Final Review

Learning Outcome:

In review of learning outcomes I think there is little to add to the work I have already done in my Prezi that I spent a few hours making just a few weeks ago.  I have learned how to use a lot of different tools and put them into application. 

One thing I have taken into account is the direction from Professor Zappalla from this last review.  I have set up my blog so that it is networked with my facebook page.  Although it’s too early to see many results, I have had some feedback and connection from family members who didn’t know I had set up a new blog.

Personal Learning Experience:

Throughout the semester I have learned how to learn to learn.  I have found how to quickly find learning tools and sites to get the resources I need.  For example, just recently a few weeks ago in preparation for the final project I was working on our PowerPoint presentation.  However, in the spirit of web 2.0 I wanted to put it up for review on my blog.  So I went online and quickly found a review site of different PowerPoint hosting sites.  I then picked one and signed in by way of my facebook account.  From there I was able to post it online and put it up for feedback.  More than learning how to use a tool, I have learned how to learn how to use tools.

 Highlight reel of the semester in Digital Civilization.

Some of the greatest posts I have made during the semester are as follows.

Harvard Classics:  This has been by far one of my favorite posts.  The main reason I like this post is mostly because I didn’t do it out of requirement, but because it was of personal interest.  This post was an extra post I put in one week that I put out because I wanted to get feedback from others in this class.  I knew students in our class would have a lot of expertise in the area and would offer some good insights. 

DigiTech Blogs:  Another post that I really enjoyed was my search for digital blogs.  In my personal outreach to find other blogs and sites with an emphasis in modern technological innovations I stumbled upon a handful of sites that have continued to amaze me.  So many times we think of things and tell ourselves that it would be cool to have them in the future, but then you look and find that it is already there!

The Divinity in Natural Selection: This post is one of the best examples of deeper research.  In preparation for this post I personally got a copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species and read a couple sections and scanned through even more.  I personally enjoyed reading through all the examples and depth that Darwin put into his works.  I think the best part of it all was that I was sitting in a Jacuzzi as I was reading!

Where I will go from here….

Although it has been a good opportunity for me to learn and grow through regular use of this blog I feel it will undergo some serious changes.  During this next summer I am going to completely change the theme.  It will be restructured and designed to help me as I work on my Honors thesis as I am in South America.  I am going to use it as a means to stay connected with my referee and assisting professor back in Provo while I am off in the field doing research.

Got Bless Us, Every One! ~ A Christmas Carol

I have once again started my yearly review of the Christmas Carol.  I was happy to say this year I found a copy of one of the most valuable books ever written for 100 pennies, and not one less. ( Even the former Scrooge would consider that a transaction worthy of purchase.)  Thus in my new personal copy I have broken out pencil and marker and have found some happy highlights as I have breezed on through A Christmas Carol.

Here are a few snippits from the text that stood out most to me as I read and highlighted.

(Scrooge reminiscing his youthful experience with Fezziwig his old master or boss)

“It isn’t that,” said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. “It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words andlooks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ’em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”  (Page 26)

La Restauracion: Prezi

La Restauracion del Evangelio de Jesucristo.



Here is a Spanish remix of one of the Prezi's created by the missionaries.  I still have a few last boxes to translate, but it has taken a couple of hours to get where I have thus far.  But so far it looks pretty good.

Feedback?

La restauracion de la verdad de Dios. on Prezi

Slide Update

After are run through in class we have gone through and made some updates of our slide show.  We have added   touched up a few slides and worked on strengthening the emphasis of how members get involved.  We are going to continue working on this and add a few more slides too solidify the point.  But what do you guys think so far? How does it look?  Any feedback?

Sharing The Gospel V2-2

View more presentations from James Wilcox.

Sharing the Gospel - V2.0

Our group has been hard at work at upgrading and putting together a strong presentation.  Today we spend about three hours with the entire group brainstorming and putting together a strong presentation.  After sifting through many diffrent ideas of how to present our good material we finally came down to a group decision of telling it in a story.  We are going to look at it all through the viewpoint of an investigator and how the new forms of communication through digital missionary work.  So far things are looking pretty good.  Here is our power point so far...

Sharing the gospel v2.0

View more presentations from James Wilcox.


As a side note SlideShare is a great powerpoint hosting site.  You can login using your facebook account and its easy to upload full presentations.  Oh yea, and of course the basic version is free.  Just another tool/toy to add to the digital toolbox.

DIGICIV REVOLUTION

Come join us this next Thursday, December 9th at 7pm!

It will be an amazing showcase of digital tools and their applications in our ever changing digitalizing world.

Blog Nomination

Now I know I might be bending the rules of nomination a little bit, but I would like to nominate Sean Watsons blog, http://seanrwatson.blogspot.com/.  Now I know we were asked to pick an individual blog, but the thing that stands out more than any of his post is the sleek new design of his blog.  The overall look of the front blog page makes its easy to scan over recent posts and find exactly what you are looking for.  I have enjoyed his posts, in the past, but I really do say that the blog front page has caught my eye this time arround.

LDS.org. Its offically up!

The new.lds.org no longer exists.  It has left the beta testing and has been put into full force.  Now the general membership of the church can delight in the new aesthetically pleasing and extremely useful LDS.org.

The new Membership Directory, Calendar, and Online Study Guide will be a great addition to all ward members, and the new leadership tools will prove to be an incredible aide for finding information out of MLS anywhere!  Its great!

Web 2.0 and Croudsourcing

One of the greatest changes to the world in which we live is the evolution to something being keyed Web 2.0.  Web 2.0 isn't a change in hardware, the framework of the internet isn't changing, but instead its us who is getting changed.  We are becoming interactive and interdependent.  We are finding new ways to connect and communicate our ideas and our lives.  The main change is user generated content.  The consumers are becoming the producers.  And in the shift from consumers to producers it is redefining the way in which we write and receive news and other forms of content.

One of the most exciting and  biggest changes in this framework of human development is the advent of Crowd-sourcing.  Crowd-Sourcing is using taking a project and sub dividing it into little accomplish-able parts and then handing it out to the masses to take part.  Its a pooling of the large and vast network of human resources that is being left to waste.  It is putting idle time and idle minds to a useful cause.

On the 21st of November for our group project on Digital Missionary work we kick started our project of crowd sourcing through a fireside.  We were able to bring members who were interested in getting them involved and show them some simple but sure ways to get started.  We also set up a feedback blogs that the members can return and report on their progress and experiences so that we can all learn and adapt as one.  I am excited to see the feedback and see where we go from here.

Digital Missionary Work

In preparation for tonights big Digital Missionary Work Fireside I have been working on loading up our site with more information and links to make it a useful tool for all who come to get connected involved in the work.  One thing I specifically added is a new list of links to things that the full time online missionaries have already been doing.  Here is a copy of some of those links.

 This is the forefront of the full time missionary online works.

Here you can find a list of online Prezi's designed by some of the first Digital-Missionaries.  They are more than excited to receive additional help by talented members of the church who think they have a better way of presenting the gospel through electronic means.

At this link you can also find recorded videos of the missionary lessons.

Click on a link and get involved!

Final Project - DigiMissionaries

For our final project we are hosting a great event this upcoming Sunday in the Little Theater of the Wilkinson Center at 7pm.  Everyone is invited to come, learn, and get involved!

However, in my personal preparation for the event I have been working with the Full time digital missionaries on creating, improving, and translating content.  You can see a lot of what they have already done here http://newmormonmedia.blogspot.com/p/prezis.html.  I am excited to get things rolling!

Flying into the Future

I have recently found some interesting fact about the development and growth of aviation over the years.  I was perusing over an interesting site on some of the most profound technological advancements of the last century when I stumbled upon a nice time line of the development of the modern airplane.


The timeline covered many of the commonly well known events such as the Wright Brothers, the Battle of Brittan, the developments of Boeing, and the Concord.  However, there were a handful of events that have played a crucial role on the development of the modern airplane of which I was previously unaware.  Here is a sample of a few of those great less know discoveries.

Harvard Classics

I have a quick question for the masses...

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

I have been contemplating the idea of purchasing the full 50 volume edition of the Harvard Classics.  It is likely the best collection of books ever compiled to fit on a five foot shelf.  I have always enjoyed the feeling of holding and marking up some of the greatest works of literature.  However, I have come upon a dilemma.  I can also access and read just about every book in the Harvard Classics for free online through Project Gutenberg and other legitimate sources.

Thus the questions is, should I get the old hardbound physical text or should I go for a more modern digital approach by way of getting a kindle, Nook, Ipad etc?  Opinions?  Comments?

Call her.... Erin

I have recently been rummaging around a blog entitled Call me... Erin. In her blog I have found a lot of good ideas and connections.  She has worked hard and made a lot of effort to clearly demonstrate her learning of Historical Content, Digital Concepts, and Learning Labs.

On Nuclear Weapons

National Peace Essay Competition : 

Nuclear Weapons   

Category: Writing and Poetry  

(Written by James Wilcox ~ December 2005) 

Throughout history, as long as there have been civilized people, there have always been others who oppose the self-evident, eternal truths of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Throughout the ages, man has always had conflicts.  From sticks and stones, to sword and shields, to guns and bunkers; through time there has always been opposition in all things.[1]

In the 21st Century, we, as a race, are indifferent from our ape-like predecessors.  Mankind continues to fight, but on a much grandeur scale, a nuclear scale.  There is no longer anywhere on the earth where nuclear weapons can not reach.  There arent any places left where there is even a state of relative safety.  Accordingly, there is a great need for proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.[2]

Learning Outcomes - A visual Approach

In order to give a feel for what I have learned up to this point in my DigiCiv class I have created a little Prezi Presenation....

DigiCiv - Learning Outcomes on Prezi

Governments Verses Economies

As I have been studying John Maynard Keynes I have found some really cool sources and a battle that has been on going in the background all around us; a battle between Governments and Market Economies.

First of all in my studies of John Maynard Keynes I found a good background of him here in the concise encyclopedia of economics.  It covers his core ideas of government spending and his clashing theories with the prevailing classical ideas of Adam Smith.  However it was interesting to note the following excerpt...

The Brains behind the CPU ~ Alan Turing

Alan Turing was in many ways the brains behind the brains of original computing.  Although throughout his life he was unable to see the full physical creation of his ideas, the mental creation he brought together became a foundation for future works.  Turing lived and developed his ideas between the World Wars and was instrumental in coding messages for the Allies and in helping them break Axis codes. 


I found a great little review of his life written for free here by Andrew Hodges. The article was also published in the British Dictionary of National Biography in 1995.

DigiTech Blogs

In our Digital Civilizations class we are constantly seeking to find and apply new online applications to enhance or digital literacy.  However, one of the concerns by one of our class members was how we are going to keep up with the ever increasing digital innovations.  And especially how are we going to continue tor reach out and find new tools after our class ends.  

Well here is my answer to that question.  Online Blogs about New Technology and Web2.0.  Here are a few of the blogs I have been looking at recently.

Sigmund Freud - Dream Theories

In my readings from the great Gutenberg Project press, I found a good summary of some of Freud's fundemental theories on dreams.  Each of the following quotes come from here.

"Five facts of first magnitude were made obvious to the world by his interpretation of dreams."

"First of all, Freud pointed out a constant connection between some part of every dream and some detail of the dreamer's life during the previous waking state. This positively establishes a relation between sleeping states and waking states and disposes of the widely prevalent view that dreams are purely nonsensical phenomena coming from nowhere and leading nowhere."

I find this statement so true.  On my mission I had one companion who would tell his dreams every morning.  As he continued to do it he was able to draw upon more and more details of what happened and was able to recall the dreams far longer.  And although they seemed to take all different types of themes and subjects, it always had some connection back to the previous week in some way.

"Secondly, Freud, after studying the dreamer's life and modes of thought, after noting down all his mannerisms and the apparently insignificant details of his conduct which reveal his secret thoughts, came to the conclusion that there was in every dream the attempted or successful gratification of some wish, conscious or unconscious."

I am not sure I fully agree with this statement.  How do nightmares fall under this statement?   I don't find it a reasonable conclusion to say that people wish to have nightmares nor do I find them gratifying in any form.  But often they do have some connection to our higher desires and, well, dreams.


"Thirdly, he proved that many of our dream visions are symbolical, which causes us to consider them as absurd and unintelligible; the universality of those symbols, however, makes them very transparent to the trained observer."

I feel this is pushing off into that whole arena of horoscope.  I am pretty sure the Chinese have spent centuries on this subject and have come off with few concrete conclusions.


"Fourthly, Freud showed that sexual desires play an enormous part in our unconscious, a part which puritanical hypocrisy has always tried to minimize, if not to ignore entirely."

I think there is a reason that the puritans have left it alone.  And I will follow their example and leave it quietly behind.


Finally, Freud established a direct connection between dreams and insanity, between the symbolic visions of our sleep and the symbolic actions of the mentally deranged."


I am pretty sure this is why people consider those who study crazy people to be half crazy themselves.  If you surround yourself with two much instability you will soon find yourself instable.

Modern Education and Global Competition

I was reading a post by Trevor Cox when I found an image that really caught my attention...

The image just shouts the global educational battle of our day.  In one of my classes a few weeks ago my professor showed us a video that talked about how many people where in China and India and how many people were being born in both of those countries each day.   It then went on to divide up the populations into different division and basically said that the population of the smartest 10 percentile of those two countries have a larger population than the entire USA.  So basically we are not just competing against India.  But we are competing against the top percentiles that out number us in the millions.  Great.  Such is life!

The NEW LDS.org

The new LDS.org is amazing!

As one who is pretty tech savvy and who has been involved in a lot of different aspects of church service, I have been using the online LDS.org Ward and Stake Website for just under 5 years now.  Over the years I have seen a lot of progression.  The online LDS ward websites have gone from simple unorganized unique sites to a set clear worldwide format, and now to a completely revamped site.

The Divinity in Natural Selection

In Chapter IV of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species he discuses the process of Natural Selection.
In the opening paragraphs he defines Natural Selection as the "preservation of favorable variations and the rejection of injurious variations" (Page 131).  He goes on to explain that this process is as natural and ongoing process.

Over the course of the chapter he brings up case after case of different personal observations and observations of others.  As a side thought, its so amazing to see the impact of mass communication in his day.  He frequently refers to other scientist who have studied plants and animals and he uses multiple examples across a whole variety of fields to support his thesis (everything from birds and bees to green peas.)

Anyhow back to the chapter. He brings up a lot of interesting points, such as Sexual Selection or the tendencies to greater reproduction and inter-crossing of individuals or plants.  However, the insight that stood out the most to me was that of human interference in this process of natural selection.

Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations

After reading through parts of The Wealth of Nations there was one section that particularly caught my interest.  In Chapter IV he begins to discuss the systems of Political Economy in a free market setting.  There were two main concepts that stood out to me.  The first was in consideration of wealth, and the second was taking a critical look at barriers to international trade.

Alexis de Tocquerville - American Gender Roles

In Alexis de Tocquerville's great work Democracy in America, he goes off to explain the societal structure in the Americas.  Part of the structure that he fragments and analyzes is that of the societal norms and standards between the sexes.

What personally peaks my interests so much about this work is that he underpins the foundational concept that is echoed today in the LDS faith as stated in The Family a Proclamation to the world.  His understanding of the American social structure is that women in their unique roles are raised to their unique form of superiority.  That in two divers and unique roles they are able to come together to support a family for the frontier.

As we look back at the foundational values that made up American society it is interesting to note the change that has taken place over the decades.  

Henry David Thoreau the Hacker

As I have just finished reading a clip of Walden by Henery David Thoreau I have found him to be what, according to Daniel Zappala, MIT would consider a hacker.  He is someone who doesn't like society so he goes off and creates or lives in his own little world.  He builds up his biases and arguments against society until he has in one form or another isolated himself, for better and worse, from humanity.

The downside of isolation and denial of established norms is that you are less able to build up the synergies of established norms and customs.  But on the positive side their is a lot of room for self innovation and novel ideas.  Unsettle and unestablished by conservative values, one may go off and tackles the challenges of the world.

Book Sampler List

New Scientific Method

Sir Francis Bacon: “Novum Organum” This book is the foundation of the Scientific Method.  We read a few clips out of this book for class, but it would be interesting to go in deeper and read more.

Charles Darwin: “The Origin of Species” Although this jumps ahead about 200 years past Bacon I feel like it pulls off a lot of the same thought process that Bacon started.  I have always learned about evolution in school, but have never had a chance to read about the roots of how it all came about.

John Locke: “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” This is another book that looks pretty interesting.  Locke breaks down the traditional ideas of the nature and builds up a framework of thought based off of more of the idea of nurture or experiences.

If I can, Should I?

"When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it. Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labour. I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself, or one of simpler organisation; but my imagination was too much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man. The materials at present within my command hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an undertaking; but I doubted not that I should ultimately succeed. I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect: yet, when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success. Nor could I consider the magnitude and complexity of my plan as any argument of its impracticability. It was with these feelings that I began the creation of a human being. As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hinderance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large. After having formed this determination, and having spent some months in successfully collecting and arranging my materials, I began." (From the text of Frankenstein)

The dilemma is ever present in the text of Frankenstein.  The internal battle rages of the questions between if I can, should I?  If we have the ability, does that in itself give us right to act?  This same ethical dilemma seems to continue on ever present in so many faucets of society today.  Genetic Research, Cloning, and Euthanasia all stand out as paramount ethical dilemmas that tend to take the forefront of discussion.  But yet there seems to be even more countless smaller and at first sight seemingly insignificant frontiers.  Questions on development of Surreal Societies, Artificial Intelligence in all forms, and creating remote weapons that continue to separate more and more the inflicter and the inflicted.

Who decides these and other ethical issues of our day?

If I can, should I?

Google Outage!

Google is down!

I am disconnected!

The behemoth has fallen...

and I am left without connection.

Just as discused by Gideon Burton we are all becoming more and more pulled in by the monstrous Google; and happily so!  But what happens when our jolly green giant of a friend trips and stumbles?  We have all become so interconnected that we have troubles figuring out how to do what has become so natural as walking.

When I first got online and my homepage Google wouldn't work, I jumped to the obvious conclusion that the internet must completely be down.  However, after playing around with my network connections and having it tell me multiply times that all was well with the connection I finally began to investigate the impossible.  My first reaction was to Google "Google Outage," but that obviously didn't work.  I wandered off to Bing and Yahoo and at last looked it up on twitter.  Ironically enough others had twittered about how they had tried to Google the same situation.  Google has really pulled us in.  We are inseparably dependent.

The Human as a commodity

The Industrial Revolution
Charles Dickens "Hard Times"

I was reading through Charles Dickens description of the Industrial Revolution in his work "Hard Times" when I came across an interesting but incomplete idea.

Dickens speaks of humans being and how in these huge factory situations become a commodity.  Interesting Idea, but has its holes.  Although there was a time where it seemed that machinery would lead all human involvement to be simpler and simpler in creating a robotic role, that only covers part of the story.  In truth computers have led to more and more specialized tasks and areas of work.  And as for all those tasks where humans were used doing menial tasks, they have completely been replaced by their robotic colleagues.

The Technology Clipboard: Part 2

The Digital Family - Five videos chats with phone conferencing.  This last month my family was able to reconnect from five different locations at the same time.  With five video chats and a telephone conferencing service we were able to connect from Utah to Texas to Indiana and on.  It was good to be able to see my little nieces and nephews, but it still wasn't anything like when we were all physically together a few months prior.


Reflections of Cicero - The problem with Philosophy, is when they find something so amazing, that they cant even live it.

Free Market: Economics of Ideas - In an eloquent dissent in U.S. Supreme Court case, Abrams v. United States (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. asserted, “the ultimate good . . . is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. . . .”

The Growing Technology Clipboard

Here is a list of things that have been sitting and growing on my clipboard of ideas and concepts that I have wanted to post full topics on but have been unable to find the hours required to a solid report on each of them.  I will have to leave them each with a few details and leave it for future expounding.

I. Social Capital - The influence of technology.  A few years ago I read an amazing book on Social Capital called "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam and wrote a full essay on the affects of technology to Social Captial.  He talks about how over time the balance of society has changed and social capital has been affected by changes in technology.  He discusses the phenomenon of how more people go to the bowling alleys but yet less join actual bowling teams or groups.  He takes this and then goes off and talks of a lot of other more political institutions and connections that have undergone change.



II. Apocalipsis - Marco Denevi.  For my Spanish composition class during the summer I read and critically analyzed an article called "Apocalipsis" or Apocalypse by Marco Denevi from Argentina.  He writes of how over time the machines we create will take over all the tasks.  We as humans will no longer have a need to do anything and will become lazy.  And then he goes on to describe how Artificial Intelligence will become so intelligent that it will no longer need us.  And in the end - just like I-Robot - we will be eliminated and technology will rein.


III. New York Times - Can't focus.  A few weeks ago I read a very interesting article in the New York times entitled Attached to Technology and Paying a price.  The article addressed the issues of the connection to the digital world and disconnection to the people who live around us.  Its addresses a family who through there new toys like Ipads and their limitless connection with wireless technology have unlimited connection to the net.  But at the same time they are losing a lot of the basic bonds and connections of having a family.  Its like the story of two roommates sitting back to back or side to side on two computers and sending messages over the computer instead of vocally speaking to the person sitting right next to them.

Economics of Life

Thinking about economics and the changing economic structures throughout time I have enjoyed reading a blog about taking about Economic Principles and applying them to everyday life.  The blog is called "The Sassy She-conomist.

 http://thesassyshe-conomist.blogspot.com/

For example in one of the posts the author talks about one of the principles of economics, scarcity of knowledge and its impact in our decision making.  The author writes about how guys who are engaged should ware rings, because it is an easy but clear way of transferring knowledge.  Because without that simple knowledge it leads to some bad or more so awkward decision making by outside parties... :)

I really enjoy these simple but true application of economic principles that hit a little closer to home that the shift of unimaginable and overwhelmingly large markets

(You make have to email the author for permission to enter the blog.)

3 4 5 and counting ~ Philosophical Transactions

In my recent browsing on the web I stumbled upon what I am pretty sure to be the longest running scientific journal in the west and possibly in the entire world.  I thought the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had a long running with 100 years of recording, but this journal triples them.  For the past 345 years the Royal Society has been producing the scientific journal entitled "Philosophical Transactions."

The Journal Philosophical Transactions continues its original pursuits of disseminating knowledge to the scientific community.  It covers a broad range of all the sciences and in the last century has been divided into two full publications covering all areas of scientific knowledge.

From there site you can get open access to many documents, but some still require an account or purchasing a copy of the original documents.

I would highly recommend this site as a place to look if you are studying the sciences and want to get a perspective from any of the last few centuries.

Does the sole lack of evil make it wholesome?

If something does not have anything bad, does that inherently make it good?

In my recent studies I found an article by a BYU Professor, Travis T Anderson, who hits on the core concept of this blog.  This draws back a week or so to our discussions on humanism, but I found it far to relevant to overlook.  In his essay he brings to light some of the core concepts of finding things which are truly wholesome and virtuous.

Latin America ~ September 2010

BRAZIL: Presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff is well on her way to become Brazil's first female president.  Backing her campaign she has the support of the outgoing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and has opened up a commanding 24-point lead in opinion polls ahead of the October 3 election.  What does this new President mean for Brazil?  Ms Roussef comes from the background of an economist and looks set to bring further economic growth in the coming decade for the B in BRIC.

(New York Times, “Lula's chosen successor opens up huge lead in Brazilian polls.” 15 Sep 2010.)

SANTIAGO, Chile: Chilean President Sebastián Piñera said a massive rescue effort is on track to bring 33 trapped miners out of the ground by the holidays and possibly sooner, and described the men's morale as good, while one rescue drill resumed work after almost a week out of action.

Mr. Piñera also said Chile's economy is on track to grow almost 6% this year adding that some wealthier countries enduring a less-favorable economic outlook were paying the price of having lived beyond their means. He also said that Chile will create 250,000 jobs this year with investment growing by 25%. 

(The Wall Street Journal. “Chile Miners Are on Track for Rescue, President Says” Matt Moffett. September 15, 2010.)

Staying Connected through Google Documents

This last week I had the chance to hear from Sean Watson as he tooled around with Google Documents for the first time.  He shared some great insights from his expedition into this new frontier of online collaboration of documents.  The basic concept behind it all is described in this video...



Afterwards I was able to share with him a few experiences that I have had over the years with google documents.  I was able to share how it has helped me connect both with my family and classmates.

24/7 Alibi

In the BYU MOA a few months ago there was a very interesting exhibit.  The exhibit was a large white screen that had projected upon it a map with marker over the location of an individual.  This person had found himself a few years ago caught with out a solid alibi and was falsely accused of a crime.  Over time he was able to prove his innocence, but only after much difficulty.  Desiring to never be without an alibi again in his life he set up his own personal 24/7 alibi.

The man let the whole world know where he was at at all times.  What he did was pretty simple.  He kept a GPS constantly with him that fed his locational information back to a internet serve.  The server would then constantly display his location at all times to the whole world on an online webpage.  That way at any time he would always have a personal alibi.  He gave up his personal privacy for constant legal protection.  Today, anyone can do the same, but between friends.  I was introduced to this tool this last week by Morgan Wills called Google Latitude.

Playing with Prezi

I had a little fun this last week playing around and learning how to use Prezi.  Over the years I have had fun creating a colage of pictures from some of the best moments of that year.  So I decided to take my old colages and step it up this year with a Prezi presentation.  Although I will likely revamp it at the end of the year, it was fun to play around with and to share with family and friends.

Here it is...

The Mormons are Renaissance Humanist

I had a naissance of understanding of the origins of humanism in the renassance.

I was reading Pico della Mirandola's writings in the "Manifesto of the Renaisance," when I came to find the true origins of humanism.  The early humanist view was that man is what he makes himself to be; but we all know that.  However the original thought was not that man is independent of God, but that God willing he has a heavenly potential.  Mirandola states: "Their concern was to define the human place in God's plan and the relation of the human to the divine; therefore, they centered all their thought on the "human" relation to the divine, and hence called themselves "humanists."

With this view on things, I dare say the LDS church is full of humanists.  For is that not what we too seek -- to understand and improve our relations with God?  Its an interesting way to look at things.  Within the original humanist thought comes foreshadowing statements echoed in Sunday School today.  "Let a holy ambition enter into our souls; let us not be content with mediocrity, but rather strive after the highest and expend all our strength in achieving it." (Mirandola)  Although the words are stated according to the eloquence of the instructor, the message remains the same.

Two new Toys

I decided to go out an explore some of the extensions for Google Chrome and I came across two more toys to add to the toolbox.  The first one is a screen capture add-on called "Webpage Screenshot" and the second is a stumbleupon extension.  They can both be found here.

The Webpage Screenshot is a very simple extension with two major features.

1. One it can create a screenshot of just what you see in a single webpage.  Or the second option is it will scroll through the entire page and make one large screen capture of the entire page.
2. The second function is very nice when you are trying to capture something larger than one page and don't want to have to doodle around with paint all day trying to re-aline the picture.   (However be careful.  If the webpage is really long it will take a minute or two for it to scroll down and capture the entire page!)

Next I was doodling around with stumbleupon.  I would not recommend this for anyone who is ADD and has troubles with wasting hours online doing nearly nothing.  For in its essence, it is designed to keep you occupied.  You select a category and it jumps to a website that it thinks you will enjoy.
(This touches on our conversations with Artificial Intelligence.  It could easily replace the local apartment surfer that goes around trying to waste everyones times.)
Anyhow, the biggest problem with this extension is that it works.  It found something that I enjoyed scanning through that really didn't add much to my life.  I used the Webpage Screenshot extension to document one of my findings...

It gave me a website with a lits of logos and hidden meanings within them.  If you care to let time slip away you can find the website here.

I feel like this only adds to the words of George Macaulay Trevelyan, “[Education] has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”
George Macaulay Trevelyan, English Social History: A Survey of Six Centuries, Chaucer to Queen Victoria (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1942), 582.

Paradigm Shifts

One of the greatest challenges that the progress and advancement of technology brings into the world is that of paradigm shifts.  Paradigms, the frameworks from which we view the world around us, cause us to see a very establish perspective.  We build up so much confidence in our understanding of how the world works that we even filter facts to help prove our understanding.  However, when our paradigms fall short of the full truth, we face the inevitable and rough correction or reconciliation with reality.  An example of such comes from the planetary models.

The world came nothing short of kicking and screaming to finally adapt and change from Aristotle’s view of the solar system to the more correct findings of Copernicus and Galileo.  They held off in defense of all that had been written and even ties to religion.  But over time the truth broke through and the world experienced a slow but sure paradigm shift to a new model.  This process however took lifetimes to fully pass through all the barriers of the social norm.  The advancement of communication however, causes a paradigm shift on paradigm shifts.

Today paradigms can be completely destroyed and modified in a matter of minutes.  A single press conference of cutting edge technology with new performance capabilities can be broadcasted around the world at the rate of a near live stream.  Past capabilities are left behind and the competition changes once more as in an instant the new standard is set.  Technology enables paradigms to shift at an increasingly rapid rate.

Utopia – an ideal society.

In the text “Utopia” Thomas More presents an idealistic society. It’s very interesting to note that one of the refining attributes of this Utopian society is an innate love of learning.

They slowly go about seeking out for knowledge like a sponge reaching out seeping ever so slowly from the world around. They take every little lesson from the past and seek out the inspiration that the very authors once had. And once they catch a vein of intelligence that becomes enlightening unto them, they don’t stop learning. They keep going. They keep seeking and searching for more. They take the forgotten intellectual advancements of the past and put them into practice. In a very specific manner, this perfect society uses technology to promote the spread of quality learning. “Their minds thus filled with a love of learning, they are very ingenious in the discovery of all those arts which are necessary to its promotion.” They take the technological advancement of a new form of press to publish and spread great works of literature to the masses.

A Utopian society uses technology to deliver those things of the most worth to the masses.  Technology can be used to support the spread of the knowledge of the greatest worth.

Inquiry

Can technology and refinement coexist?

We live in a modernized world.  The one constant is that of change and technological advancements.  Every day data is developed and sustained in new systems, changing the way we gather and understand the growing pool of knowledge all around us.  We interact through new mediums and live lives attached to the information highway.  In every waking instant we have multiple modes of connection to immediate entertainment or pleasure. 

But in the simplicity of the systems, are we losing the longer prolonged pleasures?  Does civilization short cut civility for the effortless enjoyment?  “Could our society produce a Newton or a Mozart?” (Douglas L. Callister)  Can a refined society survive the torrent of technology? 

Or on the contrary, does innovation spring from information?  Does the development of new virtual tools link us and reinvigorate connections that otherwise would be impossible?

What role does civilized society perform on the stage of a technological play?