Rational thinking takes a back seat

New Media is the way to go

Good read. An article about media consultant and professor, Jeff Jarvis, it details his views of New Media.

“We should embrace change,” he said. “Instead, too often we fight change. That’s the nature of organizations and institutions that hold power. Change might mean losing power. The great and magnificent irony of online—this would really send [Ron] Rosenbaum’s spine up—is that in my blog, in what I call Jarvis’ Law, is that I say if you give people control, we will use it. If you don’t, you lose us. The counterintuitive way of the Internet age is when you give up control, you win. The old way was to maintain control to win.”

Too many still don't get it though. I could name a few ...

Source:
Observer via Mediabistro


Power from doors

New ideas bouncing all around.

A revolving door in a quaint cafe in Netherlands can generate electricity.

One person entering the café generates enough power to make a cup of coffee.

Hmm, wonder if you can rig your attic door to light up the storage room?

Source:
Expatica


An ancient city gate found in Israel

I love archaeological news; every new discovery be it a small artifact fragment or a century old pagoda, brings us that closer to solving ancient mysteries.

However, I do wonder about the themes when reporting certain stories.

Take this one.

David and Goliath city found. Or possibly found.

The fortified gate at the Elah Fortress—the second to be found at the site—proves the existence of Sha'arayim, which means "two gates" in Hebrew, said Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel.

All good and well.

My question is, would this bit of news be any less significant if there were no religious connotations to it?

Do you have to sell an educational concept by linking it to something, anything that pertains to people's daily lives?

Source:
National Geographic