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There's an interesting discussion about big data which reflects observations about how we learn and think, and over what periods of time for our collective social brain.  One of my favorite quotes from the interview coming from the following observation. 
CONAN: And it has gone on to be reflected in other news events.

SOKOLOWSKI: It sure has. I mean, when a big event happens, for example, the impeachment of President Clinton and a legal terminology, especially after 9/11, where we saw, you know, an enormous - obviously, an enormous amount of attention paid to the coverage and the - and any news coming out of that story. And so we had this kind of concrete word of disaster, like rubble and triage in the first couple of days. And then words of explanation or of politics, like terrorism and jingoism. And then later, you know, four, five days later, we found that people were turning to the dictionary for what I would call philosophy, words like surreal and succumb, that were looked up most often. And that's really kind of interesting, that they were turning to the dictionary, following their thoughts. In other words, not the cue of a politician's word, for example, but actually, the ideas that they were sharing themselves.


http://www.npr.org/2013/03/14/174206736/how-dictionary-searches-define-readers?ft=1&f=5

The initial article upon which the interview is based can found at the bottom of the interview link above.

It would sure be great to get similar observations and data from a visit to a science museum or classroom experience.

C
Sent from Charlie Carlson's iPad
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