Video Found: Schools Kill Creativity (Ken Robinson)
I thought you all would be interested in this February 2006 talk by Ken Robinson about how schools destroy our creativity. As someone who teaches at the university level, and someone who loves the “what if” aspect of science fiction, I think there is a lot to be said about the way we teach our students. The sad truth is that people who study pedagogy know that our public schools are (at least partially) a failure. They’ve been saying it for decades. But the people who run our schools are, more often than not, people who either don’t have degrees or didn’t get them in professions which required them to learn how to teach. That’s not the case with myself. Part of my educational requirements here at the University of Florida is to teach undergraduate composition and (now) literature courses. We’re still teaching formulaic writing at the university level, something which I’ve tried to go against in my courses. The result of working in opposition to formula has been eye-opening. Many students simply don’t know how to be creative. Some of those students, when challenged to think for themselves and to use their critical thinking skills (what little they have) to move beyond the “right way of thinking and writing” often get flustered, because they haven’t a clue what to do, how to do it, and so on. We’re not teaching our young people how to be the builders of tomorrow. We’re teaching them how to fit into a society which works like a repetitive machine. And as we’ve seen in the last few years, that machine is running out of oil. It’s breaking down. Here’s the video (after the fold):
Video Found: The Right Car For the Zombie Apocalypse
Apparently one car company is already thinking about the future, in which zombies take over the forest and force wannabe baseball players to run for their lives. Can you guess which company? I’d buy a car from them, that’s for sure… (Thanks to Grasping for the Wind for the original discovery.)
Video Found: H+ (Web Series by Bryan Singer)
It seems fitting that a show about new social networking technology gone wrong would be announced weeks after Google+ graced our screens. It’s almost like Singer knew + was coming. Like a conspiracy… In any case, if you want to learn more about the series, go here. Otherwise, enjoy the video: It looks pretty awesome, doesn’t it? (Thanks for SF Signal for the find.)
Video Found: A History of Pretty Much Everything
The video below is why Stumbleupon is one of the most amazing things ever. It’s also why the pen will always be mightier than MS Word. I have no idea how the creator came up with the idea, but apparently he used over 2,100 pages to do it. That’s a lot of trees, which I’m strangely okay with. Here’s the video:
Video Found: Ocarina of Time 3D — The Robin Williams Commercial
Robin Williams is totally awesome in this commercial. Totally geeky. Totally Williams. I’ll probably be equally as geeky as a father, since I already know I’m naming some of my kids after characters in books or science fiction movies… Here’s the video:
Video Found: Sheen Lantern
Charlie Sheen is insane. But you already knew that. So what does that make the people who came up with the video below? Either bloody brilliant or batsh*t crazy… Here’s the video: Craziness…