Archive for May, 2008
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May 26th, 2008
Vote Newsome 2012.
I know he’s a little odd and self-destructive, but wouldn’t it be great if the issue of gay marriage got someone elected to the United States Senate?
[youtube="http://youtube.com/watch?v=vDr8g0PczI8"]
(2012 is the year Sen. Feinstein will be up for re-election and may step down since she’ll be 79).
May 26th, 2008
Writing is different on the internets.
Ezra Klein’s brilliant piece on the Kindle isn’t really about the Kindle, it’s about the future of writing:
The true promise of the Kindle, and its inevitable descendants, is in creating a product that goes where the book cannot. Printed text is fundamentally limited. Once on the page, nothing more can be done with it. With digital text, everything is a draft, to be edited, altered, broadened, remixed, and redirected. As better conveyors of electronic text are developed, the big question is how content itself will change to take advantage of the new opportunities.
Hyperlinking provides a useful example of how this can work. There is nothing simpler or more fundamental to online writing than coding text so that clicking on it directs the reader elsewhere. Previously, text was a closed container, reliant solely on the strength of its prose and the credibility of its author. With links, text is an open conversation. A study can be described, and interested readers can click to access the original paper. A speech can be quoted, even condensed, with the full version available to any who want it. An argument can be summarized, and the reader can click through to see whether the claims are being represented fairly. This feature is already used online, of course, but for all its elegant simplicity and obvious worth, it’s not as widely used as one might expect. Compare text written specifically to be read electronically—like that on blogs or Wikipedia—and text that is intended for printed mediums like newspapers or magazines. The electronic mediums produce writing that is far richer in links and sources, far more directly in dialogue with opposing viewpoints. The very fact of writing for an electronic medium changes the content.
May 26th, 2008
Shorter John Harris
May 23rd, 2008
links for 2008-05-23
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Awww, muckraker reunion!
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The greatest post I’ve ever had the privilege to publish.
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Brilliant.
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50% self-indulgent confessional, 50% insightful commentary about writing self-indulgent confessionals.
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Why is David Brooks writing about me?
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Huh. Fascinating.
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Very clever.
May 22nd, 2008
links for 2008-05-22
May 21st, 2008
links for 2008-05-21
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Blogging communities become another battle ground.
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Olivia Ma will run a channel to highlight work on the site.
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Pretty laptop that is like a huge folding iPhone.
May 21st, 2008
Rivers needs us!
Dude is really weird, but I love that he’s doing some sort of weird crowd-sourcing experimentation for writing a song.
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thYRy9MBY_c"]
More on his youtube channel.
May 21st, 2008
Yes we can! Brrrrracck!
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuKqWEYzhEA"]