How climate change should be presented in the media

TV-host John Oliver and Bill Nye, the science guy, gave a interesting demontstration of how climate change should be presented in the media.

Google announces "Google Classroom"

Google Classroom

Google announced a new, free tool for education, aptly named "Google Classroom". This new tool  (expected in September 2014) will combine existing apps for education into one platform. "Google Classroom" weaves together Google Docs, Drive, Plus, and Gmail. The platform promises to make communication between teachers and students easier by handling digital documents in one shared place (sounds like the infamous "paperless office").

Some of the most beautiful libraries in the world

In the age of digital information and eBook readers, one could question the usefulness of storing paper books. However, libraries can be beautiful inspiring places. Libraries often form the shared space for scholarly communities. Today, libraries redefined themselves as learning spaces instead of book storage halls.

See a gallery of beautiful libraries here: http://shortlist.com/entertainment/books/the-most-beautiful-libraries-in-the-world#

Science Fiction books that predicted inventions

This infograph illustrates how science fiction predicted innovations in science, medicine, and technology.

Source: http://shortlist.com/entertainment/books/books-that-predicted-the-future

Farewell to the One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) project

XO-1 laptop
(Source: OLPC news)

The OLPC website officially reports that "OLPC is dead" and so is the development  of the XO-1 laptops. Sections of the OLPC project seem to be still operational but the full effort has subsided.

The idealistic project who aimed to close/narrow the digital divide by giving every child a specially designed laptop did unfortunately not succeed to reach its ambitious goals.

The rugged, low-power XO-1 laptop (also known as the $100 Laptop, the Children's Machine, and the 2B1) is an inexpensive sub-notebook computer that offered many interesting design features:

• To improve internet connection in areas with limited access, the XO-1 used a WiFi mesh networking protocol to allow many machines to share Internet access as long as at least one of them can see and connect to a router or other access point.
• Operation system: Slimmed-down version of Fedora Linux and a GUI named Sugar 
•  Video camera, a microphone, and a hybrid stylus/touch pad. 
• Power: The XO-1 was designed to use minimal amounts of power. In addition to a standard plug-in power supply, human power and solar power sources are available, allowing operation far from a commercial power grid.
• Dual screen mode: Reflective (backlight off) monochrome mode for low-power use in sunlight (ebook mode) and backlit color mode.
• Water-resistant membrane keyboard, designed for the small hands of children.

Farewell, OLPC and XO-1. We need more idealistic projects like this.

Inaccuracies in scientific illustrations

Michael Stevens provides a brief overview of some inaccuracies found in common science illustrations (including several historic ones).

Seamless document exchange between devices with Infinite Surface

Infinite Surface setup

Startup company Infinite Surface offers promising software that allows seamless exchange between multiple devices (smartphones, tablets, PCs, multi-touch tables).

The exchange can be bi-directional (by swiping a document off the edge of the screen it will be moved over to a specified device). Alternatively, the devices can be in synchronization mode (screen mirroring with authoring rights for all devices). The software is web-based and runs on a wide range of devices. The multi-touch table acts as the central hub for all the devices.

A promising concept that hopefully will become available soon.