Police cruisers and distracted driving
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, in an article about an accident involving a state tropper who appears to have been using his car's laptop just before the crash: Distracted
The power of the social sciences
The scholar in me finds this article title hilarious, in a good way-- Can You Dig It? Some Reflections on the Sociological Problems Associated with Being Uncool --I
George Eliot on focus: “All the light I can command must be concentrated on this particular web”
After reading the Neil Gabler piece, this line of George Eliot (caught by the excellent Ta-Nehisi Coates) grabbed me: I at least have so much to do in
Neil Gabler on the post-idea society
A provocative... well, idea... in a recent New York Times piece: [W]e are living in an increasingly post-idea world — a world in which big, thought-provoking ideas that
Geoffrey Nunberg on Google Books, metadata, and scholarship
In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Geoffrey Nunberg (of the Nunberg Error) has a long piece about Google Books' botching of metadata, and what how it affects the
Alan Jacobs on reading
I just came across this City Journal review of Alan Jacobs' new book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction: “The one prudence in life is
Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart
Trying to get my thousand words for the day before Thanksgiving. via flickr The quote is from William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, I think.
Tenzin Priyadarshi on stillness, silence, insight, and clarity
Via Tammy Strobel's always delightful Rowdy Kittens: If there is no stillness, there is no silence.If there is no silence, there is no insight.If there is no insight,
Quiet day in the cafe
Maybe because it's Thanksgiving week, but it's oddly quiet at Cafe Zoe, where I'm now working, as the construction crews are back digging up the Hetch Hetchy. cafe
What do we mean when we say “I’m not a Luddite?”
I've been interviewing people who take digital sabbaths, and I've run across something interesting: without prompting, whether we're talking live or via email, almost everyone says "I'm not