Fortnightly Mailing

Lessig: Just how badly have we messed up the architecture of access to scientific knowledge?

Very badly, as this 50 minute talk given by Lawrence Lessig on 18 April at CERN shows, followed by concrete suggestions about what to do about it. Lessig hits the nail on the head about how restricted access to scientific knowledge actually is, unless you happen to be a member of the "intellectual elite"; and if you are a member of the intellectual elite (a tenured professor in a rich-world university, or a student at one) the restriction on access is obscured from you.

The Architecture of Access to Scientific Knowledge from lessig on Vimeo.

"Permitted to only give medical treatment to Jews"

My grandfather was a paediatrician in Berlin. He was transported to Terezin in October 1942, where he died within a month, aged 63. One of my sons just sent me this image of an enamelled plaque from the door of a Berlin physician's surgery. The title of this post is a translation of "Zur ärztlichen Behandlung ausschließlich von Juden berechtigt", and thanks to MD for help with this.

Source

The human brain while texting, tweeting, phoning, driving

As a cyclist I've developed a sixth sense about which vehicles will, when they get close, be driven by a phone user; along with a riskily combative approach to such drivers if I can engage with them....

The Economist's Andreas Kluth is rightly a bit obsessed with the same issue, and writes about it here.

Excerpt (which could equally well apply to people texting/tweeting etc whilst allegedly concentrating on the things around them):

The human brain cannot process communication (oral or written) with a person who is not physically present without drastically reallocating attention and thus compromising driving safety. This is a biological fact. All those who claim that they can call/text and drive are the modern equivalents of the people you might (if you’re older) recall bragging that “I can hold my liquor” before that started sounding ridiculous.

Note. The are links to references in the second comment to this post below.

The lecture must stand - Stephen Downes / Don't lecture me - Donald Clark

Updated 15/4/2011

I wish I had taken part in the session about the future of the lecture that Stephen Downes ran yesterday with Donald Clark during Follow the Sun, a 2 day "non-stop global e-learning conference" run jointly by the University of Southern Queensland (Australia) and the University of Leicester (UK).

Embedded below is Stephen's slideshare presentation (each slide's header has a helpful "gist-giving" pointer, though this is not a substitute from hearing/seeing the talk itself) and here is a link to the presentation used by Donald. 

 

The Lecture Must Stand

View more presentations from Stephen Downes

 

Swooping descents? Not on this occasion.

At the end of March I spent a few days cross-country skiing at the North-Eastern end of Jotunheim in Norway. It was cold, sunny and windy.

Even high up there was lousy thin snow, with plenty of exposed rock, and abundant ice. But stunning views.

On 30 March we'd have needed ice-axes and crampons to reach the 2258m summit of Nautgardstinden (final picture below, with way barred by ice).

Holmenkollbakken in Oslo - April 2011

Last week I had the luck to be taken to the newly re-built Holmenkollbakken ski jump in Oslo, where I met a man who had last done the jump in 1940, aged 19. He said "you feel very lonely when the hooter has sounded, and you are at the top of the jump, and there are thousands of silent spectators down below." You will see what he means below, particularly in the fifth and final picture.

Wikipedia entry for Holmenkollbakken.