The U.S. just labeled Switzerland an internet piracy haven

Switzerland is a haven for internet piracy, the Obama Administration's global trade rep says. The European nation famous for Swiss Alps, Swiss Cheese, Fondue, and being a long-term U.S. political ally since WWII is now on America's annual intellectual property shitlist.

(more…)

SpaceX plans to send unmanned Dragon spacecraft to Mars by 2018, with humans to follow

By way of tweets and Facebook posts, SpaceX this week announced plans to send its unmanned “Red Dragon” spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018. Sending this privately-funded craft on a bold, brave, risky trip like this could bring SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk closer to his goal of getting humans to Mars.

(more…)

Cruz to pick Carly Fiorina as running mate

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, embarking on a new phase of his campaign after it became impossible to beat Donald Trump in the first round of voting at this summer's Republican convention, is to name Carly Fiorina as his running mate.

A crazy class in football crazy Barcelona

Here's one that was a one-off but a lot of fun (if a bit crazy!): an impromptu, unplanned, materials- and preparation-free class that came about when two students and I failed to find a bar (in the centre of Barcelona !!!) to watch the Manchester City vs Real Madrid Champions … Continue reading

Gardening, cycling and life: a fun activity making lists

Here's an idea that Andrew Wright suggested in his recently session at IATEFL: to, first, get your learners to list everything they know about gardening; and, then as a discussion activity, to talk about how that could be related to life. As I live and work in Barcelona, where virtually no … Continue reading

Lawsuit: Off-Duty Cop Working Wal-Mart Security Accuses Man of Stealing Tomato, Beats Him, Breaks His Leg

An innocent man was minding his own business one day in 2014, walking out of an Atlanta Wal-Mart with a tomato he'd just bought. An off-duty Atlanta police officer who moonlit doing security at Wal-Mart on the side accused the man of stealing the tomato on his way out of the store, and beats the man so severely that he breaks his leg and severs his artery. More than $75,000 in medical expenses later, the victim now walks with a titanium rod in his leg, with a limp.

(more…)

Six cases of measles confirmed in Tennessee outbreak. Measles was eradicated in the U.S. in 2000.

Public Health officials in Shelby County, Tennessee today confirmed six cases of measles in the county, up from two last Friday. Victims of the measles outbreak are "widely diverse" in terms of age, gender and where they live, authorities said.

(more…)

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmo

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos


by Stephanie Roth Sisson


Roaring Brook Press


2014, 40 pages, 8.8 x 11.4 x 0.4 inches


$14
Buy a copy on Amazon

A popular Internet meme pairs a photograph of astrophysicist and humanitarian Carl Sagan with that of reality show star and shrill media figure Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. The caption states, “If you don't know who this is... (referencing Sagan) ...but you know who this is... (Snooki) ...Congratulations! You're what's wrong with the world!” Certainly a bit harsh and overstated, leading another Internet blogger to modify the last part of the meme thusly: “That's a real shame! Why not Google 'Carl Sagan' and learn all about him? Read his books, watch his shows and be inspired!”

Reading is one sure path to inspiration, which prompted Stephanie Roth Sisson to write her children's biography of Carl Sagan. “Carl Sagan was able to ignite imagination and wonder and pull science out of the antiseptic staleness that existed in my classroom,” states Sisson on her website. “[He] made it relevant to me and millions of people around the globe.” Star Stuff covers everything from its subject's Brooklyn boyhood and how his love for science began at the public library and the 1939 World's Fair, to his work with NASA, the release of his seminal PBS series Cosmos and his role in founding the SETI Institute (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) to find life in the universe. The illustrations are playful and engaging, and the text is quite accessible. As a special education teacher, I shared the book with my class which led to their writing a paper about his life and work. The book has since become a student favorite and a staple of my regular curriculum.

Parents and teachers who want to get even more out of sharing this beautiful book with their kids might want to pair it with this video of the humble Dr. Sagan teaching a class of children at his elementary school alma mater here.  Truly, a reminder of what an inspired intellect and great soul the man was.



– Lee Hollman

April 21, 2016

Humans of New York - Photos of random strangers in NYC and their life stories

See sample pages of Humans of New York at Wink.

Brendon Stanton started photographing random strangers in New York City in 2010. He treated each of them like a celebrity, portraying them in a classy portrait on the street. He then added a little bit of their life story in their own words. These mini-autobiographies were the secret sauce that transformed random snapshots of strangers into a remarkable series of portraits of real people that you could connect with. Brandon posted his photos-plus-bio on his blog, Humans of New York, which quickly went viral on social media until he had millions of followers. The 400 best of his portraits were fan-funded into this printed book.

The quest for the well-labeled inn

(more…)

VW offers to buy back 500K demon-haunted diesels

Reuters reports that VW is about to tell the federal judge in San Francisco in charge of its case that it will offer to buy back nearly half a million of its diesel vehicles from owners who were deceived about the cars' emission standards and performance when the company engineered its cars so that they would act daemonically, performing differently based on whether they were being tested or not.

(more…)

Tupac talks Trump's greed in newly unearthed 1992 MTV interview

Tupac knew what was up. In a previously unreleased interview with the rap icon shot in 1992, Tupac Shakur concisely and accurately analyzes Donald Trump's greed.

(more…)

In 1928, 199 men set out to run 3,400 miles across the United States.

In 1928, 199 runners set out on a perilous footrace across America, from Los Angeles to Chicago and on to New York. The winner would receive $25,000 -- if anyone finished at all. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Bunion Derby, billed as the greatest footrace the world had ever known.

We'll also learn some creepy things about spiders and puzzle over why one man needs three cars.

Show notes

Please support us on Patreon!

Image: Flickr

nationalforest/5734775201">Image: Flickr

Hand over the tools: technology for learners, not teachers

My presentation for OneStopEnglish at IATEFL 2016, in Birmingham last Saturday. For OneStopEnglish, I have written a series of articles on tasks which involve the learners, not the teachers, using technology either inside or outside the classroom. The articles, for a wide variety of levels and ages, include around 70 … Continue reading

A look back at the D&D moral panic

Retro Report did a short feature on the moral panics about D&D in the 1980s. It's a fun, 13 minute look back at the moment when D&D totally changed a bunch of kids' lives, only to be vilified and literally demonized by opportunistic members of the religious right.
(more…)

$25 bluetooth headphones that sound good

I've wanted a set of bluetooth headphones for a while. The cord free-ish operation, and no need to actually be tethered to my phone seemed too good to be true. This $25 pair does it all.

The earliest generations of bluetooth headphones seemed that this technology would never take to quality listening. It may still not be for the audiophile, but for active folks, who enough spending time moving around a bit more, these AYL QY8 Bluetooth headphones do the trick.

The earbuds fit easily into your ear, come complete with several varied size tips for a more custom fit, and have a simple pressure latch that holds them in your ear. Controls, from activation, to volume adjustment, are made via button press on the right side earbud. Pairing was easy, and charging was quick.

It is very nice having no extra cord dangling from my head, into my jacket or back pocket, when I'm walking the dogs. I'm frequently working two leashes, and I hate it when the phone gets tangled in the mess. The other place I'd hope to use them is on the motorcycle, but inside a helmet, with no ability to control the unit, its kinda limited to just playing music. Also, when I did manage to get the button jammed up against the foam, it just held it in and powered the unit off.

The sound quality on these phones is certainly good enough for an afternoon out walking the dogs. fishing, or paddling. When compared to other $19-50 bluetooth headsets, as well as my in-helmet Sena bluetooth communications system, sound better. They are not tinny, have enough bass for the wide variety of music I like, and present a bit of a sound stage. My prior experience with bluetooth streamed music has been something along the lines of AM radio. These AYL QY8s are the first lower end bluetooth headphone I've found that I was willing to use. For phone calls people said they sounded fine.

For $25 this is a fine set of outdoor/active sport headphones where the wires can be tucked up under your hat, and won't yank at your phone.

AYL Bluetooth Headphones V4.1 Wireless Sport Stereo In-Ear Noise Cancelling Sweatproof Headset with APT-X/Mic for iPhone 6s Plus Samsung Galaxy S6 S5 and Android Phones via Amazon

The ultimate minimalist wristwatch

Jesper is offered as "the ultimate minimalist watch," reducing the psychological baggage of personal timekeeping to the simplest possible state by "opting out of telling time altogether."

Jesper's perfectly-weighted 45mm plated gunmetal body, sapphire crystal glass, and lush genuine leather band create a striking affront to today's excessive lifestyles. Changeable bands lets you easily switch between camel brown (pictured above), desert sand tan, and charcoal gray to complement any look.

It's real. It's $79.

Microsoft sues US government for the right to tell you when the feds are reading your email

“We appreciate that there are times when secrecy around a government warrant is needed,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post Thursday. “But based on the many secrecy orders we have received, we question whether these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly demand secrecy. To the contrary, it appears that the issuance of secrecy orders has become too routine.”

(more…)

U.S. military claims to be dropping 'cyber bombs' on ISIS

America's military forces are dropping "cyber bombs" on Islamic State terrorist groups for the first time, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told reporters accompanying him on a military flight on Tuesday.

The ISIS internet attacks, whatever the particulars really may be, are part of a stepped-up coordinated effort to put increasing pressure on the militant organization.

(more…)

Tom Hayden endorses Hillary Clinton

I don't care about too many people's opinions, in this year's democratic primary, but Tom Hayden is a politician I stop and listen to.

Hayden has been a radical activist, an anti-war protestor, California State Assemblyman, and State Senator, as well as a prolific author. While Hayden has written a number of books, he's best known as the author of the Port Huron Statement, organizing the Students for a Democratic Society, and was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot at the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention.

Today Tom explains why he is changing his vote from Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton.

Here is an excerpt:

I am committed to building a united front against Donald Trump, and working with both Democratic and independent voters toward the best possible ticket and platform for the Democratic Party in November. But sounding out supporters of both Sanders and Hillary Clinton, I'm worried that terrible friction is brewing between the two Democratic camps left in this primary.

Democrats all have to unite to win the White House and Supreme Court this year, building bridges without permanent bruising or the confusion of divide-and-conquer.

The state of the race is in flux. Respect and support for Bernie are rising, though Hillary maintains a 212-delegate edge. As of April 3, The New York Times assessed that Bernie will need “landslide” victories in the battles ahead. He's certain to win more than the 16 states where he has already prevailed. Most of those states have been similar to Wisconsin, where 88 percent of the population is white, an enduring issue for the Sanders campaign. But of the major primaries that are coming up, several might be fruitful territory for Bernie. In New York, Hillary will need to tack towards Bernie on fair-trade issues or face losses in the Rust Belt regions of northern and western New York. Here in California, Bernie trails Hillary by six points, with 7 percent of the electorate undecided. And my sense is that California is winnable for Bernie. Lose or win, Bernie represents the most impressive independent campaign in American history, with the final chapters and legacy yet to be written.

Here is the full text of Hayden's letter, entitled I Used to Support Bernie, but Then I Changed My Mind.

My pets thank Tom for the Hayden Act. When I was a community college student, in Santa Monica, we had the good luck of having a huge student government and activities budget, managed by the students, which I was told was largely due to Tom's work in the Assembly or Senate. He also taught at that same community college, and I took his course on Spirituality and the Environment. It was a good class, he had us read Thomas Berry.

When Tom Hayden tells me he isn't voting for the more progressive candidate, I stop and listen to him.

SAVE COMCAST!

The World Wide Web Consortium, once the world's most trusted source of open standards, is helping Comcast make a DRM standard designed to give studios a veto over the legal use of their programming -- something that would have prevented the cable industry from ever coming into being.
(more…)

WSJ: Daily Mail aims to buy Yahoo

Would it be a fitting end, for one of the first and greatest of the American web's dreams, to be eaten by the most infamous of British tabloids?

The parent company of the Daily Mail, the British newspaper and global tabloid website, is in talks with several private-equity firms to launch a bid for Yahoo, the people said. ... A possible bid by Daily Mail could take one of two forms, the people familiar with the matter said. In one scenario, a private-equity partner would aim to acquire the entirety of Yahoo's U.S. operation, with the Mail taking over the news and media properties. Those assets include verticals such as Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports plus Yahoo News and a video operation whose big star is Katie Couric. Yahoo has been retrenching in those businesses-in February the company closed seven digital magazines including sites dedicated to food, parenting and health. In the other scenario, the private-equity firm would acquire Yahoo and merge its media and news properties into a new company that would include the Mail's Web properties, DailyMail.com and Elite Daily, the people said. The Mail would run that business and would get a larger equity stake than under the first scenario.

Yahoo's core business is hard to value because of holdings in successful foreign companies such as Alibaba. At one point, its fortunes were so dire that squinting at it just right made the company seem to have negative value. More recently, an analyst put it at $4.3 billion.

R2-D2 anglepoise lamp

They're $60 at Thinkgeek. (via Geeky Merch)


(more…)

Security flaws found in 3 state health insurance websites

Federal investigators have discovered major security vulnerabilities in the state health insurance websites for California, Kentucky and Vermont that could allow criminals to access sensitive personal data for hundreds of thousands of people.

(more…)

Wrapped: magical short film about mutant monster ivy that engulfs New York City

"Wrapped" is a short film created by Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittmann from Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, at the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction.

(more…)

Funk legend Bernie Worrell is sick, buy this David Byrne remix to help pay his medical bills

Bernie Worrell -- a "lynchpin" of Parliament Funkadelic whose collaborations with Talking Heads made the sound of Stop Making Sense -- is ill and can't afford his medical bills.
(more…)

Sex Nun of Dune

Posted without context or comment.

Crusade against Cthulhu

Robert Altbauer created this series of illustrations depicting crusaders meeting the HP Lovecraft's monsters, annotated in medieval Middle High German.
(more…)

Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966)

Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons

How can we know whether a claim someone makes is scientific or not? The question is of the utmost consequence, as we are surrounded on all sides by claims that sound credible, that use the language of science-and often do so in attempts to refute scientific consensus. As we've seen in the case of the anti-vaccine crusade, falling victim to pseudoscientific arguments can have dire effects. So how can ordinary people, ordinary parents, and ordinary citizens evaluate such arguments?

The problem of demarcation, or what is and what is not science, has occupied philosophers for some time, and the most famous answer comes from philosopher of science Karl Popper, who proposed his theory of “falsifiability” in 1963. According to Popper, an idea is scientific if it can conceivably be proven wrong. Although Popper's strict definition of science has had its uses over the years, it has also come in for its share of criticism, since so much accepted science was falsified in its day (Newton's gravitational theory, Bohr's theory of the atom), and so much current theoretical science cannot be falsified (string theory, for example). Whatever the case, the problem for lay people remains. If a scientific theory is beyond our comprehension, it's unlikely we'll be able to see how it might be disproven.

Physicist and science communicator Richard Feynman came up with another criterion, one that applies directly to the non-scientist likely to be bamboozled by fancy terminology that sounds scientific. Simon Oxenham at Big Think points to the example of Deepak Chopra, who is “infamous for making profound sounding yet entirely meaningless statements by abusing scientific language.” (What Daniel Dennet calls “deepities.”) As a balm against such statements, Oxenham refers us to a speech Feynman gave in 1966 to a meeting of the National Science Teachers Association. Rather than asking lay people to confront scientific-sounding claims on their own terms, Feynman would have us translate them into ordinary language, thereby assuring that what the claim asserts is a logical concept, rather than just a collection of jargon.

The example Feynman gives comes from the most rudimentary source, a “first grade science textbook” which “begins in an unfortunate manner to teach science”: it shows its student a picture of a “windable toy dog,” then a picture of a real dog, then a motorbike. In each case the student is asked “What makes it move?” The answer, Feynman tells us “was in the teacher's edition of the book… 'energy makes it move.'” Few students would have intuited such an abstract concept, unless they had previously learned the word, which is all the lesson teaches them. The answer, Feynman points out, might as well have been “'God makes it move,' or 'Spirit makes it move,' or, 'Movability makes it move.'”

Instead, a good science lesson “should think about what an ordinary human being would answer.” Engaging with the concept of energy in ordinary language enables the student to explain it, and this, Feynman says, constitutes a test for “whether you have taught an idea or you have only taught a definition. Test it this way”:

Without using the new word which you have just learned, try to rephrase what you have just learned in your own language. Without using the word “energy,” tell me what you know now about the dog's motion.

Feynman's insistence on ordinary language recalls the statement attributed to Einstein about not really understanding something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. The method, Feynman says, guards against learning “a mystic formula for answering questions,” and Oxenham describes it as “a valuable way of testing ourselves on whether we have really learned something, or whether we just think we have learned something.”

It is equally useful for testing the claims of others. If someone cannot explain something in plain English, then we should question whether they really do themselves understand what they profess…. In the words of Feynman, “It is possible to follow form and call it science, but that is pseudoscience.”

Does Feynman's ordinary language test solve the demarcation problem? No, but if we use it as a guide when confronted with plausible-sounding claims couched in scientific-sounding verbiage, it can help us either get clarity or suss out total nonsense. And if anyone would know how scientists can explain complicated ideas in plainly accessible ways, Feynman would.

via Big Think

Related Content:

'The Character of Physical Law': Richard Feynman's Legendary Course Presented at Cornell, 1964

Richard Feynman Presents Quantum Electrodynamics for the NonScientist

The Drawings & Paintings of Richard Feynman: Art Expresses a Dramatic “Feeling of Awe”

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966) is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.

Should a programming conference host a reactionary weirdo?

LambdaConf is a conference for people who are into functional programming. If you don't know what that means, it suffices to say that these are stout, yeomanly Hobbits of computer science. What's news is that they invited Mencius Moldbug to speak at it. Moldbug (real name Curtis Yarvin) is a Hollywood archetype of coders: the programming whiz who has strange and comically retrograde opinions of minorities, slavery, ladies, etc. So. Should he be invited to speak?

LambdaConf founder and chief organizer John A. De Goes wrote in a blog post that the conference decided to keep Yarvin as a speaker in order not to set a precedent of discriminating against attendees because of their beliefs. "LambdaConf does not and cannot endorse any of the wildly different, diametrically opposed, and controversial opinions held by speakers, attendees, volunteers, and vendors," he wrote. …

Jon Sterling, organizer of LambdaConf workshop PrlConf, decided to cancel the workshop, writing in an open letter: "We cannot possibly organize a workshop under the umbrella of a conference that values the free expression of racist and fascist views over the physical and emotional safety of its attendees and speakers."

Not all who oppose Yarvin's views say they will boycott the conference. The writers of a forthcoming book on the programming language Haskell say they are coming to support other speakers and attendees.

There's a passage in one of the Hannibal Lecter novels, probably Silence of the Lambs, where it's made clear that the good doctor, though incarcerated as a serial killer, is still engaged as a professional in his field of study. He writes in respected journals, and for the sake of the advancement of their field, his colleagues affect a level of professional respect for his work that may seem, to a layperson, suspiciously titillated. Nevertheless, he is reviewed by his peers. He is published.

Now, I'm not in a position to peer-review the turd. My code is obviously 100-IQ garbage. But I wrote a functioning, functional CMS once! So I feel vaguely qualified to make sweeping judgments on how things Get Done in the organizational context. And my judgment on the turd is the same as Dr. Lecter's judgment of himself: a civilized society would kill Yarvin or give him his say.

Should a programming conference host a reactionary weirdo?

LambdaConf is a conference for people who are into functional programming. If you don't know what that means, it suffices to say that these are stout, yeomanly Hobbits of computer science. What's news is that they invited Mencius Moldbug to speak at it. Moldbug (real name Curtis Yarvin) is a Hollywood archetype of coders: the programming whiz who has strange and comically retrograde opinions of minorities, slavery, ladies, etc. So. Should he be invited to speak?

LambdaConf founder and chief organizer John A. De Goes wrote in a blog post that the conference decided to keep Yarvin as a speaker in order not to set a precedent of discriminating against attendees because of their beliefs. "LambdaConf does not and cannot endorse any of the wildly different, diametrically opposed, and controversial opinions held by speakers, attendees, volunteers, and vendors," he wrote. …

Jon Sterling, organizer of LambdaConf workshop PrlConf, decided to cancel the workshop, writing in an open letter: "We cannot possibly organize a workshop under the umbrella of a conference that values the free expression of racist and fascist views over the physical and emotional safety of its attendees and speakers."

Not all who oppose Yarvin's views say they will boycott the conference. The writers of a forthcoming book on the programming language Haskell say they are coming to support other speakers and attendees.

There's a passage in one of the Hannibal Lecter novels, probably Silence of the Lambs, where it's made clear that the good doctor, though incarcerated as a serial killer, is still engaged as a professional in his field of study. He writes in respected journals, and for the sake of the advancement of their field, his colleagues affect a level of professional respect for his work that may seem, to a layperson, suspiciously titillated. Nevertheless, he is reviewed by his peers. He is published.

Now, I'm not in a position to peer-review the turd. My code is obviously 100-IQ garbage. But I wrote a functioning, functional CMS once! So I feel vaguely qualified to make sweeping judgments on how things Get Done in the organizational context. And my judgment on the turd is the same as Dr. Lecter's judgment of himself: a civilized society would kill Yarvin or give him his say.