“Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age” plus 1 more

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Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age Posted: 20 Jul 2010 05:59 PM PDT 1. First there was the epiphany. After ending a cell-phone conversation with his mother (while he was driving—tsk, tsk) he experienced a surreal sensation, in his words, a "feeling of time out of time" (page 23). After hanging up and a few minutes of quiet contemplation, he says he was suddenly able to draw up memories and develop an even stronger connection to her, all because of a few seconds on his "clamshell-style phone." After that, he began to semiworship his phone and simultaneously to vow to recognize the depth that technology can add to human experience. Despite his epiphany, Powers has come to the realization that being connected all the time also hurts us.   2. To predict the future, Powers goes backward. He examines the way seven philosophers—from Plato to Marshall McLuhan—employed the technology they had at hand. Though it feels like a stretch to compare Henry David Thoreau's telegrams to today's e-mails, Powers makes an engrossing case for why the paranoia surrounding new technology is overblown, and why it's really our responsibility to find depth and distance from these technologies to preserve our sanity.   3. Product placement? Powers obsesses about his "slender," "fuzzy, and faintly warm" Moleskine notebooks. He says it's about the magic of paper (page 138), but it's uncomfortably overplayed. Let's see if his term "Moleskine-ophilia" catches on.   4. Wait, Hamlet didn't have a BlackBerry! William Shakespeare actually used a writing table, one that needed a sponge and water. Regardless, Powers speculates that if Hamlet were less distracted, the play might have ended differently (page 155). Umm, probably not, actually. It was meant to be a tragedy. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Grassley votes no on Kagan nomination Posted: 21 Jul 2010 01:40 AM PDT WASHINGTON --- Saying Solicitor General Elena Kagan had let her political biases interfere with her legal philosophy, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, voted Tuesday against her nomination to the Supreme Court. Grassley was one of five Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who opposed Kagan. Despite that, her nomination was forwarded to the full Senate on a 13-6 vote, with one Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, joining all the Democrats in supporting her. Grassley's vote was only the second time he's voted against a Supreme Court nominee. His first was Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first nominee to the high court. Grassley said that Kagan failed to directly answer questions at her hearing and that because she had never held a judicial post, it was all the more important she do so. "Solicitor General Kagan's record shows that she allows her politics and personal views to steer her legal thinking and takes an outcome-based approach when analyzing cases," Grassley said in a statement before the vote. "She also has praised jurists who endorse an activist judicial philosophy." Beth Levine, a Grassley spokeswoman, said the latter remark was referring to Kagan's praise for Aharon Barak, the former president of the Supreme Court in Israel, as well as the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Republican criticism of Marshall during the hearings has drawn protests from liberals. Grassley's vote, meanwhile, drew criticism Tuesday from his Democratic opponent in this year's Senate race. Roxanne Conlin said it was evidence of his obstructionism. Grassley, however, said that a nominee should be impartial and exercise judicial restraint. "At the hearing, she declined to fully commit to upholding the Constitution when it came to the Second Amendment," he said, adding, "She appeared reluctant to recognize any constitutional limits on federal power ." Senate confirmation is expected. A statement from the president after the committee vote said Kagan is one of the country's "leading legal minds." "She would be a fair and impartial Supreme Court Justice who understands how decisions made by the Court affect the lives of everyday Americans," the statement said.   Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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