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seotime — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:30:55 +0000

Foreign Policy--A Marshall Plan for Africa

bloomoon — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:59:22 +0000

Think about it: something has to change in how we work in Africa!

Think Again: A Marshall Plan for Africa

America brought Europe back to life a half-century ago. Why not give Africa the same chance?

The
Marshall Plan was fundamentally different from the aid that Africa has received
over the past four decades. The Marshall Plan made loans to European businesses,
which repaid them to their local governments, which in turn used that revenue for
commercial infrastructure — ports, roads, railways — to serve those same
businesses. Aid to Africa has instead funded government and NGO development
projects, without any involvement of the local business sector. The Marshall
Plan worked. Aid to Africa has not. An African Marshall Plan is long, long
overdue.

Aid
groups will argue that such a plan, grounded in building up the local African
economy, can never work. Here are the objections they’ll make to an African
Marshall Plan — and why they’re wrong.

Life in the West Bank

bloomoon — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:38:31 +0000

I can’t be in Jordan without facing the reality of what is happening one the other side of the Jordan/Israel border. If only CNN and their pals would pay attention!!! Please read this quick posting (clipped below) , then watch “Who profits from Israeli occupation” (also below or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L32Nama7ad8). I heard about both from Juan Cole (Uof Michigan Middle East expert-guy and great blogger) at http://www.juancole.com/. Get the word out!!

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com

An Account of Life on the West Bank

On August 3, my husband Mohammed Khatib, and my little brother Abdullah, were taken from their beds in our West Bank village of Bil’in at 3 AM by the Israeli military. My husband is a member of the Bil’in Popular Committee, which has been leading our village’s nonviolent campaign against Israel’s construction of a Wall and a settlement on our land. For nearly five years, every Friday we have been joined by supporters from Israel and around the world as we attempt to march to our land on the other side of the Wall. According to the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the settlement amounts to a war crime, and in 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled the Wall illegal.

Despite this, the construction of the Wall and settlements continued, and we are treated as criminals in our quest for justice. On top of tens of arrests, hundreds of protesters from Bil’in have been injured and one has been killed by the Israeli military.

The video:

System of Lies... What happened to us?

bloomoon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:48:11 +0000

I just read this article about how the press has been usurped by political agendas–see clip below and read the whole, well-researched article at http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=33681. I am depressed, the people who claimed they would save us from Orwell’s 1984 style governance were busy CREATING it. Glad I never bought their crap, but still depressed that so many do. When did we as a nation stop thinking and start just following the crowd? Sigh…

Then I read an article about all the protesters showing up at health care town halls (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_protests). I am now considering the possibility that such people are being planted to disrupt the meetings and discredit reform that might actually ensure that we get better health in spite of an industry that only wants to profit on our illness. Seriously, if ppl knew what HMOs, suppliers, and others did, they’d be BEGGING the government to get involved!!!

Gaaa!!! Yep, I’m a leftest loony. But I’m also an idealist, and I believe in American democracy at it’s finest, where a free press challenges government assertions. This perversion of the press as marketing tool is depressing and disgusting.

Get the word out!

clipped from www.middle-east-online.com

Palin’s ‘Death Panel’ and GOP Lying

During the early 1980s, Republicans were adopting a conscious approach to deception that was qualitatively different from what was common in politics. With the aid of a growing right-wing media, the GOP covered up ghastly crimes by its allies and enflamed public opinion against its adversaries, regardless of the facts, notes Robert Parry.

False Republican claims about President Barack Obama’s health-care initiative, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s demagogic charge about a “death panel,” are part of a pattern of systematic lying that has marked the GOP’s political tactics at least since Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush , can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com.

VOA Censored in USA!

bloomoon — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:06:44 +0000

I can see VOA propaganda being problematic–but shouldn’t we be allowed to hear what they’re telling others? This article is interesting (and pro-VOA) but also, we should have access to the media supported by our taxes. I recommend reading it in full (it’s only 2 short pages!)…

clipped from www.foreignpolicy.com

Censoring the Voice of America

Why is it OK to broadcast terrorist propaganda but not taxpayer-funded media reports?

This
muzzling of VOA comes at a time when the U.S. media is shrinking, eliminating
foreign bureaus, and increasingly relying on stringers (of sometimes dubious
quality) for its news. VOA and other U.S. public diplomacy organizations,
meanwhile, are staffed with professional journalists and editors who are adept
and experienced with covering goings-on about the world.

Peace Corps Lessons

bloomoon — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:39:40 +0000

These speak to me…tho I’d add to number 10 “or know when not to”… My time in Morocco produced a few too many “don’t get so close to me creep” moments so I’d suggest keeping in mind where SHE’s coming from…

clipped from ivancampuzano.com

Top 10 lessons I learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer

1. To know your world, you have to see it- All too often we find ourselves constrained by what is immediately in front of our faces. The same breakfast cereal, the same job, the same routine television schedules, the same life. While there can be great comfort in routine, there is a whole big world out there, and unfortunately it is not just outside your window or through your T.V. screen. Earth is blessed with a multitude of peoples, cultures, landscapes, languages and things to see and do. Whether you take on a life changing commitment such as the Peace Corps, or just take an extended vacation, make sure you go someplace new and different. Open your mind and your eyes to the different facets of the world, and your life will be richly rewarded in direct proportion to how much you are trying to experience.

Fundamentals

bloomoon — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:49:11 +0000

Just a reminder. Thanks Ruben Harris!

clipped from rubenharris.posterous.com

Fundamentals

Before you speak, listen.
Before you write, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.
Before you retire, save.

Before you die, give.

- William A. Ward

Do it over--Fix Graduate Educationion

bloomoon — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:33:02 +0000

I like many of the suggestions in this article (tho can only clip 1000 characters, so it’s worth reading the whole thing) and am proud that my program, Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies (CARRS) at Michigan State University, is already doing interdisciplinary, problem/theme-focused research and teaching.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

End the University as We Know It

By MARK C. TAYLOR

GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).

The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students to help in laboratories and with teaching, universities couldn’t conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate populations. That’s one of the main reasons we still encourage people to enroll in doctoral programs. It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course — with no benefits — than it is to hire full-time professors

Hamas 2.0

bloomoon — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:43:41 +0000

Forgot how great is Foreign Affairs.

clipped from www.foreignaffairs.com

Summary –

The January war in Gaza overshadowed the fact that Hamas is in the midst of an unprecedented ideological transformation — and it’s time for the West to pay attention.

MICHAEL BRÖNING is Director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung office in East Jerusalem, a German political foundation affiliated with the Social Democratic Party. He is a regular contributor to German newspapers and magazines, including Die Zeit and Der Spiegel.

For decades, Western decision-makers have viewed Hamas as a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy the state of Israel and thus will never accept a territorial compromise based on a two-state solution.

Death of Macho

bloomoon — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:34:09 +0000

I recently re-discovered Foreign Policy magazine online. Lots of good articles and ideas, some worth passing on. This is one. I love the article, but think it’s missing one thing: as traditional “male” careers (think finance, construction) disappear, men will start doing the growing “female” careers (nursing, education, government). Patriarchy is incredibly adaptable!

clipped from www.foreignpolicy.com

The Death of Macho

Manly men have been running the world forever. But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history.

The era of male dominance is coming to an end.

For years, the world has been witnessing a quiet but monumental shift of power from men to women. Today, the Great Recession has turned what was an evolutionary shift into a revolutionary one. The consequence will be not only a mortal blow to the macho men’s club called finance capitalism that got the world into the current economic catastrophe; it will be a collective crisis for millions and millions of working men around the globe.

BY REIHAN SALAM

JUNE 22, 2009

Fuel from sun and CO2?!!

bloomoon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:46:47 +0000

Looks like “biomimic” fuel is a seriously innovative invention.

clipped from cleantechnica.com

Cambridge-based Joule Biotechnologies has come out of the dark today to announce a radical technology designed to mimic photosynthesis using bio-engineered micro-organisms to make ethanol fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight.

Because of the abundance of these raw materials, Joule Biotechnologies should be able to make ethanol economically, sustainably and at stable prices.

Prices would be competitive with fossil fuels at $50 a barrel.

Solar Blimp!

bloomoon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:39:48 +0000

I soooo wanna take a ride! Who remembers the Hindenburg anyway?

clipped from cleantechnica.com

Solar Blimp to Fly from NYC to Paris, Rests on Land or Water

Perhaps the only thing cooler than being powered by lightweight photovoltaic cells, this airship is also designed to rest on land or water.

Cool Conference

bloomoon — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:20:00 +0000

I would love to go to this conference, it’s NAME alone is inspiring!

clipped from ubi-learn.com

The Ubiquitous Learning Conference investigates the uses of technologies in learning, including devices with sophisticated computing and networking capacities which are now pervasively part of our everyday lives’ from laptops to mobile phones, games, digital music players, personal digital assistants and cameras. The Conference explores the possibilities of new forms of learning using these devices not only in the classroom, but in a wider range of places and times than was conventionally the case for education. Ubiquitous Learning is made possible in part by the affordances of the new, digital media. What’s new about it? What’s not-so-new? What are the main challenges of access to these new learning opportunities? These are the key themes and scope and concerns of the Conference and its companion Journal.

Really Bad Powerpoint--make it better!

bloomoon — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:42:53 +0000

Ok, so I am not quite the ppt nazi that this guy is, but he makes a lot of good suggestions. I’m planning to present my work in Amman pretty soon, and I’ll be using these tips to do a better job.

Consider reading the whole article.

clipped from sethgodin.typepad.com

Really Bad Powerpoint

Powerpoint could be the most powerful tool on your computer. But it’s not. Countless innovations fail because their champions use PowerPoint the way Microsoft wants them to, instead of the right way.

Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides. They don’t work without you there.

Sound effects can be used a few times per presentation, but never use the sound effects that are built in to the program. Instead, rip sounds and music from CDs and leverage the Proustian effect this can have. If people start bouncing up and down to the Grateful Dead, you’ve kept them from falling asleep, and you’ve reminded them that this isn’t a typical meeting you’re running.

No dissolves, spins or other transitions.

No cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images.

Bullets Are For the NRA
Here are the five rules you need to remember to create amazing Powerpoint presentations:

No more than six words on a slide. EVER. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken.

I wanna be "I-Shaped"

bloomoon — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:39:19 +0000

What a great concept–on thinking about it, my friends are all I-people! And it has nothing to do with Apple…

clipped from www.businessweek.com

Innovation Calls For I-Shaped People

These thinkers have their feet firmly planted in the practical world, can stretch their heads to the clouds—and simultaneously span all of the space in between

There may be no “I” in team, but every team needs to be made up of “I-shaped” people.

This idea was crystallized in my mind thanks to another Englishman, one of the early pioneers of human-centered design, Brian Shackel. I once asked him if he had noticed any particular attributes that distinguished the students that went on to do remarkable things compared with the rest.

His answer was as immediate as it was insightful. He said: “The outstanding students all had an outstanding capacity for abstract thinking, yet they also had a really strong grounding in physical materials and tools.” By this, he meant that they could rise above the specifics of a particular problem to think about them in a more abstract, and in some ways, more general way.

clipmarks

explorandoprg — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:20:19 +0000

Utilidad que permite copiar texto e imagenes de una pagina web y enviar el resultado a tu blog o por email. Dispone de un plugin para firefox.

Ver
http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-email/

Khhhhhhaaaaaannnnn

bloomoon — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:23:47 +0000

I need to name my project(s) too….

clipped from www.phdcomics.com

Heee heee--Tequila is bad!

bloomoon — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:44:08 +0000

I’m enjoying this new comic!

clipped from buttersafe.com

Material Possessions

bloomoon — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:53:15 +0000

The Author’s comment: “Material possessions: they are pretty sweet.”

clipped from buttersafe.com

The Extraordinaries: Micro-Volunteering

bloomoon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:34:03 +0000

I have heard about this org through my minimal participation in socialactions.com (which I’ve mentioned here before). Tho I don’t text so much, this sounds great for those folks who do!

clipped from www.npr.org

NPR.org, July 1, 2009 · Got five minutes? Got a cell phone? Want to do good?

The Extraordinaries can help. It’s one of a number of newly hatched social-media enterprises that champion speedy cooperation. Here is the 30-second elevator pitch: The Extraordinaries delivers microvolunteer opportunities to mobile phones that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot.

Shazzam! Charity meets brevity. Crowdsourcing for the common good. Turning ADD into AID.

Safari 4 Shows a great start as it goes Public

T3CK — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:21:53 +0000

Safari 4 only needs minor tweaks from the beta version as it went from beta to a public stable versi

Giant blanket could protect astronauts on moon

spacecrazed — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:58:08 +0000

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com

Engineering students at North Carolina State University (NCSU) designed a “lunar texshield,” a layered blanket made of lightweight polymer material. The outer surface of the shield is a flexible array of solar cells that generate electricity. Underneath, a layer of radiation shielding deflects or absorbs incoming particles, to better protect astronauts in lunar outposts.

Best Space-Themed Hymn Ever

spacecrazed — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:39:43 +0000

clipped from justwallpaper.wordpress.com

God of earth and outer space, God of love and God of grace, Bless the astronauts who fly. As they soar beyond the sky. God who flung the stars in space, God who set the sun ablaze, Fling the spacecraft thro the air, Let man know your presence there.

God of atmosphere and air, God of life and planets bare, Use man’s courage and his skill As he seeks your holy will. God of depth and God of height, God of darkness, God of light, As man walks in outer space, Teach him how to walk in grace.

God of man’s exploring mind, God of wisdom, God of time, Launch us from complacency To a world in need of thee. God of power, God of might, God of rockets firing bright. Hearts ignite and thrust within, Love for Christ to share with men.

God of earth and outer space, God who guides the human race, Guide the lives of seeking youth In their search for heavnly truth. God who reigns below, above, God of universal love, Love that gave Nativity, Love that gave us Calvary.

Largest Space Telescope Ever Launched Will Study Big Bang Theory

spacecrazed — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:55:01 +0000

clipped from ecoworldly.com

Move over Hubble Telescope, the European Space Agency has launched the largest telescope ever sent to space on a mission to study how the Big Bang created the universe. This comes right on the heels of another related and exciting scientific breakthrough: for the first time ever, scientists have successfully showed us how the earliest building blocks for life on the planet probably formed from scratch. Are we on the brink of a more complete understanding of our planet’s evolution?