Here is a really funny acount about a guy arguing with an idiot who wanted to change the Esperanto alphabet. I laughed out loud when I read it. If you don't speak Esperanto you won't get it, unfortunately, but take my word for it -- it's really funny. Maybe part of the reason it's been so funny is because it reminds me of the arguments I've heard recently about changing ELNA's name. In particular, the one guy who said

If we can find a name that doesn't continue to drive people away from taking our organization more seriously than they could otherwise - random strangers and estraranoj and every kind in between - think of the effort that will flow into our organization once we stop blocking it in that way.

I still say it's like standing around on the deck of a sinking ship and arguing about painting over the name plate. Pretty soon it may be my problem directly, since I've been asked to run for vicprezidanto of ELNA. I wrote a brief biography? to submit for it. When I look back over 15 years of Esperanto activity, I'm proud of the fact that I've actually done some pretty cool stuff.

This morning, I began officially training to ride a century this summer. Lucy and I have been going to the fitness club for several years. I've usually done a warm-up on the stairmaster before going to lift weights, but I've switched to doing a workout on the stationary cycle. It's pretty boring, but I'm going to aim to do a 28 minute workout (that's what the default is) three days a week and work up the resistance, so that when the warmer weather comes my legs and rump will be toughened up enough that I can get a jumpstart on training.

Speaking of centuries, yesterday George mentioned two centuries that I may aim to ride (in addition to the one in Kalamazoo). One is the Connecticut Valley Century and the other is the Tri-State Seacoast Century, which he said was particularly flat. They're not until September. While searching I found a page called CRANE that lists Century Rides Across New England. Nifty!

I saw an excellent article at Salon today about how online education is during academia into a sweatshop. It highlights many of the issues I've tried to raise about on-line education. I think on-line teaching has come a long way and, as long as people remain aware of and care what the difference is between teaching and training, I think there is still the potential for a happy future. The real problem is people who think of teaching as transmission and learning as purely the acquisition of facts. That's what the real dialog needs to be about and it cuts across on-line as well as face-to-face teaching equally.

One point that is essentially unmentioned is the need to strengthen unions and make sure we unionize the knowledge workers that are building and maintaining these on-line courses. I wonder how bad things will have to get before there's a reaction.

StevenBrewer