Friday, September 19, 2008
National Security and Kids (again)
Apparently Sesame Street has teamed with Homeland Security to teach kids about emergency preparedness. This is a follow-on from a previous post of mine (ain't got time to link) on national security and kids. Again, gotta be a paper in here somewhere.
More airport scanning
Breathe deeply, calm down, it's just a security check, nothing to worry about, forget that the cameras can tell if you're nervous, pulse racing, stressed. At least, that's the project: remote physiological scanning of passengers looking for signs of stress.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Fira
New cat in the family. First pet since Edmund passed away last year, and first cat in 14 years.
Fira is from the Humane Society. 2 yrs old female. Interesting mix of breeds. Medium-long hair, tortoise-shell coloring (looks like a thin Maine Coon), very thin, with a tail almost longer than she is. Quite friendly. More pictures later.
Book Signing
Signing copies of Cultural Globalization: A User's Guide at the Borders Books and Music at Camelback and 24th Street in Phoenix. This Friday, 19 September, from 6-8pm.
Note that the events page that the above link takes you to actually omits my signing (sigh), but that's par for the course.
Note that the events page that the above link takes you to actually omits my signing (sigh), but that's par for the course.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Irony
One irony in all of this regarding the dissolution of the College of Human Services is that we all got brand new College of Human Services logo polo shirts just last week.
[I'm using "irony" here in the Alanis Morissette usage rather than the more literary usage.]
[I'm using "irony" here in the Alanis Morissette usage rather than the more literary usage.]
Monday, August 18, 2008
Bye-Bye College of Human Services
Monday, August 04, 2008
Distracted
Just picked up Maggie Jackson’s book, Distracted, which has been getting a lot of discussion this summer (on NPR at least). I've been saying for a while that we need to pay more attention to attention, so I'm glad to see the issues being debated. Might even spur me on to write more about it. Haven’t delved very far into the book [insert cheap Attention Deficit joke here] but did like the following nuanced passage, which nicely balances out the tech and social determinist positions on technology. The state of affairs she’s describing isn’t technology’s fault, but neither is technology blameless.
PowerPoint doesn’t make us dumb, and a judicious use of such slideware likely can help us navigate a world of information overload. I’m not angling for a return to some sort of pastoral, unmechanized Eden in order to halt the erosion of attention. We cannot blame technology for society’s ills. Nor can we fall into the opposite and increasingly commonplace trap of blindly trusting that our new tools will automatically usher us into a glorious new age. The tools we are wholeheartedly embracing today are inherently powerful, and we ignore that truth at our peril. You can use a stick for digging potatoes or stabbing your neighbor, so how you use a stick is important, but equally important is the fact that a stick is not a wheel. It’s crucial that we better understood how our new high-tech tools, from video games to PowerPoint, may be affecting us. Moreover, our tools reflect the values of our times, so it’s no coincidence that PowerPoint is a tool of choice in a world of snippets and sound bites.
p. 21
Maggie Jackson, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2008.
PowerPoint doesn’t make us dumb, and a judicious use of such slideware likely can help us navigate a world of information overload. I’m not angling for a return to some sort of pastoral, unmechanized Eden in order to halt the erosion of attention. We cannot blame technology for society’s ills. Nor can we fall into the opposite and increasingly commonplace trap of blindly trusting that our new tools will automatically usher us into a glorious new age. The tools we are wholeheartedly embracing today are inherently powerful, and we ignore that truth at our peril. You can use a stick for digging potatoes or stabbing your neighbor, so how you use a stick is important, but equally important is the fact that a stick is not a wheel. It’s crucial that we better understood how our new high-tech tools, from video games to PowerPoint, may be affecting us. Moreover, our tools reflect the values of our times, so it’s no coincidence that PowerPoint is a tool of choice in a world of snippets and sound bites.
p. 21
Maggie Jackson, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2008.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Reading, part 2
Thinking more about all the recent debates about reading online (is Google Making us Stupid, and today’s NYT article on whether or not we’re reading online--and someday I may provide links) has me reflecting on my own reading practices. Like the author of the Atlantic piece, I too have a hard time sitting down and reading long books. But in my case one reason (or, perhaps, excuse) isn’t the ability to concentrate, but rather the distractions of young children. Being a very involved, hands-on parent means that I don’t have long stretches away from them to read. It’s easier to do quick things on the computer in the office when the opportunity arises because it’s usually interruptable and it makes us feel busy. We’ve worried that our children probably don’t see us modeling book reading that much as a consequence of this. On the other hand, our house is filled with probably thousands of books (less so nowadays in that a number are in storage since we’re trying to sell the house—apparently books count as clutter) and it’s said that just having books around is a good influence on children. As the kids get older (and learn to read and hopefully enjoy reading), we’re hoping to have more time to sit down for longer stretches and get back into some books.
As an aside, there’s a debate in the NYT piece about books not giving a variety of perspectives, or web-reading being broad but shallow. I wonder if web reading is in the end more solipsistic (that is, self-centered); yes you are the one putting together the beginning, middle, and end of the story, you are gathering the pieces you need and contributing as well to the ongoing conversation. This is the fully customizable Daily Me that Negroponte talked about a decade or more ago. But getting lost in a book, either fiction or non, means immersing oneself in someone else’s world**, which is an important skill (to stand in someone else’s shoes, getting away from oneself).
**Yes, I know enough about reader response theory to know that it’s never purely the author’s world.
As an aside, there’s a debate in the NYT piece about books not giving a variety of perspectives, or web-reading being broad but shallow. I wonder if web reading is in the end more solipsistic (that is, self-centered); yes you are the one putting together the beginning, middle, and end of the story, you are gathering the pieces you need and contributing as well to the ongoing conversation. This is the fully customizable Daily Me that Negroponte talked about a decade or more ago. But getting lost in a book, either fiction or non, means immersing oneself in someone else’s world**, which is an important skill (to stand in someone else’s shoes, getting away from oneself).
**Yes, I know enough about reader response theory to know that it’s never purely the author’s world.
Reading
Pondering some of the new debates about reading (like the Atlantic article on Google making us stupid and the recent NYT piece about reading online). More thoughts percolating, but for now I'm struck by how utilitarian reading is conceived in some of these debates, especially in support of the benefits of reading online (it's quick, efficient, multiple view points, etc.), and that pleasure and aesthetics get short shrift. Not just the "curling up in a comfy chair and cracking open a tome" but also the idea of losing oneself in prose.
I've been slowly inching my way through Pynchon's Against the Day and was thinking how different the experience is to that described by the web-reading school. Pynchon must frustrate the hell out of those skimming for key points. Instead, one puts one's kayak in at the start of the sentence and just hang on as you plunge along, or perhaps bounce lightly from phrase to phrase, until one comes to a rest. Then up and over the period into the next sentence, caught in eddies and side currents, asides and digressions and qualifiers and descriptives. The fun's in the ride.
Now, if all writing and reading was like this, we'd be in trouble. There's a diversity of uses and pleasures in reading and we need to be careful to acknowledge as many as we can.
I've been slowly inching my way through Pynchon's Against the Day and was thinking how different the experience is to that described by the web-reading school. Pynchon must frustrate the hell out of those skimming for key points. Instead, one puts one's kayak in at the start of the sentence and just hang on as you plunge along, or perhaps bounce lightly from phrase to phrase, until one comes to a rest. Then up and over the period into the next sentence, caught in eddies and side currents, asides and digressions and qualifiers and descriptives. The fun's in the ride.
Now, if all writing and reading was like this, we'd be in trouble. There's a diversity of uses and pleasures in reading and we need to be careful to acknowledge as many as we can.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Frankenstein
In 1910 Thomas Edison's studios produced the first ever film version of Frankenstein. It was thought lost. A full version of the history of this short film is here.
The film has finally made it on to YouTube.
Part One
Part Two
The creation sequence is cool (for 1910). And interestingly, the film posits the creature as essentially evil (evil in the heart of Frankenstein himself leads the creature to be evil), a theme echoed in the 1931 film version (where the creature's evil is attributed to an abnormal brain), and in sharp contrast with Shelley's novel where the creature is born innocent but only driven to evil by human hatred. As the creature himself states in the novel, "I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend."
The film has finally made it on to YouTube.
Part One
Part Two
The creation sequence is cool (for 1910). And interestingly, the film posits the creature as essentially evil (evil in the heart of Frankenstein himself leads the creature to be evil), a theme echoed in the 1931 film version (where the creature's evil is attributed to an abnormal brain), and in sharp contrast with Shelley's novel where the creature is born innocent but only driven to evil by human hatred. As the creature himself states in the novel, "I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend."
Friday, May 16, 2008
Editor
Quick announcement:
I've just been named the next editor of the journal, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.
Stay tuned.
I've just been named the next editor of the journal, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.
Stay tuned.
Monday, May 05, 2008
CCTV
Just in time for a massive roll-out of a CCTV surveillance network in Washington, DC, is a report from the UK (CCTV Capital of the World), that CCTV isn't, um, really yeilding results.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thus Ate Zarathustra
"No philosopher came close to solving the problem of guilt and weight until Descartes divided mind and body into two, so that the body could gorge itself while the mind thought, Who cares? It's not me."
Woody Allen (2007) Mere Anarchy. New York: Random House. p. 142
Woody Allen (2007) Mere Anarchy. New York: Random House. p. 142
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Anti-anti Western Legislation
From today's Arizona Republic:
"Arizona public schools would be barred from any teachings considered counter to democracy or Western civilization under a proposal endorsed Wednesday by a legislative panel.
Additionally, the measure would prohibit students of the state's universities and community colleges from forming groups based in whole or part on the race of their members, such as the Black Business Students Association at Arizona State University or Native Americans United at Northern Arizona University. Those groups would be forbidden from operating on campus."
The article continues.
"Arizona public schools would be barred from any teachings considered counter to democracy or Western civilization under a proposal endorsed Wednesday by a legislative panel.
Additionally, the measure would prohibit students of the state's universities and community colleges from forming groups based in whole or part on the race of their members, such as the Black Business Students Association at Arizona State University or Native Americans United at Northern Arizona University. Those groups would be forbidden from operating on campus."
The article continues.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
National Security For Kids!
There's a paper in here somewhere...
America's CryptoKids! Yes, that's the NSA's Kid's Page. Check out the biographies of all the colorful animated characters!
Ready Kids! That's the Department of Homeland Security where you can learn readiness from the mountain lion family of colorful animated characters!
And then there's the CIA's Kid's Page (with it's rough, spy v. spy animation)
And then the FBI's kids page, with a host of animated characters (though none as slick as the NSA's, I must say. FBI has Shirley and Darrell, our doggy guides, and Maureen and Jose--I'm longing for Mulder and Scully).
Can anyone think of others?
America's CryptoKids! Yes, that's the NSA's Kid's Page. Check out the biographies of all the colorful animated characters!
Ready Kids! That's the Department of Homeland Security where you can learn readiness from the mountain lion family of colorful animated characters!
And then there's the CIA's Kid's Page (with it's rough, spy v. spy animation)
And then the FBI's kids page, with a host of animated characters (though none as slick as the NSA's, I must say. FBI has Shirley and Darrell, our doggy guides, and Maureen and Jose--I'm longing for Mulder and Scully).
Can anyone think of others?
New Books
New books coming across the threshold:
Alexander R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker, The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (2007, Minnesota) [thanks to Greg S. for the heads up on this one].
Paul Dourish, Where the Action is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction (2001, MIT) [time to send the library's copy back]
Rich Ling, New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion (2008, MIT).
Alexander R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker, The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (2007, Minnesota) [thanks to Greg S. for the heads up on this one].
Paul Dourish, Where the Action is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction (2001, MIT) [time to send the library's copy back]
Rich Ling, New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion (2008, MIT).
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Movie Meme: Take 2
A number of films are still left to be identified from the earlier post. I've added some hints to help this along. See the earlier post.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Earth Hour
The following message has been forwarded around my kids school. Seemed like a cool idea:
Earth Hour is coming! The people of Phoenix have an exciting
opportunity to positively impact climate change this Saturday, March
29th. Phoenix is one of four U.S. cities selected by the World
Wildlife Fund to participate in Earth Hour 2008, a worldwide event
March 29, from 8 to 9pm. During this one hour, please join millions
of people across the world in shutting off your lights.
Turning off all non-essential lights for one hour alone can make a big
impact. Last year, Sydney, Australia initiated the event and reduced
their energy use by 10% in a single hour. This energy reduction is
equivalent to taking 48,000 vehicles off the road!
The city of Phoenix cares deeply about the negative effects of global
warming and is committed to reducing our energy use and dependence on
foreign sources of fuel. As part of our sustainability campaign, the
city has retrofitted 95% of city buildings with energy-efficient
lighting, has implemented nine solar energy projects across the city,
has worked to build one of the nation's largest municipal clean fuel
fleets, and has partnered with grocery stores to reduce the use of
plastic bags and promote reusable bags.
APS and SRP will measure how much energy is saved during Earth Hour
Phoenix. So, we need your help to make every little bit count.
Please join us in demonstrating our city's commitment to keeping our
environment clean, safe, and sustainable for generations to come. To
volunteer or to learn more, contact the Earth Hour hotline at (602)
417-1363 or visit earthhour.org.
Earth Hour is coming! The people of Phoenix have an exciting
opportunity to positively impact climate change this Saturday, March
29th. Phoenix is one of four U.S. cities selected by the World
Wildlife Fund to participate in Earth Hour 2008, a worldwide event
March 29, from 8 to 9pm. During this one hour, please join millions
of people across the world in shutting off your lights.
Turning off all non-essential lights for one hour alone can make a big
impact. Last year, Sydney, Australia initiated the event and reduced
their energy use by 10% in a single hour. This energy reduction is
equivalent to taking 48,000 vehicles off the road!
The city of Phoenix cares deeply about the negative effects of global
warming and is committed to reducing our energy use and dependence on
foreign sources of fuel. As part of our sustainability campaign, the
city has retrofitted 95% of city buildings with energy-efficient
lighting, has implemented nine solar energy projects across the city,
has worked to build one of the nation's largest municipal clean fuel
fleets, and has partnered with grocery stores to reduce the use of
plastic bags and promote reusable bags.
APS and SRP will measure how much energy is saved during Earth Hour
Phoenix. So, we need your help to make every little bit count.
Please join us in demonstrating our city's commitment to keeping our
environment clean, safe, and sustainable for generations to come. To
volunteer or to learn more, contact the Earth Hour hotline at (602)
417-1363 or visit earthhour.org.
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