Betterness by Kawika Holbrook

The Science of Battle Dress

MIT and the Army are teaming up to design the perfect protection for soldiers using use nanotechnology. I'm not sure why this interests me, but I know why it doesn't interest legislators. Testing new uniforms doesn't make a loud noise, and "laboratory science rarely goes boom unless you’ve made a big mistake."

gamer.edu

Videogames teach kids how to learn. Why? Learning isn't about memorizing isolated facts. It's about connecting and manipulating them. Unlike rote lesson plans, the best high-tech games dance at the limits of the player's abilities, challenging them to solve problems, balance goals, adapt to changes, and marshal resources. Master one level, and they're on to the next. This "regime of competence" principle results in a feeling of simultaneous pleasure and frustration (not unlike my entire dating career).

Trouble

Word is this site scrolls right on PCs. I have no idea why. Yet.

The Supine Opine

Grooms: Please offer thoughtful, reasoned opinions on the following wedding decisions:

• Theme
• Location
• Season
• Cost
• Total number of guests

Understand, however, that said opinions will not factor into the actual wedding. As it should be. Help, just don’t get in the way.

Color Uncoordinated

Say your fiancée wants your opinion on wedding colors. Say you don't know your cerise from cerulean. To which site can you turn for help? Why, Crayola Crayons of course. Because there's more than just "black" for grooms, "white" for brides, and "flower colors" for everything else. Apparently.

Light Reading List

A few more news articles I enjoyed during Gulf War II:

• “News Under Fire”—Real-time reporting in the fog of war.
• “A Tale of Two Colonies”—The war on terrorism is forcing U.S. involvement with Yemen’s tribal turbulence and Eritrea’s obsessive fear of chaos.
• “What Went Wrong”—Underlying much of the Muslim world’s travail may be a simple lack of freedom.
• “The Battle for Bagdad, Part I”—If this is supposed to be the ultimate video war, how come we’re seeing so many still photographs?
• “Balancing Act”—How Egyptian TV attempts to balance it’s coverage of the war.
• “Powering Up”—If the US did decades ago what some propose we do now, nobody would care much about the oil in the Middle East or beneath the Arctic plains.
• Beseeching the Conqueror for Aid, Protection"—Accustomed to an authoritarian government that controlled much of everyday life, from providing food to jobs, Iraqis assume the Americans will step into the void.

His Own Drummer

I miss the daily press briefings from Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraq’s former Information Minister and budding web-star. His incredible invective and florid insults paid priceless tribute to the beauty of the English language. Who could forget such gems as:

• “God will roast their stomachs in hell.”
• “I now inform you that you are too far from reality.”
• “They think we are retarded—they are retarded.”
• “I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad.”
• “Lying is forbidden in Iraq. President Saddam Hussein will tolerate nothing but truthfulness as he is a man of great honor and integrity. Everyone is encouraged to speak freely of the truths evidenced in their eyes and hearts.”

The Game of the Name

Looks like WorldCom, the bankrupt, scandal-ridden telecommunications sinkhole, isn't waiting for regulators to approve the change of it's name or headquarters. As far as the company's website is concerned, WorldCom is now MCI. Amazing how fast dirty deeds can be swept under the rug.

Expired

Last month I bookmarked these four articles from The New York Times. Before I could blog my thoughts on them, however, they expired. Now I’ll have to pay to read the full text.

• Making a Statement, in Absentia profiled students who spend more time on their IM away messages than actually sending instant messages. I wanted to research the academic studies cited, but no such luck now.
• The Sound of Things to Come interested me in Woody Norri’s hypersonic sound (HSS) invention that could herald a new audio era in everything from computer screens to warfare.
• TV Networks Plan Flood of Reality for Summer probably had a sentence or two that was insightful enough to bookmark, but I have no idea now.
• That Blob of Multiplying Genres? It’s Music offered the total number of awards doled by the Grammys in a “delightfully futile quest that’s something like mapping an amoeba.” There’s more to the story, but I’d have to pay a couple of bucks to re-read it.

I love The Times, but I don’t think it’s going to do much good to blog articles when no one else can read them after 30 days.

Funny

Steve Martin is funny. What kind of funny, I haven’t been able to pin down. Sardonic? Ironic? I’m not sure if I even know the difference. In a monologue studded with jabs at showbiz pomp and celebrity, he said, “By the way, the proceeds from tonight’s Oscar telecast, and I think this is great, will be divvied up among huge corporations.”