James LaRue - myliblog

This appears to be an older video - I don't think I saw any stats more current than 2006. But on the one hand, I agree with the point. Technology has certainly changed, accelerated and made more retrievable, the things I learn. For instance, I ran across this video while searching online for various articles about the science of "attention." (This video is called "Pay Attention.") I particularly liked the focus on creation as an intrinsic part of learning. On the other hand, it's easy to mistake process for product. The presence or absence of technology does not, in itself, add up to learning. Intelligent use of technology might, though. Anyhow, now I know how to embed a video on my blog.

Click the entry title for the Forbes article about those towns that attract corporate movers -- literally. These are the highly educated, white collar workers who move around the country as they climb the corporate ladder. Parker is #4 out of the top 25 relocation choices in the nation. Castle Rock is #5. An interesting question is this: by definition short-timers, what kind of civic investment (emotional and financial) might these folks bring to their relovilles? (Later: I expanded that provocative article into a column , called "Welcome to Reloville!)

Click the entry title to see a wonderful testimony to the power of literature.

This popped up on my Facebook page: an exchange between Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York, and Joe Scarborough on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009's "Morning Joe." You can read about it, and see it, here . A couple of salient quotes from that article: "Weiner asked some simple, direct questions that no politician, much less Obama or HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has managed to pose: 'What is an insurance company? They don't do a single check-up. They don't do a single exam, they don't perform an operation. Medicare has a 4 percent overhead rate. The real question is why do we have a private plan?' "'It sounds like you're saying you think there is no need for us to have private insurance in health care,' Joe asked at one point. "Weiner replied: 'I've asked you three times. What is their value? What are they bringing to the deal?'" Later, Joe "even repeated Weiner's points clearly: The government would take ove...

Click on the entry title to get to the NPR session for Sunday, August 23. Start it up. A pop-up window lets you choose "High-Tech Library Gleams in Colorado Town." Mostly, this piece by Teresa Schiavone is about the new library in Walsenberg. But she manages to do a great interview with Monica (library director), an 84 year old Trustee, Keith Lance and me, and the best of the batch: a nine year old patron.

Just finished "Supersense: why we believe in the unbelievable," by Bruce Hood. The thesis is this: the design of our minds inclines us to "infer structures and patterns in the world and to make sense of it by generating intuitive theories." Later, these theories may be be reinforced by culture, especially religion. But not all "supersense" contructs are religious. People knock on wood, believe in UFOs or alien abductions, or hold other notions for which there is scant or contradictory evidence. The book is riddled with a host of fascinating stories. My favorite is the one about the lady who is told by her doctors that she could not possible have been the mother of her children -- no DNA match. But it turns out that she was a "chimera" -- a person who absorbed the DNA of a fraternal twin in the womb, and thus was literally two people. Here's another: "A recent survey of two thousand solitary travelers by a U.K. hotel chain revealed that o...

Click on the entry to hear Montrose Regional Library District director Paul Paladino, interviewed by KCFR. Paul is way ahead of the curve here in sustainable building -- and also, quite funny.