Skip to main content

Home/ ThoughtVectors2014/ Group items tagged product

Rss Feed Group items tagged

anonymous

Blog - Internet of Things Consortium - 0 views

  • Internet of Things should deliver consumer experiences that were not possible 2-3 years ago. These new experiences not only deliver consumer value but awe and delight as well. Products that tap into these human emotions will become the corner stones of tomorrows connected reality.
  • Based on the data the we have collected and analyzed there are three interesting questions to ask when approaching consumer based IoT products:      Does the product leverage ambient intelligence as the consumer interface?What is the unprecedented consumer experiences created from the product? How does the product connect with other products to deliver unique consumer services? 
kimah6

Where's the Automation in the Productivity Accounts? | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy - 0 views

  • geeky-looking Google self-driving car.  And data being the plural of anecdote, I’m certainly open to the possibility.  But the robots-are-coming advocates need to explain why a phenomenon that should be associated with accelerating productivity is allegedly occurring over a fairly protracted period where the trend in output per hour is going the other way.
  •  
    On the Economy -Jared Bernstein Blog-
morganaletarg

The Dynamics of Fandom: Exploring Fan Communities in Online Spaces | Myc Wiatrowski - A... - 3 views

    • morganaletarg
       
      "not unreal" tell my mom that
  • A thoroughknowledge of the community is required to be able to understand the group, as well asunderstand the individual’s place in the whole. This knowledge allows a group to build asocially imagined concept of communal belief. It creates a method for demarcating who is and isnot an insider, and allows the group to come to terms with their shared ‘canonical’ text(s).
    • morganaletarg
       
      e.g. "my feels"
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Often fans are recognized within the American cultural  zeitgeist  in just this way: fanatical, out of control, frantic and frenzied. In point of fact, fangroups are frequently ‘Othered’ by the dominant culture at large as being significantly differentfrom the mainstream norm.
    • morganaletarg
       
      perhaps this may be WHY THEY'RE ON THE INTERNET HMMM
  • we can say that fans are a group that consumes a text (or texts) enmasse , that in turn uses that consumption as a basis for creating something new that is tailored totheir specific concerns. In short, a fandom can be defined by its consumption of a text and itssubsequent cultural productions of and about that text.
  • we must turn our attention to the productions of the insider community. That is to say we must recognize that the urtext  , if it can be so described, does notmeet the needs of the group, so new material is produced by the community to fill the void.
    • morganaletarg
       
      ~*FANFICTION*~
  • “fans of a popular television series[and/or film] may sample dialogue, summarize episodes, debate subtexts, create original fanfiction, record their own soundtracks, make their own movies – and distribute all of thisworldwide via the internet”
  • In creating new artifacts for the group, thus theoretically fillingthe needs of the cyber-fandom as a whole, the group is further able to fashion both an ideologicaland consumable concept of Browncoat-ness and further contribute to the re-visioning and re-drawing of their community.
  • At a very base level these available narrative strains that existwithin the community function as a group rhetoric that ultimately reflects the fictional“Browncoats” of the program’s universe.
    • morganaletarg
       
      are people fans of people like themselves, or do people make their fans want to be more like them?
  • Each party in a struggle over hegemonic power exercises their leverage from time to time, creating an almost ever present struggle in fancommunities between themselves and the producers of their canon.
  • Fans attack and criticize media producers whom they feel threaten their meta-textual interests, but producers also respond to these challenges, protecting their  privilege by defusing and marginalizing fan activism. As fans negotiate positionsof production and consumption, antagonistic corporate discourse toils to managethat discursive power, disciplining productive fandom so it can continue to becultivated as a consumer base.
  • There is a delicate balance between fans and media producers suggested by Johnson. Fansnegotiate their power in virtual spaces, both consuming and producing texts, yet corporate mediaentities struggle to both restrict fan activity, thus allowing them further opportunity to exploitthem capitalistically, while concurrently attempting to cultivate fan production to a degree so asnot to alienate the consumer base all together.
  • Building a complex, onlinecommunity constructed of both a social imaginary and an empirical reality allows the group tonot only form a space wherein they can participate but where they can assert their control over culturally significant texts.
  • n moving to online spaces fandoms remain able to function as traditional communitieswould be expected to. But the mediated interface and its ability to allow communities tocongregate in greater numbers regardless of spatial or temporal limitations, also permits cyber-fandoms to amplify their voice, giving them greater power in space as Foucault would have it.Exercising their power from self-created points in a virtual space allow the community greater    Wiatrowski control over both the texts upon which they’ve created a group and over their imagined sense of the community. In the end, the move to online spaces allows the group to exist both as it oncehad and in ways that are new and more powerful than they had perhaps previously imagined.
kahn_artist

Does Web Surfing Increase Productivity and Creativity at Work? - 0 views

  •  
    Surfing in moderation can relieve stress and inspire creativity.
wstrahan

Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah - 0 views

    • wstrahan
       
      Neo-colonialism isn't a problem until it's being used to impoverish less developed countries, rather than help develop them.
  • Non-alignment, as practised by Ghana and many other countries, is based on co-operation with all States whether they be capitalist, socialist or have a mixed economy. Such a policy, therefore, involves foreign investment from capitalist countries, but it must be invested in accordance with a national plan drawn up by the government of the non-aligned State with its own interests in mind.
    • wstrahan
       
      Countries like Ghana choose not to align with an economic policy like capitalism or socialism in order to trade with all countries based on their own national plan.
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • The growth of nuclear weapons has made out of date the old-fashioned balance of power which rested upon the ultimate sanction of a major war. Certainty of mutual mass destruction effectively prevents either of the great power blocs from threatening the other with the possibility of a world-wide war, and military conflict has thus become confined to ‘limited wars’. For these neo-colonialism is the breeding ground.
    • wstrahan
       
      Nuclear weapons have increased the growth in neo-colonialism. Larger economic countries such as the U.S. and Russia would rather avoid a world war and nuclear mass destruction by fighting "limited wars"
  • Limited war, once embarked upon, achieves a momentum of its own. Of this, the war in South Vietnam is only one example. It escalates despite the desire of the great power blocs to keep it limited. While this particular war may be prevented from leading to a world conflict, the multiplication of similar limited wars can only have one end-world war and the terrible consequences of nuclear conflict.
  • Neo-colonialism is also the worst form of imperialism. For those who practise it, it means power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress.
  • In the days of old-fashioned colonialism, the imperial power had at least to explain and justify at home the actions it was taking abroad.
  • Neo-colonialism, like colonialism, is an attempt to export the social conflicts of the capitalist countries.
  • The problem which faced the wealthy nations of the world at the end of the second world war was the impossibility of returning to the pre-war situation in which there was a great gulf between the few rich and the many poor. Irrespective of what particular political party was in power, the internal pressures in the rich countries of the world were such that no post-war capitalist country could survive unless it became a ‘Welfare State’. There might be differences in degree in the extent of the social benefits given to the industrial and agricultural workers, but what was everywhere impossible was a return to the mass unemployment and to the low level of living of the pre-war years.
  • In the past it was possible to convert a country upon which a neo-colonial regime had been imposed — Egypt in the nineteenth century is an example — into a colonial territory.
  • The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.
  • e, but neo-
  • Where neo-colonialism exists the power exercising control is often the State which formerly ruled the territory in question, but this is not necessarily so. For example, in the case of South Vietnam the former imperial power was France, but neo-colonial control of the State has now gone to the United States.
  • The neo-colonial State may be obliged to take the manufactured products of the imperialist power to the exclusion of competing products from elsewhere. Control over government policy in the neo-colonial State may be secured by payments towards the cost of running the State, by the provision of civil servants in positions where they can dictate policy, and by monetary control over foreign exchange through the imposition of a banking system controlled by the imperial power.
  • The control of the Congo by great international financial concerns is a case in point.
  • The struggle against neo-colonialism is not aimed at excluding the capital of the developed world from operating in less developed countries. It is aimed at preventing the financial power of the developed countries being used in such a way as to impoverish the less developed.
  • The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world.
  • The system of neo-colonialism was therefore instituted and in the short run it has served the developed powers admirably. It is in the long run that its consequences are likely to be catastrophic for them
  • Neo-colonialism is based upon the principle of breaking up former large united colonial territories into a number of small non-viable States which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defence and even internal security. Their economic and financial systems are linked, as in colonial days, with those of the former colonial ruler.
  • In the neo-colonialist territories, since the former colonial power has in theory relinquished political control, if the social conditions occasioned by neo-colonialism cause a revolt the local neo-colonialist government can be sacrificed and another equally subservient one substituted in its place.
  • The introduction of neo-colonialism increases the rivalry between the great powers which was provoked by the old-style colonialism. However little real power the government of a neo-colonialist State may possess, it must have, from the very fact of its nominal independence, a certain area of manoeuvre. It may not be able to exist without a neo-colonialist master but it may still have the ability to change masters.
  • The ideal neo-colonialist State would be one which was wholly subservient to neo-colonialist interests but the existence of the socialist nations makes it impossible to enforce the full rigour of the neo-colonialist system. The existence of an alternative system is itself a challenge to the neo-colonialist regime. Warnings about ‘the dangers of Communist subversion are likely to be two-edged since they bring to the notice of those living under a neo-colonialist system the possibility of a change of regime.
  • In fact neo-colonialism is the victim of its own contradictions. In order to make it attractive to those upon whom it is practised it must be shown as capable of raising their living standards, but the economic object of neo-colonialism is to keep those standards depressed in the interest of the developed countries.
  • Their manufacturers naturally object to any attempt to raise the price of the raw materials which they obtain from the neo-colonialist territory in question, or to the establishment there of manufacturing industries which might compete directly or indirectly with their own exports to the territory.
  • In the end the situation arises that the only type of aid which the neo-colonialist masters consider as safe is ‘military aid’.
  • Once a neo-colonialist territory is brought to such a state of economic chaos and misery that revolt actually breaks out then, and only then, is there no limit to the generosity of the neo-colonial overlord, provided, of course, that the funds supplied are utilised exclusively for military purposes.
  • Military aid in fact marks the last stage of neo-colonialism and its effect is self-destructive. Sooner or later the weapons supplied pass into the hands of the opponents of the neo-colonialist regime and the war itself increases the social misery which originally provoked it.
  • Nowhere has it proved successful, either in raising living standards or in ultimately benefiting countries which have indulged in it.
  • This book is therefore an attempt to examine neo-colonialism not only in its African context and its relation to African unity, but in world perspective. Neo-colonialism is by no means exclusively an African question. Long before it was practised on any large scale in Africa it was an established system in other parts of the world
  • ‘The industrial nations have added nearly $2 billion to their reserves, which now approximate $52 billion. At the same time, the reserves of the less-developed group not only have stopped rising, but have declined some $200 million. To analysts such as Britain’s Miss Ward, the significance of such statistics is clear: the economic gap is rapidly widening “between a white, complacent, highly bourgeois, very wealthy, very small North Atlantic elite and everybody else, and this is not a very comfortable heritage to leave to one’s children.”
  • ‘For the vast majority of mankind the most urgent problem is not war, or Communism, or the cost of living, or taxation. It is hunger. Over 1,500,000,000 people, some-thing like two-thirds of the world’s population, are living in conditions of acute hunger, defined in terms of identifiable nutritional disease.
  • What is lacking are any positive proposals for dealing with the situation. All that The Wall Street Journal’s correspondent can do is to point out that the traditional methods recommended for curing the evils are only likely to make the situation worse.
gerellmalazarte

How 3D printing will radically change the world - 0 views

  •  
    Linda Federico-O'Murchu proclaims the reasons why 3D printing is going make the world we know today unrecognizable in 50 to 75 years. Advances in 3D technology are going to make us live longer, abolish outsourcing, change production and present unimaginable possibles. Then like many other authors starts to question 3D printings progress over time. Her biggest question is even if it technically works, should we be doing it? Printed food although looks the same under a microscope could affect us down the road and printing guns could infringe on certain rules or laws. But she then states that 3D printing is still in its "Wild West" phase, meaning, the laws have not yet caught up with technology.
kimah6

This is Probably a Good Time to Say That I Don't Believe Robots Will Eat All ... - 4 views

  • This is Probably a Good Time to Say That I Don’t Believe Robots Will Eat All the Jobs …
    • kimah6
       
      Benefits of robotics technology. Author in support of technology advancement.
  • First: Focus on increasing access to education and skill development, which itself will increasingly be delivered via technology. Second: Let markets work ( this means voluntary contracts and free trade) so that capital and labor can rapidly reallocate to create new fields and jobs. Third: Create and sustain a vigorous social safety net so that people are not stranded and unable to provide for their families. The loop closes as rapid technological productivity improvement and resulting economic growth make it easy to pay for the safety net.
  • There is a consequence to a growing robot workforce. Everything gets really cheap.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Therefore, with rare exceptions, there won’t be states where robots eat jobs and products get more expensive. They almost always get cheaper.
  •  
    One of the most interesting topics in modern times is the "robots eat all the jobs" thesis. It boils down to this: Computers can increasingly substitute for human labor, thus displacing jobs and creating unemployment. Your job, and every job, goes to a machine.
morganaletarg

"Xenasubtexttalk": The Impact on the Lesbian Fan Community - 0 views

  •  
    "This article examines how some lesbian fans of the television adventure fantasy series Xena: Warrior Princess (X:WP) (1995-2001) became visible through the development of online fandom and the production of explicit lesbian Internet fan fiction. The self-identity of lesbian fans who are part of the "xenasubtextalk" (XSTT) fan group is explored and celebrated through social networks of lesbian fandom through the "Xenaverse." Lesbian fans have written copious amounts of fan fiction online enabling a form of lesbian political discourse and activism as well as social and cultural discourses shared throughout the platform of the Internet. Many lesbian fans have been supported to create and write Xena lesbian fan fiction by engaging with various lesbian fan writers from the Xenaverse who offer their advice to develop lesbian fan fiction services for free to "newbie" writers. Their explicit lesbian fan fiction narratives are reproduced and distributed as lesbian stories about the two main characters Xena and Gabrielle from the original television series. I interviewed three women from "xenasubtextalk" who gain pleasure exploring their lesbian identities and fandom through the fan group."
George Neff

Even Non-Nerds Should Care That Netflix Broke Up With Developers - Megan Garber - The A... - 0 views

  • Big, though, because the closure makes Netflix the latest of the big tech companies and services to have restricted their APIs. Twitter has done it. So has Amazon. So has Google.
  • APIs are enablers of remix culture, essentially. And what they mix is structured data.
  • Because of all that, APIs have been seen, traditionally, as symbolic and practical.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Netflix, according to its blog post on the API closure, is incorporating the products it likes into its service. It's abandoning the others.
  • That may be because Netflix deals with licensed content, as opposed to user-generated information.
Mirna Shaban

Egypt's Spring: Causes of the Revolution | Middle East Policy Council - 0 views

  • eemed that nearly all of the 90,000 people who had responded to the Facebook request to demonstrate on Police Day had filled the square, crowded into central Alexandria, and confronted the security forces in Suez City
  • An accidental president, who came to power because of Anwar Sadat's assassination on October 6, 1981, Mubarak initially calmed the public, stressed the rule of law, released political prisoners and encouraged parliamentary elections. However, as soon as he began his second term, in 1987, he refused to reform the constitution, extended the state of emergency, promulgated laws to exclude opposition parties from local councils and tightened the grip of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) over parliament. He denounced opposition groups for criticizing his policies and asserted, threateningly, "I am in charge, and I have the authority to adopt measures…. I have all the pieces of the puzzle, while you do not."1
  • after the Islamist groups renounced violence in 1997, emergency and military courts continued to operate. They prosecuted civilians charged with nonviolent infractions, such as Muslim Brothers who met to prepare for professional syndicate elections or journalists who "slandered" regime figures. Police increasingly harassed people on the street, demanding bribes from shop owners and minivan drivers and free food from vendors and restaurants. They seized and beat people in order to coerce false confessions or to pressure them to become informers. They harassed people who came to the police station to get IDs or other routine documents, and they nabbed those who "talked back" to them. Amnesty International concluded that torture was "systematic in police stations, prisons and [State Security Investigations] SSI detention centers and, for the most part, committed with impunity…. [Security and plainclothes police assault people] openly and in public as if unconcerned about possible consequences."
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • 3 Even the government-appointed National Council on Human Rights, in its first annual report (2004), expressed deep concern about the 74 cases of "blatant" torture and 34 persons who had died in police or SSI detention that year.4 A U.S. diplomat cabled in 2009 to Washington that Omar Suleiman, director of the Ge
  • neral Intelligence Directorate, and Interior Minister Habib al-Adly "keep the domestic beasts at bay, and Mubarak is not one to lose sleep over their tactics."5
  • All aspects of public life were controlled, ranging from censorship of cultural and media production to the operation of labor unions.
  • Workers were banned from striking and, since the change in the labor law in 2003, were often hired on short-term contracts, under which they had no medical — or social — insurance benefits. The monthly minimum wage had not been raised since 1984, when it was set at LE 35 (in 2011 the equivalent of $6).6 The ETUF enforced government policy rather than represented its millions of members.
  • Private-sector workers suffered even more, as the 2003 labor law failed to provide any protection to employees negotiating length of contract, salary level, hours at work, overtime compensation, vacation or lunch breaks. Workers often lacked health and injury insurance. Many private-sector firms forced new hires to sign, along with the contract, Form No. 6, which allowed the employer to fire them without warning, cause or severance pay.
  • The exclusion of opposition forces from the political arena in fall 2010 was accompanied by systematic crackdowns on the media, cultural expression and university life. The regime wanted to prevent critical commentary from being aired in independent newspapers and on private satellite stations. The government closed down 19 TV and satellite channels, hacked or blocked several websites, and pressured private businessmen to cancel outspoken critics' positions as editors, opinion writers and talk-show hosts. The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) concluded: "The Ministry of Mass Media and Communication has tightened its fist over all media channels to markedly reduce the space for freedom of expression, especially [during and] after the last parliamentary elections."13
  • Already, press and cultural output were managed through myriad control boards. Journalists were beaten, jailed and/or fined if they investigated corruption or police brutality and were charged with incitement or libel when they criticized government policies or political leaders. AFTE also reported heavy-handed censorship of movies, plays and books.
  • The crackdown on university life accelerated after the 1979 student charter was amended in 2007 to give administrative bodies — and, behind them, the SSI — the right to bar students from running in university elections. By th
  • en, the SSI was interfering deeply in university operations: approving the appointment of rectors and deans, exercising a veto over teaching-staff employment and promotions, vetting graduate teaching assistants, determining the eligibility of students to live in dormitories, and interfering in scientific research, textbooks choices, and faculty permissions to travel abroad to participate in conferences.14 The SSI presence was overtly threatening; guards stood at the gates and at each building. Plainclothes SSI officers quelled demonstrations as well as threatening and arresting student activists. Then, in October 2010, the government refused to implement the Supreme Administrative Court ruling that banned SSI guards from the campuses and also blocked anti-regime candidates from contesting seats in the student-union elections.15
  • They sold significant portions of the public sector for their personal benefit and decreased public investment in agriculture, land reclamation, housing, education and health
  • Nearly half the residents of Cairo lived in unplanned areas that lacked basic utilities, sometimes living in wooden shacks
  • the World Bank reported that, by 2006, 62 percent of Egyptians were struggling to subsist on less than $2 a day
  • Given the overwhelming power of the state, the severe restrictions imposed by the State of Emergency on public gatherings, and the unchecked violence by police and security forces, people were fearful of protesting in the streets. Nonetheless, there were many efforts to expose the conditions. Novels and films highlighted corruption, police brutality, urban poverty and sexual harassment.29 Some art exhibits displayed in-your-face paintings depicting torture and military repression. Human-rights groups reported on poverty in the countryside and cities, deteriorating environmental conditions, harassment of women and activists, restrictions on the press, police coercion, and thuggery during elections.
  • There was public outrage at the very public beating-to-death just before midnight on June 6, 2010, of 28-year-old Khaled Said, seized as he entered an internet café in Alexandria.35 Late that night 70 young men and women gathered across from the police station, demanding that the police be brought to justice. They received the usual response: beaten, dragged along the street, attacked by police dogs, and arrested. Protests continued throughout the summer: funeral prayers at Sidi Gaber mosque, attended by 600 mourners who spilled out into the street afterwards; a vigil outside the Ministry of Interior headquarters in Cairo; a silent protest along waterfronts and bridges throughout Egypt; and numerous violently suppressed protests in downtown areas not only involving well-known politicians and protest groups but also people who felt that Khaled Said could have been themselves, their son, or their grandson. A teenager reflected this perspective, saying: "This is an extraordinary case. This guy was tortured and killed on the street. I did not know him but I cannot shut up forever."36 "For the sake of Khaled! For the sake of Egypt!" (ashan Khalid, ashan masr) became a rallying cry, voiced in fear as well as in the determination to restore individual and collective dignity (karama). On the fortieth day commemorating his death, people shouted outside the High Court: "Our voices will not be silenced… We've waited for 25 years, but our condition has not improved. Tomorrow the revolution will come."37
  • Dozens of Facebook groups supported the cause, of which "We Are All Khaled Said" became the most famous. They circulated reports about poli
  • ce brutality, many of which had been posted in the past but had not received such intense scrutiny. These included the video of police sodomizing a 21-year-old minivan driver in January 2006. Filmed by police officers in Boulaq al-Dakrour station, the police mailed it to the cell phones of other van drivers to intimidate them. "Everybody in the parking lot will see this tomorrow," they boasted.38 Hafez Abu Saeda, head of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, noted: "Police brutality is systematic and widespread… The humiliation of the simple citizen has become so widespread that people are fed up."39 Their anger, he warned, could spark a rebellion.
  • Nonetheless, the protesters themselves agree that it took the swift removal of Ben Ali to make them think that, if sudden change was possible in Tunisia, it might be possible in Egypt.
  • Even when people broke the barrier of fear on January 25, played cat-and-mouse with security forces on downtown streets on January 26 and 27, and withstood the onslaught all day and night on January 28, they faced a formidable regime, supported by the security forces and the entrenched NDP. The revolution would have been much bloodier if the armed forces had stood by the president. President Mubarak and Interior Minister Habib al-Adly hastened their own demise by unleashing extreme violence on January 28, followed by Adly's abrupt withdrawal of all police forces that night. Enraged, the public created neighborhood watches to ensure the safety of their communities.
  • Mubarak miscalculated by ordering the armed forces into the streets, even though their loyalty was to the nation — not to the person. He further miscalculated that he could offer minor concessions — such as appointing a vice president, changing the prime minister, and saying that he would not seek another term — on January 28 and again on February 1 and yet follow those placating words by unleashing fierce attacks on February 2. Over the next week, protesters held their ground, thousands of people flooded to city squares to call for dignity and freedom, labor strikes spread, employees in public institutions joined the movement, and lawyers, doctors, and professors marched in their professional garb. Finally, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ended its silent watch and forced Mubarak's hand. When Mubarak resisted leaving, the generals compelled the newly-appointed vice president to inform the president that, if he didn't step down, he would face charges of high treason.
  • Suddenly on Friday, February 11 — as millions of people surged angrily through the streets — Mubarak vanished. Anger transformed into tears of joy and celebration. And the next morning, young people cleaned up the public spaces, symbolically starting the huge task of cleansing Egypt of the corrupt regime and rebuilding the country. How they would rebuild Egypt remained uncertain, but their mobilization instilled a new and powerful pride, coupled with determination to take control over their future and not be cowed again by any authoritarian ruler.
mcandersonaj

On Men's Sexualization in Video Games - 0 views

    • mcandersonaj
       
      This picture just shows how we think as people and the differences gender can make on a situation. This is because to me this picture is just silly but if the picture was of women it would be a completely different feeling for everyone. 
    • mcandersonaj
       
      This article talks about why we don't see as much sexualization of male characters. 
  • The design of the game creates a silly context that the player doesn’t take seriously; instead, they laugh at the men and see the nudity as off-the-wall humor. These games don’t give the player room to fantasize or a roving eye to admire the characters’ bodies.
    • mcandersonaj
       
      Male sexualization in games is usual showed off as something funny and is almost never seen as "wrong". The reasons being that we simply don't care about the over-sexualization of men as much as we do women. 
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The lack of men’s sexualization is a product of the average straight guy’s impulse to avoid appearing or feeling gay.
    • mcandersonaj
       
      This is the core reason we don't see as much sexualization of men in games. The simple fact the people developing the game doesn't want to appear gay. Now though this may not be as true due to the fact that most developers no longer care about this feeling.
  • The player crosses into something pornographic when watching Madison but into something awkward when seeing Ethan.
    • mcandersonaj
       
      this is an excellent example of how two identical events can change drastically depending on gender. 
  •  
    This article shows examples of male sexualization and gives some in game examples
  •  
    This article shows examples of male sexualization and gives some in game examples
jurasovaib

Information, Awareness & Donations - National Breast Cancer Foundation - 0 views

  • 1 in 8 Women, will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime
Virinchi Tadikonda

SpaceX Launch Scrubbed Again - But No One Could See It Happen - NASA Watch - 0 views

  • This lack of visibility is rather unusual for SpaceX - a company that has gone out of its way to use social media and traditional media - with great success - to get word about its products and services to the widest audience possible.
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
       
      NASA contracts launches to smaller companies, and one happens to be SpaceX. This company is widely known for broadcasting launches around Cape Canaveral. Unfortunately, the limited amount of of companies that do that doesn't help to widen the media exposure. 
  • canceled its webcast and provided no commentary about the launch countdown, a public service offered even for classified Department of Defense satellite launches.
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
       
      NASA is not a part of this, as the final decision was made by SpaceX. Because they are a private company this is possible. The more privacy ensures less involvement with the media and public. Once upon a time the idea of Space travel was widely popular, but today it's quite the opposite. 
  • The hashtag "#FalconNein" quickly appeared. One would hope that SpaceX is paying attention and realizes that they are doing something cool - as are other space companies
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
       
      The benefit of social media is that if something is great, it will appear in the media. But even if it didn't go through and failed, it will still appear in the media. Either way, there is still publicity 
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Cool sells. And if and when something goes wrong people root for the company to fix the problem so they can see cool things again.
    • Virinchi Tadikonda
       
      When Space was cool, that's when the government spent more money and time. When the last shuttle disaster occured, complaints came from every direction about mission safety. Space needs to become cool once again. 
wstrahan

Africa and China: More than minerals | The Economist - 0 views

  • An estimated 1m are now resident in Africa, up from a few thousand a decade ago, and more keep arriving.
  • Between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts lie many of the raw materials desired by its industries. China recently overtook America as the world’s largest net importer of oil.
  • Almost 80% of Chinese imports from Africa are mineral products.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • China is Africa’s top business partner, with trade exceeding $166 billion. But it is not all minerals.
  • Machinery makes up 29%.
  • Last summer China’s commerce minister, Chen Deming, said the number “exceeded $14.7 billion, up 60% from 2009”.
  • Until recently China concentrated on a few big resource-rich countries, including Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Zambia
  • Ethiopia and Congo, where minerals are scarce or hard to extract, are now getting more attention,
  • The first person to be expelled from Africa’s youngest country, South Sudan, was a Chinese: Liu Yingcai, the local head of Petrodar, a Chinese-Malaysian oil company and the government’s biggest customer, in connection with an alleged $815m oil “theft”.
  • Congo kicked out two rogue commodities traders in the Kivu region. Algerian courts have banned two Chinese firms from participating in a public tender, alleging corruption. Gabonese officials ditched an unfavourable resource deal. Kenyan and South African conservationists are asking China to stop the trade in ivory and rhino horn.
  • Yet a growing number of Africans say the Chinese create jobs, transfer skills and spend money in local economies.
  • Other popular fears triggered by China’s growing presence have also proved hollow. It has not stoked armed conflict. On the contrary, China has occasionally played peacemaker, although motivated by self-interest. Sudan and South Sudan are both big Chinese trade partners. When they hovered on the brink of war last year, China intervened diplomatically along with other powers.
  • Only in Africa’s largest economies has China become less popular. There it is increasingly seen as a competitor. Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president, who long cultivated Chinese contacts, was last year forced by domestic critics to change posture
normonique

The Future of Communication? Let's Ask the Experts - 1 views

  • Technology has been helping us to communicate easier, faster and more often. We’re now at a point where we’re “always on” and panic sets in when we temporarily lose the ability to communicate – for example when we lose the data connection our mobile phone.
  • However, in spite of technological developments, we still don’t seem to understand each other.
    • normonique
       
      The african drum simple tool but very powerful 
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Long before today’s technology existed, the African drum was perhaps the most powerful messaging technology,
  • When the telephone was invented, the fabulous reality was that we could hold distant conversations and spend as long as we liked adding context.
  • Remember the last text you sent that someone didn’t understand? Remember the email that got misunderstood? Or maybe a tweet that you realize could be interpreted in a different way (but you only had 140 characters to use)?
    • normonique
       
      This relate to the article that social networking makes communication fast but sometimes ineffective because of misinterpretation due to not having the face to face interaction
  • It’s possible we will look to create more communication tools that will advise us how to reason, and advise us how to feel. If you think about it, this may well remove what is left of being a human from our race.
  • It’s amazing. In only a few years touchscreens in our smartphones and tablets drastically changed the way we interact with humans and machines. In the next few years we’ll see an explosion of touchscreens invading every part of our lives; from the bathroom mirror, to the touchscreen table and even the possibility to interact with your living-room touch window.
  • Intelligent personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s S-voice allow us to input text or speak commands with our voice instead of typing.
  • An important element will probably also be mood-communication: that our mood (reflected in brain wave patterns) will affect our surroundings in order for them to give feedback and for example lift our mood and shape it in various ways.
  • Dream modification will be another interesting area – the dream we wake up from in the morning largely determines in what mood we start the day. So if that last dream period can be modified in a positive direction through fx soundscapes played softly by your iPhone (by your bed) it would potentially mean a lot for your life, work and productivity.
    • normonique
       
      This article relates to my question of technology communicating with the nervous system. 
  • Whether we will have direct communication brain-to-brain via some sort of implanted or just attached devices I’m not sure.
  • Combining sophisticated and surprisingly detailed user profiles with online technologies and “old” tech as direct mailing, robocalls and TV ads, strategists can now truly microtarget voters.
  • Securing communications presents us with a challenge of enormous importance and complexity.
  • The future of communication is already here, it’s just – to paraphrase William Gibson – not evenly distributed. Instead of radical departures from what we have, we will most likely see incremental improvements.
  •  
    This article answer my question of the speed of communication through technology in the future
andhearsonars

MD Consult - Pin It to Win It: Using Pinterest to Promote Your Niche Services - Journal... - 0 views

  • and now that Pinterest has taken off, it's clear that people are drawn to an image—an image is what gets them in to learn more about an idea, product, or service,”
  • “Every registered dietitian (RD) has a different specialty, a different job, a different nutrition philosophy, and Pinterest is a good way to curate your values and expertise—and by doing that you can create a niche.”
  • The primary thing to keep in mind is that a key function of Pinterest is to drive users to your website or blog where they can learn more about your expertise as a food and nutrition practitioner. In fact, Pinterest reportedly drives more web traffic to other sites than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • you can take your interests and use them to explain more about you and what you have to offer
  • In other words, she might pin an appetizing image of a gluten-free dish on a Pinterest board, and a user will click on the picture taking them to her website, which features information about her services such as food and nutrition writing, corporate consulting, foodservice consultation, and nutrition counseling and lifestyle coaching—particularly for people with celiac disease and food allergies.
bdm1chael

Why Nearly Every Sport Except Long-Distance Running Is Fundamentally Absurd - 0 views

  •  
    "At first glance the annual Man vs. Horse Marathon, set for June 9 in Wales, seems like a joke sport brought to us by the same brilliant minds behind dwarf tossing and gravy wrestling. It was, after all, the product of a pints-fueled debate in a Welsh pub, and for..."
perezmv

Media and Advertising - Global Issues - 0 views

    • perezmv
       
      Augmenting human intellect? Probably not.
  • As such it can contribute to anxieties and stress when growing up and even last into adulthood.
  • Advertising is the art of arresting the human intelligence just long enough to get money from it.
kahn_artist

Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically? | July 2009 | Communications of the ACM - 1 views

  • Home/Magazine Archive/July 2009 (Vol. 52, No. 7)/Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically?/Full Text News Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically? By Samuel Greengard Communications of the ACM, Vol. 52 No. 7, Pages 18-19 10.1145/1538788.1538796 Comments (3) View as: Print ACM Digital Library Full Text (PDF) In the Digital Edition Share: Send by email Share on reddit Share on StumbleUpon Share on Tweeter Share on Facebook More Sharing ServicesShare Society has long cherished the ability to think beyond the ordinary. In a world where knowledge is revered and innovation equals progress, those able to bring forth greater insight and understanding are destined to make their mark and blaze a trail to greater enlightenment. "Critical thinking as an attitude is embedded in Western culture. There is a belief that argument is the way to finding truth," observes Adrian West, research director at the Edward de Bono Foundation U.K., and a former computer science lecturer at the University of Manchester. "Developing our abilities to think more clearly, richly, fully—individually and collectively—is absolutely crucial [to solving world problems]." To be sure, history is filled with tales of remarkable thinkers who have defined and redefined our world views: Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity; Voltaire altering perceptions about society and religious dogma; and Albert Einstein redefining the view of the universe. But in an age of computers, video games, and the Internet, there's a growing question about how technology is changing critical thinking and whether society benefits from it. Although there's little debate that computer technology complements—and often enhances—the human mind in the quest to store information and process an ever-growing tangle of bits and bytes, there's increasing concern that the same technology is changing the way we approach complex problems and conundrums, and making it more difficult to really think. "We're exposed to [greater amounts of] poor yet charismatic thinking, the fads of intellectual fashion, opinion, and mere assertion," says West. "The wealth of communications and information can easily overwhelm our reasoning abilities." What's more, it's ironic that ever-growing piles of data and information do not equate to greater knowledge and better decision-making. What's remarkable, West says, is just "how little this has affected the quality of our thinking." According to the National Endowment for the Arts, literary reading declined 10 percentage points from 1982 to 2002 and the rate of decline is accelerating. Many, including Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, believe that a greater focus on visual media exacts a toll. "A drop-off in reading has possibly contributed to a decline in critical thinking," she says. "There is a greater emphasis on real-time media and multitasking rather than focusing on a single thing." Nevertheless, the verdict isn't in and a definitive answer about how technology affects critical thinking is not yet available. Instead, critical thinking lands in a mushy swamp somewhere between perception and reality; measurable and incomprehensible. It's largely a product of our own invention—and a subjective one at that. And although technology alters the way we see, hear, and assimilate our world—the act of thinking remains decidedly human. Back to Top Rethinking Thinking Arriving at a clear definition for critical thinking is a bit tricky. Wikipedia describes it as "purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments." Overlay technology and that's where things get complex. "We can do the same critical-reasoning operations without technology as we can with it—just at different speeds and with different ease," West says. What's more, while it's tempting to view computers, video games, and the Internet in a monolithic good or bad way, the reality is that they may be both good and bad, and different technologies, systems, and uses yield entirely different results. For example, a computer game may promote critical thinking or diminish it. Reading on the Internet may ratchet up one's ability to analyze while chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut deeper thought.
  • Reading on the Internet may ratchet up one's ability to analyze while chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut deeper thought.
    • kahn_artist
       
      The highlighted text is particularly funny to me considering I am advocating Hyperlink chasing as a valuable form of research.
  •  
    How does technology affect our ability to think critically?
1 - 20 of 34 Next ›
Showing 20 items per page