LOTS TO DO: Todays the day for enlightenment. Check out the schedule.

And a good morning to you. The top of the day is a reminder:

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* ARKANSAS TIMES FESTIVAL OF IDEAS: We had a big crowd at the Old State House last night for our gala honoring 50 Influential Arkansans, many of whom will be featured at a series of FREE programs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Old State House, Historic Arkansas Museum, Clinton School and Downtown Library.

Here’s the full schedule. Each of the one-hour slots will end a bit early to allow time to move from venue to venue.

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Scott McGehee’s cooking, the Renaud brothers‘ documentary filmmaking, Korto Momolu’s fashion, a collection of Irma Gail Hatcher’s one-of-a-kind quilts, the future of college, civil rights, advocacy for immigrants and children and lots more are among the topics for entertainment, discussion and deeper thought. Dr. Donald Bobbitt, the president of the University of Arkansas System, is particularly timely. He was talking to me last night about the extensive questioning a legislative committee had this week for new ideas about reaching students on-line. Civil rights lawyer John Walker undoubtedly has some thoughts on another timely topic at our 1 p.m. session — a growing issue in the Little Rock School District about treatment of Latino children. Knifemaker Jerry Fisk is doing two sessions at the HAM blacksmith shop and I can testify from our chat last night that he’s entertaining, as well as an artisan. I’m going to be at UA prof Jamie Hestekin’s 3 p.m. demonstration at the library of his remote-controlled algae-powered car. Snarky T-shirts, tiny houses, cutting edge architecture, the future of the Oxford American and advice on technology startups are among some of the other topics.

Hundreds have signed up. There’s plenty of room for dropins. Come on by.

* ARKANSAS CO-OP WORKING TO WATER DOWN CLEAN AIR LAW: Good report from Washington by Paul Barton of Gannett News Service on the Arkansas Electric Co-operative Corporation’s work to rewrite clean air laws to reduce complications for its heavy reliance on burning of coal to generate electricity. Environmentalists, unsurprisingly, are wary.

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* 117 JOBS TO BE CUT: Stephens Media reports on coming loss of 117 state-paid civilian jobs at the National Guard education center in North Little Rock.

* FACEBOOK AND FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY: Privacy? Hah. Interesting story on how Facebook is grappling with European efforts to delete facial recognition data. I’m late to this as I am to most tech issues, having just learned the other day about the ability to search the web for images as well as words.

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