Must have Zotero

If you're doing research and need to organize your references, look no further: Zotero is the current best option. Tried Endnote? Refworks? Bookmark tagging software? They all fall short of Zotero. Why?

Zotero is a plugin for Firefox2.0 which means it's with you whereever you go. It doesn't just bookmark sites, it allows full content screen capture. It's got highlighting, notetaking, tagging, and a variety of other annotation features. And by far, it's depth in organizing your references will make them easier for you to find. Finally, it creates bibliographies and source citations in Word and soon, Open Office.

If this doesn't make sense to you, and you're not sure you want or will use Zotero, ask yourself the following questions. Have you ever written a research paper with source citations? Have you ever gone to a web site and bookmarked the site to come back later and find the site gone? If yes, you need Zotero.

Read Scott McLemee's review in Inside Higher Ed.
Watch this simple Zotero tour to be dazzled beyond belief!

One Laptop per Child

Well-designed, cheap, light, robust and a good cause. What more could you want in a laptop?

Check out Nicholas Negroponte's, a professor at MIT, ambitious program. Better yet, get one for yourself and give one to a child with the G1G1 program!



Links:
Laptop.org
CBS 60 minutes news story

you could have said no

copyright 2007 Sam Brown www.explodingdog.com

Paul Potts goes on to win the entire competition

2007 Britain's Got Talent

Have you ever wondered why Indianians are called Hoosiers?

Hoosier is the common word used to describe the residents of the State of Indiana. Often used to discuss Indiana University athletic teams and the title of a movie starring Gene Hackman. Well established in its use since 1826, the etymology of the word varies widely. Ranging from the slurred version of "Who's there?" to the name of an Indianian contractor whose workers were named "Hoosier's men," a variety of stories abound!

Really, what does anyone know about grizzly bears?

After watching a PBS special on grizzlies, I thought I would share in 5 scintillating points!

• In the past, grizzly bears roamed all of western North America. Now, not so much.
  
• Why? Because humans killed them until there were only maybe a 100 left in the Yellowstone area.
• But since people really like looking at bears, Yellowstone developed bear feeding areas. To get the bears there, they dumped all the garbage from the campers into the feeding zones.
  
• After generations of this domesticating action, Yellowstone figured out that it wasn't doing the bears any good. In the early 1970's, they removed all dumping/feeding grounds.
• Naturally, the bears were perplexed and began scavenging in camps (they'd forgotten how to hunt). Unfortunately, many bears were destroyed, i.e., killed for trespassing. What happens when a bear attacks you?
  
  
• Thankfully, resilient bears soon remembered how to survive in the wild. They have grown to over 350 breeding females in Yellowstone and the question now is: are there too many bears?

That's the recap. Now the interesting thing for me is that bears disappear in the high summer. Where do they go and what are they doing? Check this video out to learn more.

Update: Results of landmark montana grizzly bear study (USGS)

Romantic and Educational: What more does the heart want?

El Corazon
From WIRED Science | PBS
Airdate: October 17, 2007
More info: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/144-el_corazon.html



Romantic melodies and rhythm combined with anatomical lyrics and a dollop of humor!

Recent studies are finding that every mammalian species has the same number of heartbeats per lifetime after which death occurs. That's why elephants and whales with slower heartbeats live longer while shrews live much shorter. The kicker is humans and our use of medical science to keep us going longer than the rest of mammals. (This includes our domesticated pets for which we also use medicine to keep 'em tickin').