Anyone who uses a laptop a lot probably notices that the little fan underneath really blows hot hot air once the machine has been on for a while. If you monitor the internal temperature of the CPU inside using one of the laptop’s utilities you can see it reaches temperatures in the 50 – 60 degree celsius range.
One of the questions now being asked … is a laptop too hot to put on your lap? One observation by a doctor treating someone for an overheated lap due to laptop exposure says a condition called “Toasted Skin Syndrome” can result.
While not hot enough to actually burn you, there’s enough heat to damage your skin if you leave the machine in one spot too long. Some say that in theory skin cancer could result from prolonged exposure this way.
They suggest if it feels too hot then it probably is too hot to leave it on your lap. Get a desk or one those fan coolers if you want to use it on your lap.
Can a laptop’s heat cause infertility in men? A man’s scrotum is external to his body because sperm must be kept cooler than body temperature to survive. Now its been found that a hot laptop sitting on the lap can increase a scrotum’s temperature as much as 35 degrees above the body’s normal 98.6 degrees.
Computer users can be a pretty nerdy bunch, but it’s hard to believe anyone could sit there with a laptop and do nothing about it while the seed for future generations gets roasted below. Now we know the real threat that global warming poses.
In an NBC interview today the President made it obvious that he was not satisfied with the present education system and said reforms have to be made so that the U.S. remains competitive with the rest of the world.
He pointed out that the U.S. school year was a month shorter than many others and that teachers are underpaid. Improving teachers pay and lengthening the school year he said would help but that it wasn’t the total solution.
“Money plays a factor, and obviously, there are some schools where money plays a big factor — they don’t have up-to-date textbooks, they don’t have computers in the classroom — so those who say money makes no difference are wrong. On the other hand, money without reform will not fix the problem and what we’ve got to do is combine a very vigorous reform agenda that increases standards, helps make sure that we’ve got the best possible teachers inside the classroom, makes sure that we’re clearing away some of the bureaucratic underbrush that is preventing kids from learning. We’ve got to combine that with deploying resources effectively,” he said.
He talked about how the teachers unions who are often vivified by critics for protecting the jobs of poor teachers can also be “part of the solution” although they are “sometimes … resistant to change when things aren’t working.”
He was most critical of science and math results which showed U.S. students were way down the list in 26th place in world rankings. He wants to hire 10,000 new science and math teachers in the next two years to improve things.
He made it clear that the education product depends on good teachers to produce it and even though he praised teachers for their efforts he also said that there were some teachers that would just have to go … as in fired.
World leaders are re-examining anti-poverty goals first adopted at a summit in 2000 and seeing if they can still be implemented by 2015. The goals were to cut extreme poverty by half, ensure universal primary education, halt and even reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and to cut child and maternal mortality rates.
The effects of the global economic downturn as well as rising energy and food prices have many countries in crisis. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments not to forget about the 1 billion people who are living on less than $1.25 a day.
U.N. officials have said almost $27 billion in new money is being promised by governments attending the summit. That’s in addition to what they’ve already pledged. About $8.6 billion is coming from low income countries.
Ban Ki-moon has said as much as $40 billion is required to save the lives of 16 million women and children from poverty, hunger, and disease over the next 5 years.
Oxfam spokeswoman Emma Seery said an additional $88 billion was needed to meet child and maternal health goals by 2015 and anything less was not enough.
CEO Joanna Kerr of the ActionAid anti-poverty group said the summit was an “expensive side-show that offered everything to everyone and nothing to no one. An avalanche of warm sentiment cleverly concealed the fact that no fully funded plans of action for tackling poverty were actually announced”.
Ever since colleges and universities discovered banks were willing to pay them big bucks for turning over the names of their students to them, they’ve been doing just that … and earning millions of dollars.
The banks will pay them for financial services that students need like opening a bank account, getting a credit card, or using the ATM machine in the college dorm. Once the school in some way identifies one of their students to a bank, and the bank markets to them and gets their business, the school can receive payments in the form of lump sums, or monthly payments, bonuses per diem, and royalties.
The banks sometime pays the school just to get access to the students mailing list. If that isn’t allowed then there are work arounds to avoid the rules and student ID #’s may be matched to bank accounts and credit cards.
In the case of the University Of Colorado there were rules in place to prevent outside access to the student’s mailing list. However through the schools credit union, students, staff, and teachers were pitched the idea of getting a bank account which tied into their ID number. The school got paid a yearly royalty of $13,000 from the bank for access to the mailing list.
ATM machines payoff $300 monthly plus a 5 cent bonus on every transaction.
Schools defend their practice of turning over student information and getting paid for it as something that doesn’t hurt the student because these are services they need anyway. Schools justify their practices by saying practically everything they do costs money and they need the revenue. Even student unions or the university’s alumni foundation share in the wealth.
Critics argue that by joining forces with a bank and marketing these services to the students … that it only encourages them to spend more money and to get farther into debt.
The Census people claim that the number of people living in poverty increased by 3 million in 2009 and that it’s at the highest level since 1959.
The government poverty line is presently set at an median income of $21,756 for a family of four. In 2009 the median family income fell from $50,112 to $49,777.
There’s now about 44 million people classified as poor and over 15 million of them are kids under 18.
The late and great comedian George Carlin once quibbed “What’s with the hand basket, and where’s everybody going?” Good question.
In 2009 the poverty rate climbed from 13.2% to 14.3%. Hispanic households took the biggest hit with a rise of 2.1% since 2008. The rate for the black and white population climbed about 1.1%.
The Brookings Institute in Washington predicts that the poverty rate will continue to trend upwards to 16% in the next 10 years due to the recession.
It’s estimated that by Congress continuing to give extensions to normal unemployment benefits expiry rules that about 3 million people avoided being added to the poverty group.
So says associate professor Kevin Kinser at the State University of New York-Albany. For-profit schools have been getting a bad rap for the last few years because of some questionable recruitment practices, but they educate about 10% of all graduates and are an important part of the educational network.
The real problem with them the professor says is that too few of their students pay back their government loans. While about 90% of for-profit undergraduates use federal loans to pay tuition … they accumulate too much debt, can’t pay it back, and leave the government with overdue loans.
There’s a long history of success with the education for-profits provide. Compared with non profit learning institutions they enroll more students, outperform state colleges on graduating minorities, and are more accessible to older students. They award about 1 in 5 associate degrees and 1 in 10 master’s degrees.
The sector is expected to add 1 million more new students next year. 1 in 3 will pay off the principal on their loans in the next 4 years and 1 in 5 for-profit students will default in the next 3 years.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt who is a global educator and learning company and the world’s largest provider of educational materials for pre K-12 schooling is setting up a fund to promote more innovation in educating techniques.
Over the next 3 years they will spend up to $300 million to develop innovative learning centers in the United States and Ireland.
Another $100 million will be spent as incubator money to support technology for greater student achievement.
Company CEO Barry O’Callaghan said Monday “The HMH Innovation Fund is a first for our industry, providing the capital to identify and incubate the next generation of innovation in education. We are excited about the opportunity to share in developing new solutions for teachers, students, administrators and parents”.
The Fund’s aim is to rapidly inject capital into worthwhile projects and expedite their development quickly to fulfill market requirements. Investments may vary from products or services for teachers and students, to enhancement type products … and consumer focused education products that HMH can deliver through its educational businesses.
The amazing growth of 3G networks in emerging markets is also making possible many social and economic benefits that previously were quite limited due to lack of access by many people in these regions.
As these markets expand so will the services, and the cost of wireless and the devices users attach to them will continue to become more affordable. The regions being affected most by these new services is China, Southeast Asia, and Africa. 3G mobile broadband demand is exploding in these areas.
Unlike other parts of the world that already had land line communication infrastructure in place prior to the wireless revolution … these areas were not hardly wired at all. It is about 10 times less costly (and much quicker) to connect someone to a wireless network rather than a fixed network.
The growth in Chinese wireless users has grown to 107 million rural users since wireless licenses were granted in 2009 and is expected to grow to 500 million in the next 4 years.
Studies in these markets have shown for every 1% gain in Internet penetration that incomes increase by 10%.
Banking services are now available over wireless connections in Africa that were previously not available at all.
Medical professionals can now reach out and access people in medical need over the broadband networks that before could not get help.
Ericsson is projecting 3.4 billion mobile broadband users by 2015. That’s now about half the world’s population.
Google product manager Jonathan Effrat revealed in a video today what Google’s new Instant Search is all about. In spite of what seems to be over the top technical magic, the Google spokesman went on to explain how it’s just the use of better retrieval through new software and its ability to sift through the search data stored in their database that makes it happen.
This search will now display results “instantly in a way that has never been done before.” “Now, results appear automatically as you type, with no need to hit enter or click the search button. as soon as you see what you need predicted in gray text, you can stop typing, and just look down to find your results waiting…see results instantly lets you refine your search as you type – looking for a bird? A map? A recipe? You’ll know instantly if you’re on the right track to finding what you want.”
Google has re-engineered their famous simple search web form using a web application called AJAX which they claim will speed things up about 3-5 seconds per search.
Instant Search is based on the principle that the eye can scan the displayed results much faster than the fingers can type in the search phrase, so by anticipating what you are likely looking for based on its database of previous searches Google thinks it will have the search you want displayed before you can finish typing … and viola, you’ve just saved 3 to 5 seconds.
Google will be rolling out this new service today in the U.S. and it will become the default search that will appear on the Google search page. Users can still use the old slower search if they want.
After 32 days trapped 2100 feet underground the 33 miners are becoming angry and combative with their rescuers. Some simple things are becoming irritants … like having their mail censored.
Relatives of the men can send letters down to the men but have been told by officials to keep the messages positive and try to keep them in a healthy state of mind. Failure of the officials to deliver all the letters because of their censorship rules is becoming a real bone of contention with the miners, and some of the miner’s relatives are afraid tempers are going to flare up at any time.
A fiber optic video link has been opened up to the miners that allow the relatives to gauge first hand how their loved ones are doing and some thought they looked pretty good but one man said his father was ready to blow up down there. Most just talk about getting out and going back to their normal lives.
In addition to the mail problems the miners want to be able to smoke and drink wine. They also have been driving around in mine vehicles that they’ve been told not to.
NASA experts and others who are monitoring the situation say the miner’s actions are what should be expected after living in isolation and trapped for this length of time.
