Serendipity35

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Alice in Wonderland

Woke up a bit too early today and couldn't get back to sleep, so I did six possible things before breakfast (well, actually 5 things before; I read during breakfast)

1. Checked my Bloglines, taking note of colleges who are blogging their efforts. Right at NJIT, Bill Reynolds has been doing a Teaching, Learning & Technology Group blog and Norbert Elliot started a blog for the Research Network Forum. Several schools are chronicling their web services efforts. Two I viewed are Ball State's relaunch and Virginia Tech's. Also looked at Butler's blogging efforts.

2. Checked into iTunes U. There is a new section called Beyond Campus Highlights. It features educational material from museums, radio stations, and other public institutions. I guess we're not cranking out enough content to keep the iTunes U appetite satisfied. Samples: live music performances, video walkthroughs of art, from American Public Media, KQED, Little Kids Rock, The Museum of Modern Art, the Oyez Project, and the Smithsonian Global Sound. Lots of material from these sources - no doubt pulling from extensive archives. The Smithsonian has a lot of world music including lesson plans for teachers. A non-profit music education group called Little Kids Rock has video drum and guitar lessons and lessons in print.

Does this dilute the higher education part of iTunes U, or does it turn up the flame under schools to add more content? I downloaded the Einstein's Ethics podcast that I had already listened to but didn't save from Speaking of Faith (an excellent weekly radio program & podcast). I'll relisten to that on the way home tonight.

3. Worked some more on a poem full of questions for the current writing prompt at Poets Online.

4. Checked on the new zucchini plant I have growing in a big pot on the deck under plastic. The idea was to bring it in and let it grow in Drew's bedroom while he's at college. Is that magical thinking? Zucchini growing inside in NJ during winter?

5. Back to my laptop while the oatmeal cooks. CNN's American Morning is on in the background (too bad CNN is wasting Soledad O'Brien on those occasional specials instead of using her every morning). U of California at Berkeley launched its YouTube channel a few weeks ago and I wanted to check their numbers: more than 740,000+ visitors and 6,000+ subscribers. USC is there too. There's all kinds of competition out there. How many media people do these schools have working on this stuff?

6. Then with coffee and oatmeal I read 12 more pages of Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief  by Lewis Wolpert which helps balance some rather magical thinking I've been doing lately. Seventy percent of Americans believe in angels; 13 percent of British scientists "touch wood"; 40 percent of Americans believe that astrology is scientific. Maybe the zucchini plant will produce fruits.