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What constitutes an American tradition? It probably depends on who you ask. When I think of traditions of this country, I think of baseball, apple pie, and freedom (not necessarily in that order ... ). Holiday traditions in the U.S. are a little easier to define, only because they are recognized by a large number of people who live here. Religious traditions can be seen in the same vain, although few religions were actually created in this country.
We are to the midpoint in Theodore Roszak's "The Cult of Information," and up until now, I have experienced mixed emotions based on what I have read. On one page, I found myself thinking, "Yes!
Question: Considering the work of Ellul complete the following:
Write about/describe an example of a technique in today's society. Tell its story and the need for the creation/adoption of this technique and the new techniques that resulted from it? Could we have controlled for this technique? Is there or was there an alternative?
While I admit to being a little hesitant at reading such a grandiose PDF as presented from The technological society by Jacques Ellul, I found a bounty of words and phrases (some that I agreed with, some that I didn't) of which I made note. I'll try to make comments about as many as possible, although an entire Internet might not be enough room to give my thoughts about this text.
It's apparent how much of a stronghold social networking has on U.S. society when a story about Facebook changing its terms of service appears as the main story on baltimoresun.com. That would be equivalent to seeing a story about a credit card company changing the fine print in its terms and conditions, or your favorite cereal changing the order of ingredients on its new packaging.
It's amazing how many people online now have never experienced the original Atari. You still see Space Invaders and Centipede appear in various places occasionally, but I wonder how many people even know how popular these games were in the late 70s and early 80s.
This is a column that everyone must read. It beats all compatibility tests, all love quizzes, all personality exams. It's the exam of all time.
It determines just how crazy you are.
With the 10th anniversary of "The Developers" happening this year (right now, in fact!), I wanted to address a sensitive issue regarding Rick Astley.
I didn't invent the rickroll, at least, not directly.
I must be a little out of touch with large amusement parks or something. I recently visited Kings Island, which I've been to numerous occasions. Unfortunately, I stumbled directly into Walk-On Weekends, which allows some season pass holders to skip waiting in lines in order to ride the bigger rides almost immediately.
Actually, it's not as bad as I thought. Only the first 1,500 Gold Passholders are eligible, and they receive only a couple of tickets, with scheduled times to ride.
Even though the college football season started two weeks ago, this past weekend was the real beginning. Just a few teams played last weekend, and most of the games were boring. They were so boring that even my nachos tasted funny.
But by the time you are reading this, you should have gotten a good fill of football. But don't let that stop you because there are plenty of Web sites in which you can get more in-depth analysis.