Knight News Challenge: Water Canary -
1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]
To provide with the world a crowd-sourced first alert system for identifying unsafe water conditions in real-time.
2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]
No appropriate sensors exist for measuring…
Findings Blog: How We Will Read: Steven Johnson -
Reading. It’s a simple act. You’re doing it right now. You probably read something off of billboards, screens, and packages hundreds of times throughout the course of a single day. Can something so fundamental really be changing?
Here at Findings, we believe it is. We engage in conversations with…
Findings Blog: You can now enter book quotes manually! -
As part of our effort to bridge the physical and digital print worlds, we are proud to announce our newest and most-requested feature…manual clip entry for printed books!
When you go to your Findings page (click the “Findings” link at the top when you’re logged in), you’ll now see a button next…
[video]
test
(Source: fuckyeahphish)
“At its core, Findings is a service that allows you to capture, store, search, and share small snippets of text from eBooks and web pages. It integrates Kindle highlights and web clippings (with more input options to come.) And it gives you the ability to share those quotes with your peers, as well as follow other people’s quotes through your timeline.” — stevenberlinjohnson.com: Introducing Findings (via Findings.com)
“early modern Englishmen read in fits and starts and jumped from book to book. They broke texts into fragments and assembled them into new patterns by transcribing them in different sections of their notebooks. Then they reread the copies and rearranged the patterns while adding more excerpts. Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities.” — The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton (via Findings.com)
“A message had seemed to be a physical object. That was always an illusion; now people needed consciously to divorce their conception of the message from the paper on which it was written. Scientists, Harper’s explained, will say that the electric current “carries a message,” but one must not imagine that anything—any thing—is transported. There is only “the action and reaction of an imponderable force,” — The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick (via Findings.com)
- A developer may not injure Apple or, through inaction, allow Apple to come to harm.
- A developer must obey any orders given to it by Apple, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A developer must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
— I. Developer
“On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy.”
“Steve and I were talking about children one time, and he said the problem with children is that they carry your heart with them. The exact phrase was, “It’s your heart running around outside your body.” That’s a Steve Jobs quote. He had a level of perception about feelings and emotions that was far beyond anything I’ve met in my entire life. His legacy will last for many years, through people he’s trained and people he’s influenced. But what death means is you can’t call—you can’t call him. It’s a loss. I’ll miss talking to him.” — Eric Schmidt on Steve Jobs - BusinessWeek (via Findings.com)
“Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!” — Ghost Busters (1984) - Memorable quotes (via Findings.com)
ITP Alum and all around smart guy Felipe Ribeiro wrote this interesting analysis and observation of the Occcupy Wall Street protests…
My impression of occupy wall street, having hung out there for the first time tonight, from about 6:15pm to about 9:30pm:
Anyone who is interested in emergent/meta anything (software development, feedback systems of any kind, consciousness, system theory), democracy/open source/ transparency or good governance in any sense would do well to spend time down there and see how things happen. I especially urge you to check out the General Assembly, I caught the one at 7pm tonight and was impressed by what I saw. There was an overt concern to represent “marginalized” voices, preferences were explicitly given to those who hadn’t spoken previously, and those who pertained to groups historically excluded from public discourse. To get around not having permits for amplified sound, they employed a system whereby the crowd repeated what was originally said, thereby allowing for an inclusive conversation with between 100-150 people, *without amplification*. This was extremely impressive, especially since this system was one that has been used in similar people’s councils in Spain and Greece (if a random dude near me is to be believed, haha). In essence, *ANYONE*, and I mean anyone, could speak, and many did. Being that they’ve been set up for over two weeks, they’ve got a system down for weeding stuff that didn’t fit the particular topic for that moment. I heard lucid and not so lucid commentary, but what surprised me the most was the willingness of people to sit outside on the concrete floor and abide by these rules in order to legitimate the outcome of what was discussed, and that everyone who wanted to speak got their turn. It’s democracy, figuring itself out in real time. Pretty rad.
To wrap - If you care about politics or otherwise think the system, writ large is, *at best*, suspect; meaning just about everything coming from both democrats and republicans is merely political theatre and will *never* truly challenge a system that is largely about the conservation and consolidation of power, then head down there and check out what is happening, in person if possible. Site with calendar, etc:
Otherwise, live stream:
or
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
Interesting tidbit:
I found out why they are allowed to hang out in a park in the financial district of Manhattan, where, without a permit (which they do not have, nor would they be granted one, given the city’s stance towards rowdy folk taking over public space) they would be immediately forcibly removed: Zuccotti Park (aka “Liberty Plaza”) is a private park, owned by Brookfield Office Properties, a major commercial real estate holding company. Why Brookfield is allowing them to stay is anyone’s guess, I have my money on the fact that the original Occupy Wall Street battle cry came from AdBusters, based out of Toronto, the same city Brookfield has their HQ. So I think there’s a relationship there. But that is strictly conjecture. Wikipedia says this on their entry (the veracity of which I have not looked into): “On Earth Day (April 22) 2010, BLJC was listed as one of Canada’s “The Green 30” Organizations Based On Eco-Friendly Programs and Practices [1] based on an employee poll.” So whether they sympathize independently or there is an Adbusters connection, the OWS movement exists in its current form only because the owners of that park allow them to remain. The fact is, if Brookfield changes their mind, NYPD can kick them out under penalty of arrest immediately. Ironic, that if it were a public park, they would be forced to fight their arrests in the courts on the basis of the first amendment (after the fact), while being a private park owned by a mega-powerful corporation, they are allowed to stay, presumably on a whim, but without having to encounter force. Did Brookfield lose money to Wall street financial firms in some way, and they love the negative attention this movement is generating towards Wall Street? I’d be curious to know exactly why Brookfield is allowing this event to exist on their property.
That’s my rambling analysis for now, tomorrow there may be more.
felipe
“A library is many things. It’s a place to go, to get in out of the rain. It’s a place to go if you want to sit and think. But particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books… A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your questions answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people — people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.” —
26 years ago today, the world lost E. B. White – remember him with his poetic letter to children on the love of libraries
(via curiositycounts)
(via curiositycounts)