5IT: The cheetah that wasn't there, hacks, Pavlov, MacGyver, dancing
1. When computers think they see something in an image that humans don't.
"Our findings shed light on current differences between human vision and [deep neural network]-based computer vision. They also raise questions about how DNN networks perform in general across different types of images than the ones they have been trained and traditionally tested on [Pocket]
2. The nuance and complexity of downloading the documents from the Sony hack.
"Lee Levine, a partner at Levine Sullivan Koch & Schultz, argued the Supreme Court case that established journalists’ right to report on illegally obtained documents (as long as they didn’t do the illegal obtaining themselves.) Levine says that journalistic reporting on matters of public concern is a protected area. What’s novel in this situation is the document delivery system. The hackers have used throwaway email addresses to contact journalists and send them to public sites to download documents rather than sending documents directly through the mail or in an email, or leaving a package – or a thumb drive — with documents on their doorsteps. 'The bottom line view is that, if the material addresses a matter of public concern and the information is otherwise publicly available, a court would be hard-pressed to say that a journalist could be criminally punished for it,' he said."[Pocket]
"There’s no better way to wrap up a busy year than with a showcase of awesome GIFs made from open materials. Over the past couple of months we’ve had tons of fun running the GIF IT UP competition with our good friends at DigitalNZ."
+ This one makes me a little emotional. Their heels, her left arm, how he's cocked his elbow. The biomechanics of middle school.
4. Amazing that the basic description of a character as significant as Pavlov can be flat-out wrong.
"Skinner and other behaviorists often spoke of their debt to Pavlov, particularly to his view that free will was an illusion, and that the study of human behavior could be reduced to the analysis of observable, quantifiable events and actions. But Pavlov never held such views, according to 'Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science' (Oxford), an exhaustive new biography by Daniel P. Todes, a professor of the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In fact, much of what we thought we knew about Pavlov has been based on bad translations and basic misconceptions. That begins with the popular image of a dog slavering at the ringing of a bell. Pavlov 'never trained a dog to salivate to the sound of a bell,' Todes writes. 'Indeed, the iconic bell would have proven totally useless to his real goal, which required precise control over the quality and duration of stimuli (he most frequently employed a metronome, a harmonium, a buzzer, and electric shock).'" [Pocket]
"I was looking at pictures of land rovers left on the moon (footage and what not). Then I visited this wiki page to see what derelict equipment is on the moon (just sitting around). Which then raises the question: Provided you have time and some understanding of electronics and mechanical devices. Is there enough material on the moon construct 'something useful' to either: Get help? Get off the moon and get back to earth?" [Pocket]
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
course. Of course, as the herald of an out-of-the-way fact that one has just unearthed from a book of reference, is a sad temptation to writers. He is, of course, a son of the famous E.A. Southern, of ' Lord Dundready' fame.
The Credits: 1. arXiv.org 2. fusion.net 3. dp.la 4. newyorker.com / @phillydesign 5. stackexchange.com
A Metronome, A Harmonium, A Buzzer