A Republican lawmaker on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee said Thursday that rocks from the White Cliffs of Dover and the California coastline, as well as silt from rivers tumbling into the ocean, are contributing to high sea levels globally. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) made the comment during a hearing on technology and the changing climate, which largely turned into a Q&A on the basics of climate research.
Links
👓 What is “Critical Pedagogy”? | W. Ian O’Byrne
In an earlier post, I presented an overview of the literature on critical literacy and how it informs my perspectives on my work, research, and thinking. This was motivated by discussions in which colleagues and students indicate that they know/understand critical literacy, and then go on to equate it with critical evaluation. I think the two are linked, but to me critical literacy is much broader, and (IMHO) much more important.
There is some interesting history and background to come back and read some references here.
👓 The platform patrons: How Facebook and Google became two of the biggest funders of journalism in the world | Columbia Journalism Review
Taken together, Facebook and Google have now committed more than half a billion dollars to various journalistic programs and media partnerships over the past three years, not including the money spent internally on developing media-focused products like Facebook’s Instant Articles and Google’s competing AMP mobile project. The result: These mega-platforms are now two of the largest funders of journalism in the world.
The irony is hard to miss. The dismantling of the traditional advertising model—largely at the hands of the social networks, which have siphoned away the majority of industry ad revenue—has left many media companies and journalistic institutions in desperate need of a lifeline. Google and Facebook, meanwhile, are happy to oblige, flush with cash from their ongoing dominance of the digital ad market.
The result is a somewhat dysfunctional alliance. People in the media business (including some on the receiving end of the cash) see the tech donations as guilt money, something journalism deserves because Google and Facebook wrecked their business. The tech giants, meanwhile, are desperate for some good PR and maybe even a few friends in a journalistic community that—especially now—can seem openly antagonistic.
👓 Donald Trump’s Business Empire Is No Longer Growing | Mother Jones
The art of not making deals.
👓 How Same-Sex Couples Divide Chores, and What It Reveals About Modern Parenting | New York Times
They divide chores much more evenly, until they become parents, new research shows.
👓 After 5 years and $3M, here’s everything we’ve learned from building Ghost | Ghost
It's always fun to use these milestones to take a step back and reflect on the journey so far. On previous birthdays I've talked about revenue milestones and product updates, but this year I'm going to focus more on all the things we've learned since we started.
Looking at their project pages and site though it does seem like they’ve got a reasonable layout and sales pitch for a CMS project, though it’s probably a bit too much overkill on selling when it could be simpler. Perhaps it might be a model for creating a stronger community facing page for the WithKnown open source project, presuming the education-focused corporate side continues as a status quo?
They did seem to be relatively straightforward in selling themselves against WordPress and what they were able to do and not do. I’m curious what specifically they’re doing to attract journalists? I couldn’t find anything specifically better than anything else on the market that would set it apart other than their promise on ease-of-use.
There were some interesting insights for those working within the IndieWeb community as well as businesses which might build themselves upon it.
Highlights:
Decentralised platforms fundamentally cannot compete on ease of setup. Nothing beats the UX of signing up for a centralised application.
We spent a very long time trying to compete on convenience and simplicity. This was our biggest mistake and the hardest lesson to learn.
👓 Ultra-Accurate Clocks Lead Search for New Laws of Physics | Quanta Magazine
Atomic clocks are letting physicists tighten the lasso around elusive phenomena such as dark matter.
👓 A Linguist Explains Why 'Laurel' Sounds Like 'Yanny' | The Atlantic
It’s the audio version of The Dress.
👓 How Many Genes Do Cells Need? Maybe Almost All of Them | Quanta Magazine
An ambitious study in yeast shows that the health of cells depends on the highly intertwined effects of many genes, few of which can be deleted together without consequence.
I also can’t help but wonder about applying some of Stuart Kauffman’s ideas to something like this. In particular, this sounds very reminiscent to his analogy of what happens when one strings thread randomly among a pile of buttons and the resulting complexity.
👓 Why We Need the IndieWeb | Cathie LeBlanc
Members of the IndieWeb community are building tools to try to make moving your web presence off the corporate web easier, giving you more control over your digital identity. I like to think of the IndieWeb as a way of trying to regain the democratic ideals of early Web 2.0. IndieWeb wants us all to have a web presence that we own and control. We can still use tools like Twitter and Facebook to bring us together but we publish our content first on our own web sites and then decide where we want to share them. An example is this post. I’m writing it on http://cathieleblanc.com/blog. But I want others to see it. So after publishing it on my own site with my self-hosted installation of WordPress, I will put a link to it on Facebook and on Twitter for others to see. Facebook and Twitter serve as today’s interactive hotlist. Everything old is new again.
❤️ drmichaellevin tweet about cybernetics
A definition of #Cybernetics:
— Michael Levin (@drmichaellevin) May 15, 2018
"Science concerned with the study of systems of any nature which are capable of receiving, storing and processing information so as to use it for control." -A. N. Kolmogorov pic.twitter.com/71I6mFRqT0
Following WorkLife with Adam Grant
You spend a quarter of your life at work, so shouldn’t you enjoy it? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside some of the world’s most unusual workplaces to discover the keys to better work. Whether you’re learning how to love criticism or trust a co-worker you can’t stand, one thing’s for sure: You’ll never see your job the same way again.
Each weekly episode of WorkLife with Adam Grant centers around one extraordinary workplace – from an award-winning TV writing team racing against the clock, to a sports team whose culture of humility propelled it to unexpected heights. In immersive interviews that take place in both the field and the studio, Adam brings his observations to vivid life – and distills useful insights in his friendly, accessible style.
“We spend a quarter of our lives in our jobs. This show is about making all that time worth your time,” says Adam, the bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg. “In WorkLife, we’ll take listeners inside the minds of some fascinating people in some truly unusual places, and mix in fresh social science to reveal how we can lead more creative, meaningful and generous lives at work.”
👓 Facts | Herve This, vo Kientza
Il se dit beaucoup de choses à propos de la gastronomie moléculaire et de la cuisine moléculaire, il se publie beaucoup de choses à propos des rapports entre la science et la cuisine, et je vois une immense confusion.
👓 Kushner-backed health care project gets ‘devastating’ review | Politico
The Pentagon report could delay the VA’s plans to install the multibillion-dollar software project begun under Obama.
👓 This Is How a Newspaper Dies | Politico
It’s with a spasm of profits.
I wonder how long it will take for traditional television and cable related businesses to begin using this model as more and more people cut the cord.