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December 29, 2008

Maeda

The amazing MIT Media Lab alum John Maeda is the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design. And his first order of business is collecting information:

The collecting began the week he arrived, when he asked 600 high school students attending a summer art program to applaud for the vision of the university that resonated most with them.

"A lifelong education in art and design" got polite applause. "Fostering the next generation of talent" did a little better. Then he suggested: "Building a justifiable case for creativity in our world."

"The response to that -- it was like being Bono in U2," says Maeda. "I began to understand why this calling came."

The chairman of RISD's board of trustees says:

"John said that he believes art and design will inform the 21st century as none other, that RISD has a real role to play in that. The analogy he used was MIT. Before World War II, MIT was a geeky science school. After World War II, with the explosion of science and technology, MIT's role changed. And right now he sees RISD in a similar position."

I love that proposition. I love it because I think somebody could pretty reasonably scoff at it. And if a proposition isn't scoff-able, it's probably not edgy and exciting enough.

Sounds to me like Maeda is talking about, among other things, liberal arts 2.0.

Read his tweets and RISD blog for a sense of how Maeda thinks and communicates. It's really remarkable. I've been reading haiku lately and I see some of their spirit in him. Spare, observant -- but with wit.

Robin-sig.gif
Posted December 29, 2008 at 11:59 | Comments (0) | Permasnark
File under: Design, Learnin', Society/Culture

A Spin Around the Sun

Robin says,

This is what a year looks like -- only 40 seconds long!

As you watch, if you breathe in reaaally slowly, and exhale just as slowly, you can make it feel like the planet, too, is just taking a breath. (I mean, not that slowly. Don't pass out.)

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 12:35 PM

Weird Democracy

Robin says,

Tim reminded me that Bangladesh is having elections again after a long hiatus from democracy.

Ah, Bangladesh. The candidates this time around are the same two candidates they've had for about 20 years: one the daughter of a murderer Bangladeshi politician, the other the wife of a murdered Bangladeshi politician, each now a titan in her own right.

It'd be great real-life Shakespeare if it wasn't such a drag for Bangladesh: Neither has proven to be much good for the country.

Can somebody put BRAC in charge already?

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 11:59 AM

December 28, 2008

I'm Taping This Right Now

Matt says,

Rob Spence wears a prosthetic eye. It's the 21st Century. Ergo, Rob's new eye is going to include a video camera.

Unnerving Story of the Day™ is sponsored by Ratchet Up and the letter Um.

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 7:38 PM

December 27, 2008

"Goo-goo-ism?" Seriously?

Matt says,

Was it Write Like Tom Friedman Day at the NYT on Christmas, Paul Krugman?

Just didn't want to let that one go unremarked.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 2:04 PM

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Robin says,

Wonderful remembrance of Bobby Fischer in the NYT Mag. The writing is just about as striking as Fischer's playing.

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 7:41 AM

December 25, 2008

Tough-Talkin' Dames

Watching The Big Sleep in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, and it is glorious. Lauren Bacall is as cool as blue flame, but it's hard to beat watching Bogart with Dorothy Malone. Even bookstore clerks are wise! In a way this is a key to film noir -- what passes as toughness is really a monumentous and universally held contempt for the slightest stupidity.

"I've got a Balinese dancing girl tattooed across my chest, and I'd better take her home." It's enough to make you want to write pastiches of pastiche, like the Coen Brothers squared.

Tim-sig.gif
Posted December 25, 2008 at 7:52 | Comments (0) | Permasnark
File under: Movies

December 24, 2008

rAchel's thoughts: good luck for your interview, Tim! though I'll have to seriously consider if I could forgive you ... >>

Wish Me Luck

I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow, to win the hearts of academicians large and small. Committee breakfasts, a job interview (!), and a paper on paternity, modernism, and tragedy. (Apollonian patriarchy, legal fictions, Hegel's love child, and Ockham's razor abound! It will be awesome.)

I will catch you all after New Year's if not before. Keep your Kindles warm.

P.S.: Special props to Robin for hosting me in SF. When he returns, the city will be especially strong in the Snark.

Tim-sig.gif
Posted December 24, 2008 at 5:15 | Comments (9) | Permasnark
File under:
Matt's thoughts: There is a rather good Kindle blog.... >>

Kindle: The 24-Hr Take

Soooo happy I gave myself a Kindle for Christmas.

The device came in handy immediately. I'm staying with my boyfriend Bryan in Minneapolis over the holidays, and the UPS guy arrived with the package very shortly after he left for work. As soon as I left Bryan's apartment to go upstairs and sign for it, I realized the door had locked behind me, leaving me in Bryan's robe and slippers, with no keys and no cell phone. But I did have a Kindle. Which meant I had Web access. I surfed to Ask MetaFilter, found lock-picking advice, and managed to get back in. Score.

Twenty-four hours later, I'm into the first chapter of The Rest Is Noise, and on the fifth chapter of The Four-Hour Work Week.

Gripes: Like everybody else, I'm not really a fan of the paging button positions. Also, when you start typing notes, they should auto-save. I've been done in a few times by the combo of these two: I'll start typing a note, then accidentally hit the back key and lose what I've written.

The "locations" concept is smart, but I wish there were more cues about where locations start and stop.

Loves: Having a virtual library is already world-changing. I never imagined how cool it would be to instantly shift between different texts as I enter different information-seeking modes. I have always been a juggler of multiple books — there are times I want to read fiction, times I want to read non-fiction, times I want to read fluff. In the analog world, this is disorienting; it's hard to pick up where I left off with one book after having read another. On the Kindle, freed from a cacophany of book darts and dog ears, this feels wonderfully natural.

It is the same sort of epiphany the iPod invoked for me. Carrying a bunch of books around at once, it turns out, is every bit as much of an experiential leap as carrying tons of music around was in 2001.

I love the way the notes I take are both integrated into the book and separate from it. I never used to take notes on books because I hated having to skim all the pages to snatch fragments of the insights that occurred to me as I was reading. Suddenly, I'm taking all kinds of notes. (This works especially well with cheesy self-help books like The Four-Hour Work Week, which require you to do all sorts of exercises.)

I love that you can read for hours and the battery bar will not budge from 100%.

I've named my Kindle "Inkless."

Update: I extra-super-duper love the fact that I can use Google Reader from my Kindle. Yes, I could do this on my phone, but this is even nicer.

mthompson-sig.gif
Posted December 24, 2008 at 10:03 | Comments (7) | Permasnark
File under: Technosnark

December 23, 2008

'The People of a Tough, Long-Lasting World'

Robin says,

This is the best sentence I've read all week. It's about the sun:

Eight minutes downstream at the speed of light, part of this extraordinary flux crashes down on the Earth in a 170,000-trillion-watt torrent.

And it's part of the best op-ed I've read all month. Aw heck. All year.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 11:01 PM

New Chapters

Robin says,

What feels like a million years ago, I wrote a piece for Poynter.org about the sneaky practice of releasing big news over the holidays. My list dates itself (Harvey Pitt? Wha?) but I've got a new one for you:

Howard Weaver announces he's retiring as VP of news at McClatchy.

If you're not a news industry watcher (Romensk-who?) and/or not already a fan of Howard's, I really urge you to check out his post. It is, among other things, a practical, forceful, and graceful summation of where journalism finds itself today. It's pretty McClatchy-specific, given the context, but I think a lot of it can be generalized. And either way, it's a joy to read.

Then, you probably ought to tune in to whatever Howard gets up to next. Here's a tip: I find his Twitter feed is among the best -- and most poetic -- on my screen.

And of course, with any luck, you'll still be able to find his comments here on Snarkmarket.

Congratulations, Howard.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:43 PM

December 22, 2008

Dan's thoughts: Manga is a beautiful word.... >>

Reclaiming Comics

Gavin at Wordwright wants the word back:

"Graphic novel" is not any more descriptive, and worse in that it implies fictional content to the detriment of memoir, travelogue, reportage, etc., which is where you find some of the most interesting work being currently done