Cool Reads and Cloud Atlas Movie Review

A.O Scott's review-

“Cloud Atlas” is a movie about migratory souls and wayward civilizations, loaded with soaring themes and flights of feeling, as vaporous and comprehensive as its title. Big ideas, or at least earnest intellectual conceits, crowd the screen along with suave digital effects and gaudy costumes. Free will battles determinism. Solidarity faces off against domination. Belief in a benevolent cosmic order contends with fidelity to the cruel Darwinian maxim that “the weak are meat the strong do eat.”

The Island Where People Forget to Die

Why You're Likely to Believe Political Lies

Safety Lessons From the Morgue- Megan F

Solitary Confinement- Iran Prisons vs. Pelican Bay U.S.

Is George Lucas the Greatest Artist of Our Time?

The Hunt For “Geronimo”- From the Author of Black Hawk Down- Behind the scenes of of the Bin Laden raid.

Where Servers Meet Saunas: A Visit to Google’s Finland Data Center

Yum?

At Faviken, a tiny restaurant in remote northern Sweden, the 28-year-old chef Magnus Nilsson contrasts the sweet simplicity of foraged and farm-fresh ingredients with a kind of Viking bloodlust. He’ll serve a thrush with its decapitated head, or fire-roast a black grouse in hay, or slaughter a geriatric dairy cow and then dry-age it for nine months until, he writes, “the pure flavor of meat becomes secondary to the aromas of controlled decay . . . rather like a cheese.”

Tuesdays With TED-Mark Forsyth

IRP Portfolio Tutorial and Mackie Voting + Franco

Vote      Anthony Mackie 1   Anthony Mackie 5/6    Anthony Mackie 7/8

Actor #2- James Franco

This week's syntax move one more time: participial phrase:

1. Pursing his lips, he struggled not to call out his professor's obvious error.
2. A lazy student, always looking for a corner to cut with his assignments, ironically, may do more work to get out of doing work.

Remember to flex with strong verbs!
Period 1  Period 5/6  Period 7/8

This week's cool reads:

• Precision of Poetry
• From the Evil file: Three of The Easiest Ways to Manipulate People into Doing What You Want
• Building a computer from scratch: open source computer science course

Excellent syntax:

[O]verflowing dumpsters; unpaved streets lined with garbage; smoldering trash fires; little rows of shanties tucked into corners of the neighborhood for the local servant class, the kind of miserable hovels that stretch for miles in places like Mumbai; and a small, polluted lake that no one in their right mind would have swum in. We never drank from the tap, of course; even certain kinds of produce were said to be unsafe. The phone was temperamental, too, and so was the television cable.

Annotation for Huck

• Key rhetorical devices which add meaning or depth (tone, structure, pacing, diction, jargon, credibility, etc.)
• Modes of writing / genres which you can identify (humor, satire, Shakespearean drama, parody, Romanticism)
• Highlight or circle any words you don’t know, or any allusions to other literary works, places, or things and jot down their meaning or reference in the margin.
• Draw a question mark next to any section you would like to discuss, are unsure of, or think would be excellent to bring up in class discussion.
• Draw a star or exclamation point next to the most essential passages or events in the book.
• Make notes in the margin on any patterns you see or any other personal reactions that you may have to the reading.

Snuff said

A book list from one of my favorite science writers- Maggie Koerth-Baker

Tuesdays With TED- Guest #2-Chris Anderson + Gotye

And an example of inspiration + innovation...

IRP Non- Fiction Book Selection and Vote Round #1

Cool Books in Library List #1  List #2
Grains of Sand or Stars post

Now go get those books!
LRC Catalog   West Chicago Library    Winfield Public Library   Carol Stream Public Library



Alan Watts - Original #YOLO



This week's good reads...
For Chance Coats-
Soccer Violence In Argentina- From Outside Magazine ---For Bill Carter...
Last second zombie needs for Halloween.
Missouri or Missourah
Photo Essay to show Google's Cooling Centers-
Gross!  I'll use my debit card...Thanks...
Thoughts on Facebook's billionth member...
Who Will Mourn George Whitmore?

Despite a mounting belief among some civil rights activists associated with the N.A.A.C.P., and a few intrepid journalists, that Whitmore was innocent, he remained in prison, facing two death sentences. Depressed, frightened and alone, he pondered his imminent demise at the hands of the state. He asked other inmates: “If you were going to be put to death, which would it be? The chair? Lethal injection? What’s the least painful way to die?” A teenager, having committed no crime — ever — at that point in his life, pondering what means of execution he would choose: this was his reality...

Yet there are no plaques in honor of George Whitmore Jr., no schools named after him, or any civic recognition of his humble fortitude. His name should be known to every student in New York, especially kids of color, but it is not part of the curriculum.

This week, a flawed but beautiful man who offered up his innocence to New York City died with hardly any notice. To those who benefited from his struggles or who believe the city is a fairer place for his having borne them, I ask: Who grieves for George Whitmore?

ICE- 2004 Form B