NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND
My friend Leah forwarded a link to an incredible archive of photography from the Apollo missions. They’ve even got the hi-res images there for printing purposes. Just goes to show that a good camera makes all the difference, even in space.
She found it via the Photo Shelter Blog, which has some interesting stuff.
when was the last time you read an article online? now when was the last time you read a FULL article online, without skimming?
reading this post should take you about 3 minutes. if you read this entire post you will have spent approx as much time reading as most people read in an entire day. that is, if you consider reading to be moving your eyes over every word on the screen, absorbing their meaning, finishing the post, and considering the entire piece as a complete thought.
i, it seems, have become most people.
a couple days ago, i posted an article about storytelling and the elections. about the storybook narratives constructed for obama and mccain, and the role of story in politics and our decision making. i found a link to the article on a newsfeed. the title line sounded interesting, i clicked on it, read the first few paragraphs in full, then skimmed the rest of the piece for theme. the content seemed relevant to what we do here at underground, seemed like something that visitors to our site would find interesting, and so, i posted (see post below).
yesterday, it was brought to my attention that this post was not all-together, shall we say, undergroundish. the author was, shall we say, not a believer. and i felt, shall we say, stupid.
no big deal. this happens all the time. (misposting, buddy. not me feeling stupid.)
but i was shocked that it happened to me.
i shouldn’t be.
i read this article in the same fashion so many of us now read: lightly. and then i did what so many of us now do when we see something that we think might be of interest to someone we know: forward it on. usually without much consideration of the content of our communication. in the verbal world, this would be the equivalent of repeating a joke you overheard on a street corner (but never thought about its meaning) because you saw some stranger laugh at it. not the best analogue, but you get my drift. it’s dangerous to say the least.
an article came out in the atlantic monthly a few weeks ago on this very topic: what effect is the internet having on the way we read? i have pasted link to it below. the implications of the internets effect on our reading and thinking go beyond mispostings like mine, and into the way we use the internet for communication at Underground, and perhaps suggests that we might want to be a bit more considered not only in the DEPTH of our reading, but also in the form and frequency.
i am pleased to say that when it came out, i read the Whole Thing from beginning to end. and in magazine form. (that paper thing with staples in the middle one can carry in a shoulder bag.) and when i passed it on to friends, i received comments that the article was great, but it was a challenge getting all the way through. not because it was not a well written piece. it is. but because it was the first time they realized they had not read an article in full in years.
give it a try:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
What the Internet is doing to our brains
BY NICHOLAS CARR
This, from Robert Sibley in Friday’s Ottawa Citizen. In case you missed it.
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Robert Sibley
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, July 04, 2008
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History records that there is nothing so powerful as a fantasy whose time has come.
– Historian Tony Judt, Reappraisals
Today, on their nation’s 232nd birthday, Americans are an anxious lot. Their economy wobbles. Russia and China challenge their superpower status. Distant wars tax the nation’s treasure and citizens’ patriotism. Thus, thoughtful Americans will mark Independence Day asking serious questions about their country’s future.
Perhaps, though, if there is one question that encapsulates all others, it is this: What is the American “story” for the foreseeable future? Read the rest of this entry »
Along with many other couples, my girlfriend and I will be marrying at the end of June. We’ve been entrenched in the whirlwind of wedding planning. We’re looking at bridal magazines I thought I’d never read, making a registry, buying rings, etc. It’s been an exciting journey and poignant because we finally have the legal right to enter into this world of wedding planning madness.
Like many of California’s newest unions, our marriage will be viewed with mixed feelings. While we are used to and expect the religious right and conservatives to have a particular point of view about our pending nuptials, our wedding planning has revealed surprising, subtle discrimination from people who would consider themselves open-minded and supportive of gay marriage. Read the rest of this entry »
You’re looking at the new coinage of our cousins across the Atlantic, the British. The design, which cleverly has the reverse of each coin represent a part of the Royal Arms, with the £1 coin showing the full shield, is the work of a 26-year old graphic designer named Matthew Dent. His design was chosen from over 4,000 submissions through an open competition despite the fact that he had no previous experience creating money, and as a prize, he gets to see his work used every day by millions of Britons. Read the rest of this entry »
No, not the caloric guilt. The ‘how much damage am I doing by eating this?’ kind. Let’s face it - what’s for dinner is truly the eternal question. And layering in the added consideration of ocean conservation and sustainability to the equation - it’s sure to be a blue box mac n’cheese kind of night.
While it’s not going to help solve all of your agricultural woes, this incredibly handy “Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood” from Blue Ocean Institute will surely help guide you through your oceanic menu planning. They even have Fish Phone - a text-back feature for those frenzied restaurant moments when you’re just craving those Olympia Oysters and need to know if they’re cool. Yea, they’re cool.
a couple highlights on the internal conversations (conflicts?) i see a lot of designers, artists and communicators facing these days.
1.
a talk given by the well known designer Philippe Stark at TED in 2007 on the evolution, mutation and purpose(?) of design in the world today, and opening up possibilities for the future.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/197
2.
“Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. “I can feel it. I can feel it.”
this article, just published in the Atlantic Weekly, discusses the way our interaction with the internet is altering not only what we think about, but HOW we think. buy it or not, matters not. social network internet hopping junkie or long-hand writing library stack lover, matters less. this has incredible implications for all of us, and esp. for those of us involved in communications. (and mcluhan smiles.)
Typographica.org has published their fourth annual Favorite Typefaces List.
as much as saving the environment can be about reducing one’s consumption, this may be an exception .
such striking images documented by mapmakers Collins Bartholomew.