Friday, December 31, 02004
The Herndon Observer has an article about the FIRST robotics team I've been working with recently. The physical version of the paper includes a photo of the training minibot we use, and I'm visible in the background, That didn't make it online though. Alas.
Posted at 12:54 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Thursday, December 30, 02004
I prefer the data smog analogy to that of media obesity.
The pollution-based approach implies some responsibility for the impact of media in the environment. The obesity puts the full burden of dealing with media-related problems on the consumer by implying all media consumption is a matter of personal choice ad free will. Sure I can choice to focus on 20 blogs insead of 220, but, I'm as about as able to consciously weed out the constant media barrage about as much as I could weed out DTD molecule in my drinking water. Sure I can avoid obvious masses of rotten media the way I can avoid bathing in nuclear waste, but it's the steady stream memetic crap building up over time that causes the real problems.
I'm not going to say media content seeps out in real life, ala violence on TV leads to violence in real life. Instead, I'm treating time as a limited resource, and anything that forces itself into my attention wastes that resource, and is therefore a problem.
No link to the Shenk data smog book, even if he did come up with the phrase, since I didn't find the book very useful, and t had too much "take back your government" content. Listening to the recent Barry Schwartz talk at ITConversations would squander your time resources less.
Procede with your media gluttony, dear reader.
Posted at 09:53 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Wednesday, December 29, 02004
If you're making a tsunami-related donation, don't forget to check if your workplace will provide matching funds. It's an easy way to double your impact, and all it takes is filling out some form or going through the corporate web site to make the donation. If you're not in the corporate world, maybe you can make your donation through a friend.
Posted at 05:21 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Tuesday, December 28, 02004
It's news to the Washington Post that teenagers die in SUV crashes
Forty-nine people ages 15 to 20 died in SUV and pickup truck accidents in Maryland, Virginia and the District last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The problem, researchers say, is that SUVs have a higher center of gravity and are harder to control in an emergency, which makes inexperienced teenage drivers more vulnerable.
This isn't a very good statistic, since some of those 49 young people may have been passengers. Also, it doesn't include the total death toll the young drivers may be responsible for when their larger vehicles squash smaller cars. A better statistc would have been something along the lines of "XXX people were killed by drivers aged 15 to 20, which includes YY of the drivers".
Posted at 10:26 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
