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gerellmalazarte

The Social Impact of 3-D Printing | TruthAtlasTruthAtlas | Discover who's changing your... - 0 views

truthatlas.com/-social-impact-of-3-d-printing

future medicine 3D Printing social impact changing world

shared by gerellmalazarte on 02 Jul 14 - Cached
  • gerellmalazarte on 02 Jul 14
     
    The new tool in the medical world is changing the game. Making prosthetics more customizable and pushing for other advancements in the medical field.
symone008

http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles4(3)/escalating.pdf - 0 views

www.surveillance-and-society.org/...escalating.pdf

government privacy qualityoflife #ThoughtVectors #tv008 internet

shared by symone008 on 02 Jul 14 - No Cached
    • symone008
      symone008 on 02 Jul 14
       
      Abstract- What legal and criminal events have facilitated a reevaluation of the balance privacy & security? Find examples Historically Police Strategies involve high surveillance and less privacy Preventive law enforcement has caused a new civil privacy paradigm. How does this affect us? Whitaker (2003: 52) claims that "the historical cycle in which violent threats generate the expansion of arbitrary and intrusive powers of government is being repeated. Once again, the constitutional protection of rights is being dismissed, sometimes from the highest offices in the land, as an inconvenient impediment to safety."  - police use crime control/drugs/terrorism to justify expanding their powers  Balancing of Competing Interest Standard- test devised to weigh the permissibility of police surveillance and search powers in relation to privacy Patriots Act ECPA- police may intercept electronic communications, without a warrant or court order CALEA- internet service provider easy access to law enforcement Effects of Increased Police Surveillance on civic life - diminution of privacy rights - Alien conspiracy - Public anxiety  - Public disruption- impediment to free movement - demise of fundamental democratic ideals -- Orwellian surveillance  there is an absence of  understanding, among researchers, about the scope of police surveillance effects on this  dimension of public existence - assess the social and psychological impact of the US police surveillance on civil life? How can we maintain the balance of security and privacy? Withnot being ill-equipped or not deminishing the quality of the US life. 
  • symone008 on 02 Jul 14
     
    Great article of the impact of US police surveillance on civil life.
braxtondn

7 Telltale Signs Social Media Is Killing Your Self-Esteem | Alternet - 1 views

www.alternet.org/...media-killing-your-self-esteem

media self-image

shared by braxtondn on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Yet what often begins as a harmless virtual habit for some can fast-track into a damaging, narcissism-fueled habit which negatively impacts our self-worth and the way we perceive others
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      Can this be fixed? Does it have to have such a negative impact? Is it really the media or the people on the social networks that are causing the media to have this kind of effect on people
  • Of 298 users, 50 percent said social media made their lives and their self-esteem worse.
  • According to psychotherapist Sherrie Campbell, social media can give us a false sense of belonging and connecting that is not built on real-life exchanges. This makes it increasingly easy to lose oneself to cyberspace connections and give them more weight than they deserve
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      People go on the social medias knowing what to expect. Its up to the person to control whether or not to let the things they see, effect their lifestyle or what they thick of themselves. There are things on many social networks that allow people to edit their photos so they can loo a certain way, in order for it to be acceptable to society and the media. This is another reason how the media is becoming harmful to self-image.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “When we look to social media, we end up comparing ourselves to what we see which can lower our self-esteem. On social media, everyone’s life looks perfect but you’re only seeing a snapshot of reality. We can be whoever we want to be in social media and if we take what we see literally then it’s possible that we can feel we are falling short in life,” Campbell told AlterNe
  • Women who spent longer periods of time on Facebook had a higher incidence of "appearance-focused behavior" (such as anorexia) and were more anxious and body conscience overall. What's more, 20 minutes on social media was enough to contribute to a user’s weight and shape concerns
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      It is amazing how only 20 mins on a social network can have that effect on one's life.  People are more focused on trying to be accepted into society that they will let a social networks and media tell them how to eat, look, and live.
  • It is important to remember that what you are viewing is only a small sliver of someone’s life, which for the most part, is heavily embellished and mostly rooted in fantasy. When such images are starting to poison the way you look at your own life it may be time to step away from the screen.
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      This is one way to fix the effects that media has over people's self image. Just because you see models looking all glamorous on the tv screens, instagram posts, Facebook, or magazine covers, doesn't mean that their life is technically better than your own.
George Neff

http://www.annalect.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Annalect-Primary-Research-The-impact... - 0 views

www.annalect.com/...pact-of-Binge-Viewing-2014.pdf

#ThoughtVectors bingewatching internet advertising netflix

shared by George Neff on 15 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • George Neff on 15 Jul 14
     
    Research suggesting binge-watchers are more susceptible to advertisements
Kathleen Hancock

Impact of whaling on the ocean carbon cycle Journalist's Resource: Research for Reporti... - 0 views

journalistsresource.org/...ling-on-the-ocean-carbon-cycle

shared by Kathleen Hancock on 01 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • When whales and other large animals flourish in the ocean, they carry a substantial amount of carbon to the sea floor upon dying. Whales and other large marine vertebrates could effectively function as carbon credits
  • About 160,000 tons of carbon per year could be removed from the atmosphere if whale populations were restored to pre-industrial levels. This amount is equivalent to adding 843 hectares of forest
  • Restoring the whale populations compares favorably with unproven schemes such as iron fertilization in removing carbon from the ocean surface
  • Kathleen Hancock on 01 Jul 14
     
    Whales and carbon
nbell003

Technology's Impact On Trend & Fashion Forecasting | InsideFMM - 0 views

insidefmm.com/...t-on-trend-fashion-forecasting

shared by nbell003 on 06 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • WB: Technology and forecasting are forever joined together. Retailers demand trend information at a moment notice, while manufactures are in search of key selling silhouettes.  Forecasters are open to new technology and have fully embraced new tools for tracking and monitoring the consumer.  Technology continues to unlock new explorations from aviator societies to new technology driven materials.
Mirna Shaban

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted - 1 views

www.aucegypt.edu/...articledetails.aspx

socialmedia revolution internet

shared by Mirna Shaban on 06 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Much of the organization and mobilization occurred through the Internet, particularly on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. But social media also played a vital role as a democratic model. Its inclusive space indirectly taught lessons in democracy to a wide sector of Egyptian youth that was not necessarily politically inclined. When the right moment arrived, they were ready to join the revolt.
  • What happened in January 2011 in Egypt did not start in January 2011. It began at least ten years earlier, and it’s not over yet
  • The main catalyst for the January 25 revolution was the Internet, so it may be accurate to describe this as an Internet-based revolution. Not that the Internet was the only factor involved, or that Internet users were the only ones protesting. But the Internet was the tool that showed every dissident voice in Egypt that he or she is not alone, and is indeed joined by at least hundreds of thousands who seek change.
  • ...40 more annotations...
  • Facebook did not go to Tahrir Square. The people did. Twitter did not go to Al-Qaied Ibrahim Square. The people did.
  • More than one-third of Egypt’s population of eighty million remains illiterate, and just 25 percent of Egyptians use the Internet. However, Facebook and Twitter were instrumental in organizing, motivating, and directing these crowds as to where to go and what to do. Egypt’s revolution was created as an event on Facebook eleven days in advance. People clicked “I’m attending.” Certainly, this was a people’s revolution, yet one based on and accelerated in many ways by the Internet. What happened in Tahrir and every square in Egypt was the accumulation of years and years of activism, including Internet activism. Social media prepared Egyptians for the revolution and enabled them to capitalize on an opportunity for change when the time came.
  • The Internet, by definition, is a democratic medium, at least in the sense that anyone with Internet access is a potential publisher of information.
  • The mere presence of the Internet as a source of information helps open up a freer space for public debate, and makes it much more difficult for governments to censor information.
  • Internet activism started in Egypt with the appearance of Web 2.0 technology in the country around 2003
  • Blogging was the first valuable brainchild of Web 2.0 technologies.
  • The phenomenon exploded in the Arab world, with Egyptian bloggers pioneering and leading the scene. Blogger numbers in the region approached half a million by the beginning of 2009, the great majority of them coming from Egypt.
  • Political blogging in particular became more popular, as users felt that they could remain anonymous if they so wished
  • Nevertheless, most Egyptian political bloggers choose to blog under their real names, which frequently got them in trouble with the regime. The state security crackdown on bloggers was testimony to their potential impact.
  • Undoubtedly, blogging created a space for the voiceless in Egypt.
  • It was the first time individuals felt they could make themselves heard. That in itself was important, whether or not the content was political, and whether or not anyone was reading the blogs. The phenomenon created a venting space for people who had long gone unheard.
  • Early on, Alaa Abdel Fattah and Manal Hassan were awarded the Special Award from Reporters Without Borders in the international Deutsche Welle’s 2005 Weblog Awards (Best of Blogs) contest, where their blog was cited as an instrumental information source for the country’s human rights and democratic reform movement. The husband-and-wife team had created one of Egypt’s earliest blogs, “Manal and Alaa’s Bit Bucket,” where they documented their off-line activism and posted credible information on protests and political movements, election monitoring and rigging, and police brutality.
  • Another award-winning blogger was Wael Abbas. He received several honors, including the 2007 Knight International Journalism Award of the International Center for Journalists for “raising the standards of media excellence” in his country. This was the first time that a blogger, rather than a traditional journalist, won the prestigious journalism award, a testament to the important work such bloggers were doing. In the same year, CNN named Abbas Middle East Person of the Year. He has been instrumental in bringing to light videos of police brutality in Egypt, a topic that was taboo before he and other bloggers ventured into it. As a result of these efforts, the Egyptian government at one point brought three police officers to justice on charges of police brutality for the first time in Egypt’s history; they were convicted and sentenced to three years in jail.
  • As blogging was becoming a phenomenon in Egypt, some political movements started having a strong on-line presence, and taking to the streets based on their on-line organization. The most important was probably the Kefaya movement, whose formal name is The Egyptian Movement for Change. The movement was established in 2004 by a coalition of political forces, and became better known by its Arabic slogan. The word kefaya is Arabic for ‘enough,’ and as the name implies, the movement called for an end to the decades-old Mubarak regime, and for guarantees that his son would not succeed him as president. Kefaya was instrumental in taking people to the streets, thus bridging the gap between the on-line and the off-line worlds. Many of its supporters were bloggers, and many of the street protesters started blogging. So, increasingly, reports on the demonstrations found their way into blogs and were provided media coverage even when the traditional media ignored them or were afraid to cover them. One result was that many more Egyptians gained the courage to write blogs that openly criticized the authoritarian system and crossed the ‘red line’ of challenging their president.
  • nternet applications such as the video-sharing platform YouTube, which appeared in 2005, took blogging to a higher level.
  • hey were also capable of videotaping street protests and uploading the clips on YouTube. Watching people chanting “Down with Hosni Mubarak” in the mid-2000s was a totally new, riveting experience, which led many other brave Egyptians to join these demonstrations. Internet activists and blogger stars such as Wael Abbas, Alaa Abdel Fattah, Manal Hassan, Hossam El-Hamalawy, Malek Mostafa, and others uploaded hundreds of videos of police brutality, election rigging, and different violations of human and civic rights.
  • media, the platforms that allow for wider user discussions and user-generated content such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter
  • he next important development came with the introduction of what is typically known as social
  • The structure of social media taught Egyptians that space exists that you can call your own, your space, where you can speak your mind. To many in the West, this is probably no big deal. There are countless venues where they can express their opinions relatively freely. But for people in Egypt, and in the Arab world in general, this was a new phenomenon, and one I believe to be of profound importance.
  • horizontal communication.’ Before social networks, Egyptian youth were accustomed to being talked at, rather than talked to or spoken with. Communication was mostly vertical, coming from the regime down to everyone else
  • Authoritarian patterns of communication do not allow for much horizontal interaction. But social networks do, and eventually their existence on the Internet taught Egyptian youths a few lessons in democratic communication, even if the essence of the conversations carried out was not necessarily political in nature.
  • The bulk of those that I believe were affected by these lessons in democratic expression were clusters of the population that were not previously politically oriented. These form a good sector of those who took to the streets on January 25, and were joined by millions who held their ground in Tahrir Square and in every square in Egypt until Mubarak was toppled. The majority of these millions, including myself, were people who had never participated in a demonstration before. They were not political activists before January 25, but they saw or heard the call for action, and it touched a nerve as they found safety in numbers
  • another function that social networks served: making you realize that you’re not alone.
  • Perhaps the first time Egyptians learned about the power of social networks was on April 6, 2008. Workers in the Egyptian city of Al-Mahalla Al-Kobra planned a demonstration to demand higher wages. Esraa Abdel Fattah, an activist then twenty eight years old, felt for the workers and wanted to help them. She formed a group on Facebook and called it ‘April 6 Strike’ to rally support for the workers.
  • he knew it was too much to ask people to join in the protest, so she simply asked them to participate in spirit by staying home that day, not going to work, and not engaging in any monetary transactions such as buying or selling. The group was brought to the attention of the traditional media and was featured on one of Egypt’s popular talk shows, thus getting more exposure. What ensued surpassed all expectations. To Abdel Fattah’s own surprise (and everyone else’s), the Facebook group immediately attracted some seventy three thousand members. Many of these, and others who got the message through traditional media, decided to stay home in solidarity with the workers. Others were encouraged to stay home by a bad sandstorm that swept across parts of Egypt that day, and yet others stayed home for fear of the strong police presence on the streets.
  • The overall outcome made political activists realize that social networks could be a vital tool in generating support for a political cause, and in encouraging people to join a call for action.
  • The April 6 event was meaningful because it provided a sense that people were actually willing to take an action, to do something beyond clicking a mouse
  • three months before the January 25 revolution, Malcolm Gladwell argued in a much-discussed article in The New Yorker under the title “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted” that social media can’t provide what social change has always required. He said that social media is good when you’re asking people for small-scale, low-risk action, but not for anything more. “Facebook activism succeeds,” he wrote, “not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.” He explained that this is because high-risk activism is a “strong-tie phenomenon,” meaning that those who carry out such acts of activism have to personally know each other well and develop strong personal ties before they would risk their lives for each other or for a common cause. Since Facebook and Twitter provide mostly “weak-tie” connections, since users typically have a strong off-line social tie with only a small percentage of their ‘friends’ or ‘followers,’ these social networks were therefore not capable of motivating people for a high-risk cause. He therefore concluded that a social network “makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact.”
  • nowing that you are in the company of many who share your utter belief in the same cause. That is something that social networks delivered
  • ne of the Facebook pages that played a major role in this regard was the Khaled Said page. Khaled Said was a young Egyptian who was brutally beaten to death by police informants outside an Internet café in Alexandria in June 2010. He had an innocent face that everyone could identify with. He could be anyone, and anyone could’ve been him. The Facebook page “We Are All Khaled Said” appeared shortly thereafter. It started asking its members, whose numbers increased steadily, to go out on silent standing protests in black shirts with their back to the streets. The demonstrations started in Alexandria and soon spread to every governorate in Egypt. Numbers increased with every protest. More and more people gained a little more courage and tasted the freedom of dissent.
  • One of the main advantages of the Khaled Said page was how well organized the events were. Protesters were provided with exact times and locations, and given exact instructions on what to wear, what to do, as well as who to contact in the case of any problems with security forces.
  • t was the Khaled Said page that eventually posted the ‘event’ for a massive demonstration on January 25, Egypt’s Police Day.
  • The administrators usually polled their users, asking them to vote for their place or time of preference for the next protest. The responses would be in the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, and the administrators would read them all, and give a breakdown, with exact numbers and percentages, of the votes.
  • The January 25 demonstration was motivated and aided by an important intervening variable, the revolt in Tunisia. When Tunisian protesters succeeded in ousting President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, Egyptians felt that toppling a dictator through demonstrations was finally possible.
  • he Khaled Said page, which by then had about six hundred thousand followers, demonstrated its strong ability to organize. They listed all the major squares in every Egyptian governorate where they expected people to gather, and again gave specific instructions on what to wear, what to take with you, and who to contact in times of trouble. They then alerted the users that the listed venues for demonstration would change at midnight on January 24 to give police forces a lesser chance of mobilizing against them the next day. On the morning of January 25, there were close to half a million people who had clicked “I’m attending” the revolution. Today, the Khaled Said page has more than 1.7 million users, by far more than any other Egyptian Facebook page.
  • nd indeed that was what happened. We witnessed another key moment illustrating the power of the interaction between social media, traditional media, and interpersonal communication. Newspapers, broadcasters, and on-line outlets had been discussing the potential ‘Facebook demonstration’ for a few days prior to January 25. As groups of demonstrators marched through the streets enroute to main squares chanting “Ya ahalina endamo lina,” (“Friends and family, come join us”), people watching from their balconies and windows heeded the calls and enabled the protests to snowball to unprecedented numbers. People were galvanized by the sight. The core activists, who attended every demonstration for years, were suddenly seeing new faces on January 25, mostly mobilized by the Internet. They came by the thousands, and then by the hundreds of thousands, numbers larger than anyone had expected.
  • Twitter played an important though slightly different role. Crucial messages relayed in short bursts of one hundred and forty characters or less made protesters ‘cut to the chase.’ Most activists tweeted events live rather than posting them on Facebook. Twitter was mainly used to let people know what was happening on the ground, and alert them to any potential danger. It usually was ahead of Facebook in such efforts. Twitter also enabled activists to keep an eye on each other. Some managed to tweet ‘arrested’ or ‘taken by police’ before their mobile phones were confiscated. Those words were incredibly important in determining what happened to them and in trying to help them. Most activists are, to this day, in the habit of tweeting their whereabouts constantly, even before they go to sleep, because they know that fellow activists worry if they disappear from the Twittersphere.
  • When the Egyptian regime belatedly realized on January 25 how dangerous social networks could be to its survival, the first thing it did was block Twitter. Internet censorship is a ridiculously ineffective strategy, though. Users were tech-savvy enough to find their way onto proxy servers within minutes, and to post on Facebook how to gain access to Twitter and how to remain on Facebook if the regime blocks it, which indeed happened later. The government felt it didn’t have any other option but to block all Internet access in the country for five days starting January 27 (as well as mobile telephone communications for one day). By then it was too late. People had already found their way to Tahrir and nearly every square in Egypt. Ironically, some were partly motivated by the Internet and communication blockage to take to the streets to find out what was happening and be part of it. And they were joined by workers’ movements in many governorates that expanded the protester numbers into the millions. The major squares of Egypt were full of people of every age, gender, religion, creed, and socio-economic status
  • Gladwell, it turned out, was wrong. These people didn’t know each other personally, but the “weak” personal ties had not proved a barrier to high-risk activism. Egyptians discovered the strong tie of belonging to the common cause of ousting a dictator
  • ocial network users were not the only ones revolting, and social networks were not the only reason or motivation for revolt. However, the role that social media have played over the years in indirectly preparing sectors of Egyptian youths for this moment, and in enabling them to capitalize on an opportunity for change when the time came, cannot be understated.  It can also be said that the role of social networks in Egypt has hardly ended. The revolution is not yet complete. 
anonymous

Augmented Revolution » Cyborgology - 0 views

thesocietypages.org/...augmented-revolution

augmented revolution #ThoughtVectors technology media social media visualculture augmentedreality virtual reality augmented reality internet

shared by anonymous on 11 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • The Egyptian resistance used web tools as well as physical space, and most importantly, they did so by looking at the intersection of both. They used the web to inform people how to behave in physical space, e.g., what to do with tear gas containers, who should stand in front of the crowds and how the crowds should move about the city. It makes little sense to argue about whether these are social media revolutions or not. Instead, we should recognize them as augmented revolutions. Only then can we debate just how and how much of a role the digital aspect played.
  • anonymous on 11 Jul 14
     
    Thinking about how augmented reality impacts physical reality.
thomasnv2

THE AGE OF INTELLIGENT MACHINES | The Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence | Kurzwe... - 3 views

www.kurzweilai.net/act-of-artificial-intelligence

#ThoughtVectors #tv008 #AI #future #fear #goodvsbad

shared by thomasnv2 on 24 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • thomasnv2 on 24 Jun 14
     
    Is artificial intelligence in human society a utopian dream or a Faustian nightmare?
Maryam Kaymanesh

Social Networking's Good and Bad Impacts on Kids - 1 views

www.apa.org/...social-kids.aspx

social social media media classroom student technology social networking

shared by Maryam Kaymanesh on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Teens who use Facebook more often show more narcissistic tendencies while young adults who have a strong Facebook presence show more signs of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies.
  • Daily overuse of media and technology has a negative effect on the health of all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders, as well as by making them more susceptible to future health problems
  • Facebook can be distracting and can negatively impact learning. Studies found that middle school, hig
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • school and college students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period achieved lower grades
  • Young adults who spend more time on Facebook are better at showing “virtual empathy” to their online friends. 
  • Online social networking can help introverted adolescents learn how to socialize behind the safety of various screens, ranging from a two-inch smartphone to a 17-inch laptop.
  • Social networking can provide tools for teaching in compelling ways that engage young students.
kahn_artist

Impact of the Internet surfing on reading practices and choices - 0 views

www.webology.org/...a94.html

Linksurfing websurfing education

shared by kahn_artist on 24 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Surfing the Internet has become a daily routine of the new generation.
  • The present generation especially the college students are well versed with the new technologies and their application in present networked society
  • Now the potential reader can access and browse the online information from the whole web while using his/her terminal at home.
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  • The hypertext and hypermedia technologies allow the e-readers to go from one page to another by selecting links in various directions popularly known as surfing
  • kahn_artist on 24 Jun 14
     
    The internet brings a wider scope of reading material.
Will Sullivan

The Radio as New Technology: Blessing or Curse? A 1929 Debate » - 0 views

americainclass.org/lessing-or-curse-a-1929-debate

augmentedreality

shared by Will Sullivan on 27 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Accommodated as we are to mass media, we must work to imagine the impact of commercial radio broadcasting in its early years. From the late 1800s, new electronic devices had been expanding the realm of shared human experience — people conversed on telephones, sent news through telegrams, played records on phonographs, and enjoyed films in local theaters. But until the radio, nothing offered such widely shared simultaneous mass experience. By turning on your radio set, you could listen to a jazz band, baseball game, religious service, even a president’s speech, live, along with millions of fellow listeners.
  • Will Sullivan on 27 Jun 14
     
    An excerpt from an old criticism of the radio in the 1920s. Sound familiar?
lilymg

Social Media vs. Police Brutality | Sinan Ülgen - 1 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...ia-vs-police-br_b_3785672.html

social media police brutality

shared by lilymg on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • social media fulfilled the role of real-time reporting
  • powerful instrument of public scrutiny
  • Still, social media cannot prevent police brutality on its own.
  • ...5 more annotations...
    • lilymg
      lilymg on 26 Jun 14
       
      Many countries experience police brutality, some experience severe violence from it
    • lilymg
      lilymg on 26 Jun 14
       
      survey shows impact of social media 
    • lilymg
      lilymg on 26 Jun 14
       
      Media can sometimes cover up violent outbreaks
    • lilymg
      lilymg on 26 Jun 14
       
      But social media can still show the real story, sharing stories + pictures that can go viral
    • lilymg
      lilymg on 26 Jun 14
       
      Many times social media can only bring to light issues and violence, but this does not mean change will happen
Virinchi Tadikonda

Future of Human Space Exploration Could See Humans on Mars, Alien Planets - 0 views

www.space.com/f-human-space-exploration.html

shared by Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Closer to home, private industries like Mars One seek to establish a permanent settlement on the Red Planet. At the Smithsonian Magazine's "The Future is Here Festival" in Washington, D.C. this month, former astronaut Mae Jemison and NASA engineer Adam Steltzner spoke optimistically about the future of manned space exploration
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
      Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14
       
      The way that planet Earth and our Solar System is operating is that the sun expands everyday, and planets revolving around the sun. The sun will eventually grow and expand with the future being sucking in all the planets, killing all life. Future expansion of other planets is necessary. 
  • Although the idea that bacteria — and life — could hitch a ride on traveling rocks to spread life to other planets is not new, Steltzner suggested a deliberate program that sounds more like science fiction than science fact. Such bacteria could carry our genome and the instructions to reassemble it after landing on a planet (and, one assumes, after the planet has been terraformed to support such life). Steltzner described the process as "printing human beings organically over time."
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
      Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14
       
      Life in other planets is not at all impossible. There are many scientific methods to start life, the only question is how to do it, and will the life survive? 
  • In addition to curiosity-motivated exploration, Steltzner pointed out that as long as humans remain on a single planet, we are at risk of extinction when disaster strikes. "Our real estate portfolio suffers from a concentration of risk," he said.
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
      Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14
       
      An important note is that we have limited resources on planet Earth. Once those resources are extinct, there must be exploration elsewhere from either Space, or deep in the unexplored regions of the oceans. 
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  • "Technology didn't slow us down getting to the moon," Steltzner said. "Technology won't slow us down getting to Mars."
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
      Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14
       
      The problem with this technology is that all the information that was used for getting to the moon was lost. The old computers got replaced and the people who worked to get astronauts to the moon retired. The key this time around is to not lose the information. In Kennedy's presidency, it took a long time to get all the components together. Now that technology is more advanced, it should take less time to get to the moon, and should be a straight shot to Mars. 
  • Mars may be one of the closest planets humans want to colonize, but it certainly isn't the only one. Mae Jemison described the 100-Year Starship project to an interested audience. Funded by NASA's Ames Research Center and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the 100-Year Starship project aims to develop the tools and technology necessary to build and fly a spaceship to another planetary system within the next 100 years. The program isn't necessarily concerned with building the ship itself as much as it seeks to foster innovation and enthusiasm for interstellar travel.
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
      Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14
       
      The method of transportation is going to be very difficult. The researching that is in progress and takes a while to accomplish, obviously. Maybe this is NASA's plan to not release to the public yet? 
  • Though many people object to funding the space program when there are humanitarian needs that have to be met on Earth, Jemison points out that such exploration often leads to innovation and unexpected technology that make an impact on Earth-based programs. "I believe that pursuing an extraordinary tomorrow will create a better world today," she said.
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
      Virinchi Tadikonda on 27 Jun 14
       
      The original space launches did not revolve around trying to put up satellites, rather to explore space. Since then, satellites have been launched, telescopes have also been put up. Who knows what other technological aspects can be added once funding is no longer cut and innovation is big again?
wstrahan

China and Nigeria: Neo-Colonialism, South-South Solidarity, or Both? | Daniel Wagner - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...nigeria-neocolo_b_3624204.html

#neocolonialism china nigeria

shared by wstrahan on 25 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Bilateral relations between China and Nigeria will likely take one of two paths in the long term: either China will remain the overwhelmingly dominant actor or Nigeria will become a regional superpower, evening out the playing field. If China remains the stronger player it will shape Nigeria in its own interests (commonly referred to as "Chinese Imperialism").
  • During the first eleven years of its independence, Nigeria and China had no diplomatic relations. The Nigerian government's view of China grew especially sour after Mao officially supported the secessionist state in Biafra by supplying the Biafran administration with weapons.
  • During the period of General Abacha's military rule (1993-1998), Beijing's no-strings-attached development projects were increasingly well received. Nigeria's leaders grew resentful of Western conditions for aid and investment, and many Nigerians began to question what a generation of economic dependence on the West achieved for Nigeria.
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  • Abuja subsequently adopted a new approach to international trade, balancing traditional Western partners and China.
  • The evolution of Nigerian-Chinese relations mirrors that of China's relationship with other African states (such as Angola, Sudan, and Zimbabwe) that sought alternative forms of aid and development packages following the imposition of sanctions by Western nations based on alleged human rights violations.
  • Today, more than 200 Chinese firms operate in Nigeria.
  • China agreed to provide Nigeria with a soft loan of $1.1 billion loan in exchange for Nigeria agreeing to increase its daily supply of oil to China ten-fold (from 20,000 barrels per day to 200,000) by 2015.
  • China recently embraced a new foreign policy in West Africa that contrasts with its traditionally passive approach to the spread of Islamic terrorism and extremism in Africa. Last year a Chinese diplomat in Mali pledged support for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)'s military campaign to dislodge Al Qaeda-affiliate groups in northern Mali.
  • China's number one concern in West Africa is access to natural resources and new consumer markets
  • While many Nigerians consider China's growing presence to be nothing short of a God send, others have raised concerns about Nigerian sovereignty, bearing in mind the impact Chinese trade and investment has had on other African countries.
  • The Chinese model of importing its own workers to build infrastructure projects, for example, does not sit well with many Nigerians.
  • A number of Nigerians have also voiced objections to the "slave-like" labor conditions in Chinese-operated factories across Nigeria. Attention was first brought to these conditions when 37 Nigerian workers died after being trapped inside a locked Chinese-owned factory that caught fire in 2002
  • Western powers that claim a desire to help Nigeria develop are often perceived as insincere, with their own aid being viewed as an infringement on Nigeria's sovereignty, since it often comes with strings attached.
Mirna Shaban

World Development book case study: the role of social networking in the Arab Spring -- ... - 0 views

newint.org/...-networking-in-the-arab-spring

government socialmedia ideology

shared by Mirna Shaban on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • The start of the unrest was in Tunisia and the spark was the self-immolation of a market stallholder, Mohammed Bouaziz, on 10 December 2010.
  • he first reported use of social networking websites by dissident groups taking part in a civil revolt was in Moldova, a small country between Romania and Ukraine, in April 2009.
  • The internet is useful for information dissemination and news gathering, social media for connecting and co-ordinating groups and individuals, mobile phones for taking photographs of what is happening and making it available to a wide global audience and satellite television for instant global reporting of events.
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  • For dissident groups, all of these digital tools allow them to bring together remote and often disparate groups and give them channels to bypass the conventional media, which is usually state controlled and unwilling to broadcast any news of civil unrest and opposition to the government.
  • Rapid internet interaction through Twitter and Facebook gave information to the protesters about how to counteract the security forces as they tried to disperse the protesters, maps showing locations for protest meetings and practical advice about such things as what to do when teargas is used against groups of protesters.
  • The governments in Tunisia and Egypt were very unhappy about the often brutal images of repression of the protests by government security forces and both governments tried to block the social-networking sites. In Tunisia, the effect was to increase the size of protest demonstrations and the Tunisian president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was forced to change his strategy. He apologized for blocking the sites and reopened them. He offered to open talks with the dissident groups but by that time it was too late to save his government. He resigned on 16 January and an interim coalition government was set up.
  • The Egyptian government’s decision to cut all communication systems, including the internet and mobile phones, on the night of 27 January was widely perceived to be a watershed moment in the overthrow of the Mubarak government.
  • Egyptian protest sympathizers were unable to watch events on their computers and televisions and joined the demonstrators in Tahrir Square instead.
  • The Mubarak government stepped down on 12 February and was replaced by a military council purporting to support democratic change.
  • China has taken much firmer control of its internet as a result of events in Arab countries, fearing a contagion effect. After an internet call for popular revolt in February, over 100 activists are reported to have ‘disappeared’.
  • There is an argument to be made that the role of technology in these events has been overstated. The frequent cry is that it was not laptops that marched on Tahrir Square but people with a common cause that they had already identified. As far as they are concerned, revolution is nothing new and the impact of the new technology in the Arab Spring has mostly been reported by people who are using the technology themselves. Its importance, they say, has been exaggerated.
  • In the Western world, Twitter is a device that is most frequently used to comment on relatively minor media or personal events, such as the behaviour of a particular celebrity. In Egypt and Tunisia its use proved to be much more political and effective – not social networking, just networking.
  • The difficulties are immense: regional poverty, tensions over the use of resources such as oil and water, religious divisions within countries, rapid population growth and, more threatening than any of those, relationships between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
braxtondn

Media Can Damage Self-Image | Psych Central News - 0 views

psychcentral.com/...362.html

media and self-image

shared by braxtondn on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      This reminds me of the show "America's Next Top Model" because on their Facebook page, there are only pictures of super skinny females. There are no pictures of thick or plus size females. 
  • The study shows that women who possess these body image concerns are twice as likely to compare their own bodies to those of the thin models in the advertisements
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      Most females have a bad habit of doing this when looking at Vogue Magazine or Seventeen Magazine. People also get discouraged from trying out to become a model because they don't think they have the "model look". It is not a healthy thing to do because it will only cause females to find more problems within themselves
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  • Conversely, women who are content with their bodies did not show any effects from viewing thin-ideal advertisements.
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      Being comfortable in your own skin is the main key to being happy. Some may set goals for losing weight, by looking at other skinny models or the skinny/fit people used for fitness magazines , websites,and commercials.
  • “Women who already have low opinions of their physical appearance are at an even greater risk for negative effects from media images,” says Gayle R. Bessenoff, Ph.D., author of the study
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      Already having low self-esteem can make the effect of media's "acceptable image" more damaging than to a person with a little bit more self-esteem
    • braxtondn
      braxtondn on 26 Jun 14
       
      The image that young women may think is acceptable to society is not so acceptable to the media unless you are a thin female. Everybody at some point wants to be thin, but they need to learn to be comfortable in their own skin because not everybody has the same bod shape.
  • The deleterious impact of advertisement is the subject of new research exploring the relationship between the so called “thin-ideal” media message and body-image issues among young women.
  • University of Connecticut researchers discovered female undergraduates who viewed advertisements displaying ultra-thin women exhibited increases in body dissatisfaction, negative mood, levels of depression and lowered self-esteem.
Kathleen Hancock

NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Ocean - 0 views

www.noaa.gov/ocean.html

shared by Kathleen Hancock on 01 Jul 14 - Cached
  • The ocean covers 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contains 97 percent of the planet's water
  • The ocean and lakes play an integral role in many of the Earth's systems including climate and weather.
  • NOAA’s mission is to serve the nation’s need for oceanic and atmospheric information, but doing so also means helping to ensure that the public understands how NOAA science impacts their daily lives and future prosperity
  • Kathleen Hancock on 01 Jul 14
     
    Ocean control of climate and weather
brookerobinson

The power of music - 1 views

brain.oxfordjournals.org/...2528.full

music brain

shared by brookerobinson on 27 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Anthony Storr, in his excellent book Music and the Mind, stresses that in all societies, a primary function of music is collective and communal, to bring and bind people together
  • People with Tourette's syndrome—including many I know who are professional musicians—may become composed, tic-free, when they listen to or perform music; but they may also be driven by certain kinds of music into an uncontrollable ticcing that is entrained with the beat
  • There is a wide range of sensitivity to the emotional power of music, ranging from virtual indifference at one extreme (Freud was said to be indifferent to music, and never wrote about it), to a sensitivity that can barely be controlled. Individuals with Williams syndrome, for example, though they have severe visual and cognitive defects, are often musically gifted, and usually extravagantly sensitive to the emotional impact of music. I have seen few sights more extraordinary than a group of 40 young people with Williams syndrome breaking into uncontrollable weeping at tender or sad music, or uncontrollably excited if the music is animated.
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  • speaks of ‘chills’ in this connection, and has shown some of the specific neurobiological basis of these
    • brookerobinson
      brookerobinson on 27 Jun 14
       
      religious music "chills" from the holy spirit
  • Perseverative music has much more the character of a cerebral automatism, suggesting cerebral networks, perhaps both cortical and subcortical, caught in a circuit of mutual excitation. I do not think there are comparable phenomena with other types of perception—certainly not with visual experience. For instance, I am a verbal creature myself, and though sentences often permute themselves in my mind and suddenly surface as I am writing, I never have verbal ‘earworms’ comparable with musical ones.
anonymous

How the Internet of Things Changes Everything - Stefan Ferber - Harvard Business Review - 0 views

blogs.hbr.org/...how-the-internet-of-things-cha

#ThoughtVectors technology media education virtual reality augmented reality Internet of Things networking

shared by anonymous on 10 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Clearly, when things are networked, that has an impact on how actual value is produced. In many cases, it is no longer the industrially manufactured product that is the focus, but rather the web-based service that users access through that device.
  • In many and diverse sectors of the global economy, new web-based business models being hatched for the Internet of Things are bringing together market players who previously had no business dealings with each other
  • The question for you is: in this new cyber-physical galaxy, will your company become a new sun, a planet, a minor moon — or be reduced to stardust?
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