Over at the Guardian there is a piece on why the American car companies have seen such a decline in the last few decades. The author seems to have two pseudo related points about the decline. The first is the death of the American car as a cultural image and the second fuel economy/build quality. I am not sure I agree with him on the cultural front. If you look at many parts of rural America you will still only see American cars and I am willing to bet that it would take quite a bit of change to get those people to buy foreign. They still very much see the American car as the best in the world. I think the problem is that they are not the best in the world.
America’s tempestuous affair with the car has become a passionless marriage. Americans still need their cars, but the world has changed and they no longer really love them. Chrysler was taken over by Germany’s Daimler. Japanese firms, such as Toyota and Honda, are opening plants as Ford shuts down. Cars are not big business. Ford as a company is worth about $15bn – Google is worth $129bn.
The idealized version of the American car is still very much alive, and all you have to do is look at Ford’s recent success with their latest Mustang to see it. The reason I buy foreign is because of reliability and fuel economy, but I would buy an American car in a second if they increased their quality. The author seems to suggest that the decline in car pop culture lead to the decrease in American market share, and I say the arrogance of the big 3 led to their demise. Until Ford and GM recognize they are not #1 they will continue to falter, but if they can take a dose of reality then I believe the image of a Ford convertible going down the interstate will have the exact same feeling of euphoria it did back in the 50’s and 60’s.
My brother was one of the writers selected for a contest put on by the creators of FEAR, one of the scariest games out there, in a contest they had running at the end of last year. Check it out, his story was “SFOD-D”
I’ll start with the coolest thing of the day which is “the longest page on the internet.” It is a collaboration of multiple artists that keep on adding to an image and it is now over 56 digital feet long. Interesting idea to say the least.
Then from engadget there is another “spying on your spouse” invention, only it is done through your cell phone. With the aptly named world-tracker you can at see approximately where a person is using just their cell phone number all mapped out on google maps. Click on their demo to get an idea of what it is all about.
Then, over at CNET there is a collection of articles discussing a post-oil Middle East. I have not finished reading them, but at least there is some progress being made. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely real change will be made before the oil actually does run out or alternative energy source becomes common place. This is of course not really talking about the billions of dollars the US has tied in those same oil interests. It will be “interesting” to see if a leader will emerge in this country that can create the enthusiasm about a non-fossil fuel energy country the same way Kennedy did with the space program. It would create thousands of jobs and create a real interest in science the way it used to in this country and take us off the proverbial tit of mad men in the Middle East.
Lastly, with the recent Google slapping the Bush administration in the face over search records, digg had a link to a site that shows what people are searching for in real time. Pretty fun, if not sad:)
“Billosaur writes “C|Net has an article by Katharine Q. Seelye of The New York Times, which indicates that the Washington Post is having to close one of its blogs, due to ‘too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper’s ombudsman.’ It seems that Deborah Howell, the newspaper’s ombudsman, wrote an article on the Jack Abramoff scandal which elicited a storm of protest and led to readers using profanity and making unprintable comments, which the paper had to take extra care in removing. This was apparently more based on the issue at hand, as the Post’s other blogs have not experienced similar problems.” What kind of precedent does this set for other mainstream news sites? What we’d consider a normal day around here has to look fairly intimidating to the average newspaper editor. Will this dissuade news sites from blogging in the future?”
For a view of the comments, they has been saved here.
Normally, I try to stay away from religion on here because I am not that religious myself, but there is a good op-ed over at the New York Times, Wayward Christian Soldiers, by an American evangelical Charles Marsh (I am guessing people recognize that name even though I do not). It discusses the evangelical role in the lead up to war in Iraq and their continuing support of the war.
What will it take for evangelicals in the United States to recognize our mistaken loyalty? We have increasingly isolated ourselves from the shared faith of the global Church, and there is no denying that our Faustian bargain for access and power has undermined the credibility of our moral and evangelistic witness in the world. The Hebrew prophets might call us to repentance, but repentance is a tough demand for a people utterly convinced of their righteousness.
Another interesting correlation that he mentioned, but did not delve too deep into, was the sermons themselves. I find it interesting how the United States condemns the hateful preaching done in the Middle East, but does nothing to stop it here (not that I think we should, free speech and all). Consider this line, “God battles with people who oppose him, who fight against him and his followers.” That certainly sounds like the sort of speech that gets Bush all in a tizzy, but the sad thing is that it was said Charles Stanley and broadcast to millions of Americans. And some Americans wonder why others in the world are saying this is like the crusades.
People think I have too much computer stuff. Well I’ve got nothing on this guy. Click on the picture to go to the flickr page which explains what all is in this picture. To put it into perspective a little bit, the tiny monitor in the center is actually a 23 inch display.
Also, I tried out Apple’s new web design program a bit and you can check out my iWeb site here. The whole thing took about 2 minutes with their template. I haven’t tried to do a lot, but I did notice that Apple doesn’t bother compressing their images at all which makes the site load slowly. Maybe that is just another thing they are trying to do to so you use .mac (having access to their webserver), but that still assumes you have broadband while viewing the site. Anyway, it is is possible that there is an option to compress the site, but I have not checked for it yet.
There is a really good article/editorial about the web and how the media jumps on and off the bandwagon while it never really changes. Full link
To you who are toiling over an AJAX- and Ruby-powered social software product, good luck, God bless, and have fun. Remember that 20 other people are working on the same idea. So keep it simple, and ship it before they do, and maintain your sense of humor whether you get rich or go broke. Especially if you get rich. Nothing is more unsightly than a solemn multi-millionaire.
Also, as I’m sure you guys and gals have heard, the SCOTUS has just upheld the Oregon assisted suicide law. While that is interesting in itself the vote was 6-3 with Roberts dissenting for the first time with Scalia and Thomas. With Alito all but confirmed, it looks like it will take the other 5 justices their combined wills to block the new RoboScalitomas block. Here’s to good times ahead.
