Really, it’s just a small challenge. Google something better.

What are people searching for on Google today? http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends/atom/hourly,2007-08 2009-07-11T13:52:52Z 2009-07-11T13:52:52Z

S:2009-07-11T13:52:52Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GrahamEnglishIntegralConversations/~3/9_inkPdyASE/ http://i.grahamenglish.net/1582/were-in-a-culture-war/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:35:16 +0000 graham@grahamenglish.com (Graham English) http://i.grahamenglish.net/?p=1582 Peter Kirn is shaking it up and inspiring me to think about what actions I need to take in response to the diminishing importance of the arts in our culture.

My question is fundamental: why can’t the arts and “entertainment” be considered part of the economy? And what do we have to do, exactly, to convince people that there are real jobs that don’t involve building roads?

Link: Democrats, Republicans Join to Ban Arts Stimulus, Declare Arts Worker Jobs Not “Real”

UPDATE: Great news. Congress Restores Arts Funding, Drops Arts Stimulus Ban, After Public Outcry

]]> http://i.grahamenglish.net/1582/were-in-a-culture-war/feed/ 0 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/02/12/democrats-republicans-join-to-ban-arts-stimulus-declare-arts-workers-jobs-not-real/

This is your victory.

And I know you didn’t do this just to win an election. And I know you didn’t do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage or pay their doctors’ bills or save enough for their child’s college education.

There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can’t solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

The New York Times has a great interactive video and transcript of Obama’s victory speech

Marketers know that emotions make the sale. Good copywriters carefully choose a core buying emotion to pull at the prospect’s strings.

For McCain, that core emotion has been greed. McCain promises you will “keep what’s yours” and warns you of an impending socialist agenda. Greed and fear.

Obama, on the other hand, has continued to use the core emotion that put him in the world spotlight, hope.

I know I’m being marketed to. And I have no illusions that Obama will be our faultless savior. Well, maybe I have some illusion he will be.

But I do admire someone who takes the risky approach of appealing to higher ideals of hope, altruism, and thoughtfulness. I can get behind that marketing campaign wholeheartedly. And Obama is the only candidate who has a clearly articulated Plan for the Arts and Culture.

In Boulder, I used to the ride the bus to my job every morning with an older gentlemen named Charles. I would sit across from him at the front of the bus and he would tell captivating stories about the things he’d seen in the past. He was always upbeat and set the tone for my day.

I tell you this because I was happy to see his story go viral in a video yesterday. It turns out that he won a raffle to meet Barack Obama at a rally in Denver. It really couldn’t have happened to a better man.

I’m here to tell you to be optimistic, but be very concerned.

The state of the economy is turbulent and severe. The shock and awe campaign has already begun. Ignore it and suffer the consequences.

But you can do something about it. You can educate yourself and speak out. You can blog, podcast, digg articles, discuss it, and put some effort into understanding the world in which we live.

You can also take a look at your own life and see if you need to make any changes.

I’m becoming more aware of my brainwashed consumption. I’m trying to understand my own fear. I’m taking a radical look at my life.

I know that I need to contribute more value to the world. I need less pseudo-zen detachment and more Zen embodiment. I have to kick my fears in the balls.

I realize that most of my readers are musicians so I won’t leave you hanging on apocalyptic thread. There’s great news for us!

To the people of the Great Depression, music was a “welcome respite from their daily hardships.”

I traveled with Harry Reser and his Cliquot Club Eskimos back in l936 through the mid-West on a series of one nighters only, the whole summer literally. And it was very hot and destructive, it was just terrible … and people were poor, they had no money, the Depression was on…. I turned around to Harry one time, I said, “Harry, why do, where do people get the money to come hear us?” ‘Cause we, you know we had people come hear us. He says, “You know, Jer, they save their pennies for the weekend so they can get … some beer and go out and pay whatever it costs to go to a dance with their wives or girlfriends, have a ball, forget about their trouble and then … after it’s all over, start all over again, get that money back.

We can contribute and prosper.

“Ten years,” said Banzo.

“My father is getting old,” pleaded Matajura. “Before ten years have passed I will have to return home to take care of him. Suppose I work twice as hard. How long will it take me?”

“Thirty years,” said Banzo.

“How is that?” asked Matajura. “When I offer to work twice as hard, you say it will take three times as long. Let me make myself clear. I will work unceasingly. No hardship will be too much. How long will it take?”

“Seventy years,” said Banzo “A pupil in such a hurry learns slowly.”

Matajura understood. Without asking for any promises in terms of time, he became Banzo’s servant. Three years passed. Matajura cleaned, cooked, washed, and gardened. He was ordered never to speak of fencing or to touch a sword. He was very sad at this, but he had given his promise to the master and resolved to keep his word.

One day while Matajura was gardening, Banzo came up quietly behind him and gave him a terrible whack with a wooden sword. The next day in the kitchen, the same blow fell again. Thereafter, day in and day out, from every corner and at any moment, Matajura was attacked by Banzo’s wooden sword. He learned to live on the balls of his feet, ready to dodge at any moment. He became a body with no desires, no thought, only external readiness and quickness. Banzo smiled and started lessons. Soon, Matajura was the greatest swordsman in Japan.

From the book, The Last Word On Power, by Tracy Goss.

This is the true joy in life, the being recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
~George Bernard Shaw

The challenge on a personal level is that you need a sustainable source of personal energy. No, I don’t mean a refrigerator stocked with Red Bull. But because information almost has a caloric value, what you put in your body matters. Your health and physical fitness directly relate to your ability to create, consume, and manage information.

On a social level, the challenge is also finding a sustainable source of energy for all of our information systems. Which also includes the personal energy of the people involved in these systems, our information creators, managers, and consumers.

I believe that it’s our duty to put relevant and important information into the minds of people who need it in as efficient a manner as possible.

The opportunities are rich. We need to create more efficient and abundant forms of energy on a personal and social level. We can research and market personal energy management systems. Subtle energy practices like qigong or tai chi are already finding their way into the mainstream. To some of you, these opportunities are obvious. But it is still surprising to me how many people never think about energy in any of its forms.

We need to think about usability. We can make our information easy to consume and teach people how to use our information better. We can share our own usability hacks. Steve Rubel just saved a couple of hours a year by tweaking his information management. There’s a growing market for LifeHacks.

Bottom line is this: I’ll have better information management and have more energy as soon as I get my iPhone.

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) – For the fourth time in eight years, the Kansas Board of Education is preparing to take up the issue of evolution and what to teach — or not teach — public school students about the origins of life.

I hope they’re not planning to take The Spaghetti Monster off the table.

Update: Conservatives lose latest Darwin battle in Kansas

Link: Fear and Loathing in the Bay State

Here’s a hilarious take on the fiasco.

Study Gives Us A New Perspective On The Powerful

To study the link between power and perspective taking, Galinsky and colleagues used a unique method in which the participants were told to draw the letter E on their forehead. If the subject wrote the E in a self-oriented direction, backwards to others, this indicated a lack of perspective taking. On the other hand, when the E was written legible to others, this indicated that the person had thought about how others might perceive the letter.

How can you use this information? Perhaps a perceived reduction in someone’s power can help someone take yours or another’s perspective. A simple language pattern should do the trick.

I know Saddam did some bad shit and I know many Iraqis feel justice has been served. But we, the US, went to war with Iraq based on misleading intelligence connecting him to terrorism and Al Qaeda. I just can’t make the connection in my mind to our capture of Saddam and his execution. Of course that’s not his trials were about, but it’s one reason why I feel unsatisfied.

I’m an American and I can’t truly understand the plight of the Iraqi people. And not many Americans can. Which is why I feel extremely uncomfortable with our presence in Iraq. There are far too many Americans ready to give their opinions about Iraq and the Middle East without having any understanding of these cultures. Imagine someone coming into your home and telling you how to live your life and raise your family. And imagine that person coercing you to value what they do, shopping malls, manicured lawns, and intelligent design. Then you just might be able to put yourself in the shoes of an Iraqi. It’s a type of cultural gentrification.

Peace might be too much to ask for; Compassion is not.

This is going to be fun to watch!

The precautionary principle: Not having the evidence that something might not become a problem is not a reason for not taking action as if it were a problem. It is a powerful triple-negative. Action without evidence is justified.

We had to make a shift in the way we thought about things. So being reactive, waiting for a crime to be committed, or waiting for the evidence of a commission of a crime didn’t seem to us to be an appropriate way to protect the american people.”
- Attorney General John Ashcroft

The paradigm of prevention: Instead of holding people accountable for what you can prove they have done in the past, you lock them based on what you think or speculate they might do in the future. And how can a person who’s locked up based on what you think they might do in the future disprove your speculation?

The idea of a hidden, well-organized web of terror is a fantasy. And by embracing the precautionary principle, the politicians imagine the most horrifying outcomes from an organization that doesn’t even exist. And they count on no one questioning them because the very basis of the precautionary principle is to imagine the worse without supporting evidence. So the politicians with the darkest imaginations become the most influential. The fear of a phantom enemy is all they have left to maintain their power.

At one time, Moscow was seen as the “evil enemy.” Back in the 1980s, the neoconservatives and the Islamic extremists were allies. Washington gave money and weapons to the Islamic Mujahideen. Most notable among these “freedom fighters” was Osama Bin Laden.

When the fighting was over, and the Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan, both neoconservatives and the radical Islamists found that their victory failed to transform the world the way they had hoped. So they both took on new enemies. Islamists used violence and terror to amass followers against the infidels while the neocons invented a new enemy, Bill Clinton.

Look us today. The neocons defeated their politcal enemy, liberalism, and found themselves fighting the idealistic monster they created in the mountains of Afghanistan. They would have us believe that under their leadership we’ll be safe. But they are actively creating this phantasy. And it’s a heck of a thriller. We are mesmerized by terrorist stories and entertained by “target America” plots. The necons know too well that the monster thrives by instilling fear in the citizens of the world. What a tragedy.

The BBC have produced an astounding three part documentary on the illusion of terror in political power. Episode one details the Neoconservatism movement in the US as influenced by Leo Strauss and Islamic fundamentalism as influenced by Qutb.

A profound and commendable documentary.

Download this video, put in on your iPod, play it to your TV, take notes, and share it with your friends and family.

UPDATE: You can save it in your Netflix queue. It’s not available yet.

YouTube removes Comedy Central clips over DMCA claims

The non-cable having world needs this information! It is for the greater good.

Clearly behind the scenes, when the Americans put pressure on Iraqis, they’re telling them to work with each other. Even the Republicans say that, that in order for Iraq to have a chance of working, each of the factions must compromise. But here’s the disconnect. Here at home, the Republicans completely disenfranchise the Democrats and people who vote for Democrats. Every bit of disagreement is cast as cowardice or disloyalty. Most of us aren’t going to become Republicans. So how can we expect the Iraqis to do what we ourselves don’t? The answer — it’s unreasonable to expect them to.

Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Europeans…the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question.

LONDON (Reuters) – American and Iraqi public health experts have calculated that about 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent violence, far above previous estimates.

Fuck.

Update: Bush claims that the research methods used to get the above number have been discredited. But statisticians say that’s how it’s done. And the State Department won’t release how they get their data.

George Lakoff (author of the stupendous Don’t Think of an Elephant’) if back with 12 reasons why progressives keep screwing up their campaigns. Regardless of your party affiliation, this is valuable stuff to know because it applies so much to business marketing.

Progressives often argue that “truth doesn’t need to be framed” and that the “facts speak for themselves.” People use frames — deep-seated mental structures about how the world works — to understand facts. Frames are in our brains and define our common sense. It is impossible to think or communicate without activating frames, and so which frame is activated is of crucial importance. Truths need to be framed appropriately to be seen as truths. Facts need a context.

I think this is right on the money — and extremely important — so I’m going to be talking a lot more about framing and reframing in the upcoming weeks.

Here’s how to hold them accountable. RSS feeds for all senators votes.

Checks and balances with technology. Absolutely brilliant! read more.

President Bush’s angry nonanswers to two straightforward questions yesterday were among the best illustrations yet of his intense aversion to responding to his critics’ actual arguments.

A good analysis of language and negotiation strategy. read more.