AssortedStuff

After sailing about 36 hours from Copenhagen (more about those “at sea” days later), we docked in Stockholm, Sweden early on the second day of our big trip.

Owing to my non-functional internal clock and cabin black-out curtains that were not particularly effective at keeping out the bright sunrise, I was wide awake for some absolutely spectacular scenery as the ship slowly made it’s way up the long archipelago from the Baltic Sea to the city.

This is obviously a part of the world that is attuned to living on the water.

Stockholm itself is spread over fourteen main islands, with lots of smaller ones in, for lack of a better term, the metro area.  Even many miles out from port, the shores were dotted with clusters of houses, often painted in beautiful shades of red, and enclosed by some amazing forests.

After a short bus tour through the city center, we spent most of our time in port walking around the Gamla Stan (the picture is a view of that area from the port), the island on which Stockholm was founded in the 13th century.

Our guide noted that some of the buildings on the narrow streets dated back to the 1600 and 1700′s and that people were still living in them.

Contrast that with historic cities like Washington DC in the US where we take buildings a fraction of that age and preserve them as museums instead of making them a natural part of the community.

Anyway, at the time we were visiting Stockholm, two big events were in progress.

First of all it was graduation day for their high school students.  That fact was hard to miss due to the many panel trucks cruising around town carrying groups of kids celebrating at the top of their lungs.

The guide reluctantly agreed that some of the celebrating might have been fueled by alcohol.  I’d call it a sure bet, although none of the kids we saw were particularly obnoxious, just loud.

More importantly, the city was preparing for Love Stockholm 2010, a two-week festival that culminates on June 19 with the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria to a commoner who she met when he was a trainer at her gym (I gather the royal parents were not amused – at first :-).

Unfortunately, the official celebration started a few days after we left, but all the preparation around the city made it look like the Swedes would be having one great party.

And then it was time to leave.  As with most stops on the travel sampler plate that was this cruise, our time in Stockholm was far too brief.  But it’s definitely another on my list of places I’d like to return to and explore in more depth.

Next port of call: Helsinki, Finland.

And a small collection of additional photos I took in Stockholm are in this set on my Flickr page.

cruise, high school, port, stockholm, sweden, travel, wedding

Sound advice (and some far-too-close-to-reality satire) about the SAT and test prep companies from last night’s Colbert Report.

If you take enough of their math classes [Princeton Review], you may even learn their formula for turning children’s fear into cash.

Some English teachers may not want to hear what Stephen has to say about essays.

sat, satire, stephen colbert, test prep

From PHD Comics, an excellent explanation of why the K12 math curriculum should include annual healthy doses of basic statistics.

And it’s simple enough for even those back-to-basics types who believe we can’t possibly teach math concepts until we’ve drilled any possible interest in mathematics right out of the kids.

Actually, any adult claiming to be a “journalist” should be required to display proof they’ve taken a basic stat course.

fun stuff, media, news, statistics

Last Tuesday was the first day of school here in the overly-large school district. And I took the day off.

Everyone is too busy getting things started with the kids to want any of us evil central office types in their building anyway, so I went into DC to play tourist for a few hours.

I wanted to check out the recently remodeled Smithsonian Museum of American History (reopened last November) and a couple of new exhibits at the Newseum.

Seeing both institutions in the same day was an interesting contrast, both in terms of the museums themselves and the teaching techniques they use.

Let’s face it, no matter the subject matter, museums are educational institutions. Their missions may include other stuff (research, preservation, public relations for the sponsoring organization) but primarily the primary goal is to help visitors learn.

In that regard, the Smithsonian is generally very interesting and does an adequate job – in a very formal, staid and somewhat dull manner.

Even with all the tens of millions spent on the History museum (the interior of the building itself does look much better than the old version), most of the exhibits still just sit there.

With few exceptions, most rooms display various artifacts accompanied by static, text-based information hanging nearby. There is very little audio or video and almost no opportunities for us learners to interact and play with the information.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It is very possible to make American history come alive as the Newseum, just a short walk away, clearly demonstrates.

It’s not that they don’t have their own collection of artifacts as well. However, the designers have mixed in lots of excellent media, both original and from other sources, along with some very inviting interactive displays.

Of course, the Newseum’s view of history is through the lens of journalism but in many ways they do a better job with the overall subject than the Smithsonian.

They actually tell a story and involve the visitor in that story rather than just letting assorted pieces just sit there.

I know, I know. It’s probably unfair to compare the two institutions, one more than 100 years old, one open less than two years after a decade of planning.

One managed by a private foundation that charges admission, one government owned and free.

But before the designers at the Smithsonian spend any more money renovating their many properties, maybe they should walk down the street and spend some time looking at what good teaching in a museum context looks like.

Full disclosure: I’m a Contributing Member of the Smithsonian and have a basic membership in the Newseum. Does that give me the right to complain? :-)

The picture is of a display on the concept of flight in a small interactive science exhibit area at the Museum of American History. A nice start, Smithsonian, but when are you going to create an honest-to-goodness hands-on science museum?

dc, museum, newseum, smithsonian, teaching

If you want to see one of the best examples of journalism on television in a long time, skip past all the broadcast networks, talking heads channels, and especially Fox “News”.

Go watch Jon Stewart’s interview with financial talking head/showman Jim Cramer from last night’s Daily Show.

Unlike way too many people in the TV news business, Stewart was well prepared (whoever logs video for the DS deserves a large raise), asked very relevant questions, and refused to allow Cramer to BS his way out of answering them.

At the end, Stewart expressed his desire to downplay this assertive role (“Was that as uncomfortable for you to watch as it was for me to do?”) and return to making fart noises and funny faces.

I hope he doesn’t. At least not until the real news organizations are willing to step up and do their jobs,

Well, ok, maybe not the whole time.

I’m sure no Daily Show fan will mind if he throws in a few puns and jokes of questionable taste along with the great interviews.

daily show, economy, jon stewart, satire

On the drive home, listening to a segment from On The Media (an excellent podcast from NPR) that illustrates just how far behind the federal government is when it comes to the digital world.

Well, almost everything in the Pentagon, if it’s a briefing on a war plan, on a weapons procurement, it’s all done on PowerPoint these days. And the National Archive is currently unable to accept and process either PowerPoint slides or Microsoft Word documents.

So the National Archives are basically telling all the federal agencies, listen, we can’t do anything with these now so just hang onto them and file them rationally until we get around to it.

Until a few years ago, they could not accept email with attachments, digital photos or PDF documents. That’s just in the last few years. They supposedly are putting together an electronic record archive, but it will not be ready for at least three years.

It sounds incredible that an agency tasked with archiving all the records of our government is unable to handle the most common digital formats for documents used anywhere in the world.

You have to imagine the archivists in DC must be going nuts over the fact that the president’s weekly address to the nation is in H.264 Flash video on YouTube.

Among many other things, President Obama pledged during the campaign and since taking office to “Open Up Government to its Citizens” and “Bring Government into the 21st Century”.

Considering PowerPoint and Word are relics from the 20th century, his technology people could have a more difficult task ahead of them than his economics team.

archive, digital, government, power point

As only he can, Stephen Colbert totally nails a photographer who was arrested for committing the terrorist act of taking pictures.

Of Amtrak trains.

For the annual Amtrak photography contest.

Priceless.

photography, satire, stephen colbert

Last Thursday on the Colbert Report, Stephen’s guest was Lawrence Lessig, who argues in Remix, his current book, that something is wrong with our intellectual property policies in this country.

Totally failed war. For ten years we’ve been waging this war. Artists have gotten no more money, businesses have not gotten more profit, and our kids have been turned into criminals.

Society, Lessig argues, should instead be encouraging and celebrating the remixing of media and all kinds of creative ideas.

In the course of the discussion, they differed about who owns the recording of that particular segment, with Lessig claiming joint ownership.

And, as co-owner, he said that anyone had the right to remix the segment. Which, of course, is just what happened.

The lawyers at Viacom must be going nuts.

intellectual property, lawrence lessig, stephen colbert

On the Daily Show earlier this week, Arianna Huffington tried to convince Jon Stewart that he should put his thoughts into a blog for her news and opinion site, The Huffington Post.

Stewart responded by noting that “when I have thoughts, I put them on the little screen in the living room”.

Huffington then argued that he likely had “more thoughts than what you use on the show”.

To which Jon came back with probably the best reason I’ve heard for performers (or anyone else) NOT blogging.

Why should I give people the dreck?  Shouldn’t I try to focus it and make it as good as I can… because my other thoughts, there’s a reason I haven’t put them on the show.

Huffington was there hawking a “guide to blogging” book which sounds like recycled versions of advice you can find all over the web for far less than fifteen bucks.

blogging, daily show, huffington post, jon stewart

Here’s the holiday music now in heavy rotation on my iPod. Not as cynical a list compared to years past but it’s still early in the season.

1. Another Christmas Song – Stephen Colbert
2. Winter Wonderland – Tony Bennett
3. Gettin’ In The Mood (For Christmas) – Brian Setzer
4. The Man In The Santa Suit – Fountains Of Wayne
5. Run Run Rudolph – Los Lonely Boys
6. Come Darkness, Come Light – Mary Chapin Carpenter
7. What A Night! – Harry Connick, Jr.
8. Marshmallow World – Raul Malo
9. It Won’t Feel Like Christmas – Spyro Gyra
10. Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town – Bruce Springsteen
11. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow – Michael Bublé
12. Carol Of The Bells – Los Lonely Boys
13. On Christmas Day – Brian Wilson
14. Silver Bells – Tony Bennett
15. Mr. Heat Miser – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
16. O Holy Night – Studio 60 Christmas Show
17. Please Come Home For Christmas – The Eagles
18. Not So Merry Christmas – Raul Malo
19. Can I Interest You In Hannukah? – Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart
20. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas – Harry Connick, Jr.
21. I Wish You A Merry Christmas – Bing Crosby
22. J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio – Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
23. Auld Lang Syne – The Beach Boys

You can find it all (except for the piece from Studio 60) at iTunes and most at Amazon’s download site.

christmas, holiday, music