Friday, January 29, 2016
An Inventor
http://www.upworthy.com/glass-cars-sentient-spoons-and-an-inventor-whos-challenging-our-idea-of-normal?c=upw1
Gerry-Rigging: Manipulating the Outcome
A trick old as dirt.
From Wired -
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA spent the last chunk of his 2016 State of the Union Address talking about how to “fix our politics.” His first solution? Stop gerrymandering, the shaping of congressional districts to guarantee electoral outcomes. “We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around,” he said.
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/gerrymandering-is-even-more-infuriating-when-you-can-actually-see-it/?mbid=nl_12816
From Wired -
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA spent the last chunk of his 2016 State of the Union Address talking about how to “fix our politics.” His first solution? Stop gerrymandering, the shaping of congressional districts to guarantee electoral outcomes. “We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around,” he said.
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/gerrymandering-is-even-more-infuriating-when-you-can-actually-see-it/?mbid=nl_12816
Truth Be Told
New from Howard University -
Howard University’s School of Communications recently launched the first fact-checking service dedicated entirely to claims about the African-American community. The website, TruthBeTold.news, publishes student investigations into commonly spouted bullshit like the idea that Planned Parenthood is strategically planning black genocide.
https://www.good.is/articles/howard-students-fact-checking-tool-for-journalism?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
http://truthbetold.news
Howard University’s School of Communications recently launched the first fact-checking service dedicated entirely to claims about the African-American community. The website, TruthBeTold.news, publishes student investigations into commonly spouted bullshit like the idea that Planned Parenthood is strategically planning black genocide.
https://www.good.is/articles/howard-students-fact-checking-tool-for-journalism?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
http://truthbetold.news
Michael Jackson Interview With Oprah (Part 3/6)
At around the 4:00 mark, Micheal responds to Oprah's question about a white kid playing him.
This is being recalled now because Joseph Fiennes, a white guy, is set to play him in a new film.
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/28/10862226/michael-jackson-joseph-fiennes
This is being recalled now because Joseph Fiennes, a white guy, is set to play him in a new film.
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/28/10862226/michael-jackson-joseph-fiennes
If You Have to Explain It, You Don't Get It
GET OVER HERE, MAN: DECODING THE BRO-HUG
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/get-over-here-man-decoding-the-brohug?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=c2f46bec40-Newsletter_1_29_20161_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-c2f46bec40-59905913&ct=t(Newsletter_1_29_20161_28_2016)&mc_cid=c2f46bec40&mc_eid=866176a63f
Fight Club Rules
From The New Yorker -
Park Slope Parents’ Fight Club: A Friendly Reminder of the Rules
BY GLENN BOOZAN
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/park-slope-parents-fight-club-a-friendly-reminder-of-the-rules?mbid=nl_160129_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8488969&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=843293050&spReportId=ODQzMjkzMDUwS0
We're the Only Ones
From The Atlantic -
“It's really strange that only humans have chins,” says James Pampush from Duke University. “When we're looking at things that are uniquely human, we can't look to big brains or bipedalism because our extinct relatives had those. But they didn't have chins. That makes this immediately relevant to everyone.” Indeed, except in rare cases involving birth defects, everyone has chins. Sure, some people have less pronounced ones than others, perhaps because their lower jaws are small or they have more flesh around the area. But if you peeled back that flesh and exposed their jawbones—and maybe don't do that—you'd still see a chin.
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/were-the-only-animals-with-chins-and-no-one-knows-why/431625/
“It's really strange that only humans have chins,” says James Pampush from Duke University. “When we're looking at things that are uniquely human, we can't look to big brains or bipedalism because our extinct relatives had those. But they didn't have chins. That makes this immediately relevant to everyone.” Indeed, except in rare cases involving birth defects, everyone has chins. Sure, some people have less pronounced ones than others, perhaps because their lower jaws are small or they have more flesh around the area. But if you peeled back that flesh and exposed their jawbones—and maybe don't do that—you'd still see a chin.
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/were-the-only-animals-with-chins-and-no-one-knows-why/431625/
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Looking For a Job?
5 Best Job Sites to Have a Profile On
http://www.lifehack.org/355334/5-best-job-sites-have-profile?mid=20160126&ref=mail&uid=789627&feq=dailyVinyl - It's Still Around
 |
| A cutting machine etches a groove into a lacquer or DMM copper disc, the first step in creating the master record |
EIGHT-TRACKS GAVE WAY to cassettes, which gave way to compact discs, which gave way to streaming audio and hi-res files. If there’s one constant in the music biz, it is that every format eventually yields to newer, better technology. All but vinyl, that is. Somehow, records have not only endured, but lately they’ve enjoyed a renaissance.
It’s odd when you think about it. Records are archaic technology, a format that is not at all portable and subject to all manner of degradation, from scratches and skips to pops and clicks, if it isn’t properly and lovingly cared for. But audiophiles insist vinyl offers superior sound. We’ll stay out of that debate, but you have to admit it is pretty cool how vinyl works.
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/alastair-wiper-record-industry/?mbid=nl_12616
Street Genius
An excerpt from Nautilus -
The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic
Walter Pitts rose from the streets to MIT, but couldn’t escape himself.
BY AMANDA GEFTER
Walter Pitts was used to being bullied. He’d been born into a tough family in Prohibition-era Detroit, where his father, a boiler-maker, had no trouble raising his fists to get his way. The neighborhood boys weren’t much better. One afternoon in 1935, they chased him through the streets until he ducked into the local library to hide. The library was familiar ground, where he had taught himself Greek, Latin, logic, and mathematics—better than home, where his father insisted he drop out of school and go to work. Outside, the world was messy. Inside, it all made sense.
Not wanting to risk another run-in that night, Pitts stayed hidden until the library closed for the evening. Alone, he wandered through the stacks of books until he came across Principia Mathematica, a three-volume tome written by Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead between 1910 and 1913, which attempted to reduce all of mathematics to pure logic. Pitts sat down and began to read. For three days he remained in the library until he had read each volume cover to cover—nearly 2,000 pages in all—and had identified several mistakes. Deciding that Bertrand Russell himself needed to know about these, the boy drafted a letter to Russell detailing the errors. Not only did Russell write back, he was so impressed that he invited Pitts to study with him as a graduate student at Cambridge University in England. Pitts couldn’t oblige him, though—he was only 12 years old. But three years later, when he heard that Russell would be visiting the University of Chicago, the 15-year-old ran away from home and headed for Illinois. He never saw his family again.
http://nautil.us/issue/21/information/the-man-who-tried-to-redeem-the-world-with-logic
The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic
Walter Pitts rose from the streets to MIT, but couldn’t escape himself.
BY AMANDA GEFTER
Walter Pitts was used to being bullied. He’d been born into a tough family in Prohibition-era Detroit, where his father, a boiler-maker, had no trouble raising his fists to get his way. The neighborhood boys weren’t much better. One afternoon in 1935, they chased him through the streets until he ducked into the local library to hide. The library was familiar ground, where he had taught himself Greek, Latin, logic, and mathematics—better than home, where his father insisted he drop out of school and go to work. Outside, the world was messy. Inside, it all made sense.
Not wanting to risk another run-in that night, Pitts stayed hidden until the library closed for the evening. Alone, he wandered through the stacks of books until he came across Principia Mathematica, a three-volume tome written by Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead between 1910 and 1913, which attempted to reduce all of mathematics to pure logic. Pitts sat down and began to read. For three days he remained in the library until he had read each volume cover to cover—nearly 2,000 pages in all—and had identified several mistakes. Deciding that Bertrand Russell himself needed to know about these, the boy drafted a letter to Russell detailing the errors. Not only did Russell write back, he was so impressed that he invited Pitts to study with him as a graduate student at Cambridge University in England. Pitts couldn’t oblige him, though—he was only 12 years old. But three years later, when he heard that Russell would be visiting the University of Chicago, the 15-year-old ran away from home and headed for Illinois. He never saw his family again.
http://nautil.us/issue/21/information/the-man-who-tried-to-redeem-the-world-with-logic
Fighting For a Seat At the Table
An excerpt -
In the fall of 2013 a young software engineer named Charles Pratt arrived on Howard University’s campus in Washington. His employer, Google, had sent him there to cultivate future Silicon Valley programmers. It represented a warming of the Valley’s attitude toward Howard, where more than 8 out of 10 students are black. The chair of the computer science department, Legand Burge, had spent almost a decade inviting tech companies to hire his graduates, but they’d mostly ignored him. Pratt began teaching computer science classes, helping to revamp the department’s curriculum, and preparing students for Google’s idiosyncratic application process. It was one of several initiatives meant to get the school to churn out large numbers of engineers. Two and a half years later, that hasn’t happened. The slow progress reflects the knottiness of one of Silicon Valley’s most persistent problems: It’s too white.
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-howard-university-coders/
Why Doesn’t Silicon Valley Hire Black Coders?
Howard University fights to join the tech boom.
From 
 |
| Legand Burge, the chair of Howard University's computer science department. |
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-howard-university-coders/
Holy Reefer
From Good -
The Sisters of the Valley are nuns who grow cannabis. They then use that cannabis to make cannabidiol (CBD)-infused oils, skin creams, and supplements for the ill and ailing. These products contain minimal to no amounts of THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets you stoned. Sister Kate, a 56-year-old mother of three, runs the operation out of her Central Valley home in Merced, California.
The city of Merced, however, is trying to stop them. In early January, legislators there introduced an ordinance that would ban the sale and cultivation of medical marijuana, a law that would decimate Sister Kate’s business. The Sisters of the Valley, however, are fighting back. They’re circulating a petition to challenge the ordinance.
“We are bringing badly needed revenues from outside the county, into the county,” writes Sister Kate in the petition. “We are paying badly needed sales tax revenues. And there are many others, like us, working in the chain to supply Mother Earth’s children with Mother Earth’s finest medicine.”
The sisters say they’re in the healing business. A number of studies reveal that CBD has powerful therapeutic effects for those who suffer from seizures, cancer, chronic psychosis, anxiety, and other problems. For the nuns, who sell their products on an Etsy page, the process of growing and cultivating marijuana, and then using it to help people in pain, is a spiritual experience, though they are not associated with any organized religion.
“We spend no time on bended knee, but when we make our medicine it's a prayerful environment and it's a prayerful time,” Sister Kate told ABC 13.
Their order touts the tenets of environmental justice and gender equality.
“It's more for me about the sisterhood and the feminist movement ... to live and work with other women and to do a positive thing for the community—and obviously for the world, since we ship it everywhere,” Sister Darcy, an apprentice, told ABC 13.
https://www.good.is/articles/cannabis-nuns-launch-petition-against-medical-marijuana-ban-in-merced?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Monday, January 25, 2016
Amazing Talent
This kid sat down at a piano in the mall and started playing. He doesn't read music and has never had lessons. He plays by ear.
I'm not on Facebook, so I couldn't access the video only, but you can see it embedded in the article linked below.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/25/michigan-mall-piano-viral-monntel-west/79289368/
I'm not on Facebook, so I couldn't access the video only, but you can see it embedded in the article linked below.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/25/michigan-mall-piano-viral-monntel-west/79289368/
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Maasai Men
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/01/21/463709275/the-real-goal-for-these-cricket-crazy-maasai-men-ending-the-cut?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003
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