Category — General

Amaizing waistlines. You are fat because there is too much corn. [NYT, forfeit of first-born son required] I love good old-fashioned materialism, and Michael Pollan (author of The Botany of Desire) scores one for the team with this article on the economics of corn production. Are we fat because New Deal agricultural policy was overturned in the 70s by Rusty Butz? Now there's a trailing question we can all enjoy. [MetaFilter]

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so you wonder about the obesity problem, perhaps there is a cause. perhaps this is it, maybe not though.

Connexions project. The Connexions Project produces open-access content for online education and facilitates its collaborative development. Browse the extensive Content Commons to see what is already developed and available, and check out the open-source tools. (Thanks to Darius Cuplinskas.) [Open Access News]

A Matrix of Weblog Uses in Education.

Scott Leslie, an educational technology researcher and emerging
technology analyst, is working with Dr. Bruce Landon and the Western
Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) on the
Edutools.info project. The  project participants are researching
course management systems. Scott has developed an interesting matrix of  possible uses of weblogs in education.

He describes the project in his October 9, 2003 weblog post.
[via James Farmer's incorporated subversion]

[Ohio Edublogging] [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

TeleRead. TeleRead
http://www.teleread.org/

TeleRead is a nonpartisan plan to get electronic books and other educational resources into American homes–through a well-stocked national digital library system and small, sharp-screened computers that eventually could sell for under $100 or even $50. The same idea could apply to many other countries, and in fact TeleRead has advocates as far off as India. Supporters have ranged from William F. Buckley, Jr., to the founder of CompuServe's forum on Afro-American culture, and the proposal appears in an information science collection from The MIT Press and the American Society for Information Science. Unlike most educational plans, TeleRead would aid business directly and even reduce commercial and federal bureaucracy somewhat. In effect it would help shift resources from paperwork to learning, not just smarten up the workforce for the long run. [Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker]

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this sounds like an interesting project, i hope it takes off.

AOIR Conference. I'm excited. Next week, I'll be attending Broadening the Band, a conference held by the Association of Internet Researchers in… [Perpetual Stroll]

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the more the merrier i say:)

src="http://www.bbspot.com/Images/News_Features/2003/01/os_quiz/amiga.jpg" width="300" height="90"
border="0" alt="You are Amiga OS. Ahead of your time. You keep a lot of balls in the air. If only your parents had given you more opportunities to suceed.">
Which OS are You?

though i don't know how i got it really.

Not very clever, are they?. “We entered the country at midnight on March 26…” Isn't a bit odd how these letters — all with different signatures at the bottom — are identical? Pfc. David Deaconson and Spc. Nathan Whitelatch, for example, don't just seem to have the same writing style, they have the same writing! It would seem that at least some parts of the US government still don't quite get the internet. Is this kind of letters-to-the-editor war propaganda standard operating procedure? [MetaFilter]

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or better how long has it been going on?

WSIS Youth Awards.

The Youth Creating Digital Opportunities Coalition and the Youth Caucus of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) are coordinating an international awards program to recognize and showcase young people's contributions in the field of ICT for development. The finalists will have an opportunity to showcase their projects in an exhibition within the Youth HUB at the Summit.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

i think rewarding the youth is something that should be encouraged.

ITU TELECOM WORLD 2003 Officially Opens on 11 October.

His Majesty the King of Spain, Mr  Pascal Couchepin, President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Laurent Moutinot, President of the Government of the Republic  and Canton of Geneva, Mr Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of  the ITU and Mr Roberto Blois, Deputy-Secretary General of ITU  and Acting Executive Manager of ITU TELECOM, will officially  inaugurate ITU TELECOM WORLD 2003 on Saturday, 11 October.  The inauguration and ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at the Geneva Arena. ITU TELECOM WORLD 2003 opens to trade visitors from 12-18 October in Geneva Palexpo.

Under the theme “Helping the World Communicate”, TELECOM WORLD will address recent market challenges and provide a  platform for all participants to discuss how the industry can  rebuild confidence and generate new sources of growth. The event will also confront the new realities facing the telecommunications industry and discuss the critical issues, technologies and standards that are shaping the nature and direction of global telecommunications.

See full text of  ITU press release

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

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I wonder whether or not anyone thinks that this has implications for the way people perceive the role of the itu…..

When architects have too much Irn Bru. Construction of the Scottish Parliament in Pictures. The site was way over its budget even before they'd started building it, but it's nice to see they're at least doing something creative with the design. Being a lucky soul, I get to walk past this monstrosity every single day. [MetaFilter]