What's New About Country and Western?

Well - it has been a while since I last blogged. Christmas and New Years was hectic like it always is... Meantime there has been time for me to reflect on the world.

Despite the horrible news from Gaza about so many people being maimed and killed, the world is trying hard to be a better place. I think the whole world is fed up with war-mongering and wants to do what it can to stop all the killing. Here is some good news, albeit only relevant for those folk in San Francisco, but anyway...

According to California Fire News, the response time to emergencies has improved enormously in the metro San Francisco area, and, following a new protocol, the 911 Call Center has improved the time it takes to dispatch emergency help to those people who really need it fast. For just about a year now, dispatchers have dispensed with the "further questions" approach before dispatching emergency teams, and, depending on the priority of the symptoms reported over the telephone, there is now no delay in getting people out to the scene of an emergency, whereas before, several questions needed to be asked to determine the priority, therefore taking up valuable time. This new approach has meant that now, instead of emergency workers arriving at a scene late one in four times, they now arrive late one in every five times. Although this doesn't appear to be monumental, try multiplying this figure by a hundred! This then means that whereas before, out of every 400 people's emergencies, 100 were late arrivals, now out of the same figure, 400, only 80 now are late arrivals, and we can expect the figure to keep dropping as the new technologies all take effect. Emergencies are really costly, and we should be very grateful for the support we get here in the USA. California had a record-setting wildfire year in 2008, with over 1.7 Billion dollars spent fighting wildland fires! There were some sad stories. But there were also many stories of heroism and courage too.

The other topic which came to mind was the film industry. Clint Eastwood has produced two new movies after a long time doing other stuff. He is 78 and still raring for more(!) He is going to be doing a story about Nelson Mandela this year. It is interesting that the film, "Gran Torino" is about an old guy who encounters some Asians who move into his neighborhood, and the movie deals with his very unique way of handling this. The old Eastwood of "High Plains Drifter" fame is still there, but, after the event, he has a lot to say about the presence (or lack) of political correctness, and somehow his old-style commonsense wins through in the end. 

This demonstrates the incredible changes we have gone through in just the last few years. Where did all the old cowboy westerns go? Why is all of this so foreign to us now? I think someone should do a remake of classic "western" movies like "Monte Walsh", "High Noon", "High Plains Drifter" or "The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance" dressed up in a modern "western" genre, just as an experiment. I have always believed that these films have a place in our current society too, since the "West" was won at some stage, and, if nothing else, they serve as a piece of history, however politically incorrect they may or may not be.

See you next time around... :) 

Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense!

Yea - French. It means: "Evil be to he who evil thinks..." It's a motto. There are some really great mottos around. This is probably the opposite of the one which exhorts: "Pay forward!"

Let's take a step back for a minute. You are probably thinking, "Wow! I bet he's going to tell me that there is so much evil in the world!" Well - you know. But just think what all the good in the world does too, huh?

There has been an increase in really beautiful, thought-provoking reality shows on American TV recently. I am a firm believer that they all really started with the fine example that Oprah Winfrey gives us all! Some of the shows that I have recently viewed are:

Secret Millionaire - a show where real life millionaires give away their own money to deserving people they meet who have fallen on hard times.  These people come from a real mixture background. We see those who have grown up against a backdrop of "old money" and those who started with nothing and built a multi-millionaire empire out of nothing. The common denominator is that they take time to visit folk who are literally on the breadline and in doing so, learn about how people who have next to nothing are living. It is a marvelous exposition of the human spirit and what it can achieve.

Molly Shattuck, wife of Mayo Shattuck III, CEO of Constellation Energy, was a recent participant in the show, and she actually gave away more than $100,000. She says (about the name, Secret Millionaire): “ I think it’s so obnoxious. But I absolutely am in love with the concept and in love with the show. I think it’s so important.” (quote courtesy of David Zurawik, Baltimore Sun) Molly drives around with her Mom, and we hear her Mom tell her that she has always thought that Molly was great just doing what she does, but that this had given her the opportunity to see the human side of Molly. We see her tearfully visiting a young widow with three boys who is living in a house which is literally falling apart. Aside from the angst which is obviously generated by the real danger of living somewhere where there are holes in the roof among other very real dangers, we are immediately aware of the sadness and emptiness generated by a recent loss of a life partner to some horrible deadly medical condition, in this case cardiac arrest.

So, everyone grows a little bit on the Secret Millionaire.

Another participant, Greg, in another show, comes from a different background, but nonetheless, is inspired by the really ordinary people, doing ordinary things to help their fellow human beings in need. The show starts with Greg being dumped off the bus in the harsh reality of this end of Vegas, and immediately we are seeing people being arrested and all the other aspects of the hard life on the streets! It is interesting to see that this is the North end of Las Vegas, a town which most of us see as being a magical land with fairytale lights and beauty. He starts off living in a "hotel" which he has a difficult time understanding to actually be a hotel, because he encounters cockroaches and other really filthy things in his room, for which he is working, because he doesn't have enough money to pay when he gets there. During the show, he visits a day center for teens in trouble, a lady who helps out people who have fallen on hard times with food and groceries, and he goes to a skateboard park, where a wheelchair-bound 16-year-old is doing tricks in his wheelchair! The kid's dream is to help others, so Greg helps that dream come true with a check. Greg also helps all the others with check donations from his own money.

In yet another show, we see a Los Angeles, self-made millionaire and his wife going to live in Watts, a depressed area of L.A., and we can sense the immediate danger felt by them as they drive into the area from the nearby area where they really live, which is so different. The amazing thing is that they are welcomed into the community just like anyone else, which proves the community spirit which exists in these places. Later on they too donate money to some really deserving people, one of whom is helping ex-convicts who are literally dumped off the bus, when they are released from jail.

Anyway - this is just an example of some of the truly wonderful things happening on TV in America. You can catch this on Fox  (I expect these will be mirrored around the world. But I live in the USA, so this is my primary focus.) Of course, we have been watching "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition" for a while now on ABC, and this is another example of people doing stuff for other people who have fallen on hard times.  Ty Pennington and his crew of designers and builders take a week to rebuild houses that have fallen into disrepair and create mansions out of hovels for deserving families.

I think that there are too many really terrible sad stories on the news. It would be great if someone could come up with a good news station which broadcast only good news. I somehow think this would be a challenge though...

See y'all next time!

Taking Connectivism Out Into The World Of Life

Well the course is over. Students are still interconnecting. There will be a buzz of that going on for a long while...

What will I do now? My thoughts about this are: I will continue to blog. I will continue to bring you useful stuff. And I will continue to stimulate my brain and yours too. Talking of which, I have been acquainted with Alzheimer's Disease recently. A couple of people who are close to me, know exactly what it is to have someone suddenly deny knowledge of you right there and then... It is devastating, particularly if you love that person very much.

Several theories have been put forward for how the disease develops. However, the over-riding theory is that the brain starts to die because it is not getting enough exercise. Getting exercise to the brain can come in all kinds of ways. Now they are saying that one of the most widely used methods of brain exercise is surfing the Internet. In fact, scientists from UCLA have done a study on people aged 55 to 76, and have discovered that all of these "emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults."

Hmmm, what is middle-aged now? It is getting more confusing what with people living longer. Perhaps they mean 60?

The Twitter-Connected, Interstitial Hyperbole Lives On....

So, who says I can't dream up fascinating titles?

I have done a bit of work on the layout... I hope you enjoy it. The CCK08 course concluded in a blaze of glory today. I was sadly absent. i don't know how I missed it. I was somewhere else taking care of something quite important in my life, so I came back to the Eluminate session about half an hour after people had said their pieces. I am trying not to be too cut up about it. As George said: "I think I'd like to offer a course without any content again..." So there is always going to be good input from that direction. Right now, the closed eLearning course is up on a wiki, so everyone can read anyway (here is the link to the course which I finally found: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/IntroEmergingTech) - I have no idea why it was so hard to find this page... but I bet you all have had an experience of looking for a needle in a haystack...

Into the Wide Blue Yonder...with Connectivism!

Well - twelve weeks flashed past. I have learned a lot about new technologies (http://www.masternewmedia.org/). I have seen the direct results of social networking (http://www.twitter.com/stevetuf) and I have been introduced to some amazing people (http://www.wikieducator.com.)

It has been a fabulous experience and it is not going to stop here. I intend to go on and explore some more.

Stretching Out and Finding Roots in My Branches...

I have met an enormous amount of really interesting people during the CCK08 course. In fact, it is such a small world, that I now have a real problem trying to keep up with all the friends I have made all over the world. The problem is time!

Yes, time, is the grim reaper of my contact with other people. I never ever thought that this would ever be a problem. Now I find that to gather with other people who live all over the world, I have to plan the time zones... Happily, a regular weekly meeting which is held between people who live in Mexico, Israel, Turkey, Argentina and Germany, to name a few places, seems to be convenient at 11:00 am PST. But this is generally too late for people further West like those in Korea and other Asian places!

It is so strange that we should be coming up against these limitations now, when all the other technological problems of the world are rapidly dissolving, this is a problem that will probably never be resolved, until we become more virtual. This will mean a change to the virtual components of ourselves. I mean now, there is no feel or touch. Someone mentioned the absence of smell and touch in a conference on corporate learning I attended today. So, if you have been following my blog, you will have noticed that the first emphasis I made was on our proximity, and how, in some countries, people are quite comfortable to be inches away from each other, whereas in countries like Great Britain, USA, Canada, this would mean invasion of a "comfort zone."

So, will we become more and more androgynous as time wears on? Will we lose our sexuality, our individuality in favor of a more asexual existence? Will our immortality increase in deference to our longevity and lack of offspring? Will we really find it comfortable in a society where nobody questions the lack of contact and ordinary tenderness?

Give me your thoughts and ideas....

Swinging Along in the Mid-Term...

Well here we are. It's past eight weeks into the CCK08 Connectivism course. I have to admit that, although I was pushing hard to stay on top at the beginning, this has now been pushed aside in my struggle to find a job to pay the mortgage!

Isn't that sad? What I have been doing though, is spending some time with the SL Experiments group, run by Nergiz Kern. This has been enormously interesting to me and I can see how powerful education can be in an application like Second Life.

So I have spent a little time there, and I have also been doing what I do best on my own website and also on Nergiz's Second Life Experiments Wiki site. I can say quite unequivocally that I really love creating web pages! I could spend my entire life doing this. It is wonderful to know what I enjoy doing. It is entirely another matter to secure a job that pays enough for me to be able to sit back and really do this for the rest of my life!

I cannot say that I haven't noticed some stuff about Second Life in passing through the portal as it were... for one thing, they have some situations which they haven't managed to fix which are still happening after a long time period...

There is a lot of "unwritten" stuff going on. A "newbie" can enter SL with a lower than standard computer and have a miserable time with "lag." Also, there are little things like the following situation: if you teleport somewhere from a sitting position, you will look crippled somehow well after you have arrived at your destination, even though, you, the person it is all happening to, cannot see this! I am told that this has been a problem for some time. Another thing, I was in an area this afternoon and I was walking along a road. Before I could do anything about it, my legs and thighs were sunk down in the road and it looked like I was wading along!

It is obvious that there are several basic things which have to be learned, before anyone can really benefit from the experience in Second Life. Apart from the usual allurances which would entice anyone into the environment and perhaps make them stay in spite of the obvious problems with the experience they are having, it is a very exciting environment, where absolutely anything goes, but virtually! Having said that, there are two levels in the main "grid" - PG and Mature. Linden Research saw fit to create a Teen Second Life too, probably to siphon off any problems with underage membership. Be that as it may, it only serves as a separation point, the cut-off age being eighteen years of age.

But the really complex stuff must come later, like making your avatar move in a special way, growing wings or attaching objects. I saw a fascinating demo of a whiteboard, given by a software developer who is well-versed in JavaScript, which is fed by an external site off an iFrame. This is advanced manipulation of the Linden grid and very useful for education. I have to say that the simple things, like learning to make your avatar dance, is really very easy. What would be interesting would be to learn how to make the avatar interact physically with other avatars. And I know that this is possible. It's simple silly little things which I don't understand, like this: if you are dancing and want to IM someone at the same time, or even in Local Chat, how can you make the avatar carry on dancing as your keys leave the dance activation keys (F9 F10 F11 and F12) to type the message? Perhaps you have the avatar programmed to dance on a joystick gesture/mouse gesture and all of this is automated? Perhaps you have a speech-to-text programmed so that your fingers never have to touch the keyboard anyway... I don't believe this is what happens. Because I have heard people talking and using Local Chat and IM all at the same time as they are making their avatar do incredible things!

Apart from that, it is still a very interesting environment which I would still like to explore some more...