Quo Vadis Education? Stanley Fish has it right at the New York Times : Back to Classical Education

CHANGE in EDUCATION. How about it?

Do yourself a favor and READ the New York Times Opinionator article by Stanley Fish at the New York Times link below.

Here is where education should be going in the United States....

In A Classical Education: Back to the Future - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com Fish writes:

"Ravitch, like Nussbaum, finds little hope in the policies of President Obama, who promised change but seems to have picked up “the same banner of choice, competition, and markets that had been the hallmark of his predecessors.” The result is that we continue to see “the shrinking of time available to teach anything other than reading and math; other subjects, including history, science, the arts, geography, even recess, were curtailed.”

Ravitch’s recommendations are simple, commonsensical and entirely consonant with the views of Bortins and Nussbaum. Begin with “a well conceived, coherent, sequential curriculum,” and then “adjust other parts of the education system to support the goals of learning.” This will produce a “foundation of knowledge and skills that grows stronger each year.” Forget about the latest fad and quick-fix, and buckle down to the time-honored, traditional “study and practice of the liberal arts and sciences: history, literature, geography, the sciences, civics mathematics, the arts and foreign languages.”"

The Coming Internet of THINGS: Symantec invests in Gadget Protector Mocana

One of the "things" that the upcoming Bilski decision will impact -- either directly by its holding, or indirectly by avoiding the issue -- is the technology gadget aspect of the Internet, an "Internet of Things".

See VentureBeat and Symantec invests in internet gadget protector Mocana.

The Internet is becoming more and more a medium run on -- and with - gadgets, and this "machine" combination of software and gadgetry, bypassing the PC, is opening up a new patent area which will be gigantic in scope as time moves on.

Citizens Interact with Government Online: Data Transparency and the Coming Gov 2.0 Boom on the Internet

The interaction of citizens with the government via the internet is still in its starting stages, but John Tozzi at Bloomberg BusinessWeek sees government data transparency as an emerging online field. See Gov 2.0: The Next Internet Boom - BusinessWeek

Stupidity Rules:The Internet is No Exception

Here is a fair question and the inevitable answer: Is the Internet Making Us Smarter or Dumber? Yes.

Immigration Law and Visa Problems for Problematical Celebrities

Sometimes a celebrity is simply denied a visa to enter or perform in a country due to previous events. See BBC News - Visa woes: Celeb plans go on hold

Because of Failure to Pay Patent Maintenance Fees, more than 50% of 1997 Patents Already Expired

Patent Maintenance Fee Data at the Patent Law Blog (Patently-O) shows that over 50% of patents expire due to failure to pay maintenance fees. See Patent Maintenance Fee Data.

Though not stated at that source, one can surmise that one reason for this is that patents are filed in the hope of exploiting them for money-making purposes, but that many patents filed are not commercially viable, so that it does not pay to fork out the high maintenance fees down the road when it turns out that a patent is not making enough money for the patent holder to justify further expense.

It would be interesting to determine what percentage of patents filed are ever actually "asserted".

It would also be interesting to study patent maintenance as a function of the commercial size of the patent holder and to group the non-maintained patents by subject matter.