“The U.S. military’s secret space plane is preparing to return from its second mission after an incredible 453 days in orbit (as of today).” — After 15 Months in Orbit, Secret Space Plane Finally Returning to Earth | Danger Room | Wired.com
“Take 36-year-old Nick Keith, who remains $142,000 in debt eight years after graduating from culinary school.” —
This Bright-Eyed Young Man Was Utterly Demolished by Student Loans
I think you mean “dim young man in some financial difficulty due to bad life choices, made against the advice of those who tried to help” there:
Keith’s father only agreed to co-sign a student loan if he stuck with an engineering degree at Iowa State University, but even with decent grades, he knew it wasn’t a right fit.
$142,000 in debt for a one-year degree in cooking school? And not even at the C.I.A.!
San Francisco Symphony at 100 Book Notes, a set on Flickr.
A photoset of some pages from the commemorative book. I plan to write a long-ish combination of review and set of book notes later.[video]
“Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have, for the first time, identified a single gene that simultaneously controls inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer.” —
Key gene found responsible for chronic inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer | e! Science News
Here’s hoping they’re right, and that gene therapy results from this. (And that the various government/nonprofit busybodies keep out of the way of medicine.)
Fall Creek State Park, a little hike in the Santa Cruz mountains.
[video]
Lost In Cheeseland: Franco File Friday: Patricia Wells
“Students assigned randomly to statistics courses that relied heavily on “machine-guided learning” software — with reduced face time with instructors — did just as well, in less time, as their counterparts in traditional, instructor-centric versions of the courses.” —
Report: Robots stack up to human professors in teaching Intro Stats | Inside Higher Ed.
Extremely unsurprising: statistics, like much technical material, is a practice. You learn it in the lab not in the lecture. As long as there’s motivation (a/k/a testing and grading), access to computers, and a good textbook, instructors are necessary only for clarification.
That experiment should have had “textbook only” as a third condition. But there’s always the lure of technology.
Evolution of the cool eyewear.
(The top image is from a 2010 TED talk, but the thin rectangular glasses had their coolness peak in 2006.)
Teaching examples need not be boring.
Recent music purchases on plastic discs (by Jose C Silva).
Despite the digital music revolution, sometimes it still makes sense to buy little plastic discs with data on them.
