“It’s time we take a broad look at the state of education in America today. What are our graduation rates? How are our standardized test scores? How well paid are our teachers? Let’s take the pulse of our country’s education system — all the way from its kindergartens to its universities. Comparing and contrasting with statistics from other countries, we can see where we fit in on the international scene… and we can begin to think about how to repair education in America.”

“Where and what is nano? How will it shape our future? Nanoscience is the study of phenomena and manipulation of materials at the nanoscale, where properties differ significantly from those at a larger scale. The strange world of nanoscience – it can take you into atoms and beyond the stars.”

“The 11th millennium and beyond is a period of time that will begin on 1 January 10001 CE. Several predictions have been made concerning this future time period. This article is a compendium of such predictions, ranging from factual astronomical knowledge to the predictions of science fiction.” w/ words

“Researchers have discovered pigs feel happy or sad, depending on how they are treated.”

“Drones, metal detectors, chemical sniffers, and super spycams — forget ‘em. The leader of the Pentagon’s multibillion military task force to stop improvised bombs says there’s nothing in the U.S. arsenal for bomb detection more powerful than a dog’s nose.  Despite a slew of bomb-finding gagdets, the American military only locates about 50 percent of the improvised explosives planted in Afghanistan and Iraq. But that number jumps to 80 percent when U.S. and Afghan patrols take dogs along for a sniff-heavy walk. “Dogs are the best detectors,” Lieutenant General Michael Oates, the commander of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told a conference yesterday, National Defense reports. That’s not the greatest admission for a well-funded organization — nearly $19 billion since 2004, according to a congressional committee — tasked with solving one of the military’s wickedest problems.” w/ photos

“Scientists claim Rudyard Kipling was right when he suggested why leopards had rosette shaped markings and tigers have stripes. The Jungle Book author said it was because leopards moved to an environment “full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows.” And now researchers investigating the flank markings of 35 species of wild cats – by linking them to a mathematical model of pattern development – say he was correct. The University of Bristol found that cats living in dense habitats, in the trees, and active at low light levels, are the most likely to be patterned. This, they suggest, means that detailed aspects of patterning evolve for camouflage… or that leopards can change their spots.” w/ photos

“Teenage boys who repeatedly watch vicious TV programmes, films and video games are likelier to become insensitive to violence, according to a study that claims new insights into this hotly debated field. Researchers have long fretted that screen violence may have a brutalising effect on teenage minds. Their worry is that part of the brain which controls emotions and responses to external events — essentially a “brake” on wrongful behaviour — is still in a vulnerable, developing stage during adolescence. But investigations have been hampered by lack of evidence about what actually happens to brain functions, especially in the key area known as the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), when a teenager watches a violent scene. Jordan Grafman of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and colleagues enrolled 22 boys between the age of 14 to 17 in a study aimed at getting this clinical data.” w/ photos