Category Archives: technology

Facebook: What’s the word for this?

Posted on April 13, 2018 by cheapskateintellectual

“Is Facebook a monopoly?” is and is not the right question to ask. Here’s why. Watching a batter-up rotation of senators take turns at questioning Mark Zuckerberg this week, and listening to the public response to the unfolding spectacle, shows … Continue reading →

Posted in corporations, culture, politics, technology | 2 Comments

IPhone consciousness.

Posted on June 15, 2017 by cheapskateintellectual

Longtime Cheapskate readers, brace yourselves (or y’all’s selves) and check the temperature in hell: I’ve got a smartphone. An IPhone 7, safely encased in a red LifeProof jacket with a dorsal stripe of turquoise (exactly like my front door; the … Continue reading →

Posted in attention, technology | 1 Comment

Moving the house.

Posted on November 12, 2016 by cheapskateintellectual

On the morning of November 9, 2016, I walked out of my front door into a world I wasn’t sure I’d recognize.  It was the warmest November ever, but with just enough nip to the air to remind us it … Continue reading →

Posted in community, conservation, culture, frac-sand mining, home, politics, resilience, technology | 2 Comments

Putting our hands on it.

Posted on February 19, 2016 by cheapskateintellectual

Today in Internet horror: rare Argentine dolphin dies after being passed around by a selfie-taking crowd. Sticky and sandy and dry and eager, eager, seeking hands, all over that moist skin, sucking its moisture away in curiosity or excitement or … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, conservation, spirit, technology | Leave a comment

Ownlife vs. Internet?

Posted on November 15, 2014 by cheapskateintellectual

“…at the same time I felt so strongly the pull of another thing, a thing having to do with music, freedom, the future, individuality.  This is an important reason why I became a writer, I think, for in everything I … Continue reading →

Posted in attention, corporations, technology | 3 Comments

Harpooning the comet.

Posted on November 13, 2014 by cheapskateintellectual

Struggling to absorb the wondrousness of Philae, the observatory device shot into space this week to stick to and photograph a comet, I can only fasten on the verb: harpooning.  It’s a suitable invocation of an attempt to fasten ourselves … Continue reading →

Posted in attention, mystery, technology | 3 Comments

Yo, Thoreau.

Posted on June 23, 2014 by cheapskateintellectual

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that … Continue reading →

Posted in attention, conservation, politics, self-reliance, technology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The twentysomething brain (and beyond.)

Posted on January 20, 2014 by cheapskateintellectual

(from my manuscript-in-progress) Significantly, Buddhists call looking at an object or emotion steadily for some time and processing the emotions that arise “sustaining the gaze.”  The ability to “sustain the gaze” without distraction from within or without is the ability … Continue reading →

Posted in attention, home, money, resilience, stuff, technology | 6 Comments

The second disruptor: an open letter to our college’s president on the “digitization of learning.”

Posted on September 30, 2013 by cheapskateintellectual

September 30, 2013 An Open Letter to Our College President on the Digitization of Learning From The Cheapskate Intellectual Dear President, Thank you for being a thoughtful leader and serious colleague who has invited us to wrestle with the challenges … Continue reading →

Posted in community, corporations, politics, teaching, technology | 6 Comments

MOOCs in Citizenville.

Posted on June 20, 2013 by cheapskateintellectual

What happens when you use technology to “serve people” by taking people and their physical presence in particular places – and thus their sense of responsibility and relationship to one another and to that place – out of the picture … Continue reading →

Posted in community, corporations, politics, teaching, technology | 1 Comment