A lottery game with a windfall for a knowing few
Because of a quirk in the rules, when the Cash WinFall jackpot reaches roughly $2 million and no one wins, payoffs for smaller prizes swell dramatically, which statisticians say practically assures a profit to anyone who buys at least $100,000 worth of tickets.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2011-07-31T15:48:29+0000
» How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education
This, says Matthew Carpenter, is my favorite exercise. I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math problem the fifth grader is
Hasnain says:
what a great read. and, at the same time, depressing:
"teachers who’ve seen Khan Academy presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could modify it “to stop students from becoming this advanced.”"
Posted on 2011-07-28T23:47:15+0000
Famine in East Africa - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic
With East Africa facing its worst drought in 60 years, affecting more than 11 million people, the United Nations has declared a famine in the region for the first time in a generation. Overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia are receiving some 3,000 new refugees every day, as families flee f
Glenn Greenwald: The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of "Terrorism"
The news reaction to the Oslo events clarifies the real meaning of "terrorism"
The news coverage of the Norway mass-killings was fact-free conjecture
Charlie Brooker: Let's be absolutely clear, it wasn't experts speculating, it was guessers guessing – and they were terrible
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2011-07-25T13:47:47+0000
The Chemistry Between Us - mlkshk
mlkshk.com
Thousands of scientific papers uploaded to The Pirate Bay
Two days after Aaron Swartz got indicted for allegedly trying to copy thousands of documents from a scientific archive, a torrent with close to 19,000 documents has found its way to the Pirate Bay. The leak is accompanied by a scathing critique of scientific publishing.
Hasnain says:
Yay!
(knowledge needs to be freed. good luck to Aaron Swartz in his federal prosecution case)
Posted on 2011-07-21T19:48:18+0000
Kawah Ijen by night
Photographer Olivier Grunewald has recently made several trips into the sulfur mine in the crater of the Kawah Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, bringing with him equipment to capture surreal images lit by moonlight, torches, and the blue flames of burning molten sulfur. Covered last year in the
Are you listening, Steve Jobs? « BirdAbroad
The Western news media is replete with pithy descriptions of the rapid changes taking place in China: China has the world’s fastest growing economy. China is undergoing remarkable and rapid change. This represents a unique moment for a society changing as quickly as China.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2011-07-20T17:01:12+0000
After almost 20 years, math problem falls
Mathematicians and engineers are often concerned with finding the minimum value of a particular mathematical function. That minimum could represent the optimal trade-off between competing criteria between the surface area, weight and wind resistance of a cars body design, for instance. ...
Hasnain says:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-years-math-problem-falls.html
Posted on 2011-07-19T10:29:18+0000
The rape of men | Society | The Observer
Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda…
Hasnain says:
Depressing, Obscene, Horrific. Appalling to hear aid agencies actively stopping this human rights work from being carried out, because they don't want to have to spend more and/or lose funding. Great piece of journalism, however.
Posted on 2011-07-17T21:58:11+0000
First Demonstration of Time Cloaking - Technology Review
Physicists have created a "hole in time" using the temporal equivalent of an invisibility cloak.
Computational science: ...Error : Nature News
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