Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

التعليم عن بُعد

Education is a basic and essential activity that is indispensable in the modern era, and distance education is every educational model in which the education process is carried out using the media and technical tools without a specific or fixed place to receive lessons and without a direct relationship between the student and the teacher during the education process. Distance education began in the nineteenth century when the method of learning by correspondence appeared through the postal services, which used to transfer printed and written study material between teachers and students, with the emergence of radio and the beginning of radio broadcasting, radio was used in distance education and the voice component was the biggest influence in the education process And people were able to record and broadcast many educational programs, with the advancement of science television and video cassette appeared and the availability of distance education through sound, image and satellites.

حلم الدرويش

التعليم نشاط أساسى وجوهرى لا غنى عنه فى العصر الحديث , والتعليم عن بُعد هو كل نموذج تعليمى تتم فيه عملية التعليم باستخدام الوسائط والأدوات التقنية دون وجود مكان محدد أو ثابت لتلقى الدروس ودون علاقة مباشرة بين الطالب والمُعلم خلال عملية التعليم . بدأ التعليم عن بُعد فى القرن التاسع عشر عندما ظهرت طريقة التعلُّم بالمراسلة عن طريق خدمات البريد التى كانت تنقل المادة الدراسية المطبوعة والمكتوبة بين المُعلمين والطُلاب , مع ظهور الراديو وبداية البث الإذاعى تم استخدام الراديو فى التعليم عن بُعد وكان عنصر الصوت هو المؤثر الأكبر فى عملية التعليم وتمكن الناس من تسجيل وبث العديد من البرامج التعليمية , مع التقدم العلمى ظهر التلفزيون والفيديو كاسيت وتَوفر التعليم عن بُعد من خلال الصوت والصورة والأقمار الصناعية . إختراع الحاسب الآلى وانتشاره السريع وبعد ذلك ظهور شبكات المعلومات الدولية والإنترنت صنعت قفزة كبيرة فى مجال التعليم عن بُعد حيث أصبح مصطلح التعليم عن بُعد يُشير بصورة…

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Coffee Drinkers Rejoice!

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

In one of their periodic quizzes to test clinician knowledge, Medscape reinterates that caffeine consumption is associated with a LOWER risk of development of Parkinson’s Disease.

A relationship between increased caffeine intake and lower risk for Parkinson’s disease has been repeatedly confirmed. A more recent study that specifically focused on the effects of caffeine in individuals with a mutation in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene found that that group in particular may benefit from caffeine-related therapies.

Windle, Medscape

Yes, caffeine as a “therapy.”

Further, coffee consumption benefits patients with chronic liver disease.

A systematic review found that patients with chronic liver disease who consume coffee have a decreased risk for progression to cirrhosis, a lower mortality rate, and a lower rate of hepatocellular carcinoma development.

Medscape

A combination of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), acetaminophen, and caffeine is approved in the US as a safe and effective treatment…

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Death & Taxes — Mock Paper Scissors

“Noooooooo!” The Supreme Court FINALLY has ruled after an unprecedented delay (and one need not wonder too much about why it took them so long): Supreme Court allows release of Trump tax returns to NY prosecutor “The Supreme Court cleared the way for a New York prosecutor to obtain former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, […]

Death & Taxes — Mock Paper Scissors

Trump loses Supreme Court appeal to shield tax records from NY prosecutor

  • The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a last-ditch bid by former President Donald Trump to keep his financial records, including years of his tax returns, out of the hands of the Manhattan district attorney, Cy Vance Jr.
  • The decision, the second time the nation’s highest court has weighed in on the matter, was announced in an order with no noted dissents. The news further imperils the ex-president, who is facing investigations in New York and elsewhere.

Source: Trump loses Supreme Court appeal to shield tax records from NY prosecutor

Myanmar citizens continue strong opposition to military junta with ‘22222’ general strike

The strike mobilized the biggest nationwide protest since the February 1 coup

A community protest during the “22222” general strike in Myanmar. Photo by a citizen journalist shared with Global Voices, used with permission

On Monday February 22, thousands joined a general strike across Myanmar organized to express opposition to the military government.

Dubbed “22222” or “Five Twos” in reference to the date (22/2/21), the strike mobilized the biggest protests since the military grabbed power on February 1.

Reports compared the strike action to the nationwide uprising held in defiance of the junta on August 8, 1988 (Four Eights) .

The military staged the coup on February 1 following claims of massive fraud in the 2020 election, a charge disputed both by the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and the electoral commission. Parliament members and top NLD officials, including were arrested during the first day of the coup.

Citizens launched a civil disobedience movement in response to the coup. The campaign has gathered support and gained in momentum despite a ban on protests, the intermittent disruption of the internet, and the use of violence by security forces to suppress anti-coup activities.

Monday’s strike reflected the scale of public indignation over the coup, the continuing detention of elected leaders, and the recent shooting of protesters by the police.

Journalist Wa Lone posted an overview of Monday’s events:

Businesses shut in Myanmar on Monday in a general strike called to oppose the military coup and thousands of protesters gathered in towns and cities despite a chilling message from the junta that confrontation would cost more lives.

The “chilling message” pertains to a statement by the authorities demonizing the strike and threatening those who participated, a move that was quickly condemned by a United Nations human rights expert.

A strike participant spoke to Frontier magazine about the workers’ commitment to fighting the military dictatorship:

If we oppose the dictatorship, they might shoot us. Everyone knows it. But we have to oppose dictatorship. It’s our duty. That’s why so many people are coming out today against them.

Many businesses closed operations in anticipation of the strike.

Photos of massive protests in different cities were shared on social media:

The “Two Five” general strike against the military rule on 22.2.2021 are growing hour by hour in the downtown Yangon marked by ancient Sule Pagoda. #2Fivegeneralstrike #WhatIsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/ClwDvxk36q

— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) February 22, 2021

Taunggyi – 19th day of protests on February 22

Taunggyi protestors comes out in force for the ‘22222’ day.#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar https://t.co/cmHhzSGT87 pic.twitter.com/hONG5sMTEv

— ElevenMyanmar (@ElevenMyanmar) February 22, 2021

Nationwide ‘22222’ General Strike: Mandalay residents take part in a huge sit-in protest against the military regime on Monday morning, marking Myanmar’s “22222” general strike. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) pic.twitter.com/1qwpEJq07f

— The Irrawaddy (Eng) (@IrrawaddyNews) February 22, 2021

Today Myanmar (Mandalay)#WhatsHapppeningInMyanmar #Feb22Coup pic.twitter.com/JdSvZftMLf

— paing_takhon_Intel_fanpage❤ (@takhon_intel) February 22, 2021

Among those consistently providing support to the civil disobedience movement are many Buddhist monks.

Monks were among those who joined the “22222” general strike in Myanmar. Photo by a citizen journalist shared with Global Voices, used with permission

Written by Mong Palatino

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, and Twitter adopt Aussie misinformation code | ZDNet

A handful of technology giants operating in Australia have agreed on a code of practice that aims to stem disinformation on their respective platforms.

All signatories — Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Redbubble, TikTok, and Twitter – have committed to the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation. They have also committed to releasing an annual transparency report about their efforts under the code.

The code [PDF] was prepared by the Digital Industry Group Inc (DiGi), a non-profit industry association advocating for the digital industry in Australia.

Source: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, and Twitter adopt Aussie misinformation code | ZDNet

Police charge Navalny activist with illegal ‘gay propaganda’ for sharing photos of kissing couples

ROTFLMAO – Russia the prude state along with being cruel and petty.

Police in Krasnodar have opened a misdemeanor case against Alexey Navalny’s local campaign coordinator, charging Anastasia Panchenko with illegal “gay propaganda” for sharing two photos on Instagram showing same-sex couples kissing during protests on February 14. According to her lawyer, Mikhail Benyash, Panchenko faces a fine as high as 100,000 rubles ($1,340), if convicted. Officials say the images violate Russia’s ban on “promoting non-traditional sexual relations among minors” because Panchenko’s Instagram page is accessible to minors. 

Free Books : Download & Streaming : eBooks and Texts : Internet Archive

eBooks and Texts

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive offers over 20,000,000 freely downloadable books and texts. There is also a collection of 2.3 million modern eBooks that may be borrowed by anyone with a free archive.org account.

Source: Free Books : Download & Streaming : eBooks and Texts : Internet Archive

How the Internet Archive Digitizes 3,500 Books a Day–the Hard Way, One Page at a Time

Does turning the pages of an old book excite you? How about 3 million pages? That’s how many pages Eliza Zhang has scanned over her ten years with the Internet Archive, using Scribe, a specialized scanning machine invented by Archive engineers over 15 years ago. “Listening to 70s and 80s R&B while she works,” Wendy Hanamura writes at the Internet Archive blog, “Eliza spends a little time each day reading the dozens of books she handles. The most challenging part of her job? ‘Working with very old, fragile books.”

Does turning the pages of an old book excite you? How about 3 million pages? That’s how many pages Eliza Zhang has scanned over her ten years with the Internet Archive, using Scribe, a specialized scanning machine invented by Archive engineers over 15 years ago. “Listening to 70s and 80s R&B while she works,” Wendy Hanamura writes at the Internet Archive blog, “Eliza spends a little time each day reading the dozens of books she handles. The most challenging part of her job? ‘Working with very old, fragile books.”

The fragile state and wide variety of the millions of books scanned by Zhang and the seventy-or-so other Scribe operators explains why this work has not been automated. “Clean, dry human hands are the best way to turn pages,” says Andrea Mills, one of the leaders of the digitization team. “Our goal is to handle the book once and to care for the original as we work with it.”

Raising the glass with a foot pedal, adjusting the two cameras, and shooting the page images are just the beginning of Eliza’s work. Some books, like the Bureau of Land Management publication featured in the video, have myriad fold-outs. Eliza must insert a slip of paper to remind her to go back and shoot each fold-out page, while at the same time inputting the page numbers into the item record. The job requires keen concentration.

If this experienced digitizer accidentally skips a page, or if an image is blurry, the publishing software created by our engineers will send her a message to return to the Scribe and scan it again.

It’s not a job for the easily bored; “It takes concentration and a love of books,” says Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. The painstaking process allows digitizers to preserve valuable books online while maintaining the integrity of physical copies. “We do not disbind the books,” says Kahle, a method that has allowed them to partner with hundreds of institutions around the world, digitizing 28 million texts over two decades. Many of those books are rare and valuable, and many have been deemed of little or no value. “Increasingly,” writes the Archive’s Chris Freeland, “the Archive is preserving many books that would otherwise be lost to history or the trash bin.”

In one example, Freeland cites The dictionary of costume, “one of the millions of titles that reached the end of its publishing lifecycle in the 20th century.” It is also a work cited in Wikipedia, a key source for “students of all ages… in our connected world.” The Internet Archive has preserved the only copy of the book available online, making sure Wikipedia editors can verify the citation and researchers can use the book in perpetuity. If looking up the definition of “petticoat” in an out-of-print reference work seems trivial, consider that the Archive digitizes about 3,500 books every day in its 18 digitization centers. (The dictionary of costume was identified as the Archive’s 2 millionth “modern book.”)

Libraries “have been vital in times of crisis,” writes Alistair Black, emeritus professor of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, and “the coronavirus pandemic may prove to be a challenge that dwarfs the many episodes of anxiety and crisis through which the public library has lived in the past.” A huge part of our combined global crises involves access to reliable information, and book scanners at the Internet Archive are key agents in preserving knowledge. The collections they digitize “are critical to educating an informed populace at a time of massive disinformation and misinformation,” says Kahle. When asked what she liked best about her job, Zhang replied, “Everything! I find everything interesting…. Every collection is important to me.”

The Internet Archive offers over 20,000,000 freely downloadable books and texts. Enter the collection here.

Related Content: 

Libraries & Archivists Are Digitizing 480,000 Books Published in 20th Century That Are Secretly in the Public Domain

10,000 Vintage Recipe Books Are Now Digitized in The Internet Archive’s Cookbook & Home Economics Collection

Classic Children’s Books Now Digitized and Put Online: Revisit Vintage Works from the 19th & 20th Centuries

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

How the Internet Archive Digitizes 3,500 Books a Day–the Hard Way, One Page at a Time is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don’t miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooksFree Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.