the pod bay door

Courtesy of Fiona comes this interesting link to a story about how eBay is changing how some academics conduct their research. One of my responsibilities as a librarian is to instruct students in research and library skills. That scholars and researcher would be searching eBay for material relevant to their work was something I had not considered until now.

My brother Chris sent this interesting story on the emergence of CD burning clubs. Group members chose a variety of songs, burn CDs, and send one back to every member. Downloading copyrighted material continues to be a hot topic. I agree with Dave Marsh’s comments in this article, and I’ve said this before: I’ve discovered more interesting music and been exposed to more interesting artists as a result of downloading and listening to new music from wherever. Copyright is the sacred cow in my profession. What I don’t like is the wholesale burning of an entire CD for someone else’s use, or downloading of anything for burning and resale. And so on goes the downloading wars.

It’s bloody freezing here in Edmonton today.

Am I the only person around who is not surprised of the lack of interest or outrage by Americans regarding the bankruptcy scandals involving corporate executives at Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, etc? We’ve become numb to such events, I believe. There is so much crap happening in the world, that when we hear about senior Enron execs defrauding investors, we shrug our shoulders and check out the next news story.

The second set of my NYC/NH pictures are now up.

Just returned from the fascinating movie Narc. A suspended narcotics officer is asked to participate in the investigation of the murder of a police officer. Ray Liotta plays the slain policeman’s partner, and Jason Patric is the suspended officer assigned to the case. Not your typical buddy movie by any stretch of the imagination.

Yesterday at the Power Plant, in the midst of our giddiness, we tried inventing new band names. The one that had us laughing the most was Botox Nutsack. Have you invented any good band names?

Risking a name drop, Derryl sent me notice that William Gibson has a blog. I’ve added it to my list to the right. It’s fascinating reading from a complex individual who is credited with inventing cyberspace. Read his first entry. And the name drop? Derryl and I know Gibson as Bill, not William. I’ve known him since the early 80s, before he published anything. I haven’t seen him since his tour for Virtual Light brought him through Edmonton. So, forgive me this moment of self-indulgence, but check out his writing.

My brother Chris finally made it onto Big Sandy’s photo page (check the bottom of the page). Big Sandy and His Fly Rite Boys were a huge hit at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in August 2002, and Big Sandy himself is a consumate gentleman and all-around nice guy!

I am a little more upbeat of late, despite the cold and the dark of January, and the insanity of university this time of year. I delivered two well-received research skills/library resources lectures to two materials engineering design classes this week, with more to come next week in civil and environmental, and another materials class. I feel much satisfaction when I know I’ve reached at least one student and helped them to understand and develop information literacy skills.

My friend Jen has the ability to write bits for her blog and then solict comments up the wazoo. Check her site and read the entries Love Circles and SUV Redux. (Jen, when are you going to add Permalinks!?)

There’s a lot going on right now, and a lot about which to write, but I’ve been busy. Lots of teaching and mentoring this week at work. Tonight five of us went for beers at the Power Plant, and laughed ourselves silly for four hours. My ribs are still hurting, but it felt so good to laugh (when I wasn’t choking).

Here’s an interesting story, however: 500 original Beatles tapes, stolen in the 1970s, and containing music and tracks that have never been heard, have been recovered in Holland. Now we’ll wonder if and when some of these songs might be released. I’m trying to imagine how fascinating it would be to hear complete, original Beatles tunes we’ve never heard, recorded in 1969 and remastered to match today’s quality. It would be absolutely fascinating.