Random links
- What does a contract with Coursera look like?
- They might be getting attention from prominent schools, but how might companies like Coursera that are developing massive open online courses actually make money?
- The Stylish Side of China
- "Many Chinese women will spend far more of their income than their Western counterparts on these magazines and the products featured inside them. ... Lena Yang, general manager of Hearst Magazines China, who oversees nine publications including Elle and Marie Claire, says that the typical reader of Hearst Magazines in China is a 29.5-year-old woman who is more likely to be single than married. She has an average income of about $1,431 a month and spends $938 a season on luxury watches, $982 on handbags and shoes and $1,066 on clothes. Ms. Yang says these women often live at home and turn to their parents and grandparents to pay for them. The study also showed that many readers in their 20s saved little." Prepare for the Chinese implosion as those parents and grandparents paying her bills get older, become somewhat more dependant on her and then eventually pass away (Via: MR)
- How to Rebuild the Mississippi Delta
- "recent use of the Bonnet Carré spillway showed that by choosing the right place to build a diversion in the Mississippi and opening it at the right time, planners could build up a substantial amount of sediment in the delta." This doesn't really get into one negative impact from hydrodams, keeping sediment from making it's way downstream (often useful for improving agricultural land though per this article here it's mainly sand).
- Beyond the Blink
- "The blink response to this case is only the latest example of a troubling increase in the speed of our reactions. Fortunately, there is an antidote: the conscious pause. Scientists have found that although we are prone to snap overreactions, if we take a moment and think about how we are likely to react, we can reduce or even eliminate the negative effects of our quick, hard-wired responses."