📺 Watched "America’s Next Top Model" Make Your Mark S23 | E3

Watched "America's Next Top Model" Make Your Mark S23 | E3 from VH1, December 23, 2016
With Rita Ora, Ashley Graham, Law Roach, Drew Elliott.
I remember watching this in season 1 and 2. It’s definitely different, still stupidly addictive, but it’s also not as sharp as it used to be production wise. The primary difference seems to be the host has changed and the tagline has gone from “fierce” to “boss”.

📺 Watched Varsity Blues

Watched Varsity Blues from Paramount, January 15, 1999
Directed by Brian Robbins. With James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester. A back-up quarterback is chosen to lead a Texas football team to victory after the star quarterback is injured.
One of those times that I get wrapped up in a cheeseball movie just because it happens to be on cable.

rssCloud WordPress Plugin Update – 0.4.1 | Joseph Scott

Read rssCloud WordPress Plugin Update – 0.4.1 – by Joseph Scott (blog.josephscott.org)

rssCloud WordPress Plugin Update – 0.4.1

Update – 5 Nov 2009:
These features are now available on WordPress.com as well – http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/rsscloud-update/

Version 0.4.1 of the rssCloud WordPress plugin is now available. The biggest change is adding support for the domain parameter in notification requests. This means that rssCloud updates processed by the plugin are no longer limited to being sent to the IP address that the request came from. Support for the domain parameter is live on WordPress.com as well.

When a domain parameter is included with a notification request the verification process does the following:

  • Sends an HTTP GET request to the {domain}:{port}{path} URL
  • That HTTP GET includes to pieces of data: url and challenge. The url field contains the URL of the feed that we’ll been sending pings about. The challenge field contains a random string of characters
  • The response back must have a status code of 2xx and the body must contain EXACTLY the contents of the challenge field. If both of those conditions are not met then the verification process will consider this a failure

For notification requests that have no domain parameter the verification process is unchanged from before.

Another item that some may find helpful is a new constant – RSSCLOUD_FEED_URL – if that is defined they it will be used as the feed URL of the blog instead of determining it via get_bloginfo( 'rss2_url' );. For plugin authors that provide options for an alternative feed URL note that can override the default in WordPress via the feed_link filter. That filter can be used instead of the RSSCLOUD_FEED_URL constant and will bubble up through the get_bloginfo( 'rss2_url' ); call.

Source: rssCloud WordPress Plugin Update – 0.4.1 | Joseph Scott

When Ayn Rand Collected Social Security & Medicare, After Years of Opposing Benefit Programs | Open Culture

Read When Ayn Rand Collected Social Security & Medicare, After Years of Opposing Benefit Programs (openculture.com)
The tough part that most don’t realize or take into account is the randomness of life. In some cases one is born to wealth and privilege while others not. And even in cases of wealth and privilege one may be randomly “singled out” for disease, accidents, or other problems that may level a lifetime of working. Statistical thermodynamics and big history can tell us is that none of us are immune, all of us will die eventually, but also that we’re here because of the billions who came before us. If we’re going to beat evolution, we’ll need all the help we can get, from every single member of our society.

A robust social safety net can benefit both the individuals in a society and the society itself. Free of the fear of total impoverishment and able to meet their basic needs, people have a better opportunity to pursue long-term goals, to invent, create, and innovate. Of course, there are many who believe otherwise. And there are some, including the acolytes of Ayn Rand, who believe as Rand did: that those who rely on social systems are—to use her ugly term—“parasites,” and those who amass large amounts of private wealth are heroic supermen.
Continue reading When Ayn Rand Collected Social Security & Medicare, After Years of Opposing Benefit Programs | Open Culture

Calculating the Middle Ages?

Bookmarked Calculating the Middle Ages? The Project "Complexities and Networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East" (COMMED) [1606.03433] (arxiv.org)
The project "Complexities and networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East" (COMMED) at the Division for Byzantine Research of the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences focuses on the adaptation and development of concepts and tools of network theory and complexity sciences for the analysis of societies, polities and regions in the medieval world in a comparative perspective. Key elements of its methodological and technological toolkit are applied, for instance, in the new project "Mapping medieval conflicts: a digital approach towards political dynamics in the pre-modern period" (MEDCON), which analyses political networks and conflict among power elites across medieval Europe with five case studies from the 12th to 15th century. For one of these case studies on 14th century Byzantium, the explanatory value of this approach is presented in greater detail. The presented results are integrated in a wider comparison of five late medieval polities across Afro-Eurasia (Byzantium, China, England, Hungary and Mamluk Egypt) against the background of the {guillemotright}Late Medieval Crisis{guillemotleft} and its political and environmental turmoil. Finally, further perspectives of COMMED are outlined.

Network and Complexity Theory Applied to History

This interesting paper (summary below) appears to apply network and complexity science to history and is sure to be of interest to those working at the intersection of some of these types of interdisciplinary studies. In particular, I’d be curious to see more coming out of this type of area to support theses written by scholars like Francis Fukuyama in the development of societal structures. Those interested in the emerging area of Big History are sure to enjoy this type of treatment. I’m also curious how researchers in economics (like Cesar Hidalgo) might make use of available(?) historical data in such related analyses. I’m curious if Dave Harris might consider such an analysis in his ancient Near East work?

Those interested in a synopsis of the paper might find some benefit from an overview from MIT Technology Review: How the New Science of Computational History Is Changing the Study of the Past.

🔖 Foldscope – The Origami Paper Microscope | Kickstarter

Bookmarked Foldscope - The Origami Paper Microscope (Kickstarter)
See the invisible with a powerful yet affordable microscope that fits in your pocket. Curiosity, discovery, and science for everyone!
A microscope in every pocket is surely a great idea.

They also have a journal article on PLoS ONE. [1]

References

[1]
J. Cybulski S., J. Clements, and M. Prakash, “Foldscope: Origami-Based Paper Microscope,” PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 6, Jun. 2014 [Online]. Available: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0098781 [Source]

Johns Hopkins on film: A guide to university cameos big and small

“Homewood campus, Peabody Conservatory, East Baltimore campus have made cameos big and small over the years”

Source: Johns Hopkins on film: A guide to university cameos big and small

It’s almost like they write some of this stuff just for me. Though I was already aware of most of the movies they mentioned, they did miss a few:

Washington Square (1997) directed by Agnieszka Holland in Hollywood Pictures/Caravan Pictures production has a stunning cameo of the interior of the Peabody Library – this cameo is the only reason I vaguely remember the film at all.

The Johns Hopkins Science Review (1948-1955) This production is also particularly notable as being the television debut (October 8, 1951) of actor and alum John Astin who now heads the JHU Drama program and for whom the eponymous theater in the Merrick Barn is named.

Fratricide (1966) – A very independent short black and white film (with no credits) starring professor Richard Macksey that was produced by a group of students which included later Hollywood luminaries Walter Murch (who just a few years later co-wrote THX 1138 with George Lucas), Caleb Deschanel, and Matthew Robbins, who coincidentally co-wrote Crimson Peak with Guillermo del Torro which comes out in theaters today.

I have a nagging feeling there are a few more, but they’re just not coming to me at the moment…

By the way, for those suffering through Head of State, you should know in advance that the Shriver Hall scene doesn’t appear until the very end of the movie and then plays through the credits.

Johns Hopkins was a prettier more "college-y" campus, so it got cast over Harvard in "The Social Network."
More like Johns Hopkins, Fall 2009.  Johns Hopkins was a prettier more “college-y” campus, so it got cast over Harvard as Harvard in “The Social Network.”

🔖 AMS Open Math Notes

Bookmarked Open Math Notes (ams.org)
AMS Open Math Notes is a repository of freely downloadable mathematical works in progress hosted by the American Mathematical Society as a service to researchers, teachers and students. These draft works include course notes, textbooks, and research expositions in progress. They have not been published elsewhere, and, as works in progress, are subject to significant revision. Visitors are encouraged to download and use these materials as teaching and research aids, and to send constructive comments and suggestions to the authors.
h/t to Terry Tao for the notice.

Introducing Shortcut | This American Life

Bookmarked Introducing Shortcut (This American Life)
Have you ever heard a moment on the show that you wish you could share with your friends? Well, now you can! Shortcut is a new app we created that allows you to turn your favorite podcast moments into videos that you can post to social media. It’s kind of like making a gif, but for audio. Here’s how to use it.
I love the functionality that they’ve built into their podcast to clip and share audio snippets. It’s only a step or two further to highlight and annotate within an audio file. This is somewhat reminiscent of bits of SoundCloud’s user interface.

h/t Jon Udell via Twitter