Knitting - Victoria and Albert Museum
·http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/k/knitting/
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is often considered one of the world's leading art and design museums. Established in 1852, the institution's collections span two millennia of art in a variety of mediums, including diverse holdings related to textiles. It should come as no surprise that the knitting page on the museum's website offers a plush resource for knitting enthusiasts. Articles on the page address such topics as the regional knitting practices of the British Isles, 1940s knitting patterns, and an interview with textile artist Freddie Robins among others. In addition, readers may like to follow the links to knitting blogs, knitting websites, the knitting reading list, and related interviews and artist profiles.
·http://www.humanitariantracker.org/
Humanitarian Tracker seeks to support humanitarian causes by connecting and empowering citizens through innovative technologies. In essence, the site provides "tools, methods, and training" to citizen journalists so that anyone anywhere can report what they see and hear during periods of conflict, natural disasters, or other extreme situations. Then Humanitarian Tracker verifies the reports and makes them public. One of Humanitarian Tracker's interesting Projects is Syria Tracker, featured on the home page, which tracks the number of casualties in the ongoing civil war in Syria using a number of salient categories. For instance, readers can track casualties by male, female, age group, manner of death, location, and other criteria. Maps and graphs make the story visual. While the content is not pleasant, it is useful for understanding the human toll of global issues. ]
Network Tools
·https://www.edmodo.com
Edmodo, which functions as a fully-loaded social network tool for the classroom, rivals popular platforms like Facebook in look and functionality while also designed with learning in mind. The site allows teachers to post lesson plans, information, assignments, and other content. Then students can post, have online conversations, collaborate, and work together or separately on quizzes, projects, and a number of other activities. Sign up is simple and free; all that is required is an email account. From there, it takes some time to set up the site to one's specifications, but teachers may find it worth the trouble.
·https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/
Very few of our activities on the Internet are, strictly speaking, private. Nearly everything we do is logged somewhere, and our instant messaging is no exception. This is where Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging can help. For those who are chatting about confidential matters (e.g., medical histories) or those who simply want their privacy, OTR can help keep instant messaging secure. OTR uses standard and well-tested cryptographic algorithms to keep our conversations confidential and prevent impersonation of our correspondents (e.g., in the event of account hijacking). In fact, many messengers, including the popular Adium for Mac and IM+ for Android devices already have OTR built-in. On Windows, OTR can be added to the popular Pidgin messenger by using the "Primary download" link on the OTR homepage, then going to Tools > Plugins and activating the Off-the-Record Messaging plugin.
Leap Second Will Extend the Day, and Might Roil the Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/science/leap-second-will-extend-the-day-and-might-roil-the-internet.html
‘Leap Second’: Why June 30 will have one extra second
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-june-30-leap-second-20150629-story.html
Leap second causes Internet hiccup overnight
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2942992/leap-second-causes-internet-hiccup-particularly-in-brazil.html
The origin of leap seconds, and why they should be abolished
http://qz.com/432787/the-origin-of-leap-seconds-and-why-they-should-be-abolished/
What Is a Leap Second Anyway, and Why Do We Use It?
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/leap-second-anyway-use/
World Will Gain a Leap Second on Tuesday: Here’s Why
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150629-leap-second-atomic-astronomical-time-earth-rotation-physics/
In the lead up to this week’s Leap Second, which took place on Tuesday at precisely 23:59:60 PM Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), there was much speculation about what the effects of adding a second to the day would do to various computer systems around the world. In the end, the fallout was minimal. Still, some commentators have begun to grumble at the practice, which is designed to sync astronomical time (a measurement based on the planet’s rotation) with atomic time (a measurement based on the cycling of atoms). The doubters point out that adding or subtracting seconds makes almost no positive difference to even the most time-obsessed among us, and that the practice is, at the least, inconvenient and expensive for companies, governments, and other organizations who must adjust their computer systems to the chronological hiccup. Adherents note that syncing astronomical and atomic time has a number of advantages and, as Udo Seidel, a systems administrator at Amadeus Software noted, "If we cannot manage to make our systems handle a leap second, then we have bigger problems."
The first two links, from The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, respectively, present some of the media build up to Tuesday's Leap Second. Next, Jeremy Kirk, writing for PC World, offers coverage of some of the network outages the Leap Second caused — many of which seemed to have occurred in Brazil due to unprepared routers. The fourth link will take interested readers to David Yanofsky’s case against the Leap Second. Finally, Wired and National Geographic fill in the gaps with their excellent coverage of the history and science behind leap seconds.
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