Math Art: Fractals

Not really sure what fractals are - other than art created from math using computers. Click on image to see full size.

Created by Wolfgang Beyer with the program Ultra Fractal 3.
Licensed by Creative Commons -

There are also some great images on flickr from the New York Public Library, and LIFE magazine has posted amazing photos on Google.

Links for teachers

Biology: what glowing hamsters can teach us about genetics (video of animals bio-engineered); reprints of antique medical illustrations - cross reference with cool art; European Molecular biology lab creates 3-D digital embryos - kinda like Google Earth on a REALLY small scale.

Psychology: - study shows cognitive therapy is as good as antidepressants; study looks at why failure inspires some and demoralizes others; book review - The Time Paradox, re: how individuals think of time shapes personality; Brain science - the source of genius;

• Science: Richard Feynman on the essence of Science;
• Language: Merriam-webster announces top 5 words of the year.
• Art and Music: the youtube symphony orchestra puts classical music online; Free downloads of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash duets; the white album turns 40; 10 fun facts about Picasso (source for images); reprints of antique medical illustrations - cross reference with biology.
• History: world history in images from 1949 to 1989 in under 5 minutes - to the tune of Billy Joel's We didn't start the fire (video).
• Green issues - the environment: green cars at LA auto show.

image from http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-01/homer-simpson-brain-mri.jpg

More teaching resources from the web.

With the election there's a load of great content that might connect to students' lives.

• The last presidential debate in 10 easy minutes (video)
• Standford's course on presidential elections (lot o' links + video)
• The geography of the US presidential election - part 1 (Spoiler alert: the whole Red/ Blue state dichotomy is misleading and trite). Stanford lecture (almost 2 hour video)
  

In the world of literature:

• Academy award winning animated video of Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea
• This year's Nobel prize for literature goes to...
• Free Yale course on the american novel since 1945

Business and Economics

• Nobel Prize (in Econ) Paul Krugman on the current "readjustment/ crash" (word choice depends on your portfolio).
• Free Yale course on Financial Markets

See Also:

• Art:a horse paints -is it art?
• Geography and culture: gaming software used to create virtual tour of BeiJing's Forbidden City
• History: PBS documentaries on the 1929 crash
• Debate: Batman vs. the Penguin

Free courses by Yale including:

• Milton, Greek history, The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877, Fundamentals of Physics , France Since 1871, game theory

and seasonal botany photo

700 lbs - so it says.

Web resources for teachers

Going to try a new format. Too much fun (and potentially relevant) stuff; if it isn't shared quick it could be lost, so minimal descriptions

Video of scholarly and education merit to provoke discussion (or digression):

1. Anthropology: KSU's web celeb anthropologist Michael Wesch
   
2. Biology - crab rides a jellyfish; Learning about memory and aging on YouTube
3. Business: Yale professor explains financial crisis in 10 minutes
   
4. Chemistry;
5. Physics (including a boomarang in zero gravity);
6. Art: THe 50 greatest art videos on YouTube;
7. Collections: NYTimes top 5 online video lectures - and Open Cultures top 75 online educational videos - part of their "signs of intelligent life on youtube collection". Free Engineering and SCience courses from Stanford online; source to watch complete documentary films for free;
8. Pedagogy: Father Guido Sarducci breaks it down (learning and retention- Remember Saturday Night Live in the late 70's? funny because it's true)

See Also

• Education and technology: research shows people are more likely to lie in email;
  
• Brain Science: how the mind works - Brain Rules reviewed; What Magic teaches us about neural processing (2 articles), what it feels like to have a stroke (neuroanatomy part of TEDS talks - best stuff on YouTube); 2008 election and neuroscience
  
• Language: argument that English is a user-defined and user-modified technology; Chinglish recognized as full-fleged dialect (anyone have info on Spanglish?); Stanford's online writing classes; podcasts can teach you almost any language
  
• FREE AUDIOBOOKS: The Gutenberg project - a huge mass of audio books on line - I only bookmark human read titles, see also the growing collection by Literal Systems; 1984 by Orwell:
• How to (DIY's): how to make garden lights out of LED lights and mason jars; How to make online video's without getting sued (copyright info).
• Pedagogy and books to consider: review of book How Children Fail by John Holt;
• History: animated video of Howard Zinn's History of the US Empire
  
• Election related: a non-partisan project helps community organizers to find neighbors who think they are registered but actually aren't; 2008 election and neuroscience
  
• Of arcane scholarly interest: info and links to photos by famed Harvard Ethnobotanist (combined ethnography and botany);