JMO - Too Much News

We're in the age of communications. Ok, that's a "Duh!" statement, and we know it's been on-going for the last 25+ years as technology has improved from satellite communications and all its spinoffs to the media. I can now get newspapers overnight from almost every major world and US city. I can buy the New York Times and Wall Street Journal or have it delivered to my door. And the on-line news sources are simply mind boggling, updating every 15 minutes. It's a world in continuous real-time.

But somehow I feel it's getting out of hand, too much too fast for the mind to begin to comprehend. So, have we exceeded the point people absorb and understand to a sufficient point to make good decisions? And the opposite, or have we been immune from the events of the world that the news never became available? And we've reached the point where all the events of the world are simultaneously happening and available to us to see?

And I just got this concept? Wow, I'm quick. Not even close. I was reading the Sunday New York Times, which I look at every page and read many of the articles. But I realized the whole enormity of the articles about the world, along with the often divergent ads, such as selling expensive products next to stories of proverty or disasters in third world nations. But here's the list of articles.

F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets
Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find New Help
At Street Level, Unmet Goals in Iraq
A Fugitive Political Fund-Raiser Leaves a Shadowy Money Trail
Hagel Will Retire from Senate in '09
In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama
Cuba, a Rebel Group's Birthplace, Becomes a Refuge
Sierra Leone Hold Presidential Runoff
Mali's Farmers Discover a Weed's Potential Power
Thousands Celebrate Pavarotti's Art and Humanity
Qaddafi in Darfur Role, U.N. Chief Says
Pope Lauds Austria Catholics for Faith in a Secular Society
Suicide Attacks Rising Sharply in Afghanistan
Bomb Leaves 28 Dead in Algeria
Bomb Kills 15 in Shiite Area of Baghdad
Bush Irks Australians, but They Can't Look Away
Pacific Rim Nations Agree on Global Warming, Without Targets
With Signs of Resistance Continuing, Myanmar Offers Rare Concessions
Taking the Guilt Out of the Death Penalty
Forewarned but Angry, Florida Democrats Weigh Primary Penalty
Storm Heads to Carolinas, Prompting Warnings
Suspect in Phoenix Killings is Convicted in Sexual Assaults
Laura Bush Has Surgery for Pinched Nerve
California's Ambitious Health Plan Stalls
Sinking Kansas Town Will Fill Old Mines
Thompson Linked to Work for Libyans
For Mexican Trucks, a Road into the U.S.
Catching up on True Tales of the Summer
Financial District Reborn as Affluent Bedroom Community
Sounding the Alarm About New York's Lifeguards
Fugitive Scandal May Pose a Hurdle for New School

And that was pages A-1 to A-32, with the ads, obituraries, etc.

It make me wonder how to make sense of it all and where it all fits into the world, the nation, my locality, and my own life. And if you want to learn and know more, you have to read even more. Everything has a history and has been written extensively about. So to really understand, you have to read an order of magnitude more simply to put it all in perspective this day in time in the world.

And that was only section one of the entire Sunday paper too, all 404 pages cover to cover, magazines included. It's why I only scan every page and read the interesting articles. And add to that I can get all this sent to me via e-mail too along with forums, bulletins boards, blogs and various other Web pages. And to your Web phone too.

It's why I don't subscribe to anything on-line - well, a few selected news sources - and buy the real paper versions to read on the table with the sunshine coming through the window and a cup of coffee on the side next to the scissors and notepad. It's the way I deal with the world.