May

30

The Darker Side of the Net

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I’m a big fan of the Internet and using it in class, but every once in a while something reminds you that there is something nasty about it, too.

This article is about a B.C. couple that supposedly tried to sell their baby on the popular Internet site, Craiglist. The couple claimed the whole thing was a joke, but the police and child services aren’t quite sure just yet. An article I saw in the National Post indicated the police only came upon this ad because a local woman spotted it and notified police.

This raises some scary possibilities. How do you prevent this kind of thing from happening on something as diffused as the Internet? While this event is supposedly a joke, who’s to say the next baby sale will be, or that anyone will actually report it to the police?

The Internet has so many fascinating possibilities, but it’s also a scary and weird place.

May

29

ElectroCity: Game Day

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If you’re a fan of SimCity, you’ll find ElectroCity interesting. It’s really just a simplified version of the classic video game.

You are mayor of a small town in New Zealand, and your job is to grow your town while keeping taxes, demands for energy, tourism, and the environment all in balance. The game assumes, as Mayor, that you have a large role in all aspects of the growth of your town including development of energy and food production, as well as tourism and a few others. Effectively you centrally plan almost everything, which (at least from a Canadian’s perspective) is not really realistic.

My major complaint with the game is that it’s too short. It lasts for 150 turns, so just when you’re getting into it it ends. A larger, longer version of the game would be great.

Despite that, it’s a neat look at urban planning and town growth. As annoying as its short length is, it does make the game managable from a teaching point of view (Sim City can go on for a while).

It’s a great game and worth a look.

May

28

Twitter from Mars

Filed Under Science | 2 Comments

I’ve never quite figured out why anyone would want to use Twitter. Twitter is a “microblog” where you post short, very frequent updates Why would you want the whole world to know that you’re just about to go bike riding, or eat supper, or go to bed? It all seems a bit narcissistic to me.

However, someone (presumably at NASA) has adopted the persona of the Mars Phoenix rover currently on the surface of Mars, and is twittering regular updates “from the planet,” as it were. Each post has a snippet of information, or a link to pictures, or something of interest.

Overall it’s a pretty cool way to get the average person involved minute by minute with this latest space mission. Kudos to NASA for their originality.

May

27

Phoenix Mars Lander

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If you’re doing astronomy with your class, could there possibly be a cooler site than NASA’s gallery from the Phoenix Mars Lander? It includes photos, videos, and even a timer to show how long the lander has been on Mars.

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