4/10/2004 02:06:19 PM
I am reading Seth Godin's new book, Free Prize Inside. Pretty good so far--if you are into the nu-marketing thing. The coolest part of the book's branding is that it is packaged inside a cereal box.
Free Prize Inside is in many ways a chapter from a larger book. Purple Cows is a chapter in this larger book as well. I wonder how many more chapters are up Seth's sleeve?
4/10/2004 12:44:40 PM
The failure... was to try to simplistically replace one workable but broken system with another untried one as if a new mantra was the answer. No, the answer was to start behaving differently, to start talking differently. That way, you begin to meet other people who have been thinking along the same lines, possibly for longer and with greater application than yourself.
St. Luke's
4/10/2004 12:17:08 PM
Wired News: Gator, er, Claria Files for IPO
Another sign of the times. People are really looking to bank on the Google IPO euphoria.
Interesting trivia: I bought the home of one of the founders of Gator/Claria. His family ended up not moving to California as they had planned so they bought a house a few miles away from the one they sold to me.
Totally unrelated: Sergey Brin, founder of Google, on Hot or Not...
4/10/2004 08:10:59 AM
U.S. Forces Want Al-Jazeera Out Of Fallujah
The channel... is probably the only media in Fallujah, where its correspondent seized hours of the channel’s air time to convey the deteriorating situation over the past few days.
The correspondent in Fallujah said that even besieged local inhabitants of the town follow the latest developments in their bastion of resistance through al-Jazeera.
Corpses are littered in the streets as U.S. warplanes hit the only hospital and other makeshift medical centers, he added.
As Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, the deputy director of U.S. military operations in Iraq, was speaking by phone on al-Jazeera and insisting that American forces declared a unilateral ceasefire in Fallujah, the channel was airing live images of continued air raids by F16 fighter jets on residential neighborhoods of the town.
Kimmitt later dismissed the coverage of the channel for the crisis as a "series of lies". However, asked by al-Jazeera anchor about the live images, the U.S. commander said he was not accusing al-Jazeera of faking the images, but rather “looked at things differently”.
He said the attacks by F16 fighter jets and helicopters were meant to take out “armed insurgents firing at our troops”. The anchor reminded Kimmitt, however, that “live coverage showed children and women killed by the missiles, not armed insurgents”.
Observers see the U.S. highly unusual demand for al-Jazeera to leave Fallujah as a sign of crisis of credibility the U.S. forces face in the eyes of the Iraqis as well as people all over the Arab and Islamic world.
Known for its quality programs, professionalism and independence, "the CNN of the Arab world" is the most-watched channel in this part of the world.
4/09/2004 05:48:20 PM
lots of feedback on this. most via email. some here. a couple here. i liked this email (my comments follow those preceded by ">"):
>>...theologies and ecclesiologies that have come to dominate the memory of the man Jesus. We envision a direct, participatory spirituality
>
>All theologies start with the dream of direct, participatory spirituality.
Maybe. "All" is a broad term and we might disagree with what "starting with" means in any given case. I do not believe, for example, that the major fourth century creedal conferences and the bureaucracies that calcified around their work-products had a dream of direct, participatory spirituality. Much of what we look back on with a bit of wistful and rosy retrospect, I would suggest, had a more nuanced history of political positioning and ideological power-mongering that we would do well not to forget.
>What will prevent your's from calcifying?
Mine will. Just as I will calcify, decay and die. So be it.
Functionally, though, I am not setting out to build anything for anyone that could be christened, "mine." What I do and say is an outflow of my life as life. I only do theology and ecclesiology as it is locally relevant to my history, experience, communities and interests. I am, as far as I know how to, directly participating in the life I've been given without the ambition of creating a definitive anything save the definitive life that Daniel Hughes was given to live with and for others.
>
>could not these theologies and ecclesiologies in their domination still contain inherent subversions, which if deconstructed, would reveal the subversive Christ.
>
Oh, yes. Hegemony is self-subversive, indeed.
4/09/2004 03:40:55 PM
Your new gadget bag is not a bag.
TEC Sport Jacket
With 14 hidden pockets, imported worsted wool and a Personal Area Network what is not to like? Perhaps that it only comes in blue.
4/09/2004 03:31:22 PM
Carter's Crusade
Jimmy Carter explains how the Christian right isn't Christian at all.
via bintang
When I was younger, almost all Baptists were strongly committed on a theological basis to the separation of church and state. It was only 25 years ago when there began to be a melding of the Republican Party with fundamentalist Christianity, particularly with the Southern Baptist Convention. This is a fairly new development, and I think it was brought about by the abandonment of some of the basic principles of Christianity....
4/07/2004 06:00:11 PM
Ten Years After Horror, Rwandans Turn to Islam
KIGALI, Rwanda, April 6 — When 800,000 of their countrymen were killed in massacres that began 10 years ago this week, many Rwandans lost faith not only in their government but in their religion as well. Today, in what is still a predominantly Catholic country, Islam is the fastest growing religion.
Roman Catholicism has been the dominant faith in Rwanda for more than a century. But many people, disgusted by the role that some priests and nuns played in the killing frenzy, have shunned organized religion altogether, and many more have turned to Islam.
...Muslim leaders credit the gains to their ability during the 1994 massacres to shield most Muslims, and many other Rwandans, from certain death. "The Muslims handled themselves well in '94, and I wanted to be like them," said Alex Rutiririza, explaining why he converted to Islam last year.
With killing all around, he said, the safest place to be back then was in a Muslim neighborhood. Then as now, many of Rwanda's Muslims lived crowded together in the Biryogo neighborhood of Kigali.
During the mass killing of Tutsi, militias had the place surrounded, but Hutu Muslims did not cooperate with the Hutu killers. They said they felt far more connected through religion than through ethnicity, and Muslim Tutsi were spared.
"Nobody died in a mosque," said Ramadhani Rugema, executive secretary of the Muslim Association of Rwanda. "No Muslim wanted any other Muslim to die. We stood up to the militias. And we helped many non-Muslims get away."
Mr. Rugema, a Tutsi, said he owed his life to a Muslim stranger who hid him in his home when members of the Interahamwe militia were pursuing him.
4/07/2004 05:47:49 PM
So, XXXChurch, the #1 Christian Porn site, has filmed a new commercial with Porn Director Jimmy D. It is basically a PSA to encourage parents not to leave porn around the house.
You can view the clean 30 second version of the Pete the Porno Puppet commercial on the website now. It is our desire to run the more controversial and shocking director's cut, which includes puppet sex choreographed by famed Porn Director Jimmy D.
Read more on Pete the Porno Puppet...
The Goofballs have done well for themselves spinning the abstinence only yarn in MTV parlance. They were on The Daily Show this week. Geez. Wow. Puppet sex.
4/07/2004 05:30:58 PM
David is passionate about Coupland.
...part of me wishes we could discuss Akira Kurosawa or Douglas Coupland or Charles Schultz with the same type of intensity that we discuss Jesus Christ. I do not intend any disrespect to other Christians, but these discussions always carry some agenda (or purpose) which makes me uncomfortable. Of course, doesn't all language carry an agenda? However, if we were to talk about Kurosawa, it may be to appreciate his work, evaluate his theories and ideas, discuss his impact within cinema and storytelling--but with Jesus, it's different.... Talks about Jesus are never about Jesus... ultimately, they are about us. And maybe this makes me uncomfortable.
For me, talking about Jesus is like watching the same movie every week for fifteen years and then having someone talk to you like you never got it. I think most people (including the un-Christian) "get Jesus". But then again, it's not even about "getting Jesus" anymore. It's about adopting a specific community's language about Jesus-- a desperate urgency for you to use their words when talking about him....
4/06/2004 03:44:45 PM
from my perspective one of the most important things that the religions of the book forget is that they began in speech. that they were practiced. that their authority was enacted. religions of the book get side tracked into the unique didactics of the sign of language on a tanned hide or a tight mesh of reeds. this sign-language is over time enshrined to the extent that the event that enabled the language that became encased in the sign held together as a text is left a faint whisper under the rumble of the imperial procession of those whose lives now play out within the economy of the keepers of the books.
4/06/2004 12:58:09 PM
Jittery? Peevish? Can't Sleep? What Are You Drinking?
In general, more than 1.5 grams of caffeine a day can cause the typical symptoms of caffeinism: anxiety, insomnia, irritability and palpitations.
Caffeine is far and away the most widely used stimulant in the world. It is actually a member of a class of compounds called xanthines that includes theobromine, which is abundant in chocolate and theophylline, the major xanthine in tea.
Caffeine works by blocking the calming and analgesic effects of the neurotransmitter adenosine in the brain. In moderate doses, caffeine enhances arousal and performance. At higher doses, caffeine blocks a majority of adenosine receptors and can produce anxiety and hypersensitivity to pain.
...Judging from the sheer number of consumer products spiked with caffeine, one would think we were a nation of narcoleptics, desperately trying to stay awake.
4/06/2004 12:44:38 PM
GooOS? The presumption that M$ will not innovate/copy whatever new OS model is thrown onto the world stage may be the major flaw in this logic. Remember when Netscape was going to topple Windows?
4/06/2004 11:31:14 AM
PocketSkype
PocketSkype™ is free software that enables you to make Skype voice calls using your WiFi-enabled Microsoft PocketPC based handheld computer from any WiFi hotspot.
If this had voicemail some of us would not need to use a cellphone much anymore... if they partnered with Vonnage it would be even more interesting.
4/06/2004 10:50:34 AM
the problem with success for non-commercial ventures on the Internet is that it translates into a significant, upward expense curve. all successful sites have to deal with this at some point.
Boing Boing's explosive growth -- and what to do about it
4/05/2004 10:19:15 AM
an exercise following The Passions of Tom [Peters]
(the exclamation points make me uncomfortable, but i will follow Tom's form...)
are we known by our words?
passions
progeny!
reflection!
difference!
solitude!
competence!
community!
competence!
passion!
tradition!
deconstruction!
design!
freedom!
hope!
intention!
innovation!
responsibility!
justice!
perspective!
justice!
forgiveness!
justice!
compassion!
respect!
provisionality!
momentum!
humility!
courage!
simplicity!
complexity!
ambiguity!
enactment!
4/05/2004 09:59:52 AM
I was driving a bit today. As I catatonicly turned on the radio while the fluids and electricity shot through my driving machine I was surprised to hear a Nirvana song--surprised because I had left the radio on NPR. I double checked the station. I even triple checked it. Nirvana is not the normal course, nor is music from any act, on NPR morning commentary. This was the cause of my bewildered, thick-fingered button pushing on this particular Monday morning.
Just as I began thinking that these odd circumstances were simply another portent pointing to the possibility that my mind was creating all of reality and it just so happened to want a bit of Cobain, Novoselic and Grohl this morning the soothing voice of Marcia Sillman came on speaking over the music in that you-know-that-it's-NPR fashion.
Today, it seems, marks the beginning of the 10 year memorial of Kurt Cobain's final moments on Earth. Listening to the program brought back floods of familiar memories--those combinations of scent and texture, sound and vision that the word memory seems too vacuously austere to imply. I remembered the first time I heard Nirvana coming from a dubbed tape one balmy summer afternoon driving on the small feeder roads through an industrial district of Dallas. I remembered the flannel, the economic anxiety, the heady conversations over the mundane, sacred and profane that made up the moments that encrusted those times as their natural, somehow unifying perimeter. Those pre-Internet boom, pre-9/11, pre-turn of the millennium days of quiet expectation.
I remember the day Kurt was found in his Seattle home. I remember. I remember we lived in a downstairs apartment of an old college dormitory. I remember the news casts, the memorials and radio-mediated words of an angry wife and somber lover leading the throngs who appeared throughout Seattle in volleys of "We love you Kurt!" followed by "Fuck you Kurt!"--the bluntly intentional contradiction etched into the crisp Pacific Northwest air heavy with rain. I remember that Sarah and I made our own memorial. We drew outlines of our hands in red whiteboard marker on the small, wood-lined board that hung on our door. Between them we scrawled:
We love you, Kurt
1967 - 1994
4/04/2004 04:34:54 PM
an effective way to cut the cable and local phone companies out of your house: DataBahn Satellite Solutions.
reports are that you get T1 throughput allowing for voice, data, video, etc. to easily be piped in and out of your home without any terrestrial connection. you do, like all satellite systems of this nature, need a clear line of site to the south and weather can impede transmisison speeds. the system is relatively mobile (if you mount it to an RV or some such platform).
kaus and i want to install this in our place. the start up is rigt here in Farmer's Branch.
part of me will not believe this until i see it in wide release.
4/04/2004 07:33:20 AM
it's feeling like 1996 again. VOIP getting VC, advertising-based startups being hot again, search engine IPOs... funny how quickly it is all happening again. though, hopefully, with a bit more sanity.
4/04/2004 06:43:47 AM
Perhaps that is why Christ's metaphors for his followers are salt or yeast, because we were never supposed to try to be the whole ball of dough. Generally in history when Christians find themselves in a place of power, a lot of pain for any one in the way, and not a lot of unconditional love and compassion, result. What I am thinking is that maybe, due to the nature of power, large powerful entities are unable to put into practice the ideas that Jesus taught. That is why you hear them finding alternate options to the teachings of Christ. -jj
Yes.
The metaphors Jesus uses for the kingdom of which he speaks in the extant texts at our disposal are small things with leveraged, pervasive impact: yeast, mustard seed, salt. Interestingly, these things are also marginal things when compared to that within which they exist--marginal elements whose efficacy is directly tide to its measure. The pinch of salt is enough. The bit of yeast is effective. The smallest bush is sufficient.
It is not the work of yeast to make all that it comes into contact with like itself. Yeast's natural form is to work its way through the diverse ingredients that constitute dough to help bring about a loaf. The messages coming from many corners of Christendom today are more an effort at changing the natural form of yeast than an exhortation toward bread. It is bread not yeast that is the desired outcome of the baking process. The gospel of the kingdom is about bread. It is about being people of influence. It is about impact. It is about a rolling, pervasive, ongoing transformation. It is life well-lived together, life shared and abundant, not a uniform, systematic christianity that is the desired outcome of the gospel of the kingdom. It is life not correct ideology that is the measure of this transformative process. This is the teshuvah of which Jesus speaks. This is the kingdom among us.
4/04/2004 06:32:45 AM
UK Envoy: Bush, Blair Made Secret Pact for War
Big Pharma Experimenting on Minority Orphaned Children
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