In the first plenary session of the Media in Transition conference, Tom Pettitt’s presented the idea of the Gutenberg Parenthesis. With the advent of the printing press, we moved to a culture where text was fixed. The author of works became fixed. The content of the work became fixed. Prior to this, storytelling was collaborative, [...]

Depicting the American way of life Photographs by Chris Jordan These are some very remarkable images. See them on the artist’s web site. There is an interview with the artist by Jorg Colberg in the March/April 2007 issue of Orion Magazine. Jörg Colberg: Your work strikes me as political, since it addresses our culture of [...]

The Des Moines Register has an interesting article yesterday, looking at how the candidates did in fundraising in Iowa. Romney led the Republicans and Edwards led the Democrats. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how things look in a few other states. In New Hampshire, Obama edged out Clinton $49,971 to $45,500. [...]

Tom Friedman has a long essay in the April 15th issue of the NY Times Magazine: The Power of Green One day Iraq, our post-9/11 trauma and the divisiveness of the Bush years will all be behind us — and America will need, and want, to get its groove back. We will need to find [...]

Now here is a great rant. About time! Where Have All the Leaders Gone? By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos [...]

What shall we have in 2008? Warmed over Neoliberalism from the 20th century or should we look for ideas more appropriate for the 21st century and the immense challenges we are facing? Do we want more of the politics that produced the WTO, “a neoliberal fantasy that fails to take into account the real factors [...]