WELL.

With classes looming just around the corner, many of us are starting to think (and worry) about how we're going to afford our textbooks. This article shows many tips on how to get textbooks for good deals, or even for free!

http://distancelearn.about.com/od/managingyourwork/a/cheaptextbook.htm?nl=1

I just read this article, entitled, "Missouri Outlaws Student-Teacher Facebook Friendship." Again, it seems like these discussions about social media effects and applications seem to gravitate towards me. But, I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts. As new technologies develop, new laws sprout up governing the use of such technologies. Don't believe me? Is sexting inappropriate? Would making it illegal be an infringement of privacy? What about spam? Shouldn't it be protected under the 1st ammendment? What if the one doing the spamming resides outside the United States? I had the pleasure of exploring these topics a few semesters ago in my Media Law & Regulation class. Neat stuff, right?

I dig musician/songwriter Bill Callahan. He's been at it for a long time - working under the "Smog" moniker for many moons before shedding that skin and performing under his own name for the past few years. He's run the gamut from lo-fi home recording (long before GarageBand) to his current, more polished sheen. "America!" from his new album Apocalypse is filled with great imagery of a nation past and present - shifting gears from name dropping some of his songwriting heroes, to pop-culture references to war and the political. 



Just watched the video and it really struck me with its lyrical style and amazing visuals - separately unique, but also equal to Callahan's songwriting. It's the kind of piece that I hope that the talented people here at A&S can explore making - a great example of blending cool illustration/animation with narrative. Not only complemeting it, but enhancing it to new heights. It's pretty inspiring stuff - to me at least. Major props to the team behind this - Okay Mountain/Dave Bryant. 

            Opulence and squalor usually seem worlds apart. Country clubs usually don’t border low-income housing, designer clothing stores purposefully keep access to their goods limited to only a certain clientele (if you haven’t seen the movie Pretty Woman, watch it and you’ll get the reference), and the checking accounts that most people take for granted are a privilege offered only to people who have quality credit. Yet, I just experienced an exception to this rule.

            I just landed in Kunming, which is a town in southwestern China. My hosts Xinyue Zhou, Ding-guo Gua, and I flew here to attend the biennial Asian Association of Social Psychology conference. (We’re usually in a town called Guangzhou, which is located in south central China.)