Pseudopodia

Interfacing with your brain. Through Your Eyes.

The Google Books "Classic" of the Week: "Classroom Management" by William Bagely

As part of a new series around here, I'll be spotlighting some of the wonderous, free, and almost certainly old books that can be found kicking around the Google Books archive.

Our first installment of the GBCOTW is "Classroom Management" by William Bagely.  Briefly mentioned in A People's History of the United States for its overt admission that public education, circa 1890, exists in the US so as to molify the youth and turn them into efficient workers, the book was widely used in the American compulsory education system during it's early years.

For those who teach in said system today, and those who participate, there is much to enjoy.  Like this, from p. 262 (submit!):

 

...and this from p. 257 (sorry, ladies):

 

...and finally, this bit on p.105 ("sacrificed to the mass"):

     

 

Weird, fascinating stuff.  All this and three hundred more pages of fun are waiting for you in the Google library.  What are you waiting for?

 

The Fine Art of Facebook Immolation

Having wanted to end my relationship with the facebook for some time, I have finally committed to the proper course of action.  I can't really say why I felt a need to cut this particular social tether, but my reasons are somewhere inside of my feelings of frustration at baroque privacy settings, the constant need on the part of Zucker and co. to redesign a working product ad nauseum, and my own discomfort at my developing habit of whiling away the minutes traipsing through the profiles of folks whom I am barely aquainted with, much less "friends."  As an aside, the entire facebook terminology has worn me down:  I don't have 300+ friends, yet a look at my profile before this morning would have indicated as much.  

To be sure, my urge is not unique.  The desire by a portion of the user base to remove themselves from facebook is a growing sentiment in the digital culture.  Most recently, I have found The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, a site that does a remarkably complete job of erasing one's entire facebook footprint, leaving only a photo of a noose and a note to the virtual world in its place.  While I admit to being intrigued with such a complete destruction of the virtual self, I also admit that it is a bit too extreme a course of action for me to follow, at least at current.

The bitter reality of the situation is that there are certain aspects of facebook that I like.  The utility of having a spot where family or friends (of the actual kind) can go to contact me is something that I find very useful.  It is also nice to have a soapbox from which my twitterings and blog posts like this one are broadcast to a larger audience than the typical internet echo chamber.  

Of course, the typical facebook experience subsumes these two utilitarian aspects into something much larger, and far more ugly.  How much of a typical facebook experience consists of reading about the things that one's "friends" have done on facebook?  Quizzes taken, questions answered, comments made.  Likewise, I am not particularly interested in joining any of the various online games that spread around facebook like social viruses.  Fantastic for you that you get an extra virtual acre of land to farm, and lovely that you have found a virtual orphaned sheep.  I don't really want to know about it, nor do I have any particular desire to commit more of my time to such pursuits.  

So it is that after measured consideration, I have embarked on a campaign of facebook reduction, with the intent of diminishing my profile to the point that I no longer need to visit, ever.  While I do not have the stones to go full hog and press the virtual suicide machine 'on' button, I would like to think that the course of action that I am following (and which I delineate below) will get me to a very similar place:

  1. Unify the definition of "friends":  A fan of consistency, I have eliminated every facebook "friend" that isn't, in fact, a friend:  Family members and people that I am friendly with.  Goodbye (most) co-workers, their spouses and (all) former students.  If I haven't spoken to you in the past six months, you probably won't miss me when I'm gone.  This move alone removed ~250 facebook connections.
  2. Remove photos:  Deleted.  Plain and simple.  I also went through and removed my tags from other pictures.  I think I am now featured in 10 photos.
  3. Change notification settings:  I am no longer notified whenever anything happens on my page.  Comment on a status update?  I won't know.  Send me a message?  Regrettably, there is no way to opt out of this notification that I am aware of.  Which brings me to #4
  4. Let folks know:  Go to my page and below my photo, you will see a polite note explaining what I have done and requesting that you contact me through non-facebook channels.  
That's it.  Pretty simple, actually.  There is a certain joy in pruning ninety percent of one's virtual connections.  My status updates, tied to my twitter feed and blog, will continue to update without any conscious effort on my part (in fact, this has been the case for a year now).  Family and friends can continue to access me through facebook as they see fit.  Anyone else who needs to contact me can do so using only a simple google search for my name. 

Facebook immolation.  An idea whose time has come.

Apparently, Jesus Want You To Shoot People

I am always surprised when my (incredibly godless) understanding of the major religion in this country is shown to be much more peace-loving than the understanding held by subsets of its practitioners. Isn't Christianity supposed to be about loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek?

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes

Pentagon Supplier for Rifle Sights Says It Has 'Always' Added New Testament References

By JOSEPH RHEE, TAHMAN BRADLEY and BRIAN ROSS

Jan. 18, 2010 —

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world." John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there" and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is "not Christian." The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.

via abcnews.go.com

A lesson that I could learn

Maybe someday, I'll stop wasting my time arguing with various stripes of fundamentalist/creationist ignorance and content myself with the fact that regardless of what people say, the Universe will still exist. Someday...

via Discover Blogs on 1/14/10

This xkcd comic has hit my inbox a few times from readers and was recently mentioned in comments on Chris’ post as well. It highlights an important distinction about where certain religious beliefs matter–and where they do not. The tricky part is figuring out what to do when these areas collide:

beliefs


Crazy Old Man Rambles Religiously

Continuing the pattern, wherein he says a crazy, quasi-christian fundamentalist line after every major world crisis, Pat Robertson found a few moments today to weigh in on just why it was that Haiti has suffered so much, including the horrific earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince yesterday:

So...we should all worship your god because he will destroy our cities if we don't?  Thanks, but I think I'll pass.  That guy (I have to guess Pat's god is a guy) sounds like a huge dick.

If you are interested in donating to the important and necessary relief efforts in what I now understand to be a nation of unrepentant devil-worshippers, please find a list of reputable charities at this link.  Of course, I would encourage you to give to a secular charity, but its your money.  

After donating, I trust we will all join together in wishing Mr. Robertson a speedy return from his worldly mission to the side of his sadistic, earthquake inducing, boss.  Lord knows I think he's done enough for all us sinners.

What We Did To Our House This Week: Enter The Working Life

Picking up on the heels of our previous series, wherein we were both newly moved AND not contractually compelled to report to our place of employ for a good five days or so, post-move, we segue into the first of our weekly installments looking at just what has gone on around this little slice of new homeowner heaven during the past week.  Besides, all the most immediate crap was done by last sunday, and the daily series would fast have degenerated into something akin to "bought new shoelaces today, tied them."

What We Did To Our House This Week:

Not a whole bunch.  What with the imposition of having to work every weekday for a good nine hours or so, it has been somewhat harder to attack our newest major purchase with the dedication and aplomb that The Better Half (who spends a good three days a week substituting at a local high school) and I demonstrated in those first few post-move days.  Still, we have done a bit around this place to make it all the more livable and all the more like its new occupants.  Here is the list:
  • There are currently fewer boxes of stuff in this house than there have been at any point since the move.  Steady in our unpacking, we are soon to enter the dreaded "attic storage" mode, universally feared for its constant threats of back-ache and neck-strain.  Have you ever hauled fifty-pound cardboard boxes of shit up a ladder and through a hole in the ceiling of your closet?  This is where we are going.
  • On Wednesday, as a gift from the mother, we brought in a professional cleaning team to go through the house and remove the last few bits of grossness left over from its prior occupation.  This went largely to plan, though some unfortunate mold was discovered growing in the kitchen behind the refrigerator.  Bleach and diligence seem to be the prescribed course of action.
  • BH has primed and painted the upstairs bathroom.  The upstairs bedroom and bathroom both came with a color scheme of  alternating tans and maroons.  It was heinous.  Now the bathroom is light green, soon to be with darker green trim.  BH loves painting, and I am more than happy to let her have at it, consenting to color schemes and doing very little else.
  • I was able to offload three boxes of donor books at my place of employ.  Most were offered to the students in my AP Biology class, and then funneled to the AP Literature teacher for foisting off to his charges.  Some went to colleagues.  Others (the dirty ones) were put on the shelves of the faculty lending library in the faculty room.  Can't have the youth reading Trainspotting, now can we?  Actually, we can.  I did when I was fifteen.  Still, can't give the kids the book about the swearing Irish heroin addicts.  That's something they have to come to on their own.
  • The meat seller came by on Wednesday, to sell us discount, high quality meat and a freezer to keep it in.  We will be putting the meat freezer in the garage, where it can have long conversations about the nature of existence with all of the cardboard that is in there waiting to be recycled.
  • Yesterday, we were taught how to change our aquastat.  We can now change the temperature of our water with impunity.  Many thanks to the home expert who gave us the master class in aquastat operation.
  • Today, in celebration of BH's latest circumnavigation of the planetary orbit, we again went to Ikea on an express mission to purchase a dining room table and chairs.  Which is exactly what we did.  Then we put it all together.  Now we have a big-ass table for eating.  Hooray!
So, there it is.  Tune in next week for another riveting installment of What We Do To Our House.  Who knows where the week will take us?

The Friday Media Roundup: Support this Mess

Here is your Pod-approved Friday Media Roundup, a new series for the new year.

Music consumed this week:

Video consumed this week:

  • Street Fight.  (Best movie about American politics in the past decade?)
  • The Latest in Skip Funsington MD's "Plaintive Cry for your Money" Series:

The Funniest TV segment of the week:

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Domino's Pizza
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

How to do the worst thing possible

Hey, Everybody!

Are you tired of losing sales due to the fact that you make a product that is functionally obsolete in the modern media-scape? You could get your act in gear and start embracing the new OR you could force everyone to deal with your fear of change by binding more forward-thinking companies into crap deals designed to prolong your backwards business model.

I sure hope this kind of thing does not catch on.

via Ars Technica by jacqui@arstechnica.com (Jacqui Cheng) on 1/6/10

Warner Bros. has signed a new agreement that will bring the studio's new releases to Netflix in DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming form—a month after the original DVD release. The companies announced the continuation of their partnership today, but with the added twist of the 28-day delay, clearly meant to help Warner Bros. sell more physical media in a dying market.

The fact that Warner Bros. has agreed to distribute its media through Netflix is nothing new—the company has had this partnership with Netflix for close to 10 years—but the explicit addition of a 28-day release window is new. This means that when a popular Warner Bros. movie comes out on DVD for sale at your local Target or Best Buy, you must wait another month before you can get it delivered to your door or desktop via Netflix.

Read the rest of this article...