What I Learnt Today

In his blog post today, author Seth Godin asks ‘What’s high school for?’

Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following:

• How to focus intently on a problem until it’s solved.
• The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.
• How to read critically.
• The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.
• An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.
• How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.
• Project management.
• Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.
• Personal finance.
• Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.
• An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.
• Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving.

Would you add any other desirable outcomes to Seth’s list?

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Our ancestors, the cavemen, had much larger jaws than we do. In those primitive times before McDonalds, they needed more teeth to grind up the foliage in their diet.

In response to our improved diet(?), we evolved smaller jaws. Ignorant of this change, our very back teeth will often still try and crowd their way in up the back, top and bottom. These ‘third molars’ normally appear between the ages of 17 and 25.

The Romans called the third molar dens sapientiae, (tooth of the wise), because they come at a later stage than the rest of our teeth – by which time we have become more mature (remember, the Romans did not have eposure to the behaviour at University colleges) They are known by as Wisdom Teeth in many languages, but there are some interesting exceptions. In Greek, they are called ‘the dicisplinarians’, in Turkish they are known as the ’20 year tooth’, in Korean as the love teeth, (ooh), and in Japanese as the ‘unknown to the parent teeth’, because you are meant to have left home before you get them.

35% people do not devlop wisdom teeth at all – I wonder if this is because they are at a higher stage of evolution, or because they never become wise.

Wisdom teeth are said to be impacted if for some reason they do not come out all the way. This may be because they are abutting other teeth, or sometimes they get stuck under the gums. Once upon a time, it was common practice to remove all wisdom teeth as a preventative measure in case they become impacted, or in case they crowded out the other teeth.

This practice is not supported by the evidence, and the current recommendation of the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons is that teeth that are not causing problems should be left in place whether impacted or not.

However, wisdom teeth will often cause trouble. 

They may damage neighbouring teeth, and they are awkward to clean. This can lead to chronic infections of the tooth or of the neighbouring gums (periodontal infections). I have discovered that I am a slack wisdom-teeth-cleaner, and today I had the pleasure of having three of my four dens sapoentiae extracted by Dr Hoffmam, a periodontist.

From now on you will notice that I am only one quarter as wise as previously.

At least I can look forward to the tooth fairy coming tonight.

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Richard Glover dreams about a ‘new’ technological breakthrough.

“The player costs a couple of dollars, and runs for months on a single penlight battery. It’s small enough to slip into your pocket. A wide variety of content is constantly streamed via a wireless connection, with users able to change content by twiddling a small dial on the side of the receiver. Most amazing of all, the content is always up to date, as it is broadcast “live” in “real time” without any need for the users to refresh the content held in their player. Best of all, people are able to experience the same programs simultaneously, building a sense of community and shared debate.

More phenomenal still, the technology is interactive, with users able to themselves appear live through a process known as “talkback” or “phone-in” radio.

Wow! What an advance on dreary old moribund podcasting……. We could call it radio”

From “They’ve reinvented the wheel – and now (gasp) it’s got corners“.

Do you sometimes pull up at your destination, but remain sitting in the car waiting for an interesting interview on the radio to finish? To find out the answer to the quiz question? To hear the end of the news? To see if the Waratahs will finally score that try? To check the weather forecast?

I love podcasting, but as Glover says, sometimes only the radio will cut it.

TuneIn Radio gives your iPhone or iPad the ability to play live radio. It does not have an FM receiver – rather it picks up (via 3G or wifi) the live internet stream that most stations provide. You can search for stations from all over the world – Local ABC and Radio National and Grandstand are as far as I have looked.

A 3G connection provides more than adequate bandwidth –  but be careful if you have a very limited download allowance. The application allows you to pause the program you are listening to, and even rewind and replay the broadcast.

And you’ll be able to get out of the car without missing any action.

TuneIn Radio – Synsion Radio Technologies

 

 

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The New York Times today has a detailed account of how the USA managed to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden.

In a case of ‘Life Imitating Art’, the NYT description sounds exactly like a plotline from the West Wing (well, two episodes combined, really. Rosi could tell us which ones), and the vision we have seen of the raid looks frighteningly similar to a video game (though the real footage doesn’t have as good graphics as the Playstation 3 version).

The NYT reports that the CIA has been following exhaustive leads in the search for Bin Laden for years, of course. Through a number of sources, a man was identified who was thought to be a courier for Bin Laden. Emails and telephone conversations between his family and Pakistan were tapped.

“Last July, Pakistani agents working for the C.I.A. spotted him driving his vehicle near Peshawar. When, after weeks of surveillance, he drove to the sprawling compound in Abbottabad, American intelligence operatives felt they were onto something big, perhaps even Bin Laden himself. It was hardly the spartan cave in the mountains that many had envisioned as his hiding place. Rather, it was a three-story house ringed by 12-foot-high concrete walls, topped with barbed wire and protected by two security fences. He was, said Mr. Brennan, the White House official, “hiding in plain sight.”

(Photos of the compound don’t portray it as the million dollar mansion that we would envisage from early reports. It looks more like the only sort of place at the Gold Coast that would allow a group of boarding school boys to stay during schoolies week.)

The compound had no internet access or telephone lines, and was so concerned about security that all the trash was burned rather than sent away.

The CIA, under director Leon Panetta, became convinced that Bin Laden was in the compound. In Washington, after considerable discussion, it was decided that a helicopter attack would be the best approach. Navy SEALS were trained in a special facility which was built to be similar to Bin Laden’s compound. 

President Bartlett Obama gave the go ahead, and the top brass assembled in the situation room – with ‘turkey pita wraps, cold shrimp, potato chips, soda.’ (?)

79 commandos in 4 helicopters crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan just after midnight.

The code name for Bin Laden was “Geronimo.” The president and his advisers watched Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, on a video screen, narrating from his agency’s headquarters across the Potomac River what was happening in faraway Pakistan.

“They’ve reached the target,” he said.

Minutes passed.

“We have a visual on Geronimo,” he said.

A few minutes later: “Geronimo EKIA.”

Enemy Killed In Action. There was silence in the Situation Room.

Finally, the president spoke up.

“We got him.”

The raid took 40 minutes. One of the helicopters would not start when the team went to leave and was scuttled. Bin Lasen’s body, and documents and hard drives were taken from the scene – the women in the compound and nine children were left behind.

As we now know, the first reports of the raid came from a Pakinstani IT consultant via Twitter. Ironically, @reallyvirtual (aka Sohaib Athar) had moved to Attabad for the peace and quiet. His twitter profile says that he is “An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops.” Athar is a master of understatement.

“A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S”

These are his tweets from the night (read them from the bottom up).

The full archive of his initial tweets, and the rumours and false reports that followed, can be followed at http://twitter.com/#!/ReallyVirtual

If Sony wasn’t up to its neck in problems, I’m sure Will would have already been able to download ‘Call of Duty – Operation Geronimo’

 

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Scientists and researchers are often criticized for not letting people know about their work in an understandable way.

You may be surprised to know that academics are not evaluated by the impact that their work has on public debate, nor by the extent that they influence good public policy. They do not score ‘points’ for giving people a greater understanding of the world, nor for helping people make better decisions about their lives and health. They do not even get judged by their excellence in passing on their knowledge to university students.

In fact, academics are evaluated by the extent that their work and ideas can be commercialised, and by the number of ‘papers’ that they can get published in academic journals. These published papers are not judged on their content, but by the grading of the journal (A,B,C or D) in which they appear.

If that seems somewhat strange to you, it does to me also.

Anyway, the new web based newspaper ‘The Conversation‘ is an ambitious attempt to start the conversation between academia and the rest of us.

“The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector – written by acknowledged experts and delivered directly to the public. As professional journalists, we aim to make this wealth of knowledge and expertise accessible to all.”

Authors for the Conversation are sourced from the so-called  Australian Group of Eight universities (Adelaide, ANU, Melbourne, Monash, NSW, Queensland, Sydney, Western Australia) plus University of Technology Sydney, CSIRO, and the Australian Science Media Centre. The credentials of the authors are impeccable.

Articles range across the faculties : business and the economy. the environment and energy, health and medicine, politics and society, science and technology. 

We use the Conversation as a regular source for Emaildig and I recommend you add it to ‘your daily office’.

http://theconversation.edu.au/

 

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