Didactic Synapse

Here it is — bam! And you say “Hurray!”

DS #62: Class Size and Fish Farts

Top 3 Links of the Week

• Is Grover Norquist losing his grip on the GOP?
• In race for better cell service, men who climb towers pay with their lives
• Robot records fish farts

Current Events

• NATO airstrike kills six children in Afghanistan
• Experts Skeptical of Romney’s Defense Budget Plans
• Outside money making the race a rich man’s game
• Elizabeth Warren on Scott Brown and JP Morgan Chase
• Alan Blueford — Another (probably unarmed) black man shot and killed by police

Economics

• CFTC member seeks to rein in HFT “cheetahs”
• Keeping conflict minerals out of your cell phone
• Detroit to eliminate half of its streetlights to save money
• Former J.P. Morgan Lobbyist Manages The Banking Committee Expected To Investigate J.P. Morgan’s Trading Loss
• Greece’s Fallacious Four

Education

• Hundreds of thousands protest education cuts in Spain
• 400,000 also protested in Quebec
• Romney defends education policies in Philadelphia
• Experts disagree about importance of class size

Killer Robots, etc

• Pollution-sniffing robot fish

Hip-Hop

Gift of Gab: “Way of the Light”

First you love them because they’re adorable when dancing to “Thriller”. Then they stick a key in your nose. Then they kill you.

Sorry for the delay on this one — crazy hectic times this week! Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Tour de Timor. (If you couldn’t make the ride, you can still donate online!)

DS #61: Poetastery

This Week’s Top 3

• ArsTechnica on Jeffrey Spanierman
• Robotic butt is even stranger than it sounds
• Profit — and Danger — in Miliseconds

Current Events

• US House votes to cut food stamps, not defense
• al-Nusra responsible for blasts in Syria
• Footage of Trayvon Martin at Convenience Store

Economics

• High-Frequency Traders like “rats in a granary”, says Warren Buffet’s right-hand man
• “The rise of the machine”: High frequency trading and food prices (Oxfam)
• JP Morgan Chase CEO Jaime Dimon: “We were sloppy and stupid”
• Opinion: Don’t trust JP Morgan chief’s spin machine
• Joseph Stiglitz: Europe’s Man-Made Disaster
• Paul Krugman on DemocracyNow!
• Too Hot for TED?: Income Inequality
• TED responds

Education

• Is higher education a giant pyramid scheme?
• NYC Education Dept Rules on Social Media
• Spanierman v. Hughes

Killer Robots, etc

• What could possibly go wrong? (Daily Mail)
• Bristol Palin condemns something

Hip-Hop

• New Kingdom: Unicorns were Horses

To celebrate Mr. X’s birthday, Mr. D offers some choice words.

During the so-called Golden era You had everyone from Poor Righteous Teachers to Paris to 3x Dope to Gang Starr to Public Enemy all rocking Malcolm samples..I recall when KRS One mimicked the infamous Malcolm X pose where he was holding a gun looking out the window, ready to protect himself after his home had been firebombed. Many say KRS kicked things off when he featured Malcolm X in his My Philosophy video … I miss those days..