Benjamin Nickel

“Last year, the U.S. Embassy installed an air monitor on the roof of one of its buildings, and every hour it posts the results to a Twitter feed, with a score ranging from 1, which is the cleanest air, to 500, the dirtiest.

American cities consider anything above 100 to be unhealthy. The rare times in which an American city has scored above 300 have been in the midst of forest fires. In these cases, the government puts out public-health notices warning that the air is “hazardous” and that “everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors.”

As I type this in Beijing, the Embassy’s air monitor says that today’s score is 500.”

(The New Yorker: Green Giant)

Michael Arrington bei TechCrunch:

“[W]hat really scares me? It’s the rise of fast food content that will surely, over time, destroy the mom and pop operations that hand craft their content today. (…) We’re not there yet, but I see it coming. And just as old media is complaining about us, look for us to start complaining about the new jerks. (…)
My advice to content creators is more subtle. Figure out an even more disruptive way to win, or die.”

(via dogfood)

“Eltern können heute ihren Kindern viele notwendige Erkenntnisse nicht vermitteln, weil es das Internet noch nicht gab, als sie ihre gesellschaftliche Prägung und Ausbildung erfuhren. (…)
Das Internet hat das Bewusstsein der jüngsten Generation erobert, und das auf andere Weise, als die Älteren es annehmen. (…) Ich halte die Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft und besonders auf die kommenden Generationen für so revolutionär, als wären Buchdruck, Telefon und Fernseher gleichzeitig erfunden worden.”

(Sascha Lobo in Der Spiegel)

“[E]conomic and political liberty are linked—not as tightly as people hoped 20 years ago, but still linked. (…) Change could happen as unexpectedly as it did in 1989. Even the most fearsome fortresses of repression can eventually be breached. Then it was Honecker and Ceausescu; tomorrow it might be Castro, Ahmadinejad or Mugabe; one day Chávez or even Hu.”

(The Economist, The Berlin Wall – So much gained, so much to lose, 5.11.2009)

“If they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.”

- EDWARD R. MURROW, 1958