An excerpt from Atlas Obscura -
Why Do We Sleep Under Blankets, Even on the Hottest Nights?
There’s great comfort in being covered.
BY DAN NOSOWITZ
The other element that might explain our need for blankets is what Hoagland refers to as “pure conditioning.” “Chances are you were raised to always have a blanket on you when you went to sleep,” she says. “So that’s a version of a transitional object, in sort of Pavlovian way.” Basically, our parents always gave us blankets to sleep with—babies are a bit worse than adults at thermoregulation, meaning they get cold easily, meaning well-meaning adults put blankets on them—and so getting under a sheet or blanket is associated with the process of falling asleep. Instead of Pavlov’s dogs drooling at the sound of a bell, we get sleepy when covered with a sheet.
If you Google around for this question, you’ll end up with a bunch of theories about blankets simulating the warm, enclosed feeling we had in the womb. There could be some element of theoretical protection or security imbued by the blanket, which might be another bit of conditioning, but Hoagland thinks the womb comparison is pretty unlikely. “I’m very suspicious of anyone who implies that this goes back to the feeling of being in the womb,” she says. “I think that’s very far-fetched.”
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/blankets-summer-hot
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Looking Sharp
An excerpt from the LA Times -
Tijuana's big growth industry? Barbershops, with 100 opening in three years
By Phillip Molnar, Alejandro Tamayo
Tijuana had roughly 50 to 80 barbershops in 2013 but now has more than 150, said the city’s economic development office.
Retail experts say going to a barbershop is a way of projecting masculinity, but there are other factors that attract clients: nostalgia, bargain prices, access to beard products and increased amenities offered by barbers.
Ruben Chavarria, 40, a machinist in San Diego who lives in Tijuana, used to get his haircut in San Diego now but goes to Don Edgar Barberia once a week.
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-tijuana-barbers-20170817-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Tijuana's big growth industry? Barbershops, with 100 opening in three years
By Phillip Molnar, Alejandro Tamayo
Tijuana had roughly 50 to 80 barbershops in 2013 but now has more than 150, said the city’s economic development office.
Retail experts say going to a barbershop is a way of projecting masculinity, but there are other factors that attract clients: nostalgia, bargain prices, access to beard products and increased amenities offered by barbers.
Ruben Chavarria, 40, a machinist in San Diego who lives in Tijuana, used to get his haircut in San Diego now but goes to Don Edgar Barberia once a week.
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-tijuana-barbers-20170817-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Amazon's Convenience Stores
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
What it’s like to shop in Amazon’s version of the convenience store
By Hayley Tsukayama
BERKELEY, Calif. — Amazon has been aggressively courting students as part of its experiment to bring its enormous online shopping operation into the brick-and-mortar world. Now, the company is launching Amazon Instant Pickup, a service that allows customers to order certain items from their smartphones for pickup within minutes of purchase.
Essentially, Amazon has launched its own version of the convenience store.
Five college campus locations will introduce Instant Pickup this week, including the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland at College Park. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/08/16/what-its-like-to-shop-in-amazons-version-of-the-convenience-store/?utm_term=.73ec9def8e95&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
What it’s like to shop in Amazon’s version of the convenience store
By Hayley Tsukayama
BERKELEY, Calif. — Amazon has been aggressively courting students as part of its experiment to bring its enormous online shopping operation into the brick-and-mortar world. Now, the company is launching Amazon Instant Pickup, a service that allows customers to order certain items from their smartphones for pickup within minutes of purchase.
Essentially, Amazon has launched its own version of the convenience store.
Five college campus locations will introduce Instant Pickup this week, including the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland at College Park. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/08/16/what-its-like-to-shop-in-amazons-version-of-the-convenience-store/?utm_term=.73ec9def8e95&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Shown No Mercy
An excerpt from Salon -
White privilege turned deadly in Charlottesville: How would police have reacted if a mob of angry black people had gathered there?
Imagine this thought experiment: Hundreds of armed, angry black protesters descend on a small Southern city
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Imagine this: What if the white right-wing thugs in Charlottesville had instead been African-American or Hispanic?
The police would not have shown restraint. They would have been joined by the National Guard and other forces. A bloodbath might well have ensued. The events in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Mike Brown, demonstrate how America’s police respond to unarmed black and brown American who dare to engage in civil disobedience and protest. People of color with guns or other weapons would be shown no mercy.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/16/white-privilege-turned-deadly-in-charlottesville-how-would-police-have-reacted-if-a-mob-of-angry-black-people-had-gathered-there/
White privilege turned deadly in Charlottesville: How would police have reacted if a mob of angry black people had gathered there?
Imagine this thought experiment: Hundreds of armed, angry black protesters descend on a small Southern city
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Imagine this: What if the white right-wing thugs in Charlottesville had instead been African-American or Hispanic?
The police would not have shown restraint. They would have been joined by the National Guard and other forces. A bloodbath might well have ensued. The events in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Mike Brown, demonstrate how America’s police respond to unarmed black and brown American who dare to engage in civil disobedience and protest. People of color with guns or other weapons would be shown no mercy.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/16/white-privilege-turned-deadly-in-charlottesville-how-would-police-have-reacted-if-a-mob-of-angry-black-people-had-gathered-there/
A New Kind of School
An excerpt from the NY Times -
A New Kind of Classroom: No Grades, No Failing, No Hurry
By KYLE SPENCER
Few middle schoolers are as clued in to their mathematical strengths and weakness as Moheeb Kaied. Now a seventh grader at Brooklyn’s Middle School 442, he can easily rattle off his computational profile.
“Let’s see,” he said one morning this spring. “I can find the area and perimeter of a polygon. I can solve mathematical and real-world problems using a coordinate plane. I still need to get better at dividing multiple-digit numbers, which means I should probably practice that more.”
Moheeb is part of a new program that is challenging the way teachers and students think about academic accomplishments, and his school is one of hundreds that have done away with traditional letter grades inside their classrooms. At M.S. 442, students are encouraged to focus instead on mastering a set of grade-level skills, like writing a scientific hypothesis or identifying themes in a story, moving to the next set of skills when they have demonstrated that they are ready. In these schools, there is no such thing as a C or a D for a lazily written term paper. There is no failing. The only goal is to learn the material, sooner or later.
For struggling students, there is ample time to practice until they get it. For those who grasp concepts quickly, there is the opportunity to swiftly move ahead. The strategy looks different from classroom to classroom, as does the material that students must master. But in general, students work at their own pace through worksheets, online lessons and in small group discussions with teachers. They get frequent updates on skills they have learned and those they need to acquire.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/nyregion/mastery-based-learning-no-grades.html
A New Kind of Classroom: No Grades, No Failing, No Hurry
By KYLE SPENCER
Few middle schoolers are as clued in to their mathematical strengths and weakness as Moheeb Kaied. Now a seventh grader at Brooklyn’s Middle School 442, he can easily rattle off his computational profile.
“Let’s see,” he said one morning this spring. “I can find the area and perimeter of a polygon. I can solve mathematical and real-world problems using a coordinate plane. I still need to get better at dividing multiple-digit numbers, which means I should probably practice that more.”
Moheeb is part of a new program that is challenging the way teachers and students think about academic accomplishments, and his school is one of hundreds that have done away with traditional letter grades inside their classrooms. At M.S. 442, students are encouraged to focus instead on mastering a set of grade-level skills, like writing a scientific hypothesis or identifying themes in a story, moving to the next set of skills when they have demonstrated that they are ready. In these schools, there is no such thing as a C or a D for a lazily written term paper. There is no failing. The only goal is to learn the material, sooner or later.
For struggling students, there is ample time to practice until they get it. For those who grasp concepts quickly, there is the opportunity to swiftly move ahead. The strategy looks different from classroom to classroom, as does the material that students must master. But in general, students work at their own pace through worksheets, online lessons and in small group discussions with teachers. They get frequent updates on skills they have learned and those they need to acquire.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/nyregion/mastery-based-learning-no-grades.html
Books For Kids
From the NY Times -
How to Talk to Your Kids About Charlottesville
By MARIA RUSSO
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/books/review/children-violence-racism-charlottesville.html?em_pos=medium&emc=edit_rr_20170816&nl=race-related&nl_art=6&nlid=38867499&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0
How to Talk to Your Kids About Charlottesville
By MARIA RUSSO
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/books/review/children-violence-racism-charlottesville.html?em_pos=medium&emc=edit_rr_20170816&nl=race-related&nl_art=6&nlid=38867499&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0
History Lesson
From EW -
Stan Lee shares 1968 column against bigotry after Charlottesville violence
‘As it true today as it was in 1968,’ the writer tweeted
By CHRISTIAN HOLUB
Stan Lee shares 1968 column against bigotry after Charlottesville violence
‘As it true today as it was in 1968,’ the writer tweeted
By CHRISTIAN HOLUB
As true today as it was in 1968. Pax et Justitia - Stan pic.twitter.com/VbBtiZzUch— stan lee (@TheRealStanLee) August 15, 2017
Quote
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."-Wiesel— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 15, 2017
Prelude to a Coup?
An excerpt from Slate -
Chain of Confusion
Military commanders’ rebuke of Trump after Charlottesville points to a crisis for civilian control of the military.
By Fred Kaplan
n a stunning bit of news, the chiefs of all four U.S. military services—Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines—have issued statements this week condemning racism in all its forms. This can only be seen as a rebuke to President Trump’s equivocating statements on last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia—i.e., as a rebuke to their commander in chief.
If we lived in a different sort of country, this could fairly be seen as the prelude to a military coup—and a coup that many might welcome.
The United States is not that sort of country. The principles of civilian control and an apolitical military are hammered into every officer’s sensibility in every forum of education and training. Yet, at the same time, so are principles of equality and nondiscrimination—enshrined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice and bolstered by the military’s heritage as a spearhead of racial integration shortly after World War II, long before other segments of American society followed along.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/08/trump_s_generals_rebuke_him_after_charlottesville.html?wpsrc=newsletter_tis&sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d
Chain of Confusion
Military commanders’ rebuke of Trump after Charlottesville points to a crisis for civilian control of the military.
By Fred Kaplan
n a stunning bit of news, the chiefs of all four U.S. military services—Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines—have issued statements this week condemning racism in all its forms. This can only be seen as a rebuke to President Trump’s equivocating statements on last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia—i.e., as a rebuke to their commander in chief.
If we lived in a different sort of country, this could fairly be seen as the prelude to a military coup—and a coup that many might welcome.
The United States is not that sort of country. The principles of civilian control and an apolitical military are hammered into every officer’s sensibility in every forum of education and training. Yet, at the same time, so are principles of equality and nondiscrimination—enshrined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice and bolstered by the military’s heritage as a spearhead of racial integration shortly after World War II, long before other segments of American society followed along.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/08/trump_s_generals_rebuke_him_after_charlottesville.html?wpsrc=newsletter_tis&sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Are You There Yet?
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
If you work for Donald Trump, what’s your red line?
By JOAN VENNOCHI
If you work for President Trump, what’s your red line? When do his words and actions become so chilling and outrageous that you have no choice but to walk away?
Trump went rogue during Tuesday’s press conference, but not rogue enough for any administration official or White House staffer to resign in protest. A half-dozen business leaders have stepped down from presidential advisory councils in the wake of the president’s alarming comments about the murder and mayhem in Charlottesville, Va. But no one in Trump’s inner circle has yet abandoned ship — and maybe that’s a good thing for the rest of us.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/16/you-work-for-donald-trump-what-your-red-line/ksPuHKEoRfszr7jg00p1zI/story.html
If you work for Donald Trump, what’s your red line?
By JOAN VENNOCHI
If you work for President Trump, what’s your red line? When do his words and actions become so chilling and outrageous that you have no choice but to walk away?
Trump went rogue during Tuesday’s press conference, but not rogue enough for any administration official or White House staffer to resign in protest. A half-dozen business leaders have stepped down from presidential advisory councils in the wake of the president’s alarming comments about the murder and mayhem in Charlottesville, Va. But no one in Trump’s inner circle has yet abandoned ship — and maybe that’s a good thing for the rest of us.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/16/you-work-for-donald-trump-what-your-red-line/ksPuHKEoRfszr7jg00p1zI/story.html
Paid to Stand in Line
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
See the cool kids lined up outside that new restaurant? This app pays them to stand there.
By Peter Holley
Pretend for a moment that you’re walking through your neighborhood and notice a line of people wrapped around the block outside a newly opened restaurant.
Local food bloggers haven’t written about the venue, so you assume the trendy-looking crowd must be the result of contagious, word-of-mouth buzz.
There was a time when that may have been undoubtedly true — when you could trust that a crowd of people was, in fact, a naturally occurring mass of individuals.
But that time may be passing thanks to Surkus, an emerging app that allowed the restaurant to quickly manufacture its ideal crowd and pay the people to stand in place like extras on a movie set. They’ve even been hand-picked by a casting agent of sorts, an algorithmic one that selects each person according to age, location, style and Facebook “likes.”
They may look excited, but that could also be part of the production. Acting disengaged while they idle in line could tarnish their “reputation score,” an identifier that influences whether they’ll be “cast” again. Nobody is forcing the participants to stay, of course, but if they leave, they won’t be paid — their movements are being tracked with geolocation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/08/16/see-the-hipsters-lined-up-outside-that-new-restaurant-this-app-pays-them-to-stand-there/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_surkus-110pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.1c5a42e841a7
See the cool kids lined up outside that new restaurant? This app pays them to stand there.
By Peter Holley
Pretend for a moment that you’re walking through your neighborhood and notice a line of people wrapped around the block outside a newly opened restaurant.
Local food bloggers haven’t written about the venue, so you assume the trendy-looking crowd must be the result of contagious, word-of-mouth buzz.
There was a time when that may have been undoubtedly true — when you could trust that a crowd of people was, in fact, a naturally occurring mass of individuals.
But that time may be passing thanks to Surkus, an emerging app that allowed the restaurant to quickly manufacture its ideal crowd and pay the people to stand in place like extras on a movie set. They’ve even been hand-picked by a casting agent of sorts, an algorithmic one that selects each person according to age, location, style and Facebook “likes.”
They may look excited, but that could also be part of the production. Acting disengaged while they idle in line could tarnish their “reputation score,” an identifier that influences whether they’ll be “cast” again. Nobody is forcing the participants to stay, of course, but if they leave, they won’t be paid — their movements are being tracked with geolocation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/08/16/see-the-hipsters-lined-up-outside-that-new-restaurant-this-app-pays-them-to-stand-there/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_surkus-110pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.1c5a42e841a7
Quote
One good thing about that abomination of a speech: it's now impossible for any Trump supporter to pretend they don't know what he is.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 15, 2017
Not Us?
An excerpt from the New Yorker - (Italics is mine)
Charlottesville and the Trouble with Civil War Hypotheticals
By Jelani Cobb
Even before the insipid forces of radical whiteness had withdrawn from Charlottesville, Virginia, one heard the beseeching protestation “This is not us.” That sentiment blossomed into a hashtag, exculpating our society after some of its citizens had seemingly forgotten our standing position against fascism. The truth, though, is that there has never been a time when what we saw in Charlottesville has not been us. The present is bequeathed to us by the past, and seldom was that relationship more apparent than it was at the base of the Robert E. Lee statue that was at the center of the violent clashes in Charlottesville. Last month, HBO inspired an avalanche of criticism when it announced that it would produce a series called “Confederate,” which would explore a hypothetical world in which the South had won the Civil War. The events in Charlottesville illustrated a problem with that idea: only by the most specific, immediate definition can we consider the Confederacy to have lost the Civil War, and its legacy has defined a great deal of our history since then.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/charlottesville-and-the-trouble-with-civil-war-hypotheticals
Charlottesville and the Trouble with Civil War Hypotheticals
By Jelani Cobb
Even before the insipid forces of radical whiteness had withdrawn from Charlottesville, Virginia, one heard the beseeching protestation “This is not us.” That sentiment blossomed into a hashtag, exculpating our society after some of its citizens had seemingly forgotten our standing position against fascism. The truth, though, is that there has never been a time when what we saw in Charlottesville has not been us. The present is bequeathed to us by the past, and seldom was that relationship more apparent than it was at the base of the Robert E. Lee statue that was at the center of the violent clashes in Charlottesville. Last month, HBO inspired an avalanche of criticism when it announced that it would produce a series called “Confederate,” which would explore a hypothetical world in which the South had won the Civil War. The events in Charlottesville illustrated a problem with that idea: only by the most specific, immediate definition can we consider the Confederacy to have lost the Civil War, and its legacy has defined a great deal of our history since then.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/charlottesville-and-the-trouble-with-civil-war-hypotheticals
Hidden Figures - $5
Amazon has the digital version of the movie "Hidden Figures" on sale today for $5. The same as the rental price.
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