Through a lens

Marie Curie’s academic timeline (from the Curie...

Mon, 06 May 2013 22:49:02 -0400

Marie Curie’s academic timeline (from the Curie Museum):

1903: finished PhD, won first Nobel prize
1906: appointed chaired professor in physics at the Sorbonne
1911: won second Nobel prize

"And of course motorcycles by their very nature are more dangerous than automobiles. In 2010, 4,502..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:01:53 -0400

“And of course motorcycles by their very nature are more dangerous than automobiles. In 2010, 4,502 U.S. riders were killed in accidents, meaning that motorcycles accounted for 14 percent of traffic fatalities but less than one percent of vehicle miles traveled. Many of these deaths for practical purposes were self-inflicted — of the 14,000-plus cyclists killed from 2008 to 2010, 42 percent weren’t wearing a helmet.”

- The Straight Dope: Does riding a motorcycle reduce your sperm count?

Pigeons may ‘hear’ magnetic fields : Nature News & Comment

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:36:06 -0400

Pigeons may ‘hear’ magnetic fields : Nature News & Comment:

It would make sense to me if birds’ vestibular systems were adapted to sense magnetic fields for navigation. Imagine if your inner ear was sensitive to not only accelerations but also absolute (magnetic) heading.

(via In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:24:07 -0400

(via In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins)

"Consider that on this very day about 6,700 Americans will die. … Consider then that around..."

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:15:23 -0400

“Consider that on this very day about 6,700 Americans will die. … Consider then that around 1,900 of the Americans who die today will be less than 65, and that indeed about 140 will be children. Approximately 50 Americans will be murdered today, including several women killed by their husbands or boyfriends, and several children who will die from abuse and neglect. Around 85 of us will commit suicide, and another 120 will die in traffic accidents. … All sorts of measures could be taken to reduce the current rate of automotive carnage from 120 fatalities a day—from lowering speed limits, to requiring mechanisms that make it impossible to start a car while drunk, to even more restrictive measures.”

- Undressing the Terror Threat - WSJ.com

(via Fasten Your Seatbelt Before Watching this Google Street...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:24:39 -0400

(via Fasten Your Seatbelt Before Watching this Google Street View Hyperlapse | Colossal)

(via Gun deaths shaped by race in America)

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:01:44 -0400

(via Gun deaths shaped by race in America)

"In the early 1980s, women accounted for just over 37% of all U.S. college students earning..."

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:56:37 -0400

“In the early 1980s, women accounted for just over 37% of all U.S. college students earning bachelor’s degrees in computer science. By 2010, that percentage had fallen to a little more than 17%, according to latest available data from the National Science Foundation.”

- Sandberg’s Book Prompts Discussion on Dearth of Women in IT

"fiery: c.1275, from M.E. fier “fire,” the offbeat spelling is a relic of one of the..."

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:33:28 -0400

“fiery: c.1275, from M.E. fier “fire,” the offbeat spelling is a relic of one of the attempts to render O.E. “y” in fyr in a changing system of vowel sounds.”

- Fiery | Define Fiery at Dictionary.com

"A school district in Minnesota that switched to a later schedule found that the average S.A.T...."

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:10:17 -0400

“A school district in Minnesota that switched to a later schedule found that the average S.A.T. scores for the top ten per cent of the class rose by more than two hundred points, a result that the head of the College Board called “truly flabbergasting.””

- Elizabeth Kolbert: The Science of Sleeplessness : The New Yorker

"On average elephants and shrews and most of the critters in between have a limit of about a billion..."

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:25:03 -0500

“On average elephants and shrews and most of the critters in between have a limit of about a billion and a half heartbeats in a lifetime and then they die.”

- Size Matters: The Hidden Mathematics of Life : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR

"From the 1950s through the 1970s, Esperanto was used by the US Army for war games, as the language..."

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:58:16 -0500

“From the 1950s through the 1970s, Esperanto was used by the US Army for war games, as the language of the “Maneuver Enemy”, also known as the “Aggressor”. The goal was an added touch of realism, with the enemy speaking a “foreign” language. Spanish was the original candidate for Aggressor’s national language, but it was soon superseded by Esperanto.”

- KAFEJO.COM : THE MANEUVER ENEMY

"Freud never became dependent on cocaine. Some say that’s because he didn’t have an..."

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:14:31 -0500

“Freud never became dependent on cocaine. Some say that’s because he didn’t have an addictive personality, but the more likely explanation is that he was already addicted to something else, namely nicotine in the form of his famous cigars. Freud smoked 20 a day”

- The Straight Dope: Did Sigmund Freud use cocaine on his patients?

The burdens of life weight on dummy heads. Maybe because of...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:57:00 -0500

The burdens of life weight on dummy heads. Maybe because of their role in Prometheus.

Social Programs That Work

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:46:03 -0500

Social Programs That Work:

This site seeks to identify those social interventions shown in rigorous studies to produce sizable, sustained benefits to participants and/or society

This seems interesting

"What is happening now is an empirical question. What can happen is a technical question. But what..."

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:13:16 -0500

“What is happening now is an empirical question. What can happen is a technical question. But what will happen is a political question, depending on social choices.”

- Seymour Papert, Mindstorms

"Households that play the lottery spend on average about $1,000 a year on tickets"

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 09:07:10 -0500

“Households that play the lottery spend on average about $1,000 a year on tickets”

- Freakonomics » Could a Lottery Be the Answer to America’s Poor Savings Rate?

"According to a study in 2006, America has more lawyers per person of its population than any of 29..."

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 13:43:44 -0500

“According to a study in 2006, America has more lawyers per person of its population than any of 29 countries studied (except Greece), and it spends two to three times as much on its tort system, as a percentage of GDP, as other big economies (except Italy, where things are nearly as bad).”

- America’s lawyers: Guilty as charged | The Economist

Pentametron 2013 (pentametron) on Twitter

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:27:54 -0500

Pentametron 2013 (pentametron) on Twitter:

With algorithms subtle and discrete / I seek iambic writings to retweet. Stratford-upon-Internet · http://pentametron.com

Public spending was 46% of all health spending in 2006,...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:20:16 -0500

Public spending was 46% of all health spending in 2006, according to the chart above. … If you include [the] tax subsidy [on employer-paid health insurance], the public share of health care spending is 60%

(via U.S. National Health Expenditures)