Relevant History

My 6 year-old political commentator

My son saw this picture on Wonkette, and asked, "Is that someone at the Maker Faire?"

"Why do you think that person was at Maker Faire?" I asked.

"Because of those things in his ears," he said. "Those headphones."

Technorati Tags: children, politics

Artifact from Maker Faire

At the Maker Faire, we had imaginary covers of a 2018 issue of Maker magazine, and invited people to draw on them. This exercise yielded perhaps the best artifact from the future of all time:

via Flickr

Tags: makerfaire, iftf, future

Important new report

This is funny.

Officials from the Institute for Somehow Managing to Hold It All Together warned that, despite their best efforts, everything appears to be falling completely apart and "getting way out of hand," according to a strongly worded report characterized by panic, frustration, and numerous typographical errors that was released to the American public Monday.

I especially like the debate between the Institute for Somehow Managing to Hold It All Together, the California Center for Not Worrying About Stuff So Much, the Sitting Around and Expecting Others to Take Care of Everything Foundation, and the National Blame Allocation Council.

Technorati Tags: humor

Because everyone loves encephalopod robot dirigibles

Via Alex Halavais, the Festo Air Jelly:

Today's game

Little League, Silicon Valley style: Smart Energy versus Leader Ventures. Only here...

Hot water

A woman is like a tea bag: you never know how strong she is until she is in hot water."
Eleanor Roosevelt, via The XX Factor

Tags: eleanorroosevelt, quotes

Dive!

My son is a penguin

 

It's a pleasantly cool day here in Silicon Valley, but my son insisted that he wanted to swim. He'll probably do polar research one day.

Another line on my c.v.: Associate Fellow, Saïd Business School, Oxford University

I don't think this was a very well-kept secret, but now it's official: in addition to my day job, and my work on the end of cyberspace book, I'm now officially an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. It's a two-year appointment, which runs through the spring of 2010 (through Hilary Term, for those of you keeping track across the pond). I don't teach any courses, but I do work with students, and am on call to do things with SBS groups visiting Silicon Valley.

via flickr

The appointment was initially approved in March, but they only got me up on the Web site this week. Such is the pace of things there. (And as one friend said, "My god, your picture on the SBS website is so Californian!" It was taken in the garden of Howard Rheingold's house. You don't get more California than that.)

I've still got my affiliation with Stanford, and thank heavens for that: having access to the Stanford library has been critical to my continued viability as a thinker. But I've got a couple executive MBAs I'm working with at Oxford, and have had a good time collaborating with people at the James Martin Institute. And in the last few years I've been to more conferences there than Stanford.

Strange to have closer intellectual ties to a university in England than to one three miles away, but such is life these days. Or my life, anyway.

Needless to say, this is a real thrill. Not because it represents some prospective return to academia, but because it's an interesting hybrid position. SBS is one of several business schools that are real intellectual hot-houses these days. Some of the best B-schools are no longer places that just train people to crank out exotic formulas or spout jargon, but are seriously thinking about what it will mean to do business in this century. Oxford the added virtue of having the James Martin Institute, which in the next few years will-- if it has any sense at all-- become the global epicenter for serious futures work. So this is a good time to get connected to this little world.

I've already promised several people that I won't start speaking like a character out of P. G. Wodehouse, as tempting as that would be.

[To the tune of Drew Barrymore & Hugh Grant, "Way Back Into Love [Demo Version]," from the album "Music & Lyrics".]

Technorati Tags: academia, Oxford University, postacademic

Something to remember when I go to Germany this summer

Using the title "Dr." if you have a doctorate from the U.S. can get you into trouble:

Americans with PhDs beware: Telling people in Germany that you're a doctor could land you in jail.

At least seven U.S. citizens working as researchers in Germany have faced criminal probes in recent months for using the title "Dr." on their business cards, Web sites and resumes. They all hold doctoral degrees from elite universities back home.

Under a little-known Nazi-era law, only people who earn PhDs or medical degrees in Germany are allowed to use "Dr." as a courtesy title.

The law was modified in 2001 to extend the privilege to degree-holders from any country in the European Union. But docs from the United States and anywhere else outside Europe are still forbidden to use the honorific. Violators can face a year behind bars.

[To the tune of Blue Öyster Cult, "Godzilla," from the album "Don't Fear the Reaper: The Best of Blue Öyster Cult".]

Technorati Tags: academia, Germany