Without Leo, I was still enjoying uninterrupted sleep at 5 a.m. when Romeo finally stepped up and scratched the side of the bed to wake me up and moving down the hall to attend to the empty cat dishes. Wake-up was usually Leo’s responsibility, and he got quite good at it.
We noticed yesterday morning that it was unusually quiet without Leo in the house. He was quite good at insisting on being serviced. I went back and found this little video of Leo letting us know that his food dish was in need of filling. I’m so glad to have this memory aid.
There are so many ways that we’re going to miss that naughty cat.
The Rocky Mountain News also died yesterday. The Denver newspaper’s web site included a very classy video, “Final Edition”, as well as links to their long list of prize-winning stories. That newspaper didn’t die from a lack of journalism. How sad. The web site is still loading this morning, but I don’t know how long that will last.
And the American Society of Newspaper Editors will have to find another way to vote on its proposed transition to the American Society of News Editors after canceling its annual meeting.
For weekend reading, check out the Norgs Wiki. I wandered there via this column about the situation in Philadelphia, with the bankruptcy filing by the owner of that city’s grand newspapers.
Hawaii was in the news this week on the mainland. MichaelMoore.com, for one, picked up a story about the Hawaii Superferry from The Nation.
Are we Twittering away our minds? That’s the warning being given by a British researcher, reported this week by The Guardian.
Greenfield believes ministers have not yet looked at the broad cultural and psychological effect of on-screen friendships via Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.She told the House of Lords that children’s experiences on social networking sites “are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity”.
Arguing that social network sites are putting attention span in jeopardy, she said: “If the young brain is exposed from the outset to a world of fast action and reaction, of instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key, such rapid interchange might accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. Perhaps when in the real world such responses are not immediately forthcoming, we will see such behaviours and call them attention-deficit disorder.
“It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
If you haven’t done so already, perhaps because of our shared attention deficit disorder, put the FAIR blog on your favorites list. It’s really a guide to critical consumption of mainstream media and well worth regular visits.
And so it goes on this windy Saturday morning.
i’m sorry to hear about leo.
i’m hoping that you will put together a tribute to him with photos, stories, history… i liked the video.
may he rest in peace in kitty heaven.
Thank you for the Leo video. What a fun guy he was!
Glad you have the video and photos from all the Feline Fridays. I want to do the same thing for our next kitty friend.
Hope the memories will help you smile through the tears.
Sorry to hear of Leo’s passing. Re; twitter. Some companies require the prospective (media position) applicant to do facebook. Twitter and Myspace. I happily stay farrr away from all that. We’re perennially jumping on his month’s technology fad and I’ll have none of that. ‘course I am one also that hates doing email/internet surfing etc. from anywhere but my computer. a phone is a phone. not a typewriter. not a movie screen. Not a microwave oven. Not a surfboard. (wait; it will happen)
Thanks for posting the researcher’s Twitter comments. Sensible humane observation of this digital veil, that many are gladly donning, is woefully underreported–there is simply less money backing the downside of this emergence.
For what it’s worth, my take is that these digital “interfaces” are dead as a doornail. To suddenly (in evolutionary terms) substitute this for our historic LIVING interface will undoubtedly bring much illness.
Convenience notwithstanding, it’s another version of that frog who is perfectly willing to be boiled if’n the temp. goes up in increments. (I, for one, know some very tech-savvy “frogs” who are losing their ability and confidence to interface in conversations–that’s pathetic from a human standpoint.)
I’d think any hope would be in the possibility that these gadgets could complement and further HUMAN encounter. As it stands, most tech. assuredly displaces such encounter.
Many of us realize that our telephone is an appropriate level of technology–we still use our human voice. (I should also add that I’ve quite enjoyed Skype–it’s a real clear phone.) IT companies must disregard this and convince us that we surely NEED more. Appropriateness for the community has nothing to do with it.