Automatic Professor Machine lecture restored

L.C. Winner's "Introducing the Automatic Professor Machine" lecture has been offline for a while. It has now been restored as a streaming video, about 23 minutes long. It takes a time to load and the transition between parts 1 and 2 is still a little rough, but its compelling vision of the future of technology-centered education is worth the occasional glitches in transmission

Still happily ensconced as C.E.O. of EDU-SHAM, Inc., L.C. tells me that he's been busy on a U.S. government no-bid contract to restore quality education to Iraq by introducing APMs in a variety of bomb-proof formats: Shia, Sunni, Kurd, Insurgent, and the newly introduced Refugee model (conveniently placed on escape routes for those fleeing the country).

"With our successful efforts in Iraqi reconstruction just about complete, I look forward to launching our new innovations in Glow-Ball pedagogy," he commented from Baghdad recently.

Political tsunami: the election of 2006

I'm beginning to look at the analysis of the 2006 election results. This story in the NYT contains a basic breakdown. (You have to click on the link in the left margin "Survey of Voters: Who They Were.")



Much of the data is encouraging, the breakdown on youth, black, hispanic, voters, etc. The Times story emphasizes that evangelicals stuck with the Republicans. No surprise there. But trends for much of the electorate moved in a different direction.

Women were 52% of all voters and voted 56% Democratic. Young voters 18-29, 12% of the total, voted 61% for the Dems. A new youth revolt against the forces of war, imperialism and inequality?

A first glance at these numbers reveals some very, very hopeful signs. I recall the warmth, enthusiasm and explicitly political message of the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Living with War" concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center last August, thinking "this is great, but too good to be true." But it was one of many glimmerings of a tsunami on the horizon. Of course, it will take a lot of work to continue and to build upon these gains.

- Langdon

Call Center: the movie

If you've got ten minutes and want a good chuckle, check out "Call Center," a film about global information networks that connect East and West. It's well produced and hilarious.

(Thanks to Aneel Salman for telling me about this! - LW)