Ruin Reader

A great article/big picture look at recent disasters. A redefining of "apocalypse". Says neoliberal economics led to current "rapacious" state of capitalism, in which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer by the former strangling the latter. Treats Haiti as a microcosm-like example of what is to come if we continue in this vein. And hey, the author quotes Walt Whitman!

Don't call; just text

My goodness. Usually NYTimes trends are so bologna fallacious bull-honkey... their one purpose is to ignite interesting counter-example conversation. BUT this article struck at the core of something I've been feeling for years. No matter how wonderful it is to get a call from someone - especially friends/family ya haven't talked to in a while - there remains an element of intrusiveness and urgency inherent to phone calls. Texts just seems so polite, informative, and readily available whenever there's a free second. Phone calls on the other hand require so much! Take ambient noise for instance. What's the locus of existing places that qualify both of the follow criteria: 1) A quiet area so the caller can hear you 2) not TOO quiet so you're not being a nuisance to others. How many of those places actually exist - Unless I'm at home, usually I'm impinging on one or the other.... Or I have to spend 5 minutes looking around the school for an empty room. Meanwhile, I can text all day during class!

Anywhooo - It's late. But this article got me all riled up. plz, read, enjoy. And actually anyone reading this article can call me any time. It's the people that do call me I don't want to hear from - haha - just kidding, that's mean. miss all you guys!

-Eric

An old Washington Post article about an experiment involving Joshua Bell playing at L'enfant plaza.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
-- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies