Last week I attended an advisory board meeting for the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center’s Immigrant Stories project. This initiative enables both long-term and recent immigrants and refugees to create and share digital stories, which are short personal videos with images, text, music, and audio. After an initial pilot project conducted in the Twin Cities, the project has received funding to go nationwide. I’m looking forward to helping, as it is an extremely timely effort given recent anti-immigrant bias. Hopefully efforts such as the Immigrant Stories project and a full-page newspaper expression of the power of inclusion will help remind folks about our better angels.
culture
The Pacific Standard magazine’s website has a section called The Sociological Imagination, a “column exploring the bizarre side of the everyday encounters and behaviors that society rarely questions.” In the entry “Why Do We Watch the Same Movies Over and Over Again” the author explores the social science behind re-consumption. It definitely gave me someone new insights!
Pacific Standard magazine has posted a comparative analysis of America’s seven most electable fictional presidents. Interesting, but they forgot to include the fictional African American presidents I analyzed in a 2010 article, “30 Years of Black Presidents.” Of the seven presidents they analyzed, however, my vote is for 24‘s President Palmer!
Since the original Star Wars movie debuted in 1977 there have been over 1000 scholarly papers published about themes explored in the Star Wars movie franchise. Wow! I bet that many more will soon emerge, given the recent release of the seventh film in the series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I saw it on Sunday and loved it, even with sky high expectations. The original was the first movie I ever fell in love with, and the first movie I saw more than once. (I viewed it three times in the theaters in the summer of 1977). I will have to re-watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens soon, as Sunday’s viewing was on an IMAX screen; it was hard to track everything given that the screen is so large. I’m also going to resist fancy 3D showings. Old fashioned 2D is the best format for me!
First Lady Michelle Obama and comedian Jay Pharaoh have partnered on a music video about the importance of going to college:
Awesome!
Pacific Standard magazine published an informative graphic about internet service inequality on Native American lands.
The news these days is filled with stories about students organizing on campus to improve the climate for those who are not members of traditional privileged college populations. This week I came across two very interesting — but very different — reactions to student activism. Check out “Jamar Clark: I’m Not Sure What to Say” and “This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!” Which one resonates more closely with your views?
The new Pixar film The Good Dinosaur opens this week, and it will be preceded by the short film Sanjay’s Super Team. Pacific Standard magazine has an interesting article about the significance of Sanjay’s Super Team:
This seven-minute warm-up to the main attraction breaks lots of new ground for Pixar: It’s the first to feature a non-white lead, a director of Indian descent, and to touch on religion—Hinduism, specifically.
Sanjay’s Super Team depicts a young boy’s quest to bridge the generational and cultural gaps between his American and Indian heritage.
I want to see the last Hunger Games movie and latest Rocky franchise installment — Creed — but I should also add The Good Dinosaur to my list…
Wired magazine’s November 2015 issue has an interesting article about why most computer-generated voices are female. A sub-heading in the print version of the magazine notes, “When computers talk to us, their voices are almost always female. There’s actually science behind that — and potentially change ahead.” In the article the author says, “In the short term, female voices will likely remain more commonplace, because of both cultural bias and the role technology plays in our lives.” Later she adds, “As voice technology improves, though, designers say diversity will too. Thanks to big data, cloud computing, and the artificial intelligence those trends enable, companies will be able to tailor voices specifically to individuals, making sure you hear the ones that most resonate with you.” In short, culture and technological capabilities/constraints both play roles in the design of computer-generated voices. Why then, does the title of the online article scream “Siri and Cortana Sound Like Ladies Because of Sexism,” whereas the title of the article in the print magazine is the more ambiguous “Her, Again” [A reference to the movie Her]? Hhhmmm.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting new interactive feature: why campus traditions matter. I don’t remember any traditions quite like these at the two institutions I attended as a student, or at the two institutions of which I was an employee prior to coming to SJSU. Perhaps I’ll learn about some that exist here!
The Pacific Standard magazine’s website has a section called The Sociological Imagination, a “column exploring the bizarre side of the everyday encounters and behaviors that society rarely questions.” In the entry “Why Do We Watch the Same Movies Over and Over Again” the author explores the social science behind re-consumption. It definitely gave me someone new insights!
Pacific Standard magazine has posted a comparative analysis of America’s seven most electable fictional presidents. Interesting, but they forgot to include the fictional African American presidents I analyzed in a 2010 article, “30 Years of Black Presidents.” Of the seven presidents they analyzed, however, my vote is for 24‘s President Palmer!
Since the original Star Wars movie debuted in 1977 there have been over 1000 scholarly papers published about themes explored in the Star Wars movie franchise. Wow! I bet that many more will soon emerge, given the recent release of the seventh film in the series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I saw it on Sunday and loved it, even with sky high expectations. The original was the first movie I ever fell in love with, and the first movie I saw more than once. (I viewed it three times in the theaters in the summer of 1977). I will have to re-watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens soon, as Sunday’s viewing was on an IMAX screen; it was hard to track everything given that the screen is so large. I’m also going to resist fancy 3D showings. Old fashioned 2D is the best format for me!
First Lady Michelle Obama and comedian Jay Pharaoh have partnered on a music video about the importance of going to college:
Awesome!
Pacific Standard magazine published an informative graphic about internet service inequality on Native American lands.
The news these days is filled with stories about students organizing on campus to improve the climate for those who are not members of traditional privileged college populations. This week I came across two very interesting — but very different — reactions to student activism. Check out “Jamar Clark: I’m Not Sure What to Say” and “This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!” Which one resonates more closely with your views?
The new Pixar film The Good Dinosaur opens this week, and it will be preceded by the short film Sanjay’s Super Team. Pacific Standard magazine has an interesting article about the significance of Sanjay’s Super Team:
This seven-minute warm-up to the main attraction breaks lots of new ground for Pixar: It’s the first to feature a non-white lead, a director of Indian descent, and to touch on religion—Hinduism, specifically.
Sanjay’s Super Team depicts a young boy’s quest to bridge the generational and cultural gaps between his American and Indian heritage.
I want to see the last Hunger Games movie and latest Rocky franchise installment — Creed — but I should also add The Good Dinosaur to my list…
Wired magazine’s November 2015 issue has an interesting article about why most computer-generated voices are female. A sub-heading in the print version of the magazine notes, “When computers talk to us, their voices are almost always female. There’s actually science behind that — and potentially change ahead.” In the article the author says, “In the short term, female voices will likely remain more commonplace, because of both cultural bias and the role technology plays in our lives.” Later she adds, “As voice technology improves, though, designers say diversity will too. Thanks to big data, cloud computing, and the artificial intelligence those trends enable, companies will be able to tailor voices specifically to individuals, making sure you hear the ones that most resonate with you.” In short, culture and technological capabilities/constraints both play roles in the design of computer-generated voices. Why then, does the title of the online article scream “Siri and Cortana Sound Like Ladies Because of Sexism,” whereas the title of the article in the print magazine is the more ambiguous “Her, Again” [A reference to the movie Her]? Hhhmmm.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting new interactive feature: why campus traditions matter. I don’t remember any traditions quite like these at the two institutions I attended as a student, or at the two institutions of which I was an employee prior to coming to SJSU. Perhaps I’ll learn about some that exist here!