tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5753348578615178102024-03-14T02:22:13.040-07:00Creativity, Problem Solving, Invention, and InnovationDamian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-74627311736703196662020-03-04T02:30:00.001-08:002020-03-04T02:32:46.000-08:00Top 10 Most Amazing Inventions by Leonardo da Vinci!<br />
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From machine guns and helicopters, to 15th century tanks, Leonardo da Vinci<br />
00:04<br />
created and designed of a lot of things in his life but you might be surprised<br />
00:08<br />
with how just ahead of time this Italian native really was. Stay tuned to number<br />
00:13<br />
one to see which of his 15th century inventions you use every day!<br />
00:29<br />
<b>Number 10: The First Machine Gun.</b><br />
00:32<br />
In school, most of us learned that da Vinci<br />
00:36<br />
was a painter, a composer, and a man of the arts. We’re here to tell you today<br />
00:41<br />
that good old Leonardo might actually have been a good deal more hardcore than<br />
00:44<br />
you might think! While he’s still the same man who painted classics such as<br />
00:49<br />
Mona Lisa and the most famous depiction of the Last Supper, da Vinci also<br />
00:53<br />
invented what some considered being the first machine gun. To make this feat even<br />
00:58<br />
more impressive, he did this in a century where people were really unsure as to<br />
01:03<br />
what gunpowder’s place might be in the future of warfare. The reason that<br />
01:08<br />
gunpowder didn’t really take off until a few centuries later is simple no one had<br />
01:13<br />
figured out how to make it safe and reliable for use in the 1400s. Cannons<br />
01:18<br />
were big and heavy things that took ages to reload,<br />
01:20<br />
they just weren’t all that practical. Da Vinci wasn’t having such arbitrary<br />
01:25<br />
limitations in his own inventions, however. His triple barrel cannon was<br />
01:30<br />
lightweight and mounted on a carriage for easy transport. The groundbreaking<br />
01:34<br />
weapon could also be reloaded from the front rather easily. Did we mention it<br />
01:38<br />
had three barrels? Well, yep, it did! Making da Vinci the inventor the closest<br />
01:44<br />
thing to the world’s first machine gun. You know that you’re doing something<br />
01:48<br />
right when it takes the rest of the world around 500 years to catch up to<br />
01:52<br />
you!<br />
01:54<br />
<b>Number 9: A Portable Bridge.</b><br />
01:57<br />
Back in da Vinci’s day, warfare included a lot of<br />
02:01<br />
walking. Soldiers didn’t have the luxury of being transported by train, or car, or<br />
02:06<br />
plane. No, they had to rely on their own two feet and animals that they could<br />
02:11<br />
train. Having to get everywhere on the “heel/toe express” really made the issue<br />
02:17<br />
of rivers and waterways a problem for ancient armies. No company of soldiers<br />
02:21<br />
likes being wet, after all. In Leo’s time, typical warfare involved a lot of city<br />
02:26<br />
and castle sieging, and what do castles have? Moats! Which are a big enough problem all<br />
02:32<br />
on their own. We already told you that da Vinci was a military engineer, as well as<br />
02:37<br />
an artist. Well when it came to his military designs…Leonardo was<br />
02:40<br />
for valuing efficiency. It’s no surprise, then, that he would tackle the problem of<br />
02:45<br />
soldiers having to walk through every bit of water that was stuck in their way.<br />
02:49<br />
To solve for this the inventor did no less than create a wheeled, portable, and<br />
02:55<br />
revolving bridge that armies could drag along behind them. In his personal notes,<br />
02:59<br />
Leonardo described this invention of his bridge as “light, yet rugged.” We bet the<br />
03:05<br />
soldiers that got to use the bridge loved him for this one, since it meant no<br />
03:09<br />
more wet uniforms or rusty swords for them!<br />
03:13<br />
<b>Number 8: A Giant Horse.</b><br />
03:17<br />
Among one of his many sculpting projects, da Vinci was hired by one of his patrons to<br />
03:21<br />
create a 24 foot tall horse. The Duke of Milan funded this project, even despite<br />
03:27<br />
it requiring an exorbitantly expensive amount of bronze. There was so much<br />
03:32<br />
material that needed to be applied to the sculpture that Leonardo was forced to<br />
03:35<br />
create a new casting technique to make sure that the horse’s bronze shell would<br />
03:39<br />
be immune to cracks or faults. Unfortunately, the Duke of Milan was put<br />
03:44<br />
in a tight spot when the King of France invaded Italy. The Duke ended up having<br />
03:48<br />
to offer nearly 40 tons of bronze – meant for da Vinci’s sculpture – to the invading<br />
03:53<br />
monarch as a bribe. Leonardo was somewhat upset about not being able to complete<br />
03:58<br />
his final project and died never being able to complete it. Luckily, though, it<br />
04:02<br />
does have a happy ending. Leonardo’s horse was later completed, and the man<br />
04:06<br />
who had done so donated the sculpture to da Vinci’s birth country of Italy!<br />
04:12<br />
<b>Number 7: A Robot Knight.</b><br />
04:14<br />
A good number of da Vinci’s designs included the use of<br />
04:18<br />
ropes and pulleys, but none more so than the robotic Knight that he created for<br />
04:23<br />
the pageant in Milan. The robot was designed without a single unneeded part<br />
04:28<br />
and could sit down, stand up, and even raise its visor! Leonardo’s designs were<br />
04:34<br />
so finely formulated that some of NASA’s robots are designed after his work on<br />
04:38<br />
the robotic Knight. And we thought his invention of the machine gun was impressive!<br />
04:44<br />
<b>Number 6: The Parachute.</b><br />
04:48<br />
Da Vinci isn’t actually credited with the invention of the parachute, but he was definitely one<br />
04:52<br />
of the first men to ever think of it. For years, scientists doubted whether<br />
04:56<br />
Leonardo’s design would actually work, though. This was because, based on the<br />
05:01<br />
inventors notes, Leonardo’s parachute was to be<br />
05:03<br />
constructed a good deal differently than how we create parachutes in the modern<br />
05:07<br />
day. Some researchers are known to have stated that his design would just be too<br />
05:11<br />
heavy, and his shape was too wrong for it to actually work. For the longest time<br />
05:16<br />
there was no proof to argue against these naysayers,<br />
05:18<br />
either. As like with many of his ideas, Leonardo never actually built or tested<br />
05:24<br />
a parachute himself. Still, the great inventor would be proved right in the<br />
05:28<br />
end. In the year 2000, the world was shocked when a daredevil named Adrian<br />
05:33<br />
Nichols constructed and tested da Vinci’s design for the fun of it. And, to<br />
05:39<br />
everyone’s surprise, Leonardo’s parachute actually worked!<br />
05:43<br />
Nichols even said it felt smoother falling with the ancient design then<br />
05:47<br />
compared to its modern-day counterparts. Now, coming from a man who was so tired<br />
05:51<br />
of modern parachutes that he tested an ancient one just for the thrill…we’d say<br />
05:56<br />
he’d probably know. Maybe parachute designers nowadays should take a closer<br />
06:00<br />
look at what the world’s most well-known Renaissance man was doing back in the 1400s.<br />
06:06<br />
<b>Number 5: Ancient tank.</b><br />
06:08<br />
This is one of the most famous of all da Vinci’s<br />
06:13<br />
inventions, so we just had to put it in the top five of our list!<br />
06:16<br />
Leonardo’s armored car was to be powered by eight men who were to be constantly<br />
06:21<br />
turning cranks that rotated its many wheels. Even though it’s often referred to<br />
06:25<br />
as an armored car or tank, this invention really looked more like a giant metal<br />
06:30<br />
top than anything else. Da Vinci’s armored car was circular in<br />
06:35<br />
design, with metal plates enclosing its wooden frame. These plates were affixed<br />
06:39<br />
on a sloped surface so that they could better deflect arrows and other<br />
06:43<br />
projectiles. If you’re wondering how this enclosed behemoth would actually fire,<br />
06:48<br />
though, we will tell you! The ancient war machine was to have light cannons<br />
06:52<br />
placed inside it at all angles. There was also a signing scope at the very<br />
06:57<br />
top of the wooden and metal tank to allows operators to fire and aim in all<br />
07:00<br />
directions. It’s no wonder da Vinci noted that this<br />
07:04<br />
invention would be best used for crowd control and to scatter enemies. It<br />
07:08<br />
would have been terrifying on ancient battlefield!<br />
07:13<br />
<b>Number 4: Scuba Gear</b><br />
07:15<br />
DaVinci loved the world around him. He painted it, he investigated it, and he<br />
07:21<br />
built things to better interact with and explore it. Leo is well known for his<br />
07:25<br />
fascination with the air, but he also invented a great many things that<br />
07:29<br />
revolved around water, as well. While living in Venice, the great inventor<br />
07:34<br />
created an early diving apparatus that would allow man to stay underwater for a<br />
07:38<br />
lot longer than he could hold his breath. Leonardo designed a leather suit that<br />
07:43<br />
was attached to a hollow cane tube. The cane tubes were also connected to a cork<br />
07:48<br />
diving bell that provided air from the surface to the diver. da Vinci didn’t<br />
07:52<br />
just stop with allowing a man to stay under the water, however. He also affixed<br />
07:56<br />
the suit with a balloon that allowed its wearer to control his descent and<br />
08:00<br />
could also assist with bringing the diver back to the surface quickly, if<br />
08:04<br />
needed. Smart thinking if you ask us!<br />
08:07<br />
<b>Number 3: The First Car.</b><br />
08:10<br />
We’ve established the da Vinci was way ahead of his time. We’ve listed scuba gear,<br />
08:14<br />
tanks, and more! But, he also invented something that the rest of us rely on<br />
08:18<br />
every day the car da Vinci’s car really wasn’t for transport, though, it was a bit<br />
08:25<br />
limited. It could be programmed to push itself either straight or at angles, but<br />
08:30<br />
really couldn’t be steered. That said, Leonardo’s self propelled car did<br />
08:35<br />
exactly what its inventor wanted it to. He actually designed it for theater and<br />
08:39<br />
show, and not for transport. Even though da Vinci’s car wasn’t all that drivable,<br />
08:45<br />
it was something that we’re sure gave the residents of Europe quite a thrill…<br />
08:48<br />
just like Leonardo would have wanted it to!<br />
08:51<br />
<b>Number 2: A Helicopter.</b><br />
08:53<br />
DaVinci not only wanted to conquer the<br />
08:57<br />
water and ground, but also the sky! So it’s no shock to us, then, that he developed<br />
09:02<br />
and designed a primitive helicopter, of sorts.<br />
09:05<br />
The inventor described the machine as working by compressing air, and then<br />
09:09<br />
using the force generated to spin his helicopter powerfully and rapidly into<br />
09:13<br />
the sky. Just like with his parachute design, though, DaVinci never actually<br />
09:18<br />
built or tested his plans for a flying machine. Also, because of what it would<br />
09:22<br />
weigh, many researchers doubt its ability to ever even get off the ground. But hey…<br />
09:28<br />
the experts were wrong about da Vinci’s parachute design, so maybe there’s hope.<br />
09:32<br />
Who’s going first?<br />
09:35<br />
<b>Number 1: The Ball Bearing.</b><br />
09:39<br />
Ball bearings are found in cars, laptops, and almost all modern inventions and<br />
09:44<br />
appliances. They reduce friction and allow machines to spin without<br />
09:48<br />
overheating or outright ripping themselves apart. Many of Leonardo’s<br />
09:53<br />
inventions were controlled by pulleys and levers, but in the twilight of his<br />
09:57<br />
life da Vinci bridged the gap between ancient and modern technology and<br />
10:02<br />
rediscovered the ball bearing. Okay, the ball bearing was actually (as far as<br />
10:06<br />
we can tell) first used in the Roman Empire, but it was subsequently lost<br />
10:10<br />
along with Rome’s fall. It was da Vinci that rediscovered the ball bearing just<br />
10:14<br />
a decade or two before his death. We remember Leonardo da Vinci as one of the<br />
10:19<br />
greatest painters and inventors to ever have lived, but, thanks to his discovery<br />
10:23<br />
of the ball bearing…in a way we all use one of his many inventions almost every day!<br />
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Before you go, take a minute to subscribe! Also, check out some of our other videos here. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next time!</div>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-75260137506001178272020-03-04T02:23:00.001-08:002020-03-04T02:23:41.199-08:00Florence to open Michelangelo's Secret Room<a href="https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/florence-to-open-michelangelos-secret-room.html?fbclid=IwAR2l9wYfQ6KYzvyFTumh1ENQF7wKoL-dfoDeSTbhuxXTNnZ8weEguXJme80">https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/florence-to-open-michelangelos-secret-room.html?fbclid=IwAR2l9wYfQ6KYzvyFTumh1ENQF7wKoL-dfoDeSTbhuxXTNnZ8weEguXJme80</a><br />
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<img alt="Florence to open Michelangelo's Secret Room" src="https://www.wantedinrome.com/i/featured/storage/uploads/2020/03/florence-secret-room-michelangelo.jpg" /></div>
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Michelangelo Buonarotti, the Italian High Renaissance master, gifted the world a stunning artistic legacy from the <a href="https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/how-to-have-the-sistine-chapel-all-to-yourself.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #4183c4; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Sistine Chapel</a> frescoes to magnificent sculptures such as the Pietà, David, <a href="https://www.wantedinrome.com/yellowpage/michelangelos-statue-of-moses-in-rome.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #4183c4; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Moses</a> and <a href="https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/laocoon-a-statues-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #4183c4; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Laocoön</a>.</div>
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However not many people have heard of his so-called "Secret Room" in Florence, a tiny chamber with sketch-filled walls, which is reportedly set to open to the public in 2020.</div>
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During the summer of 1530 Michelangelo went "off-radar" for about three months, with no official trace of the artist's whereabouts on record.</div>
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Michelangelo was in fact holed up in a secret chamber, below the Medici Chapels in the Basilica of S. Lorenzo, in hiding from the Medici on their return from exile.</div>
Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-15942233592188254122020-03-04T02:08:00.003-08:002020-03-04T02:08:54.766-08:00Man Quits His Aeronautical Job, Now Travels The World And Here’s What His Notebook Looks Like<div class="mobile-fold" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a href="https://www.demilked.com/amazing-notebook-art-jose-naranja/?fbclid=IwAR0UUf3LQQ_V2W6yxFGSNIfSB4gXD-T-qbooTp2E_wjnb_x6Sxq7r0_VMPY">https://www.demilked.com/amazing-notebook-art-jose-naranja/?fbclid=IwAR0UUf3LQQ_V2W6yxFGSNIfSB4gXD-T-qbooTp2E_wjnb_x6Sxq7r0_VMPY</a></div>
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Jose Naranja turns ordinary notebooks into highly detailed works of art. The artist uses watercolors, stamps, writing, elements of photography and drawings to turn each notebook into a one of a kind masterpiece.</div>
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Jose has worked as an aeronautic engineer for many years but eventually decided to quit and devote his life to art and travels. The artist developed his passion for notebook art in 2005 when he discovered Moleskine pocket journals. As hard as it may be to believe, Jose is a self-taught artist, but his skills are remarkable. So far the artist has filled in 12 notebooks and recently has begun binding his own, to make his art even more personal.</div>
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If you would like to flip through the pages of one of Jose’s unique notebooks, you can buy one in his shop. Check out the artist’s amazing notebook art in the gallery below!</div>
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More info: <a href="https://josenaranja.blogspot.lt/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; color: #898989; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">josenaranja </a>| <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/traveling-artist-handmade-sketchbooks-jose-naranja/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #898989; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">h/t</a></div>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-7921012123183511722020-01-31T12:04:00.004-08:002020-01-31T12:05:55.703-08:00Leonardo da Vinci’s Visionary Notebooks Now Online: Browse 570 Digitized Pages<a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/leonardo-da-vincis-visionary-notebooks-now-online-browse-570-digitized-pages.html?fbclid=IwAR1B_tyHS0s_Mw6_Du_A18IS7Y0sEOQOdw2FVYhL6lYZNEi0QVADb_6ubs4">http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/leonardo-da-vincis-visionary-notebooks-now-online-browse-570-digitized-pages.html?fbclid=IwAR1B_tyHS0s_Mw6_Du_A18IS7Y0sEOQOdw2FVYhL6lYZNEi0QVADb_6ubs4</a><br />
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Okay, I’m sure you know a bit more than that, but unless you’re a Renaissance scholar, you’re certain to find yourself amazed and surprised at how much you didn’t know about the quintessential Renaissance man when you encounter a compilation of his notebooks—<a href="http://www.bl.uk/ttp2/pdf/leonardopedretti1.pdf" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Codex Arundel</a>—which has been <a href="http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Arundel_MS_263" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">digitized by the British Library and made available to the public</a>.</div>
Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-32850771411702085732020-01-27T14:56:00.004-08:002020-01-27T14:57:30.101-08:00Working backward to solve problems - Maurice Ashley<div style="text-align: center;">
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-62404922862846083162019-04-15T14:33:00.002-07:002019-04-15T14:57:03.009-07:00Marking the passing of Tony Buzan<span style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: "gudea" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Tony Buzan - Mind Map Inventor, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee & Author of over 150 books on mind mapping, memory & creativity died of a heart attack on 13th April 2019. He was 76.</span></span><br />
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-39727902726176075662018-05-28T02:32:00.002-07:002018-05-28T02:33:30.086-07:00The Mojoptix Sundial <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "graphik webfont" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "roboto" , "droid sans" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">No batteries, no motor, no electronics...</span><br />
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-92059110204199996602018-03-31T13:16:00.000-07:002018-03-31T13:16:20.530-07:00New Study Links Social Anxiety And Fear Of Being Caught Making Mistakes by Alfredo Carpineti<a href="http://www.iflscience.com/brain/new-study-links-social-anxiety-and-fear-of-being-caught-making-mistakes/">http://www.iflscience.com/brain/new-study-links-social-anxiety-and-fear-of-being-caught-making-mistakes/</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.iflscience.com/team/alfredo-carpineti/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">By Alfredo Carpineti</a></h5>
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An international team of researchers led by the University of Maryland have looked at the potential root of childhood social anxiety and found that others noticing their mistakes could play a role. The study is published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856717317732" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #129bf4; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry</a>. </div>
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The study gave 107 children aged 12 the <a href="https://www.psytoolkit.org/experiment-library/flanker.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #129bf4; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">flanker task</a>, which tests their ability to focus on information while disregarding distractions. They took the test twice: once when they were told they were being observed by peers and once when they were told they weren’t being observed. The team measured reaction times in both these cases and looked at the children's brain activity using an electroencephalogram.</div>
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Based on the children's post-error response times and brain activity, the team found a connection between social anxiety and a fear of making errors when under observation.</div>
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MORE HERE >>> <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/brain/new-study-links-social-anxiety-and-fear-of-being-caught-making-mistakes/">http://www.iflscience.com/brain/new-study-links-social-anxiety-and-fear-of-being-caught-making-mistakes/</a></div>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-48662185140685449052017-05-17T09:48:00.001-07:002017-05-17T09:48:18.721-07:005 Tips to Improve your Critical Thinking by Samantha Agoos<br />
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-83318357980942456242016-11-17T04:03:00.000-08:002016-11-17T04:06:38.241-08:00Paper bicycle helmet wins the James Dyson Award<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: "pt sans" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/technology-and-gaming/this-award-winning-paper-bike-helmet-could-save-your-life-431039.html">https://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/technology-and-gaming/this-award-winning-paper-bike-helmet-could-save-your-life-431039.html</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "pt sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>A rain-resistant, folding, paper bicycle helmet has won the prestigious international James Dyson Award for clever inventions.</b></span><br />
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The EcoHelmet is made from recycled paper woven into a honeycomb structure that protects the wearer’s head from impact from any direction.</div>
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It is designed for those using bike-sharing schemes who may not always carry protective headwear.</div>
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World-famous inventor Dyson praised it as an “incredibly elegant” solution to an “obvious problem”.</div>
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The prize, which is open to university level students or recent graduates, was won by design grad Isis Shiffer, of the Pratt Institute of Design in New York, who bagged a cool £30,000 for claiming top spot.</div>
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It beat a wearable asthma management system and smart contact lenses that can measure glucose levels to the award.</div>
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Isis said: “I was lucky enough to be studying at Royal College of Art and the Imperial College of London for a semester, and was granted access to Imperial’s crash lab.</div>
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“They had a European standard helmet crash set-up that allowed me to gather enough data on EcoHelmet’s proprietary honeycomb configuration to know it was viable and worth developing.”</div>
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<a href="http://www.isisshiffer.com/"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c11_stUi8FQ/WC2cEW8zOcI/AAAAAAAAHRs/wcwk1uIW8hcpA0EakvdIH9wt4AXUrh17wCLcB/s400/3A705E4100000578-0-image-a-56_1479347085978.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.isisshiffer.com/">http://www.isisshiffer.com/</a></div>
Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-26656464046817468402016-09-30T10:38:00.002-07:002016-09-30T10:38:29.411-07:00SHOEBOX APPEAL !!!<a href="https://www.teamhope.ie/christmas-shoebox-appeal/fill-a-box/"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.teamhope.ie/christmas-shoebox-appeal/fill-a-box/</span></a><br />
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<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Grab a Shoe box</span>Or a plastic container would be great! Wrap the box and lid separately with Christmas paper</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.teamhope.ie/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CSA2016-LABELS.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-shadow: currentcolor 0px 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5eb832; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;" target="_blank">Print Label</a> and choose who you want to give your Christmas Shoebox to and what age.</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Fill the box</span>Get as creative as you like and have some fun with this ! – You can use our <a href="https://www.teamhope.ie/christmas-shoebox-appeal/fill-a-box/#4ws" style="background-color: transparent; box-shadow: currentcolor 0px 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5eb832; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">4 W’s</a> as a rough guide</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Close the box</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="4ws" style="background-color: transparent; box-shadow: currentcolor 0px 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5eb832; white-space: nowrap;"></a></span><ul style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style: disc; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Include €4 in your leaflet envelope either on top of the gifts or taped to the inside of the lid.</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">To make it easier you can<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><a href="http://www.teamhope.ie/donate/" style="background-color: transparent; box-shadow: currentcolor 0px 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5eb832; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">donate your €4 on our secure on-line site</a>.</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">With elastic band – please don’t seal with tape as we need to check contents to comply with regulations.</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Drop it off</span>To your <a href="https://www.teamhope.ie/christmas-shoebox-appeal/how-to-get-your-box-to-us/" style="background-color: transparent; box-shadow: currentcolor 0px 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5eb832; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">local drop off point</a> closest to you<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />before <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">November 11th</span></span></li>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-75766629008999700822016-09-27T14:52:00.001-07:002016-09-27T14:53:26.893-07:00Kansas family sues mapping company for years of 'digital hell' by Olivia Solon<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Geolocation company’s glitch sent police and angry businesses to a remote Kansas farm looking for criminals, and now the residents want compensation.</span><br />
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IP mapping isn’t an exact science and so MaxMind assigns a default address when it can’t identify its true location. That address just happened to be the Arnolds’ property, a remote farm that is located slap-bang in the middle of America.<br />
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More than 600 million IP addresses are associated with their farm and more than 5,000 companies are drawing information from MaxMind’s database.<br />
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It wasn’t just police who turned up on the Arnolds’ doorstep. Angry business owners would turn up claiming someone at the residence was sending their business thousands of emails and clogging their computer systems. Other people became convinced that someone living at the residence was responsible for internet scams.<br />
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A Kansas family whose remote farm was visited “countless times” by police trying to find missing people, hackers, identity fraudsters and stolen cars because of a glitch is suing the digital mapping company responsible.<br />
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James and Theresa Arnold sued MaxMind on Friday, filing a complaint in the US district court in Kansas. MaxMind, based in Massachusetts, allows companies to find out the location of the computers used by individuals to access their websites.<br />
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According to the complaint, the husband and wife team dealt with five years of “digital hell” after moving into the property in Butler County, Kansas, in 2011.<br />
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The couple had been drawn to the farm because it was close to the nursing home where Theresa’s mother was being cared for and the school that their two sons attended. The landlord also allowed the sons to hunt and fish on the surrounding 620 acres of land.<br />
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The first week after they moved in, two deputies from the Butler County sheriff’s department came to their house looking for a stolen truck, something that would happen again and again over the subsequent years.<br />
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“The plaintiffs were repeatedly awakened from their sleep or disturbed from their daily activities by local, state or federal officials looking for a runaway child or a missing person, or evidence of a computer fraud, or call of an attempted suicide,” the complaint said. At one point, James Arnold was reported for holding girls at the residence for the purpose of making child abuse films.<br />
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For half a decade the family was mystified about why this was happening until April this year when Fusion’s Kashmir Hill revealed the truth.<br />
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It all came down to glitch in the MaxMind’s IP address mapping database.<br />
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IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are unique identifiers associated with computers or networks of computers connected to the internet. Through its GeoIP product, MaxMind matches IP addresses with their assumed geographic location, and sells that information to companies so they can use it to, for example, show targeted advertising or send someone a cease and desist letter if they are illegally downloading films<br />
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IP mapping isn’t an exact science and so MaxMind assigns a default address when it can’t identify its true location. That address just happened to be the Arnolds’ property, a remote farm that is located slap-bang in the middle of America.<br />
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More than 600 million IP addresses are associated with their farm and more than 5,000 companies are drawing information from MaxMind’s database.<br />
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It wasn’t just police who turned up on the Arnolds’ doorstep. Angry business owners would turn up claiming someone at the residence was sending their business thousands of emails and clogging their computer systems. Other people became convinced that someone living at the residence was responsible for internet scams.<br />
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More here:<br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address" style="font-size: x-large;">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address</a><br />
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-27439966234178142222016-08-11T04:29:00.004-07:002018-03-31T13:17:40.220-07:00Puzzle Book With Pages That Must Be Solved to Unlock the Next by James Gould-Bourn<a href="http://www.boredpanda.com/puzzle-book-unlock-pages-codex-silenda-brady-whitney/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook">http://www.boredpanda.com/puzzle-book-unlock-pages-codex-silenda-brady-whitney/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook</a><br />
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Some books are hard to read, but few are as difficult as the Codex Silenda. Why? Because it actually won’t let you read it unless you’re smart enough to unlock it.<br />
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The laser-cut, hand-crafted, five-page wooden book is created by industrial designer Brady Whitney, who’s been raising funds for the project through Kickstarter. “Each page features a unique puzzle that requires the user/reader to unlock the corresponding bolts in order to progress to the next page,” read’s the website. “As the puzzler moves through the book, a story begins to unfold, depicting the story of an apprentice in Da Vinci’s Workshop who encounters the same Codex. However in the story the Codex acts as a trap set by Da Vinci to capture any would be spies/snoopy apprentices in order to protect his work. The only way to escape is to solve each of the puzzles before the master returns from his trip.”</div>
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<br />Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-39905825566395446802015-12-01T11:08:00.003-08:002015-12-01T11:09:39.027-08:00Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Hamilton Mixtape<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Jz1VRfdbmY" width="560"></iframe><br />
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How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore</div>
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And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot</div>
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In the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished, in squalor</div>
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Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The ten-dollar Founding Father without a father</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Got a lot farther</div>
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By workin' a lot harder</div>
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By bein' a lot smarter</div>
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By bein' a self-starter</div>
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By fourteen they had placed him in charge of the trade and charter</div>
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And every day while slaves were being slaughtered</div>
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And carted away across the waves</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Our Hamilton kept his guard up</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Inside he was longing for something to be a part of</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The brother was ready to beg steal borrow or barter</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Then a hurricane came and</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Devastation reigned and</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Our man saw his future drip drippin' down the drain</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Put a pencil to his temple</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Connected it to his brain</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And he wrote his first refrain</div>
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A testament to his pain</div>
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When the word got around, they said, "This kid is insane, man!"</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Getcha education, don't forget from whence you came</div>
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And the world is gonna know your name!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
What's your name, man?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
[Hook]</div>
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Alexander Hamilton, his name is Alexander Hamilton</div>
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And there's a million things he hasn't done</div>
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But just you wait, just you wait</div>
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[Verse 2]</div>
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When he was 10, his father split</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Full of it, debt-ridden</div>
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Two years later, see Alex and his mother, bed-ridden</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Half-dead, sittin' in their own sick, the scent thick</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And Alex got better but his mother went quick</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Left him with nothin' but ruined pride</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Somethin' new inside</div>
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A voice saying Alex, you gotta fend for yourself</div>
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He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf</div>
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There would've been nothin' left to do</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
For someone less astute</div>
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He would've been dead or destitute</div>
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Without a cent of restitution</div>
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Started workin', clerkin' for his late mother's landlord</div>
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Tradin' sugar cane and rum and other things he can't afford</div>
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Scannin' for every book he can get his hands on</div>
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Plannin' for the future, see him now as he stands on</div>
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The bow of a ship headed for a new land</div>
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In New York you can be a new man</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The ship is in the harbor now</div>
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See if you can spot him</div>
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Another immigrant comin' up from the bottom</div>
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His enemies destroyed his rep, America forgot him</div>
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And me? I'm the damn fool that shot him</div>
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[Hook]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Alexander Hamilton</div>
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We were waiting in the weeds for you</div>
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You could never back down</div>
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You always had to speak your mind</div>
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But Alexander Hamilton, we could never take your deeds from you</div>
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In our cowardice and our shame</div>
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We will try to destroy your name</div>
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The world will never be the same, Alexander!</div>
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<br /></div>
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[Outro]</div>
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Yeah, I'm the damn genius that shot him</div>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-11621867892322507252015-11-16T01:51:00.001-08:002015-11-16T01:55:53.686-08:00The 3-Pipe Solution: The Underrated Creativity of Sherlock Holmes<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/the-3-pipe-solution-the-underrated-creativity-of-sherlock-holmes/266843/">http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/the-3-pipe-solution-the-underrated-creativity-of-sherlock-holmes/266843/</a><br />
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<i>Holmes is often portrayed as a mechanical logician, but his approach depends more on outside-the-box thinking that, according to modern research, really does help solve problems.</i><br />
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When most people think of Sherlock Holmes, they see a paragon of calculating logic: a chilly, computer-like machine with endless powers of reason. As the UK'sTelegraph put it, "If Holmes is not cold, inhumanly calculating ... he's just not Holmes"—echoing the words of such prior Holmesians as David Grann, who wrote in The Devil and Sherlock Holmes that "Holmes is a cold, calculating machine, a man who is, as one critic put it, 'a tracker, a hunter-down, a combination of bloodhound, pointer, and bull-dog." Even Holmes's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, tried to dismiss him as "inhuman as a Babbage's calculating machine" when he tired of his creation, just a year before he tried to kill him off entirely in "The Final Problem." But in reality, that perception is far from the truth. In working on my new book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, it occurred to me that what allows the detective to attain the heights of deduction that he does is the very thing a computer lacks entirely: the power of imagination.<br />
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Consider: When Sherlock Holmes is asked to investigate a mysterious death on the shores of a small village in Sussex, he realizes that the cold-blooded, vicious murderer—the victim has terrible weals all along his back, "as though he had been terribly flogged"—is not exactly of the human variety. While the police focus their efforts on Ian Murdoch, a competitor for the affections of the dead man's fiancée, Holmes follows instead a lead of a different sort: the dead man's last words, "lion's mane." Those words, in turn, lead him to the real killer, none other than a deadly jellyfish.<br />
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How does Holmes come upon his solution? He not only opens his mind to the possibility of the nonlinear and improbable, the very hallmarks of creativity, but he makes certain that he has that mind stocked with the most esoteric of knowledge. It's easy to remember Holmes's famous rant to Dr. Watson on the necessity of keeping a pristine mind attic (Holmes's metaphor for the human mind). Far harder is recalling the major asterisk that is attached to that warning: A mind attic is only as useful as its contents and how you use them. If you store only the essentials, and follow only the most obvious path, you can be a t-crossing, i-dotting Scotland Yard detective bar none, but aren't likely to advance much beyond that. Your mind will never be able to make those elusive connections that could lead you to identifying a fish as a killer if you don't have the requisite knowledge base to begin with—and if you aren't willing to risk the possibility of letting a killer go free while you take the time to figure things out.<br />
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We remember Holmes's organized logic. We forget that in his mind space, there dwell not only jellyfish with stings that kill, but polyphonic motets and obscure paintings, tomes on bee keeping and discussions of philosophy. Holmes knows that the earth goes round the sun, and then some. And he isn't afraid to employ that knowledge in a non-traditional way. How can he discover the real killer unless he is willing to consider a possibility so seemingly outlandish that it makes him look like a doddering old man? Over and over, his is not the approach of a ruthless logician, but rather one of someone who knows all too well the power of the creative mind.<br />
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Why, then, do we tend to forget this essential element of Holmes's approach? As it turns out, it's not at all uncommon to sweep aside the uncertainty of imaginative meandering in favor of the certainty of hard science. Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman often expressed surprise at just how often people did that very thing: forget how central creativity is to the scientific method. "It is surprising that people do not believe that there is imagination in science," he once told an audience, echoing the lament of fellow physicist Albert Einstein who, too, bemoaned our propensity to embrace logic at the expense of imagination and intuition—and did so as early as 1929. Now, there is evidence that this tendency to dismiss the imagination of the scientific approach goes much deeper than mere observation. In their frustration, Feynman and Einstein captured what appears to be a basic tendency of the human mind.<br />
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In 2011, a team of psychologists led by Jennifer Mueller decided to test a common paradox: Even though we say we value creativity, we often tend to reject creative ideas. The problem, they hypothesized, might lie in our inherent distrust of uncertainty. To test their assumption, they asked a group of participants to take part in a task known as the IAT, the implicit association test. Originally designed to test racial biases, the IAT has since been used to look at bias in any number of areas—age, sex, weight, and the like—by measuring the time it takes for someone to react to a given characteristic that's been paired with a label of either "good" or "bad" by pressing a previously designated key. If we're slower to respond when the trait of interest is paired with negative labels than when it's paired with positive ones, that discrepancy is taken as evidence of bias. In this particular instance, the target concept was creativity.<br />
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The researchers first assigned participants to either a certain or an uncertain condition. In the one, subjects had no opportunity to earn extra money, while in the other, they were told that they would potentially receive extra payment, as determined by a future lottery. Both groups then completed the IAT, where creativity-related words, like "novel" or "original," and practicality-related words, like "constructive" and "useful," were paired with positively and negatively valenced stimuli, like "rainbow" and "vomit," respectively. They were then asked to rate their explicit attitudes toward creativity.<br />
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What the psychologists discovered might seem counterintuitive, in the age of Apple and Steve Jobs's "Think Different" motto: When faced with uncertainty, we tend to be biased against creative thought. Despite their explicit assertions to the contrary, participants in the uncertain condition—the one in which they believed they had a chance to win money—repeatedly favored practicality over creativity.<br />
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Perhaps it's not so surprising, then, that we forget the very thing that makes Holmes, Holmes: his willingness to embrace that uncertain path. The view of Holmes-as-machine is both simpler and safer. It is a line of thinking more in tune with our implicit biases than its alternative—after all, isn't the world as uncertain a place as they come?<br />
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Creativity requires novelty. Imagination is all about counterfactuals and untested possibilities that don't yet exist. It is, in short, all about uncertainty. And uncertainty is as frightening as it is potentially embarrassing (there's never a guarantee of success, is there?). Why do you think Conan Doyle's inspectors are always so loath to depart from standard protocol, to do anything that might in the least endanger their investigation or delay it by even an instant? Holmes's imagination frightens them. They aren't willing to take a step back, pause in their headlong pursuit of the culprit, and see whether their path is in fact the best one to take.<br />
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But that shortsighted linearity need not be the status quo. After all, many a thinker realer than Holmes manages to overcome to overcome that fear of uncertainty and failure to come up with ideas of incredible daring and imaginative reach. So, how to master that unacknowledged predilection for the tried and true? The answer, once again, might come from Holmes's habits, specifically, from his practice of mindfulness.<br />
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When faced with a problem, Holmes often favors the three-pipe solution: Rather than spring into action, he sits with his pipe and allows his mind the time and space to process the case at hand. Such mindful concentration, new research shows, may lead to increased connectivity in the brain's default network, the connections that are active when our brain is in its so-called resting state, in between overt, directed activity. And that connectivity? It may, in turn, allow us to be more creative.<br />
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In a study published this fall in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Oslo found that connectivity in the default network was related to the quality of past recollection and future speculation in a group of more than 100 children and adolescents: The greater the neural ties, the better the subjects performed on a standard cue-word task, where they had to either recall a past event or imagine a future scenario as prompted by neutral prompts like "forest" or "travel."<br />
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Could increased creativity, then, be a mere quiet pipe away? If we rush too quickly to be scientific, to begin our experiment or catch our criminal as soon as possible, we risk never getting to the answer at all. But if we not only remember just how central imagination is to the very scientific method, but then make a habit of quietly reflecting on whatever problem confronts us instead of jumping right in, we may find ourselves over time becoming more creative to begin with, strengthening those very neural connections that will in turn allow us to arrest that jellyfish—and avoid the very embarrassment that we thought we'd escape by sticking only to the path of the tried and true.<br />
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</section>Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-44416093520647484562015-11-14T12:22:00.000-08:002015-11-28T07:56:11.112-08:0010 Irish Inventions that Changed the World<a href="https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/10-world-changing-irish-inventions/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social_paid&utm_campaign=business%20planning_site_content">https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/10-world-changing-irish-inventions/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social_paid&utm_campaign=business%20planning_site_content</a><br />
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Here are ten amazing Irish inventions that had a global impact.<br />
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<b>Colour photography, invented by John Joly in 1894</b><br />
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Modern day photographers owe a debt of gratitude to a man from the Irish midlands. John Joly was born near the village of Bracknagh in Co. Offaly and was an engineering graduate from Trinity College. In 1894, Joly invented a system of colour photography that was based on taking viewing plates with many narrow lines in three colours. Joly would mark the viewing plate with thin coloured lines and would then place the glass in the camera in front of the picture; the photograph could then be taken. This process was much simpler than anything that had come before. It is now widely accepted that he was responsible for the first practical method of colour photography.<br />
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<b>The Guided Torpedo, invented by Louis Brennan in 1877</b><br />
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Would you believe that the world’s first guided missile originated from Castlebar? Louis Brennan, a talented engineer from Castlebar, created a directable torpedo that could be controlled by guide wires. The first design of the torpedo was produced when Brennan was 25. He received funding from the British Navy. In 1887, a government factory began producing “Brennan’s” in Kent. The “Brennan” would go on to be used as a defence mechanism by the British Coastal Defence Forces until the early 20thcentury. However, so far as is known, it was never fired in anger.<br />
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<b>The Hypodermic Syringe, invented by Francis Rynd in 1844</b><br />
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Francis Rynd, a Dublin doctor, performed the world’s first subcutaneous injection with his homemade hypodermic syringe. Rynd had been treating a woman who had pain in her face for years and was taking morphine pills without relief. Rynd decided to place the morphine directly under her skin and near the nerves. He created a narrow tube and a cutting implement known as a trocar. Four punctures holes were made, the morphine flowed through the tubes and the rest, as they say, is history.<br />
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<b>The Binaural Stethoscope, invented by Arthur Leared in 1851</b><br />
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One of the most important tools in modern medicine, the binaural stethoscope, was invented by a man from the South-East of Ireland. The stethoscope was originally invented in 1819 by a Frenchman, namely, Rene Laennec. Arthur Leared, a Wexford native, realised that Laennec’s instrument could be more effective, so he connected two earpieces to the listening cylinder with rubber tubes. Leared went on to display the stethoscope at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and received critical acclaim. The binaural stethoscope paved the way for the development of the modern stethoscope.<br />
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<b>The Induction Coil, invented by Rev. Nicholas Callan in 1836</b><br />
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Believe it or not, the induction coil was invented by a priest. Rev Nicholas Callan, a professor of science at St. Patrick’s College Maynooth. Rev Callan was one of Ireland’s greatest inventors. For the induction coil, Callan wound two long wires around the end of an electromagnet and connected the ends of one wire to a battery. When he interfered with or interrupted the current from the battery he received a spectacular spark from the end of the second unconnected coil and consequently the induction coil was born. Funnily enough, the Reverend managed to knock a future archbishop of Dublin unconscious while carrying out tests for his induction coil. Callan’s creation, which is over 170 years old, is still used in car ignitions today.<br />
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<b>The Ejector Seat, invented by Sir James Martin in 1946</b><br />
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Bond fans might be surprised to learn that the inventor of the ejector seat was an Irishman. In July 1946, the first live test of an ejector seat took place. The test proved to be a success when an explosion blew away the pilot’s cockpit and a second explosion propelled the pilot out of the plane that enabled him to parachute to safety. As a result, the RAF approved Martin’s idea and within 12 months the entire RAF fleet had been fitted with ejector seats. It is believed that Martin’s invention saved over 5,000 lives by the time of his death in 1981.<br />
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<b>The Submarine, invented by John Philip Holland in 1878</b><br />
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It was a rebel from Liscannor, Co. Clare, who completely changed the way war could be conducted at sea, as well as deep sea exploration. Holland, a school teacher, emigrated to Boston in 1872. His first prototype sank on its launch. However, in 1881 Holland launched the ‘Fenian Ram’, funded by the Fenian Brotherhood. It proved to be a success. In the following years, Holland won three competitions run by the US Naval Department to design and build submarines. However, political factors meant that this was an unsuccessful venture. Finally, after successful trials, the US Navy purchased the ‘Holland VII’, its first submarine, and proceeded to order six more. The submarine was now a must-have in naval warfare.<br />
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<b>The Bacon Rasher, invented by Henry Denny in 1820</b><br />
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An essential part of the ‘full Irish’, the bacon rasher, was invented by Henry Denny, a Waterford butcher. Denny patented several bacon-curing techniques and completely re-invented the process of how to cure bacon. Before this, bacon was cured by soaking large chunks of meat in brine. Denny decided to use long flat pieces of meat instead of chunks and substituted the brine for dry salt. Soon after, Denny began exporting to mainland Europe, the Americas and as far afield as India. The overall quality and shelf-life of the bacon was dramatically increased. It was an ingenious but simple innovation for its time.<br />
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<b>The Cream Cracker, invented by William and Robert Jacob in 1885</b><br />
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Like the bacon rasher, the cream cracker was also invented by a Waterford family in the 1800s. In 1885, the Jacob Family produced this biscuit from yeast dough that was left to ferment for 24 hours. It was flattened and then folded numerous times to create a layered biscuit. Jacob’s Cream Crackers that have been a family favourite since their inception are now produced by machines that can create approximately one million crackers an hour. They are also available to buy in over 35 countries worldwide.<br />
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<b>Flavoured Potato Crisps, invented by Joseph ‘Spud’ Murphy in 1954</b><br />
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Luckily for us, Joseph ‘Spud’ Murphy had an enormous distaste for plain crisps. It was the 1950s that saw the introduction of the flavoured potato crisp. Murphy, the founder of Tayto, developed a cheese and onion flavoured crisp in 1954 which would prove to be a success, both at home and abroad. By the 1960s, ‘Spud’ had become a millionaire and was described by Sean Lemass as the very acme of Irish entrepreneurial spirit. Gratefully, we still have manufacturers experimenting with flavours, something that we have ‘Spud’ Murphy to thank for.<br />
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-60734007891868474262015-11-13T13:06:00.001-08:002015-11-13T13:07:38.883-08:00Bottle Bank Arcade - TheFunTheory.com<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zSiHjMU-MUo" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Suggested by Annika Lindh.</div>
Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-53978869144322218692015-11-03T11:41:00.002-08:002015-11-08T13:39:00.432-08:00Creative Commons LinksTinEye Labs Creative Commons search by color<br />
<a href="http://labs.tineye.com/multicolr/">http://labs.tineye.com/multicolr/</a><br />
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Wikimedia: Creative Commons<br />
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page</a><br />
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SoundCloud: Creative Commons<br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/groups/creative-commons">https://soundcloud.com/groups/creative-commons</a><br />
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YouTube: Creative Commons<br />
<a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797468">https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797468</a><br />
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Vimeo: Creative Commons<br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/creativecommons">https://vimeo.com/creativecommons</a><br />
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Flickr: Creative Commons<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/">https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/</a><br />
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Learning Objects Repositories<br />
<a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Learning_objects_repositories">http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Learning_objects_repositories</a><br />
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OERcommons<br />
<a href="https://www.oercommons.org/">https://www.oercommons.org/</a><br />
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The Open Directory Project<br />
<a href="http://www.dmoz.org/Reference/Education/">http://www.dmoz.org/Reference/Education/</a><br />
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A guide to free and open source education<br />
<a href="http://opensource.com/education/13/4/guide-open-source-education">http://opensource.com/education/13/4/guide-open-source-education</a><br />
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WikiEducator.org<br />
<a href="http://wikieducator.org/Exemplary_Collection_of_Open_eLearning_Content_Repositories">http://wikieducator.org/Exemplary_Collection_of_Open_eLearning_Content_Repositories</a><br />
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The Ultimate Directory of Free Image Sources<br />
<a href="http://www.theedublogger.com/2014/07/09/the-ultimate-directory-of-free-image-sources/">http://www.theedublogger.com/2014/07/09/the-ultimate-directory-of-free-image-sources/</a><br />
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Open Font Library<br />
<a href="https://fontlibrary.org/">https://fontlibrary.org/</a><br />
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14 Awesome Open Source Music Sites for Digital Creatives<br />
<a href="http://www.webdistortion.com/2009/02/21/11-awesome-open-source-music-sites-for-digital-creatives/">http://www.webdistortion.com/2009/02/21/11-awesome-open-source-music-sites-for-digital-creatives/</a><br />
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100 Search Engines For Academic Research<br />
<a href="http://www.teachthought.com/technology/100-search-engines-for-academic-research/">http://www.teachthought.com/technology/100-search-engines-for-academic-research/</a><br />
<br />Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-70965987600242915402015-10-21T05:34:00.003-07:002015-10-21T05:34:28.776-07:00Mind Mapping Tools<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://edshelf.com/search/?f=category:mind+mapping"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F4TPkpDTes8/VieGLxinvJI/AAAAAAAAGVw/Hrpw3Y9d1vE/s400/mm1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://edshelf.com/search/?f=category:mind+mapping">https://edshelf.com/search/?f=category:mind+mapping</a><br />
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<br />Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-11291238107266957462015-10-18T10:55:00.001-07:002015-10-18T10:57:07.931-07:00Buck Rogers and the Copyright Trolls<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://boingboing.net/2015/10/16/buck-rogers-and-the-copyright.html">http://boingboing.net/2015/10/16/buck-rogers-and-the-copyright.html</a></span><br />
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Remember the <a href="http://www.loeb.com/~/media/files/publications/2014/08/feeopinion7thcircuit.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">Sherlock Holmes case</a> where the Conan Doyle Estate was shaking everyone down for sub-litigation payoffs and asserting claims over Holmes (despite serious copyright scholars all saying they had no right to do so) until Les Klinger stuck to his guns?</div>
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Now it’s happening again, with some minor variations, only this time the weapon of choice is Buck Rogers. </div>
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The <span style="font-size: 18.2px; line-height: 27.3px;">character of Anthony “Buck" Rogers first appears in Philip Nowlan’s 1928 novel ARMAGEDDON 2419 A.D. (itself a combination of two novellas that appeared in the AMAZING STORIES magazine) and serves as an origin story for the character. Rogers, after a mine cave-in, falls into a state of suspended animation and wakes up in the 25th century amidst a futuristic war.</span></div>
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Rogers is never referred to as “Buck" in the novel, the nickname coming in 1929 when Chicago newspaperman John F. Dille hired Nowlan to create a comic strip called “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D."</div>
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The ARMAGEDDON novel is out of copyright, as under <a href="http://www.copyright.gov/title17/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">US copyright law</a>, it was entitled to protection until 1956, at which point the copyright needed to be renewed by either the author or owner. It never was, and entered in to the public domain in the U.S. at that time. It currently can be <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32530" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">read for free on Project Gutenberg</a>.</div>
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Under most non-U.S. copyright laws based on the <a href="http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/summary_berne.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">Berne Convention</a>, a work is covered for a period of “life plus 50." Nowlan died in 1940.</div>
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There is little doubt that the character of Buck Rogers originated from the original ARMAGEDDON novel, yet that hasn’t stopped the Dille Family Trust, an entity representing the estate of the John Dille, from asserting copyright claims over him.</div>
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The Trust is represented by Louise Geer, who, along with her husband Dan Herman owns a small law practice in New Castle, Pennsylvania (Herman also runs a boutique comic book company called HERMES PRESS). They managed to continue licensing the Buck Rogers character by controlling trademarks and because many of the familiar elements of the character were introduced in the comic strip.</div>
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Enter Don Murphy, producer of NATURAL BORN KILLERS, REAL STEEL and all of the TRANSFORMERS films (also the guy who’s <a href="http://deadline.com/2015/09/paramount-little-brother-angry-films-don-murphy-cory-doctorow-1201519469/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">optioned LITTLE BROTHER for Paramount</a>, incidentally). He is the Les Klinger of Buck Rogers.<br />
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Murphy, with his company Angryfilms, was trying to make a Buck Rogers movie, but was unable to make a deal with the Trust. He then decided to focus his attention on the public domain ARMAGEDDON novel, feeling that the Buck Rogers “brand" didn’t mean that much to today’s filmgoers and wasn’t necessary for the story. He even retained Flint Dille, a gamer, screenwriter and most interestingly, the grandson of John Dille, to co-write the screenplay.<br />
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Soon after the <a href="http://deadline.com/2015/07/buck-rogers-armageddon-2419-movie-comic-con-1201473189/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">announcement</a> of the ARMAGEDDON 2419 film, Geer and Herman began to barrage Murphy with <a href="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/buckrogers.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">threatening letters</a>, claiming they owned the Nowlan novel, either to shut the movie down and/or extract a rights payment. They even threatened Dille, who is one of the beneficiaries of the trust itself!</div>
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Murphy responded by <a href="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/buckrogers.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">filing suit in court</a>, asking for a judgment that the Nowlan novel is in the public domain. Furthermore, he asked (as Klinger did with Holmes) for a declaration stating that since the character of Buck Rogers has his origins in the public domain novel, the character itself is therefore in the public domain and all trademarks for it should be voided.</div>
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Geer and Herman, like all good copyright trolls, have attempted to get the suit tossed out of California on venue issues and moved to New Castle. They are being represented by David Aronoff, who regularly takes on these types of cases and <a href="http://www.foxrothschild.com/david-aronoff/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">boasts on his website</a> about his attempt to assert a claim for a Zorro copyright, despite that work having entered the public domain.</div>
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The copyright troll business-model is to make claims to stuff you don't own and then demand sums that, while appreciable, are below the threshold at which litigation is economically rational, so creators just pay you rent on something you don't own, filling your war-chest with money you can use to attack other creators.</div>
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Hermes Press, the comics publisher run by Buck Rogers' jailers, also buys up a lot of young creators' work for small money on terms that are very favorable to the business. Anyone contemplating selling their work to a press associated with the kind of outrageous legal shenanigans Hermes's owners get up to should tread very carefully indeed. After all, if this is their idea of a fair deal, how will things go when <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">you</em> have a dispute with them?</div>
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Our beloved characters and stories are being used as magic money-spinners by copyright trolls, who act as toll-collectors and gate-keepers to the public domain, ripping off creators who want to tell stories and audiences who’d enjoy them.<br />
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For now, we have two ways of felling trolls: the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2429311-gov-uscourts-cacd-564772-244-0.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: red; text-decoration: none;">Happy Birthday way</a>, which is to make a movie about a legal battle with the copyright troll, and use the film’s budget to fund the litigation (sadly, this was a one-off); and stubborn people who won’t be pushed around going to court and refusing to back down.</div>
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Luckily for Buck Rogers, there’s a stubborn person who’s willing to fight on all our behalf to smite Buck’s copyright jailers.</div>
Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-21497138748922293202015-09-18T02:17:00.004-07:002015-09-18T02:17:58.868-07:00Why Pianos Can't Be Perfectly TunedTechnically speaking, pianos tuned to coventional 12-tone equal temperament aren’t actually in perfect tune. A new video from MinutePhysics explains the math behind this musical oddity, and why in the case of pianos, close enough is good enough.<br />
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-24876250230491431502015-09-18T01:05:00.000-07:002015-09-18T01:06:04.063-07:00To Scale: The Solar System<div style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="line-height: 19.6px;">Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet have created a model of our Solar System and they explain that using representations of the planets above a microscopic level requires your model to be rather huge. </span><span style="line-height: 19.6px;">"To create a scale model with an Earth only as big as [a] marble you need seven miles [11 kilometers] of empty space," explains Overstreet in the video. </span><span style="line-height: 19.6px;">So, to do just that, the team ventured out to Black Rock Desert in Nevada. They marked out the orbits of the eight major planets around the Sun, and then created a time-lapse by driving lights around the orbits.</span></div>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-39965771895654428022015-03-19T03:11:00.004-07:002015-03-19T03:12:33.721-07:00Ira Glass on the Creative Process<div style="text-align: center;">
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-28721680574752556232014-11-06T01:17:00.003-08:002014-11-06T01:17:40.552-08:00Crowdsourcing Project Predicts Progression of ALS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-di4u8QatMKU/VFs8l_fml3I/AAAAAAAAF5w/SVekwStKfSM/s1600/sn-alsH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-di4u8QatMKU/VFs8l_fml3I/AAAAAAAAF5w/SVekwStKfSM/s1600/sn-alsH.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; border-left-color: rgb(223, 223, 223); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 4px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; display: block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; margin: 0.5rem 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px 1rem;">Using data from old clinical trials, two groups of researchers have found <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/11/crowdsourcing-project-predicts-progression-neurodegenerative-disease" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #018d8e; text-decoration: none;">a better way to predict how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) progresses in different patients</a>. The winning algorithms—designed by non-ALS experts—outperformed the judgments of a group of ALS clinicians given the same data. The advances could make it easier to test whether new drugs can slow the fatal neurodegenerative disease. For the competition, participants were given just a slice of this data set, collected over 3 months, and asked to design an algorithm to predict how patients would fare in the subsequent 9 months, according to a standard functional scale that measures their ability to move and care for themselves. When predictions from the two winning algorithms were combined, they outperformed estimates solicited from a dozen ALS clinicians who pored over the same data, the authors report. They estimate that using these algorithms to predict outcomes could allow a drug sponsor to reduce the size of the trial by at least 20% and save as much as $6 million in a large phase III trial.</span>Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575334857861517810.post-53806278444340088712014-11-06T01:14:00.003-08:002014-11-06T01:14:50.457-08:00TEDx: 10 Places Where Anyone Can Learn To Code by Jessica Gross <a href="http://blog.ted.com/2013/01/29/10-places-where-anyone-can-learn-to-code/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://blog.ted.com/2013/01/29/10-places-where-anyone-can-learn-to-code/</span></a><br />
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<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;" target="_blank">Codecademy</a>, you can take lessons on writing simple commands in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, Python and Ruby. (See <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/technology/for-an-edge-on-the-internet-computer-code-gains-a-following.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">this <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">New York Times </i>piece</a> from last March, on Codecademy and other code-teaching sites, for a sense of the landscape.)<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of many programs geared toward females who want to code, <a href="http://girldevelopit.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Girl Develop It</a> is an international nonprofit that provides mentorship and instruction. “We are committed to making sure women of all ages, races, education levels, income, and upbringing can build confidence in their skill set to develop web and mobile applications,” their website reads. “By teaching women around the world from diverse backgrounds to learn software development, we can help women improve their careers and confidence in their everyday lives.”<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stanford University’s <a href="https://www.udacity.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Udacity</a> is one of many sites that make college courses—including<a href="https://www.udacity.com/course/cs101" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Introduction to Computer Science</a>—available online for free. (See <a href="http://blog.ted.com/2012/08/01/12-great-free-online-courses/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">our post</a> on free online courses for more ideas.)<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If college courses seem a little slow, consider <a href="http://coderace.me/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Code Racer</a>, a “multi-player live coding game.” Newbies can learn to build a website using HTML and CSS, while the more experienced can test their adeptness at coding.<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <a href="http://www.computerclubhouse.org/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;" target="_blank">Computer Clubhouse</a>, which Resnick co-founded, works to “help young people from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies,” as he describes. According to Clubhouse estimates, more than 25,000 kids work with mentors through the program every year.<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Through <a href="http://coderdojo.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;" target="_blank">CoderDojo</a>’s volunteer-led sessions, young people can learn to code, go on tours of tech companies and hear guest speakers. (Know how to code? You can set up your own CoderDojo!)<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.codeschool.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Code School</a> offers online courses in a wide range of programming languages, design and web tools.<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, <a href="http://teamtreehouse.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Treehouse</a> (the parent site of Code Racer) provides online video courses and exercises to help you learn technology skills.<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.girlswhocode.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; transition: color 0.2s;">Girls Who Code</a>, geared specifically toward 13- to 17-year-old girls, pairs instruction and mentorship to “educate, inspire and equip” students to pursue their engineering and tech dreams. “Today, just 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women, and less than 10% of venture capital-backed companies have female founders. Yet females use the internet 17% more than their male counterparts,” the website notes.<br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: white;">.</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Through workshops for young girls of color, <a href="http://www.blackgirlscode.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;">Black Girls Code</a> aims to help address the “dearth of African-American women in science, technology, engineering and math professions,” founder Kimberly Bryant writes, and build “a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures.”</span></li>
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Damian T. Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03429883455236432310noreply@blogger.com0