The accounts from Sergey Kislyak to his superiors, intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, contradict public assertions by the attorney general.
Category: Read
👓 Google to radically change homepage for first time since 1996 | The Guardian
Search company to integrate its app-based feed of news, events, sports and interest-based topics into Google.com page in the near future
👓 Another tenure-track scientist bites the dust | Science
Matthew knew the deal when he joined his department: 10 years of work, and then you have to apply for tenure. “But,” he told me, “nobody talks about, ‘What if I run out of money beforehand?’”
We’ve really got to reorganize how research is done in this country. The brain drain is destroying our tremendous lead in basic research.
👓 An SNL writer is replying to Trump’s tweets like they’re texts | CNN
Patten has offered travel tips, Netflix recommendations and a typical "text if you need anything." He gives a world leader the same kind of vaguely interested messages that you'd quickly send to appease your parents.
Not tremendously hilarious, but worth a good little laugh.
👓 See Just How Much Of A City’s Land Is Used For Parking Spaces
In Los Angeles, for example, car parking takes up 17,020,594 square meters of land.
A great piece on urban and city planning which focuses on parking. I can only imagine how drastically different Los Angeles could look in just 20 years.
The website featured has some great visualizations and interactive features.
👓 Teaching With Emerging Technologies | Inside Higher Ed
Michelle Pacansky-Brock says digital learning is reshaping the higher ed landscape, and suggests five things instructors need to succeed. As online and blended learning reshape the landscape of teaching and learning in higher education, the need increases to encourage and support faculty in moving from delivering passive, teacher-centered experiences to designing active, student-centered learning. Our new social era is rich with simple, free to low-cost emerging technologies that are increasing experimentation and discovery in the scholarship of teaching and learning. While the literature about Web 2.0 tools impacting teaching and learning is increasing, there is a lack of knowledge about how the adoption of these technologies is impacting the support needs of higher education faculty. This knowledge is essential to develop new, sustainable faculty support solutions.
This might make an outline for a nice book, but as an article it’s a bit wonkish and doesn’t get into the meat of much.
👓 When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code | NPR
Raising teenage girls can be a tough job. Raising black teenage girls as white parents can be even tougher. Aaron and Colleen Cook knew that when they adopted their twin daughters, Mya and Deanna. As spring came around this year, the girls, who just turned 16, told their parents they wanted to get braided hair extensions. Their parents happily obliged, wanting Mya and Deanna to feel closer to their black heritage. But when the girls got to school, they were asked to step out of class. Both were given several infractions for violating the dress code. Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, north of Boston, bans hair extensions in its dress code, deeming them "distracting."
School administrators’ and, in general, other peoples’, inability to be inclusive, understanding, and generally human really bothers me. It’s these small injustices which add up to a tremendous amount of hatred in the world.
👓 Martin Landau, Actor Who Won an Oscar for ‘Ed Wood,’ Dies at 89 | New York Times
Mr. Landau, who gained notoriety in the 1960s TV series “Mission: Impossible,” but then struggled to find work, enjoyed a career revival in film decades later.
I got to meet Mr. Landau several times around 1999-2000 and he was such a gentleman. I still watch North by Northwest at least once a year, and it’s nearly as much for his performance as anything. What a giant!
👓 Maryam Mirzakhani | What’s New
I am totally stunned to learn that Maryam Mirzakhani died today, aged 40, after a severe recurrence of the cancer she had been fighting for several years. I had planned to email her some wishes for a speedy recovery after learning about the relapse yesterday; I still can’t fully believe that she didn’t make it.
A nice obituary about a fantastic mathematician from a fellow Fields Prize winner.
👓 She talks about working women. Her father says “buy American.” We go inside Ivanka Inc. | Washington Post
The first daughter talks about improving the lives of working women. Her father urges companies to “buy American.” But her fashion line’s practices collide with those principles – and are out of step with industry trends.
This is not only interesting reporting, but the multi-media portions are fantastic and engaging. I wish more journalism outlets would invest some additional time and resources into this type of storytelling.
The global trade network is far more complicated than Donald Trump will admit, and so much so that even his own daughter can’t only not get around it, but she can’t do it with the level of ethical standard that most in her industry already mandate.
For those who are interested into a great “deep dive” on global trade and containerization, I highly recommend Alexis Madrigal’s recent podcast series Containers.
👓 Why Does Jared Kushner Still Have a Security Clearance? | Politico
Anyone else would have been fired long ago, if not worse.
👓 Talking to Boys the Way We Talk to Girls | New York Times
Stereotypically macho messages limit children’s understanding of what it means to be a father, a man and a boy, as well.
👓 No, You Can’t Use My Photos On Your Brand’s Instagram For Free | PetaPixel
Photography and Camera News, Reviews, and Inspiration
👓 Creating an archive of my online writing, from 2002-2017 | Richard MacManus
I’ve just spent an inordinate amount of time creating an archive of all my past online writing work, in particular of the tech blog I founded ReadWriteWeb. I thought I’d outline my reasons for doing this, and why I ended up relying heavily on the Internet Archive instead of the original website sources.
Journalists, take note of how Richard MacManus created an online archive of his writing work!
I’m sure it took a tremendous amount of work given his long history of writing, but he’s now got a great archive as well as a nearly complete online portfolio of his work. If you haven’t done this or have just started out, here are some potentially useful resources to guide your thoughts.
I’m curious how others are doing this type of online archive. Feel free to share your methods.
👓 A Photographer Captures the Unusual Way Sperm Whales Sleep | Colossal
Photographer Franco Banfi and a team of scuba divers were following a pod of sperm whales when suddenly the large creatures became motionless and began to take a synchronized vertical rest. This strange sleeping position was first discovered only in 2008, when a team of biologists from the UK and Japan drifted into their own group of non-active sperm whales. After studying tagged whales the team learned this collective slumber occurs for approximately 7 percent of the animal’s life, in short increments of just 6-24 minutes.