"NOVA Science Now is Cool", Say Bohrman Kids

My children loved this show about science! I always was a PBS wonk and hoped, despite our not have television in the home, my offspring would appreciate the erudite emulations of public tv.
They were on verge of tears as this show with a comedic astrophysicist host aired in the place of either a Wii session or the Apple Dumpling Gang. Then, 2 minutes into the first story about the post-911 anthrax investigation, complaints were silenced as the fascination set in, never to be abated.

And now I know the story of the Capcha, the inventor of which, a 30-yr-old genius, was profiled on the program. More fascination. Not only does this now common convention help stop spam, but whenever you complete one of the new 2-word ReCapchas, you take part in digitally archiving words from older texts that computers cannot recognize through OCR.

Suck it Up and Do More

There is more.
More to consider, to read and watch, to see and do, to learn. As Will Richardson's blog post mentions "My day has probably gotten longer, but this is important stuff."

**Sigh** Our collective brain is that much wider, and we're just going to have read faster, devote more time, and dedicate ourselves to constant learning (i.e. improvement) if we want to see the larger picture of this super collectivised world.

Full Body Browsing

The last thing my heart desired this spring lingering sunday was to hop on to my computer. Once there, though, the portal is opened, and the curious exploration continues. Click after click.

If I could only use my whole body to browse the internet. My bud in Chicago chatted me from his iPhone walking home, but really it's two separate acts: walking and typing. You're not going on the internet with your entire body.

Dancing Dreaming Inside the Desktop

Picture me hopping happily on my one good leg, twirling dervishly and waving a mouse around: this is the feeling of helping someone through their tech troubles. And I find it even better than getting through my own. With the help of Mikogo screen sharing and the trusty old telephone, another student is now on her way to Tegrity Heaven.

They say when you are dreaming about getting chased by a monster, just turn and face it, and it won't scare you anymore.

...
Just underneath your deceptively peaceful desktop...
Dark blue tunnels await,
A hall of mirrors labelled "Next", "Agree", and "Run",
The side of your brain that processes logic will be challenged by messages like this one:

On the phone with help desk again.
All for the sake of getting an education delivered right to your living room.

But with
Patience, breath, and a comfortable chair
After
Following me through the endless tabular clicks, clicks (clicks),
OK! (one more)
Forgetting what you intended to do with this 45 minutes,
Finally the restart comes.
And it works.

Once the dust settles and you've updated the drivers to get back on the infosuperhighway, got your paddle back in the media stream, and recovered from all those "serious" errors, you just might say, "YES, I can do this."