The University of Twitter: a short course in Political Philosophy in 7 parts by Alain de Botton

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Blog favorite Alain de Botton (have you met Alain?) recently held a crash course in Political Philosophy via seven tweets:

1: Plato: We should be ruled not by leaders chosen by a majority, but by those who are most intelligent.

2. St Augustine: We should not try to build paradise on earth. Aim for tolerable government, true government only possible in the next life.

3. Machiavelli: Politician must choose between serving the interests of country and the interests of Christian morality. Can’t have both.

4. Hobbes: Rulers not appointed by God, but by people and if they can’t guarantee their security, they can be legitimately kicked out.

5. Smith: The market cannot alone create a moral community. Civil society must nudge capitalists to be good through emulation and honours.

6. Karl Marx: The ‘profit’ of a capitalist is in essence theft, the stolen life and labour of the proletariat.

7. J.S. Mill: Governments should not tell people how to live, they should give them the preconditions to make their own choices.

 

To learn more about Alain de Botton: web, wiki, facebook, twitter

Some of his books:
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage)
How Proust Can Change Your Life
Status Anxiety
The Consolations of Philosophy

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Google Launches Messages for Japan Helping Us Support The Country Financially, Logistically and Emotionally

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One month ago, a massive 9.0 earthquake and one of the worst tsunamis in history struck northeastern Japan. Many people in the most impacted areas still have immediate needs for shelter and supplies, and we’re continuing to help by maintaining the Crisis Response page and building tools and resources related to the disaster.

Since the crisis, people around the world have sent countless messages of hope and support to the people of Japan. Some of them showed sympathy for the victims. Others encouraged us to look forward. Reading these messages—many of them in English—you can’t help but feel the support coming from around the world. But we wished more people in Japan could hear from these supporters and feel that same sense of hope—even if the senders spoke another language.

So we had an idea: a site where people around the world could input messages for Japan in their own languages and have them automatically translated into Japanese while raising funds to help Japan. And today, we’re pleased to share messagesforjapan.com. On the site, you can submit messages and have them automatically translated to Japanese by Google Translate. Of course, people who speak Japanese can also post messages in Japanese if they’d like. You can see messages on the world map, browse them in their original language or in Japanese and donate to the rebuilding effort. We’re planning to deliver some of these messages to people in Japan via offline media as well.

In 1995, I was a volunteer in the disaster area following the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, Japan. After the craziness of first few weeks, I realized just how long it takes to recover from a disaster, and how important is it to rebuild not just the affected cities and towns but also people’s spirits. With this recent crisis, there’s no doubt that we have a long way to go. We hope that these messages from around the world will provide inspiration to the people of Japan as we face this challenge, and that the donations raised through this site and others will help the country on its road to rebuilding.

A final note: Donations raised via the Crisis Response page have exceeded five million dollars so far. We truly appreciate your contributions and thank you for your continued support.

via googleblog.blogspot.com

Beyond all the technology and talk of open source and Android and search and AdWords it must be said that teams at Google consistently and quickly create ground-breaking services that empower us to connect and help each other when we need it most.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

The Week's Links (4/10/11)

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All the links posted to Facebook and Twitter (@smartercreative) this week:

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

What We Learned This Week

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• Atari released a greatest hits app with 100 classic games for iOS. Though some of the games may not necessarily translate very well to a touch interface, for a generation, myself included, these games were part of the reason we fell in love with technology. 

• After using the iPad 2 for a while, the original iPad feels heavy and slow. How quickly we forget.

• Merlin Mann is scared, but he loves it.  

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Born To Create Drama: The Young Director Award Promo Videos

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The short films created to promote the Young Director Award are packed full of drama, humor and fantastic storytelling. 

Here is the 2009 spot:



Here is last year's spot: 

Here is this year's spot:

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.