Archive for April, 2011

Communicating on Perils

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Prof. Baruch Fischhoff offers some advice for senior management:

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan have forced an international spotlight on nuclear energy and its risks to society.

Conflicting reports and leadership responses about what exactly is going on with Japan’s nuclear reactors have cast a cloud of uncertainty over the situation.

Baruch Fischhoff, a world-renowned risk communication expert at Carnegie Mellon University, has worked on nuclear power issues intermittently since the 1970s.

"I have met many dedicated, talented, hard-working individuals in the nuclear energy industry," he said.

"However, as an entity, the industry does a terrible job of communicating with the general public — both in hearing its concerns and conveying credible responses."

To some extent, he says, it reflects a feeling that the industry can proceed without public consent — or the belief that the public is too irrational to sustain a dialogue.

.:cmu.edu->

Land’s End for the Gatsby Mansion

You may have played the NES version and seen the ending, but here it is in reality folks.

.:jenrossphoto.blogspot.com->

Entrepreneurship in Japan Part 2

A worker’s experience at a Japanese startup, adjusting, from demo day, to the future…

myGengo is not what I’d previously thought of as a "normal" company. People don’t wear suits, there is no rigid corporate structure, and the friendly relaxed atmosphere belies the professionalism deep down within the members of myGengo. (or "myGengons".)

.:mygengo.com->

Quote of the Day

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At what point does an entrepreneur hit the wall and cannot live on ramen noodles alone? This is a very personal decision and the reason that most successful entrepreneurs have inspiring stories of perseverance. via

Mind Crunch: 4.21.11 Millennials

This is the way kids these days think. My administration calls it "the millennial student" and apparently we are supposed to cater to their habits. Fully half of my 60 person general physics class this semester sits in the back of the room on either phone or laptop. They’re not taking notes. The good ones are working on assignments for other classes (as if being present in mine causes the information to enter their pores). The bad are giggling at Facebook comments.

….But here’s the thing: there is convincing evidence that this inveterate multitasking has a serious, measurable and long lasting negative effect on cognitive function. Look up Stanford psychologist Clifford Nass sometime. There’s a lovely episode of Frontline from a year or so ago featuring him. He has shown that multitaskers are not only bad at multitasking, but they are also worse than nonmultitaskers on every individual one of the tasks.

That’s the millennial student and it isn’t something to be catered to. Put the damn iPhone down before you make yourself stupid. (Source)

Education 2.0 Fail

Is the American education system broken? What happened to the bright minds that once brought upon new technology and innovation? We’re living in a education bubble of debt, that forces students to work in areas that they may not be suited for in order to repay their loans. The disaggregation of college:

One of the best parts of a Personal Learning Network is occasionally you find out about people doing things you had only thought about in theory. I watched a great video from David Wiley and he mentioned something called Western Governors University. This school offers no classes. Instead they offer degrees in an interesting way. They don’t care where you got the information from, they will just assess what you know in a very rigorous way. If you pass, you get the degree. Basically they are just the credentialing function of a university. (Source)

The Forrest Gump of the internet explains the need for the interaction between computer science and journalism:

Last year at NYU, a small group of programmers who called themselves Diaspora sparked the imaginations of thousands of people and journalists. Here was a band of smart young people who would build something just for the joy of it. Programming in the cause of freedom. A hugely optimistic act. It’s the motivation for what I’m talking about. But, what was missing was the contribution of a university — of experience informing, guiding, and teaching the young people how to do what they set out to do. People who had been down roads much like the one they’re traveling, and can guide them past the potholes, pirates and vigilantes, carpetbaggers and cliffs. There’s a Mr Potter or Mr Burns lurking around every corner, it seems.

In other arts, there’s a healthy respect for the knowledge accumulated by previous generations. These days, however, in programming — that respect seems to be fading. I think, if we can learn to communicate across generations, we can combine our strengths, your youth, vigor, optimism for the future — with my generation’s lessons from the trenches. And if we can remember the feeling that many of us had when we were young, that the sky is the limit, that we can be great if we just will ourselves to be great. We can have it all.

Implementing a DML initiative for the entire school is necessary:

And, here’s the thing about working with kids in schools: not all of them are going to be that excited about new approaches to learning. Even if they are excited about what you are trying to do in their classes, a bunch of kids are going to still tell you that what you are doing is "boring" and generally go out of their way to signal that they aren’t interested. Why will they do this? Because they are kids.

Is your iPhone tracking your movements?

Washington DC to New York from Alasdair Allan on Vimeo.

Apparently yes, the iPhone keeps a file with some pretty scarily detailed location information. Click here to read about the project to publicize that info, and how to see what’s being tracked on your device.

Cattle Rustling: Sudan

Interesting article… I didn’t know herdin’ could be so dangerous!

:: Click here to read, from NPR ::

Getting Out of the Comfort Zone

After a few sessions my coach made, what I felt was, an outrageously untrue, and unfair, statement "Liri you have to get out of your comfort zone". "Me out of my comfort zone?" I answered, "I have packed my bags and started a new life almost a dozen times, I have constantly changed jobs and taken on new challenges, I have always done what I think is right, even if it gets me fired, I have taken more risks in my life than you can shake a stick at, and you’re telling me I have to get out of my comfort zone?!!!".

My coach just smiled, and calmly said "But Liri, that is your comfort zone."

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