The wires: Euro space probe spots lake of frozen water on Mars. "The photographs were taken by the High Resolution Stereo
Camera on board Mars Express, the European Space Agency probe which is
exploring the planet. The ice disc is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars' far northern latitudes." (We know three important things: 1. Mars is producing methane, a byproduct of metabolism; 2. Our studies of terrestrial extremeophiles shows that life adapts to environments that scientists recently considered unihabitable; 3. Where there's water, there is life.)
Jay Rosen: This week's BlogHer conference in Santa Clara, Calif., had a different tone than typical (80 percent male) bloggercons, and he dug it. (Most of the early discussion of BlogHer focused on the 1980s political overtones in the "Women in Blogging" discussion that took place in the spring. But from Jay's post it looks like that wasn't the focus of the conference at all. Here's Dave Winer's take: "Pointing to a woman because she's a woman isn't a solution to a
problem anyone really has. However creating understanding seems to be
the solution to everything.")
Daily Kos: The guns/Grokster hypocrisy. (The problem with the modern English language is that we just don't have enough words to keep up with all the new flavors and shades of "dumb," "manipulative" and "corrupt" that our governnment and its handlers keep inventing. On our behalf.)
I guess I should feel more excited by conferences and maybe I would if I were blogging all alone, rather than having a partner in crime. It just makes me squeamish when any group gets together and one of the topics is how the rest of the world unfairly lumps them together.
Clearly, I'm a huge fan of talking and sorting and finding pattern. But at some point, the FORUM becomes the topic not the issue.
It's a curse of the modern age: We talk more about HOW something should be done than what we want to accomplish by doing it.
Hold on one sec, while i get on my soapbox ...
Frankly, it all started going to hell in a handbasket when colleges started offering specialty degrees like early childhood education and journalism. And I can say that because I have a B.A. in journalism.
The point is not to teach "journalism" but to teach why journalism matters. Sure, you can teach the skills of a job like how to gather data and interview people and use proper grammar. But to organize into a group that becomes an institution just seems wrong. We have created our own place in the establishment.
Oh, I know it's more complicated than that and there are advantages to sharing expertise and standardaizing ethics and honoring the good among us ... I like awards. But when the conversation ABOUT journalism edges out the actual DOING of journalism, something is waaaaay wrong.
Sometimes I just want to say "shut up and go write a good story."
Posted by: Janet | Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 10:54