cc license image “untitled” by Tony Fischer Photography

Everyone’s neck deep in mid-terms and election season drama.  Tonight’s debate promises to be a grand finale of sorts as we eagerly sit and look out for a treasure-chest of memes.  “Binders full of women” dominated the news last week.  Personally, I was more charmed by the rap-battle-esque stage production.  Whoever thought taking away the podium would make a politician look better was either a moron or far more subversive than they get credit for.

Here on the Commons last week there was plenty going on outside of politics.  Well, not quite.  Tony Picciano pulled a great op-ed from The New York Times about the end of economic growth in America.  If you can read the Times piece, but if you’re busy be sure to check out Tony’s thoughts on it.  They’re not entirely related but there’ something in Robert Gordon’s alarm bell that reminds me of Fukuyama.  It’s certainly something to think about.

The Center for Place Culture and Politics posted about Vijay Prashad’s recent talk at the Graduate Center.  The talk itself is fascinating but I wanted to point out that the CPC’s great use of the Commons and WordPress.  Hosting video and Soundcloud through the site has drawn a lot of traffic to their page and shared the work with us in the Commons community.  If you’re interested in doing something similar with your own site be sure to check out Soundcloud and talk to the Community Facilitators.

Jean Gapetz posted a great set of links of literary maps and tress around New York.  The DHDebates blog is always packed with cool things like this.  Even if you’re not enrolled in the course you should definitely head over and comb through the wonderful collection they’ve put together.

Asif Patel pointed us towards some research suggesting that yoga may reduce some of the complications associated with cancer treatment and help improve quality of life in already healthy folks.  You’re in luck because the Commons already has it’s own Yoga Forum.  (In hindsight it looks like we lost our small yoga community on the Commons.  Come back! You were just ahead of your time.)

Finally this week, it’s OPEN ACCESS Week! Librarians and other faculty across CUNY and many other schools are raising awareness about Open Access issues and what they mean for higher education.  Be sure to check out the Open Access mixer this friday!