1,946 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2017
    1. Evidence That Robots Are Winning the Race for American Jobs

      The main purpose of this article was to address evidence that robots are winning the race for American jobs, similar to what the title of the article states. It talks about evidence from papers published by reputable authors that suggest that human jobs especially in the field of manufacturing are being significantly taken away by robots. The article also talks about industrial robots being used in the manufacturing of electronics, metal products, plastics and chemicals. The article says that robots have the ability to operate without human interference and do jobs such as weld, paint, and package.

    1. “The White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and in order,” Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters, adding, “It’s got to happen.”

      It's too late

    2. Mr. Trump’s disclosure does not appear to have been illegal — the president has the power to declassify almost anything. But sharing the information without the express permission of the ally who provided it represented a major breach of espionage etiquette, and could jeopardize a crucial intelligence-sharing relationship.

      This is some BS

    1. The strategy proved so successful in higher education that Mr. Casap decided to try it with public schools.

      So the Google strategy does have its roots in higher ed, though it is now most identified with K-12.

    2. I cannot answer for them what they are going to do with the quadratic equation.

      Ha! This is one of Roger Schenck's familiar examples in his criticisms of schooling...

    3. “And I don’t know why they can’t ask Google for the answer if the answer is right there.”

      Nick Carr would likely have something to say on this topic.

    4. whether the purpose of public schools is to turn out knowledgeable citizens or skilled workers.

      I'm not sure that I agree that these terms line up with those above. "Knowledgeable citizens" know math formulas rather than problem-solving?

    5. In doing so, Google is helping to drive a philosophical change in public education — prioritizing training children in skills like teamwork and problem-solving while de-emphasizing the teaching of traditional academic knowledge, like math formulas.

      This is a fascinating claim. Left uninterrogated, it sounds great to me!

    6. Google Classroom

      Is this the Google version of the LMS?

    1. a tax plan

      Simplify the tax code.

      Evolve public accounting/finance into a more real-time, open, and interactive public service. Transaction-level financial data should be available internally and externally.

      Participatory budgeting and other forms of public input should be well-factored into the public-planning process. 21st century government participation can be simplified and enriched at the same time.

    2. closing loopholes

      which loopholes?

      • this sounds like a good thing
    1. Legislating is a very human experience in which trust and mutual respect play critical roles. But 1986 proved that when both are present, big things can get done.
    2. loopholes proliferated, and the tax code grew more complex

      correlated? causative?

      complexity in law, leads to more logic to parse and process - therefore more potential ambiguity in human-processing.

      does software engineering practices about code complexity (or lack thereof) have fruitful applications here?

    1. Another study, published at the end of March, included 2,303 healthy postmenopausal women randomly assigned to take vitamin D and calcium supplements or a placebo. The supplements did not protect the women against cancer, the researchers concluded.

      This is interesting in that it is techinically accurate - the difference between the groups was statistically not significant at p=0.06. "A new diagnosis of cancer was confirmed in 109 participants, 45 (3.89%) in the vitamin D3 + calcium group and 64 (5.58%) in the placebo group (difference, 1.69% [95% CI, -0.06% to 3.46%]; P = .06)"

      The key points is that cancer is that only 5% of people in the study got a new diagnosis of cancer in 4 years, which is a small percentage, and yet the p value was very close to significance.

      Now, non-signifcant is non-significant, however it is unfortunately incredibly common for studies to report higher p valiues as a trend towards significant, a clinically significant change that almost reached statistical significance etc. That the authors adhered so strictly to the standards for significance in the case of vtiamin D, where so few do anymore in other studies, is curious.

    2. One study with 5,108 participants, published this month in JAMA Cardiology, found that vitamin D did not prevent heart attacks.

      This study is one of a number recently that for some incomprehensible reason has decided that monthly dosing of vitamin D is perfectly fine to test. "Interventions Oral vitamin D3 in an initial dose of 200 000 IU, followed a month later by monthly doses of 100 000 IU, or placebo for a median of 3.3 years (range, 2.5-4.2 years)."

      The conclusion from this study is valid only for monthly dosing, not for daily dosing.

      Another example of a study that used monthly dosing and saw a negative effect in falls in elderly - http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.7148

    3. randomized trials had found no particular benefit for healthy people to have blood levels above 20 nanograms per milliliter.

      This is just a straight out lie, as well as an example of misdirection. There are an incredible amount of trials showing associations between low vitamin D levels and various diseases such as cancer, heart disease, depression. Randomized trials are not the only evidence. However, there are randomized trials - as an example - "Cancer incidence was lower in women who received vitamin D/calcium than in those who received the placebo (HR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.46-0.99; P < 0.05). When analysis was confined to cancers diagnosed after the first year, the HR for the group who received vitamin D/calcium was 0.65 (95% CI = 0.42 to 0.99; P <0.05). In proportional hazards modeling, both treatment group and serum 25(OH)D concentration after one year of intervention were significant predictors of cancer risk. Conclusions Supplementing with 2000 IU/day of vitamin D3 and 1500 mg/day of calcium substantially reduced risk of all cancers combined. This finding provides great impetus for improving vitamin D status through advances in vitamin D nutritional policy." https://apha.confex.com/apha/144am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/368368

    4. doses so high they can be dangerous,

      Interestingly, the site they are linking to is the Vitamin D council, which gives very clear information on the benefits of Vitamin D. In this case they are linking specifically to an article on high levels of vitamin D that more so informs how difficult it is to become toxic from vitamin D, and that without resulting hypercalcemia, it is not likely an issue

    5. In fact, there has never been widely accepted evidence that vitamin D is helpful in preventing or treating any of those conditions.

      I would argue that. There are over 70,000 studies in the literature on vitamin D, and many of them show positive associations between vitamin D status and various conditions. Too many to go into. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=vitamin+D

      This is a combination of several logical fallacies- https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/bandwagon https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/appeal-to-authority

    6. ill-defined complaints as malaise or fatigue.

      Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to be prevalent in people with fatigue, and correction of the deficiency improves the fatigue- "Results:

      Prevalence of low vitamin D was 77.2% in patients who presented with fatigue. After normalization of vitamin D levels fatigue symptom scores improved significantly (P < 0.001) in all five subscale categories of fatigue assessment questionnaires.

      Conclusion:

      The prevalence of low vitamin D is high in patients who present with fatigue and stable chronic medical conditions, if any. Normalization of vitamin D levels with ergocalciferol therapy significantly improves the severity of their fatigue symptoms." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4158648/

      Of not also is that the researchers used ergocalciferol, the synthetic D2 form which is less effective than the cholecalciferol D3 form - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15531486 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21177785

    1. Then, barely an hour before the official close of campaigning at midnight Friday, the staff of the presumed front-runner, Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, announced that his campaign had been the target of a “massive and coordinated” hacking operation.

      hello

    1. The prevailing hypothesis has been that volcanoes like these two in Hawaii are chemical fingerprints of the Earth’s composition at the deep mantle, just at the border of its core.
    2. Mauna Loa, the biggest volcano on Earth — and one of the most active — covers half the Island of Hawaii. Just 35 miles to the northeast, Mauna Kea, known to native Hawaiians as Mauna a Wakea, rises nearly 14,000 feet above sea level. To them it represents a spiritual connection between our planet and the heavens above.These volcanoes, which have beguiled millions of tourists visiting the Hawaiian islands, have also plagued scientists with a long-running mystery: If they are so close together, how did they develop in two parallel tracks along the Hawaiian-Emperor chain formed over the same hot spot in the Pacific Ocean — and why are their chemical compositions so different?

      Comparing two volcanos on the same island

    1. Mr. Russell, or some version of him, assays the role with a weird, disrupting digital face-lift that’s meant to suggest the young Ego, but really only makes you contemplate whether this Benjamin Button-style age-reversing is going to become an increasingly standard (and creepy) industry practice.

      So, in Ant Man, there is the same thing with Michael Douglas. I totally think it will be a common thing. Not just for flashbacks but for actors who want to play the role "younger."

    1. “By essentially endorsing Duterte’s murderous war on drugs, Trump is now morally complicit in future killings,” said John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. “Although the traits of his personality likely make it impossible, Trump should be ashamed of himself.”

      quote from John Sifton.

  2. Apr 2017
    1. Once upon a time, the seas teemed with mackerel, squid and sardines, and life was good. But now, on opposite sides of the globe, sun-creased fishermen lament as they reel in their nearly empty nets.

      This should be sounding loud warning bells!

    1. The people who work on News Feed aren’t making decisions that turn on fuzzy human ideas like ethics, judgment, intuition or seniority. They are concerned only with quantifiable outcomes about people’s actions on the site. That data, at Facebook, is the only real truth. And it is a particular kind of truth: The News Feed team’s ultimate mission is to figure out what users want — what they find “meaningful,” to use Cox and Zuckerberg’s preferred term — and to give them more of that.

      Facebook algorithmically prioritises user interactions with Facebook

    1. They already police their networks for pornography, and quite well.

      I'm no expert, but is this really the case?

    1. add mightily to a federal debt

      How can a party that claims to value reducing the deficit significantly increase the national debt?

    1. “Unfortunately, Berkeley and other universities have played into a narrative that the right would love to advance,” said Robert B. Reich, a former Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton who is now a professor of public policy at Berkeley. “The narrative assumes a cultural plot against the free expression of right-wing views in which academe, mainstream media — every facet of the establishment — is organized against them.”

      I really do feel like a lot of colleges, activists, and journalists are being played in this way.

    2. Lumping Ms. Coulter in with someone more extreme like Mr. Spencer, Mr. Shapiro said, creates a situation in which practically no conservative viewpoint is welcome. “All these lines become arbitrary, and then it’s easier to allow nothing.”

      Universities should invite neither professional provocateurs (i.e. trolls) like Coulter, nor people advocating theories like Mr. Spencer's, which are (to use a hip parlance) 'basic' and thoroughly debunked. If someone wants to deliver a well constructed, logically sound defense of racism, fine. The academic community can wrestle with it. But if they want to spew garbage with no sense of intellectual honesty... there are plent of internet and cable news outlets for that already.

    3. a data-based argument

      A flawed argument that improperly uses data. These arguments have been thoroughly debunked in "Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth."

    4. issues like homosexuality and gender

      Haha. 'Issues.'

    5. liberal-led boycotts have targeted socially conservative chief executives. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In some high schools, universities and businesses where liberal ideas dominate, said Ben Domenech, the publisher of The Federalist, a conservative website, “speech has become something they could not only object to but that needed to be stamped out — that was hate and had no place in the public square.”

      This is so much whining. Sometimes your ideas aren't popular and people don't want to hear or read them. Make your ideas better, more useful, more coherent with reality. Then people might eant to hear them.

      What's truly gobstopping about this whining is that for centuries conservative ideas about race, gender, sexuality, and economics have been enforce as laws effectuating the suffering of millions upon millions of peoplle. Now that those ideas are losing popularity, conservatives are whining that they have a right to their ideas' popularity.

    6. that maximizes the chances that First Amendment rights can be successfully exercised

      This is wrongheaded. Why is the University suddenly THE PUBLIC SQUARE? Why should every crackpot troll have the right to space and A/V amplification at a place dedicated to methodical inquiry and knowledge production? Universities should be ensuring that their students have the right to free speech. And they should probably support the notion that our society should provide many outlets for free speech, especially in the public square, through the internet, and for journalists. But their mission should not be, above all, to amplify anyone their students invite to campus. That's ridiculous. Let the College Republicans on campus make their own speeches.

    7. Even The Onion weighed in

      Ooooh! Well it must be a serious problem meriting serious attention if "Even the Onion weighed in" to give their satirical hot take.

    8. Even some liberals say

      Even some conservatives say this author is full of shit. At least that's what I heard.

    9. with the left now often demanding that offensive content be excised from public discourse and those who promote it boycotted and shunned.

      WTF? This is not what happened in the Berkeley case. It's as if the author wrote the article before the outcome.

      And many who don't want trolls on campus are nowhere close to "demanding that offensive content be excised from public discourse...." We are merely noting that the University should not feel responsible to host and provide space and A/V amplification for every troll invited by its student groups.

    1. Most of whom were black and lived with a single mother. The children in the control group were at home or in a lower-quality programs.

      This experiment data seems skewd because if they're taking data from single black mother's in one group so shouldnt thy be they taking data from a white married women? This study was in north carolina but the discrimination of single black women to others is outragous. The system that people of color are put into the stereotype of a single black mother.

    2. is now being championed by Ivanka Trump

      This seemed strange that Ivanka would support such a democratic ideal Discussion Question:Do you think with Ivanka support Trump would pass a bill avocating for affordable care for children under 5?

    3. President Trump's proposal, advanced by his daughter, would deduct the average cost of child care from parets income taxes and would include stay at home parents... Yet the aid he has propsed pales next to the actual cost of care.

      This proposal seems in line with the Trump we have know during the campagin. That he gives what seems to be effort in the child care system of any system and they the benefits he gives are bare to none.

      Discussion Question- How do you think other will see his bill proposal as? It seems to me that its just a mask to make him seem like a better president than he is, to hide away all of his bad qualities with a bill that wont cost him anything.

    4. One reason: It helps women work, while other policies help them take breaks from work

      "all women with children under age 18 was 70.5 percent, married mothers (67.9 percent) remained lower than the rate for mothers with other marital statuses (76.0 percent)" https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf

      I find it strange that married women are less employed than women who have children but are under a different marital status. I wonder if they counted being a stay at home mom and of not what are those few percentages off?

    5. slightly more years of schooling and an increased likelihood of living beyond 65- and thier children also got more education.

      This more education peice could be that thye were abled to adapt in different environments as they got older and were able to work with others better because they were surrounded by other children as they grew up. Along with thier children being more educated it is reflected because thier parents more than likely have education and could get thier children into high- quality school and programs like child care.

      Dicussion Question- Do you think thier is a stigma that if you're poor than you have childcare or if you're weathly you have childcare? What are some examples from media that you've seen?

    6. Boys are more sensitive to disadvantage and responsive to intervention

      This gives light on what we talked about in class with masculinity and how men have to hide their feelings to be a man. In these child care systems they are finding out that men seem to be more sensitve to others and are more than likely be abled to be themselves with others.

    7. Children from birth until age 35- found that high-quality care buring the earliest years can influence whether both mothers and children born into disadvantage lead more successful lives.

      My main question is what disadvantages? The low wages of the mothers? The possablility of being bullied for the children? the wording of this is off putting. Along with the high-quality care what does that constitute? A healthy enviornment where its clean? a safe environment where there is no bullying? a learning environment for the childs mind to grow? What if they werent in these conditions? Discussion Question- Have you or anyone else had an experance on a daycare that wasnt or was high-quality?

    8. Aid for high-quality care has the biggest economic payoff for parents and thier children

      As a child that grew up in a two working parent household it was crutical to my parents that i get taken care of and they make a sufficaint amount of income. In a two incomes no time most two household families have an income of $102,400, compared to $55,000 income if only the father was working (one thing i found off putting is that thier was no income with only the mother working) This amount of income is reflected by the long hours parents have to work. (http://www.ocregister.com/2015/11/07/two-incomes-no-time-the-struggle-is-real-for-many-working-parents-survey-finds/)

    1. For many living in the mining towns up and down the country, it was not just the backbone of the economy but a way of life. But the industry has been in decline for some time. The last deep coal mine closed in December 2015, though open cast mining has continued.

      testing

    1. The public editor’s take: I’m on the record as an advocate for discarding courtesy titles altogether. As The Times tries to reach a younger audience, referring to Mrs. or Ms. or Mr. seems stuck in the past. But if we can do it only one at a time, let’s start with Mrs.

      position on "courtesy titles"

    1. after it.

      Overall grade = C/ C+

      This is a passable attempt that unfortunately regurgitates political tropes from the late 1980s, moderately updated. In addition, more importantly, you have to provide more evidence in order to support your claims and steer clear of selective anecdotes. Stick with the actual sources.

    2. These days, the whole idea of Western civ is assumed to be reactionary and oppressive

      you haven't proven this. you've asserted this numerous times but your evidence primarily consists of a few anecdotes drawn from elite white men (in the previous paragraph).

    3. According to a study published in The Journal of Democracy, the share of young Americans who say it is absolutely important to live in a democratic country has dropped from 91 percent in the 1930s to 57 percent today.

      I notice you didn't link to this source. why? it's important to cite your sources so that readers can verify your claims.

    4. chilling intolerance

      have you been to a college campus? is not getting your $10,000+ honorarium the same as fearing for your life as a trans- student? is retreating to your $100,000+/ year job at a think tank or on cable tv the same as getting pulled over by police on a regular basis, or having your humanity questioned in print "weekly?" the former are the "fragile thugs" here, not the students.

    5. ragile thugs who call themselves students shout down and abuse speakers on a weekly basis

      weekly? avoid such hyperbole.

    6. Finally, there has been the collapse of liberal values at home. On American campuses,

      this is a false equivalency. the collapse of the European Union is not the same as student-led protests on college campuses.

    7. centrist parties

      is it fair to say that the "center" has collapsed because "centrist parties" have? do ideas only inhabit political parties?

    8. premodern

      why "premodern?" nepotism in this vein seems to be a particularly modern phenomenon. think about all the petty dictatorships in Africa, Latin America, Asia, etc. are those perhaps more instructive models?

    9. rise of the illiberals

      the early 20th century had literal monarchies. the mid 20th century had literal fascists. is this period any different? you seem to be forcing the facts into a pre-existing narrative. stick with your sources and see what they say.

    10. f they encounter it,

      have you looked at many college curricula? most general education requirements, particularly at state universities, require some sort of "Western Civ" course. Most nowadays take it as an AP class in High School.

    11. faith

      an odd word choice. should we have "faith" in a historical narrative? narratives, of course, aren't "truth." we have "faith" in things we can't otherwise prove.

    12. about the importance of reasoned discourse, the importance of property rights, the need for a public square that was religiously informed but not theocratically dominated

      that's not true. it applied mostly to white, protestant men. women's suffrage wasn't granted until the early 20th century in the US.

    13. That series encapsulated the Western civilization narrative that people, at least in Europe and North America, used for most of the past few centuries to explain their place in the world and in time

      as they discuss (and as many others have subsequently) that progressive narrative was a construction of the 19th century - laden with the weight of colonialism, imperialism, and racist nationalism that accompanied that project. Notice, for instance, they're all white men you mention...

    14. he series was phenomenally successful,

      does popularity necessarily correlate with rigor? explain your reasoning here.

    1. The U.S. Navy strike force that was supposedly racing to North Korea won't be there until sometime next week.

      White House officials said on Tuesday they were relying on guidance from the Defense Department. Officials there described a glitch-ridden sequence of events, from a premature announcement of the deployment by the military’s Pacific Command to an erroneous explanation by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — all of which perpetuated the false narrative that an American armada was racing toward the waters off North Korea.

      ...

      The Carl Vinson is now on a northerly course for the Korean Peninsula and is expected to arrive in the region sometime next week, Defense Department officials said. The White House declined to comment on the misunderstanding, referring all questions to the Pentagon. “Sean discussed it once when asked, and it was all about process,” said a spokesman, Michael Short.

    2. The problem was, the carrier, the Carl Vinson, and the four other warships in its strike force were at that very moment sailing in the opposite direction, to take part in joint exercises with the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula.

      Well, you know, it was kind of in the region...

    1. Overall, department stores employ a third fewer people now than they did in 2001. That’s half a million traditional jobs gone — about eighteen times as many jobs as were lost in coal mining over the same period.

      And this decline is rarely talked about.

    1. North Korea launched a ballistic missile Sunday morning from near its submarine base in Sinpo on its east coast, but the launch was the latest in a series of failures just after liftoff,

      This is actually bad news, as it will have made Kim angrier and more likely to do something reckless...

    1. Trump Says It’s Likely Russia Knew of Syrian Gas Attack in Advance

      I wonder how Putin's feeling about hacking the US election now?...

    1. we are returning to using sound science in decision-making — rather than predetermined results.”

      what evidence of predetermined results?

    1. Another page note.

    2. These are page notes. Huh.

    3. children

      It's notable Dr. King was spurred by photos of Vietnamese children to end his silence.

    4. had torn a gaping budget hole in Johnson’s Great Society domestic programs.

      In other words, the war drew funds away from Civil Rights programs.

    5. Beyond signaling his growing radicalism, the Riverside speech reflected Dr. King’s increasing political courage — and shows why, half a century later, he remains a pivotal figure in American history.

      This looks like the thesis to me.

    6. David J. Garrow

      Who is David Garrow?

  3. Mar 2017
    1. In 1990, eight shades — maize, lemon yellow, blue gray, raw umber, green blue, orange red, orange yellow and violet blue — were retired and eight new ones, including the yellow hue known as dandelion, were introduced.

      I remember many of these...

    2. After 27 years, the crayon color dandelion is taking a retirement, making way for an upstart in the blue family

      Seems sad in a way...

    1. Some people would argue that what happens on the local basis is more important than what happens on the national basis,

      much truth

    1. President Trump’s childhood home in Queens has been sold, in a transaction facilitated by a lawyer who specializes in shepherding real estate investments made by overseas Chinese buyers.

      At least it wasn't the Russians!

    1. “longing for this better place but also feeling displaced”

      Test

    2. But what I can say is that the

      xxxxx

    3. thinking process,

      so very true.

    4. Liu Cixin

      What else does CUNY have from this author?

    5. he would wander over from his home office to read it

      I'm learning to use it!!

    1. Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky was unrestrained in his praise for President Drumpf: Opening for him at a rally on Monday, Mr. Bevin, a conservative Republican, echoed Mr. Drumpf’s “America First” slogan and only gently noted the nagging divisions in their party

      Reads like old campaign rhetoric.

    1. They dropped for a few days after Mr. Sessions, who is viewed as a bullish influence on the stocks, came under pressure for failing to disclose to the Senate that he had met twice with the Russian ambassador, amid a furor over possible Russian meddling in the presidential election. But Mr. Trump has stoutly backed Mr. Sessions, and “the stocks responded positively,” Mr. Kodesch said.

      some bs

    2. Investor expectations that the actual business of incarceration and detention will expand under Mr. Trump have fueled their levitating share prices.

      INCARCERATION AND DETENTION SHOULD NOT BE A BUSINESS.

    3. Since the election, CoreCivic’s stock price has climbed 120 percent, and Geo’s has gained 80 percent.

      this is disgusting

    1. Large Sections of Australia’s Great Reef Are Now Dead, Scientists Find

      Overall scientific credibility: 'very high', according to 4 scientists who analyzed this article.

      evaluation card

      Find more details in the annotations below and in Climate Feedback's analysis

    2. The global reef crisis does not necessarily mean extinction for coral species. The corals may save themselves, as many other creatures are attempting to do, by moving toward the poles as the Earth warms, establishing new reefs in cooler water.

      This is rather overstated. While some weedy species may migrate poleward, studies have shown that corals cannot move to much higher latitude due to other factors such as the light corals require for photosynthesis and skeletal growth. Higher latitude corals will also be restricted to shallow water where they are more susceptible to cold stress.

      Environmental Limits to Coral Reef Development: Where Do We Draw the Line? Joan A. Kleypas, John W. McManus and Lambert A. B. Meñez American Zoologist Vol. 39, No. 1 (Feb., 1999), pp. 146-159

    3. Within a decade, certain kinds of branching and plate coral could be extinct, reef scientists say, along with a variety of small fish that rely on them for protection from predators.

      John Bruno, Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

      I think it is very unlikely any corals would be extinct in a decade. The problem isn't threat of extinction, its loss of habitat for other critters when corals bleach and die. The corals become less dense, but there will still be many millions of colonies for most species.

    4. If water temperatures stay moderate, the damaged sections of the Great Barrier Reef may be covered with corals again in as few as 10 or 15 years.

      John Bruno, Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

      First, they aren't moderate now. If they were to decrease and not exceed the bleaching threshold for another few decades, there would be some coral recovery. Second, 10-15 years is a big stretch. There would be some recovery, but not total recovery, especially of very long-lived slow-growing species.

    5. An additional kick was supplied by an El Niño weather pattern that peaked in 2016 and temporarily warmed much of the surface of the planet, causing the hottest year in a historical record dating to 1880.

      John Bruno, Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

      This is a very common misconception even among scientists. The warming, bleaching, and coral loss is 100% due to greenhouse gas emissions not the ENSO cycle and the fact this we were in a peak of the El Nino phase in early 2016. The GBR has experienced El Nino events for thousands of years, yet bleaching wasn't observed there until 1998 when ocean warming pushed ocean temperatures just above the bleaching threshold.

    1. The Iraqi soldiers in our group, which also included a small unit of American advisers, gave one of the family members a cigarette, as the militants took over the area and forbade smoking nearly three years ago.

      haha

    1. There, “the deep state is not official institutions rebelling,” he said, but rather “shadowy networks within those institutions, and within business, who are conspiring together and forming parallel state institutions.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story

      Background information aside, this seems to be the crux of the article — there's a difference to be made between folks individually engaging in civil disobedience, no matter how subversive or disloyal it is to the official power structure, and a group spanning institutional affiliations coming together to create an extensive off-the-record governing body.

    1. nd as a result put preclearance back on the table for Texas.

      !!!! I'm sure Sessions won't do it though

    2. the DOJ attorneys viewed state officials and the legislative majority and their staffs as a bunch of backwoods hayseed bigots who bemoan the abolition of the poll tax and pine for the days of literacy tests and lynchings,” Judge Smith wrote.

      I mean, where is the lie

    1. It is not unusual for a new president to replace United States attorneys appointed by a predecessor, especially when there has been a change in which party controls the White House.

      whew

    1. The listing represented an extraordinary opportunity in American history, one facilitated by both modern technology and a president with a large real estate portfolio: a chance for travelers to book a room in a building housing the president’s family — one of the most secure buildings in New York City, if not the world — with nothing more than the click of a mouse.

      Crazy!

    1. In a remote, mist-wrapped island north of the eastern tip of Siberia, a small group of woolly mammoths became the last survivors of their once thriving species.

      Love to read about mammoths!

    1. On the morning of Feb. 23, 1987, a couple of dozen subatomic particles known as neutrinos zinged through specially instrumented underground sensors in Japan, Ohio and Russia.

      What?

    1. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s senior adviser, is pressing the president to officially pull the United States from the landmark accord, according to energy and government officials with knowledge of the debate. But, they say, he is clashing with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who fear the move could have broad and damaging diplomatic ramifications.

      Exxon CEO as the voice of reason on climate in the Trump campaign.

    1. Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates.

    2. WASHINGTON — In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.

      I think the administration would have released the information before the election

    1. the stereotype that the people working to end abortion hate women.

      I would not say that the stereotype is that pro-life people hate women, but that they fail to support women in whatever decision they make.

    2. This movement will thus be unable to unite American

      The language of this article is being exclusionary itself, ironically arguing against exclusion, by assuming that all women at the women march were American women. It also depends on what it means to be an American Woman is, who is considered in that.

    3. while the Women’s March claimed to stand for love, nonviolence and inclusion, its organizers staunchly refused to extend that “inclusion” to pro-life women.

      As a class we are reading Threshold Concepts, which tells us about the different waves of feminism, and how the 2nd wave was heavily based around the decision to legalize abortion. Feminist issues in America are still largely based on health care rights, especially now again that they are in crisis under President Trump.

      Class question: Can you be a feminist and be pro-life?

    4. The men I work with are creating a culture in which their own wives, daughters and sisters are empowered and supported.

      This sentence further perpetuates this false idea that men can only care about women in relation to them, wives and daughters, why not ever women as a whole or even women in a friend position.

      Class question: Are statements like these, about men caring about women only in relation to themselves, more helpful or harmful?

    5. The men I work alongside want to end abortion not because they want to control women, but because they agree that requiring the sacrifice of a woman’s children in exchange for her success is unimaginable.

      Technically, everything will be "unimaginable" to the men she works with because they will never experience women's issues, so bringing them up should have no effect on the reader.

    6. To us, “resistance” has to include opposition to the lie that freedom can be bought with the blood of our preborn children.

      Every woman has a different meaning of freedom and opportunity for it, especially when thinking about social status, class, race, etc. so the "us" statement is unclear who the writer is talking about. For example, 69% of women who have abortions, are economically disadvantaged.

      http://prospect.org/article/demographics-abortion-its-not-what-you-think

    7. How the New Feminist Resistance Leaves Out American Wome

      After reading the article, I was very confused at the end by the title. The articles main point is about the exclusion of pro-life women in the current feminist movement, such as the march, but what does that have to do with "American women"? Are they assuming maternal problems and abortion are only an American issue? That in itself is problematic.

    1. And I’ve issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American steel. Advertisement Continue reading the main story

      What- the use of American supplies over foreign How- Once again an appeal to patriotism to talk about how good America is Why- To show that this is keeping American money and jobs and profits inside of America

    2. All the nations of the world — friend or foe — will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.

      What- America is really good How- Appeal to patriotism by using the word "America" over and over again Why- To talk about how great America is and how much better it is than some other countries

    3. Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.

      What- Talks about how even though the country isn't together currently, America is still against these hateful crimes. How- Uses an appeal to patriotism and relates to the audience by using "we" and "nation" Why- As an attempt to say that even though all of these people are against Trump and don't agree with how he's taking things on in the country, that regardless all of those people are still united under him

  4. Feb 2017
    1. SpaceX, the ambitious rocket company headed by Elon Musk, wants to send a couple of tourists around the moon and back to Earth before the end of next year.

      That would be incredible!

    1. January 1985

      “Fear of War” should maybe be rephrased as “Threat of War”—unless you’re suggesting that the fear itself is the problem?

    1. Gone are the Obama-era rules that required them to focus only on serious criminals.

      Immigration enforcement priorities were partly established by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson's 2014 memorandum:

      https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/14_1120_memo_prosecutorial_discretion.pdf

    2. At Kennedy International Airport in New York, passengers arriving after a five-hour flight from San Francisco were asked to show their documents before they were allowed to get off the plane.

      Like this.

    1. Reporters from The Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer only allowed in reporters from a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed.

    1. average grade of “D”

      what made the grade a D?

    2. saying it was unnecessary, The San Jose Mercury News reported on Sunday.

      what made it unnecessary?

    3. ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people

      Where did they send them.

    4. In Peril at Oroville Dam, a Parable on Infrastructure

      What does this mean?

    1. Jeremy Scott had it both ways: gender traditional in his unabashed sexuality for women and nonconforming in his use of what were once thought of as feminine colors, styles and accessories for men.
    2. Public School
    3. In this show, much of the men’s and women’s clothing looked all but identical; there were a few times when it was hard to figure out whether the model was a man or a woman.

      Here is a closer look into Raf Simons' collection during NYFW. Visuals to pair with the descriptions of his collections: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/02/02/raf-simons-new-york-fw17/

    4. But showing the women’s and men’s lines together allowed for rapid-fire consideration of what the differences were, really.

      This could be a direct commentary on strictly enforced categorizations for "men's" and "women's" clothing (refer back to Donald Trump's comment about how he likes his female staffers to dress "in women's clothing").

    5. Fashion has crossed many of these lines for years, of course

      Discussion Question:

      Fashion and trends are translated and diluted into society, but there may still be a discrepancy between the "fashion world" and the "real world." There is no doubt that fashion influences the "real world," and vice versa, but to what extent?

    6. It may be that fashion’s refusal to decide, to render any one verdict, is as radical as some of the more overtly political statements made this week on the runways.

      Embracing fluidity of interpretation and creation can be as radical as overtly political statements.

    7. So designers on the runway this week engaged in a continuing dialogue

      This "continuing dialogue" also seems to be further embraced on a bigger scale and globally due to influences like social media and bloggers.

    8. Fashion, like society, is clearly not opting for hard and fast rules. Yet each designer brought a particular sensibility to the gender continuum.

      "High Fashion" as a process is multi-faceted, but artists and designers are continually expressing notions of fluid sexuality and non-binary gender in their work. Such ideas are gradually collected from historically marginalized groups in society (these ideas are generally not what would be considered "mainstream,") yet they are translated for mass consumption by magazine editors, bloggers, influencers, etc. More and more, these types of notions are brought into mainstream society.

    9. how clothing defines masculinity and femininity — and how it scrambles these notions

      Discussion Question:

      What are the major differences of and consequences for:

      Interpretations of masculinity and femininity, defining masculinity and femininity vs. blurring the notions of gender and dissecting the system of a gender binary.

    10. Models backstage at the Public School show during New York Fashion Week

      Image: One of the more overtly political statements at NYFW.

    11. Fashion has crossed many of these lines for years, of course. Women have long appropriated men’s clothes for comfort and authority.

      There is a relatively recent but rich history of women borrowing from "men's" wardrobes, (Yves Saint Laurent's "Le Smoking," Iris Apfel's surface of jeans for girls) that goes back further than one might realize.

      "A Brief History of Women in Menswear"

      This is a fun little article if you would like more information on the subject.

    12. SUSAN CHIRA

      Susan Chira - Editor of News for the New York Times since 2011

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Chira

      Most of Chira's pieces are opinion pieces concerning gender, feminism, and women's rights.

    1. As was true of his earlier work on social choice, the magnitude of Professor Arrow’s theoretical insight was staggering. But, he made clear, his powerful conclusions about the workings of competitive markets held true only under ideal — that is to say, unrealistic — assumptions.His assumptions, for example, ruled out the existence of third-party effects: The sale of a product by Harry to Joe was assumed not to affect the well-being of Sally — an assumption routinely violated in the real world by, for example, the sale of products that harm the environment.
    2. Take “learning by doing,” a notion that Professor Arrow examined in the early 1960s. The basic idea is straightforward: The more that a company produces, the smarter it gets. Decades later, economists incorporated this idea into sophisticated theories of “endogenous growth,” which have a country’s rate of economic growth depending on internal policies that promote innovation and education — the very forces that Professor Arrow’s writings anticipated.
    3. in the early 1960s, he teased apart the complexities that asymmetric information creates in the market for health insurance. He pointed to incentives for patients and their physicians to agree to medical procedures of questionable value when a third party, the insurer, pays the bills.
    4. Professor Arrow proved that their system of equations mathematically cohere: Prices exist that bring all markets into simultaneous equilibrium (whereby every item produced at the equilibrium price would be voluntarily purchased). And market competition puts society’s resources to good use: Competitive markets are efficient, in the language of economists.Professor Arrow’s theorems set out the precise conditions under which Adam Smith’s famous conjecture in “The Wealth of Nations” holds true: that the “invisible hand” of market competition among self-serving individuals serves society well.
    5. What Professor Arrow proved in his book “Social Choice and Individual Values” (1951) was far more sweeping. Not only would majority-voting rules prove unsatisfactory; so, too, would nonvoting systems of making social choices if, as was fundamental to his way of thinking, those choices were based on the preferences of the individuals making up the society.
    6. majority voting can produce arbitrary outcomes.
    1. The planets orbit a dwarf star named Trappist-1, about 40 light years, or about 235 trillion miles, from Earth. That is quite close, and by happy accident, the orientation of the orbits of the seven planets allows them to be studied in great detail.

      This is amazing news! So exciting!

    1. The machine, which emits a hissing sound like a steam radiator, uses a nontoxic solution to break down the texture of the gum, and water, which turns to steam, to evaporate the gum — no matter how fresh or old.

      Fascinating!

    1. The policy also expands a program that lets officials bypass due process protections such as court hearings in some deportation cases.Under the Obama administration, the program, known as “expedited removal,” was used only when an immigrant was arrested within 100 miles of the border and had been in the country no more than 14 days. Now it will include all those who have been in the country for up to two years, no matter where they are caught.

      expansion of enforcement zone.

    1. In the United Kingdom, the arguments rage over the rights and wrongs of the Brexit referendum result. I begin to think this is what it must be like to be the child of divorcing parents. Before, there was one truth, one story, one reality; now there are two.

      Interesting analogy.

    2. There’s no need to be rude, I say.His head jerks around.You’re rude, he counters. You’re the one who’s rude.

      I have so experienced this!

    3. I have stood in such boxlike spaces before, alone with myself, and these moments seem connected to one another in a way I can’t quite specify. It is as though life is a board game, and here is the starting point to which I keep finding myself unexpectedly returned.

      Como o Shinji: um teto inesperado.

    1. President Trump, smarting from a series of crises, moved his surrogates aside on Thu

      This was a really crazy presser.

    1. What California’s Dam Crisis Says About the Changing Climate

      Overall scientific credibility: 'high', according to 3 scientists who analyzed this article.

      evaluation card

      Find more details in the annotations below and in Climate Feedback's analysis

    1. mothers that didn’t imbibe the probiotics were less caring and tended to neglect their pups.
    2. Further observation of males revealed thick skin bristling with active follicles, elevated testosterone levels and oversize testicles, which the animals liked showing off.

      Probiotic Bacteria Induce a ‘Glow of Health’ Levkovich et al., 2013. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0053867

    3. after feeding mice a probiotic microbe

      Lactobacillus reuteri

    1. Immigrant Mother in Denver

      What drew me to this article was those four words, "Immigrant Mother in Denver." My own mother is an immigrant and I am from Denver. One, I relate to the content and two, it intrigues me to know what has happened to her and if it could potentially happen to our family too.

    1. Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks.

      wow. That is terrifying

    1. Their proposal would tax carbon emissions at $40 a ton to start and would be paid by oil refineries and other fossil fuel companies that would pass costs on to consumers with higher gas and electricity prices. The money raised would be returned to Americans through dividend checks; a family of four would get about $2,000 a year to start. This would help people adjust to higher energy prices and give them an incentive to reduce consumption or switch to renewable sources of energy.

      Interesting idea.

    1. Mr. Joseph explained that before they were famous, the two had watched the Grammy awards in their skivvies and pledged that if they ever won, “we should receive it just like this.”

      Hilarious!

    2. she started to sing his song “Fastlove” but stopped it abruptly, cursing into the microphone and apologizing that she needed to start over to get it right.

      That must have been rough.

    3. She is the only artist to win album, record and song of the year twice.

      Adele is amazing!

    1. Mexican border wall.

      Bla bla bla

    2. The workers of Silicon Valley make unlikely revolutionaries. As a group, they are relatively wealthy, well educated and well connected.

      A demo annotation

    1. The idea that requests for White House tours and the planning of the Easter Egg Roll depend on the president’s spouse should be shocking to our 21st-century sensibilities.

      Good point!

    1. Since their beginnings in the 1990s, charter schools in cities, which are public and free, have cannibalized the Catholic schools

      I hadn't realized this. Interesting...

    1. “A lot of people have the idea that the Amazon forests are pristine forests, never touched by humans, and that’s obviously not the case.”

      Interesting to think about this.

    2. Then in the 1980s, ranchers cleared land to raise cattle, uncovering the true extent of the earthworks in the process. More than 450 of these geoglyphs are concentrated within Acre State in Brazil.

      I guess that's one positive of clearing the land...

    3. The carvings stretch out in circles and squares that can be as big as a city block, with trenches up to 12 yards wide and 13 feet deep. They appear to have been built up to 2,000 years ago.

      Never heard of these before!

    1. While Industrial Light & Magic was started to generate special effects for “Star Wars,” the visual effects studio is now the largest in the motion picture industry, working not only with Lucasfilm but also with studios across the globe.)

      The largest, wow!

    2. So she was stunned when she began work at the studio and found herself surrounded by women, particularly in leadership

      Surprising!

    3. the women onscreen are only now catching up with those working behind the scenes at Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects studio founded by George Lucas.

      This is good to know1

    4. Jyn Erso is not a princess or a Jedi. She is, however, the second female character with a lead role in a “Star Wars” movie in the last two years.

      A rarity!

    1. alligators “not exceeding 20 inches in length” may be shipped through the mail

      20 inches is pretty big!

    2. observing Feb. 9 as Alligators in the Sewers Day

      There truly is a day for everything!

    1. Throughout history, times of rapid technological progress have stoked fears of jobs losses. More than 80 years ago, the renowned English economist John Maynard Keynes warned of a “new disease” of “technological unemployment.”

      I'm intrigued about how many jobs this "rapid technological progress" replaced. I feel that that as technology progresses more job avenues and higher opportunities are created because although they eliminated mindless work someone still needs to maintain the machines and develop the code.

    2. Yet replacing America’s truck fleet would require a trillion-dollar investment, Mr. Chui said, adding “if you could buy a self-driving truck, which you can’t.”

      Wouldn't this also create more jobs to build, sell, and maintain those trillion-dollar trucks.

    3. Today, there are 46 million Americans over 65, or 15 percent of the population. By 2060, the size of the over-65 group is projected to reach 98 million people, or 24 percent of the population.

      I find this very surprising. What would this be due to? Increased life expectancy?

    1. For now, offshore wind is a relatively small industry, albeit one that is growing fast.

      This brings up a troubling idea for me that is not answered in the article. Could the growth of renewable energy harm the ocean? There been disasters with offshore oil rigs. What sort of problems could an offshore wind turbine face?

    2. Offshore wind has several advantages over land-based renewable energy, whether wind or solar. Turbines can be deployed at sea with fewer complaints than on land, where they are often condemned as eyesores.

      This is a convincing appeal because there are many big picture arguments for renewable energy but this statement deals with a more practical issue. Wind turbines are an eye sore but they can still be beneficial while being out of sight.

    3. has grabbed the attention of financial institutions, money managers and private equity funds, like the investment bank Goldman Sachs, as well as wealthy individuals like the owner of the Danish toymaker Lego

      This sentence suggests the intended audience for this article: large businesses, financial institutions, and management companies that have the capital for producing their own energy and are interested in being self sustainable

    4. By STANLEY REED

      The author seems to be credible in this subject matter. He has a history of writing articles on global environmental / resources issues. His work is also being published by a reputable news outlet.

    5. When engineers faced resistance from residents in Denmark over plans to build wind turbines on the Nordic country’s flat farmland, they found a better locale: the sea.

      This idea, along with the image above, is what drew me into this story. I have always pictured wind turbines in open plains, not the ocean.

    1. According to Dr. Rignot, the collapse of Larsen C would add only a tiny amount of water to the global sea level. Of greater concern to scientists is how the collapse of ice shelves can affect the glaciers that flow behind them, because the melting of those glaciers can cause much higher levels of ocean rise

      This article really drew me in because I've always cared about environmental health and especially how it impacts animals. The author of this story appears to be credible and by using facts given by experts increases their credibility which in turn helps with ethos. One appeal the author uses quite a bit is Logos. With statistics, images, and accounts of similar smaller events such as this one occurring in the past it hits the nail on the head in terms of logos. I terms of audience this appears to appeal to a more academic audience as well as possibly more youthful individuals (since environmental health at least portrayed in media is something millennials really care about and are working towards improving).

    1. Since his promotion by President Vladimir V. Putin last fall, Mr. Mutko has grown increasingly defiant in responding to the mountain of evidence that Russia has systematically doped with government assistance, most notably at the 2014 Sochi Olympics — where Russia’s longtime national antidoping lab chief, Grigory Rodchenkov, said he substituted steroid-tainted urine with clean urine.

      This article is intended for people who are interested in sports, more specifically, international sports since it covers controversy about the track and field world Championships this summer. I chose this article because i am a huge fan of the Olympics and remember the recurring controversy over many of the the athletes from Russia. By using dates and examples from the past, the author can better support the idea that the doping has happened again and that the officials are trying to hide things.

    1. After a brief training session, participants spent six hours archiving environmental data from government websites, including those of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Interior Department.

      A worthwhile effort.

    2. An anonymous donor has provided storage on Amazon servers, and the information can be searched from a website at the University of Pennsylvania called Data Refuge. Though the Federal Records Act theoretically protects government data from deletion, scientists who rely on it say would rather be safe than sorry.

      Data refuge.

    3. researchers realize that their own aloofness may largely be to blame for public disregard for the evidence on issues like climate change or vaccine safety.

      I could see this interpretation.

    4. “But if we want to defend the role of science in policy making, scientists need to run for office.

      This would be an interesting development.

    1. At airports around the world, the legal tug of war played out in starkly human terms, with travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries having to decide whether to board flights to the United States, unsure of whether they would be turned back once they landed.Yet here, in the cosseted confines of Mar-a-Lago, those concerns seemed a million miles away. The guests had gathered for the 60th annual Red Cross ball, a staple of the Palm Beach social calendar, which this year carried the theme “From Vienna to Versailles.”In keeping with the Hapsburg and Bourbon motif, the male staff members wore powdered wigs and breeches; the women were costumed in flouncy gowns and ash-blonde beehive wigs in the style of Marie Antoinette, the queen guillotined in the French Revolution.
    1. The Russian dissident and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov drew upon long familiarity with that process when he tweeted: “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

      Very well said.

    1. Annotate

      As another example of the trend in annotated news, there are many things to like about this example, and some notable drawbacks as well. Pros: More interactive than NYTimes' previous annotation efforts, nudges reader use of layered commentary, content of annotation layer encourages perspective-taking and reminds reader that political is personal (and vice versa). I also think it's interesting that interview processes and outcomes become the content of the annotation layer. Cons: Confusing how annotations (i.e. refugee contributions via interview) are related to specific anchor text, the "Notes" are static (no ability for reader response, no links out to related information), and annotation "Notes" don't have tags (limiting association with other documents and annotated content). That's my rough assessment of an important step forward.

    2. Produced

      The NYTimes' in-house annotation efforts are iterating rather quickly - this approach is more interactive than what was publishing a week ago, yet still isn't participatory or open. I'm eager to see how their efforts continue to grow, whether or not they'll jump to a third party platform, and if they'll discuss their process publicly.

    3. asked refugees in Jordan

      To learn about these refugees - who they are, where they have come from, etc. - the reader must click on highlighted anchor text and read the annotation. The UX makes interaction with the annotation layer an essential quality of the reader's experience.

    4. vigilant2

      The numbering convention is similar to footnotes, and reminds me of commentary about similarities among annotation, hyperlinks, and footnotes.

    5. Trump

      Test annotating the new NYTimes dynamic "note."

    6. for their responses to the president’s decision

      I'm curious about the relationship between interviewing and annotating. Su "asked refugees... for their responses," with answers then anchored to specific parts of the EO. What's the process linking new content (refugee responses) to the anchor text?

    1. almost like the golden snitch in quidditch

      In which we explain a common, real world sport, played by many around the world, with a fictional one—likely helpfully.