socrates would not be happy

I don't think Google is making me stupid. But I do think this article is v.good. Because I, too, am a victim of a truncated attention span and this really annoying nagging feeling that I should be taking in information ALL the time, EVERY second. (Refer to my January entry, "you need to know this".) If one page takes more than 3 seconds max to load, I start a new Firefox tab. If that one takes more than 3 seconds to load, I start a new one. And so on and so forth until I have about 10 tabs open, and I can finally go back to the first tab, which, by this time, has been loaded for about 30 seconds now (an eternity!).

I mean, I am a prototype victim. I sometimes open a tab with a long article I want to read on Monday, put my computer on stand by every night for the whole week without closing my Internet browser, and by Friday, still have that tab open, with the article unread, save the headline and maybe the first sentence.

But it's an interesting article and makes a case for the pros and cons fairly well. And if you really are a victim and can't even bring yourself to read a long article for the sake of being aware of your inability to read a long article, then at least read this lady's view on the article. The part about Socrates fearing that, through the development of writing, we (ultimately, we):

would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” and would thus “be thought very knowledgeable when [we] are for the most part quite ignorant.” And be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.”

is a v. interesting concept to me. Of course, the shortsightedness argument is just as intriguing.

In any case, have a look-see. and a good day. and go read a book, for god's sake. and go to a philosophy lecture, for socrates' sake.

dotted line

dude, i WANT this. sign, please!

and i also want this -- so you don't think i only sign selfish petitions. so you don't think i am merely a non-smoker and not a non-wanter of the end of starvation! (the petition i signed at the time was for the end of extreme poverty/starvation, not AIDS.) i know how miserable life can be when no one feeds me. (i have to admit i am totally lacking in any direct experience with AIDS.)

of course, if you added up all the amounts from all of the credit card receipts i have ever signed, together with my signed mortgage documents, my signed car title, and my one signed painting (ok, that one's worth nothing), it would probably be enough to ... i don't know, do something interesting, anyway.

for those who smoke, here's something for you:
http://www.wikihow.com/Save-a-Wet-Cell-Phone

a bag of rice. genius! didn't save poor Chris McCandless, but it can at least save your priceless cell phone contacts. and that one pic from that one night... yeah, you know which one i'm talking about.