Get Ready: Google Just Went to the Galapagos, and Pretty Soon You'll Go Too (Via Street View, of Course) - Rebecca J. Rosen - The Atlantic

Darwin would have been proud of this news below...

Get Ready: Google Just Went to the Galapagos, and Pretty Soon You'll Go Too (Via Street View, of Course) - Rebecca J. Rosen - The Atlantic: Chrisophe Bailhache of the Catlin Seaview Survey, a Google partner, navigates the underwater camera through a group of sea lions. (Google/Catlin Seaview Survey)
On Sunday, a team of Googlers returned to Mountain View with a special, digital cargo: hard drives loaded with 360-degree imagery taken during a 10-day adventure around the Galapagos Islands, covering both the islands' lush terrain and their surrounding waters. The crew passed off their files to the engineering team, who will stitch the files together into a seamless, explorable landscape to be released on Street View later this year (Google would not say more precisely when).

Yahoo Deal Shows Power Shift - WSJ.com

I think Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer is a visionary leader who has already changed the culture within Yahoo. Her ability to invigorate the company while bringing in exciting startups such as Tumblr is a game changer. Yahoo can finally get back in the game as a major player to be taken as seriously as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook.

My Photography part of the website runs on Tumblr, so I am excited for the potential upgrades this might bring. Congratulations are in order for both Yahoo and Tumblr. More details in the article below.

Yahoo Deal Shows Power Shift - WSJ.com

CNET's Sharon Vaknin compares Siri vs Google Now

This is a nice comparison of the types of questions that can be automated with Google Now and Siri. She concludes that Siri is a better assistant for productivity. Also, I do prefer my iPhone because I can benefit from both Google Now and Siri on my iPhone. For a list of questions that Siri can answer, click here.


Source: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57584898-285/google-now-vs-siri-virtual-assistants-duke-it-out-video/

Forbes' Naveen Jain shares his vision on the future of education

The field of education needs an iPhone-like revolution. The following author, published on Forbes, brings forth the science behind making education for adaptive, personalized, effective and addictive. I have highlighted the main points that the author makes and we should seriously consider the role of technology in improving education.

Favorite quote - Imagine how the world will change when we bring “creativity” to science and “logic” to arts.

Creating Adaptive, Personalized, Effective and Addictive Education System for the Next Century - Forbes

Photo Credit: http://www.davinciinstitute.com/

It’s time for us to go back to the drawing board and redesign the education system for the next century. Let me give you my thoughts on the functional specifications of the education system for the next century.

Adaptive – Student Centric Learning

Personalized – Self-paced learning

Gamification for Immersive and Addictive learning 

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Collaborative and Peer to Peer learning 

Punishment vs. Encouragement

Role of teacher to humanize the learning

Technology and future of education 

Inspiring video from the TED Talks Education event on PBS.

Some of the best and brightest minds in education spoke at the TED Talks Education event on PBS. It is not every day that you see John Legend on the topic of education and bring all of these wonderful speakers and leaders together in one forum. If you missed it on TV, check it out below. All the speakers truly engage your thinking about education and inspire you to improve and be better. My favorite by far was Sir Ken Robinson even though all of them were inspiring in their own ways.

Watch TED Talks Education on PBS. See more from TED Talks Education.

CO2 level passes a disturbing number - 400 ppm

Interesting graphics that addresses the disturbing trend of global warming. We have to ensure that the Obama administration is making climate change a top priority. The last time CO2 level was this high was 3 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch when the sea level was higher and earth was much much warmer. 

Read more about it here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/05/130510-earth-co2-milestone-400-ppm/ 

Time history of atmospheric carbon dioxide from 800,000 years ago until January, 2012.

Google Spreadsheet auto generates lists for you with just two examples

Oh, the power of the Google. Apparently, you only need two examples of whatever list you are looking for and once you begin dragging the cell down while holding Option or Control, Google will fill out similar categories for you. Talk about a brainstorming buddy - Google is at it again. Pure Genius =)

Check out a full list of options from the website below - 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/justinesharrock/a-glimpse-into-googles-brain-hidden-in-a-spreadsheet-app

Plan your digital afterlife with Google Inactive Account Manager

Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you plan your digital after-life. 

Immortality is finally at our fingertip. Technology has reached a point, where, technically we can keep you alive forever....digitally. Google really does think of everything, don't they? Apparently Facebook also has a policy to memorialize accounts for folks after they pass away. However, the process Facebook implements is more reactive rather than the proactive approach Google seems to be exploring. Kudos to your innovative approach Google and thank you for providing the freedom and choice to your customers. I predict Facebook and other major service providers to follow this trend of empowering their consumers.

Learn more about this here. Sign up and access Google Inactive Manager here.

Rumor has Google close to buying WhatsApp for $1B

I think the current messenger feature within Google Plus is abysmal. This would be a welcoming addition to improve messaging functionality of Google. Whatsapp is extremely popular on the iOS as well as Android and was one of the original method of communication between Blackberry and the iOS.

Rumor has Google close to buying WhatsApp for $1B:
"Rumor has Google close to buying WhatsApp for $1B
By AppleInsider Staff

Google is said to be well into negotiations with the team behind WhatsApp, with the search giant reportedly considering a $1 billion price tag for the popular cross-platform messaging app.

Climate change will increase extreme precipitation levels - latimes.com

Scientists are expecting precipitations to increase by 20%-30% in the future due to climate change. I wish we were more serious about tackling this real threat. Read more about it below -

Climate change will increase extreme precipitation levels - latimes.com

By Bettina Boxall
April 4, 2013, 4:21 p.m.
Rainfall or snowfall dumped by the most intense storms could grow significantly heavier in most of the United States by the final decades of the century, according to a new climate change study.

The paper, written by a research team led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, examines the effects of rising greenhouse gas emissions on factors that influence maximum precipitation.