Got this in morning email from Khan Academy. Not sure if I agree that we all can learn anything, but I love the video anyway because the best lesson to learn is that learning takes time, effort, and stumbles. I watch my own kids struggle with this, and think how long it took me to understand it. Worth 90 seconds to watch it.

I happened to read When A Flight Vanishes From The Sky, Amateur Trackers Know It Instantly on http://fivethirtyeight.com/ and that took me to http://www.flightradar24.com/. It varies from real time to a 5 minute delay in the US, showing all the planes that are in flight with a transponder active. They use FAA data, but also lots of local users with a $40 device plugged into a USB port in return for premium access to the service. It’s interesting, really it is, to see all the planes in flight on an average afternoon. You can see the flight path, speed/altitude, plane type. Great idea, and it has me thinking about the data. Not complicated data, it’s the crowd sourcing that makes it work. What could I apply that to?

And last, I also read a post about Getting Images for Every Kilometer of the UK, also at 538. Very similar idea, except this uses photos.