BFTP: Nearest book meme

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post, December 2, 2008. Ah, memes. Remember those, my early blogger pals? 

A few other changes were made to the 1855 plate, but this map's primary purpose was to record for posterity the political decision associated with Minnesota taking its place in the Union, an event long predicted by the series of morphing territorial maps. Minnesota on the Map: a Historical Atlas by David A. Lanegran.

Here are the rules to this meme: 

• Get the book nearest to you. Right now. 
• Go to page 56. 
• Find the 5th sentence. 
• Write this sentence - either here in the comments or on your own blog. 
• Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence. 
• Don't look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

It's the book I keep on the coffee table - a beautiful, fascinating history of the state of Minnesota told through maps made of the region. It only sounds boring.

Bloggers, you're it.

__________________________

As I repost this in 2013, my nearest book is 50 (no not that 50) Places to Hike Before You Die by Chris Santella. Page 56, fifth sentence:

"The whole time you are there [Columbia's Ciudad Perdida], your mouth is hanging open.

Droning on and "glassholes"

With the announcement from Amazon that it's working on package delivery via drone, the paranoids and skeptics have come out of the woodwork (For example see: The Amazon Drone: Thunderbird 2 2.0 on Digital Reader,  Mommy, the Drone's Here! by Maureen Dowd or USA Today's Is there a 'dark side to Amazon drones, Google robots?) The usual neuroses displayed are : the drones will spy on us, be hazardous to other aircraft, and take people's jobs*.

You know what? I don't care. I can't wait. I not only want drones delivering my pizza, a part from the hardware store, and the cat from the vet, I want my own drone just in case I forget my phone at home. Just think, not more need to go to the trap shooting range - fire away from your back yard. Eventually these drones should be big enough that they could haul me to work, the liquor store, or rescue me from a hike that was tougher than I'd feared. 

The self-driving car from Google can't get here too soon either. It won't be long before my children start thinking about taking my car keys away if I have a fender-bender. If I could read on the way to work while the car drives itself, I might actually get through the fourth book of the Game of Thrones series.

And Santa, I want a robot under my tree as well - one that will empty the dishwasher, scratch my back, and put the toilet seat down in case I forget. In fact I could use a refill on my coffee right now...

Glass has particularly prickled privacy advocates, even earning its own Urban Dictionary epithet — “Glasshole” — for those who flaunt their early access, wear Glass into private spaces such as restrooms or instruct the device — “OK, Glass, take a video” — in public. Star Tribune, Dec 3, 2013

I want my Google Glass as well, but especially a pair with built in Augmented Reality tied to my contacts list. I could actually look like I remember people's names. If the AR was any good, I could look at you and tell your credit rating, the last book you read, and if I had a chance of getting lucky what we have in common. 

Come on, doomsayers. The future may not having flying cars, but isn't hot pizza delivered without having to tip just as good or better?

* Most of these articles are ghost written by US Postal Wokers, FedEx drivers and Dominos pizza delivery guys.

 

Dec/Jan Power Up column in Ed Leadership

My Power-Up column for the December/January 2014 issue of Educational Leadership is now online: "Teaching Above the Line". Your reactions are welcome!