So before this falls into the ‘I should have written that’ category, I wanted to get some pen on the iSchool introductory class -IST601 – Information and Information Environments.

In short – awesome. Really awesome.

The content delivered and the delivery methods were as world class as I expected but the energy. WOW. Totally infectious and not just from one or two lecturers, but each and every one of them and ALL of the staff there to support them and us (SU’s incoming iSchool Master’s students).  Total faculty and staff that presented over the weekend numbered, by my count, 15, but there could have been more. A high level of passion exuded from each and every one of them and it left an amazing mark. They’ve set the bar very high in terms of our academic, creative and innovative pursuits, but also in service and ethics.

That really stuck. Time and again we were reminded to bring anything – questions, concerns, problems, etc.  It’s a level of service and support that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in an  organization. The iSchool at SU is really committed to turning out radical, game-changing information professionals and they’ll do whatever they can to foster the creativity and innovation required to bring about real change.

Not that I needed it, but the class confirmed that I’m doing the right thing and am in the right (best!) place.

This is the first time I’ve seen ‘Irradiated beef’ advertised.

Michael Pollan has an easy to digest definition of irradiated beef in this excerpt of an article he wrote for The New York Times Magazine (March 31, 2002):

Rather than try to alter that diet or keep the animals from living in their waste or slow the line speed—all changes regarded as impractical—the industry focuses on disinfecting the manure that will inevitably find its way into the meat. This is the purpose of irradiation (which the industry prefers to call “cold pasteurization”). It is also the reason that carcasses pass through a hot steam cabinet and get sprayed with an antimicrobial solution before being hung in the cooler at the National Beef plant.

Delicious!

They’re baack…Those  mad scientists at EepyBird who shocked the world with those majestic Coca-Cola and Mentos fountains are at it again. They’ve moved on to much more functional projects, namely a Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car. Check the video after the jump.

Paul Rademacher is really awesome for coming up with this  tool for comparing the size of BP’s oil spill to cities around the world. From his site:

On April 20th, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon left 17 workers injured and 11 missing and presumed dead. Oil is spilling from a well 5000 feet below sea level, discharging 200,000 gallons of crude oil a day according to the official estimate. It is estimated that more than 6 million gallons of crude oil have spewed into the Gulf so far.