gleans + 1xaddenda at 6:30 AM MT, 8/19

 

 * US to back 21st century learning
Congress approves a bill for a new centre that will bring technological advances
from the business world into the classroom.
Full story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/7569484.stm

 

There was huge drop in semicolon use from the 18th through the 19th centuries, from 68.1 per 1000 words to 17.7. And that’s just the start of the trouble... more»

 

 

Chris Livingston for The New York Times

Yo-Yos Turn to the Extreme By JOHN BRANCH  The recent World Yo-Yo Contest drew 196 competitors from 20 countries to compete using yesterday’s forgotten up-and-down string toy. Above, Lucky Meisenheimer.

 

College presidents seek debate on drinking age College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

 

Kurdish Control of Kirkuk Creates a Powder Keg in Iraq By RICHARD A. OPPEL JR  The explosive ethnic quarrels over the oil-rich city is a major barrier to creating stable political structures in Iraq.

 

Chinese stock market's Olympic specialty: tumbling

By Don Lee

The Shanghai index has fallen 15% since the Beijing Games opened, including a big hit Monday. Investors, who had hoped for a reversal of the year's downward trend, are angry.

 

 

 

Turkey bows to the dark side

By Soner Cagaptay

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit is a sign that the West can no longer take Turkey for granted as a staunch ally against Iran.

 

 

 

Good and evil and Obama

By Jonah Goldberg

To the Democrat, it's OK to act on a religious conviction if it serves a liberal cause.

 

 

 

  Attack on Afghan Nato base foiled
At least six suicide bombers are killed when they try to attack a Nato military
base in south-eastern Afghanistan, officials say.
Full story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/7569531.stm

 

 

  Bail-out fears rattle US shares
US shares fall on fears  the US government will be forced to bail out mortgage giants
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Full story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/business/7568978.stm

 

 

  Brain's counting skill 'built-in'
Humans have an innate ability to do maths even if they do not have the language
to express it, research suggests.
Full story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/health/7563265.stm

 

 

 

  Coal's toxic legacy to the Arctic
Data from a Greenland ice core indicates that coal burning is the prime source of
heavy metal pollution in the Arctic.
Full story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/7568748.stm

 

 

 

  Perfect return flight for Proton
A Russian Proton rocket successfully launches one of the biggest commercial satellites
ever built - the Inmarsat-4 (I4-F3).
Full story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/7568867.stm

 

 

 

Take a look at the world of Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse ... [more]

 

 

 

Video games can improve your dexterity and your ability to problem-solve, whether you're a student or a surgeon ... [more]

 

 

 

Mapping cholera produces some disturbing revelations ... [more]

 

 

 

 

addenda*

Subject: Latent Semantic Analysis and the Generalized Hebbian Algorithm

Date: Aug 19, 2008 5:39 AM

http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~genevieve/lsa.html Hmmm .. Latent Semantic Indexing seems very similar to concgramming .. http://lsikeywords.com