Our ideas of dinosaurs, well for most of us anyways [Article] [Article]

… is based on the work of an exceptionally talented cinematographer by the name of Steven Spielberg. Robert Krulwich of NPR discovers a whole different world of dinosaurs which are documented throughout history and who have been given visual form by a Natural History Illustrator and Paleo-artist by name Julius T. Csotonyi, PhD, of Edmonton, Canada.

The Python Challenge (You don’t need a computer for this one) [Article]

When I first read the words, “The Python Challenge“, I presumed it was a website that taught you to write computer code. This is something else – Florida, US, apparently has had a pestilence of Burmese pythons, who can grow to be 23 foot long & about 200 pounds heavy! Because the python’s head remains active for about an hour after it is chopped off, you can still have a painful bite from a severed head. The recommended pest control action is firing a pressurized bolt into its brain or shooting it in the head with a gun.

The Polar Bear Capital of the World [Article]

Discover Churchill, Canada, also known as the Polar Bear capital of the world. Where folks leave their cars & homes unlocked, apparently, to allow pedestrians an easy escape from the polar bears that may accost them on the streets. Interesting tidbit about a place I’ll probably avoid visiting! 🙂

Introducing Boubacar Traore [Musician]

Fall in love with Boubacar Traore, a Mali-born musician, now 65, whose music I discovered this morning thanks to Jesse Kornbluth.  Begin with Mondeou, and follow it up with Kar Kar Madison, Traore’s nickname. Incredible music that touches the soul – put those headphones on, turn off the lights & turn up the volume. The entire playlist of his music is here

Big problems with Big Data [Article]

Stephen Few cautions us against falling for the marketing hype of Big Data. He highlights the horror stories of Americans whose credit ratings have been irreparably damaged by credit card companies, by opaque algorithms that churn out credit assessments, with countless errors, & no recourse for those impacted by such mistakes to have the errors corrected!