Interesting Links: March 22, 2019

Interesting content from my RSS feed:

1. Russia will test disconnecting from the Internet - They're hoping to be able to provide Internet access to citizens with no outside routing or service dependencies in preparation for passage of a "sovereign Internet" law.
2. Computer Science Was Invented to Teach Everyone About Everything - Advocates from the 1960s until today have argued that learning to program teaches habits of thinking that can be useful in all other aspects of life.
3. In schools, should kids use pencils or keyboards? - Daniel Lemire offers some literature-backed arguments that kids should learn the things that they'll actually need to know in life, not the things that they can easily farm out to technology devices.
4. First Look Media is laying off staff and shutting down access to the Snowden archive - they say other news outlets, “ceased reporting on it years ago".
5. IBM's AI, Project Debater, challenges a human debater - The AI was not trained on the debate subject, "Should we subsidize pre-school?". And the AI even managed a bit of snark.
6. Comcast is launching a $5 per month TV service - customers pay $5 per month to rent a streaming appliance that will integrate 10,000 free programs and paid services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
7. STEEM EEG reveals human brain changes in response to Earth-strength magnetic fields - @kralizec summarizes an article in the eNeuro journal from the Society for Neuroscience. "Either we (humans) have lost a shared, ancestral magnetosensory system, or the system lacks a conscious component with detectable neural activity but no apparent perceptual awareness by us."
8. Facebook stored hundreds of millions of plain-text passwords for years - It may go as far back as 2012. Impact analysis is on-going. The source article is written in the past tense, but doesn't actually say that the practice has stopped.
9. Linux company, SUSE, is independent again - "SUSE® today announced the creation of the largest independent open source company following the completion of SUSE’s acquisition by growth investor EQT from Micro Focus."
10. Creative ways to help kids thrive in schools - In this TED talk, Olympia Della Flora discusses creative techniques that she has used to help struggling and disruptive students. Techniques include "brain breaks", flexible seating, humor, song, and harnessing peer influence. "Small changes make huge differences"