And In Disappointing Tech Nerd News...

That's not a misplaced modifier.

If you're like I am, you often look up words you don't know right after you read them on a web page. The fastest way most of us (Chrome users at least) know how to look up words is to highlight the word in question, click "Ctrl c", "Ctrl t", "Ctrl v", "Enter". A Google search comes up with the word's definition at the top. That's five steps in case you haven't been counting. 

However, on the Inductive, you can look up a word in ONE FUCKING STEP. Highlight the word. Go ahead. Highlight it: 

Antidisestablishmentarianism. 

(Moving your mouse over to "learn more" counts as less than half a step with one significant figure.) Despite this five-fold increase in productivity, Apture remains a fairly unpopular service. (I know because I get metrics sent to my email every week. Very few of you are using it. Idiots.) And so, whether due to its unpopularity or due to its potential popularity once idiots figure out it exists - if you're pickin' up what I'm puttin down - Apture has been acquired by Google.

This is perhaps, one of those rare instances of consumer preferences resulting in inferior products, that is, unless Google doesn't change anything at all about Apture, which, seeing as Apture eliminates the need for a search engine in the first place, seems highly unlikely. 

Promoting Local Craftspersons

I have some super miscellaneous links that have just been hanging out in Google tabs that I've been wondering what to do with. 

I support local craftspersons and respect people who make actual things rather than find clever ways to get more from the things other people make. (These people of course have their place in society as well, but, in a sense, I sympathize with the feudal Japanese class system's putting miscellaneous businesspeople last.) Anyways, I met the proprietors of the following brands and others at a local crafts fair a few months ago...

On the Cusp Pottery - Very bright and cheery!

Fumihiko Mochizuki - There's definitely an element of wabisabi in there. I wish there were a bit more online presence. Perhaps some miscellaneous businessperson should come along...

Finally, Walter Perlman - This guy is an artist. I had a ten or fifteen-minute conversation with him, and he kept going into detail about how he hates photoshopping and how there is no photoshopping in his pictures. Like a lot of photographers, it seems he suports himself via weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc., but his articstic images are just wonderful. I've refrained from posting any here out of respect for the artist, Follow the link above. 

Do any readers know any other local craftspersons who deliver over the Internet?

The Continual Reinvention of the Wheel

I haven't really been watching TV for some time now. The few things I actually desire to watch have become quite available on a computer. But, today I was put in front of the “boob tube” because it was the only venue where I could observe my beloved St. Louis Cardinals in a playoff game, and this got me thinking. I was glad to be able to watch without having to go to a sports bar or buy the game on my satellite service and pay a veritable fortune; given the current state of my pocketbook, this just wouldn't be acceptable.

So I surrendered to the inevitable exposure to the device that for so long has given us only something to be told and see but not an ability to inquire. I watched my ball game, and - besides the loss I observed - I was glad for what I witnessed. But what kept hitting me was the continual advertisements for the release of old DVDs in new “Blue Ray” technology. What got in my head was how information - TV-wise - is being made “better” for our consumption through continuing advancements in visual technology. Now, I'm very cool with that, as long as it's on a device that lets you ask a question in response to the tripe of the light-lit screen that comes into your house every night.

I've been here for the advancement of this technology, and it is pretty awesome; but I'm thinking that it is advancing to some point that many folks might consider close to Woody Allen's Orgasmatron in his famous work Sleeper: having an advanced piece of technology - no matter how advanced - such as a high-definition television will never replace actual, physical experience of any event it may be designed to mimic, especially if there is no way to "talk back". Yet, sales must continue, money must be made.

When is it that we will come to the realization that the flat screen in front of us, and whatever color content is being played on it, will never be three-dimensional no matter what name that technology has hung on it? Maybe it's just me: I welcome the advent of technology when it enhances learning or makes learning easier, but I'm not sure I come away any different after experiencing the History Channel on a “Liquid Crystal” screen than I do after watching it on my nine-year-old RCA, cathode ray tube-powered television.

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Seven Wonders of the World (Wide Web)

I've been super busy lately with behind-the-scenes and personal stuff.  During the course of this business, I've developed a sick backlog of long readings that I'd really love to devour if there were only more hours in the day.  I now offer this backlog as both lazy catharsis and time capsule:  

1.  Conjoined Twins may share a single mind.

2.  I've often heard the name "Napoleon Hill" associated with some trite-to-the-point-of-being-meaningless careerist blather.  I figure I should check it out myself to see what all the fuss is about.

3.  DARPA is cool yet scary.

4.  Transhumanism is cool yet scary too.

5.  Seasteading rounds out our three-part series on cool yet scary.

6.  Here's Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid, a piece that would probably be required reading in Intro Biology courses around the country if it weren't vaguely associated with communism.   

7.  "Smartest man alive" Christopher Michael Langan's unified theory of everything...

Rhetoric Revolutionized: How Twitter, Facebook, and Text Messaging Can Save Argument

<This guest post is contributed by Leslie Johnson, who writes about health, green living, and parenting at masters in health administration.>

   

the structural transformation of the public phereIt has been said time and time again: the internet has revolutionized the world in many ways.  The World Wide Web has unquestionably changed the way we live our lives, providing a means for instant information, endless conversation, and worthless entertainment.  While several aspects of our world have been altered by the internet, the way in which we communicate with one another is perhaps what has been the most altered.  With the advent of text messaging, Facebook, and Twitter comes a new discourse environment and a new rhetoric.  While critics endlessly condemn social media as a destructor of verbal language, when used to its fullest capacity social media has the potential to promote public discourse and constructive argument.

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Formalisms and Formalities

[I'd like to use this post to introduce a new feature on this website: Apture.  You may notice that there are no links at all in this post.  That is because Apture allows easy lookup of words and phrases: simply highlight any word or phrase on this page and move the cursor over to "learn more".  A pop-up window from Wikipedia or Google or some other source should appear...]

The Japanese are often stereotyped as being excessively formal.  This stereotype I think is true for the Japanese (although necessarily oversimplified and commonly misused); but America is full of formalism too.  Our formalism is qualitatively different than that of the Japanese, but in my experience formalism has a quantitatively equal role in each country.  In Japan, formalism is often associated with the most mature expressions of traditional arts: kata in karate; shodo; even the infamous Japanese bureaucracy has its roots in the formal rigors codified in Confucianism.  Formalism lies at the received base of the culture (especially with Shinto), and this is difficult for the American in Japan to grasp.

American formalism on the other hand is a modern invention, unrefined, and even wild: Taylorism and scientific management; organizational theory and Edward Bernays; the elaborate dance sequences associated with modern finance and commercial banking security protocols; outsourcing and automated customer services; the grand and complex American healthcare system; and finally (corporate) job applications.  This kind of formalism is as American as apple pie.

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The Disconnect of Staying Connected

<This guest post is contributed by Mariana Ashley who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana dot ashley031 at gmail dot com.>

Eyes down and only half-listening to what was supposed to be a two-sided conversation, my roommate's fingers clacked away on her Blackberry as she responded to e-mails, sent in a fresh tweet, and blasted her boyfriend with the fifth "I love you more!" text since we sat down. I pondered why I even bothered to go out for coffee with a person who seemed less interested in interacting with someone who was actually there and more interested in interacting with those who weren't.

Chances are I am not the first to marvel at this wonder - how it seems the more that people are connected by technology, the less they are connected to actual people. A friend once told me a story about a group of customers in her restaurant who spent their entire meal talking to one another through their Nintendo DS devices. None of them uttered an actual word to one another, aside from the occasional yelp of victory or distress from whatever game they were playing. How is it that we can be more social than ever through social media and still be completely shut out from human interaction?

The allure of connectedness through technology is obvious. With a click of a button, you can send out a missive to everyone in your phone book. You can have lengthy or short discussions with someone without having to suffer through the awkward pauses that tend to fill the holes of face-to-face conversations. You don't even have to comb your hair or put on make-up or change out of your sweaty gym clothes to talk to someone through texting, Facebook, or e-mail. All in all, technology makes it easier than ever to communicate, which may be the most dangerously seductive aspect of it.

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Book Reviews Aren't Dying; They've Just Moved Online.

<This guest post was contributed by Kitty Holman, who specializes in writing about nursing colleges.  Questions and comments can be sent to kitty dot holman20 at gmail dot com.>

In recent years, much has been said of newspapers's budget cuts and subscription troubles, but no one industry has had as much to worry about regarding the unhealthy state of print journalism today than the book publishing industry. In the past decade, we have seen a remarkable drop in our newspapers's literature coverage: the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and other major print venues have cut books sections. (The Wall Street Journal's recent launching of a book review section - which has been well-received - is an exception to that trend; we'll have to wait and see how well this section does in the coming years.)

Nevertheless, where newspapers's books coverage has suddenly faltered, there is a new opportunity for other forms of media to take its place, namely the quickly rising in-depth literary coverage and discussion common to online magazines.
 
John Palattella, literary editor of The Nation, disagrees.  In his essay "The Death and Life of the Book Review," Palatella explains the history of journalism and how the many forms of media and coverage have shifted over time with and against readership and audience trends.  From an economic perspective, Palatella argues against the commonly held belief that books and literary coverage in print newspapers is dying because such coverage doesn’t "turn a profit." Instead, he suggests that "cultural forces" - such as what he calls "the anti-intellectual ethos of newspapers" - have harmed book coverage, while other, less intellectual sections remain despite losing money.
 
Palatella hypothesizes that the rise of the Internet and other forms of new media has greatly affected how we consume text, words, language, and other kinds of information.  He suggests that free content has made internet browsers more inclined to bounce around the web.  He also points at our reliance on search engines and hyperlinks as characteristics that hurt forms like book reviews which encourage in-depth and patient critical thinking.

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The Book Store

The last time I went back to the States for Christmas, I paid a visit to my local Barnes and Noble megastore chain.  There was a massive “Young Adult” section, comprising almost a quarter of the store's shelf space, subdivided into smaller sections, like "Young Adult Adventure", "Young Adult Mystery", etc.  My favorite subsection was called “Paranormal Teenage Romance”, and it was full of factory series trying to capitalize on the Twilight fad.  This section probably contained a hundred or so books.  

Across the store, past Biblical and New Age sections (I'll refrain from making an irreverent joke here.) was a section called “Philosophy”, containing a hundred or so books.  “Philosophy” was sandwiched between a section containing a hundred or so books on the impending 2012 volcano-people disaster/redemption and a shady bathroom area with a sign reminding customers not to take merchandise into the toilets.

Upon closer examination, “Philosophy” was full of colorful books like “The Philosophy of Batman Begins”, “Dr. House for Dummies”, and "Dexter and Free Will".  I ultimately purchased Dan Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea for about twenty-five dollars, Jurgen Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere for a rip-off price of forty dollars, and a Barnes and Noble publications's full-color photo, oversized volume on anatomy and physiology on sale for only eight dollars.  These books are currently decorating my bookshelf until I overcome my crippling blog addiction.

They Were Never Planning on Televising the Revolution

art by Jack Jerz. Click on photo for link.Fake Steve Jobs and blogosphere hater Dan Lyons speculates that the latest FCC net neutrality ruling ushers in the age of consolidation for the Internet:

No matter what you think about the new rules, however, they signal an important turning point in the development of the Internet. We are going from Phase One, where everything is free and open and untamed, into Phase Two, which is all about centralization, consolidation, control—and money.

Because don’t kid yourself. Money is driving all of this. As in: Hey, we’ve created this marvelous new platform for communicating with each other. We’ve demonstrated that very large sums of money can be generated by sending stuff over these wires. Now let’s figure out who gets what.

Tuesday’s new FCC rules grant two big concessions to carriers. First, the rules will apply to wired broadband connections, but they will pretty much leave wireless alone. Second, carriers remain free to create “fast lanes” on the Internet. They can charge Internet companies to ride on the faster pipes, and perhaps also charge consumers more money to get access to those speedy services.

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The Grass Is Always Greener

I've written in defense of Facebook before, and Alexis Madrigal does it better than me:

...The real struggle is with ourselves to use Facebook well … You get to determine your level of investment in the digital world around you. You get to choose the people you listen and talk to. You have control over your data. You get to define who you are, no matter what your Facebook profile says. All that is not lost unless we choose to lose it.

I think this is obvious, and if you don't get it, may nature select against your genes.  The one concern I do have with Facebook is that it is so much better than anything else at allowing users to use their own local knowledge to coordinate and manage information that it will soon come to monopolize much of the activity on the Internet (just like Microsoft with the operating system market in the 1990s) - future blogging will be solely on Facebook, email will be taken over by Facebook (perhaps as soon as tomorrow), games developed will be all for Facebook platforms a la Farmville; essentially, we could be seeing the genesis of something far more of a monopoly in any meaningful sense of the word than Microsoft ever was

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We Are Not Seth Godin

Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise.Thanks to Andrew at 30 Words for the link to Twist Image's take on business writer Seth Godin's move to abandon his ties with traditional publishers.  The way the move was reported by the Wall Street Journal, one would think the singularity was now and cyborgs waited in the on-deck circle to tear us carbon-based lifeforms all to pieces.  (No, not really, but it's a pleasant fiction.)  Twist Image brings it all down to Earth with the headline, "You Are Not Seth Godin":

We tend to see this one act: "Seth leaves major book publishing behind." What we forget is the track record (twelve best-selling business books, as many speaking events per year as he would like to do, his own seminars, thousands of Blogs posts, free eBooks and more goodwill thank you can shake a stick at). This amounts to decades of doing tons of things (let's not forget about Squidoo) that all had him in direct connection with the people who will buy his books from him, talk about it to their peers and evangelize his always-brilliant thinking.

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Computer (Windows Vista) Problems

My computer exploded the other day, from two weeks of 100-degree heat in Fukushima, Japan. The motor on my five-year-old Dell simply combusted in a cloud of smoke while I was watching Sesame Street Jason Mraz videos with my daughter, the room reeked of plastic, and I quiety panicked at the prospect of losing a years-worth of baby videos.  But, from my small amount of computer hardware knowledge, I don't think there should be any damage to the hard drive, and I plan on bringing my desktop tower to some nerds for fixing as soon as I can pass my Japanese license test (future post).

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Google v. China in the Court of Public Opinion

cartoon from China DailyGoogle's story: 

Google operations in China began in 2006, with a censored, Chinese-language search engine.  In the words of Google, this was because:

...(T)he benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. 

On March 2009, Chinese authorities blocked access to Google's YouTube site and began denying users access to other Google services on a case-by-case basis.  Over the course of the last year, there were further attempts by the Chinese government to limit free speech on the web.  On January 12, 2010, Google announced it was considering ending its Chinese operations:

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And You, Sir, Are Worse Than Hitler

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo EmersonHitler is not the most popular historical figure. Despite his best efforts and a clear love for children, nothing could prevent the ultimate Carrie-style humiliation that led to der Fuhrer's death and subsequent vilification.  

Nowadays, Hitler serves as a sort of secular Devil; in a world in which very few people actually believe in the Devil, there must be something to quelch dangerous ideas like healthcare reform and to warn people about the dastardly plans of a sitting President and his evil disciples.  

Enter Godwin's Law, the idea that, as a discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison to Hitler approaches one.  Given the longevity of the healthcare debate, and assuming Godwin's Law is correct, it is not surprising that the nuts eventually came out of the woodwork to compare a democratically elected President advocating his agenda via established legislative processes to a murderous dictator.

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