Link Dump 2015-06-15
2015-06-15
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"Specification grading" just sounds like proper class planning to me.
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Two articles on the place of trigger warnings and safe spaces on college campuses.
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A great visualization of how family income effects college attendance.
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A another great visualization and breakdown of political party demographics in different jobs.
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Wisconsin recently passed a bill that would remove tenure from the University of Wisconsin system, and there was understandably a lot of backlash. This almost makes me wonder why other occupations don't have a tenure system.
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I've kept an eye on the whole business of 3D printing your own gun. I had not realized that this industry has moved on to selling aluminum CNC machines specifically for manufacturing gun parts. Spoiler alert: the resulting product works flawlessly.
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I spent one morning obsessed with Laura Kipnis' Title IX "inquisition". It started when she wrote an article in The Chronicle about how students seem suddenly really afraid of sexual harassment by faculty. A student read it, then reported her to the university (my alma mater, Northwestern) for violating Title IX. Sanely, Kipnis was ultimately exonerated from all charges. I encourage you to read Kipnis' two articles, but here's a summary for those in a hurry.
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I've never read Stanley Cavell, but this characterization of his philosophy of "returning to the ordinary" reminds me of the Zen story, "Before I studied Zen, mountains were mountains, and water was water. After studying Zen for some time, mountains were no longer mountains, and water was no longer water. But now, after studying Zen longer, mountains are just mountains, and water is just water."
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Of the five sense (which is not even close to all the senses we have), we know the least about smell. How do we classify smells, anyway?
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One possible contributing factor to the failure of Microsoft's Clippy is that it's too male, and female users felt that it was leering.
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Is Cthulhu popular because of his (its?) mythology? It's possible, but that definition of mythology seems tied up with the universe in which characters exist. I like to think of myths as being deeper in our psyche than that - although, I'll admit that I've never been able to read a Joseph Campbell book straight through.
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An ex-Microsoft-research on the "cult of technology". The first big idea (that I agree with) is that technology is a force multiplier - it lets people do more of what they were doing before, whether that's good or bad. The second big idea (that I disagree with) is that it is problematic and egotistical for technologists to believe they can change the world, when (say) a concert pianist don't think the same of themselves. I think this comparison is biased - politicians clearly believe they can change the world too. A better direction of inquiry to ask why certain occupations are more prone to this - and for entrepreneurs and politicians, arguably succeed.