Lrbever

Enterplay has announced a new playmat for those of you pluggin away at the MLP CCG.  Maud Pie and her accompanying Luna promo will be available at Enterplay's booth during New York Comic Con on the 9th of October.

Thanks to Carlo for sending it!

Look at that frustrated Twilight Sparkle.  I wonder what percentage of people actually ever finishes a rubiks cube? I know I've only ever seen one solved in person once, and the guy was using a guide offline to do it.  What did people do when there wasn't an internet with these things? That's right, toss it in a box after 30 minutes and give up.

It looks like said object of frustration is beating pony in the current Toy Hall of Fame poll.  If you want to vote, head on over here to do it!

Thanks to Lance for the heads up.

While we aren't yet opening submissions up on these, I wanted to drop a heads up for those of you acquiring pumpkins ridiculously early to take some pictures! For those that weren't around these last few years, we run a pumpkin event annually.  If you are curious about previous entries, or need some ideas, have some posts:

Pumpkin Event 2012
Pumpkin Event 2013

Good luck! And be careful with those sharp carving tools!

Daring Do and the Masked Thief of Marapore is one of three books included in The Daring Do Adventure Collection releasing on the 7th of this month. Hasbro tossed a preview of it over to Scribd if you are curious about what you will find inside.  Go check out all 20 pages over here!

Update: And if you are curious about each specific part included in the set, Flawlessh did an imgur unboxing of it over here, though without the best camera on the planet. 

Your eyes do not deceive you. Researchers at the University of Rochester have created a new “invisibility cloak” that hides objects from plain site using everyday objects. The pictures above demonstrate exactly how the illusion works—and it’s mighty impressive. Imagine using this on a much larger scale to hide something important from prying eyes; maybe in the military. The new Harry Potter camouflage.

The illusion has been created using “inexpensive, readily available materials in a novel configuration,” according to the college’s official site. Optical illusions are really nothing new, but it’s the way the team has gone about configuring the cloaking method that makes it so unique. Four standard lenses—two with f1 focal length and two with f2 focal length—are required to make the illusion a success, each two sets separated by the sum of their focal lengths; the two sets are then separated so that the two f2 lenses are t2 apart.

“This is the first device that we know of that can do three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking, which works for transmitting rays in the visible spectrum,” said Joseph Choi, a PhD student at Rochester’s Institute of Optics.

While there have been many successful optical illusions in the past, Choi’s method allows users to shift their perspective while leaving the background undisturbed. Before, it would be obvious a cloaking illusion was being used, but the method created by Choi is pristine. The “perfect paraxial” cloak is achieved by maintaining matching grid sizes, meaning there’s no discontinuity in the background and the object being cloaked.

While the inner Bond in all of us will be dreaming of the spy opportunities for Choi’s new cloaking method, there are much more practical uses. For one, imagine using this in surgery; the surgeon’s view will no longer be obstructed by their hands. The method can be scalable to any size you can make the lenses, according to Choi, which means there’s potential to hide some really big objects.

If you’re so inclined, you can make your own Rochester Cloak by following the steps on the site.

Source: Rochester

There's certain things that just happen in video games. As gamers we except these events without any additional thought on the matter. On the rare occasions we do sit down to rationalize these events (like in this comic) the most logical conclusion can formulate can also be super creepy at times.



See more: You Found a Hint Coin

We haven't posted anything about the MLP Gameloft Game in forever.  It's currently running an event until the 11th of October for those out there that want to dive in and start with the mane 6. Each requires specific tasks to unlock, as opposed to the usual giant pile of money. 

• It’s a US-only event
• On September 29th players can collect bits to win Applejack (24 hours only)
• September 30th-October 1st players can play the Equestria Girls Mini Game and earn points towards winning Rarity
• October 2nd-October 3rd players can play the Mine Cart Mini Game and earn points towards winning Fluttershy
• October 4th-October 11th players can play the Mine Cart Mini Game and earn bits to help them win Rainbow Dash

You can download it over here!

Erick Erickson, the editor of the conservative website RedState, is furious because of the way his third grade daughter is being taught math. I mean, just look at how her “Common Core” textbook teaches subtraction:

Yes, that’s confusing when you look at it. I’ll admit that.

Erickson, who (I’m guessing) mechanically learned subtraction by putting the big number on top, the smaller number on bottom, and doing a little bit of “carrying,” is annoyed that his daughter isn’t learning math the same way he did:

The traditional method of subtracting, borrowing and carrying numbers, is derisively called the “Granny Method.” The new method makes no freaking sense to either my third grader or my wife.

We send our child to a Christian private school. We thought our child could escape this madness. But standardized tests, the SAT, and the ACT are all moving over to Common Core. So our child has to learn this insanity. But we cannot help her. The book offers only one example.

…

This is maddening and angering and frustrating. This is why so many parents are so upset. They cannot help their children. The math makes no sense and seems to offer no practical purpose other than it is new. The teachers privately concede the uselessness of it.

I empathize with the frustration. I really do. But as someone who taught high school math for several years, this “new” method is soooooo much better.

The problem isn’t the method. It’s the way this textbook (and maybe even the teacher) explains it.

The question boils down to: How do you do 325-38?

There is an algorithm we can use (the “granny” method). Erickson learned the algorithm. I did, too. But the problem with the algorithm is that many kids don’t really know, intuitively, what they’re doing. They can solve the simple problem — but when the math gets harder, they’re not sure how to transfer those skills because they never really understood what was going on in the first place.

The “new” method is basically teaching them how to do the subtraction in their heads.

Let me translate the textbook for you:

If you want to subtract 38 from 325, the easiest way to do it mentally is to count up. So go from 38 to a higher number that’s easier to work with… like 40. (You’ve gone up 2.) From 40, you can jump to 100. (You’ve gone up another 60, for a total of 62 so far.) From 100, you can jump to 300. (You’ve gone up another 200, for a total of 262 so far.) From 300, you can jump to 325. (You’ve gone up another 25, for a total of 287. Boom. There’s our answer.)

If that’s still confusing, let me use an example I’ve used before:

Suppose you buy coffee and it costs $4.30 but all you have is a $20 bill. How much change should the barista give you back? (Assume for a second the register is broken.)

You sure as hell aren’t going to get out a sheet of paper and do this:

Instead, you’d just figure it out this way: It’d take 70 cents to get to $5… and another $15 to get to $20… so you should get back $15.70.

Still confusing? Let’s make it even easier!

You buy something that costs $9.99. You give the cashier a $10 bill. How much change should you get back?

According to Erickson, you should do this:

But that’s ridiculous. You don’t need pen and paper to figure this one out. We all know it’s easier to just count up the single penny, and you’re done! (10 – 9.99 = 0.01)

That’s it. That’s the sort of math most of us do on a regular basis and it’s exactly the sort of thinking Erickson’s daughter’s textbook is attempting to explain. (It just does a really horrible job of it, especially if that’s the only example.) Again, if students can get a handle on thinking this way instead of just plugging numbers into a formula, the logic goes, it’ll make other math skills much easier to comprehend.

I should also point out that Common Core doesn’t say the “new” way is the only way to subtract, nor does it dictate that the “new” way is the way kids have to do it. Erickson is welcome to teach his daughter the “granny” method. He mentions that his daughter has to learn four different ways to subtract — and I suspect that’s because the more ways she learns to manipulate numbers, the better her math skills are going to be. That’s the ultimate goal of the Common Core math curriculum — to make sure students attain this “number sense.” If it’s politicized, it’s usually out of ignorance, even though there are some legitimate reasons to dislike it (such as the reliance on standardized testing).

I’ll add (ha!) that in my years of teaching math, I ran into many, many students who could do the basic skills on paper. But when I needed them to think more abstractly, they got completely lost. The students who could tackle basic problems in different ways had a much easier time learning algebra than those who couldn’t. And on a broader level, students should learn several ways to tackle what looks to be a simple problem, because the math you learn in school isn’t just about finding the right answer; it’s about teaching you how to think.

Back to Erickson, who’s still mad because of his misguided perception of Common Core:

This is why Jeb Bush will not be President. It is also going to end very, very badly for many other politicians. The only champions of common core I know are paid to like it and most of them have no kids. These people want worker bees in their cogs. They want automatons. They do not want productive, independent citizens.

I’m hardly a champion of Common Core, but I’m telling you, kids who are able to figure out this “new” math will be better off in the long run. This isn’t a liberal conspiracy. It’s just a more effective way to teach the subject.

With Celestia and Luna under their belt, the  giant plushie creator Karasunezumi over on Ebay has released another massive one for all you Applejack fans out there.  All in all, she's 48 inches high and 45 in length.  Expect the bidding to go pretty high if the last few are any indication.

You can find her over here!

Thanks to everyone for sending it!