Monthly Archives: December 2013

Archaeologists unearth oldest musical instruments ever found – The Boston Globe

We all knew that Stone Age humans were hunters and gatherers. But sculptors and flutists? Archeologists announced today that they had unearthed the oldest musical instruments ever found — flutes that inhabitants of southwestern Germany laboriously carved from bone and … Continue reading

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The Dangers of AI

Described in an op-ed in the Washington Post.

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What Happened On Easter Island — A New (Even Scarier) Scenario : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR

What we have here are two scenarios ostensibly about Easter Island’s past, but really about what might be our planet’s future. The first scenario — an ecological collapse — nobody wants that. But let’s think about this new alternative — … Continue reading

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After Setbacks, Online Courses Are Rethought – NYTimes.com

After Setbacks, Online Courses Are Rethought – NYTimes.com.

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College papers: Students hate writing them. Professors hate grading them. Let’s stop assigning them.

Is this a good idea? We should be thinking about what it is students should take away from a required course in the humanities and in the sciences. We might call it trivia training, but maybe the best thing for … Continue reading

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Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram : Nature News & Comment

In 1997, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposed1 that an audacious model of the Universe in which gravity arises from infinitesimally thin, vibrating strings could be reinterpreted in terms of well-established physics. The mathematically intricate world of strings, which exist in … Continue reading

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Budget deal expected to alleviate automatic cuts to scientific research | Inside Higher Ed

The federal budget deal announced by Congressional negotiators Tuesday evening would largely alleviate cuts to research funding and campus-based student aid programs… The proposal does not lay out specific amounts of money for federal agencies but it would increase, from … Continue reading

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▶ Is Futurama the Best Argument Against Transhumanism? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios – YouTube

▶ Is Futurama the Best Argument Against Transhumanism? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios – YouTube.

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Entertainment Conquers Reality

Even before the first tabloids began hawking true-crimes stories and trashy melodramas to 19th-century readers, mass entertainment had cast a spell over American life. How that spell has been magnified to such an extent that entertainment is now \”the most … Continue reading

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Would teaching economics backwards help students be ready for the world?

Who really knows… but it might be worth the experiment! …here’s one temporary fix for introductory economics: teach it backwards. Reversing the order in which introductory economic classes are taught today might be the easiest way to respond to the … Continue reading

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History of Philosophy | The Ancient Cynics

In this episode we unleash the most outrageous ancient philosophers, Diogenes and the Cynics, and their quest to “deface the currency” by exposing the hypocrisy of Greek society. via 53 – Beware of the Philosopher: the Cynics | History of … Continue reading

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▶ Are Memes & Internet Culture Creating a Singularity? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios – YouTube

 

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Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ sex lives : Nature News & Comment

Updated genome sequences from two extinct relatives of modern humans suggest that these ‘archaic’ groups bred with humans and with each other more extensively than was previously known. The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a member … Continue reading

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Supporting Good Teaching

It’s a 50-year-old physics textbook that runs to 1,500 pages and whose contents were declared a failure by its famous author. It is also, according to various online reviews “spellbinding” and “an extraordinary book written by an extraordinary man”. One … Continue reading

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