Thursday, May 06, 2010

What iPads Did To My Family - Chuck's Blog

What iPads Did To My Family - Chuck's Blog: "All the PCs and laptops are basically not being used.� All the Macs are not being used.� All have been powered off.

Everyone in the family is waiting for their turn at the iPad.

My wife asserted her rightful place in the hierarchy later that evening, and took it upstairs to the bedroom to relax while watching TV.� Tap, tap, tap.� Occasionally, she showed me something interesting she found online.� And smiling."

Most interesting.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tom Asacker on unlocking hearts and minds: The three knobs

Tom Asacker on unlocking hearts and minds: The three knobs: "Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.”"

The whole article is the most profound things I read all year.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Baby, It's cold outside.

It's only 12F and its going to snow for 3 days. Not fun.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

1 shot of gene therapy and children with congenital blindness can now see | Science Codex

1 shot of gene therapy and children with congenital blindness can now see | Science Codex: "Born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, the nine-year-old boy used to sit in the back of the classroom, relying on the large print on an electronic screen and assisted by teacher aides. Now, after a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, he sits in front with classmates and participates in class without extra help. In the playground, he joins his classmates in playing his first game of softball."

Wow, do we live in an age of miracles or what.

Friday, November 06, 2009

E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy by Sol Stern, City Journal Autumn 2009

E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy by Sol Stern, City Journal Autumn 2009: "At his Senate confirmation hearing in February, Arne Duncan succinctly summarized the Obama administration’s approach to education reform: “We must build upon what works. We must stop doing what doesn’t work.” Since becoming education secretary, Duncan has launched a $4.3 billion federal “Race to the Top” initiative that encourages states to experiment with various accountability reforms. Yet he has ignored one state reform that has proven to work, as well as the education thinker whose ideas inspired it. The state is Massachusetts, and the education thinker is E. D. Hirsch, Jr."

I love to see ideas in conflict and what each side brings to bare.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Rural towns need to reinvent themselves

Doughnut-Hole Country | Print Article | Newsweek.com: "But there are people maybe with young families or who tried urban living and wanted to opt out and try something else, who could be lured to the region—maybe not every 22-year-old, but maybe a 32-year-old who would think, 'This is great. I can raise my kids, I can buy a gigantic house. And as long as I have the digital infrastructure, I can telecommute. I can have a very good quality of life.' I think the lifestyle rural communities have to offer is really more compatible for young families."

I don't think much of cities, they were and still are a place to get people together so they are easier to control. Until very recently cities were the only way to get enough people together to divide up the labor so you could do something big. Like build millions of cars or manage billions of dollars. When our cities were build the only only way to talk to someone was to walk or hop on a horse and ride to meet them in person or send a letter that took the same methods.
How many different ways can we get in contact with someone now?

It is interesting to see how important diversions are in this conversation. That is a question up there with "What about their socialization?" it misses the point. Look at NetFlix or iTunes they don't care where you live, all you need is mail or broadband. How many of those users are in cities already not taking advantage of those oh, so important amenities they claim are so important because they aren't in the rural.

Going out to the movies is a lot of fun, but in a rural town it is hard to do if the only theater is playing the same movie for weeks. Okay, so this is an issue that Hollywood has to get over itself to solve, but a small rural theater wouldn't be bad at all if there was a way to dial up the movie you want instead of waiting until the reels you have have "paid" for themselves. The technology is out there but it is stuck in oldthink.

Admittedly, sometimes you want to actually be with other people of similar interests. How many forms of MeetUp.com do you need? Just one for the town, really. Then you just have to be open and honest enough about yourself to post what you really want to do, rather then what you want them to expect you to want to do.

Rural towns need to reinvent themselves, because it isn't about the land, and cities are constantly reinventing themselves, they have lots of money sloshing around, rural towns don't but they can have things money can't buy.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Nasty Weather

Got a lot of snow, it started last night just after dark and has been snowing all day. We have about a foot on the balcony and it is still coming down. Needed to take out the trash, forgot to do that before the snow started. It is really slippery out there and helped a lady get her car into a spot.
The weather service is saying it will snow tomorrow too.