Bookmarks: FedEx, underseas cables and the rise of Pinterest

The basic idea here is that I’ll list every thing I’ve bookmarked in the past week that might be of use or interest to others. And it helps when I saved one item in Safari on the university computer and another in Firefox on the home machine — and I’m in class with my iPad.

This is by far my favorite. Which is faster, FedEx or the Internet? No, silly, I know that FedEx doesn’t own a wired network. But it does own machines (e.g., trucks and planes) that can haul around a large quantity of devices that store data. So if you have to get a few petabytes of data from here at Montclair State to Los Angeles, and it really, REALLY has to be there tomorrow morning, who you gonna call? Spoiler alert: FedEx wins, and will continue to do so for many years. Yes, the Internet will get faster, but storage devices will get smaller and hold more data.

A great map here of the underseas cables that carry data for the Web and other devices around the world. A little-appreciated historical fact: In the late Victorian era, Britain’s vast lead in ownership of underseas telegraph cables gave London a big commercial advantage. When the volcano Krakatoa exploded in 1883, for example, sending an immense dust cloud around the world, Lloyds of London (and readers of the Times of London) learned of the news in only three hours, giving them a leg up in trading stocks affected by the supply of rubber, spices and other products from Java (Simon Winchester, Krakatoa).

Kudos to my buddies at NBCNews on this one — A look at gun deaths across the USA over one weekend. The criticism of the media for ignoring gun violence seems to be having an impact. It’s obvious that journalists everywhere are giving greater play to stories about folks who should never have had access to a gun committing horrendous crimes.

I’m fascinated by the progress in 3-D printing. Assuming I don’t get run down by a bus, I’m certainly going to own one, but I have no idea what I’ll do with it. Sort of like how I felt in 1982 when I paid $3,000 for a Mac and an Imagewriter printer. According to this piece, I could use it to “print” food for astronauts.

Some tips on using Pinterest in the classroom.

And Tech Crunch has the latest data on social media — Facebook is still way ahead, but Pinterest has caught up with Twitter. Two other surprising data points: Blacks are more likely than whites to use Twitter, and the more college ducation you have, the less likely you are to use social media.