The Question Mark, aka Questioning.org

A fairly new website by Jamie McKenzie (familiar to some of us from his long-standing web site, From Now On) is called The Question Mark.

The Question Mark describes itself as "an educational magazine devoted to questions, questioning, sound intelligence, strategic reading and quality.

My initial impression is strongly favorable. A great resource for reflection as educators.

They Call It.....Utopia

This site provides a

"digital knowledge gateway into the treasures of libraries, museums, galleries, and laboratories of The University of Texas at Austin. It is designed to open to the public the knowledge, research, and information and share these resources —free of charge."

Includes sections for teachers, students (high school and college), and parents. Features lesson plans (browsable by grade level and subject), articles, activities, book lists, and related materials.

Searchable. Go for it!

Go to: Utopia

How To Give And Receive Criticism

This essay is an apropos way to begin a new school year, one which will be filled (no doubt) with much learning, many debates, and many more opportunities to stick one's neck out and be open to criticism (or compliments!).

Here We Go!

Something To Ponder On Labor Day

From the U.S. Census Bureau, a cross-section of information related to the American workforce as we spend a day paying tribute to the many that labor on our behalf in this country. Click here.

The Rebirth Of The World Trade Center

Project Rebirth -- Chronicling the Rebirth of Ground Zero in New York City -- is a site devoted to capturing the rebuilding and transformation of the World Trade Center.

Made possible by a dedicated team of individuals, the project is lead by Jim Whitaker. There are multiple cameras stationed around the site that take pictures at a set interval -- I believe it is every 5 minutes. Images are then assembled into montages that show the changes.

As we approach the third anniversity of September 11, this is a wonderful site that both reflects the sorrow and shows the hope as new rises from the ashes and destruction.

Is Multi-tasking Really More Productive And Efficient?

Maybe I show my age or generational bent by wondering about the buzz about how people (including our students) can do multiple things at once -- watch TV, play a computer game, IM with friends, make an entry into their blog -- and do them all well. Not that I underestimate what the human (amazing) brain can do, but I do wonder how much quality attention can be paid to multiple activities at once without something not getting its due.

Click here for an interesting article from AZ Central.Com that explores this issue.

YouSendIt -- A Solution For Sending Large Files?

YouSendIt offers a service where, apparently for free and not even requiring a registration and/or exchange of registration information, you can send attachments of up to 1 GB to anyone you want.

You type in the recipient's e-mail address, browse to the file you wish to send, and then click Send.

YouSendIt puts the file on their server and sends a note to the recipient notifying them that this attachment is waiting for them to download and gives them the link to retrieve it.

This may be handy, especially if you're interested in sending something to someone whose e-mail provider has low-ish limits on attachments it will allow on its service.

I have tried it a couple times and it worked like a charm.

Webby Awards 2004

Each year The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences presents The Webby Awards designed to showcase the best there is out there on the web.

For this year's nominees and winners, click here. You'll find a wide range of categories, some of which include: Best Practices, Community, Education, Film, Finance, Government/Law, Health, Humor, Living, Music, Print+Zines, Politics, Children, Science, Travel, and more.

Also, don't miss a whole category of winners chosen in the People's Voice Awards. A lot of great sites!

More About Schools And Schooling

As an educator, it's impossible not to include some sites having to do with schools, student, teachers, education, and learning. As someone who works in technology in schools, it's also hard to resist looking at all the things revolving around how we teach and how our society views education.

The PBS site, The Story of American Public Education, is quite wonderful. As bright and exciting as our future is, there is much to learn from the path we've already trod.

Halloween Already?

Here it is August 27 and I just have returned from a local grocery store that already has major Halloween candy displays out as you enter the store. Halloween is still months away. I can't believe it!

But if it is really time to start thinking about Halloween, I thought I'd better supply you with an online resource for those of you who want to make sure you identify all those pumpkins correctly. And, as a bonus, these are organic pumpkins, yet.

Go to The Organic Pumpkin ID Chart.

A Sobering Moment For Boomers

For those of us entering the phase of our life when the former belief we held that not only were our spirits immortal but so are our bodies, getting older is having a way of bringing a new sense of reality to that optimism. I have the feeling that a number of folks in their 40's - 60's are discovering those gradual changes in what our joints and muscles can and can no longer do. Another dose of reality will come in the filling out of the online survey at the Living To 100 Calculator. When you're finished answering the questions, the calculator will give you your lifespan prediction.

I just completed mine and was pleased to get the result of 88.1 years. As encouraging as that number is, going through the process of answering the site's questions can't help but get you thinking about your lifestyle habits such as exercise, diet, and stress along with the influences you inherit and have no control over, such as your family health history. Responding to those questions also reminds you about what your daily habits and lifestyle are. It's not difficult to be reminded about the things you might be doing that aren't really that helpful in terms of sustaining long-term health, not to mention 100-year lifespans.

Again, it was somewhat a relief to find out at least someone thinks I'm going to head out well into my 80's. But maybe, just maybe, if I change and improve some of my habits, I have enough time to improve my changes of making it into my 90's. It's certainly worth giving it a try!

A Resource For International Study

The Library of Congress is one of the world's largest collections of knowledge and much of this wealth is accessible via the Internet.

Many sections of the LOC's web presence is focused on making available treasures from our American history.

But the LOC also has a great deal of information about the world beyond our shores. Visit LOC's Global Gateway: World Culture and Resources.

Just The Facts, Please

As much as it is my intention to steer pretty clear of the whole realm of politics even though when knee-deep in a very partisan presidential race, there's a site that takes on politic questions -- including advertising and claims made by one or many candidates -- and tries to look at the facts in a non-partisan manner.

Sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation, a site you may find useful as you're trying to separate the truths from the half-truths from the no-truths is FactCheck.org.

A useful resource in this period of many claims and counter-claims.

Oh, The Words We Use

If you've ever wondered what the most often-used words are, the Word Count site is for you. Not only do you see a list of words ranked in their exact order of common use and repetition, but you can search for your favorite word to see where it fits in, or you can type in a number and find what word ranks at that point in order. And, of course, you can simply click through the list and see the words, one by one, in numerical order.

The presentation of this information is also quite artistically done:

By the way

the most common word: the

last word on the list (86,800th place): conquistador

It's Time To Blog A Blog

I figured the time was right to blog a blog here at the Motley Miscellanea. One called Future Now is out there to track "emerging technologies and their social implications" and seemed like a good place to start.

The three contributors to this blog are: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Bill Cockayne, and Franz Dill. Each is associated in one way or another with the Institute For The Future.

These guys obviously have a wide range of interest and explore all sorts of developments out there. Both these sites are worth checking out.

Legal Decision in Realm of P2P File Sharing

The two lead sentences from the summary at Wired.com of the decision rendered yesterday by a federal appeals court is:

"Peer-to-peer file-sharing services Morpheus and Grokster are legal, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The decision is a blow for record labels and movie studios which sued the peer-to-peer operators claiming that the services should be held liable for the copyright infringement of their users."

Click here for the full article.

I'm Going To Miss Julia Child

Of the many tribute and remembrance articles and sites devoted to the late Julia Child, I've taken note of three.

From PBS: Julia Child: Lessons With Master Chefs

From NPR: Collected stories and remembrances

From the Smithsonian Institution: What's Cooking? Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian

I'm not a great cook or all that interested in cooking, but I was a big fan of her TV shows on PBS in the '70s, watched them religiously. I found them interesting and informative, yes, but also entertaining and sometimes quite funny. She made a great impression on me during that time and I will miss her.

Special Report on Schools and Their Future from CNN

I'm not a constant viewer of CNN but I came across this special report about teaching, schools, students, and future prospects called America's Changing Classrooms.

The major categories include Exploring Options, Then And Now: Timeline and Gallery, and Alternative Schools. Much fascinating material to read here.

Google Equals Billions?

The day of the final stock price and offering is here. Producing billions of dollars in an IPO is pretty heady stuff. This article by John Markoff at the New York Times lays out some of the heightened expectations that grow out of all the attention that's been directed toward Google as it has finally arrived at its date of its stock going public.

And Now For Something Completely Different -- Part II

If you have a few extra minutes (yeah, right), check out the Museum of Hoaxes. Lots to investigate....some funny and light-hearted......some questionable......some serious....most, well, kinda interesting.