Uroplatus phantasticus – WikipediaUroplatus phantasticus, the satanic leaf-tailed gecko Medical Bill ArtFrom the good people at MSCHF Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing – The CorrespondentHis first job was to explain what blockchain is. When I asked him, he said it is “a kind of system that can’t be stopped”, that it’s “actually a force of nature”, or rather, “a decentralised consensus algorithm”. OK, it’s hard to explain, he conceded eventually. “I said to Zuidhorn: ‘I’ll just build you an app, then you’ll understand’.” EXCLUSIVE: Video shows private firefighters being detained for setting possibly illegal backfires in Napa Valley – ABC7 San Francisco Exclusive video from the ABC7 I-Team shows private firefighters detained by CHP and CAL Fire, now under investigation for possibly setting illegal backfires. –now apply to privatizing the service of your choice Grave cameras offer virus-weary grievers virtual burial visitsThese cemetery cameras aren’t intended for security — they offer the virus-weary living the ability to have “on-demand virtual burial visits” with the departed.

The land grab for farm data | TechCrunch Specifically, ownership and control of agronomic and equipment data is understood to have dramatic escalating value. Which seed varieties were the most successful and where? Which plant populations performed best? Whose recommendations (e.g. nitrogen programs) outperformed their peers? Which input datasets are used for these recommendations, how were they acquired and are they standardized and accessible? How are the big companies actually using the data? Who has access, how long have they been acquiring it and how long do they keep it? Which documents did I sign to give them access? Data is one of the most valuable things farmers harvest. Make no mistake, the ambiguity around the value of this data is intentional. Nobody wants to initiate paying for something that has always been free. Returning Meaning To The Heart Of Communications – Brand Quarterly The P&I (Persuasion and Influence) industries, like so may others such as education, policing and (in the UK) the NHS (National Health Service), are increasingly falling under the sway of an “arithmocracy”. It is a reductionist system where managers are risk averse, increasingly reliant on ‘safety in numbers’ and prone to what Gerd Gigerenzer calls “defensive decision-making”. This system is based on a sort of physics envy: the belief (or hope) that human beings are more […]

Lots of face-to-face workshops this week. The stupid thing that ate a lot of time this week was a strict setting on Maria DB which we thought was fixed but for some reason didn’t stick (evaporating fixes are the worst because you think that thing is done and not something to look at again). That would have been fine if we were looking at the original error but it turns out that same core issue is expressed in different ways in different plugins. If you’re looking for some of the details that ended up allowing us to chase down the issue check out Invalid überName.   Outreach Hillary – OER remix and Wikipedia edit-a-thon Cody – CAS Authentication for WordPress Workshops Two in class MASC WordPress workshops 10/29 10/30 Halloween-themed workshops 10/31 – 10:30 10/31 – 12:00 Business faculty workshop 11/2 New workshop added to catalog on digital survival skills Meetings KJM – FERPA, Region 1, student privacy conversation Podcast recorded Project Goodbeer – assistance with family tree formatting for print book in Adobe Illustrator Enhancement Created plugin to segment Rampages users into faculty/student groups for better analysis and proactive communication Major issues resolved Database strict setting was causing problems with H5P library installation – discovered and fixed after significant troubleshooting Software Versioning Updates Theme updates rampages Plugin updates rampages Installed […]