Joel Achenbach and Marjorie Williams
Unplug Yourself
By Joel Achenbach
Posted Tuesday, April 11, 2000, at 3:02 PM ETMarjorie:
That asteroid shouldn't be named Eros; it should be named Spud.
I think NASA desperately needs one of the unmanned ("unpiloted") missions to work well. Dan Goldin (the head of NASA and kind enough to give me many interviews for my book) put so much emphasis on faster, better, cheaper, and we've now seen what cheaper can get you--spacecraft debris on Mars. I'm glad they named NEAR after Gene Shoemaker, who died a couple of years ago in a car crash in the Australian outback and was one of the premier planetary scientists in the world. He never was as famous as Carl Sagan, but he was greatly beloved by his colleagues. If I'm not mistaken, he was one of the first people to argue persuasively that the craters on the moon were from impacts, not volcanoes. I always have great admiration for anyone who figures out what the heck we're looking at when we examine the world (or other worlds).
Marjorie, why did you have to mention the Times again? You know I don't read that sorry, non-prize-winning paper. But my first thought about today's story on Microsoft/Reed was that it makes no sense to hire Ralph Reed to lobby George W. Bush since Bush is merely the governor of Texas and is not likely to get a promotion. Gore will win by five to eight percentage points in the fall. I'm on record saying this, and I see no reason to back off, especially since no one cares what I say anyway (more online journalism freedom!). It seems to me that Bush has a fatal flaw as a candidate, in that he loses support the more actively he campaigns. He's literally repellent. (And incidentally, isn't it the general wisdom here in town that lobbyists are actually wildly overrated, that they don't get much accomplished, at least nothing that's commensurate with what they're paid?)
Back to Saylor for a moment: Isn't it true that he wants to wire people up so that they have little voices in their ears giving them stock prices and weather reports and warning them that the Safeway just up ahead is currently occupied by a spree killer who previously had been merely seething? This strikes me as technology no one needs. Of course, I'm still not entirely sold on cell phones. I found a cell phone invaluable when I went on a recent reporting trip and was never in one place--the cell phone was the only way anyone could reliably reach me--but otherwise they seem somewhat virulent in our society at the moment. "Hang Up and Drive" was a bumper sticker I just saw.
What we need, I think, are strategies for getting unwired, not vice versa. I feel as though I spend way too much time plugged into the Matrix. Writing my online column only intensifies the problem, because no matter what I do, I have to bring a laptop, so I can constantly feed the online maw. It's amazing how New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, and Minneapolis look exactly alike when you're in a hotel room trying to find the local AOL access number. Sometimes when I get to work and have to write my column and have a blank screen in front of me, the only thing I can think to write is:
"I am a 39-year-old white man and have spent my entire life indoors, typing."
I'll just write that over and over, thousands of times. I am Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Yours,
Joel
Unplug Yourself
By Joel Achenbach
Posted Tuesday, April 11, 2000, at 3:02 PM ETJoel Achenbach is a reporter for the Washington Post, where he also writes "Rough Draft," a thrice-weekly online column. Click here to buy his recent book on extraterrestrial life, Captured by Aliens. Marjorie Williams writes a weekly opinion column for the Washington Post Op-Ed page and is a contributing writer at Talk magazine. Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the final entry:
Let me get this straight: they give out Pulitzer's for criticism [Monday]? Please--my heart is pounding, my blood pressure is rocketing, my hands now shake, please dear, please, please tell me, where do I sign up?
--Old Timer [who is well-known in The Fray for his expertise in this area.]
(To reply, click
here.)
Re: Elian Gonzales. I believe that immigration laws should be as open and welcoming as possible. But at the same time we need to look at the long-term situation of the country the people are fleeing. There is not always a whole lot we can do, and we also run the risk of becoming control freak America with it's thumb in every pie--oh, hang on, we already are that. Well, anyway, my point is that instead of trying to pass a bill to make Elian a citizen, why don't we lift the embargo and make life a little better for all Cubans?
--Anne
(To reply, click
here.)
"That's exactly what Castro wants us to do", I believe, is the stock response to either ending or continuing the embargo.
--Steve Dowling
(To reply, click
here.)
[This response almost
silenced
David Edelstein, but not quite:]
The embargo is a 40-year hissy fit, and it's time to give it a rest. Say what you will against Castro (I can say plenty), he'd have been long gone if the embargo had been lifted 25 years ago and Disney and all the other U.S. corporations had moved in with their sundry inducements to free (sic) enterprise.
--David Edelstein
(To reply, click
here.)
The question of why people hate Janet Reno [Thursday] is a bit intricate and since I do hate her, I'd like to take a stab at it--the question, not her (I don't hate anybody that much). Reno reminds me of the Greek tragedy Antigone which shows us that strict enforcement of the law, by the book, isn't always the best thing. The Waco invasion wasn't the best thing, for example. I believe the law justified her actions, that the operation was by the book. But that doesn't mean it was a good thing. With Elian, there's that potential again that Reno will embark on the legal course, but that it won't be the morally right course.
Reno does not respect people who defy her. She assumes they are wrong and she acts on that and she has a tremendous amount of power to enforce her interpretation of law. This is the crux of my anti-Renoism: She doesn't talk to people, she barks orders at them. When people ignore the lectures they get punished. Hey, that's her job. But it'd be nice to have a more philosophical sort wielding all that power--someone with a better sense of proportion who realizes that every act of defiance is unique and deserves unique treatment.
--Michael Maiello
(To reply, click
here.)
Don Porges writes in The Fray about Thursday's entry:
"Random number generator" isn't academic-speak; it's perfectly standard math-speak, and if you're using dice to demonstrate probabilities, then they are being used as random number generators.
The definition and connotations of "dice" are much more precise in naming the objects in question. My old TI-99 had a "random number generator" command in its BASIC programming. Since it was just code, it resembled nothing that would help baby get a new pair of shoes. Besides "dice" fits into a headline nicely.
--Charles
(To reply, click
here.)
[No proposals this week. But that doesn't mean the Breakfast Table went unappreciated:]
These guys were the best. And that's granting that there were some close competitors. But Joel and Marjorie are the BT gold standard. The King and Queen are dead! Bring on next week's random number generators!
--Mike
(To reply, click
here.)
(4/14)
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Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the final entry:
Let me get this straight: they give out Pulitzer's for criticism [Monday]? Please--my heart is pounding, my blood pressure is rocketing, my hands now shake, please dear, please, please tell me, where do I sign up?
--Old Timer [who is well-known in The Fray for his expertise in this area.]
(To reply, click here.)
Re: Elian Gonzales. I believe that immigration laws should be as open and welcoming as possible. But at the same time we need to look at the long-term situation of the country the people are fleeing. There is not always a whole lot we can do, and we also run the risk of becoming control freak America with it's thumb in every pie--oh, hang on, we already are that. Well, anyway, my point is that instead of trying to pass a bill to make Elian a citizen, why don't we lift the embargo and make life a little better for all Cubans?
--Anne
(To reply, click here.)
"That's exactly what Castro wants us to do", I believe, is the stock response to either ending or continuing the embargo.
--Steve Dowling
(To reply, click here.)
[This response almost silenced David Edelstein, but not quite:]
The embargo is a 40-year hissy fit, and it's time to give it a rest. Say what you will against Castro (I can say plenty), he'd have been long gone if the embargo had been lifted 25 years ago and Disney and all the other U.S. corporations had moved in with their sundry inducements to free (sic) enterprise.
--David Edelstein
(To reply, click here.)
The question of why people hate Janet Reno [Thursday] is a bit intricate and since I do hate her, I'd like to take a stab at it--the question, not her (I don't hate anybody that much). Reno reminds me of the Greek tragedy Antigone which shows us that strict enforcement of the law, by the book, isn't always the best thing. The Waco invasion wasn't the best thing, for example. I believe the law justified her actions, that the operation was by the book. But that doesn't mean it was a good thing. With Elian, there's that potential again that Reno will embark on the legal course, but that it won't be the morally right course.
Reno does not respect people who defy her. She assumes they are wrong and she acts on that and she has a tremendous amount of power to enforce her interpretation of law. This is the crux of my anti-Renoism: She doesn't talk to people, she barks orders at them. When people ignore the lectures they get punished. Hey, that's her job. But it'd be nice to have a more philosophical sort wielding all that power--someone with a better sense of proportion who realizes that every act of defiance is unique and deserves unique treatment.
--Michael Maiello
(To reply, click here.)
Don Porges writes in The Fray about Thursday's entry:
The definition and connotations of "dice" are much more precise in naming the objects in question. My old TI-99 had a "random number generator" command in its BASIC programming. Since it was just code, it resembled nothing that would help baby get a new pair of shoes. Besides "dice" fits into a headline nicely.
--Charles
(To reply, click here.)
[No proposals this week. But that doesn't mean the Breakfast Table went unappreciated:]
These guys were the best. And that's granting that there were some close competitors. But Joel and Marjorie are the BT gold standard. The King and Queen are dead! Bring on next week's random number generators!
--Mike
(To reply, click here.)
(4/14)