Day: August 21, 2008

“Blatch” on blogging

Christie Blatchford has a thoughtful article — not a blog post –outlining her thoughts on blogging and journalism:

globeandmail.com: I’m not blogging this, mark my words

It’s worth reading, because Blatchford is a good journalist and a good writer. I think her comments on blogging are comparable with comments people used to make about typewriters and computers. There are benefits to traditional ways of writing, but the traditional is being swept away by the new. Conservatives, in the best sense of the word, need to remind people what could be lost, and how important it is to conserve at least the essential goodness of the traditional way of doing things.

EFF on the Kindle and Digital Books

Over at the EFF web site is an excellent commentary by Hugh D’Andrade on the Kindle. While some (Steve Jobs, for example) have not put much stock in it, it appears it has traction. Moreover, Hugh makes a good argument for digital books.

I still like books myself, but I find myself increasing trying to have all my media in digital form. While I am not crazy about the Kindle, I think better digital book readers will come along to drive adoption.

I highly recommend this article: What If the Kindle Succeeds? at the Electronic Frontier Foundation website..

(Image from wikipedia)

Why the Olympics is great (as in the nytimes.com coverage of it).

Look at Usain Bolt’s expression here:

He is overflowing with emotion. As well he should be!

What I love about the Olympics is obvious from looking at the great slide shows that the nytimes.com puts together. The thing that I love is the human drama of it. The Olympics is packed with it. You see joy, despair, pain, excitement, disappointment, happiness, anger….it’s all there in the faces of the athletes competing. And so much of it. You can’t get that from most other events. But with the Olympics, you get a wealth of that. And that’s just one of the reasons that I think the Olympics is great.

Check out the slide shows at nytimes.com. They are superb. You can find them here

Winner’s Spotlight, Aug. 20 – The New York Times > Sports > Slide Show > Slide 7 of 8

How great is Usain Bolt? In many way, as great as Michael Phelps

Consider this photograph:

Where are the other runners in the final of the 200m event? The final! And no one else is even close. Bolt is one of those rare athletes, like Michael Phelps, who is playing at a different level than his competition.

Watching Bolt this Olmypics, the things that impress me are:

  • he set the 100m world record and the 200m world record in this Olympics.
  • he broke a very difficult world record (the 200m).
  • not only did he out-do the 100m world record, he did it while pulling up at the last part of the race!
  • he is a tall man, unlike most of the other world class sprinters
  • he’s just turning 22.

It will be interesting to see if the height of Bolt affects the nature of sprinting. Perhaps we shall see more and more taller men — and women — dominate the sport in the future. Just like I expect to see more and more champions in swimming will come to resemble Phelps in their physique, so to I expect to see more and more champion sprint resemble Bolt.

We’ll see in London in 4 years whether or not I am right. 🙂

More on the photo and the success of Jamaica here: The New York Times > Sports > Slide Show

Great Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times.