part 2

Books, their size, covers, typeface have a character to me, convey something of their content.  I am sure someone several millenia ago, someone "old" when told about this new way to communicate, by scratching on wet clay.  Complained that the immediacy, the intensity, of listening to a recitation by a speaker was going to be lost, and that was a big loss.  I imagine there was another complaint that the craftsmanship and artistry of the individual scribe which made each hand coped book a work of individual art was being lost when books could be printed on a press.  And now here I am looking at the library I have accumulated over a lifetime and realizing the information it holds is available to be stored in any number of hand held devices.  Some can speak the words to me. Some will allow me to scan and skip anywhere in the text I choose.  It is wonderful for all of us.  The cheaper and broader the dsissemination of information the greater the opportunity we have to interact positivly with each other and the world we live in. The greater the opportunity we have to learn how alike we are as human beings.  Yup I will keep my books, I think there is nothing wrong with nostalgia. But I am downloading works from my local library to read on my laptop and play on my iPod.  I cancled my NY Times daily delivery and read the paper online.  I even blog.

what I realized when I moved

When I moved a week ago, I took as much of my personal library as  could.  I took 6 bookcases and tried to take only as many books as the 6 could hold.  A few days after I moved in amazon announced they are giving free software so your iPod or iPhone can share a kindle file.  I looked at my wall of books and realized they will shortly be oldfashoined, and soon after that antiques. Knowledge dissemination is undergoing another major shift.  Maybe 5 thousand years ago knowledge was transmitted by word of mouth.  Accurate transmission was as reliable as the old children's game of telephone.   Somewhere after that a written language, first on wet clay, than on papyrus, than on rolled animal skin, allowed one person to communicate the exact same message to someone too far away to hear a voice and even those who were not born until after the speaker had died. This process was far less labor intensive than word of mouth communication, but did require a one to one effort between the writer or copier and a single copy of the information. A bit more than 5 centuries ago,  the invention of the printing press allowed a crew of only a few to reproduce multiple copies of information quickly and aqccurately.  Now an individual can be in almost any urban and many non-urban areas around the world and have access to a vast common pool of information, news, books, video while standing on a street corner or walking across a grassy field.

What the Republicans missed, in a nutshell

Americans want help, they don't see business or individuals as a source of that help.  Pres. Obama is right when he says government should and must do what we as individuals cannot do for ourselves.  Governor Jindal's praise for the private acts of help during Katrina show how out of touch the ideological Republican right is with the rest of the world.  Katrina exposed government failure, not private sector success.  It will be a long, hard republican road back if that is the view they take.   

Boston College is right

Some students at BC are protesting the crucifixes which have recently been hung in all classrooms.  One protestor said it is inconsistent with the Jesuit tradition of openminded acceptance of other religious traditions.  The school is a private institution.  It has every right to display symbols of whatever religion it chooses.  The school has every right, if it chooses to require religious study, chapel attendance, ordination, or any other activity which does not violate the law.  No one is forced to go to that school.  No one is forced to take advantage of the excellant education offerred there.  If students disagree with any particular policy of the school they have the right to go elsewhere.  They have the right to apply to the school administration for a change in that policy.  However protest implies the school is committing a wrong.  It is not.

moving out

Getting ready to move.  The new place will be fine, smaller than the old place but all in all okay.  There is something liberating about moving.  You are forced to make a million decisions about what to take, what to give away, and what to throw out.   You find things you don't remember you have and want to keep.  Other things out in plain sight you look at and say I haven't needed it or used it for years, goodbye.  If you have been evan moderatley comfortable where you are, moving to some place that is the same or less is not something to look forward too.  But as Martha Washington said ( at least I read she did ) We bring our happiness with us.  It goes in the same moving box as gratitude for a path forward and the health to go down it.  The most important parts of life, the health and happiness of those we loave and care about, stay in our hearts and move with us wherever we go.

color and behavior

Report in the NY Times today that test subjects performance with detail and creativity were significantly affected by the room color they were in.  Red heightens our ability to deal accurately with detail.  Blue enhances creativity. Other colors affected female attractability, yellow affects hunger and thirst, red and green have other behavioral afffects.  Are these evolutionary adaptations, red associated with primitive hunting, eating, threats.  Blue associated with bodies of water, clear unthreatening sky, no data yet, only speculation.   Up until Freud exposed the hidden workings of our subterranean thoughts and emotions, the European concept of man was of a rational mind fighting with "lower" instincts.  It appears from these studies there is a part of us which subtly reacts to our environment in ways we are not conscious of and which affects our behavior.  All the time we are unaware.  How mysterious we are to ourselves, how unkown to us, we still are.

President Obama today

He has a column in today's Washington Post.  Makes an ironclad case for moving now on the stimulus bill.  Additional comments from White House mention it is a tiny percentage of the whole package drawing most of the negative coments.  Saw some politcal stategist who said the Republicans have realized if they go along they get little credit and democrats maintain power. The only path back to power republicans see: if the public perceives at some point in the future the adiministration's stimulus efforts fail, the republicans can pick up the peices.  Probably true for many republicans, given they cynical way the same people used and abused power the past 8 years.  But not for for all, I think. I predict the eventual bill will show President Obama worked to bring as many diverse congressmen and women together by listening, talking and negotiating without given up the parts of this stimulus bill which he nows will work.  Lets watch the process work out over the next few days and weeks.