Don't let your kids' education slip this summer -- build Camp Digital Learning

"Kids reportedly fail to retain as much as two months of math and reading instruction as they while away the idyllic hours of summer with TV, YouTube, ("Minecraft,") texting with friends and other mind-numbing fun. Teachers gripe that they spend the first few months of the school year reviewing the learning that was lost."  more >> mercurynews.com/michelle-quinn

Peace Activists Cross Demilitarized Zone Separating Koreas

It was rare for the two rival Korean governments to agree to allow a group of peace activists to pass through the border area, known as the DMZ. But some of the symbolism the activists had hoped to generate with their Women Cross DMZ campaign was lost when South Korea denied them permission to walk through Panmunjom, a border village where a truce was signed in 1953 to halt, but not formally end, the conflict, leaving the divided Korea in a technical state of war. << more >> 

BBC news report: Ocean's hidden world of plankton revealed in 'enormous database'

The hidden world of the ocean's tiniest organisms has been revealed in a series of papers published in the journal Science.  << read more >>

Subject: Learn to Code -- "Starting out programming: a review of Codecademy" by joelokimoto.wordpress.com

Starting out programming: a review of Codecademy 

 

"For those of you who do not know what Codecademy.com is, it is a site that aims to teach people programming who have have never programmed before. I started using Codecademy when it was a new site, when they were only teaching Javascript (they now teach other languages too)...".

 

joelokimoto.wordpress.com

Subject: Madman cuts open Surface 3 Pro to install new 1TB solid state drive...

Apr 28, 2015   Madman cuts open Surface 3 Pro to install new 1TB solid state drive Jose Malagon is a man who knows what he wants, and knows how to get it. When the Surface Pro 3 didn't have enough space, he broke out the drill and gave an upgrade most people thought impossible.  Read this article State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition is out today, so prep your weapons State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition is available now on the Xbox One and on Steam, bring improved lighting, textures, and animation as well as additional content and a refined combat system.  Read this article The future on wheels: Best concept cars We've got the best concept cars from the 2014-2015 auto show season right here. From an electric SUV to plug-in hybrid sports cars and a self-driving Mercedes, see what the future holds for cars.  Read this article DT Featured Deal $40 off Samsung Gear Fit The Samsung Gear Fit is a stylish pedometer with built-in heart rate monitor, designed to give you a better insight into your your workouts while resisting sweat and water to be worn comfortably throughout your day. $149.99 $109.99 This phone comes with a massive battery, costs $100, and can be upgraded in the future Google's Project Ara isn't the only modular smartphone we can expect to see launch this year. Meet Fonkraft, a new modular phone that's cheap, easily modified, and expected to be ready in September.  Read this article How could they?! The 10 most shocking recent TV character deaths A trend these days is to kill off main characters. But in today's TV, there have been some particularly shocking character deaths, both for the fact that the person is killed as well as how.  Read this article These tiny robots can pull over 1,700 times their own weight A group of mechanical engineers from Stanford University has developed a set of tiny robots capable of lifting/pulling objects hundreds of times their own weight -- including one that can move objects over 1700 times its own weight. That's like you dragging around a blue whale.  Read this article Goodbye Skype? Facebook adds free video calling to Messenger Ideal for anyone that's a power user of the Facebook Messenger application, the social network has launched support for a new video calling feature that works on mobile devices as well as desktop computers.  Read this article This wireless charger uses magnets to add a battery to your phone Charging cases for phones are useful, but they're bulky and often cumbersome. Portable chargers are great too, but carrying them around can be a hassle. The Rubix On, now on Kickstarter, combines these two into one useful gadget.  Read this article This new smartwatch OS will take on Android Wear in China China's Tencent, which owns the WeChat messaging app and the QQ social network, has announced a new mobile operating system called TOS+. It's designed to be used on the coolest new products, from smartwatches to VR headsets.  Read this article That was fast: Valve removes paid mods from Skyrim In response to user feedback, Valve has turned off paid mods for Skyrim after just a few days, and is issuing refunds to anyone who purchased a mod.  Read this article Digital Trends 2015 Car of the Year Awards Digital Trends scoured the global market of new cars and awarded the best in the world in five different categories, along with the best infotainment system and engine of 2015.  Read this article Avengers: Age of Ultron may get extended cut, alternate ending for home release Avengers: Age of Ultron is getting an extended cut and an alternate ending, if a pre-order from Amazon is to be believed. The upcoming superhero movie looks to offer a version that's a little bit longer and slightly different for its home release.  Read this article Calm down! Like dogs, the first Intel RealSense games can sense your fear Intel's RealSense system not only senses gestures like Kinect, it can detect your pulse to read your emotions, opening the door for games that know when you're scared -- and respond accordingly.  Read this article Apple kills it again in Q2, exceeds earnings expectations Apple reported its Q2 earnings late Monday and the news was better than expected. Apple beat the market expectations on both iPhone units sold, as well as profit per share.  Read this article Super Troopers sequel lands $4.4 million on Indiegogo, but no live bears After the second most-funded campaign for a film ever, it looks like the cult-classic movie Super Troopers is getting a sequel. Broken Lizard will start work on the film this summer.  Read this article

Subject: Researchers have begun circulating beams of protons in the Large Hadron Collider after a two-year shutdown for upgrades

Big Bang Beam: Large Hadron Collider Restarts After Two-Year Break - nbcnews.com/science

"The LHC is the world's most powerful collider. It's also the most expensive, with an estimated construction cost of $10 billion. Thousands of physicists and engineers are on its experimental teams.

During its first research run, between 2009 and 2013, the collider was used to discover the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle whose existence was predicted in the 1960s but could not be detected until the LHC came along. The Higgs is thought to play a role in imparting the property of mass to other fundamental particles — and it was the last big missing puzzle piece in the Standard Model, the theory that governs particle physics..."

Subject: Mathematics in Sociology - the math puzzle doodles

Occam's Razor is a line of reasoning that says the simplest answer is often correct. 

A) Fermat's Last Theorem:

In 1630, Fermat wrote in the margin of an old Greek mathematics book that he could demonstrate that no integers (whole numbers) can make the equation x (to the power of n) + y (to the power of n) = z (to the power of n) ... true if n is greater than 2.

     

     

B) P vs NP problem (whether P ='s NP or not):

Stephen Cook and Leonid Levin formulated the P (i.e., easy to find) versus NP (i.e., easy to check) problem independently in 1971.

Subject: IBM pumps $3 billion into new IoT business unit, What's up with that (!?)

Definition "IoT" photo clip link: whatis.techtarget.com

IBM to pump $3 billion into new IoT business unit

"Hungry for a bigger piece of the Internet of things market, IBM will invest US$3 billion over four years to establish a new business unit dedicated to providing IoT systems and services to enterprises...

By 2021, as many as 28 billion IoT devices will be installed around the world, IDC has estimated. General Electric has predicted that IoT systems will add up to $15 trillion to global annual Gross Domestic Product over the next 20 years...

The Police departments of Durham, North Carolina, and Memphis, Tennessee work with IBM to collect data that can help them better target crime hot spots. And Carnegie Mellon University and the U.S. General Services Administration are working with IBM to build IoT systems that can cut energy costs in their buildings...".

Social Politics - 101 :

First of all ... investment can be a good thing ... up to a point. Not so good when you factor in the corporate business angle of today.

Two obvious problems that one should be concerned about ...

1) IBM's history of computer standardization (industry power grab in the mid 1980's) and the most recent FCC ruling concerning net-neutrality (potential bandwidth hog, if not corporate controller and additional service cost provider...).

2) Now two newly, ultra-conservative, police departments being noted as using pseudo-crime profiling "collection data" for crime hot-spots has become a real, if not long term possibility, PLUS a concern for majority, as well as minority, citizens who are law abiding has been revealed in the above IBM article. This note (&) example, if law officials don't already know where their higher crime enforcement areas are ("Catch-22 ... more arrests ='s more crime" SP-101) ... then it's probably time to relocate some of these state / country employees to another type of work...Fast Food Services.

Subject: News update - "Amanda Knox Acquitted" - via NBC Dateline Weekly

Italy's highest court has thrown out Amanda Knox's 2009 murder conviction, meaning the now 27-year-old will not have to stand a third trial for the 2007 murder of her British roommate.     More on the Case

A wealthy Charleston banker and his wife are locked in a bitter divorce. One week before their divorce hearing, authorities find an ex-con in town who confesses he had been hired to kill someone in their family.     Tonight 9/8c

COLD CASE SPOTLIGHT: "I knew she was murdered. Don't ask me why, I just felt that way," Stephens told NBC affiliate WBIR. "It kills me every day. A little bit of me dies because I feel like I'm letting my sister down for not having justice."     Can You Help?

A fugitive millionaire is on the run after his neighbor is found murdered. Join Keith Morrison and Dateline on a tropical manhunt for computer antivirus pioneer, John McAfee.     Full Episode

A family is torn apart when a husband and father is kidnapped in broad daylight on the family's ranch in Mexico. Keith Morrison shares the remarkable story of one mother's courageous fight to free her husband.     Full Episode

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