Spending a fantastic summer back at home in Canada with my parents, living in a condo we own in downtown Edmonton and spending lots of time at our new cabin on
Pigeon Lake, 45 minutes north of the City of Champions. I've been sailing and golfing in the days and drinking beer around campfires at night ... not all bad really. I'll be returning to London, UK in September. I finally got a chance to peak my head out from the sunshine to put down a few thoughts that occurred to me in recent weeks:
- Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong represent the best of America. We see in these men a determination and will that embodies the spirit of the world's most powerful nation. It contrasts greatly with the ugly American perception that dominates global conversation. Armstrong simply could not be passed. Even as his team left him on several stages of the 2005 Tour de France he chased down attack after attack from his competitors until they grew weary with effort and his tempo riding burned their lungs. And who could forget Tiger on the 17th tee in the second round of the PGA Championship staring down a 286 yard 3-wood to reach a green only reached twice in two in history. Instead of laying up to guarantee par and make birdie likely, Woods, Tin Cup style, banged the big stick and through bad luck brought the bogey in play that was always possible with the two hit strategy. The lesson? Woods was playing to win the tournament despite the risk against his career streak of making cuts in majors. And in the end despite being 12 shots behind at the halfway point he almost pulled it off, falling one shot short to eventual champion Phil Mickelson.
- Strange ad from Expedia indicating over 40% of Canadians do not take their annual holiday allotment. Excusing those that are saving days for a bug run one day, what on earth is happening? No reason not to go into work is the optimistic answer. A bored, predictable population is a frightful other: "Canadians are conditioned to value productivity as opposed to work-lifebalance," explains sociologist Beuermann-King in this article. "Time away from work, especially stress-freetime on vacation, is essential to maintaining mental and physical health, as well as relationships with friends and family. Canadians need to be cognizant about letting vacations days lapse."
- Growth is slow but steady for Blog Scholar. Anyone with ideas on how to further promote this non-profit resource for academic bloggers get in touch or just spread the word. For sure if you have an academic blog add your site to the directory of sites.
- Indexing information on the Internet is at pivotal stage of development and is on the critical path for successful growth of the new medium and media. While Google and Yahoo battle over the size of the web and their share prices, accessing the desired information can be an increasingly frustrating experience for users. At least a dozen people this summer have told me how they "just can't find what they are looking for" on the WWW. We need a coherent and comprehensive strategy for capturing the collective intelligence of the Internet knowledge and people. And we need it now.
