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Child rearing advice is ever-changing.

The latest thinking, according to New York Magazine is that it’s much better to praise kids for their efforts, and not so good to praise them for their intelligence.

Praising a child’s IQ sends the message that no effort is required, whereas praising effort itself rewards persistence.

This sounds plausible & might even be true…but who knows for sure? It would take decades of massive-cohort double-blind studies to confirm the author’s assertions.   

How Not to Talk to Your Kids – New York Magazine, February 19 2007

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A new report from the World Bank surveys the impact to be expected on developing countries from the effects of a 1-5 meter sea level rise, with global warming being the proximate cause. East Asia is deemed to be the most at risk, with Vietnam suffering a population displacement of almost 11% from a mere 1 meter rise in sea level.

And, if everything melted, including the Antarctic ice sheet, sea levels would rise by about 80 meters or 262 feet…according to the US Geological Survey. 

In the every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining dept, WeatherBill advises that the number of Golf Playable Days in the US is increasing. Also, an often-overlooked side-benefit of climate change is that it’s spawned a new humor genre, the global warming joke …   

The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Developing Countries – World Bank working paper, February 12, 2007 … PDF alert

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In a bit of old news, the Apple iPod shuffle is now also available in blue, pink, green and, the apparent favorite, orange. Same specs, different metaphysics. 

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It will cost you about $200K for a 2-hour flight aboard SpaceShipTwo into the thermosphere, but that includes 4 minutes of weightlessness…the booking form is here.

If that’s too expensive for you, or you can’t wait until 2009 for the 1st flights to begin, the next best thing is to go on over to the London Science Museum, to view the prototype now on display, and perhaps ask them nicely if you can sit inside. 

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In marking the 10th anniversary of the Nikon Coolpix line of digital cameras, Nikon has 8 new ones on offer. The low-end Life series now has models L10 L11 and L12 – the L10 e.g. sells for $119.95 and delivers 5 megapixels.

The mid-range Style series, is, well, mid-range…but model S50c does offer Wi-Fi for wireless image xfer…about $350.

At the top end Performance series is a sole entry, the P5000. $400 get you 10 megapixels, image stabilization and external lenses and flashes…almost like a real camera.

One hopes that the attached flat, low-dynamic-range publicity shot was not taken with one of these new cameras. Market-share-wise, Nikon is at about 8.5% globally and 10% in the US.   

Nikon Adds 8 Cameras to the COOLPIX Line – Nikon Press Release, February 19 2007     

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Sharp today announced their new lines of Aquos LCD TVs, including the “R” series and the smaller/cheaper “D” series. The flagship “R” series provides 1920×1080 of resolution, a contrast ratio of 3000:1 at a brightness of 450 cd/m2.

Sharp also makes note of the much-improved double-speed pixel response time for the line…at 4ms. A 4ms response time would indeed be outstanding for an LCD panel…but color us skeptical, as the arms of that flamenco dancer look a tad blurry.      

Model LC-65RX1W, the largest of the “R” series at 65 inches, goes for 1M Yen or approx $8400. 

Aquos R Series – Sharp News Release, February 20 2007   

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If you’re too cheap to buy a car with a built-in GPS system or even a phone with same, then MotoNav might be for you. The new Motorola T815 device uses a Motorola service called MotoNav to deliver GPS Sat Nav info to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

If you can’t even afford a smartphone, then you’re looking at the mod T805, which is a kind-of assisted GPS and maintains POI and other data on a central server.

Motorola Handset-based Navigation System - Motorola Press Release, Feb 12, 2007

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Here’s another one of those mainly-conceptual, buttonless touchscreen phones that seem to be sprouting up all over. This 1 is from Nvidia – they’re calling it the Quark Phone – Smartphone Concept Design…although it’s a fake phone, it’s based on a real product called the GoForce 6100 Applications Processor.

The Quark has very good specs, and seems intended to showcase the connectivity, multimedia and low power consumption features of the new 6100 chipset. The wording of the announcement leaves the impression that Nvidia will not be producing such a phone, but rather is inviting manufacturers to use the 6100 to shorten their time-to-market.    

NVIDIA To Make The Phone Your Most Personal Computer – Nvidia Press Release, February 12, 2007  

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Telecoms Korea is reporting that the announced, but as yet unreleased Prada Phone by LG is already being improved upon. A new model to be introduced in 2Q2007 will add mobile TV as well as haptics. Great!…2 new ways to run down the 800 mAh battery. Semi-seriously though, this’ll make an already nice phone even niceier. 

The Second Prada Phone to Debut Soon – Telecoms Korea, 15 February 2007

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Another phone introduced at 3GSM in Barcelona is the MotoRizr Z8, a slider that bends slightly for a closer fit to the head. The Z8 has 3.6Mbps HSDPA for high speed internet, a lame 2MP camera, 30fps video and a 4GB microSD memory slot. 

It also had a standard QVGA screen, 3.5G, Symbian OS, and streaming video where available. 

MOTORIZR Z8 – Motorola Product Website 

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