Infinite Thinking Machine

Infinite Thinking Machine: "I'll frequently ask my audiences of educational technologists why Apache, MySQL, PHP, and/or Python--all current building blocks of the Web, and which can be obtained for free and run on older computers--aren't being taught in schools"

Oh yes!

Sorry about the long Hiatus (sp?) from posting but I'm been busy (! /smile)

Anyway, I'm all about educational paradox and FOSS. The paradox is that this stuff is free and useful, yet school continue to teach with stuff that's expensive and pointless.

phenomenal genius guy - Lin Yutang

Like LinYuTang, I am a reasonable nudist. He is a really pretty cool
and I think ready for a surge in popularity. A friend recently said she only skinny dips in her bath tub and it reminded me of this essay.

16

ON BEING NAKED

NUDISM has come to America, I am told. Let it come! I

just fail to see what harm it can do. I have been a nudist all

my life without my knowing it.

Now it should be clearly understood at the beginning that

I am a reasonable nudist, as against the doctrinaire and fa­

natic nudists, as I always am a reasonable vegetarian as dis­

tinguished from the fanatic vegetarians. Like all Chinese,

and following the old doctrine of the Golden Mean, I am all

for nudism at certain hours and in certain circumstances, in

the bathtub, for instance, but I am dead against going down

Broadway in the native garb my mother gave me. I can hon­
estly
tell you that it is beautiful to feel naked in one's bath (that's all
I could find online) It's in the book "with love and irony"

His famous book is "The importance of
living". He is 'phenomenal genius guy' of mine, because for all his
smarts he still lives as he pleases. He wrote this about wisdom‘The wisest man is therefore he who loafs most gracefully.’

The Idler » Idle Idols: Lin Yutang

On Wisdom: ‘The wisest man is therefore he who loafs most gracefully.’

It's August, Ya'll

WALT WHITMAN, LEAVES OF GRASS

I know I am solid and sound,

To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.



I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt
stick at night.



I know I am august,

I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,

I see that the elementary laws never apologize,


I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.

My Future Job

IT Development and Training Specialist job in Durham, NC: Technology and Pharmaceutical/Biotech careers - Yahoo HotJobs

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

.Bachelor's degree in Education, Computer Science or related area or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience that provides the individual with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities
.Two - Five years experience in the development and delivery of IT training
.Or equivalent combination of education, training and experience that provide the individual with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

.Ability to Design and development of learning and training materials
.Excellent verbal/written communication skills
.Ability to apply adult learning theory
.Model building skills
.Problem-solving abilities
.Ability to understand and apply project management skills
.Performance observation skills
.Ability to understand and apply job tools/aids techniques
.Ability to interact successfully in front of large groups
.Strong presentation skills
.Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to motivate and coach others
.Ability to work independently
.Ability to prioritize well
.Ability to multitask
.Positive attitude and ability to work well with others
.Advanced computer skills

I think the MIT program can give me these skills. Which ones will I focus on? Which need work?

Ernie Cline's NerdPorn

Dance, Monkeys, Dance - Flash animation

From the guy who brougth you the Dance, Monkeys, Dance animation:

Nerd Porn:

A silly video

Doug Noon and Stephen Downes write about future education and classroom reform

Good Morning HiFives Readers...

Doug at Borderland pulls together and explains his thoughts after reading Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society and others School 2.0 ideas and resistance to systemic change in schools. The spawn event was working on a committee to rewrite his school's mission statement. Where the idea for a Wiki to complete the work was shot down by a ... reactionary colleague.

I had a similar experience with a volunteer at a Non-Profit, where I volunteer. Without going into detail, when I suggested a blog and wiki to handle some of the admin communication and scheduling, this guy said "I've had this same conversation many times before." My Dad says this to me as well. I think that's a problem of over generalization and wrong headed. However, not being defensive and being very Edward de Bono, I took his perspective and tried to figure out what the real objection. I think I convinced him that, indeed, things have changed since 1999, when he had "the same conversation". The very next week, the org started a new schedule blog. Change happens.

Doug is great about spreading around the good links. He linked this Downes article and I found the following quote

Half an Hour: To The School or Classroom 2.0 Advocates

We need to stop employing students as fast-food servers and sales clerks. They are capable of much better than that, and an exercise in corporate demeaning is probably not the best way to introduce them to society.

We should begin offering students full-time employment in certain fields as alternatives to their formal studies. Such a program should logically begin at the higher grades (grades 11 and 12) as well as being brought on-stream as an alternative to college and university.

Most such employment involves the creation of some sort of content or another. The ranges of possible employment are covered in my diagram:

- students could provide ultra-local news, entertainment and sports reporting
- students could provide up-to-date surveying and inventories of civic property
- students could conduct scientific field-research such as bird-counting, ecosystem sampling, pollution-measuring and the like
- students could help supervise younger children

and more - the possibilities are limited only by our imaginations.

I feel this is exactly what Sandra and Mr. Meador are trying to do with Topsail High School here in Pender Co. They are making a Project based curriculum around a school new production. And it reminds me of the project at St. Martin De Porres High school in Cleveland (Thanks Karen Nestor) ... And it is exactly what I want to do with the MIT program in UNCW.

The trick to making this attractive is to present it, not as the dog-eat-dog struggle for survival that characterizes our existing economy, but rather as a large and complex game, played partially on the computer and partially in RL, in which they play an increasingly important role.

Now here is the Edu-Gaming part - Thank you Stephen Downes. YES! This is what I think of when I play WoW (the famously popular World of Warcraft) hmmm... enough for now.. Thanks for the inspiration.

I'm back!

John in Thailand

http://joguva.blogspot.com/index.html


It's pretty dang good.

I have a new Blog

Check it out at

http://newmania.allmypeople.com

This blog is screwy

I can't login to this blog anymore

Head over to my NEW BLOG

http://newmania.allmypeople.com

It's My Birthday!

I so happy to make it here.

I've always loved my Birthday - not for the attention and presents (Those things just embarassed me) - But for the cool stuff that happened. It was the date in 1856 that the first English Colony in North America gave up and went home - thus creating "The Lost Colony" and possibly the strange blue eyes and light color hair in the Lumbee Indian tribe in my Mother's hometown of Lumberton, NC.

It was also the date that American Slaves were freed and it's celebrated each year with a big festival called "Juneteenth".

The past two years I've gone down to the beach for my birthday - Last year, I went with the incredible, beautiful Sasa Bear. She and I spent the weekend touring the north east coast of Taiwan and had a long hike along a historic trail through the forest, along a stream and up a mountain - did I say it was long :)

Sasa also sent the best Birthday card I've ever recieved in all my 34 years - Thanks Sarah!

My Mom called to wake me up with birthday greetings, yesterday. I guess she is using last year's calendar. Sally chimed in with a nice Birthday email.

Tonight - it's a BBQ and a Game 7 Stanley Cup final. Should be a good and memorable day.

much love,
nsl

World Naked Bike Ride day - June 10th, 2006

MADRID (Reuters) - Hundreds of nude cyclists pedaled around Spanish cities on Saturday to protest against car-clogged streets and demand greater respect for pollution-free transport.


With slogans like "one car less" and "bio methanol" painted on their backs, the naked cyclists staged Spain's third annual Ciclonudista or "Nudecycle" in Madrid, Barcelona and Pamplona.

The protest was part of world-wide naked bike riding events on Saturday across Europe, North America and South America.

for more... no pictures

but wait... Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/worldnakedbikeride/

Waiting for Ray ...

Chilling out inside on a stormy day here in North Carolina.

radio david bryne is helping tremendously.

Avant Pop

Glitchy squiggly pop is more like it. Spanning 30+ years here are 3 hours of music that sounds like it all branched from the same tree trunk. A tree with roots that strangely matches that imagined by the creators of 60s Sci Fi movies and TV shows, but fully realized only now, in the 21st century, their future. This music's forerunner was heard in the movie scene where the weirdly beautiful woman sings and plays an instrument that looks like a 3D spider web. Or something similar. Odd how the future turned out to be almost exactly as it was imagined. As if those TV shows and movies were prescriptive not just imaginative. As if the fictional possibilities as writers imagined them and presented to us defined the scope of our imaginations — we will build the future but only as we can imagine it. You can't make it happen unless you visualize it first. How could we do otherwise?

So movie scenes and the soundtracks are like words — we think in concepts as defined and restricted by our language, and we imagine, create and hear only that which is within our grammar of sounds.

There are alternate futures, alternate music, but we will never experience them as our present as they were never imagined, or were imagined and then forgotten. There is music out there that we cannot hear, because it does not fit our definition of what music is. Someday that music will be imagined, and then inevitably, created.

The grooves here tend to be skittery, the percussion like the sounds of distant cutlery rattling, but the structures are often surprisingly (and comfortably) traditional — clear-cut verses and choruses. Voices lean towards the intimate, breathy, slightly mournful. Whispering strange and very personal messages in our ears. These are folk songs. Folk songs from a culture made of ones and zeros.

— DB

Check out the avant pop this month on Radio David Byrne.com perfect for a rainy beach day.

Gabba Gabba Hey,,, yo?

trailerHD_320.mov (video/quicktime Object)

The cookies were good. And they helped.

So, I'm sad and depressed.

But then I click on this link and I was changed. I inspired me to write this. Get ready to be totally freaked out, in a good way.

Yogabbagabba!

PS: oh, that popping sound you will hear is 21st century children's programing in high Def.

Shine on you crazy ... Frogger

Neave Games :: Frogger

You will be amazed. It's not that I am a gamer, but I believe in the power of games. This game, Frogger, brings back memories for sure. As I recall, it was hot-ly contested in the Lanier / Stephenson family and Garden Hills Neighborhood dens of the early 80's. It's a strangely addictive game. This new flash version by Neave games is really good - the graphics and the sounds match my memory.

Okay I'm back to playing...

So, if you have never played frogger, you owe it to yourself to try.

Pink Floyd - "Shine on you crazy diamond"
"Remember when you were young,
"Now there's a look in your eyes,
"you reached for the secret too soon,

Everything is going to be fine...

Cookies are in the oven and the CAVS are on the TV.

6 mins on the cookies...

Eddie meet advertising. advertising, Eddie Spaghetti.

3quarksdaily: "On Saturday, the town of Skarsterlan began fining Hotels.nl 1,000 euros a day for putting branded blankets on sheep. Advertising on livestock violates the town's ban on advertising along the highways."

My Friend, Eddie, is selling advertising in Orlando, FL. When I saw this article on selling ads on sheep that graze near the highway in Holland, well I thought about all the creative, innovative thinking that goes into advertising. I think marketing and Eddie are a good match, because he is a innovative and creative thinker.

Eddie meet advertising. Advertising, Eddie Spaghetti.

Flickr: Photos from newmania

Flickr: Photos from newmania

Just posted my Havasu Falls and Grand canyon trip photos over on Flickr. Some are really good.

Angie and I spent a full week in the area. After flying into Vegas and getting a rental car, we drove out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and stayed in the Mather Campground. It was super freakin cold - good thing there is a Supermarket there with camping supplies. I bought a fleece liner for my sleeping bag and I was COZY the second night.

It was Angie's first time seeing the Canyon and she summed it up in one word "unbelieveable". You just have to see it. The weather was cold - maybe 40s and occasional snow showers. We were happy to drive into the lowlands for some heat.

The parking lot for the Havasu Falls / Havasupai village is 60 miles down a BIA (bureau of indian affairs) road. We parked there and hiked the 10 miles to the campground and the Falls.

The waterfalls were breathtaking and such a treat after the long, dusty hike. It's a shock to be dry and hot, and then turn a corner and feel the moisture from the falls. A very viseral experience. Your BODY rejoices!

We spent three days hanging out and swimming in the pools and eating - we brought a ton of food. And we met a bunch of very cool folks.

There were the English couple - Richard and ?, the park ranger and his girlfriend - Wayne and Teressa, the folks who horseback'ed in with massive provisions, the Colorado ski resort workers, and of course, the Sisters - Alexis and Rachel. We met the sisters at Mooney Falls - the one you have to clmb down a canyon wall to get to. Alexis convinced us to jump from the rope swing. We all hiked out together and had a blast.

So get on over to Flickr and check out the pix! and it's okay to post a comment or two :)

The Alaskan Forum hits 100 members!

I happy to report that the forum I started alittle over a year ago has 100 members. The forum has information about visiting Alaska and living in Alaska. And it provides a places for Alaskans to share tips and highlights.

Visiting and living in Alaska poses special problems. It's unlike any other place in the USA and probably the world. It's hard to come here and be successful. To have a good experience you need a community and guide to help you get along. Where do you buy xtratuffs? How do you find a good Mexican restaurant in Fairbanks? All sorts of questions arise when living on the last frontier. I created the Alaskan Forum to highlight the web sites that can help and provide a place for Alaskans to discuss these topics.

It's an open place and it's free to join the discussion. Please visit, join the board, and post a topic.

If you are a business or have an Alaskan website / blog, it's okay to post a link to your site (as long as it is relative to Alaska)

http://forum.alaskagold.com