According to a study done at Rutgers, nearly 95 percent of students cheat at some point during high school and nearly 75 percent of students cheat in college. These statistics are just unbelievable to me. I have to wonder what the study-designers' definition of cheating was, but if the study results are anywhere near accurate, then I am totally ( Read more... )

The oldest extant road in Europe: England's Ancient Ridgeway Trail

Anyone want to hike this with me?

Edit: I think it would be great if I could get a group of people to come along - that way we could split costs for hostels, the luggage toting service, and car rental.

Of course realistically it might be a while before I will actually be able to do ( Read more... )

"Earlier this week, 1.5 million people filled the streets of Berlin, Germany to watch a several-day performance by France's Royal de Luxe street theatre company titled "The Berlin Reunion". Part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Reunion show featured two massive marionettes, the Big Giant, a deep-sea ( Read more... )

CommentPress and Digress.it are a Wordpress theme and plug-in, respectively, that allow readers to comment in the margins (so-to-speak) of posts. I can see a TON of uses for this.

Right now, I'm in the middle of grading a huge pile papers and I am attempting to use the online course software as the primary vehicle for my comments - but this only ( Read more... )

Today Sam, Josh, Susan, and I spent the afternoon wandering through a corn maze carved in the shape of Charles Darwin's portrait (complete with Galapagos finches flitting through his beard!).


( Read more... )

This is absolutely the best podcast ever. I can honestly say that I don't think there is a single person on my friends list who wouldn't love this - though I do think that you, Matthew Montgomery, and you, Rory Madden, would particularly enjoy it ( Read more... )

Who here has ever fantasized about Mr. Darcy and Ozymandias making out while dressed like characters from Mad Men?

Well, for those of you who answered "yes" to that question, it appears that your wish has been granted:

Click to view

I'm currently reading (or rather, listening to on my ipod) a new book called The Magicians. It actually is Harry Potter (and Narnia, and the Wizard of Oz, and Lord of the Rings) for grown-ups, and its really really well done. Here is a review of the book from the AV Club if you want to read more about it.

This last two weeks has been, in many respects, absolute hell. I had the root canal. It did not go well. I ended up at the ER in the middle of the night (twice!). I was given horrifyingly strong painkillers that made me nauseous and unable to remember things that had happened five minutes before, but which somehow didn't actually do anything for ( Read more... )

Alright. So I'm now only going to getting the second half of the root canal (where the fill my tooth cavity with rubber to seal it), on the day before my exam. I think that's doable. They said that shouldn't be any worse than getting a cavity filled. Phew!

Thanks for all of the wonderful advice everyone!