Cool scale satellite model made from wood.
July 17, 2008
July 16, 2008
July 14, 2008
There and Back Again
Yes, we were gone. Yes, we’re back. 2250 miles to the mountains and returned, and all I brought back (besides 14 hours of interviews and b-roll) is a wicked head cold/allergies thing that made the 500 miles driven today pretty miserable. We’re all unpacked and I’m off to slumberland pretty soon, but I wanted to check in and say we made it. Oh, and after Katherine made such a big stink about not being able to comment on my blog because the safeties were all on, I removed them all just before we left so I could enjoy her long and bellicose comments. What did I get? Not a single comment from a reader. I did, however, get 250 spam comments.
So Kat, you lost your chance! If you want to comment, do it like everybody else and just tease me on your own blog. Preferably accompanied by a link.
July 3, 2008
July 2, 2008
Room to Read
Check out this spectacular New York penthouse. It has a library that makes me giddy.
Diversity
In September of 2000, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Idaho were both embarrassed when they were forced to admit that they had doctored promotional photographs to make their campuses look diverse. In both cases, non-white faces were added to real student photographs of all-white groups.
At the universities involved, officials insisted that they meant well, but just about everyone agreed that Photoshop diversity isn’t the real thing. But what if photos, even real photos of real live students, convey a false impression? . . .
The findings: Black students made up an average of 7.9 percent of students at the colleges studied, but 12.4 percent of those in viewbooks. Asian students are also more likely to be found in viewbooks than on campus, making up 3.3 percent of real students on average and 5.1 percent of portrayed students. . . . Looked at another way, he found that more than 75 percent of colleges appeared to overrepresent black students in viewbooks.
So why are black students more prevalent in viewbooks than on campus?
“Black equals diversity for many people. If you show African American students, people think that means your institution is diverse,” said Timothy D. Pippert, an assistant professor of sociology at Augsburg, who led the study. “They are defining diversity as that face.”
from this article.
My alma mater (Baylor University) is particularly guilty of this. One look through the alumni magazine would convince you that 50% of the campus is black, 25% of the campus is asian or hispanic, 10% is American indian or foreign born (the ubiquitous “other”, and the other 15% white. I challenge anyone to walk around campus and find a single non-white face in a thirty minute time span. Minorities are there, but they’re rare compared to white (majority female) students.
I’ve got no problem with diversity at schools- I like it. But the face that Baylor presents to the world in its media materials is laughingly inaccurate. It’s obvious to me or any of my friends who attended BU, and I always thought it was slightly dishonest. Nothing illegal about it, but it’s nice to see that the practice is getting some attention.
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July 1, 2008
Round
“If you were to blow up our spheres to the size of the Earth, you would see a small ripple in the smoothness of about 12 to 15 mm, and a variation of only 3 to 5 metres in the roundness,”
Now that’s impressive.
The roundest object in the world.
Total Eclipse
Set your watches for August 21st, 2017. That’s the date of the next total solar eclipse that will take place in North America. More info here.
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Cure for Cancer?
Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice.
The treatment will involve transfusing specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, from select donors, into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced malignancies.
“In mice, we’ve been able to eradicate even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with extremely large tumors,” Cui said. “Hopefully, we will see the same results in humans. Our laboratory studies indicate that this cancer-fighting ability is even stronger in healthy humans.”
Excellent! Full article here.