Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Libraries, literacy, and community
Crossposting from the Daily Gumboot where this article originally appeared, only because I know a different group of people read my blog and it's an important issue. If you have thoughts to share why not check out the original post on dailgumboot.ca and comment.
Literacy, both reading-and-writing and community literacy, are critical components of a strong community.
Informed discussion, enlightened imagination, and literal comprehension are the pillars of an active and engaged people. They enable organization, planning, and debate; all of which are critical to a healthy and functioning society.
CC -publicdomainarts on flickr
It is difficult to overstate the importance of libraries and literacy.
While it is true that communication tools have led to improved access to information, the effectiveness of that access in terms of promoting local community development and community literacy is greatly diminished by the quest for monetization and the decentralized and isolated nature in which we receive it.
One of the great defining aspects of libraries, beyond providing access to a wealth of information, is that they are communal in nature. Scan the offerings at your local library and you will find activities, courses, support, services, and events that help build strong communities at a grassroots level.
Helping parents raise literate and informed children, helping students and teachers with research and access to information, and opening our eyes to publications from around the globe that provide insight into every aspect of our lives. All provided not for profit, but for our collective good.
Libraries serve as a critical grounding during a time where we are all-to-easily distracted by links of the day, explosions on television, and celebrity gossip publications.
They reveal and support the best in us all. The loss of any of these services would be detrimental to our communities, yet at the moment we find that loss a very real possibility.
Literacy, both reading-and-writing and community literacy, are critical components of a strong community.
Informed discussion, enlightened imagination, and literal comprehension are the pillars of an active and engaged people. They enable organization, planning, and debate; all of which are critical to a healthy and functioning society.
CC -publicdomainarts on flickrIt is difficult to overstate the importance of libraries and literacy.
While it is true that communication tools have led to improved access to information, the effectiveness of that access in terms of promoting local community development and community literacy is greatly diminished by the quest for monetization and the decentralized and isolated nature in which we receive it.
One of the great defining aspects of libraries, beyond providing access to a wealth of information, is that they are communal in nature. Scan the offerings at your local library and you will find activities, courses, support, services, and events that help build strong communities at a grassroots level.
Helping parents raise literate and informed children, helping students and teachers with research and access to information, and opening our eyes to publications from around the globe that provide insight into every aspect of our lives. All provided not for profit, but for our collective good.
Libraries serve as a critical grounding during a time where we are all-to-easily distracted by links of the day, explosions on television, and celebrity gossip publications.
They reveal and support the best in us all. The loss of any of these services would be detrimental to our communities, yet at the moment we find that loss a very real possibility.
BC provincial public libraries have not yet received their 2009 annual operating grants from the provincial government, nor have they been told how much money they will be receiving – both of which usually happen earlier in the fiscal year. There have been strong indications that the Province has decided to stop funding libraries and that this funding may be cut from the current and subsequent budgets.
http://www.stopbclibrarycuts.ca/public.htm
With articles in community publications across the province, the reaction to this holdback by media points to the importance of libraries to our communities.
Hopefully that coverage leads to informed debate and action that results in a long-term plan to support libraries and the communities of British Columbia.
It’s our chance to support those that support us, to bring positivity to a political debate that is all-too-often debased with uninformed comment, and to steer our representatives towards a very real way they can support the communities from whence they came.
You can find out more about what funding means to British Columbia’s libraries, and how you can become engaged through the British Columbia Library Association. If you're interested they have an official response and list of other resources as well.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Toronto, we really do love you...
Coors pulling B.C. billboards as frosty mugs from Toronto call new beer ads tasteless.
"colder than most people from Toronto."The billboard, which was part of Molson Coors' "Colder than . . ." summer beer campaign, went largely unnoticed by anyone east of the Rockies until a Toronto newspaper carried a complaint from a Toronto resident who saw the ad while on vacation.
Within hours of the story, Molson Coors backtracked and cancelled the campaign after it received complaints from people who thought the ads offended residents of Canada's largest city.
If only the ad was for a beer worth drinking.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Eastside Culture Crawl
Last night I had the great pleasure to meet a bunch of artists involved in the Eastside Culture Crawl to talk social media and how they might use these tools for promotion.
WendyD and the promotions/advertising board are already doing a good job maintaining a website and using twitter to connect the community to artists and the Crawl. Some of the artists are onboard with social media and self-promotion too, and are maintaining blogs and personal websites.
I had a good time and wanted to give a shout-out to the cool people I met last night. Obviously a group who work hard on creative pursuits, they brought great questions and an insight into what matters for artists.
WendyD and the promotions/advertising board are already doing a good job maintaining a website and using twitter to connect the community to artists and the Crawl. Some of the artists are onboard with social media and self-promotion too, and are maintaining blogs and personal websites.
I had a good time and wanted to give a shout-out to the cool people I met last night. Obviously a group who work hard on creative pursuits, they brought great questions and an insight into what matters for artists.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
RIP Les Paul
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.
-AP
Les Paul was one of the most influential and important figures in modern music and recording.
Take a minute today to think about music.
Monday, August 10, 2009
First anniversary lessons
Things I have learned in my 1 year of marriage:
- I’m a pretty lucky guy.
- There is nothing I hate to watch more than movies in the romcom genre. I even hate the name, romcom... ugh.
- Having someone around to remember things for you is great.
- If you get your spouse’s birthdate wrong on 1 extended medical form because of the whole mmddyy or ddmmyy thing you will have to battle for months to convince them that yes that is your wife and yes they should update that field so that you can actually claim something.
- A bird in the hand is worth about $20 if you adopt it from the bird-rescue, but it might crap in your hand. (this has nothing to do with marriage...)
- Having friends is more important than you think.
- Having family isn’t important, having supportive and accepting family is.
- Sharing a bank account makes you more fiscally responsible.
- Good wine can solve any problem other than needing to sober up.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Final Fantasy Onstage in a Storm
Came across this via CBCradio3.
Just watch, it's worth it. He's a great musician and the energy he has for what he does really comes across in the performance.
Just watch, it's worth it. He's a great musician and the energy he has for what he does really comes across in the performance.
Monday, July 27, 2009
It's basically all about me...
Well, it's really about the way my "crafts" turn out.
http://craftastrophe.net/
Come by, have coffee, witness my hand-quilted bodum-cozy - you'll see.
http://craftastrophe.net/
Come by, have coffee, witness my hand-quilted bodum-cozy - you'll see.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
I Love Winter, I Love Summer
Free Videos - Videos About Being Free
These snowboard, ski, skate, and surf videos help me love life and remember that being outside is better than being inside - which is where I see them. Then, I go outside and enjoy living life.
(int) Factor Films presents THEY CAME FROM... from factor films on Vimeo.
Nike Debacle from mike on Vimeo.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Canadian Privacy Laws & Online Networking
A report form the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has found that facebook breaches Canadian privacy law. The report responds to 24 complaints, and while most were unfounded or resolved there are four cases that are of concern.
Here's a bit from the executive summary (bolding by me):
CBC has a good quote from Jordan Plener, the UOttawa student who filed the complaint on behalf of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
What do you think? Is it time we give up on protecting our personal information online?
Here's a bit from the executive summary (bolding by me):
It's something I rarely think about as I generally avoid apps, but it makes me wonder how many third-party applications are created just to harvest users' information.
On the remaining subjects of third-party applications, account deactivation and deletion, accounts of deceased users, and non-users’ personal information, the Assistant Commissioner likewise found Facebook to be in contravention of the Act and concluded that the allegations were well-founded. In these four cases, there remain unresolved issues where Facebook has not yet agreed to adopt her recommendations. Most notably, regarding third-party applications, the Assistant Commissioner determined that Facebook did not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized access by application developers to users’ personal information, and furthermore was not doing enough to ensure that meaningful consent was obtained from individuals for the disclosure of their personal information to application developers.
CBC has a good quote from Jordan Plener, the UOttawa student who filed the complaint on behalf of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
That sounds on the money to me - but really, should we have any expectation of privacy at all on facebook? Our Minister Van Loan doesn't think so.
"For a hangman application, for example, there is no use for the developer to know where the person lives or have their personal email address."
What do you think? Is it time we give up on protecting our personal information online?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Letting go of What you Know to Progress
Last night Wachtel on the Arts took over Ideas on CBC1, and her interview with Milton Glaser was pretty awesome.
Glaser is an artist - I say that because he is beyond being a designer. It can take a lot to get past design when you work in a commercial business, but Glasser's work has consistently been right at the front of the pack.
He and Wachtel discussed the approach and philosophies of Giorgio Morandi (under whom he studied) and Picasso.
Morandi's body of work is cohesive and well tied together, in stark contrast to Picasso's progression and variation through approaches and movements.
Glaser described really clearly what I find so fantastic about Picasso - and I'm sorry I can't find the exact quote - by praising his drive to abandon a style or pursuit once accomplished, and move on to something new.
He said "Once you've learned something, and you can do it, it's time to let it go and move on to the next thing."
I like that.
It's not the way to become a specialist, but it's a fantastic way to become an excellent generalist specialized in adaptation.
Adaptation, it makes us human.
Glaser is an artist - I say that because he is beyond being a designer. It can take a lot to get past design when you work in a commercial business, but Glasser's work has consistently been right at the front of the pack.
He and Wachtel discussed the approach and philosophies of Giorgio Morandi (under whom he studied) and Picasso.
Morandi's body of work is cohesive and well tied together, in stark contrast to Picasso's progression and variation through approaches and movements.
Glaser described really clearly what I find so fantastic about Picasso - and I'm sorry I can't find the exact quote - by praising his drive to abandon a style or pursuit once accomplished, and move on to something new.
He said "Once you've learned something, and you can do it, it's time to let it go and move on to the next thing."
I like that.
It's not the way to become a specialist, but it's a fantastic way to become an excellent generalist specialized in adaptation.
Adaptation, it makes us human.
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Burrard Bridge and Cringeworthy Comments
Disclaimer: This isn't about the issue. It's an issue the issue raises that has to do with discussion, communication, and community.
The Burrard bridge bicycle lane trial has begun.
I'm not from Vancouver, I don't bike across the bridge, and I'm not really entitled to much of an opinion as I haven't examined the plans, read the council minutes, or really paid much attention at all - until today.
You see, every local-news outlet has a story on the bike-lane'd bridge. And in today's everybody-has-a-voice web2.0 social media mad world, that means every story has a comment thread a mile long.
In theory, enabling comments and discussion fosters debate and communication.
In practice, comment-sections quickly degenerate into useless strings of spin and vitriol only occasionally related to the originating article.
Insults are flung with wild abandon, key-messages drown out discussion, and somehow (I really don't understand it yet) the least intelligent among us manage to find their way onto the internet and whip out angry diatribes that only occasionally make sense.
It's depressing to think that those posting are actually the listening/watching/reading public. So, rather than be depressed I imagine this:
Massive banks of computers in a smoke-filled room, cigarette buts dangling from ashtrays on the corners of redbull-strewn desks. Each computer is staffed by a moron with a script, shit-posting to beat hell, while a balding man with dark circles under his eyes paces circles in front of a giant set of monitors looking for news to hijack.
It's like a telethon to save PBS, but instead of red-dwarf reruns we get the daily news. And instead of saving PBS the point is this is an intricate plot to degrade public dialogue to the point where it doesn't make sense to have a public dialogue at all.
I like to think this intricate plan is funded by the military-industrial-complex (do we even call it that now that it's really the everything-complex?) to weaken the public's role in any sort of policy development or implementation.
I then like to use that vision to get really pissed off, curse the lack of public spaces where debate and discussion occur in Canada, and then I do my best to either:
A. Write a coherent post engaging with the few people actually participating in some sort of discussion, then vote-up our posts with a host of fake accounts.
B. Respond to comments in earnest, with sourced arguments, but in the wrong comment thread.
Option B is way more fun, but usually just gets ignored.
The moral of the story is this, "The internet is too easy."
Or it isn't.
The Burrard bridge bicycle lane trial has begun.
I'm not from Vancouver, I don't bike across the bridge, and I'm not really entitled to much of an opinion as I haven't examined the plans, read the council minutes, or really paid much attention at all - until today.
You see, every local-news outlet has a story on the bike-lane'd bridge. And in today's everybody-has-a-voice web2.0 social media mad world, that means every story has a comment thread a mile long.
In theory, enabling comments and discussion fosters debate and communication.
In practice, comment-sections quickly degenerate into useless strings of spin and vitriol only occasionally related to the originating article.
Insults are flung with wild abandon, key-messages drown out discussion, and somehow (I really don't understand it yet) the least intelligent among us manage to find their way onto the internet and whip out angry diatribes that only occasionally make sense.
It's depressing to think that those posting are actually the listening/watching/reading public. So, rather than be depressed I imagine this:
Massive banks of computers in a smoke-filled room, cigarette buts dangling from ashtrays on the corners of redbull-strewn desks. Each computer is staffed by a moron with a script, shit-posting to beat hell, while a balding man with dark circles under his eyes paces circles in front of a giant set of monitors looking for news to hijack.
It's like a telethon to save PBS, but instead of red-dwarf reruns we get the daily news. And instead of saving PBS the point is this is an intricate plot to degrade public dialogue to the point where it doesn't make sense to have a public dialogue at all.
I like to think this intricate plan is funded by the military-industrial-complex (do we even call it that now that it's really the everything-complex?) to weaken the public's role in any sort of policy development or implementation.
I then like to use that vision to get really pissed off, curse the lack of public spaces where debate and discussion occur in Canada, and then I do my best to either:
A. Write a coherent post engaging with the few people actually participating in some sort of discussion, then vote-up our posts with a host of fake accounts.
B. Respond to comments in earnest, with sourced arguments, but in the wrong comment thread.
Option B is way more fun, but usually just gets ignored.
The moral of the story is this, "The internet is too easy."
Or it isn't.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Photos I've Found
I love photography. The still image catches me more than video ever does, leaving space to explore beyond the image.
Here are a few of the choice photos I've stumbled across this week:
Stéfan's stormtrooper-a-day set on flickr is gold.
This cat, I don't know what to say really...
Jerry Ting's photos are really well done, this one is a few years old but it a cool look at the SF Salt Ponds.
Marketing madness here, feels more like social commentary...
And finally,
Because I like how some of these turned out. It's always fun playing with old camera equipment.
Here are a few of the choice photos I've stumbled across this week:
Stéfan's stormtrooper-a-day set on flickr is gold.
This cat, I don't know what to say really...
Jerry Ting's photos are really well done, this one is a few years old but it a cool look at the SF Salt Ponds.
Marketing madness here, feels more like social commentary...And finally,
Because I like how some of these turned out. It's always fun playing with old camera equipment.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
New Video from Shad
Even if hiphop isn't your thing, Shad's flow is so good and he's got this down to earth vibe that's refreshing.
Ironlak Paint - for writers and arteests
How cool is this - a paint 'n marker company that sponsors and celebrates streetart.
Ironlak
Ironlak
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Search Engine with Minister Peter Van Loan
This is one of those extremely important things you should hear.
Minister Peter Van Loan telling us we have no reason to expect any online privacy.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Graphically Grammatical Gumboot
That might not make sense, but captain John "no blower" Horn plugged my favorite blog into Wordle. What came out is a great thing:
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