16January2012
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
I know this isn’t timely, but an email from a friend today about AARP finally prompted me to write. Back in September Rick Perry called Social Security a Ponzi Scheme in a debate. The next month’s AARP bulletin’s lead editorial was on why it wasn’t a Ponzi scheme. Their argument was 1) it hasn’t run out of money yet 2) it’s run by the government and 3) everybody has to participate. I guess I’m missing some subtlety in their argument. To me, all this argument says is Social Security is a REALLY BIG Ponzi scheme. Help me out here, I’m not really wanting to debate Social Security, the facts are pretty plain there. It’s AARP’s limp argument that struck me.
9January2012
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
Today, January 9th, is National Static Electricity Day! Brought to you by the National Static Electricity Council who encourages us all to go out there and use more Static Electricity. So rub a balloon on your wool sweater, or shuffle your feet over the carpet, and zap an unsuspecting friend for us all today.
8January2012
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
I just published my first instructible, on how to make a fireplace blower. Hope you enjoy.
7January2012
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
Today the latest issue of Woman’s Day arrived. It’s getting mighty thin, down to 160 pages. Given the amount of actual content that represents, without the ads, it’s more like Woman’s Half-Day, or maybe even Woman’s Lunch-Hour. Woman’s Day is one of what in publishing circles was known as the Seven Sisters. I remember when they used to be more like phone books. Of course, I guess they’re still like phones books, since the yellow pages business is drying up as well. What say you about paper publishing? When was the last time you used a paper telephone directory? Yellow pages? How many paper magazines do you subscribe to?
5January2012
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
I just did a screencast of how to create a his-and-hers side-by-side blog using Google sites. Check out the blog here at http://johnandmarsha.laminack.com. The description and the YouTube screencast are there as well. You might even enjoy the links to a great creative comedian while you’re there. Enjoy.
27December2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
Today on Slashdot there were two particular articles, interesting enough by themselves, but moreso in juxtaposition. The first was Do e-readers spell the demise of traditional learning making the case that with unlimited texts available on e-readers, students will need tutors more than the traditional teacher. The other article on Is e-learning a viable option? made the case for banning tablets in the classroom altogether. So which is it? Are teachers or tablets going to be left out? I’ve seen rumblings for years about the education system needing a major overhaul, like this article. Will e-readers or tablets be the tipping point? What are the back-end systems that will support the new modalities of learning? The current crop of Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, and the like just clearly don’t have the structure in place to support tablets and dynamic e-learning. They’re built as an internet augmentation to the classic classroom structure, not a new paradigm. What do you think?