Archive for March, 2009
« Previous EntriesFSA/OWI Photos
Friday, March 27th, 2009The FSA/OWI (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information) is one of the most important, revealing photo collections from the Great Depression and WWII eras, if not in the nation’s history. The Farm Security Administration hired Roy Stryker, an economist from Columbia University, to run the "Historical Section" of the FSA. His boss Rexford Tugwell, said [...]
Root Canals, the Economy and Health Care in General
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009Since October I’ve been making the rounds of appointments between a general dentist, oral surgeon, endodontist and periodontist. What started as a simple filling turned into six months of extractions, surgery, root canals, re-treated root canals and more surgery. I’ve discovered how nerve damage can affect ability to pronounce words, cause loss of taste and [...]
Can Macs Get Malware?
Sunday, March 15th, 2009Macs are relatively free of spyware, malware and malicious trojans, so they say. "They" are those who know better than I how computers become infected. And truth to tell, until now I’ve had no hint of infection and I’ve used a Mac for several years.
That changed recently when this blog got an unwelcome visitor. Fortunately, [...]
Social Ethics, Global Trade and Christian Faith
Thursday, March 12th, 2009A few years ago I said in a meeting of colleagues I thought my denomination needs a global trade specialist. My remarks were met with a chuckle by one person and fell into the bottomless silence of rejection without words.
Now we’re in the midst of a global economic crisis that demands more of theologians than [...]
From Santelli to Kramer to CNBC
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009(Update: It just keeps on going and going and going and going.)
As millions of others, I’ve been watching the spat between the Daily Show and CNBC as it evolves. David Bauder of the Associated Press writes of the more serious journalistic questions the public interrogation is raising about CNBC . The trail from Santelli to [...]
HP Mini Review
Saturday, March 7th, 2009I’ve been working with the HP Mini 1000 Netbook for about a month. I chose it for its keyboard. HP says the Mini’s keyboard is 92% the size of a full size keyboard. It’s laid out edge-to-edge, similar to 12" Mac laptops. This allow for larger keys than other netbooks, and it’s a decided advantage [...]
Media Convergence or Individual Empowerment?
Friday, March 6th, 2009A billboard with the phrase iamsecond .com peaked curiousity in Dallas and drove the curious to a website where they learned it was a religious campaign. It was intriguing and edgy. Blogs were employed to create a viral response. Get enough people referring to the campaign through social media and drive them to the website [...]
To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That is the Question
Thursday, March 5th, 2009The discussion in the board meeting about the usefulness of Twitter was like a ping pong ball–it’s useful, it’s a time waster. Back and forth it went. But it was a moving feast of discussion, not merely a predictable debate with no resolution.
It’s clear most of us don’t want to know when someone just stepped [...]
New Media. Who Uses What? Why? And How?
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009As the young panelists addressing our board meeting discussed how they use new media it became instantly apparent that generational differences in media usage are like chasms in the Arizona desert. Some in our group had never heard of Twitter. Others use it frequently. Some are on Facebook, others not.
On one hand, the panelists, including [...]
Is Advertising Dead?
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009(Update: Traditional branding is broken according to an article in Marketing Vox .)
The good news is the folks I wrote about yesterday are concerned about and calling for review of the brand promise of the denomination. They’re paying attention. This is a good thing. In fact, it’s a wonderful thing!
For a mainline denomination to have [...]