Happy New Years: 1430, 2009

Bye Bye 2008 -> Welcome 2009 :o))))) !!!!., originally uploaded by Ragstatic.

I wish you all a happy, peaceful, healthy, peaceful, successful and peaceful, new year..

Oh wait, did I mention peaceful??


Let's all pray for a peaceful new year..

ALICE and AIML videos on Youtube

There are some fun ALICE and AIML demo videos popping up on Youtube. This first one is an example of using voice recognition and speech synthesis to create an "interview." Be prepared to wait for some funny animation at the beginning of the video, before the interview starts. Parts of the interview are quite funny and highlight the difficulty of achieving high quality speech recognition.



The next video is another example of speech and voice also combined with a high quality avatar. Listening carefully to the bot's responses, you can hear a few custom responses, and a lot of replies straight out of the original free ALICE bot.



Several projects are underway to embed AIML bots in Second Life. This video shows an example. The bot object uses Linden Scripting Language to communicate with a Pandorabot.



The most popular Pandorabot continues to be the Flash iGod bot.
Several videos have appeared that incorporate chats with iGod. iGod does not represent any particular religion, but the script is based on the version of ALICE that claimed to be a "Protestant Christian".



And as a demonstration that a bot can be trained to follow any religion, watch this video of MuslimBot. Like the God bot, MuslimBot is hosted on Pandorabots.

27th December 08

Date: 27th December 08
Location: Tunis, Tunisia
Weather: Clear blue skies and sunshine, cold. 18°c
Status: Ready for home….

After the rude awakening by the security guard I packed away a cold, wet tent and we drove into the city to find the offices of the ferry company to book our ride back to Europe. It wasn’t open so we caught up on an hour’s sleep and waited…

Eventually the manager turned up and I went inside and sorted out the particulars we’d need to get us all back to Europe. It actually worked out cheaper to book here than over the phone or on the internet so a success already.

Once we’d done I noticed I had a flat tyre so after Kees little flat yesterday I had one as a sympathy puncture 12 hrs later. We are the most efficient team now and had it changed and repaired within the hour!!

Went into the centre to the medina to find some last minute gifts for people and to eat some lunch. Then back to the ferry port to wait where we’d spend the night before boarding at 9am tomorrow for a 2pm departure.

Watched our last African sunset at around 5pm as it fell into the outline of the city, a very poignant moment…..back to Blighty Colonel, your African adventure is over, for now…

End of day location: Tunis, Tunisia
Distance covered: 20kms

Action Alert

NATIVE RIGHTS UNDER LOCK & KEY: Rallies to support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake and jailed Customary Chief Benjamin Nottaway

OTTAWA
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WEDNESDAY, January 7th, 2008, NOON
WHERE: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
Corner of Wellington and Montcalm in GATINEAU
MARCH to the Gatineau Detention Centre, 75 Rue St. Francois
Click HERE FOR A MAP
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

MONTREAL
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

THURSDAY, January 8, 2008, NOON
In front of Jean Charest's office
corner of McGill College & Sherbrooke
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

* Bring banners, signs, placards, noise-makers...
**Hot chocolate and snacks will be served at both rallies.

For more information, click here

Funny The Aiden Video: Mom!

Aiden wants Mom

Great Lengths #1

In these final days of 2008, traditionally we reflect on what has happened in the past year and what we have achieved. Most of the time I prefer to let my music do the talking, but it really has been an incredibly turbulent twelve months, so here's a few words. With a few ups and downs on a personal level and my first year as an expat in the USA (after a few trials and tribulations), I have been really motivated to work hard on my music and develop the sound. The position that I find myself in, both literally and mentally on the outskirts of the "scenes", has done me good. The last few months have been solely dedicated to writing my first album which is going to be called "Great Lengths". It's been a long process but I learned many things and it has been a real challenge to make it - you will hear some of the tracks surfacing quite soon! Maybe even at one of the gigs i'm playing in Europe and the US, there are quite a few lined up, including two 3024 album launch parties (details and line-ups will follow for those), but this is the schedule for now:

jan 9 - Hour Haus, Baltimore, USA
jan 10 - Bassic, Boston, USA
jan 16 - Sub:Stance @ Berghain, Berlin, GER
jan 17 - Nu Deepness @ GoetheBunker, Essen, GER
jan 18 - The Golden Pudel, Hamburg, GER
jan 22 - Deviate, Newcastle, UK
jan 23 - Detonate, Nottingham, UK
jan 24 - Club Zukunft, Zurich, CH
jan 25 - Disco3000, Manchester, UK
jan 27 - Ruffage @ The Wire, Leeds, UK
jan 30 - Numbers vs Fortified @ Stereo, Glasgow, UK
jan 31 - 25 Years Patronaat @ Patronaat, Haarlem, NL
feb 6 - Petrol, Antwerp, BE
feb 7 - Minnemeers, Gent, BE
feb 8 - "Great Lengths" Album Launch Party #1 London
feb 11 - "Great Lengths" Album Launch Party #2 Berlin
feb 13 - Fabric, London, UK

Send a letter to Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway

Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway is being held in jail for 45 days, not counting 2 weeks in pre-trial detention, for peacefully protesting on highway 117 in attempts to have Barriere Lake's signed agreements honoured and for the Canadian government to respect Barriere Lake's Customary Governance.

This is part of a larger and disturbing trend in Canada, where indigenous leadership are being jailed for standing up for their constitutionally-recognized Aboriginal rights. In Ontario, both KI6 and Bob Lovelace were jailed for peaceful protest for several months. A decision that was overturned in the court of appeal.

To send Benjamin a letter of support:

Benjamin Nottaway
Hull Detention Centre
P-6, D-3
75 Rue St. Francois
Hull, Quebec J9A 1B4

Franco et le T.P.O.K. Jazz

Side A
Mario

Side B
Likambo Na Moto Te
Ekoti Ya Neube

Franco is a legend of Congolese music. Don't sleep.

Outil: Backlinks, un essai...

Voilà... Je vous ai expliqué dans mon dernier billet que Google Blogsearch s'était tiré une balle dans le pied, rendant sa fonction de recherche de backlinks inutilisable. Je viens d'écrire un petit widget qui exploite la base de données de Wikio pour afficher :

1) les derniers billets qui ont pointé vers ce blog, c'est-à-dire sa page d'accueil ou n'importe lequel des ses billets (en colonne de gauche "Ils en parlent")

2) sous chaque billet, tous les billets qui pointent vers lui :

Il n'y en a pas encore sous ce billet au moment où j'écris, évidemment, mais si vous faites des liens (et qu'ils sont présents dans vos flux RSS !) vous devriez voir apparaître un rétrolien vers votre prose, après un petit délai, sans doute, le temps que Wikio capture vos flux. On essaie ?

Pour l'instant, ce n'est qu'une maquette, mais Wikio a trouvé que l'idée était bonne, et a mis la réalisation "industrielle" de ce widget dans ses priorités pour les toutes prochaines semaines. Je crois que ce sera un outil utile (merci à Thomas et Arnaud de Wikio pour leur aide sur cette maquette).

Si tout ce passe bien, courant janvier je pourrai inviter des beta testeurs pour essayer et donner leur feedback. Faites-moi savoir si ça vous intéresse !

The Pink Xmas '08 Office Party Cupcakes

Hope you all have a GREAT! holiday....CQ

Apple iPod - Business Model Example Series: Issue 2

This week I was in Madrid to work together with XPLANE, the leading company when it comes to visual thinking in strategy & business. XPLANE will help me with the visuals for some examples and processes in my upcoming book on business model innovation.

Together with Pablo Ramirez of XPLANE we worked on several things, including the business model of the Apple iPod. Here is a first sketch - open for your input & feedback...

Business Model Example Series : Issue 2 / iPod

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: business model)

Don't hesitate with comments & feedback. This is most certainly one of the examples we will use in the book. At every workshop & event I do, the Apple iPod comes up because of its influence on the music industry.

What's happening?

This week went much better than expected.. Only two professors showed discontent about the days we skipped before Eid, but only one of them considered the lectures he had planned to give as given and done..

We had a microwave exam few days ago, I didn't do well but I can't care less! I'm done with damage control of the material we have taken but I still can't memorize few really long and complicated equations that are actually scary to look at.. Mom was surprised to see that we were required to memorize them and told me not to, and I'm more than willing to follow her advice for the moment!

******

Yesterday was the introduction party of the new first year students but there were no prizes unlike last year. One of my classmates and a dear friend brought me a bubble from the party after my whining about wanting and expecting a present :D Which was very cute but I didn't know what to do with it and ended up giving it back to him.

Also yesterday, mom invited us for lunch in the Science and Literature Forum: one of Saddam's palaces near the university, now includes a restaurant, a conference room, and few rooms for CISCO lessons.. I'm not sure since I've only been to the restaurant.

So, dad came and picked me up from college to the restaurant where mom and HNK were waiting.. Upon arriving I realized that a BIG number of my professors, and the dean, were gathered in the restaurant for lunch too.. Quite a coincidence :)
I wasn't comfortable eating but was absolutely the happiest person in Mosul (let's not exaggerate and say the world, though it's also possible)..
Now mom and dad just WISH they didn't bring me to the restaurant for I've grown so big-headed the house can barely fit me :D
If I recite the details one more time the keyboard will go on a strike :D So I'll surprise the keyboard, and mom, and keep them to myself this time!

******

And also yesterday, my sister and the kids came for a visit. Aya has started learning Kurdish at the preschool in the suburb. Ayman is extra cute, he speaks very nice and so gently! Anas hasn't learned to walk and has very few activities, smiles the whole time, rarely ever cries, and is very squeezable :) That's a photo of him at the top of the post.

Tell Me a Story Etsy Update

Phew, we finally finished the first part of our winter update.
Read more HERE or shop the store HERE.

For those of you on Facebook, there is now a fan page for Me! Glorious! Me! located here.

For everyone else, apologies for lack of updates - simply snowed under at the moment. Hope you are all keeping warm and enjoying truffles!

Xmas 08 Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting Chocolate Dipped in Candy Cane Pieces

New Hair-Do!

The shot is taken with my MacBook's Photobooth, because I was in a too lazy of a mood to pick up my camera. Or to put on any make-up.
But I think you can get an overall impression.

Blockade leader says he's a 'political prisoner'

JOE FRIESEN
GLOBE AND MAIL
December 15, 2008
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081215.NATIVES15/TPStory/National

Speaking from a jail cell, deposed native leader Benjamin Nottaway says he is a political prisoner, targeted for his outspoken opposition to the
governments of Canada and Quebec.

He is the latest casualty of a power struggle that has included
allegations of a political coup, fire bombings and several interventions
by riot police.

It reads like a tale ripped from the headlines of a war-torn dictatorship.
Instead, it's the story of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a Quebec
community of 450 people three hours north of Ottawa.

Mr. Nottaway, imprisoned for 45 days for leading a highway blockade, says that although he misses his children, he is being treated with respect in jail, where fellow inmates refer to him deferentially as the "chief." But
the question of who actually is the chief of Barriere Lake is far from
clear.

Mr. Nottaway alleges that he was deposed by an ambitious group of plotters led by Casey Ratt, who launched what Nottaway supporters call an "administrative coup d'état" this year and installed themselves as the
band government.

He calls Mr. Ratt a "puppet" and a "government agent," propped up by
officials in Ottawa and Quebec City who see him as a soft touch when it
comes to defending aboriginal land title and resource rights.

Mr. Ratt laughs at these suggestions, and says there is no leadership
crisis in Barriere Lake, save for the grumblings of those who have lost
their grip on power and have enlisted non-native activists to push their
case in the news media.

He says he came to power in January after a three-month leadership review, which he launched because he was upset that Mr. Nottaway's group had closed the band school, a move he perceived as motivated by their own political aims.

"It's no good for our kids to use them as political pawns," Mr. Ratt says.
"A lot of people didn't agree with those tactics."

After Mr. Ratt was declared chief, his opponents said he had hijacked the
traditional selection process and tried to push him off the reserve. His
house burned down in suspicious circumstances, he says, as did the band
office.

"But I'm still in the community," he says. "It's a steady struggle."

Barriere Lake does not elect leaders according to the one-member, one-vote system set out in the Indian Act, but instead uses a selection system led by a council of elders. The federal government says it has no role in adjudicating that system, but has acknowledged the election of Mr. Ratt's group and says it will conduct business with his council.

After several escalating protests against Mr. Ratt's government, the
Nottaway group blockaded Highway 117 twice in recent months. In October,
riot police were sent in by the provincial police force and were accused
of using violent tactics to disperse the protesters. In November, Mr.
Nottaway and four other prominent political opponents of Mr. Ratt were
arrested by riot police for staging another highway blockade, which they
called a tactic of last resort. They were asking the federal government to
appoint an independent observer to oversee a new leadership selection.

"When I was in court my lawyer told me, 'The Crown wants you to suffer,
they want you to feel the pain.' They asked for 12 months, but I got 45
days," Mr. Nottaway says. "I'm a political prisoner, and they know that.
It's all politically motivated."

The people of Barriere Lake have never signed a treaty with Canada, and
they say they have never received a fair share, or had a say, in the
resource revenue extracted from their traditional territory, which they
estimate at $100-million a year. For its part, the community suffers
crippling unemployment and is not connected to the power grid, so it runs
on diesel generators.

Mr. Ratt says he wants to put the power struggle behind him and work
toward finding both short- and long-term solutions for his community.

Mr. Nottaway says he can't allow the band to be led by a chief he
considers illegitimate. His goal is to see a 1991 trilateral agreement on
resource management honoured by the province and the federal government.

"The government imposed a minority faction on our community," he says.
"That's not what we want and we're never going to accept it. Even though
I'm in here, we're not going to stop fighting."

Blogs: Que fait Google ?

Vous avez sans doute remarqué que le petit widget « Ils en parlent » en colonne de gauche de ce blog dysfonctionne depuis quelque temps.


Je m’étais fabriqué ce widget il y a bien longtemps déjà, à l’aide de l’opérateur link de Google Blogsearch (link:aixtal.blogspot.com). Cet opérateur permettait d’obtenir tous les billets d’autres blogs qui citaient un de mes billets. La sortie est disponible au format RSS, ce qui permet une intégration facile. C’est d’ailleurs le même mécanisme, basé sur Google Blogsearch) qui se trouve sous chacun des billets (l’appel billet par billet est fourni en standard par Blogger, contrairement au widget que j’ai fabriqué). Je trouvais cette fonctionnalité assez intéressante, puisqu’elle permettait de rebondir de blog en blog et de suivre les « conversations » que déclenche un post.

Malheureusement, le comportement a changé. Il y a eu quelques alertes en septembre, le comportement se modifiait, puis revenait à la normale, mais depuis le début octobre, c’est fini, Google Blogsearch est passé dans un autre mode de fonctionnement. Si vous suivez les liens qui apparaissent sur ce widget, ou directement sur Google Blogsearch, vous verrez que les billets listés, pour la plupart d’entre eux, n’ont pas de lien vers un des miens. Dans la plupart des cas, ce sont des blogrolls qui pointent vers ma home, « http://aixtal.blogspot.com ».

Et après, me direz-vous ? Eh bien cela enlève à peu près tout l’intérêt de cette fonction. Plus possible de suivre les « conversations » de billet à billet. Chaque fois que Pierre Assouline ou Language Log publient un nouveau billet, Google Blogsearch y voit un nouveau lien... L’intérêt est médiocre. Et évidemment, il ne faudrait pas s’appuyer sur les résultats chiffrés que retourne Google Blogsearch pour essayer de déterminer si votre blog a été beaucoup lié, car ces résultats n’ont rien à voir avec le vrai nombre de citations (2803 par exemple avait fait cette erreur – j’avais laissé un commentaire à l’époque).

Les effets de bord sont même encore plus désagréables. Je constate par exemple ce matin que le serpent se mord la queue. Ainsi, mon dernier billet « Déshabillons les communistes » semble avoir été cité par tout un tas de billets de French Politics. Ce n’est pas le cas... Le cercle est vicieux : un de ses widgets reprend les liens de mon widget, et ça tourne gentiment en rond.


Que s’est-il passé ? L’explication technique est simple. Auparavant, Google utilisait les flux RSS dans son service Blogsearch, ce qui lui permettait d’avoir une notion de billet. Désormais, il utilise simplement le mécanisme de crawl général ("full-text") de Google. Cela a été confirmé par Jeremy Hylton de l’équipe officielle de Google Blogsearch.

Quelles peuvent être les raisons de ce changement ? La raison avancée par Jeremy Hylton est tout à fait sérieuse : un certain nombre de blogs ne publient pas des flux complets, mais des résumés sans liens, et dans ce cas, Blogsearch devait donc faire face à du « silence ». Mais avec le nouveau comportement, le diable chassé par la porte est rentré par la fenêtre. C’est désormais un « bruit » important qui affecte les requêtes sur Blogsearch. Mon impression est d’ailleurs que le bruit introduit est largement plus grand que le silence qui a pu être réduit. Jeremy Hylton explique que le problème sera corrigé, en faisant d’abord une capture complète de la page, puis en ne retenant que la partie qui ne fait pas partie du billet.

We do expect to fix the problem you're seeing. We'll use the full page content, but exclude the content that isn't really part of the post.

Nous verrons. J’ai de gros doutes, connaissant bien le problème, que j’ai analysé en détail pour Wikio. La difficulté de la tâche est immense.

Le jeu valait-il alors la chandelle ? Il me semble qu’il y a une autre raison sous-jacente : la réduction des coûts liés à Blogsearch (ce qui me rend pessimiste sur l’amélioration promise). Fusionner Blogsearch (du moins du point de vue de la capture) avec le moteur de recherche Web classique permet de n’avoir plus qu’un service à maintenir au lieu de deux. Car la maintenance d’un vrai moteur de blogs est extrêmement difficile. Le problème des flux partiels n’est qu’une toute petite partie de l’iceberg. Parmi les problèmes d’une très grande difficulté, je n’en citerai qu’un : l’identification des sources... Qu’est-ce qu’un blog ? Je doute que nous soyons deux à répondre de la même manière à cette question. Mais en tout cas, à peu près tout le monde se trouvera sans doute d’accord pour exclure les médias classiques (Le Monde, Le Figaro) ou les agrégateurs qui fleurissent un peu partout sur la Toile. Comme faire, à part recruter une armée (coûteuse) de documentalistes qui filtrent les sources à l’échelle planétaire ? Google ne peut pas se le permettre.

Un autre indice montre que Google est en train d’opérer une convergence de ses services. Début octobre également (tiens ?), le blog officiel de Google présentait une nouvelle fonctionnalité, le groupage (clustering) des billets apparentés sur sa home page, du moins aux US. La technologie est directement reprise du groupage que fait Google News. La nouvelle a été reprise en boucle sur la blogosphère, et généralement perçue comme une innovation positive.

Je n’ai pas la même analyse. Si vous examinez de façon détaillée ce qui apparaît dans les groupes en question, vous verrez que ce sont des informations qui sont fortement apparentées du point de vue thématique, et fortement cohérentes du point de vue temporel (généralement une durée de quelques heures). Ce n’est pas le tempo des blogs. Ce type de groupage favorise les pics d’articles nombreux, très proches dans leur contenu, et quasi simultanés – c’est-à-dire, typiquement la reprise en boucle des infos des agences de presse. On y retrouve donc soit des blogs sans grande originalité, qui se contentent de copiés-collés rapides, soit des agrégateurs, soit des médias purs et simples. Les blogueurs qui apportent une véritable valeur ajoutée réagissent plus lentement, et forcément dans des termes moins proches de l’original. Trop tard, trop différents pour être groupés...

Là aussi, j’ai étudié de près le problème, puisque c’est le mode fonctionnement de la partie supérieure de la page d’accueil de Wikio. Il n’y a rien dans l’algorithme actuel qui favorise explicitement les médias par rapport aux blogs, et pourtant on n’y trouve guère que des médias, pour les raisons que je viens d’expliquer. C’est d’ailleurs un problème sur lequel Wikio va travailler (et ce n’est pas facile), car la première partie de la home ressemble à l’AFP ou à France Info, ce qui est d’un intérêt modéré...



Nous verrons bien comment Google Blogsearch évolue. Mais j’ai bien peur que la fusion en cours s’accompagne d’une perte assez forte de la spécificité de la recherche blogs. Est-ce que Google aurait lu en détail le rapport Technorati, et en aurait conclu que les blogs étaient en déclin et que l’investissement ne valait plus le coup ? Il est vrai qu’il est peut-être plus à la mode de mettre des billes dans les réseaux sociaux (où Google avait peut-être un petit cran de retard)...

A suivre. En tout cas, je suis bon pour refaire mes widgets. Ce sera l’occasion de tester si un tel service peut-être greffé sur Wikio...

---

Mise à jour

Ca y est, j'ai implémenté une petite maquette d'outil, que vous pouvez voir en colonne de gauche et sous les posts. Enfin, pas sous celui-ci, hélas, il s'est fait blacklister par Wikio sous prétexte qu'il contient "AFP". Pas bon, ça. Ca fait partie des choses à arranger...

Holiday Greetings from the University of Maryland

This is the holiday e-card that my office has been working on the for past six weeks or so...these are some of the people included in our video: Connie Chung and Maury Povich on Maury's TV show set, Congressman Steny Hoyer on the U.S. Capitol steps, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Mike Miller, Maryland Senate President, Mike Busch, Maryland House Speaker, Gordon England, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense filmed at the Pentagon, UM Professor of International Business Peter Morici, UM Men's Basketball Coach Gary Williams and team, UM Women's Basketball Coach Brenda Frese and team, 2008 National Champs Soccer Coach Sasho Cirovski and team, and 2008 National Champs Field Hockey Coach Missy Meharg and team!

You can go to the site and personalize the ending of the video....go here: www.holidaygreeting.umd.edu

Enjoy! CQ

Happy-making things from the past week:

Loads of lovely nights out! Have not had so many invitations since I don't know when, making this the nicest December in years. Though the dry cleaner is sick of the sight of me already.

A girl at a gentleman's club (of which more another time) dancing to the Rammstein cover of Depeche Mode's 'Stripped' - and asking for my number later. Soz boys, but when you're hot you're hot.

Burn After Reading. How good is that film? Also saw that Angelina Jolie one which, while indisputably the feel-bad movie of the year, did at least offer another opportunity to worship the man, the legend, the Malkovich.

Speaking of cinema, delighted to notice in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi that Shah Rukh Khan has a left-side fang just like mine! Wonky teeth rule. Also that in undercover geek mode he looks distinctly like my father's older brother - am now uncertain whether it is strictly kosher to continue fancying SRK.

Tucked away not far from my house, a pub serving perfectly kept Deuchars and Sunday dinners of shocking proportions. Yay for gentrification!

Update your bookmarks!

As I'm sure any visitors to bookcritics.org have noticed, we've revamped our website!

You can now locate Critical Mass, the blog of the NBCC, at www.bookcritics.org/blog.

The site also has loads of new features, including the ability to use your NBCC membership online. Look for an email from NBCC President Jane Ciabattari letting you know about all the other great new features on bookcritics.org.

We will be rolling out new features, including our Membership functionality, every day. We'll keep you updated.

We appreciate your patience while we work out the kinks of the site. If you'd like to give us your feedback, just write us at nationalbookcritics@gmail.com.

Shoes put to a better use

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7782774.stm
LOL
This made my day :D

Roundup

Eric Banks visits Jonestown, 30 years after the murder-massacres:

"We expect our killing fields to be marked a certain way, and with at least a certain rhetoric of rectitude. At Jonestown, in Guyana, there are no markers, no memorials noting what took place, no manicured clearings to mark how the site looked 30 years ago, when more than 900 Americans died there in a still hard-to-imagine moment of mass suicide and outright murder. It is an open field bifurcated by a red dirt road, with knee-high bush to the north and, to the south, thick jungle. You don't even realize you have entered the site until you are already there."

Scott McLemee on Antonio Negri, coauthor of "Empire":

"Four new works by Negri appeared in English in 2008—the year we all found ourselves well downstream from that era when debate over globalization and its discontents took the form of extrapolating long-term trends. The problem now is to find a way through the ruins. I have been studying the books in a state of heightened (indeed, strained) attention—with powers of concentration periodically stimulated and shattered by arteriosclerotic convulsions in the world’s financial markets—but also through tears in my eyes.

"They are tears of perplexity and frustration."

John Freeman talks to Garrison Keillor and considers the latest entry in the McSweeney's "Voices of Witness" series, "Narratives From the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan,"compiled and edited by Craig Walzer.

Rayyan Al-Shawaf on Nadeem Aslam's latest:

"According to a Chinese proverb, the hardest things in life are three: to love someone who does not love you back, to be exhausted but unable to sleep, and to wait for a friend who never shows. The title of Pakistani-British author Nadeem Aslam's latest novel evokes images of the last of these three afflictions, and in a sense, "The Wasted Vigil" is all about waiting."

Rebecca Skloot suggests you take a look at Snowball, the Dancing Cockatoo...

Jon Stewart says: "Books make great gifts because they’re an amazing way to kill time while your website is buffering," in a cameo appearance on the Association of American Publisher's new BooksAreGreatGifts website, part of a campaign, via Facebook, Twitter, etc, to highlight book buying this holiday season.

Angie Drobnic Holan finds Sarah Vowell's "The Wordy Shipmates" an "entertaining meditation." While Carlo Wolff finds the pictures in "The Narcotic Farm" leave the deepest impression.

The Kansas City Star's John Michael Eberhart writes that the 75th anniversary edition of "New Letters" contains "as good as any piece of nonfiction I’ve read in the last five years," Robin Hemley's "Field Notes for the Graveyard Enthusiast."

Eid

عيد و سعيد طلعوا عالجبل.. نزل سعيد. منو ظل؟

Eid has ended and I'm back to studying more determined and fully charged than before.
This post is to record the events of this Eid..

Aya stayed at our house for the two days before Eid because mom didn't have much work and found it the best time to have her around. She's growing intelligent and because she always watches Fatafeet (the Arabic Cooking Channel, her absolute favorite beside Toyoor Al-Janna) she's grown scarily aware of many things regarding food. There's no doubt she knows more than me about cooking :)

Seeing how grown up she's become I thought it would be a good time to present her with the Eid and Saied joke (the Moslawi version of Pete and Repeat) but she didn't like it at all and thought very scornfully of me afterwards as if I've played a dirty trick on her!!
Her reunion with Ayman and Anas two days later was so emotional one would think she was suffering at our house!

****

Eid was preceded with much preparations, the most important of which was getting my room organized.
The first, second and third year lecture notes were all scattered in different parts of the bookcase, and the books were in no particular place. It was a tiring job considering the amount of printed chapters, textbooks, borrowed books, lecture notes and previous years' exam questions that I have. The job was completed successfully and now I have a bookcase to be proud of!

****

The first day of Eid was spent as usual, a gathering in one of my uncles' house where each family brings a meal.. and then we made visits to some of dad's cousins' houses.. The second and third days we had gatherings for lunch and took some great group photos which I sent day by day to our relatives abroad.
The fourth day we went to a wedding (well, it was a nishan but I'm not ready to explain what it is so let's just assume it's a wedding ;) ) and received few visitors afterwards.


The Eid was, overall, very good, and I didn't let myself get bored.. the torture of conscience was present, nevertheless, since I didn't study a word since Tuesday. But that was not very bad since I got my share of comfort, and started studying well at about 9PM on the last day of Eid.

!نزل سعيد.. و لحقوا عيد.. و ما ظل غير الدوام

I slept early yesterday so as to start studying early today, but ended up sleeping 12 hours :D

I'm going back to college tomorrow, and following mom's instructions, I'll be completely ignoring the fierce fights of the last day of college and more than ready to study any lectures we have missed.. I'm not sure what to wish for but I won't be saying any I-told-you-so-s, and will keep them for later use, if needed.

Quebec judge imprisons Algonquin Chief for two months for peaceful protest: Crown asks for one year to send "clear message" to impoverished community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Quebec judge imprisons Algonquin Chief for two months for peaceful protest: Crown asks for one year to send "clear message" to impoverished community


Kitiganik/Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory / - On Thursday December 4th a Quebec judge sentenced Barriere Lake Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway to forty-five days in jail, in addition to fifteen already served in pre-trial detention, for participating in peaceful blockades intended to draw attention to violations of Barriere Lake's rights by the Canadian and Quebec governments.

Barriere Lake has been demanding that Canada and Quebec honour signed agreements and that Canada appoint an observer to witness and respect the outcome of a new leadership selection in accordance with Barriere Lake's Customary Governance Code.

"It's shameful that the government of Quebec would rather throw me in jail than fulfill their legal obligations by implementing signed agreements," said Acting Chief Nottaway, a father of six who passed his twenty-eighth birthday in jail last Thursday. "Meanwhile, the Government of Canada continues to interfere in our internal affairs while trying to wash its hands of responsibility for this situation."

Nottaway was charged with three counts of mischief and breach of conditions stemming from March blockades on Barriere Lake's access road and a November blockade on highway 117 outside the community's reserve in Northern Quebec. Another blockade in October was violently dismantled by Quebec riot police, who used tear-gas on a crowd that included Elders, youth, and children. More than 40 members of the community of 450 have been charged for these actions.

"Quebec has now joined the company of Ontario, which put the leaders of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation behind bars for peaceful protest. It seems like the provinces' preferred method for dealing with our rights is to use the police and the courts to punish us until we forget about them," said Marylynn Poucachiche, a community spokesperson who was arrested during the November blockade.

Crown Attorney France Deschamps asked Judge Jules Barriere for a sentence of 12 months, saying a "clear message" was required "to make sure Nottaway has no desire to do this again, and to discourage the group – because his supporters are waiting to hear what happens here." Judge Barriere noted that the Crown's request was "partly illegal," as 6 months is the maximum possible sentence for summary convictions. But he agreed with Deschamps that a prison sentence was necessary, saying it was "important to pass a clear message to the community."

"The only message the Canadian and Quebec governments are sending is that they are willing to criminalize our community and split apart our families in order to avoid implementing precedent-setting agreements and respecting our leadership customs," added Nottaway.

Barriere Lake wants Canada and Quebec to uphold signed agreements, dating back to the 1991 Trilateral Agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Canada has been in breach of the agreement since 2001. Quebec signed a complementary Bilateral agreement in 1998, but has stalled despite the 2006 recommendations of two former Quebec Cabinet Ministers, Quebec special representative John Ciaccia and Barriere Lake special representative Clifford Lincoln, that the agreement be implemented.

On March 10th, 2008, the Canadian government rescinded recognition of Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway and his Council and recognized individuals from a minority faction whom the Barriere Lake Elder's Council says were not selected in accordance with their Customary Governance Code. On March 2nd and 3rd, community members had set up blockades on their access road to prevent members of this minority faction from entering the reservation, anticipating the Canadian government would try to illegally interfere in Barriere Lake's internal customary governance for the third time in 12 years.

In 2007, Quebec Superior Court Judge Rejean Paul issued a report that concluded that the current faction recognized by the federal government was a "small minority" that "didn't respect the Customary Governance Code" in an alleged leadership selection in 2006 [1]. The federal government recognized this minority faction after they conducted another alleged leadership selection in January 2008, even though an observer's report the government relied on stated there was no "guarantee" that the Customary Governance Code was respected [2].

The Algonquin Nation Secretariat, the Tribal Council representing three Algonquin communities including Barriere Lake, continues to recognize and work with Customary Chief Benjamin Nottaway and his Council.

-30-

Media Contacts:

Norman Matchewan, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 – 435 – 2171

Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 - 435 - 2113


Notes

[1] http://web.resist.ca/~barrierelakesolidarity/resources/Rapport_du_Juge_Paul-versionANGLAISEcomplete.doc, pg 26-27


[2] http://web.resist.ca/~barrierelakesolidarity/resources/Riel_Translation_Letter_2.doc , pg 2

MEDIA ADVISORY: CHIEFS OF ONTARIO EXPRESS DISAPROVAL OF QUEBEC IMPRISONMENT OF BARRIERE LAKE LEADER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2008


CHIEFS OF ONTARIO EXPRESS DISAPROVAL OF QUEBEC IMPRISONMENT OF BARRIERE LAKE LEADER

OTTAWA— Earlier this fall Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse, on behalf of First Nations in Ontario, communicated by letter to Premier Jean Charest and Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the use of force against peaceful civil protestors was contrary to the goal of reconciliation between First Nations peoples and federal and provincial governments. In addition, at a gathering of the Chiefs in Assembly in November, First Nations leadership again expressed their concern regarding the use of force against the same protestors.

On the same day that the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal of a decision earlier this year by the Ontario Court of Appeal concerning the ordered release of aboriginal leaders from jail for their actions in asserting their rights, it was reported that a First Nation leader from Barrier Lake was sentenced to a 45 day jail term for his actions for asserting the rights of his people.

"All Ontarians know that the use of force and imprisonment against First Nations people involved in the assertion of constitutional rights situations is unacceptable," says Regional Chief Angus Toulouse. "We have learned this through the Ipperwash Inquiry and its recommendations and through the court proceedings involving aboriginal leadership in Ontario. The Ontario government learned this and it appears the federal and Quebec governments must also learn this."

Regional Chief Toulouse is calling on the government of Quebec to initiate proceedings leading to the release of jailed Barriere Lake leader Benjamin Nottaway. "All governments in Canada must understand that when First Nations communities assert their rights they are acting in accordance with the Rule of Law and the application of violence and imprisonment against people trying to assert their constitutional rights is contrary to the Rule of Law," says Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse.

The Chiefs in Ontario, comprising the 133 First Nations in Ontario, is a political forum and secretariat for collective decision-making, action and advocacy.

-30-

For more information, please contact:

Harmony Rice
Communications
Chiefs of Ontario

1-877-517-6527
416-576-9718
harmony@coo.org

Web-based Business Model Innovation Software and Working on the Wall

Boris Fritscher, a brilliant masters student of HEC business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, has picked up on using software to sketch out business models under the guidance of my co-author, Professor Yves Pigneur.

Yesterday he showcased the tool to me and Patrick van der Pijl, producer of my business model book. Boris built a web-based tool that allows the design and description of business models. But Boris didn't keep it there. He extended the tool to allow designing business models live on a projected image on the wall (see picture where Boris works on a business model). How cool is that?



The tool, which is a research project, is still in private beta. We are currently exploring how it can most easily be used to build a database of interesting and innovative business models on the book chunk platform.

I think there is quite some potential in software-based business modeling. Two IBMers, Norbert Herman and Sergey Trikhachev are also working on a tool based on my method. They built a Visio-based tool and are extending it to include business model simulation capacities

Previously I called this Computer Aided Business Model Design (CABMoD), referring to Computer Aided Design (CAD) in Engineering and Architecture. I believe it has similar potential in business...

SMALL PRESS SPOTLIGHT: SEAN NEVIN

Oblivio Gate, Southern Illinois University Press, 2008.

Sean Nevin teaches at Arizona State University, where he directs the Young Writers Program and is assistant director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. He is editor of 22 Across: A Review of Young Writers, and his poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the NEA. Oblivio Gate won the First Book Award in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry.

The tragedy of Alzheimer's disease is one of the touching centers of this book, but it is only a part of a series of experiences that connect the speaker to sickness, hospital visits and patient care. Indeed, the reminders of one’s mortality and vulnerability are everywhere and everyday. The title poem suggests that dementia and memory loss, this "Oblivio gate," is one of the frightening passages before death, and that the fear this knowledge instills is the burden of those who witness and observe. Those who experience also suffer but in different ways. How did you navigate this difficult subject and manage to infuse originality in a much-discussed subject matter as Alzheimer’s? In terms of shaping it into poetry, what did you try to avoid and what was hard to stay away from?

It was not my original intent to write a book with Alzheimer's disease as a central theme, in fact I resisted it almost every step of the way. I began by exploring how the brain perceives the self, relationships and the world around us. That led to a closer look at language, how words and their meanings will sometimes morph, unravel and decode altogether during the course of a neurological disease. In a strange way, I think that resistance to an illness-themed book played a critical role in the navigation of the difficult subject matter. It was written and conceived poem by poem and over the span of many years. The book has characters and a lose chronology but that did not emerge until much later in the process of putting the manuscript together. The book found itself and I was along for the ride. The memory poems rose to the top and seemed to gravitate toward each other, it was only then that I cut several other poems in the manuscript and began to write in the direction of the obsession. I can take a hint.

I was keenly aware of the many poetic landmines that come with Alzheimer's themed poetry and I proceeded gingerly through the minefields of sentimentality, overly dark clichéd images and the exploitation of those suffering, including by this time, my own family. I did not want to capitalize on the voyeuristic victimization of the ill. That said, it is the artist that must not flinch or look away. Alzheimer’s is a much-discussed issue for good reason, nearly twenty-six million people worldwide are afflicted with the disease and that number is expected to quadruple by the year 2050. We must discuss it. Charles Simic says "everything in the world, profane or sacred, needs to be reexamined repeatedly in the light of one's own experience." Of course there is nothing new under the sun, but it is the poet's job to explore all of it and, as Uncle Ezra instructs, "make it new."

The carpenter bees that keep coming back throughout the book are intriguing, but more so two other objects that make more than one appearance: the garden gnome and the cherry Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Perhaps all three work together as the memorable images of the speaker’s youth, when his self-awareness intensifies and his place in the world becomes somewhat clearer. This was an interesting tension in the book: what is remembered and what is forgotten, what is kept and what is given up, given away or lost. Certainly the memories that a poet writes about are choices, recovery as deliberate decision. There are so many painful memories in this book and few moments of respite (like in that lovely poem “Hinged Double Sonnet for the Luna Moths”). What were some of the ways you tried to give the reader breathing room and space within the pages of this devastating book? Did the perspective of a younger speaker help the process of writing about age and dying?

Often with Alzheimer's disease, automobiles, homes, old music and random childhood memories are the last to go in a long line of subtractions. This strange kind of time travel back to one’s youth is often centered on a few objects. Like any poetic obsession worth its weight in fathers, these poems are riddled with hallucinatory metaphors and images that work as a kind of recursive stitching throughout the larger narrative to sustain an internal tension between poems. Each time I wrote a poem that I though was off-topic, I eventually saw memory right there welling up below the surface. The last poem to enter the collection was "Hinged Double Sonnet for the Luna moths." I had the table of contents done and was glad to be writing about something else for a change. A few weeks later I read the poem and realized of course it belongs in the book, it is essential. What was I thinking?

In addition to considering the reader, I as author needed moments of respite and relief in writing these poems. I wanted to be sure I was writing a book I would want to read. This idea of providing breathing room for the reader was important to me as I committed to the project. I wrote in several voices including a youthful voice, Solomon's (the main character) and his wife's voice as well. She is eventually left to cope alone. It was liberating and helped me tell a more complete story in addition to easily introducing moments of levity. Even in the devastation of the disease one finds moments of humor, joy and beauty that appear, usually when we need them most. I hope to have captured some of these moments in the book as well. The garden gnome poems give the reader permission to laugh and "Hinged Double Sonnet for the Luna moths" is a love sonnet. Oblivio Gate reveals not only what is lost, but also what is found, what is pure, and even what is funny in our fleeting lives.

In the final section of Oblivio Gate, a dozen or so "self-portraits" offer an elusive and expansive vision of who this speaker is. This inhabitant of "the widow house" certainly has the rare ability (or burden) to empathize and project. From "Self-Portrait as Scavenger Gull" to "Self-Portrait as Disaster" the persona wanders through disorientation and desolation, instability and uncertainty, "fragmented and beautiful" inside this house of grief, and each portrait is "a kind of mourning." Why did you decide to close the book with this series of "self-portraits"? If this section ushers you out of this book, what ushers you into the next one?

How to find closure after such illness and loss is beyond me, but those left behind continue on in life. I needed closure for the book, for the characters left behind, for myself and the click of a jar was not going to cut it. The book's earlier sections demonstrate a lot of restraint in both content and form. The two long lyric poems have trifurcated lines; there are several sonnets and other crafted shorter poems that make up the collection. The final section of the book is sprawling and furious, ecstatic and bereft at once. It is an incantation, a prayer, a kind of exuberant mourning and reclamation of the wreckage of ones life. "Self-Portraits from the Widow House" provides closure the way dynamite gives closure to a burning oil rig. Kaboom.

(Author Photo: J. Esposito)



*

Roundup

Scott McLemee waxes enthusiastic about Jeffrey B. Perry’s study "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918," and Perry's thorough Wikipedia entry for Harrison.

Art Winslow calls the author of "The Norman McLean Reader" a "big two-hearted writer."

Gregg Barrios finds that age (80) has not slowed down Mexican literary lion Carlos Fuentes.

Geeta Sharma- Jensen on lists for book babes and book boys.

Tim Brown moderates a literary smackdown, reported in The New Yorker. Pix on WNYC.org.

Todd Shy alerts us to Yann Martel's new project, sending books to Canada's prime minister:"For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website," Martel writes.

John Domini finds Daniel Grandbois "promising," in his review of "Unlucky Lucky Days" in Rain Taxi.

Ranking the Pushcart Prize Pubs

NBCC member Cliff Garstang ranks the winners and Special Mentions in this years' Pushcart Prize anthology, just out.

Pushcart founder Bill Henderson, winner of an NBCC Sandrof award for lifetime achievement, will be with us on Saturday night, January 24, 2009, at Housing Works, to announce the NBCC Sandrof award winner. Others expected, to announce the Balakian winner and NBCC awards finalists: Sam Anderson, 2008 Balakian winner;Mary Jo Bang, 2008 poetry winner; Harriet Washington, 2008 nonfiction winner; Alex Ross, 2008 criticism winner, and Joshua Clark, 2008 finalist in autobiography.

Google Zeitgeist Year-end List

Google now offers a magazine search function. Which reminded us to check out the year-end global top 10 list of the billions of Google searches over the past year, which starts off like this:

1.sarah palin
2.beijing 2008
3.facebook login
4.tuenti
5.heath ledger

(Tuenti? Spanish Facebook.)

So now we have discussed N's Quantum Theory of Relationships, here is a new one for you: Belle's Bayesian Theory of Relationships.

For those of you not au fait with the ins and outs of probability theory, rest assured, I don't know from Fermat either. In fact my main source of statistical knowledge was an Irish gambling addict I lived with back at Uni. Here comes the science bit - Bayesian probability, as far as I understand it, is a method of predicting future performance based on past results. As A2's Canadian mate D likes to say to his toddlers when they are mid-strop, 'what we have here is an example of inductive reasoning.' Through observation and experiment, we can upgrade our opinions.

Or in other words, you choose the horse at the track based on its last few races, not because you like its name.

You might be saying to yourself, well Belle, this is bleeding obvious. Who doesn't assess a relationship in this way? And the answer would be, nearly everyone. Regular readers will have a sense of how exactly how flipping long I didn't factor in past unacceptable behaviour in my choice of mate - never, never again. Being perfectly honest ladies, we are excruciatingly guilty of this in almost every instance.

'What that implies is there is no place for faith in a relationship,' N groused during another of our marathon bath-chat sessions. I find I think more clearly in the bath. Pity I can't work from there, but ah well.

'What I'm saying is that faith is earned, not given,' I said. 'You are permitted to disagree.'

'Cheers, I will.' He would. He's hung up on a woman who has treated him like a cock-for-hire without giving back anything significant for, oh, I think about three years now. He is invested. She is not changing. And her personal track record would seem to suggest she can't.

'When she figures out what she wants, she'll see how good I am for her,' N said.

I rolled my eyes - thank fuck for phones sometimes. 'When she figures out what she wants, she'll start fresh with someone else,' I said. 'They never realise what they have until it's too late.'

'Last of the romantics, you are,' N said.

'Like the clown said, you only get one chance with Edna Krabappel.'

I have the feeling it's going to take a lot more time in the bath before he finally sees sense.

Birding in Tallil

I've been remiss in not writing about this sooner. The November/December 2008 Birding magazine, published by the American Birding Association, has a fantastic photo essay of birds observed and photographed by Colonel Thomas Dove, a physician who served at Tallil Airbase near Nasiriyah in Southern Iraq. The ruins of ancient Ur are just next door to the base.

Colonel Dove served in Iraq from October 2007 to June 2008. He accumulated an impressive list of species and photographed over 100 species. I laughed reading his account of a particular "No Swimming" sign popular with a group of Pied Kingfishers. When I visited the base in December 2004 one of the kingfishers was beating a small fish against the sign to emphasize the point!

The photos are spectacular and the essay echoes the sentiments of many people who have found beauty and inspiration in Iraq's avian residents. I'm particularly jealous of his sightings of Greater Flamingos, which I never saw. A picture of 2 of the flying flamingos is featured in the article.

Thanks Col. Dove for your first rate pictures and article.

Online version of Birding in Iraq - A photo Essay by Col. Thomas Dove

Additional Web Content - Hard to Identify Old World Warblers from Tallil

Nobelist Le Clezio to Publishers: "The Book Is the Ideal Tool"

Jean-Marie Gustave LeClezio, who delivered this lecture upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature earlier this week, focused in part on the importance of the book:

"There is a great deal of talk about globalization these days. People forget that in fact the phenomenon began in Europe during the Renaissance, with the beginnings of the colonial era. Globalization is not a bad thing in and of itself. Communication has accelerated progress in medicine and in science. Perhaps the generalization of information will help to forestall conflicts. Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded—ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day.

"We live in the era of the Internet and virtual communication. This is a good thing, but what would these astonishing inventions be worth, were it not for the teachings of written language and books? To provide nearly everyone on the planet with a liquid crystal display is utopian. Are we not, therefore, in the process of creating a new elite, of drawing a new line to divide the world between those who have access to communication and knowledge, and those who are left out? Great nations, great civilizations have vanished because they failed to realize that this could happen. To be sure, there are great cultures, considered to be in a minority, who have been able to resist until this day, thanks to the oral transmission of knowledge and myths. It is indispensable, and beneficial, to acknowledge the contribution of these cultures. But whether we like it or not, even if we have not yet attained the age of reality, we are no longer living in the age of myths. It is not possible to provide a foundation for equality and the respect of others unless each child receives the benefits of writing.

"And now, in this era following decolonization, literature has become a way for the men and women in our time to express their identity, to claim their right to speak, and to be heard in all their diversity. Without their voices, their call, we would live in a world of silence.

"Culture on a global scale concerns us all. But it is above all the responsibility of readers—of publishers, in other words. True, it is unjust that an Indian from the far north of Canada, if he wishes to be heard, must write in the language of the conquerors—in French, or in English. True, it is an illusion to expect that the Creole language of Mauritius or the West Indies might be heard as easily around the world as the five or six languages that reign today as absolute monarchs over the media. But if, through translation, their voices can be heard, then something new is happening, a cause for optimism. Culture, as I have said, belongs to us all, to all humankind. But in order for this to be true, everyone must be given equal access to culture. The book, however old-fashioned it may be, is the ideal tool. It is practical, easy to handle, economical. It does not require any particular technological prowess, and keeps well in any climate. Its only flaw—and this is where I would like to address publishers in particular—is that in a great number of countries it is still very difficult to gain access to books. In Mauritius the price of a novel or a collection of poetry is equivalent to a sizeable portion of the family budget. In Africa, Southeast Asia, Mexico, or the South Sea Islands, books remain an inaccessible luxury. And yet remedies to this situation do exist. Joint publication with the developing countries, the establishment of funds for lending libraries and bookmobiles, and, overall, greater attention to requests from and works in so-called minority languages—which are often clearly in the majority—would enable literature to continue to be this wonderful tool for self-knowledge, for the discovery of others, and for listening to the concert of humankind, in all the rich variety of its themes and modulations."

Marylynn Poucachiche takes on Assistant Regional Director of Indian Affairs, Pierre Nepton, on Radio Canada International's The Link (Dec 8 2008). The interview starts half way through the file and lasts for 10 minutes.
Click here to listen.

NBCC Reads, Fall 2008: Long Tail #5

Time for another Long Tail post from the most recent NBCC Reads. This time around, we've got suggestions from blogger Mark Sarvas (whose first novel, Harry, Revised, was published earlier this year) and Janice Harayda, a novelist, former NBCC board member, and the the proprietor of One Minute Book Reviews.

Mark Sarvas: The book most relevant to the election never once mentions the words "Obama" or "McCain." But Rob Riemen's Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal is about what happens when the high ideals of culture are degraded; when "elite" is turned into an epithet; when ignorance is celebrated and high ideals are mocked. This slim volume is the most effective rejoinder to the Palin candidacy I've seen anywhere.

Janice Harayda: By coincidence, just before I got the message about NBCC Reads, I had posted two quatrains I like from a poem called "knowledge" by Tadeusz Różewicz (published in New Poems and translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston). This poem is about the shifts in the dance between certainty and doubt that occur as we get older, not as we get closer to election day (though, of course, we're all getting older in the next couple of weeks, too). But the shifts between what Różewicz calls "cogito" and "dubito"--and vice versa--may define the election if, as seems likely, the independent voters are pivotal.

Best of Sagbohan Danialou

Face A
Commerce Triangulaire (A Qui la Faute)
Retour au Village
Africana
Foutou Banana
Suru
Tafè Yom'Tomè

Face B
Wan Gni Gni*
Djo Assou Tchédo (Laisse Moi Mon Mari)*
Avalè
Adji Non Wé
Programme Change
Afélélé*

*—If you only listen to two-three songs

Frank (Voodoo Funk) brought me a few Sagbohan Danialou tapes from Guinea. It's an awfully impressive gift from someone who probably had a lot of other things to bring home, like, um, 6 million records. Not sure this is my favorite but there are a couple songs that move me, plus I found the cover to be idiosyncratic and I thought I should share it.

New American Editor of Granta: John Freeman

Recent NBCC president John Freeman has been named American Editor of Granta, the British magazine of new writing originally founded in 1889 and revived in 1979 with Bill Buford as editor.Based in New York, he will work with Granta editor Alex Clark to develop a series of author events and to provide a connection between the magazine, US-based writers and Granta’s North American and Canadian readership.

Télé: Déshabillons les communistes

A l'occasion du 34e congrès du Parti Communiste, du 12 au 14 décembre, Hélène Risser m'a demandé de participer à un petit décryptage des messages et les discours des leaders communistes de Jacques Duclos à Marie-George Buffet, en compagnie de Stéphane Courtois (historien), Gérard Miller (psychanalyste) et Denis Bertrand (sémiologue).

Où en est le discours du PCF sur la rénovation ? Quel message propose-t-il ? Et comment celui-ci a évolué depuis l'âge d'or du communisme français ? C'est dans l'émission Déshabillons-les sur Public Sénat :

Cliquez pour voir l'émission en ligne

Rediffusions les :

• mercredi 10/12/2008 à 13h00
• vendredi 12/12/2008 à 21h15
• samedi 13/12/2008 à 02h15

The Necessity of Management Innovation

Innovation regarding the way we run and manage our companies will be a key requirement to foster business model innovation. Financial Times management writer, Stefan Stern, and Peter Marsh wrote an excellent article on innovative management structures in the FT.

They portrait Terri Kelly, CEO of WL Gore, a $2.5bn turnover company, which is characterized by a totally flat organizational structure.

"Leaders emerge through a democratic process rather than being appointed from the top, and peer appraisal is crucial to both salary levels and career advancement."

Ms Kelly makes a clear case for this type of "democratic management" that would probably steal most traditional managers' sleep. She argues that decisions reached together are pursued much more energetically:

"I think that what you find in a lot of companies is that if there isn’t true support for the decision, it gets undermined along the way. In fact, it may never come to fruition. So on the one hand you’ve made a very quick decision – ‘We’re going to go to China’ – but then you’ve got all kinds of resistance.”

Same goes for business model innovation. The lateral and multi-disciplinary nature of business model innovation projects require the motivation and true buy-in from all parties involved. Top-level support, while necessary, wont be sufficient to succeed.

A must read as to management innovation is Gary Hamel's book "The Future of Management". WL Gore is one of the examples which he explains in-depth. Others are Google, Whole Foods Market and Semco. Good Stuff. Gary Hamel has the merit of being the first "management guru" to raise awareness of this topic at the board level (read the NY Times book review).

Impressively, Gary Hamel, one of the most influentual management thinkers today, didn't just leave it with writing a book. In June this year he gathered 30 leaders in management development, education, consulting, and the CEOs of Whole Foods, Gore, Ideo, Google, and HCL to discuss "the future of management". He mobilized the crème de la crème of management thinking, such as Henry Mintzberg, C.K. Prahalad, Tim Brown, Peter Senge, ... (too many gurus to mention them all). His gathering question was “why can’t we bring as much innovation, adaptation, and engagement to our organizations as we do to our development of products and technologies?”.

Read more about this event on David Sibbet's blog.

عيد مبارك

أيامكم سعيدة و كل عام و انتم بخير..

تمنياتي للمسلمين و للامة العربية، و الشعب العراقي، و الشعب المصلاوي، و عائلتي العزيزة، و أنا، بالموفقية و النجاح و صلاح الحال و راحة البال و العيش الرغيد و الأمن و السلام و الصحة و العافية و ما الى ذلك :)





بصعوبة بالغة استطعت كتابة هذه السطور القليلة باللغة العربية.. و بالرغم من اني اشعر بالاستغراب من العملية، سأتوكل على الله و انشر الموضوع..