Fear, finger-pointing mount over U.S. fiscal cliff (reuters)

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Websites Skew Prices Based on Where You Live

Depending on where you live, Staples might try to sell you a more expensive stapler. The Wall Street Journal has conducted an Important Investigation and found that a lot of online retailers vary their pricing based on the buyer's location. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MlgnWi4ecwg/websites-skew-prices-based-on-where-you-live

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Parole officers play Santa to Garden City family | Boise, Garden City ...

With a few texts, Jim Campbell, center, and Chris Colson, right, started what they thought would be a Christmas surprise for two little girls and their mother, whose husband is in prison. ?We went from nothing under the tree to not being able to see the tree,? Campbell said.

Katherine Jones ? kjones@idahostatesman.comBuy Photo

BY MEGHANN M. CUNIFF

mcuniff@idahostatesman.com

? 2012 Idaho Statesman

Chris Colson and Jim Campbell are used to seeing poverty. As senior probation and parole officers for Idaho, they?re used to encountering dirty homes and children crying for their parents. And they?re used to shoving their emotions aside to concentrate on their jobs, which often involves taking an adult in the home to jail.

But something about the scene at a trailer park in Garden City last week touched the men, who have been looking forward to spending the holidays with their own families.

They had stopped by to check on a man under their watch, but found only his wife and her two daughters. A repeat felony DUI offender, he had been jailed in Canyon County on another drunken-driving charge.

His wife kept the place clean, but she had little to give her children and was preparing for an extended hospital stay for her 3-year-old to undergo heart surgery. The wife has colon cancer and her mother is dying of cancer.

A bare Christmas tree served as the only reminder of the holiday. The woman cried when Colson and Campbell asked how she was celebrating this year.

?This was spur of the moment,? Colson said. ?Two tough guys in a car with tears in their eyes wanting to do something.?

So they did.

At first, they figured they would just stop by a department store and pick up a few toys for the kids. But word of the family?s plight quickly spread through the parole and probation community.

SPIRIT SNOWBALLS

Soon Colson and Campbell were fielding donations of toys, food and cash, and offers of free counseling and other help from local professionals. A store cashier donated a few dollars after Colson told her what he was doing. A clerk at a bank did the same with Campbell.

Law enforcement officers from agencies throughout the Treasure Valley pitched in, as did children of some officers. Toys for Tots, Easter Seals, Ballet Idaho and the Morrison Center also helped.

?It kind of took on a life of its own,? Campbell said. ?Our phones blew up all night long.?

The men, family members and other Department of Correction employees delivered the gifts Monday and planned to give some to other families in similar situations.

And they don?t want it to be a one-time thing. Campbell said he?s hoping to create a donation program to regularly help families through the holiday season or provide a gift or two if dad?s in jail on a birthday.

INNOCENTS SUFFER

The men said they want to make it clear that the family member in jail or facing possible jail because of probation violations won?t get special treatment. But they also want to help the innocent family members who had nothing to do with the crime, but wind up suffering.

The woman who received the gifts didn?t want her name publicized. Campbell and Colson emphasized that she never asked for anything and has always been polite and respectful.

She provided information on her utility and other bills to corrections officials, who will help pay them with the approximately $1,200 in cash that Campbell and Colson collected.

By paying those bills, they hope to give the family some stability as the daughter undergoes surgery in Salt Lake City after Christmas. The family also is bracing for the death of the woman?s mother, who wasn?t expected to live past Thanksgiving.

?SANTA REALLY LOVES YOU?

Colson?s and Campbell?s presence at the family?s trailer, spurred only by their desire to bring gifts and do some good, also helped dispel the children?s fear of law enforcement.

?The 3-year-old hates police,? Campbell said. ?She says, ?They arrest daddy.? We want to show her that?s not what we?re all about.?

The girl recognized Campbell and Colson when they walked into her home. She shyly stuck by her mother as Department of Correction officials filled the living room with food and gifts.

?That?s daddy?s (probation officer),? the woman told her. ?Yep, he was here the other night.?

Campbell looked the girl in the eyes. ?Boy, you must have been a good girl, because Santa really loves you,? Campbell said.

The girl beamed and gazed at the pile of presents in front of the once-bare Christmas tree.

?You?ve got an entire community who cares about you,? Campbell told the girl?s mother.

Meghann M. Cuniff: 377-6418

Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/12/24/2392333/parole-officers-play-santa.html

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Afghanistan says Pakistan serious about backing peace efforts

KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan is genuine about backing the nascent Afghan peace process and shares the Kabul government's goal of transforming the Taliban insurgency into a political movement, a senior Afghan government official told Reuters.

"This is the vision that they share," said the official, who is closely involved in reconciliation efforts with the insurgent group. He also said recent face-to-face talks between the Taliban and Afghan officials in Paris were "enormously helpful" for peace efforts.

The remarks signaled unprecedented optimism from Afghanistan that Pakistan - long accused of backing Afghan insurgent groups - was now willing to put its weight behind reconciliation efforts, which are still in early stages and are vulnerable to factionalism.

The senior official cautioned that in order to sustain that optimism, Pakistan would need to take further concrete steps after releasing some mid-level Afghan Taliban members from detention, who may be useful in promoting peace.

Pakistan is seen as critical to U.S. and Afghan efforts to stabilize the country before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

The Haqqani network -- which has far more experience in guerrilla warfare than the Afghan Taliban - would be welcomed to the peace process as long as it met certain conditions, said the official.

(Reporting by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-genuine-backing-afghan-peace-efforts-afghan-official-040032861.html

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Inouye praised as humble leader at Hawaii Capitol

HONOLULU (AP) ? The late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye is being praised as a humble leader who embodied honor, dignity and duty during a public visitation at Hawaii's state Capitol.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie told hundreds of people gathered Saturday night that Inouye went from being considered undesirable as a Japanese-American at the start of World War II to gaining the respect of the country's leaders in Washington.

"Rest easy, you are at home with us in paradise," Abercrombie said. Abercrombie's remarks toward the end of an hourlong ceremony marked the start of seven hours of public visitation.

Inouye's closed casket, covered with an American flag, was escorted in by seven pallbearers along a red carpet to the center of the Capitol courtyard.

After the ceremony, it was placed in a large tent with the U.S. and Hawaii flags behind it, as people lined up outside to pay their respect, starting with Inouye's wife, Irene Hirano Inouye.

Inouye is just one of several Hawaii icons to lie in state at the Capitol in Honolulu. Sen. Hiram Fong was honored the same way in 2004, as was U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink in 2002 and singer Israel Kamakawiwoole in 1997.

"The Senator was the quintessential man of his word," said state House Speaker Calvin Say, who said Inouye understood that trust is the strongest currency in politics.

Say said Inouye let his work do the talking for him.

The 88-year-old World War II hero and federal lawmaker of more than five decades died Monday.

Inouye was a high school senior in Honolulu on Dec. 7, 1941, when he watched dozens of Japanese planes fly toward Pearl Harbor and other Oahu military bases to begin a bombing that changed the course of world events.

He volunteered for a special U.S. Army unit of Japanese-Americans ? including several who attended the Saturday night ceremony. Inouye lost his right arm in a battle with Germans in Italy. That scratched his dream of becoming a surgeon. He went to law school and into politics instead, becoming a congressman and the first Japanese-American elected to the Senate.

He became known as a solo economic power in his home state as part of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he steered federal money toward Hawaii to build roads, schools and housing.

Colleagues and aides lined the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to bid aloha to Inouye during a rare ceremony to demonstrate the respect he earned over decades.

He was eulogized by President Barack Obama.

Obama, who arrived early Saturday in Honolulu for his annual Christmas family vacation, said during a service at Washington's National Cathedral on Friday that Inouye's presence during the Watergate hearings helped show him what could be possible in his own life.

Visitors began signing condolence books at the governor's office on Friday, with additional books available at the Saturday service.

The service brought a steady stream of mourners toward downtown Honolulu one day before another service for Inouye was scheduled at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Obama plans to attend that ceremony, White House officials said on Saturday.

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inouye-praised-humble-leader-hawaii-capitol-044912504--election.html

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Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles ?Wraps? its first 2013 Community Forum with a Holiday Party for Families of Children with Epilepsy

Local organization kicks off the New Year by delivering holiday cheer and resources to help people overcome the burden of seizures and end epilepsy.

(PRWEB) December 21, 2012

The Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles will launch the first of its 2013 Epilepsy Community Forums for Families on Saturday, January 5th in conjunction with its annual Family Holiday Party at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, CA.

The Forums? interactive sessions will provide opportunities for families affected by epilepsy to come together in groups -- Parents of children with epilepsy and Adults with epilepsy and their loved ones and friends -- to share ideas, engage their peers, and learn from experts. By networking with others they can become better advocates ? for themselves or their loved ones -- in the arenas of education, healthcare and epilepsy specialty care.

Dr. Raman Sankar, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will share advances in pediatric epilepsy treatment that may benefit families with children who are experiencing seizures.

Ann Kinkor, Advocacy Coordinator for the statewide advocacy coalition, Epilepsy California, will also speak at the January Forum. Ms. Kinkor will share strategies to advocate for your child in school and information on developments in healthcare to help guide your choices.

Jim Abrahams, the director of The Charlie Foundation to Help Cure Pediatric Epilepsy, will also be available to discuss the use of ketogenic dietary therapies in epilepsy.

In addition to promoting education and self-advocacy, the concurrent Family Holiday Party connects families and combats isolation by bringing people together for a day of laughter and fun, seasonal games and activities. The Art of Elysium will lead children and teens in creative, confidence-boosting arts and crafts.

?Getting together with other parents who are in the same boat means we can relax with people who ?get? us.,? said Diane Crea Hamilton, mother of seven-year-old Josie who has epilepsy. ?We can share ideas, prop each other up and hopefully have a laugh. We can relate the joys and the challenges of our beautiful kids. Connecting to someone that understands you can help in ways one cannot even imagine.?

To attend the Family Holiday Party and Parents' Forum, please sign-up using the online registration page.

The Epilepsy Family Forum is made possible in part with funding from the Epilepsy Foundation and the Health Resources and Services Administration/Maternal and Child Health Bureau under award number U23MC19824. Other speakers and panelists are being confirmed for the Forum, and other Epilepsy Community Forums are being organized for other dates and locations in February and March. Please sign-up for our Enews at http://www.ENDEPILEPSY.org to get updates.

ABOUT EPILEPSY

Without warning, seizures can happen to anyone at any age. When a person has two or more unprovoked seizures, they have epilepsy. Seizures do not all look the same and, according to the International League Against Epilepsy, there are currently more than 25 different recognized epilepsy syndromes affecting almost 3 million people in the U.S. and about 65 million people worldwide. Someone is diagnosed with epilepsy every four minutes and, this year alone, almost 200,000 people in our country will be diagnosed. To date, there are no known cures.

ABOUT THE EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES

Established in 1957 as a 501(c)3 charitable organization, the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles is leading the fight to END EPILEPSY? and the burden of seizures. Our fundraising and community efforts support care, advocacy and education, today, while investing in research and hope for tomorrow. Visit us online at ENDEPILEPSY.org.

Michelle Bareng
Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles
310.670.2870 102
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epilepsy-foundation-greater-los-angeles-wraps-first-2013-162033984.html

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Chinese plane maker finds opportunity in huge Boeing 737 backlog

The 90-seat Chinese ARJ21 is six years late, but successor C919 poses a threat to Boeing.

China?s budding commercial aircraft industry is having as many problems as Boeing and Airbus have suffered in recent years, but delays in China don?t mean it isn't a threat.

In a post today, analyst Ernest Arvai said the current 380 order total for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China?s C919 jetliner suggests that the Chinese planemaker is capitalizing on the very full narrow-body order books at Boeing and Airbus, to build market share.

Boeing and Airbus have roughly seven-year backlogs for the 737 and A320 series, respectively.

?Constraints on growth for Airbus and Boeing may leave COMAC with the only available delivery slots for new aircraft above 150 seats 5-6 years from now,? Arvai writes in the blog AirInsight. ?Could Airbus and Boeing being too successful create a strategic opportunity for China??

Whether or not the C919 orders are the type of ?firm orders? that are reported by Boeing and Airbus and that include a deposit is another matter. Boeing has 3,020 firm unfilled orders for the 737, with 969 of those for the high-efficiency 737 Max.

Developing a commercial aircraft industry is a national priority for China, and the boundaries between airlines buying aircraft and the companies making them are blurry.

One thing that?s clear is that China?s first commercial aircraft, the 90-seat ARJ21, is now at least six years behind schedule, because it was originally to go into service in 2006.

The 737-size C919 is doing better, but it?s also delayed by several years, partly from design issues.

STEVE WILHELM covers manufacturing, aerospace and trade for the Puget Sound Business Journal. Phone: 206-876-5427 | Email: swilhelm@bizjournals.com | Twitter: stevewilhelm108 Click here to sign up for the PSBJ Daily Update.

Steve Wilhelm covers manufacturing, aerospace and trade for the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_46/~3/6rGU2xpjtiA/chinese-competitor-finds-niche-in-huge.html

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Interview with Monika Parrinder ? Limited Language ? Out of Ink

Monika Parrinder is a lecturer and writer who specialises in the history of design and visual communication. She teaches at the RCA and at the London College of Communication. She has recently co-authored Limited Language: Rewriting Design ? Responding to a Feedback Culture (Birkh?user, 2010).

Monika Parrinder is co-founder, with Colin Davies, of Limited Language. This is a web-platform for the generation of writing and discussion about visual and sonic culture. This writing is manifest across both web and print media: on the web, through Limitedlanguage.org, Twitter and Facebook; and in print, in magazine articles for Eye, Blueprint, Print, ID etc. and in the recent book, Limited Language: Rewriting Design ? Responding to a Feedback Culture. This book explores how a book might provide a cross-platform, feedback loop.

Limited Language is interested in the way in which processes from within visual culture ? a culture of recycling, ?mash-ups?, collaborative and hybrid media practices ? can inform writing on design. Also, how one can engage with digital technology as a creative catalyst.

This interview was made by Skype on the 11th of December.

Institute of Network Cultures: Can you introduce yourself and your work?
Can you tell me something about ?Limited Language??

Monika Parrinder: I?m Monika Parrinder; I?m a writer and lecturer in design history, theory and visual communication. In 2004, Colin Davies and I co-founded a collaborative writing project called Limited Language.

Limited Language is a platform for generating discussion and writing about design and visual communication, we are interested in capturing the processes of design culture and using them to inform the way that we write about design.

So a key part of what we do is writing across hybrid media platforms and in collaboration with others ? which allows for instant feedback between users practices. We call this writing in a feedback culture. This process informed our 2010 book, ?Limited Language: Rewriting Design ? Responding to a Feedback Culture?. The idea there was to look at how a book could provide a feedback loop between different media cultures and platforms. If I was to summarize our driving interest, it is in ?process?, technology as a creative catalyst and the role of community.

INC: What is the main difference between a book and an e-book?
What about other digital editorial products (iPad applications, digital magazines, devices for reading on the web etc.)? Would you call all these products ?reading experiences??

MP: For us the main difference between a book and an e-book is that the traditional book is a ?bounded? object and, whilst the e-book, and other digital/editorial products, are ?unbound?. What I mean by that is that the e-book is part of a networked environment ? with an ecology of readers, texts and other authors. In this sense the e-book is a process ? a work in progress.

The writer Annamaria Carusi refers to all these formats as having opened up new ?reading spaces? ? which includes thinking about the different reading experiences people have when engaging with each. It?s something that Limited Language try to explore in our work, but also in terms of different ?writing spaces? and experiences.

INC:?Can we consider a blog something like a book?

MP: Texting or writing for blogs, unlike the traditional book, is a temporal process. It?s a space where ideas can gain momentum, often in encounters with other readers: this is something very different to the traditional book. Most blogs, of course, are used as means of personal record, and so on, and do not necessarily constitute a paradigm shift. But, in the sense that they are ?relational? ? in dialogue with other readers, texts and technologies ? they always have the potential to become something other?

Using the language of technology, the book is a one-way medium of mass communication, so we can say that it?s one-to-many, whereas the blog is part of the Web 2.0 many-to-many revolution.

INC:?Once we had books, then we had blogs, now we have e-books, which add some tactility to the digital, and we still have and use all of them.
Do you see digital books as a way to mediate between blogs and paper? Could they be something different?
What could e-books add to the reading experience and what could they take away from it?

MP: Both e-book readers and the new gesture interfaces certainly add some kind of tactility to the digital realm.

One way to think about this could be that the iPad, the smartphone and the e-book make a physical connection between the digital world and the ?real? world that simple blogging didn?t really do. Computers have been taken off the desktop and released into various environments, so we now engage with these things when we are queuing, when we are traveling and in the lunch break.

But you ask if they are creating a new reading experience? I think both yes and no. The e-reader ? Kindle, iPad etc. ? are simple physical transcriptions of the traditional book. On these devices the reading experience often changes very little. However, some influence on the cultural practices of reading. I don?t know if it?s the same in Holland but, in Britain, E. L. James? novel ?Fifty Shades of Grey? is a good example of what I mean here, where distribution started via the Kindle, but then became a publishing phenomenon in the physical book as well. The consumption of porn and sex books has increased because of the anonymity of e-books, which have no cover and no semiotic trace.

I should say that what we find really interesting is that e-books have opened up new metaphors for what a book could be ? as mentioned earlier, as an experience or as a process. Maybe with a more intuitive interface ? eye tracking or gesture, which so far involves swiping, pinching, tapping and so on ? we could be on the edge of a new reading experience; one that is immersive both physically and psychologically.

INC: So are you positive with this?

MP: Yes ? as we are interested in technology as a creative catalyst, we enjoy seeing what people actually do with things. The use of something might well be very different from what companies intend their products for. In our writing, we?ve referred to this as ?a practice of possibilities?.

INC:?What is the state of digital publishing at the moment? Why do we still prefer reading on paper?
What would transferring the content of a blog on paper imply?

MP: Digital publishing is interesting because its being pushed forward on all fronts. But, of course, most experiments are simply that ? experiential journeys, not total re-imaginings. But, the mixture of new metaphors and cognitive experiences are a huge leap forward.

In terms of why some prefer paper? If I look at how I use things, I often download and print out text files in order to reflect on the content. People talk a lot about tactile materiality and also about the mobility of the traditional book, but as a reading space, it really represents a breathing space ? this is how we see it. Limited Language are interested in how we might move between the connected and immersive digital world and the bound world of paper, which still seems like the proper space for reflection and longevity: which is something it seems important not to lose.

INC:?Do you think we are risking an overload of information in publishing, especially in online and digital publishing?

MP: Certainly information is ever-changing and very fragmented. But the first blogs that came out were an attempt to navigate and make sense of the links on the Internet. The digital theorist Lev Manovich talks about the Internet being ?anti-narrative?. We aren?t interested in repeating the cut and paste culture of the Internet, but in trying to understand how we can weave it back into a framework for thinking. I would say that this is about situating information and revealing its assumptions, and it?s also about situating ourselves in the world of information. This is really important in countering the overload ? it is about how we engage, holistically, as human beings.

INC:?In your work you have been talking about texts and images on the Internet.
Are we moving towards an environment dominated more by images or more by texts?

MP: At the moment the dominant narrative is that we are in a culture of images but actually there is a surprising amount of writing ? the word is everywhere. For us, it?s the balance that is interesting: images obviously are more ?sexy? ? they are moving, sometimes speaking and they play better on the high-res screen. Words tend to be reduced to the sound-byte to compete ? think of scrolling news and so on? But recently there is renewed interest in how to engage with long-form writing in the digital context.

This is the realm that Limited Language operate in, I guess. We?re not interested in competing with the culture of images, but in thinking about how writing might provide this breathing space I?ve been talking about. Something that works with image culture, but something that might linger, soak in ? for reflection.

INC:?The relationship between text and image has always been one of the core matters in visual communication. How has this changed in the digital environment? Do you think this relationship could become something different in digital publishing, and how?

MP: In terms of writing we now have to think about the ?word-image?, the ?word-environment?, the ?word-event? and also things like ?type-animation?, ?type-sculpture?, and all the things these new hybrid forms open-up. I think that, within them, there is a huge potential for different kinds of engagement.

INC:?What about the relationship between content and structure in the laying out of a book (indexes, hyperlinks, different ways of data visualization etc.)? How does it change with the digital? What about it in digital publishing?

MP: The index and hyperlinks? if you think of the Encyclopedia, all of these concepts have been around in the traditional book form for hundreds of years, but they have been of secondary importance: so we have the content pages at the front of the book, while the index is at the back. In digital culture these become primary, because it's the linking between texts and the searchability of texts that becomes dominant.

One of the main problems is that content can get lost, when you?re always focusing on the links (moving from one text to another) and when the ?Google search? becomes an obsession. There?s a lot of content ? but, as we know, quality is often the problem. The challenge is to supply the quality of content.

INC:?What about interactivity and media convergence? How do they change with the digital? What about it in digital publishing?

MP: Henry Jenkins talks about media convergence as a flow of content of cross multiple platforms and also about the migratory behaviour of individuals. He emphasises the slipperiness of convergence culture.

Limited Language are interested in this point of convergence but, thinking in terms of a feedback culture, asking what kind of encounters you can have ? between media, people and contexts, images and texts, readers and writers, etc. The most exciting thing for us is that these encounters are not necessarily pre-determined: they can have unexpected outcomes and they can engage previously unimagined communities of people.

INC:?How do you think all these aspects can be combined in relation to the tactility of the digital book?

MP: We are focused on two aspects of innovation here. One is about using these different encounters to catalyse new digital tools, cultural developments and communities of ideas. The other one is about new metaphors and cognitive experiences. If we imagine how these might come together in digital publishing projects, they will certainly create interesting opportunities for writers, designers and other practices.

INC:?Has the traditional book changed? Can we talk about a sort of? ?paper reaction? to the digital shift in publishing? What do you think about the increase of self-publishing, both on paper and digitally?

MP: I think that book-culture has changed. Certainly, we are re-engaging with the book as a process ? perhaps an art form, but certainly as an art form-in-context. By that I mean that people are becoming much more overtly interested in its materiality and use.

These aspects have always been present, but implicit ? now we are engaging with them explicitly, it?s going to create a whole new set of book practices.

For instance in literary studies, Thomas Keymer, a Prof. of English at the University of Toronto, is rethinking the history of the novel in relation to the materiality of the book, by looking at 17th and18th Century novels in terms of both the writing and material changes happening in book design at that time. This work will appear in an edited volume called ?New Directions in the History of the Novel?, which will be published next year by Palgrave Macmillan. The materiality of books has never been played up in the history of literature and unimagined outcomes, through the blurring of different areas of practice and theory, will emerge in the next few years

Overall, self-publishing is liberating. Although we are not so interested in self-publishing simply being about self-promotion; but as an attempt to re-engage the public sphere.

INC:?What do you think about open source culture? What economic models do we have now in publishing and which do you think will take over in the future?

MP: Feedback culture is predicated on a many-to-many culture and, as such, it overlaps with the entire open source concept.

Web 2.0 and open-source are an opportunity to open up to un-expected voices and ideas. But, as we know there is tension in the emerging interests generated by all these changes and existing economic models. Lawrence Lessig talks about a hybrid economy of art and commerce. Definitely real work needs to be done here. Typography is a practice making some headway. The computer drop-down menu has made people more type-literate and exploitation of the commercial value and intellectual property of type design is nothing new. Platforms like Typeright.org are doing what I would call ?bridge work? ? bringing together diverse sectors, to advocate for typefaces as creative works.

INC:?In LL you have been talking about collaborative practices in creating content, openness of texts and the organic, decentralized and instantaneous nature of the web. Do you think it?s the same for digital publishing? Towards which direction are we moving?

MP: The big shift has been from one-way, top down models of communication and publishing to the idea that information is collaborative. But in our work, we?ve had to face up to some practical issues. For instance, in Limited Language, we realized that while collaborative practices are great for generating discussion, we decided to write the book because we wanted to reflect on how these ideas had coalesced, for the longer term. But we also realized that we needed to take a position ? to ?draw a line in the sand? as it were ? so this involved a more traditional, solitary role of writing. But we used printed hyperlinks to our blog so that this could always feedback into discussion in an on-going process.

I feel I should mention Jodi Dean?s recent writing on ?communicative capitalism?, which is a kind of wake-up call for those who are euphoric about technology ? which would obviously include digital publishing. In chapters like ?the death of blogging?, she emphasises not just feedback, but the way information ? and ourselves ? are ?captured? in circuits of repetition.

But for us, technologies are only means to an end, not ends in them selves. Take App development as one example, where what could be called small explosions of creative thinking, we also can also see the materialisation of new publishing formats.

INC:?What do you think about the obsolescence of the digital medium? Is putting the content back onto paper the only choice that we have to overtake this obsolescence? Do you think we could find other solutions?

MP: There?s that famous phrase that really is suitable here: something like ?the only constant is change?. What we might have build into our design/writing/thinking practices, are long time strategies that allow for change.

INC:?We are living in the era of the dissemination of information. Do you think we are lacking of concentration?
Do you think that dissemination and concentration can coexist or do we have to choose between one of them?

MP: I?m sure every era has thought of itself as an era of dissemination of information, but in a 24 hour, always-on culture it?s much harder to stay concentrated. But we move between different forms of reading ? we scan-read, we deep-read, we speed-read, etc. Of course, these are things that we have always done. Katherine N. Hayles is interesting on this: she says that we need all these different forms, but we need to understand what they are good for and the skill in future will be how to move between them. It seems to be similar to what they call ?trans-literacy?. For us, it?s the emphasis on sense-making that seems to be of renewed importance.

INC:?Can art and design practices give a contribution, with a different point of view form the corporations?, to the development of proper structures, models and devices for digital publishing, and how?

MP: Much of the work on new platforms is driven by the need to monetise them rather than reenergise the reading experience, say. We can?t forget that art and design practices are often inextricable from corporations. But, as we?ve seen with Typography and copyright, and Apps more generally, it?s probably in the serendipity of creative thinking and the cross-fertislisation of ideas and practices that new structures emerge or older models are re-written.

INC:?LL was made in 2005. Now that a few years went by and things are changing fast, can you make a self critique of the project? Do you think that the book release of LL interprets the blog content in a suitable way?
Have you ever thought about how it could become a digital book? Would it make sense, and why?

MP: For us, it?s less about one medium interpreting another, than seeing what each is good at ? and how we might use them in a more reflective, ?relational? way. That?s to say where they interact in dialogue with each other. Writing on line, for us, is an attempt to provide a breathing space within image culture. The book has provided a breathing space within the immersive, discursive culture of the web. In a culture of self-publishing, traditional book publishing processes are important because they emphasise the role of the editor.

But now, the question of what a digital book can do, well, this will be interesting to see. In fact, at the moment we are in the process of re-launching our web-platform and we are looking at all sorts of applications. Our interest is in the blog, the book ? digital and not ? Apps, Twitter etc. as forms of cultural engagement. And so of course this includes all the things-as-yet un-invented.

Colin Davies & Monika Parrinder, Limited Language: Rewriting Design ? Responding to a Feedback Culture, (Basel: Birkh?user, 2010)

Book on Amazon
www.limitedlanguage.org
twitter.com/LimitedLanguage/

Source: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/outofink/2012/12/19/interview-with-monika-parrinder-limited-language/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=interview-with-monika-parrinder-limited-language

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Analysis: Loss of defense hawks from Congress won't aid reforms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The death of Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye marks another significant reduction in Congress' troop of defense champions, but experts say the Pentagon will still face big obstacles any time it tries to scrap arms programs or cut military bases.

Inouye, who chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, died on Monday. Other high-profile hawks are leaving Congress in coming weeks after losing elections or announcing their plans to retire.

Among those departing are Senators Dick Lugar, an Indiana Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, as well as Representative Norm Dicks, a Democrat from Washington sometimes dubbed the "congressman from Boeing."

At first glance, the changes - coupled with mounting pressure to cut U.S. military spending - might seem to offer new life to efforts by top Pentagon officials to retire aging weapons and reduce waste.

But analysts, defense officials and industry executives say the changing of the guard is not likely to make much of a difference. They say lawmakers keen to preserve jobs and funding for their home districts will continue to resist calls for shrinking the size of military forces or scaling back installations.

For years, top Pentagon leaders have sought to retire aging C-5A transport planes and other older weapons only to face opposition from lawmakers concerned about losing jobs.

Congress has ultimately allowed military leaders to cancel a few, selected programs in recent years, but House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday unveiled a compromise fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill that added $1.7 billion to the Pentagon budget requested by President Barack Obama.

Among other things, the measure blocked the Navy's plans to retire three cruisers to lower operating expenses and rejected the Air Force's attempt to drop one model of Northrop Grumman's high-flying unmanned Global Hawk spy plane.

It also added money for Abrams tanks built by General Dynamics Corp and BAE System's Bradley fighting vehicles, and scaled back Air Force plans to retire warplanes used by National Guard and reserve units.

Those actions were no surprise, said Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson: "The changes made ... to the Pentagon's budget request demonstrate that the political system is geared to spending money rather than saving it."

That trend was likely to continue, said Thompson, although the expected nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel to replace Defense Secretary Leon Panetta could offer a glimmer of hope for the Pentagon's drive to reform the way it buys arms.

"What Chuck Hagel brings to the table is a lot of political experience and an open mind that will not resist new ways of doing business," Thompson said.

Chris Hellman, with the nonprofit National Priorities Project, said Hagel's expected nomination was intriguing, but he said the loss of some defense hawks would probably not affect the status quo.

"The nature of the process works against reform," Hellman told Reuters. "I have no confidence that Inouye or the others will be replaced by people who are fiscal conservatives or Pentagon skeptics."

One senior industry executive said the lawmakers tapped for key roles on defense appropriations or authorization committees were precisely those who represented states with big military facilities or arms manufacturing plants.

The legacy of stalwarts like John Murtha, a late congressman from Pennsylvania and former House Appropriations Committee chairman who was famous for his defense earmarks, and Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, who headed the Senate Appropriations Committee for many years, lived on, said the official. "They're elected to bring stuff home."

Congress has not killed a weapons program in recent memory, he noted, and nearly all program cancellations that have survived were initiated by the Pentagon.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney learned about congressional defiance when he was defense secretary in the early 1990s and tried unsuccessfully to cancel the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft built by Boeing Co and Textron Inc Bell Helicopter unit.

More recently, lawmakers responded to strong lobbying efforts by Boeing by repeatedly adding funding for C-17 transport planes despite the Air Force's adamant assertions that it had more than enough cargo- and troop-carrying capacity.

For years, they also funded a second engine built by General Electric for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a move proponents said was aimed at maintaining competitive pressure on the main engine builder, Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Jim McAleese, a Virginia-based defense consultant, said the Pentagon ultimately succeeded in ending funding for the C-17 and GE engine, as well as the Marine Corps' troubled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program run by General Dynamics, but then lost the battle on items like Global Hawk and other programs.

Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall has racked up some successes and was prepared to continue the fight, he said.

"It is clear that the department is very focused on acquisition reform ... but that hasn't stopped Congress from opposing any moves that would reduce force structure," said McAleese. "At the end of the day, all politics is local."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; editing by Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-loss-defense-hawks-congress-wont-aid-reforms-011937206--sector.html

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