Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Speaking of wonderful experiences, take a look at the most beautiful work presented on this Japanese web site.

There are some toys for sale on the site. I don’t read Japanese however I’m guessing the items labeled as craft (such as the ones above) are not for sale. Either way they’re too beautiful to be called crafts!

WSDM (pronounced “wisdom”) is a brand new ACM conference intended to be complementary to the World Wide Web Conference tracks in search and data mining. The pace of innovation in these areas has reached a level that requires more than one premier annual venue. WSDM invites original, high quality submissions related to search and data mining on the Web, with an emphasis on practical but principled novel models, algorithm design and analysis, economics implications, and in-depth experimental analysis of accuracy and performance. The goal is to make WSDM a focused meeting with a single research paper session through 2-3 days. WSDM will also invite keynote talks from some of the best minds from industrial and academic research.

In a clever move the folks over at CBS apparently leveraged a loophole in the New Mexico labor law to film a reality TV show with 40 kids during the school year. They basically declared the production a summer camp.

Premieres Wednesday September 19th at 8PM on CBS
40 children, 40 days, no adults—eager to prove they can build a better world for tomorrow in the new reality series KID NATION. Settling in Bonanza City, New Mexico, once a thriving mining town but now deserted, these kids, ages 8 to 15 and from all walks of life, will build their own new world, pioneer-style. They will confront grown-up issues while coping with the classic childhood emotions of homesickness, peer pressure and the urge to break every rule. Episodes end with a town meeting in which the kids award one child a gold star worth $20,000, all leading to the grand finale, with an unimaginable test, the biggest awards and a special surprise for every child.

All kind of potential learning for these kids and all kind of potential damage. I would anticipate they’ve mitigated most of the physical risk. That leaves room for the psychological damage. Since many of these children will go on to be famous, this will be just the beginning of the psychological stress so many child stars experience. We as a society have some strange boundaries and social norms with respect to entertainment