Let's look at access to research like access to healthcare.
I hope there won't be many dissenters if I posit an increase in GDP resulting from a healthy populace.
I'm not just talking about outsiders being admitted to the community. I'm saying that information as an ecology has resources that if opened to the community, could provide insights that are unlikely to happen in the current situation. So access is a generally healthy thing, but access for all will be unpredictable in terms of productivity.
Federating all data, irrespective of scale will happen in the near future. Denying access is something I wouldn't want to be remembered for.
11.08.2009
Universal Health Coverage - Why and Why
Yesterday, Saturday 11-08-2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a landmark bill that starts the nation on the trek toward universal health care.
At the same time, I encountered this article by Greg Miller at the AAAS site:
An Infectious Problem for the Brain
In which he says "...immune system signaling molecules--like those triggered by infections--can muck with the brain and cause memory deficits and mood alterations."
It gives me permission to speculate on what a healthier citizen might achieve.
Certainly Hans Rosling's provocative statements regarding the effects of good public health allowing a population to create economic value faster than a country without it are an indication that health care has profound economic effects.
On one hand we have the costs of poor health and on the other we have increased productivity caused by more time working. But Miller's article seems to indicate that we may have improvements in general cognitive condition as well.
At the same time, I encountered this article by Greg Miller at the AAAS site:
An Infectious Problem for the Brain
In which he says "...immune system signaling molecules--like those triggered by infections--can muck with the brain and cause memory deficits and mood alterations."
It gives me permission to speculate on what a healthier citizen might achieve.
Certainly Hans Rosling's provocative statements regarding the effects of good public health allowing a population to create economic value faster than a country without it are an indication that health care has profound economic effects.
On one hand we have the costs of poor health and on the other we have increased productivity caused by more time working. But Miller's article seems to indicate that we may have improvements in general cognitive condition as well.
9.24.2009
On the Moving of Cheese
A colleague has taught word processing, spreadsheet, bitmap editing, and presentation skills as a basic computer course for freshmen in high school for fifteen years.
A couple of times, the course title has been changed. This year, it was changed yet again. But this time, the curriculum code was moved into a different department/certification code. The teacher can no longer qualify as "highly qualified" under the state's legal guidelines. As a result, a letter "warning" parents that an unqualified teacher could be messing around doing something bad with their babies may be sent out because the Legislature wants to protect you from this kind of danger. Even though the teacher may be quite good.
No doubt there are far too many schools employing unqualified personnel in Florida. What I AM saying is that the link between what a teacher actually knows and what a teacher is allowed to teach are disconnected.
I am allowed to teach a range of subjects, doing some of which might be a bad idea. A biology teacher is allowed to teach physics, for instance. Can all biology teachers really do it well? Can physics teachers teach biology well?
Perhaps teaching licenses should be based on what you have actual experience doing. Right now, I can teach subjects I took in college - OR - I can teach subjects I took state licensing exams to actually perform for the public. "Either or", not "both and". How odd.
I'm sure there are perfectly good reasons for this. The state would probably have to hire a couple of people to look after this. Maybe even merge licensing databases and push a button.
How about improving professional knowledge? That's a sore spot with me.
I have NEVER EVER gotten credit for any of the money or time I have spent improving the quality or depth of the subject matter I actually teach. I have taken plenty of courses that I received credit for, they just haven't included knowledge that was relevant to my own.
Reason: Classes offering credit are elementary.
Reason: If I take a college course, I won't be compensated.
Reason: If do my own research, I won't be compensated.
Reason: If I go to a professional meeting, I have to log every single item of knowledge, photocopy all of the catalog, and incorporate it into my courses.
Not that I don't actually do these things. I (unreasonably perhaps) object to trying to explain it to someone who doesn't understand what I do. The meeting I attend every year includes over one hundred symposia and workshops. I have learned amazing things and shared them with my students. How do they value keynotes delivered by Nicholas Negroponte, Susan Soloman, Peter Agre or James Gates? The system doesn't value anything it doesn't create. That's the soft gooey center of credential obsession. We make it, therefore we value it. If you make it, we don't.
I don't get professional credit for doing it.
Do you think this generally discourages public school teachers?
A couple of times, the course title has been changed. This year, it was changed yet again. But this time, the curriculum code was moved into a different department/certification code. The teacher can no longer qualify as "highly qualified" under the state's legal guidelines. As a result, a letter "warning" parents that an unqualified teacher could be messing around doing something bad with their babies may be sent out because the Legislature wants to protect you from this kind of danger. Even though the teacher may be quite good.
No doubt there are far too many schools employing unqualified personnel in Florida. What I AM saying is that the link between what a teacher actually knows and what a teacher is allowed to teach are disconnected.
I am allowed to teach a range of subjects, doing some of which might be a bad idea. A biology teacher is allowed to teach physics, for instance. Can all biology teachers really do it well? Can physics teachers teach biology well?
Perhaps teaching licenses should be based on what you have actual experience doing. Right now, I can teach subjects I took in college - OR - I can teach subjects I took state licensing exams to actually perform for the public. "Either or", not "both and". How odd.
I'm sure there are perfectly good reasons for this. The state would probably have to hire a couple of people to look after this. Maybe even merge licensing databases and push a button.
How about improving professional knowledge? That's a sore spot with me.
I have NEVER EVER gotten credit for any of the money or time I have spent improving the quality or depth of the subject matter I actually teach. I have taken plenty of courses that I received credit for, they just haven't included knowledge that was relevant to my own.
Reason: Classes offering credit are elementary.
Reason: If I take a college course, I won't be compensated.
Reason: If do my own research, I won't be compensated.
Reason: If I go to a professional meeting, I have to log every single item of knowledge, photocopy all of the catalog, and incorporate it into my courses.
Not that I don't actually do these things. I (unreasonably perhaps) object to trying to explain it to someone who doesn't understand what I do. The meeting I attend every year includes over one hundred symposia and workshops. I have learned amazing things and shared them with my students. How do they value keynotes delivered by Nicholas Negroponte, Susan Soloman, Peter Agre or James Gates? The system doesn't value anything it doesn't create. That's the soft gooey center of credential obsession. We make it, therefore we value it. If you make it, we don't.
I don't get professional credit for doing it.
Do you think this generally discourages public school teachers?
9.05.2009
Google Reader
Google Reader's new look includes a message when you open the page:
Isn't using a news reader *by definition* expressing a desire not to be dumped on by the idiots of the world? SORRY! Meant to say "the indiscriminate" of the world, as in those who can't tell fact from fiction.
Boing-boing is overwhelming and LifeHacker is trivial, but the Huff-Po is like a 10 year-old in the back seat. There, I've said it and I feel better already.
New! Want to see what Huffington, Boing Boing, or Lifehacker read?Why would you wish to see a feed from the Huffington Post?
Isn't using a news reader *by definition* expressing a desire not to be dumped on by the idiots of the world? SORRY! Meant to say "the indiscriminate" of the world, as in those who can't tell fact from fiction.
Boing-boing is overwhelming and LifeHacker is trivial, but the Huff-Po is like a 10 year-old in the back seat. There, I've said it and I feel better already.
9.02.2009
Kudos to the reading department
http://www.collegeboard.com/press/releases/206201.html
eSchool news interpreted it:
The parents-didn't-attend-college group went up a bit and they said it was important, which is probably is but it was only four percent of test takers. The CB attributed it to multiple changes. But from a state Dept of Ed perspective, the increase in ELL student numbers is way up:
It amazes me that reading didn't fall more than it did. Kudos to the reading department.
eSchool news interpreted it:
Average SAT scores were stable or rising most years from 1994 to 2004, but they have been trending downward since. That's likely due in part to the widening pool of test-takers. That's a positive sign that more students are aspiring to college, but it also tends to weigh down average scores.
The parents-didn't-attend-college group went up a bit and they said it was important, which is probably is but it was only four percent of test takers. The CB attributed it to multiple changes. But from a state Dept of Ed perspective, the increase in ELL student numbers is way up:
Language diversity is increasing as more 2009 SAT takers report that English is not exclusively their first language compared to previous years — 25.2 percent versus 18.3 percent in 1999.
It amazes me that reading didn't fall more than it did. Kudos to the reading department.
7.26.2009
Twitter Followers & No Notifications
Every day I get a couple of followers I end up blocking. Today I got five.
They all have names like Buffy5782, that is "girl"+"numeric" username.
They never have a link on their Twitter profile. A normal 20-someting at least has FB.
They have few commercial Twitters during a week in their hisotry.
They have twitter streams that indicate more or less that they have nothing interesting to say.
AND when they follow me, I NEVER get an email from Twitter.com telling me about it even though I get notified when normal people follow me both before and after these mystery followers.
Why do I block them?
I guess it's just paranoia because I can't see an advantage for them unless it has to do with gaming some Twitter filter that uses community embeddedness for some reason.
Of course I get my share of "Marketing Professionals" who just happen to have a great application that can monetize my twitter stream and get me "millions of followers" and who can change my life et cetera. Meh.
I wish someone at Twitter would explain what is going on like Mark Cuban did when the spam-bloggers were messing with Ice Rocket.
They all have names like Buffy5782, that is "girl"+"numeric" username.
They never have a link on their Twitter profile. A normal 20-someting at least has FB.
They have few commercial Twitters during a week in their hisotry.
They have twitter streams that indicate more or less that they have nothing interesting to say.
AND when they follow me, I NEVER get an email from Twitter.com telling me about it even though I get notified when normal people follow me both before and after these mystery followers.
Why do I block them?
I guess it's just paranoia because I can't see an advantage for them unless it has to do with gaming some Twitter filter that uses community embeddedness for some reason.
Of course I get my share of "Marketing Professionals" who just happen to have a great application that can monetize my twitter stream and get me "millions of followers" and who can change my life et cetera. Meh.
I wish someone at Twitter would explain what is going on like Mark Cuban did when the spam-bloggers were messing with Ice Rocket.
7.25.2009
Vanish Gives Your Speech Life (A Short One)
Do you desperately need to say something publicly but equally desperately need not to have it associated with your searchable identity?
Enter, Vanish, an application/service that makes it possible for data to self-destruct over a period determined by natural degradation in a distributed torrent network.
The implications for this technology are wide-ranging.
I would like to address the issue of life *before* this happened. Specifically the assumption that students obviously need to be prepared for a totally open life. Bouts of drunken behaviour will haunt them forever. Blah blah.
Is it still obvious?
There isn't much you can't accomplish using the open architecture of the Internet. That's why statements regarding how amazing things are and how little the architects of the Internet appreciated the possibilities of their creation don't just ring hollow. They are themselves shortsighted.
Tim Berners-Lee laid the Web on top of the Internet. Don't forget it.
Enter, Vanish, an application/service that makes it possible for data to self-destruct over a period determined by natural degradation in a distributed torrent network.
The implications for this technology are wide-ranging.
I would like to address the issue of life *before* this happened. Specifically the assumption that students obviously need to be prepared for a totally open life. Bouts of drunken behaviour will haunt them forever. Blah blah.
Is it still obvious?
There isn't much you can't accomplish using the open architecture of the Internet. That's why statements regarding how amazing things are and how little the architects of the Internet appreciated the possibilities of their creation don't just ring hollow. They are themselves shortsighted.
Tim Berners-Lee laid the Web on top of the Internet. Don't forget it.
7.24.2009
Trip to Korea
Korea is charming, historic, and great. It is like North Carolina populated by Canadians.
You know how in the spring North Carolina looks like it was taken over by a gardening show? Well South Korea is like that, but on steroids.
On top of that, everybody we met was really nice and helpful with few exceptions. The one time, an old guy in a market gave us flack that thoroughly confused and embarrassed his friends, it turned out he was a soccer fanatic. Nobody in the group besides me realized that he was ranting on South Korea's soccer prowess. Typical fan. :-D
The Gallery
I took pictures of food, but missed some of the best photos because I forgot and ate it. One of the best examples of this was a "traditional Korean" bowl of mixed barley and rice near a tourist trap. So fluffy, so tasty!
You know how in the spring North Carolina looks like it was taken over by a gardening show? Well South Korea is like that, but on steroids.
On top of that, everybody we met was really nice and helpful with few exceptions. The one time, an old guy in a market gave us flack that thoroughly confused and embarrassed his friends, it turned out he was a soccer fanatic. Nobody in the group besides me realized that he was ranting on South Korea's soccer prowess. Typical fan. :-D
The Gallery
I took pictures of food, but missed some of the best photos because I forgot and ate it. One of the best examples of this was a "traditional Korean" bowl of mixed barley and rice near a tourist trap. So fluffy, so tasty!
6.29.2009
Environmental Cancer and the Web
It's June and the Palm Beach County television stations have been reporting on a high number of cancer cases in children in a small-ish agricultural/residential area.
After a week of reporting increasing numbers of people, a local mortician spoke up and said he mentioned to a county commissioner that it looked suspicious. The county commissioner didn't do anything we know of.
Why didn't the county health officials have GIS mapping with a historic database? The property appraiser has it, the fire department has it. The property appraiser makes money for the County. The firemen don't want people to die if hazardous chemicals are released by accident.
Sure high mobility communities would be poorly represented, but it would be better than nothing. It isn't rocket science.
After a week of reporting increasing numbers of people, a local mortician spoke up and said he mentioned to a county commissioner that it looked suspicious. The county commissioner didn't do anything we know of.
Why didn't the county health officials have GIS mapping with a historic database? The property appraiser has it, the fire department has it. The property appraiser makes money for the County. The firemen don't want people to die if hazardous chemicals are released by accident.
Sure high mobility communities would be poorly represented, but it would be better than nothing. It isn't rocket science.
Google Fusion Tables
Google Fusion Tables extend data sharing and manipulation in the browser.
Browser based speed is goning to be a lot faster very soon. Take a look at the AMAZING speed of Bespin.
Browser based speed is goning to be a lot faster very soon. Take a look at the AMAZING speed of Bespin.
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