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Isle Esme
This is just a story i'm writting which takes place after breaking dawn, Bella and Edward are both vampires and married, Renesmee is grown up and traveling the world with Jacob and everything is going fine until Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett go on vacation to Isle Esme and things take a turn for the worst. Why did the excact same Zebra Bella killed last night come back and attack her...but with a scary new appearence.......... remember i defantly rate this adult for a reason so if your into kinky hot romance scenes between Bella and Edward you will love this.
Remember this is only chapter one so its only the start of the major lemons to come =D will be posting chapter two very soon.
1. Holiday plans
Rating 4.5/5 Word Count 2655 Review this Chapter
Bella's pov
I smoothed my fingers along the ivory piano keys and sighed, I was so happy now I had finally began to be able to play the piano. All the lessons my darling husband had gave me had finally sunk in and it was worth it, I loved playing duets with Edward we would often sing as well. I had found that since I became a vampire my singing voice seemed to really be quite nice when I sang with Edward. I felt Edward's arms wrap tightly round me and pull me onto his lap after we finished the duet we were playing.
"Your really quite a natural love" he whispered, his cool lips against my ear
"not so bad yourself Mr Cullen" I giggled, burying my face into his chest.
Edward suddenly turned me round on his lap to face him, I wrapped my legs tightly round his waist. He pulled my lips to his kissing me softly and passionately. Aw bless my little caring husband, always kissing softly trying not to hurt me even though it was physically impossible now I was a vampire like him, plus my newborn strength hadn't actually left me completely. Of coarse in some situations his kiss was fierce and animalistic, and I adored it. I stared into his beautiful golden eyes and it dazzled me beyond belief
"wow" I sighed
"what?" he asked anxious
"if I were still human that kiss would have killed me with passion" I whispered pressing my lips to his cold earlobe. Life was going extremely well at the moment I had everything I wanted and so did everyone else, Renesmee was an adult now and was travelling the world with Jacob living in a lot of different places. I missed Renesmee often but she and Jacob came to visit on special occasions.
"oh Bella and Edward are gonna be sooo excited when I tell them!" we heard a screech of excitement come from the other room, Edward and I just looked at each other.
"Alice" we both murmured. What is it going to be this time…a boat full of designer labels or a city made purely from black lace and stockings.
Edward rolled his eyes as he read her thoughts, I was anxious to know what she had planning for us now. Alice came gliding gracefully as ever into the room and stopped in front of me.
" I assume I'm telling this to you only Bella as Edward probably read what I had planned the moment I stepped in here" she smiled sticking her tongue out at Edward
"Guess where we are all going!" Alice beamed.
Before she could answer Rosalie walked into the room and stopped by the bottom of the staircase, she turned to face us.
" Alice don't scream it at her or she wont want to come" Rosalie winked and smiled at me before disappearing upstairs. I was so glad me and Rose were friends now, no we were more, we were sisters and we loved each other just like me and Alice.
"right Rose, anyway" Alice said in a calmer voice " the 8 of us and that includes you and Edward are all going to Isle Esme on vacation!" this time Alice's voice wasn't calm she practically screamed with excitement. I sat there for a moment taking in what she said, I felt Edward's hand take mine gently. A smile spread across my face, I was actually suddenly excited about going to Isle Esme, I hadn't been there since the honeymoon and it would be great fun with everyone there.
"wow Alice its gonna be really great" I beamed as Alice pulled me out of Edward's arms and into her own.
" I know right!" she laughed " but Bella you do realize we are gonna have to go shopping tonight to get you some nice clothes" she warned holding back a giggle.
I groaned but looked down at the black leather pants and red jumper I was wearing, Alice was right I needed more beach-like clothes to wear. I mean who wears leather pants and jumpers on a beach.
"sure I guess I could rise my fashion up a lil" I sighed
"that's my Bella now go get ready you Rose and me are leaving in a few secs, don't worry, Edward, Emmet and Jasper have to get the boat ready and Carlisle and Esme have to seriously pack some supplies" Alice glimmered.
"Wait Alice what's the hurry?" I asked I watched Edward groan as he read Alice's mind and he squeezed my hand tighter.
" Well we are..leaving…tomorrow morning" Alice muttered knowing how I would react
"WHAT! What am…. I'm gonna have to call Charlie, call Renesmee and Jacob.." I shouted, I had still been seeing Charlie. He wasn't really surprised over the years when I never looked older or changed but then again he knew I was a vampire but never talked about it in fact he knew we all were.
"calm down Bella I already called them all you have to do is come shopping and pack a suit case" Alice laughed as she saw my expression.
Edward's arms wrapped round my waist and pulled me back onto him
"think of what a great time we will have on the island now your vampire and this time we can both lose control.." Edward whispered sexily kissing my neck.
"Don't be too long Bells me and Rose will be in the car" Alice informed as she walked out the glass doors. I turned back to Edward who stood up facing me, his arms still tight round my waist pulling me closer to his chest
"Don't worry love, have a nice time shopping its not too much trouble going to the island as Alice has already took care of it all, we just need to pack" Edward smiled twirling my hair in his fingers.
"I'm not actually worried about going to Isle Esme for once one of Alice's ideas has actually excited me besides you will be there, so much more fun for us" I giggled kissing Edwards chin, his arms tightened round me then dropped as the horn on Alice's car beeped.
"You better go, Alice is getting impatient, go shop until you drop…if that's the right saying" Edward chuckled pulling me towards the door. He quickly reached down and kissed me on my forehead then pushed me gently out the door smiling.
When we reached the mall in Port Angela's it was extremely packed for a Thursday evening people were everywhere rushing about, I was more than glad my bloodlust for humans had worn off by now. Alice took me and Rose to the best clothes shop. All the clothes in there seemed to be very…revealing.
The men on the desk gasped at us as we walked into the shop, I think everyone pretty much did. Before I could look at the clothes Alice and Rose had already picked me out loads of outfits and had pulled me into a huge changing room 3 people could easily fit in. I tried on all the clothes and did a funky catwalk while Rose and Alice judged if I should buy or toss some outfits I liked but would never come out alive if I wore them in front of Alice. I even tried on the lingerie mostly it was lace and corsets, and stockings I defiantly wasn't going to toss them if I was going to be with Edward.
Finally I did a funky pose wearing a scarlet halter neck dress and some scarlet jimmy choo wedges to wear with it. It looked surprisingly nice with my dark hair and pale skin.
"Wow" Alice gasped
"Bella seriously you would look like a supermodel if you wore red lipstick with that" Rosalie complemented smiling.
"thanks guys I'm gonna buy it and I'm gonna get the white set as well" I beamed.
The three of us walked out of the shop with linked arms like preppy teenagers, I was in the middle which I sort of enjoyed. When we got back to the house I caught Edward staring at the picture of us arm in arm from prom, me looking embarrassing in my leg cast and Edward looking like a male model standing there all irresistible. Edward was sat on the sofa with it in his hands. I walked over to him behind the sofa and put my arms round his neck
"That's my favourite picture, Edward in formal wear is enough to kill anybody" I whispered as I nipped his ear lobe.
" I would say that you looked the most mouth-watering ever in that dress…if I hadn't already seen you without anything on" He chuckled seductively, and he suddenly flipped me from behind him so I was laying with my back on the sofa. Edward lent over me pulling my legs up round his waist. I was regretting not wearing a skirt today. Edward chuckled then kissed me, I parted my lips to let his tongue inside.
"mmmm" He mumbled placing his hands on my back to push me closer to him.
I could feel his steal erection pushing into me as he pressed his self between my legs. My hands reached for his belt when suddenly Emmett jumped into the room
" go lover boy get yourself some of that!" he teased gesturing towards my chest.
Edward lowered me to go and punch Emmett but I jumped up faster and lunged at Emmett pinning him against the wall
"Bella pin me harder" Emmett teased and I jumped back off him and Edward punched him.
"c'mon guys take it easy, Bells you pin Edward all the time don't u wanna try me out I'd last longer than prude boy here"
Emmett laughed as he stood up. I loved Emmett I really did but It annoyed me cause he constantly went on about me and Edward's sex life, which evidently was going very well at the moment it was much better now we could both loose control and make out whenever we got the chance.
Edward's Pov
I growled as I red Emmett's thoughts. Emmett: wow Bella looks soo hot mmm.
I glared at Emmett and his thoughts stopped immediately. I knew Jasper and Emmett secretly had their own fantasies with Bella but I had never ever thought my sisters Alice and Rosalie were hot nor had I ever had a fantasy with either of them. In a way I couldn't blame Emmett what with Bella standing there so sexy in those tight leather pants, but he really should have a bit more self control Rosalie wouldn't be best pleased if she could read his thoughts. Bella walked back over to me and I wrapped my arm round her shoulder cuddling her into me, her hair smelt so beautiful it was making my mouth water. Bella reached up to kiss me, she seemed to like the fact that my mouth was watering and parted my lips looking for an entrence, she slid her tongue into my mouth. Bella pulled away when Esme entered the room but nestled her head closer to my chest. Esme: god the kids are fighting again lets hope Emmett gets some sense knocked into him. Typical Esme still addressing us as kids although she wasn't going to be terribly happy about the new pot Bella smashed Emmett into.
"Come on we need everything ready by tomorrow go pack, Emmett that way, Edward and Bella the other.
"yes please Edward we really should pack".
When we got back to our house it smelt nice, like a mixture of Bella and lavender.
I carried Bella's shopping bags to our room ready for us to pack, of coarse the packing only took a few minutes. Bella looked at the clock as I did, it was 8.00pm.
"I'm going to take a shower you wanna come?" she asked silently still not sure if I would say yes, I swear if she were still human she would have blushed.
"A shower sounds nice" I replied as I took her hand and led her towards the bathroom.
The second we got in the shower I started pulling her clothes off anxiously careful not to rip the leather pants after the last time I ripped her leather. Bella began fiddling with the buttons on my shirt and got quite frustrated eventually ripping it off me. I didn't mind when she ripped shirts off me it was always worth it. Bella tore down the zip of my pants and slid them down my legs, I shook them off and he quickly tore my boxer briefs too. We were stood completely naked. I was used to Bella's gorgeous body but I still couldn't stop myself from staring.
Bella giggled and stepped into the shower turning it on, I stepped in behind her and she reached for the soap. Seeing her in front of me made me want her badly, she started rubbing the soap on the flannel as though she was teasing and she began rubbing it down her body. Bella was trying to turn me on and hell it was working. I shuddered wanting her so bad then she rubbed the flannel over her breasts, I stared for a second and she glanced over her shoulder temptingly. I clasped my hand round her waist and turned her round facing me, pulling her hard against me. I could feel myself rubbing against her skin.
"Your tempting me" I whispered into her ear biting it softly
" hmmm would this be tempting you as well?" she whispered seductively and she slid elegantly to her knees in front of me, her mouth just inches away. I stared down at her in disbelief then lust as she gripped the base of my manhood and licked along the length. oh god baby I could stay like this forever.
Fuck it felt so good, I gasped and she began sucking moving her head back and forth in time with her hand. Fuck she was amazing. She began massaging me harder. I grabbed her wet hair holding it out of her face.
"mmm you taste so good" Bella mumbled, I pulled her up to face me so she was standing, Bella looked slightly shocked and somewhat hurt. I brushed my fingers across her cheek and chuckled reassuringly. This time I was the one bent down, I laid wet kisses down her stomach lower and lower but stopped at her hips. She stared down at me and raised one eyebrow. I pulled her legs from under her and she slipped to the bottom of the bath, I quickly slid my hand under her back so she didn't hurt herself on the bath.
"Edward you don't have to-"
"Bella I want to, I have to taste you" I grabbed both her legs and separated them, pulling both onto my shoulder. I bent my head down kissing her inner thigh and leaving a wet trail with my tongue along her soft pale skin.
" mmm I love that" Bella whispered, closing her eyes
" ah ah, I want you to look at me while I lick you" I smiled winking, Bella's eyes flashed open and she stared her black lustful eyes into my own
"as you wish"… she smiled seductively. She gasped as I licked her arousal and kissed hard sucking. I flickered my tongue over her.
"ughh!" Bella cried arching her back,
"Oh god! Edwaarrrdd don't stop! Please baby!" she shouted. I began sucking hard , she moaned as she knotted her hands in my hair grinding her hips with my face. Bella tasted soo good and my mouth watered over her making her groan. I slid my tongue inside her reaching her sweet point, keeping my lips attached to her.
"mmm Edward, ohh!" Bella cried, throwing her head back against the bathroom wall. " Edward oh god, yes!" she screamed
I looked up at her quickly and her eyes shut again and she sighed
Maybe we should take this to the bedroom" I whispered, her hands still gripping my hair. Before she could say another word I had swooped her off her feet and we were already on the bed.
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HP has your Google OS needs covered; new Chromebook 11 and 14-inch Android laptop
Starting with the less puzzling product, the update to HP's Chromebook is fairly minor, but is at least keeping pace with the competition. Battery life sees a slight increase to 6.5 hours. Again there's no shortage of comparable Chromebook options out there, but if you just have to make yours HP then this one will be available ... Read More »

subset: commoncrawl


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QUIP: Love fresh brats but they are not designed for a long life. Therefore, if you buy a package, which always have five in it – WHY? – you are likely to have cooked leftovers that are not as tasty as they are fresh-grilled.
Is there any way to use up those old brats in a tasteful way?
TIP: We are at the top of brat season and yes, there will be days when you open the fridge and find a few leftover ones staring back at you.
Day-old brats are not as delicious as their just-grilled former selves but, there is a terrific way to dress them so they can re-appear in another delicious dish – PIZZA!
Simply take whatever leftover brats you may have and either slice or cut them from their casing and crumble into bits. Place the meat in a freezer-safe container, mark what it contains and the date you are freezing it, and then store in freezer until the next time you make a pizza, a calzone, a pizza wrap, etc.
Almost any flavor brat will taste fabulous sprinkled across a pizza and this way you have a good three months to use it up!


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[This document comes from Helena Wojtczak's English Social History: Women of Nineteenth-Century Hastings and St.Leonards. An Illustrated Historical Miscellany, which the author has graciously shared with readers of the Victorian Web. Click on the title to obtain the original site, which has additional information.]
There was no little excitement at Wellington-square on Tuesday evening, when the first
open-air meeting took place. At eight o'clock a large crowd soon congregated,
composed of men, women and children. Miss Billing, of Bexhill, the speaker, was subjected
to constant interruptions... several ugly rushes were made towards the chair upon which
she was standing.
The little band of militants, including a few men supporters, managed to hold their own for while, but another rush nearly made Miss Billing lose her equilibrium. However, she clung to the electric light standard, and, with a smile on her face, went on to address the meeting, which by now had grown to several hundreds. Five minutes later another rush was made, carrying Miss Billing off her "perch". Someone managed to pull her to her feet, and immediately the air was filled with jeers, hisses, and laughter, and the little band of militants gradually moved down Albert-road, closely followed by the whole of the crowd.
[Several policemen] escorted them down Albert-road, Queens -road, and so to the starting point for the Bexhill trams. Bidding farewell to her friends, Miss Billing boarded a car amidst a STORM OF HISSES, mingled with applause... the chair at Wellington-square had been smashed up, pieces of which were taken away by "trophy hunters". An attempt to burn the impromptu platform was made, but this was prevented.
[ Newspaper report of a speech by Miss Billing, of the Women's Social & Political Union in The Hastings and St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser, 8 May 1913.]
Last modified 2000


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The Inside Man: Barney's Pop Art Loft
Location: Downtown Los Angeles
Style: Fun, artistic, modern loft
Barney's wall is going green! With the help of Valspar Paint, we're finishing the final details of our Los Angeles makeover and preparing for the reveal on Thursday.
Barney has a loft in Downtown LA, and I met with him last month to figure out how we could add color and personality to his home. As a newlywed, Barney wanted to make the space more comfortable and livable for himself and his wife, Evelyn. We've been rearranging furniture, painting the walls, and adding artwork to personalize this huge, open space. Here's a run-down of what we've accomplished so far.
Barney's loft has one huge wall that runs the length of the whole space. I wanted to use a warm tone to shake things up and bring some contrast to the mostly-neutral room. After flipping through the fan deck with Barney, we zeroed in on a couple of greens that had warm undertones and could work with his beige furniture. I sent him some samples, and once Barney tested them on his walls, he preferred the Gilded Pesto. We're using Holmes Cream, a rich beige, as a grounding neutral. To highlight the huge window (with an incredible view of downtown), we're going with a light gray — Cliveden Gray Morning.
The main wall and fireplace pre-paintPROJECT #1: WALLS, BIG WINDOW, & FIREPLACE
The loft has high ceilings, one BIG window, and lots of natural light, but it felt rough and unfinished. Adding color has helped a lot. The green wall differentiates the main living space from a bedroom in back, and the fresh coat of paint makes things feel much cleaner and more finished. To break up the expanse of green on the main wall, we also updated the fireplace with a new coat of Dove White 7002-7. Painter Alan Silverstein and his crew from All Los Angeles Painting did a really nice job. (Thanks, Alan!)
• Gilded Pesto - 6007-6B (main accent wall)
• Holmes Cream - 3004-10B (neutral walls)
• Cliveden Grey Morning - 6001-1B (window trim)
My floorplan for Barney's loft
On my last visit to Barney's, we rearranged his existing furniture to create a conversational area and a place to watch television at one end of the loft. A dining table now anchors the middle of the room (to be replaced with a more modern style that will go with the rest of the room), and Barney's office is at the far end.
Barney and Evelyn rearranging furniture
Once the wall color went up, it was immediately apparent that curtains and rugs would be the next thing to give the loft a more comfortable, lived-in feeling, so our stylist, Joe Maer, has been shopping for those final layers.
Look for a full resource list on Thursday.
- Furniture — Barney found a local company, InMode Home, where we've bought a lot of furniture, including a new console, dining table, dining chairs, and side table.
- Curtains — We couldn't find standard curtains that would fit the giant window, so we're having them custom made.
- Living room rug — We created a large rug by piecing together two smaller ones.
- Accessories — These are going to be a mix of IKEA and local shops.
- Artwork — Barney has a sharp eye for artwork, and he found a local gallery, Hold Up Art, where he's chosen some original paintings by emerging LA artists.
This loft is going to be great...I can't wait to share the final pics on Thursday :)
We've teamed up with Valspar Paint to create The Inside Man, a special feature dedicated to daily (Monday — Friday) posts from Apartment Therapy and GQ about men's color conundrums and style questions. From sofas with cup holders to brilliant bachelor pads, we're focusing on the décor dilemmas men often bring to us.
• Barney's Pop Art Loft: Phase 2 - The Prescription
• Barney's Pop Art Loft: Phase 1 - Local Inspiration
• Read more about guy style at theinsideman.apartmenttherapy.com.
• Check out GQ's guide to guy style at gq.com/theinsideman.
Photos: Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, Barney Santos


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Vikings to Host Super Bowl?
Earlier this week, we passed the 21st anniversary of the one and only Super Bowl to be played in Minneapolis - Super Bowl XXVI, Redskins 37 Bills 24 - January 26, 1992.
Since that day, there seems to have been little or no interest from the NFL in bringing the game back to Minneapolis - until now.
Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley told KFAN 100.3 this morning:
We are in hot pursuit of Super Bowl 2018. We have a very good shot at it.
What's changed? The new Vikings stadium of course. It's scheduled to open in 2016 on the existing Metrodome site.
East Rutherford, New Jersey will host the Super Bowl next year. Arizona will get the 2015 game. The NFL will announce the host of the 2016 game later this spring.


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University of Toronto library leader Mary Ann Mavrinac has been named Vice Provost and Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester, effective June 1.
"We are delighted to welcome such a dynamic and innovative colleague to guide our libraries," said Joanna Olmsted, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and chair of the search committee for the new dean. "Mary Ann has a well-earned reputation for creating inspiring learning spaces, for developing critical new digital services, and for thinking strategically about the rapidly evolving field of information science."
Mavrinac brings to the position a decade of experience as chief librarian at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus, part of the University of Toronto Libraries that are ranked 3rd among academic research libraries by the Association of Research Libraries. She was selected by the Association of Research Libraries in 2007-2008 as one of the 23 fellows for Research Library Leadership development, and in 2010 served as the president of the Ontario Library Association, Canada's largest library association. She lectures widely on the future of libraries in the digital era and has published on such topics as the "The E-book turning point: When/will e-books eclipse print?" and "Opening up the textbook market."
"Mary Ann is the perfect match for Rochester," said Ralph Kuncl, provost of the University of Rochester. "In addition to her many accomplishments, she is deeply committed to nurturing an environment of learning and to professional development for staff, which is essential to the continued success of our libraries in this digital age. I thank Joanna Olmsted as an extraordinary chair, our entire search committee, and Trustee advisors for conducting the ideal search. The University is the beneficiary of this unparalleled service," he said.
Mavrinac was selected following a nine-month search that included extensive advertising, wide solicitation of nominations, and individual contacts of more than 300 individuals by the professional search firm of Witt/Kieffer to identify qualified candidates. A 17-member University search committee, comprised of faculty and representatives from across the institution, reviewed the final pool of 31 candidates, eventually bringing five finalists to campus. "We were fortunate to have such an outstanding group of highly qualified finalists, with Mavrinac ultimately emerging unmistakably as the University's top choice," said Olmsted.
At Toronto, Mavrinac spearheaded the planning and oversaw the completion of the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre, a state-of-the-art facility that since its opening in 2006 has become the academic hub of the campus, attracting more than 1.3 million visits per year. The center was recognized with an innovation achievement award from the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries and is now slated for a major expansion that will build upon such innovative spaces as the research garden project and technology discovery area.
On the digital front, Mavrinac has supervised support for the digital humanities, open access, and scholarly communications. Her team provides academic support for the campus Blackboard learning management system, and is the go-to institution for video, podcasting, and emerging technologies.
To help students navigate the brave new world of databases and other online resources, Mavrinac led the development of an undergraduate credit course on scholarly research, now called Foundations of Information Studies and her library reaches out to individual instructors to provide support in the classroom for information literacy.
At Rochester, Mavrinac will assume leadership of a library system with an excellent reputation for innovation and user-centered approaches. Libraries nationally and internationally have adopted Rochester's anthropological approach to studying patrons to guide the creation of services and physical spaces that meet the changing needs of students and researchers. The River Campus Libraries also are pioneers in the development of new online tools for academics, such as the University's digital repository for storing and sharing research, IR Plus, which is freely available to other institutions.
Mavrinac succeeds Susan Gibbons, who left in July 2011 to lead the Yale University Library. Currently, Katie Clark and Michael Bell are the Interim Co-Deans of River Campus Libraries.
Before joining the University of Toronto, Mavrinac was head librarian of the D. B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario Libraries. She holds both a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of education from the University of Toronto. She earned a master of library science from the University of Western Ontario and in 2006 completed her doctorate in educational leadership and change from the Fielding Graduate University. She will be joined in Rochester by her husband, Peter van Schie, who is in the flower bulb industry.


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Learning in the Digital Age: The Reality and the Myth
Let me tell you story of the great bear. It's a story from First Nations People who lived near where I was born in Canada, the Iroquois people. It's a story from long ago.
They didn't have very much. They had a small community around a campfire. They lived on deer and rabbit.
Time passed and a great bear came to plague their campground. Every day when they woke up, they could see the tracks of the bear around their campsite. The bear was eating all the game, eating all the deer, eating all the rabbits. The people began to starve.
They sent hunters out to shoot the bear, but when they shot bows and arrows at the bear, the arrows just bounced off. The bear would kill the warriors. One or two would straggle back and say, "The bear killed us." They were getting desperate and they didn't know what to do.
Finally, three warriors on the same night had the same dream. They said, "I dreamed that I killed the great bear. I dreamed that we went together and we shot the bear. The bear bled and the bear died."
The chief decided that it's a spirit dream; it must be true. He sent the three warriors, even though they were his best three warriors.
They went out and they shot the bear. They were able to draw blood. They chased the bear. The bear was bleeding. They continued to chase around and around, but they never caught the bear.
To this day, when you look up in the fall sky, you can see the stars, three hunters chasing the bear. You know that they're chasing the bear because the leaves all turn red, which is the blood of the bear that they shot.
It's through the creation of myths that we talk to each other. Our myths are not just explanations of where the stars come from or why the leaves turn red. They're the expressions of the full range of human emotion, from human reason to irony, to anger, to argument, to explanation.
We speak in myth because reality is ineffable. It cannot be expressed in words. All language is, as in the first instance, based in myth, based in some idealization, some abstraction.
We forget this. We think today as though what we say expresses reality in some way. It's as though our words were fully and literally true, but this is seldom the case. Even the words themselves are metaphors, capturing reality through myth.
You might think, how can this be? When you look at language itself, you can see this. There's a French word, croc. I'm picking French because it's not English and it's not Estonian. It's neutral. You can think of your own language and see if this is true.
We have the French word croc, which means tooth or fang, something crooked, something hooked. We have the idea of the crocodile, an animal with fangs. We have in French the idea of crochet, and to crochet is to create a rug using hooks. We have the idea of entre crochet in French, between the brackets, between the hooks. You have crochet a bouton, or button hooks, the things you use. Or, in French, a crochet du gauche, a right hook.
You see this over and over, in French and in other languages, how the single root morphs and twists. The single concept creates the image that underlies all of our concepts into the future.
We comprehend the future in terms of what we understand today. This is the basis of the origin of these myths. This is really important to understand.
When we start talking about what cannot be known we lose our place or we experience only confusion. We are lost in a swirl of chaos. It's chaos that, in fact, characterizes all reality.
We project our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs, our features onto the chaos. This is how we understand the chaos. We look at the chaos and we see ourselves. In seeing ourselves in the chaos, we comprehend the chaos, but it's a myth. A lot of the time these patterns, these projections, are primal and basic like bears, like tragedy, like fangs and hooks.
At the same time, as we try to comprehend the future, we also make the future. We strive to make tomorrow safe and comfortable as it was for us in the past, or at least a mythical past ‑‑ a hearth, a home, a story, a family, a community. Another myth.
Sisyphus, you may know, sought to cheat death and he succeeded.
But he was caught by the gods and punished by being sentenced to push the boulder up the hill forever.
When he gets the boulder to the top of the hill, of course, the boulder rolls down the hill. He goes down the hill after it, and has to push the boulder up, and so on for the rest of time.
"The Myth of Sisyphus," it's very famous, very well known.
When we worry about the future, when we worry about the Internet, when we worry about e‑learning it's not because we don't know what to expect, it's not the unknown. It's because when we project into the future, we project a future like "The Myth of Sisyphus." We project a future that has been taken away from us by some nameless form, e‑learning, and replaced with pointless labour at the service of the gods.
In a future that's constantly changing, a future that we can never comprehend, a future where our degrees mean nothing a year or two years after we got them. That's a future we saw described just yesterday. It appears to be a future where we have no hope like Sisyphus.
In such a scenario, e‑learning does not appear to be a solution at all. Rather, it seems to be a surrender, a ceding of our authority, our independence and our autonomy.
One thinks of Adam Curtis' videography "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace." If you're not familiar with it, I certainly recommend you look it up and set aside several hours.
What Curtis is saying is the Internet age brings us into an age where we lose our independence and autonomy and become parts in this large machine, that our contribution to knowledge is beyond our control, that there is no room for the individual, the thinker, the creator, the idealist. The only future is the one that's created as society as a whole that is, as Curtis says, all watched over by these machines.
Some would have a say it's a future that we have to accept. Camus would say, "The struggle itself is enough to fill man's heart." One must imagine Sisyphus as happy.
These days we say, "Well, at least Sisyphus has a job." We forget. We forget that Sisyphus achieved his objective. He set out to defy death, and in the end that's what he got, but it was at the cost of eternal labour. It's this cost that makes us wary.
When people point to things and say, "It's just a myth, you're wrong," it's almost like they're asking us to surrender to this inevitability like Sisyphus. What we hope and dream has no meaning or, worse, will be realized and shown not to be gold, but to be worthless dross.
It's funny how most myths seem to finish this way. The hunter forever chasing the golden bear, Sisyphus forever pushing the boulder up the hill.
For all that, we never stop creating these myths. We never stop trying to understand the world, trying to comprehend the world by drawing pictures, telling stories and imagining what it could be.
Steve Wheeler tells us the idea of the digital natives or the net generation is a myth. Of course it's a myth. It's just a story that Don Tapscott tells and you should not believe that what Don Tapscott tells is true. It's a myth. We shouldn't think of it as true.
It's also a way of understanding the world and that's the value we need to draw from it. It's a way of saying that our children are different from us. They have different experiences, they have different ways of seeing the world, they are different people.
Simply saying, "This is a myth," washes all of that under the bridge, reassures us that our view of the world is on solid ground. Why worry about change? It's all just illusion, it's all just a myth. You may have dreams, but the reality is it's all just a myth.
We are warned by the story of Adam and Eve; we are warned by the story of Prometheus, who stole the secret of fire from the gods, to be aware of the dangers of too much knowledge. As Plutarch, so we are told, says, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."
Again, we can look at these myths as not-real representations of the story of creation or the story of the discovery of fire. Or we can look at these myths as cautions, not against education in general, but against a certain approach to education.
We can see these myths as telling us, with some clarity, that knowledge is not something simply to be consumed, like an apple, that knowledge is not something that can be stolen from the gods like fire. I thought Christian Port yesterday expressed this really well. I think we were all interested to hear his presentation.
"Imagine," he said, "we built a robot." I love the myth making in the middle of a talk.
"Imagine," he said, "we built a robot and sent it to a planet where there's something we need like some ore. We programmed the robot, the more you mine the better you feel." Remember that?
The robot learns, over time, to know itself. It comes to realize that there's a button that makes it feel better, so instead of learning how to mine the ore, it learns how to press the button.
Port asks, "What is it that motivates a human being to develop, to move on?" He says, "It's in the central nervous system where we get dopamine. We press the dopamine button and the outcome becomes a culture of cheating." It's like artificial sweetener. It's like caffeine. I love caffeine. It's like drugs, it's like green, it's like Facebook friends, it's like e‑learning.
The concern that e‑learning is this thing that our myths warn us about. It's a shortcut. It's the pressing of the button. It's the activation of the dopamine, but it's not really the learning.
What is this feeling? It gives us a confused feeling. The myth gives us two elements. It's an expression of what we want, but it's a warning about getting what we want too easily.
Steve Wheeler talking about myths, I counted seven in all. I probably could have kept going. You analyze his talk; all of his myths really are cautions against the easy score.
Consider what he says about learning styles. They're a lot of nonsense. You'll read that. There's all kinds of studies that say learning styles are nonsense.
He says, "There is one true thing. There are as many learning styles as there are people. The problem," he says quite accurately, "with learning styles is they try to pigeon-hole students into categories. They try to define students by the activities you impose on them based on what you believe as teachers."
If we think about learning styles as the magic shortcut to more effective learning, we are deluding ourselves. Even if it is true that people learn differently, and it is true that people learn differently, we don't achieve magical results simply by catering to that.
A learning style isn't a shortcut to memory because learning isn't about remembering at all. It's a myth, but it's useful. It's a myth that tells us, that warns us, that not all of our students are the same. They're not going to react the same, and most importantly, they're not like us.
There's a deeper lesson here that Wheeler touched on when he noted that learning styles motif had been visited over and over by people like Mumford and COLT. We could add Gregorc, Myers‑Briggs. We can also add that the stage‑based learning models, Piaget, Bloom, method‑based approach in Gagne, or I saw this morning the SECI model from Nonaka and Takeuchi ‑‑ I'm never good at pronouncing names ‑‑ described by Carayannis.
All of these things where learning is described by slicing and dicing, categorizing, drawing into stages, outlining a process. It's the same model in each case where we're taking something very complex and trying to find little bits in it. We're going to try to study these little bits, these little segments, these little categories and that will be the shortcut to understanding the difficult process of learning.
It's modeling. That's fine if we understand that modeling is myth making. In general, the approach of trying to pigeonhole students, pigeonhole stages of learning or whatever leads to methodology. It leads to, on the one hand, a struggle to understand the world, albeit without science, and on the other hand, an attempt to realize our objectives more simply, more easily, an attempt to create a shortcut.
It's nonsense to say that there are no categories. There are categories. The world is filled with categories. What it's nonsense to say is that these categories are fundamental to learning, that they express the fundamental nature of perception. It's nonsense to say this categorization will, by itself, magically lead to some new understanding as though our mythical categorizations somehow expose the nature of reality.
We do not make things simpler by multiplying entities. We do not make things clearer by breaking them down into parts, though we are tempted to do so.
Today's candidate for breaking things into parts and making them simpler, so‑called, is competencies, as though we can understand the really difficult nature of mathematics by understanding 10 subsets of mathematics or whatever. In my mind, searching for competencies is taking one really difficult problem and breaking it down into 10 really difficult problems.
Another myth. I was up this morning preparing this presentation, watching the news in English. You may have seen this if you were listening in English.
You may have actually seen this commercial from DuPont and this is a quote. "The need for science‑based solutions is more pressing, as is the collaboration to find them. Coming together is how we will better protect the Earth and the billions on it."
So says DuPont. So says, in her own way, Alison Littlejohn. She tells us, "People first connect, then they consume and use the knowledge, then they create new knowledge, an artefact, a conversation, a trace, etc."
She gave us the use case of Sally, the new chemist, who has to create a new substrate for drilling a new type of rock. I don't know what that means because I don't know much about drilling. She needs to create a new tech. I'm drawing that from "Star Trek."
She says that you draw from a whole range of different resources. You also draw from knowledge of different range of people and, at any point, you may be working as an individual, group, network, collective, etc. You connect, create, contribute, or you join with others with similar goals. This turns out to be central to the presentation.
"What are the binding forces," she asks, "that draw people or resources together?" Via social constructivism, people communicate via knowledge objects. People communicate working in networks, etc.
I'm sitting there. I'm asking myself, how do I understand this? I can't understand it literally. She's talking about binding forces that draw us together as though we must succumb to being joined together by some external force like what, gravity?
The myth somewhere through the talk has become the reality. She says, "We need something, an object, that brings people together, but what is this object? In turning, we use a goal as that object." I loved this. I really did.
There's in English two words, objective and objective, and object and object. You can have an object, which is a thing, or you can have an object, which is a goal. You have the same word with two different meanings and it's interesting to see how the two different meanings slide together here.
We have very traditional outcomes of this, various social objects such as work or learning activities, reports, patient health case report, common problems, learning goals, things that would be familiar to us from 20 years ago. The myth making has served its purpose and brought us back to the comfortable and familiar.
There's another myth you may be familiar with. It's the story of King Midas.
King Midas was a very greedy king, as you know, and was granted a wish based on a most thoughtless fantasy that everything he touches turns into gold.
Of course, he starts turning things into gold.
Everything seems really good until his daughter comes for a goodnight kiss. He gives her a little kiss and his daughter turns to gold.
As the web page where I got this from, "Freezes solid like an Oscar statue." I love the way they use metaphor in order to describe a myth.
Midas pleads to the gods for nullification. He's able to wash away his gift and lives a virtuous life thereafter.
We can read the myth very superficially. You don't always want what you wish for, or some things are worth more than gold.
I draw a slightly deeper lesson, or at least to me it's deeper. I'm going to say it's deeper because it's me. We often hear about gold of one sort or another described as a prescription for everybody.
I was thinking of Stephen Harris's school and these terms that he described it just before this talk. Imagine if everybody had Stephen Harris's school. Would that even be possible? Would it make sense or would it bankrupt the education system? Can you imagine the furniture companies giving every school furniture? Who would they sell to?
It's not just that. In the North American context, there's this idea that everybody should learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or the so‑called STEM courses, but if everybody learns science and technology, nobody's an artist.
It's not that there's no art in the world after that, there's no conception of art. There's no way to represent art because we've lost the words. It does not scale, cannot scale.
The principle of the categorical imperative tells us when somebody prescribes something as a solution, to imagine everybody in the world adopting that solution and then to ask whether it makes sense.
Everything turning to gold does not make sense. Everything turning into that one special school does not make sense. Everything turning into science, technology, engineering and mathematics does not make sense.
Sameness is a myth. Sameness is the shortcut. We think, we are tempted to think, if everything could be the same, it would be so much easier. It's inevitable, as we learn from Prometheus, that in our efforts to make everything the same, we destroy everything that we value and we come to discover that sameness is meaningless without that value.
It's classic myth formation. The approaching presence of some evil or danger, globalization, the end of energy, I don't know, too many penguins. The only way to respond to that danger is to become part of the whole, to work as a team, to subsume our personal interests.
Why, I would ask, should we suppose that sameness or subsumption to the whole will solve the problem? Why is the push to collaboration, shared objectives, shared goals, somehow the answer to whatever it is that's coming on us?
There was a comment. Somebody made a comment in the session just before this one. There are too many convening theories, incommensurable vocabularies, and we could solve this if we had one vocabulary and one theory. That would fix that.
I remember the RSS standards wars of the late `80s, early `90s. RSS was a syndication format and there were too many different flavours of RSS.
Somebody said, "Let's create a new standard and there will be just one standard covering them all. We'll call it Atom." Then after that we had RSS and Atom, two different standards.
Then somebody said, "Let's create one standard that will bridge the gap between RSS and Atom." Then we had three standards, and so it goes.
The attempt to standardize creates multiplicity. Myths of conformity, as though conformity makes better.
In 1793 they came up with the idea of interchangeable parts. Eli Whitney first put this into practice in the manufacture of muskets. Saying this really worked, it created more guns. We had the idea that in the long run, if we have sameness of production, all the changes that need to be managed by management.
Here's something from Duncan Kennedy. "Legal education is training for hierarchy. Because students believe what they are told explicitly and implicitly about the world they are entering, they behave in ways that fulfill the prophecies the system makes about them and the world. This is the link‑back that completes the system. Students do more than accept the way things are and ideology does more than damp opposition. Students act affirmatively within the channels cut for them, cutting them deeper, giving the whole patina of consent, and weaving complicity into everyone's life story.
It's Sisyphus all over again. Sameness simply brings us back to doing the same thing over and over again at, if you will, the behest of the gods. If we lose our difference we lose our meaning.
George Orwell put it well. "It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete soaring up terrace after terrace 300 meters into the air. From where Winston stood, it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering the three slogans of the party. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
Sameness breaks down the distinctions we need even to have a goal, or an ambition or a dream.
An Indian legend, again.
I'm sure you're all familiar with this legend, the six men of Hindustan who went to see the elephant. The problem was, these men were blind and so they could not see the elephant.
Each man touched the elephant.
One man touched the side of the elephant and said, "It's huge like a wall."
Another man touched the tusk of the elephant and said, "It's sharp like a spear."
Another one touched the ear of the elephant and he said, "It's flat and floppy like a leaf."
Another one touched the trunk of the elephant and he said, "It's like a snake."
The myth ends with these men fighting amongst each other, each of them sure because they had the experience for themselves of what the elephant was like.
Of course, as the myth tells us, none of them were wrong, but none of them were right.
It's interesting where Janssen is talking about in omnia, talking about it being lifelong learning, serendipity, but also entrepreneurship, e‑learning, m‑learning, etc., helping people meet their goals. She points to, I think quite correctly, adding value by combining competencies.
She said, "In Nokia, they hired only engineers and that's where their problem started." What they tried to do instead was to bring together people who were young, people who were old, people who were students, people who were professionals. I think that was a good idea.
The idea here was that people would do their learning in context, so it would have real meaning for them. They would have opportunities to succeed and to fail, where the intent was to bring out the expertise in everyone, the different types of expertise.
The other side of her story was that these teams were to be entrepreneurial. They were to create entities that would compete in a marketplace. We have also in this picture this myth of the marketplace, this myth of the commercial approach solving the problems that the management approach cannot solve. It's the invisible hand of the marketplace, the myth created by Adam Smith. Surely, we don't think that this is real.
I ran in my newsletter just the other day a report showing that study after study has looked for evidence that the marketplace moves forward toward some advantage, some stable position, some progress, but there is no built‑in advantage to the invisible hand of the marketplace. The invisible hand of the marketplace is a myth. There is no guiding hand. There's just chaos.
Here's a model for understanding this chaos. It's just a myth, but it's a good myth. It will help us see through some of these other myths. It's called the TIMN theory, tribes, institutions, markets and networks. It describes the evolution of organization over the years. It may well be familiar to many of you.
It also describes forms of learning. When you think of tribes and apprenticeships in the same light, institutions representing the model of professors, scholars and scholarship. Markets representing the model of arguments, debate, the clashes of ideas, classes, categories and theories, etc., and networks as communications. I put in my notes here creativity.
The first two models are built on a kind of sameness, the sameness of genetics, the sameness of family. The last two are based on types of diversity. One type of diversity results in Atomism. The other type of diversity results in networks.
Putting somebody into entrepreneurship programs is putting them into competitive markets. It's preparing them for, I would say, the world of the 1990s, the world before the Internet, the world before we began communicating with each other in these networks.
It's interesting. Steve Wheeler talking about the flipped classroom, talking about the real flip, the flip toward what he called bear pit pedagogy, having them fight it out, debate it, arguing from both sides.
I listen to that and I think of the competitive market approach. Having students argue and debate is like having students try to create companies, try to compete against each other and, again, preparing for the market model of the 1990s.
What I want to say about myths is the same thing that I want to say about learning. It's that the content of the story is, for all practical purposes, irrelevant. That doesn't mean that there's no content. It just means that the content is the thing that moves the learning forward.
What matters in learning is not what is said, but how it is said. As McLuhan would say, the meaning is, in fact, in the message or, maybe to paraphrase him a bit, the meaning is in the mode of the message.
The TIMN model, again, different ways of teaching. The tribe model, story by the campfire. The institution model, a lecture by a university professor. The markets model, a shouting debate. The network model, a conversation.
People like Weinberger and others tried to say this in the "Cluetrain Manifesto," markets are conversations. What he should have said, in my mind, is that our markets are becoming networks. Competition is becoming conversation.
Networks aren't a shortcut, either. Networks aren't the magic solution any other than markets are the magic solution, any more than professors are the magic solution. Networks have to avoid two forms of what might be called network death.
On the one hand, collapsing into sameness. That might be called the collaborative principle where every entity in the network becomes the same and, consequently, all dialogue, all meaning, ceases.
On the other hand, the network has to avoid disintegration into atoms. That might be called the competitive principle where the network falls apart. Both the social and the individual are forms of network death. What we want is that happy middle ground where the network is dynamic and capable of reacting, adapting and adjusting to the future.
I've tried to describe in my own work methodological principles that allow networks to do this. Of course, these are myths as well, but they're practical myths. As long as we don't think of them as describing reality, we can use them the way we can use other myths. The principles are autonomy, diversity, openness and interactivity.
It's interesting when we look at the myths, when we look at the myths that I've talked about so far in this talk, that in many cases, arguably all of the cases, the myths are warning us against abandoning diversity, against abandoning openness. They warn us against trying to make everything the same. They warn us against trying to determine the objectives, the goals, the values of people.
In my own work with a number of my colleagues, people like George Siemens, David Cormier, Rita Kop and others, we've created a type of online learning called the MOOC, or massive open online course. What a MOOC is, is a recognition. It is first of all a recognition that there are no shortcuts, that we are not going to try to design e‑learning as simply a faster way of cramming content into people's heads.
That would be failing to heed the lessons from the past, the lessons that go all the way back to Prometheus, Sisyphus and the rest. A MOOC in the parlance of this talk is about creating a future, not succumbing to it. Kristjan Korjus talked about the open organization of the students at Tartu. This is the same principle, only applied to a single course.
Success in the course is what you determine it to be. Participation in the course is what you want it to be. There is no content in the course. There are topics. We talk about different things. Each week we may bring in a guest or we may talk about some concept or idea, but it's a lot like the artist that was described, I forget which talk it was. I think it was Stephen Harris's.
The artist, instead of teaching his students how to paint, went to the class and painted and led his class all the way through the process from painting all the way to hanging it in the gallery. Yeah, it was Steve Harris.
The content is like that. It's what the instructor does, but it's not something that the student has to consume and memorize. There is no content or, conversely, there's too much content. The student needs to navigate or learn to navigate through this by connecting with themselves, by connecting with other people.
The idea here isn't to teach content, but to start as a starting point for our thinking. You might ask, what's the purpose, what's the objective if there is no content? There is no purpose. There is no objective. More accurately, each person decides what their own purpose is. The idea here is to promote diversity and promote autonomy.
There is a process that we talk about and recommend. It's only talked about and recommended, it's not required, of aggregation, remix, re‑purpose, feed forward. Very similar to what Alison's proposal talked about, but without filtering, without creating, without evaluation.
I was going to say I'm more interested in people creating, but that would be incorrect. I'm more interested in people conversing with each other, using objects to express their hopes, their fears, their ideas, their dreams, creating their own myths.
Not pedagogy, there is a way of talking about the skills that would be required to flourish in such an environment. I sometimes talk about them under the rubric of critical literacies.
They range all the way from the skills involved in arguing, as Steve talked about, to skills involved in recognizing patterns, motifs, principles, organizations. Also, the pragmatics, the use of symbols and images, the context, the placement, and the frame in our world view and understanding change, dynamics, evolution, and prediction in this environment.
These are skills you don't get in front of a classroom, say, "OK, we'll start with skill number one, part A." These are skills you acquire only in an environment where you see them and you acquire them by doing them, by practicing in them, by conversing, using the language in which these skills demonstrate success.
I'll finish off with one more myth.
It's a story by Arthur C. Clark called "The Nine Billion Names of God."
There were some monks in the Himalayas. They'd been working for the last 300 years and they developed a new language. They're laboriously writing down, one by one, each of the nine billion names of God.
It's calculated it will take them another 13,000 years to finish.
When some Westerners arrive at their monastery and they talk about computers, the monks think and the Westerners think this could be a really good shortcut.
We could get the computers to write out all the names of God for us. That's what they do. They set up computers.
The Westerners are very careful because what's going to happen after you write out the nine billion names of God? Well, nothing.
The Westerners set up the computer to print out the names of all the nine billion names of God, but to finish printing only after they've left so the monks won't be mad at them.
The story ends with the Westerners are climbing down the hill and the computer finishes churning out all the nine billion names of God.
They're walking down the mountain. They look up and, one by one, very simply, the stars are all going out without any fuss.
I was thinking about Arthur Harkins' talk, cyborgs and preparing for the Information Age, preparing for the 1970s, and thinking about preparing for an age when computers take over. That's the future I was asked in the previous session, what's the future you most fear? It's the future where the nine billion humans are each, one by one, replaced by a computer.
It's conceivable. We can think about it, but you know that there's a new myth here as well.
The myth is that, one by one, each human is replaced by a machine, nine billion of them. After all this time, the machines are able to have perfect conversation with each other, no ambiguity, no misunderstanding, an ideal language, complete comprehension. They discover with all the humans gone there's nothing left to talk about.
We can imagine a future filled with machines. We can't imagine a future without meaning. We have to continually hope for the impossible, not the possible, because if our ambitions were actually achieved, it would be a disaster.


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In the proper spirit of American Capitalism, my friends and I compared educational and professional goals as we caught up over the holidays. Among my family and friends, professions range from attorneys to businessmen to engineers and doctors. Conversations in relation to what we do, or will do, become filled with complicated jargon and concepts and my friends justify the many years and dollars they have spent going to school. IQs and egos are stoked as I sit quietly to the side. As they become bored with comparing themselves to each other, they turn to me, "So Josh, what are you going to do?" I shrug and smile, "I'm going to make people fat and happy for a living."
Ever since I was young I have been in the kitchen. I've never thought anything of it until recently, but even at a young age I was cooking. I realized just the other day that I used to plate my lunches when I was young. Most six or seven year olds, when making a peanut and jelly sandwich, make a mess that produces a sandwich in some shape or form and then eat the sandwich as it is. As a child, I would make the sandwich, cut it, clean it up and cut an apple or peel an orange to go with it. I would then plate my lunch on small plates. The sandwich would lay nice and neat on one side of the plate and I would put the fruit on the other, ready to serve. I was six and did not have any experience going out to restaurants but I would take the time to plate the meal I was about to eat.
Hippocrates stated, "Let food be thy medicine…" At the end of a long and hard day, I think a good meal is the greatest medicine available. Too many people turn to drink when there are so many other options because they don't want to take the time to make a meal that they will truly enjoy. Why not have something to satisfy the appetite with that glass of scotch or whiskey?
My first job in a restaurant was as a dishwasher. I had little contact with customers and, at the time, I didn't mind. Then I was moved to the counter and work took on a completely different meaning for me. I learned quickly how much fun it was to have regulars, getting to know them and their preferences. This is when I saw the first experienced the power of familiarity and good customer service when coupled with good food. It wasn't unusual to have someone come in after a bad day or meeting and I would have food and a smile waiting for them. I was able to talk to them and bring a smile to their faces as they enjoyed a good meal; that smile meant everything to me.
I've had a good day at work when I know I have made someone's day brighter. The thing that has kept me going throughout the long hours and impossible weekends is the look on the host or hostess' face when they turn to me and say, "Thank you." That's all I ever need. I have made their day better by doing what I love to do. These are the reasons that I have chosen this line of work. Good food has the power to turn something boring or dull into something enjoyable and fun. Presentation can set the mood for any function, even with the drabbest décor, and can turn a frown upside down. Yes, there is money to be made in this industry but what I look for are the smiles, the "thank yous", and the knowledge that I was able to make someone's day better through the medicine of good food.
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Sophie's Choice: Your John Hancock, please?
"I think the newspaper should do an investigative report on the vague so-and-so, because they vaguely did such-and-such and it's ruined my life. I'm not signing this letter, as I am well known in this area and the so-and-so is out to get me for such-and-such and it it's just, like, mean. Did I mention they ruined my life? Go get em'!" Excuse my flippancy, but there is legitimate reasoning behind it. More often then not, we get valid, interesting news tips from individuals that we follow up on. Sometimes that information results in a news story, sometimes it doesn't. Nevertheless, we appreciate those who do bring them to our attention. We're a small news staff and we have only gotten smaller in my short tenure at the Statesman-Examiner. Whether times are prosperous or problematical, it's gratifying to know that our readers have our backs. So on that note, allow me to address my opening satirical paragraph. I mean no disrespect to those who come to us with compelling storylines, so I ask that you take this with the esteem in which it is given: please, for the love of ballpoint, sign your name to letters you send us. Anonymous is for the protection of minors and weekly A.A. groups. We are not the New York Times; we do not have the staff or the time to follow up on news tips given to us by nameless, secretive individuals. I feel comfortable in saying that I've lost track of the number of letters that have been sent to me over the years with no name or contact information adorning the script, but I know how many times I have followed up on them. Goose egg. Zip. Zero. Wait, I take that back. There was one letter sent to me not too long ago where the reader kindly suggested I could focus my column on more noteworthy topics, citing several different local storylines I might pursue (apparently, they were having trouble with the distinction between the editorial section and news, but that's okay). It's a common issue—editorial (opinion content) vs. hard, unbiased news. A lot of folks don't know the difference. The maddening part was that they did not provide any names in connection with the story ideas, nor did they leave their own moniker and contact information for me to inquire about how I could get in touch with any of these interesting potential interviewees. My powers are many, but I am not a mind reader. Other times, we get letters chock full of conspiracy theory gone so wild, even Ray Bradbury would say, "Whoa, keep a lid on it, man." The authors of this particular brand of correspondence usually do not sign their name because apparently they are under the impression that we (yes, I do have an editor) have an epistle-sniffing dog under the desk that will track them down and reveal their whereabouts to whichever entity is out to get them this week. I swear we are not the mafia; we are not "in the pocket" of the FBI, ATF, CIA, YMCA, KFC, GOP, DEMS or any other acronym for that matter. Despite rumors you may have heard and letters to the editor stating it outright, we are not strictly right wing, left wing, or Pegasus wings, for that matter. Besides, think of it this way: if the jet trails in the sky are really out to poison you and just you specifically (and that comes from a real anonymous letter I received), then you have way bigger problems than your hometown newspaper is capable of dealing with. I like to think our staff is skilled and competent, but none of us looks like Superman when we take our glasses off (all though I've been told I look like Hailey Mills). So if you have a story that you think the newspaper should cover, share it with us. Like I said, we don't guarantee that it will materialize into a story, but it doesn't hurt to try. After all, what's the point of writing an article if no one reads it? Just do us a favor if you write a letter and include your John Hancock. To those who have taken the time to read through this, I dig comments, criticism, or any excuse that allows me to check my email. So if you would like to vent or share, please send questions and whatnot to email@example.com.


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Formula One teams ready to be put to the test
Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo will have more than a moment's hesitation in answering his mobile if Felipe Massa rings on Tuesday.
The memory of last year, when the Brazilian Formula One driver called him from the Jerez test track to give his first impressions of Ferrari's new car on day one, is still painful 12 months on.
"President, it's a disaster here," was the gist.
"I wouldn't wish a call like that on my worst enemy," Montezemolo said at the launch of his team's new 138 car at Maranello last week.
Photographs: Ferrari Press Office via Getty Images
Montezemolo has dubbed the new car 'La Speranzosa'
The F2012 was born ugly and proved hard to handle but it also became a winner in the hands of Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who took the title battle with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel right down to the wire in Brazil last November.
Montezemolo has dubbed the new car "La Speranzosa" (The Hopeful One) - with the main hope being that it proves competitive from day one and brings the team's first championship since the constructors' in 2008.
Alonso, a double champion hoping that the far better-looking F138 will take him to a third title, will not be present when the new cars hit the track in earnest for the first of three pre-season tests.
The Spaniard is not due to be in the car until Barcelona on February 19, with Massa and Spanish tester Pedro de la Rosa doing the initial set-up work, by which time he should be well-rested and raring to go.
"The first test is a general test in which one checks that all the components are put together properly," said Alonso at the launch.
"Testing in Barcelona is more useful for measuring performance as well as being a circuit we race on," he added, although Massa begged to differ and some outside Ferrari have wondered if there might be other reasons.
"The first test is very useful to understand the direction in which we should go and where we need to do the most work," declared the Brazilian.
Image: Ferrari chairman Luca Di Montezemolo with Fernando Alonso
Photographs: Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images
'I'm looking forward to driving'
Tuesday will be the first time the 2013 cars are together on track as a group, with all teams but Williams due to have unveiled their new machines before the pitlane opens for the first time.
Australian Mark Webber will be first in the driving seat for champions Red Bull, having two days in the RB9 before triple champion Vettel takes his turn for the final two.
"I'm looking forward to driving. Testing is limited for us, I think I'd be happy if Mark would decide to wait a bit longer," Vettel said at the launch of the new car on Sunday.
"I don't think you miss a lot if you don't run in Jerez but we are clearly interested to drive there, to get to know the car."
Image: Red Bull Racing's new car RB9 is launched
Photographs: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Button, Perez lead McLaren's challenge
Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion with a new team mate in Mexican Sergio Perez now that 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton has moved to Mercedes, is scheduled to be first in the new McLaren on Tuesday with Perez following on Wednesday.
The opening test will also see Hamilton's first outing in the Mercedes, revealed on Monday, and a debut as race driver for Finnish rookie Valtteri Bottas at Williams.
There will be other less familiar names as well, with Britain's Max Chilton at Marussia and Dutch driver Giedo van Der Garde at Caterham with Frenchman Charles Pic.
Sauber have Mexican Esteban Gutierrez stepping up from his reserve role in an all-new line-up with Germany's Nico Hulkenberg.
Image: Jenson Button (left) with Sergio Perez
Photographs: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Force India yet to name second driver
Force India still have just the one driver confirmed, Britain's Paul Di Resta who will carry out the bulk of the work in Jerez with compatriot James Rossiter also getting in some laps to help with simulator work.
The immediate task, apart from checking the systems, will be to get to grips with the new Pirelli tyres that the Italian company says should produce more exciting racing with more pitstops required.
Image: Paul Di Resta
Photographs: Mark Thompson/Getty Images


text:
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Screenwriters Ted Tally and Alvin Sargent adapted the novel by Glenn Savan into this intelligent drama about a May-December romance where the woman is the senior partner. James Spader is Max Baron, a 27-year-old St. Louis advertising executive who has completely shut himself off from the world in the two years since the auto accident death of his wife. When he meets free-spirited, 43-year-old burger joint waitress Nora Baker (Susan Sarandon), his attraction to the earthy, outspoken woman is immediate and overpowering. The difference in age isn't their only obstacle happiness: Nora's into Marilyn Monroe, drinking beer, and lives in Dogtown, the city's low-rent district, while Max is cultured, sophisticated, and wealthy. Despite their differences, Max and Nora are alike in their suffering and in their deep need for connection, but their charged relationship is put to the emotional test when it becomes clear that Max is hiding his affair with Nora from his upper middle-class, Jewish social circle. White Palace co-stars Renée Taylor, Eileen Brennan, Kathy Bates, Jason Alexander, and Corey Parker. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
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Universal Studios
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1 hour, 43 minutes
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Super Mini Volley provides the key link in the transition from small-sided volley games to the 6v6 version. It is aimed at those who have already experienced Mini Volley and VolleySport.
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The Phillies have said for almost a month their No. 1 priority is signing Jamie Moyer to a contract extension.
They still hope to get that done.
But it looks like the Phillies don't want to get caught flat footed if talks with Moyer drag on and they suddenly realize they can't come to an agreement. A source said yesterday that the Phillies recently have contacted Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett about contracts.
Lowe, 35, went 14-11 with a 3.24 ERA last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Reports are that Lowe is seeking a five-year contract worth around $15 million per season. Burnett, 31, who went 18-10 with a 4.07 ERA with the Toronto Blue Jays, also is believed to be seeking at least a five-year contract.
The Phillies don't like to give five- or six-year contracts to pitchers because of the health risk involved. They're not alone, either. The Yankees, for example, reportedly have balked at talking seriously with Burnett while he asks for a five-year contract. But the Phillies will have to do something if Moyer doesn't sign, and if they think they can get Lowe or Burnett they have to at least try. And in case you're wondering, there's almost no chance the Phillies would sign both Moyer and Burnett or Lowe. I think it's one or the other (Moyer or Lowe/Burnett), and I still think they prefer to sign Moyer. The Phillies have said in the past if they sign Moyer, they will have Kyle Kendrick, J.A. Happ, Carlos Carrasco and Drew Carpenter (throw Adam Eaton's name in there, too) compete for the fifth spot in the rotation.
Ruben Amaro Jr. said Chase Utley's surgery went very well: "I'm pleased there were no surprises. We're optimistic that he'll be back and shouldn't miss a significant portion of the season. I would be surprised if he did not return until June. That would be very surprising, although a lot will depend on how he reacts to the surgery and how the overall rehab goes."
Amaro also said he expects Pedro Feliz back by spring training. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I asked him if this is going to be a David Bell-type thing, where Feliz constantly will have lower back issues. Amaro said, "We don't see any degenerative issues with his back." That's good news for the Phillies.


text:
Air Force Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore, Special to American Forces Press Service
QALAT, Afghanistan, Oct. 27, 2008 M
Medical staff members of the Zabul provincial reconstruction team here helped hundreds of malnourished Afghan children regain their health.
The PRT members began a four-week regimen of their "strong food," known locally as qavi ghiza, to the Shajoy hospital two months ago.
Strong food is a vitamin-enriched, high-calorie food supplement used to combat malnutrition. The Zabul PRT medical staff is working with local health officials to combat issues such as unsanitary water supplies and malnutrition, the main causes of the areas high infant mortality rate.
The area's public health administration staff has been using the low-cost and locally produced food supplement to treat more than 400 malnourished children.
"This program has been going very well and giving positive results. People know about it," said Dr. Zamarai Sultan, the public health administration nutrition officer. "It is going to be even more successful in the future."
Sultan has monitored the strong food program in Shajoy closely. In a patient sampling of 60 children, 78 percent have shown positive growth. The doctor said he has seen most patients gain 2 to 5 pounds a week while taking the supplement.
"People from this area are very poor," Sultan said. "They don't have enough money for their baby's special food. As long as we have this kind of program, it is going to succeed. Now people know this good thing about the strong food."
Sultans support and the nutritional supplements success in the Shajoy area provided Air Force Capt. (Dr.) James Arnold the momentum he needed to expand the program.
"Giving this program to Dr. Sultan has actually been the biggest help to us, because he is well invested in it," said Arnold, deployed from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. "He is a nutritionist. He deals with the malnourishment problem for the entire Zabul province."
Sultan's positive reputation in the medical field has helped convince his fellow doctors to join the program, Arnold said. The two doctors met local medical experts with pediatric specialties to go over the results.
"We are not going to stay around for the long haul," Arnold, a native of Grass Valley, Calif., said. "We [want] to give them something they can do on their own and sustain on their own."
After a demonstration on how to make the nutritional supplement, the medical professionals made a batch themselves with ingredients available locally. The concoction was blended using mixing sets donated by Michael Morgan, an Eagle Scout candidate with Boy Scout Troop 157 out of Salem, Ore.
"Boy Scouts are taught to seek opportunities to help others," the West Salem High School senior said. "I wanted to provide a service that was meaningful as I sought to complete my requirements for the rank of Eagle. This project seemed challenging, but perfect."
Sultan said he is grateful for the effort the PRT put into launching the program.
"I am very thankful to this team," he said. "This is a very active team, and they have really wanted to work, and [it] has been seen."
(Air Force Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore serves with U.S. Air Forces Central.)


text:
ASIS&T 2005 Annual Meeting
Second Plenary Speaker Added
to Lineup
Matthew Szulik, chairman, CEO and
president of Red Hat, will highlight a Monday morning plenary
session at the 2005 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, October 28-November
2, in
Szulik has been leading early-stage technology companies, such as Interleaf, MapInfo and Red Hat, into global, publicly traded firms for more than 20 years. In 1998, Szulik and Red Hat founder Bob Young developed a shared vision that the collaborative approach of open source and a great brand could redistribute the economics of the technology industry from vendor to customer. Today, Red Hat is the leading provider of Linux and open source technology to the enterprise and is positioned to be the defining technology company of the 21st century.
Szulik is the chairman of the Science and Technology
Board for the state of
Maes is one of the pioneers of the research area known as software
agents an area which builds on such disciplines as
artificial intelligence, human computer interaction,
computer-supported collaborative work, information filtering and
electronic commerce. Software agents are semi-intelligent computer
programs that help users with the overload of information and the
complexity of the online world. Maes group pioneered the use of
machine learning to build such agents and invented a range of new
algorithms, such as collaborative filtering.
Some changes to the previously announced conference schedule have been made to accommodate Szuliks presentation on Tuesday. Please check the ASIS&T website (www.asis.org) for changes to the schedule.
Sparking Synergies: Bringing Research and Practice Together @
ASIST '05 reflects the increasing need to bring together the knowledge gained
through empirical and theoretical studies and through
"on-the-ground" experience.
A conscious effort was made to include contributions from
practitioners in the field of information science as well as the
research arena, and the program committee is proud of the
exceptionally diverse range of sessions we have this year.
To keep up with changes in the program schedule or to
preplan your own on-site experience, visit the website often to view
the entire conference program in any of several ways: a pdf of the
entire program; by type of activity; or by day.
Registrations are also being accepted online.
ASIS&T Founder Back in the News
Footnote to the Scopes Monkey Trial
Watson Davis, founder of what we know today as the American
Society for Information Science and Technology and managing editor
of Science Service during the 1920s, had a front row seat at the
famous Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. Though his contemporaries
and other scholars may have known that fact, for most it was news
revealed quite dramatically this past July.
Eighty years to the day after the climactic confrontation
between William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow at the trial,
historian Marcel LaFollette gave an engaging account of the trial at
a AAAS seminar on July 20, 2005. The drama came when LaFollette, who
has been studying the coverage of the trial by a pioneering team of
science journalists, illustrated her account with unpublished photos
of the courtroom participants and the community of
The nitrate negatives had been donated to the Smithsonian in
1971 as part of the archives of the Science Service, an organization
founded in 1921 to promote the dissemination of information about
science in the media. Watson Davis, the managing editor of the
service, covered the trial and took the photographs.
According to LaFollette, Davis and the Science Service worked
with the defense team to arrange for scientists to testify at the
trial on behalf of Scopes. Though such actions might be considered
improper for journalists today, Davis and others were dedicated to
an accurate account of the science of evolution and they recognized
the value of the trial in helping to educate the public.
ASIS&T SIGs and Chapters Cooperate on International
ASIS&T Special Interest Group/International Information
Issues (SIG/III) and the European and
ICISC was created to address three primary purposes:
Help information science researchers and
practitioners learn about conferences that might fulfill their needs
to communicate knowledge and experience;
Help conference organizers avoid time or topic
conflicts or help them coordinate with other groups to create more
coherence and cooperation among professional organizations; and
Encourage interaction among like-minded
professionals around the globe.
Any group or conference organizer is invited to submit
relevant conferences, either confirmed or planned, to the ICISC
calendar. Detailed instructions for registering a conference can be
found on the website (http://icisc.neasist.org).
The sponsoring organizations reserve the right to discard entries
that are not deemed appropriate for this moderated site.
At this time, the calendar is in English, but the organizers
expect to add other languages in the future. Announcements submitted
to the site for consideration can be in any language that can be
presented in Latin characters, provided an English translation of at
least the conference place and title is also included.
In addition to the dynamic and searchable calendar available
for viewing in both block and list style, there is a "Quick
Calendar" listing all the events on a static HTML Web page
useful for printing or for those with slower internet connections.
ICISC further offers the option to subscribe to an RSS feed to keep
up-to-date on the latest additions.
SIG/III Announces Winners of 2005 International Paper Contest
Special Interest Group/International Information Issues (SIG/III)
has announced the winners of its 6th Annual International Paper
Contest. The six winning papers were selected from among 30 papers
submitted by authors from 12 developing countries on the theme of Bringing
Research and Practice Together The Developing World Perspective.
The following were award winners this year, listed with their
paper titles:
2nd: Sanjeev Kumar & Nandini Dutta,
3rd: M.G. Sreekumar & T.
5th: Alma Beatriz Rivera-Aguilera,
Each of the eight winners receives a two-year individual
membership in ASIS&T. In addition the first place winner will
receive travel assistance to support attendance at the 2005
ASIS&T Annual Meeting.
For more information on the contest and the
winners, visit the SIG/III website at www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIII/.
News about ASIS&T SIGs
Special Interest Group/Information Needs, Seeking & Use (SIG/USE)
has initiated five new awards opportunities available to members of
the group. These awards, to be given for the first time at the 2005
ASIS&T Annual Meeting in October, are for Best Information
Behavior Conference Poster; Best Information Behavior Conference
Paper; Elfreda A. Chatman Research Proposal Award; Master's Student
Travel Award; and Ph.D. Student Travel Award. For information about
eligibility and application for these awards, visit the SIG/USE
website at www.asis.org/SIG/SIGUSE.
News about ASIS&T Members
José-Marie Griffiths, dean of the
Frank Kurt Cylke, director of the National Library Service
for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress,
since 1973, has received the Newel Perry Award for 2005 from the
National Federation of the Blind (NFB). The Newel Perry Award is the
highest honor NFB bestows on an individual who is not a part of the
federation but who has partnered with it in efforts to achieve
equality, security and opportunity for blind individuals.
who is completing her Ph.D. at the
Clifford Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for
Networked Information and 1996 president of ASIS&T, is the 2005
recipient of the EDUCAUSE Leadership in Public Policy and Practice
award. The award recognizes "prominence in the arena of
national and international technology agendas and the linking of
higher education to those agendas." Lynch will be honored at
the associations annual conference in October.
Amanda Spink, formerly of the
In addition to her new job (above listing), Amanda Spink,
Queensland University of Technology, and Charles Cole, McGill
University, are co-editors of the recently published New
Directions in Human Information Behavior (Springer), a look at
new directions, leading-edge theories and models in human
information behavior.
W. Haas, professor in the
from Institutional Members
investigators for the project are William Moen and Shawne
Miksa. They describe their project MARC Content Designation
Utilization: Inquiry and Analysis as a ground-breaking
investigation into the extent of catalogers' use of MARC 21, the
mark-up language used worldwide to create electronic catalog
Computer Library Center (OCLC) will provide the project with
approximately 56 million bibliographic records from its WorldCat
database a database that contains unique catalog records shared
by more than 50,000 libraries in 84 countries and territories around
the world.
is an associate professor in UNT's
is an assistant professor of Library and Information Sciences.
Innovations Receives Patent for Technology
Access Innovations Inc., specialists in creating and
maintaining databases of digitized research, news and other content
for government and business clients, has received a patent from the
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for the underlying database
design and maintenance technology that drives its Data Harmony line
of software.
The new patent covers key elements of the software's
machine-aided indexing and content creation features. The Data
Harmony software suite includes tools to design databases, index
content, and build and update a thesaurus, critical for accurate
searching and retrieval of targeted information.
"Protecting our intellectual property is an important
step for us," said Marjorie M.K. Hlava, Access
Innovations chairman and president. "With that protection, we
are able to accelerate our product development efforts and to pursue
a robust growth strategy."
The Simmons College Graduate School of Library and
Information Science (GSLIS) has received a grant of more than
three-quarters of a million dollars to establish a doctoral program
at GSLIS specializing in managerial leadership in the information
professions. The grant from the Institute of Museum and Library
Services is part of the 2005 Librarians for the 21st Century
The new program will focus on the knowledge, skills and personal traits applicable
to leadership in libraries and other information-based enterprises.
The grant will support the preparation of 15 individuals (5 per
year) for leadership roles in library and information organizations.
The program will cater to those who may not be able to interrupt
their employment to gain a degree and will be offered with
non-traditional scheduling to a small, highly selective student
body. Among the outcomes of the program will be a pool of qualified
individuals to lead libraries and information organizations, a body
of scholarly and practice-based research and continual updating and
examination of leadership issues in information-related
Peter Hernon, professor, and Candy Schwartz, professor
and coordinator of doctoral studies, are principal investigators.
College of Information Receives School Leaders Grant
The College of Information at Florida State University has
been awarded a $159,526 grant by The Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS) for School Library Media Specialists for the 21st
Century: Leaders Educated to Make a Difference (Project LEAD).
This project will develop graduate education opportunities and a
research agenda focused on leadership for school library media
As part of Project LEAD an online curriculum will be developed
to prepare school library media specialists for leadership roles.
The curriculum will integrate the tenets of the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards. Research has established that
educators with National Board certification are more likely to be
Frank H. Spaulding
Frank H. Spaulding, 73, long-time ASIS&T member and
treasurer, died in late July at Hope Hospice in Fort Myers, Florida.
Born in Danielson, Connecticut, in 1932, Frank resided in
Piscataway, New Jersey, for 40 years before moving to Fort Myers in
2002. Before his retirement in 1987, he was employed by Colgate
Palmolive Co. as supervisor of information services in Jersey City
and Piscataway and by Bell Laboratories as manager of library
services in Holmdel, New Jersey.
In addition to his longtime involvement in ASIS&T, he was
active in numerous other information associations, including Special
Libraries Association, which he served as president; Documentation
Abstracts; Universal Serials and Book Exchange; PALINET/LTLC; and
the American Library Association.
He taught graduate library classes at Drexel University and
Rutgers University.
Frank held a B.A. degree in English literature from Brown
University and a MLS from Case Western Reserve University.
Among his survivors are his wife, Eugenia Spaulding; son,
Geoffrey Spaulding of Santa Clara, California; and daughter,
Jennifer Spaulding of Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
Those who would like to make memorial contributions, please do so to Hope Hospice, Ft. Myers, Florida, or to the American Cancer Society.
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Information Science and Technology


text:
Survey: Physician EHR Satisfaction and EHR Productivity
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 10 blogs containing over 8000 articles with John having written over 4000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 16 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John is co-founder of InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and LinkedIn.
Chip Hart from Pediatric EHR Solutions sent me the results of the Physicians' Alliance of America EHR survey results. The chart that's most interesting to me is this one that shows Productivity Levle with an EHR:
If you look at this chart, it clearly illustrates that most doctors see EHR as damaging to their productivity level. No doubt, this chart has a strong connection with why many doctors dislike EHR. However, it's worth also noting that this chart shows a doctors' perceived productivity. Many times people think it's more, but we aren't great at actually measuring how much time it takes to do something. Plus, most doctors quickly write off the time they spent chasing down charts and other time savings that should also be associated with their productivity. Instead, they just focus on the time spent charting in paper against the time spent charting in an EHR. Unfortunately, there isn't a really easy way to measure how the actual productivity level changed.
Regardless of whether EHR has really killed productivity level or not, perception is reality and so perception is very important. What's even more interesting about this chart is that despite the perception that EHR hurts their productivity, 80% of those surveyed said they prefer electronic to paper. This figure seems at odds with the graph above.
I think this illustrates the reality of the future of EHR. It's not going anywhere. Doctors aren't leaving EHR to go back to paper. So, now we're faced with the reality that we need to optimize our current EHR implementations so that they can be a productivity benefit to a practice in both perception and reality. Can we do that with meaningful use stage 3 continuing to kill EHR innovation?


text:
Are you a mathematics or a science teacher in high school or middle school who wants to strengthen your math content knowledge, be challenged, and possibly teach advanced courses or teach at a community college? This program is for you.
This rigorous MS program in mathematics with a math education component is designed specifically to fit into a teacher's schedule. It provides mathematics teachers with advanced study in mathematics topics such as abstract algebra, real analysis as well as mathematics education.
The program offers teachers additional experience in higher-level mathematics in order to enhance their teaching with additional depth and breadth of content. At the same time, it strengthens their background in the school mathematics curriculum, instructional practices, assessment and technology, and research in mathematics education.