News for today

Up, Up and ... Never Mind - from the NY Times.  About the drop in private pilots.  I used to want to learn to fly.

Coming From Behind, Curlin Emerges as a Favorite - again, NY Times.  About one of the Derby hopefuls.  You know, the Derby.  As in, Kentucky.

If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It’s in His Tail - another NY Times.  About right brain/left brain stuff, and how it shows up in dogs.

Trees Lost to a Buffalo Snowstorm Live as Objects of Art and Civic Pride - NY Times again.  Buffalo lost a bunch of trees last fall, and they've been making some into art.

Bracing for a famine caused by rats - this one's from the BBC.  About the rats flocking to this area and the locals' efforts to combat the rats' effects on agriculture.  Apparently happens every 50 years or so.

Text reveals more ancient secrets - another BBC article.  This one talks about how researchers are finding ancient texts underneath other writing in this document because the paper was reused.

Report: Text messaging harms written language - from CNN.com.  Texting is apparently affecting kids' writing habits.  I've only sent two or three text messages ever (they're really expensive with our carrier); the article suggests that texting is creating a preponderance of simple and short sentences in the kids' writing.  Judging from the peer comments on my last paper, maybe I should take it up. >.>  (I apparently like semi-colons too much.)

House passes legislation to increase math and science teachers - another one from CNN.com.  At one point in time I was considering teaching high school math.  Hm...

Senator warns on student-loan collection methods - this one's from Yahoo! news.  Apparently some of the student loan lenders are pretty vicious, and sometimes range into illegal debt-collection methods.  It's probably time to rethink the funding of higher education in the U.S.

Japan plans to launch Maglev rail service in 2025 - another one from Yahoo! news.  The U.S. could use a better rail system, too.  The first time I heard of a "maglev" was in Myst.