Getting Into Med School Without Hard Sciences By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS, NYTimes
A program admits students if they study humanities instead of the traditional pre-medical school curriculum.
WH.gov: President Obama on Education: “The Status Quo is Morally Inexcusable”
So, yes, our federal government has responsibilities that it has to meet, and I will keep on making sure the federal government meets those responsibilities. Our governors, our superintendants, our states, our school districts have responsibilities to meet. And parents have responsibilities that they have to meet. And our children have responsibilities that they have to meet. (Applause.)
It’s not just parents. It’s the children, too. Our kids need to understand nobody is going to hand them a future. (Applause.) An education is not something you just tip your head and they pour it in your ear. (Laughter.) You’ve got to want it. You’ve got to reach out and claim that future for yourself. And you can’t make excuses. (Applause.)
I know life is tough for a lot of young people in this country. The places where Urban League is working to make a difference, you see it every day. I’m coming from the Southside of Chicago. (Applause.) So I know -- I see what young people are going through there. And at certain points in our lives, young black men and women may feel the sting of discrimination. Too many of them may feel trapped in a community where drugs and violence and unemployment are pervasive, and they are forced to wrestle with things that no child should have to face.
There are all kinds of reasons for our children to say, “No, I can’t.” But our job is to say to them, “Yes, you can.” (Applause.) Yes, you can overcome. Yes, you can persevere. Yes, you can make what you will out of your lives.
SUNY: The Accidental Giant of Higher Education By PETER APPLEBOME, NYTimes
Two things define SUNY: it’s huge, and it’s weird. And now it’s at the heart of a battle over what public higher education should be.
Many States Adopt National Standards for Their Schools By TAMAR LEWIN, NYTimes
States that accept the standards by Aug. 2 win points in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition for a share of the $3.4 billion to be awarded in September.
UC's little-known Pavement Research Center results in smooth, safe and silent rides by Lisa Krieger, SJ Mercury News
To improve the state's increasingly frail and aging freeways, engineers cook up new recipes in a Richmond lab that resembles the kitchen of a busy restaurant '” but hotter, louder and infused with the bouquet of steaming asphalt. The innovations delivered from this little-known facility in a former 1950s-era munitions factory have a more far-reaching impact on a central part of our daily lives: roads.
Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - Amnesia and Music
Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and The Island of the Colorblind discusses the story of Clive Wearing, an eminent English musician and musicologist. After contracting a form of encephalitis, Clive was stricken with an acute case of amnesia. His musical ability, however, remained undiminished. The story related in the video comes from Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Dr. Sacks's latest book. For more information, visit http://www.oliversacks.com/ or http://www.musicophilia.com/
READ: A Neurologist's Notebook: The Abyss : The New Yorker by Oliver Sacks 09/24/07
In addition to this inability to preserve new memories, Clive had a retrograde amnesia, a deletion of virtually his memory.
UCSD Guestbook: Kim Stanley Robinson UCtelevision February 29, 2008
Dr. Robinson, who received both his B.A. and Ph.D. from UCSD, is a highly acclaimed writer of science fiction and science fiction criticism; the recipient of numerous major literary awards; and the author of 14 books (novels, short stories, criticism), including his multiple prize-winning "Mars" trilogy. Series: "UCSD Guestbook" [7/2000] [Humanities] [Show ID: 5001]
Bonus Kim Stanley Robinson Video: ‘We Are Living in a Science Fiction Novel That We All Collaborate On’
KSR describes life in the present as a science fiction novel we all collaborate on. This is an excerpt from a pair of talks he gave at the Duke in January; the entirety of the other talk is available here. Here's an exerpt:
KSR: I think it's very true that we are living in a science fiction novel that we all collaborate on, and it's because everything that science fiction was about through its historical named period, the twentieth century, has kind of come true. And also we live in a world that is so intensely structured by science and technology that we can't get out of it. If we were to get out of it would still be a science fiction move, the retreat to the farm. So it's hegemonic, you can't escape it, we're in that world created by science and technology
KimStanleyRobinson.info: is a website dedicated to the American author and thinker Kim Stanley Robinson, and to the discussion of his works.
Major Works:
The Mars trilogy: Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993), and Blue Mars (1996) deal with the first settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars by a group of scientists and engineers.
The Science in the Capital series: Forty Signs of Rain (2004), Fifty Degrees Below (2005), and Sixty Days and Counting (2007). This series explores the consequences of global warming, both on a global level and as it affects the main characters.
The Years of Rice and Salt (2002) is an alternate history in which the Black Plague wiped out 99 percent of the European population, leaving the world free for Asian expansion. It covers ten generations of history, focusing on the successive reincarnations of the same few characters as they pass through varying genders, social classes, and, in one notable example, species. (study guide)
Galileo's Dream (2009) describes the life of 17th century scientist and astronomer Galileo Galilei, and the far-future society living on the Galilean moons he discovered.
An exerpt from Chapter Two of The Tipping Point: Are you a connector?
An exerpt from the Intro of Blink: The Second Mind
An excerpt from Chapter Eight of Outliers: Rice Paddies and Math Tests
Actor Danny Glover reads abolitionist Frederick Douglass's "Fourth of July Speech, 1852" on October 5, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. Part of a reading from Voices of a People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove.)
When the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Many essayists for This I Believe share that dedication to the principles on which our country was created. Click the links below to see how a former President, a renowned comic book artist, and others explore their beliefs in freedom, democracy, and government.
International Program Catches On in U.S. Schools By TAMAR LEWIN, NYTimes
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