Monday, September 8, 2008

Fascinating!


This is truly amazing.
"A team of biologists and chemists is closing in on bringing non-living matter to life.

It's not as Frankensteinian as it sounds. Instead, a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building simple cell models that can almost be called life."
Read it all here.
graph per blog.wired

Handsome Teacher in China and Incentives?


Tip of the hat to MR for the pointer.
This could be classified under many things. I'm opting for 'aesthetic differences' for now.
Incidentally, the fellow featured here is the person about whom the piece is written.

The text says:

"A handsome teacher in China is offering pupils autographed photos of himself to encourage them to work harder.

Ji Feng, also vice principal of Zhiyuan Foreign Language Elementary School, is so popular among students that a lot of them were asking him for pictures.

"I came up with the idea of giving them my signed pictures as a reward," he told the Nanjing Morning Post.

Students who put in exemplary work can now pose for a picture with Ji who then signs the printed photograph.

Ji added: "It absolutely is not narcissism, but a way of encouragement. And only the students who perform the best can get such a reward."

Ji said three students had so far submitted work good enough for signed pictures - but he hoped to give out many more."
per ananova
graph per slashdot

Woody Allen to Direct Opera


This, I read with a good measure of pleasure. The opening paragraph of the article also contains the best sentence of the day.

"Was Woody Allen trying to lower expectations for his directorial debut in opera? Or was he just being Woody? For weeks, when asked how things were going with the new production of Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” that he was directing for the Los Angeles Opera, he talked down his suitability for the job. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” he told The Los Angeles Times. But “incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm,” he added.
graph per nytimes