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 Monday, June 2, 2003
Learning to Become Who You Are. Ah. Here it is. I found it--a big book, American Journey. And that reminds me of a moment two weeks ago...
"I think I've lost it." The Thirteen-Year-Old was standing before one of the middle school librarians. Three weeks before he had borrowed one of the library's copies of the next year's history book, American Journey. He had loved it, and had blazed through it in three days. But then the book had gone missing someplace in the house. So we were reporting this--expensive--lost book at the middle school library.
The librarians were very kind. They said they were certain the book would turn up. They restored his borrowing privileges. "We know you are telling the truth," one of them said, "It's a textbook. It's not a book you would ever want to keep."
I could see a wave of dismay pass over the Thirteen-Year-Old's face. For, of course, it is a book he wants to keep--very much. Then I saw his jaw set and his shoulders square as he told himself, "Yes. I am the kind of person who reads history textbooks for fun. This is who I am. And that is fine." Now he?s going to have to hold onto these ideas thoughout his teenage years. That?s going to be hard.
But if I can look a little further into the future, because he?s the kind of guy who reads history textbooks for fun, he will have a very bright future indeed. [Semi-Daily Journal]
Funny how watching how a pre-teen deals with items like this gives you an inkling of what sort of adult they will be. I was someone who read history books for fun. Heck, I'd read volumes of the encyclopedia also. A very strange boy. My son has not shown much interest in non-fiction at the moment but I can see some of the hints that his readin ghabits will start expanding. It will be fun to see. 9:50:11 PM 
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The abstract sounds very interesting. I may have to pay $15 to get access to the article. Of course, the $15 gives me complete access to all the articles at PNAS for 7 days, so I need to make a big list of all those I want to read. Here is the abstract:The challenge of meeting human development needs while protecting the earth's life support systems confronts scientists, technologists, policy makers, and communities from local to global levels. Many believe that science and technology (S&T) must play a more central role in sustainable development, yet little systematic scholarship exists on how to create institutions that effectively harness S&T for sustainability. This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce. Effective systems apply a variety of institutional mechanisms that facilitate communication, translation and mediation across boundaries. Luckily, Google comes through and I found the paper online at some of the authors' site. Saved myself $15. 10:32:23 AM
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Liberal Arrogance at its Finest. Mercury News: Streisand's home: A suit is born. Barbra Streisand thinks that people, people who fly past her house with... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
No one has any privacy. Get used to it. Especially to topographic photos taken from free air space. I guess Streisand's lawyers have to earn their retainer. I'm not sure the arrogance is so much liberal as the sort of out-of-touch worldview that comes from someone quite as sheltered as the megarich artist. Money and fame makes you do weird things. 10:20:21 AM
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Mr. Language Person Attacks!. Mr. Language Person Attacks! - This headline is just wrong: Iraq weapons questions dog allies Come on, people! Subject-verb agreement,... [Unqualified Offerings]
Ahh. Headline problems. Sometimes I wonder whether copy editors even exist anymore or whether computers now deal with all the spelling, grammar and writing we see. What is great is that the headline now reads : Comments fuel doubts over Iraq?s weapons. Google still has the old title if you search GoogleNews. I wonder if they corrected it before or after it got around on the blogosphere? 10:17:13 AM
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Could be the future of large, and small, conferences. The information from attendee bloggers may be as important as official information. In this case, the official outley includes attendee bloggers. Information and viewpoint will be very strong at these meetings, at least for those who check it out. 9:11:07 AM
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What a relief! IN order to create wormholes that will allow us to travel in time we only need a very, very small amount of exotic matter. So, as soon as someone figures out how to make some exotic matter, we will be golden. 8:55:31 AM
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Yep, it probably will make it impossible to use most anything (a browser, a MP3 player, etc.) without getting an OS upgrade. That way theu can continue to get income from their OS. 8:38:14 AM
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How different would the world be today if Apple had won against MS? No Windows. Ahh. But at the time, Apple was viewed as closed, proprietary company and MS as the good guys. How 10 years and a monoploy changes things! 8:34:03 AM
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Long-Run Deficit Numbers. Lance Knobel pounds his head against the wall because finally a newspaper is covering the size of America's long-run deficit problem--the problem that George W. Bush has done so much to revive in such a short time:
Davos Newbies Home: Big number 
Here's a big number: $44,200 billion. That's what the chronic federal budget deficits will total thanks to the Bush administration according to a report from the US Treasury.
But in keeping with the administration's commitment to honesty and openness, the study was quietly left out of the annual budget report in February.
[Semi-Daily Journal]
$44 trillion is a big number. Does anyone care if this debt is ever paid off? 12:54:50 AM
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Homogenization and Balkanization. There is a tremendous market failure that is homogenizing public policy while balkanizing civil society.
Stanford Professor Diane Ravitch?s new book The Language Police reveals self-censorship in education. For example, even high-school history and English texts cannot mention: divorce, drugs, homosexuality, or dinosaurs (evolution) on one hand; religion, women as homemakers, slavery, inequality, and so on, on the other. In other words, anything real or interesting or historically accurate. Oligopoly Watch chalks this up to oligopsony (a market controlled by a few buyers), in this case three state textbook evaluation committees. Because there is some measure of accountability and a great deal of lobbying influence, the committees are balancing political correctness from the extreme left-wing and right wing.
Meanwhile, our kids get extreme exposure to these issues through the mass media, itself an oligopoly. When a media oligopoly can diversify its properties through digital cable, the law of the niche drives appeal to extremes. Given the choice, kids will naturally gravitate towards learning about contentious issues in media that is largely absent of context. Further fostering extremism.
Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts ban atheists and gays. With the supreme court granting the right to private civil society organizaitons to be exclusive, extreme interests are balkanizing. Again, this is a market with few sellers.
Parents are left with little choice. [Ross Mayfield's Weblog]
Attempting to control information drives its content to homogenization and balkanization. Communities that allow this to happen will not be able to move as rapidly or make useful decisions in the ever changing society we are living in. Those that allow diversity of views, that do not try to control the flow, that realize to do so is impossible, that permit the rapid flow of information to create knowledge that leads to good decision, those will be the communities that succeed. Current political divisions have little to do with these two choices. It is as simple as whether a garden should have dandelions in it or not. And as complex. 12:44:21 AM
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The Sky is Falling... (John Cassidy). The Sky is Falling... (John Cassidy) [Common Dreams]
A reasonably nice discussion of why an independent media is important. Diversity is what helps solve problems in our republic, not consolidation and narrowing of viewpoints. 12:28:37 AM
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Monopoly or Democracy?... (Ted Turner). Monopoly or Democracy?... (Ted Turner) [Common Dreams]
The rules that the FCC will vote on tomorrow will raise the barrier to entry for almost every American citizen. Virtually every television and radio station will be controlled by one of 5 companies. No more Ted Turners or even Rupert Murdochs. The companies they created have made sure of that. Only a disruptive technology will change things. Will they allow the Internet to do that? 12:26:39 AM
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