in praise of Public Radio

On November 23, 2010November 23, 2010 By Rick McIn audiocasts, product endorsements, things getting better2 Comments

I never listen to NPR. Instead I subscribe to my favourite National Public Radio shows as podcasts in iTunes.

My favourites:

On The Media
This American Life
Fresh Air
Pop Culture
Story of the Day
World Story of the Day

Roger Ebert:

… I’ve written before about the disintegration of journalism, of the lowered standards everywhere in today’s media. As a nation we once said, give us the facts and we’ll make up our own minds. Now we say, spare us the facts and make up our minds for us. We have grown impatient, and the national attention span shrinks until even a 10-minute video on YouTube can seem unendurable. …

Midnight at the oasis

In that post Ebert explains why he loves Public Radio. It’s as good as ever, a font of smart commentary with a positive world view.

… Recently some have claimed it is leftist. That baffles me. No one ever seems to cite something they heard that offended them. They just believe in general that it’s left wing. …

Click PLAY or watch a charming NPR “Rap” on YouTube. (only 4min 30sec!)

on loneliness – Roger Ebert

On November 17, 2010November 17, 2010 By Rick McIn health & fitness, internet, things getting better, things getting worseLeave a comment

I’ve almost never felt “lonely”.

It’s a condition I know nothing about.

Film critic Roger Ebert, a bit of an internet shut-in himself, has read 80,000 comments on his blog. Many, he tells, are from lonely people looking for connection with strangers.

… For days I’ve been reading waves of messages from the lonesome, the shy, the alone, the depressed. Some who live as virtual hermits. Some who have few or no friends. Some who rarely speak with their families. Some who have never dated, or ever had sex. Some who consider it a good day when they never speak to anyone. Some who are sad to be alone. Some who are relieved. Some who can’t do it any other way. …

A meeting of solitudes

He reflects on loneliness in that post, and an earlier one – All the lonely people.

… After all that, Roger’s not sure whether or not the internet actually helps the lonely.

city of the future, Lisbon

On November 3, 2010November 3, 2010 By Rick McIn photos, product endorsements, things getting better, travel1 Comment

I visited impressive and sprawling “Parque das Nações” (Park of the Nations), a city of the future built atop the Expo ’98 site.

It reminded me of all the “City of the Future” magazine articles (see more examples) I saw when I was a kid. This conception, for example, from 1964.

Thanks Paulo Barata, a new friend, gymnastics lecturer at the University here, for showing me this modern highlight of an ancient city. We had typical Portuguese lunch: cod, cod, wine, port, pastry, coffee.

(via Gymnastics Coaching)

average teen – 3,339 texts / month

On October 28, 2010October 15, 2010 By Rick McIn product complaints, things getting better, things getting worse1 Comment

An American study …

… more than six texts per waking hour …

… 43% of teenagers now say texting is the #1 reason they get a cell phone.

… Teens are sending 8% more texts than they were this time last year …

… Voice usage has decreased by 14% …

Details via Mashable

Pranav Mistry – SixthSense

On September 24, 2010September 20, 2010 By Rick McIn product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

Sam showed me this most amazing technology. It’s the future, for sure. Pranav Mistry will go down in history as one of the genius people who invented it.

Sixth Sense has been awarded 2009 Invention Award by Popular Science.

In 2010, he was named to Creativity Magazine’s Creativity 50. Mistry has been called “one of ten, best inventors in the world right now” by Chris Anderson.

Next step? … Pair SixthSense with Tan Le’s wireless headset that reads brainwaves!

amazing – 3D printers

On September 19, 2010September 14, 2010 By Rick McIn product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

3D printers let designers make three dimensional objects by just hitting “print” on their computers. New businesses, like custom prostheses, are taking advantage.

Watch a great video on NY Times.

… and no religion, too.

On September 15, 2010September 13, 2010 By Rick McIn philosophy, things getting better, things getting worseLeave a comment

Imagine there’s no country, It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too.

It’s depressing to see how much media attention Pastor Terry Jones has gotten. I condemn religious nitwits of all denominations and call for consumers to boycott media trying to cash in on this story.

Here’s a much more important story, a more important man:

… Last week, we celebrated the wedding of my daughter, Pallavi. A brilliant student, she had won scholarships to Oxford University and the London School of Economics. In London, she met Julio, a young man from Spain. The two decided to take up jobs in Beijing, China. Last week, they came over from Beijing to Delhi to get married. The wedding guests included 70 friends from North America, Europe and China.

That may sound totally global, but arguably my elder son Shekhar has gone further. He too won a scholarship to Oxford University, and then taught for a year at a school in Colombo. Next he went to Toronto, Canada, for higher studies. There he met a German girl, Franziska.

They both got jobs with the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, USA. This meant that they constantly travelled on IMF business to disparate countries. Shekhar advised and went on missions to Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Kyrgyzstan and Laos. Franziska went to Rwanda, Tajikistan, and Russia. They interrupted these perambulations to get married in late 2003.

My younger son, Rustam, is only 15. Presumably he will study in Australia, marry a Nigerian girl, and settle in Peru.

Readers might think that my family was born and bred in a jet plane. The truth is more prosaic. Our ancestral home is Kargudi, a humble, obscure village in Tanjore district, Tamil Nadu. My earliest memories of it are as a house with no toilets, running water, or pukka road. …

read more – Times of India – My family and other globalisers

… Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar is a research fellow at the Cato Institute with a special focus on India and Asia. His research interests include economic change in developing countries, human rights and civil strife, political economy, energy, trade and industry. He is a prolific columnist and TV commentator in India, well-known for a popular weekly column titled “Swaminomics” in the Times of India. …

On the one hand we have incredible globalization, a mixing of religions, cultures and ethnicities. On the other, a few backward isolationists: Mennonites in Canada who have religious objections to all photos (including driver’s licenses) due to the Second Commandment prohibition against Graven images, for example.

I truly hope Mr. Aiyar and his family are the future, not followers of Terry Jones.

Thanks Peter and Warren Long.

P.S.

… We should respect the Mennonites freedom of religion. But they shouldn’t get driver’s licenses.