When radio was first pioneered, print journalists were quick to dismiss it as inferior. This same scenario repeated itself with the advent of television and again with the rise of technologies that allowed solo journalists to produce their own stories single-handedly. As blogs and other community media become more popular and more relevant, the assault on this new medium continues to grow.
Michael Skube's recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times provides a reasonable critique on the blogosphere but neglects to look at the larger picture. He points out that many blogs are nothing more than commentary and suggests that many of these blogs are "noisy with disputation, manifesto-like postings and an unbecoming hatred of enemies real and imagined." While I can't argue with this conclusion, his analysis misses the fact that blogs have broken a number of important stories in recent years and fails to mention the non-news that the establishment media finds itself focusing on with alarming frequency.
... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blogLOS ANGELES--I'm really wishing I brought my X-wing with me down here today.
As I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center for the opening of Celebration IV, the biggest Star Wars fan fest ever--which just happens to be timed to the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars--I saw endless numbers of people decked out in the attire of both the Empire and the Rebellion.
A Tusken Raider checks in at Celebration IV.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Which made me think I should suit up and join the fight. Alas, I left my wings at home.
But anyway, there are thousands of people here, many of whom lined up all night for the chance to be among the first in the doors of the convention center--and thus, to be among the first to plop down their hard-earned dollars for endless amounts of hard-core Star Wars swag.
Near the front of the line were Janice and John Norris, a couple from Bradenton, Fla., who came here for their first-ever trip to La-La land (but their third Star Wars fan fest).
"I love the camaraderie of the people we meet here," said Janice Norris, 43, who added that she saw the first Star Wars film in Sarasota, Fla., when she was 14. It took her two months to see the film after its theatrical release.
"Ha," I thought, as I had seen the film on the very first day, in San Francisco.
But I don't think I can match the Norris' Star Wars cred. They had it on full display Thursday, as both were decked out in home-made gowns made from Star Wars bed sheets and adorned with endless buttons from the films. All six films, in fact.
And when I tried to check in at the press table, I had to stand aside as a Tusken Raider did his, er, Tusken Raider thing. Which I guess is to vogue a little bit in a menacing but fun way. I cowered in fear (OK, I didn't really).
So, here I am. There are hours of fun and excitement to go. But I don't think I'm going to be competing with the serious fans here for the life-size plush Yodas for sale. I didn't bring my X-wing, and I don't think I could beat them to it.
In Pasadena, Calif., a city in Los Angeles County, a family has made a break--and a living--refusing to be dependent on supermarket chains and fossil fuels.
It's another case for the Luddite files. Or is it? Can you really be called a Luddite--someone who rejects technology completely--when you publish a blog and your Web site gets a respectable 71,000 unique visitors and over 3,000,000 hits a month?
Jules Dervaes and his family are "seeding a revolution" one heirloom tomato at a time. They're demonstrating a way of life that may become necessary when the world's economy has to operate without dependence on petroleum or other fuels for shipping foods great distances and when city dwellers may need to grow their own food or purchase it from nearby sources.
Dervaes and his three children run their '88 Chevy Suburban on "homebrew biodiesel," use solar panels and energy-efficient appliances to minimize their electricity use, and harvest an astonishing three tons of produce annually, selling much of it to gourmet chefs in Los Angeles.
Besides cultivating their tenth-of-an-acre yard with more than 350 varieties of edible plants, as well as chickens, ducks and goats, they're cultivating self-reliance and--perhaps most radical of all--their own happiness. Wednesday's Los Angeles Times quotes Dervaes: "Some people might feel we're regressing, but I feel we're progressing to a better life. We've lost that independence and the things that make us truly happy. The people that got us here must have done something right. We want to repeat that for the next generation."
Even though we like technology, a lot, we have to applaud this family's persistence, ingenuity and the amount of courage it must take to create the Garden of Eden in the middle of L.A. County.
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