Like locked cell phones and copy-protected music, Facebook is on the wrong side of the open-network debate. Facebook is a sealed bubble. Facebook users are locked into Facebook, just as iTunes locks music fans to Apple’s iPod. This serves companies’ business interests, but not the wider interests of consumers. […] At this point, “friend” relationships…
Rather, Salen and other planners are looking at how games naturally engage players and teach them new skills, and hope to apply those principles to create kids who not only ace their SATs, but are also well suited for the 21st century. Games offer a context for problem-solving with immediate feedback, and often involve social…
The smell of a flower – The memory of a walk in the park – The pain of stepping on a nail. These experiences are made possible by the 3 pounds of tissue in our heads…the BRAIN!! —Eric H. Chudler —Neuroscience for Kids (University of Washinton) My son was asking me a lot of questions about…
Truthfully, I expected my new department would be grateful that I wasn’t having kids. But the unofficial motto here seems to be “We do babies!” And indeed we do….. I couldn’t believe that I was struggling to meet anyone who could go out for a drink. —Carol Peace —An Unexpecting Minority (Chronicle of Higher Education) Who…
A pity effort to hack into the hacker-only conference DEFCON was attempted by the NBC reporter Michelle Madigan. Apparently the Associate Producer for Dateline NBC entered the DEFCON with a hidden camera and tried to film attendees confessing to illegal activities. According to some sources, Madigan was working on an investigative piece called “Hackers for…
—3D Hectopus Animation (Rainbow Hector Weblog) Just a 3D, six-legged character animation. Not the best walk cycle I’ve ever seen, but it was fun making it. Similar:Modular support craft from the #neovictorian #steampunk bedtime stories I used to tell my …Modular support craft from the #neovicto…Aesthetics"All for the Best" RehearsalHere’s a brief clip of a rehearsal…
An octopus with a porcelain plate stuck to its suckers has led to the discovery of a hoard of ancient pottery, South Korean scientists say. —Treasure trove ‘found by octopus’ (BBC) Thanks for the link, Rosemary. Similar:Google’s healthcare AI made up a body part — what happens when doctors don’t notice? Though not in a hospital…
The administrators generally agreed that people skills were important, yet those skills remain underrepresented in required courses. One likely explanation: Students don’t like the courses, and they are pressuring administrators to drop them. When curricula emphasize soft skills, administrators “are significantly more likely to report increased pressure from students to change the curriculum,” the researchers…
Besides not beaming down, another factor that showed to increase the survival rate of the red-shirts was the nature of the relationship between the alien life and captain Kirk. When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and “makes contact” the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%. In fact, out of Captain Kirks’…
How can we fathom the values and preoccupations of the American people (no matter what their race, gender, or class) without paying attention to the nation’s literature, painting, architecture, music, theater, and movies? If culture plays as significant a role as social, political, or economic issues in helping us make sense of the American past,…
A frequent objection I hear from Digital Immigrant educators is “this approach is great for facts, but it wouldn’t work for ‘my subject.’” Nonsense. This is just rationalization and lack of imagination. In my talks I now include “thought experiments” where I invite professors and teachers to suggest a subject or topic, and I attempt…
Until the eigth school in the list, they’ve only included schools with a few students which means that any large percentage drops or gains are not strange at all, but expected. To put them on the “Biggest Metro Math Losers” (what kind of name for a table is that anyway?!) is simply poor reporting. I’m…
Gamers are unequivocal: “Dying gives a game meaning”, say posters on the PC Advisor forums. Markus Montola, a researcher at Tampere University in Finland, takes this further: “You have a motivation – to avoid being annoyed by dying. Motivation is what makes the game meaningful.” Pete Hines – vice-president at Bethesda, the developer behind the…
Similar sites have captured the imagination of ordinary users with a so-called “citizen” brand of journalism, but NowPublic is gaining attention for the size of its fast-growing army of 118,000 members who write and post news stories, cellphone camera pictures, and videos from 3,600 cities in over 140 countries. “Think of us as a new…
First Amendment lawsuits by student journalists at public universities become moot when the plaintiffs graduate, according to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. —Scott Jaschik —Loss for the Student Press (Inside Higher Ed) That sounds very disturbing. Similar:Writing a Cutline (Caption) for the News: Three examples of an often overlooked…
An ideal example of abandonment is the relationship between Linus and The Great Pumpkin. Every Halloween, Linus faithfully waits by a pumpkin patch, in the hopes that he will be blessed with the holy experience of a visitation by The Great Pumpkin. Of course, The Great Pumpkin never shows up, and He never answers Linus’…
Statistics collected over two decades show an alarming decline in the performance of America’s boys–in some respects, a virtual free fall. Boys were doing poorly in school, abusing drugs, committing violent crimes and engaging in promiscuous sex. Young males lost ground by many behavioral indicators at some point in the 1980s and ’90s: sharp plunges…
The filmmakers hope that “Paradise Lost” will prove enticing to Christian audiences. Mr. Hazeldine said he read “several theological tomes” because “I’m adapting Milton, and then Milton’s kind of adapting Genesis, and I wanted to make sure that for the faith audience, I guess, that they will see it more as ‘The Passion of the…
The power class was buzzing around in the sky, watching the ruination of someone’s life way down below – making buckets of cash by broadcasting someone else’s tragedy, then – WHAM – the real bursts into their own life, they become the live tragedy – but we’re still viewing the whole thing through the lens…
Sometimes called the reptilian brain because its basic structure dates back to our reptile ancestors, the brain stem is largely devoted to our most primal instincts, far removed from the complex, higher-brain skills that allow us to understand humor. And yet somehow, in this primitive region, we find the urge to laugh. —Steven Johnson —What’s…