Obama | Footenotes

Round-Up! 10/18-10/24

I think this was the busiest week on the blogs I ever seen! My fingers would be stumps if I tried to recap everything so apologies if I skip you this week. There’s no way around it so let’s dive in.

George Otte @gotte started off the blogs this week by wrapping up his three part post on the (possible) future of the internet and how it’s shaping academia and everyone else. It’s been a great read all through and kicked up some conversation in the comments if you’re up for it. Towards the end there’s a part about co-ownership ideologically undermining the idea of ownership as platforms like the Commons facilitate collaboration and exchange but let’s be clear – Footenotes is the exception there Professor Otte. Nobody’s gonna take credit for this mess.

Lucia Green-Weiskel @luciagw was back over at A fast-changing world talking about public transportation. If I try to summarize a great post into a few sentences I’ll ruin it for you so just head over if you missed it and take a look. To throw in my two cents I’ll just say that you hit it right on the nose. I’m always mystified when I’m in LA that they have a subway, one that works pretty well, and still people would rather sit in traffic on the 10.

Speaking of Tinseltown, David Shapiro @DShapiro32 stopped by this week with another quick review. This time it was Ben Affleck’s The Town. Whether you like the film or not Mad Men is wrapped up for the season so it’s the only Jon Hamm we’re going to get for a while. Speaking of…seriously Don Drapper…seriously? I wanted to strangle him.

Long-time blogger Tony Picciano @APicciano was back again this week too talking about bifurcated economies in the US. I think you can draw line between this conversation and what George Otte is working on at his blog this week. There was a lot of talk about the rise of the ‘creative class’ a few years ago before we all started eating out of tuna cans, but it’s still fair to say that the internet itself is a platform that certainly lends itself to sustaining this knowledge economy Tony is talking about. Thoughts?

Alright. You folks over at The Obama Presidency are killing me. There was the fatherhood post, the one about pot, the one about selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, and then the one about British men, their teddy-bears and what you didn’t know about invisible ink. I feel like this is some kind of test.

Till next week!

October 18, 2010

The Obama Round-Up 10/11 – 10/17

I start these posts by heading over to the News section and looking for things to write about. I scrolled down a little yesterday and saw this little note from Sarah @SarahMorgano:

“Looks like folks on the Commons have a lot to say about Obama right now…”

Surely, I thought, she was talking about all of the posts I mentioned in the last round-up that were about Obama, but no, there was a whole new blitz of blogs. Two weeks is a trend people – CUNY is officially mad at the president.

Let’s see here – Kristin Cahill Garcia @KCahillGarcia over at Obama watchdog blog ‘The Obama Presidency’ wants Obama the organizer back. That post came right on the heels of David Rasmussen’s @DRasmussen post about why Obama might have appealed the judge mandated halt on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I’ll let everyone read the post and take it to the comments but I have to say that as much as I love the idea of troops getting sensitivity training I’d rather we just jump in the water and get it over with. How much training would it have taken to get public schools ready for integration? It’s not that I’m itching to go fight in Afghanistan or anything, but it’d be nice to know that if I did at least I’d be an honest soldier. Adam Hutton @AdamFHutton took a look at the Obama interview in Rolling Stone and made some connections a la Clinton redux. Look, I know it was a bit of a puff piece at times, but we did learn that the president is finally on to Nas. Seriously?

In news not about Obama Maura Smale @MSmale heralded the arrival of Open Source Week. There are events going on at Brooklyn College talking about open source and the impact its having on Higher Ed. Be there. Related to that is a great series started by George Otte over at ‘Tributaries’ about technology and the future. It’s a good and thorough post so I don’t want to butcher it here with paraphrasing. That being said, if you want to feel old just scroll down to the chart.

The DVD came out in 1995…15 years ago people.

Lucia Green Weiskel @LuciaGW over at ‘A Fast Changing World’ wants to know Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize helps or hinders US-China relations. There’s an interesting conversation to be had over there and I hope to throw some traffic that way because I don’t know enough about China as a scholar to really think through the implications of the award.

That’s the week that was. We’ll see if the Obama streak holds here on the Commons. I’m looking forward to updates on Open Source week and section two of George’s presentation.

Till then!

October 13, 2010

Round-Up! 10/4 – 10/10

No Footenotes has not moved to Wednesdays, I just got a little swamped this week. Good thing I did though because while I normally use the first bit of the blog here to rant I’m going to go ahead and calm down a little and be happy at the news. Turns out ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is (maybe) over! Look, I know, the Justice Department has appealled the decision and if this year has taught us anything it’s to set the bar low but c’mon – isn’t this nicer than talking about some of the other unsavory things going on as we creep towards election day? I’m looking at you Carl Paladino.

Seriously, who is this guy? You don’t want your kids “brainwashed” into thinking homosexuality is acceptable?

No. Settle…calm…nice thoughts, nice thoughts…let’s talk about the blogs!

Over at A Fast-Changing World CUNYites want to know where Obama is on that climate change legislation he was so excited about at the beginning of his term. I’m surprised there wasn’t more cross discussion here with the folks over at The Obama Presidency blog on the Commons. Have you two met? I realize this makes me the laziest CUNY affiliate ever but sometimes when I get disappointed with this administration I think back to the good old days of “with us or against us.” Seriously, it helps. Just push back from the desk a little and try to visualize the cool mechanical hum of Dick Cheney’s cold robot heart.

Speaking of Presidents, Tim Wilson @Twilson over at Franglophone Studies posted a review of “Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson.” I really want to catch this show but it’s looking logistically impossible. He also hints at the upcoming Pee-Wee Herman show headed to Broadway. Oh Paul Reubens…where are you? Actually, I know exactly where he is, he was in the sleeper hit ‘Life During Wartime‘ that might still be playing down at the IFC Center. It feels a little risky recommending a Todd Solondz film, so I’ll just say – it exists. That either means something to you or it doesn’t.

While you’re downtown seeing movies The Paradox of Sustainability Seminar blog recommends you check out 2012: Time for Change, a film about the need to shift the paradigm away from the one we’re watching crack apart at the moment. Sounds good, though I do love dystopian future stories. Didn’t everyone want to huddle around a garbage pail lit on fire for warmth while drones fly around? No?

It’s basically coming to that though for those of us in Higher Ed – or at least it might feel that way. News hawk Tony Picciano @Apicciano pulled out the ‘The Browne Report‘ this week for those of us who like getting our feelings hurt. It looks like most of what’s headed down the pike for the UK schools is headed across the pond. A couple of weeks ago Tim Wilson called out SUNY’s plan to gut the language departments of its schools, and as if you don’t already know – CUNY isn’t exactly in the best shape either.

So actually, if the weather on the blog roll is any indication, we’re a little glum this week.

Nothing a little Monty Python can’t cure.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ[/youtube]

Chin up – till next week folks!

1 Comment

September 20, 2010

The Last Round Up of Summer 9/13-9/19

Finally.

Summer’s one of those seasons you’re supposed to love, but by the end of it you just think, “Come on already…”

What’s been going on this week? Phyllis Green was on the radar. She’s a 90 year old lady living in hospice care who has decided to start blogging. I know it’s not exactly (or even remotely) a Commons blog but I wanted to put her in the round-up as a tip of the hat. I love that someone can want to blog at 90. I wonder if she F5’s for comments all the time too?

Speaking of blogs, if you missed it there’s an amazing post up over on the wiki called ‘Blogs to Follow‘ that has a ton of great edu-blogs on it. The folks over at the Digital Humanities Initiative posted it as a resource and everyone should take a look at the list they’ve put together. It’s basically the blog roll cheat sheet that I’ve been waiting for. Thanks DHI!

Everyone go hug a librarian because next week is BANNED BOOKS WEEK. From their website it’s weird to learn that Catcher in the Rye and The Color Purple are still freaking people out. Any CUNY librarians on the front want to share some war stories?

Meanwhile at the Commons:

Tony Picciano @APicciano called everyone’s attention to a NY Times piece that suggests the “blood on the floor” (as I once heard it gruesomely called) from state budget cuts to public education is largely because states have shifted their focus over to supporting Medicaid. So wait a minute, wait a minute…do I have this right? 25 years ago states invested in a generation’s education and now that generation needs medical assistance so we’re gutting this generation’s educational structures? Maybe that’s a touch two dimensional but I can’t help thinking this probably has something to do with which generation actually shows up at the voting booth. PoliSci folks – c’mon – call me out on that.

Helldriver @Helldriver posted this week with a blog titled ‘Briefly.’ I didn’t believe it. I was ready to sit back and spend twenty minutes reading his blog and another thirty minutes downloading songs. Alas, it was brief.

Part of my job is to keep a pulse on the blogs so I have no idea how I missed this. There’s a newer blog up called The Obama Presidency being written by Kristen Cahill Garcia @kcahillgarcia that I know I’ve covered at least once before. What I hadn’t realized was how prolific this blog had been in between posts! This week had a ton of interesting posts up – I’ve got too much catching up to do now to say much, but I will say that everyone has these weird personal metrics for Obama that are probably wildly unfair given the scope of his presidency but exist none the less. While it might be unfair to be a single issue critic, if he doesn’t manage to at least shut down this DADT business the honeymoon is over. Well…you know…figuratively speaking of course…there wasn’t a honeymoon for myself and the president, he’s been a vocal opponent of gay marriage.

David Shaprio’s @Dshapiro32 The Inference of Fraud showed up again this week with a micro-review of The Studs Lonigan Trilogy. I think it was a good review. “Thumbs Up” usually means but the admonishment of such a low bar made me wonder if I missed something there. Either way I could use a good book that’ll make me feel less ignorant than the protagonist, which is what it says it’ll do right there on there on the label. If I finish this thing and you we’re wrong, we’re taking it to the comments.

Alright, that’s the week that was. Next week – first round up of the fall!

Footenotes

Tag: Obama

October 26, 2010