Web Worth Watching: The Thom-Thom Club

A couple months back I featured a lecture by Thomas Barnett on the deployment US military might in a post-Cold War world. Below is a talk he gave in Maine where he moves from a diagnostic to a prescriptive point of view on the the topic. It's a fascinating point of view, proffered by a guy who seems to have genuine fun giving his presentation.

Then, another sequel talk of sorts. I'm sure most followers of this blog know Thomas Friedman, who penned The Lexus and the Olive Tree and, more famously, The World is Flat. He takes a different look at some of the issues Barnett touches on, but from an economic (specifically petro-political) perspective.

New on KNME.org (November 24)

New on KNME.org this week, indie filmmaker Lillian Kelly's latest profile of local social entrepreneurs in New Mexico. This week she focuses on Southwest Creations Collaborative, a non-profit that strives to help Spanish-speaking and immigrant women overcome their unique challenges by providing with work sewing, packaging and tiling. Not only do these employees earn a living wage, but they have access to on-site child care, on-site English as a Second Language classes, on-site computer classes, health care support and other programs.

Web Worth Watching: Modern Day Piracy

A couple of weeks back, I was reading an article in the Economist on pirates. I have read similar news bites in the past, but still piracy for me was limited to RIAA/MPAA propaganda or one half-decent Johnny Depp film (don't talk to me about the two sequels). But the videos I'm posting today have helped reshape my understanding.

Modern Day Pirates



Then a different point of view on the issue, this one from the Voice Of America. I find this exploration of the issues considerably drier, but perhaps a bit more substantive. If these guys were outside a Indonesian brothel, I'm guessing there wouldn't be cameras around (you have to watch the first one to understand that).


On the Line: High Seas Piracy

New on KNME.org (November 17): Tierra Wools

New on KNME.org this week, independent filmmaker Lillian Kelly's profile of Tierra Wools.

Los Ojos is a small community in rural northern New Mexico. It has little economic opportunity for the folks who live there -- save Tierra Wools, a limited liability company that began more than 25 years ago to offer jobs for local women and a market for local wool-growers. Not only has Tierra Wools offered traditional housewives a way to make money outside the home, it's also provided a sense of community. It's given the women -- Sophia De Yapp, Olivia Valdez, Lupe Valdez and Angie Serrano -- a place to be and become. By creating rugs with the wool of local Churro sheep, the women of Tierra Wools are also preserving Rio Grande Weaving, a tradition brought to the area by the Spanish several centuries ago.

Tierra Wools

Meet Polly Anderson, KNME's New General Manager/CEO

Friends and Fans of KNME,

I had an amazing experience the other day when I took my first ever balloon ride. Other than the (literally) uplifting experience of floating hundreds of feet above the pre-dawn earth, it was wonderful to see and feel New Mexico from such a different perspective. That thirst for a new perspective and a new take on the place I live is what has inspired my career and is what has brought me to New Mexico as the new General Manager and CEO of KNME.

We all know that New Mexico has rich cultural institutions to reflect its rich culture. And when you think of those institutions I’m sure you, like me, think of organizations like the Santa Fe Opera, Acoma Pueblo, the New Mexico Symphony, Site Santa Fe, Explora!, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (to name but a few).

I want you to think of KNME in the same light. Recently we won three Emmy awards, two for our filmic exploration of the Sandia mountains, The Sandias, and one for a brief, artistic profile of local, world-renowned architect Antoine Predock. And this past week we’ve logged well over 1000 man-hours documenting the Balloon Fiesta for a world-premiere documentary next year. Those are just three of KNME’s many production projects. But the amazing leap forward in internet-based technology now allows us to not only cover larger than life subjects, but also the small and equally mighty stories that shape our culture in more subtle ways. Whether it’s a profile of a young native artist in Santa Fe, a Rio Rancho man who turned his back yard into a successful “enchilada garden,” an exploration of what makes the Rail-Runner run or a visit to Chaco Canyon during the summer solstice, KNME’s website, (and our YouTube channel) features a new local vignette each week that’s designed to bring you closer to the world right outside your door.

Part of our commitment as a cultural institution is education, and we have a talented and dedicated outreach department that is in our community daily helping to support teachers, parents and children with workshops, community discussions and online communities like Science Central. KNME’s commitment to education runs through all we do, whether it’s helping to make sure you’re informed about the upcoming switch to digital-only broadcast (make sure you’re TV is ready!), helping you prepare a delicious dinner with one of our Saturday afternoon cooking shows, or bring sense (and sensibility) to the political world around us.

And in this most interesting of political times, we’re offering coverage of news and current events that you won’t see anywhere else. From coverage of local candidate conversations for all the stations congressional races, to live streaming on our New Mexico In Focus site of political rallies and local visits by national thought leaders, to the enfranchisement of fresh new voices via our “By the People, For the People” Citizen Journalist project. KNME is setting out to cover your world in new ways as interesting as the times in which we live.

Add to that amazing artistic, dramatic and documentary programming from PBS, and I hope you’ll agree that KNME is squarely in the center of institutions that not only reflect but also shape the rich and diverse culture of New Mexico. I look forward to bringing you exciting news and happenings at KNME in the future. When you visit our website, check in for my posts here in The KNME Blog. And never hesitate to drop me an email and let me know how we’re doing and what you think of KNME. My email is panderson@knme.org and I look forward to hearing from you.

More soon,

Polly Anderson
General Manager and CEO
KNME

Web Worth Watching: Sostenibilidad

Gonna return to environmental themes this week with a couple of videos about how the Spanish are tackling sustainability. The first looks at the Canary Island of El Hierro, which is supposedly on track to be fully sustainable by the end of 2009.

Canary's Eco Island



Next is a video from GreenEnergyTV (so note the potential bias) looking at Barcelona's efforts to achieve sustainability.

Barcelona: Sustainable Energy City



The final video is a talk by Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Recorded in early 2005, he discusses why we must ween ourselves off foreign oil. I don't agree with everything he says (his reference to biofuels ignores the intensive water needs of that 'solution') and the age of the talk shows in his statistics on fuel costs. But what is interesting is what he has to say about the mechanics of conservation for automobiles.

Amory Lovins: We Must Win the Oil Endgame

New on KNME.org (November 10): Pueblos Under Los Ranchos

New this week on KNME.org, independent filmmaker Lillian Kelly's look at the native culture buried beneath one B&B in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.

Pueblos Under Los Ranchos

Web Worth Watching: Gladwell's World

Occasionally I like to tap into some innovative thinkers here in the WWW blog. A while back I featured some lectures by Jarod Diamond, and this week we're going to hear from Malcolm Gladwell. Author of The Tipping Point and Blink, Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker and has some interesting insights about American (and often, more broadly, Western) society. In this first video, he appears with Mark Kingwell on at CBC radio broadcast to discuss social change.


Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Kingwell on QTV (CBC Radio)



In this second video, Gladwell talks about a man whose studies around the marketing of food lead to an eventual democratization of taste in American culture.


Malcolm Gladwell: What We Can Learn from Spaghetti Sauce

New on KNME.org (November 3): Artisode 1.5: A Walk Down Canyon Road (Part 2)

New this week on KNME.org, KNME filmmaker Kelly Kowalski's second part of her walk down Canyon Road with John O'Hern. This time they visit the Klaudia Marr Gallery of contemporary realism and the Zaplin-Lampert Gallery of historic Western art.


Artisode 1.5: A Walk Down Canyon Road (Part 2)



And for those who missed last week's tour...


Artisode 1.4: A Walk Down Canyon Road (Part 1)