betajames

Mirror neurons allow you to put yourself in another person’s shoes. Your brain says, in effect, “The same neurons are firing as when I move my hand, so I know what he is feeling and what he is up to.” In addition, neurons we might loosely call “touch mirror neurons” fire when you are touched or watch someone else being touched. That humans have these abilities made intuitive sense to Charles Darwin, who noted that when you watch a javelin thrower about to release the spear, your leg muscles flinch unconsciously and that when a child watches his mother use a pair of scissors, he clenches and unclenches his jaws in uncontrollable mimicry. In this phenomenon we see an evolutionary prelude to the ability to imitate and emulate—the basis of cultural transmission of knowledge.

The pressure to publish has created a ghostwriting boom. Nearly 1 billion yuan (more than $145 million) was spent on academic papers in China last year, up fivefold from 2007, a study by Wuhan University professor Shen Yang showed.

One company providing such a service is Lu's, in Liuzhou, a southern industrial city. His Lu Ke Academic Center boasts a network of 20 to 30 graduate students and professors whose specialties range from computer technology to military affairs.

Lu, a 58-year-old Communist Party member, is approached by clients through Internet chat programs. Most are college professors seeking promotions and students seeking help on theses. Once, 10 students from the same college class put in a collective request for him to write their papers, he said.

"Doing everything on your own, independently, should be possible in theory, but in reality it is quite difficult and one will always need some help," Lu said. "This is how I see it. I don't know if it is right."

It is hoped that interactions between staff and students via social networks such as FriendFeed will enhance the student experience, providing more regular feedback for their assessments. Academics will become more easily accessible on social networking sites, joining the online conversation, answering student queries and providing additional pointers leading to 'feed forward' from lectures as well as the traditional feedback, enhancing the discussion and development of students.

We have had to evolve coping strategies. Not merely the ability to heed simultaneous cues from different directions, cues of different kinds, but also—this is important—to engage those cues more obliquely. When there is too much information, we graze it lightly, applying focus only where it is most needed. We stare at a computer screen with its layered windows and orient ourselves with a necessarily fractured attention. It is not at all surprising that when we step away and try to apply ourselves to the unfragmented text of a book we have trouble. It is not so easy to suspend the adaptation.

Literary nonfiction in print has become a recognized part of the canon: essays, memoirs, chronicles, and speeches are regularly taught. Supreme Court decisions and Congressional hearings are even considered legitimate objects of study. Writing about travel, scientific inquiry, household management, religious conversion, and forced captivity are stock subjects in English departments.

At the same time hypertext fiction, electronic poetry, and interactive online drama are embraced with great excitement. As long as the objects of study are both properly virtual and properly fictional, they belong in the department catalog.

But write about nonfictional forms of computational media and watch the puzzled expressions and polite dismissals begin.

Copyright 1710-2010 “For the encouragement of learning”

The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’.  Its 300th anniversary provides a unique opportunity to review copyright’s purposes and principles.  If today we were starting from scratch, but with the same aim of encouraging learning‚ what kind of copyright would we want? 

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The Future of Copyright

The Statute of Anne was 'An Act for the Encouragement of Learning'. What if, instead, it had been 'An Act for the Encouragement of Sharing'.

Bill Thompson

Comments: 2

For the Encouragement of Learning

In the case of Georgia’s creative sector I would like to address two issues that I believe are important to reach wider audiences and encourage learning.

Tamara Tatishvili

Comments: 0

The Seduction of Copyright

We must make fundamental changes to copyright law or risk its demise.

Lynne Spender

Comments: 1

Beyond Copyright

Most of today’s creativity takes place outside the sphere of traditional copyright.

Ronaldo Lemos

Comments: 1

Copyright and the Consent Principle

Citizens and consumers should have control over the use to which their personal data can be used by corporations and governments

Martin Smith

Comments: 0

21st Century Copyright Must Serve to Protect Cultural Rights

In my mind, copyright for the 21st century ought to recognise the difference between raw data and the finished, commercial product.

Hardesh Singh

Comments: 0

'One size fits all' dresses virtually everyone badly

If we were inventing copyright today, surely we would want to acknowledge that 'one size fits all' dresses virtually everyone badly.

Jimmy Wales

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Copyright is a Friction

I have been trying to obtain permissions to show a growing set of videos on the web since 2000. I did not think that it would take a decade of exploration to achieve very little.

Jon Pettigrew

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If There Were No Copyright, Would We Want It; And, If So, What Form Would It Take?

Quite simply: copyright guarantees creativity.

Gail Rebuck

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Rebooting Copyright: A Note on Terms

The ‘one size fits all’ concept has clearly created barriers to the legitimate and indeed desirable flow of information and knowledge.

Dr Frances Pinter

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Gaynor Bell, who lost two children in violent deaths, said the project was created to try to turn children away from violence at a young age.

Despite the game's 18-rated status, she said many children would have played it, and similar games, at home with elder siblings, and that they risked being de-sensitised to the violence involved.

She added: "They are shown a picture of a man rolling over a car and you can clearly see it has a machine gun.

"It's basically telling them that it's not real life, but in these games they do look real."

She added: "Children have very short attention spans so they need something that keeps them interested, preferably busy with their hands and it has to be something that allows them to be proactive."