Tanzanian Reflections David Ndambuki, "The Maasai," oil on canvas, 2006. Courtesy Real African Art Gallery It was an odd feeling going on my first-ever safari during my recent trip to Tanzania. Odd because even though I had never been on one, I already had a fairly well-formed idea — a fantasy really — as to what that experience would be like. It was an equally odd feeling finally going on this trip to Tanzania because of my intention of getting a sense of the local contemporary art scene — odd because my vision of what such contemporary art might look like was decidedly unformed going in. One of the paintings that proved remarkable to me during my time in Arusha was a decidedly ordinary canvas. Street vendors in Arusha and Zanzibar selling Maasai paintings. Once I came to terms with this strange repetition of the hand-painted Maasai canvas, I could not help but read them collectively as an ironic, contemporary sign of the durable legacy of the modernist celebration of the primitive and the naïve.
What we learned from designing an academic certificates system on the blockchain — MIT MEDIA LAB What we learned from designing an academic certificates system on the blockchain By Juliana Nazaré (@ju1es_), Kim Hamilton Duffy (@kimdhamilton), J. Philipp Schmidt (@schmidtphi) Over the past year, we have been working on a set of tools to issue, display, and verify digital credentials using the Bitcoin blockchain and the Mozilla Open Badges specification. You can find links to our source code, documentation, and discussion on our project homepage: The overall design of the certification architecture is fairly simple. Working on this project, we have not only learned a lot about the blockchain, but also about the way that technology can shape socioeconomic practices around the concept of credentials. Many of the most interesting challenges we encountered were not technical in nature, but they cannot easily be separated from the technology because small design decisions can fundamentally shape behavior. Issuer, Viewer, Schema (Beyond the) Hype Privacy
The 50 Best Social Psychology Books Have you ever wanted to be more persuasive, convincing, or if nothing else, understand how others try to influence you? …Of course! Who hasn’t? In all honestly, the more you know about social psychology and social influence, the better. Not only will you be more prepared when trying to convince others, but you’ll also be aware of when others are trying to unethically convince you! If this is your goal, reading a healthy selection of world renown psychology books is a must. Fortunately, there are many out there, and they cover a wide variety of topics (social influence, marketing, persuasion, social constructs, etc.) and all of them are very approachable: these aren’t boring science papers, they were written for the typical person interested in psychology. As an aid to you in your journey, I’ve prepared this extensive list of 50 solid social psychology books to add to your bookshelf. The Importance of Reading Oh no, it’s like 3rd grade all over again! Think about that! About the List 1.) 2.) 3.)
Makey Makey | Buy Direct (Official Site) Milankovitch cycles is the calculated daily-averaged insolation at the top of the atmosphere, on the day of the summer solstice at 65 N latitude.— Benthic forams and — Vostok ice core show two distinct proxies for past global sealevel and temperature, from ocean sediment and Antarctic ice respectively. The vertical gray line shows current conditions, at 2 ky A.D. The Earth's axis completes one full cycle of precession approximately every 26,000 years. At the same time, the elliptical orbit rotates more slowly. The combined effect of the two precessions leads to a 21,000-year period between the astronomical seasons and the orbit. Earth’s movements[edit] Orbital shape (eccentricity)[edit] Circular orbit, no eccentricity. Orbit with 0.5 eccentricity. Orbital shape and Temperature[edit] As the semi-minor axis is decreased with the eccentricity increase, the seasonal changes increase.[4] But the mean solar irradiation for the planet changes only slightly for small eccentricity, due to Kepler's second law.
Teacher's Quick Guide to Google Best Services I got you another poster that you will definitely love. I am adding it to the list of posters I have created before and I am also preparing another list of awesome posters that you hang on your classroom wall.Yes, I am determined to help you make your classroom look completely different this school year. Below is a great infographic from GCF Learn Free that sumps up the services Google offers us. Check out and tell us what you think
Say Something Nice (View it larger on YouTube) | Subscribe to our YouTube channel Produced by Charlie Todd and Matt Adams / Music by Tyler Walker For our latest mission we constructed a custom wooden lectern with a megaphone holster and an attached sign that read, “Say Something Nice.” The lectern was placed in public spaces around New York and then left alone. We wanted to see what would happen if New Yorkers were given the opportunity to amplify their voices to “say something nice.” Say Something Nice was produced by Improv Everywhere as part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc. This is our second collaboration in the series, the first being The Mute Button. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below. Agent Alex Young building the lectern Improv Everywhere is most well known for our missions involving hundreds or even thousands of people. Agents Jason Eppink and Keith Haskel played the “movers.” “I love my friend here in the red shirt!” Crew photo
Learning to use My Blocks This tutorial explains how to use the "My Block" feature of the NXT-G programming system by working through several examples. What is a My Block? Why Use My Blocks? Making your First My Block Creating a My Block Viewing and Editing the Contents of a My Block Inserting a My Block into a Program Creating My Blocks with Input Parameters What are Input Parameters? Variables, Wiring, and Editing within a My Block Using Variables to Send Data to a My Block Defining Variables in a My Block Rewriting the Contents of a My Block Sharing Wires in a Tabbed Switch Using My Block Variables from the Main Program Making a Modified Copy of a My Block Copying a My Block Changing the Icon for a My Block Organizing and Sharing My Blocks Copying, Renaming, and Deleting My Blocks Broken Blocks Sharing Programs with Pack and Go Making a Sub-Menu on the Custom Palette What is a My Block? Figure 1: My Blocks are blue in color, and they appear in the Custom palette in NXT-G. Why Use My Blocks? Making your First My Block
Pyrenees Mountains Villages and Sights Our journey started in Barcelona, a high-energy metropolis (watch out for the well-dressed commuters on scooters racing from stoplight to stoplight) with a compact central city that is ideal for sightseeing. Leaving bustling Barcelona and traversing the Pyrenees, you encounter many small villages that present a slower and more relaxed pace of life. Roda de Isabena is one such village. Located on a hilltop overlooking the Mid Isabena Valley, it is a medieval town centered around its 10th Century cathedral. A beautiful picturesque village in France, although quite touristy, is St Jean Pied de Port. The historic walled city of Carcassonne, France is without peer in the fabled storybook city category. Elegant old churches are, of course, very abundant in the Pyrenees, and each village has a major cathedral located on the highest ground in the town. Ancient stone bridges, some from the Roman times, also caught our eye. And of course, the beauty of the Pyrenees themselves cannot be ignored.
52 Tips And Tricks For Google Docs In The Classroom Google Docs is such an incredible tool for college students, offering collaboration, portability, ease of use, and widespread acceptance – a must for students in online colleges for online marketing, for instance. But there are so many options, both hidden and obvious, that there’s a good chance you’re not using Google Docs to its fullest capability. We’ve discovered 52 great tips for getting the most out of Google Docs as a student, with awesome ideas and tricks for collaboration, sharing, and staying productive. 52 Tips And Tricks For Google Docs In The Classroom Access your documents from anywhere: Whether you’re in your dorm room or the school library, you can access your Google Docs. This is a cross-post from onlinecolleges.net
Chile’s Raised Coast after earthquake « Mannaismayaadventure's Blog By Brett Israel Caleta Yane The Chilean earthquake that struck on Feb. 27 changed the country’s landscape by raising the ground near the coast and sinking land farther inward, a new study finds. Here on the Arauco Peninsula, the uplift of a marine terrace displaced the coastline about 980 feet (300 meters) seaward. New coast Uplift of the ground is seen at the beach of Lebu. Punta Lavapié An uplifted marine platform was found at Punta Lavapié (the northernmost tip of the Arauco Peninsula). This photograph shows several species of dead algae and mollusks that lived in the coastal waters. The white coating on the rocks is from the dead algae. Credit: Science/AAAS Santa Maria Island At the southern end of Santa Maria Island, several marine platforms uplifted more than 5 feet (1.5 m), leaving some species far from their living zone. Arauco Peninsula The magnitude 8.8 earthquake also caused massive landslides, as seen in this image of the coastal slope of the Arauco Peninsula. Raised marine platform
How To Create A Google Drive Classroom How To Create A Google Drive Classroom by TeachThought Staff Using the cloud in the classroom can be a powerful thing. One of the most common uses of the cloud in today’s classroom is word processing, and one of the most common cloud-based word processing platforms is Google Drive. We’ve talked about offering voice feedback to documents. Since he clearly has experience in the classroom, this video is immediately better than the vast majority of universal Google Drive tutorials you’ll find. Update: A reader reminded us that Google Apps For Education is launching Google Classroom in September, a tool that “weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and communicate with their classes with ease.” In addition to other helpful tips, Behrendt includes information on: -Creating a class -Creating assignments -Sharing documents -Filtering results -Turning in digital work -Creating student portfolios -Naming files