Tuesday, February 09, 2010

News We Could Use


Stories we'd like to see:
  • The Obama Administration today signaled its interest in Old Man River City as a possible public works project. Community leaders familiar with the design have been invited to the White House to discuss its prospects. Clearing the construction site could begin as early as next year.

  • Sarah Palin acknowledged today that as former Governor of Alaska, she was quite familiar with the Bering Strait high voltage linkup proposal, but thought it needed more study. CNN will be running a series of special features focusing on the global electrical grid, its history and prospects.

  • Google Earth has created a new data overlay showing electrical grid information. The recently implemented fold-out options show the entire Earth in one view. The Fuller Projection is one of several available.
  • The NCTM has officially endorsed "tetrahedral mensuration" as a worthy topic for inclusion in K-12 mathematics curricula, based on results from several pilot studies, and expert advice from key professors.

  • Students in Flint, Michigan will be among the first to test drive the XO3 tablet, the next iteration of the One Laptop per Child line. Company sponsors include a long list of familiar brands, including Kellogg and General Mills.
Reality checks: OMR is currently shelved and rarely if ever mentioned; Governor Palin and CNN never mention the Bering Strait electrical hookup (not the same as the Bridge to Nowhere); ESRI ArcGIS 9 includes a Fuller Projection but Google Earth does not; NCTM does do some "non-traditional" tetrahedral mensuration on an obscure web page; it's unclear if the XO3, with more skeptics than sponsors, will be available by 2012 (or produced at all).