What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a unique achievement of collaboration between nations. It was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations On December 10, 1948. In many ways, it is one of the pillar of the United Nations which was founded 3 years before, at the end of the second World War in 1945.

Under Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt’s direction (the wife of American President Franklin Roosevelt), the Human Rights Commission wrote this special document. It declares the rights that everyone in the entire world should have. Today there are 192 member states of the UN, all of whom have signed on in agreement with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

You can find the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the UN website.

The Simplified Version

The simplified version of these human rights for young people reads as follow:

1. We Are All Born Free & Equal.
2. Don’t Discriminate.
3. The Right to Life.
4. No Slavery.
5. No Torture.
6. You Have Rights No Matter Where You Go.
7. We’re All Equal Before the Law.
8. Your Human Rights Are Protected by Law.
9. No Unfair Detainment.
10. The Right to Trial.
11. We’re Always Innocent Till Proven Guilty.
12. The Right to Privacy. Nobody should try to harm our good name.
13. Freedom to Move.
14. The Right to Seek a Safe Place to Live.
15. Right to a Nationality.

This is the full text of the simplified version for young people.

Video of the Declaration

This is a beautiful video which features the full text of the universal declaration of human rights. Camille discovered it on the web and submitted for extra-credit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you also want to receive extra-credit, try to guess which program was used to make this video and write it as a comment below.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

This is the trailer for a documentary called Float which features teams competing in World Championships towards flying motor-less model airplanes for the longest time possible. These planes weight approximately a gram on average.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Source: Boing Boing - Float: ultralight rubber-band-powered duration model planes by Andrea James 9/2/2011]

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

I posted this video here because making music with everyday object stretches the imagination and pushes boundaries. I also believe that the Phantom of the Opera is a classic which needs to be taught to the new generations. Finally, this is an ode to floppies which my students only have a faint memory of.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Explanations on how this video was made are a little tedious but can be decoded:

People have made floppy drives sing before, but this is my personal take on it.

Features two 3 1/2″ drives and two 5 1/4″ drives connected to a PIC18f14k50 microcontroller. It interfaces to any MIDI source via MIDI over USB. Straight MIDI would also be possible with an additional small circuit and some minor firmware changes. This initial version can respond to all 128 MIDI notes, and pitch bends +/- 2 semitones.

As it can produce only four simultaneous notes, and each drive has a different range and tonal characteristics, best results are obtained by arranging compositions by hand. However, it features two modes of operation: in one mode, MIDI channels 1 through 4 are played directly on floppy drives 1 through 4. In the other mode, all 16 MIDI channels are read, and notes are “intelligently” divvied out on a first-come, first-serve basis. “Note stealing” ensures that melody lines sound, but chords are often cut short. One or the other produces acceptable results for many unmodified MIDI files straight out of your favorite media player.

[Source: Boing Boing - Floppy drive organ plays toccata by Cory Doctrow - 9/2/2011]

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

I will see you all in January. Here are some great facts about your Christmas tree!

Extra-Credit submission by Dimitri

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

This is an extra-credit video submitted by Nisha. A decent dubstep track with that too (note: the video was created by the band, probably a promotional coup for the album on iTunes…). The video is entitled People are awesome. My personal favorite bit is of course when the man jumps out of the Eiffel Tower on his roller-blades. A must see.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

Be careful because contrary to the regular locker gossip you may have heard, math IS probably the most important subject you will ever learn.

See for yourself in this video which will toggle your mind towards mind boggling infinity as illustrated with elephants and/or camels.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out the cool fractal mentioned in this video, make your own and submit it for extra credit in computer class.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

If you are looking for all the most powerful supercomputers in the world, here is the list put together by the BBC News website:

1. Cray XT Jaguar 1.8 PetaFLOPS with 224,000 cores
2. Dawning Cluster 1.3 PetaFLOPS with 56,000 cores
3. IBM Cluster 1 PetaFLOPS with122,000 cores

To give you a comparison, the Intel’s Core i7 980 XE has  a speed of 0.0001 PetaFLOPS

The whole list of the fastest, baddest supercomputers in the world is available here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm

And here is a picture of the winner, the Cray XT Jaguar:

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

A very impressive arc hits the ground in super slow motion:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Makes you wonder about the physics behind these doesn’t it? Check this website out: http://regentsprep.org/regents/physics/phys03/alightnin/

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

great extra-credit submission by robin.

Click here to view the embedded video.

think of the scenario, acting, movie editing and music skills involved in making this. this is a great one-man show.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

Drinking soda will make you fat. It is a fact which is well depicted in this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

This video was submitted for extra credit by Chaendo, it is an example of a rube goldberg machine, a machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other examples can be found here:

- Honda commercial “The Cog” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo

- OK Go music video for “This Too Shall Pass” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

A great video created by the website http://good.is and submitted by Malishka for extra-credit. It will explain to you how much potable water is available in the world (a teaspoon full) and demonstrate how much water is used in the western countries compared to the rest of the world. Don’t get fooled by the old style, this was made for world water day in 2008 so all the numbers are recent and accurate. Great find!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

This is Jane McGonigal explaining how the skills learnt while playing video games can help you fix bigger problems in real life:

The three games which according to her will change the world are:

Evoke – http://www.urgentevoke.com/

World without oil – http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/start.aspx

SuperStruct – http://www.superstructgame.org/

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

Mnemonics is the art of assisting your memory by using artificial aid such as rhymes, songs, or acronyms. In this example, you will learn how to count in French until the number six:

“Un.. deux.. trois.. – cat sank!” (oh cease, please!)
(un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six…)

You can find a lot of other examples of mnemonics technique for math, physics, astronomy, etc. at http://www.eudesign.com/mnems/_mnframe.htm.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

I certainly wish they paid more heed to this advice in dushi Curacao!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

you don’t want to lose everything at the flick of a switch…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

All my students have had a chance to look at this incredible animation of the universe as we know. This is a full blown 3D map of the Universe to scale and with exact coordinates. You will be able to follow your ascent from the Himalayas, through the solar system, pass the Milky Way and beyond the afterglow of the original light from the Big Bang.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From this video, we also talked about:

How to spot the Milky Way – From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

The black hole in the center of the Milky Way: From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7774287.stm

The Voyager I and II explorations – More information from the NASA website: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/fastfacts.html

Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence as a screen-saver – SETI@Home from University of Berkeley: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Amrit also found a related series of videos which you could be interested in:

The Naked Science series from National Geographic: YouTube channel

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

This video was taken in one shot from a camera phone and made without using any special effect. Can you figure out how they did it?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

If you were wondering where your Christmas decorations went, see them running away with the sheep:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was submitted for extra-credit. Great find!

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC

You can celebrate Thanksgiving with National Geographic:

• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Thanksgiving-traditions

Or with Kaboose:

• http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanks-games.html

Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher - Victor Boulanger presents the work of his students at the ISC