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“Teachers, parents and textbook companies use technical “readability” formulas to determine how difficult reading materials are and to set reading levels by age group. But new research from North Carolina State University shows that the readability formulas are usually inaccurate and offer little insight into which age groups will be able to read and understand a text.
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Study Shows ‘Readability’ Scores Are Largely Inaccurate “Teachers, parents and textbook companies use technical… http://t.co/hlLBsk886g
— Tom Woodward (@twoodwar) January 11, 2014
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2014 Olympic Freestyle Uniforms – snow camo to mask movement from judges
“One of the coolest innovations has to be the snow camo. Mogul skiers are judged by their amount of body movement while going through the course. With a unique pattern for each country, the hope is the snow camo will help mask some of the unwanted movement.
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I like the result but the real interesting portion is the description of the process.
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“I have strong reservations about both grades and rubrics. I believe that both practices have a prophylactic effect on learning. Doing the best job you can do and sharing your knowledge with others are the paramount goals for this course. I expect excellence.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Life Unscripted
“Flanerie is to do nothing; to have no objective, no destination, no prerogative or goal in mind, except to observe in any way you might like the surroundings you encounter.
Doesn’t this sound like our RV plans? We don’t have “destinations” per se. We don’t want destinations. We want to discover what we can find along the way. For us, seeing IS the destination, not a physical place.”
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Ship of Theseus – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The paradox was first raised in Greek legend as reported by Plutarch,
“The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, in so much that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.”
—Plutarch, Theseus[2]
Plutarch thus questions whether the ship would remain the same if it were entirely replaced, piece by piece. Centuries later, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes introduced a further puzzle, wondering: what would happen if the original planks were gathered up after they were replaced, and used to build a second ship.[3] Which ship, if either, is the original Ship of Theseus?
Another early variation involves a scenario in which Socrates and Plato exchange the parts of their carriages one by one until, finally, Socrates’s carriage is made up of all the parts of Plato’s original carriage and vice versa. The question is presented if or when they exchanged their carriages.” -
Instagram: Quantified NFL Selfie?
Instagram: Quantified NFL Selfie? Knowing Russell’s brother, I’m confident this is not a coincidence or marketing. http://t.co/t41YEGMmoT
— Tom Woodward (@twoodwar) January 9, 2014
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Don’t Check Your Email – And Work Out At Lunch – Forbes
Forced vacations, 90 minute workout lunches – – –
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Facial tracking software for webcams – Boing Boing
“FaceRig is a program enabling anyone with a webcam to digitally embody any character they want. For now we’re focusing on just the portrait, but we aim to do more in the future.
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a friendly traveler or a vicious murder? choose one
“Don’t pick up trouble! Is he a happy vacationer or an escaping criminal—a pleasant companion or a sex maniac—a friendly traveler or a vicious murderer? In the gamble with hitchhikers your safety and the lives of your loved ones are at stake. Don’t take the risk! (Signed) J. Edgar Hoover, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation”
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the rate of change is too great to consider professionalization
“On 18 September, the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences, on behalf of the Department of Homestar Runner,
concluded that cyber security should be seen as an occupation and
not a profession because the rate of change is too great to consider
professionalization.[1] ”h/t http://gabriellacoleman.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Coleman-Tech-underworlds-2014.pdf
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Triumph of the Strange – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education
“Curiosity, Dillon proposes, is a way of knowing that looks askance. It draws attention to the unexplained or overlooked fragment, to invite us, if possible, to look sideways and look closely at the same time. As such, its promise of knowledge is ambiguous. Does curiosity seek to unmask the strangeness that absorbs its attention, or is it an invitation to luxuriate in that strangeness? Does it carry an inherent Baconian injunction to go further and illuminate, or does it recommend the alternative pleasures of not knowing? “Enigma lies at the core of the curious experience,” Marina Warner comments in a short essay included in Curiosity, “epiphany should not reveal all.” So is curiosity a wake-up call or a waking dream?”
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There’s a Reason They Call Them ‘Crazy Ants’ – NYTimes.com
” Rasberry began his own, amateur taxonomic investigation, spending thousands of hours out in the field or examining samples with a microscope in the back room of the Rasberry’s Pest Professionals office. “It was a nightmare,” he told me. He’d never had any interest or aptitude for science, didn’t find bugs that fascinating and hates reading. But he willed his way through the entomological research, looking for answers. (“It was an obsession,” his daughter, Mandy Rasberry-Ganucheau, said. For years, Rasberry would come over once a week to see his grandkids and end up talking about crazy ants.) “
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There’s a Reason They Call Them ‘Crazy Ants’ – NYTimes.com
“Rasberry appeared on “The Early Show” on CBS and explained that it’s “too late” to stop the crazy ants and that “the entire Gulf Coast is going to be inundated in a very short period of time.” He added that he knew for a fact that the ants had been seen at a Houston medical center and that researchers at Texas A&M had shown that the ants can transfer pathogens from room to room. Then he just sat there, reclining slightly, stone-faced. One host could only blurt peppily, “This is a bit of a picture of gloom!””