Saturday, October 4, 2008

Darwin's Free Press

Welcome all. It looks like I've found my own little corner here to showcase my efforts as a digital preservationist and kick some culture in the process. Some of you may know me from other places on the interwebs - welcome to my blog! Simply put - I love to scan and I believe in the popular preservation of our printed culture. Preservation means capturing the scarcer, more delicate, and forgotten parts of our printed culture but also pondering their nature. I'll be bringing in a portion of my older scans as I get the time, but I'm all about what's next and a handful of ongoing projects. Right now, my main concern is kick-starting some preservation of the underground/free press papers of the 60s and 70s. These are documents of a peculiar time of turmoil, and a digital library of these papers will make an amazing resource for examination of what seems to be often referred to as The Movement. I have scanned a good number of these papers and will be posting them in the days to come as well as posting new entries. My goal is to get a wide survey of papers from all over the country and ranging in time from their birth to their demise. My personal interest in these papers is largely as a type of media outside of normal bounds. As the number of newspapers shrink and our mass media becomes more and more conglomerated, I am interested in new forms of media that operate outside of corporate or economic channels. What is the future of the people's media? What might it look like? What are it's strengths and limitations? Can this blogosphere touch lives and change society or is it just so much white noise? Stay tuned, perhaps we will find out.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"I appreciate when the media attempts to see war through the eyes of the people experiencing it but am also disconcerted by the championing of Mao, Castro, etc. in these papers. A lot of these writers would later come round to more complex views of the Cuban government and China's abuse of human rights, etc. but there's a correctness in these papers that doesn't offer much criticism of these countries." - Darwination

Hi, Darwination. This is Tars!

Castro is far from perfect, but to his credit, Cuba under Castro beats the US in some important social statistics.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/cu.html

Infant mortality rate:
total: 5.93 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 6.64 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.8%
male: 99.8%
female: 99.8% (2002 census)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.27 years
male: 75.02 years
female: 79.64 years (2008 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 16 years
male: 15 years
female: 17 years (2006)

Education expenditures:
9.1% of GDP (2006)

Compared to US:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html

Infant mortality rate:
total: 6.3 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 6.95 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.62 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.14 years
male: 75.29 years
female: 81.13 years (2008 est.)

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 16 years
male: 15 years
female: 16 years (2006)
Education expenditures:
5.3% of GDP (2005)

Castro's Cuba wins on infant mortality rate, literacy, school life expectancy, and education expenditures as % of GDP!!!

Moreover, Castro supported ANC when US was supporting the apartheid regime, etc.

Compared to US presidents of my lifetime, IMO Castro is a greater/better man than any of them -- Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, or Bush.

All these US presidents have aided and abetted the Jews in their theft of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
Thru Nixon/Ford, they conducted military invasion and unjustified war on the IndoChinese peoples, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodians.
Moreover US intervention in Cambodia (putting Lon Nol in power) CAUSED the Killing Fields, and the Vietnamese communists ENDED the Killing Fields.
US overthrew the Guatemala Arbenz government causing Killings Fields there.
US overthrew the Iran Mossedeq government and instituted the Shah's SAVAK torture 'police'.
US assassinated Lumumba in Congo.
US supported apartheid government in South Africa.
US (Reagan) supported Marcos against democracy.
US supported overthrow of Chile government.
US (Carter and Reagan) supported the El Salvadoran death squad nun-raping-and-killing government.
US mined harbors of Nicaragua (killing a Dutch sailor) and armed and aided the Contras.
Etc. Etc. Etc.

I'll probably comment more on your "Darwin's Free Press" post later...

Thanx for all the GREAT scans!

Best!
Tars

Tim said...

OK I see all blog and I say GOOD WORK :)