One Love, One World

From the YouTube notes:http://playingforchange.com - From the award-winning documentary,

"Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. This video and "Don't Worry" will be available at iTunes 1.27.09 while other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD in stores on 4.28.09.

"Poisson d'avril!"

I rousted myself out of bed early this morning, washed my hair and skipped the all-important coffee ritual (also known as skritch-the-kitty-while-the water-boils time), trying to make it by 8:30 to a talk I was eager to see. When I got there, the room was locked. A kind stranger helped me discover that the talk is actually tomorrow.

Derr!

A self-inflicted April Fool's joke. In Scotland I'd be called a gowk, in France a "poisson d'avril" where the tradition is to try to stick a paper fish on someone's back.


So why April 1st? is it related to the zodiac and Pisces? does it have to do with the change from the Julian calendar (the Roman calendar as reformed by Julius Caesar) to the Catholic Gregorian Calendar, adopted slowly by European countries in the 1500s so that everyone would end up celebrating Easter on the same day?

Certainly, April 1st seems as if it should be the beginning of Spring, and May 1st is when we get ready to plant, but in these northern latitudes, we woke up to an April 1st snow flurry (already melted). But the green grass is starting to peek out of the dead grass on my lawn. This morning I could distinguish at least 6 different bird calls as I left the house. Squirrels are frisky, and any day know we will see bunnies on campus. I wonder where they live during the winter?

In Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America, April 1st is not the day for practical jokes; that would be the 28th of December, or Día de los Santos Inocentes and the jokes are called "inocentadas."

The Museum of Hoaxes website is a great place to waste time, which is what I have been doing this morning, instead of the dreary bureaucratic tasks on my list of things to do.

Obama +Johnny Cash

"Doing Everything, Man" by Jeff Horwich at In the Loop

For lyrics and to download the mp3, go to MPR's In the Loop website here

City planners, talk to the geologists!

The Red River is flooding the northwest corner of Minnesota and North Dakota, often called "The Fargo-Moorhead area" because of the two cities across the river not far from each other. But there are many other towns that are threatened by flood-waters, and the Canadians are also in line, because the Red River flows north.

The Big Picture in Boston has some amazing photos of the scene, and there is a map at the U.S.A. article. But for the up-close, personal stories and pictures as well as the eye-witness coverage of the preparations, Bob Collins has been blogging at News Cut on MPR, as well as stacking sand bags.

If you wonder why this area is prone to flooding, this site from North Dakota State University has lots of information on the geology of the area. From Geology Professor Donald P. Schwert of the Department of Geosciences, North Dakota State University, I learned that this area is "the youngest landscape in the contiguous United States" because the glacial lake Agassiz, left behind when the last glacier retreated 12,000 years ago, did not drain until about 9,300 years ago. The rich soil left behind makes it great farmland, but also means that buildings must be built on deep pilings sunk far down into the clay. Tom Cran of MPR interviewed him, and you can listen to the podcast here. The Red River is unique in its situation; it is so young that it has not had time to carve a flood-plain that can store the waters in times of flood, and when the flood comes the waters essentially fill in what was once the bed of the glacial lake Agassiz. John Hockenberry's show The Takeaway on NPR also has a podcast of a conversation with a reporter and Schwert. Here, Schwert sheds more light on why the Red River's flooding is unique.

If you are interested in this geologist's perspective on the issues of planning and mitigation in the area, there is a link on that site to a .pdf document you can download and read. Here are some of my notes on this fascinating document (which you should really read for yourself).

As is the case for New Orleans (floods), San Francisco (earthquakes), and other areas of human habitation in the path of inevitable natural disaster (Pompeii) there are higher risks associated with settlement here than elsewhere. That doesn't mean they can't be anticipated. Erosion, slump, creep and earthflow (technical terms!) are all things that happen in certain areas along the river; experts have written reports on these issues since at least the 70s, and definitely after the big flood of 1997, yet flood management planning is too often trumped by commercial interests.

For example, the river needs to flood, it will flood, so some areas were supposed to be left as parks or parking lots to be floodable "storage areas." But people forgot or ignored this and built dikes to "protect" these areas. Residential development has been allowed in areas that were floodplain storage as recently as 1997. Two recently built low-level bridges act as obstructions for ice-jams. The public is told that all the floods in the Red River Valley are "500 year floods" yet there are no statistics going back more than 100 years, so how would we know that? (Although the author doesn't put it in these words, because there hasn't been public education on the geology of the area, residents and planners have ignored the evidence of their history and of science in their management of the land).

The author's conclusion (which follows specific suggestions for how to plan and mitigate these realities) is

"Cities like Wahpeton-Breckenridge, Fargo-Moorhead, and Grand Forks-East Grand Forks are geologic mistakes – but geographic facts. Given that these cities will never be moved in their entireties, there are still ways of accommodating to the geology and mitigating
the damages induced by flooding and slope failure. However, these require a basic understanding and acceptance of the inevitability of these geologic processes.
In planning, we should not be working toward conserving the past of these cities –instead, through wise planning and land use, we should work toward conserving their futures."

I feel terrible about the people who are working so hard to save their homes. Now isn't really the time for pointing fingers. But after what happened in 1997, why did the states, the regions and local governments not put their heads together with the scientists to come up with a plan? Maybe they did and it was ignored. Scientists do not issue building permits, but they do warn the builders. Too often their warnings are only heard after the flood.

The songs hold up

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, live version of "Ooh, Baby, Baby" a hit in 1965, one of my favorite Motown songs. I like Linda Ronstadt's cover of it, too. She also had a hit with "Tracks of My Tears."
I didn't watch AI, but I did look at some of the performances: Adam Lambert's cover of "The Tracks of My Tears" did justice to the original. Lovely.

Ada Lovelace Day: Professor Jane Davidson, Director of Solar Energy Laboratory at the University of Minnesota

Today is Ada Lovelace day! from the call for contributions:

"Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements." I signed the pledge, and here is my post.

Here is the mash-up list of all the Ada Lovelace Day posts so far.

It is also, coincidentally, the day that the University of Minnesota is holding its annual Ada Comstock lecture honoring an outstanding woman academic. Today's speaker is Professor Jane Davidson, of Mechanical Engineering.
I found an article about her by Pauline Oo. She attended an all-girls high school and was encouraged to go into engineering by her high school chemistry teacher; she was the only girl in her class in college in 1968. I had a roommate at UC Berkeley who was one of only four women in mechanical engineering in 1978; the Dean of the College told her she didn't belong there and was taking the place of a man. Although the article about Jane Davidson's accomplishments doesn't talk about how she dealt with that kind of attitude, I think it's safe to say that she was a pioneer in her field at the time simply by showing up and finishing her degree. But she has gone on to become a pioneer in her field, the study of solar energy.

"Davidson will speak about how to use solar energy to make fuels in "Solar After Dark: Going Green at Night" at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, in Cowles Auditorium in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute.

"The idea is that you can make the fuels during the day when the sun is shining, and then you can use them whenever you want, including at night," says Davidson, whose current research focuses on solar systems for buildings and solar thermo-chemical cycles to produce fuels. "[Solar power is] the most abundant source of energy that we have on earth. It's clean, and it doesn't produce CO2 and greenhouse gases."

She began to work with one of the pioneers in solar energy early in her career, and is now the Director of the Solar Energy Laboratory at the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology. She has received numerous awards for her research, but she is also recognized as a teacher and a mentor for women in the field:

"Over the years, though, Davidson has been involved in a number of outreach programs at multiple universities across the United States. Closer to home, she and U colleague Sue Mantell codirect a National Science Foundation-funded research experience for undergraduates in mechanical engineering. Each summer, they bring about 15 outstanding students from all over to the Twin Cities campus.

"They work here for 10 weeks with faculty mentors," says Davidson. "We've had a 50-50 mix of men and women every year, and it's very exciting to see how that works. It's unique to engineering to have that mix. In fact, almost all of the women have gone on to graduate school."

(excerpts from the article by Pauline Oo).

The future of energy independence will be alternative energy technologies, including solar energy. I look forward to learning from her talk this afternoon!

In searching for information about women scientists at the U of MN, I also came across the story of botanist Josephine Tilden, the first woman scientist to work at the U of MN. Her story is both fascinating and frustrating; she did brilliant work, but faced indifference and opposition at her home institution at every stage. I'm glad to see that some things have changed for the better, but my own experience as an academic (not in the tech fields) shows that we still have a long way to go before the university world is completely open, supportive and equitable in its treatment of women faculty.

How to talk like William Shatner

Today is "Talk like William Shanter day" in honor of his birthday.

Kirk vs. Picard!

My alarm clock is hungry

Last day of Spring break. I slept in until 11! Well, I got up to feed the cat at 5:30, then went back to bed and slept until 11.

Last night, Krista and Fresca came for dinner and we celebrated Krista's new job, Captian Kirk's birthday, and the coming of Spring! Fresca brought spaghetti and a delicious vegetable-laden sauce, Krista made a ricotta-cake with lemon and currants, and I put out a salad and some cheeses. We took lots of pictures, of course!
Now Garrison Keillor is on, and Rory Block, one of my very favorite musicians of all time, just played two songs. I think I missed her show at the Cedar, but that's OK, I'll put on her music this morning to accompany my Sunday morning coffee.

Welcome, Asha!

Yesterday a brand new person entered the world. I was lucky enough to see her and hold her in her first few hours of life. She is healthy and was ready to nurse and snuggle. Watching her tiny toes curl, her little hand clutch her mother's finger, seeing her eyes already seeking out her mother's face and voice: a flood of memories came back of my own experience with my new person at her birth. My friends are the most wonderful parents to their two-year old son. This baby will be cherished.

"Welcome to the spinning world," the people sang, as they washed your new, tiny hands. "Welcome to the green Earth," the people sang, as they wrapped your wet, slippery body. And as they held you close they whispered into your open, curving ear, "We are so glad you've come!"

words and art by -Debra Frasier from On The Day You Were Born

"A preferential option for the poor": new Salvadoran president cites Romero

El Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes Seeks Close Ties with US from New America Media on Vimeo.
El Salvador's President-elect is Mauricio Funes. He was elected with 51% of the vote, representing the FMLN and ending twenty years of dominance by the right-wing ARENA party, associated with vicious political repression. For the FMLN to win a peaceful democratic election in El Salvador is a enormous change. From the interview:

Where will the effects of the transition in power be felt most immediately?

We're going to change the way we make policy. And one of the most significant changes is that we will no longer have a government at the service of a privileged few. And we will no longer have a government that creates an economy of privileges for the privileged. Now, we need a government like the one envisioned by Mons. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who in his prophetic message said that the church should have a preferential option for the poor.

Paraphrasing Mons. Romero, I would say that this government should have a preferential option for the poor, for those who need a robust government to get ahead and to be able to compete in this world of disequilibrium under fair conditions.

This government implies a break from traditional policymaking. Now, what we're going to do is put the government and the structure of the state at the service of the Salvadoran people––the totality of the Salvadoran people – but, fundamentally, to that great majority who are oppressed and excluded from the country's social and economic development. Not just the last 20 years, but for the last 200 years or more, have not had the possibility of participating in the formation of public policies.

To read the English transcript of the interview, and find more news about this important election, go here to the post on the New American Media site. You can also read more on Roberto Lovato's blog Of América.

I don't *heart* St Patrick's day

I loathe the green beer binge drinking version of St Patrick's day that afflicts us ever year. My father's family is of Irish descent and their story is fairly typical: part of the wave of immigrants in the mid to late 19th century (when about a third of immigrants to the U.S. were from Ireland), settled in New York and eventually ended up as police and firefighters, except for my grandfather, who became a dentist. He and his wife had social pretentions that some would label "lace curtain" Irish.

Both of my parents fled their East Coast ethnic enclaves when they left New York and moved to San Francisco. As a result, I didn't grow up in contact with any relatives or a community--we moved often. But certain Irish and Italian gestures, ways of thinking and acting, were handed on as an invisible legacy. One element that was most openly Irish was the music. Songs that told stories fascinated me, as did Tommy Makem's thrilling vibrato.

The Irish republican songs (no, not like U.S. Republican, more like Up the IRA="freedom fighters" throw-out-the-British) influenced my later studies of colonialism as the case of AngloNorman/English/British colonization of Ireland (800 years) and the "troubles" in Northern Ireland stood out as a particularly painful and intractable situation.

Irish independence is still new. The oral history of Robert Emmet's 1803 speech from the dock is still a living memory. In this press conference on the Ken Loach film The Wind That Shakes The Barley the actors tell how they grew up with the echoes and the presence of the struggle for independence earlier in the century; the Black and Tans burned Cork City in December 1920. This conflict continues to be played out in our days in the six counties in the North that are still part of the U.K. Since the 1997 Good Friday agreements, a difficult but growing consensus for peaceful negotiations and co-government has emerged. The most recent act of violence has been roundly condemned by Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein, both in Northern Ireland and in the U.S. havens formerly nostalgic for a romantic nationalism (such as Boston), maintaining the policy of renouncing violence as a means to political ends. The 1997 film The Boxer by Jim Sheridan shows how hard it is for and embattled people to give up the myths and structures that have enabled their very survival and resistance and yet how necessary it is that they do so. Part of me hates to see this complex and compelling history reduced to an excuse to get as drunk as possible. But I also want to steer clear of what the Irish call being a "Plastic Paddy" so if we must celebrate inebriation, here are some great Irish drinking songs! My very favorite is Johnny McEldoo because it is also about food.

Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers "Whiskey You're the Devil"

The Pogues, "Streams of Whiskey"
"
Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners talks with the Clancy Brothers and

singing one of those grimly funny songs that fascinated me when I was a kid.

Afro Cuban All-Stars tonight!

After the movie Buena Vista Social Club made such a splash in 1999, Cuban music lovers in the cold Twin Cities had the fabulous opportunity to see shows on tours of artists like Eliades Ochoa
Omara Portuondo and Ibrahim Ferrer
, the jazz group Irakere, which has been through several incarnations; I saw their 1994 tour:

But after 2003, with the clampdown on issuing visas to Cubans, the tours dried up. We could enjoy the music of Cuban musicians now living in the Twin Cities area, such as Nachito Herrera, former musical director of Cubanissimo, who plays often at The Dakota.
I'm thrilled that producer Juan de Marco invited him to tour with the a "supergroup" of Cuban musicians called the Afro Cuban All Stars, uniting musicians who live abroad but are part of the Cuban musical world.

Tonight they'll be at Orchestra Hall, and I have a ticket! Here's the line up:

Juan de Marcos Gonzáles, band leader, tres • Evelio Galan, lead singer*José Gil Pinera, lead singer • Emilio Suárez, lead singer • Igort Rivas, trumpet *Yaure Muniz, trumpet, flugelhorn • Miguelito Valdes de la Hoz, trumpet, flugelhorn *Jorge Reiner Ardiles, trombone • Alberto “Molote” Martinez, trombone
Alberto Pantaleon Hernandez, bass • Jose “Pepito” Espinosa, bongos, cowbell*Miguelito Valdés Aballi, congas • Calixto Oviedo, drum, timbale*Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera, piano

It's likely that the ushers will not allow dancing in the aisles, so we may have to chair dance instead, but I plan to groove.

Mr. Leo

Is he not handsome?

"Her Morning Elegance"

Oren Lavie

Welcome to this spinning world!

Our dear friends Ana and Jose have wanted to be parents for a while, but had to wait a few years. Then the baby was so impatient to arrive that he was born a wee bit early. Now their son Guillermo (Guille) is home with them and look how beautiful he is! I wish I weren't so far away, and could see him in person, but I'm glad to have these pictures.

Green Jobs and the next generation of leaders

OK, now we're talking! Al Giordano shares the good news at The Field about Van Jones, (with links to stories in the New Yorker, Mother Jones, and others):
"Author, activist and think tank fellow Van Jones will be joining the Obama administration next week as a special adviser on green jobs, reported the White House Council on Environmental Quality today. Jones will work with agencies and departments to advance the administration's climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities, according to a White House statement. Jones is the founder of "Green For All," an environmental group dedicated to bringing green jobs to the disadvantaged, and the author of "The Green Collar Economy." Environmental groups are, of course, thrilled with the decision - in their opinion, no one knows green jobs like Van Jones." (rest of U.S. News article here)


Listen to Jones break it down in the video made a little while back. He has been working to make sure that the green movement is not just a movement for those who can afford it, but is connected to jobs, health, and real change for poor people. Another activist like him is Majora Carter, who was just in the Twin Cities talking about the necessary links between greening the inner city (responding to environmental racism) and economic turnaround.

Who are the local Twin Cities allies who can connect with this vision? One of them is the Women's Environmental Insitute (W.E.I.). Another is the IATP. Will our cities be able to overcome the hostility of the Pawlenty administration and go forward on their green ideas? That's our challenge coming up.

SNL: Rahm's dream

Fibromyalgia and new medications

I learned by accident today that on March 7 there were demonstrations in European capitals to make visible the presence of people with fibromyalgia, a condition that is not yet universally recognized without stigma or skepticism, much as was the case with rheumatoid arthritis 30-40 years ago.

I just read about a new drug that has been approved for the management of fibromyalgia symptoms by the FDA; Savella (milnacipran) like Cymbalta, has an effect on both serotonin and norepinephrin reuptake (two neurotransmittors), and has been shown in clinical trial to provide significant relief for some people with fibromyalgia symptoms.

Like Cymbalta, milnacipran was first approved for treating depression and has already been marketed in Europe for that, but was seen to have beneficial effects in relieving fibro symptoms. Clinical trials now demonstrate that fibro symptom relief (pain, fatigue, quality of life) is significant for a large enough number of patients that the FDA has approved it specifically for treatment for fibromyalgia. Because the two drugs function in more or less the same manner, it's likely that they will not (should not) be taken together, but rather will function as alternatives to each other. It's important to remember that while a number of medications have been helpful for treating fibromyalgia symptoms to some degree, they are notoriously NOT helpful for all, and many have intolerable side effects. I first was prescribed a very low dose of amitryptalin (Elavil) many years ago. It led to some immediate improvement in my sleep disorder and pain levels. The down side was that it gave me hideous dry mouth and left me feeling stupid until noon every day. This clearly was not compatible with functioning at work, so I had to stop taking it. Cymbalta and Savella seem to be "cleaner" drugs in that they do not cause as many debilitating side effects, at least for some.

No drug is a magic bullet for fibromyalgia; both patient anecdotes and newer research show that an approach that combines attention to nutrition, gentle aerobic exercise, stress reduction and cognitive therapy give the best results long term. What medications can do is provide enough relief so that these behavioral strategies can even be started. They can be the difference for some people between living on disability and managing the symptoms well enough to continue to work. It turns out that there seems to be some delay in Savella's availability due to a complaint about the integrity of the trials. Knowing what I know about how clinical trails are conducted and managed in this country, I want to take a wait-and-see approach before getting all excited about this news. Unfortunately, the money the drug companies are spending on promoting and marketing these potentially very lucrative drugs is not just questionable because the drugs may not be as effective as claimed; the backlash to their shady tactics is actually causing some people to question the very existence of fibromyalgia as a syndrome. This pisses me off no end because even as more medical evidence is documenting the physiological abnormalities present with fibromyalgia, there is still a segment of the medical community and the press that talk about it as a "murky" condition, a "garbage can diagnosis" that is suspect precisely because it primarily affects women. Here is an article that breaks down these doubts point by point.

How Twitter helps me filter and connect

I like this picture of the Ebro River rising in Zaragoza this winter, near the Basílica del Pilar.
*********
There is so much information to manage: what's the best way to do it? as usual, the answer is a question of individual needs and style. I found that Facebook overloaded me with information updates I didn't want, so I deleted my account, but other friends are delighted with how it helps them keep in touch with people.

For following blogs or news outlets, I have experimented with using RSS feeds in a number of ways: as part of the My Blogs Lists over on the right of this sight, on my iGoogle page, through Bloglines, on my browser toolbar. But I often feel as if I'm drowning in numbers if I look at a feed agregator; it triggers the somewhat obsessive-compulsive reader in me in a way that feels unpleasant.

I am finding that Twitter is working well for me as a kind of feed + filter, and so has enhanced my ability to pick up on stories that interest me. I'm following some really funny and generous people, who post tweets with links to stories, songs, images, or websites that entertain or teach me something new. I'm also trying to limit the number of tweeters I'm following so I'm not overdoing it. A tweet can be an end in itself, but also a door opening up on a blog post or a news story that leads me in unexpected and rewarding directions.

Here's a sampling of what I found today through tweets from people I'm following. I'm leaving out the personal greetings, jokes and academic musings, which deserve a separate post. I could have found some of these through an RSS feed to each of the relevant blogs, but the Twitter feed allows me to respond directly as well as leave comments on the news stories (which I do) or the posts.

via @VisitLakeStreet, a neighborhood news feed, I discovered the brand new "Living Green Twin Cities" website went live this week-looks great, and connects me to local events and writers about sustainability.

via @blogdiva and @nezalicious (aka Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen and Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican) Nancy Pelosi decides to use her powers for good, as reported in the SF Chronicle: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined hundreds of families Saturday evening at a church in San Francisco's Mission District demanding an end to the immigration raids and deportations that separate parents from children across the United States." As usual, I'll be following the extended stories on immigration politics at Nezua's site The Unapologetic Mexican. boohoo, blogdiva's server is down, but I'll keep looking for her tweets.

via @kottkedotorg and @sashafrerejones, my favorite mashup of the week: kutiman has taken tracks from YouTube videos and created some Thru-You jukebox that is awesome, whether you watch it or just listen to it in the backround, as I'm doing now.

by way of @torresburiel in Zaragoza, I found a post on International Women's day, which is today, March 8, on a blog called marilink: "ninguna lista de chicas geek". Although he highlighted the part of her post that seemed to suggest that we don't need special days (she says she reads people for the quality of what they say, not because of gender), she also points out why we still need to think about women's place in the world and why we still need an International Women's Day. A link at her post (to an article posted at the Women's Media Center) pointed out that women are now half of all bloggers, but that the media still doesn't make this visible.

@UMN News links to a profile of a colleague in Anthropology whose book on the ethnography of Wall Street trades has just been published. I've heard her talk about her research, and I'm going to buy her book, because it's the inside scoop on the culture of the traders that has been a major contributing factor to this iteration of the boom/bust cycle. I have noticed that I get much more news about the U through my Twitter account than through other sources, and I work there. I went to the U's Media pages and discovered that they do not have a link or widget allowing readers to know they are using Twitter, so I wrote and suggested that they add that feature. Let's see if they respond.

@jojeda --Julio Ojeda-Zapata is a reporter for the Pioneer Press who covers all kinds of tech stuff at YourTechWeblog. He has a round-up of the PiPress coverage of Amazon's new ebook reader Kindle. I was interested in checking out this new device, an he does an excellent pro/con story. Then I started following his links to other bloggers and got pleasantly distracted. I love serendipity!

Update: edited for spelling because I'm sloppy.

Bitter Tweeter

This video was (accidentally?) sent out by the U of MN Twitter in a tweet announcing something about stem cell research.
Heh heh.

More creative transformations

Before there was the mashup, there was the adaptation and the translation. Mashups are more than remixes of music and video tracks; they can be remixes of web applications as well. But the cover tune or the dubbed version of a TV show or movie are kinds of remixing as well.

Classical Spanish guitar quartet plays the theme song from The Simpsons.

A cappella group Canvas does their own version.

Oberlin Bassoon quartet plays the Super Mario music.

Spidercerdo (translation for Spain)

Puerco Araña (translation for Latin American audiences)

"ThruYou"

I was feeling really blue today until I saw this site (via Kottke)
ThruYou. There is a list of tracks: try them all. They are mashups of YouTube videos made with so much flair, so much imagination. They made me smile!

On being a girl nerd, part one

Last night, Fresca and I had a fun conversation about our respective degrees of geekiness, nerdosity, and dorkitude as adolescents. The meanings of these words have changed since we were in high school and are not always as perjorative as they once were, although they still get slung around as insults.

I think any academic is someone who is being paid to be a nerd. This video shows a man who is happy happy happy that his professional life as a physics professor has met up with his younger, comic-book reading, science-fiction fan self by writing a book The Physics of Superheroes. He was asked to be the science consultant for the (warning! spoilers)film version of the graphic novel The Watchmen. Ignore the nerds and geeks flaming each other in the comments to the video; they're just jealous that he got to be on the set and they didn't!

The ugly underside of geek culture (which has its charms sometimes) is the relentless misogyny. Junot Diaz's book The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao is, among other things, an exploration of the intersections of successful and unsuccessful performances of masculinities that can be manifested in some geek subcultures, especially some of the comic/graphic novel versions. I just read the book last month, and I need to read it again.

The Bible in One Minute

Who says people aren't reading anymore?

Rachel Maddow interviews Left Behind authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, about their enormously successful books, socialism, the rapture, and how best-selling novels (tens of millions sold!) influence the worldview of millions of Americans. Notice how rationally and respectfully they speak to each other. And listen to her break it down for us.

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.