When you think about how low tax rates for...

When you think about how low tax rates for the wealthy, take a look at these job creators.
Your taxes at work.

The World's Most Powerful Celebrities - Forbes

Jennifer Lopez tops our Celebrity 100 with $52 million in earnings and tons of fame. The singer pushes Lady Gaga out of the top spot.

Undocumented radio in Worcester

Just recently, a strong FM station showed up on 103.5. The airchecks are heavily reverbed, so I couldn't make out the station's call sign. I suspect it may be New Vision Radio (with a Facebook page). They are offering to stream their shows online (Windows Media Player) or via phone.

As with others in the city (105.5, 106.5, and, occasionally, 102.9), these stations don't show up in the FCC's tables. (For ease of use, here's a link to Radio Locator. The FCC tables are sometimes slow and tricky to navigate.) The new station is strong and clear just beyond the city's periphery, which is good, because WODS, at 103.3, is a popular oldies station; interference would attract too much attention.

Keeping students engaged is a big challenge...

Keeping students engaged is a big challenge in any educational setting. Increasingly, teachers are using Twitter to give students a channel for questions and discussions.

Educational IT - Karl Hakkarainen - Using Twitter in the Classroom

Smart teachers are harnessing a tool that many see as just a distraction. But the practice is not without its opponents.

ICANN has resumed its plan to vastly expand...

ICANN has resumed its plan to vastly expand the number of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

ICANN Back on Track With Plan to Expand Top-Level Domains

Applicants now have until May 30 to apply for one of the new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

Maggie Koerth-Baker visits our neighborhood...

Maggie Koerth-Baker visits our neighborhood and gathers our mud, for science, of course.

How to: Collect 6,000-year-old swamp mud

Photo:Eric Niiler I spent last weekend in the Harvard Forest, participating in hands-on science experiments as part of the Marine Biological Laboratory's science journalism fellowship. The goal was to...

One of the ways that businesses find out...

One of the ways that businesses find out what people want is to try something and see if it's popular enough. That rarely happens with governments, though, and even less so in the case of government-regulated businesses.
Governments are generally risk-averse, which is usually the riskiest path to take.
h/t +Nicole Apostola

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

From a memo from City Solicitor David Moore in item 13a on tonight’s City Council agenda (“Transmitting Informational Communication Relative to Liveries”): I have researched this ...

One Minnesota town's approach to street...

One Minnesota town's approach to street signs

Ojibwemowin Ozhibii’igaade Miinawaa Aabadad Miziwe Go Eni-bimaadiziwaad Bemijigamaag | MinnPost

Ba-mawadishiwejig Bemijigamaag ani-niibing odaa-nandagikendaanaawaa bangii yo’ow inwewin.Mii ezhiwebak noongom opime-ayi’ii ishkoniganing yo’ow nitam oodena imaa Misi-ziibiing ezhi-ginigawising ojibwe...

h/t to +Maggie Koerth-Baker for reporting...

h/t to +Maggie Koerth-Baker for reporting from our neighborhood.

Inside the world's most-studied forest

I'm currently attending the Marine Biological Laboratory's 10-day science journalism fellowship. As part of that, I get to do some hands-on science experiments and get a better perspective on how the ...

Scientific research in a forest

Scientific research in a forest

I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the Harvard Forest—the most-studied forest in the world. It's an interesting place, with a complicated history. Originally forest, it was clear-cut in the decad...

TSP and TOSP are diving into new and interesting...

TSP and TOSP are diving into new and interesting material with good commentary by people who know their stuff.

Announcing “The Secret Project” and “The Other Secret Project” | Mitch Wagner

For the past six weeks or so, I've been working on two secret projects, which I called “The Secret Project” and “The Other Secret Project.” Because I'm all clever coming up with codenames and ...

"... the problem with your home network...

"... the problem with your home network is that it’s cheap, the vendors that made the products you use are cheap, and you’re cheap." by +Mark Gibbs

4 Reasons Why Your Network Sucks - Forbes

Your network is a disaster in the making. It sucks. But why?

A Super-Sharp New Drill Bit Could Vastly...

A Super-Sharp New Drill Bit Could Vastly Expand Our Geothermal Power

Drill bits manufactured from synthetic diamonds were originally developed to tap geothermal energy deep below the surface. Despite drilling wells that supply two-thirds of our oil, they never gained t...

New Normal: Majority Of Unemployed Attended...

New Normal: Majority Of Unemployed Attended College

For the first time, the number of jobless workers age 25 and up who have attended some college exceeds the ranks of those with a high school diploma or less.

So, supporting gay marriage must be part...

So, supporting gay marriage must be part of a cunning plan on the part of the Obama administration to alienate the Kenyan Muslims in an effort to prove that he really is one.

Kenyan muslim clerics fault Obama on gay marriage - News |



Kenyan Muslim leaders from the coast region have condemned President Barack Obama’s support of same sex marriages.

Hey, Writers: Stop Romanticizing the Country...

Hey, Writers: Stop Romanticizing the Country at the Expense of the City – Next American City

Earlier this week, Shalom Auslander wrote in the New York Observer about how he believes big city life turns people into narcissists. But he’s confusing a symptom for a cause.

This year's view from the cove

Jupiter is still bright in the west in the evening sky, bright enough that I can see it without my glasses. I couldn't see the boat out on the lake. I could hear the voices of the boaters, but I couldn't see the boat. Jupiter, though, I could see.

The lake water has warmed enough that we can stay around for a few minutes between visits to the sauna. Two weeks ago, it was a jump off the dock, hit the water, and get out as quickly as possible. We'd get back into the sauna, but our legs felt like they were covered in cold cloth.

After sauna, the aches of body and soul were gone. There's a lot to do in cleanup, routine work, and new projects and most of the work calls on muscles that haven't been called on for a while. There's a pile of rocks to be moved, a stack of wood to be split. leaves to be raked, trees to be trimmed.

Most of the work can become meditative, only the work, only that rock that needs to move 40 feet to the south. A wheelbarrow would make the work easier, taking four or five rocks at a time instead of just one. This way, though, I get to think about each rock and where it should go. If I had a plan, I'd use a wheelbarrow.

When my father was my age, he put an oil tank in the cellar, sideways. That the heating system never worked reliably isn't the point, I think. He did stuff. If it worked, that was good. If it didn't work, he'd move on. The oil-fired heating system never worked reliably and was replaced by a barrel wood stove that worked fine for 30 years.  The barrel stove connect to the chimney that was to be used by the oil burner.

The lake has warmed so that a thin bit of fog settles on the surface in these cool nights. Heating and cooling take away the aches of the day.

 

"The existence of weak randomness automatically...

"The existence of weak randomness automatically implies that there must be an unlimited amount of strong randomness....""

Quantum physicists show a small amount of randomness can be amplified without limit

Once again quantum physics gives us philosophical implications: physicists have shown how a small amount of randomness can be amplified without limit.