Hari Om Sharan ~ Raghupati Raghava Raja Rama

Nice slideshow to accompany Hari Om Sharan's performance.

While we are on the topic of the Ramayana, don't forget Nina Paley's wonderful (in my opinion), controversial (to some) Sita Sings the Blues.

Eames + IBM + Brussels World's Fair

Besides being the home of the wonderfully retro-futuristic Atomium, Expo 58 also had an exhibit by IBM that included this video, the first of a number of videos made for IBM by Charles and Ray Eames.



It is worth taking note of the credit "Planning and Photography by John Whitney". Around the same time, Whitney also collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames for the “Glimpses of the United States” exhibit at the 1959 National Exhibition in Moscow.

IMDB entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051775/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_95
Video at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/InformationM
Eames show in Moscow: http://eamesdesigns.com/library-entry/1959-exhibition-in-moscow/
Whitney and the Moscow show: http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/whitney/early.html

Directory of Open Access Journals

Open access of scholarly journals is a welcome development. DOAJ indexes almost 10,000 peer reviewed open access journals.

This sort of index site is part of "the ongoing transition from subscription-based to open-access publishing of the scholarly research" (MacCallum, 2007).

This transition has implications not only for how researchers work, but also for how teachers teach and how learners learn.

From the teacher's point of view, it is getting easier to find primary material that students can use directly. In the past, teachers would create "course packets" that might include licensed material, that were copied and maybe bound by an off campus copy center and that students were required to buy. When open access is combined with online access, the "course packet" can be transformed into an electronic resource that can be updated easily and at any time.

From the student's point of view, open access is part of the trend for learning to become unlinked from "learning institutions".


MacCallum CJ, (2007) When is open access not open access? PLoS Biol 5(10): e285. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050285

Public Data on Google

This is just a sample of the wonderful public data that you can visualize through Google: Google Public Data.

Michelangelo’s Grocery List

Michelangelo's grocery list is a wonderful thing. Not only would this make a great t-shirt design, but it also carries an important message.

I'm not saying that it isn't wonderful to have this, but the message is that it is not always the important things that survive.

http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/michelangelos-illustrated-grocery-list.html