I keep thinking about JetBlue's recent fiasco with their flight cancellations from the storm five days ago. I have only flown JetBlue once, and while it was ok, I have never been a fan of the airline since I am not fond of their corporate workplace model that promotes an almost fanatic (i.e., blind) loyalty the employees have. I wonder if that clouded management's preparations for storms and other unforeseen issues? Who will suffer with the hundreds of canceled flights, the losses in public approval and goodwill, and the damaged customer loyalty? Management? Senior management? Investors?
While the lack of planning was probably related to costs savings demanded by senior management (a la Wal-Mart), somebody down the line will end up paying for it. If revenues dip and those who fly the airline become disenchanted, then layoffs are always a possibility (though I am only speculating), and it will be the very loyal workers who will see their employer is just like many others–cut costs however and whenever possible that always results in cutting the loyal laborers themselves.
This article from the BBC, Setback for Church conservatives, chronicles the turmoil in the Anglican (Episcopal in the US) community over its stance on homosexuality. The Anglican communion is a bit more progessive than their Catholic counterparts regarding being gay (I speak from having studied and completed a graduate degree in dogmatic and systematic theology from a conservative Catholic lay institute attached to a seminary), but I can't help but think of the early Christian Tertullian, who (around the year 200) wrote:
'See how [these Christians] love one another.'
Yes, they love one another so much they are ready to break their church apart because of a gay bishop. I did not know he was such a threatening person, but this must truly be the largest problem facing humanity now, or at least facing the Anglicans. Thankfully war, terrorism, global warming, and the perrenial poverty and hunger are somehow manageable situations. After all, Catholicism has held that such homosexuality is an intrinsic disorder, and look how well they are doing? The Catholic population is growing because it is growing older, while the Anglicans are starting to sniff a more inclusive rather than exclusive religious practice. Perhaps the WWJD method may be interesting to think of here, but I digress. I wonder who will attract a larger audience?
Well, I lost .6 pounds this week on Weight Watchers! I shared my 5 pounds good news two weeks ago, and then was disappointed last week having gained .4 back. I know those things happen (thank you for your encouragement in this, Michael, Robin, and Ernie). That makes a total of -5.2.
Phew. I need some chocolate!
As I mentioned in my reply to Beth's post, What is rapid attention shifting?, I am constantly reminded that the engagement in educational settings is part of good teacher / trainer / instructor / educational preparation. I can want X, Y, and Z from my students, but part of the skill of an educator is the interest and ability to find a way to enable the learners to achieve the learning that they want to achieve, especially with adult students. Hey, whose lives are they, anyway?
I often get so involved in listening to my students' presentations, that I do not always keep the time limits as well as I should. I am looking for a countdown clock that I can bring to class, such as either of these. Most of the ones I see are computer-based, but I need one for the back of the class.
Does anybody know of any other options?
I am taking this fascinating online seminar at SCoPE, described as "an opportunity to share our blogging experiences and to discuss effective strategies for teaching and learning." Michael Griffeth is doing a wonderful job with this, and I want to thank Sylvia Currie for again facilitating a very informative session for all!
Tonight, I watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. What a Valentine's Day movie, I know, but it was much better than I expected. As a lapsing Republican, I was not exactly looking forward to this movie, but I thought I should see it as a documentary. I was really impressed with it, and it will be interesting to see what happens once I spend some more time processing it.
Click on the picture to make it larger!
On the cover of yesterday's New York Times, the article Believing Scripture but Playing by Science's Rules raised an interestnig question about the role of faith within the life of a student whose geosciences doctoral dissertation did not include reference to the earth creationist views he holds. Once again, the science vs. religion issue arises, this time with some within the scientific community crying foul over the possible repurcussions of a newly-minted scientific Ph.D. who approaches religion from a fundamentalist and evangelical perspective.
While the academy promotes academic freedom, I find it interesting how this issue is not seen as cutting both ways–from the faculty as well as from the student perspectives. While I cannot understand from this article what Dr. Marcus Ross advocates or believes about his academic or professional or religious work, I do wonder whether academic freedom should not only be from the perspective of those fully entrenched in tenured academic institutions. What kind of freedom is it that this fellow can fulfill all his academic obligations but still be penalized from those with whom he is not "academically free" to disagree? That seems to me what academic freedom is all about.
I have used Google as my homepage for about 2 years now, and recently decided that it will be nice to start my Internet journey each day with some content, rather than with a search box. It was around this time that I saw the article in Business 2.0 (nothing like finally catching up on my reading!), which listed Netvibes as one of the disrupting innovators.
I used Netvibes for 3 weeks, and found it easy and useful, but very slow in loading. So slow, in fact, that it often took more than a minute for my personalized webpage to open. I then tried Google's version, which was fast but not as user-friendly. I finally settled on Pageflakes, which loads very fast and it my current favorite.
I know there are other AJAX-based websites that allow us to select and organize our own personalized content, so I am interested to see what comes next. For now, PageFlakes is my favorite.
I was reading the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and read an interesting article on lifelogging, which is "continually recording images from their vacations, conversations from business meetings, and even intimate confessions to friends." Strange as this sounds, it involves wearing a camera around our necks or a recorder, and recording everything which is done.
According to one of the researchers,
"I fully believe that we will all be wearing this stuff all the time," said Mark T. Bolas, a visiting associate professor in the film school at the University of Southern California, as he hung a digital voice recorder around his neck when we met a few months ago. "The day before you die, your kids are going to look at you, when everybody else is doing this, and say, You mean you didn't record when you were growing up? You're just going to die and all of this is going to go away?"
Sounds interesting, but somewhat unrealistic. Do I really want to sift through every conversation I had at work yesterday? How about the sound of the subway last week? Bathroom sounds? Arguments? Snorring? CLient meetings (yeah, sure they would give permission!). Why would anybody want to record all that? How would it be tagged to find any of it and make use of it? I don't even tag my own blog, much less look at pictures from five years ago or lecture notes from last my college days. There may in fact be some use or functionality with it, but I am not yet convinced.
