Scott Orn just shared an Instagram photo with you:
Thanks,The Instagram Team
Scott Orn just shared an Instagram photo with you:
Thanks,Today's XKCD must have taken Randall several years to draw...if you click and drag, it goes on forever. Or not quite forever, but Dan Catt did some figuring and:
Ok, so the XKCD map printed at 300dpi is around 46 foot / 14 meters wide, half that at magazine 600dpi quality.
Here's a better Google Maps-like way to explore the entire world.
Sent from Pocket - Get it free!
"The UrbanSitter experience is a bit like online dating, where everyone on the site looks perfect in the exact same way. In their photos, would-be sitters flash huge smiles and cock their heads like eager puppies. They've all served as tutors, volunteered with underprivileged youth, worked as summer camp counselors and are now majoring in education while spending their free time honing their hide-and-go-seek skills. And of course, they all really, really love working with kids. For this bunch, it seems, babysitting is not a job, it's a privilege!"
Excellent NYT Magazine piece on the impact of The Kalamazoo Promise, an initiative by anonymous donors to pay the college tuition of every graduating senior in Kalamazoo. The Promise, which is intended by the donors to be an experiment in urban investment has had several amazing results in only a few years. High school test scores have improved continuously, and the promise of help with tuition has lead to families moving to and staying in Kalamazoo. The 2,450 new students has allowed the school district to hire 92 additional teachers. It's not all rosy, and the Promise hasn't solved every problem yet, but Kalamazoo seems to be headed in the right direction.
"The school board also wants to institute “merit” pay and use “merit” in our evaluations based on test scores. But how do you really measure “merit”? Do rising student test scores measure “merit”? Does this even work for the music teacher of the foreign language teachers whose subject does not even appear on standardized tests? Perhaps. But teachers receive different students every year. How do you account for differences in the students taught from year to year? How do account for students’ home life? The district has some complicated statistical model which supposedly measures the “value added” by a teacher.
But is this valid? In New York, they are trying to do this. But under this model, there have been teachers receiving wildly different numbers in the same year and wildly different numbers from year to year. If the masters of the universe cannot even properly mathematically model the value of a credit default swap on Wall Street, how can they measure the infinitely more complicated contribution that a teacher makes for her/his students in a year? This is not “merit” pay. This is random pay."
“We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices.”What a perfect way to say it.
"Hour long podcasts:
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me (NPR): I WAIT for this one on Saturdays. It's so funny…and often my source of current events information!
Ask Me Another (NPR): Also a funny and great source of information. Brainteasers, music, laughs, pub-night-trivia-esque information: what's not to like?
The Dinner Party (American Public Media): A blend of food, culture, history, fun facts, cool guests, music, unconventional wisdom that will make you a much more interesting dinner party guest.
Shorter Podcasts:
Freakonomics Radio (Stephen J. Dubner): If you liked the books, you'll love this. Topics from how American food got so bad to whether or not expensive wines actually taste better.
How to Do Everything (Ian Chillag and Mike Danforth): LOVE this one! Funny titles like "Wine, Wimbledon and Surprises" and "Propane, 50 Shades and Backstage" tell you how to do everything (hence the title) from how to get backstage at a concert to how to know if your wine has gone bad."
"Since advertising is paying for a big portion of the consumer web, it's being built to please advertisers. Right now, though, what advertisers are used to buying isn't what the web is good at building.
There's huge progress being made in perceptions, but there's a ways to go. Which is why, "we're ad supported" isn't as obvious a strategy as it should be."