I've been thinking for a while about my online services. It started, as so many of my recent online adventures have, with a post from Kev Quirk alerting me to his latest initiative: the 512k club. I have been interested in a greener and lighter world wide web for sometime, and have written about my attempts to improve the weight of this site. This initiative was right up my alley. But it also got me thinking about my online identities and where my services are hosted.
Well, I have reached the end of the 100daystooffload.com challenge and the numbers are as follows:
Second last day for the 100daystooffload.com challenge and I continue to contemplate 'what's next.' Which is both technical and philosophical. Time for a contribution manifesto, me thinks.
For the better part of 400 years, the production of art in France was largely controlled by artistic academies. With the first official academy being the Académie Française (“French Academy”), founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu. A key element of academy life was the copying of old masters.
The history of the world, for a long time, was the history of great people. Mostly great men. It focused on singular individuals and seldom mentioned common people. Preferring to recount historical events from the perspective of leaders.
I went up to the hillside and took a panorama view of the city and found the whole city on fire. – Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Japanese Methodist minister.
The devastation that unfolded in the seconds following the explosion in Beirut has been likened to an atomic bomb. The timing of the analogy is striking as #onthisday in 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
It's the final count down. Five days to go and I will have completed the #100DaysToOffload challenge in 100 days. I'll save the wrap up for day 100, but today I thought I would ruminate on 'what's next?'
I read Doug Belshaw's article today on [Lies and misinformation](https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2020/08/03/lies-misinformation/) and it got me to musing on what could be termed the 'necessary groundwork' for people to fall prey to lies and misinformation. Namely, the ability to ignore.
August 16th 1665 It was dark before I could get home; and so land at church-yard stairs, where to my great trouble I met a dead Corps, of the plague, in the narrow ally, just bringing down a little pair of stairs – but I thank God I was not much disturbed at it. However, I shall beware of being late abroad again. – Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703)
J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) was growing up, and remains to this day, one of my favourite artists. He painted, printed and drew prodigiously, leaving to posterity a collection of more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours and 30,000 works on paper.