my beloved has returned to me

was pete out of town? was one of my cats at the vet?

no. my computer returned for the 2nd time. this time, the CD drive was toast. i have to admit i was feeling a bit…uhhh, yeah right, it was working before i sent it out, wtf? but $130 later, the drive is far faster than the one in here previously, so…yeah.

here it is, and here i am.

yay

it’s about time

little navi is back. shipped to me from mac medics yesterday. their services are highly reccommended for those in need.

and now i have an 80GB drive – w00t!

A Growing Movement

DSC02010
Originally uploaded by l@in.

Over the course of the past three days, I’ve watched an ever increasing number of Falun Dafa/Falun Gong practitioners hand out literature, raise awareness about the situation of the members of the Falun Gong members in mainland China, protesting the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Today, with the scheduled meeting of the US and Chinese Presidents, the area all around the White House erupted in an incredibly colorful, peaceful, and often joyful demonstration. Protests also took place when President Hu Jintao was in Seattle. The activists I saw were extremely well organized – with new publications of a small newspaper both yesterday and today, several different brochures and flyers, and professional looking signage. As a person who is fascinated by social movements, especially the role that technology plays in quick and successful organzation of these protests, I wish I knew more about how these protests were organized. Bi-Yun (Ruby) Huang, a woman that I had the opportunity to participate in a directed reading course in social movements with at IU, has been studying the role of technology in the organization of the Falun Gong movement. I look forward to reading her research even more on the heels of this recent protest movement

Vi/VIM resources

not very interesting for anyone but me. but i wanted to gather these puppies together so i can get to them easily from home or work. if anyone has further reccommendations please comment and i’ll add ‘em.

- VI Lovers Homepage

- Adrian’s VIM Page

- Simple Guide to Vi/VIM

- A Quick Guide to Vi

- Vim The Editor

- Download 500+ page book on VIM

- simply type “vimtutor” into the command line for 30 minute tutorial

- Vim Cookbook

- Vim Quick Reference Card

- The Vi Mug (i should bring mine in to work)

- Vi Reference

I can’t wait to see this

An Inconvenient Truth

…why isn’t Al Gore President again?

infectious disease round-up

Necrotizing Fasciitis (NF) & Avian Flu (H5N1)

NF

necrotizing fasciitis or flesh-eating bacteria attacks soft tissue. There’s no known preventative measure one can take, besides “keeping your skin intact”. Some reports seem to indicate that instances of this disease are on the rise. The CDC does not officially track the numbers of patients that present with NF on a yearly basis, but based on a 1999 study 600 cases were reported, and it’s estimated that 500-1500 cases occur in the US on a yearly basis.

NF is part of the Group A streptococcus family. The non-invasive forms of this bacterium include strep throat, and impetigo.

- A doctor tells of his experience with necrotizing fasciitis in April of 2004

- Two women die in Johnson County, Kentucky. Kentucky Drs. have reported a 23 incident jump in NC from 2001 to 2004.

- A Hawaiian man fell into sewage polluted waters of Ala Wai Boat Harbor last week and has suffered massive organ failure in addition to the amputation of his leg below the knee.

- Edward Kopfman succumbed to necrotizing fasciitis on April 2nd. He’s the 9th person to become fatally infected in King County Washington this year.

- Woman dies of NC in Miramichi, New Brunswick.

- North Carolina woman dies of NC after hand injury.

- New treatment for NC could be on the way.

H5N1

- Avian flu found in dead swan in Scotland

- Cats may play a role in the spread and mutation of H5N1

- 9th person diagnosed with bird flu in Egypt appears to be stable

who knew?

bits of interest

- ahh…christian sexists, love ‘em. honest.
listen to Chris Matthews suck, suck, suck up to Tom Delay, then Tom reveals his latent sexism.

- lost in translation
Jesus on Ice. Way better than Cinderella on Ice.

- Bush needs to spend more time on his knees

- I’m still pissed about McCain at Liberty University
Gary Bauer will speak at the baccalaureate service the night before. mmmm.

- how’s it coming?
one of the most well known right-wing Christian organizations breaks down the end times just for you

- Sen. Lieberman prepares for his big career switch
someone should tell him librarians aren’t really into the whole “shhh” thing anymore

- one more reason to leave town
The Eagle Forum Collegians hit DC June 8-9

weekend/link round-up

pete pretty much sums up the weekend. while The Orb was highly enjoyable, Roni Size, DJ Marky and MC Armani, all artists that i’ve wanted to see for years, really blew me away. I also forgot how nice crowds are at electronic shows. literally every time i got bumped, stepped on or elbowed, inevitable in a packed and dancing crowd, i always got a big smile and an apology. i even got an impromptu hug from a temporary dancing partner. i guess PLUR isn’t completely dead. :)

real quick:

- for all of my midwest pals you now have a new way to hop from midwestern city to midwestern city. Megabus offers cut-rate fares from Indy, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and other midwestern cities. But with tickets only available online, it seems that many people who might benefit from these low-cost fares might find them inaccessible.

- although prayer might not actually heal the sick, perhaps a similar study should be conducted on the effect of prayer on the success of political candidates as Sen. John McCain has recently agreed to speak at the ultra-conservative Liberty University.

- EPA headquarters in Washington DC is now using 100% green energy

- the flu season is peaking later

- if/when avian flu hits the US it’s thought that it will hit California first. on the upside it appears that it is difficult for H5N1 to pass from human to human because the virus “the virus concentrates itself too deep in the respiratory tract to be spewed out by coughing and sneezing” …at least you know, until it mutates.

Crashing the Gate

Last night, thanks to Pete, I got to go see the Crashing the Gate Tour Kickoff Jerome Armstrong of my DD and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos at George Washington University . As I had to take notes on paper (ugh!) you’re better off reading pete’s post about the event.

It was essentially a brief Q & A session. It lasted about an hour and at least half of that time was dedicated to questions from the audience. I was impressed with both authors, but was really pleased with Marcos’ energizing, no-holds-barred kind of speaking style. He talked about the point in the book-writing process where they got drunk in a random hotel (in Montana?), discussed the project and as a result, reframed the topic to what the book turned out to be. He was very unabashed about the fact that for the most part he feels like the Dems are doing it wrong. But this is tempered with the fact that he feels that a good Democrat, whether a conservative Dem or a very liberal Dem stands up to defend important issues; and a Dem who does this is “supportable”, which I agree with.

Marcos also made the point that the “real”, important political stuff is going on outside of Washington. I know that he means washington as Washington, but I couldn’t help but think that people who live in The District are well acquainted with a special kind of disenfranchisement, obviously due to the fact that we’re underrepresented.

Finally, I find it both discouraging and exciting that the “silver bullet” that translates netroots activism into grassroots activism hasn’t been found yet. Both Jerome and Marcos indicated that “something happens” in this conversion process, but as Noriko and I found, we have no idea what that is yet. The reason it’s frustrating is clear, but it’s exciting that researching this process, figuring it out is still something that needs to be done. The researcher in me loves the undiscovered. But the longer it takes the more frustrating it gets. I feel this is exacerbated by the issue of the digital divide. If we think the key to changing things, especially in red states is “regular people” taking action, red states and rural areas tend to be poor areas. We know that lack of income presents internet and technology access issues, small libraries don’t have a big tech budget, rural schools don’t have a huge budget/tax base etc. This is compounded by the fact that many public libraries still don’t recognize the value of providing unfettered internet access to their patrons (which is a different issue all together). So if the “new” political revolution is happening online, and the people in crucial areas aren’t “connected”, how do we address this? Or is old-fashioned grassroots action enough in these areas? Will the more common cell phone be the link? Text messages instead of email? In “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” Joe Trippi talks about empowering people to act politically on their own – is this the silver bullet? How is this fostered en masse?

CIL Overview

As i’ve previously mentioned, my computer is b0rked. i’m waiting for the mac shipping box so i can send my beloved navi in for repair. So, until i type up all my notes, i bring you highlights of the conference:

Thirty Search Tips in 40 Minutes – presented by Mary Ellen Bates of Bates Information Services.
This session was especially useful in terms of combining new tools and tips with familiar procedures. I would suggest any future sessions where she was speaking. A list of her recent presentations is located on her site.

Cool Tools Update for Webmasters – presented by Darlene Fichter and Frank Cervone.
This session was simply a fast-paced run through of neat tools. The power point slides are available.

Digitization Issues and Challenges – presented by Lloyd Davidson, Christopher Warnock, and Stephen Abram
The current SLA President-elect, Stephen Abram stole the show in this panel which presented three disparate views of digitizing documents and the present and future accessibility of this type of material. Abram acknowledged Warnock’s position that libraries and specifically scientific libraries are undergoing massive upheaval and will not function in the future as they do at present. However, unlike Warnock, Abram indicated that librarians will be just as, if not increasingly more, useful in the future as information iss’t getting easier to find, and “people aren’t getting any smarter”. I found his position to be especially enlightening and quite similar to the positions taken buy individuals working to create a viable semantic web. This presentation has compelled me to join SLA in the near future. Professional Library organizations need to be this forward thinking.

The Exploding Future of Social Communication – presented by Brian Pomeroy
The Web 2.0 Challenges to Libraries – presented by Paul Miller
These presentations looked to the future of electronic communication and the implementation of better and more collaborative endeavors in library technology. Pomeroy’s presentation provided more of a sweeping view of what’s going on now and Miller outlined a collaborative project that would allow libraries of all kinds to provide their users with a more rich on-line experience while at the same time compelling them to use the resources of their local library.
Related links:
- Miller’s slides from the talk
- The blog of Miller’s company, Talis.
- Pomeroy’s site, FutureWeb contains a link to the slides of the talk.