Weekend Reading–this week, actually on weekend!

ProfHacker gets you through the weekend:

• Have a great idea for an iPhone app, but no idea how to build one?  ReadWriteApp has 13 apps for that: “there are now a number of tools that allow non-developers the ability to create their own iPhone apps without knowing programming or scripting. Some are general-purpose app builders designed for small businesses while other target specific needs, like apps for musicians or for eBook authors. Still others let developers familiar with simpler programming languages like HTML write apps using the code they know and then will transform that code into an iPhone application which can be submitted to the iTunes Store.”
• Penelope Trunk tweets that she’s relieved about a miscarriage, gives America the vapors: “Others say I should not have discussed my experience on Twitter, but Twitter is not a public forum. Those who want to read my tweets have to sign up to receive my updates. And I can approve or disapprove people on an individual basis. The percentage of people who subscribe to my Twitter feed who were offended by my miscarriage tweet is very small. I know because you can unsubscribe to the feed, and only about 70 did.” (via Elizabeth Kissling on delicious)
• Mobile computing is so 2008.  The new future: implantable, biodegradable, silicon/silk electronics.  All the sensuousness of silk, all the hardcore nerdiness of silicon: “Electrodes built on silk could, Litt says, integrate much better with biological tissues than existing electrodes, which either pierce the tissue or sit on top of it. The electrodes might be wrapped around individual peripheral nerves to help control prostheses. Arrays of silk electrodes for applications such as deep-brain stimulation, which is used to control Parkinson’s symptoms, could conform to the brain’s crevices to reach otherwise inaccessible regions.”
• Creating the university of the future.  Several items are near and dear to ProfHacker, perhaps especially this: “Recognizing that the sharing and reuse of scholarly work is a key component of the university of the future, we advocate building a culture of sharing in which concerns about intellectual property, copyright, and student-to-student collaboration are alleviated and the model of proprietary work dissolves in favor of a more open one. . . . We must empower students to share knowledge with one another in ways that are viewed as collaboration rather than cheating. Assessment models must change to support these practices. Ultimately, we see a culture of sharing as a crucial piece of the infrastructure of a scalable educational system that can support the millions of learners who will participate in it.”
• The 2.0 Life offers two posts on Facebook this week: “How to Make Facebook Even More Useful,” and “15 Ways Facebook Can Get You an A+.” (Clearly, ProfHacker needs to write a “10 ways Facebook can get you tenure” post.  Linkbait!)

This video makes me very happy, in a meanspirited sort of way:

Image by flickr user Gattou/Lucie gone for the horse, back later / CC licensed