velocityconf: @da3mon Sorry! We were just doing some followup with past Velocity attendees. Sorry to intrude. No harm intended. :-(

velocityconf: RT @avleen: Ok folks, home stretch! We need 10 more people to record short #OpsSchool videos NEXT WEEK at @velocityconf. We can do it!...

"I realised I could sustain the writing life, whether anyone reads it or not. It’s what separates writers from civilians. It’s probably a mental disorder."

Illustrator, writer, and filmmaker Mordicai Gerstein died earlier this month. He leaves behind an amazing body of work which is sure to be read and appreciated; several have already been anointed as modern classics.

It’s difficult to encapsulate the impact of Andrea Davis Pinkney on readers and in publishing for young readers. She is an award-winning author, accomplished editor, visionary publisher, and now the co-curator of a museum exhibition.

Every year, educators worry about “summer slide,” the potential for learning loss when children are not in school. This issue is more pronounced among low-income families who don’t have access to summer camps or other enrichment activities. One way to battle summer slide is through reading for fun, which is associated with many academic and health benefits, including strengthening the brain, increasing ability to empathize, reducing stress and building vocabulary.

Pandemic academic recovery in both reading and math is lagging notably behind pre-COVID achievement trends for students in grades 4-8 during the 2022-23 school year, according to a new report by NWEA analyzing MAP Growth test scores of 6.7 million students across 20,000 public schools. Third-graders were the only group who saw improvements, and they were slight, according to NWEA, an educational research organization recently acquired by learning technology company HMH.

"I think they say they want autonomy. I think their actions don't say the same thing," Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently said in an interview.

The best early Black Friday MacBook deals include all-time low prices on the latest MacBook Air models.

Morgan Stanley analysts say Tesla will surge if it can expand to be an AI giant, which may be more likely if Elon Musk exerts influence in a second Trump term.

Paleontologist Dave Hone rates the realism of the dinosaur attacks in the "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World" movies.

When my job announced we were returning to the office, I was able to quit and rely on my emergency fund while job searching. I still wish I had saved more.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said there's not much opportunity for the oil industry to increase production in the short term.

Donald Trump's proposed tariffs would hit the consumer tech sector, raising prices on US consumers' favorite gadgets, an October report found.

Paramount Plus, Peacock, and the Paramount Network all have a hand in the Yellowstone franchise, but it can be tricky to stream episodes.

Are you dreaming of being your own boss someday, or would you like to bring in extra income? Starting an online business is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this. The biggest challenge of starting an online business can be developing your business plan. If you are struggling to come up with that brilliant […]

Today’s buyers are getting more demanding and selling online is getting more and more complex. Both B2B and B2C customers expect a seamless purchase experience and easy access to all the information, products and services they want, on any device and in any country.

We’ve recently had the pleasure to chat with Andrei Nastasie, the affiliate program manager at Mondly Languages, an innovative language learning app that incorporates native language recordings, augmented reality and virtual reality to help people learn new languages. In this interview, he shares how Mondly started out, what it has been up to and what’s next for this creative company.

Soldiers and police were patrolling Mozambique's capital Maputo early on Thursday ahead of a planned protest against election results seen by the opposition as fraudulent.

South Africa has closed the Lebombo port of entry to and from Mozambique after 15 officials from the Ressano Garcia border fled to SA on Thursday morning for protection.

In some parts of the capital, protesters negotiated with police. In other parts there was no talking.

Young Mozambicans from opposition parties have given Frelimo until midday to relinquish power or face more unrest, after days of violence and looting in the country.

Mozambique is on a knife's edge as young people continue to protest against the outcome of the October elections that extended 49 years of Frelimo rule.

Amid calls for ongoing protests after violent clashes on Thursday, South Africa's High Commissioner to Mozambique Siphiwe Nyanda has declared "Maputo is almost under siege".

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday that at least 30 people have been killed in Mozambique in almost three weeks of crackdowns on protests over a disputed presidential election.

It was business as usual at the Lebombo border post between SA and Mozambique on Saturday morning, with vehicles moving freely between both countries after a shutdown earlier this week.

Mozambican opposition presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane has called for gatherings at ports and borders, and in major cities from Wednesday for what he describes as a fourth round of demonstrations against a stolen election.

My father, the birder, is often excited to share his sightings with me — especially so this summer when he got back from a long-planned trip to South Africa. 153 species! I love how he finds joy and peace by connecting with the world through observing birds, interacting with fellow birders, and telling tales of his birding adventures. In so many wonderful ways, Dad’s daily routines and way of life are linked to nature and the birds he loves.

I met two debut authors at a summer conference and was taken with their warmth and earnestness. Their book, Black Boy, Black Boy, is an affirmation that celebrates both past accomplishments by Black men and the limitless possibilities for a child’s future. Their book is sure to encourage discussion with children and families, whether they are Black or not. Both authors graciously agreed to a blog interview.

Informational text — resources whose purpose is to inform — is essential to daily life and fundamental to literacy. Unfortunately, young children typically have limited exposure to informational text. Two 9-week randomized controlled trials with 263 first-grade children from low-income communities examined whether free educational videos and digital games from the PBS KIDS show “Molly of Denali” supported children’s ability to use informational text to answer real-world questions. Study 1 found significant positive intervention impacts on child outcomes; Study 2 replicated these findings.

Teacher question: I understand your claims that teaching students with grade-level texts instead of instructional level texts increases children’s opportunities to learn. However, what about children’s emotional needs, self-esteem, motivation, and self-starting skills when text is challenging. Children who struggle with sight words or sounding out words who are given a hard piece of text will shut down and refuse to try or will act out in the classroom.

Recently, I posted commentary on Emily Hanford’s reporting and the critical response it received from some in the literacy community. I defended the major thrust of her work and called out criticisms I thought to be illogical, ill conceived, or ill intended — criticism more aimed at maintaining status quo than promoting literacy.

With more and more online marketplaces popping up, many individuals prefer to pay for items, whether they be new or second hand using the PayPal Goods and Services option. The PayPal ‘Goods and Services’ option gives buyers further peace of mind with the PayPal guarantee. If the seller does not provide what they have described, […]

The post Factoring In PayPal Fees When Sending Money Using the Goods and Services Option appeared first on Tips and Tricks HQ.

If you are the type of person that likes to spoil a game from the off then Brighter Shores is… Continue reading Brighter Shores infinite money glitch – get cash rich with all the money you will ever need

The post Brighter Shores infinite money glitch – get cash rich with all the money you will ever need appeared first on ReadWrite.

The latest and greatest iteration of the best farming game out there – Farming Simulator 25 – has just launched… Continue reading Best mods for Farming Simulator 2025

The post Best mods for Farming Simulator 2025 appeared first on ReadWrite.

Meta Platforms is rolling out enhanced privacy and parental controls for Instagram accounts of users under 18 in a significant overhaul aimed at addressing growing concerns around the negative effects of social media.

News24 brings you the top stories of the day, summarised into neat little packages. Read through quickly or listen to the articles via our customised text-to-speech feature.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola threw diplomacy out the window on Tuesday and responded angrily when he was asked whether South Africa and the ANC were "protecting its friend" Frelimo in troubled Mozambique.

Scientific tests confirm rivers and dams have been poisoned by the raw sewage dumped by the municipality in the Bloubankspruit and Crocodile Rivers, killing aquatic life and destroying businesses and livelihoods.

The Gauteng education department has postponed the appointment of new office-based staff as well as teachers who applied to be promoted as heads of department, deputy principals and principals until April because of budget constraints.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's lawyers say former spy boss Arthur Fraser's claims about the Phala Phala break-in are like something from a movie - but are founded on nothing more than baseless speculation.

It was out of fear for his mental health and to avoid the perpetuation of an ongoing wrong that a judge ordered that one of the five men charged with the murder of soccer star Senzo Meyiwa be removed from solitary confinement.

With NASA's sights on moon bases, the question becomes how do you build shelters for tomorrow's lunar inhabitants? Carting up large amounts of raw materials from Earth is prohibitively expensive. And the only resources on the surface are regolith—lunar dust—and water. — Read the rest

The post NASA plans to grow mushroom houses on the moon appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: If you still don't have a mouse for your WFH setup, get this ergonomic Logitech MX mouse for $89.99 (reg. $99)!

You know what part of you body seriously takes a beating after a long day or week of work? No, it's not your neck—though you need a more supportive office chair. — Read the rest

The post Your hand is cramping up! Use this ergonomic mouse instead appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Minnessota maker named Caleb Olson built the Poopcopter, an autonomous drone that seeks out dog-doo and retrieves it for disposal.

He describes it as the "world's first aerial bound self-guided dog poop removal system." See it in action below.

"The Poopcopter is capable of scanning areas defined by a user, your backyard for example, and as it scans it's performing real-time computer vision using the camera which is inside the drone," Olson says. — Read the rest

The post The Poopcopter is a DIY autonomous drone that finds and collects dog-doo appeared first on Boing Boing.

Interactive Media Strategies released data on July 14 showing that 62% of corporations that purchased video communications technology made the decision at the President/CEO level when there was no prior investment in this kind of technology.  That number dropped to 58% when the prior year's spend was as much as $10,000.

The same data shows that when an enterprise already spends $100,000 or more annually on video, the decision-making authority is almost evenly distributed between IT (35%), functional department heads (31%), and the President/CEO level (34%).

I think the clear implication of this data is that when corporations are already committing resources to video communications and the value of video has already been established, and this kind of technology is no longer considered exotic, then decision-making authority becomes more broadly distributed to IT and the business units.

This data is interesting when paired with data released in 2010 that shows 15% of executives surveyed that do not spend money on video and are thus not using video communications believe video communications are "very effective."  58% of executives surveyed that spend $100,000 or more annual on video technology indicated they believe video communications are "very effective."

I am sure this great difference is due to several factors, including: executives who are predisposed to see value in video are those most likely to invest in it, and those that have already made a six figure investment in video will likely not be motivated to feel as if the investment was wasted.  Nonetheless, video obviously wears well because executives who are heavily invested in video believe much more in its value than executives who do not employ the technology.

Interactive Media Strategies released a quite timely study conducted in Q1 2011 that measured corporate executives' financial outlook and how their relative positivity or negativity affected their plans for spending on video.  As one might imagine, only 6% of those with a negative outlook projected increased spending on video against 64% projecting less money spent on video.

39% of executives surveyed who were expecting their finances to improve projected increased spend on video, versus 29% who projected a decrease.  Unfortunately, the study did not provide the percentage of respondents who were expecting finances to decline versus the percentage of respondents expecting finances to improve.

The above results not all that unexpected, but they lay the foundation for this very interesting data: the study measured different types of executives and how their positions within the company influenced their outlook about whether macro-economic factors would impact spend on video.

46% of those in Accounting and Finance, 43% of those in Training, and 42% of Top Executives responded that macro-economic factors had "No Impact" in their decision to purchase video technology.  Overall, 40% of non-IT personnel responded that the economic climate would have no impact.

However, only 29% of IT executives responded that the economy would have no impact.

I attribute this disparity to senior executives and heavy video users (like training executives) being more focused on the ROI and cost reductions that video brings to the enterprise, while IT executives are more focused on the cost of maintaining video delivery infrastructure and the impact on their budgets.

I believe the path to bridging this gap is to leverage the cost savings of the cloud to free up IT resources and still deliver the benefits of video to the business users.

For example, MediaPlatform's PrimeTime application for video asset management leverages public or private clouds to host our application and store all of the video assets.  For example: for clients that have Riverbed, we use a cloud instance of the Riverbed Steelhead to reduce bandwidth usage between the cloud and the network by 80%.

Diversity Among New REALTORS® in 2024

Instant Reaction: Mortgage Rates, August 15, 2024

Instant Reaction: Mortgage Rates, August 29, 2024