Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin: "Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss. You will find you're weak where you thought yourself strong. You'll work for possessions and then find they possess you. You will find yourself - as I know you already have - in dark places, alone, and afraid."

Fabulous commencement address by Ursula Leguin at Mills College

News

News

Why do I have to go to Britain to get real news. Incredible article about the new fraud-o-matic voting machines in the U.S. Democracy is now officially dead.

OJR article: NY Times Reporter Has Seen It All Before, and He's Still Pessimistic

OJR article: NY Times Reporter Has Seen It All Before, and He's Still Pessimistic

Quote: it sometimes seems we have a world full of bloggers and that blogging is the future of journalism, or at least that's what the bloggers argue, and to my mind, it's not clear yet whether blogging is anything more than CB radio.

And if that doesn't rile you, how about this?

Quote: When I tell that to people … they get very angry with me. ... I also like to tell them, when they (ask) when I'm going to start a blog, and then, 'Oh, I already have a blog, it's www.nytimes.com, don't you read it?'

USM Center for Writers - The 39 Steps:Â On Story Writing

USM Center for Writers - The 39 Steps: On Story Writing

Of if you don't like Elmore Leonard, try Donald Barthelme's 39 steps.

Bucks County Writers Workshop

Bucks County Writers Workshop

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules. I love rule number ten: try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

universal education -- YES! A Journal of Positive Futures

universal education -- YES! A Journal of Positive Futures

Powerful guidelines for education here taken from private schools, the Amish, and Gatto's own life.

Test of bloggar

Calligraphic Button Catalogue

Very clever/funny/apt sayings on buttons. I likes this one: The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude. Fits our political climate of lying denial, don't you think?

Calligraphic Button Catalogue

Fascinating implications for teaching here. Is this an example of extreme teaching, teaching them how to learn instead of what to learn. Remember: the bibliography may be more valuable than the book. And that's not a bad thing.

How to Save the World

A test of bloggar as a posting tool.

A wonderful commencement address. I think we are seeing the evolution of a stodgy form into something quite worth listening to. Kushner is so funny, too. My favorite quote (among many):

"If you meant to invite me, and let's proceed from that assumption, then you wanted a playwright and I have to say what a strange choice, what with Gabriel blowing his trumpet and the Book of Revelations unfolding seal by seal and all; it's as if you'd been warned of years of calamity and famine ahead and in response you anxiously stuffed an after dinner mint in your pocket. "

Vassar College: Commencement Speech

. . . Bring Back the Skeptical Press (washingtonpost.com)

Testing my return to Blogger. Kevin Kelly's new page Recommendo reminds me why I loved the Whole Earth Review and its daddy the Whole Earth Catalog

been almost a year since I posted here.