California Digital Newspaper Collection – Daily Alta California Murder in San Francisco WEDNESDAY MORNING, DEC. 19, 1849 The Recent Murder. We cannot refrain from saying a few words with regard to recent sad occurrence at the Bella Union which resulted in the death of one of the parties concerned, and the utter ruin and disgrace … [Read more…]
I’ve loaded excerpts from John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, Jacques Ellul’s “The Technological Society” and Gary Panter’s very original “Rozztox Manifesto” to stimulate some thinking about advertising and its effects on modern culture. The use of the techniques of propaganda to sell products, ideas, and ways of life, we’ve allowed ourselves to be manipulated by … [Read more…]
Bill Griffith, creator of ZIPPY THE PINHEAD takes on advertising icons once again … See Zippy Here
I read a great review of G.A. Cohen’s last book, “Why Not Socialism?” by Ellen Meiksins Wood in the London Review of Books, (Vol. 32 No. 2 · 28 January 2010). I had read about him in the context of other social philosophers work, but I’d never read anything about him or his writing before. … [Read more…]
I subscribe to the email bulletins from the LIFT conference. They are an active group and send some interesting information along about our emerging web culture and where it may be going next, http://liftconference.com/. The latest edition has a blurb about Yann Moulier Boutang: One of the speaker at Lift France 10 is Yann Moulier-Boutang. … [Read more…]
… in a technological society “the human being is no longer in any sense the agent of choice… He is a device for recording effects and results obtained by various techniques.” In the technological society individuals have meaning and value only to the extent they service instruments. Jacques Ellul, 1964
A telling and troublesome article on the state of US innovation … Potato chips: A symptom of the U.S. R&D problem U.S. competitiveness remains in peril even as other nations gear up to steam ahead By Janet Raloff Web edition : Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 This new report describes growing signs that America is losing … [Read more…]
What is good for the people is good for business.
Vincent van Gogh – Letter to Theo 1889 … To be good – many people think that they’ll achieve it by doing no harm – and that’s a lie, and you said yourself in the past that it was a lie. That leads to stagnation, to mediocrity. Just slap something on it when you see … [Read more…]