Blessed Unrest Indeed!

Posted by on December 29, 2008

Some of you will be familiar with Paul Hawken from the catalog that bears his name – Smith and Hawken. What you may not be familiar with is the environmental activist Paul Hawken. Yep – one and the same. I would recommend his latest book and endeavor as a worthwhile bit of information about the plight of Spaceship Earth and its travelers (you and me). Like any good 21st century book, this is simply the brochure for an entire website, maybe an entire movement, complete with its own video channel.

Blessed Unrest

Blessed Unrest

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World


Acquia – Drupal Goes Commercial

Posted by on November 23, 2008



www.acquia.com
Dries Buytaert, the founder of the Drupal open source content management system has co-founded a company to provide a set of support services aimed at the enterprise and business customers looking for a supported version of the tool. It appears to be based on the RedHat model that has proven to be viable in the Linux community.

You should take a look at the screencast on how to install and how the Acquia version is different from the community version.

Check it out.

Randale

Lawrence Lessig – Change Congress

Posted by on November 8, 2008

The latest presentation from Lawrence Lessig:

This is not the first presentation of this material, but since the election is now over and decided, the information has been modified. Some of the goals may be actually be attainable. Worth understanding the importance of this concept.

This is part of the Web 2.0 Summit that just ended. I was astounded that the entire conference is available on video online one day after the conference ended.

Randale

Burke Lecture: Buddhism in a Global Age of Technology

Posted by on November 1, 2008

This lecture by Professor Lancaster will certainly give you a headache – but it’s that good kind of headache that tells you that somehow your mind was just expanded and the pain was due to the stretch in your skull to accommodate the expanded understanding.

This is highly recommended on multiple levels. I am not sure where to start in describing the value of the insights that Dr. Lancaster brings to the understanding of why the Buddhist psychology/cosmology has such a compelling draw in the 21st century. Einstein was supposed to have said that if there is a contender for a world religion it would be Buddhism. This lecture helps explain why that statement may be accurate and may some day be reality.

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Chronic Pain Books

Posted by on October 26, 2008

Because I am the Medical Director of the Montana Spine and Pain Center, I am often asked what books are best for patients that are trying to understand how to manage their condition. We run a group therapy education program for chronic pain patients at the Center and we currently use the Turk and Winter book “The Pain Survival Guide” as the textbook for this twelve week program. It works well for us and patients find it easy to understand and put in practice.

Here are some more books that we have found useful in the past:

Remix – Lawrence Lessig

Posted by on October 26, 2008

Just finishing up the latest book by Lawrence Lessig entitled “Remix”. Once again I think that Professor Lessig proves to be the clearest thinker about where we are headed in the world of intellectual property. Many thinkers on these issues today are either so biased towards the sanctity of the economic value of each and every thing created – or have chosen to be intellectual property nihilists who consider the very term “intellectual property” to be an oxymoron. Lessig takes a much more measured approach and argues convincingly for the “middle way”. Professor Lessig always seems to get it right.

Here are some more of Lessig’s books and one large tome by another law professor, Yochai Benkler, that should be considered the manifesto of the value of the Internet to the global community. Good reads.

Latest Shoulder Video Released – James T. Mazzara, MD

Posted by on October 25, 2008

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