Benjamin Bratton, Associate Professor of Visual Arts at UCSD and Director of The Center for Design and Geopoltics at CALIT2, asks: Why don't the bright futures promised in TED talks come true? Professor Bratton attacks the intellectual viability of TED, calling it placebo politics, middlebrow megachurch infotainment, and the equivalent of right-wing media channels. Does TED falsely present problems as simply puzzles to be solved by rearranging the pieces?
All living things are made of cells, and all cells are powered by electrochemical charges across thin lipid membranes — the ‘proton motive force.’ We know how these electrical charges are generated by protein machines at virtually atomic resolution, but we know very little about how membrane bioenergetics first arose. By tracking back cellular evolution to the last universal common ancestor and beyond, scientist Nick Lane argues that geologically sustained electrochemical charges across semiconducting barriers were central to both energy flow and the formation of new organic matter — growth — at the very origin of life.
Dr. Lane is a professor of evolutionary biochemistry in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His research focuses on how energy flow constrains evolution from the origin of life to the traits of complex multicellular organisms. He is a co-director of the new Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution (CLOE) at UCL, and author of four celebrated books on life’s origins and evolution. His work has been recognized by the Biochemical Society Award in 2015 and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize in 2016.
Music video by Bobby McFerrin performing Don't Worry Be Happy.
Most will think that Robin Williams’ cameo in this video is the headline, but to me it’s Bill Irwin! I’ve been enamored of his work (and clowning) since watching My Blue Heaven in my youth. There’s nothing better than running into his work anywhere on film and television. I hope he ultimately gets the recognition he deserves for his work, which I think is sadly underrated. If you haven’t seen his Mr. Noodle work, go out and track it all down.
From the album: Stafnbúi Released october 2012, by the icelandic label 12 Tónar Rímur poetry is an important cultural heritage of the Icelandic nation. Stein...
This reminds me a bit of Kongar-ol Ondar from Mongolia, not necessarily in style, but in regional substance.
Simpson's Paradox Part 2. This video is about how to tell whether or not university admissions are biased using statistics: aka, it's about Simpson's Paradox again!
In a new book, 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts asses President Donald Trump's behavior. Do his impulses explain his decisions? The book's editor Dr. Brandy Lee and Tony Schwartz, co-author of Trump's "The Art of the Deal," join Lawrence O'Donnell.
Joy Reid is joined by actor and author Ron Perlman, and Columbia University professor of linguistics John McWhorter, on the bombshell statements and run-on sentences from Donald Trump’s recent New York Times interview.
We tend to have a love/hate relationship with social networks. The ability to interact with friends, colleagues, and even celebrities is wonderful, but the lack of control over privacy or content algorithms is troubling. A better way lies ahead, where you aren't tied to large social networks and where you can own your own data.
Recorded at Atlanta Connect.Tech 2017 on 9/21/2017
https://player.vimeo.com/video/237349014
A few weeks back Keith gave a great non-platform specific overview to some of the moving pieces of the IndieWeb at Connect.Tech 2017 in Atlanta. I wish I could have been there in person, but glad that it was archived on video for posterity.
Somehow I managed to get a mention in his talk as did our friend Jeremy Cherfas.
Confederate symbols are still celebrated despite the ugly history they symbolize. John Oliver suggests some representations of southern pride that involve less racism and more Stephen Colbert.
Art and science have in some ways always overlapped, with early scientists using illustrations to depict what they saw under the microscope. Janet Iwasa of the University of Utah is trying to re-establish this link to make thorny scientific data and models approachable to the common eye. Iwasa offers her brief but spectacular take on how 3D animation can make molecular science more accessible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9NDXk7Gs8Y
Visualizations can be tremendously valuable. This story reminds me of an Intersession course that Mary Spiro did at Johns Hopkins to help researchers communicate what their research is about as well as some of the work she did with the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.
Thursday on the NewsHour, the wreckage of Hurricane Maria poses a logistical nightmare for those in need in Puerto Rico. Also: The technology Russia used in the 2016 election under scrutiny, Yemen's war-induced humanitarian crisis worsens, the influence of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the woman who sparked debate about discrimination in Silicon Valley and a journalist's experience with miscarriage.
The Ellen Pao interview was quite interesting and germane to much of what has been a huge story over the past 6 or so months. It reminds me a lot of Valerie Alexander’s work, which I’ve highlighted before.
The miscarriage story was just heartbreaking. I really love this series of “brief but spectacular” stories they tag onto the end of episodes though. It really adds some interest and humanity to what can often otherwise be bleak stints of news coverage. Even when they’re not uplifting–like this one–they’re always unique and interesting.
This week on "Face the Nation," CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett guest hosts the broadcast covering the latest on Hurricane Harvey and the week's foreign policy news.
A generally mediocre episode. I would have preferred more political news and less on the hurricane in Texas, which is already oversaturated in all senses of the word. There’s not much to say about the hurricane and the administrative response to it yet, so keep the air time for next week instead.
Pushing the emergency response guy on Trump’s positions with respect to Arpaio was a bit over-the-top. He’s obviously not going to say anything substantive on the topic. Naturally since he’s the only person the administration would put up this week, you’ve got to ask the question, but the administration (and Trump specifically) are taking the weak/loser way out of the topic. The better way to have handled it was to ask for his personal position on the topic and moved on.
This presentation was given by Jim Walker, The Hack Repair Guy, on "Using IFTTT for WordPress Social Media Automation", at the Advanced WordPress Meetup, San Diego, California, July 2017.
This is a short video about using IFTTT.com to do a PESOS type of workflow for WordPress. While interesting, it reminds me of Louis Gray’s old diagram and my response which puts one’s own website at the center and uses POSSE. In short, there’s now a far better way of doing this type of thing with WordPress.
Below are the slides from the presentation, which includes this gruesome looking diagram:
Who wants to implement this type of convoluted workflow?
