When it comes to writing the pen apparently is mightier than the computer keyboard. Second, fourth and sixth grade children with and without handwriting disabilities were able to write more and faster when using a pen than a keyboard to compose essays, according to new research. The study, headed by Virginia Berninger, a University of Washington professor of educational psychology who studies normal writing development and writing disabilities, looked at children’s ability to write the alphabet, sentences and essays using a pen and a keyboard. ‘Children consistently did better writing with a pen when they wrote essays. They wrote more and they wrote faster.’ said Berninger. Only for writing the alphabet was the keyboard better than the pen. For sentences results were mixed. But when using a pen, the children in all three grade levels produced longer essays and composed them at a faster pace. In addition, fourth and sixth graders wrote more complete sentences when they used a pen. The ability to write complete sentences was not affected by the children’s spelling skills. The research also showed that many children don’t have a reliable idea of what a sentence is until the third or fourth […]
The Germans have found a new way to solve a classic greenhouse gas logic puzzle while keeping their auto assembly lines running. The puzzle: What’s the cheapest way to increase electricity generation while reducing carbon emissions, bearing in mind that installing more wind and solar will require investing $2 trillion in new transmission lines and a single 1 Gigawatt nuclear power plant now runs about $17 billion? Two additional facts: Generating electricity accounts for 41 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions, and two-thirds of those emissions are the result of energy being lost as heat, i.e. wasted. The German Answer: Put thousands of VW workers on the assembly line to make home-sized natural gas furnace/hot water heater/generators. These generators, based on a natural gas engine already used in the Golf, are 92 percent efficient (because they can use the waste heat for heating water or homes) and can either produce electricity for home use or put it out on the grid. In other words, they’re removing much of the second fact (waste), and also removing the need to build many more transmission lines. And, if the company Lichtblick is to be believed, they’ll be creating the generation […]
Genetic scientists have discovered a cure for colour blindness, offering hope to millions of sufferers. Scientists at the University of Washington, in Seattle, and the University of Florida restored normal vision to two colour-blind monkeys. The technique could prove to be a safe and effective cure for colour blindness and other visual disorders related to the cones in the retina. ‘Although colour blindness is only moderately life-altering, we have shown we can cure a cone disease in a primate and that it can be done very safely, said Professor William Hauswirth, an ophthalmic molecular geneticist at the University of Florida. ‘That is extremely encouraging for the development of therapies for human cone diseases that really are blinding. Those suffering from red-green colour blindness cannot distinguish between colours in the green-red-yellow part of the spectrum. This can make reading maps, using the internet and selecting a matching shirt and tie impossible. The disorder affects about 8 per cent of Caucasian males, but fewer than 0.5 per cent of females. Normal colour vision requires three types of cone in the retina, sensitive to light in the blue, green, and red parts of the spectrum. The squirrel monkeys in […]
The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the third-lowest recorded since satellites began measuring sea ice extent in 1979, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. While this year’s September minimum extent was greater than each of the past two record-setting and near-record-setting low years, it is still significantly below the long-term average and well outside the range of natural climate variability, said NSIDC Research Scientist Walt Meier. Most scientists believe the shrinking Arctic sea ice is tied to warming temperatures caused by an increase in human-produced greenhouse gases being pumped into Earth’s atmosphere. Atmospheric circulation patterns helped the Arctic sea ice spread out in August to prevent another record-setting minimum, said Meier. But most of the 2009 September Arctic sea ice is thin first- or second-year ice, rather than thicker, multi-year ice that used to dominate the region, said Meier. The minimum 2009 sea-ice extent is still about 620,000 square miles below the average minimum extent measured between 1979 and 2000 — an area nearly equal to the size of Alaska, said Meier. ‘We are still seeing a downward trend that […]
City signs have a unique way of greeting people. In Issaquah, for instance, motorists are told they’re entering ‘a special place where people care.’ For years, Bothell invited people to stay ‘for a day or a lifetime.’ In Medina, a new sign bears this warning: ‘You Are Entering a 24 Hour Video Surveillance Area.’ Cameras have recently been installed at intersections to monitor every vehicle coming into the city. Under the ‘automatic license plate recognition’ project, once a car enters Medina, a camera captures its license-plate number. Within seconds, the number is run through a database. If a hit comes up for a felony - say, the vehicle was reported stolen or is being driven by a homicide suspect - the information is transmitted instantaneously to police, who can ‘leap into action,’ said Police Chief Jeffrey Chen. ‘These cameras provide us with intelligence,’ Chen said. ‘It gets us in front of criminals. I don’t like to be on a level playing field with criminals.’ He declined to give the number and location of all the cameras. Medina - a city of 3,100 with an average household income of $222,000 - had discussed the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
