Can You Digg It?

2011-02-03T15:52:00.000-06:00

Fresh Traditions IV Hmong Fashion Show

2010-11-10T17:31:00.002-06:00

My article on the Fresh Traditions IV Hmong Fashion show with outstanding photos by photographer Jeff Rutherford:

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/11/09/style-fresh-traditions-iv-celebrates-hmong-designers

Special Olympics Minnesota Spring Games bring out the athletes and volunteers | Twin Cities Daily Planet

2010-04-12T21:44:00.000-05:00

Special Olympics Minnesota Spring Games bring out the athletes and volunteers | Twin Cities Daily Planet

Target Field taxes help build Bloomington grandstand | Twin Cities Daily Planet

2010-04-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

Target Field taxes help build Bloomington grandstand | Twin Cities Daily Planet

Vanishing News, Vanishing Generation

2009-10-01T16:01:00.005-05:00

An article just posted on Newsweek.com by Daniel Lyons:
Don't Bail Out Newspapers--Let Them Die and Get Out of the Way

“Nobody in their right mind believes the future of the news business involves paper and ink rather than pixels on a screen.”

But is Daniel Lyons writing about a bailout or the future of newspapers. A little bit of both.
Bailout for the newspapers if they are non-profits. That’s going to work. And yet NPR (National Public Radio) has government funding. And they employ people. Don’t we have a bottomless pit of money from the Analog to Digital conversion adding money already going into the FCC’s coffers from the sale of licenses (Spectrum Auctions)? Oh wait, that money goes into the U.S. Treasury’s General Budget and we have a war to fund.
Print newspapers only by pixel will create even more of a gap with the “haves” and “have-nots.” My 86 year-old dad, for instance, lives on a very limited income and yet can afford $1.25 for his daily newspaper ritual. He enjoys reading it cover to cover. He doesn’t own a computer. Most of the residents in his government-subsidized lower income apartment building also don’t have computers. With no print newspapers to buy, they will be in the dark with information.
“Where’s my newspaper,” he will say one day. Will I reply “Sorry Dad, they don’t make them anymore and no one misses them very much.” But one 86 year-old will.

The Occupation of The New School University by Students

2009-05-12T20:44:00.006-05:00

On May 7, 2009 New School President Bob Kerrey decided not to renew his contract expiring in 2011. Mr. Kerrey’s actions diffused the “hot under the collar” agenda of several student organizations that wanted him gone. It is quiet, now, on the 5th avenue front, but is it?
Pres. Kerrey is not renewing his contract. This is different than Mr. Kerrey leaving under duress, or because he agrees with the student allegations and left for the good of the school, or because the New School Board of Trustees asked for his resignation. It is also not because he is on trial for War Crimes, that many militant students allege.
Votes by faculty senate and deans of “no confidence” toward Pres. Kerrey further ignited social organizations to take action.
The students of New School Univeristy are tech savy, or as instructor Kathleen Sweeney said, they are “digital natives.” New School administrators are mostly baby boomers, or “digital immigrants” (Sweeney). When student unrest occurs, these “digital natives” will far out-reach the “digital immigrants.”
Occupation of The New School occurred on two occasions in 2008 and 2009. In both those occupations, social networking played an important part of the protest.
Many different viewpoints on one event: the occupation and take-over of The New School by students and activists.
Rumors abound, social networking sites burning the internet wires, plans for occupation by social networking, and finally, statements from The New School administration. But what about the average New School Student, are their voices being heard? Is most of the take-over done by militants who know how to organize via the web? Can The New School become more “tech savvy” to compete with the militant students? Or does NSU administration just react after the fact?
The militant website The New School In Exile is a model for how social networking can activate citizens and is an example of effective viral communication in contrast to the New School University and their lack of active social networking.
The New School in Exile are tech-savy digital natives producing third tier media with their website. The poster (above) of Pres. Kerrey was illustrated by the network "General Strike Comics." General Strike Comics links to The New School in Exile and The New School in Exile links to General Strike Comics. In this way, more people are reached for the occupation and are given constant updates, sometimes by the hour.
The New School in Exile is a sophisticated information system that allows interaction from others (you must register first). There is a separate blog. There is a student donation fund to help pay legal costs for students arrested at the occupation. The New School in Exile's site provides links to other ongoing student causes. Those causes, in turn, link to The New School in Exile. There is even a video cartoon of events, appealing to traditional college aged students.

For example, New School events are not televised to students (and yet other universities do this; for instance the University of Minnesota’s Richard Dawkins lecture I attended in February was recorded and televised).
The NSU relies on email communication with students, or an un-publicized “Blogging with President Bob Kerrey” site. The NSU Student Senate has a website for students to get information that is linked via the New School, and yet the University Student Senate website does not produce video recordings of events of importance to students as does the New School In Exile.
Some of the militant student websites are sophistically linked together with each other. For example, The New School In Exile is linked via Facebook which is linked to The School In Exile Blog, which is linked to the Radical Student Association,etc. and then back to another Facebook page on the Occupation. They all “speak” to each other; while at same time, the New School, with 8 divisions, seems scattered and uncommunicative within each other.
The Occupation in Dec. 2008 chased Pres. Kerrey down 5th Ave. to his home captured in a video called "New School president Bob Kerrey being chased and jeered by students":

The April 2009 Occupation included protesters in front of Pres. Kerrey's private home, where his wife and child live:

New School, Old Problems from Richard Boggs on Vimeo.

"We take police brutality sitting down."
“Shocked, terrified, or just plain pissed off about the administration's use of the NYPD during a student protest? Horrified at the wanton acts of police brutality perpetrated on our campus?
So speak up! We're having a sit-in in the Lang courtyard on Wednesday. We'll have some street theater, some food, maybe some music (anybody have an old-school boombox?).
This is about facilitating open discussion among the student body, as well as a demonstration against NYPD presence at student protests.
If they kick us out of the courtyard, we move to the streets!”
Student Action Defense Committee, April 2009

“Press Conference Addressing Police Brutality at the New School
Come Support the Student's Opposition to the Police Brutality and the Administration's Reaction to Last Week's Occupation!”
New School Radical Student Union

“I usually avoid these issues because I am here to learn, not rebel against the president.”
Victoria Gomez, New School Media Studies Grad Student

“One of the protesters, a Brooklyn College student named David Segal, was reportedly on parole when he was arrested. He had formerly been convicted of malicious destruction of federal property, which is a felony.”
“Live Blog” New School University Free Press at 5:15

“Just a Reminder to the New School and any other forms of authoritarian structure imposed upon us: We stand together, We have Solidarity, We do what we do because of love for each other and love for our future; You are impersonal, You cannot stop us, You will never jeopardize our movement through crack-downs and other inhospitable actions.”
New School In Exile Blog (Note: the New School In Exile has both a website and a blog).

“You have an invitation to an event. Wednesday: a Day of Action. Sit-in, street theater, demonstrations, oh my!”
Facebook invitation, to me, by the Student Action Defense Committee

“Flavorwire stopped by the New School this past Friday to see what all the fuss was about.”
Exclusive: live from the New School Protest, Spyridon Panousopoulos,
Flavorwire
.

“Hey Everyone.
New School is occupied again.”
(Email from New School Student Senator Elizabeth Loran to other student senators).

“Does anyone know what is happening with the other buildings? Are they denying access, cause I really need to use the computer lab....”
Response from Student Senator Sarah Cunningham.

“Late on Friday afternoon, the Police Department released its own video of the [New School] confrontation, a video that showed the police in a more favorable light.”
(New York Times April 10).

“The New School Faculty Senate calls on the Provost to consider reinstating those students who have been summarily suspended for their recent demonstration at 65 Fifth Avenue, pending proper hearings by the New Schools own disciplinary board.”
(New School Faculty Senate university-wide email).

“This morning's illegal occupation of 65 Fifth Avenue was joined by a number of New School in Exile students as well as individuals without any affiliation to The New School. Their claim that this was a simple political protest is false. Their entry into this building was forced, they removed a man who was cleaning the building, took his phone, injured a security officer, and did physical damage to the building.
Accordingly, in this case the university asked the New York Police Department to remove and arrest those who were trespassing on our property. We suspended, pending administrative review, all New School students who were a part of this action.”
(New School University President Bob Kerrey in a university-wide email

“The New School's founding ideals include the defense of academic freedom and the pursuit of democratic nonviolent forms of governance, and recent events are inconsistent with those ideals.
We find the actions of the students in breaking into 65 Fifth Avenue, potentially endangering the community through acts of vandalism, and subsequently harassing the president and his family, unacceptable. Although the right of peaceful protest is central to our New School history and values, these non-peaceful actions have no place in our community.”
(University-wide statement April 13 by the New School Provost and Deans).

“University Student Senate wants to establish what happened.

Therefore, we have joined with the Faculty Senate, Provost Tim Marshall, and the Deans' Council to call an ALL-STUDENT-AND FACULTY ASSEMBLY for TONIGHT.”
(University-wide email from the USS, in which 500 students attended. The event was video-taped and put on the Students In Exile website, but not on the Student Senate nor the New School websites).

“

There is no room for violence or threats of violence at The New School. Friday’s break-in of 65 Fifth Avenue disrupted the health, welfare, and academic pursuits of the student body, some 10,000 in all.
We support President Kerrey’s decision to summon assistance from the New York Police Department.”
(April 14 Statement from Board of Trustees listed on the “Blogging with President Bob Kerrey” website linked within the New School University site).

“Among the small group that broke into the building were a number of outsiders, with no connection to the New School at all. In effect, roughly a dozen New School students felt entitled to hi-jack what had been a broadly based faculty and student movement for positive change.”
(Statement from Jim Miller, New School for Social Research and co-chair NSU Faculty Senate; on the “Blogging with President Bob Kerrey site).

The New School University, as digital immigrants, communicates with students, Deans, Trustees, and others with dependency on Announce Announce emails. Most of the time, after the fact. When I asked why some New School events are not publicized, I was told some are on a service called: Flora.TV
I had not heard of New School's Fora TV. My advisor told me about it last month when I asked her why more New School events are not televised. Fora TV is not widely known by students. Their most popular video "Illustration in the Age of Anxiety" has 126,000 hits, but was produced in 2007. The radical student organizations, in contrast, contact me via email about their events. Fora TV was unknown to me. Another popular Fora TV video called, ironically, "Beyond Web 2.0: How the Next Tech Revolution will Change the World" was also produced in 2007. There are current videos, including one produced in March 2009. However, there are no Fora TV statements on the unrest and occupation by Pres. Kerrey.
While the Occupation of The New School was going on in December, members of the University Student Senate utilized a lap top to post timely updates; same was true of the militant groups. The New School relied on Announce Announce and the traditional media.
The Mayo Clinic has a Social Media position (which I posted about earlier) that keeps the Mayo staff constantly updated via social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc. The man responsible for the Mayo's social networking is an older man, a grandfather no less. I would challenge The New School to employ such a service or person to unify their 8 campuses and students with this new technology.
In Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" he used an illustration of the Philip Zimbardo, Stanford University, 1970's Prison Experiment (page 152). It is how external forces can influence us. In the case of The New School occupations, external forces were very much at play to gather people together and create unrest. Just like the Zimbardo prison experiment. Many students got caught up by events organized by a few militant participants to cause a much bigger force than they really are. The New School needs a similiar plan of action to communicate with students and staff.
Not all students were for the protests, occupations, or abuse toward the University President. I am on the student senate and I have been vocal at Senate meetings against those actions and refused to sign an inflamtory statement sent to Pres. Kerrey.
The students who are against the Occupation are for the most part, silent. They are busy with classes, life, work, and don't have time to organize in the way the militant students do. In this case, the social media "haves" of the radical students will out-voice the "have-nots" of the supportive students. Clearly it is a case of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" or "who is the most tech-savvy."

"For the sake of neutrality & b/c not everyone is anti-BK [Bob Kerrey], I don't think we should say "we are pleased to announce" and I don't think we should praise the protesters and/or occupiers." Yoni Sunshine, New School Student Senator, responding to feedback on USS letter to Mr. Kerrey.

"About 5 minutes later I’m surprised to see myself surrounded by a group of students with chains, ropes, and tents. I got scared and asked them what they were doing there. They told me that I had to leave the building because they were going to take charge of it. I told them, 'but I’m working here.' They told me not to worry, that they were going to take it and they wanted me to leave now. I didn’t get a chance to think or do anything. I felt cornered."
Interview conducted by Claudia Acevedo of the New School Free Press Statement by Carlos Rodriguez, Maintenance Worker for 19 years at The New School, Who Was Present at the Break-In to 65 Fifth Avenue, Friday, April 10..

"A member of the student group New School in Exile was arrested on criminal mischief charges at 3:55 a.m. on March 12 outside the 11th street residence of New School President Bob Kerrey. Jacob Blumenfeld, a philosophy student at The New School for Social Research, had allegedly been spray-painting the words "Bye Bob" onto the downstairs door of the house." New School Free Press.

"New School Orders Inquiry Into Student Protest" New York Times reported on the inquiry into the April 10 Occupation. This inquiry is being done by the NSU Board of Trustees and others. Will The New School include video and social media outlets for this inquiry? Probably not. Will the social media networking of the students provide media outlets and opinion on the inquiry? You can count on it.

"Grocery Store Wars!"

2009-05-11T21:56:00.002-05:00

Free Range Studios seems to be doing a fine job in getting their clever and creative message across about real-life environmental issues. Most of their videos posted on YouTube have hundreds of thousands of hits.
The video I posted is called “Grocery Store Wars” and is a take on “Star Wars.” I liked the eggs dressed up as Storm Troopers and the grocery carts hovering around like star ships. Very creative.
The “Grocery Store Wars” video has 1.4 million hits--awesome. Compare “Grocery Store Wars” to the plastic sea produced by NatGeo we saw earlier in our class. While both are serious about environmental issues, “Grocery Store Wars” has far more numbers of hits. Is it because “Grocery Store Wars” is fun to watch and the plastic sea video rather dull?
Also, “Grocery Store Wars” and other Free Range Studios clips gear toward “cool” and “hip;” younger people will want to watch them; and they are the ones who will inherit this fine mess we are in.
Free Range Studios also has a cleverly produced take on how humans interact with nature called “The Bio Diversity Code” and illustrates the web of nature with “The DiVinci Code.” Although it has less hits then “Grocery Store Wars.”

My Avatar!

2009-05-07T10:13:00.003-05:00

I have never done an Avatar before. I wasn't sure how to start. The one listed on our class post requires a membership fee. So I searched the web, as things start out free there before they get popular and then start charging fees.
My avatar had limits on what I could choose. From what I was allowed to select (before I had to sign up), I picked how I must have looked when I first arrived in New York City for Fall Semester at the New School. Older, fresh from the midwest, a mother of five and grandmother of four, I was like a deer in headlights, which is what this Avatar looks like. I put NYC in my background. I dressed my self a little bit dorky, which is how I felt after seeing the smartly dressed women of NYC and going to the Barney's New York super sale my first week in the City.
My daughter, an emerging NYC actress, finally told me "Mom, you need to ditch the fanny pack" so that is why I have no purse on my Avatar!

Dead-In-Iraq, the U.S. Army, and Avatars

2009-05-05T22:31:00.002-05:00

As a class project, I joined the social organization Veteran’s For Peace. The organization sent me a very nice membership packet which included a nice “welcome” letter, an Associate Member card that was signed, and some nice brochures. I get regular emails and mailings. I joined Veteran’s For Peace after viewing several war documentaries for another New School class.
While looking at Joseph DeLappe’s Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March to Dandi site, I came across another video called Dead-In-Iraq
This is a project of DeLappe’s that he describes as follows:

“This work commenced in March of 2006, to roughly coincide with the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Iraq conflict. I enter the online US Army recruiting game, "America's Army", in order to manually type the name, age, service branch and date of death of each service person who has died to date in Iraq. The work is essentially a fleeting, online memorial to those military personnel who have been killed in this ongoing conflict. My actions are also intended as a cautionary gesture.
I enter the game using as my login name, "dead-in-iraq" and proceed to type the names using the game's text messaging system. As is my usual practice when creating such an intervention, I am a neutral visitor as I do not participate in the proscribed mayhem. Rather, I stand in position and type until I am killed. After death, I hover over my dead avatar's body and continue to type. Upon being re-incarnated in the next round, I continue the cycle.
As of 5/3/08, I have input 4002 names. I intend to keep doing so until the end of this war. As of this date there have been 4066 American service persons killed in Iraq. (source - http://icasualties.org/oif/)”

I felt the Avatar effects of the Iraq War tied in nicely not only with this week’s assignment but also with my joining Veteran’s For Peace for our class assignment. I hadn’t expected it when I was checking out DeLappe’s Gandhi’s project. So his Dead-In-Iraq project was a nice surprise and very poignant. The U.S. Army has a sophisticated game that has attracted 8 million visits. The Dead-In-Iraq video by DeLappe only has 8 thousand hits.

Old People Ruin Everything or Emerging Social Network Addicts.

2009-04-29T19:44:00.006-05:00

This video was created for the AARP U@50 video contest and placed second.
I am surprised that it has received so much attention recently.

This short video (1.44) called The Lost Generation was produced for the AARP and has had 5.5 million hits. The AARP, formerly called The American Association of Retired Persons, is geared toward citizens over 50.
The magazine OMMA~The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising in its glossy May 2009 issue, has the title "Old People Ruin Everything" on its cover. I remember my hippie days when people over 30 are not to be trusted. Now here is a magazine devoted to Online interests, old people are ruining even that, so I sighed, thinking "what did we do now."
I was pleasantly surprised, if not astounded and down-right giddy, at the power we seem to be making in online social networking.
OMMA sited the Facebook movement: "Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook:"

CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR PARENTS JUST JOINED FACEBOOK. YOUR LIFE IS OFFICIALLY OVER.
So, you finally caved. You've accepted a friend request from your Mom, Dad, crazy Aunt Ida, and your college roommate’s newly divorced mother.

Although being poked fun at, Facebook's 35-54 demo membership blew-up by 276.4 percent between June 2008 and January 2009, according to OMMA. In addition, the magazine reports:

"According to iStrategy Labs, The 55-and over contingent grew 194.3 percent in the same amount of time [as the 35-54 age]. In comparison, that ever-so-sought 18-24 group bounced just 20.6 percent. The total number of Facebook users aged 35-plus in October 2007 totaled just fewer than 845,000, while as of this past January, their combined might totals just less than 8 million--18.9 percent of the total Facebook pie. [Boomers] might extends beyond Facebook, too. More than 60 percent of Baby Boomers consume socially created content, according to a recent Forrester report."

OMMA writes about that all important and powerful "disposable income" chunk of Boomers:

"Though they might not create content as willingly as your average 22 year old--the report notes they aren't as likely to start a blog or upload a video to YouTube--this group of 43-63-year olds instead wields more disposable income and constitutes a bigger generational segment. So pay attention, because they have no problem consuming social content. In Forrester's survy, 62 percent of Boomers aged 53-63 and 66.7 percent of Boomers aged 43-52 said they could be found 'reading blogs, listening to podcasts, watching user-generated videos, reading forums, or reading consumer ratings."

In addition, said J. Walker Smith, president of MONITOR, and coauthor of Generation Ageless, "Social networks particularly appeal to nostalgia-loving Boomers because they allow them to connect with friends of the past."
Or as OMMA writes:

"So while life may indeed seem to be over for those whose moms have just joined Facebook, it's only just begun for Mom herself."

Well said!

SMUG: Social Media University, Global

2009-04-27T15:17:00.003-05:00

If you love all things social networking, now you can attend SMUG: Social Media University, Global.

"Social Media University, Global (SMUG) is a post-secondary educational institution dedicated to providing practical, hands-on training in social media to lifelong learners.
Founded in January 2008, SMUG is world-wide in reach, as its name implies, but is based in an ivy-covered, oak-shrouded 3,400 square-foot facility we fondly call “Old Main.”

Founder Lee Aase works for Mayo Clinic as manager for Syndications and Social Media and is SMUG's Chancellor at night. Aase calls those attending, and members of the student body: SMUGgles.

"Everything you see here is accomplished through free or ridiculously inexpensive services like YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Wordpress.com, and with no professional IT support. And with SMUG you can work through the learning process step by step, until you feel confident using these tools in your organization"(Aase).

SMUG's curriculum includes courses in
*Blogging
*Facebook
*Podcasting
*Twitter
*Yammer
And other "core courses."
Some Core Courses include Social Media 101 classes called "Intro to YouTube" or "Intro to Wiki" or "Intro to Blogs."
The conservative Mayo Clinic, out on the tundra of Minnesota, is leading the pack with social networking, according to an April 26 issue of the Minneapolis StarTribune. This feature article on the Mayo Clinic's foray into social media is not, ironically, available in an online version, only print. I find it frustrating that a print article about social networking is not online.
An excerpt from the print article:

"These days, Aase is a walking, talking, blogging, Twittering, Facebooking YouTubing force who's blasting May into the social networking world faster than you can say 'Mayo Brothers'" (Chen May Yee: StarTribune).

Some "Twitter Etiquette" from Aase and the StarTribune article:
*Generally follow your followers
*Following not= endorsement
*Auto'd to new followers=Not Cool
*"Protecting" updates also=Not Cool
*Replying (@)= Cool
Aase has discovered what is a big part of our book The Tipping Point; that is: Word of Mouth.
And apparently he has discovered the effective use of blogging:

Recently, Aase found a six-month-old YouTube video of an exuberant white-haired couple playing the piano in the [Mayo] Clinic's atrium, to the surprise and pleasure of onlookers. He posted it on Sharing Mayo Clinic. In two weeks, the number of views soared from 1,000 to over 68,000 [now 97,000] (Yee: StarTribune).

Some people, according to Yee's article, is a "Social Media Evangelist." But, asked Yee, doesn't Aase's wife "get angry that he's staring at a little screen all day?" "That is a problem," says Aase.
"With that, Aase ducks into what's presumably the last refuge from social media on Earth. The Men's Room."

"It is the best of times, it is the worst of times" Epic 2015

2009-04-21T15:04:00.002-05:00

“It is the best of times, it is the worst of times” for the Nation’s journalism field. The fourth estate, as it is sometimes called, is the star of a video called Epic 2015.

"In the year 2014 the New York times has gone offline
The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned
What happened to the news?and what is EPIC"

"Epic 2014 is the original flash online movie made by Robin Sloan for the Museum of Media History.
Set in 2014 it charts the history of the Internet, the evolving mediascape and the way news and newspapers were affected by the growth in online news.
It coined the word "Googlezon" from a future merger of Google and Amazon to form the Google grid, and speaks of news wars with the Times becoming a print only paper for the elite culminating in EPIC Evolving Personalised Information Construct
As a flash animation, this film is extraordinary, not just for it's use of technology but for it's fantastic perception looking forward.
Epic 2015 is a new updated vision of the future set in 2015."

I first watched Epic 2014 in a Mass Communications course. It impressed me then and it does to this day. The version I have posted is their update Epic 2015.

Epic 2015 is chilling. The 8 minute video was created in Nov. 2004 by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson as a project for the Poynter Institute. Although fictional, the message in the video is surprisingly accurate. The video is housed in the also fictional "Museum of Media History." Although that is a fictional museum, in light of the upheaval of the journalism industry since Epic 2014 was produced, the name of the museum is sobering.

"It explores the effects that the convergence of popular News aggregators, such as Google News, with other Web 2.0 technologies like blogging, social networking and user participation may have on journalism and society at large in a hypothesized future. The film popularized the term Googlezon and touches on major privacy and copyright issues raised in this scenario."

Epic 2015 fits in with this week's iCelebrities focus on social networking such as Friendster. Friendster is mentioned in Epic 2015.

"The plot consists of a series of real life events from 1989 to 2004, and going through a series of hypothetical events through 2014.
*In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.
*In 1994, Amazon.com is launched. It is a store that sells everything, personalized *for its users, that can even offer suggestions.
*In 1998, Google is unleashed by two Stanford University students, promising a faster, more effective way to search.
*In 1999, Blogger is founded. Google comes out with Google News, a service unique in that it requires no human intervention.
*In 2002, Friendster is released.
*In 2003, Google buys Blogger.
*In 2004, the rise of Gmail gives competition to Microsoft's Hotmail. Microsoft's Newsbotster comes as a response to Google News. Picasa and A9 are also released this year. In August, Google goes public, acquires Keyhole (now Google Earth), a company that maps the world, and begins digitizing and indexing world libraries.
*From this point EPIC passes into the realm of fiction."

Epic 2015 points out the futuristic Supreme Court lawsuit of The NEw York TImes vs. Googlezon, and the winner points the way to perhaps the all-too-real-it-seems future of journalism:

EPIC stores and categorizes not only news, but the demographics, political beliefs, and consumption habits of every user. At its best, EPIC is "a summary of the world — deeper, broader and more nuanced than anything ever available before ... but at its worst, and for too many, EPIC is merely a collection of trivia, much of it untrue." EPIC is so popular that it triggers the downfall of the New York Times, which goes offline and becomes "a print newsletter for the elite and the elderly."

(Wiki)

The wikipedia site also has a history on how these two young people came up with their idea of Epic 2015.

Epic 2015 fits into our week's topic of iCelebrities. Tell me if you agree!

iCelebrities Mid-Term Project for Final

2009-04-20T16:33:00.002-05:00

Barbara Teed Midterm/Final Project Spring 2009 iCelebrities
April 16

"We take police brutality sitting down."
“Shocked, terrified, or just plain pissed off about the administration's use of the NYPD during a student protest? Horrified at the wanton acts of police brutality perpetrated on our campus?
So speak up! We're having a sit-in in the Lang courtyard on Wednesday. We'll have some street theater, some food, maybe some music (anybody have an old-school boombox?).
This is about facilitating open discussion among the student body, as well as a demonstration against NYPD presence at student protests.
If they kick us out of the courtyard, we move to the streets!”
Student Action Defense Committee, April 2009

“Press Conference Addressing Police Brutality at the New School
Come Support the Student's Opposition to the Police Brutality and the Administration's Reaction to Last Week's Occupation!”
New School Radical Student Union

“I usually avoid these issues because I am here to learn, not rebel against the president.”
Victoria Gomez, New School Media Studies Grad Student

Who's to blame for unrest?
*Radical students
*President Kerrey
*Both
*Stuff happens anyway
(Poll/straw vote on the New School Student Senate Website week of April 10, 2009).

Who's to blame for unrest?
*Radical students
27.4%
*President Kerrey
38.7%
*Both
30.2%
*Stuff happens anyway
3.8%
*Total Votes: 106
(Vote results of 106 students as of April 16. There are 9,400 undergrad and grad students and 13,000 community ed students at The New School (website).

Survey
*What do you think about the level of police at the recent occupation?
*That was a military action, not cops enforcing laws
*It was way out of proportion.
*It was a little much.
*It was justified.
*Kerrey should have called in even more.
Votes: 360
(Vote and straw poll from the New School In Exile website. Note: more students voted at this site than the New School Student Senate’s similar poll).

*What do you think about the level of police at the recent occupation?
*That was a military action, not cops enforcing laws 32.22% (116)
*It was way out of proportion. 34.72% (125)
*It was a little much. 9.17% (33)
*It was justified. 19.44% (70)
*Kerrey should have called in even more. 4.44% (16)

*Total Votes: 360
(Results of New School In Exile poll April 16)

“One of the protesters, a Brooklyn College student named David Segal, was reportedly on parole when he was arrested. He had formerly been convicted of malicious destruction of federal property, which is a felony.”
“Live Blog” New School University Free Press at 5:15

“Just a Reminder to the New School and any other forms of authoritarian structure imposed upon us: We stand together, We have Solidarity, We do what we do because of love for each other and love for our future; You are impersonal, You cannot stop us, You will never jeopardize our movement through crack-downs and other inhospitable actions.”
New School In Exile Blog (Note: the New School In Exile has both a website and a blog).

“You have an invitation to an event. Wednesday: a Day of Action. Sit-in, street theater, demonstrations, oh my!”
Facebook invitation, to me, by the Student Action Defense Committee

“Flavorwire stopped by the New School this past Friday to see what all the fuss was about.”
Exclusive: live from the New School Protest, Spyridon Panousopoulos, Flavorwire.

“Hey Everyone.
New School is occupied again.”
(Email from New School Student Senator Elizabeth Loran to other student senators).

“Does anyone know what is happening with the other buildings? Are they denying access, cause I really need to use the computer lab....”
Response from Student Senator Sarah Cunningham.

“Late on Friday afternoon, the Police Department released its own video of the [New School] confrontation, a video that showed the police in a more favorable light.”
(New York Times April 10).

“The New School Faculty Senate calls on the Provost to consider reinstating those students who have been summarily suspended for their recent demonstration at 65 Fifth Avenue, pending proper hearings by the New Schools own disciplinary board.”
(New School Faculty Senate university-wide email).

“This morning's illegal occupation of 65 Fifth Avenue was joined by a number of New School in Exile students as well as individuals without any affiliation to The New School. Their claim that this was a simple political protest is false. Their entry into this building was forced, they removed a man who was cleaning the building, took his phone, injured a security officer, and did physical damage to the building.
Accordingly, in this case the university asked the New York Police Department to remove and arrest those who were trespassing on our property. We suspended, pending administrative review, all New School students who were a part of this action.”
(New School University President Bob Kerrey in a university-wide email).

“The New School's founding ideals include the defense of academic freedom and the pursuit of democratic nonviolent forms of governance, and recent events are inconsistent with those ideals.
We find the actions of the students in breaking into 65 Fifth Avenue, potentially endangering the community through acts of vandalism, and subsequently harassing the president and his family, unacceptable. Although the right of peaceful protest is central to our New School history and values, these non-peaceful actions have no place in our community.”
(University-wide statement April 13 by the New School Provost and Deans).

“University Student Senate wants to establish what happened. Therefore, we have joined with the Faculty Senate, Provost Tim Marshall, and the Deans' Council to call an ALL-STUDENT-AND FACULTY ASSEMBLY for TONIGHT.”
(University-wide email from the USS, in which 500 students attended. The event was video-taped and put on the Students In Exile website, but not on the Student Senate nor the New School websites).

“There is no room for violence or threats of violence at The New School. Friday’s break-in of 65 Fifth Avenue disrupted the health, welfare, and academic pursuits of the student body, some 10,000 in all.
We support President Kerrey’s decision to summon assistance from the New York Police Department.”
(April 14 Statement from Board of Trustees listed on the “Blogging with President Bob Kerrey” website linked within the New School University site).

“Among the small group that broke into the building were a number of outsiders, with no connection to the New School at all. In effect, roughly a dozen New School students felt entitled to hi-jack what had been a broadly based faculty and student movement for positive change.”
(Statement from Jim Miller, New School for Social Research and co-chair NSU Faculty Senate; on the “Blogging with President Bob Kerrey site).

Many different viewpoints on one event: the occupation and take-over of The New School by students and activists.

Rumors abound, social networking sites burning the internet wires, plans for occupation by social networking, and finally, statements from The New School administration. But what about the average New School Student, are their voices being heard? Is most of the take-over done by militants who know how to organize via the web? Can the New School become more “tech savvy” to compete with the militant students? Or does NSU administration just react after the fact?

The militant website The New School In Exile will be my model for how social networking can activate citizens and is an example of effective viral communication in contrast to the New School University and their lack of active social networking. For example, New School events are not televised to students (and yet other universities do this, which I will compare, for instance the University of Minnesota’s Richard Dawkins lecture I attended in February was recorded and televised).

The NSU relies on email communication with students, or an un-publicized “Blogging with President Bob Kerrey” site. The NSU Student Senate has a website for students to get information that is linked via the New School, and yet the Student Senate website does not produce video recordings of events of importance to students as does the New School In Exile.

I will have live links to the maze of information on this one event of the take-over of The New School. I will show that some of the militant student websites are sophistically linked together with each other. For example, The New School In Exile is linked via Facebook which is linked to The School In Exile Blog, which is linked to the Radical Student Association,etc. They all “speak” to each other; while at same time, the New School, with 8 divisions, seems scattered and uncommunicative within each other.

I will also post the various videos among the websites.

Link to Domino's Nasal Mucas video Dissapearing Fast

2009-04-16T10:20:00.001-05:00

You will have to copy and paste this link to the video, as Domino's is removing it from You Tube and other embedded videos:

http://media.theage.com.au/world/world-news/dominos-workers-contaminate-pizza-477364.html

Domino's Pizza Nasal Mucas Sandwich Viral Video

2009-04-16T09:43:00.002-05:00

In a classic case of a video gone viral, this home-made video of two Domino's employees showing one of them stuffing cheese in in his nose, then putting it on a sandwhich he was making, has caused Domino's a PR nightmare. The video also shows that same employee "passing gas" on a slice of pepperoni before adding it to the sandwich.

"In about five minutes it'll be sent out on delivery where somebody will be eating these, yes, eating them, and little did they know that cheese was in his nose and that there was some lethal gas that ended up on their salami," the narrator said.

In a New York Times article by Stephanie Clifford, the two employees now face criminal charges. The You Tube posting of the Domino's Pizza video has over a million hits. (Dominos forced YouTube to take off the video, but the video is still shown if you google search).

"On Monday, commenters at a website used clues in the video to find the [Domino's] franchise location. On Tuesday, the Domino's franchise owner fired the employees, indetified by Domino's as Kristy Hammonds, 31, and Michael Setzer, 32."

.
The two employees claim the video was a hoax, according to the NYT, but "thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis." They are currently in jail!
Also, from the NYT, the video is referenced in five of the 12 results of Google search for "Domino's" and discussions about Domino's spread throughout Twitter.

"Social media can turn tiny incidents into marketing crises."

Domino's apparently agrees:

"We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea," said Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre. "Even people who've been with us as loyal customers for 10, 15, 20 years, people are second-guessing their relationship with Domino's" (NYT).

The perception of quality among consumers went from positive to negative since Monday, according to the reasearch firm YouGov, said the NYT.
This is also called a "digital crisis."
Tim McIntyre concluded with a sentence that ties-in with our current iCelebrities course:

"What we missed was the perpetual mushroom effect of viral sensations" (NYT).

Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing: In Defense of American Girl

2009-04-15T21:19:00.004-05:00

OK, so as a mom, I admit I felt defensive reading Anne Elizabeth Moore's chapter in her book Unmarketable on The American Girl phenom. (I got "tipped" to this by a fellow classmate's blog about AG, written ironically by a guy, Clarence).
My strongest defense would be that I purchased my two daughter's AG dolls/furniture/clothes/accesories/books/etc. when it was owned by the mom and pop shop Pleasant Company in Wisconsin. Since we lived in Minnesota, why this was just like buying from a neighbor! A stamp of approval, so to speak.
But,like all good things, this gosh-darn farm-like business sold-out to Mattel in 1998 for $700 million (Moore:70). Who can blame them?
Yes, I agree with Moore that the American Girl dolls were wholesome and played with puppies while her cousin Barbie dated Ken.
My 100% white daughter Lindsay wanted the black doll Addie. I gulped but was secretly glad I raised her so well. She got flack from friends, but that made her love Addie even more.
My other daughter Kelley got the AG Bitty Baby doll when she was 5 from her Grandma for Christmas one year. The year her Grandma died 2 days before Christmas and so was never able to give Kelley her doll. Kelley still opened her Bitty Baby American Girl doll from Grandma Christmas morning. We buried her Grandma the day after Christmas and Bitty Baby came with to the funeral. To this day, now that Kelley is 19, her AG Bitty Baby doll sits on her desk, a link to her Grandma.
My two daughters loved everything American Girl and every Christmas, gifts were under our tree from Pleasant Valley. It just would not be the same if it was from Mattel.
I have all the AG dolls in a plastic bin in my basement, and I bring it up for my 6 year old granddaughter now, a passing on of the tradition, if you will.
I live about 2 miles from the Mall of America; when the American Girl store opened up there, it was one of the biggest store openings ever for the Mall. I have posted a You Tube link to that store.
About two weeks ago, I was with my daughter Kelley who had a University of Minnesota photo assignment and we thought it would be fun to photograph at the American Girl Store at the Mall of America. As Kelley and I looked around, we were filled with nostaligia, looking at the dolls she used to play with, feeling the different clothes Kelley used to dress them in (she had Kit and Just Like Me as well); I would hear her say "Mom, look over here, remember when I used to...." and we had a special memory of the part AG had in her growing up.
And yes, I read the chapter on American Girl in Unbranded, but I am not sure I would want to miss out on those special AG moments in my life with my two daughters. And maybe that is the point for the popularity of American Girl.

(Photos of my daughters Kelley now 19 and Lindsay now 24).

2009-04-10T15:47:00.003-05:00

New School Student Senate was not involved with the April 10 student take-over and occupation of University buildings. Here is their website that will have updates:
http://www.newschoolsenate.org/
I will update iCelebrities classmates as well.
(Photo from USS website of the scene outside the New School occupied building). Accusations about how many of these students were actual students at the New School and how many were. Accusations of police brutality. A video from the NYT shows some of the action against the protestors that I posted earlier.

New York Times video on Police Action Toward New School Protestors

2009-04-10T14:41:00.001-05:00

This video is from the New York Times that shows police action against some of the protestors at the student occupation today at The New School:

Mainstream News NY1 on NSU Occupation

2009-04-10T12:12:00.002-05:00

Here is a video from NY1 News regarding the student occupation this morning, April 10
As student videos are released I will post those; you can compare how Mainstream News reports the student occupation VS. student-produced videos.

New School University Occupation Mainstream Press Info

2009-04-10T10:25:00.003-05:00

My first post on the New School student occupation had a link to the Student Occupation Blog. A lot of swear words and demands. Here are links to the Mainstream Press take on the New School Occupation:

NY times says.....
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp

New York Magazine says....
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/04/student_rebels_take_over_new_s.html

New York 1 says.....

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/97182/police-monitor-new-school-student-protest/Default.aspx

New School University Occupied Friday, April 10

2009-04-10T10:11:00.002-05:00

Message this morning from the New School Student Senate:

"Hey Everyone

New School is occupied again.

http://reoccupied.wordpress.com/

Thought you might want to know!"

I will keep people posted on, this yet again, New School occupation.

Viral Video of the Week: Wii Breakfast

2009-04-09T21:22:00.002-05:00

A service that lists the "Viral Video of the Week" has announced the video "Wii Breakfast" as the winner:
TVWEEK'S PICK BLAME IT ON THE WII by By Daisy Whitney

"Television Week is trawling video-sharing Web sites to find the hottest clips spreading on the Internet. Visit TVWeek.com to view the latest.

The setup: Don't forget the toast or it'll burn. If you pour the milk too soon, the cornflakes will get soggy. And if you don't cook the sausage long enough, well, let's just say, enjoy your e. coli. Yep, those are the risks with Wii Breakfast, a new "game" for the Nintendo Wii that simulates making breakfast. What, you thought the Wii was just for hula-hooping, tennis and bowling? Nope. Now you can pretend to cook that all-important first meal of the day with your gaming console.

The source: The video comes from Idiots of Ants, a British sketch comedy group that performs throughout England and whose work has appeared on broadcast TV in the United Kingdom.

The hits: The sketch landed on YouTube Feb. 26 and earned more than 600,000 views in the first week." (

I looked at the video, listed below, and it was rather boring to me; clever, yes. But boring I thought. However, it generated 600,000 views in one week. That is viral and epidemic. Class: do you think it is worth now almost a million hits:

Source:
Whitney, Daisy. "VIRAL VIDEO PICK OF THE WEEK." Television Week 28.7 (09 Mar. 2009): 3-3. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 9 Apr. 2009 .

New School University Dec. '08 Occupation was organized through technology

2009-04-07T20:34:00.002-05:00

The December 2008 take-over and occupation of New School University by students and outside supporters was organized by a large online community.
According to the website "New School in Exile," a newspaper article published in Think Magazine by author Luz Sacta Espinoza on student activism and technology, features the New School In Exile and Take Back NYU! occupations and actions.
Quote:

The New School University and New York University occupations were among the first student-led protests to use technology to gain global support for their cause and to get attention from the universities’ administrations.

Historically, student-led protests have been a way for young people to demonstrate disapproval of a political or academic issue. But today's technology-driven students take activism to a new level. Internet networking and instant transmission of information allows students to connect with various parts of the world and potentially reach a larger audience.

The student occupation of The New School is a direct result of student use of technology to go viral for a cause. (You have seen my posted videos of the aftermath of the occupation by chasing President Kerrey down 5th ave.)
There is also a new approach to email called "Web TV" and instead of a boring email, you create a TV show of your email. It is pretty new, so it's early format seems stiff to me.
All of us students/faculty/deans,etc. at The New School receive regular emails from the University titled "Anounce Anounce." This usually means something is going on with classes, an Administration announcement, etc. Well, Pres. Kerrey is using this Web TV to "talk" about his position on the new building The New School is putting up on 5th Ave. Instead of merely sending out a boring update, the University has done the updates on Web TV Called "Announce Announce" Here it is (personally, I think it is just as boring as a regular email):

It is also on YouTube: Announce Announce Bob Kerrey

Fave Comedy Central post

2009-04-04T20:04:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite Comedy Central clips is about former President Bill Clinton and the vodoo doll. Goes to show that we can poke fun of those in office:

Plastic Soup in the Ocean and Generation Y and Sister Ya-Ya

2009-04-04T15:59:00.004-05:00

(Above) A Multi-tasked Generation Y'er.
Our professor posed the question: "Why does a YouTube video on ocean pollution have 5,622 views while a YouTube video of a baby biting his brother (Charlie Bit Me)have 90 million hits? Or the YouTube video of a Hey Jude performance by the Beatles have 16 million views and a child singer on a guitar of Hey Jude have 7.6 million views. There is a Charlie Bit Me ReMix that has 1.8 million views. The Child Hey Jude has 28,000 comments. Hey Jude by the Beatles has 36,000 viewer comments. And how about the Ocean Pollution video, how many comments does it have? 20, that is all.
The Strange Days Action video is a documentary-style video on the horrors of our ocean becoming a plastic dump. No place in the Pacific Ocean is free of plastic items. There were 27,000 pieces of plastic in one net sweep by the producers.Some serious stuff going on with our planet.
Even with this important information, here is what a few of the comments said on a related link on the Ocean Dump:
*"yet another reason to bring hemp back"
*"OK now I'm alarmed and angry,angry at the alarmist a##h###s who keep shouting global warming global warming!!! this will global warming is a natural phenomena we can do little or nothing about!! plastic pollution we can stop!!!!!!!!!! stop chicken little al gore!!!!!!!!!!! tell him to shut his mouth sell his jet and go sailing!!!!!!!"
*"No one is dying of plastic poisoning....But you can see life clinging to some of these pieces of plastic, in the video, showing that they can create habitat for some forms of life."
*"My step mom has plastic breasts."
One of the reasons for the disinterest in the Ocean Dump video vs. the Getting Bit video is the Generation Y that seems to watch YouTube in general and videos like Hey Jude in particular. The Generation Y are those born between 1981 and 1995. We have had Baby Boomers, Generation X, etc. and each generation has been defined by their own pop culture.
"Gen Y came of age during an unprecedented time of growth in America...when technology was rapidly growing in investability and popularity...some of the defining characteristics of Gen Y are tech-savviness, family-centric, achievement-oriented, team-oriented and attention-craving" (Wikipedia).
Generation Y, or Gen Y, or Net.Generation, was found to be "frequently in touch with their parents and they used technology at higher rates than people from other generations. In a [Howe and Strauss] survey, they found that 97% of students owned a computer, 94% owned a cell phone, and 56% owned an MP3 player" (wiki).
Gen Y's Multitask, information stream, are made fun of as the ADHD generation, surf the web, play viedo games, have or read blogs, and generally rely on social networks like Facebook.
In the Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising's April 2009 issue, they write: 48% of Gen Y's have joined a brand or fan page on a social network, 36% say they don't ever click on ads they see on social networks, and 19 percent find ads on social networks relevant. As you can see, the Gen Y's are even in marketing research on their habits.
To get more viewers to click on the Ocean Dump Strange Days Action video, more has to be done to capture the Gen Y's to view it. It's like the "Divine secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" example in Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point." As he writes about Ya-Ya: "It spoke to people. It's sticky." Or, the packed movie house theory he uses: "Comedies are never funnier and thrillers never more thrilling than in a packed movie house...Once we're part of a group, we're all susceptible to peer pressure and social norms and any number of other kids of influence that can play a critical role in sweeping us up in the beginnings of an epidemic."
Clearly, the Hey Jude and Charlie Bit Me are epidemic. it fits nicely into Gladwell's "packed movie house" theory; we see millions of viewers liked Hey Jude and so we are part of that packed movie house.
The Ocean Dump YouTube video is no where near being "tipped" yet, as are the other popular YouTube videos. The Gen Y's aren't talking about it. They ARE talking about Hey Jude and Charlie Bit Me. or even Charlie Bit Me Remix (below):

New School University Student Senate

2009-04-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

Your New School Student Senate has launched a new website over the week-end. Take a look around the site. If you go to "Senators" and then my name Barb Teed you will see my profile. There are also elections coming up, I encourage any student interested in serving as a Student Senator to run! You learn many things about the New School and help set policy! Plus you meet awesome people and have fun.

New School University Student Senate

This is our goofy photo!

Photo of the 2008-09 New School Student Senate

2009-03-31T15:35:00.002-05:00

Here we are! The New School Student Senate 2008-09. I am at the far right with the blue t-neck. On 5th Ave Parsons building.

2009-03-31T15:10:00.002-05:00

The New School is supposed to be taken over by students and outside organizers on April 1 (no joke!) and shut down the University. I am on the NSU Student Senate, so that is how I know.
The take-over is "secretive" and the Senate wasn't given much information. The NSU Student Senate is not sponsoring this.
The last time there was a take over of the New School was in Dec. 2008 at the 65 5th ave building. We had an assembly scheduled to address student issues of voting “no confidence” toward Pres. Kerrey and NSU VP Bob Murtha. At the last minute, Pres. Kerrey cancelled our assembly for safety reasons. He was concerned about students getting hurt. As it turned out, NSU students and outside protestors took over the 65th building on 5th ave. Pres. Kerrey was inside the building. Students threw furniture inside the building. Pres. Kerrey needed to leave. Since I have been on the Senate, I have heard over and over that Pres. Kerrey is a Vietnam “war criminal” as he was involved in civilian killings. I do not know the truth of these allegations. No one shows me any proof. He also has an artificial leg from war injuries. As Pres. Kerrey was leaving the building, escorted by NSU security, students began to chase him and chant “war criminal” and ran after him to his home; they then surrounded his home and chanted. This upset me to no end.
The fact students were chasing a 62 yr old ex-Vietnam soldier down the street chanting war criminal just got to me.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of the chasing. It gets blurry toward the end when Mr. Kerrey was running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkqPgEwZhGE&feature=related
(If the link doesn’t work, go to YouTube and search: New School president Bob Kerrey being chased and jeered by students).
So watch the news on April 1 about The New School takeover.

2009-03-30T18:27:00.006-05:00

Meet and Greet at the Minneapolis Airport.

I decided to join the social organization Veterans For Peace:

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/index.php

I joined because one of my best friends has a son who served and she also is a volunteer at our Minneapolis airport to greet soldiers coming home, soldiers leaving for duty, soldiers passing through, and helps staff a soldier service center at the airport where military people can rest, talk, or eat snacks.I have also been a volunteer to greet returning Iraq soldiers. In addition, I just finished my final paper for a NSU documentary film class and I viewed:

"War Tapes" on the Iraq War,
"Hearts and Minds" on the Vietnam War, and
"Winter Soldier" on the Vietnam Veterans Against the War group and testimony on war atrocities.

So I decided to join the activist group Veterans For Peace.

The Tipping Point

2009-03-21T23:32:00.008-05:00

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is a fascinating read. As the newspaper The Observer said: “…The Tipping Point is full of interesting stuff.” Or Emerge’s Marcellus Andrews: “Well-written and lively.”

Because of Gladwell’s book, I have three new words to add to my vocabulary:
Connectors are the people who "link us up with the world ... people with a special gift for bringing the world together. "The Six Degree of Kevin Bacon” helps sort out the Connector influence. Speaking of Hollywood, Rod Steiger is the most connected in the business, according to Gladwell’s formula of the Six Degrees of Separation.
Mavens are "information specialists", or "people we rely upon to connect us with new information." They accumulate knowledge, especially about the marketplace, and know how to share it with others.
Salesmen are "persuaders", charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They tend to have an indefinable trait that goes beyond what they say, which makes others want to agree with them.”
(definitions from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point)

The three rules of epidemics or The Law of the Few. The Weak Tie. The Stickiness Factor. Peer Pressure. All of these can cause a “tipping” factor. Most important, just a little change can cause an epidemic. Gladwell cites sexually transmitted diseases in an effort to explain how subtle changes can be enough to turn a manageable disease into a chronic one.

The stickiness factor....>

Gladwell’s example of the spread of a yawn actually made me yawn—twice! I looked around the bowling alley where I took my son for bowling and where I was reading The Tipping Point. I didn’t see anyone else yawn, but I was. And how many times do you yawn if you see someone else yawn?! Great example.

From Malcolm Gladwell’s website:
http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/tp_excerpt1.html

Thinking about yawns.
“In this excerpt, from the Introduction, I talk about what it means to think of the world in epidemic terms.
A world that follows the rules of epidemics is a very different place from the world we think we live in now. Think, for a moment, about the concept of contagiousness. If I say that word to you, you think of colds and the flu or perhaps something very dangerous like H.I.V. or Ebola. We have, in our minds, a very specific, biological, notion of what contagiousness means. But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses. Have you ever thought about yawning, for instance? Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act. Just by reading the two yawns in the previous two sentences--and the two additional yawns in this sentence--a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I'm writing this I've yawned twice. If you're reading this in a public place, and you've just yawned, chances are that a good proportion of everyone who saw you yawn is now yawning too, and a good proportion of the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in a ever-widening, yawning circle.
Yawning is incredibly contagious. I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word "yawn". The people who yawned when they saw you yawn, meanwhile, were infected by the sight of you yawning--which is a second kind of contagion. They might even have yawned if they only heard you yawn, because yawning is also aurally contagious: if you play an audio-tape of a yawn to blind people, they'll yawn too. And finally, if you yawned as you read this, did the thought cross your mind--however unconsciously and fleetingly--that you might be tired? I suspect that for some of you it did, which means that yawns can also be emotionally contagious. Simply by writing the word, I can plant a feeling in your mind. Can the flu virus do that? Contagiousness, in other words, is an unexpected property of all kinds of things, and we have to remember that if we are to recognize and diagnose epidemic change” (Gladwell).
How many of you just yawned?

Or how about Paul Revere? Gladwell’s example of how he influenced the colonialists to take action when the British were coming vs. another man who isn’t as famous for his same ride in the other direction: William Dawes. That is because Paul Revere had a social “gift” and was persuasive. Dawes was just an “ordinary man.”

Paul Revere: Connector and Maven. William Dawes: just a regular guy.

Paul Revere had the “Law of the Few” in addition to his rare set of social skills.
The 80/20 Principal is a fascinating look by Gladwell:
· 80% of the work done by 20% of the participants
· 20% of criminals commit 80% of crimes
· 20% of motorists cause 80% of all accidents
· 20% of beer drinkers drink 80% of all beer
When it comes to epidemics, Gladwell
writes: “a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work.”
An example from Wikipedia of the Six Degrees of Separation, an idea in The Tipping Point relating to: “….if a person is one step away from each
person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people
they know, then everyone is on average six steps away from each person on Earth.
It was popularized by a play written by John Guare."
In The Tipping Point, Gladwell uses the example of a packet of materials given to people in Nebraska and were told to get the packet to a stockbroker in Sharon, Massachusetts. Each person put their name on the outside of the packet. It was found that most of the letters reached the stockbroker in five or six steps, said Gladwell.

Do you like these shoes, or do you think they are the ugliest things on two feet:
These shoes are called “hush puppies” and love ‘em or hate ‘em, you won’t be able to ignore ‘em in the Tipping Point. In fact, these shoes illustrate the very center of The Tipping Point.
Roger Harchow may or may not wear hush puppies, but he is a Connector and a “weak tie.” Harchow, Gladwell writes, has mastered what sociologists call the “weak tie,” a friendly yet casual social connection. More than that, he’s happy with the weak tie.
Gladwell writes a good point about peer pressure and The Zagat Restaurant Guide. “Diners who want to share their opinions with others. Somehow that represents a more compelling recommendation than the opinion of an expert whose job it is to rate restaurants.” I agree with him, as I always go to Trip Advisor website and see what my peers say about a hotel or B & B I want to stay in before I book one.
“Connectors are people whom all of us can reach in only a few steps because, for one reason or another, they manage to occupy many different worlds and subcultures and niches….”
Malcolm’s blog: http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/

Pancreatic cancer

2008-04-09T19:05:00.000-05:00

My mom had pancreatic cancer in 1995. She had the Whipple procedure and developed complications. One complication was a fistula from the site area and drained into a pouch. She could no longer eat anything other than liquids. Later, she couldn't keep liquids in either and went ot the Mayo clinic for treatment. While there, she had tumors found in her liver and kidney. She was told she was terminal. At the Mayo clinic, they have "teams" that treat patients. These are great. A member of my mom's team was a psychiatrist. My mom could not longer eat any foods. The psychiatrist said there were three ways to die painfully: dying of thirst, dying of hunger and I forget the third one. He said my mom would die in 2 weeks with no food or water. She couldn't even keep water down. The psychiatrist told me about TPN, "Total Patient Nutrition" that would provide the nourishment she needed.
When one starves to death, potassium is missing from the brain, and so many patients dying of starvation are "out of it." TPN puts potassium back into the brain.
With TPN, blood work is drawn weekly, results show what is missing in my mom's chemistry and the TPN is specially formatted to her needs, the precious liquid is delivered to my mom, it is given by IV and she is "fed".
Many, many hospices will not do this TPN as it is "prolonging" life. We had to go to 3 hospices before we found one that would do TPN for us. We also had to find a doctor to order the blood work and TPN formula. My brother and I were taught how to do the IV lines. The TPN fed my mom for 4 months and she did not loose wait and was aware of everything until 2 days before she died.

Charming Enchanted

2007-12-04T17:37:00.000-06:00

New York City: The new Walt Disney Pictures blockbuster movie Enchanted offers a little bit of charm for everyone.
Baby-boomers will recall fond memories of Disney-filled days watching the opening scenes of fairy tale characters Belle and Ariel sing merrily along. Just when the tots begin to squirm at all those happy songs, the movie’s main animated character, Giselle, becomes real as she pops through a sewer in Times Square.
The film, done in animation hybrid, combines the magical, naïve, cartoon kingdom of Andalasia with the realistic, frightful, and raw world of NYC. Giselle, sent by a witch To a Strange and Terrifying Land, means New York City, of course.
The casting of Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams as Giselle was pure genius on the part of Enchanted producers. Adams is a breath of fresh air playing against the stern character of divorce attorney Robert, played by Patrick Dempsey, AKA “Dr. McDreamy”, of Grey’s Anatomy.
Giselle enters the world of hard-knocks in NYC, perplexed at her surroundings, searching for her Prince Edward. Darling 10 year-old Rachel Covey plays the role of Morgan, Robert’s daughter, who becomes a true believer of Giselle when she sees her trying to enter a billboard cut-out of a castle in a bad NYC neighborhood.
Queen Narissa, superbly played by Susan Sarandon, makes us quickly forget her Bull Durham days. The audience was usually in a hush when Sarandon was on the screen, especially when she turns into a fierce looking dragon. The scenes with the dragon make Enchanted just fine with younger boys in the audience and Sarandon is a perfect type-cast as the evil queen trying to do away with Giselle.
Tony award-winning actress Idina Mentzel plays Nancy, the fiancé of Robert, who finds his attention toward Giselle threatening. Prince Edward, played by X-man hunk James Marsden, is all smiles as he leaves his cartoon kingdom to find Giselle, who he plans to marry.
Enchanted has an aspect ratio in the beginning of the movie of 1:85 and then switches to a Cinemascope ratio of 2:35, which allows the film to take full advantage of New York scenery. Seeing the differences in the aspect ratio from the beginning animation sequences to the sweeping NYC scenes adds striking dimension to the movie. Anamorphic techniques are used to great advantage in the film.
The music is also enchanting, with catchy songs by Alan Menken, who has a solid Disney background, and Stephen Schwartz, another Disney alumnus, that had the audience humming out the movie theater door.
Enchanted’s executive producer, Christopher Chase, also produced Disney’s animated film Tarzan. And Enchanted’s director, Kevin Lima, also has Disney credentials with films The Brave Little Toaster and Oliver & Company.
Scriptwriter Bill Kelly has little Hollywood writing experience other than Blast from the Past, another film about a misfit joining the real world. But with all those Disney heads working together it doesn’t matter.
Enchanted manages to poke fun at itself, and has a good time doing so. And the movie-goers reap the benefits from their creative partnership.
Enchanted is rated PG and runs 107 minutes. 4 out of 4 stars.

Princess Diana Inquest and the USA Press

2007-10-26T21:56:00.000-05:00

Blog, Princess Diana Inquest

The inquest to Princess Diana began several weeks ago. There is a website:
http://www.scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk/

USA Today~last update was 16 days ago. In London, the Princess Diana Inquest is foremost on the minds of its citizens. Not so much in the United States. I have not read of the Inquest in most newspapers or even on MSN news. I have not heard about it on the TV shows like Today Show, Good Morning America. The US news was all a gaga about the inquest with the lastest photos of Princes Diana that were released by the Inquest. That was about it for the rest of the news of the inquest. What happened to the Tabloid Queen of Princess Di? Why aren’t the tabloids publishing the inquest ramblings? It would seem the tabloids are bored with hard facts of a case, instead of speculation or sensitization.
Paparazzi arrested following Princess Diana’s death? Were they responsible? The Inquest points out a scooter that darted around the tunnel.
Mainstream American press do not seem interested in the results and findings of the Inquest. The Amercian press sure did when Princes Diana was alive and the current celeb of interest.

“Wide Stance”

2007-10-02T16:20:00.000-05:00

As I go through life, I don’t think much about the different ways men sit down in lavatories. Never before did I wonder how a man parks himself on a toilet. I knew they did, but that was the extent of my interest on how men go about their business in a restroom generally, and in an airport restroom in particular.
Now that Senator Larry Craig is in the news, this mystery has been cleared up for me in an unusual way~through the mass communication industry.
The media has gone wild over Senator Craig’s mention of using a “wide stance” as he sat on a toilet and was consequently arrested for alleged sexual pervasiveness. Once the fodder for tabloid journalism, the mainstream media has also jumped on the “wide stance” bandwagon.
Why is a Senator from Idaho receiving all this media attention? I believe that Senator Craig, although a politian, has what is called “The X Factor.” The “X Factor” is a term coined by Dick Stolley, former editor of People magazine.
In her book Dish, author Jeanette Walls describes how “The X Factor” was developed by Stolley:
Celebrities were just about the only subjects that could be counted on to sell well [in People magazine]. Politicians almost always sold poorly. Themes emerged and Stolley developed what is known as “Stolley’s Formula”. It went:

Young is better than old
Pretty is better than ugly
Rich is better than poor
TV is better than music.
Music is better than movies
Movies are better than Sports
And anything is better than politics.

The findings, which critics considered the ultimate triumph of marketing over journalism, turned on its head the conventional hierarchy of news……..Beyond Stolley’s Formula, he devised what he called the X Factor. Some people just fascinated the readers. Mary Tyler Moore, much to his surprise, didn’t. “Under my formula, she should have sold through the roof,” said Stolley. “The public loved her, but they had no curiosity about her. There was no X Factor” (129).
Senator Craig defies Stolley’s original formula. Craig is old, not pretty, and is a politician. His incident in the airport men’s room should have been but a blip on the news radar. Except for the X Factor. Larry Craig is loaded with Stolley’s X Factor. Not that the public loves him, but that there is a curiosity about him. And that is what has prompted one of the biggest political news reporting in years.
I can’t help but have a certain glee that this international news incident occurred within mere miles of my home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Indeed, the very restroom has become a tourist photo op for mass media all over.
News coverage is scrambling to find objectivity in the high profile event. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune puts the Craig story repeatedly on their front page as it continues to cover court appearances. “Restroom Case Moves to Courtroom” shouts the front page on Sept. 27. The cover article includes a link to a blog called: “Weigh In: What side of the legal argument do you take in the case, and why?”
Even restroom remodeling at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport gets the main masthead of the Star Tribune on Sept. 29: “2 Airport Restrooms to Get Revamped. In the Wake of Sen. Larry Craig’s Arrest, Stalls in the Two Men’s Rooms Will Get Longer Dividers to Deter Sexual Encounters.”
In the media, Senator Craig denies being gay. On Senator Craig’s website he states, “I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions. I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.” Yet, the Sept. 29 Star Tribune masthead would indicate that what went on in the restroom by Senator Craig was a gay sexual encounter. I think the sentence is misleading on the part of the Star Tribune. And a front page masthead like this sends a powerful, sensationalizing message to readers.
The second page of the Sept. 29 Star Tribune shows a staff photo of a demonstrator at the courthouse holding a big sign that says: “Next Time Pee, Don’t Plea!” While not on the actual editorial page, a photo like this could well be considered editorializing.
The New York Post doesn’t even try to go around what they think of Senator Craig’s infraction. The front page of the Aug. 30 issue includes big block letters proclaiming, “GET OUT!” and has brackets around “’I’m not gay’ Larry”. A photo of a goofy-looking Senator Craig is next to the headline, along with a box saying: “Gay It Aint’ So!” and the phrase “Toilet Lust Bust.”
The Post can maybe claim objectivity when they used a large color photo of Craig’s press conference with the cutline under the photo calling it his “’I am not gay’ press conference.” Yet, on the same page, the Post has a large survey for readers with the caption “Are You a Gay Senator?” with stereotypical gay sentences to gauge your Gay Senator inclinations such as: “Do you take a ‘wide stance’ in public bathrooms?” and “Did your college fraternity brothers nickname you ‘Mother’?” (6). At least the Star Tribune’s blog survey seems more objective than the Post’s “Are You’re a Gay Senator” survey.
The Post’s survey is to entertain. At the bottom of the Post survey, there is a rating on how you answered. If you answered “yes [in red lettering] to three or more [red lettering] of these questions, you’re probably a closeted gay Republican senator [red lettering]. Congratulations [red lettering]. Now head to Chelsea and start doing your thang!” (6). The end of this survey indicates that if you are, indeed, a “closeted gay Republican senator” you should head to Chelsea, a New York neighborhood with a gay reputation. This survey, with the Chelsea reference, is in the article the Post did on Senator Craig, not their Op Ed page; hence, the gay comments are in the main article. I think the Chelsea reference in the survey is labeling Chelsea residents. Even if this is a true statement, the Post needs to put those types of statements in an Op Ed page, I think, not their main news article.
Editorials on Senator Craig’s charges are a wide range. Every medium seems to have an Op Ed view on it. The Post’s Aug. 30 editorial column announces “Idaho’s Oddest Potato” and calls for his resignation (30). “Craig’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with it,” the Post’s editorial continues (30).I felt the Post editorial to be in direct contrast with their main article that included the “Are You a Gay Senator?” survey. The Post seems wishy-washy on which stand they are taking with the gay undertones of Senator Craig’s arrest.
Time magazine’s Sept. 10 editorial under the Briefing section, subtitled “The Moment”, compares Craig’s indiscretion with bipartisan transgressions and even manages to bring up ex-President Bill Clinton’s dalliances with his intern. A stand out box in red lettering in the editorial by Nancy Gibbs states: “If Craig thinks being gay is wrong, his fault is weakness, not hypocrisy” (15). Gibbs’ editorial also includes another pull out sentence quoting Senator Craig: “’I don’t go around hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn’t do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!’ –Larry Craig, in 1994, to the Idaho Statesman” (15).
Another issue of Time magazine features an editorial by John Cloud, who titled his column “The Contrarian.” His article, called The Psychology of Hypocrisy, comments on other misfortunes of political wrong-doers. Cloud writes: “But while these guys may be liars-Craig’s ‘wide stance’ inanity has already entered the world-historical lexicon of political b.s.-it’s not clear that they are conniving hypocrites…” (57). Cloud goes on to show photos of three “hypocrites”: one side of the face with “What He Said” and the other side of the face with “What He Did”, to draw comparisons to his viewpoint. Of course, one of the faces is of Senator Craig.
Blogs abound with Senator Craig-isms. A particular one, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, contains a link to the actual Minneapolis police report. A video is also shown, based on the factual words from the report in a black and white Dragnet TV format movie. While clever, it smacks hard on sarcasm even as it is based on the factual police report. Olbermann’s show is currently the highest-rated program on MSNBC, according to Wikipedia. The video on Olbermann’s site definitely has entertainment value, which could be a reason for the show’s popularity in general.
An international website also has running articles on Senator Craig’s arrest. The Sept. 17 online version of the BBC News wrote what a tourist attraction the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport men’s room has become. However, the BBC News site did not make any gay-themed jokes regarding Senator Craig or have a photo with a demonstrator holding a funny sign.
While a common theme of all the news is they are not targeting Senator Craig’s sexual orientation, at the same time, it is mentioned in all the news relating to his arrest. How far they went is based on the political bent of the medium presented. Research on this was eye opening on the different approaches to Senator Craig’s arrest, including his own website.
With the exception of Olbermann’s video of the police report, not any of the mass media I researched interviewed the officer involved in Senator Craig’s arrest.
On a more personal note, I worked in a midwest police department. I was a civilian. My partner was the arresting officer of a local elementary school male principal arrested in a public men’s room at a retail department store in our city. This arrest was plea bargained if the principal received counseling. It never got in the media. The retail department’s bathroom was notorious in our city for its gay sexual encounters. I believe the police reports that said the men’s room at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport in Senator Craig’s incident did have the action the police say it did because of my experiences in a law enforcement related job. However, no social workers, or other professionals, were contacted in Senator Craig’s case to make a medical statement if bathrooms are commonly used for gay solicitation. No media interviewed someone from the gay community on their opinion, which mis-represents the gay community as indicating they have go to public toilets to get any action. Even an interview with a local counselor, and the University of Minnesota has an excellent well-respected sex clinic, were ever interviewed for any of the stories that I researched.

Works Cited :

Amato, John. “Olberman Re-Enacts Senator Craig Bathroom Scene by SilentPatrol.” Aug. 2007. Crooks and Liars. 29 Aug. 2007 http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/08/29/olbermann-re-enacts-senator-craig-bathroom-scene/.

Blake, Laurie. “2 Airport Restrooms to Get Revamped.” StarTribune [Minneapolis, St. Paul] 29 Sept. 2007, early ed.: A1, 10.

Cloud, John. “The Psychology of Hypocrisy. Why We’re Wrong to Assume That Larry Craig and Other Fallen Moralizers Are Hypocrites.” Editorial. Time 17 Sept. 2007: 57-58.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann. 2007. Wikipedia. 27 Sept. 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdown_with_Keith_Olbermann.

Craig, Larry. “Larry Craig, US Senator for Idaho: Capitol Connection.” Sept. 2007. Top Stories: Announcement. 26 Sept. 2007. http://craig.senate.gov/keyportal.cfm.

Earle, Geoff. “Get Out! GOPers Put Heat On ‘I’m Not Gay’ Larry.” New York Post 30 Aug. 2007, late city ed.: cover.

Earle, Geoff. “GOP: Flush Toilet Pol[l]: 3 Top Senators Want Craig ‘Out’.” New York Post 30 Aug. 2007, late city ed.: 6.

Gibbs, Nancy. “Who’s the Hypocrite? In the Larry Craig Trial, We, the Jury, Have A Lot to Answer For.” Time 10 Sept. 2007: 15.

“Idaho’s Oddest Potato.” Editorial. New York Post 30 Aug. 2007: 30.

Larry Craig Toilet “Tourist Site.” 2007. BBC News. 17 Sept. 2007.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6998619.stm>.

Olson, Rochelle. “Restroom Case Moves to Courtroom.”StarTribune [Minneapolis, St. Paul] 27 Sept. 2007, early ed.: A1, 12.

Walls, Jeanette. “Gossip Goes Mainstream.” Dish: the Inside Story On the World of Gossip. Ed. Avon Books, Inc. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2000, 129.

Can You Digg It in Tracey Mn

2007-09-20T11:36:00.000-05:00

Why was this Archeology Workshop important to students?
We were the first to excavate this land. The workshop is in an area of Minnesota rich in Native American artifacts. Although there are 161 archeology test sites in the same area, no one has been on this particular property before, according to anthropology instructor Sue Krook. The land, owned by a retired teacher, offered NCC the opportunity to be the original diggers. “This is virgin soil,” Krook said.
Our college now has an active archeology field school called The Normandale Field School. NCC is the only community college in Minnesota with an active archeology field school, according to Scott Anfinson, state archeologist. Indeed, there are only five archeology field schools in four year colleges in Minnesota, he said.
We got to name our archeology site. After much discussion, the students decided to call their excavation site the “Koch Cabin Site”. The name comes from a pioneer family in the Lake Shetek area of the dig.
NCC students will register their site with the State of Minnesota Office of the State Archaeologist and the State Historic Preservation Office. We have to follow strict guidelines from these agencies to register our site.
The site contains Woodland Tradition Native American artifacts, which is pre EuroAmerican contact. Artifacts the we find will give a glimpse into how the culture lived. “How did they come in and where did they go?” Krook said. “What was going on with them?”
The area is the site of the Dakota Conflict of 1862. The Dakota Conflict has national and state historical significance.
We will have an opportunity to further analyze the artifacts in an Archeology Lab class on campus, according to Krook.

My article also appears in The Lions Roar student newspaper of Normandale Community College www.lionsroar.info

Can You Digg It begins...

2007-09-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

I am off to an archeology dig. In Southwestern Minnesota. How boring, you say? Not to archeologists. It is the site of the 1862 Dakota Sioux uprising. The very land.

Whites had pushed Native Americans to a small area of land near here. It was winter, they were starving. Promises to provide food went empty, like the stomachs of the people. To feed their tribe, many Native Dakota Sioux would sneak into the white village farms and steal chicken eggs. The story goes, some Sioux were caught stealing those eggs and they punished the thieves. To get revenge, the Sioux attacked a family living in the house, the site where my archeology dig will be. All of that led to the great Sioux uprising of 1862. Our host said if you look at the oak trees on his land, you can still see the Dakota Sioux peering from behind the tree. And sure enough, I thought I could. When all was ended with the uprising, 38 Sioux men were hanged, the largest mass public execution in US history.

I went to a first dig at this site last October and even captured the dig on camera. A small shoulder bone was found, perhaps a childs, our teacher said. The race is unknown. Many white babies died during those early pioneer days, and were buried on the parent's land. Pottery sherds were found, and many rusty nails.

This time, on Sept 15-16, 2007, about 14 archeology students and 2 professors will be heading to this same land to do a more extensive dig. I will post what we do and find.