An interview with a university president Some time back I conducted an interview with the President of the University of Agder, in Southern Norway, Ms. Sunniva Whittaker. The interview was part of a process preparing for our annual conference World Learning Summit, where our university president has participated in parts each year since she entered office. Enthusiastic as we are about that, we also wanted to know a bit more
Read More
It’s a new year and a new beginning … or possibly another repeat. A challenge at the start of a new year is to remember the pledges and resolutions from last year. Much depends on perspective. Some resolutions never made sense in 2020 or before: Be a better person, exercise more, eat less, talk more or less, write letters, visit parents, and you know — all those things that you
Read More
About 2020 This post also appeared on Substack. We can agree that 2020 was a not too great year, COVID-19 added to other disasters and President Trump refusing to accept election defeat. A fast look at news media around the world is enough to confirm that there was no lack of disasters, catastrophes and crises. How easy if is to forget that something else also was true: Many things to
Read More
A readworthy article from Washington Post, by Bill LaPlante and Katharyn White: “Artificial intelligence is the future. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Appleare all making big bets on AI. (Amazon owner Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) Congress has held hearings and even formed a bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Caucus. From health care to transportation to national security, AI has the potential to improve lives. But it comes with fears about
Read More
Blockchain technology has been all over the news in recent months, mostly focused on Bitcoin and the many debates concerning “cryptocurrency”. In months to come we are likely to see more of a debate also on other uses of Bitcoin, begging the question: What is it? One interesting source I found recently is this one. In a nutshell, a blockchain is a decentralized public ledger that, according to Investopedia, “allows market
Read More
Weeksworthy, November 25th 2017 The Atlantic Monthly — on a Saturday, not much competes with a newspaper on paper, but given how expensive it is to have The New York Times delivered to my door, and four days late, I settle for the next best: Online magazines, NYT and other reads; stuff that´s been piling up in the past week. And this week, for sure, the Atlantic Magazine story about
Read More