Which crew should win ABDC?

You can watch the whole episode here, but these two performances were the highlight for me.
Will the voters choose the crew that has had more of the best performances throughout the competition, or the best final performance? If they go for the first, it should be Beat Freakz, but a lot of people think Quest's performance this week may have pushed them out of first place.
They have to do threading, tutting, krumping, housing (house dancing) and waving.


OK, embedding the videos from MTV didn't work, so just go watch the episode.
Here's one I found floating around, but they may not be up for long.

Winter ice slip tally

The first time I slipped on the ice this winter, it was one of those slow motion falls where you have enough time to think on the way down "I must look like one of those cartoon characters whose feet are scrambling "woah woah woah" before I landed flat on my back in the middle of the street. No big injury, but some very large and colorful bruises.

The second fall was much faster and completely unexpected because I didn't see the patch of black ice on an otherwise dry sidewalk. I only had time to emit a loud piercing shriek of surprise before I hit the ground. This time, the only injury was to my pride: what as that noise I made?
Number three was when I was trying to pick my way down a steep icy path in a dog park where the steps were slick with ice from all the other people who had walked there. I foolishly broke my fall backwards using my hands, which jarred my wrists hard, but luckily nothing broke. My fear with winter ice falls is the broken elbow or wrist that leaves you unable to type with both hands. A few scrapes, but nothing serious.
Last night, I was stepping over the crusty little snow hill between the street and the curb and onto a sidewalk that looked as if it was completely clear of snow and ice, because the warm weather had melted so much snow. But there was a thin layer of black ice where the snow melt had refrozen and was invisible, and one leg shot out to the side and back, and I came down in a very deep lunge. The fact that I was wearing a heavy backpack meant I had a little less control, but I didn't hit the ground. Unfortunately, the bent leg is the one for which I'd been having physical therapy for a pulled groin muscle, and although I didn't re-injure it completely, I am now having a lot of pain again. Dagnabit.
I am normally not a winter whiner, and I wear good winter boots, but this stinks. I can't walk very well this morning, so I have canceled class, office hours and a meeting to ice, rest, take some aspirin, and see the doctor. Still, I grateful nothing is broken, because I now know of four people who have suffered broken bones from falls in the last few months, some of them requiring surgery. I am taking calcium supplements religiously.

Fibromyalgia amplifies the pain response, so I know I will have a flare-up in the next few days. I'm hoping to keep it to a minimum.

Join the conversation on"Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics"

I'm reposting this email I received from the Center for Social Media because it is a great example of how to present your work or ideas in multiple digital formats and engage different kinds of people in dialogue: check out the links to YouTube, Slideshare, Twitter, a Ning site, and a special webpage linked to the Center's home site. I like this model of communication. My only suggestion to them will be (in a reply email) that they consider sending out their press release in a format that allows me to cut and paste the html and drop it in my post; I ended up pasting the text, but had to rebuild the links.
UPDATE: My suggestion received a superfast response, thanks!! so you can now connect directly to this information in html format here with a link so you can email it!

Greetings from the Center for Social Media.

Thank you so much for linking to us on your blog at Momo.

Just wanted to give you the heads up on our new white paper Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics. It continues to be read and embraced by more and more media makers from within the world of public media 2.0. Who are these media makers? You. If you're curious what we mean, we encourage you to check out our new report here.

For a quick synopsis, check out this five minute clip on YouTube or this powerpoint on Slideshare.

We highly encourage you to both spread the word and add your comments and thoughts on this. Currently the center of the conversation is on Twitter. If you'd like to add your thoughts remember to use the keywords "public media 2.0" Check out our new Twitter widget that aggregates and showcases all the "public media 2.0" tweets on futureofpublicmedia.net (see the left column titled, "Public Media 2.0 Tweets")

In addition, you can join the discussion at the bottom of the page we are currently hosting the publication on as well as join in on the conversation on the 2009 Beyond Broadcast conference social network. Also, New Media Institute's new site Mojoco is hosting our paper. Mojoco is a great example of the potential of public media 2.0 and a perfect forum to engage in conversations on this subject.

This paper was written with the intention to foster discussion and debate. Please take some time to read over it and share your thoughts through one of the avenues mentioned above, your own blog, vlog or other media source.

Here are a few responses so far:

Michael Bauwens from P2P Foundation says, "a very well documented report on participatory public media experiments drawing on hundreds of real-life examples of both public broadcasters and public advocacy organisations"

Executive Vice President of NPR Dennis Haarsager says, "looks like a terrific piece of work."

Josh Wilson from Illuminated Media says, "new AU CSM report, Public Media 2.0, puts its authors, Jessica Clark and Pat Aufderhide, among the few scholars actively investigating and advancing new ideas about what public media is, can and should be in the Internet era."

Chuck Tyron Professor of Film and Media Studies at Fayettville State University says, "I'd encourage anyone who is concerned with the role of public media and with creating an engaged, active, participatory public to take a look."

We're also getting some thoughtful critiques. Creativedc twitters, "white paper on public media 2.0 refers to "engaged publics"-hm. i think you pretty much just have the one public."

(Do you agree? Read the paper and then let us know)

Thanks so much for your time.
--
Ms. Micael Bogar
Projects Manager
Center for Social Media
American University
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/

Oscars for "Milk": speaking out for equality

Dustin Black wrote the screen play for the movie Milk.

Sean Penn played Harvey Milk in the movie.

Monday link round-up: using Twitter, Zotero, and the Oscars

It's the beginning of the work week, and here are a couple of nuggets I'll be thinking about today:
What to do with Twitter during a presentation; there are some excellent ideas in this article about how Twitter is being used as a "backchannel" during conference presentations, the potential benefits, and how to interact with this as a presenter. I'd like to think about this as something that can be used in teaching a large lecture class, if properly modeled and practiced with the students.

Two of my favorite moments during last night's Oscar ceremony came with the awards for the film Milk for best screenplay and best actor. The Minnesota Independent has videos, transcripts and commentary.

New (or rather new to me) tool to learn how to use this week: Zotero.

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself.

Here's a tutorial video.

cute animals using mobile technology=WIN

the viral power of cute!

What is "pecha-kucha"?

A 6 minute 40 second presentation, in which you use 20 slides timed to 20 seconds per slide. You have to keep moving, so promotes conciseness but also retention of content.
Pecha-Kucha.org is where you can find out if there is a pecha kucha night in your area.
Here are some insights in how to use pecha kucha as a learning tool with instructions and links to resources.
Here is another explanation, a Pecha Kucha "training bite," that talks about how it promotes focus, "story-boarding" and how to construct it. It takes some practice and rehearsing, but that promotes a good kind of discipline.

No more Facebook for me!

A few months ago, I decided to try out two new social networks: Facebook and Twitter. After using both actively, I have decided to delete my Facebook account permanently. Although I did enjoy reconnecting with a few people from high school, I found that I never had very meaningful conversations via Facebook, but I did get a lot of notifications that someone had become friends with someone else, or changed a picture, or other things that were of no interest to me. They were beginning to spam up my email account as well. If I want to post a short announcement of what I am doing or share a link to a site, Twitter satisfies that impulse (and gets me to think twice about doing it out of respect for my followers). I also got annoyed because an acquaintance I "friended" started trying to both sell stuff and recruit dates with Facebook in a way I found really obnoxious. I realized that the few people I really wanted to stay in touch with have my email or read my blog already.
I also did not like it that when I got invited to use various applications, this then would allow people I didn't know to look at my pictures, unless I went to a lot of trouble to check the right privacy settings. The default at Facebook seems to be access whether you like it or not, whereas with my blog or Twitter, I publish what I want, when I want to, but neither Blogger nor Twitter inserts strangers into my settings. I also did not like how Facebook changed its Terms of Service (TOS) so as to grant itself license to use my content in perpetuity, without notifying me of the change, even were I to deactivate my account, and it was apparently very time-consuming to do so. In response to complaints, there is now an easier one-step link to request account deletion. Whether or not I needed to protect any of my content is not the issue for me--I'm not an artist or a musician, and I have only one photo uploaded for my profile-- and I accept that once I push "publish" something online, it's out there for the whole world, eventually. But I don't like the sneaky way FB is moving toward monetizing its site without being upfront about it. I don't rate items on Netflix or use Amazon for similar reasons: I prefer not to add to the information that is already aggregated about me, my purchases or my preferences in ways that give marketers even more ways to target me with advertising. I have been running Adblock on Mozilla, but I'm trying out a little add-on that substitutes art images for ads, just to see how it works for a while. So far, it's kind of entertaining to see it at work, but I may go back to plain old Adblock because the art images make sites look messy.

Bye-bye, Facebook friends! I'm still around if you want to be in touch, but I find that I learn more, have more fun, and have more control with Twitter.

UPDATE: Amanda French compares the Terms of Service forFacebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Zadie Smith on voice

Zadie Smith has a wonderful essay on voice, class, and social mobility called Speaking in Tongues, published in the Feb 2009 New York Review of Books, and originally delivered as a talk at the New York Public Library Dec 2008.
(via Snarkmarket, source of juicy ideas).

This would be a great essay to use in a class along with Edward Said's work.

The life of a language instructor

I saw Life of Brian with a friend who was a TA in the Classics department. This was his favorite scene by far!

Crows roosting in Minneapolis, near I-35

David Senn posted this video to YouTube, with a mix of stills and moving footage of crows gathering to roost at twilight somewhere near the freeway in Minneapolis. I really like how he used the still images and the soundtrack. Yesterday I saw what looked like THOUSANDS of crows flying in a steady stream from southwest to northeast, across the freeway I was on, as if they were going to the river. I also saw a very large hawk catch and eat a rodent while I was waiting at the stoplight; it perched in a tree right next to the freeway entrance I was waiting to get on. I love urban birds!

This is personal

"Fidelity": Watch the video and sign our letter to the state Supreme Court

Tell the California Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr's case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE: Valentine's Day.

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Dog park by the Mississippi

I accompanied Diane and her lovely dog Maddy to a dog park between Hiawatha Ave and the Mississippi. The stairs leading down to the park were icy-snowy, so I held onto the railing with both hands going down. The sun was out, casting crisp shadows on the snow, and we ended up following a path down to shore of the river, where you couldn't quite tell where the bank left off and the frozen river began.
There were scores of dogs of all kinds, from Russian wolf-hounds to pugs, beagles, boxers and golden retrievers, an Australian shepherd that tried to herd all of us, a hound that treed a squirrel; there were spaniels, terriers, and german shepherds, mixed breeds of all shapes and sizes. Some dragged sticks, some chased balls, others chased each other or displayed their ever-shifting rank in the swirling pack. All were friendly and filled with joy, as were we, to be out and about. Maddy ran until she could barely respond to another dog's invitation to play, and the assorted people of all ages accompanying their dogs chatted and laughed and made sure the toddler didn't fall into the hole where there was some open water, in a little creeklet running from the slope to the river. It was not windy and the temperature was just right to be out without hat or mittens, snug in a parka and boots, but not hunkered down in the chill. I only got a few shots on my cell phone camera, but here is my favorite.
While we were hanging out with the dogs, other folks were frolicking with the Art Sleds!

Fritz Wunderlich, tenor

Ombra mai fu (Handel)
(Schubert)

singing Mozart.
four more Schubert songs

Another one of those listy meme things.

Bold the ones you done.

1. Started your own blog (dur!)
2. Slept under the stars (near Big Sur)
3. Played in a band ( no, but I sang in a choir)
4. Visited Hawaii (for about 2 hours on the way to Japan on a ship when I was five. does that count?)
5. Watched a meteor shower (no, but I've seen the Northern Lights)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (3 times: age 5, 16, and 20)
8. Climbed a mountain (In Yosemite)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (I obnoxiously sang a Christmas carol solo for my grandparents on a tape. Cringe)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (lived there for a while)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (as opposed to in a book?)
20. Slept on an overnight train (many times--lived with a train freak!)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (in France!)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (pet a lamb and got a weird itchy skin disease. Sheep are nasty)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (in my dreams! the most I ever hit was a double).
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (both Ireland and Italy)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (money has not connection to satisfaction for me)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (and got it trouble from the park rangers who sent my dad after me to get me down on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay)
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke (not yet, but some day!)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (a whole two blocks! chest pains, possible heart attack, overnight at the hospital, thought I was going to die. Didn't.)
47. Had your portrait painted (drew my own self-portrait)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (AND every other monument or hill that could be climbed in Paris)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (see: cruise)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies (? or maybe just ate a bunch?
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason (who needs a reason for flowers?)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job. Yup.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (hand bone and foot bone)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (OK, not over the speed limit, but it was fast!)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (almost didn't make it out from heat exhaustion).
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican (their museum pissed me off. The plunder of the ages).
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (and got fan mail from a guy in prison, yikes!)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (looked at the White House)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (grouse!)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (an amazing experience)
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cellphone
99. Been stung by a bee (aloe vera really works!)
100. Read an entire book in one day

Join in! What have you done?

After 15 whole days in office, how's Obama doing?

Geez, to read some bloggers, you'd think that Obama has failed to undo in two weeks the eight years of havoc wreaked by Cheney and Bush, not to mention the last thirty years of neoliberal policy. And he hasn't washed my windows, either!!

But, I like how PhoenixWoman has a handle on what Obama is doing to rally support for the stimulus bill. Ignore the whiners, watch his hands.

See also: He has done what Bush never did: apologize for an error by his administration.

Let's check in on the Promise-o-meter

Promises kept

COMPLETED:

No. 58: Expand eligibility for State Children's Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)
No. 125: Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq
No. 239: Release presidential records
No. 241: Require new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions.
No. 411: Work to overturn Ledbetter vs. Goodyear
No. 427: Ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees
No. 503: Appoint at least one Republican to the cabinet

NOT on their list, but on mine: overturned global gag rule on funding international family planning.

IN THE WORKS:

No. 27: Change standards for determining broadband access
No. 32: Create a tax credit of $500 for workers
No. 59: Invest in electronic health information systems
No. 175: End the use of torture
No. 176: End the use of extreme rendition
No. 177: Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center
No. 178: Develop an alternative to President Bush's Military Commissions Act on handling detainees
No. 373: Encourage community service through online outreach and social networking
No. 392: Expand broadband's reach
No. 393: Double federal funding for basic science research over 10 years
No. 405: Create White House performance team and chief performance officer
No. 449: Raise fuel economy standards
No. 452: Weatherize 1 million homes per year
No. 455: Work with UN on climate change
No. 476: Modernize the nation's electricity grid and use "smart grid" practices
No. 502: Get his daughters a puppy
No. 507: Extend unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits

STALLED (by others):

No. 505: Create a $3,000 tax credit for companies that add jobs

El Ebro

I *heart* Claire McCaskill!

via Al Giordano at The Field


Sen. Claire McCaskill tells it like it is. Corporations raided the taxpayers' money and then are passing the money around in bonuses and perks. Thieves! Liars! Scumbags!

She introduced the bill that caps compensation at firms receiving relief from taxpayers' money until they have paid back every dime of what they owe us. Now if she could also get them to crawl on their knees from one end of the Washington mall to the other, saying "I will not swill from the public trough," that would be nice, too.

Here's the announcement by Obama and Geitner in the New York Times.

"Whack" songs challenge on ABDC

ABDC challenge for this week: dancing to "whack" songs! Blogging America's Best Dance Crew (aka BABDC!) put out the playlist. So if you want to reminisce to songs that the producers consider the cheesiest of cheese, check it out:

• BEAT FREAKS - "Pretty Fly for a White Guy"by The Offspring
• RINGMASTERS - “Macarena” by Los Del Rio
• STRIKERS ALL-STARS - “2 Legit 2 Quit” by MC Hammer
• FLY KHICKS - “Everybody Dance Now (Gonna Make You Sweat)” by C&C Music Factory
• QUEST CREW - “The Right Stuff” by New Kids On The Block
• DYNAMIC EDITION - “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus

But remember, as you mock, that all these songs were big hits in their day because they are EARWORMS, so click at your own risk!

The vocal for the song "Everybody Dance Now" was actually performed by Martha Walsh, not the woman dancing on the video. She also did the vocals for "Everybody Everybody" and "It's Raining Men," (as one of The Weather Girls) and still performs to much acclaim.

Brainstorming "Liberal Arts 2.0"

A fabulous and very smart discussion about rethinking education (beyond academia) is taking place at Snarkmarket ("The stomping grounds of Robin Sloan, Matt Thompson, and Tim Carmody, serving up links and dish on the happenings of the day -- or back in the day -- or the days to come").


They started talking about what are the liberal new arts? and moved on to brainstorming the new "liberal arts 2.0". They've issued a "call for comments" which in the academic setting would be like a "call for papers." Their immediate goal is, among other things, a book, but the discussion itself is so exciting, liberated from the inertia of the tanking academic institutions, that I am going to be reading it slowly, thinking hard about all the ideas in the comments, and sharing it with my students and colleagues.

Go to this post to read what their brainstorming commenters have to say. Feel free to contribute your own ideas!


P.S. A byproduct of finding this discussion is the discovery of smart and interesting people and their blogs+
Russell Davies is in London. I need some time to read and absorb his "new schtick" part 1 and part 2 because he has really smart things to say about the evolving relationship between print media, digital media and the love of books, and how people are much more creative than corporations.

Nadal and Federer, both champions

There is so much love and respect for these two great competitors, who are both gentleman and generous souls. I've seen them play at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and now the Australian Open, and they are an inspiration.
After that amazing match against Verdasco, to have the stamina to come back and beat Federer--this is Rafael Nadal's year.