A concert violinist.. for only $32/hour..

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From the Washington Post. Joshua Bell, the world-famous concert violinist and former child prodigy, donned jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap, and played in a Washington DC Metro station for almost an hour. Total take? $32.

In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run — for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

Another interesting tidbit from the article, about Bell’s violin.

Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow much of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million.

I bought Joshua Bell’s Gershwin Fantasy many years ago, and am a fan.

Guys, are you on this website?

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DontDateHimGirl is a community site where users (women) can post guys that should be avoided. Includes pictures and comments. Sample comment:

Otis is a liar and a cheater.He is from over north nobels square. He will do anything to get what he wants. He will say that he cares about you and that you are very special and will treat you well, But there is an alternative motive to this logic. He will take you for all that you have. He will nickel and dime you until you wont have anything. He looks good and drives a nice car with rims on it but he is nasty.

Classic.

Best quote I read all day

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For months, hackers–most likely in China and Russia, according to security watchers–have been surreptitiously installing keylogging software on WoW players’ Windows computers, hijacking their accounts and selling off their often valuable in-game assets.

From CNet. WoW = World of Warcraft.

Dentist guilty of urinating in surgery sink

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Story here.

LONDON (Reuters) – A British dentist was found guilty Thursday of urinating in his surgery sink and using dental tools meant for patients to clean his fingernails and ears.

A medical tribunal said it was satisfied the evidence showed 51-year-old Alan Hutchinson, who routinely did not wear gloves or wash his hands, had risked the health of “himself, staff and patients” for more than 28 years.

A dental nurse who worked for Hutchinson for 16 years said she had caught him urinating in the sink more than once.

“He was tucking something into his trousers before zipping them up hastily. I walked over and I was behind him. He moved to the left and I could smell urine,” the nurse told the tribunal.

The tribunal determined that the dentist’s poor hygiene habits made him unfit to practice and struck him off the dental register, banning him from work.

“You urinated into a sink in your surgery following which you did not wash your hands and then proceeded to treat a patient. This behavior was clearly inappropriate and is completely unacceptable,” the tribunal chairman said.

The Death of PowerPoint (or at least, text slides)

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From University of New South Wales, research that shows you should stop creating text slides in PowerPoint. Bold=my emphasis added.

If you have ever wondered why your eyes start glazing over as you read those dot points on the screen, as the same words are being spoken, take heart in knowing there is a scientific explanation.

It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.

The Australian researchers who made the findings may have pronounced the death of the PowerPoint presentation.

They have also challenged popular teaching methods, suggesting that teachers should focus more on giving students the answers, instead of asking them to solve problems on their own.

Pioneered at the University of NSW, the research shows the human brain processes and retains more information if it is digested in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time.

It also questions the wisdom of centuries-old habits, such as reading along with Bible passages, at the same time they are being read aloud in church. More of the passages would be understood and retained, the researchers suggest, if heard or read separately.

The findings show there are limits on the brain’s capacity to process and retain information in short-term memory.

John Sweller, from the university’s faculty of education, developed the “cognitive load theory”.

“The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster,” Professor Sweller said. “It should be ditched.”

“It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.“

The findings that challenge common teaching methods suggest that instead of asking students to solve problems on their own, teachers helped students more if they presented already solved problems.

“Looking at an already solved problem reduces the working memory load and allows you to learn. It means the next time you come across a problem like that, you have a better chance at solving it,” Professor Sweller said.

The working memory was only effective in juggling two or three tasks at the same time, retaining them for a few seconds. When too many mental tasks were taken on some things were forgotten.

I don’t agree with the statement, “the use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.” This implies, 1.) all PowerPoint is text slides, and 2.) one will never use a PowerPoint presentation as a stand-alone document. As it were, if you are building your presentation correctly with the right mix of text charts and graphics, this shouldn’t be an issue at all.

All the things that were wrong…

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… with my 1995 Dodge Avenger ES:

  • Because it was so low to the ground, the front bumper cracked hard. Twice. I didn’t spend the $400 to get it fixed the second time.
  • The weather stripping on the left window did not fully cover the left window. If I didn’t lay my arm against the back edge when going through a car wash, I would get sprayed on the side of the head with soapy water.
  • To turn activate cruise control, you had to press a button to turn it on, then set it on the steering wheel. The button was tricky though. It often took me 7-10 tries of pressing it “just so” to get the light to stay on. All the while I was driving on a highway and avoiding traffic.
  • The fuel tank door stopped popping open when I pulled the lever. To get the tank door to open, I had to hold lever while someone else pushed the door open. Every time.
  • In spring, to switch to air conditioning, I had to: 1.) turn the knob from red to blue, 2.) press the “AC” button marked with a snowflake, and 3.) shift another knob near the central vent from red to green.
  • The car was unnecessarily long. And the doors were incredibly heavy, as there were only two of them.
  • And, my favorite. About 4 years after we bought the car, it started making clicking noises underneath the dashboard somewhere when I drove on the highway. Very loud clicking noises, about 4 seconds apart each. I could never find the source of that noise.

Dodge stopped making the car in 1998 or so. I learned recently that they have decided to re-release the Avenger. Guess who will not be in line to buy one.