Climate Change
What is Climate Change? How should we respond to Climate Change? These questions are complex, not least because the responses available to us depend upon who is providing the answers and the particular perspective they take. The economist sees the economic challenges and opportunities of Climate Change; the scientist sees the need to describe and explain Climate Change; the policy-maker and social scientist see Climate Change as a social problem. This course offers you an introduction to different disciplinary perspectives on Climate Change to help you think about how Climate Change affects you as an individual, as a member of your local community, as a citizen of your country and as a member of the global community. The overall aim of this subject is to provide an introduction to the socio-political, scientific, and economic aspects of the phenomenon known as Climate Change. No background is necessary. A collection of readings pertinent to each topic will be made available online.
The Odd Work-Break Ratio That's Great for Productivity
Everyone has that person in the office. You know, the one who always seems to get way more done than everybody else, but who never seems stressed or frantically trying to finish an assignment. How does he or she get it done? And can you steal those secrets to improve your own productivity? Yes. Using time-tracking and productivity app DeskTime, we’ve been able to study the habits of the most productive employees—and pinpoint the working flow that leads to that incredible ability to get things done. And the trick might surprise you. The employees with the highest productivity ratings, in fact, don't even work eight-hour days. The reason the most productive 10% of our users are able to get the most done during the comparatively short periods of working time is that their working times are treated as sprints. Working with purpose can also be called the 100% dedication theory—the notion that whatever you do, you do it full-on. There are a lot of surprising benefits to this rest time.
The Undercurrents of Our Education System: Recognizing and Subverting Cognitive Disinformation I The Hampton Institute
The Undercurrents of Our Education System: Recognizing and Subverting Cognitive Disinformation Anna Brix Thomsen I Education I Analysis I July 16th, 2014 In his book, Underground History of American Education[1], one of the most progressive yet unappreciated voices of pedagogy today, John Taylor Gatto, exposes the undercurrents that steer the direction of the education system. Inglis breaks down the purpose - the actual purpose - of modem schooling into six basic functions, any one of which is enough to curl the hair of those innocent enough to believe the three traditional goals listed earlier: 1) The adjustive or adaptive function. 2) The integrating function. 3) The diagnostic and directive function. 4) The differentiating function. 5) The selective function. 6) The propaedeutic function. Yet you will not find these six purposes in any school policy. Students know they must go to school to learn for the sake of learning but are taught from an early age to not ask questions. 1. 2. 3.
How to Carry Major Appliances on your Bike
Right around the same time I bought this new fixer-upper house, I bought a special piece of equipment to help make the project more efficient. With the new house a five minute walk from the old one, commuting time was not an issue. But with the hundreds of trips carrying tools and materials required for a project like this, I didn’t have the right vehicle. On foot, although I try my best I am simply not badass enough to drag a table saw and miter saw along with a stack of 2x4s for much distance down the street. So with your entertainment in mind, I acquired this extremely large and badass bike trailer from a small Iowa builder called Bikes at Work: These things are highly configurable due to the modular design. I picked the longest 96A model but skipped the “wide” and “heavy” options since this still provides plenty of space and I figured 300 pounds is plenty of capacity. A complete patio set including 4 chairs, a 6-person table, and an umbrella (250 lb) What I Like About This Trailer
The Partially Examined Life | A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog
50 ways to reuse your garbage
Ralph Waldo Emerson once described a weed as, “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Might we not consider garbage in the same way? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, after all. To the non-recycler, an empty bottle is garbage. To the reuse enthusiast, that empty bottle could be a chandelier, a vase, a drinking glass, a candelabra … you get the picture. In a world being consumed by waste, it’s time to think of our trash in a different light (and save some money while we're at it). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Related stories on how to reuse your garbage:
If Your Lawn Is Green, It’s Pretty Likely You Aren’t
Yards were the first thing I noticed when we pulled into our new neighborhood two years ago. Mature landscaping with plenty of huge flowering rhododendrons and trees, but most of all, lush green lawns. Every house sported a beautifully kept expanse of grass, and the constant tsst-tsst-tsst of expensively installed sprinkler systems attested to the homeowners’ devotion. Our yard, in comparison, was the only brown one. I once jokingly apologized to a neighbor for having the “hooptiest lawn” on the block, and she waved a hand: “Oh, that yard has always looked like that.” In a strange twist of fate, my husband and I ended up buying the house next door to our rental, and we’ve been making improvements here and there. And watering. You’d think that living in Oregon would mean you’d never have to water the grass, but you definitely do during the summer months if you want a green lawn. Of course, all those green lawns aren’t linked to green living.
Geographic information system
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data. The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographical information science or geospatial information studies to refer to the academic discipline or career of working with geographic information systems and is a large domain within the broader academic discipline of Geoinformatics.[1] What goes beyond a GIS is a spatial data infrastructure, a concept that has no such restrictive boundaries. In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. GIS is a broad term that can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, and methods. History of development[edit] Computer hardware development spurred by nuclear weapon research led to general-purpose computer "mapping" applications by the early 1960s.[8] In 1964 Howard T.
