Gamergate, Harassment Wikipedia panel - Capilano University March 2015
Capilano University 2015 panel on Gamergate and gendered harassment. Speakers: - Lucas J.W. Johnson - Silverstring Media - Ashley Lynch - Gingerbreadgirl Post - Su-Laine Yeo Brodsky ...
By: Ashley Lynch
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Gamergate, Harassment & Wikipedia panel - Capilano University March 2015 - Video
The coyote (US // or //, UK //, or //;[a]Canis latrans) is a canid native to North America. It is a smaller, more basal animal than its close relative, the gray wolf,[2] being roughly the North American equivalent to the old world golden jackal, though it is larger and more predatory in nature.[3] It is listed as "least concern" by the IUCN, on account of its wide distribution and abundance throughout North America, Mexico and into Central America. It is a highly versatile species, whose range has expanded amidst human environmental modification.[1] This expansion is ongoing, and it may one day reach South America, as shown by the animal's presence beyond the Panama Canal in 2013.[4] As of 2005[update], 19 subspecies are recognized.[5]
The ancestors of the coyote diverged from those of the gray wolf, 12 million years ago,[6] with the modern species arising in North America during the Middle Pleistocene.[2] It is highly flexible in social organization, living either in nuclear families or in loosely-knit packs of unrelated individuals. It has a varied diet consisting primarily of animal matter, including ungulates, lagomorphs, rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates, though it may also eat fruit and vegetable matter on occasion.[7] It is a very vocal animal, whose most iconic sound consists of a howl emitted by solitary individuals.[8]Humans aside, cougars[9] and gray wolves[10] are the coyote's only serious enemies. Nevertheless, coyotes have on occasion mated with the latter species, producing hybrids colloquially called "coywolves".
The coyote is a prominent character in Native American folklore, usually depicted as a trickster who alternately assumes the form of an actual coyote or a man. As with other trickster figures, the coyote acts as a picaresque hero which rebels against social convention through deception and humor.[11] The animal was especially respected in Mesoamerican cosmology as a symbol of military might,[12] with some scholars having traced the origin of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl to a pre-Aztec coyote deity.[13] After the European colonization of the Americas, it was reviled in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike the gray wolf, which has undergone a radical improvement of its public image, cultural attitudes towards the coyote remain largely negative.[14][15]
Coyote males average 820kg (1844lb) in weight, while females average 718kg (1540lb), though size varies geographically. Northern subspecies, which average 18kg (40lb), tend to grow larger than the southern subspecies of Mexico, which average 11.5kg (25lb). Body length ranges on average from 1 to 1.35 metres (3ft 3.37in to 4ft 5.15in), and tail length 40 centimetres (16in), with females being shorter in both body length and height.[16] The largest coyote on record was a male killed near Afton, Wyoming on November 19, 1937 which measured 1.6 metres (5ft 3in) from nose to tail, and weighed 33.9 kilograms (75lb).[17] Scent glands are located at the upper side of the base of the tail and are a bluish black color.[18]
The color and texture of the coyote's fur varies somewhat geographically.[16] The hair's predominant color is light gray and red or fulvous, interspersed around the body with black and white. Coyotes living on high elevations tend to have more black and gray shades than their desert-dwelling counterparts, which are more fulvous or whitish-gray.[19] The coyote's fur consists of short, soft underfur and long, coarse guard hairs. The fur of northern subspecies is longer and denser than in southern forms, with the fur of some Mexican and Central American forms being almost hispid.[20]Albinism is extremely rare in coyotes; out of a total of 750,000 coyotes harvested by Federal and cooperative hunters between March 22, 1938 to June 30, 1945, only two were albinos.[19]
The coyote is typically smaller than the gray wolf, but has longer ears and a larger braincase,[16] as well as a thinner frame, face and muzzle. The coyote also carries its tail downwards when running or walking, rather than horizontally as the wolf does.[21] Coyote tracks can be distinguished from those of dogs by their more elongated, less rounded shape.[22] Scent glands are smaller than the gray wolf's, but the same color.[18] Its fur color variation is much less varied than that of a wolf.
By the time of the European colonization of the Americas, coyotes were largely confined to open plains and arid regions of the western half of the continent.[23] It is often difficult in early post-Columbian historical records to distinguish between coyotes and wolves. One record from 1750 in Kaskaskia, Illinois written by a local priest noted that the "wolves" encountered there were smaller and less daring than European wolves. Another account from the early 1800s in Edwards County mentioned wolves howling at night, though these were likely coyotes.[24] The species was encountered several times during the Lewis and Clark Expedition (18041806), though it was already well-known to European traders on the upper Missouri. Lewis, writing on May 5, 1805, in northeastern Montana, described the coyote as follows:[25]
the small woolf or burrowing dog of the prairies are the inhabitants almost invariably of the open plains; they usually ascociate in bands of ten or twelve sometimes more and burrow near some pass or place much frequented by game; not being able alone to take deer or goat they are rarely ever found alone but hunt in bands; they frequently watch and seize their prey near their burrows; in these burrows they raise their young and to them they also resort when pursued; when a person approaches them they frequently bark, their note being precisely that of the small dog. they are of an intermediate size between that of the fox and dog, very active fleet and delicately formed; the ears large erect and pointed the head long and pointed more like that of the fox; tale long; . . . the hair and fur also resembles the fox tho' is much coarser and inferior. they are of a pale redish brown colour. the eye of a deep sea green colour small and piercing. their tallons [claws] are reather longer than those of the ordinary wolf or that common to the atlantic states, none of which are to be found in this quarter, nor I believe above the river Plat.
The coyote was first scientifically described by Thomas Say in September 1819 on the site of Lewis and Clark's Council Bluffs, fifteen miles up the Missouri River from the mouth of the Platte during a government-sponsored expedition with Major Stephen Long. He had the first edition of the Lewis and Clark journals in hand, which contained Biddle's edited version of Lewis's observations dated May 5, 1805.[26][27]
The earliest written reference to the species comes from Francisco Hernndez's Plantas y Animales de la Nueva Espaa (1651), where it is described as a "Spanish fox" or "jackal". The first published usage of the word "coyote" (the root word of which is the Nahuatl coyotl) comes from Francisco Javier Clavijero's Historia de Mxico in 1780.[28] The first time it was used in English occurred in William Bullock's Six months' residence and travels in Mexico (1824), where it is variously transcribed as cayjotte and cocyotie. The word's spelling was standardized as "coyote" by the 1880s.[25][29] Alternative English names for the coyote include "prairie wolf", "brush wolf", "cased wolf",[30][b] "little wolf"[7] and "American jackal".[31]
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Coyote - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
IMAGE:Professor Neil Selwyn at Monash University's Faculty of Education found that while Wikipedia was is a popular background resource with students, it had not supplanted traditional sources of intellectual scholarship... view more
Credit: Greg Ford
Academics and students alike should be making better use of Wikipedia, a major study of digital technology use in Higher Education has recommended.
The Australia-UK collaboration led by Professor Neil Selwyn from Monash University's Faculty of Education found that while Wikipedia was is a popular background resource with students, it had not supplanted traditional sources of intellectual scholarship and authority.
The study of more than 1600 students found that while Wikipedia was used by seven in eight students, the world's sixth most visited website wasn't seen as the most useful education resource. Google and other internet search engines, library websites, learning management systems and Facebook all ranked higher. Most students used Wikipedia for background research.
The researchers suggest that given the important but relatively background role Wikipedia plays in student life, universities should continue to consider ways of better integrating Wikipedia into their accepted modes of teaching and learning provision.
"There are clearly many ways in which universities need to engage more directly in supporting and enhancing the role that Wikipedia is now playing in students' scholarship," Professor Selwyn said.
"The early alarmist fears that Wikipedia would lead to a dumbing down of university study was not apparent. But neither is Wikipedia ushering in a new dawn of enlightenment and students and teachers creating their own knowledge.
"Lecturers should be encouraging their classes to edit and improve Wikipedia pages. At the very least, more academics should become Wikipedia editors - writing on their areas of expertise."
"Wikipedia is here to stay, and universities should be getting more engaged with it rather than just trying to deny its existence."
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Wikipedia use -- nothing to be ashamed about
IMAGE:Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is among the 2015 Dan David Prize winners. view more
Credit: Niccol Caranti.
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the ubiquitous online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is among the winners of the 2015 Dan David Prize, which annually bestows three awards of $1 million each. The announcement of the winners was made on February 10 by Tel Aviv University President Prof. Joseph Klafter, chairman of the Dan David Prize Board of Directors, and Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, Chairman of the Dan David Foundation.
The prizes are granted for "proven, exceptional and distinct excellence in the sciences, arts, and humanities that have made an outstanding contribution to humanity." The laureates, who donate 10% of their prize money towards doctoral and postdoctoral Tel Aviv University scholarships, will be honored at a ceremony on May 17, 2015, during the annual TAU Board of Governors conference.
The Dan David Prize, named for international businessman and philanthropist Dan David, maintains its global headquarters at TAU. Each year, the International Board chooses one field within each of three time dimensions: Past (highlighting fields that expand knowledge of former times), Present (recognizing achievements that shape and enrich contemporary society), and Future (focusing on breakthroughs that hold great promise for the improvement of our world). Following a review process by independent Review Committees comprised of renowned scholars and professionals, the International Board then chooses the laureates for each field.
The 2015 Dan David Prize laureates are:
Present -- in the field of "The Information Revolution": Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is utilized by nearly all Internet users to access information. Wales has stated that his motivation for launching Wikipedia was to create a world in which every person "is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge."
Past -- in the field of "Historians and Their Sources": Prof. Peter R. Brown, Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University, and Prof. Alessandro Portelli of University of Rome La Sapienza will share the prize. Prof. Brown is a historian studying the late antiquity period whose "groundbreaking studies have reshaped the way we understand social and cultural change," the prize committee said. Prof. Portelli is considered one of the greatest practitioners of oral history, whose "studies of the interaction between private and collective memory have challenged the way we understand recording the past," according to the panel of judges.
Future -- in the field of "Biomechanics": Dr. Cyrus Chothia, Prof. David Haussler, and Prof. Michael Waterman, a 2011 recipient of a TAU honorary doctorate, will share the prize. Dr. Chothia, an emeritus scientist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology and emeritus fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, pioneered the understanding of the relationships between protein sequence, structure, function, and interaction. Prof. Haussler, a professor of biomolecular engineering and director of the Genomics Institute at University of California, Santa Cruz, helped assemble the first draft of the human genome sequence and leads the development of the UCSC Genome Browser used worldwide for interpreting genome sequences. Prof. Waterman holds an Endowed Associates Chair in Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Southern California, where he made seminal and influential contributions to biological sequence analysis.
Past Dan David Prize winners include US Vice President Al Gore, film directors Joel and Ethan Coen, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and genome pioneer Prof. Eric Lander. For more information on the Dan David Prize and this year's laureates, visit http://www.dandavidprize.org.
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Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales among 2015 Dan David Prize winners
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia. Photo: John Davidson
Wikipedia co-founder and influential technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales has slammed the federal government's plan to make telcos store the metadata of every phone and internet user as a "human rights violation" and is considering the launch of his new mobile service in Australia.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Fairfax Media,Mr Walesopened up about his views on high-speed internet and data retention.
Mr Wales is co-chairman atThe People's Operator (TPO), which is a mobile service provider in Britain with a market capitalisation of 98 million ($190 million) that gives 10 per cent of every customer's bill to the charity of their choice. A quarter of overall profits go to a pool of charities picked by the company and it is weighing an entry into the Australian market.
"Australia is very high on our list because while the social media stuff we're building is designed to be multilingual in the long run, in the first cut it's English," he said. "So it's much easier to drop in an Australian partner and we'd be keenly interested in an Australian partner."
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TPO is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it resells services that are based on another carrier's network. The company will launch in the United States in the next three months.
"The jump from one market to two is bigger than the jump from the second to the third because of all the reconfiguring we've done it all becomes easier,"he said. "After we get launched in the US we'll have to take a deep breath.
"Once we're there we will be looking to other markets and within six months or a year we'll be hoping to launch somewhere else."
He said the telco would decide on its next launch targets by November at the latest and had confidentially met with several telecommunications company chief executives during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
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Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales slams federal government data retention laws