"They live in a society that prizes the development of career skills but is inarticulate when it comes to the things that matter most. The young achievers are tutored in every soccer technique and calculus problem, but when it comes to their most important decisions—whom to marry and whom to befriend, what to love and what to despise—they are on their own. Nor, for all their striving, do they understand the qualities that lead to the highest achievement. Intelligence, academic performance, and prestigious schools don’t correlate well with fulfillment, or even with outstanding accomplishment. The traits that do make a difference are poorly understood, and can’t be taught in a classroom, no matter what the tuition: the ability to understand and inspire people; to read situations and discern the underlying patterns; to build trusting relationships; to recognize and correct one’s shortcomings; to imagine alternate futures. In short, these achievers have a sense that they are shallower than they need to be." 

Due to weather and UMBC’s delayed opening, today’s Dissertation House will begin at 10AM. Campus will open at 10AM today, January 18, 2011.  The DH schedule will be revised accordingly. We’ll look forward to seeing you there. Students joining us online for the Winter Challenge are welcome to begin at anytime! http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2011-challenge/

Who needs a Firewall anyway? Report says Risks of Cyber attack “over-hyped”

Gruesome Iran Noos: 47 people already hanged by Tehran gov’t in 2011

SuperSize my Latte, Please: Starbucks to introduce a 31 ounce coffee drink

By now most folks are familiar with the controversial map closely linked to Sarah Palin targeting Democratic candidates in the 2010 election.

We found a map (see below) imitating the style of its notorious cousin with a twist. It is the cover of a Seattle weekly called The Stranger. The map does put into sharp focus America’s long history of gun violence and Public figures.

Another weekly, The Economist (above) has chosen to focus on America’s love affair with the gun on it’s cover. The magazine points out:

Around 30,000 people a year are killed by one of the almost 300m guns in America—almost one for every citizen.

Will this love affair ever end? Or is it “Till death do us part”?

Contact: Tom Moore
Director of Arts Management
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

For All the World to See, an exhibition organized by UMBC's Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and curated by UMBC Research Professor Maurice Berger, opens today, January 17, at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, where it will continue on display through May 15.

Through a host of media--including photographs, television and film, magazines, newspapers, posters, books, and pamphlets--the project explores the historic role of visual culture in shaping, influencing, and transforming the fight for racial equality and justice in the United States from the late-1940s to the mid-1970s. For All the World to See includes a traveling exhibition, website, online film festival, and richly illustrated companion book.

Photo:
Ernest C. Withers
Sanitation Workers Assemble in Front of Clayborn Temple for a Solidarity March, Memphis, TN, March 28, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Image: 8 1/2 x 14 3/4 in.
Paper: 16 x 20 in.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Museum Purchase, © Ernest C. Withers, Courtesy Panopticon Gallery, Boston MA

Online Resources
For All the World to See website and online exhibition: http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc/foralltheworld/index.php
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture: http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://nmaahc.si.edu/
DuSable Musuem of African American History: http://www.dusablemuseum.org/
UMBC Arts & Culture Calendar: http://www.umbc.edu/arts

Here she comes, Miss America 2011!

We can’t even make this up: Judge rules NY inmate ‘bitten on penis by rodent’ may sue.

Reince Priebus replaces Michael Steele as chairman of the Republican National Party.

Miss the Golden Globes last night?  Check out who won and who lost.

While you’re at it, see who dressed like a winner… and who looked like a loser.

You probably have heard about “electric fences” for dogs. You know, those invisible “fences” that seem to mysteriously keep barking canines on their territory rather than at your throat when you pass near.

But you probably haven’t heard about the gigantic super-duper high-tech fence planned for the US-Mexican border.

This fence is also invisible… but not because it works.

This $1 Billion ineffective fence is invisible because it won’t work…it is being scrapped all-together.

Back during the Bush administration, the former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said they were “looking to build a 21st century virtual fence”  which was virtually impossible.

Current Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explains the move to scrap the fence, saying there is no “one-size-fits-all” border security solution.

Clearly the proposal for the fence, like so many fences, was full of holes.