Exploring Life: Web Clips

The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students' grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.

via 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice – ChronicleReview.com.

Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory A. Boyd

76 Reasonable Questions
to ask about any technology
by Jacques Ellul

Ecological
What are its effects on the health of the planet and of the person?
Does it preserve or destroy biodiversity?
Does it preserve or reduce ecosystem integrity?
What are its effects on the land?
What are its effects on wildlife?
How much, and what kind of waste does it generate?
Does it incorporate the principles of ecological design?
Does it break the bond of renewal between humans and nature?
Does it preserve or reduce cultural diversity?
What is the totality of its effects, its “ecology”?

Social
Does it serve community?
Does it empower community members?
How does it affect our perception of our needs?
Is it consistent with the creation of a communal, human economy?
What are its effects on relationships?
Does it undermine conviviality?
Does it undermine traditional forms of community?
How does it affect our way of seeing and experiencing the world?
Does it foster a diversity of forms of knowledge?
Does it build on, or contribute to, the renewal of traditional forms of knowledge?
Does it serve to commodity knowledge or relationships?
To what extent does it redefine reality?
Does it erase a sense of time and history?
What is its potential to become addictive?

Practical
What does it make?
Who does it benefit?
What is its purpose?
Where was it produced?
Where is it used?
Where must it go when it’s broken or obsolete?
How expensive is it?
Can it be repaired?
By an ordinary person?

Moral
What values does its use foster?
What is gained by its use?
What are its effects beyond its utility to the individual?
What is lost in using it?
What are its effects on the least advantaged in society?

Ethical
How complicated is it?
What does it allow us to ignore?
To what extent does it distance agent from effect?
Can we assume personal, or communal responsibility for its effects?
Can its effects be directly apprehended?
What ancillary technologies does it require?
What behavior might it make possible in the future?
What other technologies might it make possible?
Does it alter our sense of time and relationships in ways conducive to nihilism?

Vocational
What is its impact on craft?
Does it reduce, deaden, or enhance human creativity?
Is it the least imposing technology available for the task?
Does it replace, or does it aid human hands and human beings?
Can it be responsive to organic circumstance?
Does it depress or enhance the quality of goods?
Does it depress or enhance the meaning of work?

Metaphysical
What aspect of the inner self does it reflect?
Does it express love?
Does it express rage?
What aspect of our past does it reflect?
Does it reflect cyclical or linear thinking?

Political
Does it concentrate or equalize power?
Does it require, or institute a knowledge elite?
It is totalitarian?
Does it require a bureaucracy for its perpetuation?
What legal empowerments does it require?
Does it undermine traditional moral authority?
Does it require military defense?
Does it enhance, or serve military purposes?
How does it affect warfare?
Is it massifying?
Is it consistent with the creation of a global economy?
Does it empower transnational corporations?
What kind of capital does it require?

Aesthetic
Is it ugly?
Does it cause ugliness?
What noise does it make?
What pace does it set?
How does it affect the quality of life (as distinct from the standard of living)?

Robert Paterson’s Weblog: 2009 – the great convergence between what America has to cope with and Public Media

For at the heart of our problem is this: that we have become dependent on vast institutions for the most important parts of our lives. We depend on them for our finance and our savings. We depend on them for energy, for our food, for our health, for the education of our children, for our security.

What we are discovering is that these institutions do not serve us but only a few at their top.

Only a few got rich as the middle class and working class got squeezed and high jacked. All the key outcomes in these areas of our lives have degraded.

We are learning that the very leaders we placed our trust in are not worthy of this trust.

So who can we trust? What would be a better way of living that would give us back more control?

We can trust Public Radio and TV. We can trust ourselves. If we had more control over our money, our food, our energy, the education of our kids, our health – we would be more secure and better off.

Robert Paterson’s Weblog: #snowmageddon National Post and CoveritLive – The Perfect Web 2.0 Storm

snowmageddon National Post and CoveritLive – The Perfect Web 2.0 Storm

Toronto is facing “Snowmageddon” according to Environment Canada – who coined the phrase of the season!

From Friday to Sunday – the peak holiday period where Toronto is the main air hub for Canada – they expect an accumulation of up to 50CM of snow in repeating snow storms.

#snowmageddon has caught on big time on Twitter and is now the # 1 Trending item

The National Post are using CoveritLive a brilliant Canadian new 2.0 tool to provide second by second coverage from not only their own reporters and staff but ANYONE. This is the best coverage of a live event I have yet seen and this tool deserves every media outlets close attention.

CoveritLive allows the full power of a community to pitch in during a live event. The NP site is both fun and informative as the Wisdom and Humour of Crowds finds its voice.

This type of tool is perfect for this type of event – where millions are affected

Resources | Naomi Klein

This resources section is intended to serve as a companion to The Shock Doctrine. It offers a full bibliography and filmography as well as declassified CIA reports, dozens of historical documents, and links to terrific online material, much of it organized by chapter so they can serve as supplementary readings. We all hope you find this to be a useful tool for your studies and research and welcome your feedback. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress, with new material going up regularly.

Naomi Klein

At the same time we are seeing an example of what I call in the book a “shock resistance,” where this tactic has been so overused around the world and also in Canada that we are becoming more resistant to the tactic – we are on to them – and Harper is not getting away with it.