Norman Borlaug, 95, Dies; Led Green Revolution
Norman E. Borlaug, the plant scientist who did more than anyone else in the 20th century to teach the world to feed itself and whose work was credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday night. He was 95 and lived in Dallas.
STUDENT DEBT vs. AVERAGE INCOME
I graduated with about $10k in debt from college, much of which was deferred while in the navy and again in graduate school. I paid off the last of it more than 15 years after graduation. I incurred no debt for grad school — teaching and research assistantships paid a stipend as well as tuition. Having a few times that amount of debt would have been tough.
The Avenging Narwhal play set.
Comes with multiple tusks and “three adorable animals to impale”: seal, penguin, and … koala bear.
Not for children under three, because of the choking hazard. Not because of the “appropriateness” of the toy.
Monty Python Reuniting for 1 Wild Night in New York
Best of all is the reunion itself, which brings together the five surviving Pythonites (Graham Chapman died in 1989) for the premiere of Almost the Truth. Following the Oct. 15 screening of the documentary at Ziegfeld Theatre in New York, Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin will take questions from the audience and no doubt bend them into wicked, black-humored pretzels.
What I Would Do With This: Groceries
I’ve known this for years: the express line isn’t necessarily the fastest lane at the grocery store, or fastest per item, because of the overhead of the transaction (paying, getting change, etc). I knew this even before Apu spilled the beans (Mrs. Simpson, the express line is the fastest line not always. That old man up front, he is starved for attention. He will talk the cashier’s head off.) but now someone has actual data and done a real analysis.
Check is slower than credit which is slower than cash. Students are sometimes surprised that cash is faster than credit. From my observations, the fastest cash transaction will outpace the fastest credit transaction by a wide margin but there is also huge variance in credit transactions. I mean, some people have absolutely no idea what they are doing with that thing. The same can’t really be said of cash.
I’m secretly amazed every time someone behaves like it’s the first time they’ve ever swiped a credit card at a checkout line, and it’s rocket science to figure it out. Hint: you can swipe the card before the clerk finishes scanning them!
When figuring the transaction overhead, there is a huge penalty for a non-tech-savvy shopper paying with credit. Of course, there is a large overlap with the cash paying “Oh, I have exact change. Let me get my coin purse!” customer, often a senior senior citizen. (That’s not age discrimination, it’s profiling)
The illusion contains two pattern frames depicting a moving image (hence two-stroke) which are displayed using a technique that creates an impression of continuous forward movement. Any two frames from a motion sequence can be used.
Scientists working on behalf of NASA built a device to simulate variable levels of gravity. It consists of a superconducting magnet that generates a field powerful enough to levitate the water inside living animals, with a space inside warm enough at room temperature and large enough at 2.6 inches wide (6.6 cm) for tiny creatures to float comfortably in during experiments.
Dot Physics: Seasons, short and simple
All hail Helios, bringer of warmth, and Projectorus, god of the dot product.
