As an aspiring electronics geek, I am still collecting cool tools and techniques for my projects. While working on a weekend project, I stumbled upon a treasure trove containing meticulous (almost obsessively complete) advice regarding soldering and circuit board design. These videos were the perfect addition to my education, and even though I already had halfway-decent soldering technique, I have definitely improved as a result of the videos. It even inspired me to get some new tools, like a needle-tipped soldering iron and desoldering wick.

So, unless you’ve been formally trained in an EE course, I really recommend the Tangent Tutorials series of videos. Excellent work, Tangent!

RTFA: http://www.tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/

Tangent Tutorials
Getting Started Soldering

TT #1: Basic Soldering Equipment – My advice on the basic equipment necessary for DIY electronics work. 27 minutes.

TT #2: Basic Soldering Techniques – How to solder thru-hole components, plus basic advice for all sorts of soldering. 9 minutes.

TT #3: Surface Mount Soldering Techniques – How to solder surface-mount components using only basic DIYer equipment. Covers SO-8 chips and 2-lead parts in 1206 and larger size packages. 14 minutes.

Hmmm… I definitely remember hearing this “go to college and you will earn one million dollars more than if you don’t” thing. Well, it shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it looks like that’s just a big lie. Looking at the median income data, it’s more like $730k instead of $1 million, but that $730k isn’t pure profit… it can cost $120k in tuition to start down that path, and then you tack on interest expenses and the risk of loan repayment penalties… you might be closer to $550k… which is still a chunk of change, but it’s a far cry from $1 million.

So, let it be known: median income data suggests you probably won’t earn $1 million extra just by going to college, and paying off the debt is no walk in the park, either…

The actual site has a better version of this graph, but it shows the cumulative lifetime earning difference… and guess what? the little wedge at the top is the “extra.” Booo!!!

RTFA: http://studentloanbubble.com/2009/03/13/the-lifeti…

Next, Student Loan Bubble presents cumulative earnings, and these results might surprise you. By the time workers are 64, college grads will have earned $1,991,574 while high school grads will have earned $1,258,998. These are median figures, which means that 50% of workers will earn less than these amounts. The difference in median lifetime earning is $732,576, which is less than 75% of the fabled $1,000,000.

The current economic situation will doubtless be a major opportunity for those few who have the capital available, for now is the time to acquire great wealth that has been temporarily undervalued. For others, it will require creativity to take advantage of the chaotic situation, in which it is very difficult to determine the value of anything, from gasoline, to a loaf of bread, to highly skilled labor. With the advantage of a little liquidity, some universities are apparently taking action to “scoop up” new academic talent. What is quietly mentioned is that this is likely to happen at bargain basement prices.

RTFA: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl…

Amid the gloom of hiring freezes across much of academia, some New England colleges are seizing on the opportunity to scoop up the brightest newly minted PhDs to bolster their faculty ranks and gain ground on their competition.

A few are recruiting tenure-track faculty in droves even as the majority of colleges, most notably Harvard, have curtailed faculty searches as part of belt-tightening measures. Northeastern is conducting a search for 46 professors in fields ranging from nanotechnology to public health. Tufts is moving forward with 52 faculty searches. Others, including Emerson, Holy Cross, and Amherst, have created teaching positions.

They’re able to do so amid the economic downtown by cutting back in other areas: delaying construction, limiting travel, even whittling the number of applicants flown in for campus interviews.

“We look at it from a strategic perspective,” said Joseph Aoun, president of Northeastern. “Does it give us an advantage to hire when others may not be hiring? Yes. Financial challenge always provides you with opportunity, and this is one of them.”

Applicants, meanwhile, are flocking to the open positions, stiffening competition in an already cut-throat field.

RTFA: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/16/teen.strip.sea…

A 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain reliever will have her case heard at the Supreme Court.

The justices accepted the case Friday for review. They will decide whether a campus setting gives school administrators greater discretion to control students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed in cases involving adults in public spaces.

Arguments are expected to be heard in April.

At issue is whether school administrators are constitutionally barred from conducting searches of students investigated for possessing or dealing drugs that are banned on campus.

A federal appeals court found the search “traumatizing” and illegal.

Some parents say older children deserve the same constitutional rights as adults, but educators counter that a school setting always has been treated differently by the courts. They say a ruling against them could jeopardize campus safety.

The case involves Savana Redding, who in 2003 was an eighth-grade honor student at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. Earlier that day the vice principal had discovered prescription-strength ibuprofen pills in the possession of one of Redding’s classmates. That student, facing punishment, accused Redding of providing her with the 400-milligram pills.

The school has a zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission.

Redding was pulled from class by a male vice principal, Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. She denied the accusations.

A search of Redding’s backpack found nothing. Then, although she had never had prior disciplinary problems, a strip-search was conducted with the help of a school nurse and Wilson’s assistant, both females. According to court records, she was ordered to strip to her underwear and her bra was pulled out. Again, no drugs were found.

In an affidavit, Redding said, “The strip-search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had. I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.”

Okay: Yuck! Talk about taking the “war on drugs” to a criminal extreme. Anyone ever heard of pedophilia? The principal that ordered the strip search was probably bizarrely titillated. No one really cares that much over 400 mg of Ibuprofen (the equivalent of 2 pills, 1 dose of over-the-counter Ibuprofen) … unless it’s just a poor excuse for some nasty fun.

What is amazing about the following story is the reaction of key Canadian religious figures to it. First, we begin with the background and a brief synopsis of reaction in the US and Britain, then we’ll move to reactions of Canadian religious figures, and close with the reactions to similar ads run in Washington D.C. and Italy:

RTFA: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM…

The atheist slogan, “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life,” may soon be coming to subways and buses in Canada’s largest city.

The Toronto-based Freethought Association of Canada, inspired by a campaign that has plastered British buses with the phrase, has contacted the private firm that handles ads on the Toronto Transit Commission to see if the message would violate any rules. Organizers plan to launch a fundraising page on the website atheistbus.ca in the next few days.

The British campaign, which has inspired similar moves in Washington, Barcelona and Madrid, has sparked complaints to the country’s advertising authority and a backlash from the evangelical group Christian Voice, which has proclaimed that Britain is in “deep sin.”

Now for how Canadian religious groups are taking it:

Neil MacCarthy, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said it was difficult to comment on ads that he hasn’t seen.

“The reality is that organized religion is often an easy target,” he said. “… At the same time, this type of campaign would likely generate discussion and dialogue around faith. And that can be a healthy thing, as long as it is done respectfully.”

The moderator of the United Church of Canada, Right Rev. David Giuliano, said he would rather see atheists say what they believe in, rather than what they are against.

But, pointing out that his church also uses advertising, he said he has some sympathy with the impetus behind the ads.

…

Mohamed Elmasry, founder of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said he had no problem with the ads: “They have a system of belief like anybody else, and they are entitled to live with this system and also propagate it among others.”

…

TTC vice-chairman Joe Mihevc, a former Christian theologian who has long sat on the ad-review committee, said he would welcome the atheist ads: “What better place to have one of the key theological, philosophical debates of our time but on public transit?”

Not a single religious group quoted said the Atheists were all damned to Hell and/or shouldn’t be allowed to post the ads. That’s a freakin’ enlightened society! I almost couldn’t believe these quotes when I read them. For me, anyway, this story is almost more interesting for the reactions of Canadian religious authorities than the ad campaign itself.

For a little comparison, here’s an article discussing the way people in the US reacted to a similar campaign being launched in Washington DC:

RTFA: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica…

[The American Humanist Association] launched our Washington DC advertising campaign on November 11 with the slogan “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.” The venue was the sides, rears and insides of 230 of the city’s buses. News coverage of the campaign generated an outpouring of phone calls and e-mails, mostly negative. The largest number came directly to us but hundreds of complaints also came to Metro, the government entity that handles the city’s buses and subways. One of the complainers expressed a wish (or perhaps a prayer): “May all your atheist buses break down!”

The sudden high volume of visitors to our special campaign website www.whybelieveinagod.org crashed our server twice. Soon, the conservative talkshow hosts were clamouring to give us air time so they could argue against us and further rouse their audience. And conservative Christian organisations not only denounced our efforts but encouraged their flocks to come bleat in our ears. All this before our bus ads actually started to appear one week later.

UPDATE: Similar ads banned in Genoa, Italy for violating advertising ethics code

RTFA: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM…

Italian atheists have lost a bid to run “no God” advertisements on city buses after strong opposition from conservative political parties, a member of the group said on Saturday.

The ads reading “The bad news is that God doesn’t exist. The good news is that you don’t need him” were to have been put on buses in the northern city of Genoa, home to the Catholic cardinal who is head of the Italian Bishops Conference.

The mock-up was ready and the contract was sent to the group for signing but the publicity agency changed its mind and said the ad could not run it because it violated an ethics in advertising code, according to Giorgio Villella of The Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics (UAAR).

“Right-wing politicians criticized us ferociously,” Mr. Villella said by telephone from the group’s base, adding that at least one bus driver in Genoa said he would refuse to drive a “no God” bus.

“It’s strange that in a country where ads depicting near-naked women wearing skimpy lingerie is permitted on buses that we can’t run ads about atheism,” Mr. Villella said.