My Articles for Thursday, May 24, 2007

Obama Begins Charge Down the Homestretch : “This is Not Who We Are”

Last night in Washington, D.C., Obama unveiled a powerful campaign theme, destined to lead his charge toward winning the presidential campaign. “This is not who we are,” he twice inserted into his speech.

Obama alone has put a finger upon the very question Americans are asking. They will be listening attentively and hopefully to his vision about who we could be.

[tags: blogs, Obama, news, presidential campaign, politics, hope, vision]

Lump and Split: Order is in the Mind of the Tagger

There was a time when it was assumed that God had created a perfectly ordered the universe. In that universe, we assumed that each thing had its own place, clustered with other things like it, but also each essentially different from the other things in the cluster. The clusters were themselves clustered, creating a Tree of Everything.

Today, the idea of a perfectly ordered universe is gone. The task of creating world order has become something like: Go forth and Lump and Split. “Lumpers” take disparate things and combine. “Splitters” separate two things that are lumped together into smaller categories.

Bloggers and other social taggers tend to be one or the other, with their techniques driven by personality. So, go forth taggers: Lump and Split.

[tags: blogs, bloggers, blogging, social tags, social bookmarks, taggers]

Reading and the Silent Self

Whenever I read a book, someone is speaking with me in their absence. Somewhat like being in a dream, I am hearing things, but there is no sound. The many advances of modern technology make us forget how truly incredible it is that people can communicate with us in their absence and after their deaths.

Reading a book allows us to touch upon a self one is true to in solitude, versus the self one is true to in the company of others. Beautiful photographs accompany this article.

[tags: blogs, books, self, solitude, silence, psychology, photography]

See the Rest of My Articles at Blue Dot

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Lump and Split: Order is in the Mind of the Tagger

There was a time when it was assumed that God had created a perfectly ordered the universe.  Within that universe, we assumed that each thing had its own place, clustered with other things like it, but also each being essentially different from the other things in the cluster.  The clusters were themselves clustered, creating a Grand Tree of Everything, each branching determined by a perfectly unambiguous definition.

But, although God knew all of the the definitions, it was often hard for mere mortals to grasp exactly what it was that He had in mind.  What were the most relevant principles guiding decisions about likeness and difference?  For example, did it matter more where they lived, how they looked, or how they behaved?

Finally, we got past the notion that there must be a single right order.  Now, for all of those who want to know their universe the task of creating order in the world is more like:  Go forth and lump and split.  “Lump” and “split,” are, surprisingly, technical terms currently in use among professional indexers.  A “Lumper” takes things that seem disparate and combines them because they have something similar.  A “Splitter” tends to take two things that are lumped together and separate them into smaller categories. Indexers tend to be one or the other, their technique driven by their personality.

So, go forth into your world and Lump and Split.  Order is in the eye of the tagger.

Read more here: Social Tagging

You are invited to look at the manner in which I tag in my own home library:

(Click Image to Enter My Library)

Technorati: social tagging, tagging, tags, LibraryThing, library, books, social bookmarks, bookmarks, blogs, blogging, bloggers, technology, index, indexing, categories, order, world, universe
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