The Fraying Thread

It’s the little things that I remember and this evening will be one of them. One of those small, subtle shifts that define your life – Sam, for the first time, didn’t go Trick or Treating. The same thing happened with Cal, and then with Meg. Sure they would dress up to go to parties in high school and college, but that is not the same thing. Sam is our last, and we will not go into the dark Halloween night with him anymore. The doors opened by Cal and Meg are being quietly closed. The child part of our lives is fading and the adult child phase is galloping upon us. The burden for the oldest child is to be the first at everything, to open the space of new experience; and the burden of the youngest child is to be the last, closing the doors to small rooms of memory, to be opened but not entered again.
Yet, there are new doors to open and my experience is that those new doors will hold excitement and joy. I have always looked to the new with anticipation and looked forward to change. But for tonight, I will wait by the door for the small ghosts and goblins to appear while wrestling with the memories of my old ghosts and goblins, their etherealness trying to fill the dark evening. And they never will.

Voices

I really like to blog. I say this because so many of my blogs appear negative or critical when they are meant to be reflective. Blogging allows me to think about something and then write my thoughts. It also gives me an excuse to write. I am intrigued with the written word and why some works are so powerful while others are flat. Since the focus of the class is how blogs and other blog like vehicles are mediums of communication, I have tried to think about how sites are physically structured, how language is used, and how readers react to the information. After reading Colin’s entry ‘I, Robot,” I went looking for McLuhan again and found this brief but informative piece. I think I better understand Colin’s comments on McLuhan and the relationship to my comments. McLuhan believed that “the underlying notion is that the message is greatly impacted by the delivery system.” That is what I was also trying to say.

The reason why blogs and similar types of computer communication can be difficult is because we use so many more tools to communicate in person. When we see someone face to face, we use words, gestures, touch, eyes, expression and voice to add, shade, or change our words. We also have the person in front of us, which can also change what we say and how. This could because we are physically affected, emotionally sensitive, or simply hypocritical. Since I believe that most of us tend to be kind, I believe that this also impacts out interpersonal relationships – if you have nothing good to say, say nothing.

We have the advantage of voice when we communicate over the phone, and the distance is also a factor – more break-ups occur over the phone for the reason that the person does not have to deal with the emotion and can easily terminate the call. The issue with blogs and their medium is that you have a lot of distance. You might not know your audience so you might write too directly or so much in the middle of your anticipated audience range that you muddle your message. Or you might be analytical out loud, saying what you might be thinking while coming to a conclusion and what is read or retained is one of the options and not the conclusion. You are not directed to a person so your technique is more diffused and that can be harsh or less effective. The medium does shape the message because of its limitations. It also shapes the message because of its advantages, a broad distribution, easy entry, and, in many case, anonymity.

MetaFilter and beyond

Some thoughts for class or later...

I like MetaFilter. It is the kind of site that I find interesting and easy to use. One can easily get lost, but in a positive way. For an information junkie, it's a great fix.

I was intrigued by Aldon's comments about MetaFilter, et al being Web 1.0. The web is different than many other mediums in that newness lends credibility while experience and history almost seems a negative trait. To what extent are we caught up in a marketing, sales pitch, a disposable consumer mentality for website. To be hip is to know what is new, whether it is better or not is not the issue. You're in the clique if you know the language and sites.

I would like to discuss and learn more about the importance of visual appeal for sites. Some attract me and seem easy to use, while others turn me off and I find them confusing. I liked digg but not clipmarks. I'm sure its a personality, age, culture thing, but one worth exploring.

Formal Hall

I was looking at MetaTalk and found a reference to this entry. Would they close the class if we held it at one of these events? Is this a real thing or more wiki-misinformation? I also got a kick out of this post on flash mobs. While funny, one does have to wonder where people have the time to do these things, and why? Is it because as individuals we feel powerless and, therefore, feed the urge to find power and self worth in a mob? Or is it that the people who do this are so stuck to their computers, stuck often enough to see these mob calls, that they are hungry for human company and can only fill that hunger by going to these events. Their personality doesn't allow them to open up to other venues of human relations.

Something wiki this way comes

So there I am looking up the phone number for my son's school, East Catholic, on-line, and I see that the school has a Wikipedia entry. I looked and laughed. Jason was right - there is a little mischief in many entry's. The last two lines made a comment about how the students were not happy because the administration's values were being imposed on them. When I went to pick up my son, I walked in and mentioned it to a teacher I know, which led to a discussion on why students should never use Wikipedia. That was about 2:45. I'm home writing this entry two hours later and I went to copy the funny lines for this entry. Presto, chango, the hand of the Almighty is at work, and no longer is administration imposing itself on students, but

" In our education of the whole person, we value academic excellence, personal growth and social commitment. The success of the Catholic educational endeavor depends on the belief, commitment and participation of faculty, staff, administration and students in collaboration with parents and the wider community. In keeping with this philosophy, East Catholic admits students of any race, creed or ethnic origin."

I wonder how long that will stay up. I'll make it my project to guard the ECHS entry with my digital life.

Digital gangs

What is it that moves someone to drive two hours in the evening and then back because someone wrote a post about you? Is it curiosity, the need to see people who have digitally connected to you, obsessive compulsive behavior, an ego larger than a houseboat that was offended, or the urgent need to right a wrong and win converts to your cause, or maybe all of them? Perhaps, it’s just me, but I’m becoming as interested in the people who blog, wiki, and create multiple digital identities for themselves as in the mediums.

I like the frontier analogy because it fits with people who might not fit into society for a variety of legitimate reasons or not. Why is it that people need to create on-line communities – what is wrong with the myriad of human communities, face to face, seeing, hearing, touching? Maybe that is the problem – people don’t want to be seen, or touched, or to be heard without the machine between them and their listener/reader. What is the future for these digital dilettantes? To what extant are these digital communities escapes from this world with its demands and need for more than technical skills? Perhaps ego is an issue - these individuals are more intellectual, curious, smart than the average person, but find that this world rewards more than just those skills. This world rewards interpersonal skills, attractiveness, the ability to communicate in person, and it frustrates many of the on-line adherents who then recreate themselves on-line.

However, human nature never really changes. These communities have also developed a gang mentality. I was struck by Jason’s pronouncement that his Wikipedia entry was being ‘protected’ by friends and that is what you have to do when you reach certain notoriety. There was more than a little pride in that announcement. Perhaps that is why he came down. He needed to protect his dignitas from common vandals and doing digitally wasn't enough. Maybe he wanted to see if he could recruit or pick up more status by overwhelming a group with his knowledge - so knowledgeable that he can outsmart the web elite by beating their system. No longer gun slingers - have camera and taperecorder will travel.

Pesky wiki flies

My thoughts about last night’s Jason Scott lecture on the problems with Wikipedia and the wiki-hacker movement to save it from its founder’s ego are like pesky flies buzzing around my head – I having trouble focusing on killing one because they are all a pain. I think I need to create different posts for each issue.

I see Wikipedia as just another source of information that can be used, but one must be careful - maybe even more careful than with other sources because of its open structure. Its allure is that it is so easy, free, and presents itself in an attractive fashion. It has visuals, easy to access links to related material, and what could be more attractive to Americans than a democratic forum where only the best information wins the day. The issues, if I understood Jason, are that Wiki… presents itself as democratic, without a point of view, and a free forum. When, perhaps, it is really a benevolent dictatorship or oligarchy, with multiple points of view that one is not able to nail down and filter, and is not free so much as the illusion of freedom. My previous allusion to Animal Farm was to connect to the idea of a sham reality – a society that is sold into believing what it is not. It’s the same place but with new owners. When I view a source such at the Catholic Encyclopedia, which I use mainly because it is free and comprehensive, I know its point of view and can judge if this point of view is influencing the information I am reading. You can’t do that with Wikipedia – you never know the point of view and can’t believe it if you are told it exists since everyone is hiding behind multiple personalities.

I continue with the idea I lifted from the Wikipedia posts and that is one must treat the information as one would a messy filing cabinet filled by many owners. There are gems, but you must work to get them.

Revolution

Revolutionary moments attract those who are not good enough for established institutions as well as those who are too good for them. Author: George Bernard ShawSource: Androcles and the Lion

I thought this quote fit nicely with my thoughts about Wikipedia and now Citizendium. Wikipedia really does appear a revolution in the directed, wide spread distribution of information by both the unwashed masses and academic elites. Like all revolutions. It starts as a reaction to the narrowness or abuses of the status quo, and then warps out of control, which leads to a reversal or crackdown. I quote Shaw again because I think Wikipedia and Citizendium are rushing to this state,

Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder. Author: George Bernard ShawSource: Man and Superman--"The Revolutionist's Handbook"

Who better but an Irishman to understand the difficulty of revolution and tyranny?

To what extent is Sanger taking the free wheeling revolution of Wikidom (it they can make up words, why not me) and imposing his own sense of control, a tyranny over what are appropriated sources of information, a tyranny of the mind. How quickly this revolution is coming back to control of a few, a reflection of the rapid spread of information. Look at how Citizendium introduces itself (a cynical view):
The Citizendium, a "citizens' compendium of everything," will be an experimental new wiki project that combines public participation with gentle expert guidance. It will begin life as a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia. But we expect it to take on a life of its own and, perhaps, to become the flagship of a new set of responsibly-managed free knowledge projects. We will avoid calling it an "encyclopedia," because there will probably always be articles in the resource that have not been vouched for in any sense.
We believe a fork is necessary, and justified, both to allow regular people a place to work under the direction of experts, and in which personal accountability--including the use of real names--is expected. In short, we want to create a responsible community and a good global citizen.
Where are Napoleon and Snowball? They use language of revolution “citizen compendium” and a voice for “regular people,” but with the caveat of “gentle expert guidance” and “under the direction of experts.” Who defines ‘expert’ but those in control and in most situations the selection is obvious. However, it was experts who told us of WMDs and that we had enough troops on the ground. It will be the expert who determines if Clinton was impeached on legal ground, if we are experiencing global warning, and if Columbus was an explorer or a pirate. And to what extent is ‘gentle guidance’ and ‘direction’ the deletion of an edit or new topic by someone with a different point of view?
I believe that both sites can co-exist, but, perhaps, with one assuming status as the truer source of information and the other a collection of thoughts to be treated as original documents, not expert sources. I like this post from a disaffected St. Anne (how does an assumed name reflect who we want to be and what we are not currently)
gone after a few short weeks. "This is not (and likely never will be) an encyclopedia. It is more like the large filing cabinet stuffed with clippings, half finished projects, notes, the travel pamphlet collection, manuals for obsolete software and long discarded small appliances, and odd photos etc. that sits in my den and that I will sort through someday".
Perhaps the great value and differentiation of Wikipedia will be is value as a source or both information and a window into cultural opinions and values.

Walt Moon

All my life, I have lived with the legacy of Vietnam. My family lived in Okinawa from 1961 – 1964 so my father could serve in country running a Special Forces unit and still be reasonably close to his family. I celebrated my 13th birthday while he served his second tour. I remember coming home to my mother crying (and she never cried) the day my father told her he had volunteered to go back – he needed a combat battalion to get to full colonel. That was 1970, right after Tet. The promotion wouldn’t happen – something happened where he would not do something he felt was wrong. He came home disgusted. I spent a whole year wondering if he would come home. I can still feel that terrible sense of dread, sadness, and mouth dry with fear as I imagined what life would be without my father, my hero. I have letters to and from him that provide a wonderful view of teenage angst and silliness. I was one of the fortunate few born in that wonderful window when you didn’t even have to register for the draft, never mind having to worry about it – a legacy of the stupidity of the war.

When I go the Vietnam Wall, I look up in to the very beginning of the Wall and look for Walt Moon. He was my father’s best friend. He went to Vietnam because he needed combat duty and experience. He was a great officer, but the kind that is best running the plans and thinking tactics. He was captured in a firefight trying to save a soldier. He tried to escape several times and was finally executed, beheaded. The first time I saw my father cry was telling his story. Walt Moon haunts me. His fate is the fear I lived with for a year and more – the capricious nature of war, man and that terrible hubris that destroys young lives. I am glad that I can write about him because I realize I spend a part of me keeping him alive – this is part of that task. Visit him – verify the transient nature of immortality on the net.

After you visit him, look at the Frontline website and read about this generation’s war. I saw this the other evening and it ruined my evening slumber. In many ways Iraq is worse than Vietnam because it is the war that we swore we would always avoid. It is another war of hubris, mismanagement, and corporate greed. We feed our hubris and the war machine with our youth like Hades fed Cerberus with Trojans and Greeks. As an Army brat I could never understand those who protested against the war. While I’ll always be an Army brat, I can now understand those protesters. I’ll protest in words and the ballot box, the old fashioned American way.

It is for this that I will vote against anyone who supports this war in Iraq.

Village Pump this...

I am cruising through Wikipedia - some observations. I am in the Village Pump (a slightly self-conscious name) and found a series of posts under the title "Editors Who Are Vandals, and Thugs and Ferals" (By the way, vandal and thug appear to fall in the category of the unthought-of racial bias I discussed in my last post) The posts sound like bad dialogue and names from Star Trek. Longhair is attacked by Durova over the Rfc and Gundagai page. There are comments by Golden Wattle and NuclearZerO. There are temper fits and all kinds of verbal carnage. My favorite line is "You cannot have dispute resolution by yourself and RfC is not a punishment." What’s wrong with multiple personalities? Based on the tone and tenor of the post, they could only resolve a dispute with oneself and Rfc does sound like punishment to me. Beam me up, Scottie.

Why is it that grown people run around with masquerade names? It really is like Warcraft where personas are put on before going into imaginary battle - in this case, content battle. I think the ethos of the site is diminished by the masquerade. It is too geeky and childish. It’s almost as geeky as sitting at home writing notes to your future self or an unknown audience you never know will read you stuff.

Bias ingrained

It's amazing how stereotypes and bias are so natural to us that we use them, even in prominent magazines like the New Yorker, without question. Maybe the meme is so strong we can't help ourselves. It's also interesting to note that while stereotypes of certain groups are shunned by many, these same individuals will make stereotypical comments about other groups without thinking. For example, the New Yorker thinks nothing of saying in the Wikipedia article, "the Germans, champions of thoroughness" or refer to "devious Frenchman, Pierre Bayle." Can't a Frenchman be thorough and a German devious.

When we examine any source of information, we need to recognize that there is a Point of View and that the individual's own sense of what is right or wrong, their biases will be a filter for the information. With Wikipedia, unlike traditional reference guides, there is the advantage of have thousands of filters instead of a narrow few.

Empty yourself

I'm having trouble with the video blogs. I can't watch them for very long - they tend to reflect much of our celebrity driven culture. However, it probably makes sense since I don't watch much TV and infrequently go to the movies. When I watch TV, I switch channels a lot and then give up. My wife and I made a resolution this year to see one movie a month in the theater or on video/CD. I think we've seen four so far. My interest in blogs, I realize, is the combination of reading and gathering information. I don't learn from viewing as easily as reading or listening. This has been a real issue for my students, who tend to be visual, and I've had to work hard to change. In fact, an issue with many teachers, according to my lunch conversations with colleagues, is that most of us were the kind of student who could sit still and listen and learn from a lecture. As a result, we tend to talk too much in class and assume everyone is as interested in out topic as we are - wrong.

There was a sad article in the Courant today about a young girl who died of an overdose and how sad her life was. It seems as if many blogs and videos reflect the sadness of this girl. There was a desperate need for her to communicate, to find happiness, but she kept getting in her own way. Instead of finding good, she looks for negatives. What I am saying so poorly is that there is something missing in many people's lives and they are using whatever medium they can to construct a reality for themselves, to fill, even temporarily, the vacuum. I teach Brave New World and I can see the emptiness of that world reflected in many people (it is amazing how prescient he was). Part of the emptiness is the endless circle of using or chasing material goods to fill human needs. People do not seek to grow individually, but try to create an image that will be acceptable to their desired society. The Internet, blogs and video blogs are substitutes for personal communication and creating understanding. And these sites are simply commercial vehicles to sell us more goods. The more I reflect upon it, Gautama was right, we need to empty ourselves to be happy. I think blogging and, specifically, video blogging won't help. It creates, for many, the illusion of communication and connection, not true knowledge and happiness.

The sheriff is in town

I think I understand why Google spent a boatload on YouTube - they are afraid. They realize that there is a huge demographic who will interact (I can't say read) with a video for longer and with greater retention than with the written word. Google wants to capture that market while eliminating a potential competitor. They don't want to have happen to them what happened to Microsoft and IBM. IBM gave the software business to Microsoft because they thought hardware was most important. Microsoft gave the search engine business away because they thought it was a marginal business. Google did two things - captured the business and made it legit by spending so much money. Even those who know nothing about video blogging are interested. Money on the street is to business and finance like blood in the water is to sharks.

For better or worse, this is the beginning of the end for the frontier element of video blogging on YouTube. The sheriff has moved in with the railroad - business needs to be protected, products sold, and the Malkin issue will happen again. This medium is now in the real world of mainstream business and the money is too large to allow too much edge. It time to pasteurize..

Last run

Tonight was my last run before the Half Marathon on Saturday. I had a bad run on Monday so I figured I would run a slow two miler. Mo was walking. It was dusk and we rushed to get to the Airline Trail so we would still have some light. There was a light drizzle and leaves blanketed the trail. I started slow and felt good so I decided to speed up and stretch another mile, and I continued to feel good. I didn't have my IPod so it was my usual heavy footfall and labored breath that created the rhythm of the run. I shouldn't say I run - it's more like lumbering. After all these years, there is still no grace in my stride, which is so off I wear long socks because my heels periodically scape the inside of my legs. My breathing has always been heavy, no matter the miles I put on.

Mo went to Jean's mother's funeral, and I recently used the Five Stages of Grief in class as a tool to understand an epic character. All of this must have been on my mind, a mind partially starved for oxygen and wandering. At the run's half way point there is a canopy of trees and then a road, so you have the impression of a tunnel with light at its end, especially at edge of dusk and night. The leaves were thick and still in color as they lay on the ground. The image of the tunnel with a light at its end, the one so many near death survivors describe, came to my mind. I thought of Frost and roads taken and not taken. I thought about banking and teaching. I hoped that our tunnel is not a sterile, black and white one. I hope that God grants us a tunnel like the one I saw before me, with a cool drizzle, the rhythm of feet and breath on a wet trail, and a lifetime of leaves carpeting the way.

It continued to get darker at the end of the run, still good. I picked up the pace and came to the end, ironically the most dense, dark part of the run. Mo would be done with her walk and waiting. The tunnel came to mind again, and I kept running, and running, hoping, once more for this tunnel, and at its end, the people I love.

....
What I've come to like about blogging is that I can come home and write about everyday events for me to read in the future. And the sense of a potential reader of two shapes the words I use and makes it more concrete and interesting.

Crutch

I took a look at YouTube and the first thing I saw was Crutch! I used to be a board member at Easter Seals so have always had an interest in how people with disabilities seem to thrive within and expand their limitations rather than be limited by them. You can't describe something like Crutch!, which is why YouTube is so interesting. Most people are visually oriented so I imagine that is why Google put out the money they did for this site or service. I was unsure what interest the site would have since many of the videos I've seen on blogs have not been all that interesting. It is amazing what people do with their time.

Rousseau at the National Gallery

For those that like Henri Rousseau, there is a wonderful exhibit currently running at the National Gallery. I posted one of his original paintings, which was laughed at by traditional artists, but embraced by artist such as Picasso. He is interesting because he truly believed in his art, and no matter how he was mocked, he continued to paint. We are all the beneficiaries of his persistence. There a lesson in there somewhere.

Old dog, new trick

I hope it's more interesting...this could become addictive.

Is there blogging etiquette?

And if there is, who made the rules? I just read my blog and found, much to my delight, comments on several of the entries. It was great. I want to say thank you, and I certainly now will comment more often because I know how it feels to be acknowledged on some level. But it would be interesting and fun to find or formulate an etiquette. What a better place to explore or implement this service than in a class devoted to the study of blogging.

I'm going back in the archives and looking at all the blogs I missed or did not quite understand. I have found reading many of the blogs confusing or uninteresting. I'm a little put off by dooce, especially when I see the pictures of her daughter (who really is cute) and the personal details of her life. It reminds me of reality TV or the Truman Show. I suspect its an age thing (I'm 49 tomorrow) or, perhaps, a cultural issue. The sense I got was that she is selling a little of herself, and her daughter.

I went searching for new blogs by experimenting with hitting the next blog key. It was great. I found this blog with wonderful pictures of Hong Kong (check out the chicken feet). I commented and asked if I can use some of the pictures in my class. My only concern is how will I know if they commented. The adventure continues...

I went looking for other blogs and issues and came up with this one. I'm a voter in the 2nd so I have an interest in this race. This shows the tit for tat that can occur when you have a fringe element blogging in the race. However, keeping in mind Colin's observation about dirty tricks happening at the end of 2nd District races, one could theorize the usefulness of a blog purposely, but in a non-official way, spreading a damaging rumor. Listening to Tim talk, I don't think a responsible group would do it, but there certainly is a history of these things happening. The most vivid for my generation being the Nixon examples.

I meant to add that what I've enjoyed about blogging is the sense of discovery, newness. It's like researching when you start looking to go somewhere and you end up in a completely different place.

Frodo lives...

In my serious rambles to find blogs I came across 'Connecticut Bob' and then looked into his links and found 'Connecticut Weblogs', probably old hat to most, but a great find for me. Who cares about this politic stuff when there are really important blogs like 'Tolkien Geek.' It's great - at least to those of us who used to read Lord of the Rings several times a year in high school and college. I can't believe the amount of work that went into it.

Last night was about as interesting as it gets. There was a sense that we were watching a change happen with the current style of politics confronting the new reality of politics. Tim visually and stylistically looked the blogger – headphones on before class, controlled, tenseness in his demeanor, rapid non-modulated voice, and passion bubbling under the surface. Dan was about working the room, relaxed, thanking everyone, reinforcing why he was there and his objectivity, handling criticism right off the bounce and sending it back. I spent 24 years working with wonderful salespeople, and Dan fit the part. This is compliment, not a criticism. Thinking about it, both styles are necessary, as Tim acknowledged with his comment about the importance of the other parts of the campaign. And Dan’s decision to insert himself in the campaign and take valuable time to visit a small class at Trinity on blogging speaks to the power and reality of the medium.

In teaching, we are taught that people have different learning styles – visual, audile, tactile, etc. It would then make sense that campaigns must use different medium to promote their message. What blogging appears to have done is allow a group, who might not be very good communicating in other mediums, to stretch their voices in a dramatic way because they have knowledge and ability other don’t – blogging. The passion, curiosity and skill that lead them to technology easily transfer themselves to politics. Because of its ‘newness’ and mysteriousness, it has generated a lot of buzz. The question is will the medium continue to create buzz. Can it withstand the attacks to its credibility; its soft underbelly of the nut fringe? Tim spoke of it as a concern because it could be easily twisted.

A day to mark with a white stone…

It’s my fourth year as a teacher. An old student, Charlene, freshman at St. Joseph’s, came to visit. We chatted briefly. A teacher’s day is so busy I can’t explain it. I was talking, setting out books, fixing desks, and putting up my PowerPoint for class, and trying to be attentive. As she was leaving, she said, as an aside, “By the way, my English professor asked me to bring in a copy of my favorite piece of literature and I brought in Gilgamesh. I thought of you and class.” I stopped and was stunned. This lovely, Latina young women, who struggled with many aspects of English, had actually heard me and kept it as a part of her. A few weeks ago, another student, Cindy, who used to make fun of me for being so boring, visited school. She’s at Columbia. She made the effort to stop and talk. She told me that they had finish the Iliad and were about to move onto the Odyssey, which I teach. I asked her what they discussed and she told me “Oh, you know nostos, kleos, the stuff we had in your class.” I was so pleased at her casualness, that “the stuff in your class” was old hat for a freshman at Columbia. I write this for the future, so the next time I quit teaching, which I do several times a year, I stop for a moment and think about legacy.

This ability to simply write for oneself and know that it will be there for the future is one happy, unintended benefit of learning about blogging.

I read Dan's also Brenda's blogs. Two comments: Dan compares bloggers to people who follow a show and then discuss it constantly. The issue is that some blogs are like these viewers, but there are also now bloggers who are producers, creators. They create the environment in which the blogs respond and then present the response as if it spontaneously grew from the community. The line between reality and created,fake reality is blurred. Sorry for the oxymoron.

Brenda's issue is one that makes sense to me - that is there is no filter, editor, in blogging. Ideas are raw, and good is easily mixed with bad. Credibility is the issue because there is no attempt at building ethos. Pathos is presented as if it were logos, emotion becomes logic in the minds of many bloggers and their readers either give up or choose not to differentiate the material.

Yes, I’m catching up…

I can’t stand the tone and tactics of most of the political blogs I’ve read. They remind me of the ads you’d see in the good old days of ‘yellow journalism.’ There appears to be little information and a lot of disinformation. The Lieberman blog was offensive, as can be said for many of the Lamont ads. The Lamont blog seems more reasonable – I liked the disclaimer, whether it is followed or not, I can’t say. If, as Colin says, these are the frontier days of the blog, then we need to approach all of them with great skepticism. However, and I sigh as I read my last line, it is with great skepticism that we approach all things to do with politics. Everything is about spin, and we must fish out the information we need from this whirlpool. My sense is that blogs will make it worse for the most malleable voters. They will build upon existing bias and distort real information.

By the way, I’m a poor voter to listen to because I rarely vote for the winner. I still can’t believe CT voted in Rowland the first time. Where was the press when they buried the police report about his confrontation or fight with his first wife? By the way, more than one person from Waterbury spoke of the fight as if they were there and looked at me with incredulity when I questioned the rumor about his infidelity (the meme, is it rumor or simply libel, includes a shower, an angry wife and a former girlfriend). Now, it is interesting that I passed on a rumor that I’d heard from someone, who heard it from someone, etc. I think the critical difference between the transfers of this meme to me in person is that I could easily judge the credulity of the person, look for visual clues in body language, inflection of the voice, facial expression. You can’t do that with a blog, and that is the problem.

By the way, while I don't generally vote for winning candidates, I feel that I have been correct in my votes.

Back from a long weekend in DC. the capitol of the nation and, apparently, of memes. We were down for Family Weekend at CUA, which was a lot of fun. DC is my favorite city – there is so much to do and see. It also has a unique energy and feel, much different than Boston, Chicago or New York. I make the trip 5 to 6 times a year. The Jersey Turnpike can get old, but in the end it is worth it.

Since our discussion started about memes, I’ve been trying to look at information and images around me in a different way, to see how ideas just seem to happen. Interestingly, I noticed all over the DC Metro these ads from companies that I never see in Connecticut and products that did not fit the consumer market. Why would Raytheon place ads about a cargo plane, or UTC have an ad about a Coast Guard helicopter in the Metro? No Senator or Congressman is going to work on the Metro. Why the ad? The only reason I could come up with is that these companies are looking to create name recognition and ‘buzz’ with those people who work for those in power and funding, and get them talking or at least recognizing names and products so that when they come up in discussion there is a comfort and familiarity. The lobbyist work to create memes in their ways with contributions, information and perks, and the companies create visual memes, or clues, for the workers in the hope that they will all mesh into a funded project.

Blogs, I think, are simply devices, tools to pass on information that is placed elsewhere. I would be curious to see if blogs create memes, or are nothing other than a highway for the idea. My sense is that they are more a transfer device than a creative one. Perhaps I will find I'm wrong the more I search.