Newseum, an interactive museum of news

You may have noticed that the newspaper as we know it, is an endangered species. I’ve written about its demise multiple times (and the demise of record companies and other media companies with buggy whip business models being stressed by the appearance of cars…) I digress.

In any case, this link was sent to me last week by one of my old buddies and I think it’s a really cool way to preserve some of the good of the print monoliths while bringing them into this millennium. It’s a live map that shows the front page of any print newspaper (no reason it particularly needs to be print) across a geographic area super-imposed upon a map.

The two differentiations I can see that will keep papers around are depth of coverage and analysis by trained journalists sensitive to bias adhering to a code of ethics when writing and local coverage that isn’t sufficiently interesting to be picked up nationally or globally (though that pick up likely fuels the future business models of the locals.) In other words, these aggregations of local papers into syndicates is the exact opposite of what needs to happen to ensure transformation to the new world.

In any case, Newseum is a nifty little visualization tool and in playing with it, brought these thoughts to the forefront. Try it out, it’s kind of fun.

HT: Bruce

One thing you may not know is that as a teenager I had the pleasure of working in two bakeries, each artisan in nature, each with distinct products and approaches to the art of bread baking. Aside from being tasty (and essentially the solid form of beer,) the transformation of wheat to a finished product has always held great interest for me. And also a point of humor you might recall from Dangerous Dough; The Dreaded Bread Threat.

Last week, one of my old buddies sent a link to this video with Peter Reinhart giving a TED talk about his new “epoxy bread” but more importantly, taking us through the baking process in an engaging and highly technical manner.

If you have any interest in bread, invest 15 minutes in this video. Or another way to say this is, if you watch one video about bread in your lifetime, this is the one you ought to watch. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Baker’s Toast: May your crust be crisp, and may your bread always rise.

HT: Paul

Another gem from WellingtonGrey.net….this needs no explanation and is clearly backed by the evidence of all human advances. The net? Sure, you can pray – meditation can have some psychological benefit, but work has a better outcome.

The seal to the right is one I offer freely for anyone who wishes to use it, religious or not. The translation is “See god with your own eyes.” To me, it’s a reminder to question beliefs and test assumptions that may exist without conscious thought. While it’s become clear to me that it’s highly unlikely that there is a god as described by religions and mystics and charlatans, others need to find their own solutions.

Really, I’m less interested in the notion of god, existence or belief, than I am with organized religion. And the way organized religion abuses the trust of those who do believe without question and uses that belief to separate them from their money, coerce them into negative behaviors (like discrimination and exclusion,) and ultimately to control and govern them. No, my fight isn’t with god(s) – it’s with the organizations who capitalize on people’s belief in god(s) for their own gain.

So, see god with your own eyes. And regardless of what it is you see, scrutinize and beware of those who claim to represent god for their own benefit and their parasitic organizations.

If you like music, and perhaps you do. Then you might recognize some of these in my list of the Top Ten Lyric Phrases. Frequently, I think that songs are the only place that poetry is appreciated in our modern society. It’s not too often people go around quoting poems these days, in the absence of music.

This is intended to be a little break in the action from some of the more serious posts that have been going on around here lately…. I don’t claim these are the “end all, be all” of phrases, in fact, if you asked me on a different day you’d get a different answer. But these are todays…..Think I missed one? Leave a comment.

10. – It’s like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my soul. – I’m on Fire/Bruce Springsteen

9. – I wear my crown of thorns, upon my liar’s chair. Full of broken thoughts, I cannot repair. Beneath the stain of time, the feeling disappears. You are someone else, I am still right here. – Hurt/Nine Inch Nails

8. – Oh, mirror in the sky, What is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life? – Landslide/Fleetwood Mac

7. – The seed is spilled, the bed defiled, for you, a virgin bride. Hide yourself in someone else, don’t find yourself in me. – Love Comes Tumbling/U2

6. – Love is like a dying ember, only memories remain. – Blue Eyes Cryin’/Willie Nelson

5. – Some of us hover when we weep for the other who was dying since the day they were born. – Stay/Lisa Loeb

4. – It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got. – Soak Up the Fun/Sheryl Crow

3. – In your belly you hold the treasures, few have ever seen. Most of them dreams, most of them dreams. – A Pirate Looks at Forty/Jimmy Buffet

2. – Lookin’ at the world through the bottom of a glass, all I can see is a man who’s fadin’ fast. – Misery and Gin/Merle Haggard

1. – Is a dream alive that won’t come true? Or is it something worse? – The River/Bruce Springsteen