Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet

Internet access is a basic human right: A Q&A with Keren Elazari Keren Elazari speaks at TED2014. The day she gave her talk, we spoke to her about the shutdown of Twitter in Turkey. Photo: James Duncan Davidson Two weeks ago, hours after Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to “wipe out” Twitter, his government blocked access to the platform across the country. It was just weeks before a hotly contended election, and Erdoğan was upset about tweets accusing him of corruption. Other governments have also tried to block access to parts or all of the Internet in the past, including Egypt’s Internet shutdown in January 2011 and Syria’s in May 2013. In her talk, Elazari said that hackers play an essential role in giving power, or free access to information, back to the people when governments try to take it away. So what’s really going on in Turkey? While Egypt had Tahrir Square and other places around the world had other social uprisings and revolutions, in Istanbul it happened in Taksim Gezi Park. But they’re still trying. Definitely.

Why I, a founder of PLOS, am forsaking open access I co-founded the Public Library of Science (PLOS) in 2002 because I believed deeply that the open access publishing model PLOS espoused and has come to dominate was good for science, scientists and the public. Over the past decade open access has become a personal crusade – my own religion – one I have fervently promoted here on this blog, on social media, and to thousands of colleagues at meetings and social engagements. To back up my commitment to open access, since 2000, I have exclusively published papers from my lab in open access journals, and have urged – some might say hectored and harassed – my colleagues to do the same. But in the last few weeks I have had a major change of heart. The most immediate reason is that, to be honest, I’m jealous. It used to be cool to publish in PLOS. But now those t-shirts are ratty, and PLOS has become The Man. And who’s to say what’s right anyway. As these were landmark studies, most were published in the highest profile subscription journals.

8 math talks to blow your mind Mathematics gets down to work in these talks, breathing life and logic into everyday problems. Prepare for math puzzlers both solved and unsolvable, and even some still waiting for solutions. Ron Eglash: The fractals at the heart of African designs When Ron Eglash first saw an aerial photo of an African village, he couldn’t rest until he knew — were the fractals in the layout of the village a coincidence, or were the forces of mathematics and culture colliding in unexpected ways? Here, he tells of his travels around the continent in search of an answer. How big is infinity? There are more whole numbers than there are even numbers … right? Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic” A whole team of calculators is no match for Arthur Benjamin, as he does astounding mental math in the blink of an eye. Scott Rickard: The beautiful math behind the ugliest music What makes a piece of music beautiful?

Ruffin sur Europe 1 (Aphatie) : "Lagardère mériterait d'être licencié" "C’est pour dire merci à votre patron." Après avoir été décommandé de l'émission de Frédéric Taddeï sur Europe 1, François Ruffin, réalisateur de Merci Patron !, a finalement été reçu par Jean-Michel Aphatie, ce mercredi. Et Aphatie de lui répondre que ce temps passé à remercier Lagardère, "sera du temps de parole que [Ruffin] n’aura pas pour parler du documentaire". "Un salarié aussi désinvolte qu’Arnaud Lagardère aurait été licencié d’une entreprise. Aphatie relance alors Ruffin sur son film, l’estimant "plutôt bien fait mais tournant un peu à vide à certains moments". L'occasion de voir notre émission avec Ruffin et Lordon : Merci Patron: "Mes inspirateurs?

Religion vs. Humanism: Isaac Asimov on Science and Spirituality by Maria Popova “The soft bonds of love are indifferent to life and death.” Science and religion have a long history of friction as diametric opposites. But some of humanity’s greatest minds have found in science itself a rich source of spirituality, from Albert Einstein’s meditation on whether scientists pray to Richard Feynman’s ode to the universe to Carl Sagan on the reverence of science to Bucky Fuller’s scientific rendition of The Lord’s Prayer to Richard Dawkins on the magic of reality . Here comes a wonderful addition from the mind of beloved science fiction author Isaac Asimov , found in the altogether indispensable It’s Been a Good Life ( public library ) — a revealing selection of Asimov’s letters, diary entries, and his three prior autobiographies, In Memory Yet Green (1979), In Joy Still Felt (1980), and the posthumously published I. Asimov succinctly recapitulates his philosophy: I have never, not for one moment, been tempted toward religion of any kind. Donating = Loving

La violence des casseroles | Pierre Foglia | Pierre Foglia Mais quand vous jouez de la casserole, ils ont peur. Il y a cet ami et collègue de Rosemont, pas particulièrement contre l'augmentation des droits de scolarité, qui s'en est allé rejoindre 2000 personnes au coin de sa rue avec sa petite fille de 4 ans et son fils de deux ans et demi, bang, bang la casserole. Il y a cette fille à la une du Devoir vendredi matin, celle avec une poêle à frire à la main, hé, mais je la connais! J'appelle une de mes deux petites-filles, grand-papa, j'ai pas le temps de te parler, on s'en va jouer de la casserole au coin de la rue. Attendez-moi, j'arrive. Maisonneuve, brave monsieur Maisonneuve, s'inquiétait vendredi midi: oui, mais si toutes ces manifestations allaient perturber les festivals, nos chers festivals? Oui, mais les touristes? Ne croyez pas les flics ni les politiques quand ils dénoncent la violence des casseurs. La violence qu'ils redoutent vraiment est celle, domestique, des casseroles. Chérie, est-ce qu'on a des vieilles casseroles? Ça se peut.

We Are Singing Stardust: Carl Sagan on the Story of Humanity’s Greatest Message and How the Golden Record Was Born by Maria Popova “We [are] a species endowed with hope and perseverance, at least a little intelligence, substantial generosity and a palpable zest to make contact with the cosmos.” In 1939, just before his fifth birthday, Carl Sagan visited the New York World’s Fair, where he marveled at the Time Capsule evincing the fair’s confidence in the future — a hermetically sealed chamber, filled with newspapers, books and artifacts from that year, buried in Flushing Meadows to be revisited in some far-off future era by a future culture very different from and curious about the present. Sagan, in his characteristic eloquence, writes of the motivation, offering a poetic, humbling, and timelier than ever reminder of just how misplaced our existential arrogance is: The coming of the space age has brought with it an interest in communication over time intervals far longer than any [of our predecessors] could have imagined, as well as the means to send messages to the distant future. The Golden Record

#NuitDebout : « Nous étions endormis et nous nous réveillons » LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Annick Cojean Est-ce l’amorce d’un mouvement qu’ils rêveraient « lame de fond » ou peut-être « déferlante » ? Est-ce l’annonce d’un « sursaut citoyen » qui mettrait dans la rue des Français de toutes conditions avides de protester et débattre, en criant leur défiance abyssale envers leurs élus et envers un système ? Est-ce le prélude d’un processus dit « révolutionnaire » ? Le mot ne fait pas peur au millier de jeunes gens réunis place de la République dans la nuit du 1er avril. Quelle jubilation quand ils prononcent ce mot ! La convergence des luttes Mais la révolution ne s’improvise pas en un jour. « Renouer avec les cahiers de doléances » Surtout, on s’accorde à reconnaître « qu’il ne faut pas compter sur les élections pour changer la politique ». Tout est à réinventer, clament tour à tour une multitude de jeunes gens. Car on vote beaucoup lors de cette assemblée générale. « Nous étions endormis et nous nous réveillons » Le terrorisme ?

The Science of Our Optimism Bias and the Life-Cycle of Happiness by Maria Popova “To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities, and not just any old reality but a better one.” “If I expect as little as possible, I won’t be hurt,” Susan Sontag famously wrote in her diary. And yet we’re wired to expect a lot — and to expect great things. The root of optimism, Sharot suggests, isn’t far from what Montaigne argued five centuries ago. Optimism starts with what may be the most extraordinary of human talents: mental time travel. In some instances Sharot cites, this “optimism bias” might be better termed “narcissism bias” — a phenomenon known as the “superiority illusion”: In a survey by two Ohio researchers, 25 percent of respondents said they were in the top 1 percent for getting along well with others. In discussing the role of memory in optimism and illusion, Sharot echoes the idea that memory is not a recording device: She traces the intersection of memory and optimism to a neural framework: Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr

Engins fumigènes dans le métro, vos réactions | Opinions > Faites-nous part de vos commentaires à debats@lapresse.ca Travailleurs sans défense Je suis un travailleur et un défenseur de l'accessibilité aux études de qualité et je crois fermement qu'il y a de sérieux problèmes structuraux avec le système d'éducation. Par contre, la petite minorité d'extrémistes qui se sont livré à, appelons les choses par leur nom, du terrorisme comme dans le métro ce matin, devrait être sévèrement punie avec toute la force de nos lois antiterroristes. Et, quand on les attrape, pourquoi ne pas intenter un recours collectif, pour leur faire payer les heures de productivité perdues, les heures supplémentaires des chauffeurs d'autobus de remplacement du métro, des pompiers, de la police, etc. Ces actes démontrent au moins une chose: si quelqu'un de mal intentionné voulait vraiment faire du mal aux Montréalais qui prennent le métro, nous sommes essentiellement sans défense, puisque même petite bande de voyous réussissent à nous gazer à volonté. François Maillet

Sleep and the Teenage Brain by Maria Popova How a seemingly simple change can have a profound effect on everything from academic performance to bullying. “Sleep is the greatest creative aphrodisiac,” Debbie Millman asserted in her advice on breaking through your creative block. “Sleep deprivation will profoundly affect your creativity, your productivity, and your decision-making,” Arianna Huffington cautioned graduating seniors in her Smith College commencement address on redefining success. And yet, as German chronobiologist Till Roenneberg argued in his fantastic Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired — one of the best science books of 2012, and undoubtedly among the best you’ll ever read — teenagers have already endured years of institutionally inflicted sleep deprivation by the time they get to college: there is a tragic disconnect between teens’ circadian givens and our social expectations of them, encapsulated in what is known as the disco hypothesis. Donating = Loving

La CLASSE est exclue des discussions | David Santerre et Pascal Breton | Conflit étudiant > Voyez toutes les photos de nos photographes Les affrontements entre policiers en manifestants se sont poursuivis un peu après minuit. Une arrestation massive, visant plusieurs dizaines de manifestants, a été réalisée au coin des rues des Pins et Saint-Dominique, tard dans la nuit. À 5h00, jeudi, le Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) a confirmé avoir appréhendé un total de 85 manifestants au cours de la soirée. Le SPVM précisé dans ce bilan provisoire que trois des personnes arrêtées étaient d'âge mineur. De plus, trois policiers ont été blessés lors des affrontements survenus lors de la manifestation dont l'itinéraire n'avait pas été divulgué. Dans les premières minutes de la marche, la majorité des manifestants semblaient pacifiques, mais certains cachaient leur visage d'un masque. La foule s'est mise en marche vers 21h15, suivant un itinéraire qui n'avait pas été divulgué. «Évidemment on souhaite une manif énergique. Négociations rompues Le fil des événements - Avec PC

Interpreting the Data: 10 Ways to Teach Math and More Using Infographics From stock prices and unemployment rates to trends in tuition and quality of life, the ability to understand and interpret quantitative data is more important than ever in understanding the world. Over the years we’ve written many posts about teaching with Times infographics, including a 2010 series about using them across the curriculum, and a 2011 lesson called “Data Visualized: More on Teaching With Infographics.” If you like, you can scroll through our entire collection of posts that highlight Times interactives and graphics here. Below, we offer a math-focused list of 10 ways students can learn from and tell stories with the numbers in some recent charts, tables and interactives found in The Times. 1. Pick a graph from The Times that plots some quantity over time and use it to tell a story. For example, the first graph in “The War on Poverty Turns 50″ shows several different poverty rates in the United States over the past 50 years. 2. 3. Browse The Times with a critical eye. 4. 5.