Senor Parrot's Perch

In an interesting article, “Celebrating Success“, Jackie Gingrich Cushman reports on an afterschool program called Learn and Earn, designed to encourage struggling students to achieve in Math. This privately funded program seems to have had some good results. That’s good news.

As we move forward into the 21st century, more and more our skills in working abstractly with technology, which mathematical thinking enables, grows in importance. If we want our culture, with its excellent virtues to continue to advance and to be available to each of us and our neighbors, we need to continue to innovate to cultivate mathematical skills in every segment of society. We really can’t overlook our struggling students without bearing much of the cost ourselves. (more…)

Lured into a nearby woods, which he’s somehow never noticed before, by a gently urging breeze, Simon Bloom finds himself the keeper of the Teacher’s Edition of a Physics text book. Suddenly appearing above him, it klonks him on the head. Inside, Simon finds the formulas that allow him to manipulate the laws of physics.

Someone else wants that book, though, and that mysteriously cloaked person won’t let anything get in the way of getting that book! Simon, and his two friends Owen and Alyssa team up, learn their physics and face their enemy.

Simon Bloom is a great introduction to the science fiction genre. Aimed at the middle school aged children, it introduces the possibilities of manipulating the laws of science in a fast-paced and entertaining romp through the world of 11 and 12 year-olds in a mixture of science fiction and fantasy. Unlike the vast majority of fantasy, however, this book’s plot turns on the laws of physics, like gravity, velocity, and electronic charges, and how gaining an understanding of and manipulating these laws is both satisfying and empowering.

This is an excellent first novel for Michael Reisman. Its a smart book full of action and adventure, cleverly laid out and developed. It clearly is meant to have sequels, but this book is completely self-contained, with a satisfying ending that ties together all the loose ends. Nevertheless, Reisman pulls loose some of the strands before the last page and has me anxiously looking forward to the sequel.

Universal studios has purchased the rights to the movie for this. That’s good news.

Reisman’s Myspace page

Book Info: (I read the Advanced Reader’s Copy, possibly a smidge differerent than the official version here)

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (February 14, 2008)
• ISBN-13: 978-0525479222

If you’ve read The Mysterious Benedict Society then you’ll remember that Mr. Curtain, the bad guy in the story, had developed his own power system using wave and tidal power. Here is a YouTube video of the AP news story with a brief report and description of actual work to harness the power of waves to produce electricity. Its a neat video showing some actual devices and deployments in the lab.

This is an exciting new direction, especially in light of the renewed interest in alternative sources of energy. Think of all the engineering challenges. What sort of materials will withstand the ocean environment for long periods of time and still maintain their functionality? What about barnacles and other ocean flora and fauna? Will they glom onto the apparatuses and bog them down or stop them dead in their tracks?

There are political challenges, as well. Where will these be placed? Will they interfere with fishing and recreation to a great enough extent that political barriers will be raised against their use? Doubtless, there are many challenges to satisfying our never ending needs for new sources of energy.

Here are two other interesting lines of questions I’m interested in here. What ecological effect would wave-energy farms have on ocean habitats and what economic conditions will need to exist for us to really break free of our dependence on oil and coal as our major sources of energy?