I admit to being a romantic when it comes to film on big screens. Going out to "a show" was a big deal when I was a kid and a staple of my adolescent date nights.

Now that home screens are getting larger, streaming more efficient and faster, and, the on demand services offered by cable providers, online content providers like NetFlix, YouTube, and Hulu expand their menus with big screen content, audiences can pick and choose what they watch, when to watch it, and how to watch it, adding a great convenience to our very busy lives. Studios send new releases to home video faster than ever and the dwindling post opening weekend lineups in front of North American movie theatres leaves me wondering - is the movie theatre era coming to an end?

It’s rare to see a child without some type of games handset. Portable players, phone handsets, consoles, and laptops play host to casual and hardcore game titles. With so many kids engaged in games, I wonder, it is possible for educators to use the role math and science play in the creation of a game to engage our kids in math and science education?

As the partner components to creativity, math and science are required to actualize invention and innovation. As we’ve heard so often, invention and innovation are the bedrocks of a robust economy. A well rounded education in arts, math, and sciences opens up opportunities that may lead to a more rewarding life. The one hurdle is getting kids more interested in learning math and science during their K-12 education.

Have you given much thought about what the future will be like?  Do you think robots will become sentient?  Do you think actors will be made obsolete by computer animation? Did you ever imagine that algorithms might replace journalists? Is this possible?

According to this issue of Wired Magazine, any topic tied to statistics is ripe for a “trained” computer to write the story. The company profiled in the article, Narrative Science, with the slogan “We transform data into stories and insight," mentions their algorithms help their news clients “write” stories for sports, finance, and restaurant reviews.

It’s easy to determine the “get” for news outlets; the low cost of transforming data into stories makes it practical but what about fact-checking? In a comparison, and provided the data entry is correct, the authored by algorithm piece cited less errors than the one authored by human hand. (Actually, the article states no errors…)

Can readers spot the difference between computer and human authored stories?

When it became obvious that the board members weren’t the least bit interested in my department presentation, I dropped the “C” word… and all heck broke loose.

It happened as I attempted to explain how "creativity" is linked to math and sciences, when the local economist interrupted me and declared that creativity was not an essential element for a scientist working in a lab. At that moment I knew I was working in the wrong place. The good news, I am now working in the right place, the bad news is that the “C” word remains a hushed utterance.

Creativity is “tolerated” during high economic times and downright maligned during low economic times. Why? I believe creativity is misunderstood – it’s seen as airy, or playful, not suitable for the serious, hard work we need to do to get the economy into an upswing. Bollocks! There is a strong relationship between creativity and a robust and sustainable economy – once we understand what creativity is and how to leverage it.