Monday, August 19, 2002

Can The New York Times Be Bought? I almost always browse the Web using Mozilla or Chimera (the latest nightly builds of which look quite impressive). One of the nicest features of these browsers is the ability to disable pop-up advertisements, which works in all but one case. That case is the New York Times Web site. Somehow they have found a way to circumvent this feature, and they almost always do so for advertisements for Orbitz. Today was the first day in a long time that I visited the Times site and didn't get that pop-up. Instead, there's an article right there on the front page about Orbitz. Since Eric has decided that today's theme is conspiracies, I see two possible conspiracies to explain this coincidence: The Times didn't want to advertise something right in front of an article about it. This would be the more optimistic explanation. Orbitz paid a little extra to move the advertising into the form of an article. This is the more pessimistic and by far less likely explanation. However, it would explain why what is essentially a re-written press release is appearing as an article on the front page of the Times Web site. 10:09:17 PM     What do you think? ()

Is Barney Fife Alive and Well and Practicing Law Enforcement in Mississippi? I await a more complete report on this incident in Friars Point, Mississippi. Here's the highlight so far: Before dawn, Martin-Harris called from inside the home and the officers discovered that the suspect had slipped away, somehow working his way undetected past some 100 officers surrounding the home. One problem was that officers had shot out neighborhood lights, residents said. This would be funny if it didn't involve the widespread use of deadly force. 9:53:48 PM     What do you think? ()

Is Blogging Philosophy the Way It's Supposed to Be? Yesterday's New York Times had a fascintating review of Pierre Hadot's What Is Ancient Philosophy?. The review talks about Hadot's ongoing attempts to get back to philosophy as an ongoing experience encompassing ethics, logic, dogma, and all other sciences rather than an academic topic distinct from other sciences. I was particularly struck by this quote: ...Hadot has returned again and again to particular themes--that philosophy is a lived experience, not a set of doctrines; that philosophers consequently should be judged by how they live their lives, what they do, not what they say; that philosophy is best pursued orally, in dialogue and community, not through written texts and lectures; that philosophy as it is taught in universities today is for the most part a distortion of its original, therapeutic impulse. This sounds right to me. In the course of my own therapeutic process, I have found great insight reading those philosophers (Augustine, Montaigne, Robert Burton, and Kierkegaard especially) who engaged in philosophy not as an academic pursuit, but as a way of living. But to extend this notion into my life: Though not strictly speaking oral, can Weblogging provide the dialogue and community necessary for a lived philosophy? Can Weblogging be therapeutic? 7:57:59 AM     What do you think? ()

© Copyright 2003 Morgan N. Sandquist. Last update: 11/2/03; 10:26:41 AM.

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