Archive for September, 2009

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Infoporn & Data Addiction

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 15, 2009 by admin in Technology

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Our endless plot to chart your demise by making you view graphic depictions of life, work, and money.

Now that there’s an Internet Addiction Treatment Center, I wonder if there are plans for a treatment center for infographic addiction? As I pondered this, I wondered, of course, what a “no graphs infographic” would look like. My quick prototype is on the left. Which raises an interesting question: If infographics are such a powerful communication tool, why am I writing about them? We’ve touched on flow charts and a variety of amusing infographics before, but there seems to be an endless supply of them. I’m especially partial to the kind that puts incomprehensible things into tidy visual form, like what does a million dollars like? Which is why I especially like What If You Printed the Internet? Economic data is also always more palatable when viewed graphically, as in this Good Magazine piece. A bunch of little “MSN Buddies” out of work are much cuter than a photo of a bunch of haggard hungry people in line. Technophiles in particular are naturally drawn to data visualizations, which is why the food-group-like pyramid graphics Balance Your Media Diet and The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions have made the rounds lately. It’s interesting that “gaming” and “device failure” top the respective pyramids. If I don’t get treatment for my little graphic addiction problem, I’ll be back with more soon. But if you’re yearning for more now, check out some of the sites below for more interesting data visualizations. But first, can someone explain to me what Iowa’s problem is? Read the rest of this entry »

Canada Invades US – With Indie Music

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 14, 2009 by admin in Music

Monday, September 14th, 2009

While we’ve been busy trembling in fear of terrorists and calling our new president a socialist (is that actually an insult?) Canada has been busy invading our country. With a bunch of awesome indie music.


The New Pornographers’ Myriad Harbour
may end up being my favorite video of 2008

It’s somehow telling that there’s only one derogatory name for Canadians, and even that one’s pretty friendly sounding. I mean, who could get mad about being called a Canuck? I’ve been marveling for a while at the explosion of indie bands over the past several years, whether from the American scene, the Balkans, Japan, Iceland, or even in the form of surprisingly un-incongruous German Reggae. It’s almost impossible to keep up! And thanks to our kind & sensible friends north of the border, now I have even more to catch up with. I hadn’t noticed until recently how many bands creeping onto my playlist were Canadian: Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman, Feist, Great Lake Swimmers, Mother Mother… I think there are more, but my version of Winamp doesn’t seem to have a “sort by country” tab. But wait! There’s more! Okay, a generic list of over 200 bands isn’t very useful. Here’s a Wikipedia entry that describes the scenes a little bit, and here’s a list of 33 favorites picked by Canadian music bloggers. Guess I have some listening to do. If any of the stuff I haven’t listened to yet is half as brilliant as the The New Pornographers’ Myriad Harbour video featured here, I’ll be one ecstatic listener. Know of any Canadian indie bands worth checking out? Feel free to share. Read the rest of this entry »

You’re Only As Jung As You Feel

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 13, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Why you should buy me a copy of Carl Jung’s pivotal and unplublished Red Book. And you should listen to what I say, because I’m an ENFJ.

If you want to achieve a deity-like status to me, buy me one of the $3250.00 editions of Carl Jung’s Red Book. I’d still worship you if you bought me the regular $195.00 edition, but I’d consider you a less-than-loving deity. Like many people who are slightly crazy, I developed a deep interest in psychology fairly early in life. After exploring abnormal psychology textbooks with a friend and gaining some perspective regarding just how crazy crazy can be, I got a little more serious in my exploration, and have always been thankful that around this time (I was ten or so) Carl Jung’s biography (Memories, Dreams, Reflections) happened to be on the same bookshelf in our home. I read it with considerable enthusiasm, and even greater ignorance. It was admittedly a little over my head, but helped launch my early exploration of alchemy, religion, astrology, and eastern mysticism. In my teens, Jung’s Man and His Symbols became a bestseller, and reinvigorated my interest in Jung’s work, leading me to read just about anything Jung-related I could get my hands on. If you’re not familiar with Jung’s work, you’re at least familiar with the results of his work; although in casual conversation, Freud is mentioned much more often in relation to modern psychology, Jung’s influence eventually superseded Freud’s foundational work in many ways. And if you’ve ever taken a silly Facebook version of the Myers-Briggs personality tests , you’ve used his principles to decide your own personality type. The very thing that was an impediment to Jung’s work being accepted early on later became its chief selling point – mainly the fact that he understood that science as we know it is not a complete enough system of perception, measurement, and analysis to even begin to treat the mysterious territory that is the human psyche. His work has since not only influenced psychology, but modern physics and British pop as well. So why the fuss about Jung’s Red Book? Because it’s never been published before, and has barely even been examined by professionals in the field. It contains artwork and writing he produced between 1914 and 1930, the period during which he developed his principal theories, including the concepts of the collective unconscious, the archetypes, and the psychological types. It’s like finding lost Rolling Stones recordings or symphonies by Mozart. Only cooler. In fact, I predict the release of these volumes next month will have a second-wave effect on psycholgy as a science. And I’m an ENFJ , so you should listen to what I say.

Videocracy: Media Control & Mind Control

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

How Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi controls public sentiment by controlling television

I’m looking forward to seeing Videocracy, in spite of the fact that many sources – Variety, for instance – are giving it rather mediocre reviews. The film, by Swedish film director Erik Gandini (who also brought us Gitmo – The New Rules of War), explores the evolution of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s political power in Italy, which has largely been fueled by his near-total control of the media. Although most early reviews describe the movie as being light on hard facts and meandering in content, I’m looking forward to it the way one might look forward to a Michael Moore film: the facts may be skewed, there may be a significant lack of objectivity, but the subject matter is certain to provoke some thoughtful conversation, and probably needs to be brought to the broader public’s attention. I personally knew a little about Berlusconi’s almost cartoonish gangster/macho Italian style of leadership, but was completely ignorant of the fact that he had such a tight grasp on Italian television. After the bizarre shift in American values over the past decade, largely fueled by a media that catered to the propagandizing of the Bush administration, one can almost imagine one or more of the NeoCons having gotten their inspiration while vacationing in Italy and watching Berlusconi in action. If you doubt the power of television being manipulated as a powerful tool to shape popular sentiment, review and ponder some of the campaigns distributed by the Ad Council over the last few decades. More recently, the spots created early in the Bush administration’s paranoia-inducing “war” on terror, spots like those in the “What if America wasn’t America?” campaign – like Library, Diner and Church – helped convey that feeling that some mysterious enemy was trying to steal our freedom and we needed to go get that enemy, even if we had to create it. Remember, the Ad Council also brought us Rosie the Riveter, Smokey the Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and the Crash Test Dummies, some of the most enduring images in American popular media. Although the campaigns were all brilliant in their own ways, one has to wonder if their sheer pervasiveness has perhaps not perhaps been the more important factor in their success. If, like I am, you’re obsessed with this kind of media, the Ad Council has a YouTube Channel. And look for Videocracy in limited theater release until it’s available on DVD. In the meantime, I’m going to watch the moronic Idiocracy again, to prepare myself for the coming Idiocalypse. Read the rest of this entry »

Bugs. They’re What’s For Dinner.

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 11, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Friday, September 11th, 2009

As the Filet o’ Fish becomes an endangered species, will insects become the next sushi?

On the rare occasion that I eat at McDonald’s or Burger King, I order a fish or chicken sandwich of some kind, not really believing my own rationalization that I’m making some kind of healthier choice on the menu. I was doing a pretty good job of not wondering exactly which fish I was eating until yesterday, when I read that the Filet o’ Fish was being put on the endangered species list. Which got me thinking about the United Nations’ suggestion last year that insects are the food of the future. I mean, like I often say: “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he’ll starve in 50 years“. If the idea of an Entomophagic lifestyle bugs you, consider these two facts: 1.) In many parts of the the world (the word “parts” will take on a new meaning in fact 2!), insects are already a perfectly acceptable part of people’s diets, and 2:) You’re already eating them! If you’ve never looked at the FDA’s Food Defect Action Levels guide, give it a quick scan. A typical example of how many bugs you’re eating includes quantities like 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of Wheat flour. If you’re particularly microbe-phobic, just don’t, really, don’t review the guide; the glossary necessarily includes terms like “foreign matter”, “infestation”, “mold count”, “rancid”, “rot”, and “shrivel”. So if this hasn’t all turned you off to the idea of eating some bugs for dinner tonight, check out the insects-as-food enthusiasts’ web site InsectsAreFood.com, wherein Founder Marc Dennis points out that “Insects in cuisine today are what sushi was two decades ago” and advisor Jeff Stewart’s additional site CreepyCrawlyCooking.com asks reasonably, right on the home page: “Why eat insects?” Read the rest of this entry »

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