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[NightmarePatrol]

That's awesome!

[Puffin]

Ah thats just great CLW

[Puffin]

CLW,Coincidentlly, there was this article in this weeks Sports Illustrated magazine.
.
TECH
A young inventor comes up with a device to warn of possible concussions
Super Bowl victors and BCS champs regularly earn trips to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but it's not every day that high school science-fair winners get the same honor. Rarer still do the two worlds intersect, but among the students at last week's White House science fair was Braeden Benedict, a freshman at Peninsula High in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., whose invention of a low-cost device to help detect sports concussions uses science to help athletes.
Special helmets and impact-detecting chin straps can cost hundreds of dollars, but Braeden's creation, an ampule that adheres to the front of a helmet and releases a liquid dye upon a potentially brain-rattling hit, costs only a few dollars and gives coaches a simple visual signal that a player should be yanked for evaluation. Braeden was inspired to create it last year after a football teammate worsened a concussion he had unknowingly sustained. The 15-year-old is working on patenting his invention, which won last year's Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and which Eric Nauman, director of Purdue's Human Injury Research and Regenerative Technologies Lab, called "an elegant way to solve the [detection] problem."and a link to the sponsering site:  http://youngscientistchallenge.com/12challenge/index.html

[lifefeedsonlife]

Ever wondered what school of Economists you're own particular worldview belongs to?
Take this Quiz.  As for me - mostly Austrian - with a dash of Chicago.

[lifefeedsonlife]

Another reason why my wife and I opted for home education:
Public School textbooks are getting worse - especially in math.
As far as math curriculum goes, there are EXCELLENT programs out there for home educators that include very good support. My wife emailed the company of a curriculum we use and got a response back from the AUTHOR of the curriculum.
We recommend Math Mammoth for younger kids and Saxon for older ones. Singapore math is also very good - but DON'T USE the 'Americanized' version (Everyday Math) as it's mentioned in the above link (though not by name) and the publisher completely screwed the pooch. (Singapore Math is written in English, and WHY they created an Americanized version is beyond me.)
We're soooooo very done with the public system.

[lifefeedsonlife]

Here is an article that partially articulates why we home-educate our children.

I had posted a thought a while back that we now live in a largely contextless society - here is a quote from the article the explains that rather succinctly:

 The danger we presently face as a nation is that, in the words of Hirsch, “many young people today strikingly lack the information that writers of American books and newspapers have traditionally taken for granted among their readers from all generations.” The same observation applies to the realm of politics, the financial and industrial world, and all other facets of American life. Employers are constantly amazed at what their employees do not know and therefore cannot do. In politics, the pregnant allusions of a Lincoln would fall upon deaf ears. Make no mistake. Cultural literacy is not merely ornamental trivia. Our purpose is not to make Jeopardy champions. Rather, cultural literacy is essential to a nation and its citizens. A culturally illiterate America cannot live up to the demands placed upon us by history and the present condition of the world. A culturally illiterate individual cannot comprehend vast areas of human knowledge necessary for his political, economic, social, and moral well-being.

[NightmarePatrol]

I sure hope this is a joke.

[gore range]

....just a sign of the times ....

[Puffin]

This months Popular Science magazine had this article (lengthy but cool) . It's about the 32nd person on the planet to achieve nuclear fusion.At 16 he was also the youngest. Did it with a science project reactor he built himself..Kinda puts in perspective why people who paint signs on roads are doing what they do.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/boy-who-played-fusion

[Amidala]

..and his name was Sheldon...?   (if you are a Big Bang fan you will get it.)

[Puffin]

..and his name was Sheldon...?   (if you are a Big Bang fan you will get it.)

not a big fan, but I know what you mean

[TiFeMb]

I have slowly grown on the Big Bang Theory, mostly because they actually sound intelligent and the writing is snappy.

[CindyLouWho]

the writing is snappy.

Yes it is.  My son LOVES Big Bang.  Of course, he is a total nerd.

[TiFeMb]

he is a total nerd.

Alas, so am I. My girlfriend actually turned me on to the show and she is a self described "dork"....although I would never EVER use that word to describe her. 

I'm actually suprised that a show with good writing and cerebral subject matter has managed to stay on the air this long. There is hope for American TV viewers...

[lifefeedsonlife]

If you read one article today - this would be a good one.
It's from the author of the book I'd originally touted on this thread.