Archive for April, 2009
« Previous EntriesAthiests Out of the Closet
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009Athiests are coming out of the closet. And in South Carolina, no less; a place noted for the strength of its religious and political values, strongly conservative and deeply held. That’s the gist of the NY Times piece on "emerging" athiests and secular humanists.
A Pew study on religious attitudes across the country provides context. [...]
For Better Health: More Schools or Hospitals?
Sunday, April 26th, 2009To improve health would you build more schools or hospitals? Truth to tell, I’ve never thought of it as either/or. Most likely I would choose more hospitals. But I’d be wrong.
Christine Gorman at Global Health Report blog summarizes findings from health surveys that demonstrate "education, social support and early childhood development play a more important [...]
My Earth Day Backyard Odyssey
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 My Earth Day started breathlessly in the backyard with wet feet. I got up to the glorious juxtaposition of Venus with the waning crescent moon low in the east. These things excite me!
The birds were singing riotously in the gathering dawn. Two hoot owls were somewhere very close looking for prey and calling [...]
Bono’s Search for the Soul
Monday, April 20th, 2009Rock Singer and humanitarian activist Bono asks about the state of our souls in this time of great change.
In a Sunday op-ed he recounts Easter worship on an unnamed island and discusses the need for new beginnings. He writes affectingly about his search in scripture and religion to discern the state of his soul and [...]
Producing Netbooks That Are “Just Good Enough”
Sunday, April 19th, 2009Netbooks provide "good enough" computing.Oh really? And that’s good enough to market them? In his Digital Domain column in the NY Times this morning, Randall Stross quotes an analyst who makes the case for netbooks in this way.
It confuses me. A great company like Hewlett Packard entering into a market niche and self-consciously diluting its [...]
Ending Victimization, Claiming Empowerment
Saturday, April 18th, 2009The Taliban have exploited class differences to gain control over the Swat Valley in Pakistan. The Dalit people, known as the "untouchables" in India’s caste-based social system, are throwing off oppressive discrimination to claim liberation.
These seemingly unrelated stories are woven together by a single subject, a web of victimization. How people deal with victimization can [...]
Mac Botnet Discovered
Saturday, April 18th, 2009A Mac botnet has been discovered according to the New York Times. The malicious program infiltrated, took over and operated a network of Macs to cause denial of service to a website.
Writer Riva Richmond says Macs have not been used often by botnets but as Mac users increase the problems plaguing Microsoft systems are coming [...]
Global Food Shortage Increases Prices
Thursday, April 16th, 2009The BBC has a two-day series on global food price increases. The shortage of food has driven up prices by 70% for wheat and rice in some regions. Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, has called for $500 million to alleviate hunger but the response has been slow and short of the request.
On a [...]
HP Netbook Redux
Saturday, April 11th, 2009After using a netbook for a few weeks I’m tracking back to a post I wrote when I bought the HP mini. I’ve also used a Dell.
The first reaction to this machine is, "Oh, that’s cute!" And it is. Netbooks look like their larger cousins, full feature laptops. The HP was cosmetically more appealing than [...]
Birds of Belize
Saturday, April 11th, 2009Here’s why online journalism has an advantage over hard copy. The NY Times has a wonderful interactive feature story on the birds of Belize. If this is the kind of thing that turns you on, and for me it does, then it illustrates what we’ve been writing about here–the differences between online journalism and hard [...]
« Previous Entries