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Michelle Fitzsimmons

Saturday, Nov 6, 2010 12:01 AM UTC

Teen cracks the code to higher SAT scores

And he's got an MIT professor to back him up

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Do you remember the night before you took the SATs? The butterflies, the insomnia, the nightmares, the last-minute cramming. About 1.6 million American high schoolers are experiencing that same pre-exam anxiety right now as they await tomorrow morning and the most important test of their lives.

Fourteen-year-old Milo Beckman, dubbed a prodigy and a student at arguably the best specialized math and science secondary school in the country, will be one of those test takers, but with a trick up his sleeve. He’s cracked the code to getting a higher score on the essay portion of the infamous SATs.

Milo wanted to test the research of Les Perelman, the director of the undergraduate writing program at MIT, who found that the longer the SAT essay, the better the grade. According to CollegeBoard.com, the essays, added to the test in 2005, are graded not for their individual qualities but for the general impression they give the reader. Perelman deduced that “general impression” translated into “length,” and was right 90 percent of the time. However, Perelman only studied CollegeBoard’s sample essays, so Milo set out to look at the actual test and see if Perelman’s theory still held water.

And it did. Using Facebook, Milo gathered data on the line length and scores of 115 essays and found that there was a direct correlation between a higher score and a longer essay. The probability of that correlation being mere chance is basically zero. He is using his findings to advocate for more time to be allowed to write the essays and more time for teachers to grade them. He even made a really impressive YouTube video to demonstrate his research.

It’s doubtful Spicoli did all that well on the SATs, or even bothered to show up for them: 

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 10:33 PM UTC

“Sex.com” sets Guinness world record for most expensive domain name

Officially the "Most expensive Internet address domain name" with $13 million price tag

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The Guinness Book of World Records has made it official: Sex.com is the most expensive domain name in the history of URLs.

The storied site, originally owned by Match.com founder Gary Kremen, got picked up by Clover Holdings in November 2010 for $13 million. Escom LLC, the address’s previous owner, went bankrupt early last year and was forced to ditch the domain.

Since the sale, not much has changed at Sex.com. It’s still a parking page for links to other salacious sites, like live webcams, sex personals and swinger cruises.



Read more about the Sex.com domain acquisition at Global Post

Thursday, Feb 17, 2011 12:30 AM UTC

Chargers, chargers everywhere, but not all can plug in

As more electric cars fill the roads, cities struggle to provide fast-charging stations with no industry standards

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Chargers, chargers everywhere, but not all can plug in

As electric cars zip down America’s roads in record numbers, cities must pick up the task of supplying the fast growing fleet with easy-access charging stations. 

In the effort to get 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, the a lack of industry standards for fast-charging stations — which allow motorists to pull in and power up in about 30 minutes — could be a major glitch. The fast-charge stations in Chicago, for instance, are designed for Japanese model plugs, not for American cars like the Ford Focus or Chevy Volt. 

The Chicago Tribune reports industry standards are changing so rapidly that by the time the city’s fast-charging stations are installed, they may be obsolete. At $65,000 a plug, constantly retrofitting the stations to meet new standards will put a strain on the Windy City’s infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Japan, Germany and Italy are all competing to have their country’s fast-charging plug-in become the industry’s international standard.

 

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Saturday, Feb 5, 2011 1:05 AM UTC

“Skin cell gun” regenerates cells in days

By spraying healthy stem cells onto damaged areas, the skin cell gun cuts burn victims' recovery time drastically

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Our skin is fragile, penetrable and flammable. Simply surviving immolation is a statistical feat, and the recovery process is slow and precarious. Every year, thousands survive the immediate effects of skin burns but die from infections while waiting for their skin to heal over the exposed flesh.

Researchers at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine devised a tool to cut recovery time drastically and save lives. Their sci-fi-sounding “skin cell gun” trounces the traditional technique of grafting healthy skin onto a burn victim’s damaged body — a process that can take weeks and months — by spraying healthy stem cell tissue through an airbrush-type nozzle.

Doctors harvest the stem cells from the victim’s body, add them to a water solution and spray them onto burned areas. Rather than weeks or months, the healing process takes hours and days. One man with second-degree burns came in for treatment on a Friday and left completely healed by Monday.

“If we can find a way to get normal healthy skin, as much as we want, within a week, that’s the Holy Grail,” one researcher said. But if the dozen patients successfully treated with the gun are any indication, we may have already found it. 

Warning: The video below contains graphic images of burned skin.

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Friday, Feb 4, 2011 7:05 PM UTC

Sarah Palin is a soap opera, says Ron Reagan

Son of the former president speaks out about Palin's scheduled speech at a birthday tribute to his father

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Sarah Palin is a soap opera, says Ron ReaganPolitical Commentator Ron Reagan, Jr. speaks during CNN's Media Conference For The Election of the President 2008 at the Time Warner Center on October 14, 2008 in New York City. 16950_6376.JPG(Credit: Joe Kohen)

Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak at a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan today, whose 100th birthday would have been this Sunday.

Not all are fans of the governor turned vice-presidential candidate, most notably Reagan’s son, Ron Reagan. He told the Associated Press that he sees nothing in common between his father and Palin.

Sarah Palin is a soap opera, basically. She’s doing mostly what she does to make money and keep her name in the news. She is not a serious candidate for president and never has been.

Reagan’s former speechwriter, Kenneth Khachigian, praised the choice of Palin to honor the 40th president, saying Palin’s philosophy and political fortunes were shaped by the Reagan presidency. “She can reflect on that as well as anyone could,” he said.

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Wednesday, Jan 26, 2011 11:35 AM UTC

Newt Gingrich wants to get rid of the EPA

The former House Speaker says we should replace agency with a more streamlined entity. Could he be right?

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Newt Gingrich wants to get rid of the EPANewt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich is tired of the EPA’s iron-fisted approach to environmental regulation, and he wants it gone. The former House Speaker says the agency is one big bureaucratic tangle and thinks it should be replaced by a body that works closely with businesses to create jobs, according to the AP. Additionally, Newt’s vision would more aggressively use science and technology to tackle environmental issues.

Gingrich — who is (yet again) mulling over a 2012 run for the Republican party nomination, something we — calls his proposed entity the “Environmental Solution Agency.” The organization would specifically pursue the development of clean coal and rewrite regulations governming the development of small nuclear plants, but its primary objective would be to streamline regulation and integrate the causes of the environment and business, he says.

He lays out a pretty detailed explanation on his website. Could Newt be on to something?

 

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