Just finished reading Tony Blair’s speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council delivered last Tuesday. Interesting read. Help me to understand his position on Iraq and the Middle East. Gave me some food for thought.
Pilgrim Notes
Reflections along the way.
Category: Society & Culture (page 11 of 13)
Several trends have converged in the new Tribewanted timeshare. Appealing to the strong drive for social connecting this timeshare is about joining a tribe, a community. At the same time, this offers an eco-friendly vacation, and there’s opportunity for public service. Looks interesting, similar in some ways to the popularity of mission trips for adults. In many churches adults forgo the yearly vacation to go to some remote region and help build a school, houses, and/or set up medical clinics. (Some adult missions include The Bridge, Experience Mission, Missions to Mexico)
If you want to join the tribe, you better sign up! Only 5,000 slots. Thanks to Iconoculture for the Tribewanted tip.
Like the war in Iraq, it seems this war in Israel divides people all around the world. Reading the Iraqi bloggers on Global Voices Online, I found bloggers who believe this war must continue until Syria and Iran are also broken whereas other who feel Israel needs a stunning defeat to break their aggressive tendencies. Just like the Iraq situation, I read various opinions and see points by both sides. I am painfully aware of the de-personalization of humans on both sides, and yet what is the resolve? Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy believed that war is the natural state of man and that peace is a rhythm that must be created and maintained. Unfortunately, our world does little to even seek out this rhythm. Many of the voices I hear in Iraq and the Middle east often speak with war in the voice even when they advocate peace.
Violent spirits cannot bring peace. The pattern of peace is the cross. The true peacemaker doesn’t throw words like knives but lays down his life. But that’s another topic.
William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review and a fundamental mentor of modern conservatism, suggests in a recent CBS interview that George Bush does not really operate from a consistent conservative ideology. I’ve followed Buckley for years, observing his fascinating style of rhetoric (true rhetoric–not the cheap emotion mudslinging we see on news talk shows), and his interesting approach to societal issues. Most people who hate conservatism might do well to read a little Buckley to find out if it is really conservatism they hate or something else. Anyway, some folks might enjoying reading this interview.
Lisa Goldman continues to provide interesting comments, links and information on the Middle East conflict. She also provides content for Global Voices Online. This is a great clearing for what bloggers are saying about various issues around the world. I ran across this interesting piece on Iranian bloggers commenting the current Israel-Lebanon war.
As the customer-focus trend grows it is reaching some odd places–even the funeral home. New York Times describes a growing tendency among baby boomers to request customized funerals complete with refreshments, unique locations, and life videos. Actually, the life videos is a pretty good idea for posterity.
The family of one ice cream truck driver requested an ice cream truck to deliver treats at the graveside. Kinda makes me think of the old John Denver song, “Forest Lawn.”
Did you see Millions? Great little film that stirs us to think about the lack of clean water in the world. Here’s a cool way to help and give kids something fun at the same time. It’s a merry-go-round that kids push, and as they push and play, it pumps water up from deep wells. The play pumps cost about $10,000 each but you can donate any amount toward one to go in a village that needs one.
After I posted info on the various applications available online, Jeremy posted another downloadable suite called Open Office. So, I had to try it as well. Interesting, when you register the product, they ask if the reason you are using it is because you hate Microsoft. Then Boing Boing ran piece today about OpenOffice advertising on buses that go to Microsoft. That’s funny!
Anyway, I’ve tested the various apps and here’s my opinion. Open Office is pretty robust and a great downloadable option. I opened one of my Access databases in it and everything worked great. So it stays on the hard drive for when I don’t have WiFi access. But I also like the online apps because it makes it easy switching between computers.
I mainly tested the word processing and of all the apps, I liked ThinkFree. It has editing options I use like zoom, header/footer editing, etc. It runs on Java, which is a problem for some folks, and that means it runs a little slower, but the features are worth it to me. It also has a quick edit and power edit option, so for fasting editing, you can avoid the longer loading java window.
ZohoWriter and the Ajaxwriter were similar and I like them for quick edits. They run fast. I may prefer Zoho simply because it opens in another tab whereas Ajax opens a pop-up window for the document.
gOffice has a nice site but it is still a little too limited in editing options. I couldn’t figure how to change fonts.
If you haven’t tried any of these yet, you should. Open source is changing the rules and hopefully making the web what it was supposed to be. Not a place to make a few guys rich, but a place where us blokes could share our thoughts, ideas and solutions without always commodifying everything.
Mark Jenkins has posted some interesting installation pieces on streets, in nature and more. Check it out.
Pajamas Media introduced its newest incarnation today, Politics Central. This brings to together blogs and podcasts with live interviews about the politics in our culture. One section of Politics Central is temporarily called X21 Central and its dedicated to folks who don’t fully identify with the current political labels in our culture. Sounds like me. I never know where I fit in.
Anyway, they introduced a new political group called Unity08 made up of folks who are interested in pushing the current landscape beyond the current polarization. I visited their site and am still not completely sure what they’re all about but could be an interesting group to watch. Anyone who is trying to encourage dialogue as opposed to competing monologues has got my attention.
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