Life In the Digital World? Not So Fabulous.

So I'm fiddling around with Chrome, trying to figure out if it's a worthy alternative to Firefox, which, after four years, seems to have succumbed to the Microsoft Disease (you know: keep adding features and loading it up and rendering the damn program unusuable).

I suddenly realize what's missing: Chrome's address bar does not include the rss feed icon. I hunt through Chrome's tools and options. Come up empty-handed. So I google to find out if I'm just too stupid to figure out how to add that icon to the address bar.

And discover that, indeed, nope, Chrome does not offer easy rss feeding. And while I'm looking around, I find this comment at a "support" forum from someone who wondered the same thing:

I don't get it.  IE is a disaster.  I could do my taxes in the time it takes Firefox 3 to load.  And Chrome lacks basic features such as RSS feed.  Can't ANYONE, 30 years after the introduction of PCs, write a competent, functional browser?

That, folks, is the issue in a nutshell. Or, in plain English: What the FUCK? A week or so ago, I started writing a long blog rant about software designers, the "new era," etc. I set it aside as, well, kinda dumb.

But --- by god, it's time to go back to it and post that rant in full. Which I shall do soon.

Meantime, the "support" we need for the increasingly problematic online experience is --- stiff drinks all around. I'd like Campari and soda, please, tall glass, a bit of ice. No lemon or lime.

Sloooow Means --- Slooooow.

I wasn't kidding about the sloooooow blogging around here. This is what happens when I hit the mid-point of a new project: I slide into this big, deep well of silence, the better to commune with my subject and all its complexities.

So, no, I've not abandoned my blog. It won't be one of those ether-orphans, adrift and abandoned for all eternity.

(Okay, my brain is conjuring images of "2001: A Space Odyssey," one of my all-time favorite films. If you've never seen it, well, what the hell's the matter with you??) (I first saw it when it came out, a bazillion years ago. I saw it three times that weekend. Hey! I was in high school. Teenagers are, um, drama k/queens.)

Just think of me, if you do at all, as swimming in a sea of ideas and images and characters and facts and words. I'm happy!

Oh, the Power of Twitter; Or, How to Tweet Your Way to the Bestseller List

Forget the e-book, e-readers, the dying word, and all that crap. Here's where the action is: Use Twitter to bash a critic, and bingo! Tons o' free publicity. That, my friends, is the brave new world of publishing. H

ere's the backstory (it's short and sweet): Novelist Alice Hoffman recently published a new novel. A couple of days ago, a reviewer for the Boston Globe panned the book.

(Or so Hoffman believes. Frankly, the review isn't that bad, and at least it's a review, for god's sake. Do you know how hard it is to get a book reviewed? Take my word for it: it's hard. HARD.)

Upon reading the review, Hoffman logged onto her Twitter account and, in a serious of increasingly snarky 140-character messages, proceeded to trash the reviewer (a "moron," according to Hoffman), the Globe, and anything in her line of site. (She also tweeted the reviewer's phone number, a move that was tacky beyond words.)

Unfortunately, you can't read all of the tweets because about 30 hours later, she shut down that Tweet account and  issued a formal apology. (You can read some of them here.)

But  --- and this is the punch line --- the controversy landed her, more or less instantly, in the "Media Decoder" column of the New York Times, whose website's readers number in the millions. All in the space of a few hours.

Sweet! Truly, truly, sweet. I've published three books, and I'm here to tell you that you can't pay for that kind of publicity.

So, okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit. Maybe she won't end up on the bestseller list, but Hoffman is certain to sell a hell of a lot more books than she would have otherwise. (It's worth noting that, as of this writing, 3:31 pm Central Time, her book is ranked 489 at Amazon.)

(Not, mind you, that Amazon numbers are a pure indicator of sales, but a number that low means the book is definitely moving.)

Friends, I have seen the future of publishing and it tweets, man, it tweets. I'm already composing my 140-character snark attack. I'll launch it when my next book comes out.

Completely Random Friday Roundup: Comstock, Dexter, Emerson, Connelly, Etc.

Okay --- it's Friday. I'm missing my own damn blog, which is being neglected in favor of my other passion.

But in the spirit of throwing some love its way, a completely random Friday roundup of a miscellaneous this-and-that: Patrick Emerson of the Oregon Economic blog pondered the economics of buying a "green" car (in this case a Prius) with, as usual, some surprising conclusions. (Because that's what I love about thinking and thoughtful people: sit around and actually, ya know, ponder issues, and the results may not fit conventional wisdom). His first post is here; his second is here.

One of my favorite online people is Tony Comstock. He wrote this post recently and I realized that several days later, I'm still thinking about it. (I spent a lot of time in New York City in the 1970s, and can relate to his take on it.) So go read it. (And for those of you about to freak out, as I've said here before, I read widely and diversely. Doing so contributes to A Life Worth Living.) (And in Tony's case, I admire his intellectual and creative courage.)

On a different subject altogether (don't say I didn't warn you. There's a reason I titled this a "random roundup), Astute Reader Dexter sent me a link to this fascinating comment about e-books. Be sure to read the comments on the comments. Great survey/cross-section of people's reactions to the future of print. (For more on that from this quarter, check the categories on the left side of your screen.)

As a companion piece, read this terrific cover story from the current issue of Fast Company, written by Adam Penenberg (if you use Twitter, he's @penenberg; if you don't, his forthcoming book is VIRAL LOOP).

Finally (but certainly  not last-but-not-least), Shawn Connelly, who blogs as the Beer Philosopher and founded The Aleuminati (and who bears a thoroughly enjoyable resemblance to Cary Grant and James Bond [no matter who plays the role]), announced today that he's now writing for a new site, thebeerconneisseur.com. (But that damn Aleuminati site still has the dreaded black background.)

So --- is this enough to keep you going for awhile? No, not YOU, silly! I'm talking to my other enamorat0(a), my blog. (Hmm.... Is this blog male? Or female?? Hmmm. Must go ponder.)

Food: New Tipping Point for a New Conversation?

A few days ago, Zachary Cohen, who blogs at Farm To Table, wrote that he believes American society has finally hit the "tipping point" when it comes to rethinking the national food system.  His entry is worth reading.

Food, of course, is much on my mind because I'm writing a history of meat in America.

And I'm inclined to agree with Zachary on this point. (Although I hasten to remind one and all that I'm writing a history of part of the food system, not an exploration/analysis of contemporary food systems.)

Think about it: a few years ago, most of the chatter about American food stemmed from things like The Food Network, celebrity chefs, and the opening of the latest grotesquely, obscenely expensive elitaurant. (*1)

But in the past year or so, it seems as though our national social chatter (for lack of a better word) has shifted away from food gloss-glitz-and-glam to, well, manure, local-versus-not, and so forth.

Yes, many expert types have been hammering at the issues of, for example, genetic modification and food irradiation for years. But the larger conversation about food --- the one taking place us ordinary, non-expert types --- has caught up with the experts.

I think we can safely credit Michael Pollan for pushing the conversation in new directions, but his books wouldn't be as popular as they are if other people weren't already interested in discussing food.

So, Twitter, for example, is chockful of a dizzying array of conversation about food from every angle, and I don't mean recipe swaps.

There are two new films ("Food, Inc." and another one whose name totally escapes me right now...).

And it feels as though a small mountain of books about various kinds of encounters with food has come tumbling out of publishing houses. (Too bad mine's not one of them, but, what can I say: research takes time. Plus, mine is historical in nature, rather than focused on current inssues).

Here's a small sample of the books that have just come out:

• Coop
• Goat
• Righteous Porkchop
• Farm City
• Deeply Rooted
• The Unhealthy Truth
• The End of Overeating

And those are the ones that are new. I'm leaving off a slew that have been published in the past two years. More to the point, the creators/authors of these books and films started working on their projects at least, bare minimum, two years ago and more likely three years. Which means this tipping point has deep roots (absolutely no pun intended...) (Seriously.)

Anyway, I have no real point here except that it's worth tooling around the internet/Twitter/Wherever to listen in on the conversation. I have no idea where it will lead, although I do think that the sort of "eat local or die" attitude isn't quite going to cut it.

Do people in California, for example, honestly believe that they should be allowed to eat fruit all year because the climate makes it possible, but that people in Minnesota should not be allowed to the climate won't allow it?

I think not. The issues and problems concerning our food system are far, far more complicated than a simple "eat local" solution. But enough of this rambling. Back to work, everyone!

___________

*1: That's my invented-on-the-spot word for grotesquely, obscenely, expensive, celebrity-oriented restaurants.

Creating A "Green" Future: The American Revolution, Consumer Action, and "Ecological Intelligence," Part 6 of 6

Part One --- Part Two --- Part Three Part Four --- Part Five --- Part Six

Creating the kind of “radical transparency” necessary to change consumer behavior, which will, in turn, change manufacturer behavior, will require enormous amounts of data, and data compiled in an honest fashion, and, most important, date that can be made available to consumers.

Goleman notes that a company called GoodGuide, Inc. has made a good start. The people at GoodGuide have compiled the Life Cycle Assessment data for, for example, the ingredients for a host of products, especially things like soap, shampoo, etc., rating them based on their “green” qualities.

The bottom line is this: If consumers have access to honest data and, most important, at the moment of purchase, they will be more likely to make active decisions about how “green” they want their consumption to be. As they do, manufacturers (like Parliament in the 18th century) will be forced to make changes in their products.

More manufacturers will, we can all hope, consider using “cradle to cradle” manufacturing methods and materials, instead of relying, as they do now, on “cradle to grave” manufacturing methods and materials.

Goleman calls this a “virtuous cycle”: When information about a product changes consumers’ brand preferences, the resulting market shift in turn will lead companies to offer more of the [green] improvements shoppers want. Buyers with easy access to accurate ecological information will “chang[e] their behavior,” and that in turn will prompt “sellers to change their business practices.”

Again, I’m simplifying Goleman’s argument, which he backs up with plenty of data and information of his own.

But his basic argument is compelling: What matters is not just information itself, but on-the-spot access to that information. The more easily consumers get information, the more likely they will be to act on it in ecologically positive ways.

Put another way --- and now you see where I’m going with all of this --- contrary to that reviewer at Amazon, it’s possible for consumer behavior to launch and sustain revolution. And history has provided us with a powerful example, in fact the most important example in human history, of how that can be done.

See? I told you this would all hang together in the end!