Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic serves up a fantastic analogy "to explain why QR codes, those little black-and-white squares in magazines that you're supposed to use as a paper hyperlink, continue to proliferate." Check out the link below.
Via The Atlantic.
I recently got invited to Sparcet by A&S. It's a online reward/recognition social network for the work place. I check into my feed on Sparcet and found other Hive members lighting up the board with awards and compliments. The way it works (from what I can tell) is that anyone can give a "medal" to another working for any amount/quality of good work that they think deserves to be recognized, and it shows up in everyone else's feed. I began to read through all the "sparcets" that were given and couldn't believe it! We've got some awesome people at the Hive.
The Hive is a huge and growing entity. We are physically spread out, and often it's hard to keep track of what everyone else is up to. In this way, Sparcet is a great way to keep in touch with work related activity of others. And my favorite part is that it seems to be based off a simple principle: give credit where credit is due. Sparcet is great for this and demonstrates what a cool work environment the Hive has.
Kudos to all my fellow Hive members for being awesome!
I was looking through some Wired Campus articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education, and I found this one about some resources where you can learn computer programming. I have always wanted to learn more about computers, programming, web design, etc. Last Christmas break I learned HTML and CSS, so this year I think I'm going to delve into Python. I just signed up for the free Stanford University online course on Computer Science, and also the one for Cryptography. I'm pretty excited to start learning about these topics. Anyone wanna join me?
Salut tout le monde! My ever-exciting blog continues with one of my favorite aspects of travelling to and visiting a big city: street performances! In places like London and Paris (and even places like New York and Chicago!,) street performances can be quite excellent. I say, if you enjoy the show, don't hesitate to donate a little and help the musicians along. I'd like to add that, what I find really cool about a lot of street performances that I've seen in Paris, many of them aren't even bothered by the police. Or, sometimes when they are drawing particularly large crowds as some dancers often do, the police will watch with crowd, allowing the performers to finish before they break the crowd up and shoo the performers away. So go! Enjoy the talents that people are sharing with the world!
A museum I visited in London called the Tate Modern had a series of portraits in the “States of Flux” exhibit, created by Cindy Sherman. This series stood out to me among the other pieces of art, and I thought I’d share it with all of you. This work of art is a series of portrait, black and white photographs, in which Cindy Sherman is the subject in each image. However, it seems like the subject of each image are different people. Sherman changes her makeup and facial expression in each portrait so much that each portrait looks like people of different ages and gender.
According to the “cindysherman” website, her biography says, that or a work of art to be considered a portrait, the artist must have intent to portray a specific, actual person. This can be communicated through such techniques as naming a specific person in the title of the work or creating an image in which the physical likeness leads to an emotional individuality unique to a specific person. While these criteria are not the only ways of connoting a portrait, they are just two examples of how Sherman carefully communicates to the viewer that these works are not meant to depict Cindy Sherman the person. By titling each of the photographs "Untitled", as well as numbering them, Sherman depersonalizes the images.
Hi everyone! My blog continues with all of the things I can think to tell you to make your travels on planes easier and more enjoyable!
Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is just around the corner (Jan.23), and it always reminds me of the childhood I spent with my grandparents in Wenzhou, China. I still vividly remember those experiences. Weeks before New Year, Grandma would start cleaning the house. Grandpa would get the red lanterns out from the attic and hang them in front of our house. He would put red paper cuttings of the word 福fu (meaning blessing or good fortune) upside down on our doors, signaling that it will come in our house. Most importantly, school would be out for over a month (that was the best part!). I remember going to school from 7:45 to 5 or 6 PM from Monday to Friday, with extra study sessions on Saturdays. My teacher said that we couldn’t watch TV at home (I did anyways), and made us copy pages of Chinese characters every day.
I (as well as many many many others) have began participating in the 365 Project this year. It is a great opportunity to grow as a photographer as it encourages you to keep your "lens" up all the time and see the world in a different way. It also forces you to be resourceful an take creative pictures in less "photogenic" situations. you can join the website dedicated to the project at : http://365project.org/ or just do it on your own accord! the important thing is to keep with it even if you have to whip out the smartphone!
happy shooting!!!
I’d like to point your attention to the newest installment of the Dean’s Channel where I spoke with statistics professors Arne Bathke and Arny Stromberg. In 2011, UK opened its first Applied Statistics Lab (ASL), with the help of the Office of the Vice President for Research, several UK college deans, and infrastructure grants such as the university's recent Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), UK statisticians in the College of Arts & Sciences' Department of Statistics, and the College of Public Health's Department of Biostatistics.
The main objectives of this venture are to provide improved statistical services to groups preparing grant proposals, direct faculty involvement from the Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics for study design and data analysis throughout UK, foster collaborative research between scholars who develop quantitative methodology and those who use such methodology in their work, and to become a resource which may be referenced in institutional support for larger grants, in addition to direct statistical support typically included in such grants.
I visited London as the first part of my IS Winter Travel Grant trip. Now, I share with you my experiences.
