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The New York Times published two articles about the negative trend of test scores associated with wide spread Internet access. The first article has the detailed information. Essentially the studies looked at either areas where the Internet spread and compared test scores, or in the first case looking at a voucher program for low income families to purchase computers. In all of the cases cited test scores dropped, though in some cases only modestly.

My undergraduate degree is in Music Education. When I was student teaching my discipline for the class was setup on a rewards system (I was k5-5th grade). The class had "m-u-s-i-c" written on the board and would lose a letter if I needed to discipline for a particular reason. The reward was a star at the end of class and 1 point for each letter that remained on the board, with a bonus 5 points if no letters were removed. Basically it served as a competition. I told them that the class from each age group with the most points at the end of the month would get a special prize.

Wired is running an interesting review for The Heart is a Drum Machine. I have to admit I hadn't heard of this movie before, but now I am going to have to check it out. From the review it sounds like it is 1 part science for every part of artistry. Which should work out perfectly for me. I've already added it to my netflix queue and can't wait for it to get here.

So I've decided to take back my health. It really wasn't a new years resolution, though it all started at the beginning of the year. My sister lives in Georgia and has been an avid runner for some time now. She has been hounding me and my wife to run a race with her for a year or so. Finally when we saw the whole family at Christmas she convinced us to run a race. The only race that worked, however, was a half marathon and it was in February. The short of the story is that we decided to go for it.

During my Undergraduate degree music ed majors were required each semester to take an instrument class. At first I thought the idea was great. I would choose an instrument that I had no previous experience with and learn the basics in that instrument, maybe pick up a new instrument along the way. In reality I didn't like the classes at all for a few reasons. First my school had the grand idea that you learn theses instruments with the intent to be "prepared" to teach these instruments to beginning students.

We live in a time of change, an intersection of technological advancement and achievement. During such times there is often a tendency for people to take sides. On the one side you have the people embracing the change and on the other you have people clinging to the old ways. Sometimes it is fun to see the two worlds clash and other times it is outright painful.

This is an amazing video by Phoenix performing on a bus. Two things that make this great. First is that it is Phoenix, of course, and second because of the great videography. Enjoy:

Wired is reporting on the use of iPhones as instruments (see the video below). This is a really neat idea to me. First it goes beyond just the simple playback of notes. In this concert sounds are actually manipulated through the various sensors of the iPhone. The article notes the various sensors (touchscreen, microphone, compass, accelerometer).

I remember in college fighting over different practice rooms in the fine arts building. This was never a perfect system, in fact, it was downright aweful. Some people would park themselves in a practice room for hours at a time. At other times you would have to fight with brass groups or just that annoying trumpeter practicing the same high note for 2 hours straight. Of course there were coveted rooms. Not necessarily because there was anything all that special, but it varied for the reasons.

Google just announced that they are open sourcing Chrome OS. I've dug through a few things with Chrome, but haven't dug in deep. Mostly because there hasn't been a lot of support for Mac or Linux as of yet. But what I do know is that the browser has been well received. A lot of my friends swear by it, and that includes techies and non-techies alike.