There is a tsunami wave out in the ocean that’s headed toward the higher ed shore.
Don’t know exactly how tall it is or how wide. Can’t quite make out the exact form but it is large and it is on the way.
The tsunami is online courses.
Month: March 2012
Fragile democracies in Africa?
I’ve been focusing on the upside of the radical change around us. Not all that change is wonderful. We need to focus on the not-so-great stuff too.
Earlier this month, soldiers staged a coup in Mali. Many years ago I visited Mali so I have some interest.
Building a museum after the exhibit is in place as an illustration of adapting to change
How do you get a 252 foot long, 880 ton submarine into the basement of a museum? Can’t quite put it on the elevator.
Bill Sheridan describes how the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry got the U-505 into the exhibit hall – No room for big ideas? Make room. (Yeah, yeah, I know he’s a better headline writer than me.)
The plan? Dig a hole, lower the sub into the hole, enclose it, and built the rest of the exhibit around the sub. Brilliant.
Animated explanation of hydraulic fracturing
Curious how a fracking well is drilled?
I’ve been wondering about a few things. Like how to drill horizontally, how to break open the dense rock, and how to prevent leakage.
Superb animated video from Voyager Oil & Gas answers a lot of my questions:
Continue reading “Animated explanation of hydraulic fracturing”
More college student loan debt than loans on houses?
Yup.
That might be why there is a serious danger of a higher-education bubble.
Read this comment by Holly Finn in today’s Wall Street Journal article Watching the Ivory Tower Topple:
In this new educational model, the shy and the easily distracted get advantages. You can rewind a video and watch whenever and as many times as you like. Plus, teachers save time with computerized grading and students save money. (U.S. college debt, nearly $1 trillion, is bigger than housing or credit card debt.)
Continue reading “More college student loan debt than loans on houses?”
Creative Visualization – mapping the growth of retail stores
(cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
Check out these time-lapsed maps showing the growth of a retail chain from Flowing Data. Great visualization of the speed and location of new stores. Also shows the diffusion across the country.
Lets you see the data of Walmart from 1 store in 1962 to 4,393 in 2010.
Check out these visuals:
Continue reading “Creative Visualization – mapping the growth of retail stores”
What wage inflation looks like in China
The Economist provides good background on what the labor market is looking like in China – The end of cheap China.
I’ve commented earlier on the changing cost structure in China. This article gives some specific numbers. Continue reading “What wage inflation looks like in China”
Technology opening opportunities for people with special needs
Hat tip to Mark Perry, as usual – Creative Destruction: $7 iPad App Replaces $15,000, 20 Pound Communication Device
Bloomberg has a superb article on how simple apps are opening tremendous opportunities for people who need assistive technologies – Brain-Injured Emma Finds Her Voice With IPad Grassroot App
Emma was severely injured in 2001. She can not talk or walk and has minimal motion in her arms.
Previously she used a 9 pound device that cost $15,000 to type a message. The device read the position of her eyes. That’s good, but it has to be recalibrated every time it is moved. She’s tied to her room.
That has changed….
Continue reading “Technology opening opportunities for people with special needs”
Graph of North Dakota oil production
After reading about oil production in North Dakota surpassing California here, I pulled some data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration here. Created a couple of graphs.
Took the annual average daily production in North Dakota for 2000 through 2010. Added the average monthly production for 2011. Came up with this graph. Continue reading “Graph of North Dakota oil production”
In December North Dakota passed California in oil production
And North Dakota pulls into third place!
Federal stats show oil production in North Dakota was 535k bbl/d in December compared to 531k bbl/d in California. – Five states accounted for about 56% of total U.S.crude oil production in 2011
Check out the graph of monthly production. North Dakota has been accelerating since 2008 while Alaska and California have been declining for 10 years.
Continue reading “In December North Dakota passed California in oil production”
Grappling with change – another sector talks about their environment
J., an anonymous blogger at AidSpeak, has a post talking through the tensions of military people taking on humanitarian work, which puts them into the place where civilian aid workers have been for a long time – Humanitarian Space (the final frontier).
Having uniformed, armed soldiers doing the same thing that aid workers do blurs the distinction between those whose primary job is building things up (aid workers) and those whose primary job is blowing things up (soldiers).
That creates confusion for everyone involved especially those on the receiving end of humanitarian aid who watched things get blown up.
J.’s post is dealing with the realization that various militaries probably won’t be dropping their humanitarian aid work anytime soon. That means it will be important for the aid community to figure out how to work with and deal with the military community.
Continue reading “Grappling with change – another sector talks about their environment”
In a paragraph, here’s why we will see a lot more reshoring
Mark J. Perry calls attention to a company that makes bracelets and charms for colleges and sororities – Manufacturing Boom in Michigan, Partly Due to Reshoring; U.S. Factories are Competitive Again
The company brought its manufacturing back from China.
The reason they did so as described by Prof. Perry, is the same reason there will be a lot more companies that do so: Continue reading “In a paragraph, here’s why we will see a lot more reshoring”
Privacy issues with cheap drones
Previously discussed the amazing stuff that little drones can do.
This week’s issue of The Economist has several great articles in the Technology Quarterly section. One in particular that caught my eye – Unblinking eyes in the sky.
The article says drones that police might use for their operations will fit into the trunk of a car and can be had for the price of a police cruiser. Quite a bargain for surveillance in a crisis situation when you might otherwise need a helicopter which costs $1.7M to buy (according to the article) and require 1 pilot & 1 observer at operating cost of $5k or $10k an hour (my wild guess).
U.S. energy independence on the horizon? Maybe soon.
An article from NPR, Is U.S. Energy Independence Finally Within Reach?, explains the impact of all the new drilling could be making theU.S. energy independent soon.
The article says:
Energy self-sufficiency is now in sight,” says energy economist Phil Verleger. He believes that within a decade, the U.S. will no longer need to import crude oil and will be a natural gas exporter
Continue reading “U.S. energy independence on the horizon? Maybe soon.”
Autonomous drones
Farhad Manjoo describes what a team at the University of Pennsylvania is doing with autonomous drones – the team calls them quadrotors – I Love You, Killer Robots
The drones are very small, autonomous and extremely nimble. They can determine location of nearby drones.
Check out the drones as they fly through windows at various angles:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=MvRTALJp8DM]