the world at your fingertips

 On July 1st 1997 Dr. Jan Hawkins wrote an article titled "The world at your fingertips." In it she detailed how the world will be impacted by the changes in technology, with great emphasis on the benefits this change will have on education. Two years later, Dr. Hawkins passed on, but like all the great minds before her, her ideas took root. It is this ideas that have given birth to an explosion of awareness and realization, prompting experiments across the globe. Case in point it took  Albert Einstein fifteen years to prove the general theory of relativity and five years to get the theory published in a recognized journal when he first proposed it.

In the current world a scientific paper, article or essay is posted online Timbuktu on Tuesday night and when the author wakes up they find four hundred unread emails, thirty missed calls from various journalists requesting an interview with an entire brigade of paparazzi outside their homes waiting to take the first picture. It's called going viral That may not happen exactly as stated but you get the drift; the world is wired small and tight! access to information is closer than the proverbial doorstep, it is in our ears, our palms OUR FINGERTIPS! We have material to learn more, to inquire, to improve, to inspire we may have well exhausted material on what we have.


Dr. Jan Hawkins saw a future that meant it would be easier to teach and to learn, a future that included faster and more efficient ways of solving tasks. She saw better time efficiency and increased personal as well as professional development. Hawkins was right, indeed technology has enriched as well as increased us, but(there is always a but sometimes even two) to what extent have we made use of the technological gains we have? It is about time we asked each other as we do ourselves, how well do we use the world at our fingertips?

#100Daysofblogging #Day15

I intend to introduce another argument on knowledge and how its influx may not be as rosy as Hawkins highlighted, but that is another post for another day.  

The birth of this post was the possibility of avenues to read and satisfy our curiosity, expand our understanding scope or for whatever reason you read. It was this condensed list of free online course

Gratitude

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” — Albert Schweitzer

TRULY GRATEFUL TILL THE END

Into  the sunrise lake of my own sunset

I  shall wade and sink with nary a ripple.

There in the penubra of the dark skyline,

               I shall be, blissfully,

                   nothing again.

Blown  away  by  the worst  wayward winds,

Trapped, stranded in the dreariest doldroms,

I  have stayed  undaunted, kept unshaken

                 the faith in better

                   things to come.

The  heaving  halo of  the partly sunken sun

Now  sends thin shafts  of  shimmering light

That streak through my lengthening shadow.

                 Still, I shall remain

                  grateful and true.

 

-Anonymous

I am grateful today for the journey this year has been, there were times I did not think I could hold my sanity, my tongue or my existence. I am grateful for slowly I find that I can tame them all for they are just a part of me and on their own they are still nothing without me. 

#100daysofbloggin #Day14

hope for the week : standard gauge railway commence

Photo | Courtesy

 It’s just tomorrow, then one more moon after that. That is how long we have to wait for the commencement date of the Kenyan Standard gauge railway. Kenyans have peculiar calling habits we have been told and even more peculiar is our knack to forget the most important of things. Enter the search phrase “Kenyans forget fast” and be prepared to meet over a million results with the phrase embed somewhere in there. The flame was started with a flicker from the sparks of Hon. Alfred Keter who questioned the inflation of prices, the procedure followed to award the tender and the lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment report prior to applying for the tender. 

Launch of SGR project: Photo | Courtesy

Launch of SGR project: Photo | Courtesy

It raged on and on with the debate taking a political tone as is the case with all else in this nation. For all the noise made, we all lost the scope and the relevance of what the argument was. It became an ad hominem where principles of debate were thrown out. Well the signing took place, so did the launch and if all goes well 1^st October marks the beginning of better accessibility, network and possibly maintenance of the transport sector in this nation. I remain optimistic, of the numerous job opportunities that will be created, the increase in price of land, the need to setup businesses and overall the better travel our children and their children will be ushered into. If you have nothing else to be happy about this coming week then be pleased with the starting of work on the standard gauge railway. Hoping it will actually start.   

 #100daysofblogging #Day13

If anything..

Ma & Pa

If anything

It’s like getting on the lift

Just before the doors close behind

Like little puddles of warm salty water

Rushing between the toes

I won't just have enough of the beach

As you walk the stretch of the ocean floor

Like the sound of crushing waves

Hitting the continental shelf

And the silenced voices drowned

Lost in the search of self

It’s the sensation of taking off fitting shoes

Or the whiff that hits the nose at the door

That whiff that can only be mama’s cooking

It’s a cold Fanta going down the throat

On a dry windy and hot day

Or the spreading of quink

From a blot on a kasuku brand page

It’s slow

It’s captivating

It’s overwhelming

It comes like a rush

From the fingertips to the lobes

To the heel

And the toes

The nape of the neck

It’s inexplicable

If anything

It’s the knowledge that comes from knowing;

Gentleness; perching a chick in your palm

You did well

#100daysofblogging #Day12

MY HEARTIST by Mercy Marende

I sit in ponder of my beloved

So far, the distance kills the heart

I cannot vent

I am mad at him

Who gave him the authority?

To anger me and be angry at I

And with the distance

Assault to injury

It kills the heart

Yet my soul yearns for he

In love

In fight

In fury

In anger
In frustration…Still

I submit

Funny

That in these fiery times my insides burn most for him

I miss thee

I burn in anger and desire

So far

The distance kills the heart

I close my eyes

O my beloved is here

Staring at me

In my fiercest fumes

I want to burst…I want to charge…oh I should explode

And yet

Am halted

But how can I?

The exuberance of his charms won’t let me

Assuredly, he moves towards me

Am confused

My bosom heaves, uncontrollably, pleasurably

I miss you

His gaze fixates upon my eyes

Am bathed in calmness

His arms tightly but gently devour my body

I coil senselessly in submission

I totter in his intoxicating embrace

I blink

He lain me down, sunset reflecting in his eyes

The passion in them ignites my body, my desires

I want you

I tremble in his lips’ tender traces upon mine

Oh that…that I do miss, my heartist

The dexterity of your craftsmanship

Nay

Squirm not over spills and splurges of your shades on my surface

This canvas thirsts

Insatiable of your paint

Worry not of broken and of misplaced brushes

For the skills on thy digits is enviable

Alas! How they tickle

How they stir these nervous nerves

How they paint the corners and edges of this canvas’ curves

Your art on me is impeccable

When you work on this plane

Undesirables turn orgasmic

It is such

In breaking my heart

I would care less

You ponder why?

Well

Our fate, to be or not to be

Pieces of mine shattered heart form a mosaic of your face

Juxtaposition in thought

Of my love against your selfishness

Unfaithfulness

Disloyalty

Egotism

Anger

Disavowal

It don’t matter how far

Nor the distance

Every air you exhale

I feed my desire in its inhalation

Devoid of, I succumb

Nay

Its not obsession

Simply

The loves that burns for you

That the eloquence of words cannot quench

It refuses to die

Its destiny

For he know not the depths of my love

O reader,

If ye cometh across my beloved

Doth pass my word

That I deservedly declare

‘I am your canvas

Paint your love on me'


I received this poem from my girlfriend, so much I want to say about this piece. I wont, instead I'll say thank you, I am glad I am forgiven, loved and missed. I love you and I am honored you love me this much. I am yours; you are mine.

#100daysofblogging #Day11