The hype that really matters. Yes, today's the day where all that hype finally hits its climax and legions of diehard fanboys are rejoicing the fact they can now see Liverpool on the EPL table, without scrolling down the screen of their fruity smartphone.
But, today, I'd much rather put the focus on something which I strongly believe is more worthy of the hype. The cover of the latest issue of Forbes Magazine features 12 "Titans of Philanthropy" who, together, have a net worth of US$126 billion. The portrait was shot to mark its first-ever Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy on Jun. 26, which gathered 161 billionaires who have dedicated time and resources toward solving the world's problems. The dazzling dozen included Bill and Melinda Gates, Marc Benioff, Steve Case, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, and Jon Bon Jovi. It's great to see some of these great names had spawned from IT, and heartening to know the industry isn't just about fancy smartphone launches and sales figures.
Source: Forbes Magazine. How Google's Privacy Policy Changes Affect You, Google, Passwords, Adv... The Catholic Church Needs Women but Alienates Them. If you want some perspective on just how benighted the Roman Catholic Church looks today on the subject of women, consider Hildegard of Bingen.
Hildegard was a German Benedictine nun in the 12th century and a leading feminist writer of her time. But even though that time was the 1100s, the Vatican rarely hassled her for asserting that men and women are equal — that God’s true nature, in fact, is maternal — or that nonprocreative sexual pleasure is O.K. Hildegard in fact was canonized as a saint this year. If she were to have come on the scene in the 21st century, however, you have to wonder if she might receive the same censure that Sister Margaret Farley is facing this week after the Vatican denounced her book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. (MORE: A Nun’s Guide to Sex: The Latest Vatican Scandal) Sadly, it’s the church that’s looking unhinged these days.
(MORE: Have We Evolved to Be Religious?) Yet there may be another reason the nuns aren’t buckling. Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. Did You Know It All Along? Hindsight bias refers to the tendency for people to exaggerate the extent to which they knew an event would happen once they know the outcome.
In other words, people are far more likely to say they knew something would happen AFTER it happens than they are to correctly predict that something would happen. Hindsight bias is everywhere. It is in the comments section to this blog with people declaring "that is common sense" virtually every article I write (while others say the opposite, declaring a study false!). The truth is that the results of a study are never as clear prior to doing the study as they are after conducting the study. It is in political commentary with far more people saying they knew a candidate would win after it happens than before it has happened. Hindsight bias is also apparent in sports as commentators and fans consistently criticize coaches for decisions after knowing how the decision turned out, when they would not have done so had the decision worked out better.
The World's Spookiest Weapons. Plotting the Expansion of the US Through Post Offices. This post was written by Andy Kirk, founder and editor of visualisingdata.com.
Andy will be guest editing Information Aesthetics for a short period while Andrew takes a well earned break. Ranking the Autonomy of Universities in Europe. The European University Association (EUA), a representative organisation of universities from about 47 European countries, just released a University Autonomy Tool [university-autonomy.eu].
Developed by Raureif and interface designer Christian Behrens, the online visualization analyzes the relationship between universities and the state, in particular by revealing how flexibly universities can take decisions in the context of the rules and regulations that shape their higher education system. Each (sometimes spiraling) sunburst-like "line" represents a unique indicator, made up by a multitude of squares. The more squares are filled, the more autonomous the higher education system. A high score on an indicator or autonomy dimension indicates that the relevant regulations provide a legal framework without restricting universities in their freedom of action.
See also OECD Better Life Index. Refugee Migration Flow Map. Australia to support human resources training in Mozambique. March 15th, 2013 News The core aspects of the mining development partnership agreement signed by Mozambique and Australia include training human resources and improving institutional capacity, the Mozambican Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister said in Canberra.
“We want to make use of Australia’s experience because of it had large amounts of natural resources like Mozambique and has been able to turn these into wealth,” said Minister Oldemiro Baloi. The minister said that the Mozambican government wants the wealth generated by exploring natural resources to benefit all Mozambicans in a more direct way and added that, “for that to happen, it is necessary for Mozambicans themselves to explore their own resources.”