Inside Bearleft.net
Best Of BearLeft.net
A Cry Heard Round The World: Kim Sun-Il died desperate and alone, but he did not die unheard.
Looking At And Longing For Mars: Reflections on a childhood dream.
A Robot May Not Harm a Human Being. Is The Opposite True?: Thoughts on the future rights of artificial intelligence.
Long After The Boys Of Summer Have Gone: What makes a relationship work?
Winter Of Our Feline Discontent: What the cat wants, the cat gets. But what DOES it want?
To Tell The Truth: There may be no honor among thieves, but can't we find it even in a few good men and women?
Should The Human Brain Retire?: We know that we cannot win forever. We know that machines will continue to improve. So why don't we let the human brain retire gracefully now, with honors?
Translate This Page
Read Bear Left in:
Chinese
German
Japanese
Korean
French
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Translations powered by Alta Vista Babelfish
Privacy Policy
To learn how services incorporated into this blog may use personal information, click here.
Total entries in this blog:
Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:41 PM
Tue - April 1, 2003
What is this web site all about?
Bear
Left On Unnamed Road is an assortment of columns, journals, articles,
photographs, and multimedia links on topics that interest me for one reason or
another and that I thought might interest someone else. The web site is updated
when the spirit moves me—which is typically several times a
week.
Lots of bloggers write about a single topic, such as politics, and many do so very well. I respect that approach, but it isn't for me. What I bring to the table isn't encyclopedic knowledge or single-minded devotion to a cause but a collection of broad and diverse interests, unified by my fascination with human psychology and with how technology and science break down barriers, foster new online communities, and challenge traditional rules and stereotypes.
You'll find essays here about about my life and about technology. I'll link to articles on, or write about, political or social issues. If you skim my posts, you'll find quite a few predicting the future of science and how it may change the world. You'll also find posts about my life and my cat. It's that kind of place.
Lest you think all is chaos, you should know that I make an effort to follow a few rules of engagement:
1. I post regularly—usually, at least a few times a week.
2. I don't write about the minutiae of my life ("Darned those red socks again today!") unless I fantasize that they demonstrate something worth thinking about. I also usually write posts in the form of short essays, rather than links. When I do link, I try to add something new or useful to what I find.
3. I respect contrary opinions and offer multiple ways for readers to express them.
4. I try to make the site design easy to navigate. For example, the left hand column on the front page is all about Bear Left: My favorite posts, my reader guest book, and so on. The right hand column concerns my favorite sites and things that piqued my interest elsewhere. Because I know almost no HTML or CSS, designing the site has meant thumbing through books and reverse engineering the source code of other people—but I trust my instincts and bring my modest journalism background to bear where it helps. The site was created on a Macintosh and looks slightly different on other computing platforms.
5. I do my best to give back to the blogosphere. By this I mean that whenever I find a new and interesting blog, I add it to my "New Blog Discoveries" list for a week or so to help new bloggers find an audience or to honor an established blogger whose work I've recently come to admire. A few bloggers linked to me when I first started out and could repay their kindness only with thanks; I try to remember and honor that debt.
6. I treat my topics seriously, but I don't take myself seriously. This is a personal web site, not the product of my journey to linguistic Sinai. Not only am I imperfect, but I may be wildly wrong about what I say. I may even change my mind from time to time.
7. Every opinion that I express here is purely my own. Unless I say otherwise, what I write does not purport to represent the beliefs of any other person or entity living or dead, real or created, vegetable or mineral. Likewise, the comments written by site visitors or posted on web sites that I link to are solely the work of their authors. I may or may not agree with them.
So there you have it. These principles may not be the Ten Commandments, but I've found them a reliable way to keep this site moving in a uniform direction, even when we're traveling together down some unnamed road. I hope you'll become a frequent visitor!
Lots of bloggers write about a single topic, such as politics, and many do so very well. I respect that approach, but it isn't for me. What I bring to the table isn't encyclopedic knowledge or single-minded devotion to a cause but a collection of broad and diverse interests, unified by my fascination with human psychology and with how technology and science break down barriers, foster new online communities, and challenge traditional rules and stereotypes.
You'll find essays here about about my life and about technology. I'll link to articles on, or write about, political or social issues. If you skim my posts, you'll find quite a few predicting the future of science and how it may change the world. You'll also find posts about my life and my cat. It's that kind of place.
Lest you think all is chaos, you should know that I make an effort to follow a few rules of engagement:
1. I post regularly—usually, at least a few times a week.
2. I don't write about the minutiae of my life ("Darned those red socks again today!") unless I fantasize that they demonstrate something worth thinking about. I also usually write posts in the form of short essays, rather than links. When I do link, I try to add something new or useful to what I find.
3. I respect contrary opinions and offer multiple ways for readers to express them.
4. I try to make the site design easy to navigate. For example, the left hand column on the front page is all about Bear Left: My favorite posts, my reader guest book, and so on. The right hand column concerns my favorite sites and things that piqued my interest elsewhere. Because I know almost no HTML or CSS, designing the site has meant thumbing through books and reverse engineering the source code of other people—but I trust my instincts and bring my modest journalism background to bear where it helps. The site was created on a Macintosh and looks slightly different on other computing platforms.
5. I do my best to give back to the blogosphere. By this I mean that whenever I find a new and interesting blog, I add it to my "New Blog Discoveries" list for a week or so to help new bloggers find an audience or to honor an established blogger whose work I've recently come to admire. A few bloggers linked to me when I first started out and could repay their kindness only with thanks; I try to remember and honor that debt.
6. I treat my topics seriously, but I don't take myself seriously. This is a personal web site, not the product of my journey to linguistic Sinai. Not only am I imperfect, but I may be wildly wrong about what I say. I may even change my mind from time to time.
7. Every opinion that I express here is purely my own. Unless I say otherwise, what I write does not purport to represent the beliefs of any other person or entity living or dead, real or created, vegetable or mineral. Likewise, the comments written by site visitors or posted on web sites that I link to are solely the work of their authors. I may or may not agree with them.
So there you have it. These principles may not be the Ten Commandments, but I've found them a reliable way to keep this site moving in a uniform direction, even when we're traveling together down some unnamed road. I hope you'll become a frequent visitor!