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Two of history's sharpest justifications of far-ranging congressional investigations were penned during the years when Congress was probing into governmental corruption and big business. The respective authors: Justices Felix Frankfurter and Hugo Black, who last week joined the Earl Warren majority in sharply condemning the broad range of questioning pursued by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

WROTE Harvard Law Professor Frankfurter in the New Republic in 1924, while the Teapot Dome scandal and the skulduggery of Attorney General Harry Daugherty were being revealed: "Undoubtedly, the names of people who have done nothing criminal or wrong, or nothing even offending taste perhaps,...

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Religion: Everyday Dogma

Pert, pince-nezed Dorothy Leigh Sayers, 56, is best known to readers in the U.S. and Britain as a crack writer of whodunits (Busman's Honeymoon, Murder Must Advertise, etc.). But what really interests Anglican Sayers is religion. Two years ago she announced: "I have given up writing crime stories. Instead, I have engaged in a four-year task of translating Dante's Divine Comedy."

Published this week is a new Sayers book that lies somewhere between the two. Creed or Chaos (Harcourt, Brace; $2.25) is a collection of seven essays on contemporary Christianity, turned out with all...

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REPUBLICANS: What a Wonderful Thing

New York's Governor Tom Dewey, who tried and lost for the G.O.P. in 1944 and 1948, described last week how he feels as he watches the party's 1952 models go by. Said Dewey, as he introduced Candidate Earl Warren (Dewey's 1948 vice-presidential running mate) at a $100-a-plate Manhattan Republican dinner:

"I am not campaigning for the presidency of the United States, thank God, and I do not have to make six speeches a day like Earl Warren. I am viewing the passing scene with the greatest serenity of my life, and I am thinking that poor guy will have to make...

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Apple now has $110B in cash, investments
Is Facebook working on its own smartphone?

Apple developers conference kicks off June 11

By Brett Molina, USA TODAY

Apple revealed it will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11.

The five-day event for developers working on Apple's OS X and mobile iOS platforms will take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center.

The big draw of WWDC is the keynote address, which Apple has used in previous years to unveil fresh products.

Last year, then-CEO Steve Jobs used the keynote to unveil Apple's online storage service iCloud. In 2010, Jobs took the stage for a much larger announcement: the iPhone 4.

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Apple now has $110B in cash, investments
Is Facebook working on its own smartphone?
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Seasoned Advice is a question and answer site for professional and amateur chefs. It's 100% free, no registration required.

I read a while ago that nutmeg and cinnamon are really similar and you can easily substitute one for the other. Yet many recipes call for both cinnamon and nutmeg so it seems like there must be some kind of difference.

What are the specific differences between cinnamon and nutmeg? And are they significant enough to justify buying both cinnamon and nutmeg?

share|improve this question
I think this is a valid question; maybe not one I would upvote, but I don't think a downvote is required either. @Kyra: I would perhaps remove your wording "Do you think that" in favor of "Are" just so it is less subjective. –  JYelton Jul 9 '10 at 20:54
+1 Good to see this question turned around into a useful resource. –  JYelton Jul 9 '10 at 22:25

3 Answers 3

up vote 4 down vote accepted

They're completely different.

Cinnamon is warm, woody, hot, sweet, spicy, bark. Nutmeg is eggnog. If you want something to taste like Christmas, use it.

They're both delicious, versatile, and can work well together.

By volume, you can use much more cinnamon than nutmeg. Nutmeg is "a dash of" kind of spice, while cinnamon can be mixed with butter or sugar and slathered on basically any pastry. (Equivalent amounts of nutmeg would probably get you stoned, but that's for another forum).

Also, nutmeg shares flavor notes and aroma with allspice and cloves.

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Heh, great description of cinnamon. Nutmeg doesn't remind me of Christmas though, sage does. I can't put nutmeg into words. –  hobodave Jul 27 '10 at 17:55
As ocaasi alluded to, nutmeg is a hallucinogen in large enough quantities: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1699804 ; In our family, its used in more than eggnog -- bechamel and other cream sauces, banana bread, cookies, etc. (and like hobodave, I can't explain it in words ... it's that 'je ne sais quoi') You also have to remember that there are two major varients of cinnamon (cassia vs. ceylon). What we get in the US tends to be cassia, not 'true' cinnamon. –  Joe Jul 27 '10 at 19:22
Don't discount the use of nutmeg in savory foods... Gravies, roasts, and stews can benefit from a bit of the stuff as well (a small bit...) –  Shog9 Jul 27 '10 at 21:08

Try to remember where you read that. And then don't read them anymore.

If you find your nutmeg and cinnamon tasting at all similar, they've both turned to dust and should be discarded.

And next time, buy whole nutmeg - it tastes much better freshly-grated, and keeps much longer without turning into vaguely-spicy-bitter dust.

share|improve this answer
+1 for condescending (but completely correct) answer! –  Harlan Jul 9 '10 at 21:41
+1 for gutsy answer –  papin Jul 15 '10 at 4:43

Cinnamon is from the bark of a tree, and nutmeg is a seed. Cinnamon is the "hot" flavor in a lot of candies, e.g. "Hot Tamales", as well as being used in apple pie and cinnamon rolls. Nutmeg is more subtle, often used with other spices, sometimes including cinnamon. Beyond this, let your taste buds decide.

And yes, it's worth it to buy both spices if your recipes call for them.

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Well said. It's also worth picking up some mace, which is basically the shell of a nutmeg, if you're into playing with these flavors in detail. Oh, and there are a couple of varieties of cinnamon, and they taste somewhat different, and you get what you pay for! –  Harlan Jul 9 '10 at 21:42

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Seasoned Advice is a question and answer site for professional and amateur chefs. It's 100% free, no registration required.

This is a recipe for a dark chocolate cake. It calls for 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate. But I made a mistake and bought the 70%. The recipe also calls for 1.25 cups sugar. I don't want it to be too sweet, so by how much should I decrease the sugar?

The last time I baked this cake, I used 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate and it was perfectly dark. I want to get the same results. Help!

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2 Answers 2

This is a challenge because not only will the different chocolate change the sweetness of the cake slightly but it will change the texture slightly. One thing you can do is subtract the amount of sugar from the recipe that is in the chocolate. In your case 30% of the three ounces of chocolate is roughly one ounce. This should work for you.

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Good points, Questie760 - nut I'd caution that care should be taken in reducing the sugar by that much since it also plays a role in the texture of the cake. I've interchanged chocolate types in cakes before without any real detriment to the texture. I'd reference an ingredient substitution website to give myself some reassurance. –  Kristina Lopez Sep 20 '12 at 17:18
But, not nut! :-) –  Kristina Lopez Sep 20 '12 at 17:28
Thanks for the advice. I'm glad I didn't try to substitute it. I actually gave in and went to the store to get unsweetened chocolate. The cakes turned out beautiful. I will be stacking and frosting them tomorrow. –  Nel Sep 21 '12 at 3:51
Is it the case that for chocolate marked with a percentage, that the remaining percentage will be all or just about all sugar? Not any other ingredients such as fats or oils or milk products? (I ask as a naive but interested chocophile.) –  hippietrail Sep 21 '12 at 7:31
No - the 70% figure is cocoa solids. The other 30% will be sugar, cocoa butter, possibly other fats (depending on the quality of the chocolate) - so reducing sugar by 30% of the weight of the chocolate is probably too much. –  Matthew Walton Sep 23 '12 at 18:50

Cocoa butter is a cocoa solid. 70% chocolate means that 30% is sugar. The 70 % is made up of cocoa and cocoa butter (and usually a bit of vanilla).

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That's almost, but not quite correct. Vanilla would not be in the 70%, nor would lecithin (if the chocolate has any), milk or milk fat, salt, or anything else that isn't in cocao. –  Jolenealaska Dec 13 '14 at 17:52
I too would disagree with the statement of 30% is sugar, if you've ever eaten 70% Chocolate you'd understand it certainly does not have 30% sugar content:- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#Blending will give you a pretty good run down of the actual properties. –  Doug Dec 13 '14 at 21:49

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Modern Hanukkah menorahs? Thanks, Jonathan Adler

Modern Hanukkah Menorah by Jonathan AdlerJewish kids know all about the Hanukkah miracle but what they don’t know is how hard it can be to celebrate it in cool, modern style. Well I have to tell you, when I saw Jonathan Adler’s collection of modern menorahs and Hanukkah gifts I proclaimed that a huge miracle as well.

The Relief Hanukkah Menorah is simple, sculptural, and not quite cheap at $98, but not a huge investment either. I also love the Jonathan Adler dreidelporcelain Mod Dot dreidel and Enamel dreidel which make for great hostess gifts if you’ve got Hanukkah party invitations starting to trickle in. So yay, Jonathan, for making Hanukkah accessories that I’d be happy to display around the house the other 357 days a year. -Betsy

Find this modern
Hanukkah Menorah, cool dreidels and more at Jonathan Adler

Betsy Cadel is a blogger and marketing consultant, and a former contributor to Cool Mom Picks

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Big Blue Interactive The Corner Forum
Back to the Corner

Archived Thread

Is our 6th WR in our camp right now?

arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 8:40 am
Will we even keep 6? The 4 obvious locks are Nicks, Cruz, Randle and Murphy Jr.

It's starting to look like Barden may take the 5th WR spot by default but if Jernigan doesn't take hold of that 6th spot, I'm starting to think we might wind up looking at guys who eventually shake free from other rosters because there's really no one here who is making any sort of case. Hardy, Carlos, Talley, etc.. have all been fairly underwhelming from what I've seen.

It seemed like they wanted Jernigan to win one of the return jobs.. but Cox appears to be taking hold of the KR job and Hosley may wind up with the PR job.

The major reason why I guess Jernigan would have any shot at all at this point is because he's the only insurance for Cruz in the slot. We don't really have another primary slot guy. If he plays against the Jets, he'll probably see extensive playing time with Cruz on the shelf but if he fails to make an impression, I'm starting to think we'll be looking elsewhere for a 6th WR if we want to keep 6.
ilikethenygiants : 8/20/2013 8:45 am : link
Jernigan feels like a Sinorice Moss...sticking around forever only on potential and lack of better options.

But Jernigan seems like he could be an average 4th WR, but he doesn't seem to get a lot of opportunities. Maybe he doesn't create the opportunities he needs though.
i think they keep 5
Tuckrule : 8/20/2013 8:46 am : link
barden being the 5th. They may keep 6 but it depends if they like Donnell enough to keep him on the 53
I still think JJ is the 5th WR.
PatersonPlank : 8/20/2013 8:48 am : link
WE barely play the 5th so he has time, Gilbride said good things about him after the 1st game, and he is much more versatile than Barden. I don't think Barden sticks, but IMO if he does its as #6 (or the weekly inactive).
I've made excuses for Jernigan in the past...
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 8:48 am : link
Citing that the slot is really where he'd excel but that he's been blocked there. If he plays on Saturday, he'll have a golden opportunity to prove it. If he doesn't, I'm starting to run out of potential reasons for holding onto him.
By most accounts Barden...
Jan in DC : 8/20/2013 8:52 am : link
has been having a good camp. And he's definitely shown more in the games than JJ has at this point. I'll guess that we only keep 5, so that battle is one to keep an eye on.
Barden is not very good
OPBigBlue00 : 8/20/2013 8:53 am : link
I really though JJ would beat him out but he seems to be sinorice moss lite.
ilikethenygiants : 8/20/2013 8:53 am : link
Yeah, with Cruz out I hope they let him play a bunch....and see what he's got. But knowing him, he'll hurt himself in practice this week or something.

Another question: in the Colts game it seemed like Murphy was featured over Randle. Am I wrong? I have this dream that they're holding back Randle in preseason so that he can have a huge first few games.
AcidTest : 8/20/2013 8:55 am : link
may have well underachieved, but I don't see them cutting him, certainly not in favor of Barden. Barden has a chance to be the sixth WR, assuming they keep six. But remember that they made no effort to resign him in the offseason, and neither did anybody else. Don't be fooled by a preseason game. Barden can't get separation at the LOS, and everybody in the league knows it. He also doesn't play ST. JJ can at least return punts in a pinch. Despite this, Barden does know the system, and is a big target. So he has a decent chance of sticking if the Giants keep six WR, but needs at other positions may prevent them from doing so.
redeyejedi : 8/20/2013 8:56 am : link
Needs to play vs the Jets and play well. Without Cruz he will get a legitimate chance to prove himself. Im pretty sure he makes the team no matter what but if he doesnt suit up or has a poor game they might go in another direction. This is the 1st season where I havent been impressed with at least 1 back of the roster receiver
Barden is ahead of Jernigan right now, guys.
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 8:57 am : link
There are no indications whatsoever that Jernigan would be kept over Barden if cuts were made today. He's going to have to make a strong case for that to happen because he hasn't made much of any yet.

I'm not saying that can't change in the next few weeks.. but as of right now, Barden is pretty clearly the 5th WR.
ilikethenygiants : 8/20/2013 9:02 am : link
Barden is like a non-athletic receiving (non-blocking) TE....the opposite of what we need.
BillT : 8/20/2013 9:17 am : link
3rd and 4 catch on 3rd and 5 is the reason he won't be kept. This is the same stuff he's done over and over since he's been here. No head for the game.
Jernigan is safe
JonC : 8/20/2013 9:19 am : link
He's the slot backup and a third round draft pick they really like, very unlikely he's gone this soon.
JonC : 8/20/2013 9:19 am : link
tiki bar : 8/20/2013 9:23 am : link
is our 5th wr in camp right now?
Yeah, I've been one of the biggest Barden supporters here.
Curtis in VA : 8/20/2013 9:27 am : link
I had my eye on him before they even drafted him and posted about it. But damn, that 3rd and 4 stuff is maddening and its the kind of thing you'd hope would have disappeared by now.

He looks awkward running his routes...almost clumsily. I think the only reason he gets open is because he's so big. Yet he can't seem to out jump anyone in the end zone or get open deep. But he's also too small to do anything you'd require from a TE.

Jernigan is only in his 2nd year. No way they let him go yet. I think Barden is gone.
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 9:27 am : link
I don't know if Jernigan is still at the point where he has a spot based on his draft merits alone. He's got to actually prove something at this point, IMO. The past 2 camps, he had a spot pretty much regardless. I'd be surprised if that were still the case in year 3.
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 9:28 am : link
Curtis, this is Jernigan's 3rd year. He was drafted in 2011.
Did Jernigan play
nyynyg : 8/20/2013 9:30 am : link
because I didn't even notice him when at the game. It was bizarre to see Murphy get so many reps, even more than Randle. And it seems Kevin Hardy took a ton of reps where I would have expected Jerny.
Yeah, just going into his third year.
Curtis in VA : 8/20/2013 9:31 am : link
Still, people talk about the third year being the time when players usually get it. He's on the cusp of that opportunity now. And he's a cheap backup. I think he's going to be here until his contract runs out after next season.
You wonder what runs through Barden's mind
CT Charlie : 8/20/2013 9:31 am : link
when he sees game film of himself coming up short like that. He's a smart guy, and it wouldn't take a lot more effort to keep a $500K a year gig going for quite a few years.
Curtis in VA : 8/20/2013 9:33 am : link
I think he was hurt.
The backup slot receiver behind Cruz will be either Jernigan...
Big Blue Blogger : 8/20/2013 9:41 am : link
...or a player not currently on the roster. The job is Jernigan's to lose the next two weeks. He might manage to lose it, but keep in mind that his competition - like VC's in 2011 - will be castoffs like Brandon Stokley. Jernigan's return skills don't seem to afford him much roster protection. There will be enough active players each week to cover the depth requirement there: Hosley, Ross and Randle on punts; Cox (apparently) and Wilson on kickoffs.

Barden has two routes to the roster, and neither really puts him in direct competition with Jernigan. The long shot is that he beats out Murphy for a backup spot on the outside, which would make him active on game day. There seems little chance of him doing that, although I'm not sure Murphy is a total lock either. The more likely path to a roster spot for Barden is the one he followed last year: as a healthy inactive, kept around as injury insurance. In that role, his experience in the offense gives him a big edge over potential waiver claims or street free agents. The question remains whether the Giants can afford a roster spot for that purpose.
We have no Wide Receivers after Murphy.
Ten Ton Hammer : 8/20/2013 9:42 am : link
Barden and Jernigan are junk. Barden is a non-contact, practice hero and Jernigan can't play.
nyynyg: Hamstring.
Big Blue Blogger : 8/20/2013 9:42 am : link
It better heal quickly.
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 9:48 am : link
Blogger.. re: your 9:41, I agree. I pretty much see it the same way right now. I think Jernigan is going to have to show something to hold his spot. I don't think he can just miss preseason games and not flash in camp and expect to be kept anyway.
Gilbride has spoken well
Blue Blood : 8/20/2013 9:54 am : link
of Brandon Collins..
Won't Collins spend September in the dunce corner with Will Hill?
Big Blue Blogger : 8/20/2013 10:00 am : link
He's also losing a lot of valuable time to a hamstring. Could be an option in October, though.
I'd be very surprised if JJ didn't make the final roster,
yatqb : 8/20/2013 10:06 am : link
and mildly surprised if Barden did. Barden has no upside...he is what we've seen of him. Very mediocre. JJ has a shot to be a decent backup slot receiver. I look forward to him getting a lot of reps these next two games.
I know that JJ is still on his rookie deal...
Jan in DC : 8/20/2013 10:13 am : link
but I haven't seen anything out of him that screams untapped potential. I honestly think that Barden might get that spot. Maybe JJ will flash in this Jets game coming up.
thanks guys, I figured
nyynyg : 8/20/2013 10:15 am : link
I was looking him all night and didn't think he was that much in the dog house. was really surprised about how little Randle was out there.

Jernigan also still has another year left on his rookie deal
JonC : 8/20/2013 10:16 am : link
we know how the team tends to give their draft picks every opportunity to succeed, look no further than Barden.
Breaston and Crayton
Thunderstruck27 : 8/20/2013 10:18 am : link
just got released from New Orleans. I wouldn't mind bringing in one or both. IMO Barden isn't a legit NFL WR. He's a failed project. Was worth a shot for his size...but it never worked out.
they love
eleven : 8/20/2013 10:52 am : link
Kevin hardy who is awful. I would much rather breaston but my guess is we get a steady diet of hardy.
NJGiantFan84 : 8/20/2013 11:06 am : link
was drafted to return punts. he has failed at that. I still think they keep Barden, but I don't expect he'll get much time and will likely be inactive often. Staying healthy at WR is key this season.
NJGiantFan84 : 8/20/2013 11:06 am : link
was drafted to return punts. he has failed at that. I still think they keep Barden, but I don't expect he'll get much time and will likely be inactive often. Staying healthy at WR is key this season.
breaston and crayton are available? really?
nyynyg : 8/20/2013 11:39 am : link
what happened there? that is a serious fall off...
The Giants
geemanfan : 8/20/2013 11:43 am : link
Like Barden and like every year before this one, he will make the team again.
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 11:47 am : link
Crayton was never any good.

Breaston looked like a solid player a few years back. Not sure what happened there.
hardy screams practice squad player
CGiants07 : 8/20/2013 11:50 am : link
if the giants keep 5 id bet on Jernigan over barden(because barden doesn't play specials well) but if they keep 6 barden is that
Barden and Jj will both make it
oipolloi : 8/20/2013 11:52 am : link
Familiarity with the offense is the key factor for both.
NJGiantFan84: Minor correction to your post:
Big Blue Blogger : 8/20/2013 12:10 pm : link
NJGiantFan84 : 11:06 am
was drafted to return punts. he has failed at that. play the slot. He has been eclipsed by Victor Cruz, who came from nowhere to emerge as the premier slot receiver in the NFL. I still think they keep Barden, but I don't expect he'll get much time and will likely be inactive often. Staying healthy at WR is key this season.
JoshB : 8/20/2013 1:47 pm : link
I can't say how many snaps Randle took but he was still out there in the 3rd quarter, so it must have been a decent amount
We're not giving up on Jernigan
David in LA : 8/20/2013 1:59 pm : link
I still think he has the 5th wr spot. He played well in the 1st preseason games, flashed as both a WR and KR. He offers more roster flexibility than Barden. Keep in mind, before Cruz blew up in 2011, we drafted Jernigan to groom for the slot position. He wasn't quite NFL ready, so we brought in Stokley to be a stopgap and/or push Cruz to play. To say the least, after 2011, circumstances changed drastically for Jernigan. He still presents good value. Cheap contract, return man, and can play slot. No way he's gone before the season starts.
Toth029 : 8/20/2013 2:00 pm : link
They aren't cutting JJ, especially for Barden, because:

1. he does returns
2. he backs up Cruz in the slot
3. Barden lasted four years until he was cut, JJ isn't getting fewer chances
They'll keep him, and god forbid he needs to play, they're going to
Ten Ton Hammer : 8/20/2013 2:06 pm : link
put him out there to do it, I just don't expect anything.
I don't really think JJ has flashed...
Jan in DC : 8/20/2013 2:10 pm : link
at all. I think that it's possible that he sticks on the roster, but I don't think it's a stretch to say he's been outperformed by Barden so far.

I'm rooting for both guys, but considering the situation along the DL, I think we'll probably only keep 5 WRs.
Jernigan for WR5.
WeatherMan : 8/20/2013 2:18 pm : link
No need for a 6th WR, there isn't one on the team worthy of the spot and this year more than most there are roster crunches where that extra slot can be put to good use. The season total contributions from a WR6 in general are little to none as is, I'll be thrilled to not see a 53 man spot wasted at that position this year.
Barden wasn't cut.... His rookie deal ran out this year and he was
fredgbrown : 8/20/2013 2:20 pm : link
re-signed after no other team showed any interest.
arcarsenal : 8/20/2013 2:21 pm : link
I've said a few times that I thought keeping 5 made the most sense. But I was poo pooed by a bunch of posters who claimed that since the Giants haven't only kept 5 out of camp recently that they won't do it now.. or their logic was that "other teams don't do that".

If we only keep 5, are we really letting a guy who can't be replaced go? I don't really see it that way.
It'll be interesting to see what happens...
rptl530 : 8/20/2013 2:24 pm : link
but as of now IF the Giants keep 6 I'd expect #6 to be Barden.

Keeping 5 right off the bat is certainly a possibility.
Size Wins Out
Jeffrey : 8/20/2013 2:58 pm : link
Barden should be No. 5. Clearly he has not lived up to the hype when he was drafted, but he has at least had a couple of decent games. I cannot think of any time that Jernigan has shone since being drafted.
Back to the Corner


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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Socks Rest in Peace

It's not a huge or important one, as news stories go, but we learned this weekend that "Socks", the White House cat that lived with the Clintons in the 1990's, has passed away, reportedly due to cancer. (He was about 18 years old, which is pretty much the upper limit for house cats these days.) He had been staying in Maryland with the former Clinton's secretary.

Presidential dogs get a lot more press, and there have been more dogs than cats in the White House, even though there are more cats than dogs in America. When the Obamas get around to choosing their new pet, the media frenzy will rival any news story out there.

Nevertheless, I had always wondered what became of Socks, and even with the constant avalanche of bad economic news we have to bear each day, it made me a tad bit sad when I heard about Socks. The black and white cat (which is the most common color of domestic cats world-wide) was a fixture in the White House during the Clinton presidency, and many of us look back on those days wistfully.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Boycott the "bamn" Boycott

The professional 70's style protest group "bamn", which is hassling local shoppers trying to patronize downtown Ferndale businesses, claims to be trying to reform the region's education system. They wish to either combine all the local systems into one giant district or get inter-county schools of choice. To this end, they have targeted one successful magnet school in Ferndale that attracts about 400 students, claiming it is somehow segregated.

(See previous post from last month)

Bamn is pleased that they have begun to hurt our local economy, and have ramped up their protests at several local popular businesses and landmark downtown locations in Ferndale.

They even tried to boycott the Blues Festival (They failed at that...big time !)

Since our Constitution guarantees free speech, there is little we can do to counter their bully tactics and misplaced anger. But one thing we can do is patronize the businesses that are being targeted. Boycott the boycott.

Nothing will deflate the tired rhetoric of bamn (I have decided to only use lower case letters for their acronym, they are not deserving of capital letters) than to negate the very tactics that they use.

So....Let's spend some of our money in the businesses that are being picketed by bamn. Go to Western Market and buy your produce, meat, and groceries. (It is a great store anyway.)
Have dinner and or drinks at Como's or Dino's. Buy some items from Dollar Castle and or The Record Collector. Let's fight fire with fire. Buy local. Support our local businesses.

Monday, February 02, 2009

The Last Michigan State Fair ?

Many people will be shocked and saddened to learn this week that the new state budget being proposed for the new fiscal year will include an end to funding for the state fair grounds. This year's annual Michigan State Fair held at the end summer may be our last.

Michigan is still in a deep recession, and has been for more than five years. Continuing depressed economic activity, increased unemployment, and disasterous vehicle sales have all taken their toll on an ever tightening state budget. Nearly everyone is hurting, including local, state, and federal govermental budgets. Additional cuts are necessary, and this highly visible cut cannot be helped. The state may put the land up for sale where the historic fair has been held for more than a century.

We in Ferndale will watch the situation unfold, and will stay attuned to developments. Obviously we will strive to represent the interests of our residents and neighbors, and support ideas that would improve the area (parks, recreation, nature, and or housing/retail) as well as oppose options that could be detrimental to the area (race-tracks, heavy industry).

The budget for the City of Ferndale is still in very strong shape, with no cuts to services planned right now. But we are not an island, and we all will have to pull together as we weather this world-wide economic storm, and its unfortunate and unpleasant ramifications.


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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Chet Raymo, “In The Sweet By And By”

“In The Sweet By And By”
by Chet Raymo

“In the Bahamas there's a saying: Everbody wanna go to hebben, but nobody wanna die. I suppose you could find the same expression anywhere in the world. It's one of those universal axioms, a cognitive dissonance the human species has learned to live with. We want to live forever, but there's always that nagging fear that death is final. When someone comes along promising eternal life, we are quick to jump on board, to buy into the program, to make our Pascal's Wager with a generous tithe. The Keys of the Kingdom have always been the ultimate commodity in the marketplace of ideas. And in our more scientific age, what is on offer from the white-coated boffins?

Not much, I'm afraid. Everything that can be counted part of a human self- soma, immune system, self-awareness, memory- has been shown to be inextricably entwined with the uncorrupted flesh. No hint of a ghost in the machine. Not a whiff of immortal soul. Of course science can't disprove the self's immortality, but it offers precious little- zero- affirmative evidence.

So it was with some curiosity that I looked at an essay on the Huffington Post called "What Happens When You Die?," by Robert Lanza, M.D., scientist, theoretician. His answer: "Experiments suggest the answer is simpler than anyone thought. Without the glue of consciousness, time essentially reboots."

Experiments suggest? What experiments, I wondered. I read further. A nice little essay about Mr. O'Donnell the blacksmith, and a few references to quantum theory. Then in the last paragraph: "Without consciousness, space and time are nothing; in reality you can take any time- whether past or future- as your new frame of reference. Death is a reboot that leads to all potentialities. That's the reality that the experiments mandate."

Nobody gonna die. Everbody gonna reboot.”

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text: # BeOS hints file if [ ! -f beos/nm ]; then mwcc -w all -o beos/nm beos/nm.c 2>/dev/null; fi # If this fails, that's all right - it's only for PPC. prefix="/boot/home/config" #cpp="mwcc -e" libpth='/boot/beos/system/lib /boot/home/config/lib' usrinc='/boot/develop/headers/posix' locinc='/boot/develop/headers/ /boot/home/config/include' libc='/boot/beos/system/lib/libroot.so' libs=' ' d_bcmp='define' d_bcopy='define' d_bzero='define' d_index='define' #d_htonl='define' # It exists, but much hackery would be required to support. # a bunch of extra includes would have to be added, and it's only used at # one place in the non-socket perl code. #these are all in libdll.a, which my version of nm doesn't know how to parse. #if I can get it to both do that, and scan multiple library files, perhaps #these can be gotten rid of. usemymalloc='n' # Hopefully, Be's malloc knows better than perl's. d_link='undef' dont_use_nlink='define' # no posix (aka hard) links for us! d_syserrlst='undef' # the array syserrlst[] is useless for the most part. # large negative numbers really kind of suck in arrays. # Sockets didn't use to be real sockets but BONE changes this. if [ ! -f /boot/develop/headers/be/bone/sys/socket.h ]; then d_socket='undef' d_gethbyaddr='undef' d_gethbyname='undef' d_getsbyname='undef' libs='-lnet' fi # There's a third party flock() emulation. Check, if it is available. echo "#include " > try.c if cc -E $CFLAGS try.c 2> /dev/null | grep "flock.*("; then d_flock='define' d_flockproto='define' libs="$libs -lflock" ldflags="$ldflags -L/boot/home/config/lib" else cat << 'EOM' >&4 I couldn't find a header defining a flock() prototype. That header comes with the flock server package (available on BeBits). You have to add the path to the directory containing the header via the environment variable CFLAGS (should contain -I). Perl will be compiled without flock() support, if the flock server package is not installed or the header not found. EOM fi rm try.c ld='gcc' export PATH="$PATH:$PWD/beos" case "$ldlibpthname" in '') ldlibpthname=LIBRARY_PATH ;; esac # the waitpid() wrapper (among other things) archobjs="beos.o" test -f beos.c || cp beos/beos.c .


text:
Go to Kentucky.gov home page
Kentucky: Council on Postsecondary Education

Council on Postsecondary Education
Rural Access Work Group to meet

Press Release Date:  Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Contact Information:  Sue Patrick
Cell: 502-330-6596

The Council on Postsecondary Education’s Rural Access Work Group will meet Thursday, April 4 at 9:30 a.m. EDT in Meeting Room A at the Council on Postsecondary Education offices in Frankfort.

The agenda is available at http://cpe.ky.gov/committees/rawg-040413.htm.

Directions to the Council offices may be accessed at http://www.cpe.ky.gov/about/directions.htm.

We believe in the transformative power of postsecondary education. Stronger by Degrees, the new strategic agenda for Kentucky’s colleges and universities and adult basic education, is powering a stronger Kentucky economy and improving the lives of Kentuckians. To learn more about Stronger by Degrees, visit http://cpe.ky.gov/strongerbydegrees.
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/CPENews.

Last Updated 4/3/2013
Privacy | Security | Disclaimer | Accessibility Statement


text:
Christmas Ball Candle

For this project you use the glass ornament for your mold.

Christmas Ball Candle

What you need

Glass Christmas ball
Tub of sand
Basic candle making supplies

Caution should be taken with this project in case the mold breaks. So wear protective eye wear during the whole process.

You need to have your wax around 170’F For this project and you should warm your glass ball to prevent shattering.

To use the ball as a mold you need to pop off the silver hanger on the top and set the mold down into some sand to keep it upright while pouring.

You can counter sink your wick or add it later using a hot skewer.

These balls look great with whipped wax on top.

Pour a brown candle and pop some whipped white wax on top for plum pudding finish

For a complete instruction sheet on basic candle making check out this link Basic Candle Making Project

  1. This seems a lot more cute with a Christmas poem.

  2. Do you leave the glass ball intact after wax hardens or break and remove it?

  3. Directions were clear and easy to follow. This one is dangerous, though and not somehting I would do with the kidos.

  4. not enough information

What do you think of this project? Let us know!


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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

My Life According to Matchbox20

Between a stressful week (so far) at work and packing, my brain is sort of mush. So I'm doing a fun meme today that I found over at Shark Bait.

My Life According to...Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)"

Pick your Artist: Matchbox 20

Describe yourself: Smooth

How do you feel: Back 2 Good

Describe where you currently live: Bright Lights

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Real World

Your favorite form of transportation: Crutch

Your best friend: Girl Like That

You and your best friend are: Bent

What's the weather like: Mad Season

Favorite time of day: 3 AM

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: I'm Not Crazy

What is life to you: Rest Stop

Your relationship: All I Need

Your fear: These Hard Times

What is the best advice you have to give: Push

Thought for the Day: How Far We've Come

How I would like to die: Disease

My soul's present condition: Heavy

My motto: I'll Believe You When

Let me know if you play along - I'd love to read yours!

Kristina P. said...

I've been seeing several of these today, and they've all be so fun!

Laura said...

Cute - very clever!

tiburon said...

Thanks so much for playing.

LOVE me some Matchbox 20!

Well done!

I added you to the list :)

Caroline said...

I don't envy you packing at all! I've been unpacking for my classroom, they made me move at the end of the year! Good Luck!


text:
lineup: Lining up two sets of measurements

Tools for detecting and correcting sample mix-ups between two sets of measurements, such as between gene expression data on two tissues.

Version: 0.34-1
Depends: R (≥ 2.10.1), qtl (≥ 1.20-15), class, graphics
Published: 2012-10-15
Author: Karl W Broman
Maintainer: Karl W Broman <kbroman at>
License: GPL-3
NeedsCompilation: yes
CRAN checks: lineup results

Reference manual: lineup.pdf
Package source: lineup_0.34-1.tar.gz
Windows binaries: r-devel:, r-release:, r-oldrel:
OS X Snow Leopard binaries: r-release: lineup_0.34-1.tgz, r-oldrel: lineup_0.34-1.tgz
OS X Mavericks binaries: r-release: lineup_0.34-1.tgz


text:
A- A A+

Article from:

Creation  Volume 21Issue 3 Cover

Creation 21(3):39–41
June 1999

Free Email News
Creation magazine print - 1 yr new subn

US $25.00
View Item
The Creation Answers Book
by Various

US $14.00
View Item

Dating dilemma: fossil wood in ‘ancient’ sandstone

Every major, world-recognized city has its unique landmarks and features. Sydney, Australia’s oldest city (settled in 1788) and largest (more than 3.5 million people), and soon to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, is no exception. It has its beautiful harbour and famous bridge, its Opera House and golden beaches, but it also has some unique and characteristic rock formations.

The Hawkesbury Sandstone

The Hawkesbury Sandstone, named after the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney, dominates the landscape within a 100 km (60 mile) radius of downtown Sydney. It is a flat-lying layer of sandstone, some 20,000 sq. km (7,700 sq. miles) in area and up to 250 metres (820 feet) thick.1 Dominated by grains of the mineral quartz2 (which is chemically very similar to window glass, and harder than a steel file), the sandstone is a hard, durable rock which forms prominent cliffs, such as at the entrance to Sydney Harbour and along the nearby coastline.

Despite the widespread, spectacular exposures of the Hawkesbury Sandstone, there is a long history of speculation about its origins, going back to Charles Darwin.3 Rather than consisting of just one sandstone bed encompassing its total thickness, the Hawkesbury Sandstone is made up of three principal rock types—sheet sandstone, massive sandstone and relatively thin mudstone.1 Each has internal features that indicate deposition in fast-flowing currents, such as in a violent flood.4 For example, thin repetitive bands sloping at around 20° within the flat-lying sandstone beds (technically known as cross-beds), sometimes up to 6 metres (20 feet) high, would have been produced by huge sandwaves (like sand dunes) swept along by raging water.

Fossils in the sandstone itself are rare. However, spectacular fossil graveyards have been found in several lenses (lenticular bodies of only limited extent) of mudstone.5 Many varieties of fish and even sharks have been discovered in patterns consistent with sudden burial in a catastrophe. Some such graveyards contain many plant fossils.

The Hawkesbury Sandstone has been assigned a Middle Triassic ‘age’ of around 225–230 million years by most geologists.1,6,7 This is based on its fossil content, and on its relative position in the sequence of rock layers in the region (the Sydney Basin). All of these are placed in the context of the long ages timescale commonly assumed by geologists.

Large finger-sized piece of fossil wood discovered in a Hawkesbury Sandstone slab

Fossil wood sample

Because of its hardness and durability, the Hawkesbury Sandstone not only provides a solid foundation for downtown Sydney’s skyscrapers, but is an excellent building material. A number of Sydney’s old buildings have walls of sandstone blocks. Today, the Hawkesbury Sandstone is mainly used for ornamental purposes.

To obtain fresh sandstone, slabs and blocks have to be carefully quarried. Several quarries still operate in the Gosford area just north of Sydney, and one near Bundanoon to the south-west.

In June 1997 a large finger-sized piece of fossil wood was discovered in a Hawkesbury Sandstone slab just cut from the quarry face at Bundanoon (see photo, right).8 Though reddish-brown and hardened by petrifaction, the original character of the wood was still evident. Identification of the genus is not certain, but more than likely it was the forked-frond seed-fern Dicroidium, well known from the Hawkesbury Sandstone.2,7 The fossil was probably the wood from the stem of a frond.

Radiocarbon (14C) analysis

Because this fossil wood now appears impregnated with silica and hematite, it was uncertain whether any original organic carbon remained, especially since it is supposed to be 225–230 million years old. Nevertheless, a piece of the fossil wood was sent for radiocarbon (14C) analysis to Geochron Laboratories in Cambridge, Boston (USA), a reputable internationally-recognized commercial laboratory. This laboratory uses the more sensitive accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technique, recognized as producing the most reliable radiocarbon results, even on minute quantities of carbon in samples.

The laboratory staff were not told exactly where the fossil wood came from, or its supposed evolutionary age, to ensure there would be no resultant bias. Following routine lab procedure, the sample (their lab code GX–23644) was treated first with hot dilute hydrochloric acid to remove any carbonates, and then with hot dilute caustic soda to remove any humic acids or other organic contaminants. After washing and drying, it was combusted to recover any carbon dioxide for the radiocarbon analysis.

The analytical report from the laboratory indicated detectable radiocarbon had been found in the fossil wood, yielding a supposed 14C ‘age’ of 33,720 ± 430 years BP (before present). This result had been ‘13C corrected’ by the lab staff, after they had obtained a d13CPDB value of –24.0‰.9 This value is consistent with the analyzed carbon in the fossil wood representing organic carbon from the original wood, and not from any contamination. Of course, if this fossil wood really were 225–230 million years old as is supposed, it should be impossible to obtain a finite radiocarbon age, because all detectable 14C should have decayed away in a fraction of that alleged time—a few tens of thousands of years.

Anticipating objections that the minute quantity of detected radiocarbon in this fossil wood might still be due to contamination, the question of contamination by recent microbial and fungal activity, long after the wood was buried, was raised with the staff at this, and another, radiocarbon laboratory. Both labs unhesitatingly replied that there would be no such contamination problem. Modern fungi or bacteria derive their carbon from the organic material they live on and don’t get it from the atmosphere, so they have the same ‘age’ as their host. Furthermore, the lab procedure followed (as already outlined) would remove the cellular tissues and any waste products from either fungi or bacteria.

This is, therefore, a legitimate radiocarbon ‘age.’ However, a 33,720 ± 430 years BP radiocarbon ‘age’ emphatically conflicts with, and casts doubt upon, the supposed evolutionary ‘age’ of 225–230 million years for this fossil wood from the Hawkesbury Sandstone.

Although demonstrating that the fossil wood cannot be millions of years old, the radiocarbon dating has not provided its true age. However, a finite radiocarbon ‘age’ for this fossil wood is neither inconsistent nor unexpected within a Creation/Flood framework of Earth history. Buried catastrophically in sand by the raging Flood waters only about 4,500 years ago, this fossil wood contains less than the expected amount of radiocarbon, because of a stronger magnetic field back then shielding the Earth from incoming cosmic rays. The Flood also buried a lot of carbon, so that the laboratory’s calculated 14C ‘age’ (based on the assumption of an atmospheric proportion in the past roughly the same as that in 1950) is much greater than the true age.10

Correctly understood, this radiocarbon analysis is totally consistent with the biblical account of a young Earth and a recent global Flood, as recorded in Genesis by the Creator Himself.

References and notes

  1. P.J. Conaghan, ‘The Hawkesbury Sandstone: gross characteristics and depositional environment,’ NSW Geological Survey Bulletin 26:188–253, 1980. Return to text.
  2. J.C. Standard, ‘Hawkesbury Sandstone,’ The Geology of New South Wales, G.H. Packham (ed.), Journal of the Geological Society of Australia 16(1):407–417, 1969. Return to text.
  3. C. Darwin, Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands, 1844. Reprinted in: On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs …, G.T. Bettany (ed.), Ward and Lock, London, pp. 155–265, 1890. Return to text.
  4. J. Woodford, ‘Rock doctor catches up with our prehistoric surf,’ The Sydney Morning Herald, April 30, 1994, p. 2. Return to text.
  5. A.A. Snelling, ‘An exciting Australian fossil fish discovery,’ Creation 10(3):32–36, 1988. Return to text.
  6. F.M. Gradstein and J. Ogg, ‘A Phanerozoic time scale,’ Episodes 19(1&2):3–5 and chart, 1996. Return to text.
  7. M.E. White, The Greening of Gondwana, Reed Books, Sydney, pp. 135–155, 1986. Return to text.
  8. Creation Ministries International is indebted to Mr Stephen Vinicombe, then living in nearby Moss Vale, for this discovery, for sending the sample, and for information supplied in letters. Return to text.
  9. d13CPDB denotes the measured difference of the ratio 13C/12C (both stable isotopes) in the sample compared to the PDB (Pee Dee Belemnite) standard—a fossil belemnite (a shellfish classified with octopuses and cuttlefish) in the Pee Dee Formation in the USA. The units used are parts per thousand, written as‰ or per mil (compared with parts per hundred, written as % or per cent). Organic carbon from the different varieties of life gives different characteristic d13C values. Return to text.
  10. Stable 12C would not have been totally replaced in the biosphere after the Flood, whereas 14C would have been regenerated in the atmosphere (from cosmic ray bombardment of nitrogen). So comparing today’s 14C/12C with the 14C/12C in pre-Flood material would yield too high a calibration, resulting in ‘ages’ far too long. Return to text. reaches millions of people each year–many of these aren't believers in our Creator and Savior Jesus Christ. How will we keep reaching them without your support? Please consider a small gift today. Support this site

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text:
Creative Commons » creative commons Share, reuse, and remix — legally. Wed, 27 May 2015 18:27:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Open Business Models – Call For Participation Fri, 06 Mar 2015 16:31:40 +0000 Creative Commons has long celebrated everyone who uses our licenses. TeamOpen profiles give a good sense of the diversity of use and purpose. The creative ways individuals, not-for-profits, governments, and businesses use our licenses is inspiring.

For every TeamOpen example there are many others who want to move in that direction but don’t know how. The question we frequently hear is, “How do I earn a living, pay the bills, and keep the lights on if I openly license my work and give it away for free?” This question is asked not just by entrepreneurs but by people in non-profits and government too.

We are pleased to announce, through gracious funding from the Hewlett Foundation, that we’re launching a Creative Commons open business models initiative aiming squarely at showing how our licenses can, and are, used by businesses, non-profits, and governments.

Open for business sign
Building an open source business by Libby Levi licensed CC BY-SA

We aim to help businesses see how to use and contribute to the commons in a way that aligns with the norms and values of the commons, while at the same time operating as a business. We want to show what sustainability models look like. We’re planning to generate designs for how to move from closed to open. We want to provide models for businesses whose aim is to provide products and services that have both economic and social value. We aim to make visible how open business models work and provide tools and strategies for designing and developing your own.

We want to do this work in a community-based way with all of you. So this blog post is an open call for participation.

The Creative Commons open business models initiative provides you with a set of interactive tools which you can use to design your own open business models. You can use the tools to model anything from a new startup open business to an existing open business, or something in between.

The Creative Commons open business models initiative asks you to share the models you come up with including your analysis of your own models and provide suggestions for improvement of the open business model tools themselves.

Creative Commons invites you to participate in these open business model activities:

  1. Join us in designing, developing, and iterating a set of interactive Creative Commons open business model tools that anyone can use to design an open business model.
  2. Use these open business model tools yourself to generate your own open business model(s).
  3. Share the results of your participation including the open business models you generate.
  4. Provide feedback and recommendations for improving the Creative Commons open business model tools and process.
  5. Partner directly with Creative Commons on developing an open business model for your specific initiative.
  6. Participate in a Creative Commons workshop on generating open business models.
  7. Contribute to a Creative Commons open business models report.

See our Creative Commons Open Business Models Participation Activities document for further details on each of these activities, including specifics for participation, and links to the tools.

We’re excited about doing this work with all of you and growing the commons through open business models.

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What School of Open volunteers accomplished in 2014 Mon, 22 Dec 2014 13:00:01 +0000 Another End of Year list, but one which I hope you’ll take to heart: the amazing accomplishments of the volunteers running School of Open programs around the world, comprised of the Creative Commons, P2PU, Mozilla, and related open communities.

SOO wreath
SOO logo on Holiday Wreath by Kelly Teague under CC BY-SA

This year, our community:

For 2015: Some changes are on the horizon. Mainly, we’ll be working to revamp our website to better support our volunteers wherever they are based, streamline the process for volunteers who want to run their own online courses, and re-strategize around what it means to develop and run a School of Open program. Above all, we want to increase our impact by combining forces with all open web and education advocates who are being leaders in their regions. Stay tuned…

On behalf of our intersecting communities, CC wishes you a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

See how far we’ve come:

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School of Open Africa launch event in Kenya tomorrow! Fri, 19 Sep 2014 22:45:54 +0000 Following on the heels of School of Open Africa launch events in Tanzania and Nigeria last weekend, School of Open Kenya is hosting its own tomorrow to kick off training for four high schools in Nairobi.

SOO AfricaV2
(SOO logo here. Earth icon licensed CC BY by Erin Standley from the Noun Project.)

Called Popjam, this SOO launch event + Mozilla Maker Party will be a day-long workshop introducing high school students to open educational resources (OER). Students will learn how to use OER and the open web to complement their academic studies. Students from four high schools will participate: Precious Blood Secondary School, Nairobi School, Sunshine Secondary School, and State House Girls Secondary School. SOO Kenya is hosted by Jamlab, a co-creation community based in Nairobi for high school students and graduates in Africa.

For more information about the event, and to RSVP if you’re in Nairobi, visit the event page.

About Maker Party

School of Open and Creative Commons is excited to be partnering with Mozilla to celebrate teaching and learning the web with Maker Party. Through thousands of community-run events around the world, Maker Party unites educators, organizations and enthusiastic Internet users of all ages and skill levels.

We share Mozilla’s belief that the web is a global public resource that’s integral to modern life: it shapes how we learn, how we connect and how we communicate. But many of us don’t understand its basic mechanics or what it means to be a citizen of the web. That’s why we’re supporting this global effort to teach web literacy through hands-on learning and making with Maker Party.

About the School of Open

The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, and research. Volunteers develop and run courses, workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and P2PU.

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School of Open: Copyright & Creative Commons for Educators Courses Now Open for Sign-up Tue, 18 Feb 2014 18:22:19 +0000 fuzzy copyright
Is copyright a little fuzzy? / Elias Bizannes / CC BY-SA

Following on the heels of “Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond,” three more School of Open courses are now open for sign-up. They are:

1. Copyright 4 Educators (AUS)

This course will equip Australian educators with the copyright knowledge to confidently use copyright material in the classroom. It will also introduce Open Educational Resources (OER) and teach you how to find and adapt free, useful resources for your classes. The course is open to all educators around the world, but it is specifically targeted to Australian teachers, teacher-librarians from K-12, TAFE teachers, University lecturers/tutors, and University students studying to become teachers. The course material is learnt around practical case studies faced by teachers when using copyright material in their day-to-day teaching and educational instruction.

Facilitators: Jessica Smith and Delia Browne

To sign up, click the “Start course” button on the bottom left of the course page.

2. Copyright 4 Educators (US)

This is a course for educators who want to learn about US copyright law in the education context. Educators who are not in the US are welcome to sign up, too, if they want to learn about copyright law in the US. The course is taught around practical case studies faced by teachers when using copyright material in their day-to-day teaching. By answering the case scenarios and drafting and discussing the answers in groups, you and other participants will learn:

  • What is the public domain?
  • What does copyright law protect?
  • What is fair use?
  • What other exceptions are there in copyright law?
  • What are open access educational resources?

Facilitators: Laura Quilter and Lila Bailey

To sign up, apply using the Google form — also linked at the top of the course page.

3. Creative Commons for K-12 Educators

K-12 educators would like to find and adapt free, useful resources for their classes. Some would even like to incorporate activities that teach their students digital world skills — such as finding, remixing, and sharing digital media and materials on the web. In this lightly facilitated course, we will learn how to do these things with each other in a peer learning environment.

Facilitator: Jane Park

To sign up, click the “Start course” button on the bottom left of the course page.

About the School of Open

school of open logo

The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, research, and more. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and P2PU, a peer learning community and platform for developing and running free online courses.

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Join School of Open, OKFN, and FLOSS for an evening in London Wed, 25 Sep 2013 16:28:44 +0000 Join us for a fun evening event on 24 October in London! The School of Open community along with members of the Open Knowledge Foundation and FLOSS Manuals Foundation is holding a meetup at the Large Common Room in the William Goodenough House (yes, that’s a real name!). Details at the Eventbrite and below.

Sport (?) 1911 (LOC)
Sport (?) 1911 (LOC) / Bain News Service,, publisher / No known copyright restrictions

Hit the Road Map: A Human Timeline of the Open Education Space

Join the School of Open (Creative Commons & P2PU), the Open Knowledge Foundation, and FLOSS Manuals Foundation for a fun evening to connect with your peers in the open education space! So many efforts exist to “open” up education around the world. How can we help connect these efforts? We’d like to start by collaboratively building a human timeline of open education — Do you remember when and where you first became aware of open education? When did you first become passionate about “open” or participate in an “open” event or job? Where and what was it? What else in this area has most inspired you? We will share experiences and manually place ourselves along a real world timeline (think rolls of butcher paper, markers, glitter is optional). Then we’ll start fleshing out the timeline with key events and persons that we think brought the open education and knowledge movement to where it is today. We’ll stop whenever we get tired, make merry with refreshments and snacks, and digitize whatever we have by the end of the evening for further contributions from everyone and anyone on the web. We’ll make the resulting timeline available openly (either via CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA), and feature it in a chapter of the Open Education Handbook!

Due to the awesome, but limited space, this event will be first come, first serve, capping registrations at 30 participants. Please update your registration if you cannot make it to make room for those on the waiting list!

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World Bank Live Event Report: Open Access Policy and Development Thu, 24 May 2012 18:27:15 +0000 On Monday, the World Bank hosted an event called What the World Bank’s Open Access Policy Means for Development (you can view the video recording of the event at the link or embedded below). Participants included Peter Suber from Harvard University, Michael Carroll from American University (Mike is on the Board of Directors at Creative Commons), and Cyril Muller and Adam Wagstaff from the World Bank. The discussion was timely given the Bank’s recently-announced Open Access Policy and Open Knowledge Repository. We blogged about the Bank’s announcement of these two great initiatives. The World Bank’s Open Access Policy requires that all research outputs and knowledge products published by the Bank be licensed Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) as a default.

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The conversation Monday revolved around the impact and potential for World Bank research — and open access in general — for development in countries around the world. For example, how will access and reuse of research under an open access policy create opportunities to solve large global challenges such as climate change and hunger?

The panelists jumped in, and stated that an immediate, baseline benefit of the open access policy is that now, World Bank research is aggregated in one place and made available for free to anyone with an internet connection. This is not the case with subscription journals, where readers have to pay to view the articles. Mike Carroll noted the importance of addressing copyright concerns in open policies. Even when research is made available for free online, if readers are unclear about the rights available to them, the articles and data will not be as valuable or impactful. This is especially important in developing nations, where republication and moving information from the Internet to an offline environment requires copyright permission. With open licenses such as CC BY chosen by the World Bank, permission to republish and translate articles into other languages is automatically granted. Carroll pointed to related success in the Open Education space. He said that many MIT Open CourseWare materials have been translated and put into use in other countries (such as Vietnam) specifically because the original resources were published under an open license that permitted translation and reuse.

Suber and Muller said that one benefit of an open access policy (especially when combined with open access to the underlying data) is that it can help validate research and work toward consensus on a particular issue, such as climate change. This in turn can help policymakers make better, research-driven decisions. Muller said that open access promotes collaboration between colleagues, even those with different skill sets and backgrounds. With this comes the increased possibility of solving complex research problems in novel ways. Muller and Wagstaff noted that the Open Access Policy would help increase the visibility, access, and reuse of World Bank documents and research. This information will help increase the audience for important Bank research and will promote cross-border transfer of information, especially in a south-south direction (as opposed to north-south).

To highlight the dire situation in pricing for traditional journals, the panelists discussed Harvard’s recent announcement about the unsustainable cost of scholarly journal subscriptions. Suber noted that even with a journal budget of $9 million per year, the Harvard University Library realizes it cannot afford the ongoing agreements with commercial journal publishers. And clearly, if even Harvard can’t afford the full range of research, every other university in the world is worse off. However, Suber said that seven of Harvard’s nine colleges have adopted exemplary open access policies, thus retaining access to the research from Harvard faculty even if those faculty publish in traditional and expensive subscription journals.

Carroll pointed to a more fundamental problem with the current scholarly publishing ecosystem. Scholars have always written to maximize impact; the web helps makes it easy to publish to wide audience, at near zero cost. The logical conclusion to these two assumptions is that all scientific and scholarly research should be widely available for free online. However, this is not how things have shaken out. Instead, prices to access scholarly research has gone up dramatically, as half of science literature has been published by commercial houses. These commercial publishers have enjoyed up to 36% profit margins, even amid the worldwide financial crisis. This points to a larger problem, and hints that the current publishing system overall is broken. However, Suber said that there are currently some for-profit open access journals that are indeed profitable. However, he guessed that the profit margins at those companies was probably closer to 2-5%.

A related question from the audience asked why a scholar would want to publish research as open access if given the chance to publish her work in a “shiny” established journal. Panelists pointed out that the World Bank Open Access policy allows authors to do both. The policy requires that authors deposit a copy of their final paper in the Open Knowledge Repository, and doesn’t preclude researchers from publishing in traditional journals. Of course, while this framework is a step in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the underlying problem because big publishers continue to enjoy huge profit margins on their access-controlled subscription journals because university libraries continue to pay for the access that their faculty require.

Suber pointed out that there are other benefits to publishing work as open access. He said that publishing in open access journals allows authors to attach open licenses (such as CC BY) to their work. When they do so, they make the work more useful to readers and users. So, the smallest open access journal has a potentially larger audience than even the most popular paywalled journal because the work can reach anyone in the world with access to the Internet. When you couple this massive potential audience with the permission to republish and reuse via an open license, authors can maximize the impact of their work beyond the reach of any closed journal.

Mike Carroll also brought up the importance of new technologies and methods such as text mining as another tool to help solve complex problems. Challenges such as climate change are huge, and can’t be tackled by researchers individually. At the same time, there is now a huge body of research articles on the subject, and scholars are facing an information overload problem. That’s where text mining comes in, and allows researchers to conduct intensive computational analyses on huge sets of scientific texts in order to identify correlations, patterns, and unforeseen connections that would be impossible to understand by reading the articles by themselves. While the traditional publishing models typically block such text mining efforts, open access gives permission in advance, helping researchers solve problems faster and promote scientific innovation. Questions around the legal implications of text mining in relation to copyright are currently being discussed in the UK.

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Mr. Mayo’s Class Integrates CC, Skypes with Lawrence Lessig Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:52:39 +0000 mr mayo
Photo by Mr. Mayo CC BY-NC

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to talk to George Mayo, known as Mr. Mayo to his students, a middle school Language Arts teacher in Maryland. Mr. Mayo was brought to CC Learn’s attention by Lawrence Lessig, CC’s founder and current board member, who Skyped with Mr. Mayo’s class for thirty minutes, answering questions on copyright, YouTube’s take-down policy and downloading music. Mr. Mayo and his class have integrated CC licensed works into their daily activities, documenting it all at Instead of elaborating on the various innovative ways Mr. Mayo and his class uses CC, I’m going to let George speak for himself. The following is the interview I had with him via Skype. You can also listen to the audio here.

You were originally brought to our attention by Larry, who said he spoke to your classroom for half an hour about copyright and Creative Commons. And putting aside the fact that it’s awesome that you got half an hour of his attention, what is it that you teach and that spurred you to set up this first conversation with Larry?

Yeah, that was really cool that he gave us that much time; it was so nice of him to do that, and the way that he interacted with the kids was really awesome; he really took them seriously and gave very thoughtful responses. But what I teach this year–I’m a language arts teacher, but this year I’m teaching a film and literacy class. So it’s kind of a cool thing for middle schoolers to be able to take. My district is offering it and basically, we watch films and we make our own short films. And it’s all geared around kids building literacy skills through studying and making their own films.

So do they actually shoot their own films? Or do they use material that’s online and remix it, or do a little bit of both?

Right now, they shoot their own films. They have cameras and Apple laptops. The remixing part–I would like to; I have an after school club where we make stop motion films and we sort of mess around with some remixing in that club.

Do you encourage them to use Creative Commons licensed soundtracks or images or anything like that?

I do. That’s where, particular last year, as we started making films and I knew about all of the wealth of content online that you could use through Creative Commons, I started opening up all those resources to my students. So we’ve been using ccMixter and we use Freesound quite a bit, and so we basically tap into all those resources under the Creative Commons licenses, so it really just opens up just an amazing amount of resources. Like we drop in all this different music and sound effects, [and] it really helps the kids a lot and on their projects.

That’s really cool! So you’ve been doing that for the past year?

Yeah, I did that all last year. And even before that, as a language arts teacher, we were kind of experimenting with some of these resources, but really heavily over the last year.

How did you as a–you’re a middle school teacher right? You teach seventh and eight grades?

Right now I’m teaching sixth and seventh grade.

So how did you, as a middle school teacher, become aware of Creative Commons and decide to incorporate that into your film class?

Well one of the things is, as a teacher I was pretty confused about copyright, and when we first started making movies before I even started teaching the film class, I knew that we were using copyrighted material in some of our projects, and I just wasn’t sure what the rules were. And so as I started learning about Creative Commons I thought, as a way to learn more myself, we would start looking into it as a whole class.

So it was kind of a learning process together?

Exactly, yeah. I know we were making these video projects and posting them online, and I didn’t want to model inappropriate copyright, so I thought, well we’ll look into Creative Commons. And I just started learning more, and when you start looking into it you realize how easy it is and the wealth of resources that are out there at your fingertips. You know, it becomes really advantageous for the teacher to figure it out because the kids really get into it, it makes their projects better, and it helps us all learn about these issues of copyright. So I got into it because I wanted to learn about it, and I wanted to open up these resources for my students.

What are some of the resources that you started with and that were the most help to you?

The main one we used–last year there were two, there was and there was another one called Freesound. And this year with Freesound… all last year, we took a lot of content from these websites–we just took and took. And this year we though it would be interesting if we added some to these sites as well. So we have a classroom Freesound account called “Pay Attention”, and we capture free sounds around our school with this nice digital recorder and we upload them to the account. So we’re trying to get the kids to understand that these are online communities where you take stuff, but it’s also really good to contribute content. So we’re making a point this year to rate the sounds in the songs as we download them to give feedback to the artists who uploaded them, and then we’re adding our own content that people are really downloading–we have some sounds that have been downloaded dozens of times, which the kids–they see that and they’re like wow, we’re part of this community.

Yeah, a community of sharing. That’s really cool, so how do you guys decide which license to upload your own content under?

Well the movies that we make, the stop motion movies, in the stop motion club called Longfellow Ten, those are all Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

Ok, Attribution Only (CC BY), yeah.

And, however, with the stop motion, I like to change that to where there can be remix and mash-ups. However, movies where the kids are in it themselves, those are “all rights reserved” because they’re middle school students and we kind of just keep “all rights reserved” on those. But how are the sounds that we upload–[they] are sampling plus 1.0 license so they can take them, do anything they want, remix them, mash up, whatever.

So I guess when the kids are engaging in these projects, remixing, etc., where does the discussion about licensing and copyright issues come in? Do they see that ccMixter has Creative Commons licensed music and go, hey that icon is Creative Commons licensed music–what’s that? And you kind of go over it with them? How does that discussion come in?

Basically, it’s really just kind of a discussion that goes on all year. Creative Commons content and copyright is a discussion that we have throughout the whole school year. I have printed out some large Creative Commons posters that you guys make available on your site (which are really nice classroom posters), so we have this up and as the kids are downloading songs that they want to use, we have a format that makes sure they attribute the artist, that they cite the exact URL, that they cite the title of the track and the licensing status it’s licensed under. So they really learn about it by doing it. I don’t stand up there and lecture to them, but by going through the process they really get a grasp on the license and how it works. And why–the idea that artists want to share their stuff.

So they have an idea of–if it weren’t for the Creative Commons license the artists wouldn’t be able to share legally? Do you talk about how restrictive copyright naturally is? Or, have you gone over that with them?

Yeah, that comes up a lot because they don’t quite understand that you can’t take a 50 cent song or something and just drop it into your video.

They just do it anyway.

Yeah, and they do do it anyway because a lot of these kids are posting all kinds of content online as everybody knows, and then I’ll say, have you guys had YouTube videos taken down? And they’ll all raise their hands. And those are some questions we had for Professor Lessig.

Wow, so a lot of them have uploaded on YouTube and have gotten their stuff taken down?

Yeah, they’re all completely familiar with having videos taken down and it’s because of copyright. Some of the questions for Lessig were, you know, how are the filters on YouTube? How do they work? How does YouTube catch this? And the problems with that, and how the filters are distinguished between different types of use. So that’s another thing that’s interesting with the discussions of copyright is [that] the kids are really interested; they want to know what the rules are and they don’t know. Like particularly when one of the questions was can I take a song on iTunes and use it in a movie and upload it to YouTube, you know, again, underneath fair use there are ways you can do that, but generally, no, you really can’t. And then a lot of questions–when you talk about these issues of copyright, they’re really interested in this because, I mean they’re all using this. They’re using the website and uploading content all over the place, but they have sort of a–not a clear idea of what the rules are.

So do you find that once they–over the process of the year that they’ve been learning more and more about Creative Commons and copyright law–that once they know more about it, they start following the law more and they don’t post 50 cent videos up onto YouTube?

I think they do, and I know I’ve had some students who tell me, oh in our videos now we’re using ccMixter songs–you know, on our videos we’re making on our own at home. So a lot of this, it’s transferring to what they’re doing outside of the classroom. In my class, they can’t, I mean they have to use, they have to follow the copyright rules. But outside, I know from a few students who have told me that, they’re taking what they learn and they’re applying it to what they’re doing on their own.

So do you think that was kind of the biggest barrier to sixth and seventh graders (like breaking the law before)–[that] they just didn’t know about it?

I don’t think they had an idea. You know, even as a teacher, as far as fair use, it seems kind of complicated… I know talking to other teachers and being online and seeing what teachers say about this topic–even teachers are confused by it, so students are as well.

Yeah… I think everyone in general is confused about copyright and fair use.

But if they use Creative Commons it’s so simple. It just kind of bypasses all that complexity and it’s so clear.

Have you focused on any of the international aspects of Creative Commons? Because our licenses are global, so have you found that your students have been interacting with media from other countries or connecting even with video makers or video clips that were made in other countries under a Creative Common license? And if they have, what they think about that?

We’ve done projects in our classroom where we collaborated with students from other countries. We have projects that we’ve done but not directly related to Creative Commons. It’s very, very likely that the content they’ve downloaded is from countries besides the United States, but they don’t–that’s not something that they are actively sort of recognizing.

Right. What are these projects that are international projects?

Well we did one last year, actually a year and a half ago where we wrote a Twitter story. One classroom got the Twitter account and wrote a chapter, and then I sent it off to the next classroom and when it was done we had over a hundred kids in six different countries who added to the whole story. And then we published it as a little book and it was 140 posts total, so it was a cute little science fiction story.

So it’s kind of a story game where each student contributes a Twitter?

Yeah, but like in each classroom would be a chapter. So each classroom had 5-10 students and they would write, and we would get done with that chapter in a day and we would ship it off to the next class, and then they would add a chapter and figure out where the story goes. And it was at the 140th entry that was the ending.

So how did you coordinate among the different schools? Did you set this up beforehand, contact the schools and say we should all have Twitter accounts and do this? Or…

No it was really just on the fly, totally. Actually, we were sitting around at lunch and we came up with the idea and we sent it out, and I was talking with the teachers on Twitter… somebody in Canada, this teacher in Canada, grabbed the next chapter. We actually had like kids in England, China even, we had kids in China, like all over the place! And then another project we did recently, like a year or so ago, was the mini voices for Darfur–like March 6th we declared it Darfur day and we invited students from all over the place to come and comment on efforts to raise awareness about genocide. And we had almost 700 comments within a 24 hour period.

And this was on Twitter?

This wasn’t on Twitter; we used Twitter heavily to sort of promote it…

Was this on your blog?

Yeah, it’s on my blog.

Where is the Twitter Sci-fi story located? Is that on your blog as well?

It is, and it’s still up.

Are you planning to have any other projects kind of like that? Like another Twitter project–it might not be a Sci-fi story, it might be something else.

Yeah, I’m always open. Like one thing on my mind lately that I thought would be really interesting is to do a collaborative–and I’m just thinking middle school–is to do a remix project. I saw this thing online, following Creative Commons, and it was Infinity–you had artists create a picture, and musicians grab the picture and add a loop, soundtrack to it. This year it would be neat to do some sort of remix collaboration project where we upload all this content and everybody grabs it and remixes each others content as a way of teaching about Creative Commons and the whole idea of remixing. That’s kind of what’s floating in my mind lately and I have a couple teachers who seem like they would be interested.

One of the things I’ve always done with my projects is I make it super, super easy. Like lower the barrier to participating and just make it so stripped down and easy for people to participate so they can–I mean that’s why some of the projects have worked well, because people can jump in and it’s not very complicated. It’s very clear cut.

So have you found that your students are pretty adept at using the Internet and Web 2.0 tools? For them to just jump in and Twitter? Do your students come from a background where they have computers at home?

Yeah, many of my students, this year they do. Like in the past as a Language Arts teacher we used lots of blogs and wikis. When I’m just teaching this film class we share many of our movies online on a blog, but the kids aren’t actively blogging themselves in this video class. In the past I’ve had all my kids blogging, they’ve had individual blogs and stuff, but with the film class we’re just focusing on the movies and we share our movies on one collective blog.

So have you come across students that aren’t as comfortable with technology? And if you have, how have you dealt with their skills?

Well, yeah, there seems to be… even just going on ccMixter, downloading a song and putting it on a flash drive, putting it into the Mac and grabbing the song–just simple things like that, some kids aren’t quite clear on some of those things. And since we’re all together, we’re all sort of learning and doing this, you find that kids help each other, and the kids that don’t quite have a grasp on some of the things we’re doing quickly learn by watching and being helped by other students.

So I guess, going back to your Skype conversation with Lawrence Lessig, I was wondering about your students’ reactions to Larry. After they finished interviewing him, what did they think about Larry? Did they feel like they got their questions answered?

Well, I think they were really proud of themselves because you know he had answered the question and there wasn’t any sort of playing around, and I think it helped clarify some of the issues. I mean one thing that stood out–they had a lot of questions about peer to peer file sharing sites and they’re not clear why that’s illegal, and then Mr. Lessig spent some time talking to them about that. I think that overall, they felt really good about the conversation. That was the last week… We haven’t had a lot of reflection time with that particular class (yet) but I know things went well. We had a bunch of students come in from other classes to watch that, [and] the principal was in it. I thought we had a really good conversation and the students felt good about it. Mr. Lessig was really awesome with the way he talked to and treated them.

What do you consider was the most interesting student question and answer from Larry?

I thought the questions about the filters on YouTube and how that can start to restrict–he was mentioning if the content industry has their way, YouTube would have heavy filters that would really limit the YouTube as we know it now. We were interested in that, and then another thing that I was really surprised by is their questions about peer to peer file sharing. Because they all used the site, they all use various peer to peer file sharing sites to basically download copyrighted content, and they weren’t aware that was really illegal, so that really helped them clarify that for them.

What did Larry say about that?

Well, he said–another question was, why are these sites allowed to exist if everybody’s using them illegally? And he kind of clarified how peer to peer file sharing sites can be used legally. I mean, if you’re downloading CC licensed content, you can do that. And he went up and talked about how these make it possible for artists to sort of distribute their content to a larger number of people, and he explained how the supreme court said these sites are allowed to exist, even though as a tool people are using them for illegal things, he said the tool itself is not an illegal tool.

So this is kind of off topic, or it’s more about yourself, because I remember middle school teachers–I remember when I was in middle school myself, and I hated it, because you know, middle school is just known as the age when students are not at their best, and I was wondering what in the world made you want to be a middle school teacher? Because you’re obviously really involved with your kids and really involved with copyright and Creative Commons issues and what made you, I guess, want to be a middle school teacher first of all and second of all, to delve into these issues with your students? I mean, for instance, do you have any background in your schooling with open issues or copyright issues?

I don’t, actually. I was actually a construction worker and a truck driver for a number of years. I dropped out of college. And I always wanted to be a teacher so I went back to night school for like a number of years. In San Diego I got my teaching degree. So I come to teaching after having a lot of other jobs. I just always wanted to do it.

And middle school–I don’t know what it is, I really like teaching middle school students. I have a sub this week, I was talking to him yesterday and he was telling me how hard middle school is, you have to deal with behavior issues and it’s kind of a tough age group. But it’s really–something about middle school appeals to me. It’s kind of crazy, you never know–you know the kids are going through so many different changes, and there’s so much psychology involved, and sort of like getting the problem students and the good students and making everything move along. It’s kind of just mentally appealing. And also I like the creative aspect, where you can do all these creative things, you have a lot of room to sort of do out-of-the-box types of things. If they see that the kids are engaged and learning the content, you really can kind of go out there and do some kind of crazy stuff, so it’s kind of open in that regard. So we have a lot of fun and do some kind of nutty, you know, just projects that are a little unusual sometimes.

Reflecting back to your own middle school experience, how would you compare yourself with the kids of this generation? Do you think they’re all that different from you? Do you think they’re much more–obviously the Internet just recently took off–has that made things different about the way you teach and the way you were taught in middle school?

I don’t even remember. I mean I can remember one or two of my middle school teachers. I don’t remember anything particularly that I learned or like what I was–

I don’t either.

I think it’s sort of a gray area, the whole experience of middle school. I remember being really awkward and skinny and self conscious. And I was in Texas and we were still using typewriters. We didn’t have computers when I graduated from high school–there weren’t even computers yet in the buildings really. So I mean it’s just so different now. The kids today–all they know is the Internet, they grew up with it. So not a lot of parallels I don’t think, and I sort of blacked out my middle school years, to tell you the truth.

They were too traumatic. Do you think your kids are awkward too at this age? Or do you think they’re a little bit more well adjusted than we were?

I guess a little bit of everything?

What do you think the value of them learning about Creative Commons now and copyright issues will be for their future?

Well, I think as they–I think these are skills that are worthwhile knowing as they move on. ‘Cause the whole world is sort of going into this Web 2.0 and everybody is sharing and adding content, and I guess as Mr. Lessig was saying, “the Read Write Web,” so it’s good to have them understand these basic issues of copyright and to open up the world of Creative Commons to them. So I just think that it will be helpful to them as they go through knowing that they have all these resources and that they can sort of–what they make and create can be added to all the content that’s out there. They’re not just consumers, as Mr. Lessig would say, they’re artists themselves.

What advice would you have for other teachers? A lot of teachers are in the dark about copyright and Creative Commons just as you and I probably were a few years ago. What advice would you have for them to incorporate that kind of education into their classrooms and why should they do so?

mr mayo
Photo by Mr. Mayo CC BY-NC

I think why is just to show their students how much great resources are out there for them to use. That’s a great entry point. And also if they’re doing a project, like many classrooms now are doing multimedia projects, it’s worth the teacher’s effort to go to a site like, which is a really great community for classrooms because it’s a very–it’s middle school safe as far as being appropriate. If you find one of these sites that have Creative Commons content and just allow your students to investigate it for possibilities of sound effects and music to use in their multimedia projects, it doesn’t even have to be music. Obviously, has all these resources, so I think it’s very much in the teacher’s interest to open up the doors for the students to see this stuff, and I mean it’s just so easy. Right click, download, download, I mean you can grab this stuff so quickly that it’s just crazy not to allow kids the access to this content… It’s a good entryway into starting a conversation about copyright.

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Join Creative Commons for Mozilla Service Week September 14-21 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:46:42 +0000 Mozilla Service Week is happening September 14-21, 2009, and during that week Mozilla is trying to bring people together to help teach one another about the web. Creative Commons is answering Mozilla’s call for participation by hosting an online help desk via our IRC channel. Our IRC channel (#cc on the Freenode network) is typically a place where our developers and people interested in the technology of CC hang out. During Service Week we’re inviting everyone to join us there for a virtual CC help desk.

The CC help desk is a place for experienced CC-ers (staff, Jurisdiction partners, and community members), to come together to share their collective expertise with those that are new to CC and need a little, or a lot, of guidance.

The CC community will be providing help with the following topics:

  • General CC help
  • CC technology (ccREL and software projects)
  • Where and how to publish CC works
  • Where and how to find CC works
  • CC in education and science

If you’d like to help out, add your name to our Mozilla Service Week wiki page and pledge your hours at If you have questions, join the channel during Service Week and ask a volunteer.

More information can be found on the wiki page,

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An Evaluation of Private Foundation Copyright Licensing Policies, Practices and Opportunities Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:45:08 +0000 CC is pleased to announce that the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, in collaboration with the Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Institute, has recently published a new study entitled, An Evaluation of Private Foundation Copyright Licensing Policies, Practices and Opportunities, by Philllip Malone. From the announcement,

“This project… undertook to examine the copyright licensing policies and practices of a group of private foundations. In particular, it looked at the extent to which charitable foundations are aware of and have begun to use open licenses such as Creative Commons or the GPL for the works they create and that they support with their funding. We surveyed foundation staff and leaders and examined a number of examples where foundations have begun to take advantage of new licensing models. Based on the survey results, foundation experiences and additional research, we identified a variety of significant benefits that the use of open licenses can bring to foundations and their charitable goals. In particular, open licenses permit knowledge and learning to be widely shared and more readily adapted, improved or built upon, and allow those later improvements to be readily distributed. The result can be dramatically faster and greater access to research, information, technologies and other resources in ways that directly benefit foundations’ core missions and the public good.

The study sought to develop an analytical framework and set of factors that foundations can use to begin considering when and where the use of open licenses would further their mission and day-to-day work and where such licenses might not be useful or appropriate. It provides a great starting point for informed consideration of open licenses and the new opportunities they create for foundations and related organizations.”

This report creates an amazing opportunity for foundations to propel themselves into the future via open licensing and open technologies. Please read and share far and wide, as the entire study is open via CC BY.

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