According to a news article on ABC News (PDF Calif. to Dump Printed Text..), Governor Schwarzennegger is trying to trim the state’s budget gap with a cheaper alternative to the traditional high school textbooks. California has a US$24.3 billion budget shortfall to face. How much is a billion? If we wanted to pay down a billion dollars of the US debt, paying one dollar a second, it would take 31 years, 259 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds. Now multiply that by 24 and you get roughly 761 years! This is just a single state’s deficit, and The Age reported that Arnold refused to increase taxes in order to fill the void. The former actor’s plan to save money pivots around phasing out hardcopy school textbooks in favour of learning over the internet.

While the Terminator star plays with the politics, let’s look at some aspects of information access and learning over the internet. I went back to the books (and blogs) and since then, most of my learning is via each university’s implementation of the Blackboard application, and readings which are scanned into the institution’s online library. Limited (so far) study resources can also be found within Google Books, such as this title on focus groups.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

http://www.google.com/corporate/

Upon reading the CNET News article Google’s digital book future hangs in the balance, one quickly finds that Google stands to make huge sums of money from advertising, book search, institutional subscriptions for access, and selling PDF copies of books. Did anyone check if Arnold has any investment in Google? If you’re also concerned over the legal issues, check out the groundbreaking agreement between authors, publishers and Google Books.

Reviewed at the Sydney Morning Herald with a weird and witty second novel, an award-winning author passes the toughest test.

This is the current book for the MT Book Club. Unfortunately I can’t read it as I have stacks of course reading to do. My darling wife is too excited about her upcoming China visit to read anything! I would have liked to have read it after thoroughly enjoying Vernon God Little.

The next title for the Maundy Thursday Book Club is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It costs $25 at the Camberwell shops.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Thankfully, no-one has read this title. It came out of the publishing house just a year ago. Amy and I are looking forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting, 7pm on the 25th July.

If you’re keen to hear about the author’s previous title, The Kite Runner, check out the latest episodes of the BBC World Service’s podcast World Book Club.

WBC: Khaled Hosseini

Bestselling writer Khaled Hosseini discusses The Kite Runner, his first novel set in Afghanistan, which has sold 15 million copies.
Duration: 27mins | File Size: 13MB | Download Episode

Our actual marriage was a year ago today in the sweltering heat of down-town Jinan, China. Changes (David Bowie) is one word to cover a lot of our story since. The love continues growing and I happened to remember today is our anniversary. What did I find for a gift…?

A fellow teacher mentioned their first anniversary gifts were those funky paper lamps. To inspire our future journeys together, I surprised my super wife with the fact that today is the day and gave us this neat book, 501 must visit destinations.

Next Sunday we’re going to the Great Ocean Road. It’ll be the first time for Amy and she aims to nail the remaining four-hundred-and-ninety odd destinations. Let’s go!

Legends of the Dragon is this lovely amazing awesome salubrious book I have a couple of photos published in. It just arrived in the mail last Friday. Flipping through these superb images, considering my current out-of-work status, I find myself dreaming of my next Asian adventure!

Postie Kate also delivered my Christmas present (from me, to me) last Friday. The Korea theme pack should be some inspiring summer reading… I had to collect my CELTA in person today as the college doesn’t normally post out the certificates. That stork however, will be delivering babies and bringing a new sound to Christmas for a few friends this year.

I must admit I was quite chuffed at the screening of my Japan – a year in the life slide show. It was brilliant to see many friends again who have inspired me and often joined up for our adventurous journeys together. We didn’t have cinema seating, but Mark rounded up the projector for the big screen effect and Tim’s burly 5.1 sound system definitely cranked out the soundtrack.

Our little theatrette has been re-converted to our lounge room and the coffee table back in place, soon to be smothered with an inspiring and beautiful book.

Legends of the Dragon is a photography project profiling the fabulous corners of Asia.

A few of my pic’s are being published in the second book of Dragon’s Playground. If your coffee table is lacking in lustre just now, check out this salubrious next edition when it arrives… soon.