IST Results – Do ICTs improve our lives?:
The project’s final report reveals that many of the assumptions about ICTs and their advantages or disadvantages are not entirely accurate.
We assume, for example, that computer skills improve our chances to find a new job, with an estimate of 60 percent of existing jobs and 90 percent of new ones requiring ICT skills, according to the SOCQUIT report. Based on these figures, PC skills should have a determining effect on people’s ability to find employment.
On the contrary, “Our study showed that it is the social contact with other people that influences if people find a job or not, rather than the level of their ICT skills,” explains Heres. Equally, ICT benefits for elderly people are not reflected in the job market. “We did not find convincing evidence that the employment issue can be solved with ICT. However we did find examples that because of ICT, the elderly leave their jobs,” he says. These people are not motivated to change, as there are younger people with better skills, according to Heres.

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they showed, once again, that social contact is very important.

Arden L. Bement on International Science:
“On the international scale, our value will be measured by our global research networks and our partnerships with fast-growing research economies. On the West Coast, you are in an excellent position to collaborate with Asian nations in biology, chemistry, physics, and materials science.” Arden Bement at Harvey Mudd College, January 14, 2006.
Dr. Bement has demonstrated a strong interest in international scientific cooperation, and given that the National Science Board has a task force in operation on International Science to advise the NSF, it seems useful to consider his statements on the topic. His views are especially relevant to UNESCO since he is Arden Bement, Vice-Coordinator of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Committee of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.

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now, if they would just do this in the cultural sphere, we’d be set.

First They Came For the Nail Clippers….:
So can someone tell me where the madness is going to end? My back of the envelope says about as many people die in the US every month in highway accidents than have died in all our domestic terrorist incidents in the last 50 years. Untold numbers of people in the US are eating themselves to death and dying of heart disease, diabetes, etc. — I think that number is something like 750,000 people a year? Even with all the terrorist bombings of planes over the years, it is still safer to travel by plane than it is to drive to the airport, and it is even safer to fly than to walk!
At some point, we’re going to have to accept that there is a difference between real security and Potemkin security (or Security Theater as Bruce Schneier likes to call it), and a difference between realistic threats and uninteresting threats. I’m happy that the police caught these folks even if their plot seems very sketchy, but could we please have some sense of proportion?

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yes, when are they going to realize that ’security’ isn’t about the masses, and their need to feel comfortable with the appearance of security, nor is it an after-the-fact reaction to security. security is knowing that if one of the .00000001% of the people who have something in mind that will harm many people, they will be interdicted.

Dehydration a worry for some travelers – Yahoo! News:
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is allowing passengers to carry on essential nonprescription medicines, such as insulin, as well as baby formula and breast milk for infants. But Ensure is not permitted, said Christopher White, a

TSA spokesman.
“While we understand these restrictions may cause inconveniences for some passengers, it is important to aviation security that we limit the exceptions,” he said.

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let me be very clear…. these restrictions are complete and utter bullshit. they are reactionary and have no real basis to add to the security of a flight. if there is concern that a few people were going to mix liquids to make an explosive or other device, and you arrested those people, then restricting people after the fact, will not make things more secure. the capacity for a person bent on creating an explosion in an airplane is diminished slightly, true, but it is not alleviated through this measure. in the end, the tsa is just being silly if they think this does anything other than inconvenience and endanger passenger far beyond the initial threat, especially from a utilitarian perspective.

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careful… you’ll put your eye out kid.