5,586 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2017
    1. Irwin Consulting Services Review - Tips to protect your home from a wildfire

      This year, cases of huge wildfires occurred on multiple continents have made the whole world worried and sad because of such devastating calamity that result in a lot of damaged properties and homes, and even lost lives. Wildfires can cause a tragedy fast and this chaotic phenomenon often gives firefighters and local authorities a hard time extinguishing its raging fires. Natural calamities are frightening and their effects on lands and human lives can be heartbreaking. Wildfires can start any time without any warnings and the path that it is going to take is usually hard to predict.

      Different companies and organizations around the world have been working hard to protect the public from immediate dangers of natural calamities, and one of them is Irwin Consulting Services. And one of their objectives is to protect households from wildfires and this post aims to help you in keeping your home safe against such a natural threat.

      Tip #1: Upgrade your roofs

      Consider about installing ignition resistant roofs since roofs were often the most vulnerable part of the house to fires. Protect your home and your family from the quick fires by having fire-resistant roofs. The most effective and resistant roofs were given the rate of “A” so choose roofs with such label. Maintain a clean roof as well to prevent having piled up dead leaves and become fuel to fires.

      Tip #2: Put double protection on windows

      In order to provide more protection to your house, upgrade your windows and drapes too. Use heat-resistant materials in improving your windows to become fire-resistant. The drastic heat coming from a distant wildfire can already affect your house by going right through the windows and put drapes and furniture on fire. Further protection to your house can begin with installing fire-rated glasses on your windows and investing on non-combustible shutters.

      Tip #3: Choose the most convenient location

      Learn about the location of where you are going to buy or build a house. Determine if the neighborhood had a lot of incident of fires in the recent years. Make sure of a place that will not threaten the safety of your home and your family. Irwin Consulting Services encourages you to do a careful research regarding this subject.

      Tip #4: Put adjustments on the site layout

      Make wider driveways, patios and even put low-growing fire-retardant plants to have at least 30 meters of distance and incombustible material between the wild lands and your home. Wider driveways and turn-around is also for the convenience of firefighters in bringing their huge and heavy equipment close to your home in the event of emergencies.

      Tip #5: Keep your green surroundings clean

      Clean the dead and decaying wood around your home because such can also be the reason to start a fire in your area. Do not forget about fallen and dead branches as well. Branches close to your roof or overhangs it should be cut. Maintain a clean setting around your house especially in spots that have a lot of trees.

      Tip #6: Watch out for embers

      Never ignore the danger that flying embers could bring to your house. The openings of eaves and vents are the most vulnerable parts of the house to embers because it can fly into them and can begin a fire inside. Keep those openings screened and properly maintained to avoid tragedies inside your shelter. Gutters should also be cleaned for added protection.

      Irwin Consulting Services would like each household to aim for a better protection at their homes and be prepared for any natural calamities to avoid regrets. Be safe always.

    2. Irwin Consulting Services Review - How to ensure household safety during the holiday season

      Many of us are really looking forward to the holiday season because it is the time when people are diligent in filling their houses with holiday decorations, preparing gifts, searching online for more delicious recipes, and a lot more activities related to this season. It is indeed the time of the year for enjoyment, sharing, giving, and loving together with your family and friends.

      However, despite all the positive things we’re expecting to this season, accidents could still happen. This season also includes the challenge of the cold weather. And because people would like to experience more warmth, others sometimes misuse heaters and electric blankets and cause accidents on warm fireplaces. Irwin Consulting Services, a consulting company that is committed to public safety, prepared some important thoughts below that could help you maintain the safety of your whole family during this holiday season.

      It is necessary to exercise proper care and caution during this season to avoid kitchen fires, electrical fires, and fires caused by flammable objects placed too close to heat sources. You can prevent kitchen fires by being focused and careful while you’re cooking. Cooking requires constant attention so don’t let anything distract you while preparing food for your family to avoid any accidents. Keep everything in order and don’t cook a lot of dishes at the same time since it could lead to disarray. Never bring outdoor grills inside your home because it could be very dangerous.

      Live Christmas trees were often the choice for many households because it provides a fresh feeling and of course an enchanting appearance, but this can be the largest fire hazard in a home. Keep it watered every day and ensure that it can absorb water up to its trunk. Decorative lights on the tree must be labeled for indoor use and were approved for its safe use through a UL listing. As said earlier, fire accidents can be a possibility with this kind of tree, so make sure to install it in a spot away from fireplaces and space heaters. Make a clear path leading to exit doors as well. Do not put live candles on live trees to prevent ignition of a fire. Irwin Consulting Services would also like you to make it a habit to turn off and unplug the decorative lights whenever your family goes outside or is going to bed.

      Children should not also play with decorative candles, so as much as possible put those in places that are out of reach of your small kids. Organizing decorative lights should be done with a careful process to ensure a proper electrical wiring. Instead of nails, hang decorative lights using plastic clips to prevent accidents of nails penetrating through the wirings and result in shorts. Check the conditions of each string of wire and confirm if all are safe to use to avoid overloads and faulty wirings. You must not plug one extension cord to another extension cord because this can lead to voltage drop and overheat, so be extra careful in using such cords. Both indoor and outdoor lightings are much safer if connected through power strips. Other important things to remember include making sure that the smoke alarms in your house were in good condition and working properly, and that the fire extinguishers were in easy to reach places. It is also advised to buy weather alert radios so consider it as well.

      Don’t forget to put a grate or screen in front of the fireplace and see to it that the chimney flue was properly cleaned. Avoid putting stockings and other holiday decorations close to a lit fireplace. The Christmas tree and the pile of gifts should be gathered in one safe place that is away from the fireplace.

      Make creating a good escape plan a priority as well and once you’re done with it, discuss it with your family and if you will be having a lot of visitors this holiday season, brief it to them. The path leading to your doors should not be compiled with huge furniture and decorations to avoid hindrance and blockage in case of emergencies. To guarantee a safe use of heat in your house, ensure that your gas lines were checked by professionals. Fire extinguishers should be available in your home and must be charged. Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors were also a necessity to assure the safety of the entire family. Choose space heaters with tip-over switches and put them in a safe spot with no flammable materials near to it. You must not bring outdoor heaters inside for indoor heating; materials meant for outside use should remain there.

      Irwin Consulting Services wanted you to spend the holiday season with your friends and loved ones with a big smile on your face and peace in your heart. Enjoy this season with no worries in keeping your whole family safe by making proper preparations and following the instructions of professionals and the local authorities.

  2. Nov 2017
    1. To support text and data mining as a standard and essential tool for research, the UK should move towards establishing by default that for published research the right to read is also the right to mine data, where that does not result in products that substitute for the original works. Government should include potential uses of data for AI when assessing how to support for text and data mining.
    1. “You Can’t Go Any Lower”: Inside the West Wing, Trump Is Apoplectic as Allies Fear ImpeachmentAfter Monday’s indictments, the president blamed Jared Kushner in a call to Steve Bannon, while others are urging him to take off the gloves with Robert Mueller.
  3. Oct 2017
    1. it also turns out that neural networks and data mining in general are really good at reinforcing the prejudices of their programmers, and embedding them in hardware. Here's a racist hand dryer — it's proximity sensor simply doesn't work on dark skin! Engineers with untested assumptions about the human subjects of their machines can wreak havoc.)

      racism? in my algorithms because of the biases of the people who designed them? it's more likely than you think.

    1. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday that the U.S. military has more than 1,000 personnel in the region, an apparent reference to an area that includes Niger as well as Mali and Nigeria.
    1. It’s a Fact: Supreme Court Errors Aren’t Hard to Find A ProPublica review adds fuel to a longstanding worry about the nation’s highest court: The justices can botch the truth, sometimes in cases of great import.
    1. But these are also all characteristics that make What3Words completely unsuitable as either a global or national address register. So I was dismayed to read that Mongolia have decided to adopt it as their national register. I’m hoping that this isn’t really the case and that story is similar to the apocryphal tales of Honduras’s blockchain based land registry.
    2. The problem is that What3Words is a proprietary, closed system. The algorithm is patented. The data is closed, with the terms and conditions spelling out in great detail all of the things you can’t do with the system
    1. The Boomtown That Shouldn’t Exist Cape Coral was built on total lies. One big storm could wipe it off the map. Oh, and it’s also the fastest-growing city in the United States.
    1. Justice John G. Roberts Jr., arguing that the South had taken great strides that made the protections of the act unnecessary, based his decision in part on a Senate Judiciary Committee analysis that misinterpreted how the Census Bureau reports race and ethnicity data and wrongly suggested that registration gaps between minorities and whites had shrunk significantly, an error that neither he nor his clerks caught.

      Stunning Omission

    1. Neil Postman noted in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death

      Need to look into this book. The cultural shift (text->image = logic->emotion) is an interesting idea, but I'd like to see how it is argued.

    1. It was the degree of centrality to the white population of the state which alone then constituted the important point of comparison between these places

      This was really unsettling for me read. Proximity to the most white people is the one criteria that made the difference in where the University's location was chosen. If Charlottesville hadn't been most central to the white population of Virginia, UVa would be located in Lexington or in Staunton. Its definitely not a good thing that our school was centered around pleasing only the white race before our grounds were even built. I can't imagine how different our grounds would be and our university if another place had been more convenient for white people. UVa certainly has a racist past and I think most of us, if not all, are aware of that but I still couldn't believe that such a racist criteria is the reason the school exists where it does today and is the way Uva is today.

      • Becca Meaney
    1. this paper

      If you see this highlight, you are reading v0.1 of the draft. The paper still contains unresolved references to sources and secondary literature, cross-references to tables and figures, and CriticMarkup (e.g. strings wrapped in {-- --} or {++ ++}).

  4. Sep 2017
    1. two students only, this provision being deemed advantageous to morals, to order, & to uninterrupted study;

      I find it interesting that two is the explicitly stated maximum for students living together in order to be neat, get along well, and have an ideal situation for studying. I believe this still holds true in today's time, though many find themselves going to the library to study instead. This statement causes me to wonder whether it was rare for students to go elsewhere, such as a library, to study at this time. It seems likely that since a University such as this had not existed previously, the founders wanted to give the prospective students the best possible chance to succeed and did not want to force the students to go to a library or some other building to do their studying. Also, the founders were likely trying to get the students accustomed to studying in their living quarters with another person present, to prepare them for their future jobs when they would have wives and maybe children in the same house or room as them while working.

    1. It is up to me, not the state, what beliefs I adopt, what opinions I voice, or what religion I practice.

      Except not really. Social institutions like school, religion, saluting the flag, etc. socialize us into acceptable thought/behavior. We are free, to an extent, to rebel against these socializations, but rarely without backlash from friends, family, community, etc. See also: Red Scare

    1. To live in the present is not to avoid hard work or strife. Alongside the projects that occupy you in your profession, or in your political life, the telic activities that matter to you, is the atelic process of protesting injustice or doing your job. To value the process is not to flee from work or political engagement. That is why living in the present is not an abdication of ethical responsibility or a recipe for detachment.
    2. To live in the present is not to deny the value of telic activities, of making a difference in the world. That would be a terrible mistake. Nor can we avoid engaging in such activities. But if projects are all we value, our lives become self-subversive, aimed at extinguishing the sources of meaning within them. To live in the present is to refuse the excessive investment in projects, in achievements and results, that sees no inherent value in the process.
    3. “If you are learning, you have not at the same time learned.” When you care about telic activities, projects such as writing a report, getting married or making dinner, satisfaction is always in the future or the past. It is yet to be achieved and then it is gone. Telic activities are exhaustible; in fact, they aim at their own exhaustion. They thus exhibit a peculiar self-subversion. In valuing and so pursuing these activities, we aim to complete them, and so to expel them from our lives.
    1. Please read this Arbitration Agreement carefully. It is part of your contract with Instructure and affects your rights. It contains procedures for MANDATORY BINDING ARBITRATION AND A CLASS ACTION WAIVER. (a) Applicability of Arbitration Agreement. All claims and disputes (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief as set forth below) in connection with the Terms or the use of any product or service provided by Instructure that cannot be resolved informally or in small claims court shall be resolved by binding arbitration on an individual basis under the terms of this Arbitration Agreement. This Arbitration Agreement applies to you and Instructure, and to any subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, employees, predecessors in interest, successors, and assigns, as well as all authorized or unauthorized users or beneficiaries of services or goods provided under the Terms. (b) Notice Requirement and Informal Dispute Resolution. Before either party may seek arbitration, the party must first send to the other party a written Notice of Dispute (“Notice”) describing the nature and basis of the claim or dispute, and the requested relief. A Notice to Instructure should be sent to: Attn: Legal Department, 6330 South 3000 East, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84121. After the Notice is received, you and Instructure may attempt to resolve the claim or dispute informally. If you and Instructure do not resolve the claim or dispute within 30 days after the Notice is received, either party may begin an arbitration proceeding. The amount of any settlement offer made by any party may not be disclosed to the arbitrator until after the arbitrator has determined the amount of the award, if any, to which either party is entitled. (c) Arbitration Rules. Arbitration shall be initiated through the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), an established alternative dispute resolution provider (“ADR Provider”) that offers arbitration as set forth in this section. If AAA is not available to arbitrate, the parties shall agree to select an alternative ADR Provider. The rules of the ADR Provider shall govern all aspects of this arbitration, including but not limited to the method of initiating and/or demanding arbitration, except to the extent such rules are in conflict with the Terms. The AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules governing the arbitration are available online at www.adr.org or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879. The arbitration shall be conducted by a single, neutral arbitrator. Any claims or disputes where the total amount of the award sought is less than Ten Thousand U.S. Dollars (US $10,000.00) may be resolved through binding non-appearance-based arbitration, at the option of the party seeking relief. For claims or disputes where the total amount of the award sought is Ten Thousand U.S. Dollars (US $10,000.00) or more, the right to a hearing will be determined by the Arbitration Rules. Any hearing will be held in a location within 100 miles of your residence, unless you reside outside of the United States, and unless the parties agree otherwise. Any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each party shall bear its own costs (including attorney’s fees) and disbursements arising out of the arbitration, and shall pay an equal share of the fees and costs of the ADR Provider. (d) Additional Rules for Non-appearance Based Arbitration: If non-appearance arbitration is elected, the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or based solely on written submissions; the specific manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration. The arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties. (e) Time Limits. If you or Instructure pursue arbitration, the arbitration action must be initiated and/or demanded within the statute of limitations (i.e., the legal deadline for filing a claim) and within any deadline imposed under the AAA Rules for the pertinent claim. (f) Authority of Arbitrator. If arbitration is initiated, the arbitrator will decide the rights and liabilities, if any, of you and Instructure, and the dispute will not be consolidated with any other matters or joined with any other cases or parties. The arbitrator shall have the authority to grant motions dispositive of all or part of any claim. The arbitrator shall have the authority to award monetary damages and to grant any non-monetary remedy or relief available to an individual under applicable law, the AAA Rules, and the Terms. The arbitrator shall issue a written award and statement of decision describing the essential findings and conclusions on which the award is based, including the calculation of any damages awarded. The arbitrator has the same authority to award relief on an individual basis that a judge in a court of law would have. The award of the arbitrator is final and binding upon you and Instructure. (g) Waiver of Jury Trial. THE PARTIES HEREBY WAIVE THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY RIGHTS TO GO TO COURT AND HAVE A TRIAL IN FRONT OF A JUDGE OR A JURY, instead electing that all claims and disputes shall be resolved by arbitration under this Arbitration Agreement. Arbitration procedures are typically more limited, more efficient and less costly than rules applicable in court and are subject to very limited review by a court. In the event any litigation should arise between you and Instructure in any state or federal court in a suit to vacate or enforce an arbitration award or otherwise, YOU AND INSTRUCTURE WAIVE ALL RIGHTS TO A JURY TRIAL, instead electing that the dispute be resolved by a judge. (h) Waiver of Class or Consolidated Actions. ALL CLAIMS AND DISPUTES WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THIS ARBITRATION AGREEMENT MUST BE ARBITRATED OR LITIGATED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT ON A CLASS BASIS, AND CLAIMS OF MORE THAN ONE CUSTOMER OR USER CANNOT BE ARBITRATED OR LITIGATED JOINTLY OR CONSOLIDATED WITH THOSE OF ANY OTHER CUSTOMER OR USER. (i) Confidentiality. All aspects of the arbitration proceeding, including but not limited to the award of the arbitrator and compliance therewith, shall be strictly confidential. The parties agree to maintain confidentiality unless otherwise required by law. This Paragraph shall not prevent a party from submitting to a court of law any information necessary to enforce this Agreement, to enforce an arbitration award, or to seek injunctive or equitable relief. (j) Severability. If any part or parts of this Arbitration Agreement are found under the law to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, then such specific part or parts shall be of no force and effect and shall be severed and the remainder of the Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. (k) Right to Waive. Any or all of the rights and limitations set forth in this Agreement may be waived by the party against whom the claim is asserted. Such waiver shall not waive or effect any other portion of this Agreement. (l) Survival of Agreement. This Arbitration Agreement will survive the termination of your relationship with Instructure. (m) Small Claims Court. Notwithstanding the foregoing, either you or Instructure may bring an individual action in small claims court. (n) Emergency Equitable Relief. Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may seek emergency equitable relief before a state or federal court in order to maintain the status quo pending arbitration. A request for interim measures shall not be deemed a waiver of any other rights or obligations under this Arbitration Agreement. (o) Claims Not Subject To Arbitration. Notwithstanding the foregoing, claims of defamation, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and infringement or misappropriation of the other party’s patent, copyright, trademark, or trade secret shall not be subject to this arbitration agreement. (p) Courts. In any circumstances where the foregoing Agreement permits the parties to litigate in court, the parties hereby agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within Salt Lake County, Utah, for such purpose. 14.7 Governing Law. The Terms and any action related thereto will be governed and interpreted by and under the laws of the State of Utah, consistent with the Federal Arbitration Act, without giving effect to any conflicts of law principles that provide for the application of the law of another jurisdiction. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply to this Agreement. 14.8 Notice. Where Instructure requires that you provide an e-mail address to access certain features of the Instructure Properties, you are responsible for providing Instructure with your most current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail address you provided to Instructure is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering to you any notices required/ permitted by the Terms, Instructure’s dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice. You may give notice to Instructure at the following address: Attn: Legal Department, 6330 South 3000 East, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84121. Such notice shall be deemed given when received by Instructure by letter delivered by nationally recognized overnight delivery service or first class postage prepaid mail at the above address.

      Okay, your probably wondering why I highlighted this WHOLE chunk of article but I think I have a good reason. I highlighted all of this because it is what I feel like a lot of people do. People will most of the times JUMP whole sections in the terms of use barely anyone reads them now adays. People skip them all together or read the first lines in most cases since people would rather get to their new game / account / then to ' waste ' their time reading a whole terms of use.

  5. Aug 2017
    1. The Web We Need to Give Students

      The title itself is expressive towards the fact that the educational system has been trying to come up with many ways to help students manage their understanding of the web in general.

      some 170 bills proposed so far ...

      Its no surprise tha tthe schools can share data with companies and researchers for their own benefits. Some of these actions are violations of privacy laws.

      arguments that restrictions on data might hinder research or the development of learning analytics or data-driven educational software.

      Unbelievable! The fact that there is actually a problem with the fact that students or anyone wants their privacy, but abusing companies and businesses can't handle invading others privacies is shocking. It seems to be a threat to have some privacy.

      Is it crazy that this reminds me of how the government wants to control the human minds?

      All the proof is there with telephone records, where the NSA breaches computers and cellphones of the public in order to see who they communicate with.

      Countries like Ethiopia; the government controls what the people view on their TV screens. They have complete control of the internet and everything is vetted. Privacy laws has passed! Regardless, no one is safe. For example: Hackers have had access to celebrity iCloud accounts, and exposed everything.

      The Domain of One’s Own initiative

      Does it really protect our identities?

      Tumblr?

      Virginia Woolf in 1929 famously demanded in A Room of One’s Own — the necessity of a personal place to write.

      Great analogy! Comparing how sometimes people need to be in a room all on their own in order to clear their minds and focus on their thoughts on paper to also how they express themselves in the web is a good analogy.

      ... the Domains initiative provides students and faculty with their own Web domain.

      So, the schools are promising complete privacy?

      ...the domain and all its content are the student’s to take with them.

      Sounds good!

      Cyberinfrastructure

      To be able to be oneself is great. Most people feel as if their best selves are expressed online rather than real life face-to-face interactions.

      Tumblr is a great example. Each page is unique to ones own self. That is what Tumblr sells, your own domain.

      Digital Portfolio

      Everyone is different. Sounds exciting to see what my domain would look like.

      High school...

      Kids under 13 already have iPhones, iPads, tablets and laptops. They are very aware to the technology world at a very young age. This domain would most likely help them control what they showcase online, before they grow older. Leaving a trail of good data would benefit them in the future.

      Digital citizenship:

      It teaches students and instructors how to use technology the right way.

      What is appropriate, and what is not appropriate?

      Seldom incluse students' input...

      Students already developed rich social lives.

      Google doc= easy access to share ones work.

      Leaving data trails behind.

      Understanding options on changes made?

      Being educated on what your privacy options are on the internet is a good way of protecting your work.

      Student own their own domain- learning portfolio can travel with them.

      If the students started using this new domain earlier in their lives, there should be less problems in schools coming up with positive research when it comes to the growth of the students on their data usages.

      School district IT is not the right steward for student work: the student is.

      So to my understanding, if the student is in the school, one has to remember to move around the files saved in the domain. The school is not responsible for any data lost, because the student is responsible for all their work.

      Much better position to control their work...

      If all of this is true and valid, it should not be a big deal then for the student to post what ever they want on their domain. No matter how extreme, and excessive it seems, if that is how they view themselves, their domain would be as unique as their personalities.

  6. Jul 2017
    1. Teach Source EvaluationSkillsIf you want to teach source evaluation skills, have small groups conduct research to answer a three-part problem such as this:1.How high is Mt. Fuji in feet?2.Find a different answer to this same question.3.Which answer do you trust and why do you trust it?As you observe students begin work on the third part of the problem, you likely will see a student begin to use the strategy that you have tar-geted: locating and evaluating the source of the information. When you see someone use this strategy, perhaps by clicking on a link to “About Us,” interrupt the other groups and have this student teach the strategy to the class, explaining how he or she evaluates a source for expertise and reliability. There are many inconsistent facts online that can also be used, just like this, to teach source evaluation including: “How long is the Mis-sissippi River?” or “What is the population of San Francisco?”
    1. "What our collaborative learning style empowers and enables is a student's resilience -- how do you look to your neighbor as a resource, how do you test your own theories, how do you understand if you're on the right track or the wrong track?" says Monique DeVane, College Prep's head of school. "It teaches them that it's not just about content; it's about cultivating habits of mind that are the underpinnings of deeper scholarship."
  7. Jun 2017
    1. the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights, adopted by a recorded vote of 30 in favour to 13 against with 3 abstentions, the Council calls upon all countries to realize people-centred development of the people, by the people and for the people, and also calls upon all States to spare no effort in promoting sustainable development, in particular while implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as it is conducive to the overall enjoyment of human rights. 
    1. On every received heartbeat, the coordinator starts (or resets) a timer. If no heartbeat is received when the timer expires, the coordinator marks the member dead and signals the rest of the group that they should rejoin so that partitions can be reassigned. The duration of the timer is known as the session timeout and is configured on the client with the setting session.timeout.ms. 

      Time to live for the consumers. If the heartbeat doesn't reach the co-ordindator in this duration then the co-ordinator redistributes the partitions to the remaining consumers in the consumer group.

  8. May 2017
    1. The reason we don’t know Dutch literature over here, according to Zwagerman, is because they barely know it themselves. The Dutch language has been in such constant flux over the past few centuries, he writes, that “many great works of 17th- and 18th- and 19th-century Dutch literature have to be translated into modern Dutch to make them accessible to the average reader”. Laurence Sterne? Jane Austen? Charlotte Brontë ? Imagine them all lost to us!
  9. Apr 2017
  10. Mar 2017
    1. Learningto complete a whole task involves four levels ofinstruction: (a) the problem, (b) the tasks re-quired to solve the problem, (c) the operationsthat comprise the tasks, and (d) the actions thatcomprise the operations. Effective instructionshould engage students in all four levels of per-formance: the problem level, the task-level, theoperation-level, and the action-level.

      Steps is learning to complete a whole task. This could be an extension of our matrix.

    2. Star Legacy by the Vanderbilt LearningTechnology Center, 4-Mat by McCarthy,instructional episodes by Andre, multipleapproaches to understanding by Gardner,collaborative problem solving by Nelson,constructivist learning environments byJonassen, and learning by doing by Schank.

      Something to investigate...

      especially "multiple approaches to understanding by Gardner"

  11. Feb 2017
    1. To engage with the lives of others, white audiences would have to encounter something far more frightening: their irrelevance. They would have to reckon with the fact that the work will not always speak to them, orient them, flatter them with tales of their munificence or infamy, or comfort them with stereotypes.

      In order to stop the erasure of the other, white people would have to take themselves out of the spotlight and realize not everything is for them. they would also have to encounter black suffering or something similar amongst themselves.

  12. Jan 2017
    1. until black women on social media began calling out the press for ignoring the story. Many reached for one word — ‘‘erasure’’ — for what they felt was happening. ‘‘Not covering the #Holtzclaw verdict is erasing black women’s lives from notice,’’ one woman tweeted. ‘‘ERASURE IS VIOLENCE.’’ Deborah Douglas, writing for Ebony magazine, argued that not reporting on the case ‘‘continues the erasure of black women from the national conversation on race, police brutality and the right to safety.’’

      black women are being erased from the discussion. Race in general plays a role on how much a topic is spoken about. This case was not even mentioned or discussed until black women started the talk.

  13. Dec 2016
  14. Nov 2016
  15. Oct 2016
    1. Previously, intensity-dependent metabolic changes have been found with positron emission tomography and blood oxygen level dependent magnetic resonance imaging after TMS to motor/prefrontal cortex; bilateral motor/prefrontal and auditory activation is induced, which becomes stronger with increasing pulse intensity [Bohning et al.,1999,2000; Fox et al.,1997; Nahas et al.,2001; Siebner et al.,1999; Speer et al.,2003]. However, these results are not directly comparable with our EEG findings. Arising a few seconds poststimulus, metabolic changes reflect relatively long-lasting activity of interconnected neuronal networks, whereas we were interested in the TMS-evoked events that occurred within a fraction of a second.
  16. Sep 2016
  17. Aug 2016
    1. VISITS

      I'm not sure exactly where this would fit in, but some way to reporting total service hours (per week or other time period) would be useful, esp as we start gauging traffic, volume, usage against number of service hours. In our reporting for the Univ of California, we have to report on services hours for all public service points.

      Likewise, it may be helpful to have a standard way to report staffing levels re: coverage of public service points? or in department? or who work on public services?

    1. TWITTER_PAT=/Users/mwk/twitter_tokens

      on my machine, I had to set the twitter path in the R console; couldn't quite suss how this text document worked. So, what I used:

      Sys.setenv(TWITTER_PAT="/Users/shawngraham/twitter_tokens")

      which probably isn't a good place to keep the tokens, but that's where they went when I did the normalize thing above.

    1. Page 2

      Borgman on the responsibility of rears to assess reliability and the ability of content creators to have control over their work:

      these are exciting and confusing times for scholarship. The proliferation of digital content allows new questions to be asked in new ways, but also results unduplication and dispersion. Authors can disseminate their work more widely by posting online, but readers have the additional responsibility of assessing trust and authenticity. Changes in intellectual property laws give Pharmacontrol to the creators of digital content that was available for printed comment, but the resulting business models often constrain access to scholarly resources. Students acquire an insatiable appetite for digital publications, and then find an graduation that they can barely sample them without institutional affiliations.

  18. Jul 2016
    1. That is what Barack and I think about every day as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight, how we urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith.

      Many writers and thinkers have speculated about how the first black family has dealt with the what historian Carol Anderson calls the inevitable "white rage" backlash to Obama's election. Having served her time, Michelle seems more willing to take the criticisms head-on. This is what many of us would call "shade".

    2. How we insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country.

      This line does some work. On one level, it is red meat for colorblind white (and some non-white) liberals who require all black figures to be hopeful (I've discussed this more here: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/between-the-world-and-me-book-club-not-trying-to-get-into-heaven/400271/).

      On another level, it is doing some inter-group communication or what Stuart Hall called encoding/decoding and what Mark Anthony Neal translates into "black code" when he talks about Hall's work through modern media cultures. Obama is signaling here that she has noted those who have directed racist, sexist, classist rhetoric at her family. She has taken note.

    3. So, look, so don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on earth!

      This is a dig at Donald's nihilism the other night. But it is also saying, hey, there is no great american past. Remember, Obama had just referenced slavery a paragraph earlier. She's making an elegant case that any allusion to the past is necessarily one that is closer to slavery. We are great now, she says, because we are at least greater than that. It is the idea that for black Americans, this country's best days are always necessarily yet to come. It's a stark contrast to the idea that America was only great when, as historian Ira Katznelson said, "affirmative action was white".

  19. Jun 2016
    1. It is important to note, however, that throughout all of this, we have always had the best intentions.

      Will sound like a rhetorical question, but still: why is it important to note this? Or, more specifically, who is this important for? People from this project have been heard clinging to their intentions, before this (as Courtney Martin notes, very candid) update. In some ways, the “best intentions” are the very problem to be solved. The project wasn’t something which happened from the ground up. It was based on some people’s best intentions. As Martin also noted, those on the other side of the equation probably didn’t receive the same kind of apology. But they’re the real victims, here. In this kind of work, doing something is often much much worse than doing nothing. This update, while candid, resonates with Negroponte’s attitude:

      people really don't want to criticize this, because it is a humanitarian effort, a nonprofit effort and to criticize it is a little bit stupid, actually.

      As Tiny Spark is showing, time and time again, humanitarianism is precisely what requires deep and broad critical thinking. Not merely “best intentions”.

  20. May 2016
  21. Apr 2016
  22. Feb 2016
    1. Connections betweenvariables are specified to form a network, and inferencing aboutthe value of a variable in the network is accomplished by Bayesiancalculations on other variables connected to it (Millán, Loboda, &Pérez-de-la-Cruz, 2010).

      Does technology dictate pedagogy? If so - do certain ITS' lock in a specific pedagogy - if so which one?

    2. Under both the fixed- and random-effects models,overlap in confidence intervals indicates that effect sizes werenot moderated by whether or not the ITS provided feedback.

      Contrary to VanLehn.

    3. Post hoc analysesfound that studies which used ITS for separate, in-class activ-ities and homework had significantly higher weighted meaneffect sizes than those which used ITS for other purposes suchas principal instruction.

      Why don't we see larger gains when using ITS to replace instruction?

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. For example, ITSstudies often citedSleeman and Brown (1982)as the originalsource of ITS terminology, and many ITS studies mentionedartificial intelligence as the precursor of the ITS field.

      Important historical document to ITS

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. measure cognitive learning outcomes such as retention, transfer, orfree recall;

      Retention, transfer & free recall - Looking at this I'm thinking I should read up on how learning is measured.

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. no-tutoring (reading)

      I bet students have wildy different reading styles - meaning some use better metacog. strategies. I wonder if there's greater variability within scores on no-tutoring versus the tutored treatments.

    2. Nonetheless, it is likely thatnearly all the relevant studies have been located and correctlyclassified, in part because the author has worked for more thanthree decades in the tutoring research community.

      What's VanLehn's opinion on ITS & the future of edtech, as well as research required?

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Over the past few years, the market research literature has reflected a concern about the quality of face-to-face market research as compared to online surveys and polls. Manfreda, Bosnjak, Berzelak, Haas, and Vehovar (2008) analyzed other studies that compared response rates from Web-based surveys to response rates of at least one other survey delivery method. Web survey responses were, on average, eleven percent lower than the other methods investigated. In their study of face-to-face survey responses as compared to online survey responses, Heerwegh and Looseveldt (2008) concluded that responses to Web surveys were of poorer quality and, overall, less suffi-cient than responses to surveys conducted face-to-face.

      face-to-face surveying produces greater results than web-based surveys.

    1. Why do you think that King Affonso let the Portuguese enslave his subjects at first? Inthe letter below, why does the king now request regulations?

      It seems that King Affonso may have allowed the Portuguese to enslave his subjects at first without knowing the possible repercussions. As the saying goes, "if you give an inch, they'll take a mile". In addition, the Portuguese began kidnapping the people, including noblemen. After seeing all that was happening, King Affonso must have came to a realization that there was something wrong, leading to his request for regulations.

      1. Why do you think that King Affonso let the Portuguese enslave his subjects at first?
      2. I believe that King Alfonso thought it was a good idea to enslave his subjects at first because it could help boost his wealth and the country's wealth without paying the people who actually did the work. He did not want lower-class people in his country because he wanted all the things he wanted in order to live a luxurious life.
      3. In the letter below, why does the king now request regulations?
      4. The King was finally hearing from all of his people that many of the people in Portugal were being taken away for slavery. He set guidelines because he realized many of the people were being enslaved for no reason at all.
  23. Jan 2016
  24. Dec 2015
    1. Roassal maps objects and connections to graphical elements and edges. In additions, values and metrics are represented in visual dimentions (e.g., width, height, intensity of graphical elements). Such mapping is an expressive way to build flexible and rich visualization. This chapter gives an overview of Roassal and its main API. It covers the essential concepts of Roassal, such as the view, elements, shapes, and interactions.

      I would try a less technical introduction to combine with this one. How about:

      When we're building a visualization, we want the properties of the objects in our domain to be expressed graphically, by shapes, connections and visual dimensions like width, height, intensity of graphical elements. Roassal builds such mappings as an expressive way to build flexible and rich visualizations.

    1. c := TRCanvas new. shape := TRBoxShape new size: 40. c addShape: shape. shape when: TRMouseClick do: [ :event | event shape remove. c signalUpdate ]. c

      I get this error MessageNotUnderstood: TRMouseLeftClick>>myCircle for this similar code:

      | canvas myCircle data |
      canvas := TRCanvas new.
      myCircle := TREllipseShape new size: 100; color: Color white.
      data := #('lion-o' 'panthro' 'tigro' 'chitara' 'munra' 'ozimandias' 'Dr Manhatan').
      canvas addShape: myCircle.
      myCircle when: TRMouseClick do: [:event | event myCircle remove. canvas signalUpdate  ].
      canvas
      

      If I change myCircle with shape it works fine, but I wouldn't imagine that variable names could be so picky. Generic names should work (circle doesn't work neither).

  25. Nov 2015
    1. G.Nelson

      In their article, “Cartographies of Race and Class: Mapping the Class-Monopoly Rents of American Subprime Mortgage Capital,” Elvin Wyly, Markus Moos, Daniel Hammel, and Emanuel Kabahizi illustrate that in order to understand the subprime housing crisis of twenty-ought, one needs to understand the structural inequalities of class-monopoly rent. The understanding of class-monopoly rent has not gone away, but has shifted from a local landlord to an international landlord that regulates the renter upon the predatory practices of subprime lending. Variable rates, expensive fees, and asymmetrical information controls the tenants, like that of the 1960s land-installment contracts.

      The group quickly illustrates the process of creating and packaging subprime loans. A bank or mortgage company to a borrower draws up a mortgage; that loan is quickly sold off to a Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE); in return, the bank or mortgage company receives cash to make more loans. The original loan is, then, pooled into Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) –which are backed by Wall Street Investment Banks—and are sold around the world to various public and private institutions. The group highlights that at the time of rising home prices, the risk of a default is limited and the financial impact on the bond (MBSs and CDOs) is relatively mute. The bank could force a new mortgage, and the equity that was in the home would go to generate more income for the bank or, essentially, drop the homeowner and force them to become a renter.

      In 1995, the Subprime markets accounted for $65 billion, but by 2006, the markets mushroomed to $625 billion. In 2007 a rush of delinquencies, defaults, and foreclosures, along with decreasing home values, created a credit crunch in the economy and chipped away at the confidence of the investors of MBSs and CDOs. This left the U.S. government vulnerable in which the Federal Reserve took dramatic action to buy up MBSs and of unknown values and government bonds to free up banks’ balance sheets.

      Instead of taking blame within the financial markets, industry-defenders blamed the imperfect markets, the consumers for taking out more than they could manage, and the attempt by institutions to help more individuals then the markets could handle. The group illustrates, however, that institutionalized racial inequality because of credit-worthiness and lending practices are to blame for the systemic credit crunch of the twenty-ought.

      Risk-based pricing --a theory that determines that an individuals ability to borrow and at what rate—has been the basis philosophy of financial markets of the last twenty years. However, the group illustrates how the philosophy has come under attack recently, and provides anything but the rosey picture that it once promised. The theory only deters moneylenders from lending to minorities and low-income individuals by providing a justification of denial to entry.

      A social problem of the lack of access to homeownerships for the “underserved” (minorities and low-income individuals) gradually brought about State and Federal regulations and programs to assist homeownership for the underserved. Within the 1960s, for minorities to build up credit worthiness and equity for a bank to justify a mortgage --even if the minority already had the sufficient income to justify a mortgage—the minority would utilize a land-installment contract. This path towards homeownership often carried higher premiums. Within the 1980s, a series of laws made specific types of loans and lenders exempt from regulatory practices (337). Through the 1990s, federal and state regulators maintained the effort of providing traditional mortgages to the underserved, but at the turn of the century, small lending firms, which were backed by Wall Street, began to provide loans that were not restricted by state and federal regulations. Asymmetrical information, lack of knowledge by the consumers, led many to believe that this is the only way for them to own a home. These small lending firms were bought up by national banks and accounted them as subsidiaries, which allowed the bank to carry the exempt status in its subsidiary firm and continue the predatory practices, but now at this time, in a much grander scale. The loan restriction of the 1960s –which stems from racism-- has only transformed itself back to loan restrictions of today because of the predatory lending that is justified by the risk-based pricing theory.

      I am illustrating the foresaid points of the article in my annotation to emphasize the foundation of racial-lending practices that span decades within the U.S. financial system. This will be imperative to tie into the financial credit crisis of 2008, and how municipalities suffered from this sort of practice.<br> G.Nelson

    1. G.Nelson

      In her article, “Government Budgets as the Hunger Games: The Brutal Competition for State and Local Government Resources Given Municipal Securities Debt, Pension and OBEP Obligations, and Taxpayer Needs,” Professor Christine Chung provides an eye opening and thorough analysis of Detroit’s economic woes. She summarizes the latest statistical findings, which illustrates the severe loss in residents, property blight, crime rates, the maximum statutory limit of taxation reached, citizen flight, and the loss of jobs. Moreover, she illustrates the budgetary debt constraints that have ballooned to more than $18 billion, which helped prompt Detroit to file for bankruptcy; the debt to revenue ratio will only increase over the next few years; bondholders are expected to lose a substantial amount of their investment from the bankruptcy. Chung illustrates that the City’s collapse preceded by an incremental decrease in jobs. From 1970 to 2012 the number of jobs declined from 735,104 to 346,545 (Chung 666).

      She illustrates that Detroit is not an exceptional case, but there are numerous municipalities that are struggling to pay debt and other obligations, e.g. pensions. Currently, out of the participating states and localities, only $2.35 trillion has been set aside to pay pensions, health care, and OPEB promised to public sector employees; however, the actual estimated cost is around $3.5 trillion: more than $1 trillion in unfunded obligations (Chung 669).

      Because of Detroit’s financial instruments used to manage their budgetary obligations, they took a high stake wager on interest rates, and when the rates declined, “Detroit lost catastrophically on the swaps bet” (Chung 670). Some municipalities have used derivatives to win, but others, e.g. Orange County, California and Jefferson County, Alabama, have lost or struggled with the financial instruments.

      Chung posits that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act does not go far enough to protect stakeholders or prevent from imprudent financial-decisions-makers from erring in how they utilize risky financial instruments. She finalizes her article with the following regulatory recommendations, which should provide a clearer picture of a City’s budget, obligations and revenues: "(i) requiring compliance with uniform accounting standards, so that stakeholders can get a better sense of the state of state and local government budgets; (ii) creating a data collection resource and oversight body to help identify and manage risks associated with complex instruments, (iii) creating a data collection resources and oversight body to help identify and management risks associated with public employee compensation (particularly pensions and OPEB), and (iv) expanding the reach of the fiduciary standard to a broader range of stakeholders involved in local government financial decision-making, including public officials, underwriters, and derivatives counterparties.” (Chung 671)

      Honest politicians, clear and transparent accounting, and realistic demands on the City’s and State’s resources are needed, even at the cost of upsetting some constituents. A norm can be redeveloped that can help Cities create stability and longevity.

      G.Nelson

    1. G.Nelson

      In their article, “Detroit’s Bankruptcy Settlement will not solve the city’s problems,” Gary Sands, Laura A. Reese, and Mark Skidmore depict core problems associated with the budgetary woes of Detroit, and list four possible scenarios that can happen to Detroit. The group provides a brief descriptive-statistical overview of the decline of Detroit. Since the 1950s, Detroit has lost more than 90% of the manufacturing jobs, and since 2000, employment in downtown has fallen 30%. Real estate has lost an average of 48% since the high in 2006. The number of residents has decreased by more than 60 percent since 1950s.

      The Group illustrates that the shrinking tax base, extremely underfunded pension liabilities, and shrinking public services, coupled with a racial divide and poor public leadership sets Detroit apart from other municipalities that are suffering similar financial stresses. Detroit is usually noted for being the “most racially segregated US metropolitan area” (Sands 2).

      Detroit has functioned as a “vendor regime,” where subsidies are issued to private businesses for urban renewal and redevelopment efforts. The private businesses are seen to benefit more than public interests, however, and this has led to “instances of mismanagement and public corruption.”

      The overall goal of the bankruptcy is to bring about a financial viability and recovery; however, the group believes that latter is unlikely, but the bankruptcy will focus on how bondholders, pensioners, and other liabilities will be paid out and by how much.

      The Group predicts four likely scenarios for Detroit: i) “Municipal operations could be reduced to the barest essentials, including only the services that could be supported by a realistic budget that ensures the City is able to maintain fiscal balance. ii) Many, even all, public sector functions of the residual Detroit could be taken over by other governmental entities, including newly-created local or regional authorities or by the county or state. iii) Detroit could be dissolved as a municipal corporation with the more viable areas incorporating as smaller municipalities (The State of Michigan has recently used this approach to dissolve two small, insolvent public school districts). In some instances, the more viable areas might be annexed by adjacent suburban municipalities. The balance of the Detroit territory would revert to Wayne county control. iv) The city becomes a de facto colony, with its resources exploited primarily for the benefit of others. This scenario has considerable currency among Detroiters, but it may be the least likely of the potential outcomes. In reality, for most suburbanites, Detroit offers little of value.” (Sands 3)

      The group posits that the city will definitely be different in the future, but the hope and dream of an imminent recovery is unlikely. Racism, mistrust, and antipathy will be issues that need to be overcome.

      G.Nelson

  26. Oct 2015
    1. G.Nelson

      I am utilizing this weeks article review to assist us and expand upon Meagan Jordan’s article, “Punctuations and Agendas: A New Look at Local Government Budget Expenditure.” Also, I’d like to link her analysis of intergovernmental aid and developmental expenditures together, and illustrate how a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grant can have an influence on the local budget, via political and economic influence upon the decision-makers and, thus, the agenda.

      A Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) is a grant from the Federal government to assist in the funding of certain projects with stipulated mandates, and the state, then, awards a part of the grant to a local municipality or government to aid in economic growth and, or a revitalization project. This can have an impact of local budgets.

      The City of Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit, provides a “Guide To Compliance with Section 3 Requirements: Employment Opportunities For Low Income Residents of Royal Oak.” The purpose of this guide is to provide the Federal mandated requirements and information associated with HUD-funded project, specifically CNBGs, to the civilian contractor. Within Section 3, employment preference is mandated to first seek and hire low-income residents or businesses within the Metropolitan Detroit area. This mandate will cover any contractor that receives more than $100,000 from the City of Royal Oak.

      To identify the individual or business to be preferred under this mandate, Section 3 list the following factors: The individual is a recipient of public housing or a housing choice voucher, and lives in the Metropolitan Detroit area with an income less than 80% of the area median income (AMI); the business is 51% owned by a Section 3 individual, 30% of the employees are Section 3 individuals, and 25% of subcontractors under the contract are Section 3 businesses.

      Strict penalties are enforced upon the individual or business if found non-compliant and neglects to remedy the non-compliant issue. The individual or business may have their contract cancelled, face legal and equitable remedies for a contract default, and be suspended from future HUD contracts.

      I will investigate further into how CDBGs dictate and change the local budget and politics of Detroit, specifically, after the 2013 bankruptcy.

      G.Nelson

    1. G.Nelson

      In Matt Egan’s article, “Dr. Doom: This ‘Time Bomb’ Will Trigger Next Financial Collapse,” illustrates how the man, Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the 2008-09 financial crisis is predicting the next financial crisis. The next financial crisis will be a “liquidity time bomb.” After the 2008-09 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve created liquidity in the markets by buying up illiquid assets through quantitative easing. Quantitative easing is a policy were the Federal Reserve buys up troubled assets through the creation of dollars, i.e. debt creation. An illiquid asset is something, like a bond, that is not easily tradable, especially in a time of crisis.

      Egan illustrates that in 2010 and 2013 the financial markets were shocked by illiquidity. Even with the mentioning of the Federal Reserve’s intent to someday cut back or cease their Quantitative Easing program, the markets reeled and temporarily crashed.

      Paradoxically, the Federal Reserve’s policy of providing liquidity in illiquid market situations has only exasperated the liquidity problem by magnifying the situation from the dollars created to buy up illiquid financial instruments.

      Egan illustrates three reasons for illiquid markets: Herding behavior, bonds are not stocks, and banks are missing in action.

      Roubini is depicted as stating, “ironically,” the federal reserves policy of money creation, has created financial bubbles, and has ballooned asset prices in valuation higher than where they should be. As more investors rush into illiquid investments, such as bonds, the likelihood of a crash becomes more palpable, and the carnage that will come from such a collapse, will reverberate throughout the world. This is where the article ends, and I illustrate the bigger impacts and depths of the liquidity crisis

      The liquidity crisis illustrates a small underlying problem associated with the 2008-09 financial crisis: the Federal Reserves policy of bubble creation and destruction since the 1930s. A Keynesian philosophy of economics originated in the 1930s, and is finally illustrating the cogitative fallacy associated with growth via a debt-based fiat-monetary system. This has big implication for the availability and strength of the US Dollar in the near future, and impacts everyone and everything around the world from mom and pop in the US, municipal bonds, corporate financial systems, to the factory workers in China. I am focusing on the broader macro picture, so you two can illuminate the direct impact of the financial problems that arise therein.

      G.Nelson

    1. G.Nelson

      Blanchard, Dave. “Manufacturers’ Big Squeeze Puts Pressure on Supplierss.” Industry Week/IW 262.5 (2013): 40-41. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Oct. 2015

      In light of the recession, Dave Blanchard explains in his article, “Manufacturers’ Big Squeeze Puts Pressure on Suppliers,” manufacturers are looking for ways to shore up cash flow. Large companies are looking to expand their payment arrangements to their suppliers for services and, or products rendered from 45 to 70 days. For the small to mid-sized suppliers of larger companies, this can greatly affect the smaller company’s cash flow and profits. Smaller companies may go to commercial lending companies, banks, and request a “factoring” service. Factoring is when a bank or lending institution looks at the accounts receivable and lends the company 70% to 90% of the value therein. The bank or lending institution will, then, usually charge 1.5% to 5.5% of the “total face value of the invoice.”

      Blanchard illustrates how one company in the plastic industry utilized this banking technique of factoring to expand the growth of the company domestically and internationally. I find some issues with this technique of factoring, though. If any company is relying on credit markets and tools to grow or finance the company, the company is instantly losing 1.5% to 5.5% of potential profit to banking fees. Since the big companies are rearranging their finances due to the recession, is a small to mid-sized company trying to grow when the headwinds of a recession is attempting to push them back? A couple of questions that are not directly being answered in this article: since the big companies are expanding their payment arrangements to shore up cash flow, will this drive the big company to expand business? Will this expansion help the suppliers? Or is the factoring by small and mid-sized just a domino effect of the debt crisis of 2008-09?

      Even though this article is short, the article illustrates the creativity that is within the financial markets, but also illustrates the potential risks of easy debt through creative financial mechanisms. Part of the issue that caused the 2008-09 crisis was debt, specifically derivatives. Even though factoring is --assuming-- to be limited to 45 to 70 days, commercial or investment banks my be able to bundle an amalgamation of factorings by multiple companies to sell to investors of debt, and if one company, or more, defaults on the factoring because a larger company defaults on their payment to suppliers, the underlying value of the amalgamated-bundle of factorings would default and result in a domino effect; thus, a 2008-09 crisis would once again rise up to smack the GDP down.

      Does the Dodd-Frank Act account for this? My next article will be Dodd-Frank specific.

      G.Nelson

    1. G.Nelson

      Rugy, Veronique de. "The Municipal Debt Bubble." Reason 42.8 (2011): 20-21. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

      In Veronique Rugy’s article, “The Municipal Debt Bubble,” she posits that the municipal bond markets are heading for a “housing-like crisis,” and with federal-incentive policies and private investors looking for a safe heaven from current market turmoil, the municipal bond market will be turning into an unsustainable financial-bubble, like that of the 2006 housing bubble.

      Since the 2008 financial crisis, she states, the demand for a safe haven has pushed investors into the municipal bond markets. Municipal bond markets are relatively safe and attractive in a time of financial uncertainty: “[T]he default rate for municipal bonds has average .o1 percent annually” (Rugy). This was the perceived notion on U.S. housing mortgages before the housing crisis of 2006. Rugy illustrates that if a state or local government wants to increase spending, they must issue bonds. Bonds have been utilized to fund projects ranging from stadiums, schools, bridges, to museums. Since 2009, however, they have increased by 800% and have recently been utilized to cover “basic operational expenses” (Rugy).

      In 2009, the federal government created “The Build America Bonds program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” (Rugy). Rugy illustrates that this program was utilized to subsidize local and state infrastructure programs. Through this act, the federal government directly paid part of the interest on the municipal bond, and with private investors seeking a safe heaven from corporate bonds, and tax incentives of investing in muni-bonds, the supply of municipal bonds where quickly bought up by private investors. Private investors, along with state and local officials, believe that if the banks were “too big to fail” then surely the municipal bonds would be “too big to fail.” Rugy illustrates that this assumption has lead to risky municipal bonds being issued to localities that are near bankruptcy, like Detroit and Los Angeles. This sort of risky loans operation is what fueled the housing crisis of 2006.

      Like the 2006 housing crisis, investors have started to hedge, protect themselves, from a muni-bond crisis. Investors can purchase Credit Derivative Swaps (CDS) as an insurance against failing bonds. The price of CDS can be indicative of the underlying assumptions that investors have toward bonds, and recently, the prices have been increasing, just like what happened before and during the 2008 financial crisis on corporate bonds.

      Rugy believes that there will be a muni-bond crisis in the near future. Since her article, Detroit has been in an annual bankruptcy process that has written off muni-bonds, costing taxpayers billions. Similarly, Puerto Rico has had muni-bond problems, which is tied in with US muni-bonds. If enough muni-bonds fail, a domino-like effect will overwhelm not just the U.S. economy, the global economy, as well, like that of the 2008 crisis. This time, however, the Fed is more limited in resources and jurisdiction to limit the financial fallout.

      G.Nelson

  27. Sep 2015
    1. G.Nelson

      [http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/matthew-kerkhoff/fed-s-dilemma]

      Kerkhoff, Matthew. "The Fed's Dilemma." The Fed's Dilemma. Financial Sense, 11 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

      In Matthew Kerkhoff’s article, “The Fed’s Dilemma,” he examines what the Federal Reserve will do, in regards to interest rates (leave put or raise rates), when they release their FOMC Statement at the end of September 2015. Kerkhoff utilize market indicators, such as the GDP quarterly reports, jobless claims and job growth, corporate profits, tax revenue collected, personal income levels, consumer spending, consumer sentiment and confidence, yield curves, to illustrate to the reader that the U.S. economy is in a relatively strong position, and this should be a positive indicator for the Fed to start to raise rates.

      Kerkhoff illustrates that the Fed has two components in which they primarily utilize as indicators to move rates or keep rates constant: “Maximum employment and price stability --defined as 2% inflation” (Kerkhoff). In regards to maximum employment, Kerkhoff utilizes the U-6 rate, “a broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged and underemployed workers,” is relatively high (Kerkhoff). Moreover, wage growth, an individuals salary, is less than ideal, and is not showing significant growth. The Fed is, also, missing the second mandated component to raise rates: Inflation. Kerkoff depicts that domestic inflation is relatively stagnant, hasn’t moved much since 2012, and the deflationary pressures from around are working to keep domestic inflation down. Furthermore, the IMF and World Bank requested the Fed to withhold from raising rates, stating that it could have adverse affects to the many countries and markets that are currently struggling.

      If the Fed were to raise rates, Kerkhoff hits on a key point about the ramifications that could ensue. A higher rate means a stronger U.S. dollar, which means the products manufactured within the U.S. are more expensive to foreign consumers. This, in turn, would lower future growth, and also, create stronger deflationary pressures, but this time from within the U.S. Kerkhoff only brushes slightly on the issue of currency wars, however, by stating that other countries are working to devalue their own currencies in order to drive growth” (Kerkoff). This move by other countries to devalue their dollars acts as a catalyst for other nations, investors, individuals, and groups to flood into the U.S. dollar to protect themselves from devaluation, thus, causing more deflationary pressure upon the U.S. economy.

      At the end of September, Kerkoff sees that the Fed could go either way in how they deal with interest rates --leave put or raise rates. In the past, Kerkoff illustrates, the Fed has worked to raise rates to control a growing economy, but this time they are simply trying to maintain a “’normative’ interest rate policy” (Kerkoff). It is unusual to have rates near zero when the economy looks so “robust.” Kerkoff believes it’s best for the Fed to raise rates because of the strength of the U.S. economy, and the mandated components do not involve global growth.

      G.Nelson

    1. G.Nelson

      Swagel, Phillip. "Legal, Political, and Institutional Constraints on the Financial Crisis Policy Response †." Journal of Economic Perspectives 29.2 (2015): 107-22. Web.

      Phillip Swagel, former Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the US Department of Treasury, discusses in his essay, “Legal, Political, and Institutional Constraints on the Financial Crisis Policy Response,” that the US policymakers response to the 2007 and 2008 financial crisis was shaped by the limited legal authority and tools available to the US Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve at that time, and how new tools and authority –access to public money and greater jurisdiction-- were made available because of the financial crisis’ “’unusual and exigent’” stresses upon the broader US economy (Swagel 107). The new tools and authority of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve were not imminent, but required the crisis to unfold more seriously, so that the policymakers could realize the economic emergency as more of a pressing issue and pass legislation that would grant the Fed and Treasury Department more tools.

      The Treasury Department and the Federal reserve had the following tools at the ready, pre 2007 and 2008 crisis: Discount window was available for banks in need, discount in the federal funds interest rate, FDIC backing, and encouragement for investors not to fire sale their assets and to avoid foreclosure on properties. However, a majority of tools were not available for the investment or insurance institutions that held a substantial amount of subprime loans and derivatives. Swagel illustrates that the Federal Reserve’s and Treasury Department’s tools were not just underwhelming in their initial attempt at remedying the crisis, but they, also, initially underestimated the seriousness and complexity of the crisis, as did the policymakers.

      At the collapse of Bear Stearns, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve realized that more investment firms would soon collapse if new tools and authorities were not granted. Swagel illustrates that the Fed turned to its only ace in the hole: “emergency authority…[to] lend to ‘any individual, partnership, or corporation’” if a loss is not expected (Swagel 110-1). Even with the Fed’s ability to loan a limited amount of assistance, this legal authority did not give the Fed or Treasury Department direct access to public money, however. After Bear Stearns’ negotiated bailout with the Fed, it took nearly 6 more months, October 2008, to enact the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that created the Troubled Asset Relief Program [(TARP)]” (Swagel 111). Beforehand, the Treasury Department understood that even attempting to approach congress without a real-time economic crisis of illiquid assets and credit market seizures, congress would “loath” the idea of providing public funds to investment banks for bailouts.

      Under the same tools of restraint and provisions that granted the Fed the option to bailout Bear Stearns, Swagel illustrates that it was the decision of the Fed not to bail out Lehman Brothers that led to an even tighter constraint on market liquidity and seizures within the credit market. With limited options from the Fed and Treasury Department, the unforeseen consequences of letting Lehman Brothers collapse exasperated the crisis further and put a constraint on debt markets, which affected normal government operations of securing debt. Two days after refusing to bailout Lehman Brothers, however, the Fed provided loan assistance to AIG, American International Group, an insurance company, because the Fed believed AIG to be more financially sound and important to the US economy. The deal between AIG and the Fed was not clean or clear, however, and the two are currently in litigation, today, from the deal struck in 2008. The same week of the AIG and Fed deal, TARP was proposed --which passed a few weeks later in October 2008-- and two more banks failed, WAMU and Wachovia (Swagel 117). With TARP, the Treasury Department would be able to provide financial support to the markets of $700 billion. Swagel illustrates that if the Fed and Treasury Department had the tools earlier and the foresight, the crisis could have been more contained, but the policymakers would not have been able to justify the $700 billion cost of TARP without such a monumental crisis.

      Swagel contends that if another financial crisis happens relatively soon, the Fed and Treasury Department will be limited in how they can intervene because of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill and the expenditure of an already lowered interest rate by the Fed. Politicians stumped on the promise of not bailing out businesses that were “too big to fail,” so the likelihood of congress approving another direct infusion of funds, such as TARP, would be improbable, but with the Dodd-Frank act, governments may be able to seize businesses directly to control operations and direct the losses onto the bond holders and investors, which will limit the loss to the taxpayer because of new FDIC provisions. Swagel states that by studying what happened from the 2007 and 2008 collapse, a more effective response may be garnered in a future crisis.

      G.Nelson

  28. Aug 2015
    1. We found that dispersions of the triblock co-micelles in a decane:toluene (3:5 by volume) solution resulted in the selective dissolution of the central M(PFS60-b-PDMS660) micelle block, leaving short XLM(PI1424-b-PFS63) daughter micelles

      Connects to AP Chemistry Learning Standard 6: Any bond or intermolecular attraction that can be formed can be broken. These two processes are in dynamic competition, sensitive to initial conditions and external perturbations.

      Found on page 71 of the AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description:

      http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-chemistry-course-and-exam-description.pdf

    2. BCPs assemble into a variety of different morphologies that are influenced by polymer molecular weights and block ratios, with further control possible through the manipulation of environmental conditions such as temperature, solvent, and concentration

      Connects to AP Chemistry Learning Standard:2.B

      Forces of attraction between particles (including the noble gases and also different parts of some large molecules) are important in determining many macroscopic properties of a substance, including how the observable physical state changes with temperature

      Found on page 27 of the AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description:

      http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-chemistry-course-and-exam-description.pdf

  29. Jul 2015
    1. Because dynein inhibition alone did not inhibit IAV uncoating completely, we investigated a possible additional role for the actomyosin system

      CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.8

      http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RST/11-12/

      Whenever an observation is not fully understood, scientists try to analyze the issue from different angles. Here, the authors observed that the inhibition of dynein wasn't sufficient for inhibiting the viral uncoating completely. Therefore, they deduced that other factors were implicated with uncoating and decided to explore this possibility.

    1. The motion of probe particles trackedinside cells has been classified as subdiffusive,diffusive, or superdiffusive. Such classifications,however, obscure the distinction between ther-mally driven and nonequilibrium fluctuationsand are inadequate to identify intracellular ma-terial properties

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. fear lived on in their practiced bop, their slouching denim, their big T- shirts, the calculated angle of their baseball caps

      These clothes often are stereotypes of urban bodies for black youth. In contrast, I would say that the opposite response of polo shirts, bow ties, and conforming attire that many black boys wear in an effort to fit in with the dominant culture--through assimilation--is also a form of fear.

    2. The question is unanswerable, which is not to say futile.

      Is the answer undefined because respect for our common humanity has no specific path? Each person must find his or her own terms of connection with every individual since we combat tendencies in varied ways when we encounter our differences.

      Perhaps, when we struggle to define difference as either weakness or strength, we open the door for the challenge of racism and other social inequities. Perhaps difference, when counted as a necessary glue--a common bond--to elevate humans to being more collectively than who we are individually, is what we grapple with because we see it as isolating when we should see it as our hope for attaining our greatest human character once we see difference as a function of our collective wealth--our interdependence on each other--rather than our independence to stand in contrast to one another.

    3. the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body

      I am hesitant to place this broad sense of authority on the police department. I do not think it is a department; instead, I believe it to be people cloaked in masks of justice Some believe in a false image of of others based on color: they see color and not a person, an image and not a heart, a stereotype and not a son or a daughter.

      When the person in uniform starts seeing problems and not people, they take on the systemic, divisive heritage of inequity that manifests itself in racists, sexists, social hierarchies that destroy the humanity in all of us.

    4. the Dream rests on our backs

      If a people's wealth, being, or privilege is based on standing on the backs of others, the struggle or jeopardy of the situation is that they are living on uncertain time--a time that will disappear once those who are on their backs eventually stand straight. For those who stand on the backs of others, they have not known true work for what they have attained since they have not earned what they have by their own efforts--at least not on the basis of their own grit and determination that emerged from their personal character of inner strength and resilience. They must live lives continually wondering when the dream will end, when the property will be returned to those who have rightfully fought for what is in the hands of a usurping group.

      A usurped dream is a delusion, a farce, a hoax, that survives on borrowed time, terms, and values. For those who benefit from its ongoing perpetuation, the dream is more of a pending nightmare.

    5. I am not a cynic. I love you, and I love the world, and I love it more with every new inch I discover. But you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know.

      A powerful lesson .. a truth in America ... and a gift from a father to a son that all that comes before leads to ...

    6. Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains—whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.

      I saw this reference in a review of the book ... amazing to think about ...

    7. I, like every kid I knew, loved The Dukes of Hazzard. But I would have done well to think more about why two outlaws, driving a car named the General Lee, must necessarily be portrayed as “just some good ole boys, never meanin’ no harm”—a mantra for the Dreamers if there ever was one.

      How did we all get hooked into that show and its underlying narrative?

    8. I knew that my portion of the American galaxy, where bodies were enslaved by a tenacious gravity, was black and that the other, liberated portion was not. I knew that some inscrutable energy preserved the breach.

      This seems to be the center of this whole piece, in my opinion.

    9. To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease. The law did not protect us.

      This was the reality of despair. Or is the reality of despair. How do we fix this? How?

    10. What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.

      Man. Powerful moment. I can see him. I can see his son. I see the shadows of history. And even in the sadness, I see something .. a glimmer. Perhaps, as a father, I am projecting. So be it. This is one of those moments, the lesson that will linger.

    11. I was sad for you

      This phrase makes the political so personal, as he intends. It really hits the heartstrings .. and I feel like I am intruding here, don't you? As if I shouldn't be reading this talk between father and son ... as if annotating in the margins is infringing on that bond that the writing is creating. Or is that me?

    1. While I’d struggle to tell you how I learn best, there is one question that I’d always be able to answer enthusiastically: What would you like to learn next? Right now I’m learning JavaScript and have plans to give Spanish another go. I should probably pick up those guitar lessons again soon as well. Thankfully we live in a time when it’s trivially easy to gain access to resources and to learning activities. The problem is finding out the ones that work best for you. Perhaps that’s why we carry around in our pockets devices that can access pretty much the sum total of human knowledge yet use them to LOL at amusing pictures of cats. What are the barriers here? I’d suggest there are three main ones: 1 Curriculum - the series of activities that build towards a learning goal 2 Credentials - the ability to show what you know 3 Community - the cohort of peers you feel you are part of, along with access to ‘experts’

      How do I learn best? What resources are the best ones for me?

  30. Jun 2015
    1. Sec. 22a-41. Factors for consideration of commissioner. Finding of no feasible and prudent alternative. Wetlands or watercourses. Habitats. Jurisdiction of municipal inland wetlands agencies. (a) In carrying out the purposes and policies of sections 22a-36 to 22a-45a, inclusive, including matters relating to regulating, licensing and enforcing of the provisions thereof, the commissioner shall take into consideration all relevant facts and circumstances, including but not limited to:

      What to consider when an application/action is considered.

  31. May 2015
    1. However, by usinglearningcomunitiesastheforuminwhichtheycan comparetheirownjourneysascriticalyreflectivelearners, adult educators realize that what they thought were idiosyncratic incremental fluctuations in energy and comitment,privatemoralesapingdefeatssuferedin isolation,andcontext-specificbarierspreventingchange, areoftenfeaturesthatareparaleledinthelivesof coleagues.Thisknowledge,evenifitfailstograntany insightsintohowthesefelingsorbarierscanbe ameliorated,canbethediferencebetwenresolvingtowork forpurposefulchangewhenevertheoportunityarises,and falingpreytoamixtureofstoicismandcynicisminwhich staying within comfortably defined boundaries of thought and action becomes the overwhelming concern.

  32. Apr 2015
  33. Mar 2015
    1. an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of Product Backlog. It provides guidance to the Development Team on why it is building the Increment. It is created during the Sprint Planning meeting. The Sprint Goal gives the Development Team some flexibility regarding the functionality implemented within the Sprint. The selected Product Backlog items deliver one coherent function, which can be the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Goal can be any other coherence that causes the Development Team to work together rather than on separate initiatives.

      an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of Product Backlog. It provides guidance to the Development Team on why it is building the Increment. It is created during the Sprint Planning meeting. The Sprint Goal gives the Development Team some flexibility regarding the functionality implemented within the Sprint. The selected Product Backlog items deliver one coherent function, which can be the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Goal can be any other coherence that causes the Development Team to work together rather than on separate initiatives.

  34. Jan 2015
  35. Nov 2014
  36. Feb 2014
  37. Jan 2014
    1. common appropriation regimes do not give a complete answer to the sustainability of motivation and organization for the truly open, large-scale nonproprietary peer production projects we see on the Internet.

      Towards the end of our last conversation the text following "common appropriation" seemed an interesting place to dive into further for our future discussions.

      I have tagged this annotation with "meta" because it is a comment about our discussion and where to continue it rather than an annotation focused on the content itself.

      In the future I would be interested in exploring the idea of "annotation types" that can be selectively turned on and off, but for now will handle that with ad hoc tags like "meta".