To Tweet, Or Not to Tweet ........CORRECTED version - review of "Hamlet's BlackBerry" ....review by David Harsanyi

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable—at times—seem all the digital distractions of this world.

(677 comments)

A catastrophic event unfolds. A seemingly healthy professional embarks on his daily commute, only to come to the frightening realization that his battered and beloved BlackBerry lies vulnerable and unused in a distant corner of his home. An unwholesome panic descends. No matter how far away from home he is, and no matter how needless the device may be in a practical sense, he is impelled to hightail it back to his house and reconnect with the world.

William Powers offers this beleaguered man (me), and everyone else who has faced a similar ordeal, a roadmap to contentment in "Hamlet's BlackBerry," a rewarding guide to finding a "quiet" and "spacious" place "where the mind can wander free."

Based on the author's much-discussed 2006 75-page essay for the Shorenstein Center at Harvard, "Hamlet's BlackBerry: Why Paper is Eternal" (and how I wish that were true), the former Washington Post staff writer argues that the distractions of manic connectivity often lead to a lack of productivity and, if allowed to permeate too deeply, to an assault on the beauty and meaning of everyday life.

Obviously this is not a unique grievance, or a fresh one: As Mr. Powers acknowledges, concerns about the deleterious effects of a new world supplanting the old go back to Plato. But there has been an awful lot of grousing about digital distraction lately—Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" came out just a few weeks ago—and it is easy to feel skeptical of worrywarts agonizing about Americans "wrestling" with too many choices and "coping" with the effects of too much Internet use.

There is simply too much good that comes of innovation for that sort of Luddite hand-wringing. The farmer a century ago who pulled himself off the straw mattress at 4 a.m. to till the earth so his family wouldn't starve led a fairly straightforward, undistracted existence, but he was almost certainly miserable most of the time. And he probably regarded the arrival of radio as a sort of miracle. In discussions of this type I tend to rely on the wisdom of P.J. O'Rourke: "Civilization is an enormous improvement on the lack thereof."

But even a jaded reader is likely to be won over by "Hamlet's BlackBerry." It convincingly argues that we've ceded too much of our existence to what he calls Digital Maximalism. Less scold and more philosopher, Mr. Powers certainly bemoans the spread of technology in our lives, but he also offers a compelling discussion of our dependence on contraptions and of the ways in which we might free ourselves from them. I buy it. I need quiet time.

To accept "Hamlet's BlackBerry" is to accept that we are super busy. "It's staggering," writes Mr. Powers, "how many balls we keep in the air each day and how few we drop. We're so busy, sometimes it seems as though busyness itself is the point." Though I don't find all that ball-juggling as staggering as the author, and I don't know anyone who acts as if chaos is the point of it all, it would be foolish not to concede that our lives have become far more complex than ever before.


What can be done? What should be done? Mr. Powers's answer is, in essence: Just say no. Try to cultivate a quieter or at least more focused life. The most persuasive and entertaining parts of "Hamlet's BlackBerry" are found in Mr. Powers's efforts to practice what he preaches. (Most of us, it should be noted, do not have the option of moving from a dense Washington, D.C., suburb to an idyllic Cape Cod town to grapple with the demons of gadgetry addiction.) His skeptical wife, a writer herself, and their teenage son, agree that if they're allowed to use their laptops during the week, they will turn the computers off on the weekend. Mr. Powers discovers that friends and relatives quickly adapt to the family's digital disconnect (they call it the "Internet Sabbath"). The family spends more time face-to-face instead of Facebooking.

Mr. Powers proposes that we take into account the "need to connect outward, as well as the opposite need for time and space apart." It is a powerful desire, the balanced life. Most of us yearn for it. Neither technology nor connectivity is injurious unless we allow them to consume us. Mr. Powers argues that letting life turn into a blizzard of snapshots—that's what all those screenviews amount to, after all—isn't enough. We would be happier freeing ourselves for genuine, unfiltered experience and then reflecting on it, not tweeting about it. The busy person will pause here to nod in sympathy.

I'm not sure that many of us have found that spacious place where our minds can wander free of technological intrusions, of beeps and buttons and emails and tweets, but "Hamlet's BlackBerry" makes the case that we can—or should—find it. Recently, while watching some hypnotically dreadful movie, I instinctively reached for my BlackBerry to fetch some worthless biographical information about a third-rate actress that would do no more than clog my brain still further.

Then I remembered something in Mr. Powers's book—which takes its title from a scene in "Hamlet" when the prince refers to an Elizabethan technical advance: specially coated paper or parchment that could be wiped clean. A book that included heavy, blank, erasable pages made from such paper—an almanac, for example—was called a table. "Yea, from the table of my memory / I'll wipe away all trivial fond records," Hamlet says. Or, as Mr. Powers paraphrases: " 'Don't worry,' Hamlet's nifty device whispered, 'you don't have to know everything. Just the few things that matter.' "

[BTW, David Harsanyi is a nationally-syndicated columnist for the Denver Post and while he doesn't respond to most emails, sometimes he does, if he knows you. But if he doesn't know you, forget it. He is just another MSM snob who thinks he's entitled. To what, I don't know....]

Tasnim Shamma at Newsweek [summer intern] gives "Hamlet's BlackBerry" high marks and says she thoroughly enjoyed William Powers' book.

Princeton Class Of 2011
Majors in English, Journalism
Hometown: Jamaica, NY


Dear Mr.Bloom,

....I thoroughly enjoyed Hamlet's BlackBerry and I
thought that showed in my review. (Two A's and a B+ ... ).
Thank you for contacting me.

Tasnim
--
Princeton 2011

Barbara Feinman on the perils of being online too much and on the need to unplug now and then

My friend William Powers’ book -- HAMLET'S BLACKBERRY -- is out now. He sent me an advance copy, and it came just before we were all leaving for the beach. I left a ''vacation message'' on my gmail account that said I was observing ''an Internet sabbath'' inspired by Bill’s book.

I have been struggling with disconnection for years. I want to be offline and in the world but my email beckons me like the Sirens of Greek mythology, luring me back against my better judgment. I get too many emails for someone who makes as little money as I do and wields even less power. Nonetheless, I’m overwhelmed with emails and lately it’s only gotten worse. I have a contract right now with a curriculum design company and am obliged to use their computer and their email system for the work I do on their behalf. During the week, in my little home office, I always have two laptops fired up with what feels and sounds like dualing email accounts. The ping of each new email has begun to grate on my nerves, a digital reminder that my time is not mine. I’m Lucille Ball on the digital assembly line, unable to keep up with the candy bon bons coming down the conveyor belt. As I was reading Bill’s book I recognized myself when he was talking about a state of being that Seneca called “the hunted mind.”

Bill’s book is a balm to this “hunted mind” syndrome. He reminds his readers that technology is a wonderful thing but that we need to take control and not become tools of our tools. I’ve let email, Twitter, FB and all the rest dictate my thoughts, my time, my priorities. Bill offers solutions and a philosophy for living meaningfully and deeply in this digital age.

For starters, I won’t be answering email so quickly or checking it so often. I might even ignore some email – certain requests and demands can hover endlessly in cyberspace as I learn to stop surrendering myself so easily to what other people think I should be doing — people who don’t sign my paychecks at least.


–Barbara

ECFA or ECFUCKED? What is the meaning of the recent Taiwan-China trade pact accord?

Some say this is good for both Taiwan and China, two countries on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait. Others say it is good for China, which wants to take over Taiwan, and bad for Taiwan, which will become more and more dependent on China. So will ECFA be good or bad for Taiwan, or will it mean that Taiwan got ECFUCKED? Future history books will tell the truth.

I think it will all turn out well. Taiwan will remain a free and vibrant and indepedent country, while communist China slowly becomes a free and democratic new country as the Communist leaders fade out into the sunset over the next 50 years.

What's YOUR take?

Now you know what Christmas Day is all about for non-Christians....

Elena Kagan's Jewishness also took center stage later in the day. Graham, probing Kagan on threats to the United States, asked her if she was unnerved by the Christmas Day bomber.

"Where were you on Christmas Day?" Graham asked.

"Like some Jews, but not all Jews," Kagan responded, "I was probably at a Chinese restaurant."

"I could almost see this one coming," Leahy quipped.

Then Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) jumped in: "Those are the only restaurants that are open!"

To Tweet, Or Not to Tweet -- The reviews for HAMLET'S BLACKBERRY by William Powers are coming in, pro and con. Here's the WSJ:

To Tweet, Or Not to Tweet

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable—at times—seem all the digital distractions of this world, writes DAVID HARSANYI in the Wall Street Journal on June 30, 2010 of this Internet Age


A catastrophic event unfolds. A seemingly healthy professional embarks on his daily commute, only to come to the frightening realization that his battered and beloved BlackBerry lies vulnerable and unused in a distant corner of his home. An unwholesome panic descends. No matter how far away from home he is, and no matter how needless the device may be in a practical sense, he is impelled to hightail it back to his house and reconnect with the world.

William Powers offers this beleaguered book reviewer (DH), and everyone else who has faced a similar ordeal, a roadmap to contentment in "Hamlet's BlackBerry," a rewarding guide to finding a "quiet" and "spacious" place "where the mind can wander free."

Based on the author's much-discussed 2006 National Journal essay, "Hamlet's BlackBerry: Why Paper is Eternal" (and how I wish that were true), the former Washington Post staff writer argues that the distractions of manic connectivity often lead to a lack of productivity and, if allowed to permeate too deeply, to an assault on the beauty and meaning of everyday life.

Obviously this is not a unique grievance, or a fresh one: As Mr. Powers acknowledges, concerns about the deleterious effects of a new world supplanting the old go back to Plato. But there has been an awful lot of grousing about digital distraction lately—Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" came out just a few weeks ago—and it is easy to feel skeptical of worrywarts agonizing about Americans "wrestling" with too many choices and "coping" with the effects of too much Internet use.

There is simply too much good that comes of innovation for that sort of Luddite hand-wringing. The farmer a century ago who pulled himself off the straw mattress at 4 a.m. to till the earth so his family wouldn't starve led a fairly straightforward, undistracted existence, but he was almost certainly miserable most of the time. And he probably regarded the arrival of radio as a sort of miracle. In discussions of this type I tend to rely on the wisdom of P.J. O'Rourke: "Civilization is an enormous improvement on the lack thereof."

But even a jaded reader is likely to be won over by "Hamlet's BlackBerry." It convincingly argues that we've ceded too much of our existence to what he calls Digital Maximalism. Less scold and more philosopher, Mr. Powers certainly bemoans the spread of technology in our lives, but he also offers a compelling discussion of our dependence on contraptions and of the ways in which we might free ourselves from them. I buy it. I need quiet time.

To accept "Hamlet's BlackBerry" is to accept that we are super busy. "It's staggering," writes Mr. Powers, "how many balls we keep in the air each day and how few we drop. We're so busy, sometimes it seems as though busyness itself is the point." Though I don't find all that ball-juggling as staggering as the author, and I don't know anyone who acts as if chaos is the point of it all, it would be foolish not to concede that our lives have become far more complex than ever before.

View Full Image
Hamlet's Blackberry
By William Powers
Harper, 267 pages, $24.99
What can be done? What should be done? Mr. Powers's answer is, in essence: Just say no. Try to cultivate a quieter or at least more focused life. The most persuasive and entertaining parts of "Hamlet's BlackBerry" are found in Mr. Powers's efforts to practice what he preaches. (Most of us, it should be noted, do not have the option of moving from a dense Washington, D.C., suburb to an idyllic Cape Cod town to grapple with the demons of gadgetry addiction.) His skeptical wife and kids agree that if they're allowed to use their laptops during the week, they will turn the computers off on the weekend. Mr. Powers discovers that friends and relatives quickly adapt to the family's digital disconnect (they call it the "Internet Sabbath"). The family spends more time face-to-face instead of Facebooking.

Mr. Powers proposes that we take into account the "need to connect outward, as well as the opposite need for time and space apart." It is a powerful desire, the balanced life. Most of us yearn for it. Neither technology nor connectivity is injurious unless we allow them to consume us. Mr. Powers argues that letting life turn into a blizzard of snapshots—that's what all those screenviews amount to, after all—isn't enough. We would be happier freeing ourselves for genuine, unfiltered experience and then reflecting on it, not tweeting about it. The busy person will pause here to nod in sympathy.

I'm not sure that many of us have found that spacious place where our minds can wander free of technological intrusions, of beeps and buttons and emails and tweets, but "Hamlet's BlackBerry" makes the case that we can—or should—find it. Recently, while watching some hypnotically dreadful movie, I instinctively reached for my BlackBerry to fetch some worthless biographical information about a third-rate actress that would do no more than clog my brain still further.

Then I remembered something in Mr. Powers's book—which takes its title from a scene in "Hamlet" when the prince refers to an Elizabethan technical advance: specially coated paper or parchment that could be wiped clean. A book that included heavy, blank, erasable pages made from such paper—an almanac, for example—was called a table. "Yea, from the table of my memory / I'll wipe away all trivial fond records," Hamlet says. Or, as Mr. Powers paraphrases: " 'Don't worry,' Hamlet's nifty device whispered, 'you don't have to know everything. Just the few things that matter.' "

[Mr. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Denver Post.]

International Snailpapers Day - Annual Observance according to Chase's Calendar Events for 2011

Thank you for your recent submission to Chase's Calendar of Events. We
have accepted your event for our 2011 edition.
The 2011 Chase's Calendar of Events will be available for purchase in
late September 2010.
Thanks for your participation!
The editors


Entry: International Snailpapers Day
Date: April 7, 2011
Description: A day to celebrate print newspapers in our lives by picking
up a print newspaper that day and reading it.
Web: http://zippy1300.blogspot.com

Pushing the envelope: something you learn in school or outside in the school of Hard Knocks

Whatever you do, keep pushing the envelope!

The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut-- Svavelsjö?Strängnäs? Södertälje? Wadensjö? Ekström? Nyström?

Nora Ephron pokes a hole in the wall with:


There was a tap at the door at five in the morning. She woke up. Shite. Now what? She’d fallen asleep with her Palm Tungsten T3 mobile in her hand. It would take only a moment to smash it against the wall and shove the battery up the nose of whoever was out there annoying her. She went to the door.

“I know you’re home,” he said.

Kalle Blomkvist.

She tried to remember whether she was speaking to him or not. Probably not. She tried to remember why. No one knew why. It was undoubtedly because she’d been in a bad mood at some point. Lisbeth Salander was entitled to her bad moods on account of her miserable childhood and her tiny breasts, but it was starting to become confusing just how much irritability could be blamed on your slight figure and an abusive father you had once deliberately set on fire and then years later split open the head of with an axe.

Salander opened the door a crack and spent several paragraphs trying to decide whether to let Blomkvist in. Many italic thoughts flew through her mind. Go away. Perhaps. So what. Etc.

“Please,” he said. “I must see you. The umlaut on my computer isn’t working.”

He was cradling an iBook in his arms. She looked at him. He looked at her. She looked at him. He looked at her. And then she did what she usually did when she had run out of italic thoughts: she shook her head.

“I can’t really go on without an umlaut,” he said. “We’re in Sweden.”

But where in Sweden were they? There was no way to know, especially if you’d never been to Sweden. A few chapters ago, for example, an unscrupulous agent from Swedish Intelligence had tailed Blomkvist by taking Stora Essingen and Gröndal into Södermalm, and then driving down Hornsgatan and across Bellmansgatan via Brännkyrkagatan, with a final left onto Tavastgatan. Who cared, but there it was, in black-and-white, taking up space. And now Blomkvist was standing in her doorway. Someone might still be following him—but who? There was no real way to be sure even when you found out, because people’s names were so confusingly similar—Gullberg, Sandberg, and Holmberg; Nieminen and Niedermann; and, worst of all, Jonasson, Mårtensson, Torkelsson, Fredriksson, Svensson, Johansson, Svantesson, Fransson, and Paulsson.

“I need my umlaut,” Blomkvist said. “What if I want to go to Svavelsjö? Or Strängnäs? Or Södertälje? What if I want to write to Wadensjö? Or Ekström or Nyström?”

It was a compelling argument.

She opened the door.

He handed her the computer and went to make coffee on her Jura Impressa X7.

She tried to get the umlaut to work. No luck. She pinged Plague and explained the problem. Plague was fat, but he would know what to do, and he would tell her, in Courier typeface.

Plague wrote.





She went to the bathroom and got a Q-tip and gently cleaned the area around the Alt key. It popped into place. Then she pressed “U.” An umlaut danced before her eyes.

Finally, she spoke.

“It’s fixed,” she said.

“Thanks,” he said.

She thought about smiling, but she’d smiled three hundred pages earlier, and once was enough. ♦

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

Read more:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/07/05/100705sh_shouts_ephron#ixzz0sDPdLaXK

KEY WORDS:

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"; Stieg Larsson; Books; Computers; Umlauts; Punctuation; Sweden, Danny Bloom, Screening, reading, screading, MRI scans

Edward Tenner in the Atlantic Monthly on Shuttering an Era: The End of Photojournalism

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/06/shuttering-an-era-the-end-of-photojournalism/58793/

Good post, and this final part needs to shouted from the rooftops from Manhattan to Mattapan! Because is is what Anne Mangen in Norway and Maryanne Wolf at Tufts and Danny Bloom in Taiwan are saying about TEXT, too:

RE:

Finally, there's an important comment in a L.A. Times review:


Also, viewing an extensive essay on screen is not the same as making one's way through the pages of a book or magazine.


"Internet viewing is mostly a scanning experience, rather than being enveloped," [Getty Museum associate photography curator Brett] Abbott says. "A lot of these projects are so dependent on nuance and context, I don't know how this will translate to the Internet. I don't know if it can be translated without new strategies."

That's what some people are saying about text, too.

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/06/shuttering-an-era-the-end-of-photojournalism/58793/

Al Gore and the US$500 massage: one possible answer below: NSFW!

WOMAN WHO KNOWS SAYS:

I knew it!! Men NEVER leave unless there is someone else!! I learned this the hard way after 17 years of marriage. He said he was having a mid life crisis & needed some time to himself. He died of a massive heart attack at the age of 40. His mistress came to the wake like the grieving widow & couldn't wait to tell me she had been with him for 7 years!! So Ladies, you heard it from someone who's been there.

Maureen Dowd gets closer to discussing "reading" vs "screening" in terms of paper reading and Kindles and iPhones and screens

A future comment might be: "Well done, Maureen, for pointing out the uncomfortable reality of our techno-gadget addiction. As you most astutely point out in your column today about reading versus screening, we will be hearing about this more and more in the future.

While, in many ways screens and e-readers have brought tremendous convenience to our lives they are not without negative side affects that health professionals and clinicians have been reporting and discussing for some time now.

It is interesting that for every negative story about techno-gadgets in general and e-readers in particular, the industry uses its not inconsiderable power over news agencies to send out damage control stories that would put BP to shame. I predict that this column today about screening on screens compared to reading on paper will be followed by just such stories by industry spin control "experts".

■ 最佳台語專輯獎 -- 江蕙－初登場／喜歡唱片股份有限公司 － 21屆金曲獎

■ 最佳台語專輯獎 (and the winner for 2010 is:)

江蕙－初登場／喜歡唱片股份有限公司

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCUz1LfV9as&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6OUJdCXtx0

21屆金曲獎

Best Taiwanese Album: 21st Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan: "Da Yuan Yi Jia Nong Chu Lai"

Best Taiwanese Album: "Da Yuan Yi Jia Nong Chu Lai"

ALPHABETICAL NOUN PAIRS ORDER: Do we say ladies and gentlemen or gentlemen and ladies, using alphabetical order or what?

An English teacher in Japan named Daniel James tells about an odd
assertion by some of his students of English. Recently he was discussing bad
manners concerning chopsticks, and he had written that a person should
not hold "chopsticks and a bowl" in the same hand.

One of his Japanese students, an adult, was
adamant that it should be "a bowl and chopsticks". She and other
students said that when they were children at school in Japan ......shortly
after World War Two .....they and all Japanese kids were taught that nouns in English should be
put in alphabetical order.

Even after Mr James showed them collocations
such as "ladies and gentlemen", "salt and pepper" and "fish and
chips", his students wouldn't budge. Anybody have any info or ideas
about how this curious preconception arose?

Does it apply also in Taiwan? In China? In all of Asia? Que pasa?

(hat tip to Michael Quinion on the UK for bringing this question up)

WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 692 Saturday 26 June 2010
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent each Saturday to at least 50,000 subscribers by e-mail and RSS
Editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
Website: http://www.worldwidewords.org ISSN 1470-1448

On the air!

Why do we say on radio or TV, "we are on the air" ?

Technology Blogs That Plan to Post Blog Posts about "Screening versus reading" and Danny Bloom's video oped on the future of reading on paper and reading on screens.....

READING vs SCREENING..THE OPED VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpN78-cJP0



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Memo to In-house Memo Writers at New York Times and other snailpapers

When you mention Gov. Charlie Crist's name in a memo, spell it right. If you spell it as Christ, as the Times did last week -- "Charlie Christ!" -- really! -- google it: "damien cave + charlie christ" -- you will end up with Romenesko egg on your face and you'll even get Romenesko'd, which sometimes is good and sometimes is not so good.

- 30 -

Henry G. Marquand -- with payyes -- sometime between 1900 and 1912

New Yorker magazine cover - June 28, 2010 - A CLASSIC!

New York Times memo on Damien Cave calls Charlie Crist as "Charlie Christ" -- atomic typo alert!

Memo after the jump.

****UPDATE: One NYTimes staffer tells this blog just now: ''Well, he is trying to raise himself from the politically dead.''

Mexico City Bureau News

We’re delighted to announce that Randy Archibold will be our next Mexico City bureau chief as Marc Lacey moves to Phoenix, and that Damien Cave will join him as we expand the bureau to restore a second Mexico City position.

Read more in this note from Susan Chira, Joe Kahn and Ian Fisher.

Randy and Damien could not be better placed for these jobs, and to work as partners to cover a story that has exploded not only in Mexico, but in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.


Damien arrives in Mexico via Miami and Baghdad, with a detour to Haiti to contribute a stream of memorable stories as part of our team coverage of the earthquake. As Miami bureau chief, he ranged widely, from memorable long form pieces like the psychological scars among women in combat to a smart political take on the Charlie Christ race to his knowing, fun essay on Tampa as host of the 2012 Republican convention. In Baghdad, he helped cover a pivotal year, including a memorable collaborative effort that showed street-level fears in Baghdad's neighborhoods about security. He also brings to his new assignment a commitment to innovative approaches on the Web and in video, working with his wife, Diana.

We look forward to Randy's and Damien's eyes on Mexico and beyond.

Rick Berke would like to add that Randy's job in L.A. and Damien's in Miami are now officially posted; please let him know if you're interested.

Susan, Joe, Ian

CNN iReport features "reading on paper versus reading on screens" issue

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-463243

Peter Bregman on Why He Returned His iPad

June 16, 2010

A little more than a week after buying the iPad, I returned it to Apple. The problem wasn't the iPad exactly, though it has some flaws. The problem was me.

I like technology, but I'm not an early adopter. I waited for the second-generation iPod, the second-generation iPhone, and the second-generation MacBook Air.

But the iPad was different. So sleek. So cool. So transformational. And, I figured, since it's so similar to the iPhone, most of the kinks would already be worked out.

So at 4 PM on the day the 3G iPad was released, for the first time in my life, I waited in line for two hours to make a purchase.

I set up my iPad in the store because I wanted to make sure I could start using it the very moment I bought it. And use it I did. I carried it with me everywhere; it's so small and thin and light, why not bring it along?

I did my email on it, of course. But I also wrote articles using Pages. I watched episodes of Weeds on Netflix. I checked the news, the weather, and the traffic. And, of course, I proudly showed it to, well, anyone who indicated the least bit of interest. (That could be a whole post in itself. We proudly show off new purchases as though simply possessing them is some form of accomplishment. Why? I didn't create the iPad. I just bought one.)

It didn't take long for me to encounter the dark side of this revolutionary device: it's too good.

It's too easy. Too accessible. Both too fast and too long-lasting. Certainly there are some kinks, but nothing monumental. For the most part, it does everything I could want. Which, as it turns out, is a problem.

Sure I might want to watch an episode of Weeds before going to sleep. But should I? It really is hard to stop after just one episode. And two hours later, I'm entertained and tired, but am I really better off? Or would it have been better to get seven hours of sleep instead of five?

The brilliance of the iPad is that it's the anytime-anywhere computer. On the subway. In the hall waiting for the elevator. In a car on the way to the airport. Any free moment becomes a potential iPad moment.

The iPhone can do roughly the same thing, but not exactly. Who wants to watch a movie in bed on an iPhone?

So why is this a problem? It sounds like I was super-productive. Every extra minute, I was either producing or consuming.

But something — more than just sleep, though that's critical too — is lost in the busyness. Something too valuable to lose.

Boredom.

Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that's where creativity arises.

My best ideas come to me when I am unproductive. When I am running but not listening to my iPod. When I am sitting, doing nothing, waiting for someone. When I am lying in bed as my mind wanders before falling to sleep. These "wasted" moments, moments not filled with anything in particular, are vital.

They are the moments in which we, often unconsciously, organize our minds, make sense of our lives, and connect the dots. They're the moments in which we talk to ourselves. And listen.

To lose those moments, to replace them with tasks and efficiency, is a mistake. What's worse is that we don't just lose them. We actively throw them away.

"That's not a problem with the iPad," my brother Anthony — who I feel compelled to mention is currently producing a movie called My Idiot Brother — pointed out. "It's a problem with you. Just don't use it as much."

Guilty as charged. It is a problem with me. I can't not use it if it's there. And, unfortunately, it's always there. So I returned it. Problem solved.

But it did teach me something about the value of boredom. And I'm far more conscious now of using those extra moments, the in-between time, the walking and riding and waiting time, to let my mind wander.

Around the same time I returned my iPad, I noticed that my eight-year-old daughter Isabelle was unbelievably busy from the moment she got home from school to the moment she went to bed. Bathing, reading, playing guitar, eating dinner, doing homework, she was non-stop until I rushed her off to bed. Once in bed she would try to talk to me but, worried about how little sleep she was getting, I would shush her, urging her to go to sleep.

We have a new ritual now, and it really has become my favorite part of the day. I put her to bed 15 minutes earlier than before. She crawls into bed and, instead of shushing her, I lie next to her and we just talk. She talks about things that happened that day, things she's worried about, things she's curious or thinking about. I listen and ask her questions. We laugh together. And our minds just wander.

- PB

"Hamlet's BlackBerry" -- the book all America will be talking about all summer long

Powers' book is a crisp, passionately-argued answer to the question that many people who have grown dependent on digital devices are asking: Where's the rest of my life?

Is the internet making us stupid? I don't think so. Would Hamlet have carried a BlackBerry if such a tablet was available back in his day? I think so. (He would call it an erasable tablet!)

First watch this YOUTUBE video, 2 minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpN78-cJP0

Is the internet making us stupid? I don't think so. Would Hamlet have carried a BlackBerry if such a tablet was available back in his day? I think so. (He would call it an erasable tablet!)

Is reading online and multitasking at the computer terminal re-writing our brains? I don't think so. In fact, I am sure it is not.

Not anymore than reading a newspaper re-wires the brain. Or reading a book on paper. Enough with this re-wiring the brain crap!

But I will tell you what I do think: I think that reading texts -- fiction and nonfiction, poetry and literature, news articles and oped essays -- on a screen is NOT "reading" per se, as we have traditionally defined "reading." So what is it? I believe screen-reading is a new kind of human mode of reading and that it calls out for a new name.

I call it "screening" until a better word comes down the road and I am sure a better will come down the road. Soon. But for now, bear with me, let's call it "screening." Because it aint reading!

When future MRI scans are done on people during PHD tests to ascertain whether or not different regions of the brain light up when we read on paper compared to when we "read" on screens, the results will show that reading on paper is vastly superior for four things: processing of info, retention of info, analysis and critical thinking skills.

Don't believe me? Ask Anne Mangen in Norway. Ask Maryanne Wolf at Tufts. Ask Bill Hill in Hawaii? Ask James Fallows and David Pogue and John Markoff. They all have their own takes on this. Listen!

Ask Gary Small at UCLA. Ask thinkers like William Powers and Patricia Cohen and Nick Bilton and Vindu Goel and Kara Swisher. Ask Nick Carr or Nicholson Baker. Ask Edward H. Tenner.

Ask me. I'll tell you. Of course, I aint got a pretty PHD so I don't expect anyone to listen to me or even believe me. That's okay. Par for the course. So ask Marvin Minsky at MIT. Ask Paul Saffo the futurist. Ask Kevin Kelley or Charles Bigelow. Hey, ask Maureen Dowd!

Is reading on paper superior to reading on screens? You bet. Will this make any difference? Nope. Reading devices will continue to sell and be sold, and to hell with critical thinking and analysis, empathy or
EQ! Money talks, there's the bottom line to feed. Feed it, Jeff Bezos!

New York Times - UNPLUGGED video series - DANNY BLOOM unplugged on video, 2 minute segment

http://163.27.48.19/birdd/video/20100621_dan.mpg

stairchitecture - definition - Urban Dictionary

(n.) -- the architecture of stairs and stairways, indoors and outdoors

"With modern building materials, the new stairchitecture of the top home designers is just marvelous."

-- overheard at watercooler in New York, June 8, 2010

Stairchitecture - A new way of looking at and walking on.....stairs!

See below

Stairchitecture - A new way of looking at and walking on.....stairs!

I see by the snailpapers that The Guardian newspaper in the UK censors my comment on Roy Greenslade's very good blog about flotilla photos.....

ASK: roy.greenslade@guardian.co.uk

ROY didn't censor me, his moderators did. Who are they and why did they do it? All I wrote was:


On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Danny Bloom wrote

> "This was a fascinating post, Roy, and the Rashomon part of the story
> remains a never ending tale. Everyone sees the truth from their POV.
> But from these photos, it does seem as if someone -- guess who? --
> was fibbinb about the Israeli soldiers coming down the ropes with guns
> loaded and ready to kill. Smile. As if. But that said, no matter which
> part of this Rashomon story you believe, be you Christian Jewish
> Palestinian or Buddhist -- or maybe a good old atheist agnosticator --
> the thing is this, and I saw this as a deeply feeling Jewish lad from
> Boston: Israel was a mistake to place there smack in the middle of
> Arab land back in 1949. Year I was born. It was mistake and we can
> blame lots of powers for this. You don't put a Jewish Homeland smack
> in the middle of someone else's land. Sorry, you just don't. But the
> powers that be did just that. And we are stuck with this 1000 year war
> against the Israelis and they against the Arabs. It will never end. I
> was in Jerusalem in 1971 and met an Egyptian bloke on the boat over to
> Israel from Greece and he and spoke of peace, maybe in 25 years. Look!
> Nada! It would have been better to put the dear Jewish Homeland of the
> Zionists in Argentina or Alaska, and there were plans at the time to
> do so, but the Middle East won the vote. I have no idea why. Look, we
> Jews left Israel 2500 years ago or more, and for a good reason. Much
> better life in Europe and North America, even South America and
> Australia, compared to putting a new artificial nation there. There?
> Why on Earth? Well, we all know why. Everyone was guilty. The
> Holocaust was over everyone's shoulder, too. Damn Christianity! Damn
> Hitler! Damn Islam! Damn
> the Olde Testament gods with their fire-breating dragons! The Middle
> East has given the modern world the three most terrible and stupid
> religions ever to visit this Eearth, and again, I say this as a deeply
> feeling Jewish bloke who loves being Jewish and is Jewish to the core
> in terms of humor and worldview but I do not believe for one second
> there ever was a Hebrew God or a Christian Messiah or any son of God
> and certainly no Allah. When will we all wake up and say enought with
> this god business? That said, it does seem those photos show that the
> Israeli PR teams were not lying and that in fact this time the Arabs
> were lying. Photos do not lie. Sigh. I am glad I will be dead soon.
> This world is totally effed up and Israel and the PLO make a mockery
> of what human life is to be about. Once upon a time. Ouch."

World scoop for amateur photographer who pictured Israeli flotilla raid (8)Tweet this (4)Comments (40)
Journalistic scoops sometimes walk in off the street. That's just what happened earlier this month in Istanbul, as Der Spiegel reveals.

On 4 June, an agitated man with a bald head and a grey beard arrived at the headquarters of the Muslim aid organisation IHH in the Turkish capital.

He identified himself as Kevin Neish, a 53-year-old peace activist and amateur photographer from Canada, and said that four days previously he had been on board the Mavi Marmara, the
ship boarded by Israeli soldiers while heading for Gaza.

After explaining that he had been taking pictures when the soldiers stormed the vessel and killed nine people, he asked: "Do you have a computer?"

He then handed over a memory card, and the pictures that appeared on the computer screen astonished the IHH staff. One showed two pro-Palestinian activists armed with iron bars standing in front of a door.

Another showed an Israeli soldier covered in blood and lying on the floor. A third showed a dead activist who appeared to have been shot in the head.

Neish had managed to smuggle the memory card past the vigilant Israeli authorities despite being searched along with other activists who were detained. "I hid the card everywhere while the soldiers were questioning us," he said. "I had it in my mouth, once in my shoes, and once in my underpants."

Three days later, on 7 June, Neish's pictures were published in the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet alongside a set taken by Turkish photographer Adem Özköse.

The fact that the pictures ran counter to the widely-held view in Turkey that the Israeli soldiers had not been attacked by activists was important in political terms.

Hürriyet belongs to a media group owned by Aydin Dogan, whose papers have warned against excessive Israel bashing. It is therefore critical of the stance of Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Example here).

Pro-government newspapers immediately accused the Dogan group of playing into Israel's hands by publishing the photos.

To confuse matters, there has been criticism of Hürriyet in Israel for publishing the pictures because of the possible negative effect on the morale of the country's troops.

But the Israeli government doesn't share that view. It regards the Neish pictures as final proof that activists on the Mavi Marmara wanted to "lynch" its soldiers.

The pictures were later circulated by Reuters, causing another controversy when the news agency was accused of manipulating the images by cropping out the hand of one pro-Palestinian activist holding a knife. On another, a pool of blood was missing.

Sources: Der Spiegel/Hürriyet/Haaretz
Posted by
Roy Greenslade Friday 18 June 2010 10.34 BST
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Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 11:16AM
One wonders why he needed to smuggle evidence of Israelis being brutally beaten past the Israelis.

Still, many of the bigots brigade who populate the I/P threads refuse to admit that Israelis were beaten as they descended from the helicopter and eventually killed in defence of their lives despite the graphic evidence before their eyes. Perhaps he thought he would have been accused of cooperating with the Israelis.

Mr Greenslade, after writing this blog --- which version do you believe?

Recommend? (16) Report abuse Clip | Link sydk
18 Jun 2010, 11:32AM
The evidence that the Israeli commandos were attacked and beaten when they landed on the MM is overwhelming - the idea that all the video footage and photographic evidence could all be faked is purely for the conspiracy theorists and extreme anti-Israel bigots.

Recommend? (13) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 11:40AM
Sydk
Since as I agree with you, the evidence is so overwhelming why is the investigation not into Turkey's motives and behaviour in commissioning the ships and in employing the thugs who perpetrated the disgusting display of violence?

Why is the UN not roaring in indignation at Turkey's behaviour?

Recommend? (12) Report abuse Clip | Link SantaMoniker
18 Jun 2010, 11:51AM
Oh dear.

He then handed over a memory card, and the pictures that appeared on the computer screen astonished the IHH staff. One showed two pro-Palestinian activists armed with iron bars standing in front of a door.

Another showed an Israeli soldier covered in blood and lying on the floor. A third showed a dead activist who appeared to have been shot in the head.

And I thought that these were peaceful activists.

How wrong one can be ...

Recommend? (12) Report abuse Clip | Link TheVoiceOfIsrael
18 Jun 2010, 12:00PM
I am less surprised by the pictures being "smuggled past the vigilant Israeli authorities" (why would anyone need to smuggle them past the Israeli authorities?), than I am by Greenslade's piece getting into this website.

And while Israeli diplomats and ministers have tried to spin the clash on the aid flotilla as either much ado about nothing, or as a justified response to violent and illegal actions by the activists,

Will there be an apology from the Guardian?

(When hell freezes over, I would guess.)

Recommend? (27) Report abuse Clip | Link JamesDickins
18 Jun 2010, 12:15PM
The evidence given in this report does not support the views of pro-Israeli Commenters:

One [photo] showed two pro-Palestinian activists armed with iron bars standing in front of a door.

If someone was attempting to shoot me, I would be grab anything available to defend myself.

Another showed an Israeli soldier covered in blood and lying on the floor.

This does not imply that the peace activists attacked the Israeli soldiers first. In fact, we know from other sources that they tended wounded Israelis, indicating that there was no intention to kill.

A third showed a dead activist who appeared to have been shot in the head.

We know from other sources that most of the peace activists were shot from behind, in the head or back, or both:

The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-results

Recommend? (25) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 12:33PM
JamesDickens 12.15PM - This is an apt illustration of the unshakeable belief that the Israelis are always in the wrong.

Recommend? (13) Report abuse Clip | Link rubberneck
18 Jun 2010, 12:45PM
@jubilation1

JamesDickens 12.15PM - This is an apt illustration of the unshakeable belief that the Israelis are always in the wrong.

It's actually an illustration that there are two sides to every story, and that context is everything. I agree that Israeli soldiers were beaten and attacked, but the evidence points to a reason. They had already fired on and killed some of the activists on board As you would imagine, the soldiers were attacked as soon as they landed. Being a peace activist does not mean accepting cold blooded murder. It is about an ongoing struggle for justice.
Why did the IDF confiscate all media if they had nothing to hide ????

Recommend? (15) Report abuse Clip | Link DrDelaney
18 Jun 2010, 12:54PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. DrDelaney
18 Jun 2010, 1:03PM
Why did the IDF confiscate all media if they had nothing to hide ????

Maybe they sort of wanted to find out what exactly had happened? Like you do. Just a guess, like.

Recommend? (6) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 1:06PM

They had already fired on and killed some of the activists on board

Oh yes, that's the version of the person who was on The Challenger - another ship entirely, is it? Or is it the version of the person on one of the other decks of the Marmara - those remarkably good humanitarian people who gave unmistakably lying accounts of the proceedings and whose humanity stretches to encompass everyone against the Israelis?

Recommend? (11) Report abuse Clip | Link JamesDickins
18 Jun 2010, 1:07PM
DrDelaney. 18 Jun 2010, 1:03PM. Why did the IDF confiscate all media if they had nothing to hide ????

Maybe they sort of wanted to find out what exactly had happened? Like you do. Just a guess, like

A poor guess. If you wanted to find out exactly what happened and had nothing to hide, you would make a copy of the information on the media, and hand the originals back to their owners. Only those with something to hide confiscate evidence.

Recommend? (16) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 1:11PM

Only those with something to hide confiscate evidence.

or those with no time because there are hundreds of people to process.

Recommend? (6) Report abuse Clip | Link DrDelaney
18 Jun 2010, 1:12PM
Being a peace activist does not mean accepting cold blooded murder.

For some "peace" activists it would appear to mean trying to commit it.

Come on, these guys were not peaceniks, they were jihadis. Don't take my word for it, take their own (and that of the ship's captain).

Recommend? (14) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 1:45PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. BennyHo
18 Jun 2010, 2:05PM
I'm flabbergasted.

The Guardian faithful being told, on the Guardian site, that some of the 'peace activists' were ..... NOT actually 'peace activists'.

(Clashings of thunder and lashings of cold, cold rain).

The pictures were later circulated by Reuters, causing another controversy when the news agency was accused of manipulating the images by cropping out the hand of one pro-Palestinian activist holding a knife. On another, a pool of blood was missing.

Yes. I read about that elsewhere but, this is surely new for The Guardian.

I cannot 'click' anymore.

I will have to take some medication.

Recommend? (7) Report abuse Clip | Link sydk
18 Jun 2010, 2:06PM
Rubber:

They had already fired on and killed some of the activists on board

Do you have any evidence to back up this contention?

Five boats were boarded realatively peacefully - why would Israeli commandosboard this one all guns blazing knowing it would cause an international outcry.

The vidoe evidence shows that the soldiers were attacked as they abseilled onto the boat.

Logic dictates that your sequence of events is extremely unlikely - now i challenge you to produce the evidence to support your contention.

Recommend? (9) Report abuse Clip | Link BennyHo
18 Jun 2010, 2:17PM
sydk

The vidoe evidence shows that the soldiers were attacked as they abseilled onto the boat.

Yes. Looking at the video, the 'peace activists' seem singularly un-deterred by the reported 'hail of live bullets' fired on them by the commandos.

I know that it is unbelievable but some 'peace activists' lie.

No no. Its true.

They lie.

Recommend? (5) Report abuse Clip | Link rubberneck
18 Jun 2010, 2:30PM
@sydk

Logic dictates that your sequence of events is extremely unlikely - now i challenge you to produce the evidence to support your contention.

If all the media evidence hadn't been stolen by the IDF then we could make up our minds, but obviously they have something to hide. If they don't why hasn't the media all been returned ?
As for the "jihadis " on board, why didn't they bring guns, bombs, explosives etc. What kind of "Jihadis " use chairs and poles ??

@jubilation1
Having a different opinion to your own does not make someone " a bigot "

Recommend? (15) Report abuse Clip | Link BennyHo
18 Jun 2010, 2:38PM
rubberneck - 'As for the "jihadis " on board, why didn't they bring guns, bombs, explosives etc. What kind of "Jihadis " use chairs and poles ?? '

They were heavy chains amd solid metal bars.

So. You don't accept that these were pseudo peace activists spoiling for a fight?

Nothing more to say really.

To you at least.

Recommend? (5) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 2:46PM

Having a different opinion to your own does not make someone " a bigot "

Refusing to accept clear proof because it does not fit in with preconceptions does make someone a bigot.

Recommend? (4) Report abuse Clip | Link rubberneck
18 Jun 2010, 2:51PM
@BennyHo

They were heavy chains amd solid metal bars.

How many troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have the jihadi's killed with "heavy chains amd solid metal bars" ? The IDf showed them what terrorists really use to kill people.

Recommend? (12) Report abuse Clip | Link rubberneck
18 Jun 2010, 2:53PM
@Jubilation1

Refusing to accept clear proof because it does not fit in with preconceptions does make someone a bigot.

No it doesn't ! Get yourself a dictionary - and use it.

Recommend? (8) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 2:59PM
rubberducky
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ. -- and intolerant of those who use the word to mean the same thing in different terms

Recommend? (4) Report abuse Clip | Link WyldeWolfe
18 Jun 2010, 3:21PM
@Jubilation1

rubberducky has certainly argued his own opinion yet conceded that there are two sides to every story and that the soldiers were beaten. As to the clear proof, edited videotapes taken out of the context of time and sequence of events is hardly clear proof.

If there's any intolerance being shown to other viewpoints it's clearly being displayed by you.

Recommend? (4) Report abuse Clip | Link BennyHo
18 Jun 2010, 3:34PM
WyldeWolfe

rubberducky has certainly argued his own opinion yet conceded that there are two sides to every story and that the soldiers were beaten. As to the clear proof, edited videotapes taken out of the context of time and sequence of events is hardly clear proof.

Do you have any evidence that the videos are edited or even shown in an untruthful time frame which has been 'compiled' to support Israel's contentions?

However you look at it, the 'peace activists' seem to completely disregard the 'rain of bullets' reported by one of the 'peace activists'. She specifically 'claimed' the bullets fantasy as the starting point. Not as a response to attempts to attack Israeli commandos doing their lawful duty.

Recommend? (4) Report abuse Clip | Link WyldeWolfe
18 Jun 2010, 3:43PM
Well mods Jubiliation can go around and label everyone a bigot a number of times yet if I suggest he's being intolerant it gets deleted? No, no bias here at all.

@BennyHo

Do you have any evidence that the videos are edited or even shown in an untruthful time frame which has been 'compiled' to support Israel's contentions?

I never suggested anything along those lines. I said edited video (which it is as the whole event is not covered) taken out of context of sequence of events (ie we don't know what went on leading up to that point) is not clear proof of what happened.

For me the jury is still out (and my bet is that there will be blame to go around on both sides).

Recommend? (2) Report abuse Clip | Link WyldeWolfe
18 Jun 2010, 4:08PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 4:22PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. turkism
18 Jun 2010, 8:07PM
this article makes some good points however, i do disagree with some of the statements, like the justification for the use of force by the Israeli military, i have a link which some other readers might be interested in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Ij6xz5q-Q

Recommend? (1) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
18 Jun 2010, 8:41PM
turkism those are the pix discussed in the article above - proving how the jihadis were armed and dangerous.

Recommend? (3) Report abuse Clip | Link turkism
18 Jun 2010, 10:35PM
i solely disagree that these people were jihadis, in the link i posted earlier the photographer Kevin Neish explains why they had iron bars.

Recommend? (0) Report abuse Clip | Link Jubilation1
19 Jun 2010, 5:15AM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. snowwalling
19 Jun 2010, 8:37AM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. BennyHo
19 Jun 2010, 9:13AM
turkism

i solely disagree that these people were jihadis

Yeah. Well. Try explaining why they were preparing to be 'Shaheeds'?

The videos are just terrible. They expose the lies for any normal person.

The sound tracks too.

Videos shouldn't be allowed.

Unless of course, they are presented by 'Peace Activists'.

Recommend? (2) Report abuse Clip | Link BetaVersionOne
19 Jun 2010, 4:43PM
This is really a weird article. It seems to support the Israeli position, yet it is smuggled past Israeli soldiers? And then, IHH, the Turkish aid group that Israel calls a "terrorist organization, turns it over to the world media? Stranger still.

I would remind everyone that Israel did not land on the ship during the day, but in the dark at 4:45 AM while people are sleeping. When you are woke up by loud bangs and huge flashes near you - you rightfully assume upon awakening that your life is in grave danger. You grab anything nearby to defend your life.

Later it is said that the Israeli Navy Seals, highly trained commandos, used flash bang grenades. You do not awake from a deep sleep and try to decide if an attack is real or not. You react to save your life. If this was not the intended result that the Israeli leadership wanted - then why assault a ship this way?

Recommend? (2) Report abuse Clip | Link conform
20 Jun 2010, 5:47AM
The truth always surfaces,no matter how hard they try to suppress,this was no peaceful flotilla,it was provocative act in the extreme.

Recommend? (5) Report abuse Clip | Link conform
20 Jun 2010, 5:57AM
This shameful act by the flotilla,backfired in their faces,it did not turn out the way they wanted it to.

The tide that was against Israel,is now turning,now that more and more evidence is being produced of what really happened on the Mavi Marmara.

Even the Turkish newspapers are starting to publish what really happened on that boat.

Turkey owes Israel an apology.

Recommend? (4) Report abuse Clip | Link Whoopsydoo
20 Jun 2010, 7:40AM
SYDK

The vidoe evidence shows that the soldiers were attacked as they abseilled onto the boatt.

The video the Israelis showed the world was fake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufZkZIrsKFU

Recommend? (0) Report abuse Clip | Link snowwalling
20 Jun 2010, 1:24PM
This was a fascinating post, and the Rashomon part of the story
/> remains a never ending tale. Everyone sees the truth from their POV.
/> But from these photos, it does seem as if someone -- guess who? --
/> was fibbing about the Israeli soldiers coming down the ropes with guns
/> loaded and ready to kill. As if. But that said, no matter which
/> part of this Rashomon story you believe,
/> the thing is this, this 1000 year war in the Middle East is not good for anyone.

''The callous frivolity that constitutes the default zone of Internet tabloids like TMZ.com.....'' -- B.J. Myers

R. Myers' letter to the Atlantic magazine recently hits the nail on the head and should be amplified
all over the Internet and in newsrooms worldwide.

RE: "A Lack of
Taste" -- On the contents page of the April 2010 issue of The Atlantic, one
finds the caption: “Cute, cuddly, and delicious with a Foster's
[Beer]: Australia cooks up its furry friends.” The force of the
English language, and of the word friends in particular, makes one
feel the wrongness of what is being talked about.

When George Bernard
Shaw famously said, “Animals are my friends, and I don’t eat my
friends,” he was in effect saying the same thing twice.

The caption
thus leads one to expect at least some discussion of humanitarian
objections to the unregulated mass killing of wild kangaroos. In
“Outback Steakhouse,” however, Marina Kamenev sees only the “sanitary”
problems involved, and even they are quickly glossed over.

So what is that caption for? It is clearly not meant to draw a laugh
or even a smile. EMPHASIS MINE: *The caption writer
has merely lapsed into the callous frivolity that constitutes the
default tone of Internet tabloids like TMZ.com.* It is one thing if a
contributor chooses to write like this, but captions are the voice of
a magazine—in this case, a magazine generally known for a much more
thoughtful use of language."

BLOC COMMENT: We do seem to have entered the default zone of caption writers
worldwide now with newspaper and magazine headline writers and caption
writers sometimes going for the tasteless and ungainly, when much
better words would do. Why is this? Why are young people writing such
awkward and tasteless headlines and captions.

So many young caption writers today lapse into the callous frivolity
that constitutes the default tone of Internet tabloids ...and it's not
good for the world of letters and the world of reading. Whoever wrote
that caption in the Atlantic should be identified and he or she should
come forth and explain his or her actions. Terrible. Dr Myers is
right on here, and his words should be heeded.

The callous frivolity that constitutes the default zone of Internet tabloids like TMZ.com.....

B. R. Myers' letter to the Atlantic magazine recently hits the nail on the head and should be amplified
all over the Internet and in newsrooms worldwide.

RE: "A Lack of
Taste" -- On the contents page of the April 2010 issue of The Atlantic, one
finds the caption: “Cute, cuddly, and delicious with a Foster's
[Beer]: Australia cooks up its furry friends.” The force of the
English language, and of the word friends in particular, makes one
feel the wrongness of what is being talked about.

When George Bernard
Shaw famously said, “Animals are my friends, and I don’t eat my
friends,” he was in effect saying the same thing twice.

The caption
thus leads one to expect at least some discussion of humanitarian
objections to the unregulated mass killing of wild kangaroos. In
“Outback Steakhouse,” however, Marina Kamenev sees only the “sanitary”
problems involved, and even they are quickly glossed over.

So what is that caption for? It is clearly not meant to draw a laugh
or even a smile. EMPHASIS MINE: *The caption writer
has merely lapsed into the callous frivolity that constitutes the
default tone of Internet tabloids like TMZ.com.* It is one thing if a
contributor chooses to write like this, but captions are the voice of
a magazine—in this case, a magazine generally known for a much more
thoughtful use of language."

BLOC COMMENT: We do seem to have entered the default zone of caption writers
worldwide now with newspaper and magazine headline writers and caption
writers sometimes going for the tasteless and ungainly, when much
better words would do. Why is this? Why are young people writing such
awkward and tasteless headlines and captions.

So many young caption writers today lapse into the callous frivolity
that constitutes the default tone of Internet tabloids ...and it's not
good for the world of letters and the world of reading. Whoever wrote
that caption in the Atlantic should be identified and he or she should
come forth and explain his or her actions. Terrible. Dr Myers is
right on here, and his words should be heeded.

Michael Quinion of World Wide Words decrees that from now on "internet" shall be lowercased in his newsletter, following global trends: are you listening, Ted Anthony at AP and Phil Corbett at the New York Times?

hat tip to:

WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 691 Saturday 19 June 2010
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent each Saturday to at least 50,000 subscribers by e-mail and RSS
Editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
Website: http://www.worldwidewords.org ISSN 1470-1448
-------------------------------------------------------------------

As a final change, I have decided to go with the majority view and
will spell the words as "website" and "internet" from now on. But I
baulk at "email".

Praying for a pokkuri moment isn't just for the Japanese people anymore.... OPED COMMENTARY

reprinted from the Providence Journal in Rhode Island:

When it’s time to meet your maker, do you want to hang in there as long as possible, even if you are bed-ridden, in pain and in an assisted-living residence, or do you just want to “pop off”? In Japan, there’s a temple devoted to popping off, or pokkuri in Japanese.

I recently ran this concept by a senior writer, 67 — who knows a thing or two about death and dying, and living and life. After reading my note, he tweeted on his Twitter: “Pokkuri — the Japanese word for popping off suddenly. There’s even a Pokkuri goddess.”

It’s true, in Japan, every year, thousands of elderly people visit Kichidenji Temple, in Nara Prefecture, where they pray for a pokkuri death — preferably during sleep or a sudden heart attack — so that they are not a burden on their families during their final days. According to The Economist, more and more pokkuri-dera temples in Japan are now getting on the pokkuri bandwagon, some for holy reasons, some for financial gain.

Maybe pokkuri is a good concept to borrow from the Japanese as a loan word from the East?

I am beginning to think so.

Not everyone agrees, although humor is part of the reaction. One e-mail correspondent told me “Those crazy Japanese! What will they think of next?” Another told me: “The boomers will get to know it & pray 4 it w/ the future of health care.”

A philosopher told me: “But when pokkuri happens in the middle of the night, a spouse or family is/are often bereft of the chance to say goodbye.”

Dr Susan Long, an American professor who has written a book about pokkuri in Japan, “Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life,” thinks that it’s time for Americans to adopt this Japanese word.

“But pokkuri is not always pretty, since it can also mean being hit by a car or having a heart attack at work,” she told me. “The wish for pokkuri in Japan is not so much about the very last days of life as it is a response to the chronic disease burden that comes with advanced longevity.”

In Japan there are dozens of Buddhist temples devoted to pokkuri. In America, there are no temples for “popping off,” as far as I know, and there is no word for the concept in our common vocabulary.

But maybe it’s time to borrow this word from Japan and make it our own.

LINK
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_taiwan16_06-16-10_BNISA44_v16.1d637cc.html

College professor to 2010 graduates: "A book in your hand, turning a page, is still a miracle......"

Yes, there are iPhones, iPads, the Internet, Google, Wiki, web activism, Twitter that tweets, Facebook, Kindle and Amazon, all providing access to e-books and electronic short cuts and more economical access to reading material; but here at Tufts as the class of 2010 you were also taught to read books and articles that you held in your hand.

-- Dr Sol Gittleman at 2010 Commencement at Tufts

AND MORE from his speech:

The web is wonderful; advances in communications will be spectacular in your lifetime; but a book in your hand, turning a page, is still a miracle.

Don’t ever stop going to a library. A library is more than just a place to get a book. There is another function in being with people who share the capacity for human interaction. You should have learned that right here, on this hill, in Tisch or Ginn, or Sackler downtown or Webster out in Grafton. The citizens of Alexandria learned it two thousand years ago, Johannes Gutenberg re-enforced it with one technological leap---moveable type—700 years ago, when Europe went, in the 50 years from 1450 to 1500, from 100,000 beautifully illuminated manuscripts to 9 million books.

The technological advances of these next fifty years could alter how your generation understands the meaning of a library. But, don’t ever forget the human component of sharing space with books and other people.

Tufts professor to 2010 graduates: "Read a good newspaper every morning....."

"Read a good newspaper every morning, and don’t be the generation that oversaw the end of print journalism."

Sol Gittleman, Tufts professor, at 2010 commencement:

Nothing can help as much as education, now that you know what it is. Keep studying. Read a good newspaper every morning, and don’t be the generation that oversaw the end of print journalism. For all of your four years here you had a good newspaper delivered into your hands. E-news is cheap and available, but there is a unique pleasure in drinking a cup of coffee and folding a newspaper over your bagel. Yes, there are iPhones, iPads, the Internet, Google, Wiki, web activism, Twitter that tweets, Facebook, Kindle and Amazon, all providing access to e-books and electronic short cuts and more economical access to reading material; but here you were also taught to read books and articles that you held in your hand. The web is wonderful; advancements in communications will be spectacular in your lifetimes; but a book in your hand, turning a page, is still a miracle.

College professor to graduates: "Read a good newspaper every morning....."

"Read a good newspaper every morning, and don’t be the generation that oversaw the end of print journalism."

Sol Gittleman, Tufts professor, at 2010 commencement:

Nothing can help as much as education, now that you know what it is. Keep studying. Read a good newspaper every morning, and don’t be the generation that oversaw the end of print journalism. For all of your four years here you had a good newspaper delivered into your hands. E-news is cheap and available, but there is a unique pleasure in drinking a cup of coffee and folding a newspaper over your bagel. Yes, there are iPhones, iPads, the Internet, Google, Wiki, web activism, Twitter that tweets, Facebook, Kindle and Amazon, all providing access to e-books and electronic short cuts and more economical access to reading material; but here you were also taught to read books and articles that you held in your hand. The web is wonderful; advancements in communications will be spectacular in your lifetimes; but a book in your hand, turning a page, is still a miracle.

The future of newspapers: Tufts professor Sol Gittleman: "Read a good newspaper every morning, don't be generation that oversees the end of print journalism..."

In his recent commencement speech at Tufts University... [this blogger's alma mater by the way, Tufts 1971, when I was young and still had hair on my head and a heart that was not ready yet for the heart attack that came its way 40 years later -- OUCH! on stents and meds now! --].... popular professor Sol Gittleman told the graduating students in June 2010:

Nothing can help as much as education, now that you know what it is. Keep studying.

Read a good newspaper every morning, and don’t be the generation that oversaw the end of print journalism.

For all of your four years here you had a good newspaper delivered into your hands. [Probably the Boston Globe, I assume.]

E-news is cheap and available, but there is a unique pleasure in drinking a cup of coffee and folding a newspaper over your bagel.

Yes, there are iPhones, iPads, the Internet, Google, Wiki, web activism, Twitter that tweets, Facebook, Kindle and Amazon, all providing access to e-books and electronic short cuts and more economical access to reading material; but here you were also taught to read books and articles that you held in your hand. The web is wonderful; advancements in communications will be spectacular in your lifetimes; but a book in your hand, turning a page, is still a miracle.


LINK
http://news.tufts.edu/features/commencement2010/gittleman

The future of newspapers: Tufts professor Sol Gittleman remains optimistic

In his recent commencement speech at Tufts University... [this blogger's alma mater by the way, Tufts 1971, when I was young and still had hair on my head and a heart that was not ready yet for the heart attack that came its way 40 years later -- OUCH! on stents and meds now! --].... popular professor Sol Gittleman told the graduating students in June 2010:

Nothing can help as much as education, now that you know what it is. Keep studying.

Read a good newspaper every morning, and don’t be the generation that oversaw the end of print journalism.

For all of your four years here you had a good newspaper delivered into your hands. [Probably the Boston Globe, I assume.]

E-news is cheap and available, but there is a unique pleasure in drinking a cup of coffee and folding a newspaper over your bagel.

Yes, there are iPhones, iPads, the Internet, Google, Wiki, web activism, Twitter that tweets, Facebook, Kindle and Amazon, all providing access to e-books and electronic short cuts and more economical access to reading material; but here you were also taught to read books and articles that you held in your hand. The web is wonderful; advancements in communications will be spectacular in your lifetimes; but a book in your hand, turning a page, is still a miracle.


LINK
http://news.tufts.edu/features/commencement2010/gittleman

Small People - a spoof of Short People by Randy Newman related to the BP oil spill PR blunder of Carl-Henric Svanberg when he spoke of "the small people"

J.Gale Kilgore sings the vocals via tweaked words by Yours Truly with major hat tip to white-haired Randy Newman, long may he live:

http://www.last.fm/music/dan+e.+bloom/"small+people"+(tip+of+the+novelty+song+hat+to+Randy+Newman's+"Short+People,"+of+course!




LINK TO COYOTEPRIME blog:

http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com/2010/06/free-download-dan-blooms-bp-small.html

And another song from those ever so charming folks at BP:


BP "Small People" Song:

http://blogs.thewolfonline.com/mikeandamy/2010/06/18/bp-small-people-song/

BP oil spill songs (an informal collection of spoofs and satires from lyrical people)

J.Gale Kilgore sings the vocals vis tweaked words by Yours Truly with major hat tip to white-haired Randy Newman, long may he live:


http://www.last.fm/music/dan+e.+bloom/"small+people"+(tip+of+the+novelty+song+hat+to+Randy+Newman's+"Short+People,"+of+course!


AND

Mike and Amy, a comedy duo in Oregon, with their own radio show, did thsi spoof:

http://blogs.thewolfonline.com/mikeandamy/2010/06/18/bp-small-people-song/



“Ode to Small People”
by Carl-Henric Svanberg and Tony Hayward


‘’Small people’’ got no reason,
‘’Small people’’ got no reason,
‘’Small people’’ got no reason,
To want big answers from Carl-Henree
Or even small answers from big Bee-Pee.

They got small hands,
Small eyes,
They walk around
Tellin’ small kinds of lies.
They got small noses,
And small small teeth.
They wear oil-stained shoes
On their oil-soaked feet

Well, I don’t want no ‘’Small people,’‘

Don’t want no ‘’Small people,’‘
Don’t want no ‘’Small people,’‘
`Round here on my drillin’ rig

‘’Small people’’ got nobody.
‘’Small people’’ got nobody.
‘’Small people’’ got nobody
to hear their pleas at BP - (please!)

They got little small legs,
That stand so low,
On the oil-soaked beach,
Oh what they don’t know!
They got small minds
That go ‘’BP BP BP.’‘
They got small voices
Goin’ ‘BP BP BP.’‘
They got small oily fingers,
And small oily minds,
They’re gonna get you every time.

Well, I don’t want no small people,
Don’t want no ‘’Small people,’‘
Don’t want no ‘’Small people,’‘
‘Round here on my drillin’ rig…”

BP CEO Tony Hayward denies he's oilwalling government probe

Oilwalling? Is that a word? It is NOW!

BP CEO Tony Hayward denies he's oilwalling probe

Houston Chronicle

by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Oilwalling and BP and the Gulf Oil Spill of 2010

We sent this to Urban Dictionary


oilwalling

(n.) -- when oil company executives try to worm their way out of answering questions during press conferences or official testimony at government hearings

"That oil firm chairman is just oilwalling. He will never answer the questions, not in a million years!"

-- overheard at a watercooler in Washington, D.C., on June 19, 2010

submitted by primecoyote101 on Jun 17, 2010

Oilwalling: lying treachery, especially when BP execs go on TV and oilwall 24/7

Oilwalling:

lying treachery, especially when BP execs go on TV and oilwall 24/7

As define by UrbanDictionary.com

hat tip to PrimeCoyote

(Hat tip, Danny Bloom)

(Hat tip, Danny Bloom.) June 17, 2010 · Filed by Ben Zimmer. Anonymous said... Josh Marshall sums up the moral of the ...



... hot idea to have their non-native English speaking Chairman speak off the cuff in front of the TV cameras." (Hat tip, Danny Bloom.) Categories: Language ...mcdemarco.net/aggregator


Seismic (and Climate) Threats, Fate and Fault - Dot Earth Blog ..]28 May 2008 ... they meet earthquake safety standards” (hat tip to Danny Bloom). .... Hats off to you and the New York Times, a beacon of truth in a ...




Cel's Friends - ](Hat tip, Danny Bloom.) ... [05] Skins Movie: [22] Star Trek People. [15]Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, Nicholas Hoult, Natalia Vodianova. ...

Buried Seed Vault Opens in Arctic - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com - ]26 Feb 2008 ... As the group noted in a news release today (hat tip to Danny Bloom): Thousands of accessions have died in storage, as many have been ...
c-elisa.livejournal.com/friends -

BP chairman talks about the 'small people,' further angering gulf residents

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg attempted an earnest apology Wednesday for the worst environmental accident ever to befall America, but it will be remembered for only two words: SMALL PEOPLE, now the title of a new novelty satire song based on Randy Newman's song SHORT PEOPLE with new lyrics by Danny Bloomicelli that go like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvgLkuEtkA

AS REPORTED IN WASHINGTON POST HERE:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/16/AR2010061605528_Comments.html

''Small people'' got no reason
''Small people'' got no reason
''Small people'' got no reason
To want big answers from Carl-Henree
Or even small answers from big Bee-Pee

They got small hands
Small eyes
They walk around
Tellin' small kinds of lies
They got small noses
And small small teeth
They wear oil-stained shoes
On their oil-soaked feet

Well, I don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
`Round here on my drillin' rig



''Small people'' got nobody
''Small people'' got nobody
''Small people'' got nobody
to hear their pleas at BP - (please!)

They got little small legs
That stand so low
On the oil-soaked beach
Oh what they don't know!
They got small minds
That go ''BP BP BP''
They got small voices
Goin' 'BP BP BP''
They got small oily fingers
And small oily minds
They're gonna get you every time

Well, I don't want no small people
Don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
'Round here on my drillin' rig....

6/17/2010 1:05:43 AM websposted at WASH POST DOT COM


BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg attempted an earnest apology Wednesday for the worst environmental accident ever to befall America, but it will be remembered for only two words:

small people


Svanberg came with other BP executives to the White House, where he said President Obama made clear that he is "frustrated because he cares about the small people."

"And we care about the small people," added Svanberg, who is Swedish. "I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care. But that is not the case indeed. We care about the small people."

Just like that, a new slogan was born. It sardonically swept through cyberspace and landed in the gulf, where it was greeted with no more enthusiasm than the unrefined crude gushing from BP property.

"We're not small people. We're human beings. They're no greater than us. We don't bow down to them. We don't pray to them," said Justin Taffinder of New Orleans.

''Small people'' got no reason (BP anthem song) - satire, hat tip to Randy Newman of course

''Small people'' got no reason
''Small people'' got no reason
''Small people'' got no reason
To want small answers from me
Or even small answers from big BP

They got small hands
Small eyes
They walk around
Tellin' small kinds of lies
They got small noses
And small small teeth
They wear oil-soaked shoes
On their small small feet

Well, I don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
`Round here on my rig



''Small people'' got nobody
''Small people'' got nobody
''Small people'' got nobody
to hear their pleas at BP - (please!)

They got little small legs
That stand so low
On the oil-soaked beach
Where they take their blows
They got small cars
That go ''BP BP BP''
They got small voices
Goin' 'BP BP BP''
They got oily small fingers
And oily small minds
They're gonna get you every time
Well, I don't want no small people
Don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
'Round here on my rig....

As BP chairman calls Gulf residents "small people" - new lyrics to Randy Newman song retitled "SMALL PEOPLE" - satire!

''Small people'' got no reason
''Small people'' got no reason
''Small people'' got no reason
To want small answers from me
Or even small answers from big BP

They got small hands
Small eyes
They walk around
Tellin' small kinds of lies
They got small noses
And small small teeth
They wear oil-soaked shoes
On their small small feet

Well, I don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
`Round here on my rig



''Small people'' got nobody
''Small people'' got nobody
''Small people'' got nobody
to hear their pleas at BP - (please!)

They got little small legs
That stand so low
On the oil-soaked beach
Where they take their blows
They got small cars
That go ''BP BP BP''
They got small voices
Goin' 'BP BP BP''
They got oily small fingers
And oily small minds
They're gonna get you every time
Well, I don't want no small people
Don't want no ''Small people''
Don't want no ''Small people''
'Round here on my rig....

This bloke does not do social networking: read his story and either weep or sigh or smile. take your pick. l love his story!

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the known universe who is not connected on at least one social network. But I am that man. A dinosaur among men. And women. Here is my take on why a seemingly “normal” person, me, would choose to turn his back on a digital revolution that is being embraced by the masses.

I don’t see the need. If I want to share something with someone, I will arrange a meeting, pick up the phone, or, if I’m very busy, send them an email. It was never a conscious decision. Quite frankly, I’m not very fond of talking about myself so I never saw the need to sign up. I’m very happy with my life and have no need to say to the world, “Look at my job. My wife. My kids. My house. My car.” Social networks are all about ME, ME, ME. As for reconenting with old friends, I am willing to bet that in the majority of cases, people do not truly want to re-establish a relationship, they merely want details so they can fool themselves into believing that are doing better than the next guy. It’s rat race 2.0. Social media has taken self-importance and turned it from a beast into a full-blown monster. The monster has grown so big, that people don’t even realize what they are doing and why. But what do I know – I wasn’t a pysch major or anything. We all knew Big brother would be watching us, but I’m not sure any of us expected that we would create him! Pick up any Ayn Rand, George Orwell or Aldous Huxley novel and you will find dystopia; places where oppression rules and every move is tracked. We can debate the oppression part, but the tracking, well, that’s here – and we created the beast. I don’t care if someone I know is at the Starbucks on the corner “checking in,” there’s no good reason to geotag your life.
Look, I don’t hate social networks, they are just not for me. That doesn’t make me any better or worse than the next guy. I respect people’s decision to engage the way I hope they respect mine to stay away. I do seem to be part of an ever-shrinking minority for my age range. I have recently found that telling people I am not on Facebook, has spawned interesting conversations. I might be more memorable for NOT being online. Okay, I’m not the most outgoing person in the world, but I am generally comfortable speaking with people and am confident that I am fairly well liked. I do not allow my life to cross-over online, which is one of the reasons I am choosing to remain anonymous. I can count my real friends on both hands.
Do I think your decision will hurt my career/life prospects?
I honestly don’t. I work at maintaining my relationships offline, so while I might not “know” as many people, I am confident that the people I do know will be able to help.

A new name for the new South Africa -- Mandelaland!

Dear Editor, NEW YORK TIMES, and all South African newspapers:

With South Africa in the global spotlight now due to the World Cup
games this month, it occurred to me that it might be time to give
South Africa a new national name.

South Africa is a fine name, of course. It was coined in 1910 when the
Union of South Africa was formed.

But the name sounds like a geography lesson in high school: North
America, South Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, East Asia.

So what about changing the name of South Africa in the future to
something like Mandela or Mandelaland, to honor Nelson Mandela?

I rather like Mandelaland. Think: Finland, Greenland, Iceland,
Maryland, Holland, Thailand, Newfoundland, Swtizerland. Mandelaland
would honor Nelson Mandela for his life's work as a healer
of his nation.

Sincerely,

Danny Bloom

''internet'' goes lowercase, say goodbye to ''Internet'' with capital first letter!

internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet