ITGSopedia

Good article on the dangers of failing to update legacy systems.

Good source of free photos. Well indexed so it's easy to find what you need.

Good article on pros and cons of distance learning in the college environment.

Good comparison of smart cards and magnetic stripe cards. Has international implications.

Pros and cons of robotic surgery.

stereotactic radiosurgery, or SRS, is one of the fastest-growing radiation therapies, a technological innovation designed to target tiny tumors and other anomalies affecting the brain or spinal cord, while minimizing damage to surrounding tissue. Because the radiation is so concentrated and intense, accuracy is especially important. Yet, according to records and interviews, the SRS unit at Evanston lacked certain safety features, including those that might have prevented radiation from leaking outside the cone. The mistakes in Evanston involve linear accelerators - commonly used for standard radiation therapy - that were redesigned by the manufacturer, Varian Medical Systems, so they could also perform SRS. As the devices became more versatile and complex, problems arose when vital electronic components could not communicate with one another.

A Dutch schoolteacher with no formal training in astronomy, Ms. van Arkel had joined tens of thousands of other Web volunteers to help classify photographs taken by deep-space telescopes. Stumped by the unusual image on her computer screen, she e-mailed the project staff for guidance. Staff members were stumped, too. And thus was christened the celestial body now known to astronomers worldwide as Hanny's Voorwerp (Dutch for "object"). Stories like Ms. van Arkel's are becoming more common, as the Internet opens up new opportunities for so-called citizen scientists. And as millions of people get involved in these participatory projects, scientists are grappling with how best to harness the amateurs' enthusiasm.

FORT BENNING, Ga. - War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots. Smarter Than You Think Government Issue Articles in this series are examining the recent advances in artificial intelligence and robotics and their potential impact on society. Previous Articles in the Series » Multimedia Interactive Graphic A New Generation of Robotic Weapons RSS Feed Get Science News From The New York Times » Enlarge This Image David Walter Banks for The New York Times REMOTELY CONTROLLED Some armed robots are operated with video-game-style consoles, helping to keep humans away from danger. And while smart machines are already very much a part of modern warfare, the Army and its contractors are eager to add more. New robots - none of them particularly human-looking - are being designed to handle a broader range of tasks, from picking off snipers to serving as indefatigable night sentries.

As China ratcheted up the pressure on Google to censor its Internet searches last year, the American Embassy sent a secret cable to Washington detailing one reason top Chinese leaders had become so obsessed with the Internet search company: they were Googling themselves.

Analysis of the use of clickers in the classroom.

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning. Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks - and less able to sustain attention.

Mobile robots are now being used in hundreds of hospitals nationwide as the eyes, ears and voices of doctors who cannot be there in person. They are being rolled out in workplaces, allowing employees in disparate locales to communicate more easily and letting managers supervise employees from afar. And they are being tested as caregivers in assisted-living centers.

Increasingly, however, the ads tailored to them are for specific products that they have perused online. While the technique, which the ad industry calls personalized retargeting or remarketing, is not new, it is becoming more pervasive as companies like Google and Microsoft have entered the field. And retargeting has reached a level of precision that is leaving consumers with the palpable feeling that they are being watched as they roam the virtual aisles of online stores.

Kelly Ward, senior software engineer for Walt Disney Animation Studios, was tasked with bringing Rapunzel's locks to life in Disney's new movie, Tangled, out Nov. 24. The hair had to look realistic, but not too real -- otherwise Rapunzel would be towing 80 pounds behind her. Footage courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Kelly Ward Viewed 20294 times.

By combining advances in educational technology with improved understanding of young children's cognitive development, the Evolution Readiness project is producing an empirically validated curriculum for introducing evolution in the elementary grades. We are using computer-based, manipulable models of interacting organisms and their environments to help fourth grade students learn Darwin's model of natural selection as the process primarily responsible for evolution.

Sodaconstructor is a construction kit for interactive creations using masses and springs. 1 By altering physical properties like gravity, friction, and speed, curiously anthropomorphic models can be made to walk, climb, wriggle, jiggle, or collapse into a writhing heap.

Online mind mapping software.

At TED@Cannes, Gary Wolf gives a 5-min intro to an intriguing new pastime: using mobile apps and always-on gadgets to track and analyze your body, mood, diet, spending -- just about everything in daily life you can measure -- in gloriously geeky detail.

Facebook may have found a way to break the Egyptian government's blockade of its website. The government there has been blocking several social media sites that demonstrators are using to organize and document protests. Today marks the third day of protests in Egypt calling for the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak. Facebook is using lessons it learned in Tunisia, where the government allegedly hacked its Web site and tried to steal the passwords and personal information of protesters in that country. Jillian York of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society monitors the Arab world online and discusses efforts to get around governments' blockades of social media sites.