I just skim the day's posts quickly, and either close the browser window, or zero in on something that makes me happy, like dhruva's latest. I totally ignore everything else. So much nicer that way.

In general, I have a World News page I check. No newspapers or TV. I stay fairly well informed that way.

As far as Metafilter...ditto what iconomy said.

There are still good posts/links to be found, but it takes a SMART skimming eye to discern them.

Today I had to open threads to see if there' was a reason to follow the linkage; mostly all I found was the teen-scene/testosterone festival.

I've been thinking about it. Dangerous, I know. Here's my convoluted, crappily explained theory:

MeFi set the bar for "finding cool stuff on the web". Like any trail blazing design, copycattitude proliferated. MeFi peeps thus became jealous that they are not the only finders of coolness. Even amongst themselves. Content suffers because of the preoccupation with credit/attention, subconscious or otherwise. The membership limitations early on amplified these attitudes (mores? don't know how to spell it or if it's even the right word here).

Sort of the same thing with bloggers and crediting a "source". Unless you created something yourself, do we really know the source, given multiple linkages (like it's at /. and fark and so-and-so's blog and MeFi and...) and simultaneous findings?

But yeah, fff, ignorance does seem peaceful!

it sure is early...

I know my heart would be healthier for ignorance. OTOH, the career I intend to pursue demands knowledge, understanding and analysis of local, national, continental and international events.

For many, though, ignorance already is a safe haven. Examine your personal lives, does your life significantly change from one president to the next or one prime minister to the next?

Go ahead and try to immerse yourself in ignorance of the news. No, I am not trying to degrade the attitude by the word 'ignorance', but no other word suffices. Delete MeFi and every other source of news from your bookmarks, websites, blogs and wherever else online you may have them stashed. Turn off your televisions. Cancel your newspapers. Hide your radios in the closet.

Now, go buy a half dozen books you have been promising yourself to read, and do not even think of news until you have read every one of those books. OK, four days later, go out and buy six more books. Do this for at least two weeks, and appraise how you feel.

I did this for six weeks, and when I returned to reading news again, I found I hadn't missed much. For me, the experience was like skipping a few weeks of a soap opera. Life had moved on without me, but I could catch up in little or no time.

More importantly, however, I learned what type of news IS important to me, and what news is noise. I realized how liberally biased many news sources truly are, CNN in particular. I arrived at many other conclusions concerning news as I view it from my personal perspective.

Give it a try. This is as good a period as any to just let it go. If any one else is indicted, the trial will not begin for at least a year. Shrub and co. will still be on the hot seat for prisoner abuse. Blair may get booted out of office, but for any prime minister, that is an inevitability. Someone will be murdered, someone else will be molested.

So, go! Take a vacation from it all! Enjoy yourself, enjoy your life! Once you have yourself recharged, I promise that when you return, the whole fucking mess will still be here.

This past Saturday a good friend of mine was killed in a hunting accident. I found out about it Tuesday morning. I intend to remain completely ignorant of the specifics of the accident.

He left a wife and two baby boys, who are coping, and made everyone around him feel like they were having the best time of their lives.

I remember when I first met him (he was friends with my older brother through work) I felt proud of my brother that he'd made friends with such a good guy.

I'm not gonna get very in-depth here, and I probably won't even hit post, but I'm really fucking sad right now. I feel like I went through a plate glass window.

I don't want to make MeCha depressing as well, so I've been reluctant to rain on anyone's parade this week; not to mention outpourings of sympathy and grief advice embarrass me. But you asked the right question, five fresh fish, and I appreciate your giving me a chance to be so blue.

Keep all the sweet things in mind; they leave the best aftertaste.

Wow Hugh, I am so sorry brother. There's nothing I can say.

I think I would really like ignorance of the problems of the world especially, it seems perfect. I have a running fantasy of a little island in a lake somewhere in New Hampshire with a little cabin and a canoe and six or seven milk crates of books. This carries me through many a tedious moment (all planning what kind of stove I would need, how many cans of beans) when I can't read or listen to music. So I guess I suspect, for me, it would be ideal for quite a while and then I would hate it, especially the isolation (because to avoid the news you have to avoid the people). In the meantime I will just have to simulate ingnorance.


hj- very very sorry about that brother, my friend just lost his dad, there are really never useful words... do what you can for his family, which will help...

I think it's more important to pay attention to your own life and environment. Change starts at home.

I keep myself pretty ignorant. I don't get the paper anymore, I don't have a TV - I find that if things are really important I'll hear about them somehow. Turns out I can get by just fine without knowing about the latest murder/rape/disemboweling/celebrity. And if it looks bad on Mefi I just don't go there; instead I go to MeTa, where the vast outpourings of rancid milk of human kindness can always cheer me up. I love MeTa so; it never fails to make me laugh.

And eventually I'll retire to the book lined cave in Tibet that I've been imagining for years.

I barf constantly.

Damn, Hugh, I'm so sorry to hear it.

Examine your personal lives, does your life significantly change from one president to the next or one prime minister to the next?
Are you kidding? Two wars later, I'd have to say the answer is yes.

Hugh, that's horrible. I'm so sorry.

I don't like not knowing what's going on. If we go camping or vacation somewhere remote, I get a little freaked out being deprived of news.

Two wars later, I'd have to say the answer is yes.

Really? How has your day-to-day life changed due to change of executive?

Really? How has your day-to-day life changed due to change of executive?

Well, every educator in my family is getting screwed due to the "No Child Left Behind" act. The military families are all going through hell worried about deployed/soon to be deployed loved ones. My inlaws are even more convinced that the Kerry sign we had in our front yard last year means that we don't love America or Jesus and are therefore horribly hell-bound sinners. I could go on and on...

((((hugh))))

So, jrossi, the only change in your own personal life because of Bush is your in-laws think you're nuts.

Happy News.

"Real news. Compelling stories. Always positive."

Check it out.

Nah, mischief, they've always thought I was crazy. But it wasn't until this "If you're not with us, you're against us' stuff that they started thinking I was evil.