Best Practices and Case Studies: Be Very Afraid

Best Practices and Case Studies: Be Very Afraid

Another bubble burst. The only best practice is your best practice.

The Atlantic | January/February 2003 | The New Continental Divide | Lind

The Atlantic | January/February 2003 | The New Continental Divide | Lind: "The nightmarish result might be an America in which the same wealthy elite lords it over both a largely nonwhite proletariat of maids, nannies, gardeners, and janitors in the coastal cities and over a mostly white working class of janitors, dude-ranch employees, and tourist-trap workers in the interior. This, in turn, might produce a hardening economic and racial hierarchy or even a class war. Whatever the outcome, the American dream of a middle-class society might be threatened."

Gropinator

Gropinator: "Of course, Walmart cares not about a level playing field. To quote the president of thread maker Carolina Mills: 'We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions.'"

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin: "Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss. You will find you're weak where you thought yourself strong. You'll work for possessions and then find they possess you. You will find yourself - as I know you already have - in dark places, alone, and afraid."

Fabulous commencement address by Ursula Leguin at Mills College

News

News

Why do I have to go to Britain to get real news. Incredible article about the new fraud-o-matic voting machines in the U.S. Democracy is now officially dead.

OJR article: NY Times Reporter Has Seen It All Before, and He's Still Pessimistic

OJR article: NY Times Reporter Has Seen It All Before, and He's Still Pessimistic

Quote: it sometimes seems we have a world full of bloggers and that blogging is the future of journalism, or at least that's what the bloggers argue, and to my mind, it's not clear yet whether blogging is anything more than CB radio.

And if that doesn't rile you, how about this?

Quote: When I tell that to people … they get very angry with me. ... I also like to tell them, when they (ask) when I'm going to start a blog, and then, 'Oh, I already have a blog, it's www.nytimes.com, don't you read it?'

USM Center for Writers - The 39 Steps:Â On Story Writing

USM Center for Writers - The 39 Steps: On Story Writing

Of if you don't like Elmore Leonard, try Donald Barthelme's 39 steps.

Bucks County Writers Workshop

Bucks County Writers Workshop

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules. I love rule number ten: try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

universal education -- YES! A Journal of Positive Futures

universal education -- YES! A Journal of Positive Futures

Powerful guidelines for education here taken from private schools, the Amish, and Gatto's own life.

Test of bloggar

Calligraphic Button Catalogue

Very clever/funny/apt sayings on buttons. I likes this one: The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude. Fits our political climate of lying denial, don't you think?

Calligraphic Button Catalogue

Fascinating implications for teaching here. Is this an example of extreme teaching, teaching them how to learn instead of what to learn. Remember: the bibliography may be more valuable than the book. And that's not a bad thing.

How to Save the World

A test of bloggar as a posting tool.

A wonderful commencement address. I think we are seeing the evolution of a stodgy form into something quite worth listening to. Kushner is so funny, too. My favorite quote (among many):

"If you meant to invite me, and let's proceed from that assumption, then you wanted a playwright and I have to say what a strange choice, what with Gabriel blowing his trumpet and the Book of Revelations unfolding seal by seal and all; it's as if you'd been warned of years of calamity and famine ahead and in response you anxiously stuffed an after dinner mint in your pocket. "

Vassar College: Commencement Speech

. . . Bring Back the Skeptical Press (washingtonpost.com)

Testing my return to Blogger. Kevin Kelly's new page Recommendo reminds me why I loved the Whole Earth Review and its daddy the Whole Earth Catalog

been almost a year since I posted here.

Well, the weblogs for service learning are finally getting off the ground. But I wasn't able to use my schoolblogs site like I wanted--no tech support on that from school plus old underpowered Digitals that seem to work fine with Blogger. I told my students that blogs are a combo: news/reflection/information/sharing. Some get it right away, some don't. Maybe all will by the end of May.

I am trying to install blogchat on this blog, but I am totally clueless. This will be the saga of how a mind unencumbered with tech savvy tries to make it work. Stay tuned.

A nice rationalization for plans b,c,d, ad infinitum when searching from Marylaine Block.

"Why is it worth identifying our mental maps and thinking about them? To remind ourselves when we get bogged down in a question, that we can reorient ourselves to a different map and a different strategy for finding answers."

Also check out her Neatnews and her Rules for Information.