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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Hey, North West, greetings from the Northwest

Pop culture

Kurt Schlosser TODAY

June 21, 2013 at 2:20 PM ET

Eric Ryan / Getty Images file

New parents Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Northwesterners are a proud lot. We actually like being 3,000 miles from everything. We like our music. We like the rain. We're not big on attention -- especially the kind that comes with a major celebrity couple naming their new baby after the region we call home.

Seattle, where this story is originating from, is hardly a backwoods outpost devoid of celebrity intrigue. We've got our own hip-hop royalty in Macklemore ... you know, the "Thrift Shop" guy. (Tired of that song? At least his album, which went gold in April, isn't called "Yeezus.") We've got memories of Elvis singing under the Space Needle and the Beatles fishing from a hotel window. Frasier Crane lived here and the "Grey's Anatomy" doctors worked here; so did Tom Hanks in that movie we don't need to name.

We were all a little "Sleepless" Thursday night when Twitter started pointing at us. Actually, Twitter started pointing at a little girl whose new name is North West. Her parents, rapper Kanye West and reality-er Kim Kardashian, bucked weeks of K-name rumors, it seemed, and went in a new direction. We wish they'd used a different kompass.

For a little girl who will likely grow up in Los Angeles and New York and Miami and Paris, being saddled with a soggy moniker will take some getting used to. Kind of like getting used to being the daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Nori, as she'll reportedly be known, should be aware of some of the stereotypes associated with the Northwest, even if she never lives here.

Forget the coffee thing and the grunge thing. Two companies, through relatively recent advertising campaigns, get at the heart of the Northwest mystique with a little more humor. A SoCal/Miami Beach girl should be aware of Northwest beach culture, so check out this ad from Henry Weinhard's beer, a one-time Oregon brewery:

And Pemco Insurance has a campaign aimed at nothing but Northwest stereotypes. Socks with sandals guy, excessive recycling lady, the roadside chainsaw woodcarver ... as the slogan states, "We're a lot like you. A little different":

The couple will certainly turn a fashionable eye toward their daughter. Kim and her K-named sisters have a line for Sears; Kanye has a line for people who don't walk in the rain. People no doubt still associate Northwest fashion with flannels and fleece, but who better to outfit the little girl than The North West Clothing Co.? The Seattle-based T-shirt, hat and hoodie maker needs to start a onesie line before the girl is wearing nothing but Rob Kardashian's socks.

Through it all, we hope North West the girl grows to love Northwest the destination, even if Northwest the airline isn't around anymore to fly her here. She wouldn't be the first or last Californian to ditch all that for all this.

But she may have trouble finding us if she Googles "north west." As Buzzfeed pointed out Friday morning, the search was already returning pictures of her parents among the images of maps. Yeezus H ...

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/north-west-should-know-thing-or-two-about-northwest-6C10411618

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New Android apps worth downloading: Calorie Counter - MyFitnessPal update, ProxToMe, Frozen Synapse

Looking to lose weight? You might start the week with MyFitnessPal, the newly updated weight loss app that helps you count calories, track exercise and more. Following that is ProxToMe, an app for connecting with nearby people and sharing cool digital content. Finally, Frozen Synapse will scratch the tactical, strategic itch of any gamer.

What?s it about? Your one-stop fitness shop, MyFitnessPal includes calorie-counting features, exercises and social networking to help you get support to reach your fitness goals.

What?s cool? MyFitnessPal starts as a calorie counter app, but it's really a whole lot more than that. It includes a huge database of foods to make it easy to keep track of just how many calories you're taking in on any given day, but the app also features some 350 exercises to help you keep track of what you're burning, too. There are also social networking features that allow you to diet with friends, which is great for helping to stay motivated. MyFitnessPal's new update brings in a full redesign for the app, with new language support and tons of tweaks and bug fixes.

Who?s it for? Whether your goal is to lose weight or just stay in the shape you're in, MyFitnessPal can help.

What?s it like? Try RunKeeper and My Diet Diary Calorie Counter for more fitness assistance.

What?s it about? With social networking app ProxToMe, you can find people near you and share digital content with them.

What?s cool? The primary goal of ProxToMe is to make it easy to share all kinds of files from a DropBox account with other users. The app lets you link up with your Facebook account so you can message Facebook friends and trade files back and forth, and you can also sync up with people near you to trade files as well. The app also brings users a little something extra with ?Free Music Friday,? and lets you view the Facebook profiles of nearby users to help you connect with new people and discover new cool stuff.

Who?s it for? DropBox users looking to meet new people and discover new content should try ProxToMe.

What?s it like? Don't forget to snag the standalone DropBox app for a lot of handy sharing and cloud-saving features.

What?s it about? Indie strategy game Frozen Synapse mixes turn-based and active game styles to create a unique tactical experience.

What?s cool? The cool thing about Frozen Synapse, a former PC title that has made the jump to mobile, is how well it mixes to schools of gameplay in the strategy genre. On the one hand, players take turns assigning orders to squads of characters, maneuvering them around the game field in an effort to eliminate enemy characters. But while you might have all the time in the world to issue your orders, all the characters' orders are all executed at the same time ? which means enemy characters will often do things you never expected and totally muck up your plans. With an extensive single-player campaign, as well as five different multiplayer modes and more.

Who?s it for? If you like your gameplay intelligent, deep and tactical, you should try Frozen Synapse.

What?s it like? Grab Squids and Great Big War Game for more strategic, tactical action.

Download the Appolicious Android app

Source: http://www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/13551-new-android-apps-worth-downloading-calorie-counter-myfitnesspal-update-proxtome-frozen-synapse

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House defeats farm bill because of food stamp cuts

In rejecting a $500 farm bill that included cuts to food stamps, Congress temporarily sidesteps a paradox: Why are food-stamp rolls growing while the economy is recovering?

By Margaret Price,?Correspondent / June 20, 2013

A farmers market in Roseville, Calif., announces that it accepts electronic Benefit Transfer cards, carried by recipients of food stamps. On Thursday, June 20, 2013, the House rejected a five-year, $500 billion farm bill that would have cut $2 billion annually from food stamps and let states impose broad new work requirements on those who receive them.

Rich Pedroncelli/AP/File

Enlarge

Joel Freeman never imagined needing food stamps after graduating from college.

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But unable to find full-time work since 2005, he and his disabled wife have had to survive on bare-bones income: his limited earnings as a freelance marketing and communications specialist, her Social Security disability payments, and their $367 a month payment from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program.

"This is a harrowing existence," says Mr. Freeman of Middleton, Wis. And "it would really hurt" if proposals to cut funding for SNAP take effect.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives was poised to do just that. The Republican leadership believed it had enough votes from Republicans and rural Democrats to approve a $500 billion farm bill that, in addition to setting agriculture subsidies, would have cut SNAP benefits sharply over the next decade. But conservative Republicans, who wanted more cuts, and liberal Democrats, who wanted fewer, voted against the measure. The farm bill was defeating by a vote of 295 to 324.

For now, Congress sidesteps a paradox: Although the economy and job market are recovering, SNAP rolls are bigger now than they were in the depths of the recession. As a temporary recession-era boost to the program comes to an end and Congress moves to reauthorize the bill that funds the overall program, the threat of cuts looms large. Many critics are pushing for trims, saying SNAP is inefficient and benefits more than just the truly hungry.

"In 2009, when the economic recovery began, 11 percent of the population was on food stamps. Now, four years later, it's 15 percent even though unemployment has decreased," says Diana Furchtgott-Roth, senior fellow in the Washington office of Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a think tank.

Among its problems, SNAP can discourage people from working, she says. "If you earn above a certain income, you no longer qualify. [And if you're receiving SNAP benefits], you don't have as much pressure to go get a job."

Rather than trim the program, Ms. Furchtgott-Roth and Chris Edwards, an economist at the Cato Institute in Washington, are among those who want to convert SNAP, the government's leading food-assistance program, into block grant allocations to states. In May, the Senate rejected the latest attempt ? an amendment to the latest farm bill ? to turn SNAP into block grant funding.

Clearly, SNAP enrollments, at a record 47.8 million people in December, have surged during the sharp recession and sluggish recovery, partly because of eased eligibility restrictions in recent years. The Congressional Budget Office projects enrollments will slowly decline, starting at the end of fiscal 2014.

Proponents of SNAP cite broad economic benefits from it ? and big problems if it's cut. Some cite government data that a $1 billion increase in SNAP expenditures boosts gross domestic product by $1.79 billion. Those outlays "produce jobs, help people retain jobs, and help food businesses that already operate with low profit margins," says Bill Ayres, executive director of WhyHunger, a New York City-based provider of information and connections to community-based anti-hunger groups.

To be sure, charitable food pantries and soup kitchens also help feed the needy. But experts say already high demand for these services could overwhelm providers if the food stamp program were sharply cut.

SNAP is funded through the US farm bill, the multiyear legislation that governs agricultural subsidies. After Congress failed in 2012 to reauthorize the farm bill, parts of it were extended until Sept. 30, 2013. In May, the agriculture committees of both the Senate and House of Representatives passed farm legislation that, in the Senate's bill, cuts SNAP by $4.1 billion over 10 years; the House's version trims SNAP by $20.5 billion over a decade.

The House version "could reduce benefits for as many as 850,000 households," says Maura Daly, spokeswoman for Feeding America, a major nonprofit hunger-relief group based in Chicago. "And it could eliminate eligibility for 2 [million] to 3 million needy people."

Moreover, a boost to SNAP funding, obtained through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, expires in November. When that extra funding ends, the average SNAP benefit of about $1.50 per person per meal will decline to about $1.40 per person per meal, notes Stacy Dean of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. (According to the CBPP, some members of Congress as well as the Obama administration have proposed delaying or averting that benefit cut, but Congress so far hasn't acted on these proposals.)

For her part, SNAP recipient Denise Martin of Troutdale, Ore., would like to get off food stamps soon. The mother of a 9-year-old and author of a book, "Eating My Way to Heaven," regrets that the size of SNAP payments makes it difficult to afford healthy eating. She also believes that "a lot of people are abusing the food stamp program."

But she doesn't think the government should slash SNAP spending unless an appropriate alternative ? such as more hunger assistance from nonprofit organizations ? can be found.

"You can't just whip the program out from under recipients," Ms. Martin says. "Many people need it."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hu9DI188NOc/House-defeats-farm-bill-because-of-food-stamp-cuts

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Friday, June 21, 2013

How Digg Raced to Make the Google Reader Replacement You'll Want

With Google Reader about to meet its maker, Digg decided to make the ultimate replacement. That was two months ago?and Wired has the inside track of exactly how the project has come together since then.

At the outset, it's fair to say things didn't look pretty. Hopping back in time two months, Matt Honan describes where Digg were when they started:

Right now [Digg Reader is] just a mess of code, Keynote sides, and shit on a whiteboard. They need to turn it into a real product, one to take the place of Google Reader, which shuts down on July 1. They have less than 60 days. Simultaneously, the same team of five engineers is working to integrate another product?Instapaper?that they?ve just purchased. None of this is top secret, the opposite in fact. Digg publicly promised the world to have a replacement ready in time. They had to move fast. And when you move fast, things get fucked up.

When Google announced that Reader was going to die, Digg announced they'd fill the gap that exact same evening. So what made them think they could do it? Honan explains:

The idea of Digg building a Reader replacement just resonated. The revamped Digg.com was already popular, especially in news and developer circles. It had a reputation for scrumptious headlines and kickers, courtesy of editorial director David Weiner, a HuffPo alum. It?s tech team, led by CTO Michael Young had already shown serious backend chops, which meant people didn?t doubt its ability to pull off building a reader. The same minimalist sensibility that design director Justin Van Slembrouck had given the front page of Digg would translate well to the new project, and, hell: Its GM Jake Levine might even be able to figure out a way to monetize it in ways Google never had.

Now, just days ahead of the official roll out, Digg Reader is (kinda) ready. Having seen it in action, Honan explains what he thinks:

Digg Reader meets pretty much all the goals the team set for itself. It?s got a slick minimalist design that, yes, looks very much like Google Reader (and very much like Feedly, for that matter). It has built-in sharing and saving features. The Digg button will help find stories for the site?s front page. The iOS app is fantastic (it even has a car mode for podcasts). It has read counts, and they work, which sounds easy to pull off but requires lots of complex things happening in real time on the back end. (Which is why Google Reader?s unread count maxxed out at 1000+). All that remains to be seen is if it is fast, and if it can scale.

Watch this space, then. And, in the meantime, go check out the Wired feature, because it makes for fascinating reading. [Wired]

Image by Tyler Howarth under Creative Commons license

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-digg-raced-to-make-the-google-reader-replacement-yo-515126314

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Viewers Send In Clips Of Moms Playing Videos Games On 'Late Night' (VIDEO)

Jimmy Fallon asked people to send in videos of playing video games with their moms for "Video Game Week." On Thursday's "Late Night" he aired the best clips.

Check out the video above to see why these moms should play video games more often.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/gaming-with-my-mom_n_3479813.html

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Ghitis: A new age of protests (CNN)

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Sunday, June 2, 2013

How and why to teach your kids to code

Tips

Melanie Pinola Lifehacker

9 hours ago

LifeHacker / Photo remixed from an original by sneaka.

Whether or not your child grows up to be the next Zuckerberg, programming is a highly useful skill for him or her to learn. It teaches vital problem-solving, creativity, and communication skills. Plus, it can be downright fun for you both. Here are some of the best tried-and-true apps for teaching kids of all ages how to code.

There's no time like the present

Perhaps there's no better group to teach coding to than children (cue in Whitney Houston song about children and our future). Kids absorb information and use new technologies like they're old hat. (Just ask any parent who's given an iPad to a diapered child or the dad who raised his kids on the command line.)

It's hard to imagine the amazing apps and tools they'll develop when they're older if we get them started learning how to tinker now. But most importantly, when you introduce your child to programming, in the process he/she's not just learning to code, but also coding to learn, as MIT professor Mitchel Resnick writes.

For my part, I think of coding as an interest my daughter already has that I want to foster, the same as for reading or drawing. At 7-years old, she's too young to think of it in terms of "If-then" statements, but the impetus is still the same: she wants to make a game or an animation and doesn't even question that the tools are within her reach. The awesome apps available today engage her curiosity and teach her the fundamentals through exploration and play. In other words, the best way to learn.

Here are the apps we've tried and others that come highly recommended by other Lifehackers/parents. Many of them are iPad-based, simply because that touch interface is more intuitive for young kids, but there are desktop and Web-based apps as well for students of all ages.

Programming games for the youngest learners

Daisy the Dinosaur

The best apps for the youngest children are centered more on graphics and simple animations than the actual code itself. While most of these types of game-like educational apps are rated for ages 8+, if your kid is old enough to read, understand cause and effect, and motivated, you can introduce the games below to even pre-K learners.

Daisy the Dinosaur (iPad, free): On a dinosaur kick, Elise discovered this app on her own and we installed it a few years ago. The app prompts kids to manipulate a character, Daisy, through challenges that involve loops, events, and other programming basics (e.g., when touched, move dinosaur forward). It's a very stripped-down, basic program, but the simplicity is a big plus for young kids. There's a free-play version in this app as well, so you can make Daisy jump in the air or walk backwards at will. (The novelty of this, however, wears off as soon as kids discover the stellar kids' animation tool Toontastic, which doesn't teach code logic, but rather storytelling basics).

Move the Turtle(iPhone/iPad, $2.99): Similar to Daisy the Dinosaur, Move the Turtle teaches basic programming concepts by manipulating one graphical object through challenges. Yes, a cute turtle (like Logo back in the late '60s to '80s). This app was recommended by several Lifehacker Twitter followers, but Elise refused to try it because: the concept was the same as Daisy the Dinosaur, you could only do certain things with the turtle, and she wanted to do whatever she wanted with more characters. In other words, she had outgrown single-task-based educational apps. Still, with Move the Turtle, kids can learn a great deal of logical programming concepts, as Wired's Geek Dad asserts. (I prefer Move the Turtle's puzzles and interface over Daisy the Dinosaur, but who am I to argue with a 7-year-old?)

Graphical tools for beginners of all ages

Scratch

Moving past the simple single-character-manipulation apps, you'll find apps that teach programming through drag-and-drop interfaces with coding blocks. Think LEGO, but with code. In these, your child can pull in code parts to manipulate more than one object (and access more commands, variables, and events) to create animations or games.

Hopscotch (iPad, Free): From the makers of Daisy the Dinosaur, Hopscotch is a visual introduction to programming for kids ages 8-12. Kids can select preset characters or create text objects and manipulate them by dragging-and-dropping method blocks. For example, you can move an object by a set amount on the X-Y axis, change the scale, or repeat actions. The app offers just right amount of controls for kids just starting out. They're very limited in what they can do, but this means kids can play with the iPad on their own and learn how each basic method works. (So, you don't have to feel guilty saying "Find out for yourself" when your kid asks "How do I make the monkey move backwards?") In one week, Elise made eighteen animations on her own on Hopscotch, substituting text blocks for the characters she wanted to animate. Most of those animations were simple explorations of what you can to the objects, but she learned things like how to position objects with math and time events.

Scratch (Web, Free): An MIT project specifically designed for kids ages 8 to 16, Scratch has been used by educators and parents around the world to help kids develop animations, interactive stories, and games through drag-and-drop code blocks. It was the first programming tool I introduced my daughter to, when I was taking a programming course a few years ago. I remember saying, "Hey, Elise, isn't this neat? By changing this block I can make this dog meow like a cat." She was hooked ever since.

Scratch remains our favorite programming tool, mainly because it offers so much control. It's like Hopscotch, above, but more robust, and like App Inventor, below, but more user-friendly. In Scratch, there's a huge gallery of objects you can use or customize. (Don't underestimate the importance for a kid of coloring a character just so.) And with the vast array of methods available, you can make them do just about anything. Elise wanted to make a game called "Spider Run" (like Temple Run, but with a mechanical spider chasing you and spikes in the ground that slow you down), and the only tool we've discussed so far that could really pull this off is Scratch. Although they can't be turned into bonefide mobile apps, your kids' creations can be saved and shared on the site.

Stencyl (Windows, Mac, Lunux; Free): Scratch is our favorite so far, but Stencyl, which I just learned about from our own Thorin Klosowski, is next up for us. It "pays homage" to Scratch but specifically designed to create games and can publish to every platform (iOS, Android, Flash, HTML5, Windows, and Mac). Over 12,000 games have been created using Stencyl; I can't wait to try it.

More robust coding tools for older kids (and the young at heart)

Alice

The apps below are more advanced, focusing on both on the code itself and visualizing how it works.

App Inventor (Web, Free): Formerly a Google project, now hosted by MIT, App Inventor is much like Scratch with its drag-and-drop coding blocks. It includes, however, every method, function, and other coding element you might use to create an Android app?and for good reason. After fiddling with App Inventor, you end up with an actual Android app.

This makes the online tool really robust, but the interface isn't young-kid friendly. It's probably best for at least junior high school kids or older (e.g., adults), as there are no instructions and the features aren't all that intuitive to use.

Alice (Windows, Mac, Linux; Free): Carnegie Melon's Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop app uses a unique 3D programming environment to teach kids the fundamentals of programming. It's more advanced than other kid-friendly programming tools, though great for older kids. A welcome feature: kids can see the code behind their projects in the software. Not-so-welcome: You need Java runtime to run Alice.

Video Lessons from Pluralsight (Web, Free): Online training site Pluralsight offers three video courses for kids, teaching them how to program in C# using Visual Basic, use Scratch, and use App Inventor. If your kids are old enough to sit through video instructions, these could help supplement the hands-on training they get through play.

Codecademyand Khan Academy (Web, Free): These interactive online tools are better suited for older kids (maybe middle grade and above) and adults. They're one of the best ways to learn to code, though, because you can see the changes as they happen in the split screen. Codecademy teaches Web fundamentals, jQuery, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, and more. Khan Academy's coding environment uses JavaScript.

What we've learned about teachingkids to code

via LifeHacker

We've had a lot of fun using the apps above, but I think that's because we've looked at them not from a "let's learn programming" mindset but from a "hey, want to make something? We can use this to do it" mentality. In Sarah Mei's presentation on teaching Ruby to Kids, she talks about setting specific goals when you set out on this adventure, such as "I want Lily to be so excited that she explores things on her own after we're done." For us, learning to program isn't the end result, but making something (through trial and error and learning basic skills in the process) is.

So along the way, I've learned as a parent to bite my tongue. The hardest part is refraining from hovering over my kid's shoulder and stopping myself from saying "no, use this function, not that one." Instead, I'm learning the features in the apps she's using so I can say, "hey, look at what this does" or "what happens if we do this" and we discover together where we can go from there.