Was Linda Katechi sincere?

As the Chancellor of a University, was she naive enough to believe that police would not use inappropriate force? If yes, she did not deserve to be the Chancellor. If no, she did not deserve to be the Chancellor.

Hindsight is always prefect. But the moral call, which is the critical attribute of a leader, is not to commit wrong so that hindsight would be unnecessary. That's the leadership. Has Lida Katechi demonstrated sufficient leadership to remain as the chancellor of any university?



As the police retreat, was it clear who were on the moral high ground? The cowardice of the police was in plain sight. When it was a few students, they used excessive brutality. When they were out-numbered, they just retreated and could not stand up for what they were supposed to do in the first place.



cross posted to Atheist Bible Reading and Forum

Quantum Levitation

They must be enjoying the water slide - I mean the ducklings...

Only if I can see more of this everyday

Only if I can see more of this everyday, USA will be in a path of regaining her greatness.

Finally, there is one positive thing coming out from USA

I have been trying to find something positive about the current social environment in USA, ...

Finally, schools in USA are providing children with more healthy food. [source]

7inch tablet

I wrote earlier the availability of a low cost 7inch tablet from India. Recent research indicates that it is NOT the cheapest 7inch tablet - China and Taiwan were able to produce better specification 7inch tablet at lower cost than India. A report from AsianCorrespondent claimed the Aakash (the Indian 7inch low cost tablet) is DOA - dead on arrival, just like Indian's low cost car - Tata' Nano.

Low-cost (USD50) electronic tablet proves worth in Indian classroom

This makes Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (USD199) looks very expensive. OK, the Indian low cost tablet is more like a single function device, but so is Kindle Fire. :-)

Dog as a player companion in Basket ball and volley ball

LEGO Lancer Assault Rifle

Limit of human endurance

You are required to hold your breath as you watch this video.

Find x

A proof that woman equals problem.

Color E-ink paper

2 million minutes

Out of the 2 million minutes available to teenagers in USA, India and China, how much time are spent studying?

The national prosperity of a country depends on the productivity of her citizens. For high value jobs, the ability to understand hard science and mathematics are critical. Is USA on track to produce the citizens she will need for global competition?

Here is a documentary: 2 million minutes

How to land a plane which has lost one of its two wings?

Teachers

The video is only 3:34 mins. The punch line is the very last sentence.

Logical fallacy

I was sent an email containing the following statements. Politics aside, I like to comment on the logical fallacy committed by the sender.

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had doubled the National Debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would You have Approved?

If any other of our presidents had then proposed to Double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

Fallacy: Judging an action which asking the cause of the action. What else can Obama do when he inherited a situation that bad?

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had criticized a State Law that he admitted he never even read, would you think that he is just an ignorant hot Head?

Fallacy: How does one know if another person has or has not read something? "that he admitted he never even read" - What is the context when this admission was made?

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had pronounced the Marine Corps as if it were the Marine Corpse, would you think him an Idiot?

Fallacy: Diversion. What has the pronunciation have to do with an argument?

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one foreign company had an accident, would you have agreed?

Fallacy: Almost every policy will have winners and losers.

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87000 American workers unemployed,
would you support him?

Fallacy: "forged document" - proof needed. BTW, was it not that USA invaded Iraq based on false premise - the Iraq has weapon of mass destruction?

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

Fallacy: Good point. Just watch the following video.


AND THE LIST GOES ON...

How do differential gears work?

Does Kindle ruin your potential date?

I got a Kindle DX for over two months now. I have had a few people ask me what I have in my hand. Oh, it is a good conversation starter! With my aging eye-sight, DX is worthy of all the extra money over the normal Kindle.

When a truck and a tourist bus met...

Co-operation and understanding are the key.

Perpetual Motion Machine

We know from Science that perpetual machine is impossible. But think again.


Obviously this is not a single instance. Here is another example.


So is Science wrong?
If you want to make one, here is how.

The power of stepping into the shoes of others

If this 18-minute talk has changed your point of view, imagine what a 3-week playing the role of your enemy would enable you to understand. Imagine the transformative effect of your course to your students if you allow your students to experience stepping into the shoes of others. That's the power of online role playing. If you want to try, I am ready to help you.

Big History

XO-3 prototype tablet coming in 2010

Superpower China Built by Unseen Hands

If you are wondering why Chinese students work so hard, here is why...

USA needs someone like Daniel Ellsberg as the next president

I just watched the movie/documentary The Most Dangerous Man In America. USA citizens should seriously consider asking Daniel Ellsberg to be the next President.

Season Greeting

Graph theory in 4 min.

Creative Learning with Serious Games

The latest issue of International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning is on "Creative Learning with Serious Games".

Here are the contents:
Creative Learning with Serious Games (Aristides Protopsaltis, Lucia Pannese, Sonja Hetzner, Dimitra Pappa, Sara De Freitas)

Emotions in Serious Games: From Experience to Assessment (Luigi Anolli, Fabrizia Mantovani, Linda Confalonieri, Antonio Ascolese, L.Peveri)

The Character of Successful Trainings with Serious Games (Till Becker)

Towards a Framework for Learning in the OSMA Serious Game Engine(Tanguy Coenen, Evelyn Cloosen, Veerle Van der Sluys, Frederik Smolders)

Designing Effective Serious Games: Opportunities and Challenges for Research (Francesco Bellotti, Riccardo Berta, Alessandro De Gloria)

The Use of Competition and Creativity as Key Driver to Promote Scientific Culture among Students (Alberto Colorni, Susanna Sancassani, Simona Azzali, Nicola Padovani,
Alessandra Tomasini)

It took more than courage to drive like this...

Amazing U-turn...

Green School

A report from ABC (an Australia broadcaster) here.

A talk on TED:

Free energy

A basic principle in Physics, at least in the realm of our everyday size, energy is conserved. That means that perpetual machine is an impossibility. However, here are two videos on youTube which claims to produce free energy with over millions of views.



Power is not just voltage. Power is voltage times current. By increasing the number of turns in the rotor, we can get a higher induced e.m.f, ie voltage. But once a load is applied, there will be a current and the current will generate a force to oppose the motion and hence stopping the rotor. So far, no one has just demonstrably show a perpetual machine, not to mention extracting additional energy out of the machine.

Changing Education Paradigms

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Creativity - with an evolutionary twists

Why are the most complex organisms on this planet reproduce sexually?

As we move into the era of ideas, we can copy evolution and let ideas to have sex.


The answer is the exchange of ideas. The ability to combine and recombine ideas.



I am presenting two ideas here. Can you let these ideas to have sex and try to produce a child-idea? How these idea sex impact on how we should teach?

Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from

You never know, you can learn something everyday....

What do you do when it is difficult to find a parking lot?

RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilisation

Can you erase data on your hard drive using a magnet?

Neodymium Magnets are strong magnets. In an experiment by one of such magnets' seller, we would expect a positive result. Well, K & J Magnetics did an experiment trying to erase the data of a harddisk.

With the hard drive running, we were not able to disrupt the contents of the drive at all. 100% of the files were completely intact and accurate. This result completely surprised us!

My own explanation is that the metal case of the harddisk, being magnetic, acts as a magnetic Faraday cage protecting the media inside the harddisk.