Category: Digital Culture

Wow.

Just when I’m certain that I’ve heard the worst of the wackjobs, from creationism to intelligent design to belief in psychics, there’s more nutballs around the corner.

And this one is a Representative. From Georgia.

“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion. This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

That’s from a letter with Rep. Ben Bridges name attached, leaked by Texas st. Rep. Warren Chisum. The best wrap up of this story I’ve found is over at Metafilter…just click through the links to get the full story. I refuse to link to the actual website…no linklove from me.

Bridges also dropped this lovely quote to the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Asked if he agreed with the Kaballah evolution conspiracy theory and the earth’s lack of motion, he told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory. I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”

The more I see this sort of thing, the more I agree with Dawkins.

One of my favorite bands has taken an interesting route in publicity for their new album, Year Zero. The album is a concept album concerned with government takeover, corruption, the drugging of the populace, and the downfall of the US.

In promoting the album, they’ve set up a sort of Alternate Reality Game that people are in the middle of now. It began with a website address encoded in the letters on the back of the latest tour shirt, and has continued from there. Last night there was a USB key discovered in the rest room of their latest concert stop that had on it an apparent cut from the new album…and it was determined to be authentic because someone decided to analyze the spectrum of the song and discovered a hidden image in the spectrum, something you couldn’t get by simply encoding an MP3 in a normal fashion.

The best initial discussion of the mystery is taking place over at Echoing the Sound, but there is a wiki that should take over soon, and as always, wikipedia is up on things.

So what happens when they run completely out of ideas for slot machines?

You get this.

My absolute favorite machine in Vegas…just seeing it makes me chuckle.

Below you’ll find the formal announcement of two tenure-track librarian positions at UTC, but I wanted to just add a note about the Web Technologies librarian position. This is a position in my department, and I am looking for someone willing to push the boundaries of library services…I am serious in the long description when I say that I want someone willing to push UTC into the future of services. The hiring committee may disagree, of course, but my goal is to build a team that can move forward with innovative patron focused technology.

WANTED: TWO LIBRARIANS COMMITTED TO THE USER-FOCUSED LIBRARY

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Lupton Library invites applications from energetic, collaborative and forward-thinking professionals to fill two tenure-track vacancies on our team.

Reference and Instruction Librarian
The Reference and Instruction Department is seeking a creative and student-centered librarian to join an engaged and progressive 7-person team with a strong customer service focus. The position reports to the Head of Reference and Instruction Services. The position’s responsibilities will include: regular reference desk shifts, user instruction both in the classroom and one-on-one settings, active participation in the development of teaching materials and research guides, creation and maintenance of website content, subject-specific collection development responsibilities, and participation in faculty liaison and outreach activities.

Web Technologies Librarian
The Information Technology Department is seeking an innovative and web-savvy librarian to join its growing technology services team. The position reports to the Head of Library Information Technology. The position’s responsibilities will include exploring, testing, and implementing new and existing web based services in the Lupton Library such as: a new dynamic PHP/MySQL based library web site, blogs, wikis, hacking the library OPAC to better serve our patrons, web-based media for podcasting/vodcasting, developing digital repositories, and using browser based technologies to improve our patron experience and push Lupton Library to be a leader in library technology.

A review of applications will begin March 15, 2007 and will continue until the positions are filled. Interested applicants should submit a letter of application including the position of interest, vita, and the contact information for three references including the professional relationship of applicant to reference. Send materials to: Anna Lane, Lupton Library, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 615 McCallie Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37403; fax materials to 423-425-4775 attention Anna Lane; or email to anna-lane@utc.edu.