The personal website of Alex Weber
Mostly links from around the web, presented with quotes and commentary. Sometimes I write long-form pieces too.
[Millenials] love things that other generations consider frivolous, lazy, and embarrassing. But, this generation is having to confront an economic crisis that they have almost no control over. So the absolute least we deserve is Instagram likes in exchange for crippling economic turmoil.
Source: Why Is the Smartest Generation (Millennials) Predicted to Be the Poorest? ~ Levo League
This is very, very important: google sheep view—”searching for sheep on google street view 🐑”
I love whimsical, simple projects like this. Clearly a labor of love, also partly crowdsourced. Wonderful!
TL;DR: If we’re serious about getting rid of coal and moving to clean energy, it’s time to build more nuclear plants. They’re safer than you think.
Fewer than 50 people were reported to have died at Chernobyl; by contrast, the American Lung Association estimates that smoke from coal-fired power plants kills about 13,000 people every year.
Technically, it’s not in pure JS—this awesome demo uses the similarly-excellent Three.js library. Click and enjoy!
http://isaiahodhner.ml/pipes/
Much respect to these hackers—Open source insulin would be awesome. I hope they meet their crowdfunding goal!
[T]he biohackers behind Open Insulin also have their own agenda—they want to show the world that biohackers can make real scientific contributions, even if they’re not affiliated with an established world-class laboratory. “We want to show that a bunch of people with varying levels of scientific training can come together with a minimal budget and community space and do legitimate scientific research,” Muldavin says.
Source: These Biohackers Are Creating Open-Source Insulin | Popular Science
Kind of mind-boggling when it’s coming from an economist!
Then by 2014, that number had ballooned to roughly $4.5 billion for the year […] According to the FBI, the total amount of goods stolen by criminals in 2014 burglary offenses suffered an estimated $3.9 billion in property losses.
This means that the police are now taking more assets than the criminals.
Source: Police Civil Asset Forfeitures Exceed All Burglaries in 2014 | Armstrong Economics
“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”
—Omar N. Bradley
Source: Bit of News Daily Digest 🚣
This may make intuitive sense, but it’s nice to see it backed up by some data. TL;DR: That which gets measured gets managed (and if you post it publicly, more)
If you are trying to achieve a goal, the more often that you monitor your progress, the greater the likelihood that you will succeed, according to research. Your chances of success are even more likely if you report your progress publicly or physically record it.
I’ll admit, Internet.org sounded like a good idea when I heard about it. However, when you realize that it’s not really the Internet at all (just Facebook), it’s actually worse than it seems.
There’s only so much you can squeeze out of the first world – the current billion or so people – even though Facebook has cut virality, decreased organic reach and tried every which way of getting someone, anyone to pay more for visibility on its once-open social network. A more desperate measure was probably needed.
What they realized they needed to do – for their own future and that of their stock price – was to look beyond these 1.4 billion people to find new users. And, at the same time, to stop these new users from going over to their rivals in Mountain View, California.
These new users are in China, India and the rest of the developing world. China has locked Facebook out. India, with a billion people yet to get on the net is probably seen as the great white hope for the future of this stock.
Source: Facebook’s new internet is evil.
In brief: Let’s not call this group a state.
The term “Daesh” is strategically a better choice because it is still accurate in that it spells out the acronym of the group’s full Arabic name […] Yet, at the same time, “Daesh” can also be understood as a play on words — and an insult. Depending on how it is conjugated in Arabic, it can mean anything from “to trample down and crush” to “a bigot who imposes his view on others.” Already, the group has reportedly threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone who uses the term.
Why do they care so much? The same reason the United States should. Language matters.
Source: Words matter in ‘ISIS’ war, so use ‘Daesh’ – The Boston Globe