DailyDirt: Tuition Debt Is For Chumps?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Crowds of students are graduating (or have just graduated) from college, and they might be a little nervous about how they're going to pay off their student loans. Student debt can be difficult to pay off, so some folks are trying to avoid it completely in a few novel ways. Here are a bunch of examples of students getting financially creative with their tuition bills.

• In 2011, Richard Linder got a college degree from Excelsior College for about $3,000 -- without attending any classes in person. Excelsior doesn't require graduating students to have taken any of its own courses, so Linder transferred credits (many of them free) from a variety of online classes. [url]
• Ken Ilgunas went to grad school at Duke and lived frugally in his van because he didn't want to get into debt again after paying off his undergrad loans. Ilgunas showered in the school's gym facilities, bummed electricity and internet from the libraries, and wrote a book (Walden on Wheels) about his lifestyle. [url]
• Jonathan Hood paid for his graduate education at Auburn University with a TON of mail-in rebate offers. Buying stuff, redeeming the rebates and then eBaying the stuff... it takes a lot of time, but he wrote some automation software to help him keep track of all of it (and he'll likely be able to sell that someday, too). [url]

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DailyDirt: Graduation Advice To Remember

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Maybe you remember your graduation. Maybe you don't. If you were lucky, you graduated college and knew exactly what you wanted to do. You had a job all lined up, and when asked about your plans, you could avoid saying anything along the lines of:

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

Here are just a few more pithy words for recent graduates. (PS. Congratulations!)

• Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes, spoke publicly at his alma mater for graduation. "The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few." [url]
• Everyone should pursue their passion, right? But what if you don't know what your passion is? Economist Tyler Cowen tried to respond to this question, but Cowen admitted he was stumped on how to pick a particular career path. [url]
• The world's first commencement speech via Twitter was just 20 tweets long. If you thought that a 140 character limit might deliver more profound or sage advice, tweet #12 is "Never tweet pictures of yourself in underwear..." nuff said? [url]

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DailyDirt: Taking Another Look At Nuclear Energy...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Nuclear energy has been around for decades, but its safety and the safety of its radioactive waste have always been a political nightmare. Still, some researchers have been redesigning nuclear reactors to make them safer in many ways, but these newer designs have yet to be scaled up and used commercially. Maybe someday nuclear technology will be ubiquitous, but it'll likely take a long time before anyone is willing to embrace fission/fusion energy that doesn't come from the Sun.

• A European research reactor called Guinevere demonstrates the safety and benefits of a hybrid reactor-accelerator design. This nuclear reactor design is an accelerator-driven system (ADS) and uses a particle accelerator so that its nuclear reactor can run without enough fissile material to generate a nuclear chain reaction (so all the nuclear reactions stop when the external particle accelerator stops). A bonus feature is that its radioactive waste material can be transmuted via the particle accelerator into elements with lower half-lives that may be more convenient to handle and store. [url]
• Teenager Taylor Wilson has been building nuclear reactors for a few years already, and his current project is to build small, modular nuclear reactors capable of generating just 50-100 megawatts of electricity. Wilson's reactors would create a more decentralized network of electricity generation, but that's a lot of NIMBY to overcome.... [url]
• Italian scientists have halted research on piezonuclear fission. Low Energy Nuclear Reactions have been associated with Cold Fusion, so if there's any kind of non-classical fission/fusion going on, it may take extraordinary evidence to convince anyone of it. [url]

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DailyDirt: Getting An Online Education...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The existing system of going to a school, listening to lectures and getting a degree after you've passed some tests might not be the way education will operate in the near future. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) promise to teach a wide array of subjects, and there are plenty of students willing to try out these online classes instead of sleeping through another boring lecture at 8am. Obviously, not all the kinks have been worked out yet, and there will undoubtedly be online degrees that aren't worth the paper they may (or may not) be printed on. Still, there are some interesting developments in the field of education, and here are just a few.

• Sebastian Thrun is optimistic about creating an online class that will confer a master's degree in computer science. All the class material will be online for free, but the actual degree will cost a few thousand bucks still (via Georgia Tech). [url]
• The traditional education system might be in for some disruption as more online education startups attract students and pull tuition dollars away from bricks and mortar institutions. If professors don't like their student reviews now, it's going to get a bit worse when online classes are rated instantly by students.... [url]
• Professor Sugata Mitra has demonstrated that kids don't necessarily need a teacher -- if you just set up an internet-connected computer in the middle of a village in India, you'll be surprised by what the kids learn all by themselves. And now, Mitra has $1 million from a TED prize to further his research into self-organized learning. [url]
• Don't have time to attend a class? You might not need to with the University of Wisconsin's upcoming program to grant bachelor degrees based on existing experience. You still have to take some tests and demonstrate your skills, but the school of hard knocks might be good enough in some cases? [url]

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DailyDirt: Crackpots Versus Real Scientists

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Over a hundred years ago, Albert Einstein published what would become his theory of special relativity, and since then, there have been quite a few experiments that support Einstein's ideas. That's the way science usually works. A theory hypothesis is proposed, and if it's deemed worthy enough, other people will actually try to test out the theory hypothesis and see if its predictions can be verified (and every worthy theory hypothesis needs to be able to predict something that isn't already known). As non-traditional scientific publishing becomes easier and more popular, though, the signal-to-noise for interesting ideas can get a bit difficult to discern. Luckily, there are still some folks willing to bear the burden of debunking extraordinary claims from an endless stream of nearly-good ideas.

• Vinay Deolalikar posted his "proof" that P!=NP a few years ago, but it didn't quite stand up to the scrutiny of some mathematicians -- and you, too, can dismiss an extraordinary proof by watching out for a few telltale signs. It's hard to refute everyone who claims to have a P!=NP proof, but there's a roadmap for how to avoid wasting other mathematicians' valuable time. [url]
• A. Garrett Lisi has a grand unifying theory of the universe, but maybe he should stick to surfing. Lisi's TEDtalk is amazingly devoid of physics, but the Large Hadron Collider may have the final say about whether "E8" provides any unique insights on the universe. [url]
• In 2012, Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki posted 500+ pages (on the internet!) that "might" prove the ABC Conjecture. Mochizuki refuses to discuss his proof, and so far, no one else has really been able to tell him he's wrong. [url]

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DailyDirt: Life On Other Planets

from the dept

We've discovered thousands of exoplanets beyond our solar system, and some of them are even in the "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could possibly exist. Some astronomers think life could be abundant in the universe, but there's not that much hard evidence (yet!). Here are just a few astronomical discoveries that might encourage researchers to look for signs of life a bit more carefully.

• Exoplanets have been discovered circling some extremely old, metal-poor stars, creating interesting curiosities that might expand the theories of how planets form. These exoplanets might not harbor any kind of life... or we may want to get a bit more creative about how we envision life on other worlds. [url]
• A free-floating planet named CFBDSIR2149 is not orbiting a star, and it's only one of about two dozen or so known examples of a starless planet. This rogue planet is relatively young compared to the Earth, and some spectroscopic measurements suggest this planet's temperature is about 430° Celsius -- a bit too warm for our tastes (but maybe not for aliens?). [url]
• Within our own solar system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected spurts of water from Saturn's moon Enceladus. This evidence leads to some speculation of a habitable zone on some icy moons where microbes might be able to survive. [url]

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DailyDirt: Not Enough Flies In My Soup, Waiter...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's actually somewhat difficult to avoid eating insects accidentally. Bugs (or bug parts) get into our food supply all the time, and it's not really a bad thing (unless you're a strict vegan). Some folks, though, want more insects in their food, and not just fried grasshoppers or exotic scorpions. Insect protein could be a more sustainable food source, and arguably, our distant primate relatives eat far more insects than meat from other animals like we do. Here are just a few interesting links on insects in our food.

• For over 20 years, candy lollipops with entrapped insects have been on the market. How many licks does it take to get to the insect at the center of a Hotlix lollipop? [url]
• The Starbucks Strawberry Frappuccino was once made rosy red, not with an artificial color (like Red #40), but from natural colors derived from grinding up the dried bodies of cochineal bugs The bug-based coloring was safe to eat (as long as you weren't allergic to those bugs), but Starbucks had to switch to a vegetable-based dye because people were either grossed out or vegan. [url]
• Some European researchers are trying to make insects more palatable for people, and a popular Dutch restaurant called Specktakel tries to incorporate an insect into at least one item on its daily menu. Insects are a good source of protein, and it is far less energy intensive to raise bugs than beef. [url]

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DailyDirt: Can Computers Grade Written Essays?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Technology aimed at education could really benefit an incredible number of students by making classes and learning (potentially) a more pleasant and efficient experience. Computers can't replace a really good human teacher, but they can make it easier for good human teachers to reach a vast audience of students. Massively open online courses (MOOCs) promise to change how education works, but there are some technological tools that might be missing. It's pretty straightforward to test students on math problems in an automated way, but grading essays is a much more daunting problem. There have been some calls for automated grading software from various organizations (like the Hewlett Foundation). But at the same time, the National Council of Teachers of English argues that computers simply can't grade essays. Here are just a few more links on this debate over the use of algorithms over English professors (or grad students).

• EdX, the non-profit started by Harvard and MIT, is releasing some software to automagically grade human-written essays. Some see this software as just another tool for educators to use for more immediate feedback to students, while others are worried that these algorithms will be used incorrectly and lead to disastrous educational policies and outcomes. [url]
• There are studies that show algorithms are statistically comparable to humans when it comes to ranking essays on a 5 point scale. There are things machines can do better and things humans do better -- just make sure you know the differences and automated essay grading can be done productively in the right context. [url]
• Automated essay readers can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. The Educational Testing Service is testing out automation, so students may soon be facing algorithmic grading for their college entrance exams. [url]
• Grading a few sentences can be harder than it might look. Professional (human) teachers are obviously better at interpreting the insights and ideas behind the words a student writes, but computers scale much better and never tire of horrible spelling mistakes or misplaced modifiers.... [url]

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DailyDirt: Living On Earth (Or Elsewhere)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The origins of life are incredibly mysterious. The life that we normally interact with is made up of chiral molecules, and no one actually knows why only certain chiral molecules are involved in our biology. No one knows how life began, or where it began, or when. Lots of basic questions about life have no solid answers. Attempts to duplicate the creation of life have generally only produced inanimate molecules (except for synthetic life based on existing lifeforms). Here are just a few fascinating links on the topic of life.

• Moore's law probably doesn't apply to biology, but if it did, it suggests that life as we know it began before the Earth existed. Genetic complexity as a function of time has been extrapolated backwards, but it's obviously more of an interesting thought experiment than a meaningful biological theory. [url]
• NASA's Curiosity rover has analyzed some martian rock samples to answer the question: "could life have ever been supported on Mars?" The answer seems to be yes, but that still doesn't mean Mars had (or has) any life. [url]
• Do we need to look for alien life that's already amongst us? A shadow biosphere on earth could be an explanation for some mysteries like "desert varnish"... or Occam's razor might start cutting in here. [url]

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DailyDirt: Ads Gone Wrong

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Commercials are always trying to get people's attention -- sometimes by being controversial and sometimes by being shocking. But even when a company tries to broadcast only sensitive and feel-good messages, there will always be some folks pointing out that companies don't really care about people as much as profits. Here are just a few advertisements that might have just missed getting their message across.

• Why is it that car companies seem to have a hard time NOT making offensive ads? Ford India recently apologized for some terrible ads depicting bound and gagged women in the spacious hatchback trunk of a Ford Figo. But Ford wasn't the only example, Hyundai and GM also had some horrible commercials to retract recently. [url]
• Dr Pepper posted an ad on Facebook with a common geeky joke, showing the evolution of humans -- starting with a chimp-like ancestor and ending with a modern upright person holding a can of his favorite beverage. Poking the beehive of anti-evolution religious folks might be a fairly safe way of creating some controversy, but it probably doesn't sell that much more sugar water. [url]
• The Economist once ran an ad for itself, asking "Why should women read The Economist?" Maybe publications written by -- and read by -- mostly men should be a bit more careful when trying to step away from being a "Maxim for nerds"..? [url]

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DailyDirt: Funny Money

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Just about every denomination of US currency has been counterfeited at some point. But there are some really good copies out there (aka supernotes) that are extremely difficult to detect. In response, every few years, the government has to issue new bill designs that are harder and harder to duplicate. Here are just a few interesting links on detecting fake money and issuing new currency.

• The US Federal Reserve will introduce a new $100 bill with added security features on October 8, 2013. The new bill will be confusing and complicated, so counterfeiters will have a small window where they'll likely be able to pass off a slightly different (but equally confusing) new-looking C-note. [url]
• Ireland's Central Bank says it's offering refunds for a commemorative coin that misquotes a phrase from Ulysses. It was an unintentional error on a coin meant to honor James Joyce, but the bank is still planning to sell the coins -- explaining that the text was "an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation". [url]
• The US secret service has trained counterfeit detection canines to help sniff out fake money. The dogs and their handlers went through a 12-week training program and were deployed in Colombia to find counterfeit currency. [url]

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DailyDirt: Advances In Wheelchair Technology

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are nearly 6 million people in the US living with some form of paralysis. Despite some controversy, the FDR memorial has a statue of the president sitting in a wheelchair. Wheelchairs have been around for over a hundred years, but technology could improve how they work. Here are just a few examples.

• The Tongue Drive System allows users to control their wheelchairs via tongue movements. This prototype requires a "clinical" tongue piercing and a dental retainer, so maybe a camera system would be a nice improvement. [url]
• Tek RMD is a robotic mobilization device that might replace a wheelchair and give paraplegics the ability to move around upright. It's not quite a powered exoskeleton, and it can't do stairs, but it's an interesting robotic alternative to a wheelchair (even though it costs a lot more). [url]
• A wheelchair from Kyoto University called the Permoveh has omnidirectional wheels, so it can move more freely and turn on a dime. The prototype has a top speed of 3.7 mph and costs over $36,000, but future models are expected to be cheaper. [url]

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DailyDirt: Seeing In Color

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Seeing in color is often taken for granted, even though about 10% of the human population is colorblind in some way. There aren't really that many ways to correct for colorblindness, but presumably, once the technology exists for giving people the ability to see in more colors -- we could go a bit overboard and try to see in the infrared or the ultraviolet, too. Here are just a few fun links on color perception.

• Chemists are cranking our visual red dial to 11 -- enabling people to see redder than red. By modifying proteins that interact with the chromophore rhodopsin, it might be possible to see light with wavelengths as high as 644 nm. [url]
• Tetrachromats might be able to see more colors than most people (who are just trichromats). But that's nothing compared to mantis shrimp... or butterflies. [url]
• Neil Harbisson was born completely colorblind, so he could only see in black and white -- until he started wearing a device on his head so that he could hear colors. Google Glass could presumably do this, too, and maybe we'll all be wearing visors like Geordi La Forge someday. [url]

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DailyDirt: Augmenting Animals

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are a bunch of people out there who are into turning themselves into cyborgs or adding to their natural-born abilities. Some of them say they're transhumanists, but others are just super geeks willing to experiment on themselves for fun. (Most folks are probably willing to wait a bit to make sure brain implants are actually safe.) Here are just a few projects that are working on giving lab rats some cool new upgrades.

• Rats have been given an artificial sense -- the ability to detect infrared light. An IR sensor was attached to the rat's head and after a month of training, the animal could reliably sense when researchers directed otherwise invisible IR beams of light on it. [url]
• Some neuroengineers have developed a fully implantable and wirelessly rechargeable brain device that could serve as a brain-computer interface. This implant has lasted for over a year in lab animals, and it can observe, record and process information directly from dozens of brain neurons. [url]
• Rat brains on two separate continents have been connected to work in tandem. The researchers are already working on connecting the brains of four rats at the same time, as well as starting on brains of larger mammals.... (insert ominous music here) [url]

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DailyDirt: Farming In The Future

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

So far, we've mostly avoided a Malthusian catastrophe, but the human population is likely to grow to about 9 billion by 2050 (or somewhere between 7.5 and 10.5 billion, depending on your estimates). By that time, huge cities could house enormous populations, but the resources to feed all those people might need to be shipped in from vast farmlands. Who knows, maybe there will be some suburban middle ground where billions of people live near locally-produced agriculture. Vertical farming technologies could make it possible to grow food without acres and acres of land. Here are just a few links on some futuristic farming techniques.

• Organic farming is great, but it often produces lower yields of crops compared to conventional farming techniques. Organic farming yields are actually comparable for some fruits, but for vegetables and cereals, conventional farming has the upper hand. The score isn't settled yet; organic farmers might be able to increase their productivity if they can find better sources of organic nitrogen. [url]
• Singapore has a commercial vertical farm in operation that could bring back more agriculture to the tiny nation-city. Sky Green Farms is selling its crops in Singapore supermarkets, and it's looking to license its technology to other countries that might also need small-footprint farming. [url]
• VertiCrop is another vertical farming technology company based in Canada which grows vegetables hydroponically with a fraction of the water and land usages of a standard farm. The mechanized farming can be managed by as little as 3 people and still process 10,000 plants every 3 days. [url]
• Some architects are creating "farmscrapers" -- super tall buildings that contain agricultural features. Growing trees on the sides of a skyscraper probably has a few problems, but the designs look cool. [url]

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DailyDirt: Exercise The Right Way

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are countless exercise videos and gadgets to help people exercise more effectively. Every fitness guru seems to have his/her own unique (and hopefully not patented) method for getting better results from physical activity. If you believe the infomercials, you can lose more weight in less time, just by following a few simple instructions (your mileage may vary). Here are just a few links on how you might improve your daily activity in some small ways.

• Is there a perfect technique to running? In 1874, the "100-Up" method was created and could be the best way to run. You don't need fancy five-toed shoes, and you should really avoid landing hard on your heels. [url]
• Just one minute of strenuous effort repeated about ten times (over about 20 minutes per day) seems to offer some significant health benefits. Studies of variations of high-intensity interval training techniques could help people optimize their exercise routines. [url]
• A lot of people are walking incorrectly with bad posture. Bending your elbows at a 90 degree angle might not sound like a big deal, but apparently, if you're not doing it, you're walking wrong. [url]

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DailyDirt: Citizen Science

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The funding for "big science" is subject to all kinds of political whim, so maybe it's time to bolster the efforts of small science projects that might still contribute to the world's scientific knowledge. (And, hopefully, citizen scientists won't waste too much time or resources on perpetual motion machines or homeopathic remedies.) Here are just a few programs that citizen scientists can participate in.

• The White House is looking for citizen scientists and is accepting nominations for notable people who have made a significant impact on society. The White House will host its Champions of Change event on Citizen Science on June 4, 2013 -- so get your nominations in by the end of April. [url]
• If you like ants, here's your chance to have some say in giving a common name to the ant species forelius pruinosus. Anyone can vote on the top four names: barricade ant, blockade ant, high noon ant or highway ant. (vote before April 30th!) [url]
• Citizen scientists submitted projects to a Scistarter contest earlier this year, and the grand prize went to a device that creates fuel from water. It's not exactly a Mr. Fusion, but splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is still a neat demonstration. [url]

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DailyDirt: Medical Science To The Rescue

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Techniques for extending people's lives have come from a vast number of somewhat unexpected research projects. Transplanting organs from other people (or animals) and isolating various natural products weren't always as commonplace as they are now. Hopefully, life-saving research won't be locked away in patent monopolies, and naturally-occurring materials will remain free for anyone to use. Here are just a few fascinating advances in medical science.

• A lab-grown kidney has been transplanted into a rat -- giving the rat a functioning organ. If this technique can be scaled up to work with humans, it could be a huge relief for organ donor shortages. [url]
• Supplies of human serum albumin (HSA) normally come from blood donations, but it may be possible to grow HSA from rice seeds in yields high enough to be worthwhile. There's still some testing to be done to make sure the rice-derived HSA is as safe and effective as HSA from human blood, but this development could make HSA supplies abundant and help a lot patients who've lost fluids from trauma. [url]
• Horseshoe crabs are routinely captured (temporarily) to extract their blood for a clotting agent called Limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL). The LAL isolated from the crabs' blood can detect bacteria and other contaminants in various medical supplies at less than one part per trillion, and a quart of the stuff can sell for about $15,000. [url]

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DailyDirt: Breakfast of Champions...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Breakfast is supposedly the more important meal of the day. But does it matter what you eat for breakfast? There are plenty of incredibly unhealthy-sounding breakfast menus, but people are always coming up with even more outrageous breakfast items. Here are just a few examples of how kids can start their day.

• PepsiCo has a breakfast soda called Kickstart -- a Mountain Dew-flavored beverage with caffeine and some fruit juice and added vitamins. Are you a backer for 92 milligrams of caffeine in a 16oz can? [url]
• All kinds of deep fried foods can be found at county fairs, and deep fried breakfast cereals are no exception. Last year, the San Diego County Fair offered several kinds of breakfast cereals in a hot, crispy slightly chewy and delicious form (if you like fried stuff, and who doesn't). [url]
• If there's an important state-wide standardized test, students should eat a good breakfast before they take it -- and they can get a free meal from McDonald's for taking the FCAT (in Florida) in 3rd to 11th grade. And if anyone can correlate higher test scores with the students who ate at McDonald's.... [url]

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DailyDirt: Going Up Into Space Soon

from the dept

Traveling to the edge of space isn't easy. Sure, we can send up small things like a digital camera with a few helium-filled weather balloons, but a whole person is quite a bit more difficult (especially if the person wants to return to Earth safely). Fortunately, there are a few companies that are working on space tourism, and space tourists could help fund the development of a growing number of commercial space services. Here are just a few links related to putting people in space.

• Virgin Galactic is gearing up for its space tourism service, planning to launch routine flights to the edge of space in 2014. Sir Richard Branson once turned down an offer from Mikhail Gorbachev to fly into space for $50 million, but now Branson has made a similar offer to anyone with $200,000 to spare. [url]
• How much do we value an astronaut's life? Life insurance for an Apollo 11 astronaut comes in the form of an autographed postcard, worth about $30,000. [url]
• China is planning to send three people to its orbiting space station in a few months. So far, only the US and Russia have independently sent people to orbiting space stations. China would become just the third country to do so. [url]

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