Pamuk awarded Nobel literature prize

Greetings,

Orhan Pamuk from Turkey was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The PEN site is linked below.

Two of his books, "Snow," and "My Name Is Red," confront the push and pull between East and West. His work deals with writers versus the state and what we know and what we need to know.

"I have personally known writers who have chosen to raise forbidden topics purely because they were forbidden. I think I am no different. Because when another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free."

Peace.

Pen American Center

One Laptop per Child

Greetings,

One Laptop per Child is a non-profit humanitarian learning tool created for the world's poorest children living in the most remote environments. It is being developed by the MIT Media Lab .

Peace.

One Laptop per Child

Beauty and cruelty

Greetings,

"Let's look at all the beauty and cruelty without hope or fear."
"Ok. I will try and wrap my mind around the idea. What is the context?"
"Try easier. It's in the being, seeing with soft eyes. Pure sensation."
"How do I trust it?"
"By letting go. It's your process."

"Then, we'll weave a dance of light."
"Are we the light?" asked a child.

"Yes. You are the light. You are an Indigo child."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye."
"Yes."
"We are in Lhasa now."

Peace.

Robots

Greetings,

This is from a blog post by Kathy Sierra with her link below. It's an excellent site.

"If you knock out exuberance, you knock out curiosity, and curiosity is the single most important attribute in a world that requires continuous learning and unlearning just to keep up. If we knock out their exuberance, we've also killed their desire to learn, grow, adapt, innovate, and care. So why do we do
it?"

Why Robots Are the Best Employees

1) They don't challenge the status quo

2) They don't ask those "uncomfortable" questions

3) They're 100% obedient

4) They don't need "personal" days.

5)... because they don't have a personal life

6) They never make the boss look bad (e.g. stupid, incompetent, clueless, etc.)

7) They dress and talk the way you want them to

8) They have no strongly-held opinions

9) They have no passion, so they have nothing to "fight" for

10) They are always willing to do whatever it takes (insane hours, etc.)

11) They are the ultimate team players

12) They don't complain when you micromanage (tip: micromanaging is in fact one of the best ways to create a robot)

13) They don't care what their workspace is like, and don't complain if they don't have the equipment they need

14) They'll never threaten your job

15) They make perfect scapegoats

16) They get on well with zombies

Peace.

Creating Passionate Users

Positional uncertainty

Greetings,

Navigators glance
over their shoulder
towards camp

not because they wish
they had never left camp
but because they hope
to get back.

You’re never lost.
There’s only various degrees
of uncertainty about your position.

Peace.