on learning and unschooling

Education

I could have used this new form of homeschooling back when I was in high school.  From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Five years ago, frustrated with the pace and depth of a Chicago Public School gifted program, Abby withdrew from eighth grade and entered uncharted territory — a branch of home schooling often called “unschooling.”

Under this ultimate form of “child-directed” learning, Abby used no set curriculum. She called her own hours, worked at her own pace and, most important, followed her own interests — without taking tests or receiving grades. Some days, she’d wake up, grab a bowl of cereal and go back to bed with a book.

Happy Solstice!

Holiday! Celebrate!

From my brother John:

Solstice Trivia
The solstice (from old English meaning “sun-standing-still”) is the time of turning, when the days change from shortening to lengthening.  It is often seen as a time when we can leave behind that which we don’t want to carry into the new cycle and begin anew with goals of intention.

Though often thought of as a Celtic celebration, the return of the sun has been celebrated in nearly every culture, east and west.

The Solstice is at 4:23 PST, December 21.

An interesting article can be found on the web site of Project Astro Utah.

Happy Solstice, everyone!

NASA and Google team up

News, Space, Technology

Apparently NASA and Google have solidified a year-old relationship that uses Google technology to index and deliver NASA content.  From Ars Technica:

In the first of many tasks that will be worked on by the new alliance, Google will work with the ARC to make NASA’s information available on the Internet to anyone who wants to see it.

Sounds like a great partnership to me.  Google Maps Mars?  Hubble Image Search?  Maybe even a searchable archive of communications transcripts like the ones Glen worked on?

you smell better than you think

Oddly Enough, Science

From The Scotsman:

New research shows people can follow trails across countryside like dogs, using the sense of smell alone. The study, published in Nature magazine, suggests humans are just out of practice at smelling, after people who repeatedly tracked smells across fields became faster and more accurate.

(With one story I got to use a great headline and link to The Scotsman.  It pretty much made my morning.)