cuz's blog

Engineering for Change has announced the ten finalists in a contest to design a solar cooker that would actually meet the needs of rural Indian villagers. Early designs were rejected because they couldn't be used in the early morning to cook breakfast or in the evening to cook dinner.

There are a few icons of early urban planning. Jane Addam's Hull House in Chicago is one of them. It's founding in the late 1800s marked not only a significant step forward for women but also the beginning of social work in the US. Current government budget cuts of support for community outreach and services combined with an increase in demand for those services due to the ongoing economic crisis has made operations financially unsustainable. Hull House has just closed.

In his Chronicle of Higher Education column today, James Lang writes about Stephen Chew's application of metacognition concepts to the process of learning. Metacognition could be called the "American Idol theory" or (more locally) the "Superstar K theory", in which some truly lousy singers sincerely enter the competition in the belief that they are truly great. Basically, the idea is that incompetent people's very incompetence often blinds them to that incompetence. In the educational setting, weak students often believe they have mastered a subject even if their understanding is fragmented and superficial. Dr. Chew has a series of videos for students and teachers explaining the concept and identifying strategies for tackling the problem.

The NYT published an article the other day on the probably overzealous application of Korea's National Security Law under the current president. Apparently a gentleman was arrested and is being prosecuted for creating and posting (on Twitter?) this parody of a DPRK poster. In it, the soldier's face has been replaced by the creator's own and his gun with a bottle of expensive whiskey. The original caption reads: "For our nation, which is like no other!"

I'm not sure if by reposting this image, I am also guilty! According to the article, the law has been applied unevenly.

“What once were called exchanges and cooperation with North Korea are now acts of ‘aiding the enemy,’ ” Mr. Lee said. He cited cases in which people were convicted based on conversations with North Korean officials during trips authorized under previous, more liberal governments.

Additionally,

Court records show that, depending on the prosecutor or judge, “The Communist Manifesto” was either a political pamphlet of historical interest or “subversive material” whose possession was punishable by as much as seven years in prison.

Well, what interesting times! It has just been announced that Kim Jong-Il, the leader of North Korea, has died "on a train trip to give field guidance to workers". This immediately raises tensions on the Peninsula, but is unlikely to result in any real harm to South Korea (or at least I hope not!). It does, however, introduce an enormous element of uncertainty about the future of the two Koreas. As the power struggle behind the scenes in Pyongyang play out (almost surely invisibly to us), we are likely to see a shift in the North's approach, especially if Kim Jong-Un retains power and is as cosmopolitan as a recent interview has made him out to be.