Didactic Synapse

A few years back I stumbled upon a new social media website called isolatr. It was fun and new and fresh. Alas — as I mentioned on this week’s SynCast — some fitness company swiped the URL, according to SeanBonner, the guy who created it.

Fortunately, I found some screencaps recently. I’m posting them here so you can get a taste of what it was like. Thanks, Sean, for the memories. Please set up a mirror! (Danger: Bad words!)

This week I explain how drug dealers in Brazil act in a more ethical way than do corporations in the US. Plus Starhawk and Hopsin — the most unlikely pairing in the history of sound! Enjoy.

DS #71: Brazilian Drug Dealers Are More Ethical Than US Corporations

Top 3 Links of the Week

• Drug dealers say no to crack in Rio
• IMF says bailouts Iceland-style hold lessons in crisis times
• Tom Morello: “Paul Ryan is the embodiment of the machine our music rages against”

Current Events

• Silversun Pickups ask Romney campaign to stop using “Panic Switch”
• K’naan, too!
• Ryan denies taking stimulus money, then admits he did
• July marked worst month for Army suicides

Economics

• HFT: Wait a second
• Standard Chartered reaches £217m settlement

Education

• Poll: NCLB has made American education worse or no different
• Clovis Unified district sued over abstinence-only sex education
• A Profit Without Honors: Against the Business Model of Education

Killer Robots, Etc

• Chameleon 2.0: American defense robot can creep into rooms and disguise itself
• Work for the military? Don’t be evil, says ethicist
• Synthetic skin for animatronic robots gets more realistic

Hip-Hop

Ill Mind of Hopsin #5 (DANGER: Bad words and misogyny.)

Six years ago (almost exactly to the day) I finished the first draft of my novel. Well, after more than half a decade of sitting on it and revising, today I finished typing in the second draft.

Hooray!

Now I can celebrate by goofing off and playing video games. No, wait. I have to take out the trash and wash the dishes, then record a podcast for three hours.

Tomorrow I’ll goof off all day. Then on Wednesday I can go into the classroom and make a plan for getting back to work.

Eventually: Publishing!

Today I’m listening to: Thievery Corporation!

I have finally achieved basic audience data. Behold my awesome power of numerical analysis!

DS #70: We Got Stats!

Top 3 Links of the Week

• Nuns challenge Romney to spend a day with them
• At Caterpillar, pressing labor while business booms
• Can Schools Fix Our Economy?

Current Events

• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Paul Ryan
• Obama signs order supporting Syrian rebels
• Annan casts blame widely as he resigns as Syrian envoy
• Somali comedian who mocked Islamists is shot dead
• Egyptian teacher arrested for “offending Islam” on Facebok
• Romney: “Culture DOES matter”
• Scalia opens door for gun-control legislation
• Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
• Toronto police sued for $1.4 million for profiling women

Economics

• Knight Capital Debacle
• Why time-share king David Siegel thinks he got Bush elected

Education

• Get tested or get out: Louisiana school forces pregnancy tests
• Ohio education head Heffner resigns in wake of Inspector General report

Killer Robots, Etc

• Pixar-loving robot builder creates working WALL-E
• Robot & Frank

Hip-Hop

Left-Handed Scientists: “Constructive Destruction”

From an interesting piece in Salon:

At the turn of the century, Ryan Inc. turned to road building. A subsidiary family corporation, Ryan Incorporated Southern, states on its Web site, “The Ryan workload from 1910 until the rural interstate Highway System was completed 60 years later [and] was mostly Highway construction.” The $119 billion spent by the federal government on the Interstate Highway System was, by one account, “the largest public works program since the Pyramids.”