Today's check-in spotlight is the Thomas Edison National Historic Park in West Orange, N.J.  I shared in the pleasure with a few others of listening to phonographic recordings made over 100 years ago, by the first professional sound recordist and Edison employee Theo Wangemann. Due to significant degradation of the original recorded wax cylinders, the sound quality was not what we are accustomed to hearing in today's digital audio world, but the sheer historical significance made the listening just as satisfying. We had the opportunity to hear one the oldest known recordings of music in America played for the first time in public, of singer Miss Effie Stewart in West Orange.

In addition, I got to lurk in the very room that gave birth to what we now know as the music industry and view some early motion picture samples.

A couple of  facts for thought picked up during the visit:

1. The phonograph was originally intended by Edison to be a business dictation tool.

2. The first recording of a political rally was of N.J. Governor Robert Stockton Green.

I end with a quote given by presenter Patrick Feaster, from Hamlet:

"Give every man your ear but few your voice, because if you make an error it will come back to get you"

Check out Lindsey's ingenious Evernote sharing project for some creative inspiration and knowledge sharing ideas, in addition to my covert passion for brain heath and cognitive training in my shared notebook below.

I am using the inaugural post of my new personal site AndreasJackson.Com, to proclaim my new information diet for 2012. I recall almost a couple of decades ago reading about the concept of a mental diet, in a small paperback entitled The Community of Self, which was predicated on maintaining a healthy balance of media consumption at the time.

Of course, the proliferation of Information and Communication Technology since then has dramatically altered our decision-making in what media content we choose to digest on a regular basis. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a wealth of data and research expounding on this point.

As a 21st Century citizen, I understand that information literacy is a necessary life skill for navigating our complex society. This is why I am making a conscious effort from this point forward, to be much more discerning of what sources of information I choose in my daily activities, to use due diligence in determining the validity of these sources, and apply critical analysis to come up with my own thoughts and conclusions on what I’ve consumed.

My first step on this new information diet was to dramatically cut down on the number of RSS feeds from blogs I read on a daily basis. After having well over 100 feeds populate my Google Reader account, I am proud to state that I am now down to 22 25. After much deliberation, I am confident that these sources are more than adequate to keep me on the pulse of the latest trends in technology, innovation, politics, culture, education, media, and business. In addition, I will resolve to learn as much as possible about these topics through as many other channels as possible.

Too learn more about the concept of the Information Diet, check out this book by Clay A. Johnson.

I will post the second step of my information diet shortly.

Will you start an information diet as well? Let me know your thoughts.

Image Courtesy of labguest via Flickr