There will always be physical schools - students need to go somewhere during the day to enable the engine of modern economic progress: two parents working. But these schools will evolve into things that look more like civic centers - hubs for community involvement and rich relationship-building
1More
What Is The Singularity And Will You Live To See It? - 0 views
2More
Disintermediation: The disruption to come for Education 2.0 - O'Reilly Radar - 0 views
-
-
My mind drifts to a calm, blue place when I read this. The process of learning strikes me as almost arbitrary now that the technology of the Internet has lodged itself in the world. Not only would this "community center" idea be great for learning, but it could nourish the soul a bit more. There are few of what you might consider "secular" churches out there: places where you can share your feelings. The religious world seems to have a monopoly on that. I can see that gap being filled by enriched education environments.
-
5More
Twitter Forefather Leaves, Aims to Disrupt Banking Next - 0 views
-
Imagine a Web-based bank that lets you deposit checks by simply photographing them with its mobile app. It lets you make cash withdrawals from ATMs all over the country at no cost, sometimes even reimbursing you for fees you get charged by other companies.
-
Today Payne announced that he's leaving Twitter to co-found an online banking startup with just such a vision, called BankSimple.
-
BankSimple says it will be "an easy, intuitive, and social bank for people who appreciate simple online services." The company emphasizes its lack of fees, saying that other banks grew greedy when they moved beyond making money from interest on deposits.
- ...1 more annotation...
-
Traditional banks need "a wake-up call," McKibben wrote, "regarding the need for responsive, personalized customer applications." "In the longer term, the concept of a proprietary online commercial banking platform will be obsolete," McKibben wrote in a report with Stessa Cohen, "and banks will only orchestrate and not control access to services and information."
14More
Lessons from the long tail of improbable disaster - 2 views
-
The troubles in northern Japan, for example, are beginning to ripple through global supply chains, creating bottlenecks and shortages in dozens of industries. The way globalization increases economic efficiency is by leveraging the advantages of scale and specialization. Yet the bigger and more concentrated production becomes, the more vulnerable it becomes to disruption.
-
Many scholars
-
more attention must be paid to the extra risks that come with all the advantages of modern life. There may be a significant cost involved in preventing low-probability disasters, or having sufficient infrastructure to deal with them when they cannot be prevented.
-
Add to that the fact that, even with tons of safeguards, disasters will still happen. That's life, once again, not conforming to our numerical expectations. It's impossible to properly *gauge* the value of a safeguard. We can't build something, flood it, build it some other way, flood it again, ad nauseum.
-
- ...4 more annotations...
-
If it seems that the frequency and size of calamities have been picking up in recent years, it’s only because they probably have.
-
What all of these have in common is that they are all low-probability, high-impact events — the “long-tail” phenomenon, to use the jargon of risk modelers
-
Although we observe that calamities happen, we assume that they won’t happen to us, or they won’t happen again.
-
Part of the problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know. The other part is that small miscalculations of probabilities can have large effects on outcomes when dealing with long periods of time.
-
"What all of these have in common is that they are all low-probability, high-impact events - the "long-tail" phenomenon, to use the jargon of risk modelers, referring to the far ends of the traditional bell curve of probabilities, or "black swans," to use the metaphor popularized by former Wall Street trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb."
1More
Above the Tearline: U.S. Stealth Helicopter - 0 views
1More
Sony hack: Can Sony's brand recover from massive breach? - 0 views
-
" It's been a nightmarish three weeks for Sony, as it struggles to recover from massive hack attacks on three separate gaming systems it runs. Not only are the PlayStation, Qriocity and Sony online gaming networks still offline, but tens of millions of credit card numbers may have been stolen." - May. 10, 2011
4More
Sources: Raiders knew mission a one-shot deal - 0 views
-
U.S. officials believe Pakistani intelligence continues to support militants who attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and actively undermine U.S. intelligence operations to go after al-Qaida inside Pakistan. The level of distrust is such that keeping Pakistan in the dark was a major factor in planning the raid, and led to using the high-tech but sometimes unpredictable helicopter technology that nearly unhinged the mission.
-
The decision to launch on that particular moonless night in May came largely because too many American officials had been briefed on the plan. U.S. officials feared if it leaked to the press, bin Laden would disappear for another decade.
-
The plan unraveled as the first helicopter tried to hover over the compound. The Black Hawk skittered around uncontrollably in the heat-thinned air, forcing the pilot to land. As he did, the tail and rotor got caught on one of the compound’s 12-foot walls. The pilot quickly buried the aircraft’s nose in the dirt to keep it from tipping over, and the SEALs clambered out into an outer courtyard.
6More
Ellis Weiner: What I Learned from Parodying Atlas Shrugged - 0 views
-
Yeah, it's cheap fun, and I expected it going in. But what took me by surprise, and what still amazes me to this very day, is this: The novel's antagonists -- the bad guys, their pernicious "values," the ideas against which Rand's demi-god heroes and heroines do verbose, tedious battle -- they do not exist in real life. Of course, neither do Sauron or Voldemort. But Atlas Shrugged is a 1,000-page, 643,000-(I counted them)-word diatribe against an imaginary enemy that, unlike Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter books, insists it's about "reality."
-
the geo-political world in which Rand wants us to admire her heroes is not our own, or even (like that of 1984) a plausible, allegorical variant of our own, but a third-rate science fiction dystopian future, complete with imaginary technology, which, by definition, makes comparison to today's world impossible.
-
The U.S. of Atlas Shrugged is about as real and realistic as Narnia, and capitalism is to Atlas Shrugged what Quidditch is to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: a fictional construct, vaguely similar to something we have in real life, used for purposes of drama and entertainment.
- ...2 more annotations...
-
Even Trekkies (do they still call themselves that?) who go to conventions in costume and speak fucking Klingon know that it's make believe.
-
"In any case, it took me a while to realize what should have been perfectly obvious: that Atlas Shrugged (about which I've written several times in these "pages") was and is so ripe for parody, it's not even funny. It's not even necessary, either, in some ways, since, like all truly horrible books, it parodies itself, brimming and fit to bust as it is with excellent, excellent examples of awful, awful writing. "
6More
Leap Seconds May Hit a Speed Bump - 1 views
-
In order to keep the time determined by Earth's motion in line with the seconds measured by atomic clocks, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service inserts "leap seconds" into the calendar. But leap seconds may fall out of favor after next year's World Radiocommunication Conference
-
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses the resonant frequency of cesium-133 atoms in the NIST-F1 Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock to keep time so accurately that even if it ran for 60 million years, NIST-F1 wouldn't drop or add a single second.
-
atomic clocks are actually more stable than Earth's orbit—to keep clocks here synched up with the motion of celestial bodies, timekeepers have to add leap seconds.
- ...2 more annotations...
-
Getting rid of leap seconds would certainly make it easier to calculate UTC, but this measure would also decouple astronomical time from civil time: The time measured by atomic clocks would gradually diverge from the time counted out by the movement of Earth through space.
-
After hundreds of years of letting planetary and lunar motion define time, we will shrink our scale, and let atoms determine it instead.
1More
Ultimaker: There's a New 3D Printer in Town - 0 views
14More
Rand & Human Nature 3 - 0 views
-
The first strong hint that this might be the case was unconvered by Hume, who persuasively demonstrated that, logically speaking, it was invalid to derive an ought conclusion from two is premises.
-
in the absence of some desire, sentiment, or other natural and emotive need, no moral end could arise.
-
The second strong hint comes from George Santayana, who, in his demolishment of Moore's ethical philosophy (as limned by Russell) , noted that all arguments for morality committed the ad hominem fallacy
- ...10 more annotations...
-
The third strong hint was noticed, among others, by Pareto when, in his mammoth work investigating the relation between conduct and belief, Trattato di sociologia generale, he noticed that most moral philosophies were devoid of specific ethical content.
-
Scientific experiments on human behavior only serve to reinforce Pareto's hypothesis. What they demonstrate is that human beings develop a sense for morality well before they are ever exposed, or could even understand, abstract moral philosophy
-
When we apply these insights to the Objectivist ethics, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Rand's moral system, like the moral systems of so many other philosophers, consists almost entirely of the rationalization of moral ideals that existed well before any set of abstractions was built around them.
-
the strongest evidence of all consists in the rather surprising fact, unnoticed and evaded by most Objectivists, that Rand's ethical philosophy is devoid of specific content, and that no one could actually use it as a guide for behavior
-
Lacking a "technology" means that no Objectivist, including Rand herself, actually follows the Objectivist morality.
-
Other than a few vague hints, Rand and her disciples never bothered to explain how to distinguish those contexts in which such virtues as honesty, productivity, integrity, and rationality were absolutes from those contexts in which these fine virtues no longer applied.
-
If Rand's ethics were intended (as Rand insisted) to provide a manual for survival, how come the manual doesn't come with any instructions?
-
The most plausible explanation is that the Objectivist ethics is a rationalization of Rand's own moral preferences, many of which were the product of her own, private cognitive unconscious, which she misidentified with "reason" and objective truth.
6More
The Core Ideas of Science - 0 views
-
Here’s the web page for the report, a summary (pdf), and the report itself (pdf, free after you register).
-
The first category is “Scientific and Engineering Practices,” and includes such laudable concepts as ” Analyzing and interpreting data.”
-
The second category is “Crosscutting Concepts That Have Common Application Across Fields,” by which they mean things like “Scale, proportion, and quantity” or ” Stability and change.
- ...2 more annotations...
-
The third category is the nitty-gritty, “Core Ideas in Four Disciplinary Areas,” namely “Physical Sciences,” “Life Sciences,” “Earth and Space Sciences,” and “Engineering, Technology, and the Applications of Science.”
-
Whether or not these concepts and the grander conceptual scheme actually turn out to be useful will depend much more on implementation than on this original formulation. The easy part is over, in other words. The four ideas above seem vague at first glance, but they are spelled out in detail in the full report, with many examples and very specific benchmarks.
-
"A National Academy of Sciences panel, chaired by Helen Quinn, has released a new report that seeks to identify 'the key scientific practices, concepts and ideas that all students should learn by the time they complete high school.'" Conspicuously missing from Discover writeup: methodology. I'd pair that with critical thinking. Are either of those prime requirements, yet?
1More
Ultimaker: high-speed, low-cost 3D printer - 0 views
3More
The Digital Generation Rediscovers the Magic of Manual Typewriters - 0 views
-
Another virtue is simplicity. Typewriters are good at only one thing: putting words on paper. “If I’m on a computer, there’s no way I can concentrate on just writing, said Jon Roth, 23, a journalist who is writing a book on typewriters. “I’ll be checking my e-mail, my Twitter.” When he uses a typewriter, Mr. Roth said: “I can sit down and I know I’m writing. It sounds like I’m writing.”
-
I can actually appreciate the aesthetic conveyed here. However, the limitations of the technology aren't anything I'd like to relive. Jams, white out, jams, jams. Also, word processing has allowed writers to evolve ideas at a dizzying rate. True, we all miss typewriters, but going back to one? Where are the NYT articles talking about the quill and parchment rennaisance?
-
-
"EVEN by Brooklyn standards, it was a curious spectacle: a dozen mechanical contraptions sat on a white tablecloth, emitting occasional clacks and dings. Shoppers peered at the display, excited but hesitant, as if they'd stumbled upon a trove of strange inventions from a Jules Verne fantasy. Some snapped pictures with their iPhones. "
21More
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% - 0 views
-
While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall.
-
Those who have contributed great positive innovations to our society, from the pioneers of genetic understanding to the pioneers of the Information Age, have received a pittance compared with those responsible for the financial innovations that brought our global economy to the brink of ruin.
-
An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul. There are several reasons for this.
- ...16 more annotations...
-
Second, many of the distortions that lead to inequality—such as those associated with monopoly power and preferential tax treatment for special interests—undermine the efficiency of the economy.
-
Third, and perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology.
-
None of this should come as a surprise—it is simply what happens when a society’s wealth distribution becomes lopsided.
-
The top 1 percent may complain about the kind of government we have in America, but in truth they like it just fine: too gridlocked to re-distribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes.
-
But one big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent want it that way.
-
The most obvious example involves tax policy. Lowering tax rates on capital gains, which is how the rich receive a large portion of their income, has given the wealthiest Americans close to a free ride.
-
During the savings-and-loan scandal of the 1980s—a scandal whose dimensions, by today’s standards, seem almost quaint—the banker Charles Keating was asked by a congressional committee whether the $1.5 million he had spread among a few key elected officials could actually buy influence. “I certainly hope so,” he replied.
-
When pharmaceutical companies receive a trillion-dollar gift—through legislation prohibiting the government, the largest buyer of drugs, from bargaining over price—it should not come as cause for wonder. It should not make jaws drop that a tax bill cannot emerge from Congress unless big tax cuts are put in place for the wealthy. Given the power of the top 1 percent, this is the way you would expect the system to work.
-
the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important.
1More
1940's whiskey ads predicted the future - 1 views
-
"Seagram's advertised its VO Canadian whiskey back in the mid-1940's with a series of extremely manly magazine ads about "Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow". They were unspecified futuristic thinkers who liked the fact that Seagram's was patient enough to age VO for six years. Each of the ads depicted a different miracle that would transform postwar America and they were glorious." Thanks to Theron Jacobs.
2More
D-Dalus - an entirely new genre of aircraft arrives - 1 views
-
The key to the D-Dalus' extreme maneuverability is the facility to alter the angle of the blades (using servos) to vector the forces, meaning that the thrust can be delivered in your choice of 360 degrees around any of the three axes. Hence D-Dalus can launch vertically, hover perfectly still and move in any direction, and that's just the start of the story.