Because I teach political science courses, as well as a course titled “Digital Society,” I subscribe to an email newsletter from Project Liberty. Some info on that:
Project Liberty is advancing the responsible development of the internet of tomorrow – designed and governed for the common good.
Anyway, this morning’s email is extremely interesting, a post titled, “The religious and moral impacts of AI.” Among other things, it provides a brief summary of AI-related issues that the world’s major religions are grappling with, as well as each religion’s current response to the complexities posed by this new technology.
For my Digital Society class, in particular, areas like these are essential to keep up on and consider when framing in-class discussions for my students, most of whom can’t really remember a world without iPhones, social media, and digital everything. When we break down our course name to think about “digital” and “society” as separate terms, it is extremely challenging to find anything in American society that doesn’t somehow carry a digital fingerprint.
Maybe I’ll try to put a little time into writing some posts related to this topic. I’ve been quite absent from my blog lately, and at least this subject matter is what’s on my mind anyway!
Although this song appeared on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 2003 album Poodle Hat, it was apparently not released as a single, nor was there ever an official music video made. “Weird Al” did perform this song at eBay Live! 2003, and a portion of the performance is seen at the beginning of a CNBC documentary, The eBay Effect: Inside a Worldwide Obsession, according to the song’s Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_(song)).
I guess what I love most about this song is how, like a time capsule, it captures so many details unique to the early 2000s era. The Backstreet Boys, obvs. The drama of “auctions” on eBay (“I am the type who is liable to snipe you / with two seconds left to go / whoa”). And all the ridiculous, otherwise impossible to find, treasures one might have encountered on the site in 2003 (“some Beanie Babies new with tag” and “a Kleenex used by Dr. Dre”).
I would never have discovered this song except that I just watched a cheesy “Weird Al” documentary last night. Now I can’t stop listening to it. Plus, the visuals used in what I assume must be a fan-made video are spot on, with killer editing that matches music and lyrics to each image “reveal” in a way that demonstrates some deft comedic timing.
Both song and video give me something new to smile over every time I hit “play.” Hope you will also enjoy!
(I just discovered that the embedded video apparently doesn’t show up in the WordPress Reader If you go to KatherineWikoff.com, it does show up on my blog online. Sorry about that if you’re using the Reader and getting the “video unavailable” message!)
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Well, I learned something new today while teaching my political science course.
I was walking students through my recommended process for getting started doing research on political issues, and at this point we were comparing basic Google search results with Wikipedia (don’t worry, we got far more specific and advanced, which might be a good blog post for another day?), and as I was skimming through Wikipedia articles turned up by my search for “political issues related to engineering Wikipedia,” which was the same phrase used for my Google search, minus the “Wikipedia” add-on, I saw an article titled “Technocracy.”
Well, “technocracy” is one of our course’s basic vocabulary words, so I thought I’d take a look at that article. By the way, I was projecting my own computer screen onto the big screen at the front of the room so everyone could watch what I was doing as I talked about it. Anyway, this is where it got interesting. I was skimming through the article, seeing lots of the usual stuff, blah blah blah. Pausing to make note of the article’s reference to Plato’s “Republic,”which our class had read an excerpt from (a selection from Book VII, the “Allegory of the Cave” and associated discussion of who should “rule” and how).
And then I stopped short. I was just astonished by what I was reading, and I told the students I had never known this until that very moment when I was seeing it with them. Read through the following excerpt from this Wikipedia article, and tell me if you are surprised, as well.
The former government of the Soviet Union has been referred to as a technocracy.[20] Soviet leaders like Leonid Brezhnev often had a technical background. In 1986, 89% of Politburo members were engineers.[20]
Leaders of the Chinese Communist Party used to be mostly professional engineers. According to surveys of municipal governments of cities with a population of 1 million or more in China, it has been found that over 80% of government personnel had a technical education.
(Wikipedia’s article on “Technocracy”)
As I told my students, very few members of the United States Congress have ever been engineers. Currently, in the 118th Congress, there are nine engineers in the House and one in the Senate. That is 10 engineers out of 535 members of Congress, House and Senate combined, which works out to less than 2% of our Congress! We could add in some scientists, but that wouldn’t bring the numbers up all that much. But then compare that with almost 90% of the Soviet Union’s version of Congress being made up of engineers! And the idea that leadership of the communist party in China used to be mostly engineers!
Leonid Brezhnev
Completely bemused and nonplussed, I couldn’t help laughing and told my students (mostly engineering majors, as I teach at Milwaukee School of Engineering!) that I’m not sure what this info might imply about authoritarianism and engineering. Are engineers somehow well suited to authoritarianism? Do authoritarian governments find themselves attracted to the ability of engineers to design and operate systems? I have no clue, but as I told my students, it might be an intriguing topic to look into more. And I suppose a related political issue to think about is what it means for America that the people making policy at the federal level apparently have little professional knowledge of engineering and technology.
Anyway, that’s my blog post for today. I was just very surprised, and because I’ve been teaching political science for decades and have been interested in politics much longer than that and never knew this, I figured you probably also didn’t know and it would be interesting for you to learn about, too!
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A photo snapped from my car window on an overcast afternoon while stopped for a red light at the intersection of Hwy 100 and West Burleigh (pronounced “BURR-lye” for any non-Milwaukeeans out there) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Well, this post was almost “wordless”! 🙂 )
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I love maps. Always have. I would far rather study a map than rely on a GPS voice telling me to turn right in 1.4 miles.
I took a year of geology in college and loved learning to read topographic maps. One of the coolest places in my university’s library was the area where giant maps were stored in bureaus with huge, flat drawers. My geology courses were honors sections, and my big project at the end of the year was writing an analysis of the Los Angeles area’s water supply. Quite a few maps were involved, with some interesting “side trips” along the way as I found other only marginally related but still very intriguing maps to distract me from my primary task.
Well, I just discovered a book that I want to read. It has been out for over 10 years, but it’s new to me, so . . .
I am doing my usual pre-purchase, due diligence reconnaissance (I rarely buy a book cold) and have been so delighted by what I’ve found thus far that I want to share it with you.
The book, titled Maphead, is about maps and is written by uber-“Jeopardy”-winner (turned “Jeopardy” host) Ken Jennings. As you might expect, the text is a beautiful combination of gee-whiz appreciation, interesting information, and elegant, gently humorous prose. I am really looking forward to reading it!
A couple of links, if you’re interested.
First, here is a link to a 41-minute episode of BookTV on C-SPAN2. It is a recorded author event at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, and it highlights everything you love about Ken Jennings. What a likable person he is! Did you know that he has degrees in both English and computer science? That explains so much. Link: https://www.c-span.org/video/?301869-1/maphead
Remember Rueben Kincaid, the Partridge Family’s manager? A while ago I read David Cassidy’s memoir (C’mon, Get Happy) and discovered that Dave Madden, the comedian and comic actor who played Rueben, was a really sweet, generous person. Among his good works was his extra-kind treatment of Danny Bonaduce (Danny Partridge), spending time with him outside of work hours to help him escape an abusive home environment.
Anyway, earlier today I was talking about a funny “Partridge Family” episode with one of my daughters and wondered if Madden was still alive. He’s not, but in the course of checking his Wikipedia article, I found this interesting bit of information. Karma?
A recommendation from Frank Sinatra! What a kind thing for that gentleman to do, and what a turnaround for someone like Madden, who had struggled unsuccessfully to “make it” for the two years prior. Now I guess I should read up on Danny Bonaduce to see if he’s kept the kindness chain going in some way. I hope so❤️
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Our dog is a “rescue,” and back when we first got her from the Humane Society (and she was extremely restless), we somehow realized that playing “Monk” episodes (the quirky, comedic detective series starring Tony Shalhoub) on our television would calm her down. Now whenever she needs to be left alone in our house, we switch on the TV to keep her company, and “Monk” still seems to work.
For whatever reason, our dog is restless this afternoon. Actually, she has calmed down in the last few minutes. At the moment she is dozing on our couch. But the reason she has calmed down is that I switched on the TV a little bit ago to play some Monk.
Here is the kicker and the reason I am writing this blog post. As the episode began, I noticed a familiar name flash across the screen. No way, I thought. I’ve seen all the “Monk” episodes multiple times, and that person absolutely did not appear in this particular episode.
But then I started thinking. Was it possible this actor might have played the environmentalist? A tiny, bit part that doesn’t last much beyond the opening credits?
And the answer is yes.
Believe it or not, especially if you recognize the “Monk” episode where the power goes out because a wanted terrorist who was once in league with the tree-hugging environmentalist) plants a bomb at the power plant to keep anyone from seeing him at a Willie Nelson concert on TV.
This guy . . .
. . . is THAT GUY!!!
(WHAT????? Mind blown.)
Judge Reinhold is an amazing actor, clearly! (Even aside from all due credit given to the hair, makeup, and wardrobe personnel!) I can usually spot actors pretty easily, even when they appear in very different roles, and I probably drive my family crazy by constantly pointing out “Oh my gosh, that’s the security guard from . . . the mom from . . . the teacher from (film/TV title)!”
But honestly, if I hadn’t noticed Reinhold’s name today at the beginning of this episode, I never would have known!
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When I went to put our dog to bed last night, maybe around 8:45 PM, I stopped short at the sight of the mother rabbit near the bunny nest in our backyard. Poor Coco. She was very confused about why she had to wait in the house. And in the end we had to take her out on the leash to the side yard because the baby bunnies were moving around in the yard within about six feet of the nest out back.
What you see in the video below is the mother rabbit about two feet away from the nest. Our garage light is set to turn on with any motion in the backyard, so that’s why the light is on at first, and that weird orangey color in the upper left is the reflection of my hand in the glass of our storm door.
In the very beginning of the video you can see one of the babies hopping up to the mother from the right. I missed the babies leaving the nest because I had to run and get my phone. But when I first opened the back door, not only did I see the mom, but I saw one of the babies hopping toward her. This setup surprised me. I thought when the mother came back to the nest at night, she would push aside the mat of dead grasses and lie down with her babies to nurse them, the way a dog or cat would. But no, she is standing there and the bunnies came to her. I imagine this is easier for her if she needs to run off quickly to draw a predator (like the family dog😂) away from her babies. The video ends pretty much when our garage light turns itself back off, because you can no longer see anything. And I’m sharing just because I’ve never seen anything like this before and thought someone might be interested😀
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School starts for me next week, with meetings this week and summer projects to wrap up. I’m staying home today, though.
Because the Republican presidential primary debate is happening at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee tonight and some sort of associated “fair” (and, like, maybe merch sales?) is happening all day in the outside plaza— on the hottest day of the year, unfortunately for them—lots of streets downtown between my house and the Milwaukee School of Engineering campus are closed.
Anyway, in checking my Gmail—which, remember when you could only get a Gmail account if you got an invitation from someone who already had one? I was invited by a student who was already working for Google and got to experience a brief moment of feeling like a very special tech-hip kind of gal😂—I saw that an online writer I follow has started a podcast. I have liked this guy for a couple of years. Both what he has to say about the writing process and his own ideas and essays on many interesting subjects are always interesting , inspiring, and thought provoking to me.
So I thought I’d share. Partly to support him and partly because I genuinely think that it is some thing that would be of value to others.
I think this link will get you to his article that describes the project and provides links that will lead you to the podcast. In case it doesn’t, his name is David Perell, and the title of his podcast is “How I Write.”
And actually, here is the latest “podcast” recording on YouTube, just to make it extra easy to check out.
You also might like to take a look at the kind of stuff he writes on Twitter (@david_perell). Aside: Twitter will never be “X” to me! That’s an affectation (PR stunt?) I hope Elon Musk will at some point abandon, just as Prince eventually left behind his weird, unpronounceable symbol.
On a completely unrelated note (no pun intended until I noticed how the word “note” matched up with the rest of the sentence, which you haven’t read yet but at which point I decided I did indeed intend it to be a pun after all😀), this song popped into my head this afternoon, and I couldn’t resist pulling up the video. It gave me a smile, so I thought I’d share it with you, as well❤️
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