Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go is a well written novel by Kazuo Ishiguro who leads the reader to conclusions with the minimum of detail and seems to have a cap on all the minutia of human interaction.

The novel to me centers around a satire within a satire. The first one being that cloned humans who are created for the purpose of donating organs are subhuman, born into the world without reason, and bound to an unavoidable fate of donating organs till they die. I kept on wondering in my head why the characters didn't just try to make a run for it and escape their fate, till I remembered their whole situation paralleled the human condition with death. How as the use of technology grows in our society we are all becoming dehumanized. Or trans-humanized if you will. Anyway, it was a surprisingly deep novel. I strongly recommend it.

The Disapearance of Childhood by Neil Postman

In the disapearance of childhood Neil Postman makes the argument that the differences between adults and children are disappearing due to the following factors:

1. Children wearing adult clothing, adults wearing children's clothing, like jeans, sneakers etc..


2. T.V. bringing adult themes and education to children without them having to learn to read or to think critically about the messages. This same phenomenon "dumbs" adults down to the level of children.


3. As more information is coming from t.v., games, and the radio, school is losing its importance as the "fountain head" of intellectual engagement.


4. Childhood is itself a new concept, which started around the time formal schools were created. Around the 1300s-1600s.

I found the book quite engaging and interesting, and find it difficult to believe Postman wrote it in 1982 and it remains so accurate. One point he made about learning new languages returning us to a childlike state of dependence and simplicity I really liked. And he suggests that computers will keep everyone in a child like state since they stress perpetual learning, especially of new languages as in programming languages. I think he is right on the mark!

wikiquote: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman

Google Scholar goes Legal

Google Scholar now indexes U.S. laws and court decisions. W00T!

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-laws-that-govern-us.html

Scholarly. FTW.

Like what?

Totally like whatever, you know?
By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

In case you hadn't noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you're talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you're saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences - so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . .
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we've become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

See it on vimeo.

How Doth The Crocodile

From Alice in Wonderland:

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

----------------------
From Wikipedia:

"How Doth the Little Crocodile" is a parody of the moralistic poem "Against Idleness And Mischief" by Isaac Watts[1] (Alice was originally trying to recite that). Watts' poem begins "How doth the little busy bee," and uses a bee as a model of hard work. In Carroll's parody, the crocodile's corresponding "virtues" are deception and predation, themes which recur throughout Alice's adventures in both books, and especially in the poems.

Against Idleness And Mischief - Isaac Watts

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

Too Damn Cool

OK, this is just too cool. It is a chart which shows the relative size of cells, viruses, atoms, etc. Just move the slider to zoom in!

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/


:-)

Traveler by Ron McClarty

Traveler is a heart felt novel about a struggling actor rediscovering his home town and what happened to everyone after highschool. It is the kind of story which flashes between the past and present, and which illuminates the interesting contrast of how everyone's life looks so bright when they leave highschool, to the reality of what actually happens.