I was talking education with a student’s father last Friday. He is originally from Koto, India and sent me an article about India’s Cram Schools which have incredibly increased his hometown’s population.

Students drop out of high school and move out in order to attend a 2-year cram school to prepare for the entrance exam to one of a few Indian Institutes of Technology. These IITs are renowned, as you can imagine.

...probably aren’t being parted in this case.

How. Goddam. COOL. is this? The US Army just awarded a $4 million contract to a bunch of scientists who are supposed to develop a thought-control helmet that will let soldiers mentally control equipment in the field or communicate with each other.

If they’re successful, I can’t wait till they find ways to market it to the public sector.

Tonight on Mythbusters the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax.

Article

Dylan is Kevin V’s son (and my first ever nephew!). Dylan was born with with Pierre Robin syndrome that left his chin pushed back and cutting off his airway, requiring a tracheotomy, a feeding tube, and lots of other difficulties.

After a trying two years, Dylan just got his surgery to fix his jaw. Or, rather, to start fixing his jaw. They’re inserting rods into the bones that are extended slightly every day to stretch out the jaw bones. Kev set up a blog, http://www.kjvis.blogspot.com/, to report on and monitor his progress. There’s also lots more details on Dylan’s condition and the surgery itself. So whether you are at all interested in the V family, or just want to watch SCIENCE in action, feel free to check it out. I got Kev’s OK to post this for everyone.

Also, I’ve already made the “it doesn’t look very distracting” joke, so don’t bother.

Brian May, the guitarist and apparently founder of Queen, has completed a doctoral thesis he never got around to finishing. And hes a Chancellor of some college.

http://www.livescience.com/space/080801-brian-may-doctorate.html

I wish Rowan had more rock idols teaching there. I wonder what Freddie Merc would have come up with by now if he were still alive. Unified theory of physics? A machine that uses the power of his voice to cure our addiction to oil? The gayest rock opera ever?

In other words, SCIENTISTS CREATE LIFE!

Eat that, God. We don’t even need you as a concept anymore.

Find out how much radiation your cell phone puts out! The one I own, the Motorola SLVR L2, is in the top 3 highest! Uh-Oh!

10 Highest

10 Lowest

I don’t know how I missed this until now, but I did… until now.

Judging by the greenish-yellow hue my car has taken on the past few days, it’s allergy season. And normally, I’d be itching my eyes like crazy, sneezing, and going through several tissue boxes by now. But not this year! I’ve been drinking massive amounts of tea with local honey in it. Apparently the pollen makes it way into the honey and it acts a sort of immunization. So far so good! No allergies for the first year in a very long time.

For several decades, researchers tracked more than 2,000 people – most of them born within minutes of each other. According to astrology, the subject should have had very similar traits.

Unsurprisingly, the subjects did not share similar traits beyond statistical likelihood. Article here.

So the only question remains is: the next time someone asks me what my sign is or tells me I’m stubborn because I’m a Taurus or in any way gives any credence to Astrology, is it rude to call them a fucking idiot?

Boston Dynamics released this video of an eerily-realistic walking robot. It balances, tests terrain and recovers from sudden changes. I actually felt a little sympathy during the kicking part. It was strange.