Normally I try to get this to you on Sunday, but I spent Mother’s Day being praised and lavished with attention by my loving cat.

So let’s see here…what happened this week…

Oh right! The CUNY Academic Commons got an upgrade!

Surely by now you’ve noticed a few new bells and whistles around the joint.  Matt Gold broke the news with an overview of the new features and  Sarah Morgano @brooklyntechie made a post over at Commons Connections outlining a handful of the changes headed to the groups.  I know it’s the end of the semester, but somewhere between responding to panic-stricken students’ desperate pleas for extensions make sure you read up the changes.  We’re working on a guide to the upgrade and going back to update our how-to articles to make sure they reflect the new changes, but in the meantime if you have any questions come find one of the Community Facilitators( @brianfoote  @scottvoth  @brooklyntechie @admin ) and we’ll be happy to help.

But enough about us, let’s talk about you.

This might be the best week for blog titles ever.  Tamar Zilkha @tamarzilkha from Blogging Politics posted “Schwarzenegger, killers insects and conspiracy” about the film Gerrymandering out at the Tribeca film fest.  Apparently it’s not the most riveting work of cinema, but then again who can recreate the magic of Cabin Boy?  Further down though the point was made that if you want to draw districts that accurately reflect a spectrum of any region’s population maybe class ought to trump race.  Sounds like a fine idea – how exactly do we go about it?  Thoughts?

Not to be outdone, Appalachian Anthropology reposted  Blakenship vs. Kennedy vs Tree Sitters vs Science.  Irreverence aside about long titles the follow up post, Representing Courage, is a really beautiful post from the author about the genuine conflict a researcher in the anthropological field feels when faced with the obligations of the craft measured against the very real and palpable desire to be an activist in one’s work.  Education and research demand some measure of objectivity, but it’s a fool’s errand to try and situate one’s self above the fray when doing work that has such personal resonance.   I can only imagine how compounded those feelings must be considering the unfortunate run of tragedies that have struck the coal mining community of late.

Anthony Picciano @Apicciano had a follow up of his own this week as well.  Seems that standardized testing apostate Diane Ravitch now has a book out detailing her about face called The Death and Life of the Great American School System.  I’m not exactly sure what parallels her thesis has to that of Jane Jacobs but it’ll be interesting to read what she feels has shifted so much in her career as to warrant such a dramatic change.

Helldriver @helldriver returned this week, disappointed with an anemic performance from Maurizio Pollini.  I know so little about him or the genre to add anything of value here, other than to say the writing is beautiful as always and you should run, don’t walk.  The question of whether handsome and heroic players wrestling with the work of a dying 30 something did resonate though.  With the loss of Chopin’s technical ability, I can’t help but wonder if his compositions became Platonic, leaving only the best athletes capable of trying, always doomed to failure.

To wrap things up Scott Voth @scottvoth posted a great link on how Omeka, Dr.Ng and students are helping to preserve the legacy of our very own Queens College and it’s place in the civil rights movement.  Take a look through the archives and if you happen to have anything to contribute let us know!

Till next week.