Too bad that so many of them are getting their heads cut off by strip mining. Matthew Gross showed me ILoveMountains.org which not only makes a strong case for what we’re losing and at what scale, but it makes smart use of Google Earth (in the multimedia section) to show you the scale of the loss. You too can zoom over the Eastern mountains and see how grey and treeless some have become. Other good use of multimedia to tell the story there as well.
Added bonus: There’s an MP3 on the site of Willie Nelson singing Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind.
Author: Paul (Page 72 of 147)

Keeping with today’s Monkey theme, Tucker and I were walking, not dancing, through Carr Mill Mall tonight. The window of our favorite toy store, Wootini, was decorated with a sockmonkey diarama that had just been created by the folks at Sock Monkey Dreams. A delightful selection of SoMos are engaged in engaging activities including straddling a large rubber band powered airplane, gardening, and just lounging around.
The SoMos are preparing for a book party. At the end of this month, there will be a publishing party for Sock Monkey Dreams: Daily Life at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter.
BTW if you have ever thought you wanted to work at a toy store/art gallery, you should drop by Wootini and talk with owner Michael Maher.

Speaking of monkeys, Fred is the subject of an interview on Wired’s Monkey Bites blog by Michael Calore today.
Fred’s articulate and accurate accessment of the states of Face Book on his own blog over the past few days — the feeds war with its users, the “opening” or exposing of the communities, etc — has gotten a load of press.
Of special interest are an article in Forbes, the Ball State Daily News includes not only insights from Fred, but also ideas from Thursday’s visitor danah boyd and good data-driven findings from recent UNC grad Bret Bumgarner (Fred and I were two of the three committee members for Bret’s honor’s thesis which uses uses and gratifications theory to explain what people do with FB).

Driving to Dharamsala, I noticed a lot of Hanuman Temples — on the way back down the mountains these would all be splashed with orange paint. As we got further into Punjab, I started seeing real monkeys hanging out on the temple walls.
I pointed this out to Vikrant, who was unimpressed. “I don’t like monkeys. I like Hanuman, but I don’t like monkeys.”
“Why?” I asked.
“When I was little, monkeys jumped on me and took my food and scratched my face. I don’t like monkeys.”
When I reached McLeod Ganj, I had another monkey alert. On the back of my door in the Pema Thang were warnings: “Shut the doors and the windows (or the wire-meshing) to your balcony when going out, MONKEYS may enter your room.” “Do not feed the MONKEYs & DOGs”
Sure enough when I walked out on the balcony, I heard rustling in the trees. I could see their little faces peeking out of the foliage. They were checking out my doors and windows (or the wire-meshing).
During my walks around McLeod Ganj, I saw little troops of monkeys looking for mischief. And some large single males getting into trouble. But I also saw evidence that Buddhists try to love monkeys anyway and want them to be happy.
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Back in Delhi at the airport, I was talking to an Indian traveler. He told me that when the Delhi subway opened some of the first riders were monkeys who followed people on trying to get bags of chips. Once on the subway the monkeys tried to escape with the chips and when they realized they were trapped in the car, they went ape. The solution was to hire Langur-wallahs. Street performers who with their charges, the much larger Langur, terrify the smaller monkeys and chase them off the trains. According to my informant, there are several Langurs and their wallahs on the subway payroll. Sure enough there’s a WikiNews story that supports him.
Over the weekend, all of ibiblio moved out to our new hosting facilities at MCNC. It’s just a little ways down the road, but we have much more room, much faster access, better connectivity, etc.
We also have a few road bumps during the move. The most of the problems have to do with DNS changes and propagation. All of our IP numbers changed and coordinating the various places at which these are kept and announced was and is more than just a technical problem.
As I write this, I can connect to most all of the ibiblio sites I’ve tried and I’m even getting faster response then when the servers were right here on campus only a few buildings away.
But some sites, especially those who handle their own DNS and some that are database driven are having trouble. We’re working with those folks — etree.org, worldmusiccentral, and others — to relieve those problems.
Don and Ken spent a good part of their waking hours (which were themselves reduced) going between MCNC and UNC this weekend. Jonathan has been great at keeping some dialogue going on with the various site managers.
Bear with us, but do let us know if you encounter problems.
I came back from India, hopped in my PT, drive to pick up some stuff and stalled (again). Called the dealer. They called Chrysler in the Sky.
We heard from on high: Replace the Power Train Control Module.
Since this part is covered by the 8 year/80K mile warranty, I liked it.
But last night I picked up the car with its new Power Train Control Module. I drive 3 miles on the Interstate.
As I pulled off on the ramp, I disengaged the clutch. I lost powersteering almost immediately. The engine stalled.
I roll started the PT. Whew!
But it stalled at the next light. Again about 3 minutes to restart.
So Chrysler in the Sky, it’s not the Power Train Control Module.
Back in on Monday morning.
Work done so far: 60K mile tuneup, clean the throttle housing etc, firmware upgrade, power steering pressure sensor, fuel pump, EGR (exhaust gas recovery), multi-switch and shift cable (these not really a candidates), powertrain control module. Also drove around with Co-Pilot installed.
Don spells out the details on the ibiblog. Briefly, parts of ibiblio will be off-line this evening. After that and before Saturday morning, we’ll no longer have ibiblio servers hosted at UNC-CH. All of ibiblio will be hosted at MCNC. Why?: Better. Cheaper. Faster. And more reliable.
You can ask questions in advance to Social Networking researcher danah boyd!
An addition to the danah boyd visit announcement [Thursday, Sept 14, 2 pm, Toy Lounge]:
Our discussion will be structured by audience questions. Attendees are invited to submit questions in advance. Questions may be posted as comments to the blog post noted below, or submitted to Fred Stutzman at
fred at metalab.unc.edu. We’ll structure a discussion that will be open and wide-ranging from your questions.
Full description and question submission information here:
http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/09/invitation-discussion-with-danah-boyd.html

What: MySpace, YourSpace, FaceBook and Social Networking
Who: Social Networking researcher danah boyd
http://www.danah.org
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
When: 2 pm Thursday September 14
Where: Toy Lounge, Dey Hall, UNC-CH
More on danah boyd: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danah_Boyd
Great news about collegue and collaborator, Gary Marchionini!
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Gary Marchionini has been selected as the 2006 recipient of the Contribution to Information Science Award (CISTA), an annual award given by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society of Information Science & Technology (LACASIS) to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of information science.
Dr. Marchionini is Cary C. Boshamer Professor at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has a distinguished career as a teacher, researcher and active member of professional organizations. His research interests include information seeking, human computer interaction, digital libraries, digital government and information policy.
He is Editor-in Chief of ACM Transactions in Information Systems.and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Information Processing and Management, Library and Information Science Research, Information Retrieval, Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Journal of Digital Information, Educational Technology, Journal of Educational Resources in Computing, and the Journal of Digital Libraries. He is active in professional organizations such as ASIST and ACM.
Dr. Marchionini received his Ph.D. from Wayne State University in mathematical education with an emphasis on educational computing. Prior to joining the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science, he was a professor at the University of Maryland and a member in the pioneering Human Computer Interaction Laboratory.
Dr. Marchionini will receive his award and speak about his work at the annual LACASIS Awards Dinner in January.
Linda Heichman Taylor, LACASIS Awards Chair
September 18 will see the kickoff of the School of Information and Library Science’s 75th Anniversary celebrations.
That Monday will see presentations by:
* Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress.
* Michael C. Ruettgers, Senior Advisor and retired Chairman, EMC2 Corporation.
* Robert Martin (Ph.D. ‘88) Professor, Texas Women’s University School of Library and Information Science who will present a tribute to Dr. Louis Round Wilson.
When: 2 p.m. Monday September 18
Where: Memorial Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A reception will follow.
Several good talks upcoming this fall which will have some ibiblio involvement.
First, Fred has managed to convince Social Networks researcher danah boyd to stop by next week, Thursday September 14th to visit and to give a public talk about her work. Probably about 2 pm – 3:30 pm. Trying to secure a place for her talk now.
Second, Phil Meyer and the J-School have PressThink and NewAssignment.Net‘s Jay Rosen coming by around October 4. There will be a public talk but I’m not sure when as yet.
Third, The Health Sciences Library is sponsoring a visit from Craig Silverstein, Google’s Technology Director, on Thursday, October 26, 2006 4-5:30pm at the Medical Biomolecular Research Building. I’ll be directing a panel in response to Craig’s talk.
To reserve a seat and/or to submit discussion questions and to learn more, visit the HSL’s Organizing the World’s Information: Google’s Vision for the 21st Century.
Fourth, Center for Citizen Media director, Dan Gillmor will be in town on Monday November 13th and will be doing a public talk that afternoon.
Mon Dieu! Not one but two Francophonic Lyceum Blogospheres! Lyceumblog Free France and Lyceum France
Louis Round Wilsock is the name of Meg McKee’s sock monkey. Going to check out my prize now. Sorry collegues, you should think twice before entering a naming contest in which one of the other constestants has a MFA. I am a certified creative ;->
My prize is a made-by-Meg custom sock monkey! Very nice. But now she needs a name. Photo forthcoming. She’s sitting atop a deskframe at the entry to ibiblio now.
Meg reminded me that I also won the runner-up with the name “Beverly SILS” That works fine for this monkey…
Apple, like Dell, recalled tons of Sony-manufactured laptop batteries. My G4 Powerbook had one of the lucky numbers. I should be getting a new battery in the mail in a few days. Perfect timing, my old battery was starting to not take a strong charge any more so we’re due for a new one anyhow. And the look of melted laptops from the unexchanged batteries is pretty sobering.
Negotiation expert Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School tells the secrets of eBay pricing to sell. Of any two identical items, the one with the lowest required opening bid ends up selling at the highest price.
Why? Low barrier to entry more easily gets committed bidders at the start. Later entering bidders prefer to enter auctions that already have a lot of activity and end up paying more.
Negotiations, he mentions, are just the opposite. There start higher to get your best price.
Johns Hopkins has set up their own instance of Lyceum, ibiblio developed open source group blogging environment, at http://blogs.jhu.edu/
Lyceum allows schools and groups to become their own blogger.com (or typepad or livejournal etc) quickly and easily. The open source nature of the code allows for maximum local customization and for sharing of new and improved features. Lyceum will support from 2 to 200,000 blogs (or more).
for more on Lyceum see http://lyceum.ibiblio.org/
Here’s a brief list of the folks and institutions that I visited in Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj that have some relationship with ibiblio:
Jigme Tsultrim
Tibetan Computer Resource Centre – Manager
website of the Tibetan government-in-exile (CTA)
Jigme Tsering
CTA Dept of Information and Intl Relations – media
Tibet TV Online
Lhakdor
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives – Director
Lobsang Rabsel
Contact Magazine – manager
Lobsang Wangyal
Reuters reporter, photojournalist
Lobsang Wangyal Productions, Miss Tibet Pageant,
MusicTibet Music Awards – Director
Association of Tibetan Journalists
Lsering Lhundup
CTA Dept of Home – field officer and web developer
website to come
Nawang
Louisiana Himalayan Assn (LHA)
Neil Guidry
Louisiana Himalayan Assn (LHA) – director
Penpa Tsering
CTA Dept of Education – field officer and web developer
Phuntsok Dorjee
Tibetan Technology Center – Director
Sanon Nyima
Louisiana Himalayan Assn (LHA)
Tashi Samphel
Lower TCV – computer teacher/administrator and programmer
Tenzin Norgay
Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy – UN Affairs
Tsering Yangkey
Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement – ecotibet
Tseyang
VolunteerTibet – Director
Yeshi Choesang
Khawa Karpo-Tibet Culture Centre (KTC) – Assistant Editor
Both Sri and Sayan claim that India has great coffee. They may be right. But I didn’t find it in Delhi inside my bubble in the Oberoi or the Taj Mahal. In the room I got Nescafe, but even the most pedestrian tea was of excellent quality compared to teas commonly available in the US. At the restaurants and the bars in these two five star hotels, the espresso wasn’t made from an espresso or French roast blend. It was either a mild roast or gawds help us from what tasted like freeze-dried stuff like Nescafe.
In McLeod Ganj, there were actual coffee shops – mostly there to deal with the tourists who were Israeli in majority. The coffee there was better than in Delhi, but by then I had become a tea drinker.
India and the Southern US has something in common when it comes to tea. We both like it sweet, very very sweet. The difference is the temperature. Indians drink hot tea; Southerners drink it cold. But we still like our tea to be as close to sugar syrup as possible.
On other fronts, former ibiblian Kyle aka Clark aka Beastie sends links to about 15 pages of photos covering his trans-Siberian trip. He found more Lenin statues that I found on my trip to Siberia.
I was in India during the monsoon season. In the areas in which I wa travelling that meant hard rain in the afternoon or most likely in the evenings and night. But not such a terrible thing to have happen. In the mountains there were washouts, but not like the stuff we see from hurricanes in NC.
Thanks to our friend Ernesto, I’ve seen more rain in the past 24 hours in NC than during my whole trip to India.
Kirk Ross at the Cape Fear Mercury has all kinds of details about Ernesto.

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