Some people can hear with their eyes. It’s called synesthesia, and it happens when the different sensory systems get crossed. A new app, Sonified, lets you experience it, as the video below demonstrates.
(via The Dish)
Middle and High School … from a Montessori Point of View
A wonderful set of physical demonstrations of the different perspectives that come from different frames of reference. Excellent for physics, and maybe math too, because it does point out coordinate systems.
[- Leacock (1960): Frames of Reference, Presented by Ivey and Hume, via the Internet Archive.]
The discussion of non-inertial (accelerating) frames of reference is particularly good, and would tie in well with the coriolis model demonstration.
Of course, different perspectives are important in the geometry of social interactions also.
(thanks to Mr. D. for the link to the video).
Handmade Portraits: The Sword Maker from Etsy on Vimeo.
This video, contains some fascinating reflections from, Korehira Watanabe, one of the few remaining traditional sword makers in Japan.
Particularly intriguing is Watanabe’s somewhat counter-intuitive need to keep exploring new challenges in swordmaking, so that he might keep the ancient traditions alive. He’s also very interested in instilling the same type of drive in his disciple, with the hope that his disciple will someday surpass him.
I personally find this to be a quite appropriate perspective for a teacher.
A few of the steps along the Scale of the Universe flash app include the wavelengths of different colors of light. It’s a great way to show the show the relative sizes of these waves.
In a modern variant on the Powers of Ten video, Cary and Michael Huang have created an excellent flash game that spans the scale of the universe, from the smallest, only hypothesized particles, through atomic, human, planetary, and galactic scales (to name a but a few), to the size of the universe itself. It goes further than the Cell Size and Scale flash app.
The link is here, but look out for an advertisement that takes up the game window, which will eventually let you through (or you can click the “Skip Ad” link on the bottom right of the ad).
What are the chances that the revolutions of the Arab Spring succeed at creating democracies? According to a regression model created Jay Ulfelder: maybe.
[T]he probability that each of those new democracies would make it to their sixth birthday…:
- Tunisia: 82%
- Egypt: 48%
- Libya: 89%
Ulfelder’s blog post is worth the read. It’s an excellent (if somewhat technical) example of how to do (and write up) some quick research, and how the ability to blog is changing the way scientists share ideas, and get feedback (check out the comments section).
A wonderful explanation of why scientists create computer models of the universe (and how it’s done); it’s a bit like the solar nebula model writ large.
(via The Dish).