Phin Upham

experimentsinmotion: Ferrofluids are liquids which becomes...

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:01:38 -0400

Ferrofluids are liquids which becomes strongly polarized in the presence of a magnetic field.

The Nation Magazine: Mitt Romney's economic expertise doesn't include knowing how budgets work

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:13:24 -0400

The Nation Magazine: Mitt Romney's economic expertise doesn't include knowing how budgets work:

For a man whose presidential campaign is based almost exclusively on his economic knowledge and experience, Mitt Romney is having an awfully hard time figuring out how to make this budget of his add up. Ben Adler reports:

Publicly, Romney has proposed to make the Bush tax cuts permanent…

MORE BREAKING NEWS: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ends support for ALEC, a right-wing corporate front group

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:25:26 -0400

MORE BREAKING NEWS: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ends support for ALEC, a right-wing corporate front group:

think-progress:

Following the lead of Kraft, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Intuit.

theatlantic: Austerity Is a Disaster: The Lesson of Europe’s...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:20:30 -0400

theatlantic:

Austerity Is a Disaster: The Lesson of Europe’s Record Unemployment

Euro zone unemployment just hit a 15-year high. German unemployment just hit a 15-year low. What can those of us across the Atlantic glean from this seemingly bipolar state of affairs? That austerity, every economic conservative’s favorite prescription for an ailing economy — the medicine Republicans here in the United States are pushing hard — is an utter disaster.

A few euro zone members, including Germany and the Netherlands, are enjoying a relative jobs boom. And yet, europe’s overall unemployment rate is 10.8 percent. How is this possible? Because of depression-level unemployment in Europe’s austerity-plagued periphery. […]

This should put to rest the notion of “expansionary austerity” — that is, that budget cuts can spur growth by giving businesses increased confidence. It has been an epic, epic failure with interest rates at zero. The more a country has cut, the more unemployment it has. Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland have all had markets (and Germany) force them to radically reduce deficits amidst already deep slumps. The result has been even deeper slumps. Joblessness has jumped to levels not seen in advanced countries since the 1930s.

Read more. [Image: Eurostat]

Yahoo! Politics!: Supreme Court divided on whether Obama health care ruling must be all-or-nothing

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:19:20 -0400

Yahoo! Politics!: Supreme Court divided on whether Obama health care ruling must be all-or-nothing:

yahoopolitics:

The Supreme Court appeared sharply divided Wednesday over whether they would have to kill President Obama’s landmark health care overhaul outright if they decree that the measure requiring individuals to have insurance or pay a penalty is unconstitutional.

If the so-called individual mandate is…

vicemag: Our Economic Recovery If you believe what you read in...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:27:56 -0400

vicemag:

Our Economic Recovery

If you believe what you read in the papers, we are in the midst of a genuine, bona fide economic recovery. You can tell because the bad numbers are smaller and the good numbers are bigger. The unemployment rate has stabilized at 8.3 percent, we’ve added a little over two million jobs to the national payroll over the past six months, and the stock market’s up. It’s morning in America, everyone!

Journalists started talking like this during last week’s news cycle. Every show and newspaper featured at least one story about the numbers getting better, usually capped with some economist cautioning, with a carefully vacuous caveat, that “This number is good. But there are also other numbers. In the future, there may be more numbers.” Seriousness!

Some politicians are eagerly presenting the latest figures as evidence that we’re all going to be OK. But we’re not. Even Americans with jobs are lacking basic financial security, earning wages that are actually shrinking when adjusted for inflation.

The unemployment rate is also blind to underemployment. A 20-hour-a-week gig at a Sears cash register makes you “employed,” whether you’re a high school student, a 57-year-old telephone lineman, or a law school graduate. The term is “employed,” not “gainfully employed.” You can be hustling backwards working three part-time jobs or you can be crushed under debt, you can be literally dying of a chronic illness you can’t afford to treat, but you’re still just “employed” to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau measures whether you’re in the employment pool. It doesn’t measure whether you’re drowning.

Continue

mothernaturenetwork: Apollo 11 landing site seen in...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:26:45 -0400

mothernaturenetwork:

Apollo 11 landing site seen in unprecedented detail
This photo reveals the steps of astronauts as well as a bit of litter they left behind.

Technology in Education: Meet four teachers who are using computers, social media, webcams and...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:49:06 -0500

Technology in Education: Meet four teachers who are using computers, social media, webcams and...:

techedblog:

Meet four teachers who are using computers, social media, webcams and other tools to help launch learning to a whole new level.

by Gerry Blackwell, with Francis Chalifour, OCT
Photography by Kevin Hewitt

If there’s one area teachers want to know about—and stay on top of—it’s…

nationalpost: Photos: Pages from a real-life Sherlock Holmes’...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:43:07 -0500

nationalpost:

Photos: Pages from a real-life Sherlock Holmes’ diary
Between 1909 and 1912, Detective Inspector Robert Mather of the Manchester Police kept scrupulous notes on 65 characters from the city’s criminal underworld, including Samuel Searson, a.k.a. Samuel Jackson, who most recently served six months for “stealing silver shields” and three elaborately coiffed individuals labelled as “brothel thieves.” (Photos: Bonhams/Reuters/handout)

theatlantic: The Collapse of Print Advertising in One...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:40:08 -0500

theatlantic:

The Collapse of Print Advertising in One Graph

Call it creative if you want, but this is what economic destruction looks like. Print newspaper ads have fallen by two-thirds from $60 billion in the late-1990s to $20 billion in 2011.

You sometimes hear it said that newspapers are dead. Now, $20 billion is the kind of “dead” most people would trade their lives for. You never hear anybody say “bars and nightclubs are dead!” when in fact that industry’s current revenue amounts to an identical $20 billion.

So the reason newspapers are in trouble isn’t that they aren’t making lots of money — they still are; advertising is a huge, huge business, as any app developer will try to tell you — but that their business models and payroll depend on so much more money. The U.S. newspaper industry was built to support $50 billion to $60 billion in total advertising with the kind of staffs that a $50 billion industry can abide. The layoffs, buyouts, and bankruptcies you hear about are the result of this massive correction in the face of falling revenue. The Internet took out print’s knees in the last decade — not all print, but a lot.

Read more. [Image: Mark J. Perry]

laboratoryequipment: Technique Enables Fast Mass-Production of...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:27:11 -0500

laboratoryequipment:

Technique Enables Fast Mass-Production of Microbots

A new technique inspired by elegant pop-up books and origami will soon allow clones of robotic insects to be mass-produced by the sheet. Devised by engineers at Harvard, the ingenious layering and folding process enables the rapid fabrication of not just microrobots, but a broad range of electromechanical devices.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Technique-Enables-Fast-Mass-Production-of-Microbots-022112.aspx

theatlantic: On This Day: The Steam Locomotive Gets Going On...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:06:09 -0500

theatlantic:

On This Day: The Steam Locomotive Gets Going

On this day in 1804, the world’s first steam-powered train hauled 10 tons of iron and 70 men for nine miles at a speed of five miles an hour in Merthyr Tydvil, South Wales, opening a century whose history would be defined and guided by the expansion of the railway. The engine was designed by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). Above, a drawing of an earlier Trevithick design, thought to be quite similar to the locomotive that ran in 1804.

Read more. [Image: irsociety.co.uk]

"At the end of the day, this job is only really fun if you discover what no one else already knows."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:02:32 -0500

“At the end of the day, this job is only really fun if you discover what no one else already knows.”

- Charles Duhigg on journalism. (via thedeadline)

thedailywhat: In Case You Missed It of the Day: Ever the...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:01:45 -0500

thedailywhat:

In Case You Missed It of the Day: Ever the private citizen, Stephen Colbert did not address directly the cause of his abrupt absence.

He did, however, make an overt nod to the rumored reason — his ailing 91-year-old mother Lorna. “Evidently, having 11 children makes you tough as nails,” Colbert said, adding “confidential to a lovely lady” before touching his nose, pointing to the camera, and picking up where he left off.

[colbertnation.]

U.S. Department of State: The Aging Population: Economic Growth and Global Competitiveness

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:36:43 -0500

U.S. Department of State: The Aging Population: Economic Growth and Global Competitiveness:

statedept:

About the Author: Robert D. Hormats serves as Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment.

On Tuesday, February 14, the Council on Foreign Relations is holding a meeting on the “The U.S. Aging Population as an Economic Growth Driver for Global…

Government Good: Government Good: Compulsory Licensing

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:36:14 -0500

Government Good: Government Good: Compulsory Licensing:

governmentgood:

Copyright law and the balancing of the rights of all parties involved in the creation and consumption of musical works is one of the thorniest and most challenging aspects of good government in a society. Most societies want the creator of a work to be properly compensated, but at the same time,…

Scholastic Daily: Bringing Up the Bucket from the Well: A Study of Conscious Awareness

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:31:16 -0500

Scholastic Daily: Bringing Up the Bucket from the Well: A Study of Conscious Awareness:

scholasticdaily:

By contributor Phineas Upham

[To read more from this author visit his website]

What is the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious? The consciously aware portion of the mind can compare and store information, its own thoughts, and memories. The unconscious also…

cheatsheet: Frontpage: Thursday, Feb 16th Congress Reaches Deal...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:30:07 -0500

cheatsheet:

Frontpage: Thursday, Feb 16th

Congress Reaches Deal on Payroll Tax: Congressional negotiators reached a deal on a $150 billion plan that will extend a payroll tax holiday for 10 months and unemployment benefits through the end of the year.

Karzai: Talks With Taliban Have Begun: “There have been contacts between the U.S. government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.

U.N. to Hold Symbolic Syria Vote: A day after the Syrian president promised reform, his troops launched an attack on the cities of Deraa, Hama, injuring an estimated 50 people. The U.N. General Assembly will vote Thursday on the symbolic resolution condeming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown.

Santorum Releases Tax Documents: He’s no Mitt Romney when it comes to income, but presidential candidate Rick Santorum has been doing OK lately. The former senator from Pennsylvania released four years—more than any other candidate—of tax returns, covering 2007 to 2010.

OK Senate Passes Personhood Act: Oklahoma legislators moved a step closer to in their attempted to outlaw abortion on Wednesday as the state Senate passed the Personhood Act, 34-8. The bill now moves to the House where pro-life Republicans outnumber democrats two-to-one.

Read More Cheats

Photo: Backstage at Marchesa Fall/Winter 2012 by Kevin Tachman. More from the show.

futurejournalismproject: By A Nearly 2 To 1 Margin, Cable...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:08:49 -0500

futurejournalismproject:

By A Nearly 2 To 1 Margin, Cable Networks Call On Men Over Women To Comment On Birth Control — ThinkProgress.

Mapping the Road Ahead for Autonomous Cars

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:10:11 -0500

Mapping the Road Ahead for Autonomous Cars:

unexpectedtech:

Stefan Liske, auto industry consultant, PCH: We have to respect the fact that we will never be able in the next 10 or 15 years to come up with a budget that would be needed in order to turn cities into environments for autonomous driving, so I would like to give you a very differentiated answer.

I think for safety reasons [autonomous vehicles are] very helpful; also for traffic efficiency for reducing pollution, for reducing traffic jams, for making the commute more efficient — like for people living in Los Angeles who have a one-and-a-half-hour drive in the morning and a one-and-a-half-hour drive in the evening.

If autonomous driving possibilities can reduce this commute every morning, every evening by 30 minutes or an hour, I think it’s a solution that makes sense. It’s a roadmap that makes sense but we as customers, we as drivers, will take a long time to get used to this. And we will have a huge customer group and a huge number of cities or even rural areas where we won’t see autonomous driving on a large scale in the next 10 or 15 years. If you really want to introduce autonomous driving on a large scale, you have to fulfill so many prerequisites. Like for example the connectivity between the cars, the connectivity between cars and infrastructure. That would be a given in order to introduce autonomous driving on a large scale.