Passing Comments

That’s how Larry Brilliant describes himself in The Daily Telegraph video interview below. Why? Brilliant is the guy given the task of deciding how to spend the approximately $1.9 billion (“around one percent of the company’s equity plus one percent of annual profits… as well as employee time”) that Google’s founders are donating to philanthropy, according to the British newspaper.

A related article is here (“Larry Brilliant, of Google.org: Internet ‘is pandemic early warning system’” by Roger Highfield, Science Editor, Telegraph.co.uk, Jan 30, 2008).

According to a Google press release (2006), Brilliant holds a Masters in Public Health (MPH) and an MD. , and he is founder and director of The Seva Foundation. He also is a Policy Advisory Council Member at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, and a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Kleiner-Perkin’s Pandemic and Bio-Defense Fund.

In both the article and the video, Brilliant discusses in detail some of the philanthropic projects Google.org is now funding.

Umpteen million stories on news sites online today about the, possibly, make-or-break debate last night in Ohio between Hillary and Obama. My favorite for concise but comprehensive summary of what happened, and what it means is online at The Guardian (“Clinton lays into Obama during TV debate” by Suzanne Goldenberg, Feb 27, 2008).

The article’s sub-head and teaser:

Clinton goes on the debate offensive

In an Ohio debate considered crucial to her chances of staying in the race for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama’s healthcare policy and campaign tactics

Posted with the story is a 3 1/2 minute video of some of the tense action of the debate.

Well, we’re all entitled to our own opinions, as they say. The title of this post expresses one of mine. And it’s one, I’m happy to say, that’s shared, more or less, by thousands of people around the world.

To accommodate all this interest, Terra Madre (Mother Earth) has just launched its new website (www.terramadre.info). It’s available at present in English and Italian, with six more languages coming soon, according to the organization (German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian).

Just to fill you in, if you don’t already know, Terra Madre is a project of Slow Food. Slow Food is based in Italy and was founded in 1989 by Carlo Petrini.

Terra Madre describes itself as “The Food Communities Network.” That network now is comprised of 250 universities and research centers, and 450 individual academics throughout the world, according to the website.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction section:

The Terra Madre network, which integrates new members every day, is made up of all those who wish to act to preserve, encourage, and support sustainable food production methods. These methods are based on attention to territory and those distinctive qualities that have permitted the land to retain its fertility over centuries of use. This vision is in direct opposition to pursuing a globalized marketplace, with the ongoing, systematic goal of increasing profit and productivity. Such methods have substantial externalities for which we, the guardians and inhabitants of this planet, pay the price. And the damage begins with small producers, lacking the means to create markets even within their own regions, who become crushed by subsidy systems that render their working conditions unfair.

Day after day, the Terra Madre family grows, strengthens, organizes, and defends local cultures and products, and makes real the Slow Food concept of Good, Clean, and Fair quality. Good refers to the quality of food products and of their taste; Clean, to a production process that respects the natural environment ; and Fair, in which there is dignity and appropriate economic return for the people who produce, including respect from those who consume.

Terra Madre offers a free newsletter. You may subscribe here if you’re interested in knowing more (email: NewsletterTM@slowfood.com).

Exploring the new website, I drifted into the Multimedia section and found this 2006 video (below). Parodying the film series Star Wars, the video (Store Wars) is a funny, informative presentation of just why an organization such as Terra Madre is so important.

Yesterday, the ways and means President Vladimir Putin uses to govern Russia was the subject of a New York Times article (“Putin’s Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates Opponents” by Clifford J. Levy, Feb 24, 2008). The piece, including quotes from several Russians interviewed, offers a glimpse into Russia’s inner world these days.

Equally or, perhaps, of even greater interest is that the NY Times editors decided to translate their article into Russian and post it, according to the Times, on Russia’s most popular blogging website, www.livejournal.ru. The Times editors also solicited comments about the article from the blog platform’s Russian readers.

So what happened?

Today, a follow-up article ran in the NY Times, analyzing the Russian public’s response (“An Article Brings Sharp Responses From Russians” by Clifford J. Levy, Feb 25, 2008). The talkback was sizable, spirited and varied. By the end of yesterday, almost 3,000 comments had been logged in, the Times editors reported:

“The Moscow bureau of The Times reviewed the comments in Russian and translated scores that were representative of the strains of opinion on the site. The translations in English were then posted in the comments section that accompanied the article on www.nytimes.com.”

The primary motivation behind the Times editors asking translators to do all this back and forth translating between English and Russian, they said, was “to give readers a better feel for Russian opinion.”

UPDATE: Questo post in italiano

Actually, the title of this new book is Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes is Political Doublespeak Made Easy. But the authors also know how to make their readers (and listeners) laugh. The writers are Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. And, as at least one out of every two reviewers say of the book, it’s certainly timely.

In the video below from Dow Jones’ MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com), the two Harvard grads in philosophy talk about the practice of political doublespeak and offer some examples of the age old practice from the leading candidates in the present U.S. presidential race. Hillary, Obama and Romney all come under some critical assessment, with the Romney punchline being especially funny.

Megan and her Webkinz “Henry”

Being classically blonde, with a perfect figure and limitless wardrobe just isn’t enough anymore, apparently, if you’re a doll (literally speaking).

According to an article in yesterday’s Washington Post, the affections of little girls are turning more and more these days to some virtual pets (with stuffed, plush real life doppelgangers) by the name of Webkinz (“A Virtual Popularity Contest – In the Online Playground, Barbie’s Doing the Chasing” by Annys Shin, Feb 19, 2008).

Last year the sales of Barbie doll products fell 15 percent, the article states, and the competition from Webkinz had something to do with that. The stuffed animals are marketed with their own digital “Webkinz World” where their owners can go online and play games, pretend shop and spend, and interact in cyberspace with friends.

What does this have to do with Barbie? Excerpt from the article:

“When you’re spending a lot of time [on Webkinz], you’re not spending four hours on Barbie dolls,” said Gerrick Johnson, a toy industry analyst with BMO Capital Markets.

As it happens this week we have house guests and one of them is Megan, an eight-year-old girl. When I mentioned the WaPo article and Webkinz to her parents during breakfast today, Megan’s face lit up as if it were the sun itself.

“Do you want to see Henry?” she squealed, and off she dashed to the bedroom, to return with one of the plush ones (see photo above).

Later I decided to do a little market research of my own so I asked Megan a few questions, the first one being if she had a Barbie doll.

“I have lots of Barbies but I never play with them,” she said, hugging “Henry” the Webkinz.

“Why?”

“She’s boring.”

Uh oh.

To read an article with more information about Webkinz and other virtual worlds now online for children , see a 2007 article from the New York Daily News here (“Webkinz: Big money lessons for little kids” by Elizabeth Lazarowitz).

Lawrence Lessig is, without a shadow of doubt, one of the good guys when it comes to fighting to preserve the democratic process in the U.S.

As to bio, currently he is a professor at Stanford Law School. Previously he was a professor at Harvard Law School. He is the creator of Creative Commons. Scientific American named him as one of America’s top 50 visionaries. He also has written four books, and he is a columnist for Wired magazine. So when he speaks, a lot of people listen.

Recently, he spoke via a video on Youtube (below) on why he is supporting the Democratic Party Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The talk is titled “20 minutes or so about why I am 4Barack.”

An Australian website, EngageMedia.org describes itself as a “video sharing site distributing works about social justice and environmental issues.”

The website’s geographical focus is South East Asia, Australia and the Pacific, according to the website. It offers online space for documentaries and artistic and experimental works that “challenge the dominance of the mainstream media.”

Most prominent on the website are the many serious documentary videos exploring serious issues. The three very short pieces I chose to post below, however, are representative of the animation and artistic videos featured on EngageMedia.

The first, “Why Democracy is Better?,” is bitingly funny. The second, “Artex and the swamp of sorrow-neverending sadness,” employs the simplest of elements, but delivers its message with a heartbreaking punch. And the third, “A Life in the Day of a Cycle Courier,” is a ingenious combination of realism and fantasy that highlights a complex challenge in life.

“Why Democracy is Better” by sarah jane woulahan (last modified 2007-08-23): short animation compares and contrasts autocracy, monarchy and democracy. Created by Mat Blackwell.

“Artex and the swamp of sorrow-neverending sadness” by SquatSpace (last modified 2008-02-14): winner of SF06, it retell the story of the dying horse of the neverending story.

“A Life in the Day of a Cycle Courier” by Robbie McEwan (last modified 2007-09-25): Sarah is a Cycle Courier chasing the money, but can she put a price on her freedom?

No way! says U.S. Congressman Edward Markey. This week he proposed new legislation to bar exactly this from happening in the U.S., according to an AP story on the Wired website (“Bill Bars Web Traffic Discrimination” AP, Feb 13, 2008).

Markey is trying to head off a coalition of major telephone and cable companies, including AT&T and Qwest, who reportedly want to be able to charge whatever the market will bear, in effect, for Internet access.

From the AP article:

Markey, who introduced similar legislation in 2006, said the bill doesn’t regulate the Internet, only makes sure the rules of online engagement are fair. His spokeswoman said he wanted to defuse critics’ arguments that the bill amounts to regulation, which she called inaccurate.

“It does, however, suggest that the principles which have guided the Internet’s development and expansion are highly worthy of retention, and it seeks to enshrine such principles in the law as guide stars for U.S. broadband policy,” Markey said of The Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

The hot issue at the heart of Rep. Markey’s legislative fight is what is known as “Net Neutrality.” Its supporters have their own website, SAVETHEINTERNET.com. Members include Google, most prominently, plus hundreds of websites, small businesses, educators, and public interest groups such as the ACLU, Consumers Union, MoveOn.org, and Common Cause (see list here).

For anyone wanting to learn the basics of this battle, the website offers a Net Neutrality 101 page.

As it turned out the beagle (a hound by any other name) Uno won (“Beagle wins Westminster dog show” The Kansas City Star online, Feb 12, 2008). Snoopy would be proud. It’s the first time a hound has taken the top prize at Westminster in 100 years of competing, according to the newspaper.

I have three dogs and, like most “dog people,” I never tire of watching dogs in videos (movies, photos, on the street, on the sofa, wherever). So, here’s a little bit of this year’s Westminster action (courtesy of Reuters video):