Old stuff - 10 December 2010

Hello again, people around the world. Because we like playing games, when xkcd posted a complete strategy guide to the game of Tic-Tac-Toe, I was happy. And then there were the other bits - Understanding ghost behaviors in Pac-Man, a small section of material to help you improve your game and move toward reaching the kill screen. For the full thing, The Pac-Man Dossier knows all and tells all about the pellet-munching hero and his four ghostly antagonizers.

If you want someone who always has regular cool stuff on the library profession (and the schools in which education is supposed to happen), subscribe to jenett on Dreamwidth. We find things like the battle between academic and personal use of the Internet in schools has been going on for quite a while, as well as what we would really be doing in schools if we were serious about using technology to educate.

More specifically, some excellent advice for students getting ready to join the profession, including lessons that students will not find in their syllabi, one of which seems to be slowly being taken to heart - libraries have to find their users where those users are, instead of waiting for them to come to the library. That might involve redesigning the website for ease of use, with an eye toward features that make it convenient to stay on top of things, and empowering all of the staff and the users to keep it fresh with new content in the form of unmoderated blog posts and comments. And if we want to keep them as users, then what we think of as good service has to be examined as well, to find the difference between "this is what they want" and "this is what they need" and know when to give them one, the other, or both.

Finally, and most importantly, though, I am a librarian. Look at all the things that I do, all the things that make me relevant to the modern world, that make me not an anachronism, but a vital part of the present and the future.

Out in the world today, A Wikileaks cable shows the United States and China collaborating to sink the climate negotiations at Copenhagen, adding more evidence to the already ample amount that Barack Obama is, at best, a center-rightist close-to-Republican instead of the actual liberal people wanted him to be when they elected him. For some, the revelation of this by the Demcoratic base is cause for celebration, or at least a point-laugh at the liberal left as they self-destruct and the President is supported by the opposition when he does what they demand.

If this is the kind of argument presented on why headscarves should be banned in schools, then I think it's safe to say that the people proposing it have both Not Done The Research and should be singing "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist". Thankfully, the proposal was voted down.

The riots in the United Kingdom continue over tuition increases, reductions in education assistance, reductions in funding and salaries, and other measures supposedly helping to bring the budget in line. The rioters also vented their frustrations on a royal car carrying Prince Charles and his wife. The protests and the complaints have commentators claiming that it's so very sad that the UK is in decline that its military power is being cut due to austerity, with the insinuation that this deccline is sad because it stops white culture from imposing itself on others through force, although it's expressed in terms more like how the United States declares it is "spreading freedom and democracy" by instigating wars.

As a Christian organization, the Edmonton chapter of the Salvation Army will not give out toys from Harry Potter or Twilight, considering the magic, the vampires, and the like to be incompatible with their beliefs. They do not pass those toys on to other charities, however, but destroy them instead, according to a volunteer working in the toy sorting. The volunteer was also somewhat disturbed that toys glorifying violence and war were being distributed, while these other toys were not. As a Christian organization, the Salvation Army can do as it pleases on what to distribute and what not to. But if they really are not passing along their forbidden toys to other organizations, then the Salvation Army does Christianity a disservice in their hubris of deciding what toys are appropriate for other children to have. Plus, it sort of wrecks the charitable impulse that should be running through there, doesn't it?

Domestically, The Food and Drug Administration is requesting public comment on proposed warnings, many with images, to be placed on packages that contain smoking tobacco. To read the proposed rule, as well as to make your comment on the matter, Regulations.gov is where they would like you to go.

Californians can thank the short-sighted governors of Ohio and Wisconsin for the extra money they will be getting to build out high-speed rail, as both governors in the Midwest declined their share of funds for developing high-speed rail.

More difficulties of the tax deal cut between the President and the Republicans - low-income workers may find their taxes going up instead of down if the deal goes through.

Because it is unlikely the full Defense Authorization bill will pass in this Congressional session, members of the Senate took the part that would repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and introduced it as a separate bill in hopes that it would pass the Senate, then the House, and have a Presidential signature by the time the Congress recesses for the last time this year.

In the sciences, a short writing exercise in a physics class produced results where the women did just as well as the men on a test, by having the students affirm their values and the importance of those values, leading in turn to a boost of self-confidence and overcoming the worry that the stereotype of "women are bad at maths and sciences" would turn out to be true.

Hey, look, cosmic stuff! Meteor showers, full moon, and a lunar eclipse all at once.

Technology: According to experts, the Stuxnet worm is still working in Iran's nuclear network, a claim that Iran has denied.

In opinions, a discussion about Oprah Winfrey's Kennedy Center Honor touches on whether or not Oprah herself should be viewed through the lens of narcissism, egocentricity, misplaced power, or some other viewfinder, but it takes reading some of the reply comments to pick up on that. I think the intended question is "Oprah is powerful, that's without doubt, but is she using it wisely and well, or is she building monuments that proclaim 'Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!'?" The way it's written, though, it seems to be implying that just because we haven't seen Orpah have a big and public ego meltdown doesn't mean it hasn't happened, or that she doesn't view herself with the same kind of narcissistic self-image routinely attributed to Barack Obama.

Some advice to authors or anyone else with brilliant ideas - work out your own marketing plan, and be ready to have to self-promote and do the work yourself to make things popular and selling well.

Landing in politics, Mr. Elder claims that Mr. Bush has been vindicated by Wikileaks, with a cable describing yellowcake removed from Iraq. Old, unlikely to be useful yellowcake, but yellowcake nonetheless, and thus the left should apologize for calling the previous administrator a liar about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction because they were right there all along.

Mr. Rove says the President has some allies in the ConservaDems that he needs to court to get his deal passed, with the disastrous consequences of "higher taxes for everyone" if the deal goes south. Mr. Henninger thinks that whomever runs against Barack Obama should run at him specifically on the issue of taxes and the fact that he will be once again allowing everyone's taxes to be raised come January 1, 2013. Assuming, of course, that the Republican-controlled House and the Tarantino-wielding minority doesn't manufacture something to send through to make those cuts more permanent.

The Slacktivist points out a difference between getting fired and getting laid off - a fired person's job still exists, to be filled by someone else, a laid-off person's does not. A layoff, to him, not only puts a person out of work but removes a job for someone else to fill, making an already bad situation that much worse. (Net -2, as it were, to the chances of someone unemployed finding work. -1 for the person that just joined the ranks of the competition, and -1 more for one less job that could be obtained.)

Last out of the opinion section, Mr. Flynn is unable to expand his definition of patriot to include persons like PFC Manning, because he cannot conceive that someone who would willingly turn over documents proving governmental skullduggery and lawlessness would do so out of a prfound love of country. His patriotism extends solely to those who fight believing wholeheartedly in the rightness of America and those who die in acts of heroism and valor on those battlefields. It is a Cold War mentality, and Mr. Flynn acknowledges this with his examples of other people who should be seen as traitors and un-American.

And finally, the possibility of being wed by plenty of interesting people, such as Kevin Smith, Kathy Griffin, or others, if you're in the right area to have it done.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Department: The Tribe of Young Unbelievers

This particular opinion column piqued my interest - and I'm not sure I'm going to be entirely hostile to it, but more in the "It was going so well, and then the wheels fell off" kind of manner.

The Tribe of Young Unbelievers is about how so many young people start off in a Christian type of household and then fall away from the religion of their parents into having "No religion" when asked. This is supposed to be a lamentable problem, as anyone who believes that G-d will judge on the final day dependent mostly on whether you said magic words declaring your fealty to him or not is usually very interested in making sure that everyone says the correct magical words before they die. It's nothing as sophisticated as Pascal's Wager, but it is a rather effective way of getting your garden-variety proselytizer out into their world to convert the lost souls. For now, though, we'll set aside that point of contention and move on.

Ms. Crouse informs us that the standard church responses to that supposedly-disturbing statistic are: "Eh, it's just a phase. When they get married, they'll come back.", "College is evil and strips kids of their faith!", "This secular society pulls children away from their faith and there's no gravity or weight to get them back", or, the so-far-most-persuasive of the lot, "Christianity is seen as being intolerant, and specifically so about matters of sexuality." It's a fairly good amount of Done the Research so far, which is good. The article she draws her column from concludes, though, that the thing that's really keeping kids from sticking to their faiths is that they've never been exposed to true unshakably deep Christian faith from the adults in their lives. Because the adults don't take their faith seriously, the kids leave the faith, looking for something to fill the void that Christianity would normally have taken care of.

The recommendation as to how that faith should look, however, is where you realize that Calvin has chosen to jump the ledge. Instead of the feel-good, "impostor" religion of "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism", designed to make people feel good about themselves, True Christians should promote the faith that comes from "by confessing a creed, belonging to a community, and pursuing God's purpose and hope". Or, in other words, saying the magic words, going to church, and evangelizing to others while trying to convince oneself of the truth of the faith, the very things that produce the superficial faith they are decrying. They were doing so well, and then...

Wouldn't it make more sense to address the concerns brought on by that research? If most teenagers and college students think that your church is too restrictive or discriminatory towards sex or toward people of different orientations, wouldn't it be better to re-evaluate that stance and consult the teachings to see the relative importance of the issue compared to the other major themes? Like, say, the one where the priests, Levites, and the social elite are regularly castigated for looking down on others they consider unclean, for example? Truthfully speaking, a lot of these kids are getting their first real exposure to how intolerance has effects when they and their friends start making decisions about who they are and what they want to do with themselves. If you're the fire-and-brimstone, gays-must-die church and a teenager just had three of their best friends come out to them as gay, who are they going to choose? You, or their peers? Brain chemistry and studies of adolescent thinking processes say that peer acceptance is an almost over-riding need for teenagers. They're going to spike the church and go with their friends.

If it's a worry that the evils of secular life are pulling children away from their religions and there's no reason for them to come back, (and the cause is not related to the sex thing above, or there's more to it than that) then maybe it's worth looking into why those children are spinning away and not coming back into the orbit. Do they get anything fulfilling out of it? Is it just saying the magic words, doing the motions, being in the place at the appointed time and nothing else that's relevant to their lives? Are they expected to sit in their sanctuary and listen to Old Dudes preach at them about what they should be thinking on issues that are important to the Old Dudes? University is often the first place where the idea of "Think, Dammit! Advocate, research, defend, and learn" really has credence. (There's nothing saying that our required schooling couldn't achieve this as well, but class sizes make it difficult - a discussion section of 30 does not really allow for in-depth conversation because merely getting everyone to participate takes the time.) Perhaps the things on the pulpit and in the sermons are things that don't appeal to those young adults. What might happen if you let one of them deliver a sermon on the topic of their choosing? Or plan and deliver a full service, composed entirely of their peers, from selecting the music and the readings, to delivering the sermon, collecting tithes, and any events that don't specifically require someone ordained to do. What would that kind of service look like?

Furthermore, the average teenager-to-university student is highly scheduled as it is. Sunday morning services? So totally not working with their biological rhythm or their desire to have actual downtime on the weekends in between studying and going to courses. Move your services to those times when you are likely to get them to come, and you might have better attendance. I note that a lot of study groups and small informal settings meet during the week at those late night times. It certainly seems to have all the right hallmarks that would attract young adults - small sizes, discussions, at least the sursanure that teen opinions will be respected and their research and thought rewarded, and the possibility that topics that wouldn't normally be on the docket at the sermon will be talked about in a safe setting. To a teenager that already has two sport practices during the week, still has to get their homework done nightly, and wants to have enough time left to hand out and do nothing with friends, trying to capture some of their limited time in a discussion of God and religion is unlikely to succeed, unless you can make that discussion worth their time. Maybe you can find a way of making your bible study group count as part of the requirements for a community college class, for example?

An oft-quoted definition of insanity is "doing the same thing multiple times and expecting different results" - Ms. Crouse's column exemplifies this in its advice on how to rejuvenate churches and make them meaningful enough to young adults that they actually stay on with their faith through the times when they are most likely to drop it for having no relevance to their lives. If that means they bail from the wagon before they crash down into the ravine, then they'll jump. Trying to force them to stay in the wagon won't do any good. Saying the magic words isn't enough, no matter what denomination or faith you belong to - you've got to figure out what people want from religion and spirituality and offer them a way of achieving it, whether that's the insight of Zen, the Moralistic Therapeutic Deism that lets people feel good about being saved while not actually having to exert effort, or the deep and personal connection with $DEITY or #DEITIES that many religions with gods are aiming for.