Changing Your Facebook Status Will Change The World (In Case You Can't Tell, I Am Being Sarcastic....)

Red, Black, White, Plaid. 

Remember that from a few years back?  Or was it just yesterday, the damned internet somehow distorts time or something….  Anyway, you remember though right?   It turned out to be some  sort of ‘meme’ (fuck I hate the misuse of a term invented by Richard Dawkins, but I digress) that was supposed to ‘raise awareness’ of breast cancer.  Raise awareness.  I can think of at least two friends off of the top of my head who have had breast cancer.  One of them is dealing with it right now.  I imagine most of us know about the existence of breast cancer.  But no, we need to ‘raise awareness’.  No, I am sorry, we do not.  This sort of bullshit slacktivism makes me want to set fire to every little ribbon worn for every cause ever. (On a side note, the first time I saw this run of colours on a status I thought it was a reference to Babylon 5, man I am a geek....)

Oh but Dave it does no harm.  Bullshit.  This sort of crap makes people think they are doing something when they are doing fuck all.  So, they then, I would argue, think they have contributed somehow.  So, instead of actually contributing to charities, or volunteering their time, they just change their facebook status.

Now, there are legitimate cases where ‘raising awareness’ is actually sensible.  Like putting up a poster for something with actual information.   If you know me you know I wear a cause bracelet.  It is for the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada.  I lost my Dad to brain cancer a few years ago.  I give money to the brain tumor foundation.  When people ask me what the bracelet is for I tell them about brain cancer, about my Dad, and about how to donate.  It is also a way for me to honour the memory of my father.

Don’t even get me started on ‘for every share of this picture, facebook will donate a dollar to cause x y or z’.  Are you people morons?  Do the math.  (I never said there would be no math).  There are 800 000 000 people on facebook.  Let’s say something actually was shared by 1 percent of fb users.  That would put whoever is supposedly donating, on the hook for 8 million dollars.   Snopes is your friend, use it.

Get out there, give money or time to charities.  The aforementioned Brain Tumor Foundation, the Red Cross and Amnesty International are my three favourites, and they get money from me every year.  But don’t change your facebook status and think you have made a difference.  All you have done is clutter up everyone’s timeline.

Muhammad Ali Did Not Put Quran Verses On His Boxing Trunks

Well, I have not ranted in quite a while, (don’t worry, I am still pretty pissed off…) but nothing has really struck me that much.  Not until a radical right wing nut (you might check out his work with Focus on the Family...) became the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

As those that know me know, I am an atheist.  I am comfortable in that, and that has little or nothing to do with my ideas about Mr. Tebow.  What I don’t like is him shoving his religion at me.  Praying before games, fine.  Hell, pray during games (assuming your deity has money on the game, perhaps it will help…)  What I don’t like is the necessity to look at everything from the perspective of religion.  Yes, I know, if one is religious it is a pervasive thing.  Fine.  I DO NOT WANT YOU TO PREACH TO ME.  Don’t put bible verse references on your eyeblack.  Don’t mention god in every interview you do.  You are a damned football player.  Perhaps someday you will be as good a quarterback as say Anthony Calvillo.  AC is a religious guy.  I have heard him thank god a couple of times, notably after the Alouettes won a Grey Cup and he was about to get treated for a potentially life threatening thyroid condition.  However, when after a game AC is asked about the game he talks about, wait for it, THE GAME. 

Bono is a religious guy.  I have seen U2 maybe 6 times.  I have not once heard him mention his religion.  Now there are religious themed songs on the October album for sure.  (Great songs BTW).  But, when he is on Letterman, he does not mention god.

Remember this, Muhammad Ali never put Quran verses on his boxing trunks.  He is a Muslim (the name should have been a dead giveaway…) but what did he do?  Oh yeah he was just the greatest boxer of all time and perhaps the greatest sports personality of the 20^th century.  We all know what Ali talked about when he was asked about boxing.

I will leave you with this.  I wonder how the world would react if a not ready for prime time athlete was an atheist, or a Muslim and went around talking about that, instead of his sport

Algoma University Interdisciplinary Colloquium Series: Michelle Atkin "Examining the Limits of Free Expression through Canadian Case Law: Reflections on the Canadian Library Association’s Code of Ethics and its supporting Statement on Intellectual Freedom"

Every month or so one of my university colleagues presents a talk to the public.  These are pretty casual affairs, with a bar, indeed people get up and get drinks during the talks.  OK, maybe that is just me, but there is a cash bar, really!  I contacted Ken Hernden, who runs the series (along with Warren Johnston) and asked if we should not start recording and posting these.  Ken, of course thought this was a great idea. So, here is the first in what will become an intermittent series.  By the way, you Tangential Convergence listeniners will recognize Ken and Robin introducing their librarian colleague.  Oh yeah, and everything below this was stolen used with permission from an email Ken sent about the talk...  (Oh yeah, and the music is called "Beer Rights" by Battery Life).

Abstract

Various library associations around the world have developed codes of ethics to help guide librarians in their conduct as information professionals.  The structures of these codes and their enforceability have been the subject of much debate, particularly in the Canadian context.  This paper will examine the Canadian Library Association’s Code of Ethics and its Statement on Intellectual Freedom as applied to the practice of librarianship and its efforts to protect and promote intellectual freedom in Canada.  It will begin with a discussion of the ‘right’ to intellectual freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  It will then look at the legal limitations to that right as demonstrated by Canadian case law.  Specific attention will be paid to challenges to the legal limits of intellectual freedom in the areas of pornography, obscenity, defamation, hate speech and the application of public morals on book selection for schools.  Taking recent case law into account, the paper will then reflect back on the CLA’s Code of Ethics and its Statement on Intellectual Freedom. It will discuss the legal limits of intellectual freedom and the potential impact that those limits have upon professional codes of ethics and statements of values.  Finally the paper will provide suggestions for potential amendments to these important CLA documents so as to better reflect the constitutional guarantees afforded by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

About the Author

Michelle Louise Atkin received her BA in Political Science from Carleton University in 1999, MLIS from McGill University in 2003, and her PhD in Information Studies from McGill in 2011.  Dr. Atkin's research work concerns information ethics, law and policy.  Her first book, Balancing Liberty & Security:  An Ethical Study of U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (2001-2009), is due out in early 2012.  Dr. Atkin is currently working on a second book on intellectual freedom and will be presenting her paper, "Examining the Limits of Free Expression through Canadian Case Law:  Reflections on the Canadian Library Association’s Code of Ethics and its supporting Statement on Intellectual Freedom" at the national conference of the Association for Information Science Education in Dallas Jan. 19, 2012.

Dr. Atkin is an award winning librarian and teacher, having received a Professional Achievement Award from Carleton University in 2007 and a Capital Educator's Award from the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation in recognition of her accomplishments as a Law Professor in 2009 for her undergraduate "Legal Research Methods" and "Law and the Information Society" courses.  Dr. Atkin was the Law Reference Librarian at the Carleton University Library for 8 years (2003-2011) before joining Algoma University as an Associate Librarian and part-time professor (Department of Law & Politics). 

You can directly download the talk here if you would like.

Neuropharmacology and Statistics course materials now available here

You can see at the top of the page that the materials for PSYC/BIOL 3506 (Neuropharmacology) and PSYC 3256 (Design and Analysis 1) are available.  This includes the notes and of course the outlines.  Enjoy....  (If you are not in my classes this will be of little interest to you....)

Graduate School and How to Increase Your Chances of Getting In

My old friend, Dave Mumby of Concordia University, visited Algoma a couple of weeks back and gave a talk about getting in to grad school.  Dave is well suited for this, as he has written a book about the subject, which is entering its second edition.  You may recognize Dave from such blog posts as this one about peer review here on my blog.   

I have recomended Dave's book, Graduate School, Winning Strategies For Getting In to a number of students over the years becuase it is simply the best resource out there dealing with the application (and hopefully acceptance) process.

Music “First Semester Freedom Fighter” by Hell or Highwater

Listen Now

 (The audio was originally posted at my psych class podcast blog).