In recent days I have come upon these interesting items which you might find illuminating:
- This is an interesting article about the oldest living thing on Earth at a mere 200,000 years of age.
- Here is a free place to play chess with an artificial intelligence: lichess.
- Does Finland have the formula for successful schools for school children? You can read an article which describes their secret here.
- Here is an article describing a clever and novel legal argument in defense of a copyright infringement suit, asserting that pornography is not copyrightable in the United States due to the fact that it does not, “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” as required by Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
- Can you distill the essence of a subject into two simple things? This piece describes some good attempts.
11 comments:
Just read the article on Finnish schools-thanks for the link. As a teacher, I found it very interesting.
'The Two Things about Binary Systems:
One: 0
Two: 1'
The Two Things about Analog Systems:
One: Noise is okay when conserving the whole.
Two: That's it.
I come from a long line of teachers, each of whom felt the inequity of accessiblity and need to test everything and everybody got in the way of teaching and learning.
And they believed that the obsession with "the competitive" spirit was possibly getting in the way of creativity and learning, both.
My dad was talking about this back in the very early eighties, when his career had ended. Thanks for the link. I found it fascinating... and overwhelming, given our culture and our politics.
Isn't that a great article on education policy in Finland? "More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad." Now there's an idea.
The article on education in Finland is interesting. I agree that equality is important, but another key factor that doesn't get as much attention is that the teaching profession has prestige in Finland, something it doesn't have in the US.
I have some good educator friends who are in love with Finland. I personally appreciate the de-emphasis of competition too.
The article about education in Finland is very interesting but as a Mum who spend most of my life in PTA this nothing we haven't voiced before.
I am so glad my children got out when some arts, music and creativity where still allowed in school.
Two big stand outs for me small nation and people actually speak and learn in one main language.
cheers, parsnip
tim, it was thought provoking.
suze, nice.
jeannette, I think perhaps it is our lack of flexibility as a culture which ultimately hampers us.
kerry, egalitarianism everywhere should be our motto.
pc, good point.
dbs, it is interesting to at least consider alternate ways.
ap, I think homogeneity in culture and language matters but I think it goes beyond that.
Is porn obscene? A lot of people don’t think so. It’s a very interesting defence argument. But if a person considers it “offensive to morality or decency; depraved:” why would they want to copy it (or download it illegally). I think if someone has taken time to create something, if that be a cow sliced into pieces in an art gallery or moving image of two people having sex in a movie then it is a creative work by definition and needs to be protected under law. But I don't know what the downloaded movie entailed, if illegal acts are involved it's a completely different playing field.
jolene, here is more if you are interested: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120204/01325317660/why-case-testing-theory-that-porn-cannot-be-covered-copyright-could-be-important.shtml
putting on my lawyer hat, I think it unlikely that she will prevail, i just thought it was a clever (although flawed), argument.
Thank you! I doubt it'll work, either.
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