Dynamic Video Footage of a Kidnapping?

You have to feel for this poor soul attacked in the forest in this clever, moving video.
December from 328 Stories on Vimeo.

Food Fairies at Work Again

Egg Bake and Banana Muffins!

It's always a great thing when food arrives unbidden, like a pizza delivery guy who shows up with a steaming pepperoni you didn't order and don't have to pay for.  Okay, that's never happened to me--no free delivered pizza.  But food--good food--no, great food!--sometimes arrives at our house at unexpected moments.  It happened yesterday, thanks to our friends the B's, who knew we were hard at work all day on a house.  They've done it before, and, knowing these good people, I've got faith that someday, when we don't expect it, they'll do it again.

I hope they don't mind that we had the egg-bake and muffins not only for breakfast this morning, but also for supper last night.  Yum!  Thank you, B's!

Engaged with the White House

The State of the Union Address last night was interesting not only for what Obama said in the speech itself (broadcast at Whitehouse.gov), but also for the many ways in which a viewer could engage with the discussion.  From participating in the Twitter feed at #SOTU to presenting a question and answer session immediately after on Facebook and again on Youtube today, this White House is making use of New Media, that's for sure.  It blogs, it tweets, it chats, it streams live, it posts photos and podcasts, and it engages the "viewer" in many ways other than just sending out signals.  Yeah, White House!

Horseshoe Seven--Your Site for the State of the Union Address

Yes, the state of the union address was here.  It's gone now.

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

Jack LaLanne Kicks the Sandy Bucket

Like many kids, I saw the ads in the comic books I was so fond of, those promises that my 98 pound skinny butt could be transformed into a wedge-shaped body of muscle and confidence.  But now, the man  the skimpy leopard shorts has company in that big gymnasium in the sky.  Jack LaLanne is there with Mr. Atlas now, a new man again, his young body living on in the memories of any kid who might have sent away his paper-route money for the book that might transform him, if only in his dreams.

Lazy Teenage Superhero Movie

Clever film made for about three hundred bucks by some enterprising young people. It features several heroes with super powers that they're reluctant to use for good.  "Crime doesn't take a vacation, but they do."  Check it out!

Snowpeople Need Rest Too

My sister sent me this photo of a couple of snow people relaxing in the sun.  It must be nice to take a load off and doze on the deck in the back yard.  Looks like they could use some improvement in their color.

Hitting the Slopes and Hiding from Spiders in 1959

Okay, so it's not "On the Waterfront" or "Gone with the Wind."  But it's fun to see Terry Peak circa 1959, the site, along with Deadwood, of the 1959 film "Beast from Haunted Cave." If you've only got time for the opening scenes, you'll get to see the upper lift (I think) from about that time.

California Dreamin' to that Canterbury Beat

Check out this cool video of a version of the Mamas and the Papas hit song "California Dreamin'" by a group of history teachers in Hawaii.  The perk?  It's not a love song to California, but rather a musical introduction to Geoffery Chaucer's classic work, The Canterbury Tales.  They've done more.  Check out historyteacher's channel on YouTube.

Ice and Sundown

Sundown, January 13, 2011

The wife likes to take photographs, and she continues to experiment with how her digital camera works, but I like this one that has the blurry blots of water on the window, the glowing remnants of the day, and a long icicle that suggests the work the afternoon sun has done.

Another Semester Begins

We begin this semester much like others that come before, but every student is new, every class a fresh mix of students, their goals even now forming in their minds like the first sketches of the future building they will live in.

Moving Snow

The past few days have left us with an additional healthy dose of snow and it's necessary to encourage it to move to less cumbersome locations.  Thank you, Ariens.  You start every time, first pull (even though you've got an electric starter), and you run until I'm done.

Snow Sleds Live Again

Left, 1983 John Deere Sportfire.  Right, 1984 Yamaha SRV540.  

These two old snowmobiles, after resting on the shores of Lake Madison for a dozen years or so, have had the magic touch, and are both back among the active.  I was surprised most by the 1983 John Deere Sportfire, which, once it had a clean carb and new fluid lines, was ready to rumble.  The other, a 1984 Yamaha SRV540, was a little more trouble, and it's still not showing its full potential, but it works.   A little tuning should bring it round.  I get a kick out of bringing the dead back to life.

Huckleberry Finn Gets a Whitewashing

First edition cover

So, you've read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and struggled to reconcile your discomfort with the use of the word "nigger" (219 times) with your sense that it's the word that would have been used by the narrator, an uneducated young man steeped in the language of racist southerners in the 1840's, when the novel is set.  Reading that text and grappling with that word is like a rite of passage.  But it's not comfortable.  Neither is Twain's use of the word "injun," or "savage."
So, in steps NewSouth Books, providing readers with a "nigger" and "injun"-free text, replacing all the instances of the n-word with the word "slave."  And "injun" with Indian.  Safe?  Yes.  But Twain knew what he was doing. Sure, you can make the replacement so readers no longer have to overcome this use of words that Twain knew was offensive.  But offering up a volume that avoids the word entirely? It makes it impossible to understand Twain's view that Huck--through whom every instance of the word appears--has "a sound heart and a deformed conscience."
One of the characters in Huckleberry Finn who uses the word emphatically is Huck's father, Pap.  Note how the two passages below differ, keeping in mind that this racist man is on a rampage, railing drunkenly on why a black man should be considered property:

  "Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio -- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane -- the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could vote when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me -- I'll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that nigger -- why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold? -- that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now -- that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger, and -- "

And here's the expurgated version.  Would Pap NOT use the term we now find so offensive?  I don't think so:

  "Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free slave there from Ohio -- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane -- the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could vote when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that slave vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me -- I'll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that slave -- why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this slave put up at auction and sold? -- that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now -- that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free slave till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free slave, and -- " 

Yes, the book is in the public domain, and you can add Zombie Jim to Huck's adventure or the Undead to Tom's.  But don't pretend it's the same book.  Easier to teach?  Yes, and so is Curious George.

    

Coining a Weekly Aphorischtick

Colleague Dan Weinstein and his friend Mark Peters are collaborating on a comic project, with Peters coining the aphorism and Weinstein providing the artwork, the results of which this week are shown here.  Check out their weekly offerings at Aphorishtick.

New DSU Commercial!

5 Years In A Row Commercial from Dakota State on Vimeo.

Visual Poem: "The God of Our Farm Had Blades," by Todd Boss

Here's a great visualization of a poem by Todd Boss.  Animation by Tom Jacobsen, music by Jesse Marks.  Produced by Motionpoems--be sure to check out their site for more great animations like this one.

How to Wrap a Cat

The wife has been wanting a kitty, and perhaps there was some expectation at Christmas, but who knows how to package a kitten?  Not all cats are as wrapping-friendly as this one.