Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Friday, July 31, 2020
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Monday, July 27, 2020
Sunday, July 26, 2020
HUM 111 Elizabeth I to the Glorious Revolution
“From Elizabeth I to the Glorious Revolution”
Overview:
The 16th and 17th centuries witnessed a growing crisis in the English monarchy, which was not resolved until the Glorious Revolution. The appeal to natural law, especially as formulated by John Locke, as the standard by which to govern political society, along with the idea of the necessity of the separation of powers to guard against tyranny, influenced not only English politics, but later, American revolutionaries.
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Part 7: Identity and Immortality
Personal identity deals with philosophical questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people (or, as lawyers and philosophers like to say, persons). This contrasts with questions about ourselves that arise by virtue of our being living things, conscious beings, material objects, or the like.
Many of these questions occur to nearly all of us now and again: What am I? When did I begin? What will happen to me when I die? Others are more abstruse. Personal identity has been discussed since the origins of Western philosophy, and most major figures have had something to say about it.
Personal identity is sometimes discussed under the protean term self. And ‘self’ does sometimes mean ‘person’. But it often means something different: some sort of immaterial subject of consciousness, for instance (as in the phrase ‘the myth of the self’). The term is often used without any clear meaning at all.
Many of these questions occur to nearly all of us now and again: What am I? When did I begin? What will happen to me when I die? Others are more abstruse. Personal identity has been discussed since the origins of Western philosophy, and most major figures have had something to say about it.
Personal identity is sometimes discussed under the protean term self. And ‘self’ does sometimes mean ‘person’. But it often means something different: some sort of immaterial subject of consciousness, for instance (as in the phrase ‘the myth of the self’). The term is often used without any clear meaning at all.
Personal Identity: Crash Course Philosophy #19, 8:32
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=trqDnLNRuSc
Today Hank is building on last week’s exploration of identity to focus on personal identity. Does it in reside in your body? Is it in the collective memories of your consciousness? There are, of course, strengths and weaknesses to both of these ideas, and that’s what we’re talking about today.
https://youtu.be/trqDnLNRuSc
1. How are they all the Doctor?
2. What is the one thing that remains constant?
3. What is our essential property?
4. Summarize some of the ideas philosophers have come up with.
5. Describe a thought experiment.
6. What did Locke contribute?
7. What problems does memory entail?
8. Does any of this really matter?
9. Do you believe you have obligations to particular people in your life?
Today Hank is building on last week’s exploration of identity to focus on personal identity. Does it in reside in your body? Is it in the collective memories of your consciousness? There are, of course, strengths and weaknesses to both of these ideas, and that’s what we’re talking about today.
https://youtu.be/trqDnLNRuSc
1. How are they all the Doctor?
2. What is the one thing that remains constant?
3. What is our essential property?
4. Summarize some of the ideas philosophers have come up with.
5. Describe a thought experiment.
6. What did Locke contribute?
7. What problems does memory entail?
8. Does any of this really matter?
9. Do you believe you have obligations to particular people in your life?
Part 7: Identity and Immortality
A Case of Identity
Brian Smart
Brian Smart
The Problem of Personal Identity
John Perry
John Perry
John R. Perry (born 1943) is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of California, Riverside. He has made significant contributions to philosophy in the fields of logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. He is known primarily for his work on situation semantics (together with Jon Barwise), reflexivity, indexicality, personal identity, and self-knowledge.
https://youtu.be/58R0yYh_odo
What is the goal of the dialogue?
What does Miller contend?
What is the problem of the soul?
What is the memory view?
What are the two ways of thinking about the transporter works in Star Trek?
Which is correct?
In the third night what is reviewed about personal identity?
The Unimportance of Identity
Derek Parfit
Derek Parfit
Derek Parfit discussing personal identity in the documentary Brainspotting, 9:24
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uS-46k0ncIs
https://youtu.be/uS-46k0ncIs
How do we exist?
What are the four options on the checklist?
What happens after a brain transplant?
Are there one or two persons?
What happens with teletransportation?
https://youtu.be/uS-46k0ncIs
How do we exist?
What are the four options on the checklist?
What happens after a brain transplant?
Are there one or two persons?
What happens with teletransportation?
Life after Death
Terence Penelhum
Metaphysics deals with the study of the nature of reality. Since the Enlightenment, reality has been seen through the lenses of both religion and science, and frequently there has been a conflict between the views of the two. Following the horrors of the Second World War, the attacks on the views of religion became particularly vigorous with science on the offensive.
Canadian philosophers in the postwar era have attempted, in a number of ways, to resolve these conflicts and to legitimize religious belief. A variety of approaches have been used.
Terence Penelhum
Metaphysics deals with the study of the nature of reality. Since the Enlightenment, reality has been seen through the lenses of both religion and science, and frequently there has been a conflict between the views of the two. Following the horrors of the Second World War, the attacks on the views of religion became particularly vigorous with science on the offensive.
Canadian philosophers in the postwar era have attempted, in a number of ways, to resolve these conflicts and to legitimize religious belief. A variety of approaches have been used.
Some have attempted to address issues in the philosophy of religion by questioning underlying issues in metaphysics. Those following this approach within the analytic tradition include Kai Nielsen, Donald Evans (1963), and Terence Penelhum (1970).
Do We Need Immortality?
Grace M. Jantzen
Grace Marion Jantzen (24 May 1948 – 2 May 2006) was a Canadian feminist philosopher and theologian. She was professor of religion, culture and gender at Manchester University from 1996 until her death from cancer at the age of 57.
Arguably, her most famous work is Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion. In this book, Grace Jantzen proposes a new philosophy of religion from a feminist perspective. She also authored works on Christian mysticism and the foundations of modernity. Her approach was influenced by Continental scholarship, particularly that of Foucault.
In her final publication, Foundations of Violence, Jantzen, sketches the fascination with death and violence -- what she calls a 'necrophilia' -- that she believes has characterized much of Western culture from classical antiquity through Christianity to present paradigms. In Jantzen's view, this emphasis on violence and death comes at the expense of the physical body in the present (a denigration of the senses, sexuality and sensuality), and thus, establishes a yearning for mystical worlds beyond the here and now.
Grace M. Jantzen
Grace Marion Jantzen (24 May 1948 – 2 May 2006) was a Canadian feminist philosopher and theologian. She was professor of religion, culture and gender at Manchester University from 1996 until her death from cancer at the age of 57.
Arguably, her most famous work is Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion. In this book, Grace Jantzen proposes a new philosophy of religion from a feminist perspective. She also authored works on Christian mysticism and the foundations of modernity. Her approach was influenced by Continental scholarship, particularly that of Foucault.
In her final publication, Foundations of Violence, Jantzen, sketches the fascination with death and violence -- what she calls a 'necrophilia' -- that she believes has characterized much of Western culture from classical antiquity through Christianity to present paradigms. In Jantzen's view, this emphasis on violence and death comes at the expense of the physical body in the present (a denigration of the senses, sexuality and sensuality), and thus, establishes a yearning for mystical worlds beyond the here and now.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke
John Locke
PHILOSOPHY - History: Locke on Personal Identity #1, 11:30
PHILOSOPHY - History: Locke on Personal Identity #1, 11:30
Part 1 of 3. In this Wireless Philosophy video, Michael Della Rocca (Yale University) explores some of the puzzles and problems of personal identity that arise from the revolutionary work of the philosopher John Locke.
What makes you the same person as the little kid growing up a number of years ago?
Is the identity of a person tied to the persistence of a body or a soul or something else entirely? Can we even give any explanation at all of the persistence of a person?
A Treatise of Human Nature
David Hume
David Hume
David Hume on Personal Identity -Kiana Crawford, 5:05
David Hume on Personal Identity -Kiana Crawford, 5:05
https://youtu.be/Jcnnmi_gPug
Are persons just impressions?
Hume rejects what?
What is an impression?
How does he explain impressions?
How can we construct identity?
What does Hume note?
What is causation?
How does Hume disagree with Locke?
Do you agree with Hume's view on personal identify as he had three strong arguments?
How would you recap Hume's arguments?
Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man
Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid (26 April 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, a contemporary of David Hume as well as "Hume's earliest and fiercest critic". He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment.
The early part of his life was spent in Aberdeen and he graduated from the University of Aberdeen. He began his career as a Minister of the Church of Scotland but ceased to be a Minister (or called 'Reverend') when he was given a professorship at King's College, Aberdeen in 1752.
He obtained his doctorate and wrote An Inquiry Into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (published in 1764). He and his colleagues founded the 'Aberdeen Philosophical Society' which was popularly known as the 'Wise Club' (a literary-philosophical association). Shortly after the publication of his first book, he was given the prestigious Professorship of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow when he was called to replace Adam Smith.
He resigned from this position in 1781, after which he prepared his university lectures for publication in two books: Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785) and Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind (1788). Reid was buried at Blackfriars Church in the grounds of Glasgow College and when the university moved to Gilmorehill in the west of Glasgow, his tombstone was inserted in the main building.
Reid believed that common sense (in a special philosophical sense of sensus communis) is, or at least should be, at the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He disagreed with Hume, who asserted that we can never know what an external world consists of as our knowledge is limited to the ideas in the mind, and George Berkeley, who asserted that the external world is merely ideas in the mind. By contrast, Reid claimed that the foundations upon which our sensus communis are built justify our belief that there is an external world.
In his day and for some years into the 19th century, he was regarded as more important than Hume. He advocated direct realism, or common sense realism, and argued strongly against the Theory of Ideas advocated by John Locke, René Descartes, and (in varying forms) nearly all Early Modern philosophers who came after them. He had a great admiration for Hume and had a mutual friend send Hume an early manuscript of Reid's Inquiry. Hume responded that the "deeply philosophical" work "is wrote in a lively and entertaining matter," but that "there seems to be some defect in method," and criticized Reid for implying the presence of innate ideas.
Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid (26 April 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, a contemporary of David Hume as well as "Hume's earliest and fiercest critic". He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment.
The early part of his life was spent in Aberdeen and he graduated from the University of Aberdeen. He began his career as a Minister of the Church of Scotland but ceased to be a Minister (or called 'Reverend') when he was given a professorship at King's College, Aberdeen in 1752.
He obtained his doctorate and wrote An Inquiry Into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (published in 1764). He and his colleagues founded the 'Aberdeen Philosophical Society' which was popularly known as the 'Wise Club' (a literary-philosophical association). Shortly after the publication of his first book, he was given the prestigious Professorship of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow when he was called to replace Adam Smith.
He resigned from this position in 1781, after which he prepared his university lectures for publication in two books: Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785) and Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind (1788). Reid was buried at Blackfriars Church in the grounds of Glasgow College and when the university moved to Gilmorehill in the west of Glasgow, his tombstone was inserted in the main building.
Reid believed that common sense (in a special philosophical sense of sensus communis) is, or at least should be, at the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He disagreed with Hume, who asserted that we can never know what an external world consists of as our knowledge is limited to the ideas in the mind, and George Berkeley, who asserted that the external world is merely ideas in the mind. By contrast, Reid claimed that the foundations upon which our sensus communis are built justify our belief that there is an external world.
In his day and for some years into the 19th century, he was regarded as more important than Hume. He advocated direct realism, or common sense realism, and argued strongly against the Theory of Ideas advocated by John Locke, René Descartes, and (in varying forms) nearly all Early Modern philosophers who came after them. He had a great admiration for Hume and had a mutual friend send Hume an early manuscript of Reid's Inquiry. Hume responded that the "deeply philosophical" work "is wrote in a lively and entertaining matter," but that "there seems to be some defect in method," and criticized Reid for implying the presence of innate ideas.
5.2. INTROPHIL - Reid's Challenge to Hume, 2:13
Week five of the University of Edinburgh's "Introduction to Philosophy" (INTROPHIL) open online course. Dr Allan Hazlett School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences University of Edinburgh
https://youtu.be/GSDMIXAg3Zc
When should you only trust testimony according to Hume?
How does Reid challenge Hume's assumption?
How do Reid and Hume agree?
What is innate according to Reid?
Friday, July 24, 2020
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Ian Hunter, Noddy Holder on Mott The Hoople
Rock legends with Noddy Holder on MTH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtQe7BD ... e=youtu.be
after MTH live in paris is an old programme by Noddy Holder on MTH
after MTH live in paris is an old programme by Noddy Holder on MTH
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Monday, July 20, 2020
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Friday, July 17, 2020
HUM 111-112 Renaissance, Reformation, & Counter-Reformation
Overview:
The Renaissance represents a discovery and rebirth of the glories of antiquity, as well as the dawn of the modern world. The great universities of Paris, Bologna, and Oxford were products of the Middle Ages, and had initiated the study of Aristotle and other ancient thinkers in relation the tenets of Christianity. The rise of humanism during the Renaissance represented a challenge to the scholastic thought of the Middle Ages: it was a strain of humanism which resulted in the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church responded by convening the Council of Trent, which initiated the Counter-Reformation.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
HUM 111: Church and State
Overview:
In the wake of the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the corresponding collapse of political cohesion throughout Western Europe in the fifth century, there arose numerous small kingdoms whose rulers came to rely on bishops and other leaders of the Church to help provide regional administrative order. The growth of royal power and the close interactions of Church and state officials gave rise to two fundamental political issues of the Middle Ages, which remain relevant even today: what constitutes the appropriate relationship between secular and spiritual authority, and what is the proper relationship between government and the governed.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
HUM 112: Impressionism or Why is Modern Art So Bad?
Why is Modern Art so Bad? 5:49
For two millennia, great artists set the standard for beauty. Now those standards are gone. Modern art is a competition between the ugly and the twisted; the most shocking wins. What happened? How did the beautiful come to be reviled and bad taste come to be celebrated? Renowned artist Robert Florczak explains the history and the mystery behind this change and how it can be stopped and even reversed.
https://youtu.be/lNI07egoefc
Monday, July 13, 2020
Sunday, July 12, 2020
HUM 112 Slavery and Romanticism
Why Should We Thank the British for Being a Colony?
5:24
Slavery and the slave trade were among the most important economic, political and cultural issues of the Romantic period. Although doubts about the justice and humanity of slavery had been raised as far back as the seventeenth century in the English-speaking world, and earlier in the Spanish, it was not until the second half of the eighteenth century that the trade in slaves received widespread condemnation, and it was not until well into the nineteenth century that slavery itself was successfully challenged and finally abolished. While some defended the slave trade as a necessary evil, by the late 1780s many European nations saw the emergence of popular movements for abolition and emancipation with clear majorities opposed first to the slave trade and, later, to slavery itself. In Britain, antislavery sentiment was widespread between 1780 and 1833, particularly in the 1780s and early 90s, and again in the 1820s and 30s. As such, antislavery can be identified as one of the key movements of the Romantic era. This centrality is reflected in the cultural productions of the period: poets, novelists, philosophers and political writers joined hands with dramatists, artists, printmakers and musicians both to reflect and to influence public opinion, and in many cases writers and artists were the leaders of local and national antislavery organisations.
5:24
Slavery and the slave trade were among the most important economic, political and cultural issues of the Romantic period. Although doubts about the justice and humanity of slavery had been raised as far back as the seventeenth century in the English-speaking world, and earlier in the Spanish, it was not until the second half of the eighteenth century that the trade in slaves received widespread condemnation, and it was not until well into the nineteenth century that slavery itself was successfully challenged and finally abolished. While some defended the slave trade as a necessary evil, by the late 1780s many European nations saw the emergence of popular movements for abolition and emancipation with clear majorities opposed first to the slave trade and, later, to slavery itself. In Britain, antislavery sentiment was widespread between 1780 and 1833, particularly in the 1780s and early 90s, and again in the 1820s and 30s. As such, antislavery can be identified as one of the key movements of the Romantic era. This centrality is reflected in the cultural productions of the period: poets, novelists, philosophers and political writers joined hands with dramatists, artists, printmakers and musicians both to reflect and to influence public opinion, and in many cases writers and artists were the leaders of local and national antislavery organisations.
The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter
In point of contrast, in the remainder of the world, e.g., in Islamic areas the practice of slavery continued.
Because internal growth of the slave population was not enough to fulfill the demand in Muslim society, massive numbers of non-Muslim slaves were imported, resulting in enormous suffering and loss of life from their capture and transportation.
The Muslim Arab slave trade was most active in West Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Africa. In the early 20th century (post World War I), slavery was gradually outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France. Among the last states to abolish slavery were Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from Britain; Oman in 1970, and Mauritania in 1905, 1981, and again in August 2007. However, slavery claiming the sanction of Islam is documented presently in the predominantly Islamic countries of Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, and Sudan.
Saturday, July 11, 2020
Best Chat bots for College Students Using Artificial Intelligence
Best Chat bots for College Students Using Artificial Intelligence
Which are the best intelligent chatbots or ai chatbots available?
Chatbots for College:
Chatbots prove how far the technology has progressed in a relatively short time. Your time at college provides the first introduction to having to deal with many responsibilities at once without oversight, and the chatbots listed here can help ease the learning curve.
How many may need housing at some point? Consider a housing bot: Ems
How many have lost files? Try: Findo.
How many are overwhelmed with checking email and could use an assistant to prioritize communication? Astro
How many of you eat? Forksy
How many could use assistance in job hunting? Jobo
AI robot, 3:11
ROSE may be the most informative chatbot.
http://ec2-54-215-197-164.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/speech.php
Rose is a chatbot, and a very good one — she won recognition as the most human-like chatbot in a competition described as the first Turing test, the Loebner Prize in 2014 and 2015.
The Loebner Prize is an annual competition in artificial intelligence that awards prizes to the chatterbot considered by the judges to be the most human-like. The format of the competition is that of a standard Turing test.
Insomno bot is for night owls. As the name suggests, it is for all people out there who have trouble sleeping. This bot talks to you when you have no one around and gives you amazing replies so that you won’t get bored. It’s not something that will help you count stars when you can’t sleep or help you with reading suggestions, but this bot talks to you about anything.
http://insomnobot3000.com/
https://chatbotsmagazine.com/which-are-the-best-intelligent-chatbots-or-ai-chatbots-available-online-cc49c0f3569d
Ems is a London-based chatbot that learns about housing preferences, makes suggestions based upon them, keeps an eye out for possible matches and lets busy students book viewings with just two taps on a smartphone screen, without ever talking to a human.
Also, you don’t have to download an app to use Ems. Simply go to the website and start chatting in the pop-up window on the right side of the screen.
http://ems.ai/
Advertised as a “smart search assistant,” Findo sorts through emails, computers, personal clouds, and more to retrieve desired files.
Frazzled students can also request searches using natural language, even when they can’t remember the details, by saying things such as “Find me the paper I wrote for that biology professor during freshman year.”
The aptly named FindoBot is the chatbot aspect of Findo. It integrates with services like Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Slack, and delivers search results directly into those interfaces to save time.
https://findo.com/
When unread newsletters start clogging up an inbox, the bot can send reminders about unsubscribing to mailing lists that generate emails you no longer want to get.
There’s also a mute feature you might use when an email conversation shared among dozens of classmates gets too chaotic to follow constantly. Customized notifications when emails arrive eliminate unnecessary distractions, too.
So, what does the Astro chatbot do? It monitors users’ email habits in the background. After it learns what they do, it starts running those tasks automatically for greater efficiency. The bot can also scan a person’s contact list and the resultant network to determine the best individual to introduce them to a department head, the university president, or another bigwig, helpful for a student trying to make connections.
https://www.helloastro.com/
Enter Forksy, a chatbot that recognizes pictures of menus, dictated speech about what you ate, and even food emoji.
Students can simply add Forksy as a “friend” on Facebook Messenger or Viber and ask it to count calories through the day. Also, if a student is seeing a dietitian or fitness trainer, they can get feedback from that health expert about food choices, directly in the chatbot.
https://getforksy.com/
Jobo is a job-hunting chatbot that looks for work around the world. Once a user provides basic employment preferences, Jobo starts hunting for income possibilities around the clock. A student can even apply for a job directly through Facebook Messenger after filling out a career profile.
Personalized job alerts clue students in to open positions they might otherwise miss. There is also a built-in capability for saving searches and looking at them later.
https://www.jobbot.me/
Rapid advances in AI promote academic success.
Study Tree
1:52
A.I + Personalized Learning = Future Of Education
Orai for iPhone is designed to help you become a better speaker. Orai gives people the confidence and skills to speak powerfully when on stage, in front of a room, or in everyday life. Orai uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to offer instant insights on your speech so that you can practice daily and become an effective communicator.
Orai - 2017 US Meet the Teams, 1:07
https://youtu.be/lO1nBXeozYM
Boost Editor Product Video - Boost Linguistics, 2:51
https://youtu.be/-bbe9mJ8EPI
Project One, Inc.: Calculus Made Easy
http://www.prjct1.org/
Which are the best intelligent chatbots or ai chatbots available?
Chatbots for College:
Chatbots prove how far the technology has progressed in a relatively short time. Your time at college provides the first introduction to having to deal with many responsibilities at once without oversight, and the chatbots listed here can help ease the learning curve.
How many may need housing at some point? Consider a housing bot: Ems
How many have lost files? Try: Findo.
How many are overwhelmed with checking email and could use an assistant to prioritize communication? Astro
How many of you eat? Forksy
How many could use assistance in job hunting? Jobo
AI robot, 3:11
ROSE may be the most informative chatbot.
http://ec2-54-215-197-164.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/speech.php
Rose is a chatbot, and a very good one — she won recognition as the most human-like chatbot in a competition described as the first Turing test, the Loebner Prize in 2014 and 2015.
The Loebner Prize is an annual competition in artificial intelligence that awards prizes to the chatterbot considered by the judges to be the most human-like. The format of the competition is that of a standard Turing test.
Mitsuku
This chatbot is one the best AI chatbots. It is the winner of a recent Loebner Prize. You can talk with Mitsuku for hours without getting bored. It replies to your question in the most humane way and understands your mood with the language you’re using.
http://www.mitsuku.com/
Insomno bot is for night owls. As the name suggests, it is for all people out there who have trouble sleeping. This bot talks to you when you have no one around and gives you amazing replies so that you won’t get bored. It’s not something that will help you count stars when you can’t sleep or help you with reading suggestions, but this bot talks to you about anything.
http://insomnobot3000.com/
https://chatbotsmagazine.com/which-are-the-best-intelligent-chatbots-or-ai-chatbots-available-online-cc49c0f3569d
Ems
Moving to off-campus housing is a major milestone for students, but it can also take time away from coursework, especially when scheduling real estate showings.Ems is a London-based chatbot that learns about housing preferences, makes suggestions based upon them, keeps an eye out for possible matches and lets busy students book viewings with just two taps on a smartphone screen, without ever talking to a human.
Also, you don’t have to download an app to use Ems. Simply go to the website and start chatting in the pop-up window on the right side of the screen.
http://ems.ai/
Findo
Students have dozens of file transfer apps, online storage lockers, and document creation helpers to assist them through the school year. But the plentiful technological opportunities can become problematic when you have to search through all those third-party solutions to find misplaced files.Advertised as a “smart search assistant,” Findo sorts through emails, computers, personal clouds, and more to retrieve desired files.
Frazzled students can also request searches using natural language, even when they can’t remember the details, by saying things such as “Find me the paper I wrote for that biology professor during freshman year.”
The aptly named FindoBot is the chatbot aspect of Findo. It integrates with services like Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Slack, and delivers search results directly into those interfaces to save time.
https://findo.com/
Astro
Astro is what results when artificial intelligence enhances email. It works with Android and iOS platforms, plus Mac computers and even Alexa. Students can connect it with any Gmail or Office 365 email account and enjoy features like an AI-powered priority inbox, which tells them which emails to read first, and a snooze function that empowers students to respond to some emails later.When unread newsletters start clogging up an inbox, the bot can send reminders about unsubscribing to mailing lists that generate emails you no longer want to get.
There’s also a mute feature you might use when an email conversation shared among dozens of classmates gets too chaotic to follow constantly. Customized notifications when emails arrive eliminate unnecessary distractions, too.
So, what does the Astro chatbot do? It monitors users’ email habits in the background. After it learns what they do, it starts running those tasks automatically for greater efficiency. The bot can also scan a person’s contact list and the resultant network to determine the best individual to introduce them to a department head, the university president, or another bigwig, helpful for a student trying to make connections.
https://www.helloastro.com/
Forksy
College dining halls and the all-you-care-to-eat nature of many of them wreak havoc on students’ waistlines. And if those scholars are under stress, the problem could become even more severe.Enter Forksy, a chatbot that recognizes pictures of menus, dictated speech about what you ate, and even food emoji.
Students can simply add Forksy as a “friend” on Facebook Messenger or Viber and ask it to count calories through the day. Also, if a student is seeing a dietitian or fitness trainer, they can get feedback from that health expert about food choices, directly in the chatbot.
https://getforksy.com/
Jobo
Some college students depend heavily on employment to help them make ends meet throughout the semester.Jobo is a job-hunting chatbot that looks for work around the world. Once a user provides basic employment preferences, Jobo starts hunting for income possibilities around the clock. A student can even apply for a job directly through Facebook Messenger after filling out a career profile.
Personalized job alerts clue students in to open positions they might otherwise miss. There is also a built-in capability for saving searches and looking at them later.
https://www.jobbot.me/
Rapid advances in AI promote academic success.
Study Tree
1:52
A.I + Personalized Learning = Future Of Education
Orai for iPhone is designed to help you become a better speaker. Orai gives people the confidence and skills to speak powerfully when on stage, in front of a room, or in everyday life. Orai uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to offer instant insights on your speech so that you can practice daily and become an effective communicator.
Orai - 2017 US Meet the Teams, 1:07
https://youtu.be/lO1nBXeozYM
Boost Editor Product Video - Boost Linguistics, 2:51
https://youtu.be/-bbe9mJ8EPI
Project One, Inc.: Calculus Made Easy
http://www.prjct1.org/
Friday, July 10, 2020
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Monday, July 6, 2020
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Saturday, July 4, 2020
HUM 111: Luther on Reformers and Peasants
Luther on Reformers and Peasants
Luther once said of Zwingli, “I have bitten into many a mutt, believing it to be good, only to find it wormy. Zwingli and Erasmus are nothing but wormy mutts that taste like crap in ones mouth!”
In his treatise Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, he urged the princes with these words,
As a result, the peasants were brutally suppressed.
The Protestant historian H. A. L. Fisher wrote,
Here are some other quotes by Luther on the matter:
“I, Martin Luther, have during the rebellion slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead. All their blood is upon my head. But I put it all on our Lord God: for he commanded me to speak thus.”
In his treatise Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, he urged the princes with these words,
“Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful or devilish than a rebel. It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you.”
As a result, the peasants were brutally suppressed.
The Protestant historian H. A. L. Fisher wrote,
“The manner in which he [Luther] dissociated his movement from the peasant rebellion . . . and the encouragement he gave to a course of repression so savage that it left the German peasantry more defenseless and abased than any social class in central or western Europe, are serious blots upon his good name. The German peasants were rough men and rough fighters; but their grievances were genuine, and their original demands were just and reasonable.”
“Like the mules who will not move unless you perpetually whip them with rods, so the civil powers must drive the common people, whip, choke, hang, burn, behead and torture them, that they may learn to fear the powers that be.”
“Peasants are no better than straw. They will not hear the word and they are without sense; therefore they must be compelled to hear the crack of the whip and the whiz of bullets and it is only what they deserve.”
“To kill a peasant is not murder; it is helping to extinguish the conflagration. Let there be no half measures! Crush them! Cut their throats! Transfix them. Leave no stone unturned! To kill a peasant is to destroy a mad dog! If they say that I am very hard and merciless, mercy be damned. Let whoever can stab, strangle, and kill them like mad dogs.”
Friday, July 3, 2020
Thursday, July 2, 2020
The Enlightenment and Christianity
Overview:
The Enlightenment’s elevation of reason and diminution of traditional authority posed challenges and presented opportunities to Christianity. The Christian response to the Enlightenment locates the mystery of humanity in the mysterious nature of the Creator of the universe in Whose image man is made.
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
The Roman Legacy
Overview:
Rome achieved its singular dominance over most of the known world in the course of a century. Polybius, a Greek historian conquered by the Romans, attributes this remarkable achievement to three principal elements of the Roman regime or way of life in his noted work, The Histories. He argues that the greatness of the Romans is due to their unique constitution or system of government, to their moral culture or mos maiorum, and to their practice of religion. Defined most distinctly by the concept of pietas—(the duty and devotion due to the gods, ancestors, and the fatherland, a composite of love and reverence)—the Roman character lies at the heart of the Roman legacy to Western Civilization.