When the Cellphone Teaches Sex Education/ The New York Times

The ‘Birds and Bees Text Line’, which the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, US, started on February 1, is sex education on cellphones—the latest effort by health educators to reach teenagers through technology. In many areas of Middle America, rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases remain constant or are even rising. As technology reduces the embarrassment of making enquiries, it also shortens the time spent by the teen agonising over a certain sexual issue. The Birds and Bees Text Line offers one-on-one exchanges that are private and anonymous. Most importantly, they are conducted free of parental scrutiny.

Barack Obama’s First 100 days: Interactive Timeline/ The Guardian

Mapping out Obama’s activities in his first 100 days in office, the interesting multi-media report card focuses on his economic policies and his designation of 2m acres of protected wilderness and improving the green economy.

Economy: Signed $787 billion stimulus package of tax cuts and spending; unveiled $ 275 billion plan to prop up the housing market International: Announced August 2010 as end of combat mission in Iraq; ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

Environment: Moved towards stricter car exhaust emission standards; cancelled Bush oil lease sales.

An Invention That Could Change the Internet/ The Independent

A new system, called the Wolfram Alpha, takes the first step towards what many experts consider to be the Holy Grail of the Internet. Showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, the system is a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does. Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as “How high is Mount Everest?”, but it will also produce a neat page of related information, all properly sourced, such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts. The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out “on the fly”, according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram.

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