Wednesday 16 February 2011

Reading and driving

Apologies for the lengthy gaps between posts. February - with KiwiFoo Camp, Webstock, life, work and radio - is always a bit of a squeeze.

Over the weekend I had the privilege of attending KiwiFoo Camp, a gathering of about 170 people from fields as diverse as farming to psychology to product design. It was my third year attending, and as stimulating and eye-opening as ever. My particular revelation was Tim Bell from University of Canterbury and his Computer Science Unplugged work, which I'm hoping to write up on my work blog shortly.

One of my favourite sessions was one I co-ran with Nat Torkington; a simple session where people in the room simply make book recommendations. I've been to or run three or four of these sessions in the past 6 months with different groups, and I find the overlap and the idiosyncrasies fascinating. I've collated almost all of the recommendations into a list on Goodreads. The one missing item is The Pitcher and the Well, a memoir of an anonymous RNZAF navigator recorded as he lay dying of wounds in a German POW camp during WWII. However the full text is available online.

Later today I'll be on National Radio's Nine to Noon programme in my usual fortnightly art slot. I'll be talking about Google's Art Project and, if I get time, the ways Google Earth have been used for archaeological research. These are the links I've provided for the show

The Google Art Project site

Google Art Project YouTube channel

Roberta Smith on the Google Art Project, New York Times

Alastair Sooke on the Google Art Project, The Telegraph

Google Earth

New Scientist article on archaeologists using Google Earth

National Geographic article on archaeologists using Google Earth

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