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Category Archives: culture
What is “America”?
I have been listening to the debate about how we define torture and what we allow in the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror. I have heard at least one listener call in to an NPR program on … Continue reading
Semantics
I have been wanting to write about this for a while but never got around to it – while listening to The World on NPR, which is produced in part by the BBC, I have noticed British reporters refer to … Continue reading
Media Monster
I have been listening to the political coverage on NPR today and I recognized that as individual political races were being covered from around the country, the message by the national media suggested that the overall makeup of the Senate … Continue reading
Undoing Past Progress
I read two articles today in the New York Times today that got me thinking about how we are undoing the benefits that first made our country the place it was when I was growing up. The first article was … Continue reading
From the Pope
The Pope has been visiting Germany and has had a few very interesting things to say. Here are a few little clips from an article about his visit where he says things with which I wholeheartedly agree. He also stressed … Continue reading
Unexpected Benefits
You never know what unexpected benefits will arise from something which is good. Here is a good example related to Creative Commons licensing. Nobody could have predicted when creating an open licensing option, or when using one in publishing a … Continue reading
Cell-Phone Culture
Over the course of the last year I have become very aware of what I call our cell-phone culture. Let me preface my commentary by saying that I have nothing against cell phones. I used to have one, and the … Continue reading
Which way does the safety net bulge?
You know you have hit the big time when astute readers send you interesting articles. Okay, the truth is that it’s nice to have some extra eyes and ears out there to help me not to miss too much of … Continue reading
Bill Gates’ Speech
Thanks to e-Clippings I read the text of Bill Gates’ Speech on America’s failing high schools. I can’t say that I am the biggest fan of Gates’ products, but his rhetoric here is exactly right and I think everyone should … Continue reading
Conservation
I was interested to read about Homesourcing and be reminded that I seem to be caught between two radical philosophies concerning conservation and energy independence. Radical not because they are unreasonable or extreme, but because they are so different from … Continue reading