| Clive Thompson on How DIYers Just Might Revive American Innovation
What a mess. I'm sitting on the floor of my apartment, surrounded by electronic parts, a cigar box, a soldering gun, and stray bits of wire. I'm trying to build my own steampunk-style clock — hacking a couple of volt meter dials to display hours and minutes. It'll look awesome when it's done. If it ever gets done — I keep botching the soldering. A well-soldered joint is supposed to look like a small, shiny volcano. My attempts look like mashed insects, and they crack when I try to assemble the device. Why am I so inept? I used to do projects like this all the time when I was a kid. But in high school, I was carefully diverted from shop class when the administration decided I was college-bound. I stopped working with my hands and have barely touched a tool since.
Elephant Not in the Room
So to the extent that large public universities are most likely to offer lecture hall-filling courses, the issue of class skipping is most pronounced there. Technology’s Role Hedges has a theory about what allows students to skip classes and still pass, and it involves an act that many professors see as pedagogical charity. While some students benefit from reading course lecture material over the Internet, professors are enabling lazy students, he says, by making entire PowerPoint presentations available online to students who use the notes as a substitute for live interaction. While Hedges typically puts his lecture outlines — talking points, not details — online, last fall he removed the material. Students complained, but he says class attendance improved slightly.
Neda Ulaby, NPR Biography
Neda Ulaby reports on arts and culture for NPR. Her work includes profiling authors, musicians, and others who inform the world through creative expression, and covering the complicated relationships between art, artists, and society. Ulaby came to NPR in 2000. She was recruited through NPR's Next Generation Radio Initiative, and first helped to produce Weekly Edition: The Best of NPR. After landing a position on the cultural desk as an editorial assistant, she started reporting regularly for the desk, augmenting her radio work with arts journalism for the Washington City Paper. Ulaby's stories include a series on women record producers and a piece on the overlap between opera lovers and aging fans of punk rock. Her obituary for musician Elliott Smith set a record for downloads from the NPR Web site.
Community update
State Blvd.; 421-1320. G RABILL BRANCH: "Web 2.0" class, 7 p.m. Mondays through Jan. 28, must have at least one year of Internet experience, preregistration required; "Born to Read," infants and caregivers, 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays; "Smart Start Storytime," preschoolers and adult, 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays, designed to help beginning readers; "KIDZ Club," grades 1 to 5, explore art, geography, science, more, 3:30 p.m. Wednesday; "Paws to Read," children, practice reading skills with trained reading dog, 7 p.m. Thursdays; 13521 State St., Grabill; 421-1325. HESSEN CASSEL BRANCH: "Paws to Read," read to trained reading dog, 5 p.m. Mondays; "Smart Start Storytime," preschoolers and caregivers, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays; "Teen Tuesdays," middle- and high-school students, games and crafts, 3:30 p.m.
Corrections and clarifications for Feb. 5
Victor Cicero, a former Morrisville police chief, is still alive. Incorrect information appeared in a Sunday story about the 30th anniversary of the unsolved murder of Simone Grebe. Jake Wasserman is a student at New Hope Academy. He was incorrectly identified in a photo in Friday's editions. The Courier Times strives for accuracy. However, when we do make errors, we want to correct them as soon as possible in this space. To help us, please call 215-949-4161 (days) or 215-949-4211 (nights). .
Search For Rock Band To Open At Vodafone Homegrown
Jim Beam is giving some lucky band the chance to play alongside the country's premier rock acts on the Jim Beam Rock Stage at Vodafone Homegrown. With only two months to go until the massive kiwi music festival in Wellington, Jim Beam is on the hunt for a Band to kick off one of the most comprehensive Kiwi rock line ups ever assembled. Not only will the winners be playing ahead of the likes of Elemeno-P, Pluto, The Feelers, Kora, Opshop and Shihad, they will also be treated like true rock-stars. Flights to Wellington, accommodation and the full VIP backstage treatment with complimentary beverages courtesy of Jim Beam are also up for the taking. The Rock Radio station will run the competition during their new show 'Advanced Warning' from March 5 to the 26th. To be eligible Bands must be able to play a full set of their own music and not be signed to a major record label.
Musharraf dismisses 'graceful exit' talk
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell praised Musharraf as "our best partner" in fighting terrorists. "We have been able to kill or capture more of the al-Qaida leadership in partnership with Pakistan than anyone else." Acknowledging the political landscape has changed, McConnell said the question is, "What happens when a coalition is formed in the new government and what is the position of the president? So we'll be very carefully monitoring that." After an election in which the victors were secular political parties and Islamic hard-liners fared badly, McConnell said he was optimistic "we'll be able to figure out how to work with the Pakistani government going forward and be more effective than we have been in the past." Biden, joined by Sens. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Chuck Hagel, a Republican, saw Musharraf on the morning after the election.
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