Tag: History

Impact Lab > History
Analysis, Education, Historical Perspectives, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The history of distance learning: Infographic

In 2009, over 4 million students were taking some sort of course online.

The insertion of the internet into our daily lives sure has changed the landscape of how distance learning has evolved and is consumed, there was certainly a lot of history that preceded it. The infographic below takes a look at the strides distance learning has made over the years and really highlights how the internet has really helped to expand the offerings to many more people.

 

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Analysis, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Abraham Lincoln was the most unifying president in U.S. history: Poll

Abraham Lincoln

According to a new poll released by The Atlantic and The Aspen Institute Americans consider themselves to be members of a divided nation. As Bob Cohnnotes, “Every day we hear about how society is splitting apart — a polarized Congress, a fragmented media market, a persistent schism among Americans over social issues.” There is, however, one question from the poll that showed a certain kind of unity among Americans that I found surprising and heartening.

 

 

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Analysis, Business, Economy, Education, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

History of the job market for new college graduates

Congratulations class of 2013: you weren’t the class of 2010.

For most undergrads, college graduation is an occasion to celebrate, but in this economy we know it’s also a time of gnawing, career-oriented dread for plenty others. Even at Harvard, where Oprah is sharing some words of wisdom at commencement this week, just 61 percent of soon-to-be grads told the Crimson that they had an actual job lined up. One in ten said they had no set plans for the future.

 

 

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Analysis, Business, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Downloadable Personalities for Your Computer

Futurist Thomas Frey: Fifteen years ago in an article I wrote for The Futurist Magazine, I made the prediction that once we had talking computers, we would soon have downloadable personalities to create a more human-like experience. I went on to suggest that most of us would actually download multiple personalities so we could interact with the right persona at any given moment.

 

 

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Analysis, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The human body will be the next computer interface

Humans have been interfacing with machines for thousands of years.

You have probably heard a lot about wearables, living services, the Internet of Things, and smart materials by now. Designers are beginning to think about even weirder and wilder things, envisioning a future where evolved technology is embedded inside our digestive tracts, sense organs, blood vessels, and even our cells.

 

 

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Big Problems, government, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

26,121 people missing during Mexico’s Calderon era

People in Mexico City show pictures of missing women.

During the six years of Mexico’s former President Felipe Calderon’s administration the number of people who went missing stands at 26,121 according to government officials.  That figure ranks as among the worst episodes of “disappearances” in Latin American history.

 

 

 

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Analysis, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

The end of the paper map

The enchanted era of geographic gaffes is coming to an end.

Tens of millions of iPhone users last week found that they could suddenly leave their homes again without getting either lost or cross. Google was finally able to release an app containing its own mapping system. Google Maps had been sorely missed for several months, ever since Apple booted it in favor of the company’s own inadequate alternative—a cartographic dud blamed for everything from deleting Shakespeare’s birthplace to stranding Australian travelers in a desolate national park 43 miles away from their actual destination. As one Twitter wag declared: “I wouldn’t trade my Apple Maps for all the tea in Cuba.”

 

 

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Business, Historical Perspectives

Family run companies in the U.S. that have been around 100-plus years

Trimper’s Rides has been operating continuously for 122 summers on Ocean City’s famous Boardwalk.

It;s not uncommon for customers at Carl Heimerdinger’s family retail store for customers to bring in scissors for sharpening that were purchased there decades ago by a parent or grandparent.

 

 

 

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Analysis, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Information decay is eating away our web history

One of the characteristics of the modern media age  is that we are surrounded by vast clouds of rapidly changing information, whether it’s blog posts or news stories or Twitter and Facebook updates. That’s great if you like real-time content, but there is a not-so-hidden flaw — namely, that you can’t step into the same stream twice, as Heraclitus put it. In other words, much of that information may (and probably will) disappear as new information replaces it, and small pieces of history wind up getting lost. According to a recent study, which looked at links shared through Twitter about news events like the Arab Spring revolutions in the Middle East, this could be turning into a substantial problem.

 

 

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Analysis, Food, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Top 20 most important inventions in the history of food and drink

Science experts rank the refrigerator as Invention #1.

The UK’s national academy of science, The Royal Society asked a question: What are the most meaningful innovations in humanity’s culinary history? What mattered more to the development of civilization’s cultivation of food: the oven? The fridge? The plough? The spork?

 

 

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Analysis, Education, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Whatever happened to the chemistry set?

By the 1920s and 30s children had access to substances which would raise eyebrows in today’s more safety-conscious times.

When you talk to people of a certain age about chemistry sets, a nostalgic glaze comes over their eyes.  The first chemistry sets for children included dangerous substances like uranium dust and sodium cyanide, but all that has changed.

 

 

 

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