9.27.2006

Reading Between the Lines

I have been addicted to magazines since I was about twelve. I remember getting Consumer Reports for Kids and then they went bankrupt and I didn't understand how they could just stop sending me their magazine when I had already paid for it. Consumer Reports for Kids, boy that sounds exciting.

I've been a Wired reader for 12 years now. It's fascinating to go back and read issues from the mid-90s. You can also gauge the state of the "new economy" based on how thick the magazine is. In addition to Wired, I read the Economist, Shambala Sun, The Atlantic Monthly, Fast Company, Men's Health, Alternative Medicine, and many others.

There's just something about magazines that captivates me. I like that they're not outdated instantly like a newspaper, yet more easily digestable than a book.

There's also something to the cultural artifact that is the magazine rack. We all know that we could pay soooo much less if we'd just subscribe. Magazine publishers want to guarantee their advertisers a certian number of eyeballs and are willing to save us some cash if we will commit ahead of time, yet part of the fun of magazines is not just reading it, but the practice of selecting a particular magazine among a plethora of options. You walk into your local bookstore and pick out the issue that fits you.

Then again, there's the predictable comfort of knowing your magazine will arrive on a certain day. Your Sports Illustrated in the mailbox on Thursday or your Economist on the front steps on Friday--unless you live in my neighborhood where it's been known to appear anywhere from Friday to Monday. Ahh, the anticipation!

Jack Shafer writes about his relationship with magazines on Slate's site.

What magazines do you love?

9.20.2006

Open the box

Pandora:

The Music Genome Project

"On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Over the past 6 years, we've carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

We hope you enjoy the journey."

Tim Westergren
Founder
The Music Genome Project

Clinton Global Initiative

Watch webcasts, both live and archived, from the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative.

You should also check out the podcasts available.

9.18.2006

Banned books


September 23-30 is banned book week.

Check out the books from the Radcliffe top 100 books of the 20th century that have been banned at one point or another.

Google's even getting into the action.

9.09.2006

time is on your side

There's an interesting article on Fuzzy Signals discussing the overall level of violence in the world.

"According to the Human Security Report,
Without new superpower 'proxy wars' starting in the Third World, overall armed conflicts have fallen by more than 40 per cent, and extremely violent conflicts -- those with 1,000 or more battle deaths -- have dropped by 80 per cent... International arms transfers, defence budgets, armed forces personnel and refugee numbers have also all decreased."


"No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded." - Margaret Mead

"In some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence." - Cesar Chavez

9.03.2006

Going Global

Princeton has a remarkable website, Mapping Globalization, which provides several tools for visualizing this concept.



From their site:

"With all the talk of globalization it is easy to forget that at the very core of the concept is a notion of geographical location. Globalization involves connections between at least two places and the first step in our understanding must be an appreciation of what this means in a concrete sense of space."

Check it out.