June 2010
24 posts
Washington Post: If scientists want to educate the... →
Experts aren’t wrong in thinking that Americans don’t know much about science, but given how little they themselves often know about the public, they should be careful not to throw stones. Rather than simply crusading against ignorance, the defenders of science should also work closely with social scientists and specialists in public opinion to determine how to defuse controversies by...
“It is the diversity within species that keeps species going. This is the...”
– Cary Fowler, Of Pandas and Peas: Saving the Diversity Within Species (via poptech)
Liar, liar: Why deception is our way of life -... →
[Neurophysiologists] have found that our brain functions in such a way that we cannot see “reality” directly. All we can ever know are the guesses or interpretations our mind creates about what is going on. To create these guesses, we can only draw on basic human neuroanatomy and on our past experience.
Based on our perception we create a working model of the world - a mental map - by...
Kids, computers, books →
infoneer-pulse:
The analysis reveals that home computers have “modest but statistically significant negative impacts” on academic performance as measured by math and reading test scores. In addition: “The introduction of high-speed internet service is similarly associated with significantly lower math and reading test scores in the middle grades.” Worse yet, “the introduction of broadband...
Digital Repositories Foment a Quiet Revolution in... →
infoneer-pulse:
At the age of 92, Robert Katz is enjoying an unexpected scholarly renaissance. The emeritus professor of physics retired from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln 22 years ago. Lately, thanks to the university’s institutional repository, called the UNL Digital Commons after the software that runs it, people all over the world have been finding and downloading papers Mr. Katz...
The PIIGS who fell to earth →
This is an interesting short story about a possible future for EMU and EU based the logic of the prisoners dilemma.
(via @openworld)
3 tags
Boards of Prevention - Article by Michael Schrage... →
The passive board — which obeys the law but does not provide meaningful oversight — is a hindrance and handicap for any corporation. In accounting terms, its oversight is mere overhead. Even when boards are more active, their involvement tends to focus on pressuring CEOs for better financial performance; it’s not clear that they provide the needed function of overseeing risk and identifying...
4 tags
Why Minority Report was spot on | The Guardian →
It’s definitely not the whole story - and this post should probably be titled “Why the Guardian was NOT spot on when analyzing why Minority Report was spot on”! It was evidently not just the Star Trek effect, even if the movie of course helped today’s developers to conceptualize and provide some thinking ground for how solutions might look like…
When Minority Report...
“If you want to make the right decision for the future, fear is not a very good...”
– Markus Dohle (via chrbutler)
“So, here we are, in 2010 — we have librarians holding on to their last major...”
– The Latest “Library as Purchaser” Crisis: Are We Fighting the Wrong Battle? « The Scholarly Kitchen (via infoneer-pulse)
Andrew Motion attacks 'catastrophic' plan for... →
infoneer-pulse:
Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate [UK], has dismissed suggestions from consultancy KPMG that libraries [in the United Kingdom] are “not very much used” and should be run by volunteers as foolhardy, outlandish and potentially catastrophic.
A new report from KPMG into public sector reform says that “giving councils total freedom on libraries could mean that they create...
4 tags
California libraries gearing up for fight against... →
infoneer-pulse:
The library system of the University of California may call upon the schools’ faculty to boycott journals originating from the Nature Publishing Group if they can’t come to an agreement on licensing costs for journal access. The libraries are being hammered by budget cuts resulting from California’s deteriorating state budget situation, and have already alerted content providers...
4 tags
3 tags
Moody's Sees Continued Financial Challenges for... →
infoneer-pulse:
The financial outlook for private colleges will remain “challenged for at least the next 12 months,” according to a report released on Thursday by Moody’s Investors Service.
The report, based on data for the 2009 fiscal year from 254 institutions, highlights how the steep endowment losses reported that year strained colleges’ overall financial health.
According to the report,...
3 tags
Journal liberation: A primer →
infoneer-pulse:
As Dorothea Salo recently noted, the problem of limited access to high-priced scholarly journals may be reaching a crisis point. Researchers that are not at a university, or are at a not-so-wealthy one, have long been frustrated by journals that are too expensive for them to read (except via slow and cumbersome inter-library loan, or distant library visits). Now, major...
2 tags
China plans to transform from labor-rich to... →
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, China’s Cabinet, on Sunday jointly issued the country’s Medium and Long-term Talent Development Plan (2010-2020), which sets a blueprint for creating a highly skilled national work force.
The plan says as part of China’s modernization process, people’s education must be improved. China has to...
3 tags
WatchSir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! | Video on TED.com
Both a brilliant presentation, completely without slides, and a crystal clear message about the need to revolutionize our views and models around education.
WatchJohanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion’s free culture | Video on TED.com
A necessary watch for anyone interested in the discussion about copyright and other intellectual property rights. At first sight it is a VERY strong argument against many of today’s IPR regulations!
Google ditches Windows on security concerns →
infoneer-pulse:
Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.
The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers...
