Macworld: Editors’ Notes: It’s all in the presentation:
Phil Jackson give the SoundTrack demo during the Final Cut Studio announcement last Sunday, and it was amazing.
Same idea here and here.
Now, this sounds really neat. Can’t we get the video of that? I mean, just for inspiration into presentation techniques. After all, it’s a lot of what we need to do as instructors, even in relatively small classes…
[Ugh! I lost a first version of this post because of Blogger maintenance… Now I know why people complain…]
The very first comment on my young blog is an extensive excerpt from Bob Skilnik's book on beer history. Thanks!
The relationship between beer and "ethnicity" is really a fascinating issue. Some say that the movement leading to the federal prohibition was related to anti-German sentiment. Others associate it more closely with the growth in the political influence of some woman groups. The events were probably a combination of both and other causes. Similarly, the MADD lobby group probably had a large part to play in rising the drinking age to 21.
All of these seem to relate to what Ruth C. Engs calls Clean Living Movements. Engs also has interesting articles available on health, alcohol, and social issues. For instance, binge drinking is a major problem on some US campuses and seems to be linked to a negative attitude toward alcohol.
One concept that I'd like to explore a bit more is that of "moral entrepreneurs" who seem to be at the center of those movements and are trying to get ahead politically. The first exposure I got to the concept was in Mezz Mezzrow's Really the Blues. In that book (on Jazz musicians in the US between the two World Wars), moral entrepreneurs are associated to the change in legal status for cannabis in 1937. A Wikipedia article on cannabis associates the criminalisation of the herb to both DuPont's interest in plastic and to anti-Mexican sentiment (with the word "marihuana" resonating with that sentiment). No idea how accurate this explanation really is (it's always safer to take things with a grain of salt) but the associate with xenophobia is illuminating.
Not that the US are the only place where sentiments against foreigners
are brought forth. In fact, many parts of the world deal with issues of
xenophobia, especially where the notion of a "nation-state" is still
believed to mean something. What's interesting about the situation in
the US is the fact that xenophobia seems to be so intimately linked
with political, legal, and social issues. In a "country of immigrants"
which recognizes itself as such, the situation is quite striking.
The Chicago Beer Riots
For more context on beer-related historical events…
A newspaper article full of fallacies, logical flaws, non sequiturs on the association of alcohol-related problems with "easy access" to alcohol.
Of course, coming from Quebec which has comparatively loose alcohol laws and even more widespread availability of alcohol (especially for university students) to a dry university where they have more alcohol-related problems, I'm quite ready to challenge this point.
Interestingly, they use the number of alcohol-related arrests as a major proof that they have more problems. What's the name of that specific logical flaw?
From the article:
Recent studies show that people in the upper Midwest drink more than in other parts of the country and that heavy binge drinking corresponds with less-strict state laws on alcohol.
I'd really like to see those "studies," especially since it seems quite unlikely that the MidWest in general has looser state laws on alcohol than every part of the Northeast. Also, the article keeps saying that those who overindulge come from out of state so their data would in fact support the notion that Iowa has more problems because other places have stricter laws. There's a significant difference.
One would hope that, one day, the US will wake up and see that restrictive attitudes toward alcohol compound the problem. It's even a problem for us in Quebec because "college" students from the US go across the border to drink excessively. Also, influence from the US, in some places, seems to make some Quebeckers see alcohol as a way to get drunk as opposed to a part of a normal healthy adult life. Hopefully, we'll keep the focus on responsible drinking and non-judgemental help for those who abuse alcohol for one reason or the other. As the Quebec liquor board says: «La modération a bien meilleur goût» ("responsible drinking tastes better").
ABC7Chicago.com: Hungry Hound: Extensive beer lists
[Updated Link]
Interesting historical event (alluding to the "ethnic" part of prohibitions). The point of beer diversity does come across, though it's not emphasized so much.
Dolinsky seems to be more of a food geek than a beer geek and there are several mistakes on the website (including their misspelling Maibock and Blanche de Chambly) but it's always good to get some recognition from the food crowd.
The New York Times > Business > Your Money > Wipe Egg Off Face. Try Again. Voilà:
‘Flows poison like ivy, oh they grimy/Already offers on my sixth album from labels trying to sign me.’
Fairly elaborate piece about the Seagram heir involved in the music industry. What’s interesting here for someone who tends to think of music as expression and creation through sound is to get a peep in other perspectives on music. Sure, the first step to achieve their perspective is to see music as a commodity, which seems rather awkward for a musician But there are more steps involved if one wants to get insight into “corporate culture” of The Biz. It’s not just money. It’s also this notion that “artists” (musicians, mostly singers, with record contracts) create hits or non-hits. Members of that culture seem to think that “hitness” is an intrinsic quality of an artist’s output. Of course, they’re acutely aware that the way people listen to music is influenced by their own processes. But the point is, the comments of analysts and “insiders” still point, when they talk about “the music,” toward music as production.
It’s good to keep in mind that the model is quite recent. Attali’s Noise (read the first edition of the French original Bruits only last year or the year before) describes many steps in the construction of this model…
ACM Ubiquity – Francis Hsu: “Plato as Software Designer”: “Can we duplicate what is within our skulls in a computer’s address space?”
Much of it is quite naïve but it might still be useful to introduce some computer/engineer types to the basics of philosophy of language, structural analysis, and semiotics.
The Onion | New Tech-Support Caste Arises In India
It’s all about social stratification…
Centrist Quotes: Centrism, Centrists, and The Vital Center in American Politics
Let’s hope centrism itself won’t become too dogmatic and that it will move US politics away from party lines. If only to make US political discourse less inward-looking.