There is a debate about whether students should be ‘brought into the future’, and educated with tests such as “find this information on the internet”, instead of rote memorization, for instance espoused in this Seth Godin post.
While we want students to be able to find information on the internet or in a library, I don’t think relying on this exclusively is a great idea. This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to the “x% of students can’t find Atlantic Ocean on a map” issue. Basic knowledge about the world is something you don’t always have time to go and look up. I think one of the important inputs to finding information quickly is already having a significant base of knowledge to draw on for context and understanding.
Wired has an article about the increased importance of design to manufacturers like HP and Dell, and area Apple has historically been strong in. A lot of traditional engineering business are rapidly turning into fashion businesses. Technology is not enough.
This is a presentation of image resizing software that selects smart paths of low importance in the image to remove or replicate. The result is resizing with subjects preserved. This is interesting stuff, and smart work, although I think it could have some interesting effects on how we view images. The power of the image as a dependable record will be further eroded, as this looks to be much easier to use than photoshop.
Bruce Schneier has pointed out an interesting analysis of the protocol used to elect the Doge of Venice from 1268 until the 18th century (pdf). It is quite complicated, involving 10 rounds of expanding the college by election and shrinking it by lot. The paper was prompted by research into computer networks that must elect a leader, which is typically done by majority voting. This protocol, however, has some interesting properties which would be of use if some of the computers were not trusted, for instance.
It’s important for any film to take advantage of the advertising potential that entertainment ‘news’ services offer. I’ve noticed a trend recently, which has probably been going on for some time, of movie after movie breaking increasingly specific box office ‘records’.
Spider-Man 3 has the biggest 3-day opening ever. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sets a record for biggest Wednesday opening ever. Hairspray has biggest opening for any musical on record. Superbad breaks a 12 year old record for movies opening after August 15th. And finally, The Simpsons: “scored the best opening ever for a non-CG animated movie … the best opening ever for an animated movie rated PG-13 or higher … and the best opening ever for a movie derived from a TV series”
I’m sure by next summer we’ll be reading about the biggest opening on the 14th of a month when it’s cloudy, biggest opening by a movie with a three-to-five word title, etc.
Galaxy Zoo is a project which is enlisting the eyes and minds of the public to help classify a large number of galaxies present in sky survey images. It’s fun for a few minutes, and would be great for kids, as they can learn about science while making a concrete contribution. Do galaxies prefer to rotate in one direction than another? Help gather the data to find out.
I await the day we find a cave on which a prehistoric youth has scrawled the equivalent of “first post”. I’m not sure what form that would take, though probably something highly suggestive and wildly inappropriate. The last I heard it was thought most cave art was the work of hormonally charged adolescent boys.
