Weekend Thoughts - 10.8.16

Image by Scott Branson, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. It is well-known in the writing community that writers are (perhaps deservedly) notorious for extreme rates of progress-inhibiting procrastination. I myself have experienced that throughout my whole life, having for a couple decades proudly displayed a Procrastinator's Ten Commandments poster in my bedroom. (I have since given away that poster, as I am more focused on self-development and didn't want to reinforce that opinion of myself any longer.) This article concerning the difference between a fixed mind-set learner and a growth mind-set learner was really interesting to me, because I feel like I have evolved from the former to the latter over the past several years. Some people think that talent is a fixed quality that either you're born with or you're not, whereas other people think that challenges are an opportunity to grow. The fixed mind-set approach is enforced time and time again in our educational system, although this phenomenon has escaped the strict confines of academia and entered the workforce as well—more and more managers have reported that their younger new hires require explicit direction, constant feedback, and other well-structured benefits of today's educational environments. It's perhaps worth giving this article a read and doing some introspection about one's own learning style. Do you believe that you were born with specific strengths (and therefore should not attempt to develop your opportunities), or do you believe that facing challenges helps you grow?

2. Thus far (knocks on wood), I haven't received a single parking ticket (or a speeding ticket, for that matter), but I did find this new parking enforcement technology called the Barnacle to be interesting. Instead of installing a boot onto the car, parking patrol officers can install a six square foot block of yellow plastic onto your windshield, rendering it impossible to see anything. The device attached with 700 pounds of suction, so it would require ripping the windshield out to remove on your own. It's easier to install and remove than a boot, but still nearly impossible for the offender to remove. If the trial period in Pennsylvania and Florida goes well, we may be seeing more and more of these on parked cars in the near future.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 10.1.16

Image by Rafael Vianna Croffi, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. In honor of Banned Books Week (September 25 to October 1), here is an article showing the most-challenged books of 2001 and 2015 and some commentary on what that means about our society's greatest fears. Interestingly, 15 years ago our banned books focused on strong language, sexual content, and drugs, whereas nowadays the concerns are more about transgender issues, homosexuality and religious reasons. It's an interesting list of books, including the fact that the Harry Potter books were most-challenged in 2001 (they were believed to be involved with cults and Satanism, apparently), although they have been accepted as normal now. It's worth perusing the list to see if your next favorite book may currently be (or formerly been) a commonly-banned book!

2. One of the techniques that was used during World War I was to paint military vessels with dazzle camouflage, which made it challenging for the enemies to obtain an accurate read on the vessel's distance, speed, and direction of travel. An artist created a disorienting psychedelic dazzle camouflage room that blurs the boundaries between the dazzle camouflaged-person and the room. It's pretty trippy; I'd like to experience it in person.

3. Apple announced some new products a few weeks ago during their September 2016 Keynote, and among the new goodies that were introduced were AirPods, a pair of wireless headphones built with a proprietary wireless "W1" chip. One of the primary methods of interacting with the AirPods is to speak to them using the Siri assistant technology. This article argues that AirPods are precisely the best place to use Siri, comparing the combination of technologies to the movie Her, in which the main character (and the rest of society) begins interacting with in-ear virtual assistants on a near-constant basis. It's a well-written, thought-provoking article that also references Jane, the artificial sentience in the Ender's Game series book Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card. Seriously, this article combines a lot of my favorite things—Apple, Her, and the Ender's Game books. Well done, and an excellent sneak peek into our likely future personal (and societal) relationships with artificial intelligences.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 9.24.16

Image by msoe, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. There have been a few instances of police-murdering-civilians this week, and this article delves a bit into the issue of using body cams. The article is definitely worth a read, but the TL;DR is: when body cameras are used to hold both suspects and police officers accountable, that's transparency, whereas when they are only used to hold suspects accountable, that's a method of surveillance.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 9.17.16

Image by Rich Edwards, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. The U.S. Federal government is planning to expand its ability to hack up to millions of machines with a single warrant, and unless Congress passes legislation to block Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the new rules will go into effect December 1st. Essentially, the government is claiming that it needs this expanded hacking authority to identify and investigate large networks of malware controlled by criminals, or what is known as a "botnet". These botnets have the ability to erase data on machines, such as hospital systems and personal cell phones and computers. However, the government has not provided a detailed explanation about its hacking tools and how it intends to use them, which could result in data loss caused by the FBI. There is no shortage of evidence that the government has (plausibly unintentionally) placed hacking tools in the hands of criminals in years past, and it could happen again. I would encourage anyone reading this to speak up about this to friends and family, and contact your local representatives in an effort to block Rule 41 from being used in the future.

2. A man who served in the U.S. Marines for four years was reportedly terminated from his post as a West Virginia police officer for neglecting to shoot and kill an armed civilian (with an unloaded gun that wasn't pointed at him) who was not threatening the man's safety. The former Marine was using his military training that taught him to assess "the whole person" before using deadly force. Military servicemen and women are provided with extensive firearm training, and there are strict rules concerning the rules of engagement with others. Identifying a weapon doesn't warrant shooting a suspect; each threat must be judged holistically to minimize risk. In addition to this is the concept that a gun should only be pointed at another person when its handler intends to kill the target. This is very different from modern police training: "Police training — though its content and length varies enormously across police departments — by and large does not prepare policemen to manage high-stress situations the way the military prepares its soldiers," The Washington Post reports. "Police training tends to be short and classroom-based, and rarely emphasizes deescalation." In addition, there is not as much legal accountability for police as there is for military members. The West Virginia police department placed the former Marine on administrative leave, investigated his actions, and terminated him in late June for "failing to eliminate a threat" and placing other officers' lives at risk. It seems that our police forces have a long way to go to catch up to the maturity of our military's firearm handling training and conflict deescalation practices.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 9.10.16

Image by kergatyphoto, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. The annual transformational festival, Burning Man, took place in Black Rock City, Nevada, a couple of weeks ago. Here is a timelapse video of some of the art installations and an article featuring many of the "mutant vehicle" art cars that appeared at the 2016 Burn. Personally, I have yet to attend Burning Man, but would like to sometime in the future! Until then, I'm stuck living vicariously through others' experiences at the Burn.

2. The largest United States prison labor strike in history occurred yesterday, when nearly half of the inmates imprisoned decided to stop working or start hunger strikes in an effort to highlight the injustices of prison labor. What is pretty amazing is that these prisoners were able to coordinate the unprecedented strike with the assistance of technology—specifically, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Although the use of cell phones is not allowed in prisons (and is against the law in some states), visitors and prison guards smuggle them into prisons anyway. It's amazing to me that technology has given so much power to those of us that did not have it in the past. Think about it—the world's governments, corporations, wealthy individuals, and even prisons, don't have the same stranglehold on the human population that they did even 30 years ago because of advancing technologies on the Internet.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.