Category Archives: Culture

We Need Whole News

Journalism is in trouble because journals are going away. So are broadcasters that do journalism rather than opinionism. Basically, they are either drowning in digital muck or adapting to it—and many have. Also in that muck are a zillion new … Continue reading

Posted in advertising, Broadcasting, Commons, Culture, governance, Journalism, marketing | Tagged | Leave a comment

On Amazon, New York, New Jersey and urban planning

In a press release, Amazon explained why it backed out of its plan to open a new headquarters in New York City: For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Business, Culture, Ideas, infrastructure, Internet, new york, Past, Photography, problems | Leave a comment

#RectangleBingo

This is a game for our time. I play it on New York and Boston subways, but you can play it anywhere everybody in a crowd is staring at their personal rectangle. I call it Rectangle Bingo. Here’s how you … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Digital Life, Fun, Ideas, Internet, new york, Technology | Tagged | Leave a comment

The new together

I want to point to three great posts. First is Larry Lessig‘s Podcasting and the Slow Democracy Movement. A pull quote: The architecture of the podcast is the precise antidote for the flaws of the present. It is deep where now is … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Friends, infrastructure, Internet | Leave a comment

Have we passed peak phone?

I shot this picture with my phone on the subway last night, while no less absorbed in my personal rectangle than everyone else on the subway (and I do mean everyone) was with theirs. I don’t know what the other passengers were … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Culture, history, Ideas, infrastructure, Personal, Photography, privacy, problems | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

The biggest bust in Santa Barbara is about to go down

Emanuele Orazio Fenzi, better known as Francesco Franceschi (1843-1924), was an Italian horticulturist responsible for vastly increasing the botanical variety of Santa Barbara (introducing more than 900 species). He was also for awhile the primary landowner on the Riviera, a … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Geography, Geology, Santa Barbara | 2 Comments

Exploring the business behind digital media’s invisibility cloaks

  Imagine you’re on a busy city street where everybody who disagrees with you disappears. We have that city now. It’s called media—especially the social kind. You can see how this works on Wall Street Journal‘s Blue Feed, Red Feed … Continue reading

Posted in adtech, advertising, Broadcasting, Business, Culture, data, infrastructure, Internet, Journalism, Life, Links, marketing, News, Politics, privacy, problems, publishing, Research, Technology | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Let’s give full credit to human ingenuity

In The American Dream, Quantified at Last, David Leonhardt in The New York Times makes a despairing case for a perfect Onion headline: American Dream Ends When Nation Wakes Up. Like so much else the Times correctly tries to do, … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Culture, education, School, Science, Technology | Leave a comment

Why fix a problem that doesn’t exist?

We all know what this symbol means: Two people are not allowed to share an iPad. Just kidding. It means the lavatory in the airplane is occupied. Also that it can be used by persons of either gender. Which gender you are … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Law, North Carolina | 7 Comments

Dear Adobe, Please buy Flickr

Flickr is far from perfect, but it is also by far the best online service for serious photographers. At a time when the center of photographic gravity is drifting form arts & archives to selfies & social, Flickr remains both … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Culture, Future, Internet, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments