I love Nicholas Carr’s book. There are lots of studies and science mixed with many stories and asides and discussions of philosophers and other great thinkers. It reminded me of reading a Bill Bryson book. You get the facts painlessly. And it presents a strong argument for keeping kids (and everyone)
Continue readingTag: technology
Dead Wild Roses: Humans Need Not Apply
I’ll treasure my special snowflake status as a special needs teacher until the teaching profession succumbs to the efficient robo-teachers of the future. :> I’m guessing that behavioural robot teachers will air-deploy Valium and whatever else is required to maintain the learning environment. Filed under: Technology and Computers Tagged:
Continue readingThings Are Good: Using Fashion to Charge Electronics
Battery life on mobiles is never very good and this causes a drain on the electrical system. What if we were able to power our mobiles by just wearing clothes? Well, that’s a new field that is gaining more and more attention. The Guardian looked at a few ways we
Continue readingbastard.logic: How An Algorithim Caught The Ebola Outbreak
Science: this is why we keep you around: Nine days before the World Health Organization announced the African Ebola outbreak now making headlines, an algorithm had already spotted it. HealthMap, a data-driven mapping tool developed out of Boston Children’s Hospital, detected a “mystery hemorrhagic fever” after mining thousands of web-based
Continue readingThings Are Good: Plastic From Bacteria and Algae
This short news report covers some cool new plastic production from bacteria and algae done by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. Via Reddit.
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: Nyms win Google+ Nymwar
3 years ago, I deleted my Google+ account in protest of its real name only policy. At the time, I stated that if Google+ were to reverse its real name only policy, I would re-consider the deletion of my Google+ account, as well as my Google profile… Today, Google+ has
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Big Data at the World Cup: Two economic aspects beyond the pitch
Yesterday’s World Cup final nicely completed the old line that football is the sport where 22 players chase after a ball, but in the end… In the era of high technology, however, it’s not just 22 players running after a ball of course but a whole support squad of coaches,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Lego Pimps Your Kids’ Brains For Shell Oil
This is just too much. Lego has teamed up with Shell Oil to pimp your kids’ brains for Shell. We need to be helping our children understand that our future lies in the post-carbon energy infrastructure and things like solar roadways. Here’s one way to do that, at Lego Block
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Translink Impedes Transit Use
Translink is “being evasive on exactly how much money is being spent on this.” via Compass Card program delayed again by TransLink – British Columbia – CBC News. How’s that for not surprising. Translink is notorious for its taxation without representation: taking municipalities’ money without providing democratic representation to municipalities.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on the 1% and inequality on the tongues of the sly gazillionaires who rule the world, and into mass consumption. Now
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The End of Facebook at Politics, Re-Spun
Note how this looks a bit like the Death Star? 🙂 Hello! Welcome to the post-Facebook Politics, Re-Spun website! You will not find a Like/Recommend button at all anymore. Anywhere. We’ve even stripped it from the ShareThis ribbon. We’re so nasty! 🙂 Why? Because Facebook is the devil. And Big
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Strange World of E-Writers
There’s always been a place for amateur or new writers to present their efforts and hope to see print: publications where you could submit your work and hope the editors found it good enough to print in an upcoming issue. That’s how some famous writers got their start, in the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Hey, BC: Want More Jobs? Dump the LNG and Pipelines!
Well, I found yet another [like this] study showing how many MORE jobs we’d get by moving to a post-carbon energy infrastructure and dumping LNG, tarsands, pipelines and all the other Mordor Industrial Complex BC and Alberta are embracing. Not only is dumping the carbon energy infrastructure essential to do
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Most BCers Want to Get Off Fossil Fuels. Not Joking.
#PostCarbonEnergyInfrastructure. I know, I know, it’s a really clunky Twitter hashtag, so let’s just think of it as a concept for a second! Infrastructure: the systems in place for things like water systems, roads, the interwebz, electrical cabling, train tracks; and social infrastructure are things like the health, education, welfare,
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: E-readers: worth the investment?
I have a passionate, somewhat obsessive, relationship with books. Real books: paper, ink and glue. Not digital books. I have a lot of books and I treasure each one like an old friend. I love reading – I read books at least an hour every day, and usually much more. The feel
Continue readingeaves.ca: Government Procurement Failure: BC Ministry of Education Case Study
Apologies for the lack of posts. I’ve been in business mode – both helping a number of organizations I’m proud of and working on my own business. For those interested in a frightening tale of inept procurement, poor judgement and downright dirty tactics when it comes to software procurement and
Continue readingThings Are Good: It’s Time to Reset the Net
One year ago today Edward Snowden revealed to the world evidence that many long suspected – that the American government is actively performing mass surveillance. Innocent people have been targeted and information the likes of which we’ll never fully know has been collected on nearly anyone who’s used the internet.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Denmark and Germany Show Us How Easy It Is
Seeking some climate justice and labour justice? You’ve come to the right place. Here’s how Denmark and Germany are showing us that it isn’t brain surgery. Why re-invent the wheel; just steal ideas from people who already get it. Simple! Denmark Someone once told me that Starbucks stores in Safeway
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Pondering a palatable pipeline…
I guest-hosted TWiE podcast episode 137 a few days ago, an episode devoted to the Alberta oil sands / tar sands. If you ask me (and I realize none of you have 🙂 ) it’s well worth a listen! The week’s guest was US energy analyst Robert Rapier, who had
Continue readingThings Are Good: Ecosia: A Search Engine That Plants Trees
Ecosia is a search engine that is trying to make the world better. Every time you search the net on their site a good percentage of ad revenue is used to pay for planting trees in Brazil. Their goal is one million new trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest by August
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