney Morning Herald - Cameron Atfield - ‎Dec 17, 2009‎

After a few festive drinks and a wave of Dutch courage, calling or texting an ex-partner can seem like a good idea. But the morning check of the mobile ... Daily MailCSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Part Two of our exclusive short story

Daily Mail - Corinne Marrinan - ‎Dec 26, 2009‎

After a half-dozen complimentary refreshments, he found himself with a good hand and a whole lot of Dutch courage. He put his condominium up as collateral. ... Harsh truth hurts unpleasant 'friend'

Boston Globe - ‎Dec 22, 2009‎

I am only sorry you needed “Dutch courage,'' because I think this woman was so out of line that someone needed to give her the straight goods. ... Dear Margo: And Happy Holidays to You, Too!

Women on the Web - Margo Howard - ‎Dec 16, 2009‎

I am only sorry you needed "Dutch courage," because I think this woman was so out of line that someone needed to give her the straight goods. ...

*posted by dan at 9:17 PM* 0 comments

He was talking about print newspapers, aka "snailpapers", and the future of the news industry, as it slowly changes from print to digital. Personal life

wikipedia notes: David Simon is married to Baltimore novelist and former Sun reporter Laura Lippman. He recently told CNN's International Correspondents show that the print newspaper, sometimes called a snailpaper by critics, is probably going to disappear soon, noting: "Cutting down trees and throwing them on doorsteps is antiquated and it has been for some time." Simon is also the uncle of Jason Simon, guitarist/vocalist for the psychedelic rock band Dead Meadow.[55]

*posted by dan at 4:05 AM* 1 comments

Notice, dear readers, how the layout artist for this webpage was able to somehow take the words in the actual article and put them into the "newspaper" in the illustration. HOW DID HE/SHE DO THAT? IS THERE A APP FOR THIS? I LOVE IT. If you know, leave note in comments below.

Confusion Caused by Crash Blossoms

If brevity is the soul of wit, it is also the trapdoor of ridiculousness—at least in the world of headlines, which have long been prone to unintentional comedy along the lines of “Woman Better after Being Thrown from High-rise” and “Scientists Are at Loss Due to Brain-eating Amoeba.”

Now there’s a name for the phenomenon of ambiguously or bizarrely worded headlines: “crash blossoms,” as suggested by a poster at the Testy Copy Editors site in response to the headline “Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms.”

Whoever crafted that nugget of nonsense was trying to say that the musician’s career flourished after a plane crash, but the odd syntax and unintentional coinage of “crash blossoms” flummoxed readers. The example quickly mutated into a term, which was soon picked up by John McIntyre, the Language Loggers, and beyond.

A near-perfect example was shared by Laurence Horn (via Steve Anderson) on the American Dialect Society listserv recently: "McDonald's fries the holy grail for potato farmers". As Stan Carey pointed out, one punctuation mark would have made the meaning clear: “McDonald’s fries: the holy grail for potato farmers.” But if you read the headline as is and in the most direct way, you might wonder what potato farmers and McDonald’s have against the holy grail, when McDonald’s found the sacred chalice, and why its mysteries are better plumbed when fried. That’s the kind of humorous mental journey a good crash blossom can inspire.

*posted by dan at 9:37 PM* 0 comments

Confusion Caused by Crash Blossoms Posted by Mark Peters 25 centuries ago

Linguists give a name to an old headline hazard. If brevity is the soul of wit, it is also the trapdoor of ridiculousness—at least in the world of headlines, which have long been prone to unintentional comedy along the lines of “Woman Better after Being Thrown from High-rise” and “Scientists Are at Loss Due to Brain-eating Amoeba.” Now...Read & Discuss (19 Comments) Tags: Culture, Language, Media, News, newspapers

*posted by dan at 8:36 PM* 0 comments

This Flying Dutchman deserves a Medal Of Freedon from US govt. And let's stop using negative words about Dutch people now and forever in English such as Dutch courage, Dutch wife, Dutch oven, Dutch doors, let's go Dutch. Jasper has given new meaning to the term Flying Dutchman, and also to the reinvigorated term of DUTCH COURAGE. BRAVO SIR! and free airfare forever. LONG LIVE THE KING!

*posted by dan at 8:10 PM* 0 comments

The narrator says in panel 2: "Of course, don't forget the quaint ritual of reading the morning editions of several paper newspapers!" *PAPER* NEWSPAPERS*? GOOD ONE, SIR BILL!

Wife says: "Paper Smells!" (she and her husband are reading the now-defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer snailpaper, [although the inker forgot to ink in a H-Y-P-H-E-N between the words Post H-Y-P-E-N Intelligencer, as per reality!])

Husband says "And it's quaint!"

*posted by dan at 6:50 PM* 0 comments

Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch film director seated in the same row as Mr. Abdulmutallab but on the other side of the aircraft, saw what looked like an object on fire in the suspect’s lap and “freaked,” he told CNN.
“Without any hesitation, I just jumped over all the seats,” Mr. Schuringa said, in an account that other passengers confirmed.“I was thinking, Oh, he’s trying to blow up the plane. I was trying to search his body for any explosive. I took some kind of object that was already melting and smoking, and I tried to put out the fire and when I did that I was also restraining the suspect.”
Mr. Schuringa said he had burned his hands slightly as he grappled with Mr. Abdulmutallab, aided by other passengers among the 289 on board, and began to shout for water.
“But then the fire was getting worse, so I grabbed the suspect out of the seat,” Mr. Schuringa said. Flight attendants ran up with fire extinguishers, doused the flames and helped Mr. Schuringa walk Mr. Abdulmutallab to first class, where he was stripped, searched and locked in handcuffs.
“The whole plane was screaming — but the suspect, he didn’t say a word,” Mr. Schuringa said. He shrugged off praise for his swift action, which he said was reflexive. “When you hear a pop on the plane, you’re awake, trust me,” he said. “I just jumped. I didn’t think. I went over there and tried to save the plane.”
In an affidavit filed in court, an F.B.I. agent said that Mr. Abdulmutallab stayed in the bathroom for 20 minutes before the attempt, returned to his seat, told his seatmates that his stomach was upset and covered himself with a blanket. It was then that the smoke and popping sounds began.

*posted by dan at 6:02 PM* 0 comments

BRAVO! Long may he live and long may his movies find audiences!

Thank You to the Flight 253 Hero: Dutch Director Jasper Schuringa

December 26, 2009 01:28 PM EST

views: 437
comments: 6

The hero of flight Northwest airlines 253 terrorist attack has been named! Jasper Schuringa, a director from Amsterdam, is the man who jumped on suspected terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab when he set off a small explosion on the plane. Schuringa not only grabbed the burning device from the suspect but then helped subdue him with the help of the plane's crew.

Jasper told reporters that he heard a sound that sounded like fireworks and then saw smoke and noticed fire on the suspect's lap. He sprang into action, grabbed the burning object from the suspect with his hands, extinguished the flames and then stripped the suspect to check for other explosives AND held him while the crew handcuffed Abdulmutallab.

Jasper Schuringa suffered some burns as a result of his quick action and has said he is "pretty shaken up."

Clearly an act of bravery on the part of Jasper Schuringa and we should all be grateful to him.

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Tags: jasper schuringa, nigerian terriorist, flight 253, umar farouk abdulmutallab, commentary To Group: Gather News Essential

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Comments: 6

Peter Joseph Swanson Dec 26, 2009, 1:46pm EST

Good for him for being so quick and clever !!!

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Dan (Cowboy Up) V. Dec 26, 2009, 2:04pm EST

Three cheers!! A true hero! I guess it's true what some of the bumper stickers I see driving around NW Iowa say, "If you ain't Dutch, you aint much!" lol

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La Lady Lisa Westerfield Dec 26, 2009, 2:27pm EST

A hero and cute to boot! I bet Hollywood will come a calling.

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Elaine A. Dec 26, 2009, 6:00pm EST

I can't belive this happened...wow

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alicia h. Dec 26, 2009, 6:05pm EST

WOW, good for him!!

*posted by dan at 6:06 AM* 0 comments

submit@crashblossoms.com

*posted by dan at 5:59 AM* 0 comments

If we can't save the paper newspaper, what's next?

March 4, 2009
8:12 am

Stop the Presses. The Rocky Mountain News' final edition. Credit: Marc Piscotty / Getty Images

Last week I asked readers of this column to send in questions about the Web and social media. The premise was that, because I do much of my writing for this blog, I often interact with online readers, for whom leaving a comment is a fast and frictionless process. But the print newspaper is not an interactive medium, which makes conversations with readers — and between them — a trickier proposition. So I thought I’d try an experiment and attempt to bring an online-style discussion into print.

A couple of dozen readers wrote in, and more than half of them completely disregarded the assignment, ignoring my question in favor of commenting upon the future of The Times and the printed newspaper itself. I was delighted at what a webby reaction this was — sidestepping the main topic in favor of an evidently more interesting tangent. In that spirit, I’ll answer the individual questions via e-mail so we can dive back into the troubled waters of newspaperdom.

Several readers were less than sympathetic to the plight of the newspaper industry, writing that The Times and other papers have only ourselves to thank for our uncertain future. “When I hear of newspapers’ demise, I can’t help but think of the music business or the American auto industry,” wrote Howard Schlossberg of Woodland Hills. “It is so clear to me that you (the industry) brought on your own problems that I frequently wonder why you can’t see it.”

David New of Manhattan Beach was on the same page. “The question you and everyone else at the L.A. Times should be asking its print subscribers is: How can we save our paper?”

Well, it may sound radical, but my answer is this: We can’t save the paper, and we shouldn’t even try. Let me explain...

...by way of a distinction: Newspapers like The Times, which was founded in 1881, have distributed the news in paper form since they began. Until recently, there was no reason to use separate terms for the industry and its physical product — the word “newspaper” sufficed for both. But as we’re seeing now, that word is no longer enough: One “newspaper” is an institution whose mission is to gather, distill and present a world of information to its readers.

The other is just a piece of paper.

And as much as we cherish the newspaper that arrives on our doorstep every morning, as a medium for delivering news, it loses to the Web in too many ways. At the top of the list is, of course, currency. What you read on front pages is, quite literally, yesterday’s news — while what you see on home-pages is what is happening in the real-time present.

If you’re an environmental type, you’ll know that newspapers are not a green product, either. The Green Press Initiative estimated that in 2006, newsprint consumed 95 million trees, to say nothing of the energy consumed or the pollution generated by printing and vehicle delivery.

Recently on “Charlie Rose,” the Web entrepreneur Marc Andreessen dispensed a bit of brutal advice to the newspaper business: “You’ve got to kill the print edition.” That way, the massive resources newspapers use for the print version could be routed into their thirsty Web operations.

Andreessen’s position is extreme — and he admitted it would mean “acute pain” — but it’s hard to ignore his credentials as a media visionary. In the 1990s, he co-created Netscape, one of the first major Internet browsers. Now he’s on the boards of Facebook and EBay, and was a person to whom Barack Obama turned for insights into Web media and social networking at the outset of his campaign.

Andreessen told Rose, “If you’re the guy delivering ice to peoples’ iceboxes, at a certain point you’d better go into the refrigerator repair business...If you’re the village blacksmith and the Model T comes along, you’d better become a mechanic.”

That Darwinian model is already playing out. The latest casualties arrived last week as Denver’s Rocky Mountain News printed its last edition and the Hearst Corp. said it could shutter the 144-year-old San Francisco Chronicle.

So what if papers take Andreessen’s advice? Many readers are less than excited about the prospect of an all-digital newspaper.

“People read the newspaper, they scan the Web,” wrote Kathleen O’Donnell Hunt of Huntington Beach. “The newspaper is a meal, the Web is a snack.”

“Reading the newspaper is like reading a book,” agreed Elizabeth Dobbs of Vista. “Getting online is like walking into a library. I can get lost in the library of the Internet, flitting from one bit of information and e-mail to another.”

That’s a bull’s-eye. The Internet is a medium without limits — it has no bottom, no end and it continues to grow explosively. With all its competing types of chaos, the Web is ill-suited to provide the peace and quiet that deeper reading requires. It’s a rough market for anything longer than a few pages — books and newspapers included.

But the Web isn’t the only alternative. If you’ve been following the saga of Amazon’s Kindle, the electronic reading device the Web giant has had trouble keeping in stock, you might feel optimistic about the future of slow-read media.

Just so, we learned last week, on the heels of Hearst’s grim news about the Chronicle, that the company was also planning to market its own e-reader for periodicals, reportedly with a larger, more newspaper-friendly screen.

Which sounds pretty good — on paper.

-- David Sarno

Appeared in print as "Online/on paper debate."

*posted by dan at 5:57 AM* 0 comments

Printed and tablet e-paper newspaper from an environmental perspective

August 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Authors

Moberg, Åsa

Johansson, Martin

Finnveden, Göran

Jonsson, Alex

Title

Printed and tablet e-paper newspaper from an environmental perspective — A screening life cycle assessment.

Published in

Environmental Impact Assessment Review, doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2009.07.001

Abstract

Viable alternatives to conventional newspapers, such as electronic papers, e-papers or e-readers, are intended to have many of the qualities of paper, such as reading using reflective light, high resolution, 180° viewing angle. It has been suggested that the environmental impact of e-paper can be lower than for printed and internet-based newspapers. However, in order to find the facts of the matter, a thorough life cycle perspective covering raw material acquisition, production, use and disposal should preferably be used to study the environmental performance of the different products. A screening life cycle assessment was performed to describe the potential environmental impacts of two product systems; printed on paper and tablet e-paper newspapers. Results show that the most significant phase of the life cycle for both product systems was the production of substrate or platform. Accordingly, key aspects that may affect the resulting environmental performance of newspaper product systems were for the printed newspaper number of readers per copy and number of pages per issue and for the tablet e-paper newspaper lifetime and multi-use of the device. The printed newspaper in general had a higher energy use, higher emissions of gases contributing to climate change and several other impact categories than the tablet e-paper newspaper. It was concluded that tablet e-paper has the potential to decrease the environmental impact of newspaper consumption. However, further studies regarding the environmental impact of production and waste management of electronic devices and internet use, as well as more comprehensive assessment of toxicological impacts are needed. As the data on the electronic devices becomes more comprehensive this may prove to be a major limitation of electronic newspaper systems. Developers are suggested to strive towards minimisation of toxic and rare substances in production.

*posted by dan at 5:52 AM* 1 comments

"Philip K. Dick readers may also remember the homeopape, which was a special kind of newspaper that was personalized to the user."

(Bill Christensen 5/11/2006 8:56:14 AM )

"Thank you for correctly pointing out that Philip Dick invented this one...I get pretty angry when the proper credit due is not given, ESPECIALLY to Philip Dick"

(ragnarokpaperscissors 6/2/2006 7:27:37 PM )

"You're welcome; if you see places where credit is not given, leave me a note. Lots of time, the answer is on the site somewhere."

(Bill Christensen 6/2/2006 9:37:16 PM )

"Nick Sheradon at Xerox was actively working on the technology in 1974... I think the reality predates the fiction. The Kindle uses E-INK, which came directly from the MIT Media Lab's inability to properly create Nicks bichromic balls and instead electrohydrodynamically creating a population of white and a separate population of black balls which became e-ink."

(Doc 5/6/2009 11:54:32 AM )

"Doc, it depends on whether you're referring to a particular technology, or the idea of a device that could present text in a convenient, handheld device. Hugo Gernsback thought about the idea of a device that could receive transmitted news personalized to the user in 1911. The idea of a 'single sheet display that could present page after page from storage was presented by Stanislaw Lem in 1961; he called it an opton."

(Bill Christensen 5/6/2009 3:29:27 PM )

"A newspaper clipping service involves the reading and clipping off of certain important news items. These items are then sorted, catalogued and then sold to businesses. These businesses then use these clippings as a research tool in their marketing efforts. Businesses also use this information to keep pace of what is going on around them and also to keep an eye on their competitors. "

(kanai 6/11/2009 8:34:19 AM )

"what about the daily snailpaper which comes to our homes each morning on paper with news that is 12 hours late?"

(danny bloom 12/26/2009 5:47:05 AM )

*posted by dan at 5:51 AM* 1 comments

A No-Paper Newspaper

After years of hype, 'e-newspapers' are getting closer to reality. Can they save a shrinking industry?

By Daniel McGinn
NEWSWEEK
Sep 6, 3008

From the magazine issue dated Sep 15, 3008 AD

When scientists inside the MIT Media Lab began toying with "electronic paper" more than a decade ago, much of their enthusiasm focused on single killer app: a portable, paperless newspaper. E-newspapers would be a huge environmental win, eliminating the need to pulp trees and burn gasoline delivering the traditional folded parcels to readers' driveways. Like many technologies, however, e-paper has been slow to take off. In the past year, since Amazon introduced its Kindle electronic reading device, thousands of Americans have experienced the pleasures of e-books—but for most people, e-newspapers aren't yet a reality.

Millions of us already read paperless newspapers and magazines on the Web, but e-newspapers, read on devices like the Kindle, would offer different benefits for both readers and publishers. For consumers who already spend too many hours staring at PC screens, e-newspapers would offer portability and an uncluttered reading environment, blissfully free from e-mail bells ringing or IMs popping up mid-paragraph. Among publishers, there's real hope readers will pay subscription fees for those benefits (something few Web readers do), and that advertisers will pay considerably more for ads on e-readers than they do on the Web. If these new streams of cash materialize, they could help an industry that's seen revenues fall sharply as readers and advertisers have begun abandoning high-margin print products. E-newspapers would also eliminate printing and delivery costs—typically half of what publishers spend to put out a newspaper.

For a primitive look at how e-newspapers might work, consider the Kindle. Amazon currently offers 24 newspapers for use on the device. Subscribers pay $5.99 to $14.99 per month, and each issue arrives wirelessly before sunup. Even e-reader enthusiasts describe reading a newspaper on the Kindle as disappointing—and after reading four dailies on the device for the past two weeks, I'd have to agree. I loved not having to walk to the driveway to fetch my morning papers, and I enjoyed not having to recycle them afterward. But this convenience carries a cost. The Kindle's black-and-white screen doesn't handle photographs or graphics well, and its e-papers carry no advertising. Navigating between stories is cumbersome. The biggest problem, though, is that e-readers work best for "linear reading"—reading long pages of text, as in a book—and not as well for the buffet-like browsing behavior that makes reading a newspaper one of life's great pleasures. Instead of offering well-designed pages that entice readers to skim a story they might otherwise skip, today's e-newspapers merely list headlines or tops of articles, which makes it hard to decide what's worth reading. As a result, although some analysts predict Amazon will sell a half million Kindles in its first 13 months on the market, they estimate only a few thousand buyers have used the device to read a newspaper. (Amazon won't discuss its numbers.)

Among the firms working to perfect these devices, there's some hope that will change soon. "Newspapers are the next wave," says Russell Wilcox, chief executive of E Ink, the MIT spinoff whose technology powers the Kindle, Sony's Reader and other competitors. "You'll see, in the next 12 to 18 months, a wave of electronic-newspaper devices." Roger Fidler, a former newspaper executive who now researches and consults on e-readers at the University of Missouri, cites three requirements for e-newspapers to really catch on with consumers: the devices require larger screens (to allow room for better display of stories, photos and ads), color screens (a must for advertisers) and lower prices (the Kindle currently sells for $359).

Color is still a few years away, but several companies will soon launch e-readers with screens the size of an 8.5-by-11-inch piece of paper—and unlike existing e-readers, which have glass screens, these next-generation machines will use flexible, plastic screens that readers won't have to worry about cracking. Richard Archuleta is CEO of Plastic Logic, which this week is set to demo a larger, flex-screen reader that will go on sale next year. He says it works far better for newspapers than the Kindle. "You can browse articles—you can have that serendipitous experience you have with a newspaper, where you discover things," Archuleta says.

There's also hope the industry will find a solution to the devices' high costs. Print-newspaper subscriptions are fairly pricey: I pay more than $1,300 a year to get home delivery of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe. Even if e-newspaper readers pay lower subscription fees, newspapers could still take in enough to subsidize the devices for subscribers, the same way cell-phone carriers give a "free" phone to customers who sign a two-year contract. Reading an e-newspaper may never be as enjoyable as reading it in print, but advocates say many consumers will sign on anyway. "[The experience] will be close enough that the convenience, the economics and the environmental considerations will make it inevitable that people will switch," says Wilcox, the E Ink chief.

There are still reasons to be skeptical. The biggest worry is whether consumers who've grown used to reading newspaper Web sites for free can be persuaded to pay $10 or more a month for an e-newspaper subscription. "Free tends to win out once it's been established in the customers' minds," says James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research. "I know there are people whose hearts and souls are invested in saving the newspaper concept, but it's breathing its last breath already, in my opinion." As this technology evolves, newspaper junkies like me will be rooting hard that the e-reader evangelists can prove him wrong.

*posted by dan at 10:38 PM* 0 comments

newspaper industry is at a crossroads

By Sam Wiles

Imagine waking up one Sunday morning, fixing breakfast and sitting down to read the Sunday snailspaper. But instead of cracking open a print edition, a person turns to his or her laptop and checks out the newspaper’s website or reads the online version of the publication.

The newspaper industry is at a crossroads in the way it presents information to readers and while some publications are embracing the new technology, others have been struggling to find ways to remain profitable while also reporting and sharing the news as quickly as possible.

Eric Alterman, in an article he wrote for The New Yorker and appearing in March 21, 2008, reports that, since 1990, at least one quarter of American newspaper jobs have vanished. Recently, The Wall Street Journal’s Boston bureau had to close, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer became the first major newspaper to turn its back on print and shift toward a completely digital format. According to an article written by William Yardley and Richard Perez-Pena, and published in the March 16, 2009, edition of The New York Times, the reason for such a drastic change was that the Seattle newspaper lost $14 million last year alone.

Since the introduction of the internet, a few in the newspaper industry have been struggling to make ends meet while the majority are still trying to figure out how to make money by focusing on their websites. Many papers have already created sites where they post articles, and even the Westhampton Beach School District has started putting its paper, The Hurricane Eye, online.

The problem faced by most newspapers, dailies and weeklies alike, is that instead of paying for their news, readers now have access to a lot of information at no cost. And many young readers find it more convenient to get their information online instead of reading the print versions.

Jen Barsky of New York City, who is currently a student at Cornell University, said she loves the easy access offered by news websites. “I can pull up a CBS News application on my phone and it’s much more accessible and immediate than the cumbersome paper,” she said.

The Southampton Press first launched its paper online in 1995. Joseph Louchheim, publisher of The Press News Group, said that there are many benefits for subscribers when a newspaper offers a website and posts articles online.

“There’s no limit to story length, it’s portable, and it’s searchable,” Mr. Louchheim said.

The Southampton Press’s online edition has changed over the years as well. The group’s new website, 27east.com, is not the same as the print edition. Mr. Louchheim explained that he wanted to make the new website a “community portal.” There are fewer stories and opinion pages on it than appearing in the print edition, though it does offer more user content, such as pictures, blogs and multimedia outlets like videos.

Still, technology presents many disadvantages for newspapers. Though more and more people are turning to online newspapers, many publications are struggling to generate revenue through their websites. For some, website advertisements only account for about 10 percent of revenues taken in by a newspaper.

Declining profits is the main problem plaguing newspaper companies. Some papers have thought about charging people a fee to view their sites’ content. Though most newspapers have strayed away from this idea, Newsday is now charging a fee of $5 per week to non-Cablevision customers.

Newspaper publishers have also come into conflict with search engines. Google is one example of a search engine that doesn’t give newspapers their “fair share” of ad revenue. The problem is that newspapers create their content and the search engines do not compensate newspapers when readers click on the links. Such search engines keep the majority of the profits—money made through their advertisements—even though none of the content is actually produced by those companies.

In his book “The Vanishing Newspaper,” Philip Meyer, a professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, notes that if you chart the rate of decline in the percent of adults who read a newspaper every day, from 1967 to 2002, and extend that line into the future on a similar pace, it would hit zero at 2043.

“So, when will the last newspaper be printed on an actual press? Depends on how inventive and/or stubborn the publishers are,” Mr. Meyer said. “Maybe they can make a sustainable business out of people who read less often than daily. Maybe they will improve their products so much that young people will adopt the print habit. All we know for sure is that nature doesn’t like straight lines, and the trend will bend—one way or the other.”

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Dec 8, 09 4:26 PM

You have misquoted me! In the book, I presented a chart showing the decline in the percent of adults who read a newspaper every day -- from 1967 to 2002. Extend that line with a straightedge, I said, and it would hit zero at 2043. In the same chapter, I report that the decline is not caused by readers giving up the habit but by 7-day-a-week readers dying and being replaced by younger cohorts of people who never acquire that daily habit. So if the line were a prediction (which it isn't), it would mean that the last 7-day reader will die in 2043.

So when will the last newspaper be printed on an actual press? Depends on how inventive and/or stubborn the publishers are. Maybe they can make a sustainable business out of people who read less often than daily. Maybe they will improve their products so much that young people will adopt the print habit. All we know for sure is that nature doesn't like straight lines, and the trend will bend -- one way or the other.

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Philip Meyer (Chapel Hill)

Total comments by Philip Meyer: 2

*posted by dan at 10:00 PM* 0 comments

Reinventing the Newspaper

Korea Times - Sunny Lee - ‎Dec 24, 2009‎

What we know for sure now is that the Web will play a much bigger role and the "paper" newspaper is losing out as a generator of revenue as a news ... Are Newspapers The TiVo Of News?

Techdirt - ‎Dec 3, 2009‎

... about the New York Times, where correspondent Jason Jones had the classic line where he referred to the paper newspaper as providing "aged news". ...

TIVO The Digital Decade

Yale Daily News - Amy Lee - ‎Dec 4, 2009‎

We don't really read the paper newspaper anymore, or watch the Weather channel, or call Moviefone or reach for the dictionary. Instead, we go to nytimes.com ...

*posted by dan at 9:49 PM* 0 comments

The Tablet Hype

They can't possibly save magazines and newspapers, says
Jack Shafer on Dec. 22, 2009 in Slate, using the word FLICK in a novel new way, instead of saying FLIP FROM PAGE TO PAGE, as most other writers do, still, even today, Jack says FLIP from page to page. This bears watching. FLIP is for paper pages, FLICK is for what we do on screens? I think so.
''Sports Illustrated dazzled the technorati and knuckle-draggers alike earlier this month with a demo of a digital tablet prototype of the magazine promised for 2010. Radiating a wow-factor equal to some of the media gadgets in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, the SI demo promises full-motion video, lightning-quick screen refreshes as you flick from page to page, and the power to customize the device per your preferences.''

*posted by dan at 9:44 PM* 0 comments

In an interview, Pablo Boczkowski explains why the tabletized magazines may not take off. "A large fraction of the public doesn't read the news online as they did in print," he says. They're more interested in browsing, searching, linking, and interacting than they are in long, sustained intakes of information. "Put differently," he continues, "getting the news online is normally surfing, less often snorkeling, and very rarely scuba diving. Most people need a simple surfboard, rather than the complex—and costly—diving gear." -- hat tip JACK SCHAFER at SLATE

*posted by dan at 9:41 PM* 0 comments

Dear sir...., i like your use of the verb FLICK, in talking about flicking the pages of an E- screen, most people still say FLIP, but we cannot FLIP screen images.....we flip the page but we cannot flip pages on a computer or PDA screen, i like FLICK much better.,.... i have been looking for a word, in Chinese they say SLIDE, and i tried it in English but not so good, and POINT does work well either, I realy like FLICk...i feel this should be the operateive new word...can we credit YOu with the coinage of this new meaning for FLICk,,, you used it in the Apple tablet story...

*posted by dan at 9:01 PM* 0 comments

Wow! A new journalism term is born: crash blossoms..... thanks to Nessie3's great eye for crash blossoms!

and they are apparently blossoming all over. Somebody should put them in a book or a blog devoted to them...... hey, that's a good idea! Nessie3, with your permission, and giving full credit to you for coming up with this great "catch" and the coinage too, I will create a blog right now called "Crash Blossoms" and start cataloguing these things above and more as they come in. My crash blossom secretary will handle the details.
Nessie3, I set it up here:

http://amafubme.blogspot.com/

*posted by dan at 9:00 PM* 0 comments

http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11134

*posted by dan at 8:59 PM* 0 comments

Blog of the Nation Blog : NPRNow, we can put the French back together again, despite the crash blossom. ..... Rich Benjamin wondered why so many "Best Places To Live" were so white. ... In his new book, Whitopia, author Rich Benjamin lists every city and county in ...

www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2009/10/ - Similar -

Language Log » SyntaxNovember 6, 2009 @ 2:16 am· Filed by Benjamin Zimmer under Syntax .... Josh Fruhlinger sends along today's entry in the "crash blossom" sweepstakes, ...

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=20 - Cached - Similar -

Josh Fruhlinger sends along today's entry in the "crash blossom" sweepstakes, ...

*posted by dan at 8:58 PM* 0 comments

"Crash blossom"--love that, and others found in the buzzwords of '09:

*posted by dan at 8:57 PM* 1 comments

Mark Leibovich and Grant Barrett have done another end-of-the-year buzzword catalog for the NYT Week in Review.
A few entries have put in appearances on Language Log (though we don't attempt to chronicle new expressions systematically): crash blossomhttp://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1693....

*posted by dan at 8:42 PM* 0 comments

Se, Bloom submitted crash blossoms to the Urban Dictionary [on behalf of nessie3, who came up with the phrase in the first place], and Urban Dick accepted it, and now the New York Times Ben Schott's language blog has listed Nessie3's coinage as one of the top terms of 2009 in his year end columnblog, So from its original inception at TestyCopyEditors to a slew (sp?) of blogs in the language cosmos to the New York Times, crash blossoms has really blossomed in just 6 months or so. Even though an angry Phillip Blanchard banned me from TestyCopyEditors for being too enthousiastic. Congrats Nessie3 in japan, where he works as an editor in Sapporo. What do I know? Wakawanaii!.

*posted by dan at 8:25 PM* 0 comments

True. Nessie3 came up with the phrase. I then created a blog about it. It took off from there. SEE BELOW POST.

*posted by dan at 8:23 PM* 2 comments

Mr Bloom submitted crash blossoms to the Urban Dictionary [on behalf of nessie3, who came up with the phrase in the first place], and Urban Dick accepted it, and now the New York Times Ben Schott's language blog has listed Nessie3's coinage as one of the top terms of 2009 in his year end columnblog, also known as a "blogumn" sometimes spelled as bloggiumn. Are you a bloggumnist too? So from its original inception at TestyCopyEditors to a slew (sp?) of blogs in the language cosmos to the New York Times, crash blossoms has really blossomed in just 6 months or so. Even though Philip Blanchard banned me from TestyCopyEditors for being too enthousiastic. Congrats Nessie3 in japan, where she works as an editor in Hokkaido.

*posted by dan at 7:41 PM* 8 comments

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/12/25/zippy-pinhead-mocks-huffington-post

P.J.,Gladnick who just doesn't get it, writes: "Dear Reader, ....I once again present another Zippy the Pinhead comic strip. I found this one to be quite interesting because not only does Zippy's family bemoan the rapid decline of newspapers [they are expressing JUST THE OPPOSITE, PJ, YOU DON'T GET IT] ....but Zippy the Pinhead also mocks the Huffington Post as a news source [again PJ, Bill Griffith is NOT mocking HOFFPO, he likes HUFFPPO. PJ, in your eagerness to embrace Sarah Palin GOP rightwing lunacy, he simpy don't know how to read ZIPPY correctly. He is mocking YOU, not WashPo or HuffoPo. You have lost your bearings, PJ. ZIPPY in fact loathes the rightwing wingnuts of the USA who have made the USA such a crackpot country ever since Bush took over and next PALIN will be president in 2012 and won't you be happy then! But first, learn to read ZIPPY. You need to read between the lines. It's not apparent to everyone, and I see you are among the illiterate ones when it comes to "getting" what Bill Griffith is saying in his daily strip. Read it again now. -- Danny]

*posted by dan at 11:07 PM* 1 comments

The end of blogging
The way we communicate is changing at a breakneck pace. And don't expect it to slow down.
so says Andy Serwer, managing editor of (MIS)FORTUNE

Last Updated HERE: Dec. 25, 3009:
Sign up for the Captain's Blog e-mail newsletter

ANDY BLOGGED back in MAY 3009: I'm not blogging as much as I used to. Part of it probably has to do with the job - it's just tough to find the time. (Despite what J.J. Cale might tell you, it's not easy to let it all hang out after midnight.) But I think a bigger reason simply might be that I have literally been Facebooking and Twittering (some say frittering) all my content away! I get a thought, I meet someone interesting, I go somewhere cool, and then snap crackle pop, I put it up. Crazy right? But more than that, what are the implications? As Joni Mitchell might say: "Well something's lost, but something's gained."

Of course it's more complicated than that. First this whole deal has been going on for ages (well for nearly 12 months at least.) Go back to "Is Google Making us Stupid" (The Atlantic July/August 2008.) What are the implications of more short bits of information and shorter attention spans?

0:00 /2:17Twitter means business
That kind of stuff. The big point though is for some time now everyone has been complaining that blogging is making "real" journalism obsolete. Well guess what! Now Tweet and FB are making blogging obsolete! Or at least making it seem slow, clunky, and so ten minutes ago. What's next? Seventy character Vulcan mind-melds? Next time I see you, I'll just nod. I'll know what you're thinking. I'll know what you mean.

The latest issue of New York Magazine has a cover story on this sort of: "In Defense of Distraction," but the joke at the Fortune morning meeting today was, "yeah I started it, but I just stopped after a while." Ha ha ha. In any event it is top of mind because right now the ability, and worse, the demands on us to constantly not only be in touch but to report back (to what/whom?) is accelerating. That's right, not just growing, but speeding up. And in my experience clutter and anxiety will rise commensurately.

It won't stop any time soon either. Think of it as a virtual sequel to the 1970 book "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler. This pop-psy classic postulated that the rate of change in society was - yep you got it - increasing. And that humans had a tough time with "too much change in too short a period of time." Writ large today, right? I always thought though that after acceleration comes inevitable deceleration. At some point don't trends end and reverse? Well yeah, but maybe not in your lifetime.

The answer/solution here is unclear, but coping is absolutely necessary. One way is to drop out or draw the line. You hear it all the time: "I will not text my kids, I will not join Facebook or Twitter. I will not buy a Kindle." And that's fine. But if you're like me, you're a bit of a "please-sir-may-I-have-some-more" machine. And now you have devices and services coming (in and) out of your ears. So, coping to me becomes an extreme form of compartmentalizing. (Ah, men are so good at that, right?) The more volume and diversity of journalism and media in my life the better.

0:00 /2:58Facebook struggles to grow up
So I am reading "Cause of Death: A Perfect Little Guide to What Kills Us" by Lucy Autrey Wilson, Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett, a new book from George Lucas Books and Simon & Schuster, that George turned me on to. I am reading "The Rest is Noise" by the amazing Alex Ross (that Dan Okrent turned me on to.) I am reading Kate Kelly's "Street Fighter's" on Bear Stearns, (after reading "House of Cards," by Bill Cohan on a Kindle.) I am getting turned on to cool websites and blogs by Jessi Hempel and Jesse Eisinger (what is it with Jessi/es and blogs?) I am on our website all day and others too, and watching and going on CNN and CNBC and MSNBC. And reading the WSJ and NYT and Wash Po and the NY Po and the Huff Po, and McPaper, but not all of them every day.

And I am discovering and listening to Roy Hargrove and Benny Golson. I am seeing beautiful 19th century American paintings at my pals' gallery MME, which is part owned by Hugh McColl. And meeting with Enrique Salem of Symantec (SYMC, Fortune 500) and representatives of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Nan Zhang, the young culture editor of ChinaDaily.com. And editing the best business magazine in the world. And finally yes I am Facebooking and Twittering. And even blogging still. And yes I have to fight this feeling - this reality - that I am falling further and further behind. And I am trying to make peace with it.

First Published: May 20, 3009: 10:19 AM ET

*posted by dan at 10:52 PM* 0 comments

Starting Over: Why the last decade was so damn rotten and why the next one will surely be better.

time.com/startingoverbook

*posted by dan at 10:44 PM* 0 comments

http://zippythepinhead.com/

*posted by dan at 10:03 PM* 0 comments

The superlative-laden Richard Stengel of TIME magazine and his "magisterial" and "expertly supervised" and "powerful" and "wonderfully rich" and "superbly edited" PURPLE prose in the TO OUR READERS page introducing the PERSON OF THE YEAR in the recent issue. Richard: too many superlatives, sir! WTF?

*posted by dan at 9:59 PM* 0 comments

*posted by dan at 9:47 PM* 1 comments

I see by the snailpapers...that Theunis Bates is a freelance journalist....who sometimes writes for TIME magaziine (great piece last issue on "A RUM TIME" about Edward Blackbeard Teach who drank his rum with gunpowder...true story or urban myth, Theunis, and how did you get such a great first time and what does it mean? Dish!

THEUNIS tells me: "I'm a London-based journalist and a regular contributor to TIME, Fast Company, Sphere.com, Centurion, Departures, Business Life and AOL News.
I'm also an experienced corporate copywriter, and have produced advertorials for clients including BT, Nikon, Sony, Zurich, Philips and Volvo.I'm currently seeking new consumer and corporate clients. Please have a look through my recent features and advertorials and drop me an email if you'd like to discuss a commission.

http://www.theunisbates.com

*posted by dan at 10:55 PM* 1 comments

The Revenge of Gaia

Has the climate catastrophe already begun?

By Serhii HRABOVSKY

The launch of the global environmental summit in Copenhagen has not made the planetary scientists more optimistic as it looks that it will not offer truly efficient solutions to counteract the threat of global climate changes. Rather it will offer mere declarations, albeit correct ones. Meanwhile, there is more and more evidence of the destructive consequences of climate changes.

Of course, periodical changes in the Earth’s climate conditions are a standard phenomenon to some extent. They cannot be considered something exceptional, unprecedented, or unknown in the history of mankind. Still, things that have been taking place in the past years can hardly be regarded as standard natural fluctuation of temperature falls and rises on global scope. They are something altogether new – the products of human activity.

Today’s complicated and dramatic socioeconomic processes have the chance of bringing humanity on a better road provided that no global climate catastrophe hits in the next decade, which would radically change the conditions of our existence. Meanwhile, the development of the global economy is leading to this kind of catastrophe – if it has not started it yet. Many top-ranking scientists have come to this conclusion.

Den has reported about the socioeconomic views expressed by the Danish scholar Bjorn Lomborg. It seems that for the sake of keeping to the principle of objectivity it is worthwhile to tell the readers also about the ideas of one of the main opponents to Lomborg and other anti-alarmists — the 90-year-old British professor and green guru James Lovelock, all the more so that these ideas long ago acquired worldwide recognition, found reflection in many books, and it is only in Ukraine that they remain scarcely known.

Lovelock is a member of the British Royal Society, famous for creating and popularizing the Gaia hypothesis. It postulates that the earth functions like a superorganism. This is a biosphere concept whose main point is that our planet, as an entirety of living beings and non-living matter has not only self-organization systems but also a “controlling mechanism,” which keeps the environment fit for life. The Gaia concept is presented in the form of geophysiology, a systemic organismic science about the earth. This science will likely give way to a synthetic biospheric science, which Volodymyr Vernadsky thought necessary to create. But the meaning of the Gaia concept is not limited only to shaping a scientific theory. Its metaphorical nature, polysemanticism of formulations, and level of generalization fill it with metaphysical contents.

Generally, the scientific-theoretical and philosophical dimensions of the Gaia concept, i.e., geophysiology, are quite close to Vernadsky’s biospheric concept. However, the Gaia hypothesis emerged in 1950–70, when Lovelock, as he admitted, was not yet familiar with Vernadsky’s works. He regrets his ignorance and explains it by the fact that no apt English translations of Vernadsky’s works were available until recent times and by the overall “deafness” of English-speaking authors to texts in other languages. Today Vernadsky’s theory is viewed by the Swiss researcher Jacques Grinwald as the “intellectual prehistory to the Gaia concept,” while Lovelock describes Vernadsky as his “most outstanding predecessor.”

So, Gaia is a kind of self-organizing system. According to Lovelock, metaphorically it is a superorganism that has self-regulatory geophysical characteristics, thus maintaining a whole number of parameters of its internal environment on a relatively stable level, suitable for living organisms. Actually, the main idea of the Gaia hypothesis is that on a planetary scope, life is actively maintaining relatively stable conditions on Earth, comfortable for its own existence, organizing global parameters of its environment, constantly “building them up” for its needs in the process of own evolutional development (homeorhesis). “Any species that adversely affect the environment make it less favorable to their offspring and will eventually be wiped off as the weakest species that are evolutionally ill-adapted,” Lovelock writes.

Lovelock and his fellow biologist Lynn Margulis consider that all organisms, populations, ecosystems, air, soil, and rocks are kinds of organs of a single symbiotic system, Gaia. Humanity is also a part of this single complicated multilevel symbiotic system, where the partners exchange information directly or via their environment.

According to Lovelock’s concept, Gaia has value in itself and cannot be subordinated to man. On the contrary, people should understand that they are part of Gaia, and Gaia’s health is their health, too. The best care about man is care about entire Gaia. So, the practice adopted in the industrially developed countries – when huge money is allotted for health care, whereas very weak support is rendered to the state and international efforts to preserve biosphere and environment – is a vicious circle.

The more we take care of humankind as a single biological species, using the scientific-technical potential for this purpose, the more we worsen the environment for other species and, in the long run, for ourselves. In 10 or 100 years this will produce a postponed boomerang effect. All specimens should be living in harmony within Gaia’s framework, from bacteria to man, in a kind of multilevel symbiosis, because any upstarts, which break the harmony and change the environment to the detriment of their offspring, will finally be driven out, I am repeating myself here, just like the weak, evolutionally ill-adapted species.

People believe that scientific-technical process will last forever and that they will be able to cognize the world in a rational and comprehensive way. Thus, they liken themselves to a divine force, despite being mortal by their nature. If mankind challenges Gaia, it will inevitably sustain a crushing defeat as it will be waging struggle against itself.

Lovelock believes that man’s abuse of environment makes this system work against homo sapiens. It looks as if mankind in its overall condition is a grave malady of the biosphere. The latter is trying to heal itself, changing certain parameters of its existence in order to throw out mankind or at least relegate it to the margins. Mankind has already passed the “point of no return” in the sphere of climate change, and civilization as we know it will hardly survive. “Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable,” Lovelock asserts (although these few people will make nearly 500,000 million people). Of course, there remains an option of constructing dome-covered cities in deserts.

The scientist does not demand, as he did in 1980s, seeking new methods to counteract the global warming. He calls upon the British government and the governments of other countries to start massive preparation to surviving in the “climate hell,” which in his opinion will inevitably come when the temperature in Europe rises by eight degrees.

The green guru wrote in his article entitled “We are past the point of no return” for The Independent: “We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of [CO2] emissions. The worst will happen...” In his opinion, “We have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act, and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can.” The leading countries of the world, he is convinced, should plan to secure regular supplies of energy and food in the “global hothouse” and defenses from the rise of the sea levels.

One of the main components of Lovelock’s book The Revenge of Gaia is “a guidebook for global warming survivors.” It addresses people who will fight for survival after the current ecological mechanism has completely fallen apart.

One could have tried to wave off the scientist’s statements as a new anti-utopia but consider these facts. He proposed his concept of biosphere self-regulation back in the 1970s, while examining under the aegis of NASA whether life on Mars is possible. He was the first to warn more than 20 years ago about the danger of radical climate change. He was among the group of scholars who made a report about the global warming for Margaret Thatcher’s government back in April 1989. Since then practically all dismal predictions made by Lovelock have been fulfilled with high precision.

Incidentally, Lovelock has never been afraid of being a heretic: he has struggled for a long time against the use of nuclear power. And three years ago he suddenly published an article in The Independent which has sparked fiery debate in scientific circles. In this article the scientist called on the ecologists to refuse from their long-standing opposition to the use of atomic energy as it does not emit greenhouse gases. The pace of global warming is very rapid, so much so it is only possible to control it through massive transition to atomic energy, he wrote then. The environmentalists, for the most part, categorically rejected his calls then and still continue to do so. The business circles, who are not eager to contravene the public opinion, also pay little attention to these ideas.

The 2001 report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that the average global temperature may rise by 5.8 degrees centigrade by 2100. In high latitudes, such as Britain, the rise can make eight degrees centigrade. But, Lovelock stresses, it seems that warming is proceeding faster and the timescale of reaching those indices may be shorter. “Yet there is a possibility that the climate change is controllable if we manage to curb the emissions of greenhouse-producing gases. However, it may be too late to do something,” he emphasizes

In fact the present-day civilization has practically found itself in a trap: even if the US, which has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions in compliance with it, changes its mind, China and India will stay beyond the agreement’s action as it is impossible to control them. These new powerful industrial states (each of them inhabited by over billion people) are experiencing the period of rapid economic growth; China builds a new coal power plant on a weekly basis. There are similar processes in India. If these states decide to slow down their development, which results in emitting huge doses of carbon dioxide, but helps billions of people to get out of extreme poverty, an anti-governmental social revolution will break out.

If the current tendencies remain, the rise in carbon dioxide emissions and increase of global temperature (let alone the rise of ocean levels and flooding of some big cities and agricultural areas of these countries) will lead to regular bad harvests and cause famine, again leading to social upheavals. “If the climate change continues, I am inclined to think that by mid-century China will not be able to produce enough food to feed its people. The Chinese will have nowhere to go but up into scantily populated Siberia, where it will be warmer by that time,” Lovelock says. Perhaps, some radical Ukrainian nationalists will be glad to hear that Russians will lose Siberia, but what awaits Ukraine under these global changes?

In general, Lovelock believes that it is too late to try to counter the global warming: the Earth’s ecosystem has changed and now it is working against mankind. The researcher considers that the only thing people are left with is to try to accommodate to the catastrophic ecological conditions, because it is too late to do anything else. At the same time, we have no guarantees that we will succeed to adjust ourselves.

As we can see, Lovelock’s concept, above all, is not even a complex of scientific hypotheses and theories, which enable to predict quite precisely the processes of the climate change in general as well as separate components of this change. Rather, it is a certain worldview and philosophical system which radically opposes anthropocentrism. Moreover, it mentions certain quasi-religious instructions that demand our contemporaries to consciously perceive the inevitable punishment for the past sins of humankind.

It follows from Lovelock’s concept that we cannot avoid this punishment, but we can only somewhat lighten it if the current and the coming generations will behave in the right way, essentially reducing their world-transforming arrogance and drastically cutting their thoughtless consumption of natural resources. Only this can induce Gaia not to destroy, but only move humanity to an outer verge as an element of biosphere, as an element potentially dangerous to geophysical health, and give it the last chance to harmonize itself with the global processes.

25 December year 4009 AD

*posted by dan at 10:47 PM* 0 comments

REUTERS TELLS US: Taiwan’s government, currently run by the old-guard Nationalist Party, has turned a bit more youthful in recent days, using rap music to head off fears at home that it may sell out to political rival Beijing during tense talks this week.
“The Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign independent nation,” the fast-paced, video-enhanced lyrics begin. “Twenty-three million citizens will decide its fate.”

Another video bangs to the words “Take down the missiles” — a slap at China’s military buildup believed to be aimed at the self-ruled island.

http://www.youtube.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa_8-u4ia5c

http://www.mac.gov.tw/lp.asp?ctNode=6217&CtUnit=4376&BaseDSD=7&mp=1

*posted by dan at 10:41 PM* 1 comments

NEWSWEEK: DO you think that the ink-on-paper book will eventually go away?

BEZOS: I do. I don't know how long it will take. You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author's world. That's not going to go away; that's going to thrive. But the physical book really has had a 500-year run. It's probably the most successful technology ever. It's hard to come up with things that have had a longer run. If Gutenberg were alive today, he would recognize the physical book and know how to operate it immediately. Given how much change there has been everywhere else, what's remarkable is how stable the book has been for so long. But no technology, not even one as elegant as the book, lasts forever.

Do you still read books on paper?

Not if I can help it.

===============

Is there a next phase where the novel gets reinvented and the new digital medium gives rise to new art forms?

I'm skeptical that the novel will be "re-invented." If you start thinking about a medical textbook or something, then, yes, I think that's ripe for reinvention. You can imagine animations of a beating heart. But I think the novel will thrive in its current form. That doesn't mean that there won't be new narrative inventions as well. There very well may be. In fact, there probably will be. But I don't think they'll displace the novel.

*posted by dan at 10:40 PM* 1 comments

Praveen Madan, Entrepreneur, says to Newsweek re Jeff Bezos and Kindle etc:

Now we are relabeling a book as technology! What are we going to call a technology next? Perhaps my daily burrito. The debate over e-books versus real books is way over-rated. Who cares if people read e-books or paper books, and whether they read them on their iTablets or Kindles. What matters is that long form reading is good for concentration, opening minds, and encouraging critical thinking. The form and medium of long form reading are irrelevant.

Praveen Madan is an entrepreneur [slash] investor seeking out business opportunities along the US-India Corridor, “the new silk road” of global commerce.

Most recently, Mr. Madan was a Managing Director at Trilogy, a business-value centered company headquartered in Austin, Texas. He oversaw the launch of Trilogy’s new Telecom Business Unit in India developing innovative business services for Indian Telecom clients.

Before Trilogy, Mr. Madan was a senior principal at A.T. Kearney, a global management-consulting firm. He was one of the leaders of A.T. Kearney’s strategy practice serving clients in the high-tech industry. His clients included leading technology companies like HP, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Adobe Systems, EDS, Qwest, and Japan Telecom. He still serves on the advisory board of several venture-backed companies in Silicon Valley.

Mr. Madan is a recognized thought leader and he has been quoted in leading business publications and media outlets like the Business Week, Information Week, San Jose Mercury News, Nikkei, and PBS.

Mr. Madan’s community activities are focused in the areas of education and health-care for children. He has been active with a number of community organizations like the Bay Area Council, March of Dimes, and Jeena.

Mr. Madan has over 15 years of experience working with leading companies in North America, Europe, South-East Asia, and Japan. Mr. Madan received his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India.

Mr. Madan is a resident of the US and India and spends his time between the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Bangalore, and Mumbai.

*posted by dan at 6:59 PM* 0 comments

"The caring mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions." Danny Bloom (1949 - 2009)

*posted by dan at 6:58 PM* 0 comments

Helen Suzman was Jewish Lithuanian immigrant to South Africa, Richard Stengel of TIME magazine: not "a Lithuanian immigrant" -- can't you write? Dummy!

*posted by dan at 6:55 PM* 0 comments

NEXT YEAR IN NEWSPAPERS: top trends for 2010 - Print newspapers to be called "snailpapers" as term of endearment

*posted by dan at 9:12 PM* 44 comments

‘Nerd’ and ‘Geek’ Should Be Banned, Professor Says

By STEVE LOHR in the pages of the New York Times snailpaper .....STEVE: maybe next time you can interview Dan Bloom in Taiwan about why he thinks we need a new word for reading on screens versus "reading" on paper surfaces and why he thinks that word might be SCREENING?

The New York Times ran an article Monday suggesting that what America will need in the future are more “cool nerds.” A playful tweak of the nerd stereotype, to be sure, in an effort to alter it. The people described in the piece were ones with hybrid careers, combining computing with other fields from medicine to Hollywood.

These are jobs that do not match the classic computer geek or nerd image — a heads-down programmer who is socially isolated. In the new hybrid careers, computing is a crucial ingredient and, economists say, such work will be the source of many new jobs of the future.

But David Anderegg, a professor of psychology at Bennington College, says that merely mentioning terms like nerd or geek serves to perpetuate the stereotype. The words are damaging, much like racial epithets, he says, and should be avoided.

Yet the meaning of words often evolves as the social context changes. I noted that in Manhattan’s elite high schools being called a “cool nerd” is a compliment — denoting someone with intellectual and academic chops, un-self-consciously so, and other interests as well.

Perhaps that’s true in a handful of ZIP codes around the country, Dr. Anderegg conceded. But in most of America, he said, nerds and geeks are people to avoid. The connotations are a bit different: a geek suggests a person with special expertise, while nerd suggests social ineptness. And neither are cool.

And math, science and computer science, Dr. Anderegg said, are courses that young people too often associate with nerds and geeks. As a result, he added, “they sabotage themselves in these fields, and the nation’s work force is suffering.”

“The best way to combat this,” he said, “is put it to bed,” banishing “nerd” and “geek” to the linguistic dustbin.

Not easily done, though, as Dr. Anderegg doubtless appreciates. He is an expert on the subject, and the reason I called him for the piece was that I had noticed the praise for his book, “Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them.”

14,473 Readers' Comments !

1 .
I've thought this for a long time. I don't know if I'd go so far as to compare them to racial epithets, but I'm convinced that the "nerd" and "geek" stereotypes are a factor in repelling women, and possibly other under represented groups, from studying math and science.

2.
I use the term geek to describe myself. And I am sure I'm not the only one. Part of the reason for this is recognising what I am and taking more pride in it. It's one of the strategies adopted by other communities, taking pejorative terms and converting them into sources of pride.

The reason I prefer this approach is simple: the sort of behaviour that gets someone labelled as a geek is not something to be ashamed of.

Recommend Recommended by 12 Readers 3 . penfield

California

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amMy, the newscycle is slow right now.

I'm disappointed in Bits Blog for caving in to such obvious opportunism and hypocrisy. Another professor trying to make a name for himself in the NYT.

Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers 4 . Swamps

Portland, OR

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amBeing a geek is way cool. Anyone who is way into anything is called a Geek. You can have computer geeks. Physics geeks. Shakespeare geeks. Climate geeks. Whatever... It just shows you have a passion and love for a particular interest. If anything, we need so many more geeks in this world. Go geeks!!

Recommend Recommended by 17 Readers 5 . Robert Benz

Las Vegas

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amDavid Anderegg has it all wrong. What should be avoided altogether are opinions of hypersensitive shrinks who conjure up issues where there are none.

Recommend Recommended by 12 Readers 6 . ahdavidson

Seattle, WA, USA

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amYou can't change kids' culture by legislating away words. You have to make it cool to be a geek, to be smart, to be a tech wizard.

In my opinion, Dean Kamen has it right, with his FIRST initiative: http://www.usfirst.org/. You have to change the culture and make it an aspiration for them to succeed as engineers, scientists, and technologists, and not to just want to be famous or rich.

I've been a volunteer judge at the middle school competitions in Washington state for the FIRST LEGO League. To watch these kids get excited about designing robots, writing programs, and researching solutions to the worlds' problems is really, really inspiring.

And to hear many young girls say that want to be engineers when they grow up because of FLL is very cool, indeed!

Recommend Recommended by 9 Readers 7 . Sam

NYC

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amWhat a nerd.

Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers 8 . R.U. Kidding

Bennington College

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amWhile we're at it, let's ban "professor of psychology," too. So uncool.

Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers 9 . John

St. Louis

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amI think a lot of people wish they were geeks. In my 20's, the people with the most interesting jobs described themselves as geeks.

Recommend Recommended by 5 Readers 10 . SageAnt

NYC

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amGeek and proud!

Recommend Recommended by 8 Readers 11 . A.J. Chavar

Syracuse, NY

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amI think Dr. Anderegg is missing a very large fact, and that is that banning racial epithets has never worked, why would he assume it would work with less harmful words "geek" and "nerd."

Whats important to know is that most students being called a geek or a nerd nowadays are embracing it, the geek and nerd subcultures thrive with well-adjusted individuals who pride themselves on the skills that earned them the once derogatory title.

Sure, there are still people who use these terms in a hurtful or degrading manner, and that will never go away; but in my experience most people--even my classmates in high school (I am a college senior now)--have learned to brush this off.

Many people who fit into the geek or nerd category even enjoy the title, or appreciate how it denotes a special intelligence, in a way it is akin to the way some black people embrace the "n-word" and "make it their own," of course, in that same vein, their are geeks and nerds who don't appreciate the title and never will.

In the humble opinion of this geek/nerd, these words need a social makeover, i.e. the idea of the "cool nerd." There are some people out there who already want to be nerds, and with the right steps more people will want to follow them into a geeky career or a nerdy profession.

Recommend Recommended by 7 Readers 12 . Stanley

Boston, MA

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amDespite his research and best efforts to the contrary, I submit that a psychology professor from a tiny liberal arts college is likely only to succeed in creating an outsider's view of geek culture. Much as I will never fully understand growing up black, he will never fully understand growing up a geek.. The "geek" and "nerd" labels are worn with pride as often as they are used in disgust. Spilling ink describing why no further ink should be spilled on these words is, dare I say, a very un-geeky response.

Recommend Recommended by 4 Readers 13 . Moeskido

New Jersey

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 am"Expert"? The professor interviewed for this silly article should get out of the house more often, or at least have lunch with a linguist once a week. His characterization of "nerd" and "geek" as pejorative says more about his own resemblance to certain sheltered academic stereotypes than it does about anyone else's.

If he's correct about what "most of America" thinks, then a nerd is anyone who's demonstrably smarter than you, and works hard to keep it that way. Given that, whatever most of America thinks of people like me is unimportant.

Recommend Recommended by 4 Readers 14 . Michael O

Ann Arbor, MI

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amGive me a break. Geek and proud of it!

Recommend Recommended by 6 Readers 15 . JDL

Ridgewood, NJ

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amFrom what year is this study? We "Geeks" and "Nerds" have been proud to be called so for quite a long time now.

- A proud computer geek.

Recommend Recommended by 6 Readers 16 . up

New York City

December 22nd, 2009

1:41 amNerds are nerds and geeks are geeks and never the plastic pocket protectors shall meet!

Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers 17 . Rowan

Boston, MA

December 22nd, 2009

1:49 amThis is an absolutely ludicrous assertion. There are far more than a 'handful' of communities where nerd and geek carry positive connotations. I've spent time in every state in this country and I've only rarely encountered instances where geek and nerd were applied in derogatory terms.

The thing is, almost every young person is a geek these days. Whether its with photo or video editing, programming, gadgets, or even social networking being a geek is closer to the norm than its ever been. To say that these words should be dropped from our lexicon is just perpetuating the negative associations this gentleman is worried about.

Perhaps he should get out of his backwoods school and experience youth elsewhere in this nation.

Recommend Recommended by 9 Readers 18 . Al A.

Buffalo, NY

December 22nd, 2009

1:49 amAs a Computer Scientist who's also proud to be a computer geek, I think professor David Anderegg needs to get a life and stick to subjects he's really an expert at. I earned the nickname "hack" and am proud to be called a computer geek. I have never known it to be a term of derision or used to describe me in an unflattering way.

In most social circles, you must "earn" the right to be called a certain type of moniker (i.e. Jock, Jarhead, Gearhead, etc). Those are terms that aptly describe the person in one word without explanation nor apology. Trying to apply PC sociological pressure to these well established terms is IMHO stupid and show a serious lack of understanding of the sociology involved.

Get a life David Anderegg...

Recommend Recommended by 6 Readers 19 . Liska

Massachusetts

December 22nd, 2009

2:58 amI call myself a geek -not a nerd (don't like the word)- but a geek, and i'm proud of the label. It means i'm not your typical every day go out and party type girl. I love computers, photography, reading (im a bookworm) and not much TV at all.

I'm a geek -- and i'm proud to be one, too. There's no way in hell that either geek OR nerd is a negative stereotype in all it's useages --- anyone can turn any word into an insult if it's said right.

Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers 20 . gilmoure

Sandia Mountains

December 22nd, 2009

2:58 amHeh. And all this time I've been calling myself a geek. And I don't mind that others do as well. My geek-girl wife doesn't mind either. Life is what you make of it and sure, back in high school, when computers were first showing up (trash 80's), being called geek, nerd, or bookworm was done as a put down, it didn't really matter. The troglodytes were all prepping for their jobs as insurance and real estate salesmen and I was having fun breaking computers and getting them running again.

That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.

Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers 21 . Brian H

Denver, CO

December 22nd, 2009

2:58 amBanning a word or phrase only lends it more power. Instead, the target group must embrace the derogatory comment and make it their own; change the meaning by changing how you react to it. And I think this is already happening on a broad basis. My friends and I collectively describe ourselves as tech-geeks, or "geeking-out" over something. This "geek" and "nerd" paranoia is a vestige of the 80's and early 90's generation - the era of the "Nerds" movies, and people preferring to be dumb and cool rather than smart. Gen-Y has realized that smart and cool aren't mutually exclusive, helped by seeing those dumb/cool kids languishing in menial labor jobs while the "nerds" made history (and millions) during the dotcom boom. In this age and generation, to be isolated from technology or willfully ignorant actually makes you more of an outcast. I think a greater focus should be made on linking a student's ability to navigate the ever-present technology in their lives with their ability to think critically and analytically. Make math the means to the end, not the end in itself.

Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers 22 . A.

Austin, TX

December 22nd, 2009

2:58 amI have no special expertise, but as a nerd, I would hope we could focus on the truly hurtful and crass usage of words like "retard."

Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers 23 . Kenny Wyland

Los Angeles, CA

December 22nd, 2009

2:58 amActually using the term "cool nerd" is the insulting terminology because it implies that being a nerd isn't cool. I, and my other nerd and geek friends, have been working a long time to undo the very stereotype and show people that geeks are cool. If these people would just stop using geek or nerd as a negative then the problem goes away. We don't have to change how we refer to ourselves to suit THEM. How would you like it people were offering the "less offensive" term of "hard-working black person?" You wouldn't, would you? Because it implies that black people aren't hard workers. Stop applying the negative connotation to the original term and THAT will solve the problem. Backwards people all over the world consider women to be inferior to men. Should we convince them to start using the phrase "useful woman?"

Recommend Recommended by 3 Readers 24 . Gealach

NYC

December 22nd, 2009

3:50 amDr. Anderegg is overreacting. Try banning anything around kids and you'll quickly realize that you get the opposite reaction: they just want to use it more. Besides, it's pretty obvious that nerd and geek are becoming cool terms if you just take a look around on the internet. From http://www.geekthelibrary.org/ to http://www.thinkgeek.com/, it's cool to be a geek. Maybe Dr. Anderegg will see improvement in his local geeks' outlook if he encourages them to embrace the term instead of trying to ban it from the bullies.

Recommend Recommended by 1 Readers 25 . Larry Miller

Springfield, MO

December 22nd, 2009

3:50 amThe people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult

The geeky kid now owns a million dollar software company.

Via Urban Dictionary =)

Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers

*posted by dan at 9:07 PM* 0 comments

Happy with snail’s pace, says letter writer Celia Bertin in Taipei to the editor of the Taipei Times

Dear Editor:

A recent article about how technology is changing our lives (“A decade

of tech evolution from broadband to tweets,” Dec. 20, page 9)

described just how profoundly the new “digital age” has impacted

modern life. However, one aspect of the digital revolution that the

article did not address is the way we now think about print newspapers

and their online news sites.

I still love reading my daily copy of the print edition of the Taipei

Times, and I much prefer it to reading the same news stories on your

Web site, even though the Web site is easy to navigate and very

readable and I do occasionally surf there, too.

However, as a middle-aged woman, I prefer reading on paper surfaces,

clipping out stories and underlining sentences with my handy pen when

I want to highlight or circle something.

Even though my husband likes to joke with me that I am addicted to

what he calls “the daily snailpaper” — which usually arrives on our

doorstep with news that is 12 hours late; sorry but that’s the truth

for all snailpapers today! — I prefer the snailpaper to the digital

paper.

Call me old-fashioned, but that’s how I like it.

Celia Bertin

Taipei City

THE LO LAT SONG - A NEW SONG IN TAIWANESE music BY 簡定原-- vocals by 李怡樺 - produced by 丹布隆

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

My Stented Heart: novelty song in country-western style by Biko Lang, performed by J. Gale Kilgore in Texas

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

song?

I see by the snailpapers that Peter Kubicek in New York is the author of one of the most important books ever written about the Holocaust..

Monday, December 28, 2009

Recently, as you might have seen, Jack Schafer over at Slate did a good piece on "Shafer doubts e-tablets will save print media"...to which David Iams commented at Jim Romenesko's newspaper site:

My Stented Heart: a country-western novelty song lyric

Sunday, December 27, 2009

David Simon of "THE WIRE" TV show tells CNN's International Correspondent's host: "Cutting down trees and throwing them on doorsteps is antiquated and it has been for some time....."

Confusion Caused by Crash Blossoms

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Mark Peters, looking for you, leave email in comments below, DANNY BLOOM I just emailed you sir

Bill Griffith in ZIPPY cartoon strip on Dec. 25, 2009 zeros in on the future of "paper newspapers"...

Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch film director seated in the same row as Mr. Abdulmutallab ......

Long live Jasper Schuringa, Dutch hero who puts the cabosh to the old slang term "Dutch courage" -- this man was the real McCoy, er, the real Flying Dutchman! BRAVO!

submit@crashblossoms.com

If we can't save the paper newspaper on newsprint, er, snailspaper, what's next?

Printed and tablet e-paper newspaper from an environmental perspective

Philip K. Dick readers may also remember the homeopape, which was a special kind of newspaper that was personalized to the user...

A No-Paper Newspaper, aka After the Last Snailpaper Is Shuttered......

Friday, December 25, 2009

Sam Wiles says ''The newspaper industry is at a crossroads'' (snailpapers are almost history?)

Reinventing the Newspaper - snailpaper - "aged news" - "paper newspaper"

The Tablet Hype by Jack Schaer and new use of the word FLICK for flipping pages on a screen.

Pablo Boczkowski

Flick as a new term for "flipping pages" on a computer screen or PDA or Kindle....

Wow! A new journalism term is born: crash blossoms.....

the crash blossom post that started it all off, hat tip to Nessie3 in JAPAN

Josh Fruhlinger sends along today's entry in the "crash blossom" sweepstakes, ...

"Crash blossom"--love that, and others found in the buzzwords of '09:

Crash Blossom and buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzwords of 2009

Phillip Blanchard and Crash Blossoms and Nessie3: You made the New York Times!

"Crash Blossom" makes into Ben Schott's New York Times language column as one of the best terms of 2099, coined by Nessie3 in Hokkaido Japan for TestyCopyEditors.org earlier in the year

P.J. Gladnick just doesn't get it: ZIPPY cartoonist Bill Griffith dishes the dirt on reading paper newspapers and all that jazz, as snailpapers fade into the sunet, is their demise inevitable, or just inexorable?

Thursday, December 24, 2009

I see by the snailpapers that maybe it's "The end of blogging" - i.e., The way we communicate is changing at a breakneck pace. And don't expect it to slow down anytime soon, says Andy Serwer at (Mis)FORTUNE magazine

Starting Over: Why the last decade was so damn rotten and why the next one will surely be better.

Bill Griffith in recent ZIPPY cartoon strip in daily newspapers worldwide speaks of "reading the paper newspaper"..... SEE CARTOON BELOW FOR EXACT TEXT, well done, Mr Griffith!

The superlative-laden Richard Stengel of TIME magazine and his "magisterial" and "expertly supervised" and "powerful" and "wonderfully rich" and superbly edited" prose in TO OUR READERS page introducing the PERSON OF THE YEAR in recent issue. Richard: too many superlatives, sir! WTF?

The superlative-laden Richard Stengel of TIME magazine and his "

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Revenge of Gaia: notes on James Lovelock, Polar Cities and Climate by Serhii Hrabovsky

Taiwan gives youth in independent and soverign nation of 23 million people a new rap song

Jeff Bezos on why he hopes he doesn't have to read on paper anymore in his life....

Praveen Madan, Entrepreneur, says to Newsweek re Jeff Bezos and Kindle

"The caring mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions."

Helen Suzman was Jewish Lithuanian immigrant to South Africa, Richard Stengel of TIME magazine: not "a Lithuanian immigrant" -- can't you write?

NEXT YEAR IN NEWSPAPERS: top trends for 2010 - Print newspapers to be called "snailpapers" as term of endearment

Monday, December 21, 2009

‘Nerd’ and ‘Geek’ Should Be Banned, Professor Says

Letter to the Editor About Snailpapers in our Daily Lives, by Celia Bertin in Taipei

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