After inviting every robot maker with a dream to take part in the Grand Challenge, Darpa, the Defense Department’s research arm, has suddenly declared that only 20 drone roadsters will be allowed to enter. This may not mean much to the conglomerate-sponsored, university-backed outfits in the race. But bootstrapping crews like Chabe’s six-man Team LoGhIQ…
The wildfires weren’t the only things burning in Southern California last week. Web servers at The San Diego Union-Tribune were also hot with traffic. —Wildfires Break Records at San Diego Website (Editor and Publisher) The California wildfires forceD journalists to improvise in order to provide audiences with the coverage they need in a time of crisis.…
A while back Michael Lesk wrote a paper called “How Much Information is There in the World?” That work has now been updated by a team led by Peter Lyman and Hal Varian: “How Much Information 2003?” —How Much Information? (Via MGK) Similar:Traces of ScribesBook historian Irene O’Daly notes that t…AcademiaDon't Help Your Kids With Their…
Professors today often believe erroneously that they are already teaching critical thinking in their courses and that students are absorbing it… “[College seinors] say, ‘Look how open-minded I am.’ But when pressed to say, ‘What do you think about this? What suggestions would you make and what are they based on?’ – that’s when the…
This Vampire Killing Kit complete with a wooden stake and 10 silver bullets sold for $12,000 as part of Sotheby’s sale of 19th century furniture and decorative works of art in New York, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003. The kit, a walnut box that also contained a crucifix, a pistol, a rosary and vessels for garlic…
The feature is particularly troubling to reference-book authors who think they may lose a sale if a user can find “the best place to hike in Chaco Canyon” or “where to find the best airfare to Cuba” by using Amazon’s search feature instead. —Monica Soto Ouchi —Amazon’s inside look irks authors: Search function previews any…
Once adopted, the credit hour became a driving force in higher education. | It presented students with a specific time frame in which they were expected to complete course work, usually one semester…. But Wellman and Ehrlich, a senior scholar with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, argue in their book that using…
—Canstruction Model of Independence Hall, birthplace of the American Revolution. Made out of cans. Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:Almost Flat DesignApple, Google and Microsoft have very di…AestheticsNew CarWednesday morning my resourceful brother…BusinessBurgh to Burg, episode 2.AcademiaWe Need to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle ClassMaybe it’s not the super-robots we need …BusinessMore Adventures in…
Please — Never Do This!E-Mail) This message, with the uninformative subject line “November Hours,” an empty body, and a 45K MS-Windows attachment (see tips #1, #2 and #3 of “Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips“) went out to about 450 people By my count, this single message consumed 20MB of storage space on computers across…
I know this is probably a very uncool and politically incorrect thing to say these days, but I am going to brave it anyway. | I have wondered why, with all the briliant people writing in the different group blogs, am I not toally enchanted with them? —Torill —No Personal Touch (Thinking with My Fingers) The…
The butterfly effect has, until now, been cited only as an illustration, but Professor Jim Spanners of the Pennsylvania Institute for Making Stuff Up takes it seriously, and believes that butterflies are directly responsible for most of the world’s major problems. —Butterfly (The University of the Bleeding Obvious) Similar:Psychology Today: Dreams: Night SchoolJay Dixit, in Psychology…
—Sounds of History From Abbot and Costello to Malcolm X — historical audio recordings. Similar:‘There’s a certain madness to it’ … fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years l…The organ composition is called “As Slow…AestheticsJournalists prefer in-person interviews. Emailing questions to strangers and expecting the…An interview means a real-time give-and …Education‘NPR…
How Amazon can make money from books you already own. We tend to think of search requests as generally taking the form of “find me something I’ve never seen before.” But real-life search is often different: You’re looking for something you have seen before, but you’ve somehow mislaid or only half-remembered. You search for your…
Recent years have seen an explosion in electronic media marketed directly at the very youngest children in our society, yet very little is known about how these changes have played out in young people’s lives. In order to help understand the implications, the Foundation conducted a national study of more than 1,000 parents of children…
For the last few months, Google has been courting publishers, hoping to convince them to turn over book content that could be used in Google’s database, say people close to the discussions. | How that content would be presented is not clear, but it would likely not be provided in excerpted passages to customers, as…
“Diamond retailers contend a little bling is just the thing to declare your independence this fall,” wrote Houston Chronicle reporter Liz Embry a few weeks ago. Her story was illustrated with a photo of Ms. Sarah Jess flashing the hottest new trend in the jewelry industry: the right-hand ring. | The rings have recently been…
He never imagined just how unenthusiastic his research sponsors — and others with a financial stake in atrazine — would be about his discovery. | Six frustrating years later, Mr. Hayes and his defenders say they know only too well the lengths to which those companies will go to undermine his findings that atrazine may…
Once again, Halloween season is upon us, and with it, the wonderful anticipation of dressing up and trick-or-treating for delicious Brach’s candy. With that in mind, it’s important to remember all the ways that you can make your Halloween safer and more fun. It won’t put a damper on anyone’s holiday spirits to wear high-visibility…
Edgar Allan Poe’s most popular poem, “The Raven,” tells the story of a man who gets a late-night visit from a mysterious bird that speaks only one word: “Nevermore.” | Sounds like a pretty simple story, right? | Guess again! —Knowing Poe [Annotated Version of ‘The Raven’]Â (Maryland Public Television) Once upon a Tuesday weary, while…
The problem of spam or unwanted commercial e-mail is usually attributed to outlaws and hucksters — peddlers of pornography, get-rich-quick schemes and pills of dubious merit — who use hackers to send their fraudulent messages in ways that cannot be traced. | But the torrent of spam that is flowing into people’s electronic mailboxes comes…