Glimpses of the websurfing habits of a computer science professor, obsessive crafter, occasional gamer, and all around geek
In a topic close to my own heart, and getting front-page coverage around here, the NY Regents board comes face-to-face with the ambiguity inherent in trying to express mathematics through English. There’s a reason we have mathematical symbols, on top of which people very rarely intersperse computation symbols and language in practice, making it an even more falsely constructed problem.
This is a really nice story from a elementary school teacher reminding people of how off the notion of “age-suitable” material can be, through an anecdote of teaching second graders vocabulary words “beyond their ability”. Says she: The names of four great classical artists rolled off the tongue of a boy who couldn’t keep his shoes tied. When you grow up, as I did, with kids who learn from cartoons to discuss the possibilities of cellular mutation before they can read … well, you just don’t accept that certain words are too hard for children to understand. Classrooms obviously need … Continue reading I always loved Donatello….
I told a friend I’d link to 80’s Movies Rewind, an archive of 80’s movies with photos and trivia. I like that the reviews point out the links between a lot of the movies. If I had an infinite amount of money, I could use their movie listing as a shopping list…[via PCJM]
In one of the cooler PR campaigns I’ve seen, NASA has built a website posting the e-mail conversations between two LEGO “astrobots” about the Red Rover Mars mission that just launched. While the actual physical astrobots (Biff Starling and Sandy Moondust) can’t be launched because they would melt, Biff’s likeness has been put on a metal magnetic disk bolted to the exterior of the spacecraft. They’ve done a nice job forming at least rudamentary personalities, with Biff being an adventurous but fairly unknowledgeable late addition to the team, and Sandy being a dedicated space explorer who will be going on … Continue reading LEGOnauts
If you’re one of the last people on the internet to have noticed that Brunching Shuttlecocks officially shut themselves down, you also might have been as slow as I was to notice that you can still read the best part of their site, the Ratings, at The Book of Ratings. I’ll probably stop by the Self-Made Critic site occassionally, too, because I generally only read movie reviews after I’ve already seen the movie. This allows me to play the “were the women cute enough to warrant an extra star from Ebert” game, and to snort at lines like this from … Continue reading Brunching Reloaded
In one of the odder results of the “war on terror”, the tightening of the boarders has driven up drug farming within the US, and national parks are being combed by national-park ranger commandos for marijuana farmers, including in land under wilderness designation. It’s both a public safety problem, with hikers reporting encountering masked men with automatic weapons, and an environmental problem: “This is massive-scale agriculture that is threatening the very mission of the national parks, which is to preserve the natural environment in perpetuity and provide for safe public recreation,” says Bill Tweed, chief naturalist at Sequoia National Park. … Continue reading Ranger Narcs
We’ve already seen with computer technology the kinds of misguided laws that can come about when laws about a new technology are created on an as-it-comes-up basis and often with regards to extreme cases. Biotechnology and genetical engineering are heading the same way and again the legal system doesn’t really seem to be keeping up; I’m guessing in five to ten years time the Supreme Court will be sorting these issues out as well. There’s what looks like it might actually be an interesting program on PBS tonight on how far biotechnology has come and what legal questions are already … Continue reading In Need of Biotech Laws
It is always striking to me that a two-week vacation from the internet results in a much higher number of books actually getting read, particularly for having been on a “working vacation”. Among other things, I re-read the Harry Potter series to date in preparation for the release of the 5th book. They were all good on re-reading, though the 3rd book suffered a bit for knowing the underlying mysteries. I think it might be the weakest of the series. It was certainly the transition from lighter children’s fare to the darker tone of Goblet of Fire, which is clearly … Continue reading Darker Harry?