📺 “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Jeff Davis 6 | CW

Watched "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Jeff Davis 6 from CW
With Aisha Tyler, Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady. Guest: comedian Jeff Davis. Games performed: Let's Make a Date, Irish Drinking Song, Sound Effects, Props, Greatest Hits.

👓 Titans of Mathematics Clash Over Epic Proof of ABC Conjecture | Quanta Magazine

Read Titans of Mathematics Clash Over Epic Proof of ABC Conjecture by Erica KlarreichErica Klarreich (Quanta Magazine)
Two mathematicians have found what they say is a hole at the heart of a proof that has convulsed the mathematics community for nearly six years.
This break in the story of the ABC conjecture is sure to make that portion of Mike Miller’s upcoming math class on Gems And Astonishments of Mathematics: Past and Present at UCLA much more interesting.

📺 "The Big Bang Theory" The Bow Tie Asymmetry | CBS

Watched "The Big Bang Theory" The Bow Tie Asymmetry from CBS
Directed by Mark Cendrowski. With Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg. When Amy's parents and Sheldon's family arrive, everybody is focused to make sure all wedding arrangements go according to plan - everyone except the bride and groom.

👓 Scientists Gave MDMA to Octopuses—and What Happened Was Profound | Gizmodo

Read Scientists Gave MDMA to Octopuses—and What Happened Was Profound (Gizmodo)
When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch. A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—specifically, octopuses, which are seemingly as different from humans as an animal can be. The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were “unbelievable.”

📺 "Modern Family" Clash of Swords | ABC

Watched "Modern Family" Clash of Swords from ABC
Directed by James Alan Hensz. With Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell. In the Season 9 finale, Mitchell sneaks out to "Hero-Con" with fanboy Phil, dressed as their favorite characters from the show "Clash of Swords." It's great until Phil commits the ultimate fan faux pas. In a clash of another kind, Gloria's dinosaur party for Joe is ruined when her nemesis, Dr. Donna Duncan, upstages her with a far bigger and better party right next door.

👓 How Not to Report on an Earthquake | New York Times

Read How Not to Report on an Earthquake (New York Times)
What I got wrong in Haiti in 2010, and why it matters.
I’m not quite surprised at several of these at all. I am surprised that there are so many that are regularly and poorly reported however. People are too focused on the “story” and the expected narrative to get parts of the reporting right.

🎧 Is Online Dating Destroying Romance? | Crazy/Genius | The Atlantic

Listened to Is Online Dating Destroying Romance? by Derek ThompsonDerek Thompson from Crazy/Genius | The Atlantic
Two sociologists debate the merits of online dating and discuss their research on the history of romance in America.

Interestingly no discussion of satisficing.

👓 Wil Wheaton Leaves Mastodon | jeffmueller.net

Read Wil Wheaton Leaves Mastodon by Jeff MuellerJeff Mueller (jeffmueller.net)
I’m done with social media. Maybe I just don’t fit into whatever the social media world is. I mean, the people who are all over the various Mastodon instances made it really clear that I wasn’t welcome there (with a handful of notable, joyful, exceptions, mostly related to my first baby steps ...

👓 Baldwin effect | Wikipedia

Read Baldwin effect (Wikipedia)
In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect describes the effect of learned behavior on evolution. In brief, James Mark Baldwin and others suggested during the eclipse of Darwinism in the late 19th century that an organism's ability to learn new behaviors (e.g. to acclimatise to a new stressor) will affect its reproductive success and will therefore have an effect on the genetic makeup of its species through natural selection. Though this process appears similar to Lamarckian evolution, Lamarck proposed that living things inherited their parents' acquired characteristics. The Baldwin effect has been independently proposed several times, and today it is generally recognized as part of the modern synthesis.
Reminded about this by the lizard article I saw the other day. Worth digging back into again…

👓 The Last Goodbye | Path: Simple, Personal Social Networking

Read The Last Goodbye (path.com)

It is with deep regret that we announce that we will stop providing our beloved service, Path.

We started Path in 2010 as a small team of passionate and experienced designers and engineers. Over the years we have tried to lay out our mission: through technology and design we aim to be a source of happiness, meaning, and connection to our users. Along our journey we have laughed and cried with you, and learned valuable lessons. And it is now inevitable to wind down the service to prioritize our work to serve you with better products and services. It has been a long journey and we sincerely thank each one of you for your years of love and support for Path.

The specific shutdown schedule is as below:
- 9.17.2018 : Notice on Path service discontinuation
- 10.1.2018: Unable to download/update the app in iTunes and Google Play
- 10.18.2018: Termination of the Service (Unable to access to Path)
- 11.15.2018: Path related customer service will be closed

The Path service and Terms of Use governing your use of Path will terminate on [10.18.2018].

Prior to [10.18.2018], you can restore retrieve a copy of your data (i.e. your images, text, videos) by following below steps:
1. Visit https://path.com/settings/backups
2. Log in with your Path account
3. Click the button and enter email address that you wish to receive the backup files
OR
1. Open your Path app and go to Setting
2. Click the button and enter your email address that you would like to receive the backup files.
*Please make sure that your Path app is the latest ver.

Please note that you will not be able to access the backup service site after [10.18.2018]. We may not retain copies of any of your data on and from that date. Accordingly, you are encouraged to download and keep copies of your data if you wish to have access from [10.18.2018].

The last time I’d used (read syndicated to via POSSE) Path was about 2 years ago on June 7, 2016. Prior to that, most of my posting to it was by automatic syndication from my website, so I’m glad to see that a large portion of my personal data on the service is already backed up on my own personal website! Hooray!

I do notice that because part of the service’s cachet was either private or limited audience posts, that a lot of my early posting (from 11/29/10 to around December 2014) included photographs that I posted directly to Path and didn’t share very widely. As a result, a lot of my early posting wasn’t done from my own website, so I’m requesting a downloadable backup of all my data before the service goes under. If you used the service, I hope you’re requesting your download as well.

It’s kind of sad that amidst the toxicity of Twitter which gamifies following that a service that limited following and focused on the small and personal is collapsing.

Our incredible journey spanned 7 years and 209 precious moments. Somehow it was still listed as “Beta”?!

Thanks for all the laughs and fun Path, and thanks for giving at least some warning before shutting down all your servers with all of that user data.

Mostly I’m glad that I’m able to post most of my content to my own site now without the reliance on third party social networks to save and maintain my data. If you’re worried about how social services use and abuse your data or may disappear with it altogether–Path will not be the last–and want more control over it, stop by IndieWeb.org to see how you can take back your online identity and data. I and many others are always happy to help those who are interested.

👓 Curve-Fitting | xkcd

Read Curve-Fitting (xkcd.com)
Cauchy-Lorentz: "Something alarmingly mathematical is happening, and you should probably pause to Google my name and check what field I originally worked in."
I love that it’s all the exact same data points…

🎧 Analysis, Parapraxis, Elvis, Season 3 Episode 10 | Revisionist History

Listened to Analysis, Parapraxis, Elvis, Season 3 Episode 10 by Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History

"The one song The King couldn’t sing."

Elvis Presley returned from his years in the army to record one of his biggest hits, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” But he could never quite get the lyrics right. Why? Revisionist History puts the King of Rock and Roll on the couch.

I expected Gladwell to circle back around to the opening song about beating the dog, but he left us hanging…

🎧 Strong Verbs, Short Sentences, Season 3 Episode 9 | Revisionist History

Listened to Strong Verbs, Short Sentences, Season 3 Episode 9 by Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History

"She was Joan of Arc, Madame Curie, and Florence Nightingale--all wrapped up in one."

One long, hot afternoon on Capitol Hill, in the summer of 1991, the most powerful man in Congress took on the most powerful person in American science. Science won. What does it take to end a reign of terror? The science fraud panic of the 1990s, part two of two.

🎧 The Imaginary Crimes of Margit Hamosh, Season 3 Episode 8 | Revisionist History

Listened to The Imaginary Crimes of Margit Hamosh, Season 3 Episode 8 by Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History

"Epidemics of fear repeat themselves. The first time as tragedy. The second time as farce. Margit Hamosh? Definitely farce."

What was it that Margit Hamosh did? What was her alleged fraud? I have been going on and on about this case for a good 20 minutes now, and I haven’t told you. Do you know why? Because we didn’t know.

It pains me to think of all these wasted hours over minutiae.