29 SEP 2017 by ideonexus
It’s Okay to “Forget” What You Read
What we get from books is not just a collection of names, dates and events stored in our minds like files in a computer. Books also change, via our mental models, the very reality that we perceive.
You can think of mental models as psychological lenses that color and shape what we see. Some of this is genetic or cultural (Americans focus on very different parts of a picture than the Japanese do), but much of our perception is also shaped by experience — and experience includes the book...
1 10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
Learning is Intrinsic to Games
As one gamer has said, “In a game, you want to learn because you’re playing it, and if you didn’t want to learn, why would you be playing it?” (Selfe & Hawisher, 2007, p. 1). For this very reason, games are uniquely powerful tools that help teachers understand how to build empowering lessons and shape how students experience learning. Each game is a curriculum unto itself; each game is a unique engine that can reengineer learning experiences. Every game gives the player an opportu...Folksonomies: education gamification
Folksonomies: education gamification
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notes
notes13 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Factions in the Artilect War
I predict that humanity will split into three major philosophical, ideological, political groups, which I label as follows.
–The Cosmists (based on the word “cosmos”) will be in favor of building these godlike machines (the artilects), who would be immortal, think a million times faster than humans, have unlimited memory, go anywhere, do anything and take any shape. The Cosmists would take a quasi-religious view that they are god builders. Privately, I am a Cosmist, but publicly, I hav...
1 21 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Knowing the World Requires Mathematics
For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics. For this is an assured fact in regard to celestial things, siDce two important sciences of mathematics treat of them, namely theoretical astrology and practical astrology. The first. . . gives us definite information as to the number of the heavens and of the stars, whose size can be comprehended by means of instruments, and the shapes of all and their magnitudes and distances from the earth, and thicknesses...Folksonomies: mathematics knowledge
Folksonomies: mathematics knowledge
1 notes
notesEverything can be reduced to mathematics.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Truth is the Singular Focus of the Scientist
The Man of Science ought not to look at, or respect, any thing but the discovery and propagation of truth. Instead of respecting mischievous and erroneous establishments, he, of all men, is bound, by every honourable tie, to make an exposure of them, and to teach the people right from wrong. His knowledge and discoveries should be like the benefits of Nature dispensed alike to all without price or reward. He ought to be the patron of truth, and the enemy of error, in whatever shape it might a...It should be the highest virtue.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Card Sorting Games for Young Children
Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task
In the Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task (DCCS), children are initially asked to sort cards by a single dimension (such as color), and are subsequently required to alter their strategy to sort cards based on a second dimension (such as shape).[18] Typically, three-year-old children are able to sort cards based on a single dimension, but are unable to switch to sort the cards based on a second dimension. However, five-year-old children are able to sort ...Games for very young children to test their cognitive flexibility
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Making Forced Connections
The basic process for making forced connections, as outlined by Koberg and Bagnall, is simple and sound.
List possible features of the object you are trying to creatcte, one le feature per column. For example, the features might include cololor, size, anc shape.
2. In the column under each feature variable, list as many values for that variable as you can. For example, under color you might list all the colors of the rainbow, as well as black, white, gold, and silver.
3. Finally, random...Folksonomies: ideas creativity
Folksonomies: ideas creativity
A technique for coming up with new ideas. This could be done with the mxplx rand() function, using it to find random memes and then forcing onseself to find connections between the ideas.
06 JUL 2012 by ideonexus
The Bootes Void
In the course of a redshift survey of galaxies brighter than R approximately equal to 16.3, 133 redshifts were measured in three fields, each separated by roughly 35 deg from the other two. If the galaxies in these fields were distributed uniformly, the combination of a galaxian luminosity function and the magnitude limits predicts that the distribution of redshifts should peak near 15,000 km/s. In fact, only one galaxy of the 133 was observed with a redshift in the 6000 km/s interval centere... 1 notes
notesAn inconceivably massive region of space extremely sparsely populated with galaxies, strangely spherical in shape.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Geometry Seems Disconnected from Reality
Why is geometry often described as 'cold' and 'dry?' One reason lies in its inability to describe the shape of a cloud, a mountain, a coastline, or a tree. Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line... Nature exhibits not simply a higher degree but an altogether different level of complexity. Folksonomies: complexity geometry
Folksonomies: complexity geometry
1 notes
notesIt deals with orbs and squares, but clouds and trees are much more complex.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Birth of the Atomic Age
The Atomic Age began at exactly 5.30 Mountain War Time on the morning of July 15, 1945, on a stretch of semi-desert land about 50 airline miles from Alamogordo, New Mexico. And just at that instance there rose from the bowels of the earth a light not of this world, the light of many suns in one. ... At first it was a giant column that soon took the shape of a supramundane mushroom. 1 notes
notesDown to the minute. A glorious, haunting description.
