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Wednesday, February 1, 2005
Putting money where the mouths are 
The Living World Web
| | I've been catching up on the latest posts from John Perry Barlow. The Intimate Planet is the story of a new friend made, literally out of the blue, thanks to Skype (now at v.1.0 on all platforms... nice). As usual, packed with one-liners with so much context it seems wrong to pull them. But I will anyway: |
| | The potential of establishing a real emotional connection is exponentially advantaged. |
| | I'm beginning to think this Internet thing may turn out to be emotionally important after all. |
| | I was about to stop at this point, but I read on, into the past. Amelia Is Alright. Others are Not. is the latest account of John's daughter Amelia's recovery from a near-fatal skiing accident. The piece concludes with a remembrance of Luke Scully and Angie Foust, who perished in the tsunami last month. The site is easily the most beautiful and moving memorial site I have ever seen. The photo albums of Angie and Luke so effectively bring them to life that it becomes hard after awhile to keep pressing the "next" link. In a small but significant way, they become known to me. I feel a loss; not of people I know, but of people I can't ever know, because they're gone. |
| | Then I notice the quote at the top of the site: Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon at the end of the ocean. I think, Who said that? So I look it up. Amazing. |
| | John concludes with an appeal for to pray for the recovery of his friend Nick Robbins from a coma: |
| | On his way back down, a branch gave way and he fell about 30 feet (roughly as far as Amelia did), landing on his brilliant head. He remains in a coma. We are praying to have him back, exactly as he was. Which is to say, witty, eloquent, and bright as the new penny his copper hair resembled. On the morning of his plunge, he wrote me the following in an e-mail: |
| | "Several days ago, I dreamed you had shuffled off these four mortal dimensions. And while I was sure that, within the context, you were fine with it, I had the selfish human reaction that I wanted to hang with you a bit more before you moved on." |
| | I feel the same way. And while, "within the context." he's probably fine with his exile of dreams, but I definitely want to hang with him more and hang with him as he was. |
| | His friends are focusing themselves on praying him back into a condition where his half of the conversation will be as sly and electric as ever. Learn more about him and his current condition at this site. His brother Colin MacNaughton is reading aloud to him the letters and e-mails of encouragement that are sent to <colin@macnaughton.com>. Even if you haven't had the pleasure of knowing him, please feel free to join that chorus. |
| | And radiate your strongest beams toward all these wonderful young people, whether among us or beyond. It's a puzzling God that whacks such beauties in their flower while permitting the likes of me to lumber on unscathed, apparently indefinitely. |
| | It would be great to meet Nick some day. |
| | As great as it is to know John, even as little as I do. |
Findings
| | I hadn't used MSN Search before today. From this test, it looks like it's not too familiar with me either. |
Quote of the day
| | When you put a salespuke or "operations" idiot in-charge of a technology company, you get total, abject failure. Examples abound. |
Spate of the Union
| | What will you do with the President's State of the Union address? Watch? Listen? That's fine, if you're a consumer. But if you're a citizen, you might want to talk about it, out in the World Wide Commons. |
| | It's an experiment in creating a virtual conference around a real-time political event, and, we hope, a nifty way for PDF subscribers and friends to discover a new tool for enhancing community conversations. Feel free to invite other people who you think would be interested. |
| | We will be using "A Really Simple Chat" (ARSC), the simplest way we know of to do group chats. Unlike other chat tools, ARSC is a program that lets anybody with a Web browser -- any browser -- join in a discussion and see what other members of the group are typing. |
| | It isn't every year that the Union's state is addressed on Groundhog Day. If you want our Chief Executive (and not just the famous rodent) to see his shadow, you've gotta come shed some light. |
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