New to remote work? We've compiled some of the best resources Automatticians have created on the topic.

Removed From Troubles – Problem Resolved (NOT open for application) Core of Soul Removed From Troubles – Removed From Network (OPEN for application) Finch; Nine Inch Nails

The coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdown in most countries has forced major changes in the way people live, work and study. Online learning is now routine for many, and is largely unproblematic, not least because it has been used for many years. However, online testing is more tricky, since there is a concern by many teachers that students might use their isolated situation to cheat during exams. One person's problem is another person's opportunity, and there are a number of proctoring services that claim to stop or at least minimize cheating during online tests. One thing they have in common is that they tend to be intrusive, and show little respect for the privacy of the people they monitor.

As an article in The Verge explains, some employ humans to watch over students using Zoom video calls. That's reasonably close to a traditional setup, where a teacher or proctor watches students in an exam hall. But there are also webcam-based automated approaches, as explored by Vox:

For instance, Examity also uses AI to verify students' identities, analyze their keystrokes, and, of course, ensure they're not cheating. Proctorio uses artificial intelligence to conduct gaze detection, which tracks whether a student is looking away from their screens.

It's not just in the US that these extreme surveillance methods are being adopted. In France, the University of Rennes 1 is using a system called Managexam, which adds a few extra features: the ability to detect "inappropriate" Internet searches by the student, the use of a second screen, or the presence of another person in the room (original in French). The Vox articles notes that even when these systems are deployed, students still try to cheat using new tricks, and the anti-cheating services try to stop them doing so:

it's easy to find online tips and tricks for duping remote proctoring services. Some suggest hiding notes underneath the view of the camera or setting up a secret laptop. It's also easy for these remote proctoring services to find out about these cheating methods, so they're constantly coming up with countermeasures. On its website, Proctorio even has a job listing for a "professional cheater" to test its system. The contract position pays between $10,000 and $20,000 a year.

As the arms race between students and proctoring services escalates, it's surely time to ask whether the problem isn't people cheating, but the use of old-style, analog testing formats in a world that has been forced by the coronavirus pandemic to move to a completely digital approach. Rather than spending so much time, effort and money on trying to stop students from cheating, maybe we need to come up with new ways of measuring what they have learnt and understood -- ones that are not immune to cheating, but where cheating has no meaning. Obvious options include "open book" exams, where students can use whatever resources they like, or even abolishing formal exams completely, and opting for continuous assessment. Since the lockdown has forced educational establishments to re-invent teaching, isn't it time they re-invented exams too?

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Every house resident understands how quickly she or he can build up a lot of unwanted junk, broken items as well as simply simple rubbish. For those who often tend to hoard, or delay disposal of garbage, this buildup can… Continue Reading →

Increased microvascular permeability to plasma proteins and neutrophil emigration are hallmarks of innate immunity and key features of numerous inflammatory disorders. Although neutrophils can promote microvascular leakage, the impact of vascular permeability on neutrophil trafficking is unknown. Here, through the application of confocal intravital microscopy, we report that vascular permeability–enhancing stimuli caused a significant frequency of neutrophil reverse transendothelial cell migration (rTEM). Furthermore, mice with a selective defect in microvascular permeability enhancement (VEC-Y685F-ki) showed reduced incidence of neutrophil rTEM. Mechanistically, elevated vascular leakage promoted movement of interstitial chemokines into the bloodstream, a response that supported abluminal-to-luminal neutrophil TEM. Through development of an in vivo cell labeling method we provide direct evidence for the systemic dissemination of rTEM neutrophils, and showed them to exhibit an activated phenotype and be capable of trafficking to the lungs where their presence was aligned with regions of vascular injury. Collectively, we demonstrate that increased microvascular leakage reverses the localization of directional cues across venular walls, thus causing neutrophils engaged in diapedesis to reenter the systemic circulation. This cascade of events offers a mechanism to explain how local tissue inflammation and vascular permeability can induce downstream pathological effects in remote organs, most notably in the lungs.

The Ursa Majors are ready for votes and the nominees have been revealed. Voting can be found at their website and is open throughout the month of March. Two categories, however, received no nominees due to being an insufficient number of nominations and will not be put up to vote for a winner. Those two categories being Fursuits and Non-Fiction.

If you enjoy film, fiction, art, or any other of the many items that are up for selection as the best of the best for the year of 2019 be sure to vote this month. If you like non-fiction or fursuits, well, you can always be sure to nominate next year.

The nominees are:

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IBM and Telestream announced today at IBC 2017 a game-changing solution for high-speed capture and production of live, broadcast quality video from remote locations for faster production turnaround. Telestream Vantage powered by Aspera combines Aspera’s FASPStream high-speed streaming technology and Telestream Lightspeed Live Capture media processing platform to enable production teams to work on live video feeds from remote locations in near real time.

Photo by 蜷川実花

Creative Commons has joined forces with other legal experts and leading scientists to offer a simple way for universities, companies, and other holders of intellectual property rights to support the development of medicines, test kits, vaccines, and other scientific discoveries related to COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic. The Open COVID Pledge grants the … Read More "Open COVID Pledge: Removing Obstacles to Sharing IP in the Fight Against COVID-19"

The post Open COVID Pledge: Removing Obstacles to Sharing IP in the Fight Against COVID-19 appeared first on Creative Commons.

The Scouts acknowledged the necessity to "Be Prepared" over 100 years (!) ago; the industry should have, as well. Yet COVID-19 took businesses – more like the entire world – by surprise. Very few were prepared for the explosion of remote access, and the challenge of instantly shifting an entire organization to work from anywhere. Cato Networks shared its increase in remote access usage post

Remove the arms on POÄNG in 2 steps. I liked to type on my laptop while sitting in my old POÄNG. While it was mostly very comfy, my elbows were constrained by the armrests. They had to go. Buy POÄNG armchair | IKEA.com Materials and Tools: POÄNG armchair Wood Saw 4x 40mm screws Drill and […]

The post How to remove the arms from your IKEA POÄNG armchair appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

The courses are tailored to artists at various career stages. They start on May 23.

The post Toon Boom Launches Remote Animation Training Courses appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The company sees a big opportunity in the current crisis.

The post Wow! Plans To Double Size Of Animation Team In Vancouver Through Remote Working appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Education officials, in a Friday morning webinar, instructed all city principals to prepare for an extended shutdown by assembling materials to send home with students, reviewing how to use online teaching platforms and deciding how to communicate with families, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The News.

A look at some of the challenges the city school system will be tackling in the days ahead.

Students cracked open laptops or homework packets Monday morning, while parents wrangled restless kids and teachers reconnected with pupils longing for some structure after a week of aimlessness spent mostly indoors.

Teachers and school leaders across the country are struggling to maintain a semblance of structure and normalcy during remote learning while adapting to the approach’s many limitations. Grades are at the center of that debate.

City teachers and students will lose most of the annual public school pause this year after state officials announced remote learning would press on during the first half of April, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Many teachers have been relying on the videoconferencing platform to chat with students during remote learning.

As a single parent of five young children with two iPads and no computers at home, she’s had to ration both her own attention, and her kids’ time with the devices.

A study finds that close to a trillion trees could potentially be planted on Earth—enough to sequester more than 200 billion tons of carbon. But environmental change on this scale is no easy task.

Angels pitcher Andrew Heaney struggled against the Houston Astros in 2018, and he's irate not only at the sign stealing but because players haven't apologized.

Governors are starting to float ideas for reopening schools. But there are many concerns about what education will look like when that happens.

About 60 UCLA donors have contributed almost $160,000 for training equipment and subscriptions to fitness and mindfulness apps for athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

¿Cuándo podemos volver al trabajo? Nadie lo sabe. Hasta entonces, trata de estar bien contigo mismo.

Here's celebrity manicurist Tom Bachik's advice for removing a gel manicure and more at home.

UCLA will cancel traditional graduation ceremonies and hold them remotely to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Chancellor Gene Block announced Wednesday.

This week California's top education official said what many had anticipated: Don't expect traditional high school graduation ceremonies for the class of 2020.

Winners of the L.A. Times Book Prizes will be announced in a special, virtual Twitter ceremony this year because of the global health crisis.

A book club for people who don't like book clubs, founded in 2012 in San Francisco and now boasting six chapters in L.A. County, has moved online.

Newly minted Grammy-winner Billie Eilish will perform live at the Oscars ceremony next month.

Faroe Islanders allow travellers stuck at home with only a device for company to explore through the eyes of a local

Elon Musk's growth story is looking more like a fable as Tesla Inc. enters survival mode.

Tesla's Fremont EV assembly plant will remain open despite the "shelter in place" Coronavirus lockdown issued by Bay Area counties.

Tesla's electric car factory was operating as usual Tuesday, despite a San Francisco Bay Area multi-county "shelter in place" lockdown.

Tesla will temporarily end production at its Fremont assembly plant beginning March 23 to comply with Bay Area restrictions due to coronavirus.

For the first time ever, "American Idol" put on a quarantined show with judges and contestants appearing from their homes in more than 20 locations.

LASH extensions may be a distant memory for some as the UK lockdown continues and salons remain closed. But there are ways to give yourself longer lashes at home if you're missing the fuller flutter.

Clarification - Removal of Three Articles - 07 January 2019

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plans a four-phase reopening of its 167 temples worldwide that were closed due to the coronavirus.