[afro-nets] Supercourse Newsletter, 18 February, 2004

[Ron LaPorte <super1+@pitt.edu>]

Supercourse Newsletter, 18 February, 2004
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http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/
 
Dear Friends:
 
We are completing a grant for a new initiative from NIH called 
Roadmap. This program is very exciting as they are targeting 
teaching and out of the box thinking. We are submitting a grant 
designed to build a ?Roadmap Supercourse of Science?. In this 
grant we have decided to move the Supercourse to the next level, 
a Supercourse of Science where we develop a network and collect 
lectures from all of science. If any of you would like a copy of 
the grant please let us know, and we will send you a copy of the 
grant.
 
We argue that we can build an open source system to share lec-
ture and to share our knowledge. IBM recently had a wonderful 
set of commercials which argue that an Open Source system will 
transform the world. Many of these relate very much to what we 
are doing:
 
Shake things up,
Shake up the world
The future is Open
(Muhammad Ali for IBM Linux)
 
We are shaking things up with the Supercourse.
 
 
Nothing in the world is so powerful as an idea whose time has 
come.
(Victor Hugo, IBM Commercial)
 
The Supercourse is the idea.
 
 
The Future is You
The Future is Open
(IBM Commercial) 
 
 
Collecting data is only the first step to wisdom 
Sharing data is building community
(IBM Commercial)
 
 
Collecting lectures is only the first step to wisdom.
Sharing lectures is building community 
 
Clearly our work has been designed to establish an Open Source 
System where we share our wisdom.
 
Supercourse of Science: We are pushing forward with the Super-
course of Science, and would very much appreciate your help. We 
are in the process of contacting many of those who are in the 
Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Science. Each 
of these have ~1,800 members. We have contacted about half of 
the IOM members with very positive response. About 40 of the IOM 
members indicated that they would send to us a lecture. We al-
ready have 20 lectures. In addition, we now have our second No-
ble Prize winner. Clearly having as many IOM lectures as possi-
ble provides enormous credibility. Also, we have 2 Noble prize 
winners which is outstanding. In about a month we will start to 
contact those in the National Academy of Sciences. Eugene Shub-
nikov will also start to reach those in the Russian Academy of 
Sciences. If you have inroads into the National Academy of Sci-
ences in your country, we would love to work with you to ap-
proach them.
 
Pakistani Wedding: 
Soni got married in Pittsburgh in a lovely Pakistani Wedding. 
The food and company was outstanding, with people from all dif-
ferent nationalities and religions. We wish that you could have 
all come.
 
Ground Hog Day: 
Many of you asked why we celebrate Ground Hog Day. It is a 
really bizarre American Holiday on Feb. 2. In Punxsutawney, 
Pennsylvania, about 150 km of Pittsburgh a strange holiday takes 
place. Hundreds of people go to Punxsutawney, PA on Feb. 1, they 
all wake up before the sun comes out and stand around the ground 
hogs hole. When the ground hog appears if it sees its shadow, 
this means 6 weeks more winter, if it does not see it?s shadow, 
then spring time is right around the corner. It is a strange 
custom, isn?t it?
 
One might ask the difference between a ground hog and a wood 
chuck. When a ground hog runs down the yard and goes into the 
woods?it becomes a woodchuck.
 
We have had horrible winter. On our driveway there is still 3 
inches of ice. We have not been able to get into our driveway 
for 2 weeks because of the ice. The Turkeys have lost 30-50% of 
their body weight.
 
It is really exciting that we can now push the Supercourse into 
all of Science. We look forward to work with you to accomplish 
this effort.
 
Best Regards from Icy Pittsburgh
 
Ron, Mita, Faina, Soni, Eugene, Abed, Akira, Tomoko, Rania, Ez-
zeldeen, Suad, Charles, Denish, Julia, Wendy, Tom