Traditional paddy rice farmers had to share labor and coordinate irrigation in a way that most wheat farmers did not. We observed people in everyday life to test whether these agricultural legacies gave rice-farming southern China a more interdependent culture and wheat-farming northern China a more independent culture. In Study 1, we counted 8964 people sitting in cafes in six cities and found that people in northern China were more likely to be sitting alone. In Study 2, we moved chairs together in Starbucks across the country so that they were partially blocking the aisle ( n = 678). People in northern China were more likely to move the chair out of the way, which is consistent with findings that people in individualistic cultures are more likely to try to control the environment. People in southern China were more likely to adjust the self to the environment by squeezing through the chairs. Even in China’s most modern cities, rice-wheat differences live on in everyday life.
Month: April 2018
📺 “The Big Bang Theory” The Comet Polarization | CBS
Directed by Mark Cendrowski. With Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg. Sheldon's comic book store experience changes when writer Neil Gaiman puts Stuart's store on the map; friendships are threatened when Koothrappali takes credit for Penny's astronomical discovery.
📺 “The Big Bang Theory” The Monetary Insufficiency | CBS
Directed by Nicole Lorre. With Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg. Sheldon goes to Vegas to win money for science. Also, Penny and Bernadette take Amy wedding dress shopping, but her terrible choice entangles them in a web of lies.
📺 “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” West Virginia | CNN
Bourdain digs deep into the proud, often misunderstood culture of West Virginia, as he traverses a 5,000 foot mine, observes the demolition derby-like sport of rock-bouncing and dines on signature Appalachian dishes.
📺 Michelle Wolf complete remarks at 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner | C-SPAN (YouTube)
From C-SPAN coverage, Michelle Wolf remarks at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Watch the complete video here: https://cs.pn/2JxzkC2
Some have said that Wolf took Sarah Huckabee Sander’s appearance to task; the sad fact is that they’re just apparently not up enough on popular culture to have gotten some of the jokes. If anything Wolf was complimenting Sanders’ makeup technique.
Why are you guys making this about Sarah’s looks? I said she burns facts and uses the ash to create a *perfect* smoky eye. I complimented her eye makeup and her ingenuity of materials. https://t.co/slII9TYdYx
— Michelle Wolf (@michelleisawolf) April 29, 2018
On the other hand, if we want to beat someone up over taking people’s appearances to task, perhaps we should go back and do some better reporting on the President who says these things on a regular basis and not as part of an obvious comedy and satire routine? A real ad hominem appearance attack would sound something more like “With crazy hair, orange complexion, and bizarre makeup, I often wonder if Trump isn’t attempting to prove that he got just enough talent and votes to hold the office of “First Clown.” Apparently he wasn’t rich enough to buy the popular vote, but just like the sham of Trump University, he was able to afford the Electoral College. Can the voters get a settlement too?
At the end of the day it’s really Wolf who should be the most upset. The worst part of the whole performance was a painfully bad and poorly placed microphone that continually gave me nightmare flashbacks of Howard Dean’s Yahhh!! moment. Her material would have definitely done better with a more solid audio set up.
Now if the WHCA really wants to get righteously upset, maybe they should invite Jeffrey Ross to come? Perhaps he could toss off something tame along the lines of “I wouldn’t f@*k Trump with Sarah Huckabee Sander’s dick!” Maybe it would at least buy his redemption in Bea Arthur’s eyes?
🔖 Neural Networks and Statistical Learning by Ke-Lin Du, M. N. S. Swamy | Springer
Providing a broad but in-depth introduction to neural network and machine learning in a statistical framework, this book provides a single, comprehensive resource for study and further research. All the major popular neural network models and statistical learning approaches are covered with examples and exercises in every chapter to develop a practical working understanding of the content.
Each of the twenty-five chapters includes state-of-the-art descriptions and important research results on the respective topics. The broad coverage includes the multilayer perceptron, the Hopfield network, associative memory models, clustering models and algorithms, the radial basis function network, recurrent neural networks, principal component analysis, nonnegative matrix factorization, independent component analysis, discriminant analysis, support vector machines, kernel methods, reinforcement learning, probabilistic and Bayesian networks, data fusion and ensemble learning, fuzzy sets and logic, neurofuzzy models, hardware implementations, and some machine learning topics. Applications to biometric/bioinformatics and data mining are also included.
Focusing on the prominent accomplishments and their practical aspects, academic and technical staff, graduate students and researchers will find that this provides a solid foundation and encompassing reference for the fields of neural networks, pattern recognition, signal processing, machine learning, computational intelligence, and data mining.
Book: Neural Networks and Statistical Learning https://t.co/tO36Z5KRja
— Data Science Central (@DataScienceCtrl) April 30, 2018
🎧 Introducing ‘Caliphate,’ a New York Times Audio Series | New York Times
The New York Times has introduced a documentary audio series that follows Rukmini Callimachi, a foreign correspondent for The Times and a frequent voice on “The Daily,” as she reports on the Islamic State and the fall of the Iraqi city of Mosul. With the producer Andy Mills, Rukmini journeys to the heart of the conflict to grapple with the most pressing questions about ISIS and to comprehend the power and global pull of the militant group.
Today, instead of our usual show, we offer the Prologue and Chapter 1 of “Caliphate.” This episode includes disturbing language and scenes of graphic violence.
You can listen to “Caliphate” above, or by searching for “Caliphate” wherever you get your podcasts. (If you’re on an Apple device, that’s probably Apple Podcasts. Users of Apple or Android devices can find us on RadioPublic, Stitcher, Spotify or the podcast platform of your choice.)
Each episode will be available to New York Times subscribers a week early, as a way to thank them for their support of this kind of reporting. If you’re a Times subscriber, you can get an early listen to the next episode here. If you’re not, consider becoming one. Either way, sign up to receive weekly dispatches from Rukmini and learn when new episodes are live.
Background reading:
• On five trips to Iraq, Times journalists scoured old Islamic State offices, gathering thousands of files abandoned by the militants.
• The documents that were unearthed reveal extreme brutality and detailed record-keeping.
👓 On Weaponised Design | Sebastian Greger
This may well be the most comprehensive article I’ve read this year so far on the topic of the ethical responsibility of designers. Its author, Cabe, discusses “weaponised design”: “electronic systems whose designs either do not account for abusive application or whose user experiences directly empower attackers”.
An Indieweb Podcast: Episode 3 “Syndication”
Running time: 52m 56s | Download (24.9 MB) | Subscribe by RSS
Summary: Facebook has recently announced it will be shutting off its API access on August 1st for automating posts into its ecosystem. For a large number of users this means it will be much more difficult to crosspost or syndicate their content into the platform. As a result, this week David Shanske and I discuss the good and the bad of this move as well as some general thoughts around the ideas of syndicating content from one site to another.
David also discusses plans he’s got for changes to both the Bridgy Publish Plugin and the Syndication Links Plugin.
Show Notes
Related Articles and Posts
- New Facebook Platform Product Changes and Policy Updates
- Bridgy Publish for Facebook shuts down in August by Ryan Barrett (#)
- Buffer responds to syndication question, but then checks itself (#)
- I’m done with Syndication. Let’s help people be themselves on the web. by Ben Werdmuller (#)
- Deprecating and Replacing Bridgy Publish for WordPress by David Shanske (#)
Resources and mentions within the episode
- ThinkUp (#) — (my instance is still up,though no longer working!)
- BBC Audio Archive (#)
- IndieNews a community-curated list of articles relevant to the IndieWeb (#)
- WordPress Indienews a plugin to automatically send mentions to IndieNews (#)
- Convoy a syndication tool for WithKnown (#)
- Faux-casts (#)
- Related IndieWeb wiki pages
- Related WordPress Plugins
# Indicates a direct link to the appropriate part of the audio within the episode for the mentioned portion.
🎧 This Week in Google 454 The Oldsmobile of Email | TWiT.TV
Facebook and Google earnings. Gmail's big redesign. Tasks is back. Google Chat: explaining RCS. YouTube Remix will end Google Play Music. Google fixes its podcasts strategy. Amazon's new robots and in-car delivery.
- Jeff's Numbers: Jeopardy contestant wants Taco Bell, AI assistants ranked
- Mathew's Stuff: 100m+ Amazon Prime members
- Jason's App: Datally by Google
📅 RSVP: Innovate Pasadena: Friday Morning Coffee Meetup–Coffee with the Mayor
Friday, May 4, 2018
8:15 AM to 9:30 AM
Cross Campus, 85 N. Raymond Avenue · Pasadena, CA
While Pasadena is consistently named one of the best cities to live year after year, City leaders also want to make it a great place to work. Mayor Terry Tornek and City Manager Steve Mermell will be stopping by on May 4th to check-in with Pasadena’s innovators and talk about the latest developments and initiatives happening in Pasadena. But, they’ll also want to hear from you! This is your chance to engage with local officials and share your thoughts on ways the City can make Pasadena even more attractive for business and talent.
Bio: Terry Tornek
Terry Tornek was born and raised in New York City and moved to Pasadena from Massachusetts in 1982 to accept the position of Planning Director. He was hired because of his history of neighborhood improvement and historic preservation while serving as Planning Director of Springfield, Mass. He also served as a member of the Springfield City Council. Terry was Pasadena’s Planning Director for 3 years and helped to rewrite the Zoning Ordinance, the General Plan and establish the redevelopment plan for Old Pasadena. After leaving city government, Terry built a career in real estate as a developer and manager of residential & commercial properties all over Southern California.He remained active in Pasadena affairs through his 20 year service as a Board Member of Pasadena Neighborhood Housing Services, a non-profit organization devoted to affordable housing in Northwest Pasadena.
In 2005, Sid Tyler appointed Terry to the Planning Commission. He also served as a member of the Design Commission. He was elected to represent District 7 on the City Council in April, 2009, was reelected in 2013 and was then elected as Mayor in April, 2015.
Mayor Tornek serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee, is a member of the Municipal Services, Public Safety, and Legislative Policy Committees, is the City Council appointee to the Fire and Police Retirement Board, is Pasadena’s representative to the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, and is President of the Burbank Airport Authority. He is deeply involved in the City’s financial planning, affordable housing and the City’s planning and development decision-making process. Terry graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School with a degree in Public and International Affairs. He also earned a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University’s School of Architecture. He served in the Army National Guard and Reserves for 6 years. Terry and his wife Maria have been married for 50 years. They have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.
Bio: Steve Mermell
Steve Mermell was appointed City Manager by unanimous vote of the City Council and assumed his duties February 15, 2016. As City Manager he is the Chief Administrative Officer of the City and is charged with supervising, coordinating, and administering the various functions of the City. He has direct responsibility for all departments, divisions, and offices of the City with the exception of the City Attorney/Prosecutor and City Clerk which are separately appointed by the City Council.
📅 RSVP for WordCamp Orange County June 9-10, 2018
WordCamps are conferences that focus on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.
WordCamp Orange County 2018 is going to be held at The Cove at UCI Applied Innovation for the third year running. It will be held on June 9-10, 2018
The Cove at UCI Applied Innovation
5141 California Avenue, Suite 200 & 250
Irvine, CA 92697There is plenty of free onsite parking.
Following @OCWordCamp and the camp hashtag #WCOC on Twitter in preparation. There are only 66 tickets left, so get yours soon as they go pretty quick.