I have this odd quirk. I like to do my lunchtime news chum in groups of three. Today, I present three groupatwos:
- Education. Ducerus, the folks who are helping us with college planning, posted a link to a very interesting study: The Economic Value of College Majors. Here you can find out your projected annual value based on your major. Major findings: You do a lot better with a graduate degree, and you do a lot better with a degree in the hard sciences than humanities.
Of course, I’m sure there’s one degree they didn’t cover: a doctoral degree in Manga Studies.
- Body Modification. A fascinating article from the NY Times on someone using a tongue piercing for mobilty research. The notion is this: for people extremely paralyzed (i.e., from the neck down), they pierce the tongue with a magnet, outfit the person with a sensor helmet… and then the person moves their tongue to direct their chair… or eventually, tap a tooth to issue commands. The tongue is not affected by spinal injuries as it is directly connected to the brain.
In other body modification news, a young lady in North Carolina has been permitted to keep her nose piercing, because it is a religious artifact. Specifically, she’s a member of the Church of Body Modification, a little-known religious group that claims about 3,500 adherents nationwide and considers practices like tattooing and body piercing to be elements of spiritual practice.
- Travel News. Travel is on my brain—next week at this time I’ll be in on the college tour with my daughter (map), specifically in New Orleans, getting ready to drive from New Orleans to Atlanta (map), an 8-10 hour drive (suggestions are welcome). We’re flying there on United, and I wasn’t too pleased with their new boarding process when I flew in May. Thus I was pleased to see that United is going back to boarding by zones (Continental will stay by row but move to zones).
For those that like stupid people tricks, MSNBC has a nice piece on what not to do at the airport. They also have a link to five things you shouldn’t wear on a flight.
