Category Archives: Uncategorized

Night at the improv with a telescope and a policy-bot [Penta-Link Drop]

A few good finds from the past few days that turned out to be worth spending extra time with: Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope. Leave it to Microsoft to create something amazingly beautiful and full of potential, but screw it up with a clunky, hard-to-understand, and resource-hogging interface. But Worldwide Telescope gives you some idea of how ...

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Policies, Messaging, Food and Unconferences. [Penta-Link Drop]

Some neat things I discovered or was reminded of over the past few days: Frontline SMS, a free, computer-to-cellphone text messaging application enabling one-to-one and one-to-many two-way communication. Dave Winer's "What is an Unconference" (2006) and "Rethinking the Conference" (2008). SeeClickFix: deputizing citizens as inspectors of public services and public space. Social Media Governance's

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The importance of validation

I was in my first real job, 20 stories up in a brown-paneled midtown office building. After two years of recession-forced freelancing, at last I was  employed. But, there was something else I needed. First day, there had been a few hours of HR paperwork.The I-9 form. W-4. Medical/Dental plan. Retirement savings. Life Insurance: 20 thousand ...

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You have to commit to standing out in thunderstorms

"A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times" --Randall Jarrell

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The Dream Shall Never Die. R.I.P. Ted Kennedy

At the 1980 Democratic convention, during what was probably the first election I was maturely aware of*, Ted Kennedy conceded to Jimmy Carter in what has become known as "The Dream Shall Never Die" speech. Its closing words were a reminder to all who care about economic justice, the centerpiece of that campaign: "For all ...

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A.C. Benson

How to become an author Letters to a young writer, 1920 Magdalene College Cambridge June 11 1920 Dear Mr. Jones, I am interested to read what you say in your letter. I must not however reply as fully as I could wish, as I am not very well just now, & cannot do much writing. But I can give you some ...

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