Unfortunate numbers

Just how bad are U.S. teenagers at math? Very, according to a new study comparing 15-year-olds in the 29 nations that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. American students came in 24th, the Wall Street Journal reports:

The study suggests that there aren't nearly as many bright kids in U.S. schools as there are in other countries -- which could undermine U.S. dominance in technology-related fields. On average, about 4% of kids who took the test scored at the top of a six-point scale; in the U.S., only 2% scored at the top.

The study also indicated that huge numbers of U.S. students can barely do math, meaning the U.S. lacks the advantage of a generally well-educated population, which also can spur growth. One-quarter of the U.S. 15-year-olds scored at either the bottom rung or, worse, scored so low that they didn't even make that level. White and Asian youngsters in the U.S. scored above the international average, but Hispanics [scored below it.]

As a whole, U.S. students also ranked close to the bottom in problem-solving skills.

Web design 2005

The folks at Phoenix design firm Forty Media have posted a list of predictions for how Web design will evolve in the coming year.

Among the highlights: minimalism will make way for detail; brown will be in; the retro and "standards-compliant" looks will be out; designers will abandon the ubiquitous Verdana font; the chronological blog format will fade; and table-based design will finally head into a well-deserved grave.

The full list is much longer and somewhat thought-provoking if you're interested in the topic, although it strikes me as a hybrid of astute trend-watching and wishful thinking.

(Via Poynter E-Media Tidbits.)

Concussions = longevity

We all know that comic book and comic strip characters usually don't age much, if at all. Some have even debated the hows and whys.

But a Canadian medical researcher has offered one of the more interesting, and bizarre, rationales I've yet heard. He posits that Tintin, the popular (well, overseas, anyway) character created by Belgian cartoonist Herge, stayed young through his 47 years' worth of published adventures because repeated blows to the head triggered a growth hormone deficiency.

His study appears in the Canadian Medical Association Journal -- which, Reuters notes, previously published papers surmising that Squirrel Nutkin is autistic and Winnie the Pooh suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

New world, new skills

As we master new skills to communicate, search and live online, are we losing other skills crucial to function offline? Will younger people growing up in a networked world ever develop those skills in the first place?

Those are the intriguing questions raised by the Associated Press as it explores how "the new Internet generation" communicates and seeks out information.

Just imagine

Imaginary playmates hang around longer than experts used to think:

A peek into one of the most intriguing childhood mysteries reveals that imaginary playmates are a staple of early development and persist well into the school years -- later than researchers once thought. ...

[Researchers] found that by age 7, nearly two-thirds of children had had at least one imaginary friend.

Not only did fantasy friends persist after age 3 or 4, they sometimes debuted after the child reached school age.

Spyware? So what?

For all of the hand-wringing over the explosion of spyware, a lot of people willingly and knowingly install software that allows third parties to monitor everything they do online, Wired News reported the other day.

They agree to use spyware that comes bundled with other software they really want to use for things like virus protection and file-sharing. At the very least, they're accepting it as a necessary evil. However, the quotes from "average users" interviewed by Wired News suggest that they don't necessarily see it as an "evil" at all. Instead, it's just a condition they accept in order to reap the benefits of free software. Privacy isn't just much of an issue for them.

Security consultant Yanos Kovas sums up the apparent prevailing sentiment: "I think some internet users are exhausted by security threats and privacy leaks and are beginning to decide to believe that spyware is necessary for the greater good. If your personal information isn't private anyway, if businesses and governments are trading it at will, then why not give a little more away and get some free software too?"

If he's right, it signals a significant attitude shift: people are starting to accept spyware as part of the economic bargain for being online. And younger users, especially, may not see opening up their personal activities to external audit as a big deal.

It reminds me of the rapid acceptance of grocery-store loyalty cards. Retailers like Safeway and QFC encountered a pretty negative reaction when they introduced the cards a few years ago. Yet today, they're a ubiquitous and accepted part of daily life.