👓 The 9X9X25 Challenge – More, but not all, the details | Extend Domains

Read The 9X9X25 Challenge – More, but not all, the details (Domains of Our Own)
This could be a pretty easy challenge if you’re already a reflective educator. Even easier if you’re already on a team of reflective educators! We want to collect your reflections on th…

👓 Cornell researcher who studied what we eat and why will step down after six studies are retracted | Los Angeles Times

Read Cornell researcher who studied what we eat and why will step down after six studies are retracted (Los Angeles Times)
Cornell University says Brian Wansink will step down at the end of the academic year after a review of his work turned up many problems.

👓 Bob Greenblatt stepping down as NBC Entertainment chairman | Los Angeles Times

Read Bob Greenblatt stepping down as NBC Entertainment chairman (Los Angeles Times)
Bob Greenblatt has spent nearly eight years running NBC Entertainment, a period that saw the peacock network return to prosperity.

👓 Discovery of Galileo’s long-lost letter shows he edited his heretical ideas to fool the Inquisition | Nature

Read Discovery of Galileo’s long-lost letter shows he edited his heretical ideas to fool the Inquisition by Alison Abbott (Nature)
Exclusive: Document shows that the astronomer toned down the claims that triggered science history’s most infamous battle — then lied about his edits.

👓 News re proofs of the ABC conjecture & Riemann Hypothesis | John D. Cook

Read News re proofs of the ABC conjecture & Riemann Hypothesis by John D. Cook (johndcook.com)
There have been a couple news stories regarding proofs of major theorems. First, an update on Shinichi Mochizuki’s proof of the abc conjecture, then an announcement that Sir Michael Atiyah claims to have proven the Riemann hypothesis.

👓 Famed mathematician claims proof of 160-year-old Riemann hypothesis | New Scientist

Read Famed mathematician claims proof of 160-year-old Riemann hypothesis by Gilead Amit​ (New Scientist)
Michael Atiyah, a famed UK mathematician, claims that he has a "simple proof" of the Riemann hypothesis, a key unsolved question about the nature of prime numbers

👓 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.

👓 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.”

👓 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…