10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Maybe Cardinal Newman was right: higher education does not exist for the sake of training, but to turn undergrads into more interesting people... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The elimination of poverty ought to be within our grasp, and yet for hundreds of millions of people over the globe, it remains but a dream. Why can't the world's wealth be shared?... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Sean Wilentz's move from hard-left labour historian to defender of traditional, some might say conservative, political history seems an odd turn... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
“Thoughts are magnetic,” says Rhonda Byrne, “and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency.” Money must be on the same frequency... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Lady Jane Grey, the “nine-day queen”, was virginal, sweet, and beheaded at the age of 16, a notorious victim of the Tudors, or so it is thought... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Tens of thousands of years of human mating norms are evaporating as Cro-Magnon males drag women into their caves, and the women love every minute of it... more

Fun websites to waste time on via MakeUseOf.com by Karl L Gechlik

• Let's start with College Humor. They offer so much stuff that will make you laugh it is almost unreal!


• Along the same lines but geared toward men’s magazines content is Maxim Online. They often have links to CollegeHumor's videos but this is where I come for some funny jokes and ridiculously smoking women. The site can be construed by some people as not funny or going too far so be forewarned that the content is probably NSFW and could be offensive to some.


• Next up is my favorite web comic, XKCD, [has to be up there with my favourites as well, H] which has lots of old archives to waste time on.


• I love me some scrabble so I play games and dominate in Literati. The only place I can find it is at Yahoo Games.


• I have also been known to lose a few hours to Google Image Labeler – but hey that's just me right?

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Across the land, in colleges at every level of quality, students are spending far less time studying than they did thirty years ago... more ... Why? A few theories

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The arrest in 1894 of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus for revealing French military secrets to the German embassy rocked a nation. Its echoes are heard still... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
A thousand years of economic bubbles, panics, and collapses shows that investors always think “this time is different”. We're not as naive as our parents or their parents. Oh, yeah?... more

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Peach juice as an anti-corrosion inhibitor of mild steel

Ah, the joys of reading the “all article published in the last 7 days”. Without this feed (which is not working properly as at today) I would have completely missed this story by Aprael S Yaro, Anees A Khadom and Hadeel F Ibraheem published in Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials Volume 58 Issue 3)

Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate peach juice as a cheap, raw, green and non-toxic anti-corrosion material for mild steel corrosion in hydrochloric acid at different temperatures.
Design/methodology/approach
The corrosion inhibition of mild steel in 1?M HCl solution in the presence of peach juice at temperature range of 30-60°C and concentration range of 5-50?cm3/l was studied using weight loss and polarization techniques. The inhibition effect, adsorption characteristics, mathematical and electrochemical modeling of peach juice were addressed.
Findings
Results show that inhibition efficiency rose with the increase of inhibitor concentration and temperature up to 50°C, while at temperatures above 50°C the values of efficiency decreased. The inhibitor adsorbed physically on metal surface and followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Monolayer formed spontaneously on the metal surface. Maximum inhibition efficiency obtained was about 91 percent at 50°C in the 50?cm3/l inhibitor concentration.
Originality/value
This work is an attempt to find a new, safe to environment, non-toxic corrosion inhibitor. Peach juice is a readily available material in Iraq and Middle East markets.

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New research shows single mothers hit hardest by welfare changes

via Fawcett News

“Women are being forced to bear the brunt of cuts

A year on from the coalition government’s first budget, groundbreaking new research from the Fawcett Society and the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the impact of tax and benefit changes on men and women has found:

• The government could assess the different impact of its tax and benefit policies on women and men using data currently available. This runs counter to its claim that any meaningful assessment is impossible.
• Such an assessment, considering all tax and benefit reforms to be introduced between 2010-2015, shows that single women will lose more as a proportion of their income than other households as a result of the cuts.
• Single mothers can expect to lose 8.5 per cent of their net annual income by 2015 – more than a month’s income each year.”

The full report Single Mothers: Singled Out - the impact of 2010-15 tax and benefit changes on women and men (PDF 12pp) is well worth reading.

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Fees and loathing: …

higher education finance and university participation

an article by Gill Wyness published in CentrePiece – The Magazine for Economic Performance (CEPCP343. June 2011)

With the UK's cap on tuition fees due to rise to £9,000, Gill Wyness looks at the impact of past fee increases on young people's decisions to go to university.

Full article: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp343.pdf

Gender Differences in E-Learning: …

Communication, Social Presence, and Learning Outcome

an article by Richard D Johnson (University at Albany – SUNY, USA) published in Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (Volume 23 Number 1 (January-March 2011))

Abstract
Although previous research has suggested that women may be at a learning disadvantage in e-learning environments, this study examines communication differences between women and men, arguing that women’s communication patterns may provide them with a learning advantage. Using data from 303 males and 252 females, this paper discusses gender differences in course communication processes and course outcomes in a web-based introductory information systems course. Results indicate that women communicated more, perceived the environment to have greater social presence, were more satisfied with the course, found the
course to be of greater value, and had marginally better performance than men. Despite the challenges facing women in e-learning environments, the results of this study suggest that e-learning environments that allow for peer to peer communication and connectedness can help females overcome some of these disadvantages.

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10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Courage. Chivalry. Brutality. War. Jerusalem contains them all. The city's past, and less still its present, offers little hope for a peaceful future... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Max von Oppenheim – archaeologist, diplomat, lothario – amassed a stunning collection of Syrian antiquities. He also charmed sheiks and Nazis, and bought slaves... more

via Cool Websites and Tools by Aibek
Interesting mashup that combines a timeline of world wars with their geographical location and presents this data on Google Maps. The timeline starts from 3000 BC and covers all conflicts up to 2005. You would be surprised to see the amount of conflicts the world has had just in the last decade.
Read more: ConflictHistory – Interactive Map Of World Conflicts

If Lincoln had a Facebook page via Phil Bradley's weblog
If Lincoln had a Facebook page it might have looked something like this. Slightly amusing in its own right, but more interesting to consider how something like this could be used within an educational setting. Facebook pages for the dead and famous!

Crazy organic bread-slicer sign for crazy organic bread eaters via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Environmental scientist Jennifer Jacquet poses they question, “Are You an Eco-Douchebag? The test is simple: read this sign [“Dear customers: Please be advised that our Bread Slicer is used for both Organic and Conventional items”] (recently photographed at my local Vancouver market, which is owned by Whole Foods) then gauge your response...” Now, I’m inclined to believe that pesticide-free food production has health benefits and is good for the planet, but likewise: it is the major crazy to believe that pesticides leap from the bread-slicer wires into your wholesome organic loaf.

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Capitalism may not be finished, but it is set to become a servant of the people rather than a master. The current slump will accelerate this change... more

The brains behind: Windosill via .net top stories by .net magazine
Windosill is a Flash-based puzzle game full of whimsical objects to push, pull, take apart, and otherwise manipulate. Creator Patrick Smith explains how he designed it Continues...

“Oldest English words” identified via BBC News Technology UK Edition
Some of the oldest words in the English and other Indo-European languages have been identified, scientists believe.

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Marx was wrong. The opiate of the masses isn’t religion, but spectator sports, says David Barash. It’s in our genes.... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
James Neugass was an ambulance driver and member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. His War Is Beautiful was almost lost... more

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Elitism and Meritocracy in UK Universities: …

the UK Needs Investment in its Labour Force

an article by John Simister (Birkbeck College, University of London) published in Higher Education Quarterly (Volume 65 Number 2 (April 2011))

Abstract
This article summarises previous academic research into university education, distinguishing between arguments for and against improving access. Several views are summarised, including structural-functionalism, which claims that powerful social groups maintain their status and income, and human capital theory, which focuses on employee productivity. Almost all viewpoints discussed in this article support meritocracy. UK universities differ in their openness to people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many universities, referred to here as ‘inclusive’, deserve credit for encouraging disadvantaged people to become students; in contrast, ‘exclusive’ universities tend to have fewer disadvantaged students than expected. There are barriers facing disadvantaged students, including unequal access to universities, which can at least partly be explained by private schools for rich pupils and financial burdens at university causing some students to take paid work (reducing time available for study). The UK spends less per student on universities than the world average and less than half as much as some European countries. The UK Government could increase university funding, concentrating on universities that are most inclusive and that tend to have the largest problems in affording sufficient staff and teaching facilities. This investment would give long-term benefits to the UK economy.

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