Total Eclipse

For a while now, we’ve been hearing about the crisis of journalism. As David Simon (HBO’s THE WIRE) once put it – Journalists today are expected to do more with less. As Simon has also wisely noted, this crisis in journalism began before the internet, but today, the most pertinent challenge to journalism lies on [...]

The Diameter of the Bomb
by Yehuda Amichai. trans. Chana Bloch & Stephen Mitchell
The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried [...]

Listen to the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves, Howard Beale.

Not normally one for posts dedicated to movie reviews (hell, not really one to post at all nowadays), but I just got back from seeing Waltz with Bashir, and I feel like I need to let something out on the proverbial page else I explode with indigestion.
First off, it’s an amazing film, go watch it. [...]

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). Prufrock and Other Observations. 1917.
1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti [...]

July 16, 1833. — This is a memorable anniversary for me; on it I complete my three hundred and twenty-third year!
The Wandering Jew? — certainly not. More than eighteen centuries have passed over his head. In comparison with him, I am a very young Immortal.
Am I, then, immortal? This is a question [...]

“You are a total nutcase, completely deranged, delusional, paranoid. Your thought process is all fucked up. Your information train is jammed, man!” – the character of Jeffery Goines, in Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.
A disturbing thought has occurred to me, one which relates to a mess of other thoughts concerning our culture and it’s biases.
I often [...]

If you don’t already read We Make Money Not Art , they’ve recently posted some interesting impressions from 23C3 (which sadly I couldn’t attend). Of particular scholarly interest I think are the notes from Joi Ito’s presentation on World of Warcraft and MMORPGs.
I can’t help but feel drawn back to McLuhan (from The Gutenberg Galaxy: [...]

The following is a translation of a paper I wrote for my Techno-Utopia & Cyberculture course from 2 semesters ago. Enjoy:
The issue of Personal Identity is a complex subject, which raises many difficult questions. What is a Person? That which thinks the thoughts I have? Is it identical to my body? Is it my [...]

By Rudyard Kipling.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way [...]