Interactive Science Experiences: Solar Weather 2008

Now is the time! This is the moment! You the teacher have waited since all these new online applications made email one dimensional, and NOW you can use them easily in a protected environment.

You can learn to use these new tools of technology in your classroom and in your life. I believe that using these Web2.0 tools can improve your productivity, as well as student achievement.

With a bit of effort, you can break into the Web2.0 world, and NASA has the tools to help. There are an enormous number of projects, activities and materials available to teachers, for science, math and technology, yet also for social studies, languages and other areas of education.

All you have to do is find the topic you are studying, and NASA can point you to the websites and online interactive practices to grab and hold students' attention. Then the rest is up to you, do one activity, one project or an array of related interactions and lessons. Don't forget to make an official connection with the NASA group, so you can always email or talk with someone who can help or answer questions.

If you talk with any science teacher, connecting with NASA, they will tell you their favorite NASA area. You could spend an entire teaching career using a variety of NASA connections and never know that other stuff is out there. For myself, one of my favorite NASA groups is the SECEF, Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.

Each year, the ingenious educators, technicians and scientists, at the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, provide Science Math & Technology teachers with new, more creative, yet mind enhancing multimedia, projects and opportunities for students, teachers, scientists and the public to develop their knowledge of Sol and Earth.

Many of these new opportunities are considered interactive, part of the new Web2.0 movement.

One of the most exciting, yet practical Sun-Earth celebrations of the SECEF, Ancient Observatories, continued the NASA educational traditions while paving the trail into the online, interactive path for science education.

With podcasts, email alerts, related summer institutes, online projects, partnerships and public activities, the SECEF team really pulled the Sun-Earth Day problem based learning project into an international learning celebration. Each year since, they have continued this powerful methodology of linking students, teachers, scientists and the public around the world into a model classroom.

If you ready to begin an educational partnership with the SECEF, the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, start by registering at the Sun-Earth Day 2008 websited or by emailing Elaine Lewis, lewis@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov and to receive the 2008 Sun-Earth Day Packet and email updates.

One Web 2.0 Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF) activities you missed, but can use asynchronously, is the Arctic Circle Sunrise 2008. This series of meetings and interviews was part of the Polar Gateway Conference that ran during the last week in January. There are excellent interviews and historical perspectives from some of the scientists and assistants from the local Inuit communities. Their stories are marvelous, and I think children and young people would agree. Other information and images are also available from this conference.

It's del.icio.us

Ooh! I love George Carlin, and so does one of my newest del.icio.us fans. That is what I like about del.icio.us, it is TRULY a social networking system.

Del.icio.us may not be a synchronous social networking system, but it is a viable networking system among people with shared, common interests. These people can introduce you to a bookmark or a contact. If this new contact agrees that your common interests are shared, the person will connect with your network, as a mutual connection....not just a fan.

Today, I was checking my fan list. I usually travel to the fan's bookmarks to see why they are a fan. What social aspect of del.icio.us drew them to my bookmarks?

Was it a bookmark? What was the bookmark(s) that drew them to my network. I like to investigate that social aspect of the discovery of a new fan.

I also check the new fan's network. Sometimes, it was a shared contact that drew them to check out my bookmarks. See how social del.icio.us is?

Two very social ways to connect to another bookmarker:
(1)shared contacts AND/OR
(2)shared interests.
Isn't that how friending begins?

Tag, Your It!

Where is the X-Prize for the ethicists who are able to inform the public what will be the social, moral, biological, and political possiblities of this DNA tagging?

I am always amazed at the so-called mainstream media. They know very little about their topic, depend on biased experts and tend to poorly inform their readers about factual relationships of similar topics, such as "exo-genes".

There are many varieties of genetic codes within our bodies, and this is only one of those codes. Some of these codes, the exo genes can affect the other genetic codes.


It seems that the New York Times does have some reporters highlighting what is being discovered through genetic analysis. One article is called, The DNA Age by Amy Harmon.

clipped from www.nytimes.com The Race to Read Genomes on a Shoestring, Relatively Speaking By ANDREW POLLACK A person wanting to know his or her complete genetic blueprint can already have it done — for $350,000. If the cost of sequencing a human genome can drop to $1,000 or below, experts say it would start to become feasible to document people’s DNA makeup to tell what diseases they might be at risk for, or what medicines would work best for them. A DNA genome sequence might become part of each newborn’s medical work-up, while sequencing of cancer patients’ tumors might help doctors look for ways to attack them.

Dissecting del.icio.us

What is the breakdown on the name del.icio.us and its meaning. Also tips for unique naming of domains.

clipped from www.quickonlinetips.com February 16th, 2005 February 16th, 2005 Decoding the Domain Name del.icio.us [This article is meant as a short tutorial for newbies to explain the basics how to register a domain name] del.icio.us has become the most popular social bookmarks manager in recent times. Many surfers are drawn to curiosity by the peculiar domain name del.icio.us. It was an ingenious way to register a domain name. I mean it is much better than getting delicious.com or delicious.net etc. A domain search reveals there are many such names and many more subject to domain name availability. Now to solve the confusion of the del part. del is actually a subdomain of icio.us (Update: though some readers have pointed in comments that it del is a server of icio.us and not a subdomain). A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain name. So the main site del.icio.us is hosted on the del server of the domain name icio.us And so rests the decoding of del.icio.us!

Hackers Target Wrong Guy

This couple probably represents the majority of computer users, and this news clip shows what can happen if you don't protect your router, as well as your computer.
What angers me about this whole situtation is that this gives ammunition to those who want to control the internet and create LEVELS for those who can afford it...the level will be very protected.
I also never understood how a public entity can sue people for negative press.

clipped from blog.wired.com Anonymous Hackers Track Saboteur, Find and Punish the Wrong Guy - UPDATED By Ryan Singel January 29, 2008 | 7:59:26 PMCategories: Hacks and Cracks Anti-Scientology agitators have repeatedly harassed and threatened violence against a 59-year-old PG&E worker and his wife, who were mistakenly flagged as pro-Scientology hackers. John Lawson, who lives in Stockton, California with his wife Julia, began receiving threatening phone calls around 2 a.m. Saturday morning. He didn't know why until THREAT LEVEL explained that a hacking group calling itself the g00ns (goons spelled with zeros, not goons with the letter o) posted his home address, phone number and cell numbers, as well as Julia's Social Security number, online. The obscene and threatening calls have continued through Tuesday, according to Lawson. "I don't even really know how to use a computer," Lawson said. On Monday, he got a call that seemed to originate from the Virgin Islands. The caller threatened to kill him.

Stories, Pictures Lost Forever

This is a very real problem that will only escalate, as we use more and more web applications.

For instance, I don't know how to save my data from ClipMarks. If an account is canceled, do all my links and Clips to blogs die. These are important issues to discuss.

clipped from www.portigal.com Stories, lost forever Thursday January 10th 2008, 2:58 am by Steve Portigal As I’ve already blogged, I was the victim of a phishing scam and my flickr account was deleted. Yahoo/flickr has known about this particular culprit for a year or so. miscreant deleted my account, just for fun. And Yahoo can’t restore it. We all know there are backup copies all over the place, but they can only recreate my account, blank. all the people I’ve linked to are gone (I’ve spent a few hours trying to reconnect with those I can remember). Anyone who watched my photos via their contacts has lost me (and I’ve lost much of my audience). All the titles, tags, geotags, view counts and comments are gone. All the descriptions and stories and dialog with others in is gone. My document, my story, my part of the community, is gone. DataPortability is a movement to create these tools where they don’t exist. I hope someone creates something for flickr soon.

New Nontoxic Antifreeze

There are probably a wide range of other applications of this new compound called gelatin hydrolysate, and it is all natural...no genetically modified ingredients.

clipped from www.livescience.com New Antifreeze Improves Ice Cream By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 17 January 2008 07:55 am ET A few sharp ice crystals ruin ice cream's silky texture, as all connoisseurs know. An edible, tasteless antifreeze may soon come to the rescue. The non-toxic antifreeze, made from a gelatin protein, could be added to any frozen food to prevent unappetizing ice crystals from forming, without otherwise affecting the food itself. The results of the study will be published in the Jan. 9 issue of The American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Previous attempts to make anti-freeze for frozen foods have not been very effective, Damodaran said. These products have relied on genetically-modified ingredients, mainly from Antarctic fish and other cold-climate species. This is the first antifreeze made from natural ingredients, the researcher said. extracted gelatin protein from cow hide and used it to make a compound called gelatin hydrolysate.