Too much pluribus, not enough Unum

Can't remember hearing this before, Ken Burns referenced it in an interview at the New York Public Library with Robert Stone. It is available at Itunes.

JFK and the Unspeakable

I am currently listening to this talk about the assassination. I am currently reading David Talbot's book Brothers and will try to read this Jim Douglass book. He tries to link the JFK, RFK, Malcolm X and MLK assassinations. All of the following are Douglass' claims, I am noting them to look into later.

Secret service men block grassy knoll? Look into.

Joe Marshall -- smelled gunpowder behind fence. Man showed him he was a secret service agent.

Ed Hoffman also saw phony secret service men. Lacked hearing -- but saw what happened. Walked, could look down from the freeway. Could see railroad bridge. Absorbed with two men behind fence in grassy knoll. Suit man -- railroad man. Men working together? Saw puff of smoke from the suit man -- firing of the rifle. Tossed rifle to railroad man, who ran north toward tracks. Suit man confronted by police. Hoffman ran to his car -- visited FBI and police, who ignored him. Was threatened by the FBI? Hard to evaluate, since those who deny that he gave coherent testimony are those who would lose if what he said is true.

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years

Just keeping this open to take and make notes as I read:

Walter Sheridan -- main RFK guy that I have never heard of. Given the assignment of finding out who killed JFK. Rfk suspected cuban exiles and the CIA and mafia immediately. The thought was not about Castro, but the extreme anti-castroites.

JFK assasination -- Jim Garrison

Listening to podcast of Jim Garrison from 1967:

Pristine bullet theory -- is this true?

Autopsy, was it really stopped?

First reports -- JFK was shot from the Grassy Knoll -- from the news said this and most witnesses as well.

Bullet found on south side of elm street -- is this connected to sewer system? Picture with Buddy Walters.

Professor Thompson article -- Mark Lane -- effective.

Life magazine -- articles Jim Garrison involved with mafia.

Test these "lies" of Jim Garrison, just to see if the analysis is credible.

Oswald not a great shot?

Telescopic site not properly adjusted.

Physical impossibility for Oswald to get downstairs in that amount of time, and get a coke -- so feds rewrote that he was drinking coke.

November 22nd Dallas Herald -- saw Oswald on the first floor, this was then buried.

Officer Tippitt killed by more then one person -- and Oswald could not have made it timewise to the spot.

Oswald's gun did not have a fingerprint on it.

Autopsy notes burned, Commander Humes?

Ten men arrested in Dealy Plaza on day of assassination. True? Reason for killing of Officer tippitt.

tone

Sometimes two movies that have nothing in actually match in tone. I just watched the end of The Constant Gardener and was reminded of the remake of Solaris. These couldn't be more different, but something about the tone reminded of the other. Maybe it is the relationship between the couples, I'm not sure.

Put it out there

In one sense, I think the job is changing from a researcher and a collector of information. It is more about making connections between pieces of info and showing how to use applications that allow that information to be easily accessed.

In the realm of professional development, display information that is relevant to the studies of the university, and really emphasize that we, as librarians, are available to show how to replicate or use what has been put together.

Why are these web 2.0 applications important? They are easily adaptable tools, where content can be plugged in. If they are too difficult to use or too complicated to update, it does not matter how great the final product is, because the whole idea is be able to use these applications quickly and effectively.

Presentation Ideas - Resources

In doing internet research -- one of the major problems how do I keep my research organized. List some social bookmarking tools and give some quick guidance on how to use them. Integrate these tools.

Presentation ideas 6/27

Web 2.0 Tools -- emphasize -- they are tools.

Original idea of the internet was the web 2.0 idea. Basically allowing interaction.

Help focus on student-centered learning. More collaboration.

Use the same principles that are being used by students -- show them how they are using librarian skills in facebook and other sites. Help connect to understanding that those who use those applications best can apply what they do to their academic work.

Remove the fear of using these ideas. If we are looking to have students think about art and design in new ways, it helps to integrate new technologies.

A key is to not make the class about the tool, but to use the tool to enhance what is being learned about.

Also, students are easily able to work together in groups.

With the relationship with faculty, their has to be a structure and an understanding in the library of how to do these things -- to serve as a template for them and to serve as a structure to stand on. The main idea to get across is that their are a lot of ways to use these tools, and not to be intimidated by the amount of them -- or to feel the need to use them all. What the library can do is create different projects as information sources to serve as examples -- this way the information source is there even as we teach students and faculty how to build their own.

Pratt presentation

Incorporate books and reading material into my online catalog -- with the Wiki, showing entries from the books and examples. Use one popular art and/or design book that is in use at Pratt.

Show a voice thread where students comment on different designs within the voice thread.

Let's see if this . . .

Updates quickly

Watching or Reading things in different ways

On my flight home from Paris the plane had an individual screen for each seat. I've seen that before. In this case, the person in the seat could choose their movie, television show, or video game (a couple of other options were available). The choices were limited and eclectic. I think 18 movies were available. But I found two viewable options, and my wife, three.

The new movies that were available were not appealing to me, and I had seen most of the old. One of which is an all-time favorite of mine -- All the President's Men.

Watergate has always been an obsession of mine. It is one of my earliest memories of events that took place outside of the reach of my immediate family. It seemed like Nixon was on television every day and night, inevitably interrupting my cartoons. For some reason I felt a lasting connection with these events. I didn't understand the issues at the time, but my appetite for politics, in general, and watergate, in particular, was whet at a young age.

I have read All the President's Men numerous times, revisiting it two years ago. I have probably seen the movie at least ten times. I made it one more on my flight.

I watched it in a different way. I tried to focus on it as a research project. I want to understand how the movie differs from the true events and delve deeper into the process that surrounded Watergate.

I'm going to try and pursue this, seeing if I can put together some kind of resource that I will continually update as I research this further. In a sense I am looking at how new tools can be used to house and further this information as an education resource. I always try and choose something that is interests me in doing this. It makes the task so much less painful.

Golf clubs

Thinking of buying some new wood woods and blade irons. I'll list some of the companies that offer.

Snake Eyes - very good reviews, lower prices -- available in Golfsmith

Selecting the components. I really like the Snake Eyes 675B

looking up stats

I am enjoying this book immensely in the first few pages. I can see one of my activities during my reading will be looking up the stats of the players that Halberstam is describing. The first of these is Greg Bunch, though his stats are sparse, 12 games with the Knicks. These stats are available at http://www.basketball-reference.com/. It really is like looking at the documentation behind history. So much is different when you really look at what happened. I remember the coverage more then the stats. Many times players were better then I remember because certain columnists had maligned them. Not that stats can't lie as well.

I love looking at these names that I don't remember. This book is written for the 1979-80 season, at that point I am just getting into the NBA, so many names are unfamiliar.

As with so many books, this one sounds like it could be describing today's game. Political books are the same. And yet, experts blather on and on every night as if they possess secret decoder rings. They are truly saying nothing new.

With new technology, everything is more accessible and more pervasive, but the descriptions given then could easily pass for commentary about today's nba game, or presidential election.

Friday Night Lights

I finally got around to reading this book. I had read Three days in august earlier this year. Both were well done. I suppose I like Lights better.

Bissinger is a good writer, and takes you into issues you usually don't get into in a sports book. I was surprised how old the book is. The movie just came out a few years ago. I thought it was a late nineties book, but it actually captures the 1988 season.

Its funny, I read like Halberstam wrote. I like to tackle a book about politics and history, followed by a well-done sports book. Right now, after finishing Manhunt I'm going to start The Breaks of the Game. I've been trying to buy this book for a while. It isn't available anymore, out of print. The only copies I've been able to find are high priced collector's editions. I did the only sensible thing, I checked the MSU library and borrowed it and The Powers that be. I should read these over Christmas break.

Hopefully I'll remember to record some of my thoughts as I read.

Manhunt

Just finished the book Manhunt. Good book, diverting. Not much more. I didn't know much about the hunt for Booth, but to tell you the truth, while I feel like it was a pretty well written crime novel, I didn't get much more out of it.

Readable, but put-downable as well. That is good for my sleeping, but does not necessarily speak well of the book.