Category: ideas

“It is easy to say Americans, even those graduating from elite universities, lack scientific knowledge. But it is hard to define what science literacy consists of-and harder still to know how universities can impart it to, say, English majors. Does science literacy mean knowing a roster of facts or concepts? Having a sense of the scientific method? Appreciating the history and philosophy of science? Being competent in math, the lingua franca of the sciences? All of the above?”

to begin with, don’t call them libraries. “This is the Whitechapel Idea Store, the flagship of a $44 million project initiated by the London borough of Tower Hamlets. The council aims to replace the area’s century-old libraries-largely disused and falling into disrepair after decades of meager funding and neglect-with modernized venues. More than just rehabbing buildings, though, the mission of the Idea Stores is to rejuvenate, as well as rename, the very concept of the British public library, starting in one of London’s toughest neighborhoods.”

A Scottish technician is auctioning off the writing of pages of a book on eBay. “So far, eight pages of the unique book, Novel Twists, have been written by eight different people from Scotland, Canada, Ireland, the US, and England. Nobody knows who is going to write the ninth page, never mind the following 241. Each author has to contribute between 250 and 450 words, making for a book of 62,000 to 112,000 words. As for the plot, it’s anybody’s guess.”

In the tropics. “A census of all the plants and animals around the world would reveal that species richness is uneven: it is highest in the tropics, the regions of Earth near the equator, and lower the closer one goes toward the planet’s poles.”

“After one of the most comprehensive studies of the effect on children of the explosion in media choices of the past 15 years, the regulator Ofcom said girls aged 12 to 15 are more likely than boys to have a mobile phone, use the internet, listen to the radio and read newspapers or magazines. Only when it comes to playing computer and console games do boys overtake girls.”

“Forty years ago, music was leading a social revolution, disrupting the establishment and empowering a new generation. Today’s web technology and social media, known as Web 2.0, or the second wave of the internet, are leading a similar challenge and the long-term effects are likely to be greater. Once again we are divided into those who get it and those who don’t.”

Ancient English cliches and expressions are being mangled by the culture of cut and paste and the spread of unchecked writing on the internet. According to the Oxford English Corpus, a database of a billion words, dozens of traditional phrases are now more commonly misspelled than rendered correctly in written English.”

“Researchers have shown that if the conditions are right, subliminal advertising to promote a brand can be made to work.” And the cumulative effect of ads builds up in our brains. “Earlier this month, the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine published a report showing that for each additional hour per day that a child watched television an average of one additional request was made for an advertised product. The effect of the commercials on children lasted up to 20 weeks.”

The list to choose the new seven modern wonders of the world has been narrowed to 21. They include: Acropolis in Athens; the Alhambra in Granada, Spain; Angkor, Cambodia; Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico; Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro; the Colosseum in Rome; Easter Island Statues, Chile; Eiffel Tower, Paris; Great Wall, China; Hagia Sofia, Istanbul; Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan; Kremlin/St. Basil, Moscow; Machu Picchu, Peru; Neuschwanstein Castle, Füssen, Germany; Petra, Jordan; Pyramids of Giza, Egypt; the Statue of Liberty, New York; Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom; Sydney Opera House, Australia; the Taj Majal, Agra, India; and Timbuktu, Mali.

When blogging first started to become a major online phenomenon, many bloggers were fond of claiming that the medium would lead a resurrection of interest in quality writing. It hasn’t happened, of course, as anyone skimming any of the millions of poorly written, grammatically atrocious journals can attest. “Of the 27 million or so “daily diaries” floating like space junk in the blogosphere, there are a handful that aren’t bad. Some are well written and insightful. But understand that we’re talking about a precious few needles in a mighty big haystack.”