Study of Standardized Admissions Tests Is Big Draw at College Conference

Study of Standardized Admissions Tests Is Big Draw at College Conference, By SARA RIMER, NYTimes 09/28/08
William R. Fitzsimmons’s first public presentation of the findings of the Study of the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission drew a large audience at the Seattle convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

College Panel Calls for Less Focus on SATs , By SARA RIMER, NYTimes, 09/22/08

Navigators for the College Bound

Navigators for the College Bound By JULIE BICK, NYTimes
As thousands of students look to get into the schools of their choice, private educational consultants take up where overburdened high school guidance counselors leave off.

Sunday Lit 092808

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey
What do we talk about when we talk about our states?

The last days of David Foster Wallace
The people who knew the brilliant writer best talk about the crippling anxiety and spiraling depression of his torturous final weeks. By Robert Ito, Salon.com

Interview: Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson has been a staple name in science fiction ever since his incandescent opus Snow Crash appeared... Stephenson discusses the mathematical philosophy and quantum mechanics in his newest novel, Anathem, as well as why he still writes by hand. Reviewd by Doug Brown, Powells.com

'American Widow' By ALISSA TORRES
Alissa Torres’s graphic novel, illustrated by Sungyoon Choi, is a memoir of emotional ruin and rebuilding after Ms. Torres’s husband died on Sept. 11, 2001. Reviewed by GEORGE GENE GUSTINES, NYTimes

THIS I BELIEVE: Accomplishing Big Things in Small Pieces William Wissemann, Hastings on Hudson, NY
I carry a Rubik’s Cube in my backpack. Solving it quickly is a terrific conversation starter and surprisingly impressive to girls....

TeenInk: RAW
Teen Ink is a national teen magazine, book and website featuring teen writing, information, art, photos, poetry, teen issues and more. All articles are written by teen authors who are students at schools.

Freeing the Elephants: What Barbar brought by Adam Gopnik, NewYorker.comWhat Babar brought.The Babar books are among those half-dozen picture books that seem to fix not just a character but a whole way of being, even a civilization… SLIDE SHOW AUDIO

Saturday Arts 092708

Click the image

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. WARNING: VERY, VERY, VERY ADDICTIVE!!!

Art and Science, Virtual and Real, Under One Big Roof By DENNIS OVERBYE, NYTimes
Eight years and $200 million in the making, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center aims to be a technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses.

Using Old Materials to Put a New Face on a Museum By ROBERTA SMITH, NYTimes
The opening shows at the new Museum of Arts and Design resemble an art seminar-cum-food-fight — an amazing cacophony that is by turns dismaying, enervating, infuriating and invigorating. Slide Show

Movie Review Hollywood War, Revised Edition By A. O. SCOTT, NYTimes
Spike Lee's “Miracle at St. Anna” exists in part to make the overdue point that African-American soldiers fought as bravely and as hard as the characters in Hollywood combat epics. Audio Slide Show

Movie Review 'The Class': Learning to Be the Future of France By MANOHLA DARGIS, NYTimes
The young bodies crowding “The Class,” an artful, intelligent movie about modern French identity and the attempt to transform those bodies into citizens through talk, talk, talk, come in
all sizes, shapes and colors.

Museum of Tolerance stays on message By Mike Boehm, LATimes
With a $13-million makeover to celebrate, the L.A. institution has big plans...

"Confucius: Shaping Values Through Art" LATimes
This show explores key concepts of the philosopher's teachings. This 17th century scroll painting is attributed to Xiang Shengmo. It's one of more than 60 pieces being shown at Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena through Jan. 11, 2009.

Philharmonic plants Youth Orchestra seed By Joanna Lin, LATimes
Lessons and instruments are free. The No. 1 goal is participation.

Science Friday 092608

OPENING 09/27/08:

Leonardo: 500 Years into the Future

Explore this genius of the Renaissance has influenced and inspired much of the technology we use today. September 27, 2008 to January 4, 2009 @ The Tech

OPENING 09/27/08: SF Academy of Sciences
The People Behind The 'Wow' Factor, by David Perlman, SFGATE Science Editor
Behind the spectacular exhibits at the new California Academy of Sciences are more than 100 researchers.
Rebuilding Academy of Sciences no walk in park, SFGATE
It started with a bad idea. In a talk at a January 1997 Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Mayor Willie Brown proposed that the California...
Evolution of California Academy of Sciences, SFGATE
April 4, 1853: Seven San Francisco gentlemen of substance meet at 129 Montgomery St. to found what is now the academy. July 24, 1856...

Teachers escape gravity to impress students SFGATE
Thirty California teachers learned this lesson Thursday: Floating like an astronaut in zero gravity is as cool as it looks.

Lupe, the baby mammoth, comes home to San Jose SJ Mercury-News
Welcome home, baby mammoth. After three years of undergoing scientific scrutiny at the University of California-Berkeley, the juvenile mammoth fossil nicknamed "Lupe,'' found near San Jose's Guadalupe River, is returning to San Jose.

Sushi lovers: Unagi, maguro may be tasty, but planet-unfriendly SJ Mercury-News
Environmentalists put out list of "sustainable sushi." They hope diners change their orders.

How to Save Fish, By John Tierney, NYTimes
A global survey of more than 11,000 fisheries points to a profitable system to protect fisheries from collapsing. The bad news is that this system, called catch shares, is used in only 1 percent of the world’s fisheries...

Nutrition: Soda Ban in Schools Has Little Impact By ERIC NAGOURNEY, NYTimes
A new study suggests that banning soft drink sales in elementary schools only slightly reduces how much soda children drink.

Rocks May Be Oldest on Earth, Scientists Say By KENNETH CHANG, NYTimes
A study suggests that portions of a patch of bedrock in northern Quebec are 4.28 billion years old and formed when the Earth was less than 300 million years old.

China Launches Space Walk Mission By DAVID BARBOZA, NYTimes
The three-day mission by the Shenzhou VII spacecraft is expected to include the country’s first attempt at a spacewalk.

It Takes Just One Village to Save a Species By PHIL MCKENNA, NYTimes
By helping a Chinese village out of poverty, Pan Wenshi protects the endangered langur.
Photos: Once Endangered, Now Recovering

History Thursday 092508

SAT essay has anti-history bias By AMITY SHLAES, SeattlePI.com
Parents are desperate to convey to their children knowledge of history, rhetoric and grammar -- in short, whatever of their own past can help their offspring. The parents needn't bother. In the world of the SAT essay, there is no past, even when the essay topic itself is learning from the past...

This I Believe: I Help Make Government Work by Jessica Case
I believe government is a verb: the collective effort of well-intentioned individuals...

National Geographic: History News SAT Test 1001 has a short paragraph about Machu Picchu--here's the NG story. The NG story about the ostrich as a lion killer reminded me of one of the funniest videos, EVER: Listen up! The ostrich gets political

Angels and Ages: Lincoln’s language and its legacy. by Adam Gopnik
What did Edwin Stanton actually say at Lincoln’s deathbed? Language has become a central subject in Lincoln studies.

Hidden Presidio
Archaeologists are using cutting-edge technology to uncover vanished walls and dwellings of the original Spanish Presidio of San Francisco.
Comment
Photos

At Columbia, Students Mix Studies With Volunteer Work, for Credits

At Columbia, Students Mix Studies With Volunteer Work, for Credits By MARC SANTORA, NYTimes
For the past six years, engineering students at the university have been required to participate in community service projects, and other departments may adopt the practice.

Latina from humble background elected Stanford trustee

Latina from humble background elected Stanford trustee By Joe Rodriguez / Mercury News

With help from minority scholarships, Miriam Rivera, a Latina deal maker formerly with Google, joins Stanford's board of trustees and sets up her own scholarship fund.

DeAnza begins textbook rental program

DeAnza begins textbook rental program by Matt Wilson Cupertino Courier 09/12/2008

To ease the burden of the increasing cost of textbooks on students, the De Anza College bookstore is testing a textbook rental program. Students can borrow select books for one academic quarter at a fraction of the full purchase price.

NYTimes: The College Issue!!!

The Tell-All Campus Tour
By JONATHAN DEE
An online start-up allows high-schoolers to find out what students really think about their colleges. (mp3)
Related: Alice Twemlow on Lisa White

The College Issue: Does teaching make you a bad writer? Could it make you a good president? How would you teach on YouTube? How would you teach in Dubai? How can you teach with ... style? From Alaska to Alabama to the Persian Gulf, we look at the mysteries of teaching in all its variety. Words aside, however, the look of this issue is all-student: headline type, photographs and illustrations are all the work of undergraduate and graduate students from across the country, and a few from overseas as well. More! More! More!

Saturday Arts 092008

Wayne Wang isn't missing by Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
Peripatetic indie legend Wayne Wang is back from J.Lo exile with a double bill of intriguing new low-budget films -- and YouTube distribution. Listen to the interview. Also check out Wang's "What I'm Reading" on the right side of the page.

I was searching for more details about Gordon and Anna Chan (my local post office is being re=named in their honor), and I stumbled on Slant Eye for the Round Eye. That blog led me to the following film festival:

ID Film Festival 2008: A new festival dedicated to contemporary digital films that explore and celebrate identity crisis in our diverse Asian/Pacific Islander community.

Nocturnal van Gogh, Illuminating Darkness by Roberta Smith, NYTimes Slide Show

SFGate: Fall Arts Preview The Chronicle looks ahead to this autumn's arts calendar. September October November

San Jose Mariachi Festival celebrates women By Mark de la Via, Mercury News
When the last violinist packed up his bow at the end of the San Jose International Mariachi Festival last year, organizers mulled over a daunting question: How would they ever top the 2007 gathering, which attracted a record 40,000 music fans?

Saved From the Storm by Michael s. Grant, MetroActive.com The New Orleans Museum of Art survived Katrina, and some of its best works can now be seen at Stanford.

Science Friday 091908

INTERACTIVE FEATURE: Testing Your Approximate Number Sense, NYTimes
Take a test to measure estimation skills, which may be related to an innate ability to do other kinds of math. Related Article: Gut Instinct’s Surprising Role in Math

When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder By JANET RAE-DUPREE, NYTimes
The University Small Business Patent Procedures Act is under increasing scrutiny by swelling ranks of critics, who charge that it has distorted the fundamental mission of universities.

David Pogue: Nontechies, This One’s for You by David Pogue, NYTimes
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t... (Video of Peek email)

Making America Stupid THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NYTimes
Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode.

Nuclear Monument (slide show) by Stuart Isett for The New York Times
The source of plutonium for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was designated a landmark.

Chicago Unveils Multifaceted Plan to Curb Emissions of Heat-Trapping Gases
By DIRK JOHNSON, NYTimes
The blueprint would change the city’s building codes to promote energy efficiency, and it calls for installing huge solar panels at municipal properties and building alternative fueling stations.

Transformer Glitch Shuts Down Biggest Atom Smasher By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a statement Thursday, the European Organization for Nuclear Research reported that physicists stopped using the Large Hadron Collider just a day after starting it up last week.

A Maybe Planet, Orbiting Its Maybe Sun By DENNIS OVERBYE, NYTimes
Astronomers have published a picture of what they say might be the first image of a planet orbiting another Sunlike star.

Scientist at Work David B. Goldstein: A Dissenting Voice as the Genome Is Sifted to Fight Disease By NICHOLAS WADE, NYTimes

History Thursday 091808

08 for Election 2008:

1. Daily Kos: The State of the Nation
2. Democratic Party
3. Jon Stewart: The Daily Show
4. MoveOn.org
5. MySpace: Decision 2008
6. NYTimes The Medium: Facebook Politics
7. Republican National Committee
8. Rock the Vote and Rock the Vote2008: YouTube

Obama Looks to Lessons From Chicago in His National Education Plan

Obama Looks to Lessons From Chicago in His National Education Plan By SAM DILLON, NYTimes
More than most campaign blueprints, Barack Obama’s education plan reflects his own work with Chicago’s public schools, people who have worked with him said.
Graphic: A Long Interest in Education
McCain Calls for Limited U.S. Role in Schools
If elected..previous articles in the Series »

ACT gains on SAT, rival college entrance test

ACT gains on SAT, rival college entrance test by Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times

Thomas Chun took the SAT college entrance exam twice, scoring well within qualifying range for prestigious research universities, if hundreds of points short of a top mark.

Still, Chun believed that his score, 2,090 out of a possible 2,400, might not stand up against those of other whiz kids at his selective magnet school, Whitney High in Cerritos (Los Angeles County). So he took the other admissions test, the ACT. And to his happy surprise, he scored a perfect 36...

USPS Stamp: Mendez v. Westminster School District

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service marks the 60th anniversary of a groundbreaking World War II-era legal case, Mendez v. Westminster School District, in which a group of civic-minded Hispanic parents in California successfully sued to end segregation in their schools. This stamp was designed by Rafael Lopez and was issued in Santa Ana, CA 09/14/07 (Source: USPS.gov and Mendez-Westminister Case Blog)

Sunday Lit 091408

David Foster Wallace, Writer, Is Found Dead By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
David Foster Wallace, whose darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, was found dead in his California home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide, the authorities said.

Rex Libris by James Turner
We have few badass librarian stories. Joss Whedon gave us Rupert Giles, who can swing a sword as well as shelve a tome. Kelly Link introduced us to Fox, the gorgeous and similarly sword-wielding librarian in the story "Magic for Beginners."

Selected Shorts Podcast 01/20/08 (rss feed --subscribe then download episode 01/20/08)
"The Red Fox Fur Coat" in Portuguese writer Teolinda Gersao's intriguing tale, has unexpected properties, bringing out the inner beast in a humble bank clerk.

If "The Red Fox Fur Coat" is about turning into an animal, what happens if you're already raised as one? "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," by Karen Russell, charts the heartbreaking course from carefree werewolves, to upright citizens of the world. (This story is also in the Best American Short Stories 2007)

Saturday Arts 091308

Artist comes to SJSU to unveil tribute to Cesar Chavez

SJ MercuryNews: Fifteen years after Chavez's death, nobody is quite sure how many schools, libraries, streets and parks have been named or renamed after the man who organized farmworkers...But when it comes to commissioned, artistic memorials, says Chavez family spokesman Rudy Medina, Baca's Mayan-inspired arch is the largest and most impressive...

Asian showcases 'Power and Glory' of Ming era (ends Sept 21!)
NYtimes: This grand show surveys the imperial arts of the Ming era - 1368 to 1644 - a dynastic reign distinguished by relative peace and in its later centuries, by religious eclecticism, expanding literacy (especially among women) and transoceanic trade.

Half-Life of a Dream (ends Oct 5 )
SFGate: "Half-Life of a Dream" is great for those approaching Chinese contemporary art for the first time.

Frida Kahlo: An Emblematic Figure (ends Sept 28!)
SFGate: SFMOMA's "Frida Kahlo" is a beautifully presented retrospective. Audio slideshow

36 Hours in the Mission District of San Francisco
NYTimes: Prosperity hasn’t sapped the Mission District of its eclecticism. With a population that is about half Latino, a third white and an estimated 11 percent Asian, it’s still a wonderful mishmash. Slide Show: A Weekend in San Francisco

Art House
SFGate: Across the Bay Area, hidden in live-work spaces and homes such as Chris Fallon's Mission District apartment, is a constellation of guerrilla galleries. Fallon currently has a photo show from photographer/videographer Lindsey White.
Photos Map of Bay Area galleries

At Home With: The Ambassador of Handmade
NYTimes: PATCHWORK LAB: Faythe Levine, a pillar of the do-it-yourself movement, at her home in Milwaukee. She recently completed a documentary and a book, both with the title “Handmade Nation.”

Master of Many Styles, and Many Mentors
NYTimes: With “Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632-1717),” the Metropolitan Museum of Art takes its inaugural solo flight with classic Chinese painting.

Concerns Beyond Where the Wild Things Are
NYTimes: The children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak has the gift of connecting with his childhood fears and pleasures in ways that make his most screwball concoctions feel perfectly plausible and universal. NYTimes Topic: Maurice Sendak

Itamar Moses goes back to high school in 'Yellowjackets"
SJMercuryNews: Fast on the heels of scoring hits with his plays "Bach at Leipzig" and "The Four of Us," Itamar Moses has returned to his native Berkeley to debut "Yellowjackets," an ambitious study of race and class at his alma mater, Berkeley High School. Though the play has gotten mixed reviews, everyone seems to agree that, as Tom Stoppard put it, "Moses is "a splash in the making."

Science Friday 091208

The Art and Science of Wheelchair Basketball By ALAN SCHWARZ, NYTimes
Paul Schulte, with the ball, is a member of the U.S. wheelchair basketball team who also works as a mechanical engineer for the chairs’ manufacturer.

Bay Area mayors band together for green future SFGate
Mayors of the Bay Area's three largest cities vowed Wednesday to set aside provincial interests and back... Photos

Biggest atom smasher aces 1st test SFGate
A small blip on a computer screen sent champagne corks popping among physicists in Switzerland. Photos

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy By CLIVE THOMPSON, NYTimes

On Sept. 5, 2006, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt.

Cameras for Capturing Primordial Fire (NYTimes interactive graphic)
A close look at the detectors of the Large Hadron Collider, and the information they provide.

Friendly Invaders by Carl Zimmer, NYTimes
Exotic species, instead of causing extinctions, may actually aid diversity.

EarthSky
Radio Show Podcast (1 minute)
Clear Voice Podcast (8 minutes)

Many North American fish at risk, study says by Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
About 4 out of 10 freshwater fish species in North America are in peril, according to a major study by U.S., Canadian and Mexican scientists.

Marine Life(less) SFGate
The spread of oceans' oxygen- depleted dead zones.

Oded Schramm, 46, Mathematician, Is Dead By KENNETH CHANG, NYTimes
Dr. Schramm melded ideas from two branches of mathematics into an equation that applies to a multitude of physics problems.

History Thursday 091108

The National Constitution Center invites you to participate in a national conversation about the Constitution, its history and its contemporary relevance. Our programming features nationally recognized leaders discussing the Constitution, our rights and responsibilities as citizens, and everyday politics.

• Amazing! The NCC Interactive US Constitution Timeline.
• See one of the coolest multmedia widgets ever: the NCC Interactive US Constitution.
• My favorite podcast: We the People Stories
  

Puzzles and more!

Inside Japan’s Puzzle Palace If there is another puzzle craze after sudoku, chances are it will spring from a Japanese company called Nikoli. March 21, 2007 - By MARTIN FACKLER

A Rush of Excitement, From Filling in Empty Spaces to Completing a Large Loop.Inside Japan’s Puzzle Palace (March 21, 2007). By this measure one of the most elegant puzzles around is kakuro. March 21, 2007 - By WILL SHORTZ

Campus Protest at UC Berkeley

Happy Birthday, California! 09/09/1850

Berkeley tree-sitters finally down to earth (updated 9/10/08)
After 21 months tree-sitters climbed down from a tall redwood near Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. See images of protest and support from the 2-year standoff.
Video: Protesters climb down Photos: Tree-Sitters

Staying in a Tree, Delaying the Final Cuts By JESSE McKINLEY NYTimes
After a court victory, the University of California, Berkeley, was still waiting for four protesters to come down from one of two remaining redwoods in a contested grove.

Cal Prepares To End Protest SFGate
(09-08) 17:23 PDT BERKELEY -- The standoff between UC Berkeley and four tree-sitters outside Memorial Stadium intensified Monday as work crews prepared to remove the protesters from a stripped-down redwood.

UC Police Raid the Long Haul, By Rachel Swan, East Bay Express
Computers at the anarchist collective were allegedly used to make threats against Cal employees — possibly in connection with animal-rights protesters.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

You have just reviews a stack of vocabulary flashcards. You know what each and every word means. You can use it correctly in a SAT essay. Problem: you have not idea how to pronounce the million dollar word.

You check the dictionary. There are phonetic symbols, but you're not exactly sure which sound goes with which symbol, because different dictionaries use different symbol sets.

You could use web resources, such as Merriam Webster (which has audio for most words) or carry around electronic dictonary, slowly evolving into a half-human, half machine.

Instead, you decide to pull-the-plug and learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

IPA--English from UIowa (audio with animation--cool!) (Spanish) (German)

IPA chart for English dialects

Sunday Lit 090708

'The House at Sugar Beach' By HELENE COOPER

The Times’s Helene Cooper fled a warring Liberia as a child. In this memoir, she returns to confront the ghosts of her past -- and to find a lost sister. (Review by CAROLINE ELKINS)
First Chapter
An Essay Adapted From ‘The House at Sugar Beach’ in The Times Magazine

American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent

...the geek crowd has gotten its own cultural history, in Benjamin Nugent's entertaining and intelligent American Nerd. Nugent begins with his definition of the nerd. Nerds, he writes, are people who remind others of machines. They aren't quite robots, but they aren't quite human either. They are passionate about a technical topic, they speak in formal English, they favor logic over emotion, and they avoid confrontation. (Review by A. J. Jacobs)

New Book Series Sends 8-12 olds on a Web Treasure Hunt Scholastic is releasing “The 39 Clues,” a new series by Rick Riordan that is tied to a Web-based game and collectors’ cards. (Review by MOTOKO RICH)

The Corpse Walkers: Real Life Stories, China From the Bottom Up' By LIAO YIWU
In these oral histories, Liao Yiwu records conversations with a feng shui master, a professional mourner, a safecracker and other denizens of Sichuan. (Review by MICHAEL MEYER)

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
It is the story of Hattie, a young woman who returns from Paris to Winnipeg to take care of her niece and nephew after her sister Min is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Reminiscent of the movie Little Miss Sunshine, the novel evolves into a road-trip tale, as Hattie decides to take the children on a quest to track down their long-lost father and finds herself, playing guardian and in way over her head. (Review by Danielle Marshall)

2008 API Scores

Happy Birthday to Amy Wan, Shareworld Principal

CA Growth API Results Are In!
On September 4, 2008, we posted API results just released by the state. Four of the top five scoring elementary schools in the state are located in Silicon Valley. The South Bay also has 10 of the top 25 scoring middle schools and six of the top 25 high schools.

Testing in California: An Overview
The API scores of the Shareworld students' schools:

• Cupertino 840


• Gilroy 723


• Gunn 904


• Homestead 846


• Lynbrook 920


• Los Gatos 842


• MonteVista 923


• Palo Alto 900


• Saratoga 928


• For more schools, see CA API Results

Science Friday 090508

A Conversation With Heidi B. Hammel Astronomer Devoted to the Icy and Far Away By CLAUDIA DREIFUS, NYTimes
Heidi B. Hammel’s goals are to learn everything possible about Neptune and Uranus and to take the information to the public.

About Death, Just Like Us or Pretty Much Unaware? By NATALIE ANGIER, NYTimes
Do animals grieve like we do?

Arctic Ice Shelves Crumbling Rapidly in Canada NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
090308 More photos
ANIMATED PHOTO: Ice Shelf Hanging by a Thread (July 14, 2008)
PHOTOS: "The Big Thaw" in National Geographic Magazine (July 2007)

Barack Obama's answers to the top 14 science questions facing America SCIENCEDEBATE2008

For the Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving By BENEDICT CAREY, NYTimes
For the first time, scientists have recorded individual brain cells fetching a spontaneous memory.

Gaming Evolves By CARL ZIMMER, NYTimes
A new video game allows players to create their own evolving organism.
Video: Evolutionary Gaming

Dot Earth: Open Water Circling North Pole? Not Quite By Andrew C. Revkin, NYTimes

Physics rap is high-energy hit on YouTube SFGate
Who says science doesn't turn people on? Kate McAlpine is a rising star on YouTube for her rap performance - about high-energy particle physics.
KateMcAlpine.com
Kate McAlpine's The Large Hadron Rap on YouTube
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research on YouTube

Podcast: NYTimes Science Times
David Corcoran, a science editor, explores some of the topics addressed in this week’s Science Times. How to Subscribe (mp3)

Spot on Popularity Scale Speaks to the Future; Middle Has Its Rewards By BENEDICT CAREY, NYTimes
High school students know that popularity is far more than a temporary competition, and in recent years psychologists have confirmed that intuition.

SAT Exam Toolkit

SAT Exam Toolkit helps students prepare for the SAT test, learn about SAT prep and SAT classes. Press Release.

Fairfield shocked by shooting of Councilman Matt Garcia

Fairfield In Shock Over Shooting Demian Bulwa, Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers 09/02/08

Friends say Matt Garcia had a trait rarely seen in young people: extreme civic pride. He began telling people when he was in the sixth grade that he was going to become the mayor of his hometown of Fairfield.

When he was critically wounded Monday night outside a friend's house in a quiet Fairfield neighborhood, Garcia was well on his way to fulfilling his dream. At just 22, he had emerged from modest roots to become a popular city councilman and one of the youngest elected officials in the state.

"Most kids in Fairfield couldn't give a damn about this city, but Matt loved Fairfield," said his friend Ryan Kelly, 22. "I don't know what it was, but he thought this was our place, and he was going to make it better no matter what." Read more...

This I Believe: You want cheese with that?

You want cheese with that? Ellen, Philadelphia, PA
I`ve learned that no one wants to hear me complain. When someone responds to my latest whines about pre-calc and trig with the snide comment, ``Can I get you some cheese ...

SAT News

Class of 2008 Matches ’07 on the SAT By SARA RIMER
The average scores for the three sections of the SAT were identical for the classes of 2007 and 2008: 502 in the critical-reading section, 515 in mathematics, and 494 in writing.

Head's Up!

Register by Sept 9 for the SAT Oct 4 test .
See Collegebard for more SAT test dates & details.
PSAT is Wed Oct 15 or Sat Oct 18.