Jo-of-All-Trades An aspiring polymath posts on the environment, education, technology, libraries, and other things, in an attempt to make the world a better place. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 638

Articles from Jo-of-All-Trades

"Women are dumb," says Washington Post Op-Ed 2008-03-03 12:19:00 I. Am. Pissed. You know what? I can't even get my thoughts out on how completely disgusting a human being Charlotte Allen is right now. The Washington Post, as a reputable newspaper, has a responsibility not to print this bullshit. What if such an article had been printed about a racial minority? It would be all over the news, and people would be boycotting the Post as we speak. But sexism is so ingrained in our culture that it's ok. Please leave your thoughts in the comments, as I am left nearly speechless. ...

Dogs Allowed in Libraries? Book Boats? Heaven? 2008-02-29 19:56:00 I found a really cool post over at Libraries & Life about innovative libraries around the world. In Scandinavia, dogs are allowed in libraries! (My corgi, Rory would be SOOOO happy!!!) In Norway, there are book boats! In Santiago, Chile, they really got creative; there are library "vending stations" in the subway, "bibliobikes," and no prohibition signs in the library! FIELD TRIP!!!! ...

Steampunk CD Player 2008-02-29 19:46:00 Prof. Emilio Zuntaras' Bi-Orbital Spectral Audiometer (courtesy of Brass Goggles)I can justify my steampunk obsession...Steampunk makes the world a better place because the culture is imbued with a DIY ethos and values things for their handiwork (read: durability) than their novelty. Often steampunk artisans recycle to make their projects, and when they don't they tend to keep them for a long time, thus helping save the planet. See??? Plus...SHINY! ...

Eco-Friendly Self-Cleaning Kitchen! 2008-02-29 19:11:00 I MUST have this thing! The Aion Kitchen concept model uses the plants on top of the unit to make soap to wash dishes...after you PUT THEM IN THE SINK!!! YAY! Wow, I've been sucked in by pretty consumerism appealing to my laziness and my love for plants once again. ...

Poll! 2008-02-28 21:52:00 Hey readers! I'm not totally self-absorbed (only a little), and I'm interested in everything, so I want to know what YOU want to see on my blog! To this end, I've posted a poll on the right hand side below the fold. Vote in it...or I will be sad. Like this. :( ...

Mapping the Future of Education 2008-02-28 21:41:00 Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I've been working on a seriously overdue paper about the Congressional Hearings on the 1938 Amendment to the Federal Trade Commission Act. I promise, it's waaay more interesting than it sounds. Luckily, when I do goof off, I spend much of my time intrepidly exploring the corners of the intarwebs, seeking treasure for my beloved blog readers. Here's a site that maps predictions of the future forces affecting education in an information-dense, yet intuitive format (with pretty colors!). When you click on one of the colored boxes, it opens up, giving you information about that topic, plus links to "Read a Real-World Application," "Join the Discussion," or "Send Topic to a Colleague." It is rare to see a website that is simultaneously so informative and so well-designed. If you dig ideas about educational innovation, you will dig this site. Kudos to KnowledgeWorks for creating it. ...

Game Site Makes Me Ululate With Glee! 2008-02-26 12:30:00 I am in love...with a blog. Avant Game is a blog focusing mainly on the untapped potential of the games industry to change the world for the better. (I bet you can see why I like it now.) Jane McGonigal (that's right, a lady!), the site's creator, describes herself as "a game designer, a games researcher, and a future forecaster." She fundamentally believes that the gaming industry has the responsibility to improve non-virtual reality, too. Here are some excerpts from a speech she gave at the Game Developers Conference on Friday that I found totally inspiring. ...as an industry, we’ve spent the last 30 years learning how to optimize human experience....as an industry, we’ve spent three whole decades figuring out how to engineer systems that fully engage our brains, and our bodies, and our hearts. And we’ve pretty much solved that problem.That’s the good news. But the problem is, we don’t rule the real world. For the most part, we rule the virtual world, because it’s ...

Race-based Disenfranchisement Alive and Kicking 2008-02-25 13:38:00 Over 2,000 students at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college in Texas, marched 7 miles from campus to Hempstead, the Waller County seat, where county officials had planned to site the sole polling place for early voting in the March 4 election. According to the University web site, "Waller County had reduced the number of early voting locations from about six around the county to only one at its courthouse [located in the county seat] because county officials said they could not afford to operate multiple early voting locations." The county later added 3 more locations due to pressure from the federal government, and while one will be in Prairie View, "there was not one announced for the Prairie View campus, convenient to students." Still, at least their activism produced results. Prairie View students, I know you're not reading this, but this white girl is proud of your willingness to stand up for all of our rights. If Chicago weren't so far from Texas, I ...

Everything I need to know I learn from sci-fi 2008-02-25 12:43:00 One of my main goals for this blog is to eventually get some good discussion going in the comments section, particularly involving the implications of ideas found in good books. So I'm recommending one. Neil Stephenson's The Diamond Age totally blew my mind and may completely change my life trajectory. So if you haven't read it, now would be an awesome time to do so. And since March is International Ideas Month (don't ask me how I know that), I will probably start an ongoing series of discussions then. If you miss one, don't worry! Just let me know! I'm particularly interested in practical ideas coming out of his his conceptualization of education. To be honest, (a small) part of why I started this blog was because I couldn't find enough information on that subject, which made me realize that was also true of a lot of other subjects. Perhaps this is because my interests are obscure, or perhaps simply because people don't think to write about them. In any case...ready y ...

Homeless Time Travellers 2008-02-23 23:52:00 Wow. Homelessness is no laughing matter, but this guy seems to be taking it with good humor. (Thanks 2Spare.) What actually makes me mad, though is that gridskipper can publish what amounts to a DC homelessness travel guide that trivializes homelessness but hides this behind a veil of sympathetic comments. I hate hipsters. Ok, so hate doesn't make the world better, but I sure wish they'd move on to their pupal stage of development, no matter what it is. (If you have any idea, leave it in the comments.) Trivializing homelessness is especially disgusting in the context of the recent tide of unprovoked violence against homeless people. Now that I've depressed you enough, here's something useful a graduate student did to educate people about this problem: Homeless: It's No Game a serious (yet fun and engaging) 2D video game about the problems of homelessness. Play it, and be inspired to go do something! ...

Face Transformer 2008-02-20 16:34:00 So I got bored today, and discovered the Face Transformer. Upload a picture of your face, and it will estimate how you would look with a different race or age or if you were painted by certain artists. My favorite is the above picture of me as if it had been done by art nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha. Although I think I made a pretty hot East Asian chick, too. ...

Judge Threatens Free Speech in US, Xmas Islands to Rescue! 2008-02-20 11:58:00 Wikileaks.org was created as a space where whistleblowers could anonymously leak information about governments, corporations, and other institutions, in an effort to keep them accountable, without the threat of retaliation. According to the New York Times, "It has posted documents said to show the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq, a military manual for the operation of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other evidence of what it has called corporate waste and wrongdoing." However, Judge Jeffrey White of the Federal District Court of San Francisco issued a permanent injunction on Friday forcing the site's domain name registrar to disable and lock the domain name. This ruling came in response to a court case brought against the site by a Julius Baer Bank and Trust in the Cayman Islands based on documents published on the site that purported to show "reveal secret Julius Baer trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion.” Ri ...

Obama comments on Cuba 2008-02-19 10:04:00 Update...Obama is the first presidential candidate to come out with a statement about Cuba. He is also the only one who had previously publicized any plan to normalize relations with the country. He said: If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades. The freedom of the Cuban people is a cause that should bring the Americans together. Now, what that means, translated out of politikspeak, I don't know. But at least someone in the public eye is talking about it. ...

Of exploding cigars... 2008-02-19 09:44:00 Fidel Castro resigned as the head of state of Cuba today. He is succeeded by his brother, Raúl. Castro had led Cuba since the 1959 revolution. I'm going to be very honest here: somehow, I subconsciously believed that he would be in charge of Cuba forever. I knew, of course, that such a thing wasn't possible, but change just seemed so unlikely. My parents can barely remember the idea of Cuba before Castro; they were six years old at the time of the revolution. Residents of Washington, DC, still had not ever been eligible to vote in a presidential election. For God's sakes, Eisenhower was president. And now he has resigned. This opens up a world of possibilities. American politicians could, at this point, end the embargo without losing face. Or, the next president could do so when he or she gets into office next year. 'Socialism' is gone, except in North Korea, where life REALLY sucks. (China totally doesn't count. They are a capitalist dictatorship with an extremel ...

Corgis in a Pool 2008-02-18 15:14:00 Corgis are one of my true obsessions in life, but these people make me feel like way less of a freak. At least I don't torment my dog-friend. (He's not a pet. Pets have owners. If another being can EVER force me to get out of bed before 9 am to go outside into the Chicago winter, there's no way I own them.) ...