I found myself laughing like crazy as I drove in to work this morning … and no, I am NOT crazy, but the podcast from Science Friday and the annual Science Ig Noble Awards that took place at Harvard made this morning’s commute to work real fun! In fact, tonight I intend to watch the awards video via my computer hookup to my TV. I think we will make it a family event … after all, it’s not every day that you can:

• Watch "Win a Date with a Nobel Laureate"
  (or)
• Listen to eminent scientists debate the virtues of "Yes" versus "No"

Nature magazine describes the awards in this manner: "Last, but not least, there are the Ig Nobel awards. These come with little cash, but much cachet, and reward those research projects that ‘first make people laugh, and then make them think"

Finally, here is how I listen to podcasts in my car: Drivetime Podcasts

Hello from Duluth, Minnesota … and the home of free wireless … sort of!

I am visiting my elderly relatives … who don’t even have a computer, let alone access via modem. No problem, turn on my laptop … walk around the house a bit … and thanks to some neighbors, I’m high speed linked. Tighten up your security, folks!

Anyhow, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, here is a hodge podge of valuable, and fun stuff. On the eLearning side, try this screencast tutorial which introduces Del.icio.us, a web service which allows you to tag and create public bookmarks … and benefit from other netizens similar actions:

• From Learning by Screencast – Del.icio.us

or maybe you are in the design more … a short introduction to Adobe Acrobat 8:

• c|Net Adobe Acrobat Tutorial

However, maybe you are into reading and would like to check out some of Microsoft’s latest technology. Here is a free eBook from Microsoft:

• Sharepoint 2007 eBook

Finally, it is Thanksgiving weekend …. thus have some fun:

• Line Rider (create a hill and watch your sledder fly!)(learn more: Gadgetopia)
• Guess the Google (you see the Google Image results … guess the query)

I learned of Guess the Google via "What I Learning Today"

We just completed another nasty political season … and everyone says … whatever happened to politeness in society?? Well, I bring you the "Living Past"

The first presidential election I remember was in 1964, Johnson versus Goldwater. I was eight years old at the time, and here are some memories from that era which I still can recall today:

• The Cuban Missile Crisis: As a young boy I was fascinated when the US Air Force suddenly moved many of their B-52’s to the airbase near my home in Duluth, Minnesota. Northern Minnesota was out of range of Cuban missiles.
  .
• The assassination of President Kennedy: In November of 1963 I was called a "walker" at school (age 7).  This meant I walked home for lunch every day, and then came back to school for the afternoon.  Do "walkers" even exist anymore? Regardless, I learned the tragic news about President Kennedy as I entered the school grounds after my lunch at home.  It was very obvious that something unusual had happened.

If you want to learn more about the 1960’s … or some other eras, take a look at these old political television campaign advertisements. Commercials could also be rather insulting in the past:

The Living Candidate – 1952 to 2004

• Barry Goldwater
• We will bury you! (in fact your children will grow up to be a communist)
  .
• Lyndon Baines Johnson – LBJ
• A Daisy and Nukes

Happy Thanksgiving … and for my readers who are U.S. citizens,  be thankful we live in a free society.

Last Summer I met Andrew McAfee at Wikimania. I was very impressed with this Harvard professor, both because of his obvious intelligence, but more importantly his ability to consider new ideas and incorporate those ideas into his teachings. Over the last two years, he decided Web 2.0 was for real, and started researching the adoption of these tools within the corporate environment. This past weekend he posted to his blog, along with screen shots, a very interesting analysis of a company whose intranet is a case study in the use of these knowledge management tools.  It is definitely worth a thorough read;

• Andrew McAfee:
  The Impact of Information Technology (IT) on Businesses and their Leaders