Thursday, November 11, 2010

Heads-up for 11 November 2010

Social Innovation Conversations
Paul Auerbach - Disaster Response: Lessons Learned from Haiti
When disaster strikes somewhere in the world, what kind of leadership, nonprofit management, and supply chain expertise are needed? In this university podcast, Stanford professor of surgery, Paul Auerbach, shares lessons learned from the Stanford Emergency Medicine rapid response team's deployment in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake. His experiences provide a glimpse in to how relevant groups may prepare themselves to better assist in future global catastrophes.
(review, feed)

Classic Poetry Aloud
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
(review, feed)

Thinking Allowed (BBC)
The Public
Laurie Taylor talks to Dan Hind about his new book examining how best to promote the idea of citizen engagement. They're joined by Jesse Norman, Conservative MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire. Laurie also discusses the UK and US trade publishing industry with Cambridge sociology academic Professor John B. Thompson.
(review, feed)

KQED Forum
Sam Harris
Author Sam Harris joins us to discuss his new book, "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values." The book explores the perils of moral relativism and the relationship between knowledge and values.
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
Differentiation is crucial to maintaining and growing market share. But many organisations lack the courage to look inwards and discover exactly what their competitive advantage is and change accordingly. However, 5 years ago the Delhi-based IT Service provider HCL Technologies started on a change journey that identified exactly where their strengths and weaknesses lay and culminated in an entirely new management philosophy and organisational culture - one in which, for example, employees are not only accountable to managers but managers are accountable to employees. In this session Vineet Nayar explains the reasoning and methodologies and the dramatic impact the philosophy has had on company results. Vineet Nayar is Chief Executive Officer and whole time Board Director of HCL Technologies Ltd.
(review, feed)

David Kalivas' World History Podcast is back

Historian David Kalivas has been infrequently updating his world history podcast over a period of many years. I started listening to it way back in 2006 and it had issues dating back from 2005. Yet, new lectures were added only in 2007 and then the hiatus lasted until now. This month a new lecture came out, only to show that a good, informative history podcast never goes out of existence. (feed)

A lot of what can be had in the feed concerns ancient history. Kalivas actually kicked off with the ancient civilization that I personally am most interested in: the Indus Valley civilization. In addition he did the regulars Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as China. Expanding a bit on that he does Greece and Rome and even has lectures about later subjects.

A theme that you can find with Kalivas is that of cultural exchange. He seems to be implicitly, and here and there explicitly, telling history with the idea that none of the cultural unities were isolated, not even in antiquity. As a consequence, each culture is a product of exchange, foreign influence and mingling.

More David Kalivas:
World History according to David Kalivas,
David Kalivas is back,
Off on a tangent,
David Kalivas' History Podcast.

More Indus Valley Civ:
Indus seal,
The earliest history - A story of India,
History of India - UCLA,
Indus Valley Civ - Engines of our Ingenuity.

Also: another post on Indus Valley tomorrow!!