Amaryllis correction: Hippeastrum

My amaryllis series should be renamed.

Hippeastrum is a genus of about 70-75 species and 600+ hybrids and cultivars of bulbous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas from Argentina north to Mexico and the Caribbean. Some species are grown for their large showy flowers. These plants are popularly but erroneously known as Amaryllis, an African genus in the same family.

from wikipedia

This was a busy week and even though I found out about this correction to be made on Tuesday, it has taken until now (Friday night) to sit and cover this in detail.

I had checked the spelling of amaryllis using Google but didn't follow any links until Karen commented that she had not known the name of the plant until she read about it here. I went checking to see if Australia was a good climate for it and found the picture on the Amaryllis entry not looking like the ones I had taken. As I read further I found about hippeastrum, followed that links and the picture there closely resembles what we had in the house.

Dolores did bring it back to school this week. It is also getting a third stem! I hope her kindergarten friend enjoy the explosive growth that it provides.

So anyway, long story short; it is a hippeastrum (not amaryllis).

Now I need to come up with another sherku for hippeastrum!

Berkman: Clay Shirky 2

Berkman: Clay Shirky 2, originally uploaded by shersteve.

This slide summarizes the steps up the ladder that Clay goes into detail about in his new book "Here Comes Everybody".

He identifies the internet as the 5th major technical advance. The first was the printing press; the second, radio; the third, the telephone; and the fourth, TV.

The internet enables sharing (email), conversation (blogs, et al), collaboration (wikis, Flickr, et al) and he thinks is just getting into collective action (flash mobs).

An interesting premise with lots of food for thought. I will have more on this as time permits.

Berkman: Clay Shirky

Berkman: Clay Shirky, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Clay Shirky spoke at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School last night as part of their Berkman @10 series of events open to the public. Berkman is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year.

The photo depicts Clay at the podium queuing a slide for his presentation. Multiple attendees have their laptops open and operating. The one directly in front is open to the site just referenced by Clay as an example from his new book "Here Comes Everybody".

Turning off anonymous comments

I have gone back and forth on this issue of anonymity a number of times in my own mind and after reading here, I have decided to remove anonymous comments from the various blogs I control. This change is effective 3/1/08.

This is not turning away conversation.

This is ensuring that the conversation is based in honesty and real identity.

It also helps that Google has enabled additional accounts to be used to comment.

If you have any issues with anonymity, you can email me (as you won't be able to comment) after March 1. Email to shersteve at gmail dot com

Rapid Fire Learning for February

Karen Wallace kicks off the Rapid Fire Learning for February over at the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog. He is my recall of what I learned this month:




1 - Immigrants come to Franklin, MA from a variety of places around the world and for a variety of reasons, most prominent amongst them being the quality of the school system. So why do we have such a problem getting funding for the schools? That is the subject for another discussion.

2 - What started as a project for Dolores' kindergarten friends became one for me as Dolores brought the amaryllis plant home as the Franklin schools were out on winter vacation this week. She took off for a well deserved break of her own leaving me to mind the plant. I became enchanted with the explosion of blossoms and took a daily photo to record the progress. For a few days, the amaryllis also inspired a sherku.

3 - The learning about embedded links in meme widgets continued this month as the article that Michael Pollitt was researching finally got published. I summarized the caution here,

4 - On my second visit to the library this week, I learned more about the history and happenings leading to and just following the Great Boston Molasses Flood in 1919. I had recently completed the book Dark Tide and learned that the anarchist in New England were quite active. Sacco and Venzetti are probably the most well-known. What I did know realized was that Sacco lived in Milford for 9 years. Milford is next door to Franklin. I will write more of the historical discussion that occurred on Thursday. The discussion helped me decide to choose Dark Tide as my entry for the Love Affair With Books.

5 - I helped at the registration desk at the NewBCamp08 held this past weekend on the Johnson & Wales campus in downtown Providence, RI. As a new event, it was a success. 50 of the 80-odd preregistrations showed up along with 20 walk-ins to give 70 folks the chance to learn and share information on blogging, podcasting, and new media in general. While I have read Chris Penn regularly, I got to see his updated intro to new media presentation. While I participated in the two previous PodCamp Bostons, I was unable to stay for the Saturday party. This time the schedule worked out for me and I got to hear Matthew Ebel perform his material for a free 90 minute show. More to come on this front but NewBCamp08 was a success and much credit goes to the lead organizer, Sara Streeter!


What did you learn during February?