] "Something that many journalists have yet to discover: in
] an emerging era of multidirectional, digital
] communications, the audience can be an integral part of
] the process. Journalism is evolving away from its lecture
] mode — here’s the news, and you buy it or you don’t — to
] include a conversation."

Dan Gillmore on the changing nature of journalism

It is not, in fact, very likely that any of you will be able, in the next ten years, to make any direct contribution to the peace or prosperity of Europe. You will be busy finding jobs, getting married, acquiring facts. I am going to do something more old-fashioned than you perhaps expected. I am going to give advice. I am going to issue warnings. Advice and warnings about things which are so perennial that no one calls them "current affairs."

In 1944, C.S. Lewis addressed the students of King's College, University of London with the annual Memorial Lecture.

... It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons: but to have them free because you don't matter, that is much worse.

[ Po Bronson mentions this in _What Should I Do With My Life?_ ]

The Inner Ring, by C.S. Lewis

] In other words, e-marketplaces are media as much for
] social interactions as they are for financial
] transactions. That is, who you are and what you're doing
] are as important as what you want to buy or what you want
] to sell. It's no accident that eBay is still around and
] making money for both itself and its, ahem, community of
] auctioneers. Your reputation on eBay can--and often
] does--matter far more than what you are attempting to
] either buy or sell.
]
] "Reputation marks the spot where technology and
] cooperation converge," Rheingold writes. "The most
] long-lasting social effects of technology always go
] beyond the quantitative efficiency of doing old things
] more quickly or more cheaply. The most profoundly
] transformative potential of connecting human social
] proclivities to the efficiency of information
] technologies is the chance to do new things together, the
] potential for cooperating on scales and in ways never
] before possible."

Preferential Attachment and the Rising Meme

"If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it and don't think anything of personalities, or emotional conflicts, or of money, or of family distractions; if you just think of, detail by detail, what you have to do next, it is a wonderful dream even though the end is a long way off, for there are about five thousand steps to be taken before we realize it; and start taking the first ten, and stay making twenty after, it is amazing how quickly you get through those five thousand steps. Rather, I should say, through the four thousand nine hundred and ninety. The last ten steps you never seem to work out. But you keep on coming nearer to giving the world something well worth having."

-- Edwin H. Land to Polaroid employees, 23 December 1942

Edwin Land, on the path to success

Anti-Americanism is growing at a startling rate in South Korea, potentially escalating into a serious problem that could jeopardize the future of the U.S.-Korean alliance.

An interesting look at the sources of Anti-American feelings in South Korea. Essentially, South Korea doesn't feel that it is respected by Americans. It is right. In this case, disrespect will ultimately cost the Americans a lot.

I think that the conclusions in this article are a little one sided. Americans could benefit from a better understanding of South Korea, too. I think many Americans mistake a number of Korean products as being Japaneese (Ask a random friend what country Samsung is from). Furthermore, products that have been specifically marketed as Korean have been low end products like Kia cars. Americans tend to respect countries that produce technology that they preceive as being superior in some ways to domestic counterparts. If there was an effort to illustrate some of the high end, high quality consumer products that Americans use that come from South Korea this would likely raise South Korea's profile in this country. This would make racial slurs and similar banter on television a lot less popular.

I'll also add that this article has the undertones of strategic psy-ops and is interesting from that perspective as well.

Anti-Americanism in Korea [PDF]

It is often useful to look at the world through someone else's glasses. These are journalists talking about the changes their profession faces. Conclusions are few and far between, but its the perspective thats interesting.

They seem to have a quaint, old fashioned, comic booky view of their profession as the "fourth" branch of the federal government... Brave journalists telling the people what the powers that be don't want them to know... They do seem to realise that their real job is to create and crucify exagerated caricatures of people for the entertainment of the masses. They do seem to lament this, but they don't understand... In fact, as they lament it, they color their prose with the sort of meandering emotional contextualization that is the hallmark of newspaper non-non-fiction.

Anyway, I found it a good sounding board for ideas about the development of the Internet. Putting yourself in someone elses shoes is a great way to see your own ideas in a different light.

American Journalism Review

] If Lott didn't see the storm coming, it was in part
] because it was so slow in building. The papers did not
] make note of his comments until days after he had made
] them. But the stillness was broken by the hum of Internet
] "bloggers" who were posting their outrage and compiling
] rap sheets of Lott's earlier comments. It took a few
] more days before Democrats denounced Lott and demanded a
] censure.

Time credits bloggers in Lott's fall from grace.

TIME Magazine credits bloggers in Lott controversy.

] "But since Sept. 11 and the government's expansive
] campaign of monitoring and detention, people are turning
] to the 82-year-old organization to help safeguard their
] liberties. Among them are conservatives who made the
] phrase "card-carrying member of the ACLU" a political
] insult, but who are signing up. "

This is good to hear... Conservatives spent a decade talking smack about the ACLU because the Christian right likes perpetuating misconceptions about the first amendment with the goal of establishing religion. This obviously conflicts with the general conservative notion of upholding "individual liberties." This is the most central contradiction in modern conservative thought. Of course the Libertarians have been saying that for years.

ACLU Membership up

] "Inherited status is making a comeback."

NYT: The Sons Also Rise

] "Shortly after Sept. 11, the FBI had entrusted a quickly
] developed watch list to scores of corporations around the
] country. Departing from its usual practice of closely
] guarding such lists, the FBI circulated the names of
] hundreds of people it wanted to question.
]
] Counterterrorism officials gave the list to car-rental
] companies. Then FBI field agents and other officials
] circulated it to big banks, travel-reservations systems,
] firms that collect consumer data, as well as casino
] operators such as MGM Mirage, the owner of New York-New
] York. Additional recipients included businesses thought
] vulnerable to terrorist intrusion, including truckers,
] chemical companies and power-plant operators. It was the
] largest intelligence-sharing experiment the bureau has
] ever undertaken with the private sector.
]
] A year later, the list has taken on a life of its own, with
] multiplying -- and error-filled -- versions being passed around
] like bootleg music. Some companies fed a version of the list
] into their own databases and now use it to screen job
] applicants and customers."

There is nothing more annoying then a stupid person with some thin basis in authority who thinks they are helping.

politechbot.com: FBI's secret, post-9-11 watch list acquires a life of its own