Newspapers have a hard time in the digital age. The readership numbers are sinking while the Internet sucks away their audience. Will they die?

TV and Radio already were serious competitions - why didn’t these inventions kill off the Newspapers a long time ago? Because there was still some space left for newspapers to fill.

But the real killer of Newspaper is their own ignorance. They - like the Recording Industry - ignored all the predictions and than trends way too long. Instead of going with the changed market they tried to fight it.

Today the they are all online: New York Times, Telegraph, L.A. Times, International Herald Tribune and The Independent. Most of these online editions are brilliant - constantly experimenting with new ways to report and engage the readers - something that was long forgotten in the print editions.

But competing with the information overkill on the net is hard. Buying several international newspapers is cumbersome and sometimes hard to do. But on the web the they all compete just a mouse click away from each other.

I often prefer newspaper website over other news sites like from TV channels (like CNN or MSNBC - and even the BBC). Their reporting is often deeper, their writers provide smarter and better commentaries. I would only compare Keith Olbermann as the only TV journalist able to write and perform longer commentaries that can match most print essayists.

The Revolution of the Bloggers has shown that people want good writers on the net. But they also want interaction and community style feedback loops. If newspapers can find their way back to their audiences they should survive in the 21st century …

Catching up is a stupid game - especially with work and clients. I hate being late, but sometimes it just happens. Hope you have a good week my dear visitor. Happy Day to you!

Looking at the remnants of Greek and Roman culture one would think that the Ancients lived in a Black & White movie. Marble after a few centuries will be scrubbed clean by wind, sand and rain.

But the Ancients loved colors! Researchers have discovered and shown us that walls were painted, full of colorful mosaics and statutes were beaming with bright decorations.

Anything born in the last 25 to 30 years is called Millennials - because they are the bulk of the workforce of the new Millennium.

Raised by overcaring soccer moms and freeform hippie parents, still living at home with 30 and a very pampered bunch.

This generation is the special needs generation, that needs constant attention, constant gratification and loads of ‘creative space’ for their mostly empty brains. Most of all they need constant stimulation to stay on the job. Even when they work their own jobs their parents call employers and challenge reviews and their salary - like they called their teachers and professors in school or university before. This is overprotective individualism gone wrong.

My Mom said it’s oke to show off my skills …

I am actually very happy that now the first studies and articles about the awkwardness of this generation are coming out - because it confirms my experience in many companies working with these ‘youngsters’.

I guess every generation says that the next one is softer, stupider and more pampered. This is mostly true, since most kids in western countries had the LUCK to grow up in ever better living conditions, education, spoiled consumerism and a highly expanding ‘fun culture’. It’s better to work your Nintendo instead of working the coal mines.

Classical Hero figure transformed into a multimedia cash cow.

Kids and young adults  have become highly targeted consumer groups since the 1950’s. Youth culture didn’t exist before that. A total media sphere for kids and young adults didn’t exist before the 1970’s. And total consumerism didn’t arrive before the 1980’s. The sheer amount of media archetypes, lifestyle choices, trends, weird and cool stuff only aimed at youngster is incredible and aggressively enforced by companies.

Plus we are now experiencing the total ‘digitization of social behavior’ since the arrival of cheap cell phones, broadband and social networks on the intranets.

Yes, kids have spent less and less time doing sports or experiencing nature in the last 25 years. They have spent more time shopping and in front of a screen.

On the Internet everyone can see your IQ. Thanks for sharing!

The attitudes and goals have changed. Hardly anyone wants to be an Astronaut, Pilot or other Hero figure these days. Too much effort, too little coolness.

Most teen idols are either ‘human products’ invented by companies or the media like lifestyle choices like ‘Gangster Rapper’ or ‘Super Model’. Shows like Big Brother and the whole mechanism of media whoring by being a slut (I am looking at you Paris and Perez Hilton) shows kids only that you don’t need ANY ’skillz’ to be a gazillionaire.

There has never been a Generation that grew up in in such a safe environment and with so much constant distraction. Life is no longer just about the ‘basics’ to them - they want more, more and more - and they are used getting it without much effort apart from bitching.

The Queen of the Millennials.

It is GOOD that less and less kids grow up experiencing hunger, war and poverty - like still way too many kids do in Africa, Asia, Russia, South America and the Middle East. The global society overall is getting richer. Teenager in Tehran have as often facial surgery as in LA. Millennials all over the world grew up with MTV, Madonna, McDonalds and Mobiles. Theirs styles and attitudes are very similar.

The are now enjoying the fruits of the war and post war generations, the new creative and sexual worlds of the hippie revolution - and the blatant consumerism of the Reagan years.

Apart from being nice, being loved, being entertained, able to shop and fuck something this generation hardly has an agenda. It is hardly a political generation - apart from passively ’saving the earth’ - probably by shopping Al Gore T-Shirts and blogging about it.

I am oke, you are oke. Together we watch DVDs about saving the Earth or pirate it from the Intranets!

Unlike the Hippies or Yuppies they don’t know the hunger for change or power. As long as it’s cool and entertaining anything goes. If angry give them a promotion, a hug or a Amazon.com coupon and they are happy again.

Without the absence of real dangers and challenges any human being softens up and relaxes - and after over 60 years of peace and prosperity in western nations there are hardly any direct challenges left. How can you feel like REALLY doing something, when you can stuff your face with organic burgers, surf the web on your iPhone and travel to India for Yoga?

It’s all so nice and pink. Life is almost like being with mom.

More: Wikipedia on Generation Y and read this Managers Guide to Millenials

Just because you enjoy it doesn’t mean your pets think it’s adorable and cute.

Click image for more geometry.

In many Picasso paintings I often wonder if he wanted to insult or make fun of his models? The three ladies on the left are portrait almost realistically and in classic poses. While the two on the right look rather ghastly.

What do you think?

The ‘electronic book’ was already dead when it was first proclaimed as the next big thing on CD-ROMs. But nobody bought those shiny edutainment books on CDs, no matter how annoyingly they stuffed down our throats. Remember when almost every magazine had a silver disc attached to it?

Then came the mainstream web and the browser - and once again the book was considered dead by tech pundits - the web was the new "electronic book". This didn’t stop companies like Apple, Sony and Palm to also sell their PDA’s as new "electronic books".

Everybody knows that reading a long text on screen sucks - even on very good screens. But Amazon.com has decided they do it all better. Their new "electronic book" reader is called "Kindle" (which is already a weak name) and it has WiFi, built in search, a weird keyboard and an extra nice screen, so we can read it in the bright sunlight.

Forget Kindle - buy an Asus Eee PC …

Amazon has rolled out a huge launch page on it’s site with many videos, reviews, celebrity endorsements and stuff you can already download via your Kindle.

But the user reviews are a disaster. Anyone reading the specs of this ‘contraption’ immediately sees that it is hardly state of the art. And it lacks basic PDF support among other things, battery lifetime is too short and the thing is simply bloody ugly. They should let Apple design a new one.

But for the most part it’s totally overpriced: $399 for a simple eBook reader? You can buy for less dollars any old decent Palm and get more value for your money. Or you buy a really cool and more useful Asus Eee PC for also $399. It’s bloody small, has a proper browser and office suite - and can also be used to view eBooks.

Of course for $399 you can buy many books and magazine  … without all the digital hassle and simply read without worrying about battery time and sunlight reflection on your display.

The Japanese have a very weird TV shows, but this one drove me mad with laughter: Human Tetris, Part 2 and Part 3. Enjoy!

Thanks to Edosan for another mad moment in my life. 

Since the mid-nineties Asian movies are conquering the global market. Tales from China and India are big hits with western audiences. India - or better Bollywood has always outproduced it’s American rival, but it took a long time until their products were universally accepted.

From a few ’serious’ movies, most Bollywood productions seem to have only singing, dancing and a lot of Kitsch romance in mind. So it’s not really my kind of stuff. But SOMETIMES I like the music, because it’s obscure at best - or has some excellent classical Indian bits in it. And I love classical Indian music.

So here is a typical pop music style Bollywood song with some typical weird English lyric fragments in it (from the movie "Bombay Talkie" (a short and very weird video excerpt here)):

More "traditional" Bollywood soundtrack (the title music for the flick "Teen Kanya"):

More? YouTube is FULL with that stuff. Here an ‘old school’ scene (Jimmy Hendrix meets Bollywood - I nearly pissed myself) and here a modern scene with the Goddess Aishwarya Rai herself.

Click image for a bigger Indian.

From a great Warrior reduced to a Fair Ground attraction. The last great survivor of the American War on Indians.

"If I agree to dispose of any part of our land to the white people I would feel guilty of taking food away from our children’s mouths, and I do not wish to be that mean."

"Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?"

More? Wikipedia on Sitting Bull

I think the words "Woman", "Sausage" and "Oral Fixation" make a great combo. Don’t you think?

While the US Americans have a hard time finding second class recruits, Canada’s armed forces get almost more applications they can handle.

The War on Terror (mostly the mission in Afghanistan) and many PR events in Canada have been spun into a very brave and positive image. Young Canadians love it and flock to the military.

But the weak Canadian politicians dislike the popularity of the military - something new and weird to the highly democratic and peace loving Canadians. But it’s also a world wide campaign - mostly via the web: Combat Camera and their own YouTube channel.

Canada and it’s dedication to help out in Afghanistan could be a new role model for most western humanitarian war efforts. Countries like Germany still have an awkward relationship with their military forces, America’s PR with embedded journalists has worked during the beginnings of the Afghanistan and Iraq war, but later was mostly despised as pure propaganda.

Democratic countries need to communicate and discuss their military endeavors. It needs to be more than ‘Support our troops’ stickers, but good financing and a good understanding of the voter why industrial nations still need well equipped and trained armed forces.

For the Canadian Military their own good PR lead to better financing and therefore combat readiness for their current missions - which is a good thing. But it should never lead to an unhealthy relationship like the military-industrial-complex in the US.

Click image for a larger Connoisseur.

Watching the watcher. I can’t help myself thinking that Maestro Rockwell is taking the piss out of modern art lovers and painters as well?!

Right?

The total smoking ban for restaurants and public buildings can’t come soon enough. I don’t mind smokers, everybody has the right to kill themselves or indulge some drug addiction.

But I hate the smoke. When I dine in a nice restaurant I hate the smoke while eating - and I hate it when I come back home. I have to get rid of all my clothes, wash them and even bring my jacket to cleaner to combat the smell.

Click image for a larger village.

This must be a weird village - all the people and animals constantly dress up or take drugs. Those colors are just stunning!

I find it highly ironic that these tests were actually invented by the (US) military around 1914:

1. Do you want to die by machine gun fire?
2. Do you want to die by poison gas?
3. Do you want to die by artillery fire?
4. Do you want to go to Europe and experience all of the above?

I personally think these tests are really stupid, since they are like rail tracks, you can go only go in certain directions. You can’t reply in your own way and demonstrate that you understand the subject in a free form reply.

Angst is the main reasons why we fail many tasks. Simply being scared can reduce the smartest and most competent humans to a shaky nothing.

But why is fear itself so terrible? Because it ‘kills’ our capability to think straight.

Our brains have so called lower and higher brain functions - based on in which part of the brain they are situated. (Click here to read a very well done introduction to the brain).

Our Stem Brain is the most automatic and stupidest part of the brain. It controls the (survival) reflexes/instincts and acts first (instead of ‘thinking’). Fear is not only a mental reaction (meaning it’s not just firing up your neurons to work harder), but also a chemical reaction. Adrenaline is pumped into our system and all muscles get ready for some action. Your heart and lungs start working harder too - pumping more oxygen into your system for extra power. And your brain actually speeds up thinking in dangerous situation - that is why fearful and dangerous situations are often described with "and time stood still".

Fight or flight is fears dedicated motto - on a most primitive survival level. That is why the body and mind go into overdrive to get yourself out of the danger zone if fear kicks in. But modern life is mostly social or work related stress. We are no longer faced with lions hunting us down or surviving in nature.

All these physical preparations for Fight-or-Flight happen before your higher brain functions can kick in: take control and really THINK.

To deal with fear, calming yourself down and really work the problem is hard work for your brain and has to be trained. An untrained brain simply goes into survival mode and acts on reflexes (which can be sometimes good in physically dangerous situations).

It takes some effort and training to learn to deal with fear - so your higher brain functions get the upper hand and you can think before you act - thus controlling your natural instincts and reflexes.

Let’s train da brain …

Here are some pointer of training yourself to deal with fear and stress:

1. Mental Awareness: Unless you realize that you are in a state or fear or extreme stress you can’t act upon it. Some people literally go blank when they are in stress or fear. You have to learn to stay aware and realize that you are full of fear.
2. Physical Awareness: Once you get hold of your brain you should check how your body is doing. There is a huge difference between a little faster heart beat or totally shaking with fear. Or even pissing yourself because of fear. Some people even can’t see straight. So check your breathing, heart rate, sight, shakiness, stomach for fear syndromes. Realize how excited and stressed you already are to determine the effects of adrenaline and stress on yourself.
3. Threat Assessment: In a physically threatening situation your body might have already acted (like pulling your hand out of fire), but in many modern fearful and stressful situations this is useless. You don’t kill your boss  (fight) or run away (flight), just because he gives you an evaluation. And there is no reason to shot your Laptop, because your Windows update fucked up. So wrap your head around the problem and see beyond the fear.
4. Calming Down: You should instantly start to cool down your system. Take control of your breathing - stop any hyperventilating if you are not planning to Fight or Flight. Also get a grip on your posture, don’t crouch like a ‘frightened coward’, but get upright for self esteem and and better control. Really tell yourself to calm down, realize that you are still alive and able to deal with the problem. It is important to understand that the Adrenaline in your blood will take some time to go away. So don’t expect total control in a few seconds.
5. Switching to higher Thinking: Our brains are magnificent, but they also need some time to get working. It’s no use to stress yourself into thinking straight - more stress doesn’t help. Try to give yourself a mental break before engaging into problem solving - if the situation allows it. So step back or take yourself OUT of the stressful situation, before confronting it. If you can’t ‘escape’ physically, than give yourself a short mental vacation: thinking of something nice, a great moment in your life or someone who loves you can calm you down and give you that positive ‘breather’ you might need. Sidenote: many people like to stress themselves, because they think they can think better under stress (no pun intended). This is not true: you brain is simply more active and you experience yourself ‘on fire’. It’s like hitting your thumb with a hammer to feel it better.
6. Concentrate on the Problem: Our minds need input to be creative and come up with a solution (see also this article about problem solving on Wikipedia). So learn to analyze problems - don’t focus on the fear or what scares you. Also don’t get into an anger mode if something just shocked or scared you. Anger is as much a ‘mind killer’ as fear. The easiest way to deal with problems is cutting them down to ‘acceptable chunks’. One step at a time. Later when your mind is working again you can assemble the ‘full horror’ in it’s complexity - but for starters CUT IT DOWN. Dealing with smaller chunks will yield faster results and give you back some calm and self esteem for actually solving something.

Why are there no fitness centers to train your psyche and mind to have more endurance and dexterity?

Those are a few simple pointers to understand yourself and what kind of effects fear has on your mind.

Don’t be afraid of fear - the mind killer - you mind can be trained to deal with it and solve the real problem afterwards.  

Hey, even monsters hate walking a long way to get some fun …

As a sperm you already won the race with your father’s other competitors. But in the end you can only exit the game like every other player - dead.

For all the competition in life there is no real winning, no real first prize or looser. All you can do is breath, develop your potential, maybe clone yourself and raise your kids. Have fun and enjoy yourself on the way to your grave - because that’s the most you get out of it.

From all the debates and my tiny insight to American politics I like Joe Biden the best. He seems to have the best grip on reality and foreign politics. He won’t be elected of course - not enough money and not enough Chuck Norris (I am not kidding - watch Mike Huckabee’s campaign video). Smart guys simply don’t do well in US politics.

But MAYBE he will be vice president or Secretary of State - if the DEMs make it to the White House in 2008.

More? Watch some campaign videos on YouTube JoeBidendotcom.

Contrary to popular belief only one species of bees dies when they sting you (actually the quite common Honey Bee). But not to worry which ones they are - because if the bee dying continues they will be gone in a few years. And so will we if there is nobody to pollinate our crops.

The whole Colony Collapse Disorder really scares the honey out of me. Bees occupy such a specific niche in our ecosystem, that they can’t be substituted by any other insect.

One of the great classic Maestro’s of Photography. He shot many poses and captured many moments other photographers still try to snap today.  Many of these acolytes could learn from the great Master: most of all he didn’t see objects and people like we would classify and describe them. He didn’t see a woman, a toilet, a  pepper or a shell. He only saw shapes, light and composition.

That is why he was able to capture beauty in every object he photographed. He didn’t rate or classify what he say - he just looked at it’s ‘being’ and framed the beauty that was obvious to him.

More? Edward Weston on Wikipedia

Not much to say about Mr Ghandi’s Greatness. He is a modern Giant of Morality and political practicalities. Too bad his teachings of peace and understand - community consensus and integrity are largely forgotten in modern India. Once again the children of the revolution turn against it - and forget it’s important lessons.

Let’s have a look at Ghandi’s seven blunder …

• Wealth without work
• Pleasure without conscience
• Knowledge without character
• Commerce without morality
• Science without humanity
• Worship without sacrifice
• Politics without principle

All of them are still valid - or are important as back in the early 20th century.

Especially "Wealth without work" is for me one of the biggest challenges. Too much money is made by just trading money. Investing longterm in people, industries and innovation is LESS profitable than simple speculating for short term bursts of income.

One important thing is missing in Gandhi’s list: the environment. Back in his days nobody could imagine such terrible things as global climate change and the destruction of nature itself.

Will anyone be the Gandhi of the environmental movement? Or do we have with Al Gore already a modern saint capable of changing our attitudes?

PS: There is a HUGE collection of Gandhi material at the Wikipedia. Highly recommended for some deeper studies.

Today movies have to start with a bang - otherwise the crowd won’t know when to stop munching and pay attention to the big screen.

In the good old days proper movies started with an overture - and if they were longer then 90 minutes they had an Intermission (vulgo pee break).

Overtures are borrowed from classical music, mostly Opera. They were played before the curtain went up - often already introducing themes and Leitmotivs of the upcoming performance.

Three movies come to mind: 2001, Khartoum and Spartacus has all an Overture. Anyone else can remember a classic with an Overture (or peek at the Wikipedia list for such movies)?

As a big movie and soundtrack fan I love Overtures!

You are not sexy because you smoke - you are sexy, because you are pretty, young and fertile - and your skin doesn’t look and smell like you already have smoked for several decades.

Let me pleasure your oral fixation in another way …