When Schools Allow Creativity & Innovation

From Stanford Magazine -

FAB FEATS: Juliana Cook, ’15 (above), works in Blikstein's lab,
where creations range from sculptures to 3-D printing projects.
Photo: Tamer Shabani, '14

IMAGINE WALKING INTO A HIGH SCHOOL classroom and, instead of rows of desks and chairs facing a whiteboard, you see workbenches. Stationed around the room is an array of machines: a 3-D printer, a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter and a milling machine. Metal drawers and storage shelves are stocked with wood, resins, burlap, glue, machinable wax, acrylic and dozens of other supplies.

You have entered a fab lab.

What’s that? Short for “fabrication laboratory,” the concept—born at MIT in 2001—was to create an environment full of multipurpose tools where one could build nearly anything. The idea caught on, and now there are close to 600 fab labs worldwide, according to fablabs.io, a website that supports and organizes the fab lab movement. The underlying goal is to provide broad access to modern means of invention.

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=86044&utm_medium=Email&GenwiShareGUID=E6F0A8E4-4D3E-4D11-AE82-657C0E75D103

A Black Golfer We Can Be Proud Of

Excerpts from Stanford Magazine -

PRECOCIOUS: Stackhouse has been winning tournaments since she was 6.
Photo: Casey Valentine/Isiphotos.com

MARIAH STACKHOUSE has never been known to shrink from the spotlight. Not when students and faculty flocked to her gallery to watch her complete the best round in the history of women’s collegiate golf—a 10-under-par 61 in her first tournament at the Stanford Golf Course as a freshman. Not when she was asked to give a speech introducing former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a packed banquet hall in 2014. And not when the Cardinal’s season depended on her overcoming a two-stroke deficit with two holes to play against Baylor at the NCAA championships last May.

~~~~~~~~~~

The young fans who flock to her tournaments find a similarly magnetic role model in Stackhouse, who is personable, quick to laugh and, at 5-foot-2, close to their size. (Among the things her young fans don’t know about her but would no doubt admire: She has a nearly encyclopedic memory for song lyrics.) Says Stackhouse of her pint-size acolytes, “I love it when little black girls tweet me or come up to me at tournaments to say, ‘I want to go to Stanford!’”

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=86084&utm_medium=Email&GenwiShareGUID=ABDBABB2-E56D-4C81-A749-A69CD9EC0FEC

Patterns in Our World

From The Smithsonian - 

The Science Behind Nature's Patterns

A new book explores the physical and chemical reasons behind incredible visual structures in the living and non-living world

A furled chameleon tail obviously takes its shape from the rolling of a tube,
but its pattern is distinct from that created by rolling an even tube,
such as that of a garden hose. The gentle taper of the tail produces
a logarithmic spiral—one that gets smaller,
yet the small parts look like the large parts. (Michal Filip Gmerek/Shutterstock.com)

The undulations of a sand dune reveal a pattern in time as well as space.
Sinuous waves arise from a pulse, an ebb and flow, as grains of sand
are blown in the wind. (Denis Burdin/Shutterstock.com)

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-behind-natures-patterns-180959033/#HmG7CfIdXah4fwCG.99

Google Needs You

An excerpt from PC Magazine -

Google Will Pay You to Drive Around in Its Self-Driving Cars

BY ANGELA MOSCARITOLO 

The Web giant is looking to hire "vehicle safety specialists" in Arizona to be part of its self-driving car project. 

Calling all college graduates in Arizona with a clean driving record and no criminal history: Google wants your help.

The Web giant is looking to hire "vehicle safety specialists" in the state to be part of its self-driving car project. As per the job description, those selected will be tasked with driving an autonomous vehicle around the state for six to eight hours per day, five days per week, collecting data for Google's engineering team. Drivers will earn $20 per hour, according to The Arizona Republic.

"Test drivers play an important role in developing our self-driving technology," Brian Torcellini, head of operations for Google's Self-Driving Car testing program, told the paper. "They give our engineers feedback about how our cars are driving and interacting with others on the road, and can take control of the vehicle if needed."

http://www.pcmag.com/news/344438/google-will-pay-you-to-drive-around-in-its-self-driving-cars

Trump and the Holy Ones

An excerpt from The New Republic -

Why Evangelicals Like Trump
Fundamentalist approaches to evangelicalism have long fostered anti-intellectual and authoritarian mindsets.
BY MUGAMBI JOUET

The support that Donald Trump has received from legions of evangelicals has puzzled and “surprised” many people. After all, the presumptive Republican nominee is exceptionally vulgar and, despite claiming to be a devout Christian whose favorite book is the Bible, knows little about scripture and has emphasized, “I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness” from God. One common explanation for this apparent contradiction is that numerous evangelicals embrace Trump’s agenda, from eviscerating Obamacare to cracking down on undocumented immigrants and barring Muslims from entering America. But Trump and his evangelical supporters think alike in more ways than people realize. Fundamentalist approaches to evangelicalism have long fostered anti-intellectual, anti-rational, black-and-white, and authoritarian mindsets—the very traits that define Trump.

The historian Richard Hofstadter explored the roots of the issue in his 1966 book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, which described how the spread of evangelicalism since the eighteenth century fostered the notion that education is an obstacle to faith. Not all evangelicals thought alike, although many were convinced that people need not read any book except the Bible. As the influential preacher Dwight L. Moody (1837-99) proclaimed, “I do not read any book, unless it will help me to understand the book.” Hofstadter concluded that this anti-intellectual conception of religion extended to life outside the church. Hardline evangelicals became particularly disdainful of reflection and refined ideas, leading some to be drawn to “men of emotional power or manipulative skill.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/133488/evangelicals-like-trump?utm_source=New+Republic&utm_campaign=7710bae9ba-Daily_Newsletter_5_13_20165_13_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4ad0aba7e-7710bae9ba-59581889

"I Am His Hands. He Is My Eyes." The Friendship That Built a Forest

Can We Pay Some More Folks?

A tweet from Patrick Stewart as seen on The Huffington Post -

Made me forget the humidity for a moment. 

Worth 5 bucks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-patrick-stewart-tweet_us_5735799ce4b077d4d6f2b8d3

Vortex .Bladeless Wind Generator.

Well That Says It All

From The Washington Post -

Ann Telnaes cartoon -
Paul Ryan met with Donald Trump today

Baby Bison Takes on Wolf and Wins | America's National Parks

Meet Gboard

Once you add the keyboard, you'll need to hold down the GLOBE on the left of the space bar and select Gboard to activate it.

Being able to search within apps is a super cool feature.

Enjoy!

He's a Nasty, Slimy, Sleaze-bag

An excerpt from Salon - 

Hollywood’s unforgivable Woody Allen cowardice: What the controversy at Cannes really proves

The latest Allen imbroglio is a powerful reminder of the entertainment press's deference to powerful men

JACK MIRKINSON

~~~~~~~~~~

Over the past two days, Woody Allen has found his attempts to publicize his new movie somewhat hampered. Instead of his latest directorial effort, everyone is talking about the decades-old allegations that he sexually molested his daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was a little girl.

The timeline goes something like this: The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a cover story about Allen in which it not only avoided asking him directly about his daughter’s allegations against him, but also allowed him to portray his marriage to Soon-Yi Previn—who, lest we forget, was his stepdaughter before becoming his wife—in what can only be described as extremely questionable terms.

~~~~~~~~~~

I am sympathetic to the pressures that journalists face when dealing with aggressive publicists who threaten to torpedo a story if certain questions are raised. These are not easy things to contend with. It’s also no simple task to ask a legendary figure about highly sensitive portions of his personal life. But sometimes you just have to suck it up and do your job. What good is it to be allowed in a room with Woody Allen if you can only do it in a compromised, grossly tainted way?

The question of whether people should continue watching Woody Allen’s movies is something that everyone has to answer for themselves. The question of how major stars and production companies can still work with him is another, separate minefield. The question of whether or not the allegations that his own children have leveled against him should occupy a central part of how we think about him—and, crucially, how journalists approach him—is something that requires no such introspection. The charges against Allen should never be allowed to stray from our collective consciousness again. Hopefully The Hollywood Reporter and the rest of the entertainment press will remember that in the future.

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/12/hollywoods_unforgivable_woody_allen_cowardice_what_the_controversy_at_cannes_really_proves/?source=newsletter

A Grocery Store With No Staff

An excerpt from Good -

The Future Of Shopping Just Opened In This Tiny Midwestern Town
by Jesse Hirsch & Alicia Kennedy

When Sweden’s first unstaffed grocery store opened earlier this year, it received a flood of breathless global coverage—it’s a concept both novel and posh, a natural advancement of our quest for eternal convenience. The store was the brain-child of tech guy Robert Ilijason, whose origin myth centers on dropping his last jar of baby food in the wee hours and not knowing where to go. Customers in Viken can now register with an app on their phone that will allow them to swipe into the store and pay for purchases without speaking to another human being—peak modern luxury.

The concept of the unstaffed store has broader implications than 3 a.m. munchies for the tech-bro set, though. For real disruption, look no farther than Farmhouse Market, posted up in humble New Prague, Minnesota (population 7,800.) Farmhouse, the first American iteration of the 24/7 supermarket, was opened by the husband and wife team of Paul and Kendra Rasmusson. The goal is simple: provide healthful, local food at affordable rates. By cutting the cost of staffing—an issue that might not immediately come to mind when considering how to fix food deserts—they’re able to offer better prices to rural, non-affluent customers.

https://www.good.is/articles/farmhouse-market?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood

SignAloud: Gloves that Transliterate Sign Language into Text and Speech

Black Baseball

An excerpt from The New Yorker -

The Mission of a Black Baseball Team
BY JOHN FLORIO AND OUISIE SHAPIRO

Sports fans know that black participation in Major League Baseball has dropped precipitously in the past few decades. According to a report published last year by USA Today, less than eight per cent of major-league players in 2015 were African-American; that figure was nineteen per cent in 1986. And the decline can be seen at every level of the game: Little League, the minors, high school, college—even H.B.C.U.s. Thirty years ago, it was virtually impossible to find a white player on an H.B.C.U. team. Today, Winston-Salem State, Florida A&M, Prairie View A&M, and North Carolina Central all field teams in which the majority of players are not black. Only a few schools—Clark Atlanta, Morehouse College, and Lane College—regularly fill their rosters entirely with black players.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/the-mission-of-a-black-baseball-team?mbid=nl_160512_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8914754&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=921243805&spReportId=OTIxMjQzODA1S0

Scouting American Giants for Aussie Rules Football

This Town Has No Doors, No Locks and No Crime

9 - 3 ÷ 1/3 + 1 = ? The Correct Answer (Viral Problem In Japan)

Wanting to Go Home Again

It's easy to understand why Ta-Nehisi Coates is the celebrated author that he is.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/on-homecomings/481818/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-051016

New Titles

An excerpt from The Atlantic -

U.S. Laws Will No Longer Sound Like a Vaguely Racist Uncle
Congress removed the last uses of “Oriental” and “Negro” from federal statutes on Monday.

Congress unanimously passed a bill Monday to remove the last pockets of archaic racial terminology such as “Oriental” or “Negro” from federal law, replacing them instead with more modern terms.

The law targeted two anti-discrimination subsections of the U.S. Code that used outdated language to describe racial groups. In one section of the Department of Energy Organization Act, “a Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent” will be replaced with “Asian American, Native Hawaiian, a Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Native American, or an Alaska Native.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/congress-race-oriental-negro/482238/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%205/11/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All