city street conference day 1:

me with john mcmillan & john kortbawi

NDU/FCVW (Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds), one of the earliest 3DXplorer adopters,  has opened a new contractor position for an “Education Innovation Support” position based in Washington DC.

To claim this spot, you need to prove your passion for interactive simulated environments.

To know more:

http://www.pixelmatterinteractive.com/opps/EdInnovation.html

Best of luck to all the prospective candidates.

My girlfriend, Claire, is a grad student at Notre Dame University and is intent on making her last year of studies a great one and is pursuing as many of the student activities as she can.  As things go, I’m often along for the ride.  So far, we’ve done things such as drop into the cinema on campus for a showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s famed Psycho, walked around the lake, gone up in the library to look out upon the campus at night and then, of course, enjoyed Notre Dame Football weekends in all their glory.  We’ve gone to some of the drum circles before the games and to hear the band play just an hour before the game.  We’ve tailgated and braved the cold and rain.  Claire is a season ticket holder and I…  Well, I got into the ND vs BC game on Saturday.  ND hasn’t been playing at their best, but a game in the home of the Fighting Irish is a wondrous event to be a part of.  ND even won!  All through the game, standing on the bleachers and being surrounded by people (some who had a little too much sum’ sum’ before the game) cheering the team on and occasionally hurling insults that will never reach the intended ears for bad calls or pitiful plays.  The hoisting of the students to celebrate Notre Dame’s points on the board…  The marching band playing “Come Sail Away With Me” as part of their halftime show…  The sun eventually breaking through and pushing away the clouds, leaving us with a clear sky…

Autumn lingers, Notre Dame Football is forever

Earlier this month, Air Force Col. Om Prakash wrote an article in the Joint Force Quarterly, a journal published for the he chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by the National Defense University Press, which criticized the 15-year old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that bars openly gay Americans from serving in the US military. The article won the Secretary of Defense National Security Essay competition for 2009.

Below is an excerpt from Col. Prakash’s essay:

The 1993 “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law was a political compromise reached after much emotional debate based on religion, morality, ethics, psychological rationale, and military necessity. What resulted was a law that has been costly both in personnel and treasure. In an attempt to allow homosexual Servicemembers to serve quietly, a law was created that forces a compromise in integrity, conflicts with the American creed of “equality for all,” places commanders in difficult moral dilemmas, and is ultimately more damaging to the unit cohesion its stated purpose is to preserve. Furthermore, after a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly. In fact, the necessarily speculative psychological predictions are that it will not impact combat effectiveness. Additionally, there is sufficient empirical evidence from foreign militaries to anticipate that incorporating homosexuals will introduce leadership challenges, but the challenges will not be insurmountable or affect unit cohesion and combat effectiveness. Though, as Congress clearly stated in 1993, serving in the military is not a constitutional right, lifting the ban on open service by homosexuals would more clearly represent the social mores of America in 2009 and more clearly represent the free and open society that serves as a model for the world. Ultimately, Servicemembers serving under values they believe in are the most effective force multipliers.

Repealing the ban now will be more difficult than when it was created in 1993. It is no longer a Pentagon policy, but rather one codified in law. It will require new legislation, which would necessitate a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate. Most likely, leadership on the issue will come from the executive branch, and President Obama’s transition team has indicated it will likely tackle the issue next year. It is also possible the law could be struck down by judicial action finding the law unconstitutional.

Based on this research, it is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather, it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban.

Since the policy was adopted in 1993, over 13,000 service members have been discharged from the US military. Today, there are an estimated 65,000 active gay and lesbian service members.

Besuche die Website unter  www.ndu.ac.at

Die New Design University-Website präsentiert sich komplett neu:

Neue Struktur, neuer Stil, umfangreiche Informationen über die NDU, Projektgalerien aller Studiengänge, straff organisierter Service-Bereich und vor allem mit aktuellen Studentenprojekten und News auf der Startseite.

Konzept:

Ich habe die gewünschte grafische “Präsentation” wörtlich genommen. In der NDU dreht sich ohnehin alles um Projekte – wieso also nicht die Universität selbst mit Plakat, Zeitung, Leporello (Ziehharmonika-Faltart), klassisch gerahmten Bild, Bildschirm, Notizblock und Präsentations-Lichtschiene präsentieren.
Die New Design University Website habe ich in technischer Kooperation mit der abaton GmbH (Typo3) umgesetzt.

featured in Time Out Beirut, Agenda Culturelle, and Al-Nahar….

Time Out Beirut (half page)

al-nahar (b&w)

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