Tuesday, December 31, 2002

Gav and Peloso's

Story episode #001

"This is a moderated Choose-your-own-adventure type of story where you get to write the story. Follow the story as it grows and grows, taking up much needed hard drive space. You can even copy down the story location and come back to it at a later date, to see how it's grown."

Trivial fun.

[2:17 PM | wl | permalink

Saturday, December 28, 2002

Myths and Realities of Online Clinical Work - International Society for Mental Health Online - Clinical Case Study Group

link

This is an excellent report. If you are thinking about online therapy, have a read. I am a member of this organisation and I appreciate their work.

[11:00 AM | wl | permalink

Herb Ritts Died



Washington Post

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Friday, December 27, 2002

Probing Hermes

Lit review for my Archetypes of Cyberspace essay:

The Art of the Classical World



This is a nice image of the staff and makes me think of the sign for Mercury and is pertinent to the strange debate about the symbolism involved. Here is a link to a site that claims the caduceus is not the medical symbol at all.

In other words, the Caduceus was just the wand of a conniving god of thieves who helped folks to Hades, and had nothing to do with medicine, let alone healing.

More on that here. With a more traditional image of the caduceus:



Fuller discussion here and here.

Ginette Paris argues more convincingly for two medicines that need clarifying: Hermes and Apollonian.

Interesting too is the link between Hermes and the later Hermes Trismegistus, here is a page light & clear.

[8:09 PM | wl | permalink

Pepys Weblog

Pepys

Phil Gyford is doing an interesting and thorough job here. I like the way each entry can accumulate comments and thus in a way it might tun out to be a new form of research, publishing and discussion.

Years ago we had a marvelous online reading group of Jung's Aion, however a simple email list did not work as people read at different rates. I can imagine a format like this for each paragraph, well at least for each chapter. I'll follow this one for a bit, though the subject does not grab me all that much the form does.

Thanks Josh.

Later: The track back function is great! (though I can't see this one there as yet).
Later: Of course, it is only an MT thing, but what if it cld Google the lot? That would be great.

[6:41 PM | wl | permalink

Saturday, December 21, 2002

Gaston Bachelard: The Hand of Work and Play

Gaston An essay by Joanne Stroud, Ph.D

Bachelard has an almost reverential attitude toward the imagination. He would agree with Blake’s statement that "The imagination is not a state; it is human existence itself." He considers the imagination not only the source of pleasure and satisfaction, but also more importantly the primary source that stirs and vitalizes our actions. Often the mind, which is needed for accomplishing goals, and imagination are at odds with each other. "Satisfying the mind so often means doing violence to the imagination," he argues. He urges us to give imagination full play, to allow ourselves to enjoy the jolt of joy that imagination stimulates before plotting how to effectuate any plans. We are most happily productive when physical action, work, and the images of reverie coincide. Then we can mold the world to our inner model. We can get a grip on it.

Bachelard has come up in several contexts all at once in connection with my Psyche and Cyberspace explorations and he seems somone worth knowing. This essay is a lovely start,

[1:54 PM | wl | permalink

Thursday, December 19, 2002

New Premise in Science: Get the Word Out Quickly, Online

LINK

By providing a highly visible alternative to what they view as an outmoded system of distributing information, the founders hope science itself will be transformed. The two journals are the first of what they envision as a vast electronic library in which no one has to pay dues or seek permission to read, copy or use the collective product of the world's academic research.

Wonderful news! I am optimistic. I can see that one day this will be the only way knowledge is published, because the older forms will simply go bust, as they should, as did town criers. May the better way prevail.

This is one way of making information on the Net more credible in the Apollonian sense. But note, the Mercurial aspect will not diminish. These peer reviewed items will appear in the search engine along side all the other perspectives, in the pluralistic way the Net has always presented information. The peer acclaimed work will appear along side the despised, the irreverent, the poetic and the pornographic. Does the reader become the arbitrator of truth, or is truth becoming more of a by-product of surfing & skimming?

[12:17 AM | wl | permalink

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

FutureCulture

FutureCulture This is from the manifesto of the first Internet Mailinglist i belonged to.We live in a world full of infinite potential. Reality is what we make it. This may sound like I'm speaking a small fringe special interest grop, but that is not the case. I am speaking to every living individual human being, especially those privelaged enough to live in a postmodern postindustrial world filled with art and technology, money and information, pop culture and subcultures.

[7:20 PM | wl | permalink

Sunday, December 08, 2002

Psybernet History

Google Search: psybernet Noted this bit of history!

[8:03 PM | wl | permalink

TCPA / Palladium FAQ

TCPA / Palladium FAQ This sane article by Ross Anderson is a classic. What is also good about it is that it has links to Cory Docrow's story about treacherous computing, and many other useful links including RMS.

[2:04 PM | wl | permalink