maquillage du blog

Overdue part deux of post-downer recovery from doing the digital for the public weal. It is not enough to change editorial course or resume a previous one, ever bearing in mind that the very notion of any kind of heading is contrary to the principles of  flânerie. Whether nostos or heading off in an entirely new direction, one must also look different. Appearance and costume matter. Nothing quite like remodeling or a face lift for a psychic pick-me-up. Can't afford either, so it's just as well the inclination is lacking in other spheres. Electronically, enter new templates and features for blog makeovers. Maquillage... in art and flânerie.

I've been redecorating the rest of my personal blogosphere. Design choices range from elegant to clean lined simplicity, a green grass, blue skies evocative of picnics under a summer sky or dignified without being stuffy.

global e-flânerie

reposted from Omnivore, Book Forum's splendid blog of links briefly annotated and grouped thematically, adding up to 

A proper philosophy of globalization

From Synthesis Philosophica, Zagorka Golubovic (Belgrade): Philosophical Principles as a Foundation of the Concept of Globalisation; Arto Mutanen (Lappeenranta): About the Possibility of a Proper Philosophy of Globalization; Tomas Kacerauskas (VGTU): Discourse of Globalization: Bios, Techne, and Logos from the Phenomenological Point of View; Tomaz Grusovnik (Primorska): A Distant View: Globalization Inside Philosophy; Bela Mester (HAS): Space and Time in a Global World; Vojko Strahovnik (Ljubljana): Globalization, Globalized Ethics and Moral Theory; Mislav Kukoc (Spli): Liberal Philosophy and Globalization; Dragica Vujadinovic (Belgrade): Global Civil Society as Concept and Practice in the Processes of Globalization; and Gottfried Kuenzlen (UniBw): The Other Side of Globalisation: The New Power of Religion as a Cultural and Political Challenge. From the Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies, James Brassett (Warwick):Cosmopolitan Sentiments After 9-11: Trauma and the Politics of Vulnerability; Nick Srnicek (LSE): Conflict Networks: Collapsing the Global into the Local; Victoria Ridler (Birkbeck): Word and World: The Imperium of Reason and Possibility of Critique; and a roundtable discussion on Transnational Militancy in the 21st Century. Are nations going extinct? Our conception of what constitutes a "country" is deteriorating — say hello to post-national entities, "other guys" that stand outside of the dominant system. Beyond city limits: The age of nations is over — the new urban age has begun. A review of Tax Havens: How Globalization Really Works by Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy, and Christian Chavagneux. From Newsweek, a special section on the world's best countries. World's Happiest Countries: Bhutan started the gross national happiness trend, but here's what Gallup did with it. From Foreign Policy, an article on the geopolitics of Google Earth: It's not just for busting swimming pool cheats.

An Existential View of Personal Blogs in Cyberspace

Arash writes, "Without the reader, the blog would not exist." I blog therefore I am... or what? Is then the world a blog or vice versa?

Arash's World: The Author-Reader Relationship: An Existential View of Personal Blogs in Cyberspace

are we obsolete?

Selected links to articles and websites, thought provoking and entertaining. A brief sampler:

The ideals of inclusivity and diversity are losing ground in the general public. Joel Kotkin on the changing demographics of America.... Michael Lind on the fantasy of a vast upper middle class: College isn't for everyone, neither is the stock market.... From New Politics, what happened to the American working class? .... The richest few don't need the rest of us as markets, soldiers or police anymore.

Are the American people obsolete? - links from bookforum.com / omnivore

PS ~ when I get a handle on regular schedule, an appropriate if thinly veiled anonymization, apps to facilitate clipping for post content and the like, I'll saunter back into the public domain.

Media Matters