It’s an open debate whether the plan to scan millions of books and make them searchable online will prove the benefit to humanity that Google promises – or hand it a monopoly over certain digital works, as opponents allege. But the consensus is the company fomented an avoidable backlash by forging ahead with its controversial…
Yes, it was pretentious, sterile, and overblown, but it did rejuvenate the franchise, re-introduced us to the Klingons (love their theme music), and the warp effect was awesome. Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out thirty years ago, Dec 7 1979. I was 11. I had tape-recorded nearly every episode of the series (and I…
“The idea that a lot of people have of Wikipedia is that it’s some emergent phenomenon–the wisdom of crowds, swarm intelligence, that sort of thing… like we’re a lot of ants, working in an anthill,” Jimmy Wales, the site’s co-founder, has said. “It’s kind of a neat analogy, but it turns out it’s actually not…
These dandelion children–equivalent to our “normal” or “healthy” children, with “resilient” genes–do pretty well almost anywhere, whether raised in the equivalent of a sidewalk crack or a well-tended garden. Ellis and Boyce offer that there are also “orchid” children, who will wilt if ignored or maltreated but bloom spectacularly with greenhouse care…. Gene variants generally considered misfortunes (poor Jim, he got…
In Pensylvania, homeshool kids have to take standardized tests every few years (at grades 3, 5, and 8). When he took the grade 5 exams last year, Peter did very well in all subjects, including math, though he 1) often says he hates math and 2) wastes a lot of time not doing math (staring…
I can’t say I understand, but someone invented every symbol and bit of notation that we use from emoticons to the alphabet. It’s cool to see the story of the need to invent new symbols. via Wired. Similar:Quantum Theatre's "Far Away" is an enigmatic abstraction, grounded by psychologically deep…Quantum Theatre’s streaming production o…AestheticsTwitter, Fix Your…
Alex Reid offers his commentary on this Sports Illustrated promotional video, that imagines how the magazine experience might work on a color tablet reader. In this YouTube video, the WonderFactory and Time present the “future of the magazine” (including more interactive advertisements, oh goody). Hmmm…. I wonder if the future of Sports Illustrated (the magazine)…
From the explanation of a map showing differences in press freedom around the world. We recognize cultural differences, diverse national interests, and varying levels of economic development. Yet Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions…
Pittsburgh teachers said that in 2005 they noticed an alarming trend: Students stopped using Roethilsberger’s last name in essays and papers, instead referring to the quarterback by his easy-to-spell nickname, “Big Ben.” That summer, the Pittsburgh school board took action, eliminating various art courses, American history, and Advanced Placement calculus in favor of a rigorous…
We were on our way out the door to see A Christmas Carol a couple days ago, when a reporter from the local paper called to interview my wife for a story following up on a report that said home-schooled kids are scoring high on standardized tests. In the last few years, the number of…
I managed to find my own refuge in acting. The stage was a far safer place for me than anything I had to live through at home – it offered escape. I could be someone else, in another place, in another time. However, whenever the role called for anger, fury, or the expression of murderous…
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It’s fairly common for speakers at high-tech events to give their talks in front of a screen that displays a Twitter stream. The snarky backchannel compliments a speaker whose goal is to be provocative or entertaining, but what happens when the speaker is aiming for subtlety and complex understanding? Here’s a story of how the…
The space that used to belong only to men grows ever smaller. However, the statistics about who is portrayed in the media as knowledgeable “talking heads,” about who is credited with writing the most influential books and who gets bylines in the most respected intellectual magazines seem to change very little. In a year that…
Atari Arcade is the place to find beloved Atari classics including Asteroids and Lunar Lander. You can play them all here online, any time and free of charge. —Atari.com My kids came over to my laptop, attracted to the chirps and beeps of these games. My 11yo son shooed me away from the keyboard and…
OK, asking 250 students to post questions on Twitter during a class doesn’t risk life or limb. But it can cause ego damage if the mob of students in his course on personal finance gets disorderly online. —Chronicle Teaching with technology changes the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship, putting more control in the hands of…
Fascinating new development, as Microsoft and big media align themselves against Google. [T]he Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine. News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment. One website publisher approached…
X-altruists are compelled to good, even when doing so makes no sense and brings harm upon them. The cannot tolerate injustice, and go to extreme lengths to help those who have been wronged, regardless of their personal relationship to them. Now, I am not speaking of the guy who helps an old lady cross the…
Part of an Ars Technica review of Google’s new operating system. Longtime Ars readers may be familiar with my periodic rants about the increasing disutility of the “volume/directory/file” metaphor for modern networked machines. Saving files, copying them, syncing them–this is all pointless clerical work that I want my computer to do for me. Bravo. Similar:I…
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