IBM teams with Stanford University on spintronics
ZDNet, “IBM and Stanford University on Monday will announce a joint effort to conduct further research into spintronics, a technology that one day could lead to computers that could start working as soon as the power comes on or rapid fire digital cameras. “
Cool. It’s a technology I dreamed of before.
Some sites can’t be accessed here
I can’t visit Misbehaving.net and Business 2.0 site with local wire. They could be the new sacrifice of GreatFirewall blocking. Anyone has the same experience?
几天前下载的模拟学习游戏，“Real Lives”，已经推荐给几位小学友。他们已经有“乐在其中”的反馈了。其实早在90年代就有这类基于数据库的模拟游戏，看来今天又有了回归，简单而平淡的界面也能够吸引儿童去投入参与，伴随“人物成长”而学习。
当然有人说模拟学习游戏应当有刺激的视频和3D的效果，这我不否认，因为感知是学习的第一个阶段。虽然主流的一些游戏例如“文明”和“帝国时代”也有历史性的知识融合在其中，但是总的来说并不能映射到足够多的学习目标，所以也很难在课堂中作为辅助工具。国内的游戏就更不用说了，短视的商业利益高于一切，否则也不会有那么多咸味的内容了。Muzzy Lane 是一家小软件公司，他们正在开发包含二次大战的视频游戏，尝试与学校的教学，也可以更容易被教师和学生定位到特定的学习目标上。The Education Arcade 吸纳了很多围绕教育模拟进行开发的企业和产品，值得参考。
真实的模拟和“情景学习”也会更有挑战性，所以NBC的电视真人秀节目“学徒”(The Apprentice)才会如此大受欢迎。我说中国现代教育体系拷贝自西方，却不能伴随整个教育科学的进步而同步发展，但是有人坚定地和我说因为中国传统文化的学徒制而无法让教育体系在短期内得到革新，所以改不了。他却根本不知道“学徒”成为了回归的教学方法。是真实情景、情感因素和个性辅导的融合。
‘Virgin birth’ mammal rewrites rules of biology
New 
Scientist Reports on a scientific breakthrough that’s getting a lot of attention today: researchers in Japan have managed to create, for the first time, a mammal without a father. Scientists led by Tomohiro Kono at the Tokyo University of Agriculture were able to create a mouse, called Kaguya, by combining the genetic material of two egg cells. The article details the work, discusses imprinting in general, and says while it will have an impact on “fields from fundamental embryology to assisted reproduction and even cloning” it likely won’t be directly applicable to humans.
NY Times: China Agrees to Postpone Wireless Plan. China agreed on Wednesday to give up a plan to impose its own standard for wireless technology, essentially agreeing to join the rest of the world rather than dividing it up.
Many bloggers in China talked about this change in their blogs, via Grassland (the RSS search engine of Chinese blogsphere). Some of them even called the government “No Persistence At All”.