Tag: Group Projects

Group Project: What Would You Do?

Being not a small person since I was little and perhaps having the look of someone whose soccer training might be transferrable to headbutting in a pinch, I have not had the need to deal with a moment like this since the horror that was the junior high locker room:

Before I had a chance to take a sip of my coffee, someone — I won’t name them here because it might only serve to make a bad situation worse — came up behind me, said hello, and then asked me about something I’d posted here about them on my weblog. I attempted to explain my reasons for making the post, but before I could finish they responded by saying “so you think you’re pretty fucking smart” and then took a swing at the full cup of coffee in my hand, spilling it across the counter and over my newspaper and breakfast. Without another word they went out the front door and sped off in their car.

I think Peter did everything right in calling the cops and, in a small place like PEI, not directly calling the guy out – except perhaps he failed to inquire in reply as to whether the gent thought he was King Shit, as we used to say in the Maritime school playground of my youth.

But what would you have done? We think of many a pithy retort or ninja move we might make but we never do. I’d be more inclined to spend a lifetime eating away at shoulda-woulda-coulda. Would your jammy bun have been launched in the guys face? Would you have done a dapper Patrick MacNee as John Steed and hooked his ankle with your cane on his way out the door sending him into the display case? If you blog, have you had such a moment?

And would you name the jerk?

Group Project: What If Kaiser Meant More Than A Pickle’s Neighbour?

Marvel Comics had a comic series in the 1970’s called “What If…” or maybe it was “What If???” I actually have a box of comics within reach that likely has a copy but I am too lazy to reach out my arm to answer the punctuation question. Which goes to show I have my priorities and values right on track.

But all the ceremonies and discussion about Vimy Ridge got me thinking. And not thinking about what if the radioactive spider bit Aunt May instead of Peter Parker. People sometimes wonder what would have happened if the Soviets had, say, taken West Germany or if the Nazis had beaten back D-Day or even if Napoleon had taken Moscow. But what would have happened if the Germans had won WWI? What if the Americans never entered the war, Mexico aligned with Germany in secret, Belgium disappeared, France lost its top chunk but moved on, Britain kept its navy but never had the General Strikes, maybe the Whites won or never fell in Russia and Nazism never popped up as a reaction to the economic ruin that was imposed on Germany.

What kind of world would we have today? Would it be in any way recognizable? Is it the part of recent history that most changed the world?

Group Project: What Were We Like And What Are We Like Now?

…and what are we becoming? I know I go on but this new report on the state of privacy and surveillance technologies in the UK reminded me of this one about blogging, especially this passage:

…before the telegraph, for example, almost all ordinary people read entire newspapers and were generally very up to date on all issues of the day. It was not uncommon for politicians and other famous people of the day to come to town and speak literally for hours on end about complex issues facing people. Ordinary townspeople would know exactly what was being discussed and were not spoken down to or had the subject matter dumbed down for them. Postman relates one typical example where Lincoln was speaking somewhere for something like six hours, excused everyone to go home and eat supper, and then resumed speaking again an hour later. Then the telegraph made the spread of information much, much quicker. But because of all the dots and dashes, information became sound bites overnight. As a result, people’s tolerance for lengthier, meatier writing began to wane. And newspapers at the time who began getting their news from far away over the telegraph began writing shorter and shorter stories.

It’s the general proposition that I think interests me – as usual – how we as humans go about largely unaware of these sorts of quick shifts and are not very good at assessing whether they are good or bad, whether we are smarter or dumber because of them, freer or less free. The promise and the payout. We no longer think about things that were quite common ideas quite recently, like the information divide – which I think I think is as much due to the general ease of internet access as much as the awareness that most internet use is idle and recreational. No one considers access to a phone as a measure of full functional participation now either.

So, without getting into the goodness or the badness, how far could people go in immersing themselves into the unimportant and the abandonment of individual privacy while still being functional in a democracy? Are they even related? Do I need a coffee?

Friday The First Chat Of 2007

Like you, I measure out the days in Friday chats now. If I can just make it to Friday chat without emptying another jar of ginger marmalade, I say to my self, I will be OK.

  • The first group project is going well. I think this one is a high level starter discussion. Next I am going to post one about what to do with the Senate…maybe. Wait for it, though. Don’t take off on the topic in these comments. I think I will propose one every Monday leading up to the next election. The rules are basic. Very strict focus and no debate. If I need to spin out a debate, I can add that in another post later in the week once the ground work is established. I will create a category for group projects and introduce them with the prefix “GP:”.

  • The Randy Johnson experiment is over. The Red Sox’s chance for the pennant look better and better for 2007.
    • Hmmm…I wonder why their work may get interrupted?

    UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.

    One personal guideline I have for my universe: no dog-boys.

  • Syracuse lost to Pitt last night in basketball. Watched it on the best spent 25 bucks a month I have ever spent sports cable TV package. We seldom consider what a boon and blessing premium package cable TV is. Anyway, Syracuse was not looking like a team that would get past the first round of the NCAA’s, though there is some spark there. Pitt was dominant, a wall. Syracuse may get there but they need to get less chippy. Less jack-the-three with 50 seconds to go.
  • Another quarterback from the CFL makes good in the NFL. Good for Garcia. Beat the Giants.
  • I am not sure what to make of CBC’s upcoming Little Mosque on the Prairies. I am not sure I like my comedy to have twists or premises that ties it into a set of opportunities that may limit it…but then again I am quite certain I do not like my comedy provided to me by the CBC. Not since The King of Kenstington anyway – which was a ground breaking culturally inclusive kind of comedy if you think about it. That being said, one thing – one man – gives me great hope for its success: Carlo Rota. He is my favorite actor on TV ever since the Great Canadian Cooking Show. I want to be punched on the shoulder by him one day and hear him say with his belly laugh “you’re one hell of a guy, Al! Beer?”. If anything or anyone can make that happen please email me. These things are possible, you know.

That is it. The day beckons. Don’t forget to listen to David Sommerstein on The Beat Authority at 3 pm EST and then Mike Alzo at 8 pm with The Folk Show both on NCPR. And try to fit in Darcey’s Friday Night Blues and Beer which should be posted about 4 to 5 pm this afternoon. It is a full day.