November 25, 2014
Students applauded and were visibly moved in the game's final moments
The best learning games are always fun. Try playing them yourself and see if you enjoy them. No matter how advanced your understanding of the subject matter, a good game should still be fun. I've understood algebra and number partitions for decades, but DragonBox and Wuzzit Trouble are still challenging puzzlers that I like to fiddle with on long airline flights. All good games offer challenges in intuitive ways. In fact, this is the reason games work so well for learning: Players are intrinsically motivated to identify and succeed at understanding the game's mechanics.The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning provides a basic introduction to the use of video games in education, gives several thought-provoking examples, and points to numerous sites with related goals, including Edutopia's articles on game-based learning and Graphite's reviews of digital games with educational content. Meanwhile, this being what The Guardian has just called "Board games' golden age," resources such as Play Play Learn, BoardGameGeek's Games in the Classroom, and The Dice Tower's recent countdown of "Top Ten Games for the Classroom" offer interesting options for the tabletop as well. [more inside]
@eventuallybot
@eventuallybot @eventuallybot is a Twitter bot that generates short films in GIF format, sourced from shreds of random YouTube clips. The films all tell stories, but sometimes the stories don't make a lot of sense. [via mefi projects]
Sleepless in Shanghai
Shanghai Tango - Whimsical illustrations.
“Here’s another one you don’t wanna hear. And frankly, neither do I.”
The Disastrous Show That Made The Replacements Legendary "Stinson’s remarks, as well as a series of other unexpected antics, placed the band’s show at Chicago’s Grant Park on July 4, 1991 as one of the most legendary concerts in history as 50,000 screaming fans bore witness to the very live and public breakup of one of rock & roll’s most underrated bands."
Bob Dylan Plays Concert for One Insanely Lucky Superfan
Ongoing Swedish film series Experiment Ensam (Experiment Alone) films people experiencing things completely alone that are usually reserved for large crowds. Past films focused on lone people at comedy clubs or karaoke bars. The filmmakers thought a lot bigger for this one and made arrangements with Bob Dylan and his touring band to perform a private show for 41-year-old Bob Dylan superfan Fredrik Wikingsson at Philadelphia's Academy of Music.
Ice cream is the solution to all of life’s problems
"stopped vampires from pinning their crimes on babies and children"
Is Africa cursed by oil?
Oil and conflict in Nigeria's Niger Delta region: Between the barrel and the trigger. In the most recent issue of The Extractive Industries and Society, Cyril Obi examines the "resource curse" explanation for the “failure” of African states: poverty, corruption and violent conflict. [more inside]
The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure
The harsh environments of our neighboring planets will require proper attire, with 3D-printed, biological fashions that, in the words of the designer Neri Oxman, "blur the boundary between the environment and ourselves." Oxman's other recent work explores similar lines of utility with her organic, post-industrial aesthetic: some of it disturbing and some sublime.
AKA "American Regional Food Stereotypes Are Entirely Accurate" -NY Times
After causing some serious angst among the good people of Minnesota (cf. the cri de coeur of ex-Gopher and Mefi's own Linda Holmes) with its own unique Thanksgiving recipe suggestions for each of the 50 nifty United States (previously), the agents provocatuer of the New York Times are back at it again, this time leaning on the Google data team to find out which unusual regional recipes really are the favorites of each state: Behold, the Snickers Salad Belt.
Or you might just end up dead
Carbon monoxide canary is a rousing live performance from the trad singing, carbon monoxide campaigning canary, Tommy McAnairey. Features excerpts from two of Tommy’s most celebrated songs, ‘The Ballad of Uncle Pat (Stone Dead In Three Minutes Flat)’ and ‘Any Fuel Can Harm’. [more inside]
We all scream
Have a question about ice cream? Ask The Ice Cream Informant. With finds like New Orleans Ice Cream Co. Café au Lait & Beignets, Blue Bell Birthday Cake and Talenti Gelato Sea Salt Caramel. [more inside]
Best UFO resources: you can't rely on Internet sources such as Wikipedia
Hyper.net's Best UFO Resources
This is a reference Website. It offers a collection of hand-picked UFO resources: real UFO pictures (see the "summary" and "technical overview" pages), video documentaries, video footage and testimonies, technical data and over 500 links to scientific studies, books, portals, newsfeeds, blogs and forums about UFOs. In short, by combining info from many diverse sources, our goal is to share a selection of valuable, representative (in a some cases unique UFO info and original research), as concisely as possible and offer some possible answers. Also provide a "starting point" for in-depth info and gems of real value in a labyrinth of (often false) information published on the fascinating subject of UFOs.The site also includes links to other organizations around the world, though the site hasn't yet added France's official, full-time state-run UFO department, GEIPAN (Group d'Etudes et d'Informations Sur Les Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non Identifies; translation: Study Group and Information on Non-Identified Aerospace Phenomenon, covered previously). See also: Disclosure Project's UFO files, a list of official government comments and UFO archives released by various countries.
Hey you, don't watch that watch this!
This is the heavy heavy monster sound, the nuttiest sound around so if you've come in off the street and you're beginning to feel the heat, well listen buster you better start to move your feet to the rockinest, rock-steady beat of Madness... One Step Beyond!
Pathetic vestigial organ or integral part of fearsome predator?
In this paper, we examine a first-year torque and angular acceleration problem to address a possible use of the forelimbs of Tyrannosaurus rex. A 1/40th-scale model is brought to the classroom to introduce the students to the quandary: given that the forelimbs of T. rex were too short to reach its mouth, what function did the forelimbs serve? This issue crosses several scientific disciplines including paleontology, ecology, and physics, making it a great starting point for thinking “outside the box..." Lipkin and Carpenter have suggested that the forelimbs were used to hold a struggling victim (which had not been dispatched with the first bite) while the final, lethal bite was applied. If that is the case, then the forelimbs must be capable of large angular accelerations α in order to grab the animal attempting to escape. The concepts of the typical first-year physics course are sufficient to test this hypothesis... Naturally, student love solving any problem related to Tyrannosaurus rex.
Trash is for tossers
TempleOS is both a temple and an operating system
Terry Davis has offered the world a temple to a God who speaks only to him, and is and still waiting for everyone else to listen. [TempleOS previously on MetaFilter, including conversation with the author.]
Officially, the Census Bureau considers Arabs to be white.
While the U.S. 2020 Census is still more than five years away, planning has already begun in earnest. Among the chief issues [pdf] under discussion is how to rearrange options for racial/ethnic self-identification [NYT], particularly the (allegedly undercounted [pdf]) Arab/MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) population. The Arab-American Institute argues [pdf] that this proposal will have "positive impact on the treatment and services available to members of the Arab American community" but some have voiced concern that government agencies could use this data for less-savory ends (again) [NYT].
Via 538.
The 15 Worst Owners in Sports
Frackers, fuckers, racists and robbers – you don't need to be a bad person to own a pro franchise, but it certainly helps.
Beepocalypse!!! A Strange Case of Crankery Derailing Environmentalism
Part I: Bee Deaths Mystery Solved? Neonicotinoids (Neonics) May Actually Help Bee Health.
Reports that honey bees are dying in unusually high numbers has concerned many scientists, farmers and beekeepers, and gripped the public. There have been thousands of stories ricocheting across the web, citing one study or another as the definitive explanation for a mystery that most mainstream experts say is complex and not easily reducible to the kind of simplistic narrative that appeals to advocacy groups. We explore the claims by Harvard School of Public Health researcher Chensheng Lu, heralded by anti-pesticide and anti-GMO advocacy groups, for his research that purportedly proves that the class of chemicals known as neonicotinoids are killing bees and endangering humans.Part II: Bee Deaths And CCD - Flawed Chensheng Lu Harvard Studies Endanger Bees.
Here we examine the specific claim that neonics are responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder—the centerpiece of Lu’s assertions and again see how influential media manipulate quotes and selectively present information to ideologically influence trusting readers.[more inside]
"we knew the B-52 could be destroyed just like any other aircraft."
What does it feel like to push a button, launch a surface-to-air missile, and blow a B-52 bomber out of the sky? Ask Nguyen Van Phiet. As a young North Vietnamese military officer, his SA-2 rockets were credited with downing four of the giant Boeing Stratofortresses during U.S. raids on and around Hanoi in December 1972.David Freed: The Missile Men of North Vietnam.
We are not rich, and we are not famous.
Indie pop sucess story and YouTube sensations Pomplamoose just finished a self-financed 23 city US tour. In a post on Medium, band member Jack Conte breaks down the tour financials and attempts to 'shine light on a new paradigm for professional artistry'. [more inside]
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