January 2011

Looks like today is Education Day on Geekman.com. Mashable has a fascinating list of 100+ Online Resources That Are Transforming Education.

MIT OpenCourseWare and Stanford eCorner are leading examples of free online content from top universities. Tools for publishing (and charging for) online educational content include Faculte.com, uDemy.com, Videolla.com, LearnOutLoud and LeapingBrain.com. Youtube.EDU and iTunes U are general purpose content distribution hubs. OERCommons.org is a search engine for open-licensed content. Sites like About.com, HubPages, Instructibles, AssociatedContent and eHow collect practical advice on everyday topics.

Doing research for a school paper? You need these 100 Google Search Tricks for the Savviest of Students.

Reference

These tricks make it easy to use Google as a reference tool.

18. Get definitions: Find definitions for words, abbreviations, and more using define:.
19. Get a timeline: With view:timeline, plus a keyword, you can get a timeline for the topic.
20. Find numbers: Add phone to your search, and Google will look for anything that looks like a phone number.
21. Do fact searches: Population, location, motto, and more are all available as Google fact searches.
22. Glossary: With a word, plus ~glossary, you can find glossaries, lists, and dictionary entries for the word.
23. Conversion: Google's search makes it easy to convert any unit of measurement.

Neil Shurley explains that there are at least 11 Ways to Live Like Doctor Who:

Smile. Before the new series, the image most folks had of Doctor Who was the smiling man with the floppy hat and long scarf. And for good reason. This was a Doctor who disarmed folks with his good cheer. He confounds foes by offering them candy. He’s charming and brilliant and, for many people, he still is The Doctor.

Reddit has a epic thread on the fine art of April Fool's pranks. This one has promise:

The best April Fools joke I pulled was last year. I bought a small jar of mayo, emptied it out and washed it, then filled it with pudding. At a friend's house that evening, I casually pulled it out of my purse and started eating it.