Belief in God Can Improve Mental Health Outcomes

A thought-provoking item but no surprise to those with a spirtual orientation:

" A new study suggests belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness."

O3B satellites launch

New developments in internet by satellite. Until now this has been done using geostationary satellites far from Earth which has meant a problematic 600ms delay in browsing, phone calls and gaming. This new company, as reported in this BBC news post, will be using satellites in a lower medium earth orbit giving quicker more responsive access. Service should start later this year.

"O3b is targeting parts of the world that currently have poor fibre-optic infrastructure.
With support from blue chip companies such as Google, it believes its network can change the broadband experience for millions of people by providing an alternative "fibre in the sky" to backhaul traffic."

Link

http://bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23028083

Google Street View continues to expand

Thanks to continued technological advances it is now possible to become an armchair tourist and visit (some) distant lands virtually using Google Steet View. North America seems to have the best coverage but some other countries also have good or partial coverage - I have not come across a list but see Wikipedia which has a map showing coverage.

After touring some places in the UK I discovered that some important Baha'i sites can be visited including some in Israel (the gardens in Haifa, Bahji, part of Akka) and also the Houses of Worship in the US and Australia (search for Bahai Temple Australia etc). See this post for links.

Google has an excellent gallery with many collections of locations.

Now we need Street View for Mount Roraima and Kaiteur falls...

IT in university level education

Came across two interesting and relevant articles.

First from MIT Technology Review concerns MOOCs (massive open online courses) which are attracting attention but are really only getting started.

"As online education platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity burst onto the scene over the past year, backers have talked up their potential to democratize higher education in the countries that have had the least access"

But:

"One of the major challenges for MOOCs—which so far mostly come from U.S. universities—is to tailor the content of courses to a diverse worldwide audience with any number of combinations of language, educational, motivational, and cultural backgrounds."

Doing one of these well is a major effort and requires many skills (e.g. graphics) not just a lecturer with a bit of training. Hopefully these courses will endure and be refined and improved over many years. Sustaining motivation is problem and most students find standalone online courses difficult to complete unless they are short.

And secondly is a rather critical article from Information Week about the use of IT in the university classroom:

"Professors at top research universities are highly skeptical of the value of the instructional technologies being injected into their classrooms, which many see as making their job harder and doing little to improve teaching and learning."

Note that while this may be indicative this a not a proper survey.

A historical note - Guyana tramways

Here is a page describing something which most of us know little about - tramways in Guyana or rather, British Guiana.
"In 1848 the British built a railroad, 5 miles long, from Georgetown to Plaisance, which was the first railroad on the South American continent...
A street railway began carrying passengers in Georgetown in 1877."
Thanks to Mr Allen Morrison.