Zimbabwe!!!!

After spending both one hour without the Internet and one hour researching with it, I came to a scary yet appropriate conclusion regarding the gathering of information: I'm unable to research anything effectively without the Net!

For starters, I asked people within the library to point me the right direction of where books regarding modern day political unrest in Zimbabwe might be; they weren't sure, but I was pointed in the general direction. Upon arriving at the second floor, I looked around; there were books on Darfur and political indepedence movements throughout Africa from the 19th and mid 20th centuries, but nothing that was up to date. Had I been using the Internet, I could have long ago learned the information that I was seeking, and there was no advantage whatsoever in seeking info. this way.

Upon logging on my computer half an hour later, I quickly found the necessary info. without the drawbacks I had been expecting. The only disadvantage I could think of potentially is if the power goes out and/or the Internet dies, but all things considered the possibility of me losing either is pretty unlikely.

Hence, I can conclude that the Internet offers the fewest drawbacks and the largest pool of potential information in regards to Zimbabwe, and I prefer it as a result of the two hours spent looking around.

The Human Race Machine

After going through The Human Race Machine, I was quite a bit surprised at how I changed. My lips would thin out to an insane degree as an Asian, and my eyes and forehead both widened somewhat as an African-American. Yet despite such changes, I did indeed recognize myself as me within each racial profile. What surprised me most was the +20 years option however; I had barely changed at all! My skin was still smooth, my hair still very dark. What seemed to change the most were the wrinkles around my eyes and slight maturations in my cheeks and mouth corners.

All in all, I was quite satisfied by the results and highly recommend the experience to anyone who dares to try. :)

NPR Question & Answer

Do people listen to the radio on the Internet already?

The answer is YES, and in a big way! Sites such as last.fm and auralmoon.com are two examples among a multitude that provide potential surfers the option of listening to any music that suits their preferences in a broadcast-esque format. Secondly, many radio stations today are also have online streaming so that you can listen along with those driving along places from the comfort of your office chair.

In context with the relatively interesting NPR discussion, I feel that anyone associated with music should be expanding online on the radio front. Maybe then people would be a little less ignorant and boxed-in musically as more eclectic playlists emerge thanks to the lack of FCC presence.

The conversation could have been more informative and specific in regards to music-radio related information though, as I felt they didn't go in-depth enough.

Twitter Experiences

The Twittering experience has been quite good thus far, if a bit sparse: why is it that girls always seem to have ninety billion followers and stellar guys like myself have less than fifteen? Just plain crazy I say!

In any case, Twittering is interesting and has been such for me for a variety of reasons, specifically the fact that I can keep up with, follow and even become friends with celebrities if I care to. It seems that a lot of bands and musical artists that I like have Twitter feeds too, which is somewhat convenient if I want news straight from the horse’s mouth as it were.

I also find the posting aspect a fairly neat thing about Twitter. 140 characters may not be much when you think about it, but for daily postings and whatnot it’s actually pretty darn convenient. Information, as a result of reaching an enhanced state of transience and mediocrity, actually increases the effectiveness of its transmissive capabilities. With brief spurts of text you can effectively narrate smaller details that normally carry over into normal conversation, thus replicating the process in an online manner without sacrificing the actual ease of communicating, and its what I’ve enjoyed the most about Twitter overall.

I would continue Twittering in order to explore these two separate aspects of the system more!