Teaching to the Testosterone

anyone else see a problem with this?

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technology management lecture

tonight i attended a lecture by Alexander Manu, Chief Imaginator at InnoSpa International Partners.He specializes in the application of play behavior in strategic innovation methodologies and the creation of compelling user experiences. it was by far the best presentation of the lecture series this quarter. he made a few comparisons that seemed to be at odds with each other, but mainly he was simply an inspirational speaker who obviously had done his homework when it comes to human - technology interaction. because of the ucsb alert the presentation was cut short and we were unable to ask questions. one question i would have asked dealt with the importance of tracking the iterations of certain technologies throughout time and the noted societal impacts. i may just email him. 

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flock rocks

wow. if you haven't already, you need to download flock and simply start using it.

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banff film festival

last night i attended the first of a two night screening of the banff film festival world tour. the most amazing film we saw last night was about the sport of speedflying. this was something i had not heard of before, but basically these people wear skis and a small chute (a smaller version of what you would use to hang glide) and slide right off a cliff and then fly barely above the ground make extremely sharp and tight turns. that one seemed more ridiculous than the base jumpers. here's the trailer--wait for the guy who is ice climbing and the entire piece of ice breaks.

i love this

electron in motion

scientists and lund university have filmed, for the first time, an electron in motion. it is done using a extremely short flashes of light. read more?

here is the short video. talk about close observation.

WRAB wrap up

what a weekend. this conference was full of great presentations. i have never been part of so many sessions where the room was full of excitement and the conversation continued to build. i guess that comes from the diverse backgrounds of so many of the attendees. i believe it also grew out of a shared excitement to have a specific space that welcomed all types of empirically based research projects on writing.

i believe most people were happy with the conference. we had a few drawbacks with some technical issues and the weather wasn't the usual great santa barbara weather, but people persevered and, it seemed to me, were understanding. there is a need for a conference with this agenda, and i hope it continues at UCSB.

on a personal note, i had a blast. i met some great people that i had been wanting to meet for some time now, plus a few unexpected and positive interactions. during the session i presented, chad wickman (grad student at kent state) provided a very interesting account of his research dealing with liquid crystal physics. it seems he's really on to something there with the textual displays of specific and expert knowledge/information of these physicists. the other presenter during my session was kenny fountain (grad student u of minnesota). this was also an intriguing presentation that dealt with visual inscriptions of interactions of with real and textbook displayed cadavers.

-->if this is what writing studies has to look forward to in the next 5,10,15 and 20 years then i'm pumped. this research was exciting and really just the tip of what is out there for individuals interested in this line of work.

i'm not going to dive in to all the sessions that i attended, but, with only the exception of one presentation, all were intriguing.

i also got to relax and chat with rebecca rickly of ttu. becky was one of my first professors when i started a master's degree at ttu back in 2000. she's always fun to be around and provides great advice. clay spinuzzi was also here and we got to spend a lunch hour and chat about research. he also gave a presentation on his new book coming out soon called "net work." i remember transcribing some of his notes for this project back in 2000--first RAship I ever had. i'm sure it will be a great read.

to sum it all up and to throw some sentimental comments around (which is not my style at all) this conference gave me a bolt of much needed motivation. i hope it did the same for others.