Stanford University, a premiere higher education institution, is offering a growing number of free courses. Currently, courses with a free, non-credit option are all in the computer science curriculum, but may soon expand to other disciplines. This is a positive development for quality higher education–a much needed experiment in a time when growing acceptance of [...]

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Maybe one of the most important videos you could watch this year — learn how web search progressively cuts you off from the world you live in.  

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A friend and professor is confident her granddaughters are able to multitask without any significant negative impact on their performance. She observes them using the computer and cell phone while doing homework and listening to music or watching television. They are star students in demanding schools. I told her I have my doubts. I suspect [...]

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A page at the Environmental Defense web site provides links to video segments from the Discovery Channel 1-hour special based on Fred Krupp’s outstanding book, Earth: The Sequel. Krupp does what is probably the best job to date in outlining how the alternative energy sector of the economy will very quickly become simply the energy [...]

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Scientific American (www.SciAm.com) reports on a technology that can create cement from the carbon dioxide exhaust from power plants. It’s an intriguing idea. Each ton of cement created in this manner would sequester a half ton of CO2.

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Project Better Place aims to see to it that the electric car operators’ network is put in place globally, one country at a time. Due to its size and technological readiness, Israel has agreed to be one of the first countries to establish an infrastructure to support plug-in electric vehicles. Technorati Tags: sustainable transportation, sustainability, [...]

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An article on Alter.Net provides a useful overview of how shifts in precipitation and other climate patterns will continue to have major disruptive effects on the availability of fresh water in the United States. The short version is that the gradual movement of the jet stream farther north will make the southern states — both [...]

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The Economist reports that Norwegian and Dutch companies are pursuing new designs for floating deep-sea wind turbines that potentially can produce multiples of the amount of electricity possible with turbines that must be firmly anchored into the sea-bed. Farther out to sea, winds blow at least twice as fast as they do closer to shore. [...]

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After using Adobe Acrobat Connect lightly for a couple of years, I have always been impressed by its stability and by the quality of the screen visuals and the sound, even on dial-up connections. Now, Stephen Downes blog has passed along a link to a new online meeting and conferencing environment, Vyew. The biggest difference [...]

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Since the very promising startup, JotSpot was devoured and (in my opinion) made less approachable by Google (as Google Sites), I’ve been searching for a powerful, user-friendly, feature-rich wiki capability. I had hoped to find a product or service that, like JotSpot (R.I.P.), was open to a vibrant developer community, which would ensure a steady [...]

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