Daily Thoughts 3/1/2010 (The Marketplace of Ideas)

This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. All images in this batch have been evaluated manually for evidence that the artist probably died before 1939, or that the work is anonymous or pseudonymous and was probably published before 1923. Pseudonymous, circa 1900.

Daily Thoughts 3/1/2010

I finished reading Louis Menand, The Marketplace of Ideas. Another interesting concept came up reading this book, the idea of academic freedom in universities. Academic freedom tends to protect the individual professors beliefs. In contrast in libraries, there is intellectual freedom. The American Library Association focuses on the freedom to read which is focused on texts. It tends to protect the work more than the individual providing the work. This is partially because librarians usually don't create the works they are providing.

This work creates a nice contrast in my understanding of the creation of ideas. Libraries are storehouses of knowledge. Universities tend to focus more on creating and producing knowledge than storing knowledge. This book has made me think.

On the way home from the dentist, I read some of The Mindful Path to Self Compassion Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions. This is a book which combines meditation with psychology. The author, Christopher K. Germer, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and a founding member of the institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. There are often religious or spiritual aspects which combine with psychology.

Last night, I took a break from deep thought and watched Scooby Doo and The Samurai Sword. It is a new release. I rather liked the older version of Scooby Doo better. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Shaggy and Scooby seem to me to a bit like Abbot and Costello. It is a way to stop thinking too much. We get a lot of people who come in and check out dvds to just relax and not think too much.