March 2011
Watch(via Janna Levin: The sound the universe makes | Video on TED.com) We think of space as a silent place. But physicist Janna Levin says the universe has a soundtrack — a sonic composition that records some of the most dramatic events in outer space. (Black holes, for instance, bang on spacetime like a drum.) An accessible and mind-expanding soundwalk through the universe.
“The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You...”
– George Carlin (via crassculture)
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On Discursive Violence and Social Media
I think what I’m going to say to whatever (probably infinitesimally small) audience I attract at the CCCC’s conference in a few weeks, is that the vast majority of social media users I have personally interacted with during political conversations on Facebook use their positions within the networks they are part of to simply re-assert regimes of truth that they encounter in other...
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Top 10 Strangest Things In Space →
“The universe is a weird place. Here’s a look at some of the strangest things in the cosmos.”
Antimatter, Mini-Black Holes, Cosmic Microwave Background (and more)
image from here: http://bit.ly/hKsPzn
10 Steps to Take Games Based Learning to the Next... →
world-shaker:
Here are the first five:
Games can be used in isolation – they can be just as effective in single lessons.
Don’t dwell on just the game – think beyond it, how can you leverage that enthusiasm.
Make time for your own play. Set up a different save profile, that way you can stay one step ahead.
Plan ahead, but also decide not to plan! Discovery in gaming is an important part of...
“If we see our suffering as produced by other people, we will take offense and...”
– Charles Upton, The Metaphysics of Suffering (PARABOLA: Spring 2011). (via parabola-magazine)
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What scares me about thinkers like Rand →
Ideas like hers enable people to justify truly awful actions for ‘those who don’t,’ which is always going to be subjective. No human mind can sufficiently separate itself out from shared reality in order to perfectly see what all others don’t. Worse: people that believe they have somehow attained a firmer grasp on reality than others often come to justify whatever action...
A WikiLeaks Clone Takes On Higher Education →
world-shaker:
Dear University Leaders: You might want to think twice before clicking “send” on your next e-mail.
WikiLeaks, scourge of governments worldwide, now has a copycat for academe. And the new group is itching to publish your university’s deepest secrets.
Its Web site, UniLeaks, debuted this month with a pair of open letters to university leaders in Australia and Britain. The...
Flat taxes don't work.
There’s no evidence that they will ever work. Correction: they would work about as well as feudalism did: they would concentrate wealth to pre-capitalist levels while eroding social services and infrastructures (roads, hospitals, schooling). The biggest argument I’ve presented against a flat tax is this: anyone who is wealthy is tied to an economy. If there is no consumer base for...
