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

2012-02-11T15:10:59Z

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

2012-01-17T21:34:22Z

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"

2012-01-16T13:15:32Z

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

2012-01-02T18:17:05Z

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

2011-12-03T13:15:39Z

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).

Broca's Area Episode 115 - Crocheting While Playing Bingo in TIbet

2011-12-01T22:46:44Z

A few years ago, 2005 to be exact, Isabelle and I had a podcast called Broca's Area. We went through a couple of format changes etc but we had fun. We packed it in back in 2009. We resurrected the show for the first Canadian National Day of Podcasting (Dec 1, 2010). Well, it is December 1, 2011, so we are back. Now, I would love to get back into doing this show, but that is another matter.

We talked about the economy, war and peace, and the idea that Isabelle will either end up becoming an old woman who plays bingo or a wonk in Tibet....

We hope you enjoy the episode (which you can download directly here). Leave a comment!

Spit and Twitches: The Animal Cognition Podcast - Episode 2, The Hippocampus and Recognition Memory with Dave Mumby

2011-11-21T17:20:30Z

I have known Dave Mumby for about 22 years now. We first met at some conference or another when we were both graduate students. We are now, however, much older.... Over the years we have kept an eye on each others' research and have even threatened to work together some day. Dave's work has focussed on a number of areas, but he has arguably received the most attention for his work on the role od the hippocampus and other limbic regions in recognition memory. We of course talked research, and we also had the questions that he did not expect, including the obligitory Ron Wiesman athletic question.... Thanks a lot for sitting down with me Dave.

Download episode 2.

Cogito, Ergo, Sum, Multitasking?

2011-11-05T13:59:50Z

I appeared yesterday on the great TWiT.tv video podcast Futures in Biotech. Rather than rant on about it, I thought I would post the video here. I was cohosting with regular host, Marc Pelletier. We interviewed neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley. We talked about Adam's work on the neural basis of distraction and how to train people not to be distracted using video games, it was great stuff.

(I wanted to call the episode 'Cogito, Ergo, Pwn' alas, I had no support...)

Why Did Steve Jobs' Death Affect Me?

2011-10-08T15:57:25Z

When Steve Jobs died the other day it affected me in an odd way. I felt sort of empty. I felt like something was suddenly missing. I have not felt this way about someone I have not met for a long time. I remember when john Candy died, and Pierre Trudeau, and Rocket Richard. I did not know any of them either of course (though I did shake Trudeau's hand when I was 12 while on a class trip to Ottawa, alas that is another story).

To be sure, this was nothing like losing my Dad to cancer, or my friend Duncan to the same disease. Those two guys influenced me probably more than any two men in my life. (When I don't know how to solve a problem at work I think 'WWDD' meaning What Would Dad/Duncan Do? Oddly, the solutions are almost always the same...)

No this was different. Why did I care so much about a billionaire? I mean, I understand Trudeau, hell, when I was a kid, until I was 19, he was the Prime Minister, ok except for that brief Joe Clark thing.... So, he affected me every day, I lived in Trudeau's Canada. The Rocket, well, I am a Habs fan, and we are big into tradition and history we Habs fans, so, I guess that made sense. I had heard the stories, I had seen grainy film etc. But Jobs, I mean why? He was, by some accounts, a ruthless and arrogant businessman. Then again, Trudeau was a ruthless politician, and often seen as arrogant. The Rocket was ruthless on the ice, and also often seen as arrogant. I remember when Gretzky came in the league, and the Rocket was asked how he would do in the 50s. His reply was something along the lines of 'He would win the scoring title, if he was on my line'. Jonathan Mak's excellent tribute logo.

Was this arrogance though? Trudeau had an IQ of 180. The Rocket was, up until the arrival of Lemieux and Grezky, the greatest goal scorer ever. They KNEW they were great. Did everything they did in their work turn out? No. The National Energy plan was a disaster politically for Trudeau. Maurice Richard was not the easiest teammate to have.

Jobs was a visionary. He guessed what we would like, before we knew we would like it. He saved Apple when he returned. He did this by doing stuff other people had done before (mp3 players, phones etc) better than they had. He was bold enough to use UNIX as basis of OS X. He, by all accounts, did not use focus groups. He somehow just knew. Oh he had his fuckups. The iPod HiFi, the Cube, Mobile Me (oddly, I sort of like Mobile Me...)

However, he did not let his screwups get in the way. He moved on. He came across, to me, as a genius, but as a flawed one. Not some fatal flaw, just flawed like all of us. As an academic I have known/know many people with the sort of drive, vision and flaws that Jobs had. Maybe that is why he resonated with me. He also made geek cool.

Strangely, I hated Macs until OS X. I had no interest in them, when I used them they bothered me, it all seemed clunky. OS X changed that. I did not have an mp3 player until the iPod came out. The first smartphone I bought was an iPhone 3Gs. His sense of what worked usually worked for me. Plus, it is way easy to zoom in on a Mac, and that helps me a lot what with the blind thing and all.

As he said in his famous Stanford address: 'stay hungry, stay foolish'. Maybe that is where Candy fits in....

What the hell does 2+ mean?

2011-09-28T19:51:53Z

Our 10 year old son Jon has autism. He is quite high functioning, in a regular class with normal kids (yes I said 'normal', I am using that in a statistical sense, if you don't like it, get your own blog) and mostly does the same course work they do. Indeed, his grades put him somewhere in the middle of the pack on average. He rocks spelling, and French, he loves reading, and like a lot of kids his age, he is not much on math.... There are other classes of course, including gym and art. Now I get the utility of art and gym. They are important. Physical acticivty and creative stuff are good things, and a well rounded person does these things as well as academic pursuits.

I may be wrong (as unlikely as that seems....) but I think that part of the point of art is to express emotion. Now if you know anything about autism you know that emotions are hard for people like Jon. They have trouble reading them in other people, and expressing them. Jon wants to understand emotion in others, he often asks 'what feeling do you have?' when he does not know (which, by the way, is VERY cool).

Well, the kids had an art assignment, and it seems it was to make posters for being good people. You know, that sort of touchy feely fuzzy stuff they do to encourage good behaviour. Jon did a poster of two people holding hands and wrote over top of it 'Be a friend'. When I saw it it brought tears to my eyes. He was expressing emotion with a drawing, not just drawing plane crashes or writing up reports on plane crashes (Jon like plane crashes.....). My poor quality photo of Jon's drawing. Drawing (c) Jon Brodbeck, 2011

So I was very proud of this work. Hell I still am. I then turned it over and saw a grade on it. He got a '2+'. I asked Jon what the heck that meant and he explained that things are graded out of 4. (He got a 4+ on a spelling test yesterday, and that was perfect, so you get the idea). So, apparently, according to Jon's art teacher, his work is barely a pass. OK, look I know the kid is no Ken Danby (thought I would throw a Sault Ste. Marie reference in there) but it frankly is no worse than what I would have done at that age. (Honestly). Plus, it seems to me that he worked within the parameters of the assignment, he successfully is promoting being a good person. Finally, HE IS A PERSON WIHT AUTISM WHO JUST EXPRESSED EMOTION THROUGH ART. (I was shouting there, if you are wondering, oh and I left the word 'FUCKING' out...)

I know this is not a big deal for him, I asked, he couldn't care less. But, this is to me. I wonder, what was the objective criterion used to grade his work (or the other kids in his class?) So this is just barely a pass is it? For a kid that has trouble expressing and even UNDERSTANDING emotion. Seems to me this is a 4 at least.

Now please, I am not saying that in say spelling or math or French or whatever that he should be given some special consideration if he is in the regular program. He should be graded like everyone else (and he is). But, in this case, let's be impressed shall we? He did something that was harder for him than it would be for anyone else in the damned school.

We have expressed our concerns and I am confident all will be well. I can also tell you that I am now using this picture as my desktop and we are framing this picture, 2+ be damned.