KM as market garden or wild garden? One of my favourite sayings is that if knowledge is organic, KM is gardening. And as all gardeners know, gardening is hard work! Even within the topic of gardening, there is a range of approaches, and we can see that also in KM terms when it comes to how we work with communities of practice. There really are two approaches to “community gardening”, which we can call "select and support" and "seed and promote". The first approach sets the conditions for community growth, lets communities emerge spontaneously, and then selects and supports the ones that are felt to be strategic. The second approach is to deliberately seed communities on key topics. Each approach has its merits and demerits The "select and support" approach makes use of existing networks and existing energy. However there may be no existing communities which cover the most crucial and strategic topics, and many of the communities that do emerge may have relatively limited business benefit.
Liczby pierwsze Liczba pierwsza to liczba naturalna, mająca dokładnie dwa podzielniki: dzieli się przez 1 oraz przez samą siebie (liczba 1 nie zalicza się do liczb pierwszych, gdyż ma tylko 1 podzielnik). Liczby naturalne większe od 1, nie będące liczbami pierwszymi to liczby złożone; można je rozłożyć na czynniki będące liczbami pierwszymi. Początkowe liczby pierwsze to: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, ... Stąd można ściągnąć skompresowany plik tekstowy zawierający 78.498 początkowych liczb pierwszych ( z zakresu do 1.000.000 ). Liczb pierwszych jest nieskończenie wiele. Załóżmy, że zbiór liczb pierwszych jest ograniczony. Gęstość rozmieszczenia liczb pierwszych wśród liczb naturalnych maleje wraz ze wzrostem tych liczb. Wykres poniżej (sporządzony wg tabeli, której fragment widać obok) przedstawia procentowy udział liczb pierwszych wśród liczb naturalnych od 1 do 20.000.000. 2.000 żółtych punktów oznacza procentowe udziały w zakresach po 10.000 kolejnych liczb naturalnych. k = 5.
Book Review: Lee Smolin's 'Time Reborn' : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture iStockphoto.com We physicists are all romantics. Don't laugh; it's true. In our youth we all fall deeply in love. We fall in love with a beautiful idea: beyond this world of constant change lies another world that is perfect and timeless. This eternal domain is made not of matter or energy. Unless we lose faith in that Grail. I used to think my job as a theoretical physicist was to find that formula. For Smolin there is no timeless world and there are no timeless laws. Time, of course, seems real to us. Ever since Newton, physicists have been developing ever-more exact laws describing the behavior of the world. That means these laws are more real than time. Now before you say "that's crazy," remember that every modern miracle of physics — from jet planes to GPS — is built using these laws. But, according to Smolin, when it comes to cosmology, the ultimate study of the Universe as a whole, faith in timeless laws has led physicists astray.
Remembering Sally Ride, the First American Woman in Space: What It's Actually Like to Launch on the Space Shuttle by Maria Popova Celebrating a pioneering astronaut, remarkable role model, and tireless advocate of science literacy. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride boarded the space shuttle Challenger and became the first American woman in space. Ride has just passed away after a fight with pancreatic cancer. But besides being a pioneering astronaut, Ride was also a tireless advocate for more science and math in schools and a prolific co-author of children’s science books, including the 1986 tome To Space and Back. The long elevator ride up the launch tower takes us to a level near the nose of the space shuttle, 195 feet above the ground. The book also features this fascinating anatomy of the interior of the space shuttle by artist Mike Eagle: To send Sally off, here’s the most exquisite cover of “Blue Moon” you’ll ever hear — thanks, Radiolab: ↬ GalleyCat Donating = Loving Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. Share on Tumblr
Ten Economic Blunders from History - John S. Chamberlain Take cover when you hear a political leader talking about economic affairs. You can bet a bad decision is incoming. Luckily for the leaders, their meddling usually has a slow, erosive effect on the economy. Every so often, however, the great ones manage to land a real whopper that takes them down along with their whole country. Here are ten examples from history. 1. In the year 301, the Roman emperor Diocletian issued the Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium, i.e., the Edict on Prices of Foodstuffs, which rebalanced the coinage system and set maximums on wages and the prices of many types of goods, especially food. 2. You know you are doing something wrong when your enemies become folk heroes like Robin Hood. 3. The fifth Khan of Persia was named "Gaykhatu," which means "amazing" in Mongolian. 4. 5. Price controls are stupid anytime, but it takes true idiocy to apply them in the middle of a siege. 6. In 1590 the Republic of Venice was in decline. 7. 8. 9. 10. John S. Comment on the blog.
The story of the checklist: Anecdote Sometimes the simplest interventions can have the biggest impact. In October 1935, US Army Air Corps brass gathered at an airfield in Dayton, Ohio. They’d come to see two aircraft builders pit their planes against each other in a series of trials, with the best-performed aircraft getting its builder a lucrative contract for new long-range bombers. In theory, the two rivals, Boeing Corporation and Martin & Douglas, had an equal chance of winning the contract. But in reality, the result seemed a foregone conclusion. The smaller Martin & Douglas plane just couldn’t compete with Boeing’s bigger, more powerful Model 299. The Model 299, carrying five crew members, made for an impressive sight as it taxied onto the runway and then roared off to rise gracefully into the sky. But some in the Army Air Corps still thought the Model 299 was the better aircraft.
"The Best of edw519" is now free. Reverse Happy Birthday! - edw519 The Best of edw519 A Hacker News Top Contributor by Ed Weissman Copyright 2011 by Ed Weissman. Foreword Who am I? Chapter 1 - Advice to Young Programmers 1. Chapter 2 - Education 21. Chapter 3 - Careers 31. Chapter 4 - Work Habits 49. Chapter 5 - The Programmer's Lifestyle 87. Chapter 6 - Philosophy 119. Chapter 7 - Building Stuff 158. Chapter 8 - Software Business 187. Chapter 9 - Enterprise Life 210. Chapter 10 - Selling 232. Chapter 11 - Just for Fun 245. Who am I? My name is Ed Weissman and I've been programming professionally for 32 years. I've done work for many companies, both enterprises and small/medium businesses. I started out on IBM mainframes, moved to mini-computers, then to PCs, and finally to web-based technologies. I've started three businesses, two with partners and one alone, selling both services and products. I've worked with hundreds of people on over a thousand projects and encountered over a million lines of code. I never get too technical. Why did I write this book? (Thanks, Mom.)
New clues on origins of Maya civilization unearthed The Maya civilization is well-known for its elaborate temples, sophisticated writing system, and mathematical and astronomical developments, yet the civilization's origins remain something of a mystery.A new University of Arizona study to be published in the journal Science challenges the two prevailing theories on how the ancient civilization began, suggesting its origins are more complex than previously thought. Anthropologists typically fall into one of two competing camps with regard to the origins of Maya civilization. The first camp believes that it developed almost entirely on its own in the jungles of what is now Guatemala and southern Mexico. The second believes that the Maya civilization developed as the result of direct influences from the older Olmec civilization and its center of La Venta. "We really focused on the beginning of this civilization and how this remarkable civilization developed," said Inomata, UA professor of anthropology and the study's lead author.