Images and Words

New Year 2007

At the end of one year of severe conflict and the beginning of a new year of hope, there are many organizations working for peace – one person at a time.  There are food pantries, rehabilitation organizations, family support and counseling, or education initiatives. President and Mrs. Carter have worked to develop The Carter Center, which “builds sustainable programs in countries to help people make positive changes in their own communities to prevent suffering”. This is only one suggestion for support among many possible ones for the New Year.  The Carter Center

The Christmas Spirit

"Christmas In The City is a non-profit, 100% volunteer organization founded by Jake and Sparky Kennedy in 1989. Our mission is to support and mentor Boston's homeless families. What initially began as an effort to make the holidays memorable for children staying in Boston-area shelters has since expanded to include year-round programs, including work to help families make a successful transition from homelessness to independent living. Please explore our site to find out more about how you can help support Boston's homeless families." Christmas In The City site

Holiday Parties

The gathering ...

City Snow

The wind chill is in single digits, snow blackens on streets and curbs, and ice on sidewalks threaten the unwary.  Winter in the city sometimes challenges esthetics like a bad painting.  The religion-neutral song Jingle Bells is very distant from our city reality; I’m not surprised one never hears it anymore.

Dashing through the snow

In a one horse open sleigh

O'er the fields we go

Laughing all the way

Bells on bob tails ring

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to laugh and sing

A sleighing song tonight

Monitoring Your Desktop Images

     Michael Crawford wrote on November 27, 2006 for Computerworld online about new software that “records screenshots and activity for up to 250 client desktops and monitors inappropriate employee activities.”

      Andrew Khorkin, CEO of Oelansoft that sells the software states, "Recent statistics show that over 60% of online shopping is done during business work hours. Moreover, pornography traffic and online gambling has skyrocketed to over 70%..."

      Crawford ends the article with the comment, “Remote control function for system administrators allows complete control of the employee PC remotely.”   

       That’s a lot of power and judgment with sensitive information given to a “sys admin” when someone might only be doing some shopping while eating a sandwich at their desk.  And whatever happened to the coffee break?

Brain-imaging

Technology that reads minds in real time is here. Richard Resak has written The Naked Brain explaining how mapping the workings of the brain can work for us.   It seems helpful for brain disease and sometimes identifying personality problems.  However, it is expensive and probably not worth scanning a brain for job preferences and abilities. The old-fashioned way of college majors and job performance seem to work most of the time.  The debate would be heated to decide what brain waves constitute good leadership or executive abilities when corporations argue over budgets and good marketing plans.  Machines can already tell us if someone is lying, what kind of person someone likes better, and what causes fear.  If a part of the brain predominates, can that change if we work at it? For instance, someone who is sedentary can decide to train hard and run a marathon and maybe not win, but at least finish.  There are no brain scans for will and determination.  No scans for morality.  If the choices have never occurred before, if experiences are new to everyone, how much does it matter if they use the impulsive or the slow and thoughtful parts of the brain?  Perhaps we need both to work together rather than a machine. 

Cartoons

      Thanks go to cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco on stage together, as well as Gary Trudeau at a later time, speaking at the Chicago Humanities Festival last weekend. Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco talked about the representative arts as reality versus cartoon metaphors as an example of thought.  Joe Sacco said cartoons can get at what life “feels like” versus what life “looks like”.  Gary Trudeau talked about his experience embedding with the troops in Iraq and his recent interviews with veterans home from Iraq. He said his work tries not to take a political position but to represent the feelings of war. 

      Satirical images with a thoughtful purpose – poignant, searing, funny, not so funny, and often controversial.

Two Groups Negotiating a Position

Elections Create New Walkways

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Waiting

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