What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Submitted by Brennan.Too many to name. Turkey and chicken with lots of gravy and without bird flu infection is nice. Stuffing and mashed potatos are really good too. So basically, the basic stuff.
The "ultimate truth" about the state of the web today is that there are far more questions than answers, more speculation than insight, and more postering than real understanding. Which isn't to say that no one knows anything. But I am saying that I think those who claim to be "in the know" on almost every aspect of the internet today, tend to know less than they claim.
Why? Because this little thing we call the internet is a living, breathing "organism" on its own. And if history has taught us anything, we should have figured out by now that what the internet looks like tomorrow will be far more than the sum of its designed parts.
Now that I survived the "election time period", I've again immersed myself into trying to continue to understand various aspects of living and conducting business in the internet age. A few of my thoughts are recorded over at netknowledge.blogspot.com. (By the way, I find it to be truly ironic that what I have on Vox is far better indexed by Google than anything I have on the blog I just mentioned. Blogspot is owned by Google, for those who didn't know.) My most recent journey has taken me from search engine optimization and internet marketing, generally, to some more specific topics like cause-marketing via the internet and on Web 2.0. For the time being, I causually slip in Web 2.0 because I'm going to pretend that I am convinved it's a worthy topic on its own. More candidly, I would say "the jury is still out" on that one.
But I get to say what I want and even contradict myself tomorrow. I like to think that it's the beauty of the way I think - an opinion today doesn't matter tomorrow. And the fact that I'm one of the only ones reading my blog on a daily basis at the moment, means that it's not likely anyone is going to call me on any BS that I post. Thought sometimes the conversations I almost seem to have with myself by blogging here can be quite entertaining on a personal level.
Sidetracked. Going back to my original statement, I would say that there are many illustrations. But for those who would like to find an illustration that is easy to follow (due to sheer volume and attention given to the topic), you need not look further than the discussions of Web 2.0. Is it real? Is there substance to it? Do 5 people gathered around a table at a Starbucks even know what the other is talking about when they mention web 2.0? Probably not. It's like saying "God" or "spirituality" and then expecting that everyone is thinking of the same entity or concept.
Is Web 2.0 simply a re-packaged set of marketing terms? (Every once in a while, the soft drink makers will come up with a new design for bottles and cans. Did the formula for the cola change?).
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. But looking at the most current (and past) discussions of Web 2.0 is a good illustration of what I like to think of as the "ulimate truth of the web today". The fact is, people haven't even agreed on what they are talking about, let alone agree on where technology is headed.
But that's the beauty of it. Once again I hear myself saying, life would be boring if we all agreed with each other. I have my own ideas about the internet, current and future. But the last thing I want is for everyone to agree with me. And I have my own secret little projects that I think will label me an innovator, but who's to say that what I think is right or real?
The ultimate truth about almost anything is that people are different; people have their own ideas; people will sometimes get along and sometimes they won't; some people are right, some people are wrong, and most spend time in each group. In regards to technology and the internet, the truth is that concepts come and go, so do companies, so does technology itself. One startup succeeds and another fails. This has happened many times in the past, it probably happened somewhere today, and the future will be the same.
But we keep striving to discuss, innovate, build, and grow. Passion for life and humanity will fuel even greater things. So whether we're discussing technology, the internet, web 2.0, or anything else, it's the conversation itself that contains the greatest reward. One of the ultimate truths of life is that life is in the journey and the conversation along the way.
And no, I don' t mean Virginia.
The People have issued a mandate to the current executive administration. But the implications for the next two years will begin to be understood when the President addresses the country, I would assume within the next 12 hours.
Now, more than ever, there is an opportunity for our elected leader to temper ideology with some practicality. While I disagree strongly with neo-conservative ideology, that is not the issue. It is my hope that President Bush will make the next two years a new chapter in his administration.
The wasted six years are gone forever. Contrary to what appears to be popular belief, the success of the next two years will not be determined by political party. No, there is one person that has the opportunity to make a choice as to whether we will see produtive politics from now until the next Presidential election.
NOW is the time for our elected leader to approach his administration and his actions over the last six years with humility and honestly. It is clear that we have been on the wrong track. Our President can salvage his administration by choosing to no longer ignore the concerns of his nation.
We will have more than a glimpse of what is in store for us in the next two years when we the President addresses us.
Windows, Mac, Linux - What's your preference and why?
Submitted by ramblingsbymark.
Um, Vox, do you think that maybe you could have chosen a different question for today? I don't know, maybe a political one? How nice would it have been to have gotten snapshot of the politics of VOX users to compare with the general population.
Please!
I've been listening to coverage on Election 2006 throughout the evening, and there has been substanitally commentary that the swing in political party power has not necessarily been about the Republican-led administration's grand mistake in Iraq.
Can we get one thing straight? Other important issues aside, the single biggest thing that tonight was about IS about Iraq. Would the rest of you stop kidding yourselves? Yes, there are some other significant issues. But when we rank them in order, the singles biggest issue is that finally, the American population is standing up and loudly say: "No more, Mr. President. We tried to tell you that this Iraq thing doesn't make sense, but you kept pushing to have your way. Now, we hope you get the message".
Ok, now let's all work on putting this country back together.
I finally decided that just for the fun of it, I would post my own prediction of the results of the Election of 2006. I do so with no claims to expertise. And though the fun of predicting is somewhat lessened since the results are already starting to come in, the following is what my prediction is:
I think the Democratic Party will take the Senate by one seat. If not, I think they'll miss that by one seat.
I think the Democratic Party will take the House of Representatives by thirteen seats. If not, I think they will still take control with no less than a 7 seat majority.
And like many have already predicted, the biggest statement that the Election of 2005 is making is that Americans are finally taking a stand regarding the onoing and increasingly poor performance of the current President and executive administration, The disconnect between leader and people has been growing for some time. Our President has failed to explain his actions in Iraq. Personal motivations seem to have taken the place of national interest.
To a lesser extent, I think the Election of 2006 is a mandate that "enough is enough" in a number of other areas. Perhaps that mandate includes a recognition by the American people that they have allowed too much civil liberty to be stolen from them. Some legislators have started to realize, though a bit too late, that they've made poor choices in the past.
Thank you America, for taking the time to finally have the courage to challenge status quo when our needs are no longer being met.
I took some time to focus on other projects besides thinking about politics for a few weeks, so I was delayed in coming across the Pelosi Statement on Signing of Military Commissions Bill.
One of the reasons why I can't focus too much on politics is because it tends to be rather discouraging. So I'm quite impressed these days when there's evidence of some solid thinking at the national level. I've had to wonder sometimes if there's something in the air in the capital that slows down the electrical impulses between brain cells.
Pelosi could have said considerably more, but she stated concisely the minimum assessment of the recent tragedy of the Military Commissions Bill. While it seems obvious that too many legislators are voting for bills for reasons other than clear thinking - is is pressure of some sort? - it is certainly not tolerable. If we can't count on our elected officials to safeguard our civil liberty, I'm not sure who we think we're going to get to do it.
So thank goodness there are people like Pelosi who can take the time to very publicly summarize the opinions of those of us who think it's important to carefully consider porposed legislation, beyond the "sounds good on the surface cursory glance" that is often given these days.
Perhaps Pelosi will be elected Speaker of the House very soon, and we'll all be a little safer for it. I, for one, have chosen to be optimistic today that there will be an increase in wisdom at the polls today, something that has been lacking for many years.
According to Google News, at this moment the "ultimate truth" is about God and the Pope's Address at Latern University. At least it was in Italy roughly two hours ago.
His address given at Latern University on the 25th of October, 2006, (and I guess it was translated and posted two hours ago?) was titled "God Is the Ultimate Truth to Whom All Reason Naturally Tends".
And just to warn anyone reading this before the demise of blogs or the internet in general - should it actually happen - the rest of this has nothing to do with the Pope's address.
It is really interesting to me just how much a statement like that might resonate with a good percentage of those who consider themselves to be religious, while meaning different things to different people. Define God - you can get a wide variety of answers. Define Reason - many different responses again. "Ultimate truth" and "naturally tends", more of the same thing. I can't count the possible permutations of all the combinations and answers. And, I think that's a very good thing.
That's the beauty of the differences in people, culture, history, experience, and language. It produces different ideas and makes the world a much more interesting place. I happen to think that most of the time I wouldn't agree with the statement that the Pope made, but I think it's fun to think about at the same time. Actually, I think it's one of those statements that says nothing and everything at the same time (see my previous post).
As interesting as the title of the Pope's address is, I think there's a certain danger in the statement too. I think we should generally be careful of making absolute statements. But that's besides the point (that was an after thought that followed the 2.8 seconds of solid contemplation). If I have a point, I think its interesting to think about statements about ultimate truth where the variety of the definition of the terms leads to many possibilies in defining the concept.
Now what if I were to say that Uberveritas is the ultimate truth to whom all attention naturally tends.
So what's this blog about anyway?
I thought I would answer that question for my audience - all 1.5 of you :-)
This blog is about:
1) Nothing
2) Everything
3) The ultimate truth
What is the ultimate truth? For the answer to that see # 1 and # 2 above. So the uberveritas blog is about the ultimate truth which is nothing and everything. Frankly I think that personal conceptions about ultimate truth say more about the person considering the idea than any ideas themselves. The ultimate truth is about each and every person. I least that's what I think today. So for me, it becomes about whatever I think and feel at the moment. I don't have an agenda, at least not one that I know of.
And, I really just like the name :-)
