In sizing up the nation's status as a world leader in science and technology, here's a little good news-bad news from a study released Thursday by the nonprofit think tank Rand.
The U.S. remains the worldwide leader in science and technology, based on R&D spending, the number of Nobel Prize winners who call the U.S. home, and the number of top universities sitting on U.S. turf.
But the bad news is the U.S. educational system, kindergarten through high school, continues to underperform in developing bright minds in math and science. Europe and China are both graduating more university-educated engineers and scientists on a yearly basis than the U.S. As a result the U.S. may face an increasing reliance on foreign-born workers and foreign students in science and engineering to aid the nation in maintaining its lead, according to the report.
The study found that roughly 70 percent of foreign scientists and engineers who received Ph.D.s from U.S. universities remained in the country after receiving their degree, but that situation could change as salaries and research opportunities improve overseas, the report notes.
"Much of the concern about the U.S. losing its edge as the world's leader in science and technology appears to be unfounded," Titus Galama, a co-author of the Rand study, said in a statement. "But the United States cannot afford to be complacent. Effort is needed to make sure the nation maintains or even extends its standing."
According to the study, the U.S. accounts for 40 percent of all scientific R&D spending in the world, employs 70 percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners and houses 75 percent of the world's top 40 universities.
In order to maintain its lead, the Rand issued several recommendations:
• Establish a permanent commitment to fund a chartered body that would periodically monitor and analyze U.S. science and technology performance and the condition of the nation's science and engineering workforce.
• Make it easier for foreigners who have graduated from U.S. universities with science and engineering degrees to stay indefinitely in the U.S.
• Make it easier for highly skilled labor to immigrate to the U.S. to ensure the benefits of expanded innovation are captured in the U.S. and to help the U.S. remain competitive in research and innovation.
• Increase the United States' capacity to learn from science centers in Europe, Japan, China, India, and other countries.
The study further notes that issues related to skilled immigrant H-1B visas could lead to more domestic corporations outsourcing their research to foreign countries.
(Credit:
Erik Nordenankar )
A Swedish art student who claimed to have created the "biggest drawing in the world" using a GPS device and an international package delivery service has admitted that the drawing is a hoax.
Erik Nordenankar had claimed that he placed a GPS device in a briefcase on March 17 and then sent the case on a 55-day trip around the world with DHL. He originally stated on his Web site that he had given DHL specific travel instructions on the route that the briefcase should take to yield the drawing. After the package allegedly traveled over 6 continents and 62 countries, it was returned to him in Stockholm, Sweden, where he downloaded the GPS coordinates that were recorded by the device to his computer to generate the image.
The technique is described this way: "My pen was a briefcase containing the GPS device, being sent around the world. The paths the briefcase took around the globe became the strokes of the drawing."
His Web site included two YouTube videos purporting to show the briefcase during its journey and delivery receipts for the package during its circumnavigation of the globe.
However, many visitors to the site pointed out that the route described in the drawing was unlikely to be followed by DHL pilots.
"Were the DHL pilots on acid?" asked one visitor.
Another visitor pointed out technical flaws in the project description.
"A GPS signal cannot penetrate dense materials," wrote a reader using the name Samppa79. "That briefcase looks dense enough to block the signal and the roof of a car or thick walls of an airplane blocks the rest."
Nordenankar has since posted this message to the bottom of the site--presumably because he doesn't want to spoil the surprise--admitting his hoax. "This is fictional work. DHL did not transport the GPS at any time."
A DHL spokesman told the Telegraph that the delivery company had allowed Nordenankar access to a warehouse in Stockholm for a school art project and that it was interested in discussing the hoax with him.
A Swedish art student has posted online what he calls the "biggest drawing in the world," though the picture would seem to be more accurately described as a drawing on a rather modest scale that came into being through a round-the-world technique.
Perhaps that's why a sort of subtitle on Erik Nordenankar's Web site, just above the image, is this: "GPS Generated Self Portrait."
The technique is described this way: "My pen was a briefcase containing the GPS device, being sent around the world. The paths the briefcase took around the globe became the strokes of the drawing."
On the "biggest drawing" Web site, details are sparse, but Nordenankar does also thank package delivery service DHL for helping to make the portrait possible.
He writes that the briefcase began a 55-day circumnavigation on March 17, ending up earlier this month back where it started in Stockholm, Sweden. He then downloaded the GPS information--the trip covered 62 countries on six continents--to his computer and made the self-portrait in a single stroke.
I've sent e-mails to both Nordenankar and DHL for more information and will update this post as I learn more.
While the briefcase's travels may (or may not) have followed the adage that the shortest route between any two points is a straight line, the drawing itself involved more than a few loop-de-loops and curlicues.
You can see Nordenankar's drawing technique in action in the video here, one of two videos on the "biggest drawing" site, along with the full self-portrait.
Is it a hoax? The little bit of evidence I've found so far in poking around the Web suggests that it is not. For instance, there's a similarly hirsute Erik Nordenankar listed as a student at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden--with an exam project described as none other than the "biggest drawing in the world."
New York City's controversial prohibition of cell phones on school grounds can continue, a state appellate court has unanimously ruled.
The city's school system instituted the possession ban in September 2005 as part of its efforts to maintain school security and discipline, contending the mobile gadgets can promote cheating and harassment, and began confiscating them from students the next year. But parent advocates had challenged the rules as overly broad and irrational, arguing that cell phones were a "lifeline" for families trying to reach their students, particularly during their commutes and after-school activities.
In an opinion released Tuesday, the appellate court disagreed sharply with the parents' stance.
"The cell phone ban does not directly and substantially interfere with any of the rights alleged by the parents," Justice Angela Mazzarelli wrote in the opinion.
The justice also took a shot at adult cell phone use, writing:
The Chancellor's determination that a mere ban on cell phone use would not be sufficiently effective was not irrational. It is now routine before theater, movie and other cultural presentations attended by adults, for patrons to be asked to turn off their cell phones. Even then there is no guarantee that the cell phone of an inattentive person will not ring at an inopportune time. While the vast majority of public school children are respectful and well-behaved, it was not unreasonable for the Chancellor to recognize that if adults cannot be fully trusted to practice proper cell phone etiquette, then neither can children.
The fight may not be over yet: The group of parents battling the ban is considering asking the state's highest court to look at the case, according to a New York Daily News report.
(Credit:
Jonathan Elfalan, courtesy of Road & Track)
When the weather turns cold, scores of well-to-do winter sports enthusiasts flock to the high slopes of Vail valley in Colorado for world-class skiing and snowboarding. But about 20 miles west of Vail Village, high upon a privately owned mountain, sits a secret winter wonderland: a racetrack made of snow and ice.
The twisty road course, built on top of a golf course, is the training ground for Camp4 Colorado, a winter driving school hosted by the Porsche Travel Club, an offshoot of the Porsche Sport Driving School. Here, with professional instruction, participants drive the Porsche 911 Carrera 4, the Carrera 4S, and the Cayenne SUV, in a variety of exercises designed to familiarize drivers with how the cars respond in low-traction conditions.
When I was invited to participate in the program, I was both excited and hesitant; this California girl has hardly ever seen snow, let alone driven in it.
Camp4 offers both a one-day program and a five-day program. The longer school is a combination of driving instruction and recreational activities (with only two-and-a-half days of actual driving time). Our media program was a tad modified--we did one full day of driving, with some additional organized activities afterward.
Some of the Porsche instructors
(Credit: Laura Burstein)The Colorado school is based on Porsche's Camp4 program in Finland, a winter-driving program in its eighth year that takes place at the Arctic Driving Center, a test facility long used by car manufacturers for covert cold-weather testing. But whereas the Finnish program takes place on a permanent circuit, the Colorado course had to be created from scratch:
While the weather was still fair, a team of designers mapped out the track circuit, careful to avoid obstacles such as sand traps. When winter hit, the builders used a "snow cat" tractor to pack snow into the grass over a period of a couple of weeks to create a base layer. Then, a water truck was used to run about 75,000 gallons of reconstituted water over the track, one section at a time, to create a layer of ice. Finally, fresh snow was dragged over the ice to create a powdery finish. That's no small feat.
Another thing that impressed me about Camp4 was the quality of the driving instructors. Most, if not all, had professional racing experience--including rally, open-wheel, drifting, and Nascar (though I won't hold the latter against them).
Our day began with a classroom session, where we learned about vehicle dynamics such as weight transfer, cornering, and traction, and how applying steering, throttle, and brakes in different combinations could control (or fail to control) a car in a slippery situation.
After class, it was time to head up the mountain to the track.
Continue reading Porsche's winter fantasy camp, part 2 >>>
Teachers have an unlimited supply of interesting ideas for classroom projects, but have often been limited to the resources they could afford to contribute from their own pocketbooks.
Seven years ago, a history teacher in the Bronx started a Web site that directly connected teachers and donors to fund classroom projects. This week DonorsChoose announced that its program has expanded to include every public school in America.
This "open source" approach to supporting public schools encourages teachers to be innovative and entrepreneurial. Their proposals compete in the marketplace of ideas to attract support. Everyday citizens are invited to become philanthropists who can make a big difference by pooling their contributions, from $10 on up.
As a donor, I found that my experience on DonorsChoose channels reminded me of the thrill of an eBay purchase. But instead of making an impulse buy for something that I didn't really need, I was making a contribution to a worthy cause. In return, my family has received wonderful thank-you packets from teachers and students that include letters and photos of the projects we funded.
... Read moreWhen you look at technological generation gaps, the ubiquity of cell phones is one of the dividing lines between youth and "elders." Today's teens can't imagine life without cell phones, and if you walk across a college campus you'll see students glued to their phones seemingly at every waking moment.
On the adult authority figure side of this divide, some school districts, including Cleveland and New York City, are trying to ban cell phones outright. Now I can understand an "out-of-sight, out of trouble" approach, but the strictest bans prohibit the devices anywhere on campus, even in the bottom of a backpack or a locker. Kids are ingenious in their attempts to come up with creative ways around the ban, everything from hiding a phone in a sandwich roll to parking the devices for a fee at a nearby store.
... Read moreIt's back to school time, and Internet safety expert Linda Criddle has come up with homework for schools, students and parents: Do a safety checkup of your school's Web site to ensure that it is not making too much personal information publicly available.
She has created Guidelines for Safer School Web Sites to help schools cope with the new realities of our information society. News that can be appropriately shared within a school community--student names, team affiliations, sports practice times, and photos, for example--can expose students to considerable risk for misuse when shared with the whole world online.
Criddle says, "When you know that a student likely lives within the geographical boundaries of the school district, a full name or photo provides too much information. A simple phone book look-up will likely provide their address. These key pieces of information may also unlock other information about a child. For example, a simple search on the child's name gleaned from the school Web site can, for example, be used in Web services like MySpace, Friendster and Facebook to provide even more information that can be used for criminal purposes."
There is a realistic solution to this problem, which is to ask schools to look carefully at the information they are sharing, and to create a two-tier Web site that sequesters identifying information within a password-protected area.
Criddle wants school Web sites to serve as one example that fits into a larger social context. The 4-H club's local Web site, the opera's donor list, or a grief support group's online chat all face similar challenges. Criddle teaches that these issues apply to organizations of all kinds and people of all ages, and raising awareness within schools is one good place to start.
MySpace has quadrupled its estimated number of registered sex offenders posting profiles on the site, from its May estimate of 7,000 to a current tally of 29,000. The pages of identified offenders have been deleted. What does this news mean for parents? How do we assess risk and keep it in perspective, and what best practices should be implemented on family, corporate and societal levels to keep kids safe?
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