Stanford Professor puts his entire digital photography course online for free When it comes to the list of digital imaging pioneers, Marc Levoy is one of those names that belongs right near the top. His work has led to many of the technical advances that we see in use today with computer generated imagery. So, it’s no wonder that he jumped into digital photography. In 2016, he revised the course and taught it again at Google in Spring. There’s hours and hours of video covering Levoy’s lectures to Google over a 4 month period. It’s a whole hell of a lot of stuff to read and watch. You can find the entire course for free here. [via Reddit] APSA-Sociology
Breaking Down Beyoncé's Lemonade Samples There are 3,105 words that constitute the credits for Beyoncé's surprise sixth album Lemonade, which debuted as an audio-visual film this past weekend accompanied by a Tidal-exclusive stream of the LP. As always, it took a village to build the pop juggernaut's latest, with songwriters, producers, and features including Diplo, James Blake, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, and MNEK patching in contributions to a project that very publicly excoriates her husband Jay Z for alleged infidelity, inevitably working through the water-log of contradictory emotions—rage, revenge, acceptance, and reconciliation—through its duration. It also dives deep into a bank of samples and mixed-media inspiration points that span the obscure to the highly relevant. Lemonade places poet Warsan Shire, Civil Rights activist Malcolm X, and Alan Lomax field recordings right next to quoted lyrics from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Animal Collective, and Soulja Boy, and a slew of classic '70s samples. Reverend R.C.
Why is Nationalism Dangerous? - Sociological Images In his speech last week accepting the Republican nomination for President, Donald Trump said (my emphasis): …our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. Donald Trump’s insistence that we put “America First” hardly sounds harmful or irrational on its face. To be proud and protective of one’s country sounds like something good, even inevitable. But nationalism — a passionate investment in one’s country over and above others — is neither good nor neutral. Nationalism is a form of in-group/out-group thinking. A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige… his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. A leader with a nationalist mandate will feel entitled to breaking the laws of his or her own country.
The Threshold Concept Threshold Concepts in Practice (2016) Edited by Ray Land, Jan H. F. Meyer and Michael T Flanagan Educational Futures: Rethinking Theory and Practice, Michael A Peters (Series Editor), volume 68Sense Publishers, Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei, 2016 ISBN: 978-94-6300-510-4 (paperback), ISBN: 978-94-6300-511-1 (hardback), ISBN: 978-94-6300-512-8 (e-book) Threshold Concepts in Practice brings together fifty researchers from sixteen countries and a wide variety of disciplines to analyse their teaching practice, and the learning experiences of their students, through the lens of the Threshold Concepts Framework. The majority of chapters in this book are developments of talks first presented at the Fifth International Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference: Threshold Concepts in Practice, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom, 9-11 July, 2014. Click here for Further Details and Table of Contents.
The Age of Despair: Reaping the Whirlwind of Western Support for Extremist Violence We, the West, overthrew Saddam by violence. We overthrew Gaddafi by violence. We are trying to overthrow Assad by violence. Harsh regimes all — but far less draconian than our Saudi allies, and other tyrannies around the world. What has been the result of these interventions? Without the American crime of aggressive war against Iraq — which, by the measurements used by Western governments themselves, left more than a million innocent people dead — there would be no ISIS, no “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” Again, let’s be as clear as possible: the hellish world we live in today is the result of deliberate policies and actions undertaken by the United States and its allies over the past decades. The open history of the last half-century is very clear in this regard. Why bring up this “ancient history” when fresh blood is running in the streets of Paris? I write in despair.
The British Sociological Association There are a myriad of resources available to sociologists, here we detail a comprehensive list. If you would like your organisation added to this list please contact Donna Willis with details and, ideally, a weblink. General Sociological Interest Links are sorted in alphabetical order. Academic Jobs EU - Academic and related vacancies for universities, medical centres, and research institutes in the EU.Academy of Social Sciences - The Academy responds to Government and other consultations on behalf of the social science community, organises meetings about social science for practitioners and seminars on topics that span social science disciplines, and sponsors a number of schemes that promote social science and enhance its value to society. Back to top British Library Social Science Research Blog - This blog is written by the Social Science team at the British Library, with occasional guest contributions. Fitting-In? BSA Reciprocal Arrangements with Cognate Bodies Medical Sociology
sociology-links There are a myriad of resources available to sociologists, here we detail a comprehensive list. If you would like your organisation added to this list please contact Donna Willis with details and, ideally, a weblink. General Sociological Interest Links are sorted in alphabetical order. Academic Jobs EU - Academic and related vacancies for universities, medical centres, and research institutes in the EU.Academy of Social Sciences - The Academy responds to Government and other consultations on behalf of the social science community, organises meetings about social science for practitioners and seminars on topics that span social science disciplines, and sponsors a number of schemes that promote social science and enhance its value to society. Eastern Sociological Society - The Eastern Sociological Society is a non profit organization which aims to promote excellence in sociological scholarship and instruction. Fitting-In? BSA Reciprocal Arrangements with Cognate Bodies Medical Sociology