Study with a friend before online

When you need an answer to a homework question late at night, you may or may not be in luck. A variety of online homework help sites have sprung up in the past couple of years. Unfortunately, many of these sites lack qualified tutors or mainly cater to online universitiy courses (ie. University of Phoenix). For example, on Student of Fortune you can essentially buy an entire semester of a Phoenix course for $100 or so. What a waste – one must wonder how many people buy the .zip file and submit the coursework without first editing the answers. Plagiarism is a waste of supposed learning.

How well does a large site like Student of Fortune answer an intermediate college-level physics question? Not well at all.

Question:How cold is Saturn? Assume that Saturn is a perfect radiator to estimate its temperature.

One user submitted a generic response describing the physical characteristics of the planet. And that was it. No one attempted an original solution. No one even attempted to Google an answer. Possibly the question was worth more than the $1.00 it was listed for, but most likely, the tutors cater to University of Phoenix students. Bottom line: Study with your peers or ask a teacher/professor for help.

New decades occasionally bring new fears {deviantart}

New Year’s Eve 1999 had its Prince and Y2K had its Robbie Williams, but what does 2010 have? No fears of global meltdown, that’s what!

• On 12/31/99, United Airlines cut 34% of its worldwide flights due to low demand.
• New Zealand waited in fear, as it was the first large country to see the new year. Other countries watched to see how they could capitalize on New Zealand’s potential disaster.
• The CIA worried about Y2K problems in China after they were late to address the issue.
• Some 20,000 phone customers lost their lines in Nigeria after the government punished companies who were not Y2K ready.

Hopefully all systems can figure out that 2010 is not 1910…

Almost time to celebrate...

As the decade draws to a close, it is time to start remembering what made the years 2000-2009 so special. Most notably, the ten-year period can be defined by the burgeoning mobile industry. However, other cultural segments saw some unique changes over the course of the decade:

• Music: We’ve seen a shift from traditional pop music to more hip hop/club flavored songs. The public has said goodbye to Jewel and Alanis (although they are still greatly loved as members of the 90’s music canon). The Black Eyed Peas have the new formula down, and have consequently been successful for much of the past 10 years. Boy bands marked a transition from the 90’s to 00’s and are by now long gone. Also, indie music has become more mainstream than ever.
• Food: Asian fusion and sushi have really caught on. Wraps were big in the mid-decade and trans fat is no more.
• Internet: YouTube and social networking, plus random memes and blogging. No explanation needed.
• Mobile: The digital mobile network hardly existed 10 years ago. Imagine a voice-only analog network where weak signals meant distorted calls and then think of today’s 3G.
• Computers: Apple. From iMac to iPod.
• Sports: Football is more popular than ever; baseball is losing its audience.
• Climate: What was global warming before the year 2000?
• TV: Survivor and co. have given way to performance-based shows like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
• Fashion: Cargo pants are dead and slimmer fitting pants are in. Hipsters abound.
• Drugs: Crystal meth is up; smoking is down.
• Auto: Everyone knows someone who drives a hybrid. CUVs are replacing SUVs and minivans are a thing of the 90s.

Everything from turkey to darkness {Youtube}

Few movies reference Thanksgiving in such a dark way. Accordingly, Addams Family Values is a great transition from Thanksgiving Thursday to Black Friday. Best yet, the film has some of the best quotes around (and a great baby character):

Young Girl: And then Mommy kissed Daddy, and the angel told the stork, and the stork flew down from heaven, and left a diamond under a leaf, in the cabbage patch, and the diamond turned into a baby!
Pugsley: Our parents are having a baby too.
Wednesday: They had sex.

and:

Morticia: Wednesday’s at that very special age when a girl has only one thing on her mind.
Ellen: Boys?
Wednesday: Homicide.

Happy Black Friday!

Wednesday and her puppet {smh.com.au}

Some very scary spice {http://trendistic.com/new-moon}

Currently, over 1% of tweets are regarding Twilight: New Moon. The madness is peaking as the live stream goes live, allowing the non-elite a chance to virtually attend a movie premiere. Still, Google Trends only puts ‘new moon premiere’ as spicy. And, yes, the moon is in its new phase tonight. How appropriate.

Walmart stores, 2006. http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

FlowingData has a series of animationsthat plot the expansion of Walmart, Target, and Ross store chains. The post-1995 growth among all 3 stories is shocking, but the strategies of each store have remained unique.

Walmart:

• Founded 1962, limited to MO/AR/OK/KS until mid-late 70’s
• 1984: rapid growth in south-central/southeast
• Slowing approaches northeast, takes off in 1993
• Massive growth since mid-90’s

Target:

• Founded in Minnesota, 1962
• Minor expansion across the Central U.S. in 1970
• 1987: California
• 1993: growth pace increases
• Late 90’s: East Coast
• Post-2000: extreme growth

Ross:

• Founded in San Francisco, 1965
• 1981: only 3 stores
• 1990: 100+ stores in targeted southern cities, plus Philadelphia/DC
• Still doesn’t exist in the North or Northeast

Throwback plates

Hate the mandatory extra registration cost if you like, but please don’t criticize the design (much). After all, who really likes the current (2001-present) layout and color scheme? And, for that matter, who really enjoyed the boring 1986-2001 red statue of liberty on white background? It may not be as beautiful as Colorado (green with white mountains) but at least it’s not as creepy as Kentucky’s 2003-2005 plate. The proposed new license plates are painted with New York State colors – something that plates from the 1920’s to 1980’s enjoyed:

30's NY plates {worldlicenceplates.com}

Unfortunate, however, is the requirement to turn in plates by the next registration date. No law-abiding citizen will have the current design past mid-2012. In some states, it’s a symbol of pride and respect to carry vintage plates. You’ll find this in Massachusetts and California, for example. The change is all for the best, though, since old plates lack reflective value and cannot necessarily be scanned with the latest license plate reading technology. Plus, unregistered drivers will be weeded out.

Candy is safe (the skull is probably edible) {flickr}

Everyone is aware of the ‘razor blade in the apple’ myth at Halloween. Incidents have occurred, but most are simply pranks and no one has ever been seriously maimed or killed. Regardless, fears of tainted Halloween candy boiled over in 1982 following a rash of medicine tamperings earlier in the year. In the mid-late 1980’s, it seems like every hospital offered to X-ray Halloween candy – for free. It’s unlikely that many metal objects have been found in the candy or fruit, but many facilities continue to offer the service 20 years later even though 99+% of candy is sealed by the manufacturer. It’s amusing that statistically, you actually can trust people on Halloween night.

Source: Google News