Archives for June 2003

Objectivism and bridge

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Marta blogs vicariously again. She sent me this charming article from the New York Times Magazine about bridge and Ayn Rand. It turns out that one of the world’s best players is an objectivist and says he owes his success to the Russian novelist’s philosophy. I enjoyed the piece for the peek it gives into the world of “professional” bridge playing. Not surprisingly, it seems to attract passionate eccentrics as much as objectivism.

Jun 29, 2003 | Comment

Quien es mas lefty?

What’s cooler than Howard Dean winning MoveOn.org’s online Democratic primary? Dennis Kucinich coming in second. The 2004 presidential election is going to be painfully fun.

Jun 27, 2003 | Comment

Form and function in the blogosphere

Perhaps I’m more surprised than I should be, but I found something I completely agree with Virginia Postrel on. From the new issue of Wired:

And all of us must give up the cultural baggage we’ve inherited from the romantics, who set art against tech, and feeling against reason; from the modernists, who treated ornament as crime and commerce as corruption; and from the efficiency experts, who valued function while disdaining form.

The point of her article is that we’ve become so wealthy that we now value form at least as much as function and will spend accordingly–even in down economic times. It has always bothered me when producers neglect form in favor of function and vice versa. They are not mutually exclusive, and both should be given attention if the product is to succeed.

I’ve especially felt this way about blogs. There are several very informative well written blogs out there that I hardly ever read because they are such an eyesore. (I won’t name any names to protect the guilty–and myself.) I admit that I’m probably more sensitive to design than most, but I’m sure their readership would increase with just a small investment in style. The opposite is also true. I often find myself visiting beautiful blogs of little [”serious”] substance.

Jun 19, 2003 | Comment

Mongolian Wi-Fi

If you want to know more about the kind of issues that I’m working on at the International Bureau of the FCC this summer, check out this so-far great series by Berkman Center lawyer Andrew McLaughlin. The series started yesterday and continues through Friday. Today’s article is right on point with what I’m up to.

In the series, McGlaughlin writes dispatches from Mongolia where he has gone to advise tech and telecom regulators and businessmen. Shocking things he tells us: there’s no such thing as Mongolian barbecue in Mongolia, and you need a license for 802.11b over there.

Jun 10, 2003 | Comment

Why I (still) love Morrissey

Ambitious outsider.From a 1998 interview with Moz that I chanced upon today:

Q: Would you like to live in another era?
A: But I do. I have been living in another era for a long time and I have absolutely nothing to do with this planet.

Q: What kind of songs do you write?
A: I only write very human songs. It’s the only thing they are. Very human. Simple obvious songs that anyone could take to their hearts. It really is that simple. I just heard the new Oasis single and it went… don’t go away / say that you’ll stay / forever and a day… and I thought, did he really sing those words? But he did and it is beyond me. And I thought of a song from the 70’s with Teach-In called “Ding-A-Dong” that went sing a song every hour / when you’re in the shower / maybe it’s a big hit. And I just can’t for my life hear the difference between “Ding-Ding-Dong” and Oasis. If there is I hope to discover it one day.

…

You really want to believe that you are part of the book that you read, the films you see and the music you listen to. And suddenly you know everything about the fascinating writers and those bands whose transsexual singers OD on heroin. But you want to be interesting yourself. And it’s through these books that you think you will be. It’s romantic. But the people… I don’t want to call them losers… but those who were not careful with those choices probably listened to Thin Lizzy.

BONUS: A very cute Morrissey comic strip.

Jun 4, 2003 | 1 Comment

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