SuperTouch » Blog Archive » CUBA///ROADTRIPPING///FINDING OS GEMEOS IN HAVANA: Our man on the road JASON NOLAN just got back from a slightly illegal run to the island nation where he found most of the murals still intact.”
Yes, there are other jason’s out there. But only on online longer than me… he’s a meteorologist in the states
Gamine Expedition: Sprout Promotes TV as Sleep Aid
Sure it sounds cute and all, but the idea of actually encouraging parents and kids to use television as a sleep aid one that also just so happens to prolong kids exposure to some of the most heavily commercialized brands in their cultural environment seems irresponsible. Especially considering all the research thats come out showing that kids with TVs in their bedroom arent getting a sufficient amount of sleep at night.
Hey everyone!
Check out Innovate: Hacking Say and Reviving ELIZA: Lessons from Virtual Environments by Rochelle Mazar and Jason Nolan:
As text-based predecessors to Second Life, MOOs can offer educators important insights on managing virtual communities to create rich, meaningful learning experiences. Rochelle Mazar and Jason Nolan outline two instructional experiments in MOOs that have implications for current educational practice in Second Life. One involves modifying and modulating users’ ability to speak, first by strategically removing this ability altogether in an attempt to manage information flow and then by adding context-based text to a student’s speech to strengthen the immersiveness of the experience. The second experiment explores the use of chatterbots to deepen the richness and interactivity of a virtual build. While MOOs and Second Life appear to be vastly different technologies, Mazar and Nolan highlight their similarities and suggest that educators can apply the lessons learned from MOO experience to Second Life practice.
Yorkregion.com - Regional News - York Crime Stoppers play wait-and-see with text messaging
Any social networking technology can be useful for public safety, when it comes to sharing or gathering information. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube all have potential, Jason Nolan, a professor in the school of early childhood education at Ryerson University said.
“This is where people already socialize and share information. And, more importantly, they pass on information to each other. This means police can get a message out to hundreds of thousands of individuals very quickly and they can target their audience; an audience they’ve always had trouble connecting with,” Mr. Nolan wrote. “However, I don’t think that people should be giving information to the police using these methods. The technology is not designed for passing secure information. I would use the phone.”
So, have the rapidly changing technological times resulted in an out-of-touch Crime Stoppers chapter in York Region?
No, according to Mr. Nolan.
“Many people are watching this sort of community outreach,” he wrote. “I think they’re watching to see how successful it is and whether it will connect them with the groups of people they can’t connect with in other ways. And I think there are lots of issues regarding privacy and data collection and ethics of putting information out publicly like the police have done that need to be sorted out.”
A disproportionate percentage of Facebook users are Canadian, so we are really breaking new ground when it comes to using these social technologies in this way, Mr. Nolan added.
As the discussion on Metafilter: Dealing with the family is unfolding, we are looking for help. And things are just getting worse. I’ve been down here the whole time, and other friends have rallied around from Queens and New Jersey, and California and Toronto.
Aleja has lost everything except her bed, electric wheelchair, some of her clothes, a TV, and some books. No table or chair, lights, cups, plates, cutlery, basic cleaning goods, and the list goes on. We’d normally offer stuff from our homes, but she can’t use normal plates, due to weight, or tables due to height and chair access; you get the idea.
If anyone can send some money through my (jason’s) paypal account, I’ll make sure it gets to aleja. And as you can see from our last drive, to help Aleja get a computer, everything turned out well. If you have any questions, please contact us:.
So, please leave a donation. Any amount is fine. If you’d like to send a check, please contact jnolan @ ryerson.ca, and if you’d like to remain anonymous, please note this in the paypal comment section. If we get more money than we need, we will make sure the resources go to similar individuals in need.
Who are we?
Jason Nolan, Assistant Professor, School of Early Childhood Education, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
Something about Alejandra in her own words:
I’m a twenty-something, bilingual hispanic American woman, with geeky inclinations and many aspirations. I actively envy those who are successful at the things I enjoy, especially music and assorted arts, including web design. All my dabbling will eventually lead to my perfect niche, but for now I’m just me. I enjoy the finer things in life on a shoestring budget. I’m a volunteer, a friend, an aunt, a singer, and sometimes an activist. I enjoy amazing people, traveling, and speedy wheelchairs. I’m a lifelong New Yorker, but without the accent. Honest.
She maintains a LiveJournal and co-moderates the Livejournal GimpGirl Community, and is a member of The Peace of Heart Choir: “The Peace of Heart Choir is a singing collective of community members formed in response to the World Trade Center tragedy to promote healing, diversity, community bonding, and mutual understanding through music.”
Parliament shut down till Jan. 26
“We must realize the enormity of what has happened here today. For the first time in the history of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada.”
Oh, what a leader. 4 more years! Give this man a majority government in Canada. Please? He really wants it bad, and deserves it ever so. The toughs have been ganging up on him. They’re so mean.
[a real time conversation between me and catspaw this morning]
12/3/08 8:05 AM
catspaw- tell me a story.
happy or sad?
catspaw- happy
here was this young lass named catsy
who lived in a big chateau
she had a strange cat
catspaw has gone offline.
and what’s better than that
she had magic you never would know
catspaw is now online.
catspaw sorry — connection hiccup’d
sure
catspaw- keep goin’ 
and one day there came this old viking

catspaw 
marauding with his viking crew
they smelled really bad
(though thought they were rad’)
and none knew what aught they would do
but catsy was there
and she said “don’t despair!”
I’ll fix these old vikings right now

catspaw
she whipped out her code
and compiled a goad
and the vikings all grew bright pink hair!
Now they’d lost their cred
and were better than dead
catspaw- yay pink vikings
and could never more sale the seas
+sail
so she got them all jobs
giving massages
catspaw- ooo
and the new spa she’d just built at google!
thus endeth this tale
of catsy the brave
catspaw- /clap
and her magic code
and her trusty compiler
I’m watching the TV and reading about Canadian responses to the governmental situation. What I’m hearing is that we seem to think that we live in America. I’m hearing people say that they have no idea how our political culture is organized. And that they aren’t up to date on the facts. It is scary, as a teacher, to think that people actually can’t be bothered to get some facts right before they espouse them on TV. And I’m not talking about spin-doctors, but average folks.
For example…
“we didn’t vote for Harper”. We vote for our local politician, and that politician has a vote in parliament. If you think you voted for Harper (unless he’s your local politico) then you think we’re in america. Sorry.
“what the liberals, NDP and bloc are doing is undemocratic”. LOL. This is MORE democratic, since more politicians we voted for are now running things, not less.
You can find the others in the comments section of various blogs and web sites and on TV. Even if you love the conservatives, this is a GOOD thing. People getting together to muddle through things is much better than some individual trying to ‘control’ things.
I want to see people from different political stripes working together for Canada!
For a change, and for change.
Brain waves show sound processing abnormalities in autistic children
Abnormalities in auditory and language processing may be evaluated in children with autism spectrum disorder by using magnetoencephalography (MEG), according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“Using MEG, we can record the tiny magnetic fields associated with electrical brain activity,” said Timothy Roberts, Ph.D., vice chair of research in the Department of Radiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Recorded brain waves change with every sensation, thought and activity. It’s like watching a movie of the brain in real time.”
The findings showed that in the children with autism there was a fraction of a second delay in the brain’s response while processing the rapid succession sounds and the unusual streams, giving researchers an insight into the dysfunction of the auditory processing system in autistic children.
“This delay in processing certain types and streams of sound may underpin the subsequent language processing and communication impairment seen in autistic children,” Dr. Roberts said.
Autism study finds slight delay in sound processing adds:
Unique brain wave patterns, spotted for the first time in autistic children, may help explain why they have so much trouble communicating.
Using an imaging helmet that resembles a big salon hair dryer, researchers discovered what they believe are “signatures of autism” that show a delay in processing individual sounds.
That delay is only a fraction of a second, but when it’s for every sound, the lag time can cascade into a major obstacle in speaking and understanding people, the researchers said.
Imagine if it took a tiny bit longer than normal to understand each syllable. By the end of a whole sentence, you’d be pretty confused.
In autistic children, response to each sound was delayed by one-fiftieth of a second.
“We tend to speak at four syllables per second,” said Timothy Roberts, the study’s lead author and the hospital’s vice chairman of research. If an autistic brain “is slow in processing a change in a syllable . . . it could easily get to the point of being overloaded.”
Very interesting. I want one of those!
you thought we wouldn’t notice » Blog Archive » Rosamond the Strange… Rochelle told me that jeremy should have told me about this. I’m a fan of emily strange, cause my little sister’s name is emily. Well it seems like a case of plagiarism… something that’s all too familiar to me.
Children’s Book Bank looks like a cool place. I have to go visit, and drop off some books. I like the idea of giving away free books to children.
The Children’s Book Bank is a charitable organization designed to support children’s literacy by providing free books and literacy support to children in lower income neighbourhoods.
The Children’s Book Bank presently operates one location at 350 Berkeley Street in Toronto, and offers a range of gently used and new books secured through donation, school and community book drives. Staffed by volunteers and working within the community, The Children’s Book Bank focuses on the literacy needs of children aged 2-12 and works to support and develop each child’s interest in and success with reading. In addition to providing books, The Children’s Book Bank offers literacy support and programming.
A visit to The Children’s Book Bank is much like a visit to a familiar and well loved children’s book store. The space is safe, warm and inviting and is intended to create a wonderful oasis for the children; a place where they can relax and experience the magic of books and enjoy reading.
I’m not a big investor, so perhaps I’m the last one to know about the VIX, aka The Fear Index.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says:
Although the VIX is often called the “fear index,” a high VIX is not necessarily bearish for stocks. Instead, the VIX is a measure of fear of volatility in either direction, including to the upside. In practical terms, when investors anticipate large upside volatility, they are unwilling to sell upside “call” stock options unless they receive a large premium. Option buyers will be willing to pay such high premiums only if similarly anticipating a large upside move. The resulting aggregate of increases in upside stock option “call” prices raises the VIX just as does the aggregate growth in downside stock “put” option premiums that occurs when option buyers and sellers anticipate a likely sharp move to the downside. When the market is believed as likely to soar as to plummet, writing any option that will cost the writer in the event of a sudden large move in either direction may look equally risky. Hence high VIX readings mean investors see significant risk that the market will move sharply, whether downward or upward. The highest VIX readings occur when investors anticipate that huge moves in either direction are likely. Only when investors perceive neither significant downside risk nor significant upside potential will the VIX be low.
I think the world would be a much better place if we didn’t base our economies on fear wrapped up in alchemical logical structures and emotional triggers. Freemarket seems to mean FreePanicMarket economics. Good stocks fall with bad ones, bad ones rise with good ones. Why? Because there’s movement based on factors and forces that have little or no bearing on what the company is actually doing. Why would people trust their future to such a system? Like I said, I have some stocks, but certainly not enough that would represent my future savings. I like to play, but I’m not suicidal.
Slashdot | McDonalds Files To Patent Making a Sandwich
“McDonalds has applied for patent WO2006068865, which carries the title ‘METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH.’ John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, can eat his heart out (unless that’s been patented, too). Undoubtedly, some people are contemplating whether there’s anything novel in this patent that is somehow obscured by its generic title. Feel free to examine their flowchart for yourself and see exactly how novel their sandwich ’subroutines’ are. The good news is that, given that it only mentions generic sandwich making ‘tool(s),’ rather than any specific machine, it might not survive after the In Re Bilski decision, which was meant to put a stop to absurdities such as this. But until McDonalds’s application is rejected or invalidated, make sure you don’t use their flowchart when making sandwiches. After all, if you ‘apply appropriate condiments to appropriate compartment,’ you might infringe upon their IP.”
Here’s the patent intro info: (WO/2006/068865) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH
Applicant: MCDONALD’S CORPORATION [US/US]; McDonald’s Plaza, Oak Brook, IL 60521 (US) (All Except US).
Inventors: PROPER, Kathryn, V.; 530 N. Lake Shore Drive, Unit 1807, Chicago, IL 60611 (US).
EWALD, Henry, T.; 338 Jennifer Lane, Roselle, IL 60172 (US).
SIMMONS, Paul, G.; 22W400 McCarron Road, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 (US).
Agent: RYNDAK, James, D.; Ryndak & Suri LLP, 200 W. Madison Street, Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606 (US).
Priority Data:
11/018,989 21.12.2004 US
Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a sandwich assembly tool and methods of making a sandwich, which may be a hot or cold sandwich, quickly by pre-assembly of various sandwich components and simultaneous preparation of different parts of the same sandwich. The sandwich assembly tool is composed of a member preferably having one or two cavities for containing a quantity of garnish. The cavities are used for the assembly of the sandwich. The tool may have a raised ridge adjacent one or both cavities for placement against the hinge of a bread component. Methods of making a sandwich] are disclosed. The methods may include one or more of the use of preasseribled sandwich fillings, assembly of garnishes in advance of a customer’s order or while ether portions of the sandwich are being heated using the sandwich assembly tool, the simultaneous heating of a bread component and the sandwich filling, placing the bread component over the tool containing garnish, and inverting the tool and bread combination to deposit the sandwich garnish onto the bread component.
The Guardian has a really interesting article on this.
National Briefing - South - Florida - Student Kills Himself in Front of Webcam - NYTimes.com
A college student committed suicide by taking a drug overdose in front of a live Webcam as some computer users egged him on and others tried to talk him out of it. Some watchers contacted the Web site to notify the police, but by the time officers entered the student’s home — a scene also captured on the Internet — it was too late. The student, Abraham Biggs, 19, was enrolled at Broward College and suffered from what his family said was bipolar disorder. He killed himself in his father’s Pembroke Pines house; it was unclear how many people were watching. Mr. Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, the authorities said. Some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
I’ve been online when someone blogged about having taken pills, and though we didn’t know who her real name was or where she really lived, a very fast series of searches got the right people and years later she’s still strong. Says something about who you socialize with, I think.
I met up with Joe who runs Epiphany Design today to pick up a rain poncho for Aleja. It was an adventure. Very cool stuff.
I so want to see this, but I’ll be in norval listening to Ben move the dirt (i.e. wax poetic and eruditically elaborate on the finer points of Montgomeroligy).
Toronto Theatre - ArtSexy - Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
The 100th anniversary celebration of Canada’s favourite red-headed orphan - Buddies-style.
Buddies In Bad Times Theatre presents
ANNE MADE ME GAY
WHEN KINDRED SPIRITS GET NAKED
CURATED BY MOYNAN KING AND ROSEMARY ROWE
SAT NOV 29
DOORS 8PM, SHOW 8:30PM
TICKETS $15 AVAILABLE IN ADVANCE
Box Office 416-975-8555 artsexy.ca
An evening of song, recitation, literary exploration and hot girl-on-girl action featuring Evalyn Parry, Rosemary Rowe, Kate Trgovac, Mariko Tamaki & Lindy Zucker, Kim Bird, Nathalie Claude, Dayna McLeod, Juana Awad and many more!
Do you get weak in the knees at the sight of gingham?
Do you have an attraction to red-heads that you’ve never fully explored?
Did Anne and her devotion to her bosom friends turn you gay?
Anne Made Me Gay - When Kindred Spirits Get Naked is the 100th
anniversary celebration of Canada’s favourite red-headed orphan -
Buddies-style.
So…Let’s get you out of that tight corset.
Join us for a night of corsets, currant wine and more gossip around the punchbowl than a Ladies Aid Society bazaar.
Had to blog this one quickly. When Yuka finds out she’ll make me turn it back to friend and family only on flickr. 
A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS - WSJ.com
The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.
The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.
Dr. Gero Hütter isnt an AIDS specialist, but he functionally cured a patient, who shows no sign of the disease. “I was very surprised,” said the doctor, Gero Hütter.
The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isnt an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patients bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
[via Slashdot | German Doctor Cures an HIV Patient With a Bone Marrow Transplant]
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timeasmymeasure
