Spooky.
Showing posts with label Bibliolumbricus classicus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bibliolumbricus classicus. Show all posts
2.10.2012
2.05.2012
Censorship: Coming to a blog near you!
A few days ago when I blogged about Twitter’s new country-specific censorship capability, I did not know that the platform I was blogging on had already initiated a similar program three weeks earlier. Apparently the only indication of this fact was a new help article published on January 9th. There was no official announcement, and no attempt at transparency as there is from Twitter. Google does not say what will happen to censored blogs. Will they simply be invisible or will there be a notice saying they are censored? Will Google be publishing the take-down orders they receive the way Twitter will?
In any case, what this means is that if I blog about human rights, for instance, my blog could be blocked in any number of countries, and I may never even know it. But I am even more concerned about bloggers in those countries. When Wordpress was approached by China in 2006 to censor blogs, they were also asked to hand over user information. To their credit, they refused, and Wordpress blogs are still blocked in China (though the blocks are easily circumvented). But consider the implications if China made a similar request of Google. Google, along with Twitter, has now committed to obeying local laws, even if they violate universal human rights, in exchange for permission to operate in that country. If a country like China were to make a law that a web service must not only censor but supply information on all violators, how can a web company with resources invested in that country refuse? Now add in Google’s new “privacy” policy, which amalgamates user data across almost all Google services, including Gmail, YouTube, Google+, and of course Blogger. It is conceivable that a blogger who violates some censorship law might end up having their email, the videos they watched, and their friends’ names on Google+ handed over to their government. Now a service that used to give ordinary people a voice will not only take away that voice but could potentially denounce users to governments that imprison, torture, and kill dissidents.
I was already thinking of leaving Blogger but this is definitely the last straw. I do not want my blog to be subject to censorship laws in other countries, nor do I want to support a company that carries out censorship for the sake of ever-increasing profits. I am inclined to move to Wordpress, which has already refused to censor and so is blocked in several countries (though as I said above, it is easy to circumvent those blocks and indeed Wordpress is popular in China). They even state explicitly on their website that they support freedom of speech and will not censor blogs (with the usual exceptions of spam, pornography and hate speech). The only question is whether to use Wordpress.com or self-hosted Wordpress. Since I left Typepad in 2009 I’ve gotten used to not paying for my blog, but free Wordpress.com is somewhat limited in design and widget options. Moreover, with US media companies trying to clamp down hard on copyright infringement, I may be better off locating my blog in Canada. I do like the idea of owning (or at least renting) my own little piece of cyberspace, but I’m not sure I want to deal with the technicalities of running Wordpress on my own. I will have to investigate the options, but I certainly will be moving this blog in the near future. Stay tuned…
9.24.2011
Book Sale Haul
I really should not go to book sales, especially good ones. This one was so well-organized that they even had a table for Oprah’s books. I resisted as long as I could but I eventually gave up and just grabbed whatever struck my fancy.
The highlight of this collection is the pristine Folio Society boxed set of Robert Graves’ “Greek Myths.” Pretty. Also:
- Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler
- 1215: The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham
- The Romance of the Rose (new Oxford World’s Classics edition)
- Fighting in Spain by George Orwell (also new)
- Middlemarch (older Norton Critical Edition)
- Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez (autobiography)
- Tommy Douglas by Thomas H. Mcleod and Ian McLeod (about the father of Canadian health care)
- The Best of James Herriot
- I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (autobiography)
Now the problem is where to put them!
1.01.2011
Books Read 2011
12.30.2010
MMX
What a numerically pleasant year this has been. 2011 just does not have the same aesthetic appeal that 2010 does. Alas, we cannot delay its advent so now is the time to reflect on the year and partake of the annual foolishness of making resolutions for the coming year.
I can’t look back on 2010 without some disappointment at how I let my Mexico and Biodiversity reading challenges languish. I was quite excited about them in the beginning but my eternal foe, Procrastination, sedated the former and euthanized the latter. Mea maxima culpa. But overall it was not a bad year for reading, blogging, and buying books. First, here are some stats:
Blog posts: 111 (including post no. 1000!)
Comments: 481 (so far)
Books read: 47
Fiction: 30
Poetry: 1
Nonfiction: 13
Biography: 3
Audio: 28
Reviews: 7Favourite books: The Overflowing Brain, Dombey and Son, Caramelo, 2666, The Pickwick Papers, The Odyssey
Favourite book art: Little Library
Favourite music: Four Hands, Two Hearts, One Guitar
Favourite humour: Rory Gilmore, Bookworm
Readalongs: Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, Odyssey Readalong
Best thrift store finds: Franklins (and more Franklins)
This year was definitely dominated by audiobooks, which I found very convenient to “read” before going to sleep at night. This included four works by Dickens and a binge of 10 very enjoyable novels by P.G. Wodehouse. I only read about eight classics in 2010 (depending on what you call a classic), and that is not very satisfactory. My plan to read the classics chronologically was entirely derailed, so my resolution for 2011 it is to get back on track with the classics, as well as Latin. I probably said the same thing last year, but hope springs eternal!
I didn’t buy many books this year but made up for it with a few significant acquisitions, namely the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford Companion to the Book, The Classical Tradition, and the Dictionnaire culturel en langue française. These are the sorts of books you evacuate in case of flood, fire, or zombie invasion. If you can lift them, that is. Together they weigh over 60 pounds and comprise over 16,000 pages! I am sure these splendid tomes will give me many years of perusing pleasure.
I can’t end this review without mentioning the non-book highlight of the year, which was of course the World Cup in South Africa. It was an exceptional tournament won by an exceptional team, and something that I will never forget. I especially had a blast tweeting with other footy fans during the games (to the dismay of my non-soccer-obsessed followers). If anyone out there is feeling nostalgic about the tournament, I definitely recommend the official 2010 World Cup DVDs available on Amazon. I have several of them and though I am savouring them slowly, what I’ve seen so far is very good. 2011 will also be a great year for soccer thanks to the Women’s World Cup, which starts June 26th in Germany. Mark your calendars!
I hope everyone had a good 2010 and is looking forward to more bookish (and non-bookish) adventures in 2011. Happy New Year!
12.08.2010
Search and Serendipity
When I started this blog, near the end of the dark ages now known as Web 1.0, I used to search for information about books. Google was my best friend, then as now, and through it I discovered many wonderful things and shared them on this blog. That’s really how blogging got started, according to some, with people trawling the internet and bringing together links that other people might find interesting. There was a name for that kind of blog: the filter.
That was all well and good when there were a few expert filters and lots of followers (not that I am an expert or ever had lots of followers; I speak in generalities). Now that web 2.0 is in full swing, everyone can be a filter. Sharing has become an integral part of searching, like exhaling after inhaling. It’s easy, it’s social, and it’s fun. Almost from birth we humans have a natural inclination to say “Hey, look at this!” whenever we find something interesting. For all we know that is how language got started. Given this propensity, web 2.0 was inevitable, and it’s no wonder it is so popular. We like to share and we like it when people share with us.
Serendipity is particularly delightful to us. One of the usual arguments in favour of shopping at bookstores and borrowing from libraries, as opposed to their electronic alternatives, is serendipity, the possibility of running across a book that you never knew existed but that has turned out to be wonderful. Essential to the pleasure of serendipity is that you weren’t looking, something just appeared in front of you, in the midst of a whole lot of other things you aren’t the least bit interested in. The more haystack there is, the brighter the needle seems to be. Web 2.0 is made for serendipity.
The problem (you know I was leading to this, right?) is that when everyone is a filter, more of the internet gets through until it is effectively the same as the raw web, that is, more than we can take in. But it’s not just the quantity that is the problem. Instead of searching specifically for what I want (and still having plenty of serendipitous discoveries, thank you very much), I now spend a whole lot of time sifting through shared content that I never would have encountered in my targeted searches. That’s not to say this stuff isn’t interesting—I find almost everything interesting to some degree—it’s just that the signal to noise ratio has gone down, and sometimes, with the quality of information out there these days, it’s even hard to tell the difference between the two.
So, is quantity or quality the problem? Clay Shirky famously questioned whether we are suffering from information overload or filter failure. He points out that there has been too much information for any one person to assimilate since the invention of the printing press. Somehow this didn’t bother me when most of it was tucked away in the libraries, archives, and museums of the world, but now that it is piling up in my various electronic inboxes I am feeling the pressure to address it somehow.
I think I might have to agree with Shirky that the problem is filter failure. Google is a good filter, and getting better all the time. You can ask for exactly what you want and zip through the results in a flash. Web 2.0, on the other hand, is a lousy filter. For one thing it is located in multiple places. You can do some aggregating with tools like Google Reader or Yahoo Pipes, but it still doesn’t compare with search in terms of one-stop-shopping efficiency. The other problem is that social media are, well, social. In web 2.0, information is attached to people, which gives it added charm but also makes it hard to opt out. Etiquette and affection complicate our ability to pick and choose information and information streams. It’s a problem we want to have—lots of friends sending us cool stuff—but it can get to be too much of a good thing.
One thing that concerns me is what effect this shift from search to serendipity has on us intellectually and personally. It’s a shift from active to passive engagement with information, from following our own internal impulses to being led by the flashing pixels before our eyes. Speaking for myself, I’m starting to feel like I’ve lost my way in cyberspace. I’m like Odysseus’ scouts on the island of the Lotus Eaters, who are enjoying the fruit so much that they forget they are supposed to be going somewhere. Where was I going? Oh ya, the classics! Where did I put my oar?
I really don’t know what the solution is. I try to cut back on blog subscriptions and Twitter follows, and then I find some great new people and I’m back to square one. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining—this is a “high class problem” if ever there was one. But at the same time I take my intellectual life seriously and right now it is definitely off course and drifting. I have long been concerned with respecting our planet’s finite resources but haven’t really given much respect to my own. The possibilities of the internet are limitless, but mine are not; I must learn to distinguish the two! I need to be my own Greek hero and drag myself back to the ship to continue my journey. I just hope the Skylla doesn’t get me!
9.12.2010
M
Welcome to my 1000th post! After nearly 6 years of puttering around the blogosphere I have reached my first chiliad (thank you HTOED). When I discovered blogging back in 2004 I knew it was for me, and the web hasn’t come up with anything since that fits me as well. My blog is my profile, my portfolio, my home online, my base station in cyberspace. I’ve never wavered on the subject matter either. I’ve always loved reading and learning, but since becoming sick with ME/CFS books have become a sort of vocation for me. With my career on indefinite hold, books give me something meaningful to do that is within my physical capabilities, and blogging is an integral part of that. Reading alone and keeping my thoughts to myself just wouldn’t be as much fun. Blogging not only helps me organize my thoughts about the books I read but it puts me in contact with all you wonderful bibliophiles. This blog would be a pretty dull place without your added wit and 
wisdom, so to thank my readers and commenters I’m giving away an Amazon gift card! Just leave a comment here and I’ll put your name the magic sorting toque (I am Canadian, after all). Good luck and keep reading!
5.12.2010
ME/CFS: The Magic Invisibility Disease
Now you see me, now you don’t! That’s what it was like 9 years ago when I came down with ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis, a.k.a. chronic fatigue syndrome). Monday morning I arrived at work, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; by Friday I was flat on the couch wondering if anyone had gotten the license plate on the truck that had just run me over. My doctor suggested I take two weeks off work, but I said one would be enough. It wasn’t. A few week later, my counsellor said I might be off work for 6 months; I said that would not do, I had to be back before then. I wasn’t. The reality is that I simply disappeared the day I went home sick.
In many ways I feel fortunate. So far I have managed to hang on to my disability pension, thanks to my wonderful doctor who stands up for me. I have a positive outlook—I spend very little time lamenting what I can’t do, and instead am always trying to figure out what I can do. I don’t take the credit for that—it’s just how my INTJ brain works. I’ve always enjoyed problem-solving, and disability is just another problem to solve. It also helps that I have always been pretty good at entertaining myself, so spending most of my time at home does not drive me crazy as it does some people. I can keep surprisingly busy with books, music, movies, and (not least) the wonders of the internet, including all you fine, fun, interesting, sharing, and caring people. I don’t think I have to convince anyone reading this how much the web can enrich one’s life.
But despite all the activity I manage to squeeze out of my perpetually exhausted body and brain, my life is effectively invisible, since most of it takes place in my head and in my home. I’d be hard pressed to name 20 people in my town who can positively confirm my existence. For most of the people I used to know, I simply vanished, and you’d be shocked by how few of the people you used to see every day bother to enquire about you when you’re gone. It’s also difficult to explain to most people in any satisfactory way what I do with my time. The life of the mind is also invisible. Most people (i.e. non-readers!) simply can’t picture a life that consists mainly of reading books and surfing the web.
ME/CFS doesn’t just make me invisible, it is invisible itself. When I do go out and see people, they always tell me how good I look (which is partly because I only go out when I’m feeling relatively well). Though this sometimes presents a bit of a credibility problem, it’s also handy when I don’t have the energy to explain my situation to people. After a while the “What do you do?” question will arise, but in most casual situations I can “pass” for “normal,” which is undoubtedly an advantage given the human propensity to draw back from people who look “different.” I’ve seen studies that suggest humans have an instinctive aversion to people who look sick, so I’m glad I don’t have that to contend with on top of everything else.
The real downside of all this invisibility, however, is that it has resulted in a lack of public awareness about this disease, which in turn leads to a lack of funding for medical research. I think most people have heard of it by now, but few have a grasp of how serious an illness it is. People with ME/CFS are as sick as people who’ve had heart surgery or are receiving chemotherapy. It is more common than breast cancer or MS. Anyone can get it—it affects people of all ages, races, countries, and socioeconomic classes. The problem is that people who get it, like me, vanish. No one but our closest friends and family sees what we go through, and we don’t have even close to enough energy to march in the streets or bang on the doors of Parliament or Congress to demand research money. There is some research going on in various countries, but it is far from adequate for a disease that has “disappeared” millions of people and robbed our world of so much human potential.
If you’d like to help people like me become visible again, consider donating to a ME/CFS organization in your country that is pushing for more research, or even funding it. I like the CFIDS Association of America because they are taking matters into their own hands and raising money to directly fund research on behalf of patients. You can also write or email your government to ask for more research funds to be directed at this illness (here are some sample letters). Lastly, you can spread the word about ME/CFS so that more people will know that it exists, even if they can’t see it. Thank you!
4.01.2010
1.01.2010
Books Read 2010
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