YOUTUBE.COM -- THE OUTCOME -- A Robin Williams tribute on his life and how he experienced life. As an actor, he brought tons of joy and laughter to his audiences. Robin Williams lived his life with wisdom, and provided inspiration to those who needed it. On August 11 2014, Robin Williams was found dead and his death was ruled as a suicide. ...
YOUTUBE.COM -- I was coming back home on a Southwest flight when I discovered I had one of the funniest flight attendants on board with me. It was one of the best flights I have ever been on! ...
EVOLUTIONNEWS.ORG -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, New York, 1983: "Those who are most qualified in scientific subjects today are often the most humble and the most convinced in their attitude to the existence of Allah."] ARTICLE: "Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose" -- by Brazilian superstar chemist, Marcos Eberlin -- carries endorsements from three Nobel Prize-winning scientists: Sir John B. Gurdon (Physiology or Medicine, 2012), Gerhard Ertl (Chemistry, 2007), and Brian D. Josephson (Physics, 1973). At some point the critics need to admit that the accumulating strength of the Intelligent Design argument demands an adequate response. As Dr. Ertl writes, "Regardless of whether one shares Eberlin's approach, it is definitely becoming clear that nature is still full of secrets which are beyond our rational understanding and force us to humility." Yes, indeed. In case after case, Eberlin argues that life ...
EVOLUTIONNEWS.ORG -- For 150 years Darwin's theory of evolution has been as unquestioned as Newton's theory of gravity. But science never stops asking questions. Or at least it's not supposed to. Stephen Meyer takes up the challenge in this video which has already been viewed by 1,000,000 people since its release just one week ago. That's an enormous conversation about a subject which Darwinists are most anxious thoughtful that adults and young people should not be discussing: whether the evidence for Darwinian evolution is genuinely persuasive. In 5 minutes Meyer summarizes two very telling problems with Darwinism -- covered in his first two books, "Signature in the Cell" and "Darwin's Doubt" -- that anyone can follow. It doesn't take a PhD. ...
AREOMAGAZINE.COM -- According to Professor Douglas Carnine, education professors in the United States overwhelmingly advocate constructivist teaching methods, such as discovery-based learning, inquiry-based learning and project-based learning. With these teaching methods, teachers avoid directly instructing students. However, there are serious issues with such approaches and they are highly ineffective at promoting academic achievement. This has been repeatedly confirmed, over several decades, by different fields related to education. Professors Barak Rosenshine and E. D. Hirsch: "this consensus from several fields of study is a very strong indication that the findings are valid." The methods have also been shown to be much less effective than direct instruction for promoting critical thinking skills and self-esteem, according to Professors Siegfried Engelmann and Gary Adams. ...
THEFEDERALIST.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 1978: "Some might say that our academic systems are a little old-fashioned. Yes, we believe in examinations ..."] ARTICLE: Ask immigrant communities why they moved to the United States and they answer, again and again: "For the kids." Yet we are failing them in one of the most important ways. They always express discontentment with U.S. schools. Of course, Soviet schools like mine in childhood had their lion's share of problems. What worked very well, however, among all that misery was high expectations, written and oral exams, memorization, and, above all, the literary canon and math. In Soviet education, what Americans jokingly call the three Rs -- reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic -- were stellar. Here's an overview ...
PICTUREQUOTES.COM -- "If everyone is thinking alike then no one is thinking." -- Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States ...
THEFEDERALIST.COM -- The pain of death is brutal. But it must never extinguish the absolute beauty of life. The call came on a bus to DC: "You better come now." My dad's three-year fight with cancer. A few tears dripped, and I went back to watching "Gangs of New York" on my iPad. I hadn't ever watched it before. The Megabus is no place for an emotional breakdown. You steel yourself in moments like that. The handful of moments that people try to forget will end. The next evening I arrived at the hospital. Twenty years since my mother ...
THESKEPTICALZONE.COM -- Can you imagine writing a book that can be read forwards and backwards containing 2 different stories that made sense? Not an easy task yet DNA is even more complex. Watch this video and pay special attention to the following mechanisms in DNA: A) Alternative splicing which produces multiple proteins from one gene. B) Overlapping sequences, called Duons, which simultaneously code for both protein expression and transcription factor binding sites. C) Dual coding genes in which one DNA sequence produces multiple proteins using multiple reading frames. ...
CREV.INFO -- Imagine a book written in a language with no spaces, and every word is three letters. Now imagine you could get one story starting at the first letter, a different story starting at the second letter, and another starting at the third letter. That's the situation with some genes. DNA can code for one protein in the first reading frame (RF), but a different protein in another RF. Since the opposite DNA strand has three more RFs, there are potentially six RFs per gene. An international team researching RFs, said there was an almost zero probability RFs were due to chance. Maintaining RFs by natural selection is "costly" because mutations in one RF could disable the information in another RF. ...
THISISCOMMONSENSE.COM -- "Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." -- Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. An American theoretical physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. ...
THEATLANTIC.COM -- Philip E. Tetlock decided to put expert political and economic predictions to the test. He collected forecasts from 284 highly educated experts who averaged more than 12 years of experience in their specialties. The project lasted 20 years, with 82,361 probability estimates about the future. The result: The experts were, by and large, horrific forecasters. Their areas of specialty, years of experience, and (for some) access to classified information made no difference. They were bad at short-term forecasting and bad at long-term forecasting. They were bad at forecasting in every domain. Even faced with their results, many experts never admitted systematic flaws in their judgment. One subgroup of scholars, however, did ...
THEVERGE.COM -- QUESTION: This idea of intellectual range and taking in lots of information. How does that dovetail with research on cognitive biases and not believing information that contradicts our beliefs? EPSTEIN: It's really difficult. If you look at [judgments and cognitive bias of] specialists with a narrow focus, they were actually worse as they accumulated information because they were better able to fit any story to whatever their views were. People with better judgment had "science curiosity." Not science knowledge, but science curiosity. When faced with information that didn't agree with their preconceived information, would they follow up and research broadly or would they put that aside and ignore it and leave it there? There were clever studies where ...
ARTOFMANLINESS.COM -- I'm sure you remember the story of the Little Red Hen. The hen asks her friends to help her plant and harvest wheat, and they decline. She asks them to grind the wheat into flour, and bake the flour into bread, and they refuse. Then, when the hot, delicious-smelling bread comes out of the oven, all the hen's friends want a bite but none of them wanted to help make the bread. The old fable offered a reflection of certain human tendencies back when it was first told, and can tell us something about our culture today. Everyone hopes their children learn good things at church, but ...
YOUTUBE.COM -- EH BEE FAMILY -- The Eh Bee Family is a family of 4 starring Mama Bee, Papa Bee, Mr. Monkey and Miss Monkey! We love spending time together as a family and our goal is to make as many people as possible....smile. We promise you'll have a great time with us! ...
EVOLUTIONNEWS.ORG -- The most distinctive thing about man is of course his gift for language. On that, the great Tom Wolfe masterfully explains in a new book out today [2016], Darwinism takes an epic tumble. Evolution cannot explain the very thing that preeminently makes us human. His focus is on the story of how evolution, from Darwin to Chomsky, came up short in explaining speech. He lets the implications of this speak for themselves. Chomsky himself was compelled to admit that after decades of his labor, "The evolution of the faculty of language largely remains an enigma". ...
NATIONALPOST.COM -- Darwinism's puzzling Achilles' heel is its utter failure to account for, alone amongst the species, humans' large brains and capacity for both abstract thought and speech. Darwin knew this himself, of course. To this day, no Darwinist can explain humans' power of speech. In 2016, eight prominent academics, including the world's most famous linguist, Noam Chomsky, published an article admitting that 150 years after the Theory of Evolution was birthed, and following an "explosion of research" in the modern discipline of linguistics, they cannot explain where language comes from. Intellectuals may stamp their feet and clutch their pearls all they want, but the debate, for so long taboo, is on again. ...
DEVIANTART.COM -- "It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom." -- Mahatma Ghandi ...
[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- SCRAPSFROMTHELOFT.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Profoundly insightful and moving.] ARTICLE: "[What's said about me] isn't what my life is like at all. What my life is like is that wherever my wife and I go, literally--30-40, many countries. If I go down the street, or in an airport, or in a cafe, or n a movie theater, or in a mechanic's shop, someone comes up to me every 10 minutes, and says, 'I've been watching your YouTube videos or read your book, and was in this dreadful place six months ago.' Then they say, 'I've been trying to develop a vision for my life.' Or, 'I've been trying to take more responsibility, and it's really working. Things are way better. Thank you.' It's overwhelming to have that happen continually." ...
YOUTUBE.COM -- In today's episode, you'll have to figure out what the last sister is doing. Only an expert solver will be able to get this one! ...
THEFEDERALIST.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazrat Ali: "World-wide glory can be undone by an hour's degradation. You will never find an equivalence for wounded honour."] ARTICLE: It's not uncommon to hear about people (famous or otherwise) ruthlessly attacked by the cancel culture because of old, long-forgotten online behavior. Parents of teens and young adults must be aware of cancel culture and the future ramifications of internet behavior for their children and start actively addressing it. It's just as important as talking about being kind to people in real life, because the electronic record of their online stupidity can be pulled up and used against them in job situations and other adult interactions. Do you know what platforms your teen is using? Really? All of them? You might be surprised, because research indicates ...
NYTIMES.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazrat Ali: "Hasten not punish a man for a fault committed; but leave room for pardon between the two acts."] ARTICLE: Emily was a member of the punk music scene when a post denouncing her went viral. The object of nationwide group hate and banned from the punk scene, she didn't leave her house for what felt like months. Her friends dropped her. She was scared, traumatized and alone. She tried to vanish. "It's entirely my life," she said tearfully. "And it's all just done and over." In this small story we see something of our brutal cultural moment. There's no sense of proportion. There's no personal connection that allows apology and forgiveness. Even the quest for justice can turn into barbarism if it is not infused with mercy, an awareness of human frailty and a path to redemption. ...
SLATE.COM -- Recent studies suggest that kids with over-involved parents and rigidly structured childhoods suffer psychological blow-back in college. From 2006 to 2008, I served on Stanford University's mental health task force, which examined student depression. Often brilliant, always accomplished, these students would sit on my couch holding their fragile, brittle parts together, resigned to the fact that these outwardly successful situations were their miserable lives. In 2010, psychology professor Neil Montgomery surveyed 300 college freshmen and found ... In a 2011 study, Terri LeMoyne and Tom Buchanan looked at more than 300 students and found ... A 2012 study of 438 college students found ... A 2013 study of 297 college students found ... And a 2014 study from researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder correlated ...
REASON.COM -- LENORE SKENAZY & JONATHAN HAIDT -- We've had the best of intentions, of course. But efforts to protect our children may be backfiring. When we raise kids unaccustomed to facing anything on their own, including risk, failure, and hurt feelings, our society is threatened. Yet modern parenting practices and laws seem designed to cultivate this lack of preparedness. There's the fear that everything children see, do, eat, hear, and lick could hurt them. And a newer belief, spreading through higher education, that even words and ideas themselves can be traumatizing. The principle is simple: This generation of kids must be protected like none other. How did we come to think a generation of kids can't handle the basic challenges of growing up? Bad policy and paranoid ...
WYLIECOMM.COM -- WYLIE COMMUNICATIONS -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazrat Ali: "The best speaking is that which does not offend the ear, and the understanding of which does not fatigue the intelligence."] ARTICLE: "Jargon allows us to camouflage intellectual poverty with verbal extravagance." (David Pratt) ~~ "If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well." (Albert Einstein) ~~ "A writer who really understands the information can translate it accurately into lay language." (Neita F. Geilker) ~~ "Words of the jargon sound as if they said something higher than what they mean." (Theodor Adorno) ~~ "While intelligent people can often simplify the complex, a fool is more likely to complicate the simple." (Henry David Thoreau) ~~ "Words of the jargon sound as if ...
ARTOFMANLINESS.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazrat Ali: "The coward has no enjoyment of life."] ARTICLE: Courage is a virtue that philosophers have been trying to define for millennia. For me courage is something that I know when I see. When I see courage in action, I'm inspired to dare for noble causes. Courageous men stir my soul to endure, even when I'm surrounded by defeat and cynicism. But before a man can take on the big challenges, he must hone his courage in the small decisions he makes every day. Courage is like a muscle; it can be strengthened and developed through consistent training. Below we discuss the physical, intellectual and moral courage which every man should seek to embody, and how to develop each. ...
YOUTUBE.COM -- BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT -- Kojo Anim made Simon Cowell laugh SO much that he reached for the Golden Buzzer. Watch his hilarious performance and see why he's going straight to the semi-finals. ...
MINDMATTERS.AI -- Some great computer scientists are deluding themselves believing in the AI Singularity. Someday, the theory goes, AI will write better AI that in turn writes still better AI and so on. This Singularity is espoused by luminaries like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Google's Ray Kurzweil. A roadblock to AI singularity is creativity. Computers cannot be creative. Computer creativity occurs when a computer program does something it was not programmed to do. Software can write other software code but not creatively. Johns Hopkins' Gregory Chirikjian agrees and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella concurs. Oxford mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose forcefully argues this in his iconic book "The Emperor's New Mind." But haven't we already seen creative AI? What about ...
[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- MINDMATTERS.AI -- In my talk, I'm going to address three points about the Walter Bradley Center. The Center will do more than demonstrate a qualitative difference between human and machine intelligence. It will show how we can thrive in a world of increasing automation. Such a vision ought to be praiseworthy and non-controversial. But we live in an age when much of the mainstream academy, inspired by scientific materialism, views humanity as unexceptional, replaceable by artificial intelligence. So if we succeed, we must prepare for controversy. Walter Bradley is someone who has reflected deeply on the intersection of natural and artificial intelligence, done seminal research in this area and been a fearless and uncompromising against the materialist currents of our age. ...
AZQUOTES.COM -- "I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing." -- Thomas A. Edison ...
DAILYSTOIC.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah's "Philosophy of Happiness:" "Learn to desire the thing that happens, and not try to mould events to their desires."] ARTICLE: One way to read The Odyssey is as a story of human perseverance but another way illustrates the exact opposite. Odysseus says he wants to get back to Ithaca, and then proceeds to constantly undermine himself. It's only towards the end, when he finally stops and actually listens to the gods that he quickly makes any real progress. Seneca and Epictetus spoke often about surrendering to fate--understanding that we are not in control. It seems like resignation but the concept of Amor Fati is quite paradoxical. It's acceptance fused with determination. It's the ability to go along and make the best of something even if ...
AEON.CO -- The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual competition for the brainiest of high-school maths whizzes in the world. This animation breaks down a question from the 2011 IMO that proved especially challenging to competitors. Between US YouTuber Grant Sanderson's methodical analysis and the nifty animations, the maths-minded might convince themselves that they would have come up with the answer all on their own. But Sanderson, ever the savvy instructor, crafts his lesson around how to find the solution as well as being mindful of how knowledge is obtained. In doing so, he transforms an algebra puzzle into a lesson on empathy, pedagogy and the nature of discovery. ...
GOALCAST.COM -- Maya Angelou was one of America's most beloved and celebrated poets and authors, with dozens of awards and over 50 honorary degrees attesting to her inspirational role at the center of American life. ~~ I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~~ Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. ~~ Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away. ~~ When someone shows you ...
[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- YOUTUBE.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Essential for all to see.] ARTICLE: Contrary to widely held beliefs, the human brain is in a perpetual state of change. In "The Brain That Changes Itself", psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Norman Doidge (author of the book by the same title), highlights groundbreaking findings from the tireless efforts of some of the world's most progressive medical scientists. He introduces us to many of these brilliant figures and a host of patients who have benefited from their brave new world of research. Their findings and non-invasive, non-medical treatments offer hope to victims of crippling neurological conditions like strokes, cerebral palsy, and chronic depression. ...
MINDMATTERS.AI -- Biomedical engineer Yuri Danilov reassures seniors, we do not lose neurons as we age. Why do we find it harder to learn as we age? What goes wrong with the aging brain? We are often told that the aging brain is losing neurons. That, Danilov assures us, is not the problem. The neurons are still there. Rather, older people may face a desynchronization between sensory and motor neurons (our senses and our muscles are not always dancing to the same beat). But, he says, the older brain can arrive at the same learning results given more time. ...
FAITHCOUNTS.COM -- The day after Brady Campbell, 6, lost his dad to colon cancer, he decided to start a lemonade stand so he could take his mom out on a date. He says it was his dad's final wish. "My dad and I came up with the idea," Campbell told Fox 31 Denver. So, he set up a lemonade stand outside of his home that read ...
DAILYSTOIC.COM -- Some people imagine that Stoicism involves for an unfeeling approach to other people. To counter this misconception, consider these from Seneca: "This is the first promise that philosophy holds out to us: fellow-feeling, humanity, sociability." "If you consider any man a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken and you do not sufficiently understand what true friendship means... Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself... Regard him as loyal and you will make him loyal." ...
DAILYSTOIC.COM -- We miss out on wisdom if we're too narrow. Specialists become so narrow that they actually start developing worse judgment about the world as they accumulate knowledge. Breadth of training predicts breadth of transfer. Transfer is your ability to take knowledge and skills and apply them to a problem or situation you have not seen before. And your ability to do that is predicted by the variety of situations you've faced. As you get more variety, you're forced to form these broader conceptual models, which you can then wield flexibly in new situations. ...
[H/T SAHIL BADRUDDIN] -- YOUTUBE.COM -- Canada is regarded as a model progressive society, but is the country's current leadership living up to these ideals? Hasan examines the policies of current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and sits down with him for a one-on-one interview in advance of Canada's October election. ...
