“Salvation” is a story by Langston Hughes (1902 - 67) about a childhood experience he had. It’s a good example of how harmful it can be to hit children over the head with ‘overt religious behavior’. It reminded me of the documentary Jesus Camp, about which I had planned to write a bit more than just one other post and this one.
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Posts Tagged ‘communication’
Jesus Camp: One Last Thought
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007Internet for the Third World
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Nigerian students power up their laptop (see gallery)
In the past months I’ve been following the development of the ‘$100 computer’ for the third world. It’s a great initiative that will allow children to become computer-literate, and a good example of what can be accomplished when we work together.
For an idea how much of a difference a computer can make in these children’s lives, here’s an article on an interesting experiment a computer-scientist in New Delhi conducted: India: Hole in the Wall
One boy in particular, Rajinder, has become a computer whiz and a celebrity in India. “Mainly I go to the Disney site,” Rajinder tells FRONTLINE/World, but he also regularly visits news sites and likes to use computer paint tools. His teacher says that Rajinder is a much better student now: “He has become quite bold and expressive. I’ve got great hopes for this child.”
Video: Do schools kill creativity?
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize — much less cultivate — the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: “If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk, please stop whatever you’re doing and watch it now.“
Contronyms
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
Isn’t the English language fun!?
Typography in motion: What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like?
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007
Have you ever heard of ‘animated typography’? No? Neither had I. I’m not even sure if that’s what it’s called. Here’s a short demonstration, and another one (warning, contains profanity) using audio from the movie Pulp Fiction. It combines the audio of the famous ‘What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like?’ conversation in the movie Pulp Fiction, but instead of the actual scene it displays an animated transcript of the actual text. Quite ingenious.
Technorati Tags: film, typography, pulp fiction
Presentation done right: Lawrence Lessig on various ‘Commons’
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
A while ago a lecture by Lawrence Lessig appeared on the internet. In it, Lessig makes the case that the Republicans, invented the internet. By making three important decisions, they encouraged competition and minimized the power of corporations to control or stifle innovation. By giving power to the ‘commons’, opportunity arose for innovators to invent technologies and appliances on top of these ‘free’ physical systems (telephone, internet, the radio spectrum). But will this freedom last?
Lawrence Lessig has long been an activist for ‘Creative Commons’, an alternative copyright system that allows content creators to be more free in how ’strict’ the copyright on their material is. Creative Commons gives others the right to use these materials for their own purposes in various degrees of freedom, rather than lock them out by using the conventional, very strict copyright. The basic idea is that freedom to use existing material, and expand on that (remix, for example), is essential to innovation, and even cultural development.
In this 40-minute lecture, Lessig broadens this concept and speaks of ‘Commons’ in a much more general sense. What’s particularly interesting to me is the way he presents his speech. Rather than just a dry monologue, he uses keywords, graphs, images and video to pepper his speech. This makes the talk easy to follow, much more entertaining, and showcases how presentational software can (and should!) be used.
If you’re tired of the horrible powerpoint presentations you’re usually subjected to, and interested in doing better yourself, I suggest you watch a bit of Lessig’s presentation to get an idea of what’s possible.
If you’re interested in the concept of Creative Commons, and the devastating effect current copyright laws have on creativity, and even culture as a whole, I suggest you watch the entire lecture. If you’re still interested, the book ‘Free Culture’ by the same author goes much more in-depth on the principals behind Creative Commons, and the history of copyright law.
You can download it here (225 mb), or watch it instantly in lower quality.
On Introspection: Surgery, or Deadly Dissection?
Sunday, February 18th, 2007“Character and plot. Chicken and egg. Which comes first? Aristotle’s solution was simple and radical. He said: Plot is character. Forget psychology, forget the insides of men’s heads. Judge them by their actions.” - Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis, Shadowlands
Staring out the window of a train carriage after a busy weekend is often the best time for ‘worthwhile’ thoughts, and new ideas. It’s also the time when I’m prone to introspection. The results of the latter never seems to all that constructive, even when it isn’t negative introspection per sé. Maybe that’s why I prefer reading a book, or watching a movie; it keeps my mind from from turning inwards, from introspection.
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How to Write Good
Sunday, January 21st, 200752 Tips for Aspiring writers:
1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague—they’re old hat.
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
An Inconvenient Truth?
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
Op 6 oktober ging de docu-film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (Een onaangename waarheid) in Nederland in Premiere. De film is een pleidooi om het fenomeen Global Warming serieus te nemen en is in de VS een groot succes geworden. Dit komt voor een groot deel door de overtuigingskracht en het charisma van de hoofdperson: Al Gore, ‘the once future-president of the United States’.
In de film probeert de ‘net-niet-president’ met behulp van grafieken, citaten van toonaangevende wetenschappers en schrijnende foto’s duidelijk te maken dat Global Warming een ernstig probleem is en dat er onmiddelijk iets aan gedaan moet worden. Maar is dit wel zo? En klopt zijn bewering dat de overweldigende meerderheid van de wetenschappers global warming onderkennen?
LibraryThing - online catalogus voor boeken
Saturday, August 26th, 2006
Een paar maanden geleden stuitte ik met mijn digitale surfplank op de website LibraryThing, een ‘digitale catalogus website’. Met LibraryThing kun je online je boekencollectie bijhouden. Dit kunnen boeken zijn die je fysiek in je bibliotheek hebt staan, maar ook (in mijn geval) alle boeken die je ooit gelezen hebt.