Sunday, June 28, 2009

TED does it again

TED brings us Clay Shirky talking about the history of communication - and why we bloggers are part of the latest major change. It takes about 18 minutes, but well worth your time. This is really fascinating.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Foiled by the Converter Box


Last winter, we dutifully sent in for 2 coupons for converter boxes. We got the coupons in time to buy 2 boxes and installed one on our main tv in the basement family room. Everything seemed to work perfectly, and we were all ready for the first changeover date in February 09. Now that the analog signals were finally cut off on Friday, I went to the basement to see what our tv reception is like this morning between loads of laundry. Imagine my surprise to find out that the only stations that come in are channels 32 and above. The regular network channels and the PBS channel are all snow! Back to the drawing board...................

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Really Interesting Book

Outliers: The Story of Success is one of the most interesting books that I've read in a long time. Here are some of the questions Gladwell asks:
  • Why are people born in the first 3 months of the year generally more successful in life than the rest of us? ("Successful" meaning able to accomplish more in a field of endeavor.)
  • Why are men from southern states less able to tolerate aggressive behavior from others than northern men?
  • Why was it really dangerous to fly on any Asian airline flight until only a few years ago?
His curious answers to these questions kept me glued to the book. It's too late to change some of the decisions I made for my children when they were little, but I definitely would have done some things differently had I read this then.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Polio and Our Family

As if WWII wasn't making life terrible enough, Americans also had to live through many scary years of polio epidemics. One of my uncles, who was in the early years of high school at the time, caught the disease. He suffered some serious effects, but with surgery and rehabilitation, he was able to recover well enough to finish high school. He graduated from college, married and had children, and had a good career in sales. Sadly, in later years, he has experienced disability due to post-polio syndrome.

Knowing all this, I was really interested in finding The Polio Crusade from PBS, which aired a program on the topic last February. I didn't see it then, but you can watch it with a link on the site. By 1950, the Salk vaccine was discovered and I got it as a vaccination shot, unlike the current form of liquid dose. (I'm one of the remaining few who also sport a scar on my upper arm from a smallpox vaccination.) Anyway, just seeing the photos from the PBS promotion is a sobering experience.

Here's to my uncle, who remains cheerful and upbeat despite all. Polio didn't get those good humor muscles!