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tedx: kqedscience: Teen Develops Computer Algorithm to...

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:59:32 -0400

kqedscience:

Teen Develops Computer Algorithm to Diagnose Leukemia

“Brittany Wenger isn’t your average high-school senior: She taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia.

The 18-year-old student from Sarasota, Fla. built a custom, cloud-based “artificial neural network” to find patterns in genetic expression profiles to diagnose patients with an aggressive form of cancer called mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL). Simply put, this means Wenger taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia by creating a diagnostic tool for doctors to use.”

Brittany is also a TEDx speaker! She spoke at TEDxCERN this May, and TEDxWomen in 2012.

See our coverage of TEDxCERN here, and — below — watch Brittany’s TEDxWomen talk about Cloud4Cancer, a computer program she designed to diagnose breast cancer more accurately and less invasively.

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Thu, 23 May 2013 22:57:38 -0400

govtoversight: Tell Your Senator You Oppose Increasing Secrecy...

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:56:20 -0400

govtoversight:

Tell Your Senator You Oppose Increasing Secrecy for Corporate Farms

This is happening right now. We need you to write your Senators, and tell them to oppose Sen. Grassley’s amendments to the farm bill that would put corporate farming interests before the public interest.

Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out On The Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:37:35 -0400

Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out On The Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food

8 New Punctuation Marks We Desperately Need

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:30:49 -0400

8 New Punctuation Marks We Desperately Need

feminist-space: submissivefeminist: TW: Sexual Assault A...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:18:24 -0400

feminist-space:

submissivefeminist:

TW: Sexual Assault

A friend of mine was sexually assaulted out to dinner with a professor. When she told her story to her adviser, a dear friend of ours, she told him she wore a turtleneck and long pants and described her outfit. He cut her off and told her, “I don’t care if you were wearing a fucking bikini—nobody has the right to touch you.”

I think that was the first time in the whole process of talking to cops and administrators about what happened where someone actually told her it wasn’t her fault.

They make it about the clothes, the situation—“Why did you agree to dinner? Why didn’t you take your own car? Did you lead him on? For once, someone made it about her and her rights. I think this helped her most of all in the process. Everyone needs to respond like this to survivors, in my opinion.

I’m so sorry about your friend, OP. Props to her advisor (and you!) for being supportive and understanding what rape culture means—and saying “fuck this shit, NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO TOUCH YOU.”

Virginia GOP Nominee For Attorney General Would Force Women To Report Their Miscarriages To Police

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:17:22 -0400

Virginia GOP Nominee For Attorney General Would Force Women To Report Their Miscarriages To Police:

robot-heart-politics:

abaldwin360:

If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law. And yet, the […]

*sigh*

Somewhere between 10% and 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. 1 in 4 people who can get pregnant will experience a miscarriage. A miscarriage is a completely normal, natural process that happens surprisingly frequently. Why on earth should it be reported to law enforcement, and how on earth does this not constitute gross government overreach into people’s private lives?

Can we stop with this already?

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:16:32 -0400

arguing-about-abortions:

Things that are like abortion
- Abortion

Things that are not like abortion
- Slavery
- Genocide
- The Holocaust
- School shootings

saveplanetearth: Climate Warnings, Growing Louder: “Hence the...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:15:02 -0400

saveplanetearth:

Climate Warnings, Growing Louder: “Hence the need for executive action” @ New York Times Editorial Board

liberalsarecool: Via The Everlasting GOP Stoppers

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:27:12 -0400

liberalsarecool:

Via The Everlasting GOP Stoppers

Truth: The IRS and the Real Scandal

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:20:45 -0400

Truth: The IRS and the Real Scandal :

robertreich:

“This systematic abuse cannot be fixed with just one resignation, or two,” said David Camp, the Republican chairman of the House tax-writing committee, at an oversight hearing Friday morning dealing with the IRS. “This is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the…

"We know that the press corps spent most of the last week chasing a story based on an email that..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:42:51 -0400

“We know that the press corps spent most of the last week chasing a story based on an email that didn’t exist. It was fabricated by a Republican aide and then reported as fact. Sad commentary that Republicans are so dead set on embarrassing the President, the foreign service, the CIA and our military that they would actually lie to a news organization about the contents of an email and let that news organization report their lies as fact. The attack in Benghazi is an issue of life and death. We should be focused tracking down the terrorists that committed this act and bringing them to justice not on smear politics and false scandals.”

- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (via kileyrae)

theatlantic: The Real Benghazi Scandal America is far less...

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:01:03 -0400

theatlantic:

The Real Benghazi Scandal

America is far less served by the endless recitation of calls made and talking points issued than it would be by a hard look at the members of Congress that failed to provide resources, and the bureaucratic hurdles that kept the resources that were available from being deployed. The breathless search for a cover-up has only served to bury those real — and potentially deadly — problems.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

dem-queer-animals: awesome-everyday: shorterexcerpts: thecallu...

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:38:38 -0400

dem-queer-animals:

awesome-everyday:

shorterexcerpts:

thecallus:

theatlantic:

The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses?

What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod]

It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why?

IT’S BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME YOU THUNDERING IDIOTS. Fucking preference has nothing to do with it. 50% of college graduates have no job! They all have the most student loan debt ever! What are you asking this question for?!

Also: housing is a good bit more expensive now.

My parents got a 15-year mortgage on a new house in the mid-70s. The house was $32,000. Average home price in that area now? $190,000.

So, home prices went up. Food prices went up. Health care prices went WAY UP. Rent prices went up. Higher education went up so damn high that some of us forgo that all together. Energy prices went up. Car prices went up.

Prices of prices went up.

We also pay cell phone bills, internet bills, data plans, text plans, online subscriptions, cable/satellite tv, netflix, DVR subscriptions — bills that didn’t even exist 30-40 years ago. We also use computers and smartphones and microwaves and other consumer electronics that didn’t exist 20-50 years ago.

We need medications and doctors and contact lenses and tampons and maxi pads and other things that cost money just to be alive and keep us healthy.

Most of us can’t afford to:

Get married and have a “Traditional” big wedding

Buy a house

Buy a new car

PLAN to have children

Take two, consecutive weeks of vacation.

Jobs that paid 50k in the late 1990s now pay between 30-35. Interest rates that favor consumers have gone down.

So I say, no. We are not choosing not to buy homes. We’re not choosing to take the bus in cities where there’s no good public transit. WE ARE NOT CHOOSING TO LIVE WHAT SOCIETY DEEMS AS AN UNDESIRABLE LIFESTYLE.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that these two people in the picture are young white hipsters. Young black and brown folks have been forgoing homeownership and buying new cars for decades, this shit isn’t new, pal. You’re just acting like this shit is new because it’s hitting white folks.

anyway, my point is: We are fucking broke.

read the commentary above ^^

"“Don’t you know that slavery was outlawed?” “No,” the guard said, “you’re wrong. Slavery was..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:18:09 -0400

“

“Don’t you know that slavery was outlawed?”
“No,” the guard said, “you’re wrong. Slavery was outlawed with the exception of prisons. Slavery is legal in prisons.”
I looked it up and sure enough, she was right. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution says:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Well, that explained a lot of things. That explained why jails and prisons all over the country are filled to the brim with Black and Third World people, why so many Black people can’t find a job on the streets and are forced to survive the best way they know how. Once you’re in prison, there are plenty of jobs, and, if you don’t want to work, they beat you up and throw you in a hole. If every state had to pay workers to do the jobs prisoners are forced to do, the salaries would amount to billions… Prisons are a profitable business. They are a way of legally perpetuating slavery. In every state more and more prisons are being built and even more are on the drawing board. Who are they for? They certainly aren’t planning to put white people in them. Prisons are part of this government’s genocidal war against Black and Third World people.

”

- Assata (via michellehuxtable)

I tell my students this every single semester.

(via notesofanativesister)

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Mon, 06 May 2013 15:15:09 -0400

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Mon, 06 May 2013 15:12:02 -0400

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Mon, 06 May 2013 15:09:56 -0400

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Mon, 06 May 2013 15:06:20 -0400

"To be clear, I do not have a problem with increased protection or security. Who’s to say that a..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:05:14 -0400

“To be clear, I do not have a problem with increased protection or security. Who’s to say that a shooting won’t occur at the next student party? It could happen, God forbid, and I understand why USC wants to be prepared. My issue lies within the selective surveillance of minority-hosted parties, as if crimes only happen among high concentrations of melanin. Hundreds of criminal offenses, including sexual harassment, rape and assault happen every Thursday night on Greek Row, a undeniably white establishment. Yet, the culprits of the Department of Public Safety Crime Reports distributed to USC students and faculty, seem to be strictly limited to Black and Latino males (6’2-6’5 in dark hoodies).”

- I’m a Scholar, Not a Criminal: The Plight of Black Students at USC (via ikenbot)