Will you be joining Blog Action Day 2008?

This sounds interesting.

On October 15th, there is a big network blogging event going down and it would appear that everyone is invited. To quote the website:

"Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world's bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. "

I'm really intrigued by all of this - a well thought out and designed "blog carnival" like gathering to take part in, especially after my failed attempt to organize my own. According to the site's archives they started this event last year with the topic being on the environment. This year's theme is poverty.

So, I now bring to you, my fellow bloggers and alike, this following question: Will you participate? Its for a good cause and will definitely be a great chance to make connections with other bloggers. For those two reasons I'm more than likely going to join. Plus, October 15th is long enough away to start familiarizing yourself with the issue at hand and to begin drafting out ideas.

Now the only problem I can foresee is how am I going to post good material if I'm school? (October 15th is a Wednesday, if I'm not mistaken.)

Issac Hayes dies at 65

This weekend is seriously becoming worst than it already was.

Word has come out that Issac Hayes has just past. According to a New York Times article:

"A family member found him unresponsive near a treadmill and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, according to the sheriff's office. The cause of death was not immediately known."

A friend of mine had just showed me a picture featuring Mac, Hayes, and Samuel L. Jackson posing together and called it "foreboding". I really do hope that the last surviving member does not follow suit.

And as always, my apologies goes out to family and friends. This indeed has been a very bad weekend - thank goodness its just about over.

Bernie Mac is dead at 50

Holy hell. I can't believe what I just read. I was just checking my email when I saw a little alert from The New York Times explaining what happened. To quote that article:

"Publicist Danica Smith says Bernie Mac died early Saturday at a hospital in the Chicago area of complications due to pneumonia.

The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but he had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently had been hospitalized and treated for pneumonia."

I'm so shocked right now its not even funny. My deepest apologies to his family, and to the rest of the American comedy presence. This is yet another serious blow to everyone who loves and enjoys comedy everywhere.

WNYC Soundbite: Why A Cultural Darwin Is Needed

I found this to be pretty engaging. Basically talks about the need for someone to come along and do for the study of culture what Darwin did for the study of genetics. It then starts to go off into population growth and the like, but its still worth a listen. The person being interviewed is Paul Ehrlich, a professor at Stanford University.

There are some points brought up here that I feel would be great for discussion. One of them would be the premise of cultural evolution to begin with. As Ehrlish said, culture in many ways is always being re-written, yet there are certain patterns in culture that have a tendency to remain unwavering. And you can't analyze one culture on its own - sooner or later you'll have to observe its interaction with other cultures around it. All of which may lead a person down an endless line of research.

Which is why I just love social sciences.

Another part I found to be really good is that it brings up culture and the environment's relationship with one another. I personally feel that they're highly interconnected. Especially ancient cultures that have long since ran their course. For example, I'm right now re-reading The Odyssey by Homer and in it you can see how much the location of where their world is centered around plays a role in their culture. You have deities for local bodies of water, the material their weaponry was crafted from, etc.

The audio clip can serve as a nice stepping stone for going deeper into the the topics it (sadly) touched upon very quickly. With that said, what do you guys think about what Ehrlish brought up?

Knol - Google's giant "We can do it better than you" to Wikipedia

Knol is cute.

Seriously, it is. And while it may not necessary be an attack on Wikipedia, it sure does seem that way. At least to most people.

For those not in the know, Knol is Google's lastest project, aimed at having users write articles on whatever they choose to for the benefit of others. So long as you have an account, you can join in and write (hopefully) about what you know. One thing I've noticed is the use of people's actual names for those who publish articles. I don't recall ever really noticing that on wikipedia.

Another thing is the lack of pictures. I don't see much pictures and diagrams on Knol. Look at these two pages on entrepreneurship - one from Wikipedia and the other from Knol. Wikipedia has two related diagrams on their page while Knol doesn't. Finally, Wikipedia has a lot of links to related articles within the wikisphere. Knol doesn't point inward of itself to refer people to new ideas within the text of any given article.

I must say that for now, I'm going to stick with Wikipedia, mainly because it has a larger base of knowledge (it appears that Knol has about seven pages worth of "featured" articles). But, I'm sure that as time goes on, Knol will grow to be a much more realistic alternative to the Wiki-King.

Critical Mass Bicyclist vs. the NYPD

This happened just a few days ago, bringing more light to the tension between Critical Mass and the City. While the cop was wrong - the bicyclist didn't seem to do anything even remotely questionable in the video - I'm hearing that many of the other cyclists involved in those events are quite obnoxious. From reading people's comments about this I'm gathering that they're a big obstruction to traffic. Purposely.

Now, I've yet to actually encounter a Critical Mass event in progress and I think that the idea of a whole bunch of people getting together to ride is a great idea. However, if you purposely get in the way of the masses in an unorderly manner, it makes me sort of wonder if I should even listen to your group. No matter how important your message is.

So what do you guys think of what happened? Ever got caught up in one of their get-togethers and/or find them as annoying as other people do or do you agree with their methods?

Update:
After looking around youtube some more I found this video from an arrest during Critical Mass in 2004. The video is fairly intense, so watch at your own discretion. But believe that it will help to fuel the conversation in the comments.

To Niche Or Not To Niche

I've been wondering lately if I should make this blog of mine fall into a "niche". As you can tell, I've allowed this place to become a pool where all my thoughts continuously spill out into - as was the original plan. Even the name of this blog captures its nature quite perfectly, if I do say so myself. But, I do think that there are some valid reasons why I should consider following a niche instead of being all over the place. And at the same time there are reasons why I should stay the way I am. Here are 3 arguments from both sides of the fence.

To Niche:
1. A set focus in terms of content.

2. Force me to put thought into what I write so that my posts fit the mold of the blog(s) I'd be running.

3. Hopefully provide my readers a more "pure" experience. If people come here to read about one thing, they don't get bombarded by other matters that don't interest them, say my experiences at the near by Apple Store or something.


To Not Niche:
1. If I were to take this blog and then alter it, it would then become many blogs. Each with their own area of thought. That would mean I'd then have to divide myself between each blog and I don't have that much willpower for that. One blog is going to get more attention than the other - I can tell you that much now. So if I already know that, why bother attempting it?

2. I personally like to think that most of what I write about have a way of being interconnected, should you hang around long enough for them to. In my head, this is certainly the case and then for me purposely separate them into boxes, I might be shooting myself in the foot. I just don't think within such lines.

3. Tags were invented for a reason. Really. I don't have them there because I think they are a nice little distraction. I do try to use tags to help organize my posts into actual themes. You guys should use them as well.

For the time being, I'm going to stick with this blog. Its treated me well up until now and I don't see a need to change it around unless I'm moving to my own servers. I'm highly content with this place and I want to see it mature naturally - breaking it up into branches would only hinder that.

And besides, if this blog is too disordered, just have fun with it. I know I am :)