Good Reads

Boing Boing will go dark on January 18 to fight SOPA - great explanation of SOPA by Cory Doctorow
Also from Cory Doctorow is The Coming War on General Computation.
Ned Potter, over at thewikiman, has a great post about spoon feeding students. It isn't the standard argument.
Shawn Ram has a post, It shouldn't be about the NUMBER, on his blog Learning to Lead, Inspiring to Change, that should be mandatory reading for all parents.

Mulling

I have to admit I had largely ignored the Wikileaks "scandal" of the last week or so until I read Mark Pesce's blog post on it. I have some thinking to do.

Nightmares

Some things should not be read one right after the other. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson are two such books. While these books have different settings, each exposes the darkness that exists in the human race. They also deal with the struggle to survive that darkness. The darkness in each linked together in my mind and left me feeling quite low for a while. I would still recommend both books if you like the darker side of life. Just make sure to read something light and cheerful in between.

Another one finished

I'm finally getting through the pile of books that has been waiting forever.

Bill McKibben's Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet was a head shaker. Shaking my head 'yes' that is.  This book is well written, with enough stats to support the arguments, but not so many as to drown you in numbers. Growing up in an agricultural area, with parents that taught us how to grow food, may make it easier for me to understand his arguments for increased local food production, in organic, sustainable ways. Mixed farming is not a common dinner topic and I have a feeling that Mr. McKibben is assuming a level of knowledge that his readers may not have. Although, as suggested in chapter 4, you can always use the internet to gather the knowledge you need. I loved his suggestion that the internet can be used to create 'community' in ways that our modern lifestyles do not easily allow. His arguments about moving 'back' in someways and 'forward' in other ways felt realistic and well thought through. I haven't read any of Bill McKibben's other works, but I think I'll be checking them out now.

Just finished

Beth Gallaway's Game On! Gaming at the Library. This is such a cool resource. Gives some history to 'gaming'. It is a great resource if you are trying to convince someone of the potential good effects of gaming. Now to use my new found knowledge to plan a Rock Band tournament...