roger hollander

roger hollander Here's a news and opinion blog of the highest quality. Roger's a socialist from Toronto with an interest, and some high level of expertise on the new South American politics. A quality place of "news and opinion" worth checking from time to time.

UCTV--University of California Television

Dead Sea Scrolls - A Review wow! here is a spell binding 85 minute presentation by professor lawrence schiffman. slides of everything. background info. intrigue. controversy. history illuminated. and perhaps the essenes were dissadent saducees?

here is a treasure from the 1800 videos recently gifted by the university of california.

WHO | Commission on Social Determinants of Health - Final Report

WHO | Commission on Social Determinants of Health - Final Report Here is an important report from the World Health Organization proposing we get on with closing the health gap in the world.

tao te ching @ mattpaul.org

tao te ching Matt Paul has done a lovely index of this ancient wisdom.

Peking Olympialaiset 2008 - Urheilukuvaajan päiväkirjasta

Peking Olympialaiset 2008 - Urheilukuvaajan päiväkirjasta This is the olympic blog of Finnish sports photographer Kari Kuuckka. His work is terrific. The blog is written in Finnish but can be translated to poor english. Google Translation of this page. A few of his shots are 360 degree panoramas. Check this out Photographers just before Men's 100 Meter If you hit the F11 key you'll get full screen. If you click drag from any spot, the picture will scroll in that direction and accelerate. Try up and down also - it's a half sphere.

China's All-Seeing Eye : Rolling Stone

Naomi Kline this amazing article by naomi kline in rolling stone is the story of her visit to china and the meaning of "security" in this place in this time. how very orwellian. it would be just slightly alarming to hear what she describes on the usual grounds of privacy and surveillance and police use of high technology. but as she describes how the notion the world had that the chinese were villains suppressing the tibetans, and so somewhat chastized before the olympics, we are amazed to here quite the opposite is the case in china. read how she shows chinese use of hi tech is used quite skillfully for suppression. part of the story is how american technology helped out. here's a link to the software that she points out helps the chinese surveillance. http://www.l1id.com/pages/71-facial-screening

Turtle Box Stories

Turtle Box Stories this is a lovely little space where some quakers are sharing personal stories of holy encounter. the theme is of turtles, where turtles represent the ancient archetype of bridge between heaven and earth.

FORA.tv - Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz on Human Progress

Human Progress Here is a most worthy and rather long 1hr41min debate. Distributed on fora.tv this talk from the Long Now Foundation.

If you can only see a key bit jump to time 1:29 for a lovely Q&A summary of history and violence.

It is a debate that ranges over history in consideration of the history of violence. It is respectful and entertaining debate between the perspectives history:future and pessimism:optimism. Peter Schwartz, an engineer futurist, and Niall Ferguson, an historian. Ferguson's makes much reference to his current book The War of the World - 20th Century Conflict and the Descent of the West.

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Wordle A lovely little amusement. Johnathan Feinberg has put up a website to make "word clouds". Just paste in some words you like and they are randomly and artistically made into a picture.

Oaxaca in revolt again: the Zócalo reoccupied, motorway tollbooths "liberated", roads blockaded | libcom.org

Oaxaca as an example of new media

Many of us question the utility and truth of the new over the old media. Here is an interesting sequence that demonstrates the strength of the new media over the old.

I had received a video documentary "Uprising in Oaxaca" from a subscription to Adelante! - a Latin American documentary feed from MIRO. It was about a suppressed teacher's rebellion in Mexico. To learn more of this interesting story, a Google search led to articles and blogs on the Oaxacan teachers revolt. It became quickly apparent that the events of the documentary in 2006 were a special event in a 30 year annual teachers strike, and that just a few weeks ago, it had resurfaced.

This internet "newspaper" follows the story with blog-like immediacy of qualified voices in dialogue rather than long-after-the-fact editor moderated letters. How informative that citizens and visitors in Oaxaca inform our view here.

The site is not quite any of but a little of each of news site, blog, history site around the themes of solidarity and public protest and shows how ordinary folks are participating in this new worldwide information culture.

"The libcom group is a small collective of libertarian communists based in and around London ... Our name, libcom, is an abbreviation of "libertarian communism" - and its goals of liberty and community - the political current we identify with. However our primary focus is always on how best to act in the here and now to better our circumstances and protect the planet."

Dawg's Blawg: Harper's apology to Canada's aboriginal peoples

Dawg's Blawg Here's an acerbic critic worth checking into. He puts caution to Harper's excellent apology by pointing out some of the blatant hurtful present policies.

last lecture - Google Video

Randy Pausch Came across this guy last night. He's dying of pancreatic cancer and only has a few months left, but boy is he upbeat! Very inspirational. Put a video for his kids (just babies now) for when they grow up, and as a "Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon where he's a computer prof. Worth listening too. Then looked up his website and found a real treasure. Turns out what he wanted to be remembered for is his Time Management lecture, so I tracked that down. Very excellent. It's 86 minutes. Here's the link:
Time Management Two very good lectures.

Poverty Facts and Stats - Global Issues

Poverty Facts and Stats - Global Issues On this private blog of Anup Shah are presented some of the most impressive and organized statistics on the causes of poverty in the world I have seen. He has gathered from left, right and centre; from near and far; and across the centuries. It is balanced. It is efficient. It is moving.

Translated version of http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/

The Vision of the Complex
Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a professor in perceptual psychology at Ritsumeikan University, Japan, who shares the graphics illusions of motion, by himself and also his students. His site is in Japanese so I've posted the Google translation link. If that fails his url is www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka

The Bureau of Communication - Fill-in-the-blank Correspondence

On-line FORMs for all occasions. Here's a well done piece of fun. So far they've got: Declaration of Romantic Intent, Unsolicited Feedback, Observance of Holiday, Airing of Grievance, Formal Apology, Statement of Gratitude, Official Invitation, Acknowledgement of Occasion.

Press Releases 2008

14 April 2008 Here is a disconcerting report from the UK. The Soil Association documents here at length, over time and around the world, the failure of GM crops to increase food yields as Monsanto claims.

Joining 3.5 Billion Years of Microbial Invention | J. Craig Venter - FORA.tv

J. Craig Venter

Biologist, author and businessman Craig Venter discusses his work mapping and synthesizing genomes. Venter recalls his work mapping the human genome and expands on his current work.

The projects and equipment he describes are fantastic. He says it is not a matter of "creating life", but of engineering it. He is close to "booting up" a synthetic bacteria. He is intently aware of bio-ethics but listen close, he is no alarmist, and is working very hard to accomplish new things. Few are listening.

Most exciting is his plan to adapt a microbe he found on his world spanning ocean voyage on his boat. The microbe created methane with CO2 input and hydrogen for energy. He wants to make it create octane fuel directly from sequestered CO2 using sunlight for energy, and simply obsolete the need for global oil. He thinks it won't take very long either.

TED | TED Prize | Karen Armstrong | Wish: the Charter for Compassion

Charter for Compassion Karen Armstrong makes a wish to the TED conference. "I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect." Here is the link to her talk. Compassion

Armstrong is the scholar that has brought to the public awareness, the work of Martin Marty at Chicago on fundamentalism, showing us that it is entirely a reaction to modern inequalities, injustice and social change.

"I say that religion isn't about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness."

3arabawy

3arabawy Amy Goodman on Democracy Now was interviewing this chap about matters Egyptian while he was visiting the US. Hossam el-Hamalawy is a left-wing Cairo journalist. This is his blog and it seems rather representative of the new lines of communication that are threading the world today. Though his focus is the Egyptian conditions of oppression under Mubarak, his communication is to the world, and in this case in English. As for a long time, the problems in Egypt are still about cotton and bread and the politics that serve the rich. Review his blog a bit and be better informed.

Classic ScobleShow » Blog Archive » Advanced Photographic Research at Stanford with Prof. Marc Levoy

Classic ScobleShow Robert Scoble is perhaps the most prolific of the Silicon Valley podcasters. He interviews the inventors, the movers and the shakers of this very creative corner of the world. This is the archive of his work. I find him one of the most efficient ways of keeping in touch with the changes and inventions that matter, and subscribe to his feed on Miro. (getmiro.com now has nearly 4000 video feeds and is the modern equivalent of journal/magazine subscription.)

This episode is Scoble at his informal, brusque best. Marc Levoy shows where "graphics" is going in some most remarkable and useful ways. (and there isn't a single mention of the game industry) The most incredible reveal is a camera where the focus of a photograph after it has been taken can be changed. The demos are just incredible.

This is university at its best, where the mutual exchange of ideas is highly synergistic, and Levoy conveys his joy of research and teaching at Stanford.

Due Up

Due Up Here is the blog of a lucky fellow who shares his carefree travels in his piper cub. The photos he takes are not only of spectacular places, but he is an artist with the camera. Add to that his sense of adventure and you get pictures of landing on Alaska glaciers and the top of mountains. Enjoy

Paul Saffo: The Secret to Effective Forecasting - FORA.tv

Paul Saffo: The Secret to Effective Forecasting - FORA.tvJan 11th, 2008. As part of The Long Now Foundation's Seminars About Long-term Thinking, technology forecaster and strategist Paul Saffo presents Embracing Uncertainty: The Secret to Effective Forecasting.

Found this delightful lecture because it contains the notion of "common sense". Here's a forecaster that actually explains his craft with examples that help. He wants us all to become our own forecasters and use more common sense. His ideas are both sensible and intriguing - like the increasing power of city states.

Hegemony of Common Sense:Interview Of Dean Manders

Hegemony of Common Sense:Interview Of Dean Manders This excellent interview of the professor/author gives great insight to "common sense" in the context of citizenship.

Accuracy&Aesthetics » Spiral Model

Spiral Model An interesting tapestry of interwoven threads of ideas and images. As you regard any theme, related ones show. I was searching images of spirals and then found many extravagant and inspiring images, including this one
Rapidly Changing vs Fixed where a teacher and artist examines the perennial tension between student and teacher.

Joost - What's Joost?

Internet TV for Free Here is another source of the new internet tv. Full Screen size. Not by subscription as MIRO, but by browsing their content menus. They are just passing out of their experimental phase, and being new, their presentation is rather friendly and their downloadable interface is easier than most. They offer a mix of the small independent video blogger, and the professional videographers. These include entertainment and documentary sources. And some actual archived tv shows. Check it out. An example. A 25 minute film from Amnesty International Ten Videos That Will Change Your Mind About Human Rights.

Big Think - We Are What You Think

New Video AggregatorThese folks want to participate in the new internet with it's sharing of serious comment. The idea here is to gather conversations around ideas. They divide the categories into physical and meta-physical. Experts interact with netizens. The formats of participation are unique. It's only a few days old but they are starting with 3877 ideas. Check it out.