Boing Boing: New Line’s XXX web game demands your gov’t. ID As pointed out, you can use G.W. Bush’s details. Or surely, you could use your parent’s ID details? Most kids know these details of their parents, don’t they?
In the latest issue of The Monthly, Gideon Haigh explains how having access to so much information, and in particular access in the way Google presents it, is making us less smart. There’s still lots to like about this magazine: it provides a new voice in Australian culture, having extended articles on interesting topics. I see it as similar in some ways to the Independent Weekly, a newspaper that’s new to Adelaide, but easier to handle in a couple of ways – firstly being a smaller format. It’s much easier to take with you, and therefore take your time reading it. The articles are a bit more national – although there are several international articles in the various editions I’ve read.
So, does Google make you dumber?
Google is a very new phenomenon. It wasn’t the first Search Engine on the Internet, but it is certainly the first one to become a household name. Everyone knows what Google is, and, as Haigh indicates, people think that Google has all of the answers. You can find virtually everything on Google, and I use it as a first place for finding information now. I guess the advantage I have over the next generation is that I have a background in finding information gathering – that is, I studied at University when libraries were the best source of information.
I also have a healthy level of skepticism; I try to think about the source of every article I read, and judge it for bias. Students who have only ever known Google and the Internet tend not to understand that some sources of information are more reliable than others. I think there is lots to like about Google, and the ease at which it finds information. The suggestion that sites that are popular tend to become more popular is made, and I concede that this appears to be the case. However, as a self-publisher, I find that my site has a fairly decent PageRank, just by actually writing lots of stuff that I know a bit about.
Generally, Google is very good at finding the best source of information on a topic. Whilst most people don’t go past the first page of hits, that’s because the rest of the information tends to be a little crap. There is lots of junk on the internet, but using the correct search terms means that it’s possible to find anything about anything, quickly and with little effort. The key here is knowing how to best use Google to search. Whilst Google has a great, simple interface, there is huge power underneath.
Students, especially post-secondary, must know how to search using some of the advanced methods, or even just using quotes to search for a phrase, rather than a list of words. And Google, at this time, is not the be-all and end-all of searching, especially for academic purposes. Things like Medline, and specific search engines (often not publicly available, or not free) provide full-text indexing of many academic journals. I look forward to the day when Google Scholar has all of this information, free. I haven’t done much with Google Scholar, as I’m not actively studying right now, but I suspect that there are indices that are not accessible through this interface. And having access to the titles of articles, and in some cases abstracts, isn’t enough. I want there to be full access to full text of journals. I don’t know how journals will manage the transition to free access, or even if they will, but it looks like a rosy future, when I don’t have to travel from University library to library to try and find a particular issue of a particular periodical. I often use the adage: I don’t know, but I know how to find it out, and this aspect of knowledge is taken into account by Haigh when she quotes Julian Sefton-Green (a lecturer from my old University, UniSA):
…It’s much more important that people know where to find out… it’s going to be much more important to be able to rank, order and interpret information than [to know] the information itself; to have the appropriate critical and analytical tools.
One of the Podcasts I subscribe to is Quirks and Quarks, from CBC, the Canadian Public Broadcaster. The latest episode has the main story about exercise, and ‘busts some myths’ related to exercise. There are a few different myths that are dealt with, but the one that affects me most is:
That is not to say that warming up is a bad thing – some light exercise is actually beneficial, but stretching is not. For one thing, stretching causes miniscule tears in the muscles. This allows the muscles to move further, but actually impairs performance, as the muscles are not as strong as they were prior to stretching. This effect can be up to a 10% loss in strength. These micro-tears, which are the way the muscle can be improved in the long term, also increase the chance of further damage to the muscles. Think about how a small chip in a car windscreen can expand with just wind force, and you’ll get the idea. Forces can be focussed onto the weak point, causing catastrophic failure. This is not to say that stretching is all bad. In fact, a stretching session is great, even if you aren’t a sportsperson, as it increases the overall range of movement and flexibility. I may have to consider this as I run my training sessions this year for State. The other issue that was of some relevance, to me at least, was:
I was planning on running a beep test in the first weeks of my training schedule for the 15s this year, and then another in the final weeks, and see how much the girls improved. I think I’ll still do this, but it will be harder to berate them for not working hard enough if they don’t improve. Having said that, I suspect that the girls we select will be those that are genetically predisposed to improving with training, rather than the other way around.
Clean Up Australia Day was started years ago, it’s now expanded into Clean Up The World, or something similar. Apparently the first year was a huge success, and although the numbers of people involved now isn’t as high, it’s still pretty big. I’ve never been involved: it’s always right around the time of my birthday, and whilst I support it, I’m a bit apathetic at times. Anyway, the new Advertisement for it is on TV now, and it’s rather cool. It starts with a picture of Ayers Rock, sorry, Uluru, which when the light turns up is revealed to be a bag of garbage. Then, there is an image of the Olgas, which is really three cans of spray. Then we see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is a bicycle wheel and some other garbage. Finally we see the 12 Apostles, which are trash in the water. The clip ends with the phrase “Don’t let rubbish become part of the scenery.” I actually think it is an excellent Ad. It’s punchy, clever and hopefully will cause some support. Will I be involved. I doubt it. I’ve got a 30th birthday party to organise, after all.
Emma • Hot Chocolate • Their Greatest Hits ★★★★★