Znaps is a new Kickstarter project that aims to make connecting a Lightning cable to your iPhone or iPad as simple as connecting a MagSafe charger to your MacBook. Znaps consists of a connector that plugs into the Lightning port on your iOS device, and an adapter for your Lightning cable that lets it connect to the port magnetically.
With the Znaps Connector and Adapter, a Lightning cable can snap onto your device using magnets, making it quicker to connect and charge an iPad or iPhone. There's also a version for devices that use Micro-USB.
Let's make charging easier! ZNAPS is a simple yet perfect solution to prevent frayed charging cables, tripping over cable resulting in smashed phones, pointless fiddling to plug in cable in the dark, water damage through charging outlet, and more! This innovative magnetic charging adapter will make your life just a bit more convenient.
Znaps is small enough that it will work with a wide variety of custom iPhone cases that leave the Lightning port exposed, and as the project's creators point out, it can cut down on the hassle of fumbling to get a Lightning cable plugged into an iPhone or an iPad.
Znaps works for both charging and syncing, and a small LED light on the adapter will light up when a device is being charged. The magnetic field it uses is "negligibly small" according to the project's creators, and will not cause damage to the internal components of the iPhone. It also does not enhance or impede charging times.
A Znaps Connector and Adapter for Lightning or Micro-USB can be obtained for a pledge of $11 Canadian, or just under $9. There are also several other tiers available at different price points for purchasing multiple Znaps.
Znaps are projected to ship in late November of 2015, but as most of us have experienced on Kickstarter, there are projects that miss shipping estimates by months, especially when orders exceed expectations, so prospective purchasers should keep that in mind when backing this project.
If Sir Ian McKellen had never landed the roles of Gandalf the Grey in Lord of the Rings and Magneto in X-Men, it’s not as if he would have wilted into obscurity. McKellen was an award-winning, veteran stage actor, well-known gay rights activist, and Oscar-nominated film actor long before he donned that famous purple helmet or took up that equally famous wizard’s staff. But it’s not unreasonable to say that McKellen would be less recognizable in the mainstream if he had missed out on these two huge franchises. But according to McKellen that’s almost what happened back in the late 90s and Tom Cruise is nearly to blame.
While promoting his latest famously behatted role in Mr. Holmes, McKellen told People the whole story. Fresh off his Oscar-nominated turn in Gods and Monsters, McKellen was offered a role in Mission: Impossible II with Tom Cruise. (Presumably the one eventually played by Croatian actor Rade Serbedzija.) “But they wouldn’t let me see the whole script,” McKellen says, ”because I might have spilled the beans. I only got my scenes. Well, I couldn't judge from reading just those scenes what the script was like. So I said no. And my agent said, ‘You cant say no to working with Tom Cruise!‘ and I said, ‘I think I will.’” According to McKellen, director Bryan Singer offered him the role of Magneto the next day and Peter Jackson offered him Gandalf shortly thereafter and the actor “said yes to both.”
As McKellen tells it, X-Men then ran behind schedule so he had to tell Jackson that he couldn’t play Gandalf because of his commitment to Singer. Jackson told McKellen he’d hold the part for him (wise move) and McKellen then went back to his X-Men director. Singer, showing a healthy respect for geek properties, said, “Well, you must do Gandalf. I'll make sure you get out in time.” (If that sounds less like Singer and more like McKellen doing a Singer impression, you’re right!) According to McKellen he finished X-Men with three days to spare meanwhile John Woo’sMission: Impossible II was “put off, put off, put off” due to behind-the-scenes conflicts. As McKellen puts it, “If I had decided to do that, I wouldn’t have been in X-Men and I wouldn't have been in Lord of the Rings.”
In an interesting parallel bit of film trivia, Mission: Impossible II’s main villain, Dougray Scott, was originally hired to play Wolverine in X-Men. He famously had to pull out because of the delays on Mission: Impossible II and then-unknown Australian actor Hugh Jackman was hired to replace him. So Mission: Impossible II—the weakest installment in the still-healthy franchise— nearly cost McKellen two seminal roles, and gave Jackman the role of a lifetime. Wolverine is a part Jackman will have played a whopping eight times before he finally hangs up the claws in 2017. As McKellen puts it, “It’s all about luck – being there at the right time and ready for it. You can‘t prepare for luck. I’ve learned that you’ve got to be ready for the luck when it arrives, but you’re going to need the luck.”
We can all count ourselves pretty lucky at how it all shook out between Cruise, McKellen, Scott, and Jackman. If McKellen hadn’t been in X-Men then we would have been deprived of one of the greatest bromances the world has ever seen.
It’s HARD to know whether to use Python or R for data analysis. And this is especially true if you’re a newbie data analyst looking for the right language to start with.
It turns out that there are many good resources that can help you to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of both languages. They often go into great detail, and provide a tailored answer to questions such as “What should I use for Machine Learning?”, or “I need a fast solution, should I go for Python or R?”.
In today’s post, I present to you our new Infographic “Data Science Wars: R vs Python”, that highlights in great detail the differences betweens these two languages from a data science point of view. So that next time you are debating R vs Python for machine learning, statistics, or maybe even the Internet of Things, you can have a look at the infographic and find the answer.
At DataCamp, we often get emails asking whether one should use R or Python when performing their day-to-day data analysis tasks. Both Python and R are amongst the most popular languages for data analysis, and have their supporters and opponents. While Python is often praised for being a general-purpose language with an easy-to-understand syntax, R’s functionality is developed with statisticians in mind, thereby giving it field-specific advantages such as great features for data visualization.
Our new infographic”Data Science Wars: R vs Python” is therefore for everyone interested in how these two (statistical) programming languages relate to each other. The infographic explores what the strengths of R are over Python and vice versa, and aims to provide a basic comparison between these two programming languages from a data science and statistics perspective.
I remember running out and getting the HPV vaccine when it came out because I was just under the age threshold for it and I tested negative for it (amazingly). This is appalling.
The CDC first recommended the widespread use of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in 2007. Eight years later, only Virginia and Rhode Island have mandated that middle and secondary school students get it. Compared to the way other vaccines have been incorporated into state public health efforts, this is remarkably slow.
If you’re sexually active, you’ll probably get infected with HPV at some point in your life. In most cases, your body will fight off the infection. But in some people some strains of the virus can linger, causing genital warts or more serious problems like cervical or penile cancer later in life.
Those are the strains the vaccine targets. And because no one can predict the future, there’s no way of knowing in advance whether a person is going to be exposed to one of the nastier strains of the virus. There’s also no way to tell whether they’re one of the unlucky people whose body can’t kill that virus. That’s why the CDC recommends that kids get the HPV vaccine when they’re 11 or 12: it’s not that they think those kids are having sex, it’s to make sure they’re protected from the virus before they start having sex.
But a research article by Princeton bioethicist Jason Schwartz and his undergraduate research assistant Laurel Easterling in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association points out that states seem to be squeamish about requiring HPV vaccinations in a way that has not been true for other preventable diseases. For example, take a look at the current list of states requiring childhood vaccines for hepatitis B, another disease that’s often transmitted sexually.
States Requiring Childhood Vaccination for Hepatitis B in 2015
Impressive, eh? Forty-seven states in 2015 require vaccination against hepatitis B. But that vaccine’s been around a lot longer than the HPV vaccine–maybe the eight years since the CDC’s HPV recommendation is too short a time for most states to enact the relevant laws? Not so, say Schwartz and Easterling: eight years after the CDC first recommended widespread vaccination for hepatitis B, thirty-six states had mandated its use.
Hepatitis B vaccine is usually given to infants. Maybe it’s more difficult to mandate vaccines for older children and adolescents?
Schwartz and Easterling also checked state vaccination requirements for meningococcal meningitis, a potentially fatal brain-swelling disease whose vaccine (like the HPV vaccine) is recommended for 11 to 12 year olds. They found a lot more variation in the the way those vaccine mandates were implemented. Still, twenty-one states had relevant legislation in the same eight-years-after-CDC-recommendation window, and twenty-nine states currently require the shots for either public school or university students.
States Requiring Childhood or Adolescent Vaccination for Meningococcal Meningitis in 2015
Maybe a lot of parents think that the HPV vaccine is unnecessary and is being pushed on the public by the company that makes it? I remember another vaccine that was accused of just that when it was first introduced: the vaccine for the virus that causes chicken pox. Want to see how states responded?
States Requiring Childhood Vaccination for Chicken Pox in 2015
That’s right. If your kid is going to attend daycare or a public school, EVERY STATE NOW REQUIRES A CHICKEN POX VACCINE. It’s really not a bad idea: chicken pox is insanely infectious, can make a kid miserable for a couple of weeks, and sets you up for totally no fun cases of shingles in later life.
Schwartz and Easterling’s analysis shows us that state legislatures are perfectly capable of drafting laws that require children to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease, or that require vaccines in later childhood, or that require vaccines for diseases that some of their constituents think aren’t a big deal. But the fractious political debate that surrounded the introduction of the HPV vaccine and its manufacturer-backed lobbying campaign in 2006 may have turned this particular vaccine into a political land mine.
A Phase II trial giving an anti-cancer drug to sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has produced encouraging, if puzzling, results. Two-thirds of the patients in the small trial showed dramatic but delayed responses, while one-third gained little benefit from the treatment.
CFS is a particularly hard condition to diagnose, let alone treat. Having once been dismissed as psychosomatic, there is now medical acceptance that it has a biological cause, but not much agreement on what that is.
Moreover, apart from the debilitating lack of energy, the symptoms are so vague that many people with other conditions have probably been placed in the CFS basket, if indeed it is really one disease rather than several.
This confusion makes it particularly hard to find treatments. Programs that work for some people show no success for others. Nevertheless, a trial conducted at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and reported in PloS One could be the most promising development so far.
In 2004, Dr. Øystein Fluge and Professor Olav Mella were treating lymphoma in a patient who also had CFS. To their surprise, the individual's CFS got better. While this could easily have been a coincidence, Fluge and Mella conducted a trial of 30 people with CFS, half of whom were given the same drug, Rituximab, as the original patient, while the other half received a placebo.
Two-thirds of the patients given Rituximab showed significant improvement relative to the control group, while one-third did not.
Now, Fluge and Mella have extended the trial to see if the benefits last, while also giving Rituximab to most of those who were originally on the placebo. Of the 29 in the combined group, 18 patients – labeled "responders" – reported clinically significant benefits, 14 of them dramatically so. Even some “non-responders” showed signs of benefits much later in the treatment.
“Eleven of the 18 responders were still in remission three years after beginning the treatment, and some have now had no symptoms for five years,” Fluge told New Scientist. “Suddenly, their limbs started to work again and their hands were no longer cold or sweaty.”
0 represents major worsening in fatigue, 6 major improvement. Right graph, average scores of responders and non-responders. Credit Fluge et al., PLoS One
Despite the benefits, Rituximab is no miracle cure. For one thing, it takes 4-6 months to even start working, and many responders took almost two years to show the full benefits, a delay the authors attribute to the time taken for the drug to clear disease-triggering antibodies from patients.
Moreover, Rituximab has known side effects, including increased vulnerability to viral infections and, in extreme cases, cardiac arrest. On the other hand, as a destroyer of B cells, Rituximab is used to treat not just lymphomas but also autoimmune diseases and transplant rejections, so there is an extensive body of evidence on when it can be applied safely.
The study relied on patients' self-description of their levels of fatigue, and one patient described their condition as significantly worse throughout the treatment. However, with seven of the patients initially being partially or mainly bedridden, and even the milder cases severely debilitated, the benefits were often transformative.
But what often gets lost in these conversations is that the most common shared trait among entrepreneurs is access to financial capital—family money, an inheritance, or a pedigree and connections that allow for access to financial stability. While it seems that entrepreneurs tend to have an admirable penchant for risk, it’s usually that access to money which allows them to take risks.
And this is a key advantage: When basic needs are met, it’s easier to be creative; when you know you have a safety net, you are more willing to take risks. “Many other researchers have replicated the finding that entrepreneurship is more about cash than dash,” University of Warwick professor Andrew Oswald tells Quartz. “Genes probably matter, as in most things in life, but not much.”
University of California, Berkeley economists Ross Levine and Rona Rubenstein analyzed the shared traits of entrepreneurs in a 2013 paper, and found that most were white, male, and highly educated. “If one does not have money in the form of a family with money, the chances of becoming an entrepreneur drop quite a bit,” Levine tells Quartz.
New research out this week from the National Bureau of Economic Research (paywall) looked at risk-taking in the stock market and found that environmental factors (not genetic) most influenced behavior, pointing to the fact that risk tolerance is conditioned over time (dispelling the myth of an elusive “entrepreneurship gene“).
Resilience is undoubtably a necessary trait for success; many notable entrepreneurs experienced success only after leading failed ventures. But the barrier to entry is very high.
For creative professions, starting a new venture is the ultimate privilege. Many startup founders do not take a salary for some time. The average cost to launch a startup is around $30,000, according to the Kauffman Foundation. Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor show that more than 80% of funding for new businesses comes from personal savings and friends and family.
“Following your dreams is dangerous,” a 31-year-old woman who runs in social entrepreneurship circles in New York, and asked not to be named, told Quartz. “This whole bulk of the population is being seduced into thinking that they can just go out and pursue their dream anytime, but it’s not true.”
So while yes, there’s certainly a lot of hard work that goes into building something, there’s also a lot of privilege involved—a factor that is often underestimated.
Uma turma de alunos do Sesi de São José do Rio Preto (a 438 km de São Paulo) conquistou, no final de semana, o título da FLL (First Lego League) World Class, o campeonato mundial de robótica. A competição, uma das três mais prestigiosas do mundo na área de robótica para estudantes de 9 a 16 anos, aconteceu entre sexta e domingo (12) na Universidade Macquarie, em Sydney, na Austrália.
Nomeada Robotic Generation, a equipe brasileira, composta por oito estudantes de ambos os sexos, com idades entre 14 e 16 anos, teve que vencer outros 43 times, de 21 países. O torneio é uma iniciativa do grupo Lego e da organização americana First (sigla que significa Para Inspiração e Reconhecimento da Ciência e Tecnologia) em parceria com o MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
"Nem dá pra descrever a sensação que tivemos quando soubemos que éramos os primeiros", conta Caroline Zanata, 14, estudante do 9º ano do ensino fundamental e integrante da equipe. "Competimos com os melhores do mundo, e vencemos. Deu um pouco de medo, mas conseguimos", disse.
De acordo com Mario Eugênio Onofre, coordenador da robótica no Sesi em São Paulo, o título conquistado demonstra que existe, no Brasil, inovação e criatividade capazes de colocar o país em pé de igualdade com as grandes potências educacionais. "Esse torneio reúne o que há de melhor na robótica feita por jovens de todo o mundo. Disputamos com países relevantes, como a China, e vencemos. Isso prova que o Brasil tem, sim, capacidade para competir", disse.
Tendência
Além dos alunos de Rio Preto, estiveram presentes a Bazinga, do Colégio Objetivo de Indaiatuba (SP), a Itaperobota, do Sesi de Itapetininga (SP), e a X-G, do Colégio Maranhense Marcelino Champagnat, de São Luís (MA), sendo que a equipe de Itapetininga recebeu o prêmio de melhor apresentação de pesquisa e a de Indaiatuba levou o troféu Judges Awards. "Isso mostra que não trata-se de um caso isolado, mas sim de uma tendência", finaliza Onofre.
Segundo ele, a participação de estudantes em eventos desse tipo ajuda a consolidar o aprendizado e mostra que a educação pode utilizar com sucesso elementos como a criatividade. "A conquista mostra um caminho que devemos seguir. O Brasil é criativo, e pode usar sua criatividade na educação. Para montar um projeto de robótica, é preciso acompanhamento multidisciplinar, envolvimento e trabalho em equipe. Houve robôs melhores que o brasileiro, mas ninguém superou nossos alunos em trabalho de equipe e criatividade", disse.
The Welsh government has used the Klingon language to respond to serious questions about UFO sightings in Wales. Rather than the native tongue of an extraterrestrial warrior species that inhabits the Star Trek universe, English and Welsh are usually the official languages of Wales.
It all started when Conservative politician Darren Millar, the shadow health minister, tabled three questions for Labour's Edwina Hart, the minister for economy, science, and transport:
Will the minister make a statement on how many reports of unidentified flying objects there have been at Cardiff Airport since its acquisition by the Welsh government?
What discussions has the Welsh government had with the Ministry of Defence regarding sightings of unidentified flying objects in Wales in each of the past five years?
What consideration has the Welsh government given to the funding of research into sightings of unidentified flying objects in Wales?
The response from the Welsh government was as follows: "jang vIDa je due luq. 'ach ghotvam'e' QI'yaH-devolved qaS." Using the Ars Orbiting HQ's universal translation matrix, that roughly translates to: "The minister will reply in due course. However this is a non-devolved matter." A non-devolved matter, sometimes known as a reserved matter, is an issue that can only be resolved by the full UK parliament rather than the devolved Welsh Assembly.
Triste fato: não sabemos discordar. Um saco. Estamos no prézinho da discordância.
Diariamente perdemos conteúdo inteligente de gente que simplesmente desiste de escrever e opinar por causa de comentários grosseiros.
Engraçada essa interpretação errada de que os bate-bocas nas redes (geralmente no Facebook né?) acontecem pelas posições contrárias, quando na verdade acontecem pela maneira como as pessoas escrevem. O problema não é o preto ou o branco. O problema acontece na graduação do cinza. A incompatibilidade natural que existe entre as ideias está ficando em segundo plano, escondidas pela incompetência das pessoas na hora de escrever e defender pontos contrários.
dica #1: cutuque o balão, não o olho do cara
A discordância, que deveria ser reverenciada como a grande aliada na formação de opinião, é diariamente consumida em chamas simplesmente pela falta de habilidade na exposição de motivos. Minha mãe me ensinou que quando a gente “apela” e perde a linha, perde também a razão. Em outras palavras, se alguém resolver falar que o sol gira em torno da terra e você responder falando que ela é uma imbecil, você (1) perdeu a chance de esclarecer a pessoa (quem é que raciocina diante de um insulto?) e (2) perdeu a chance de ficar calado porque sua grosseria vai ficar exposta para muitas outras pessoas, por muitos e muitos anos. Filhos, por exemplo, que um dia podem ter curiosidade de dar uma Googada no seu nome e conferir como seu pai/mãe se posicionavam diante de novas ideias.
Saber discordar não é fácil. É uma habilidade e requer aprendizado e prática. Pena que a gente tem consciência que para construir uma ponte precisa estudar anos de matemática, mas para construir argumentos a gente acha que é só sair falando. O balé da discordância tem vocação racional e missão de aprendizado e formação de opinião. A emoção deve ser usada apenas para temperar, pode sim vir na forma de indignação, mas no mesmo instante que você passa do limite e “apela”, toda a sua argumentação desmorona.
Até passei a limpo e dei uma adaptada na pirâmide da hierarquia da discordância do Paul Grahan (que vamos usar de ponto final quando alguém apelar lá no facebook). Olha como um ponto de vista contrário vai ficando mais forte conforme a maneira como é embrulhado:
(guarde essa imagem para responder gente que apela nos comentários por aí)
O dia em que a maioria das pessoas estiverem no topo dessa pirâmide, vamos evoluir mil anos em 10. Vamos aprender uns com os outros de fato, sem intermediários. Sem Fla-Flu.
Você deve concordar com tudo? Pelo amor de Deus, não.
Você deve virar uma lady diante de alguém com outra opinião e provavelmente babando sua falta de educação? Não, siga com valentia, mas use a inteligência para lapidar o assunto.
Um truque bom é sempre imaginar que esse embate deve favorecer o tema principal e desafiar os argumentos para descobrir o que pára em pé de fato. Não é um embate entre duas pessoas, com um vencedor e um perdedor. É ideia vs ideia.
Você faz isso com argumentos? Você é o cara. Você faz isso com o autor de uma ideia contrária a sua? Você é uma fraude.
Se pretendemos nos vangloriar dos tempos modernos em que vivemos e do privilégio do livre trânsito de ideias, tá na hora da gente aprender a se manifestar do jeito certo, em benefício de uma rede e não em favor de um prazer individual e narcisista de querer parecer incrível. Seja incrível educando, compartilhando, fazendo pensar.
E, principalmente, não seja um escroto. Porque quando eu vejo alguém grosso nos comentários só fica a certeza da falta de educação, em TODOS os sentidos. Apelou é porque não tem repertório necessário para discordar (o que também não é problema nenhum, eu não tenho repertório para discordar da maioria das coisas), mas enquanto isso, não fique desperdiçando o tempo dos outros com cobrinhas, pregos e raios porque isso não faz nenhuma diferença no cérebro das pessoas e ainda deixa um cheiro ruim no ambiente. Um pum mental.
Quer discordar? Respira fundo, se acalma, elabora um argumento e escreve.
Quer só xingar? Mande um email pra pessoa e poupe o resto do mundo da sua insignificância.
Galera que curte cinema vai gostar disto: OMDB API.Testei com alguns filmes. Não tem muita coisa, mas dá para começar a se divertir. Por exemplo, eis as avaliações do clássico do Ed Wood, o Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Podemos também checar um dos meus favoritos dos últimos anos: Iron Sky.
O que mais acho interessante é a variedade de resultados (além da própria variância em cada ranking) entre rankings. Mas acho que posso concluir que minha fama de fã de filmes trash não é injustificada, não é mesmo? ^_^
It’s early July, which means it’s peak intern season at big tech companies, with many of those interns positioning themselves for future full-time employment. One Amazon veteran, identifying himself as “an old man who has been at Amazon way too long” has some advice for interns who might be considering taking jobs at the company: Don’t do it.
“You are smart, driven, and are no doubt going to be successful in whatever you do, which is why I want to urge you to STAY THE FUCK AWAY from Amazon when it comes time for you to leave school and jump into the workforce,” reads the post, published last night on Reddit.
The post is anonymous, and it might be easy to dismiss as the rantings of someone who has, in fact, been at the company too long. It also comes at a time of intense competition for tech talent, and you never know how far a rival might go for an edge. However, the general sentiment rings true based on what we hear from former Amazon employees, and the comment thread is also worth a read, with veterans of other tech companies chiming in to provide perspective. It’s the top post right now on /r/Seattle.
The post goes on to detail the unexpected “gotchas” of Amazon stock options, the company’s review system and its work-life balance.
“The most fucked thing about bright young engineers such as yourselves going to work for Amazon is that you have your choice of ANY technology company out there,” the post says. “If you are smart enough to get through an Amazon interview loop then you’re smart enough to get through a Google/Facebook/Apple/etc. loop without any problems. So why throw yourself into an environment that is designed to chew you up and spit you out?”
One thing is clear: This is not someone who works in Amazon recruiting. For the record, we’ve asked Amazon if it wants to issue a rebuttal to the Reddit post.
io9:
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dica #1: cutuque o balão, não o olho do cara
Podemos também checar um dos meus favoritos dos últimos anos: Iron Sky.
O que mais acho interessante é a variedade de resultados (além da própria variância em cada ranking) entre rankings. Mas acho que posso concluir que minha fama de fã de filmes trash não é injustificada, não é mesmo? ^_^
It’s early July, which means it’s peak intern season at big tech companies, with many of those interns positioning themselves for future full-time employment. One Amazon veteran, identifying himself as “an old man who has been at Amazon way too long” has some advice for interns who might be considering taking jobs at the company: Don’t do it.