Content creator becomes thought leader:
Open Letter to the President: Physics Education
This call to arms by minutephysics starts with the shocking revelation that current physics standards don’t require students to learn anything beyond 1865.
1865, folks.
We can do better. Look at all the amazing stuff our students are missing out on! Or else the next Albert Einstein won’t be carrying a U.S. diploma.
Spread this far and wide!
Source: youtube.com
One of those ideas that is so crazy it's brilliant: The People's Bailout
This is a long post but it’s about something pretty interesting so I hope you’ll indulge …
Like many folks, Occupy Wall Street has been some doing good work in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, helping people on the ground.
Now OWS is launching the ROLLING JUBILEE, a program that has been in…
Source: howtosharpenpencils
Source: shialabeowulf
Longform is not about length or form, but actually about a mindset. Both the author and the reader come together with one ambition: to weave a story that sucks everybody right in and doesn’t let go until it’s finished. The best longform is bewitching, captivating and deep — regardless of how long it takes you to get to the end. I’ve read pieces just a few hundred words long that feel more like longform than others that ramble into the thousands.
Source: blog.readmatter.com
A statement on a papyrus fragment isn’t proof of anything. It’s nothing more than a statement ‘in thin air’, without substantial context.
Source: BBC
There are lots of great things about this video and the Riding Shotgun project.
Watch it, and you’ll see them all for yourself.
Great little computer science explainer here
How Encryption Works
I love learning new things, and I love when someone can take an incredibly complex concept and break it down using metaphors to make it understandable. This is probably the best explanation I’ve ever seen of how encryption works, and why prime numbers are so important to the process. Not only does it make perfect sense by the end of the video, but it does this using – of all things – paint swirls.
Source: heressomeawesome.com
The rush to exploit an increasingly ice free Arctic
“Arctic sea ice is changing—and fast. The prospects of open shipping routes and newly-accessible resources have corporations chomping at the bit and governments racing to prepare the way.”
Excuse me while I just sit and weep profusely.
Ah man, this is a beautiful must-watch on storytelling from Ken Burns himself.
Source: brainpickings.org