Posts filed under 'Florida fun'
Today’s FloridaThinks.com features a very smart article on the impact of texting and other communication tools on our lives and on our children. I don’t know if the author Barry Chudakov (founder of Metalife Consulting) coined the term “cyber tattoo” but I, for one, intend to start using it today and often with my teenage children. Every communication ever sent out, every photo ever posted to Facebook can become a cyber tattoo, following you around forever in life and possibly fundamentally changing it. At least when you walk into the tattoo parlor and take the plunge, you get to decide what will forever brand you. With cyber tattoos, someone else gets to pick. Here’s a snip:
Overnight, it seems, the intersection of our lives and our communications tools has gotten complicated. We’re seeing the complexity more often because these tools are reaching deeper into our lives, and they are now fundamental to how we touch and value each other. This entails more than simply acting on impulse. When we use communication tools, if we are not careful, we think and act at their speed and in their logic, instead of fully considering what we’re doing. In this scenario, the logic of the tool becomes the logic of our behavior. We need greater awareness of this process and how it changes us.
At The Village Square, we think a lot about how these same communication tools have changed the nature of our civic and political lives (sometimes we do so while we cuss about the need to express ourselves in 140 characters or less).
Read the whole article HERE.
July 21st, 2010
This week in FloridaThinks, Martha Musgrove asks: What if going green isn’t just smart, it’s good business. Miami-Dade might just have something to teach us on this front:
What if, there are real money-saving efficiencies to be found in concerted efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions? While developing climate-friendly alternatives?
Miami-Dade County has found such savings. In a four-year effort to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in its own operations, the county also managed to reduce fuel purchases by 3.7 million gallons. Roughly calculated that’s a savings of $7 million to $10 million, based on the high-low range of prices the county paid for fuel.
Mayor Carlos Alvarez lists a wide range of strategies to keep Miami-Dade “ahead of the curve in the green movement.” He has also committed $12.5 million of the federal stimulus dollars to projects with cost-saving benefits and the potential for reducing emissions. Included were the purchase of hybrid buses, replacement of high-watt traffic-light bulbs with LED modules (a $2 million annual savings), the use of landfill biogases to power nearby water and sewer plant, installation of high-reflective “Cool Roof” systems on county buildings, and the addition of solar-power systems to recreation facilities.
July 9th, 2010
Today’s FloridaThinks.com features an article by Jon Mills, former dean of the University of Florida law school and author of “Privacy, The Lost Right,” looking at the consequences of technological changes in our media and information environment both to our privacy and to the quality of the information we receive.
The world had changed drastically since I represented the parents of the victims of the monstrous serial killer Danny Rolling to keep autopsy photos private. In 1991, there were no autopsy Websites. In 1991, those in the mainstream press said they would not publish the victims’ photos, and I believed them. Even then however, there was the fringe press that would have. Wisely, the judge in that case restricted publication of photos of these victims.
You don’t have to be a famous NASCAR driver like Dale Earnhardt for the new press to intrude. You can be an innocent victim or the family of an innocent victim. Today, if obtained, photos of the horrific crime scenes of the Danny Rolling victims would be on the Internet.
Please jump on over to FloridaThinks.com to read the whole article. Before you do, though, consider what Jon Mills says about the relevance of efforts like FloridaThinks.com to addressing the challenge our technological innovations have created:
There is a desperate need for credible, civil media – especially in the electronic media. That is why the advent of FloridaThinks.com is so important. In this new era, a publication that takes advantage of the access, speed and distribution capabilities of the new media and preserves a commitment to civility, accuracy and conscience is welcome and needed.
Just think, you can help by just taking the time to read the good work they do. That’s falling-off-a-log good citizenship.
July 2nd, 2010
Apparently the Florida House passed a bill this session as a response to a consent decree the ACLU got Santa Rosa County school system to sign prohibiting prayer and religious activities by students and staff at school events. FloridaThinks has a fascinating story today on the potential unintended consequences of the bill:
Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Association in Washington, D.C., says the legislation may unshackle student newspapers from the usual oversight of school administrators, effectively putting Florida among seven states – none in the Southeast – that have passed laws endorsing free expression for students. Student papers running frank discussions of sex on campus, drug-use, and other provocative topics usually face few restrictions in the states that have approved such laws, LoMonte says.
Read the whole article HERE.
June 3rd, 2010
Join Children’s Campaign, Inc. and Tallahassee Democrat Editor Bob Gabordi tomorrow night, Thursday June 3rd, 5:00 to 6:15 PM at TCC Capitol Center (directly underneath the Mary Brogan) as they take a look at what effect the 2010 Florida legislative session had on children in our state. Meet and greet with refreshments is from 4 to 5 PM ahead of the session. If you’re interested in attending, please be sure to RSVP HERE. Please read an editorial HERE by one expert who says we’ve addressed our budget woes on the backs of Florida’s children.
The forum is co-sponsored by The Village Square.
June 2nd, 2010
“The issue, I think, is not big government, small government, or government is our friend, government is our enemy. It’s the much more difficult task of figuring out how in a complex society the role of government can best serve the interests of people. It’s not so much a matter of quantity as it is of quality.” –Florida Senator Bob Graham in today’s FloridaThinks, Read the interview HERE.
June 1st, 2010
In this morning’s edition of FloridaThinks, Tom Zucco suggests that if Florida were a sitcom, we’d be Leave it to Beaver (and that Ward and June would have quite a lot on their hands).
If Florida politics were a TV show, it would air late at night on E!, after Keeping Up With the Kardashians. And it would be titled Leave It To Beaver Gone Wild.
Karen Thurman, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, would play the dutiful June Cleaver, with state Sen. John Thrasher, head of Florida’s Republican Party, as stern but fair husband Ward. The part of serial sycophant Eddie Haskell could go to Jim Greer, Jeb Bush or dozens of other contenders.
In this updated version, the Cleavers live at the corner of Dissatisfaction Boulevard and Incumbent Street, and they have eight children in various stages of rebellion. One of the kids, Charlie, just moved out. And two others, Jeff and Rick, made so much money mowing lawns they answer to no one. Then there’s Marco, Kendrick, Bill, Paula and Alex, who hate that Charlie, Rick and Jeff get all the attention.
Zucco writes that the air of mischief afoot has something to do with upheaval in the economy and the shake-up in the political climate nationally. Read the rest HERE.
Note: Village Square members get 20% off of FloridaThinks subscriptions. What the heck are you waiting for? Join HERE.
(Photo credit.)
May 19th, 2010
OK so I need help from my conservative friends to explain something to me.
Former Bush adviser Matthew Dowd on This Week Sunday morning re/oil spill (just getting to it, it’s been a busy week):
… “I think where the public is on this is if you put this in the context of what happened in West Virginia in the mine disaster and this in context of Katrina even though was different and this in context of many things, I think the public just sits there and says: Who’s in charge, who is accountable and what governmental entity can actually be effective in doing anything? And that ultimately is where the public is. It’s just another example of the fact that we cannot trust the government to do anything that we need them to do, from mines to relief on health care, to the oil spill. It’s a loss of faith in the government.”
To which I say, HUH? He sounds to me like he’s in backwards world where you draw exactly the opposite conclusion from the one supported by facts.
I should preface any comments you have with a disclosure that I’m personally not really against offshore drilling, but I think you have to regulate it intelligently to do our best to minimize the chances of catastrophes like this one. I think we have to take a broad approach to energy independence and a conservative approach to climate change (there seems to be a reasonable chance it is real and so it is the cautious route to take steps toward alleviating it). I think nuclear energy is a part of that broad action.
I should also disclose that I have a BP gas card.
But in the world that is advocated by the conservative talkers of our day, BP would have had to follow nearly ZERO governmental regulations that would interfere with their ability to operate their business as they see fit and then if a spill happened, BP suffers the consequences (i.e. it might drive them out of business). The problem is that the consequences are not confined to BP and right now only the government is capable of the scale of action that this crisis warrants. I thought conservatives wanted government out of our lives?
To me the lesson of this tragedy is that some government regulation and an adequate governmental infrastructure to act is simply required.
Am I missing something?
(Photo credit.)
May 7th, 2010
Florida Thinks guest columnist, Baptist minister and constitutional attorney J. Brent Walker explains why he opposes Florida House Joint Resolution 1399 and Senate Joint Resolution 2550 which would allow for funding of religious institutions, particularly for vouchers (from Florida Thinks):
Beyond the unfairness of taxing Floridians to support a religion in which they may or may not believe — a proposition that Thomas Jefferson denounced as “sinful and tyrannical” — religious liberty is even further harmed by government funding because the government always controls what it funds.
Moreover, the prophetic voice of religion will, even if only subconsciously, be dampened by state sponsorship. Indeed, religion historically has stood outside of government’s control, serving as a critic of government. How can religion continue to raise a prophetic fist against government when it has the other hand open to receive a government handout? It cannot.
Both the state and religious institutions are better off when neither tries to dominate or do the work of the other. The Legislature faces a clear choice: Adopt the proposed amendment and gut the constitution’s protection of the vitality and independence of religious entities, or leave intact a constitutional provision that has protected religion from the shifting winds of politics and allowed generations of Floridians to worship — or not — according to the dictates of their own consciences.
Michael Sheedy of The Florida Catholic Conference disagrees:
Article 1, Section 3 in our State Constitution, more restrictive than the U.S. Constitution, does not reflect the pluralistic values of Floridians, and is instead reflective of the discriminatory and prejudicial fears of years gone by. It states that “no revenue of the state … shall be taken directly or indirectly in aid of any … sectarian institution.”…
Participation by any religious entity in any state program that involves exchange of funds for services is ripe for challenge unless the provision is removed from the Florida Constitution.
We agree that the state must not favor particular religious groups over others, nor religious persons over non-religious persons, but neither should our Constitution require discrimination against sectarian institutions simply because they are religious. Floridians deserve the opportunity to benefit from programs with a secular purpose run by religious entities.
Florida Thinks is available by subscription. Village Square members receive a 20% discount off of the subscription price.
April 23rd, 2010
Florida Thinks: Crist’s Veto May Only Delay the Inevitable
Florida Thinks Editor & Publisher John Koenig weighs in sensibly today on the future of efforts to tie teacher pay and retention to student performance. According to Koenig, teachers have little choice but to advance a plan on their own terms or the legislature will do it for them:
Gov. Charlie Crist’s veto of the teacher-compensation bill does not end the push to link teacher pay and job security to student performance. It only buys teachers a bit of time to come up with their own accountability proposals.
More wisdom from Koenig:
Merit pay might seem to make common sense. But numerous studies of its effectiveness in improving performance in public sector jobs have produced only mixed findings…even for the private sector, performance-incentive programs are tricky. Basing them on too few variables or the wrong variables can lead to counterproductive results.
Consider this story from Fast Company magazine. Ken O’Brien was an NFL quarterback in the 1980s and ‘90s who threw a lot of interceptions. In an attempt to improve his performance, the owners of the team on which he played put a clause into his contract docking his paycheck for each interception. The next year, O’Brien threw fewer inceptions. But that was because he threw the ball hardly at all. The net effect: The team did no better.
Good advice teachers might want to consider now rather than later.
Florida Thinks is a must-read online resource to get Florida, well… thinking. Village Square members enjoy a special discount subscription rate of $3.99 monthly from the normal $4.99/mo rate. Learn more here.
April 16th, 2010
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