These pages are a modest attempt to provide up-to-date news that is relevant to the areas of mathematics, education, computer science or information technology. Reader should keep in mind that old links often disappear.
2/24/12
TechNews for the week: February 24; February 22;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Syrian forces fire on anti-Assad crowd in capital; Bombings across Iraq;
Iran halts oil shipments to Britain, France; U.N. nuclear officials concede failure in Iran; US, Britain urge Israel not to attack Iran;
Profiting in Afghanistan; Afghans protest over reported Koran desecration at U.S. base; U.S. apologizes to Afghans;
Independent analysis finds National debt will balloon under top GOP hopefuls' tax plans;
Citizens United ruling scrutinized; Supreme Court Takes Up Challenge to Race-Conscious Admissions at U. of Texas;
Tea Party faces a turning point in 2012 Senate races; The 2012 Tea Party hit list; Power players in GOP primary;
The Republican Brain: Why Even Educated Conservatives Deny Science -- and Reality;
GOP primary race is about to get real; Winners And Losers From Final GOP Debate;
Romney’s dog-on-roof story becomes target; Romney’s Arizona co-chair resigns in wake of explosive allegations;
Romney’s tax plan may not be narrative campaign wants; Arizona shows pitfalls in Romney’s E-Verify push;
Different states’ contraceptive rules leave employers room to maneuver; Birth control as election issue? Why?
Obama campaign adviser says Santorum crossed line; In weaving faith into campaign, Santorum resorts to chiding opponents;
Santorum: Satan Comments in 2008 'Not Relevant' Today; Chris Christie: Santorum's Satan Comments Are Relevant;
Santorum wife had love affair with abortion doctor; Rick Santorum: Anathematizer-in-Chief;
Gingrich archives show his public praise, private criticism of Reagan; Perry Looking To Set Up PAC;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
NSA chief says you should be Scared of Anonymous; A recap: Anonymous, Hacktivists Try to Break the Internet;
Another Piece of the Stuxnet Puzzle;
John Nash’s 1955 Letter to the NSA; "1234" and Birthdays Are the Most Common PINs;
Judge Overturns Law Banning Sex Offenders on Facebook;
Math and science
'Oldest living thing on earth' discovered; Black hole clocks fastest wind ever recorded by NASA;
Tiny Radio-Powered Device Swims Through Your Veins;
The inventor of e-mail on innovation and his path to the Smithsonian; University reprimands climate science critic for plagiarism;
Web design issues
Under the hood: HTML5 or native? HTML5: How to implement the Geolocation API; Standards leader blasts HTML5 video copy protection;
10 Android App Hidden Gems; Google Docs for Android Gets Native Editing; How to remove your Google Web History;
iPad Screencasting: Educreations and Explain Everything;
Other news
Lying about receiving a Medal of Honor? It’s shameful — but it shouldn’t be a crime;
Indiana lawmaker says Girl Scouts promote abortion;
Jack Abramoff: The Truth About My Crimes, Jail, And Life As A Felon;
Finance and Economics
Rallies Following 30% Bear Corrections (1900-Present);
What countries get for higher taxes; Greek accounting cannot hide the urgency for growth;
Jefferson County, Ala falls off bankruptcy cliff; ‘Taxmageddon’ looms at end of payroll tax holiday;
Rare Legal Fight Takes On Credit Card Company Security Standards and Fines;
Obama on gas prices: ‘No quick fixes’; US and Mexico in landmark oil deal;
Per person cost of federal high-risk medical plan doubles;
Air Force Unit Cancels iPad Procurement;
Education:
New Census Data Show Minority Gains in Bachelor's Degree Attainment; Taking Some of the Guesswork Out of the Value-of-College Question;
Report Tracks Differential Tuition at Public Colleges; University of Texas moves to enforce ‘slacker’ rule;
2 New Platforms Offer Alternative to Apple’s Textbook-Authoring Software;
Conducting Your Midterm Evaluations Publicly with Google Docs; Using Mathematica in Calculus class; Making Stuff: 3D Printing on Campus;
Latest BCS Talks Turn on … Exam Schedules? Who Opposed Multiyear Athletics Aid? Multiyear-Scholarship Option Upheld by NCAA;
The ‘Pick and Roll of Race’;
2/17/12
TechNews for the week: February 17; February 15; February 13;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Karzai: Afghanistan joins Taliban talks; Afghan soldiers’ Pakistan ties eyed; Afghan army to cost U.S. billions of dollars after 2014 withdrawal;
Turkish diplomat: Iran is ready to cut a deal; urges international help for Syria;
U.N. says Syria launched ‘indiscriminate attack’ on civilians; U.S.: Al-Qaeda infiltrating Syrian opposition;
Israel accuses Iran in attack targeting diplomats in India, Georgia; Hits on Israelis Mimic Attacks on Iran Scientists;
India walks tightrope as U.S. toughens Iran sanctions; Iran threatens to cut some oil exports to E.U.; Israel again tries to link bombs to Iran ;
9/11 Revisited: Was Saudi Arabia involved?
China tangled up in industrial espionage;
For SEC, investigating insider trading in Congress presents complications; Congress looks for ways around Supreme Court;
Republicans drop demand to pay for payroll tax cut; call Obama’s budget a reelection ‘gimmick’; Preview: Obama's 2013 Budget;
Poll: Public backs Obama in birth control fight; Bishops oppose birth-control deal; Jon Stewart hits the nail on the head; the full episode;
New Pew survey: Among Republicans, Santorum in statistical dead heat with Romney; CNN cancels GOP debate after Romney and Paul drop out;
What Mitt Romney gets wrong about the Detroit automakers’ bailouts; Romney’s contributions to Utah Olympics questioned;
Santorum: Birth control ‘harmful to women’; Santorum announces support from former Romney-backer;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
February Crypto-Gram Newsletter, TSA, Authentication and more;
Microsoft warns of dangerous IE browser vulnerabilities; Report: third party programs rather than Microsoft programs responsible for most vulnerabilities;
Cyber-Criminals Using Established Malicious Networks to Deliver Payloads; DDoS attacks spread to vulnerable IPv6 Internet;
FBI Wants to Create Software to Scan Social Media; FBI could take down Internet for millions on March 8;
Flaw Found in Encryption Services for Some Websites;
Republicans Say Cybersecurity Bill Goes Too Far; Trust Requires Transparency;
Hackers Attack Website of Weapons Company;
The Sudafed Security Trade-Off;
Lawyer: Life in prison unfair for underwear bomber;
Math and science
Wormholes: Einstein's Interstellar Shortcuts Still A Long Way Off;
A Pharmacy on an Implanted Chip;
Payments for Climate-Change Denials Are Revealed;
Web design issues
Google Chrome Dev Tools: How to use the Console Panel; Google Maps now remembers your most recent directions;
Edit and convert OpenOffice documents on your Android tablet; Transfer data wirelessly to your Android device;
Safe, sane alternatives to e-mail;
Other news
There Are Only Three True Job Interview Questions;
How history lessons could deter Iranian aggression;
'App-gate' serves reminder: You're on your own; Apple Vows Update After Questions About iPhone Contacts;
Noam Chomsky: The Decline of American Empire (Part 2);
The 0.0000063% Election;
Finance and Economics
The 10 Best and 10 Worst States for High-Tech Business;
Federal Pension changes could cover tax cut; U.S. seeks oversight of debt collectors, credit bureaus;
AIG buys back old mortgage securities; How Citibank Dumped Lousy Mortgages on the Government;
Germany refuses to sign the ACTA anti-piracy treaty in wake of online protests;
Google's First Hire To Join Start-Up Khan Academy;
Might Apple lose the iPad trademark? Welcome to the Twilight Zone;
Education:
Business Leaders See Higher Education as Hampering Economic Growth;
Study: For-Profit Colleges Raise Tuition to Maximize Student-Aid Revenue; Bill Aimed at For-Profit Colleges’ Military Revenue;
Engineering Departments At Many Universities Abandoning or Retooling The Traditional Lecture; Four things lecture is good for;
Air Force Academy Officials Faulted for Overstating Faculty Credentials; Academy's Dean and Vice Dean found "negligent";
Survey: Gifts to Colleges Rose 8.2% in 2011;
Canadian Universities Face $3-Billion Pension Deficit;
U. Michigan Abolishes Age Limits for Its Top Executives;
The NCAA Wades Into a War of Words; How Fair Is the NCAA's Judicial System? Requiring Due Process Likely Wouldn’t Cause Much NCAA Change ;
Former Texas Tech Football Coach Loses Appeal at State Supreme Court ; 4 Football Players Among 17 Students Charged in TCU Drug Sting;
Football Scholarships Allowed for the Patriot League;
2/10/12
TechNews for the week: February 10; February 8; February 6;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Taliban eat into Afghanistan's core; In Afghanistan, a new approach to teaching history: Leave out the wars; CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq for the long haul;
What's the Truth About The War In Afghanistan? AFJ article: Truth, lies and Afghanistan;
U.S. closes embassy in Syria ; tells Israelis it won't join their war; Taking on Syria, Anonymous breaks into Assad's server;
Iranian oil poses Asian dilemma; Iran cuts off Internet access in advance of planned demonstrations;
Negotiators reach agreement over new bailout for Greece; deal uncertain as ministers quit, violence erupts;
Congressional earmarks sometimes used to fund projects near lawmakers' properties; Rep. Bachus faces insider-trading investigation;
Koch brothers driving anti-Obama hate machine; Bloomberg article (from last Oct); Big donors return to the RNC;
GOP campaign’s airs racially insensitive Super Bowl ad;
Fact Check: Mitt Romney’s misfire on the national anthem; For Romney, question time is over; As governor, Romney had an unremarkable record on jobs;
Tea party: Warming or resigned to Mitt Romney?
Santorum wins Colorado caucuses to claim clean sweep; How worried should Mitt Romney be?
Federal appeals court panel rules California same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional;
Komen vice president resigns as details emerge on Planned Parenthood debate;
Contraception Rule 'Accommodation' for Religious Organizations reached; insurers to offer contraceptive services to employees of religious institutions;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
Rift Grows as Countries Debate How to Fight Hackers;
Surviving a Hack; Hackers outwit online banking identity security systems;
Error Rates of Hand-Counted Voting Systems;
Solving the Underlying Economic Problem of Internet Piracy and Lies, Damned Lies and Piracy;
Security Implications of "Lower-Risk Aircraft"; preprint of paper;
Math and science
U.S lag in science, math a disaster in the making;
Wolfram Alpha Learns Image, Data Tricks; Startup plans to Make Internet Services Faster, Cheaper;
Creating Earth: making the blue marble; Transplant jaw made by 3D printer;
Russians drill into a subglacial lake under Antartica;
More Bad News About Death; Mortality Mearsurment at Advanced Ages;
Web design issues
10 threats to the Internet; iPhone App Contains Secret Tethering Capability;
Building Programming Tutorials With Codecademy; Get coding advice with HTML5 Please;
Top 10 Sites for Creating a Chart or Graph; How to skip annoying YouTube advertisements; 10 novel ways to use your Android smartphone;
Other news
Do iPads Belong At Sporting Events? Super Bowl: Where to watch online; the second half;
Who Is Anonymous: 10 Key Facts;
EPIC Files Suit to Stop Google’s Privacy Changes; Covey on Character; Four email types that can drive you crazy;
The Chase: Deputy reaches 133 mph during pursuit;
Finance and Economics
Downtown hotel suing Republican group over unpaid hotel tab;
Pension liabilities to hit earnings of US blue-chips; American Airlines’ request for pension bailout draws criticism;
Study: Apps Industry Has Created Over 400,000 Jobs Since 2007; Low-skilled workers hit particularly hard by recession;
Education:
Public research universities feel the pain of reduced funding; Pennsylvania Governor Again Proposes Deep Cuts for Public Colleges;
$60-Million in Federal Earmarks Go to Colleges That Employed Relatives of Lawmakers;
Harvard Conference Seeks to Jolt University Teaching; U. Texas Regents Adopt Plan to Strengthen Post-Tenure Reviews;
Georgia's Governor Unveils Need-Based Scholarship Plan; Are colleges a barrier to a Free Market in Higher Ed?
Examining Your University's Financial Reports;
MIT’s New Free Courses May Threaten (and Improve) the Traditional Model;
Using Google Docs to Check In On Students’ Reading; Securing iPads for Exams; Wordle Revisited;
NCAA Weighs Changes to $2,000 Stipend Based on Financial Need; Conference USA Loses Another, and Its Commissioner Makes a Plea;
2/3/12
TechNews for the week: February 3; January 1; January 30;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Afghan challenge contrasted with Iraq; In 2013, US expects shift to training role in Afghanistan;
Israeli leaders: Iran must be stopped soon; Iran, perceiving threats from the West, increasingly willing to attack on U.S. soil, warns U.S. spy chief;
Russia asserting itself against West, this time over Syria regime change; Russia has much at stake in Syria;
Pentagon to send floating base to Mideast for use by commandos; U.S. launches airstrike against al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen;
Lockheed Martin leads expanded lobbying by U.S. defense industry ;
European leaders adopt treaty pledging debt reduction;
Mitt Romney wins Florida primary; What would Romney’s offshore account filings show? Romney relying on small group of big donors ;
Mitt Romney says he ‘misspoke’ about lack of concern for poor;
The GOP rush to the right; update on Political Polarization;
How states are restricting political speech;
Alabama immigration crackdown costs state up to $11 bil;
Komen gives new explanation for cutting funds to Planned Parenthood;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
The Nature of Cyberwar; Biases in Forensic Science;
FBI Wants Web App to Monitor Social Networks; Hawaiian politician backs away from Web dossier law; British Tourists Arrested in the U.S. for Tweeting;
TSA agent at JFK stole $5K from passenger;
MegaUpload data could be erased Thursday; Carpathia: Don’t call us for Megaupload data; Carpathia, EFF start Megaupload data retrieval project;
U.S. Prisons; the New Yorker article; The Idaho Loophole;
Anonymous: We snooped an FBI cybercrime call; VeriSign Hacked Repeatedly, in 2010;
Math and science
How FICO scores are calculated and VantageScore is calculated;
Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake;
Big Data: Four Key Technology Considerations;
Web design issues
Google ratchets up VP8 video quality; Uploading rate on YouTube soars; How to use HTML 5's video tag;
How to reduce and keep track of your monthly data usage; Resume formatting: Word or PDF?
Doctoring photographs; Video: Rendering Synthetic Objects;
Other news
Google Privacy Policies Rile Users, Regulators With Zero Opt-Out;
New Airfare Rules; AT&T gives heavy data users a hint to ditch the unlimited plan; Can Barnes & Noble save the bookstore?
“pay-to-play” focuses on friend of treasurer;
What You Need to Know About Emergency Notification Systems;
Presidental relationships; Lie, and Be Elected;
Finance and Economics
Unemployment rate falls to 8.3 percent; U.S. deficit to top $1 trillion, smallest since ’09;
Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners; Obama Proposal Would Restrict Risk-Taking by Biggest Firms;
Regulators approve Comcast-NBC Universal deal; Some doctors try to squelch online reviews;
Iran to halt oil sales to 'some countries';
Google must pay $660,000 for offering Google Maps for free;
Education:
Endowment Returns Rise to 19%, but Trouble May Lie Ahead; Endowments Starting To Regain Recession Losses;
Obama Puts College Costs Front and Center; Report faults Va. colleges for spiraling tuition;
Unemployed Borrowers Ask Sallie Mae to Stop Charging Forbearance Fee;
U.S. Education Department Plans Study of Teacher Training; Educators Decry Push To Relax HS Science Requirement In California Schools;
With Tighter Budgets, Researchers May Be Asked to Lobby Lawmakers on Campuses;
Gaming the College Rankings; Inflated SAT Scores Reveal 'Elasticity of Admissions Data';
Dickinson State U. Dismisses 5 Chinese Students, Citing Poor English Skills; Faculty Leader Quits Over Involvement in U. of Illinois E-Mail Scandal;
U. of Vermont Will Stop Bottled-Water Sales;
Elsevier Publishing Boycott Gathers Steam Among Academics; Elsevier Defends Its Practices;
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt claims Math scores rise with use of their iPad algebra curriculum; Why E-textbooks face volumes of problems;
10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have; Having students take ownership of their education;
Big 12 Conference Reopens Expansion Talk; U. of Nebraska Gets 2 Years' Probation for NCAA Rules Violations;
Moody downgrades FSU Boosters, Signaling Trying Times in Sports; 5 Ideas for Revamping NCAA Enforcement;
Should We Celebrate a Coach Who Graduates Only One in 5 Players?