compulsive................

 

First Facebook, then the iPhone compulsive communicating and connecting—supported by mysterious, almost magical innovations in radio modulation and fiber-optic routing—swept our culture before anyone had the presence of mind to step back and re-ask Thoreau's fundamental question: To what end?

     The result is a society left reeling by unintended consequences.  We eagerly signed up for what Silicon Valley was selling, but soon realized that in doing so we were accidentally degrading our humanity.

-Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Imagine if you will...............................

      For bankers in the sixties, the computer was arcane and mysterious.  The IBM mainframe computer had given rise to an entirely new race of mutant humans known as programmers and analysts, who spoke a strange language, carried pens in plastic pocket-protectors, and thrived on the power that their unique knowledge gave them over ordinary mortals.  "The banks were having a tough time coping with the computer," said Tom Paine, the rocket scientist and former consultant to Citibank.  "The information revolutions at the time was full of magic and sorcerers.  It was a closed technology, and if your weren't a computer programmer you couldn't hope to fathom it."  Paine remembers when computer departments would ask top management yearly for increases of 20 to 40 percent in computer-related expenses, and the bankers had no idea whatsoever whether these requests were reasonable or absurd.  Bankers, Paine said, fell victim to almost every snake oil computer salesman who got in the door and waxed enthusiastic about the incredible power computers had to solve every problem.  All of them would begin by pointing to the terminal and saying, "Imagine, if you will..."
-Phillip L. Zweig,  Wriston:  Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremecy

Say it isn't so.......................................

.................................................Is Tootsie Roll truly at risk?

via

Got that right......................................

Noting that Apple sold more than 34,000 iPhones every hour, 24 hours a day, during the quarter, he said the sheer volume of sales was “hard to comprehend.”

-Fuller story on Apple vs Microsoft is here.

What should one do when..........................

............................. my enemy's enemy is still my enemy...?

So it needs to be said clearly: The Islamic State and the Islamic Republic are both enemies of the west and of the peoples of the Mideast. Backing one against the other would be a disaster.

-Full post is here

It gets so confusing..............................

Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good.
-Thomas Browne

On a trial run............................

via

Crony capitalism is alive and on display......

Just remember:  it is not capitalism, and these people are not customer-centric:

About those resolutions..................

via Ka-Ching!

Unfortunately............................

"Opposing a bad program, to be sure, is not the same as building a national majority around a good program."
-Spengler

Where does he find this stuff............?

The Mighty E. strikes again................................

From your blog to my kid's ears.............

"Ladies, please think twice before you get that tacky tattoo**. Invest in some nice clothes instead. You'll thank me later."

Bilbo riffs wisely on "tattoo regret" and the "permanent reminder of a temporary feeling."  Full essay is here.

This calls for a re-run of this dandy cartoon.

Do something.......................

“If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.” 
-Dale Carnegie

image via

Any suggestions.........................?

Thanks to Doug and Kurt for their kind notices.  While we have some ideas, we are not entirely sure what to do with this.  55,000 square feet of space on three floors.  Includes one very old gymnasium (right out of the movie Hoosiers) that holds significant and historical community memories.  Creative and constructive ideas are always appreciated.