I ran into bizarre web parroting-- a site took an article about my DIY satellite from "Wired", and (best guess) ran it through an English->Chinese translator then back to Chinese->English. So we end up with sentence-by-sentence content stealing, but with its own working, e.g.:
"Once deployed, they can put out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held amateur radio receiver." [from Wired]
"Once deployed, they can put out enough energy to be picked up on the belligerent by the hand-held pledge airwave receiver." [from Tubesat Gerber]
Or this bit
"Once the bastion of NASA and commercial satellite services, space has now become the final frontier for the do-it-yourselfer next door." [Wired]
"Once a bastion of NASA as well as blurb heavenly body services, space has right away turn the final limit for a do-it-yourselfer subsequent doorway." [Tubesat Gerber]
That's me, the blurb heavenly body service belligerent receiver!
A.
http://projectcalliope.com/ "Music from Space, Launching 2011"
I worry about "Chicken Little" syndrome with space weather alerts. "GPS will die, sending airplanes crashing and sinking boats. Cell phones will fail, stranding travelers and resulting in people in remote areas dying due to exposure. Worse of all, our TV may go out for a few hours."
Jay Reich from the Dept. of Commerce talked about 'overwarning' versus 'need for science', covered at http://www.scientificblogging.com/daytime_astronomer/why_sky_falling_space_weather_communications but here's the summary:
Science is rigorous, slow, based on data and challenge. This means politically it's horrible, and the media overstates it. So we have to balance warning with overhyping and risking people tune us out. Solution? Unknown.
If you want to go the mad scientist route, build a satellite in your basement. It's about the same cost as buying a motorcycle ($8K including launch) and, as far as mid-life crises go, a lot cooler. I'm doing it ( http://projectcalliope.com/ ), and blogging about how it goes at http://scientificblogging.com/satellite_diaries
You get to learn neat stuff about electronics, Arduino-level programming, and HAM radio.
It's worth it just for when people ask what I do for fun...
Why is it suddenly NASA's job to monitor global warming? Why not create an agency with that job
I'll ask 'eem, but I don' think he'll be very keen... we've already got one (NOAA), you see!
I did a podcast that really only gets rolling when my subject, a veternarian, gets on a roll about why science and scientists at Antarctica are totally awesome: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/01/15/january-15th-go-higher-or-go-to-antarctica/
Made me want to go there.
So I was working at a large defense company, and they had been dinged by the gov't for high-level management fraud. So part of the penalty was all employees that weren't managers had to take a mandatory Ethics class, run by... the managers.
Add in that the class included a Dilbert Ethics Game-- an actual, licensed Dilbert[TM] board game with little Dilbert characters and cartoons in it, where you had to move around and then answer ethics questions.
Oh, and it turns out you could win the game without correctly answering the questions, as my team figured out victory was based on position on the board, not score. And the only team that could have beat us took the high road, and when faced with one ethic question said "We know you want to hear answer A, but really, we would do answer B, as would any reasonable person."
I'm still not sure what lessons we learned.
I interviewed 4 random astronomers at an AAS meeting to ask 'why did you become an astronomer', and the answer was either "saw cool space stuff as a kid and was inspired" or "got to learn a bit of astronomy in high school and loved it". So she's right at the age for deciding. Unlike most majors, I think most astronomers choose their path early. (In February the podcast will be up at "365 Days of Astronomy", btw).
Sandy
http://projectcalliope.com/ "Music from Space"
The poster has an odd grasp of K12 education. Teachers never give away lesson plans. They hoard them, because their plans are their life's blood and their job security. Even teachers who mentor don't give out 'ready made' lesson plans.
So what these for-pay sites do is free up content that would otherwise be locked up. They give an incentive for teachers to cross that 'thin chalk line' and share.
And to answer 'who owns lessons developed for public school', the answer is the creator, not the school. Teachers are not hired as writers or curriculum developers, but as on-site instructors. The curricula are a by-product. If schools expect to own all the material their teachers develop, they need to negotiate that right-- and increase teacher pay.
If A = B and B = C, then A = C, except where void or prohibited by law. -- Roy Santoro