The "Media" is a collection of businesses. News has always been a business. It is the history and present reality of media that to make "news" and distribute it widely, you must have means. Initially, sharing news with large audiences required you to have money for paper, presses and ink. If you wanted to print large quantities, you likely needed a helper who had to be paid. If your were covering many types of stories, you had to pay for your stories or write them yourself. Time is money. You had to have someone, or several someones, to deliver your papers or hawk them on the street. In lieu of the evolution of media forums I will simply say this necessity for money repeated itself with every type of media that evolved.
This is not a judgement of the media, it is simply an acknowledgement that it is not a moral higher power or a trusted leader of the people. It is a source of information gathered for audiences to consume. The audience drives or decides what information is shared. They decide, by reading or watching. Thus the salability of what is presented is ultimately decided by consumption.
This is also not a judgement of journalists. On the contrary, it is an acknowledgement of one of the major challenges journalists face. Many, if not most, individuals who pursue a career in journalism are passionate about sharing facts with readers. They literally explore the world for people who can't or won't explore for themselves. They have conversations many people are afraid to attempt. They go places exotic or dangerous to gather knowledge. They pursue truths about things that are invisible to some. They hunt for truths about people and events that are important in some way. There is a caveat concerning journalists. It is important to remember that each journalist has experiences, memories and ideologies that influence every story they write. No matter how neutral they may try to be, there will often be inherent bias.
There has been much bashing of the media in the past two years. True, people have always criticized the news; but, social media has made it blossom into a "movement." That combined with our society's recent penchant for embracing echo chambers has made for an ugly scenario. The various news outlets, organizations and ideologues with a tendency to slant have taken to constantly abusing the other "side's" veracity. And of course the consumers continue it ad nauseam. The only good thing that has come out of this news bashing is what I feel is an honest attempt by several more moderate news outlets to provide balanced reporting. Even some media sources considered firmly conservative or firmly liberal are making an effort to present stories that are less provocative or at least providing an opposing viewpoint on occasion.
The irony? The average news consumer is unaware they bear responsibility in how news is presented. The more consumers search for or demand news sources that reflects only their ideology, the more they drive those sources to present one specific perspective. And with the rise of algorithms in search engines and "feeds", they will drive their devices to create an echo chamber of narrow viewpoints. Doing this leaves the consumer less informed. The more consumers demand news sources adhere to their particular moral standards, the less balanced the reporting becomes. No matter how unbiased a reporter might be, the editors and managers decide what gets presented and how it is delivered. This consumer pressure upon various media outlets creates news that rarely reflects reality. It might not be fake, but it will be so biased as to be incomplete. Consumers create "fake" news because they demand news that reinforces their individual biases and shields them from their own ignorance.
Life is bias. It is the fault of individuals and our current society that we have doomed words and concepts to narrow parameters. Bias can be used synonymously with prejudice, bigotry or unfairness. But it also can mean partiality or preference. Every human being has preferences. We prefer certain foods, we are partial to certain locales, we prefer the company of certain people and we are partial to things that make us feel good. The existence of bias is neither good nor bad. The trait of good or bad resides with individual actions. It is up to individuals to be aware of both their own likely biases and those of others. From that self-awareness arise the tools to consume news responsibly and hold the "Media" to an acceptable standard. Likewise, it is in the hands of the consumer to consciously pursue "alternative" perspectives to facilitate a complete truth, rather than living in a bubble. Bubbles can last for a long time under the right conditions, but they all pop or dissolve eventually.
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Savour: Chocolate En Garde!
“Chocolate knows no boundaries; speaks all languages; comes in all sizes; is woven through many cultures and disciplines ... it impacts mood, health, and economics, and it is a part of our lives from early childhood through the elderly years. Herman A. Berliner (Economist and Educator)
In preparation for a chocolate tasting program, I delved into all things chocolate. I traveled around the world, into laboratories and bakeries, and through a tour of the senses. It was a dizzying, yet undeniably enlightening, journey. I learned that this delightful treat has a colorful and sometimes dark history. I learned chocolate is powerful force in the economies of several countries. I learned that rainforests are vital to the continued existence of chocolate. I learned that chocolate is science in action. I learned that tasting chocolate uses all the senses. There were many more nuanced lessons that I absorbed but couldn’t necessarily recall on demand. This is how any search for knowledge works, at least for me.
I could pontificate upon the many things I’ve learned, but I much rather have a little fun. Let me challenge you with a little chocolate trivia.
1. A man-made Cocao hybrid causing
controversy in parts of South America is called:
a. BB-8
b. CCN-51
c. NAHCO-3
a. BB-8
b. CCN-51
c. NAHCO-3
2. _______________ is the only U.S.
State that grows and produces cocoa.
a. Puerto Rico
b. Hawaii
c. Guam
a. Puerto Rico
b. Hawaii
c. Guam
3. The earliest known evidence of cacao
consumption was found in ____________________ .
a. Paso de la Amada, home to the Mokaya
b. El Manati, home to the Olmecs
c. Chaco Canyon, home to Aztecs
a. Paso de la Amada, home to the Mokaya
b. El Manati, home to the Olmecs
c. Chaco Canyon, home to Aztecs
4. Daniel Peter tried __________ as an
ingredient for chocolate before settling on Henri Nestle’s evaporated milk.
a. yogurt
b. goat milk
c. cheese
a. yogurt
b. goat milk
c. cheese
5. Spicy red pepper chocolate would pair
well with ________________ for flavor contrast.
a. dried figs and hard cheese
b. floral tea and roasted peanuts
c. fresh pears and oranges
a. dried figs and hard cheese
b. floral tea and roasted peanuts
c. fresh pears and oranges
6. The first thing you need for chocolate tasting is a:
d. napkin
e. sense of adventure
f. clean palate
d. napkin
e. sense of adventure
f. clean palate
7. Aztecs referred to cacao as yollotl extli, meaning heart blood,
because the cocao pod_______________________________ .
a. was heart shaped and was the food of the gods
b. was so valuable it was the force behind Aztec wealth
c. symbolized the human heart, torn from chest at the moment of sacrifice
a. was heart shaped and was the food of the gods
b. was so valuable it was the force behind Aztec wealth
c. symbolized the human heart, torn from chest at the moment of sacrifice
8. Only the Aztec elite drank chocolate,
because cocoa beans were ________to everyone else.
g. forbidden
h. money
i. poisonous
g. forbidden
h. money
i. poisonous
9. The Cocoa Protocol is a:
a. the process used in cleaning and sorting cocoa beans
b. set of rules and guidelines for growing cocao
c. an agreement to certify cocoa’s “child labor free” status
a. the process used in cleaning and sorting cocoa beans
b. set of rules and guidelines for growing cocao
c. an agreement to certify cocoa’s “child labor free” status
10. Spaniards created a tool called a molinillo to _____________________ .
a. Grind cocoa beans
b. Roast cocoa beans
c. Froth hot chocolate
a. Grind cocoa beans
b. Roast cocoa beans
c. Froth hot chocolate
Chocolate by Don Ramsey
This book is by far the best all-in-one resource. It has the nitty-gritty on the agriculture, geography, processing, selection, and tasting of chocolate. As is the case with most DK books it is full of beautiful illustrations and well placed text. This books saves the best for last with a section entitled ENJOY. Enjoy is 49 pages of recipes and beautiful photos of the finished product you, the reader, can make at home. And if the finished product doesn’t look like the beautiful picture, that’s okay. In the end, it’s all about the chocolate.
Chocolate: Sweet Science & Dark Secrets of the Worlds Favorite Treat by Claire Frydenborg
I have to confess the “dark secrets” made a bigger impact on me than the “sweet science.” This book is weighted on either end by the history and future of chocolate. The book opens on April 25, 1947 with four little boys who discover their beloved chocolate bars have risen from 5 cents to 8. The boys organized a strike, and although it was ultimately unsuccessful, it drove home the point that “life without chocolate had become unthinkable.” This rolls right into an August 1502 story about Columbus, in which he observes that the Native Americans he has seized are placing great importance on something he describes as “strange-looking almonds.” What follows is a succinct but engaging narrative of the history and science of chocolate. The book culminates in a segment titled Chocolate Rainforests and discusses how chocolate might help save Rainforests.
Chocolate Riches from the Rainforest by Robert Burleigh
This next book, a juvenile selection, is recommended for readers eight and older. It has many of the elements of the previous two books, in a much more condensed fashion. What makes this book stand out is the art and layout. The book uses geometric shapes, rich colors and a blend of photos, historical artwork and nostalgic ads to keep the reader engaged. Even the font is color coordinated and varied for impact. My favorite factoid from this book is that chocolate has traveled from the North Pole to Outer Space and been present in both WWI and WWII as a necessary ration.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of books, rather the core of what was used for the Trivia in this blog and what was featured in our program last year. Be sure to follow up for more great chocolate related reads in Savour: Chocolate Tasting.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of books, rather the core of what was used for the Trivia in this blog and what was featured in our program last year. Be sure to follow up for more great chocolate related reads in Savour: Chocolate Tasting.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
American Gods: a perusal
Why a perusal? What follows is less analysis or discussion, and more introspective meandering. I am continually drawn back to Gaiman’s work because he has a special ability to provoke thought and poke at parts of the psyche often caged by the super-ego. Ironically, I’m not sure this is his goal for anyone but himself. This is a central trait that inhabits all his work from children’s chapter books to horror graphics, and is the marrow that draws me back time and again.
I was frustrated by my inability to corral my galloping thoughts about this novel, so I decided to visit Gaiman’s site. I rarely do this, as I’m easily distracted or derailed by other people’s thoughts and insights. I prefer to plumb my own depths before I introduce myself to another’s. It’s less hubris and more an acknowledgment of my inability to stay focused on any one thing for any length of time. Thoughts and impressions are ephemeral and it’s too easy to lose them to the onslaught of external stimuli.
On his site, a letter describing “a weird sprawling picaresque epic, which starts out relatively small and gets larger” provided the psychological implosion necessary to draw all my thoughts together so they could flow outward in an orderly way. And reminded me, not so coincidentally, we sometimes must stop throwing ourselves against the altar of singular perspective to unlock our minds.
Picaresque novels are epic, labyrinthine, satirical journeys of lowborn adventurers striving to survive as they move through the panoply of geographical and social settings. This is similar, in process, to a Bildungsroman, but more often viewed as the realistic counterpoint to medieval romances. Another way to sum it up is the journey of every/any man through the many truths of life. Viewing the picaresque in this way is how my mind was able to pull the idea of traveling from ignorance to wisdom from the jumble of my thoughts. From there I finally had a recognizable path.
It took me a while to connect with this novel. In retrospect, I think my sporadic yet enduring study of mythology, religion, and philosophy trapped me in existing paradigms. To understand the new paradigm, I had to place myself in the story in different roles. Shadow was the hardest character for me. Shadow’s frequent acquiescence put me off and confused me. His willingness to just “go with the flow” was aggravating in the extreme. I wanted him to be smarter and stronger than he seemed.
Then I finally began to perceive his journey. I realized in increments that he wasn’t acceding, he was flowing as he journeyed and became wiser. My patience was duly rewarded when Shadow performed the vigil for Wednesday and hung upon the world tree. Although his reasons are muddied by the contract he signed with Wednesday, Shadow ultimately performs this right of sacrifice for himself.
And like Odin he is rewarded with knowledge and wisdom.
All the pieces of his journey flow through his trials as he hangs upon the tree. He realizes truths that were hidden by his apprehension; he finds answers to nagging questions; and faces the parts of himself buried in guilt and shame. In the end he lets it all go and embraces nothing. But as another character tells Shadow, there are no endings, not even for one who has given up everything and accepted nothing. Shadow is pulled back from nothing, he is resurrected and reborn.
Rebirth means growth, and a shift in everything that was before. Shadow insists he lost most of what he gained while hanging on the world tree, but he was “fertilized and became wiser” like Odin in Hávamál from the Poetic Edda. This richness and wisdom showed itself in the culminating moments of the novel. He is something and someone new. Unsure of his future, yet rejuvenated, he strikes out on a new path.
I know I am being achingly vague; but, I can’t really discuss more without inserting major spoilers for those who haven’t read the novel yet.
Life is labyrinthine in nature. We are born with only instinct, everything else is acquired through exposure to our environment, the people within it, and the paradigms that shape both. Much of our journey, in living, can be described as wandering interspersed with epochs of emotion or insight. And great successes are often bought with personal sacrifice of some sort. This process is even more tumultuous in American life, because we are an effervescent nation. We are unrepressed, elastic and transitory. We are always moving forward, always evolving. Like Shadow we journey, die and are reborn, a new incarnation of America.
Like the gods in Gaiman’s story, American generations are not always as elastic as our country as a whole. Older generations eschew the harried pace of the younger generations. The younger generations roll their eyes at the antiquated thinking and methodology of the older generations. Luckily there are always middle generations that referee and blend the generations together. Shadow is America as whole, but he is also the middle generation. Wonderfully, I also perceived that Shadow is not just any generation, he is Generation X.
A succinct Pew Research Center article conveyed, “Gen Xers are a low-slung, straight-line bridge between two noisy behemoths.” Now that isn’t terribly different of middle generations over the span of human history, as the article points out; but, Gen Xers are wedged between two generations revered and dissected. Like Shadow, Gen Xers are rarely celebrated, yet at the center of all the brouhaha. Perhaps Generation X, like Shadow, is the eye of the storm, the calm spot. This too fits with what the Pew article says about Generation X. When asked if our generation is more unique than others only half of us said yes. And we couldn’t quite sum up what made us different.
You’ve come this far with me, so let’s stretch just a little further. Generation X has hung upon the world tree, and we’ve absorbed the knowledge of the past and present. We can’t quite define how this makes us special, and we’re not sure we’ve kept everything we’ve learned, but we are definitely different. We’ve made sacrifices big and small to move forward. And even when we feel we’ve reached the end and have settled for nothing, we somehow keep coming back reinvigorated and ready to move forward.
Reading is so very exciting! Look how far my brain went, how many connections I made after reading just one excellent novel. It led me back to mythology favorites and forward to internet articles. It took me from a war between gods to Generation X. And these are just the thoughts I managed to force into cohesion. There are countless other fermenting somewhere in my mind.
Speaking of fermenting, the STARZ network is brewing up a television series featuring Shadow in American Gods. The Nerdist reports that Neil Gaiman is working with producers and will be writing some of the episodes. I am both hopeful and fearful. I have high hopes that the series will be a hit and have a long run. But I’m always fearful when a book or series I love is put to screen. The casting alone is rife with possible missteps.
My personal vision of Shadow is a guy who is a blend of Omari Hardwick, Vin Diesel, and Jason Momoa. Because that’s not a tall order at all, right? In all seriousness though, I truly hope they find someone who isn’t already a big star. Shadow is a bit of a blank slate at the beginning of our story. It would be nice to have an actor who is as well.
As to blank slates, I think I’m blank for the moment. I seem to have reached the end of this picaresque perusal. I’ve even managed, like Shadow, to end with a beginning. TTFN!
I was frustrated by my inability to corral my galloping thoughts about this novel, so I decided to visit Gaiman’s site. I rarely do this, as I’m easily distracted or derailed by other people’s thoughts and insights. I prefer to plumb my own depths before I introduce myself to another’s. It’s less hubris and more an acknowledgment of my inability to stay focused on any one thing for any length of time. Thoughts and impressions are ephemeral and it’s too easy to lose them to the onslaught of external stimuli.
On his site, a letter describing “a weird sprawling picaresque epic, which starts out relatively small and gets larger” provided the psychological implosion necessary to draw all my thoughts together so they could flow outward in an orderly way. And reminded me, not so coincidentally, we sometimes must stop throwing ourselves against the altar of singular perspective to unlock our minds.
Picaresque novels are epic, labyrinthine, satirical journeys of lowborn adventurers striving to survive as they move through the panoply of geographical and social settings. This is similar, in process, to a Bildungsroman, but more often viewed as the realistic counterpoint to medieval romances. Another way to sum it up is the journey of every/any man through the many truths of life. Viewing the picaresque in this way is how my mind was able to pull the idea of traveling from ignorance to wisdom from the jumble of my thoughts. From there I finally had a recognizable path.
It took me a while to connect with this novel. In retrospect, I think my sporadic yet enduring study of mythology, religion, and philosophy trapped me in existing paradigms. To understand the new paradigm, I had to place myself in the story in different roles. Shadow was the hardest character for me. Shadow’s frequent acquiescence put me off and confused me. His willingness to just “go with the flow” was aggravating in the extreme. I wanted him to be smarter and stronger than he seemed.
Then I finally began to perceive his journey. I realized in increments that he wasn’t acceding, he was flowing as he journeyed and became wiser. My patience was duly rewarded when Shadow performed the vigil for Wednesday and hung upon the world tree. Although his reasons are muddied by the contract he signed with Wednesday, Shadow ultimately performs this right of sacrifice for himself.
And like Odin he is rewarded with knowledge and wisdom.
All the pieces of his journey flow through his trials as he hangs upon the tree. He realizes truths that were hidden by his apprehension; he finds answers to nagging questions; and faces the parts of himself buried in guilt and shame. In the end he lets it all go and embraces nothing. But as another character tells Shadow, there are no endings, not even for one who has given up everything and accepted nothing. Shadow is pulled back from nothing, he is resurrected and reborn.
Rebirth means growth, and a shift in everything that was before. Shadow insists he lost most of what he gained while hanging on the world tree, but he was “fertilized and became wiser” like Odin in Hávamál from the Poetic Edda. This richness and wisdom showed itself in the culminating moments of the novel. He is something and someone new. Unsure of his future, yet rejuvenated, he strikes out on a new path.
I know I am being achingly vague; but, I can’t really discuss more without inserting major spoilers for those who haven’t read the novel yet.
Life is labyrinthine in nature. We are born with only instinct, everything else is acquired through exposure to our environment, the people within it, and the paradigms that shape both. Much of our journey, in living, can be described as wandering interspersed with epochs of emotion or insight. And great successes are often bought with personal sacrifice of some sort. This process is even more tumultuous in American life, because we are an effervescent nation. We are unrepressed, elastic and transitory. We are always moving forward, always evolving. Like Shadow we journey, die and are reborn, a new incarnation of America.
Like the gods in Gaiman’s story, American generations are not always as elastic as our country as a whole. Older generations eschew the harried pace of the younger generations. The younger generations roll their eyes at the antiquated thinking and methodology of the older generations. Luckily there are always middle generations that referee and blend the generations together. Shadow is America as whole, but he is also the middle generation. Wonderfully, I also perceived that Shadow is not just any generation, he is Generation X.
A succinct Pew Research Center article conveyed, “Gen Xers are a low-slung, straight-line bridge between two noisy behemoths.” Now that isn’t terribly different of middle generations over the span of human history, as the article points out; but, Gen Xers are wedged between two generations revered and dissected. Like Shadow, Gen Xers are rarely celebrated, yet at the center of all the brouhaha. Perhaps Generation X, like Shadow, is the eye of the storm, the calm spot. This too fits with what the Pew article says about Generation X. When asked if our generation is more unique than others only half of us said yes. And we couldn’t quite sum up what made us different.
You’ve come this far with me, so let’s stretch just a little further. Generation X has hung upon the world tree, and we’ve absorbed the knowledge of the past and present. We can’t quite define how this makes us special, and we’re not sure we’ve kept everything we’ve learned, but we are definitely different. We’ve made sacrifices big and small to move forward. And even when we feel we’ve reached the end and have settled for nothing, we somehow keep coming back reinvigorated and ready to move forward.
Reading is so very exciting! Look how far my brain went, how many connections I made after reading just one excellent novel. It led me back to mythology favorites and forward to internet articles. It took me from a war between gods to Generation X. And these are just the thoughts I managed to force into cohesion. There are countless other fermenting somewhere in my mind.
Speaking of fermenting, the STARZ network is brewing up a television series featuring Shadow in American Gods. The Nerdist reports that Neil Gaiman is working with producers and will be writing some of the episodes. I am both hopeful and fearful. I have high hopes that the series will be a hit and have a long run. But I’m always fearful when a book or series I love is put to screen. The casting alone is rife with possible missteps.
My personal vision of Shadow is a guy who is a blend of Omari Hardwick, Vin Diesel, and Jason Momoa. Because that’s not a tall order at all, right? In all seriousness though, I truly hope they find someone who isn’t already a big star. Shadow is a bit of a blank slate at the beginning of our story. It would be nice to have an actor who is as well.
As to blank slates, I think I’m blank for the moment. I seem to have reached the end of this picaresque perusal. I’ve even managed, like Shadow, to end with a beginning. TTFN!
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
I found this great new tool(toy)that lets me gather little "pearls" from all over the web. The pearls can be text websites, music videos, social network pages, etc. If I'm exploring a topic, I can organize these pearls into a visual map called a pearltree. One of the great things about these trees is that they are adjustable. That means I can reorganize whenever and however I like.
My first pearltree begins with the novel The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It's madly popular, has been made into a soon to be released movie, and has been a muse for many artists ,activists and fans. This novel is on a list of Bildungsroman novels I am compiling, so creating the pearl tree was both fun and functional.
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