Monday, December 22, 2008

NEWNESS

My computer's been crashing regularly for a year now, trying to tell me that skipping upgrading my operating system for several years was a mistake.

Then finally, a few days ago, it refused to cooperate at all. So I'm typing this up on my new computer, and despite all the amazing features it has that I don't understand how to use or why I would want to (for most of them), it's proving a challenge to get it to do what my old one did, even though it's the same make and model.

Is this a sign of age? Or just technophobia or technodyslexia?

Or is it just me?

Eventually it will become more familiar and easier and I'll be back in stride, but meanwhile, the posts may take a little longer to get up. Like this one.

And speaking of "newness"—I forgot my usual copy of THE NEW YORKER at the gym this morning, so grabbed whatever magazines were available, a year-end PEOPLE and ENTERTAINMENT, and flipping the pages trying to find something to engage my attention, I noticed that at least a third or more of the people they were writing about, or more accurately presenting photos of, I never heard of.

There was a time when I thought of myself as one of the most informed and aware persons I knew of. Obviously not when it comes to contemporary celebrity-hood. Is that because I don't watch reality TV? I have an eleven-year-old and plenty of friends of all ages and read pretty widely so am a little aware of newer music and movie stars and creators, but who are all these couples who are having babies or breaking up who I never heard of? Are they really helping sell magazines? Or contributing to the demise of much of the print media.

6 comments:

AlamedaTom said...

Lal:

Think of it as a new lover. The basics are still the same, but you have to learn all the new nuances or it's not going to be rewarding for either of you. Take it slow, but take the time.

~Willy

Harryn Studios said...

good for you michael - least you got a new one ...
hope you never notice its' nose as the poem went [and to keep with willy's suggestion]...
not looking for you to endorse, but is it a mac or a pc ? ....

Ed Baker said...

no body knows Orsen Wells any more?

try The Trial of Orsen Wells

hey, hey used to be a regular on The Dinah Shore Sow!

Anonymous said...

Lal--Technodyslexia indeed. Me too. And maybe a bit of Luddism as well.
The "people" in People Magazine are made up of whole cloth by their agents and handlers, agency publicists, and lawyer-apologists. And there are so many of them now that it's impossible to keep up with them--even if you wanted to. But worse is the test I head a dee jay lay down a couple of years back on, I think, WLIU: You say you love jazz? Name three musicians under thirty. Can't name three? Name one.
This is what happens when you achieve official Old Fart status.
Merry Christmas anyway,
Bob Berner

Anonymous said...

"modernity"

When you didn't respond to my text
I sent you an email
which referred to my facebook post,
which explained my voice mail,
which answered your letter,
which came UPS

Did you get it?

And, can I use it on my blog?

AND....check out this post on the poet to read at the inauguration
"In that moment, really I am the vessel for the poem," she says."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/elizabeth-alexander-obama_b_152409.html

JIm said...

-Global Warming Update

Global warming dissenters dash scientific 'consensus'
Physicist fired by Gore adds name to Senate list of 650 anti-alarmists


Posted: December 23, 2008
10:32 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
The Republican minority of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee released a report with a growing list of over 650 international experts who soundly debunk the claim that there exists a "consensus" in science that human activity is causing a global warming.
The introduction to the 231-page Senate minority report states, "The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grew louder in 2008 as a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments challenged the U.N.'s and former Vice President Al Gore's claims that the 'science is settled.'"
The report includes links to dozens of news reports, statements and studies, and concludes, "Developments further secured 2008 as the year the 'consensus' collapsed."
..........






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEAT OF THE MOMENT
Global warming dissenters dash scientific 'consensus'
Physicist fired by Gore adds name to Senate list of 650 anti-alarmists

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 23, 2008
10:32 pm Eastern


By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily



U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee minority report

The Republican minority of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee released a report with a growing list of over 650 international experts who soundly debunk the claim that there exists a "consensus" in science that human activity is causing a global warming.

The introduction to the 231-page Senate minority report states, "The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grew louder in 2008 as a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments challenged the U.N.'s and former Vice President Al Gore's claims that the 'science is settled.'"

The report includes links to dozens of news reports, statements and studies, and concludes, "Developments further secured 2008 as the year the 'consensus' collapsed."

The majority of the 231 pages, however, is composed of statements from the 650 scientists, meteorologists and experts who remain skeptical that carbon dioxide – or any other product of human activity – is endangering the earth through generating global warming.

Yesterday, a prominent Princeton physicist and former top government scientist – who says he was fired by Al Gore for resisting the vice president's alarmist agenda – asked to be added to the list of global warming dissenters.

(Story continues below)





Dr. William Happer

"I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken," said William Happer, who began serving as the director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy under the first President Bush in July of 1991. "Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science."

But when Happer testified before Congress under the Clinton administration in 1993, saying, "I think that there probably has been some exaggeration of the dangers of ozone and global climate change," he lost his government position.

"I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism," Happer told Senate leaders yesterday.