LA Times (July 9)
In the Greek debate both sides are ultimately “fired by unwavering devotion to an abstract ideal, the real costs be damned. But if ancient tragedy has any lesson to offer, it is that an all too real tragedy in the making might be avoided by putting responsibility before blind ideology, asking not whether the end justifies the means but whether the means justify the end.”
Tags: Abstract ideal, Devotion, End, Greek, Ideology, Means, Real costs, Responsibility, Tragedy
Wall Street Journal (July 15)
“India’s state-run telephone company delivered its last telegram on Sunday. We are told an era is ending, as if mankind’s desire to communicate isn’t ageless.” For 163 years, telegrams served a purpose in India, but e-mail, SMS and Twitter are increasingly filling the need. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had been losing approximately $23 million annually on telegrams since volume dropped to 5,000 daily “from 160,000-odd before smart phones and email.” In the U.S., Western Union eliminated telegrams in 2006 for similar reasons. Ironically, the short Twitter format of “140 characters pushes the limits of verbosity in a telegram,” but of course at greater speed and zero cost.
Tags: Cost, E-mail, End, Era, India, Smart phones, SMS, Speed, Telegram, Telephone, Twitter, U.S., Volume, Western Union
