Comment Re:Novel (Score 1) 4
Thanks for the suggestion, but the amount of reading I can assign them is limited.
I've been thinking of another David Brin story/excerpt, The Smartest Mob. I agree he's a great writer.
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What essays and short stories should be in a course on futurism? 4
Ellen Spertus writes: I'll be teaching an interdisciplinary college course on how technology is changing the world and how students can influence that change. In addition to teaching the students how to create apps, I'd like for us to read and discuss short stories and essays about how the future (next 40 years) might play out. For example, we'll read excerpts from David Brin's Transparent Society and Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. I'm also considering excerpts of Cory Doctorow's Homeland and Neil Stephenson's Diamond Age. What other suggestions do Slashdotters have?
Comment App Inventor's appeal to underrepresented groups (Score 1) 236
What I think was meant by the OP's clumsy remarks about "kids, women, and underrepresented groups" is that App Inventor has proven successful at attracting members of underrepresented groups. Some successful outreach programs based on App Inventor include:
- The Technovation Challenge (high school girls from low-income families)
- Youth APPLab (African-American children and teens)
- Youth Radio's Mobile App Lab (Oakland-based young people)
The claim isn't that members of these groups can't learn traditional CS, just that they've generally chosen not to.
Cutting Umbilical Cord Early Eliminates Stem Cells 139
GeneralSoh writes "Delaying clamping the umbilical cord at birth may have far-reaching benefits for your baby, according to researchers at the University of South Florida's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair — and should be delayed for at least a few minutes longer after birth. This new recommendation published in the most recent Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (14:3) notes that delaying clamping the umbilical cord allows more umbilical cord blood and crucial stem cells to transfer from mama to baby."
Where Does a Geek Find a Social Life? 1354
JustShootMe writes "I have a question for my fellow Slashdotters, and yes, I realize I am entering the lion's den covered in tasty meat-flavored sauce. I have never been a very social person, preferring to throw myself into technology; therefore, I've been spectacularly unsuccessful in developing any meaningful interpersonal relationships. Lately I have begun to feel that this situation is not tenable, and I would like to fix it. But I really don't know how and haven't the faintest idea where to start. I know that I am in the minority and that there are many different kinds of Slashdot readers, most of whom have more experience in this realm than I do. So please tell me: how, and more importantly, where do you meet fellow geeks — preferably including some of the opposite gender — in meatspace?"
