"put another way, today's ear of corn is 80% knowledge" -Thomas Stewart, Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations

today i'm liking the nascent simplicity of mister rogers' what do you do with the mad that you feel

it's always good to revisit the classics, the basics, the fundamentals, the predecessors, the road-pavers.  I mean say what you will, how corny it can sound, but Mister Rogers is an originator, a revolutionary in children's television who approached his show with an innocent creativity, and did so with very limited resources.  In light of last night's presidential debate and Mitt Romney's infamous promise to remove Big Bird from television, i find myself loving this PBS advocating video circulating the internet as a result.  It makes you respect Mister Rogers' genuineness and his evident dedication to understanding children's needs.  It kind of makes me long for days without facebook posts, chain e-mails, digital petition signings, and other kinds of lazy, homogenized activism.  Not to be a curmudgeon or an idealist, I love technology and innovation, but a side effect of the technology age is a lazy society, and you have to really get inspired by the days when people actually wrote up proposals, literally stood up, showed up, and intelligently presented to the government face to face, without any great monetary motivation or care of how it shows on their resume or how civil it makes their internet image appear, but simply an interest for the public education of humanity.

and today i'm liking the simplicity of mister rogers' song, "what do you do with the mad that you feel." Sometimes children just have the ability to articulate things with an innocent clarity that adults often lack.  it's a good question, and after last night's debate, I think it's an appropriate one.

 

in looking towards banned book week 2012

A great video from Bookman's (a small bookstore chain based in Arizona)

today i'm wishing peyton manning really said this

 "Each turnover has its own story that no one really wants to hear," Manning said afterward. He then paused, looked in every reporter's eyes, and said, "Actually, let's do this. Turnover one was a lonely girl with big dreams who wanted to escape the drudgery of life in her tiny Nebraska town. Her father was an undertaker, but she longed for more, so she joined a traveling circus. She found joy and she married a carnie, but late one drunken night she died while riding the zipper and they sent her body back to her father. INTERCEPTION. Turnover two was a lot like the boy in Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer." Poor kid, ragged people, bleeding winter, dead from boxing. INTERCEPTION. Turnover three was just a bad pass. WRONG. TRICKED YOU. Each turnover has a story, never forget that. Turnover three was the look my father gave me one October morning, age 8, when I said I wanted to become an artist. "I hate football, Daddy. I love paints and oils." Old Archie threw me in the back of our pickup truck, drove me out to the woods, and left me with nothing but a football for six days. It worked. I fell in love with that football and named it Godfrey. My artistic dreams died with the midnight howling of the wolves. INTERCEPTION. COME BACK, GODFREY. But Godfrey's gone."

source: grantland

actual events.. womp womp 

just because

What I'm reading today: Research Methods Knowledge Base

"A fallacy is an error in reasoning, usually based on making assumptions"  -William M.K. Trochim

today i'm reviewing the aids international conference and listening to hydeia broadbent

i was a little young and sheltered to remember all of the culture and media around the AIDS discovery of the 80's but i have found myself somewhat disgusted at how people address the virus in current times.  It's not in the news nearly as much as it should be, and when it is, there is very little mention of cures and not enough emphasis on simple education- it's all about treatment and drug development. People are complacent and even light-hearted about it anymore and it is not doing anybody any favors. 

And today, I listened to Hydeia Broadbent speak as a 28 year old who has survived AIDS for 25 years of her young life.  I listened to her still get emotional about everything the virus has taken from her and people she's known, and how hard the struggle is to live every day.  I listened to her echo my thoughts, going as far as to say that it is a scarier time now than it was in the early 90's because of people's willingness to step down from the challenge of eradicating the virus, to accept it as something light and treatable. 

Today I'm watching videos of Nordoff Robbins' work on the effects of music on people

Nordoff Robbins seeks to cultivate music therapy for people who are otherwise non-responsive, but when watching the videos, one of a woman with severe dementia and another with a low functioning autistic boy,  I felt their responses embody what music does to anybody.  As sentimental as it may be, I just felt what they are innocently expressing overtly is a good embodiment of what happens to most people connecting with music - only in their bedrooms, when nobody's home, and the lights are low. 


Jack from Nordoff Robbins on Vimeo.




Kath from Nordoff Robbins on Vimeo.

today i'm reading conversations from former high school classmates on the subject of race and Obama, but really just race.

I changed the names in some sort of attempt of not infringing on privacy, but it was already on Facebook, so I copied it word for word.  This may also be stealing, but today I was just so invested in following conversations that unfurled from two extremely intelligent individuals that I knew in a predominantly white, conservative environment.  Maybe it's different when race conversations of this level come from a personal experience, such as high school, as opposed to the disconnect of public media, however it is, the conversation I think is valuable and pertinent. 

Chad  shared a link.

June 14

the 2012 presidential election will be a referendum on race in america.

How Racist Are We? Ask Google

campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com

Research that compares the use of racially charged search terms with voting patterns suggests that Barack Obama's race lowers his chance of re-election.

Like · · Share

        Dan - I thought the 2008 election was supposed to be the referendum on race. Do we have to have a black president from here on out to prove America isn't racist?

        June 14 at 4:03pm · Like

        Chad - does the successive election of 44 white presidents prove that america is racist? your question is misleading, as it implies that the election of a black person to high office is proof that america is post-racial. america is in fact still very racist...so no, one more term in office isn't proof of anything to me.

        the only significant development in race relations between 2008-2012 is that the racially motivated animus towards obama - partly because of the economy, and partly because of the ubiquitous nature of racism in our country - is more deeply entrenched.

        June 14 at 7:01pm · Like

        Dan -so then 2012 isn't a referendum on race?

        June 14 at 9:39pm · Like

        Dan Other points..

        1) Obama is the 44th President. Does he not count as non-white now? It seems rather petty (read: racist) to say he's not "black enough."

        2) Racism used to be much more extreme than it is now which can account for the majority of the 43(.5?) non-white presidents... but black America makes up 13% of Americans. So we'd expect in a post-racial America that only 1 in 9-10 presidents be black, right? What I fail to understand is the end goal. When can we say racism is dead? What needs to happen? It seems like pre-2008, the line was "well there's never been a black president." Are you saying now there needs to be a 100% black president? Do the next 6 presidents need to be 100% black to compensate for the 43.5 white presidents we've had so far in order to reach 13% of presidents being black presidents? What about other races? What about females? They make 50+% of the population and there's never been a female president.

        3) What if a conservative black was elected (eg Herman Cain or Condoleezza Rice)? Would he/she count in healing the racial divide in America or are they just "uncle toms" or puppets of the white racist cause?

        June 14 at 9:55pm · Like

        Dan- ‎43(.5?) white* presidents

        June 14 at 10:11pm · Like

        Chad- Dan, your play on words is cute, but not really too clever. yes, 2012 is a referendum on race in america. yes, 2008 was also a referendum on race in america. is that clear?

        after rereading my post, i see how you could conclude that i don't think obama is black, as i said the US has elected 44 white presidents in a row. if you read more critically though, you would have noticed that the second paragraph clearly says that the racial animus towards obama has increased over the last four years. do you think that i was saying that the racial animus towards a white president has grown over that same time period? you clearly must have as your entire response turns on that assumption.

        i guess as long as we're talking about construction and grammar, i should probably point out that you read into my comments that obama isn't black enough. i didn't write that, or even get anywhere close to insinuating that. in any event, thank you for giving me a proper education on what petty racism looks like among black folks, it's definitely informative.

        i'll do my best to address all of the logical leaps you've taken in constructing your response. you start by saying in "a post-racial america we'd expect...". i don't have to make any assumptions to see what's wrong with that language, because it's plain on its face. if we were truly in a post-racial america, there's no need to state that we're in a post-racial america. you've fallen into the paradox that so many do, america won't be post-racial until there's no need to refer to it as so.

        secondly, to use your own analytical framework, if whites make up approximately 60% of the population, wouldn't that mean that income, unemployment, incarceration rates, etc...should follow that same distribution? why aren't you criticizing those statistical anomalies? why do you constrain blacks to proportionate representation, and say nothing about the overrepresentation of whites in virtually every facet of american society? should whites be incarcerated more frequently, be disenfranchised more often, give up some of their wealth in society in order to more accurately reflect statistical averages? the questions you've posed are ridiculous.

        third, you ask the question when can we say racism is dead? how about when it actually is? you point to obama as the final nail in the coffin of american racism. obama has great symbolic value in the context of american race relations, but beyond that, his value is only anecdotal. i find it hard to believe that you can actually extrapolate his presidency to mean that american racism now ceases to exist. if you really believe that, you're part of the problem. a colorblind approach only works when you're white. i assure you, while race may not be that important to you, it is to many of us who don't happen to share your skin color.

        further, why do whites get to say when racism is over? there are some other ethnic groups that share this country with you, they may like a say too.

        your next points are only meant to muddy the waters, so i'll answer them succinctly. yes, women are underrepresented. yes, other minority groups are underrepresented. what's your point? do i care about those issues? of course. is this a zero sum game where one can only care about a single issue at the expense of all others? you're qualified to answer that one.

        your final point is pretty interesting. are conservative blacks "uncle toms"? well, i guess it depends on who you ask, but that's what intrigues me. what's intriguing is that you assume that liberal blacks hold conservative blacks with contempt, as if liberal blacks are a monolithic entity. i don't know if you're aware of this, but we hold our own, independent ideas about things. we can actually think for ourselves. the way you framed that question is so simplistic, you surely could've come up with something more sophisticated. also, shouldn't healing the racial divide include all races working together? why is the onus on blacks to heal this nation? i guess if i assume that there isn't an actual racial divide, but only a perceived one, i can see where you're coming from. but accomplishing that would require that i suspend my disbelief, and that i cannot do.

        Friday at 12:04am · Like · 2

        Dan- Your comments raise a couple questions but let's take them one at a time... If the 2012 presidential election is a referendum on race, what's that really mean? Does it mean if President Obama is re-elected, then American racism is dwindling and conversely, if not, racism is still "deeply entrenched" in our society? Isn't that a false dichotomy?

        P.S. I apologize for coming off as trying to play linguistic tricks. I want to understand where you are coming from.

        Friday at 12:23am · Like

        Chad- i've painted with a broad brush. i apologize for diminishing the efforts of many white brothers and sisters towards a more equitable society.

        Friday at 12:23am · Like

        Chad- it means that we'll see how many americans vote against obama mainly because of his race, and not because of differences in political ideology. during 44's first term, it's apparently okay to refer to the sitting president as muslim in a pejorative way, constantly question his citizenship, compare him to hitler, etc...cutting through the b.s., those who say these things about him in public are probably calling him a nigger in private. there's serious racial tension bubbling below the surface of politically correct everyday life here in america. you're perfectly within your rights to make whatever deductions you please from this election's outcome, as i'm free to make my own.

        the way you've framed your question is again too simplistic. i'd agree with you that your statement puts forth a false dichotomy, which i'm sure was the intent.

        if you really wanted to understand where i was coming from you could've just asked. i expect others to have different opinions, and i respect those differences. i appreciate the richness found in different perspectives and schools of thought. but far from trying to engage in a conversation that pushed the dialogue forward, it seems like your only goal was to poke holes in my premise.

        when i address issues pertaining to race in america, it's not in the abstract. a flippant treatment of my personal perspective is offensive because it means that you've already mentally taken the steps necessary to make my perspective subordinate to your own, i.e., you as a white man is going to tell me about what life is like for a black man.

        i'll talk about anything with anyone, but i do my best to do it with respect, and with an appreciation of the dignity of the other participant.

        Friday at 6:22pm · Like

        Dan- I'm struck by this line: "a flippant treatment of my personal perspective is offensive because it means that you've already mentally taken the steps necessary to make my perspective subordinate to your own, i.e., you as a white man is going to tell me about what life is like for a black man."

        First, can I not challenge your thinking as you are mine?

        Second, does that frame every disagreement we may have as racial just due to the fact that I'm white and you're black? And further as a white man, am I, therefore, unable to empathize with the hatred another feels against him or her, whether it be racism, sexism, etc?

        I think these are some of the reasons we can't have a real discussion about race in America. If I disagree, I "don't know what it's like" or I'm speaking out of a racial bias. How can there be any back-and-forth under those circumstances?

        Yesterday at 10:08am · Like

        Chad- of course you can challenge me...when did i say you couldn't?

        "does that frame every disagreement..."? until we both become different races, i don't see how it could be framed in any other way. that doesn't mean that the disagreements must necessarily be adversarial. and i don't think there's anything wrong with approaching the conversations in this way. your experiences as a white male inform your perspective, just as my experiences inform mine.

        yes, you can empathize with others of different races and genders. i didn't see much empathy in your previous comments, though. it seemed like you were basically asking the question of what needs to happen before blacks shut up about race and agree that things aren't that bad anymore. i know these aren't your actual words, but that's what i gathered the subtext to be. if i'm wrong about that please let me know.

        why can't we agree that you don't know what it's like, and start from there? i think that's the problem, that too many of our white brothers and sisters assume to know what life is like for minorities in america. of corse everyone is free to hold their own opinions, but instead of simply holding opinions, ask questions and get the facts.

        25 minutes ago · Like

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today i'm enjoying: "The Obliteration Room" by Yayoi Kusama

via colossal

In rememberance of a fierce library advocate, a great writer: Ray Bradbury.

- "I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories."

- “Libraries raised me.  I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries.." 
  
- "You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you .... which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."
 

- "My tunes and numbers are here.  They have filled my years, the years when I refused to die.  And in order to do that I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, at noon or 3:00AM.  

 So as not to be dead."

Reflection on yesterday thoughts

Soo last night I just kinda came to a small conclusion that you can only complain and huff and puff about the shortcomings of your new and amazing technology if you are going to actually do something about it, cause some actions to be set in motion, something forward or positive at least.  I decided that my frustrations from yesterday can be logged under jaded consumer because really I'm not about to step forward today and suggest a solution for such a technology, nor am I even going to spend more energy than the time it took me to rant about it on the Internet.  I can have my opinion that it should be better, but until it is, I'll simply shut up and consume. 

What I'm questioning today: contentment vs. innovation

Today I encountered an obstacle with my Itunes Match service – I had not realized that the periphery unit, in this case my Iphone, automatically downloads the file from the cloud when played for the first time, and now my storage was pushing capacity.  I immediately went about doggedly trying to figure out a way to mass delete files as swiftly and efficiently as possible, and not finding too much success, as well as getting lost in a lot of time.  I was annoyed, frustrated, nearing Paul Rudd in Wet Hot American Summer tantrum status about having to manually swipe so many entries to free up room – huffing and puffing my way through I’m sure. 

But after clearing some space, and breathing easier, I started considering how 1^st world bratty I was being – thoughts of the twitter hashtag and Louis CK’s “Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy” surfacing as I considered how incredible it is to even have such an expanse of music just at my fingertips, to whatever liking I choose, and that I should just shut up.  I mean, everything (or at least close to everything prior to other knowledge) I ever wanted from portable music capabilities had realized itself and I was getting upset for having to spend a half an hour or so deleting some files with the swipe of my chubby little, non-calloused, white-skinned, pain-free, human finger.   

And then I thought, no, this IS a waste of time, and there SHOULD be a better design for cloud usage of music files… I mean right?  Isn’t that what pushes innovation- finding solutions to the inevitable stream of constantly arising problems?  Even if those problems are 1^st world, if you will;  even if they are so minute and haughty compared to someone else’s, aren’t they still problems that one gets to look at and should consider because we have achieved that advancement and should utilize the opportunity to solve these high level problems?  Isn’t that what makes new, un-dreamt technology come about?

So I guess today I’m ultimately questioning where the line is between being grateful for what you have, being happy with the amazingly privileged (in comparison) life you’re given, and the constant need in the world to push forward, not being satisfied with the status quo, challenging each other and ourselves for futures other generations never knew could be possible and making them possible.  I think there has to be some kind of balance in these efforts, and that it could possibly go back to the idea that everybody has a role –  some are leaders and innovators, and some are followers and worker bees, making the ideas happen (to be simplistic in categories here).  The important thing is that there is nothing wrong with either way of living – the satisfaction level and the need for change level – however perspective in these instances is always necessary.  I could probably go on further and further, but I’ve got work to do and you’ve already made it this far, so well done and thank you. 

it's a slow day before the holiday, more reading: Navigating the Ebook Revolution

"..but in the brave new ebook world, everyone—not just assistant editors—will be forced to read the slush pile.”  -James LaRue

what i'm reading today: lessons from the typewriter

"We’re approaching a widespread disconnect in which we will not be able to read, experience, and share the same stories. When an ebook authored for one platform is not available on others, our society will no longer be able to share a cultural narrative."  -Peter Brantley, director of the Book Server project at the Internet Archive

simply enjoyable. lovely. Pentagram's "the forty story"

ENEMIES

taken from this article ( link ) from forbes

what i'm hearing today - jay electronica

"my momma told me never throw a stone and hide your hand" - from Exhibit C

what i'm reading today

"Instead of carting rocks from the moon, we should be carting feces out of Lake Erie"
-E. B. White, 1969

what i'm watching today: The Canary in the Library Coalmine - Ben Hammersley, UK Prime Minister's Ambassador to Tech City

I think he's a bit ideal, but I like much of what he says, and generally his point of view on the Internet, information access, the knowledge generation, and how libraries fit in. 

TWIL #68: Ben Hammersley (UK Prime Minister’s Ambassador to TechCity) from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

in light of the two earthquakes in Indonesia this am

"The bottom line? We must frame the conversation not as "climate change" but place it in the context of global risk - alongside the developing antibiotics crisis, growing asymmetries in global security, potential impacts of garage synthetic biology, the self-replicating nanobot "grey goo" scenario, implications of next-gen robotics for global employment, a TEPCO/Chernobyl event just one level higher, and - sad to say - potential for another 2008 tsunami to strike and perhaps destroy global financial markets."

-Nigel Cameron, President and CEO of C-PET, recent address of sustainability and climate change on a global level at PuP 2012

today i'm reading opinions on the "hipster"

so the term has taken on a life of its own, to be scoffed at, to be hurled in insult, to be joked about over whiskey, to be shrugged off in apathy.  i think it's safe to say it's rarely worn badge-like.  however you look at it, in my own personal experience, and i'm sure many others', my generation has "hipster" issues. so i guess today this is where i am, reading a post on Flavorwire titled "What Comes After the Hipster" 

"Of course, I could be wrong. The best bet for the next thing would be for something to emerge from the Occupy movement: less concerned about music and clothing, more concerned about politics; less concerned about differentiating yourself from the people around you, more concerned about working with them; less concerned about status, more concerned about social change; less ironic, more earnest; less polished, more grungy. The one thing I don’t think will happen is that youth culture will fragment into cultural tribes. Youth culture is all about emulation, being hip however hip happens to be defined at the moment, and far from fragmenting the culture, technology provides a means to unify it, by disseminating it, more efficiently than ever.

On the other hand, what the hell do I know?"

i'm downloading the Pyramids album Pyramids based solely on the album artwork alone. I can handle a little shallow decision making.

i like these pouring books installations by Spanish artist Alicia Martin

this is one of  3 she has done, more pics here

what i can't stop watching today

It's always good to go back to Shel Silverstein, always

What I'm watching over and over today

The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore.  Recent Oscar winner.

a revisit to the otherday conversation

Warning - I'm going to spout some personal views here.  Stop if you don't care.  Which I don't expect you to.

In reply to a social media post with grammatical errors, Roberta posed the question “What is the world coming to?”.  A common enough question, used rather lightly, echoed by more than a few generations.  However what it really evoked in me was that maybe it’s less “what is the world coming to?” but more “what has the world always been and is only now being brought to light through so many publicly accessible social media forums”.

There’s always always pros and cons, especially to the expanse of information, and more specifically the hyper-access provided by the phenomenon that is the Internet.  It’s something I love about studying librarianship.  Being stewards of information, I stand firmly behind the benefits that come from efforts that further unbiased and open access to information.  Even if one of the downfalls of this wide open access is that the information to be found is less desirable or less advantageous than we would like it to be.

Such as the truth that most of the people you know in your little bubble of life are relatively undereducated, terribly narcissistic individuals who don’t actually know, or more likely know but don't respect the English language and their intellectual presentation enough to actually pay attention to, the difference between they’re their and there.  Maybe it’s not the ruin of this generation, but the truth that has always been and is just now being revealed.  

what i'm hearing today

"I'm not an optimist.  I'm not a pessimist.  I'm a very serious possibilist." 
   -Hans Rosling 

year-end thoughts from C-PET

"Questions come before answers. We must be Asking Tomorrow's Questions (the motto of C-PET)"

-Nigel M. de S. Cameron 
President and CEO, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies

Quote for Today

"I fear that we in the mass media are creating such a market for mediocrity that we’ve diminished the incentive for excellence.  I think we’re losing our ability to manage ideas, to contemplate, to think. “

 -Ted Koppel, 1990, from Memory & Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress