WEBSITE MANIA
How much stuff can you squish into limited space and time?
Why do I even bother?

My cousin always sends me odd cultural or social information. He thinks I am very provincial, and that my lack of sophistication makes it necessary for him to “educate” me.

Last month it was a Belgian girls’ choir singing metal and new music, this week a weird and perhaps telling archive of popular culture. He sent me web links to the most important websites. They reflect popular culture.  The first is Dan Orama. It contains the comprehensive website, club video history and manic musings of Dan who is the Diva Website maker.  Apparently he is the webmeister to Madonna, Cher and many other iconic figures.He is also an expert on 60’s pop culture. He started out normally enough, and now has morphed into a multi media, multiple personality weird guy.  His exceptional talent is treating old video and new video clips with the most bizarre music and even stranger pup culture references. You can review Dan Orama at http://www.danoramaproductions.com/danorama.html. Make sure you take a look at his tribute to sixties TV and movies.There are even some seventies Loveboat references.

The second site of interest is the Globalization and the Human Condition site where you can sign up for a monthly newsletter.
Find this site at http://globalization.mcmaster.ca/.

Thirdly, the UN “aging” site has hundreds of scholarly articles on this subject including global management of ageing populations.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/

You’ll find tips on the global warming/earth day page that can assist us in conserving the good and eradicating the bad characteristics of our daily behaviours.
http://www.earthday.ca/pub/resources/top10.php

The final site is devoted to futurists and futurism. The new frontier of futurism doesn’t differ that radically from futurists past, except that they can express with more stark detail probable outcomes, well documented by Ogden, Toffler et al.
http://www.futurism.org.uk/futurism.htm

I am tryng to adapt to a changing world where din passes for music, gourmandizing passes for eating and short, aggressive bursts of information replace the thoughtful, assimilative learning we once enjoyed.  The muscular messages of “get what you want” and “you don’t get what you want unless you buy “this” are blended into a cocktail of non-choice. After all, if you don’t get what other people think you should get, you are NOT trying hard enough.

Alvin Toffler expresses the 21st century human condition, and perhaps my quandary in this way:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” 
Alvin Toffler