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This week I discovered Google Earth.
If I die now, it would not only be in peace, but in excitement.
Google Earth will show you an aerial view of any address on earth.
We checked out the car parked in the driveway at Julie's folks' house.
Give this "Wow" experience a try. It's free.
Well, as a frequent plane traveller who loves the web, I was just wondering about this.
While no (zero, zippo, nada) U.S. airlines have installed Internet connections on their airplanes, foreign carriers are jumping on board. From a recent NY Times article:
"While American carriers continue to be hesitant, European, Asian, even
Middle Eastern airlines - which rely heavily on business travelers,
particularly on long-haul flights - are taking the plunge in increasing
numbers. Boeing has signed up 13 foreign airlines since 2003, with 9
already offering the service to customers on 84 planes, soon to be 100."
For business, then young, then everyone, Internet connections on airlines will soon be a must-have.
Sooner the better. Are you listening Northwest?
Julie and I went to a draft horse fair, watching the huge beautiful animals pulling plows and other old-fashioned pre-tractor farm implements up and down the rows of the corn field.
Demonstrating the plowing were elderly retired farmers who remembered plowing with a horse team in their youth. They showed off for each other and talked in small groups about a time and place that I could only admire.
Julie remembers walking behind her grandfather's plow and mule as a child. It was the best opportunity to find arrowheads, she says.
For me, the talk about harnesses, acreage, horses and oxen was as much mystery as history. And I envied them. A wonderful, and healthful, life and lifestyle. Looking the old farmers over, Julie correctly observed, "There are no fat farmers."
This month MIT announced a $100 computer.
A huge, wonderful breakthrough for the planet.
MIT will sell the computers to ministries of education in developing and third world countries for low income (that's everyone over there) school students.
Among the amazing features:
* A manually operated crank for power when there's no electricity available.
* Folds over to become an e-book.
* Screen changes from color to black-and-white when outdoors to reduce glare (I want one).
* Small, light and rubber edged so it won't break.
What exciting news.
Well, the starting gun just went off in the race of cities to win in the 21st century.
Google announced recently a bid to provide free wireless Internet service to the city of San Francisco. The big news is not about Google, the story is about cities going wireless.
With Philadelphia considering a wireless downtown, the race of cities to win in the 21st century is now on. Just like the dawn of the last century, when big-name cities like Buffalo and Canton lost out to tiny ones like Los Angeles and Houston.
One thing for sure: the best cities in which to live will soon be wireless, on the "east side, west side, all about the town."
The jobs are still in the knowledge sector.
The jobs are not limited to the tech sector, but here's some good news on that sub-front:
"A study released today as part of AeA’s ongoing Competitiveness Series shows the U.S. tech sector added nearly 190,000 jobs, a 3.4 percent increase between January 2004 and June 2005, for a total of 5.72 million. This data, collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and compiled by AeA, indicate that the tech sector has generated a net increase in jobs over the last six, 12, and 18 month time spans."
(Photo of where the jobs are NOT today, but were in the last century)
"Boys just want to play," complain educators. Now the future of education is clearly games.
Leading engineers and educators gather next month for a full day seminar on Games-Based Learning. The whole area is pretty exciting. We'll go on record stating that games-based learning will constitute 25% to 75% of all learning 40 years from now.
From weblog Terra Nova, just this excerpt from the introduction to the seminar is exciting reading:
"The ability of electronic games to engage and absorb today's youth is
well known.
High school students spend as much time playing video games
as doing homework.
A "good" online game has as many active players as
are graduated annually by the entire U.S. higher education system in
science and engineering. A "great" (or free) game reaches ten times as
many.
And now, emerging research shows well-crafted games can teach
much more effectively than traditional classroom experiences, and even
stimulate decidedly positive health outcomes.
The excitement caused by
the confluence of an effective education medium with a national
education need has stimulated the growth of the game-based learning
community beyond all expectation in the past two years."
