Proposed by UC Riverside campus newspaper editor Chris LoCascio, the plan would see a student paying a flat 5% of their wages following graduation instead of an up-front investment amount paid before the education begins. The no tuition proposal would offer discounts for transfer students, graduates who work in public service careers and those who stay and work in the state. Students from other states and countries would pay 6%.

System President Mark G. Yudof met with the Riverside students during a UC regents meeting on Wednesday and was “very impressed” with the plan. Though impressed as he may be with the plan, UC officials were still troubled by the vague payment enforcement ideas put forth.

Although Governor Jerry Brown’s budget allots an extra $90 million for the school system next year the system’s state funding would still be $660 million less than it was during the 2010-2011 school year. This is leading many in the state, LoCascio included, to ask “Why not try something different?”

(Source: LA Times)

To take the example given, say you want to master a task that requires high performance from your visual cortex, like catching a ball. So you find a professional baseball player and record them catching a ball using the fMRI to copy their brain activity. Now you’ve got your ball catching program recorded. From there you just feed that program into your own neurofeedback using the machine and after time your brain becomes familiar with the pattern – which in essence is what learning is, the brain becoming familiar with a pattern. Play the feedback enough and eventually your brain will get better at whatever that activity is.

So just like the Neo in the Matrix one day you may find yourself plugging into a machine and having your skills uploaded directly into your cerebral cortex. It might be a ways off but it’s certainly something to think about. As Keanu might say, “Whoa.”

(Source: Dvice Blog)

The school’s provost received a complaint letter from a graduate of the Physician Assistant program alleging that Venetia Orcutt, Ph.D., director of the program, failed to provide “communication, course materials, or instruction” for the two required courses entitled Evidence Based Medicine. The letter goes on to say “At our final meeting as a class just days before graduation, we were told all students would be ascribed a grade of ‘A’ in the 2 courses.”

More letters soon arrived each saying the same thing, one even going so far as to say that the classes themselves never even met once.

A statement from GWU confirms Orcutt’s departure and says, “The university is investigating the allegations that led to her resignation.”

(Source: Fox DC)

The new initiative will put an income related repayment cap on loans, reducing the maximum required payment on student loans to just 10% of annual income. Originally the measure was to go into effect in 2014 but the President says that he wants it to start as early as next year instead.

This comes to a welcome relief to many as a recent study showed that fees at four-year public colleges rose $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on a conference call that the new legislative changes could save some borrowers hundreds of dollars a month.

“These are real savings that will help these graduates get started in their careers and help them make ends meet,” Duncan said.

(Source: LA Times)

10) The Amazing Spider-Man and Power Pack on Sexual Abuse (1984)

In this “very special” Spider-Man adventure, the masked web-slinger discovers that the boy who lives next door is being touched inappropriately by his hot teenage babysitter. Poor kid. Spider-Man reveals that as a boy, he too was molested by a…slightly older boy. He teaches his neighbor the value of reporting such crimes, imparting the lesson that you should trust a spandex-clad masked man climbing through your window more than your babysitter.

9) If an A-Bomb Falls (1951)

This Cold War-era comic  no doubt caused many a sleepless night for 8-year-olds back in the ’50s — see the drawing of a schoolboy cowering in a ditch under a newspaper as everything behind him is blown to kingdom come or the handy chart that explains that even with adequate preparation, the mortality rate of anyone within a half mile of an a-bomb blast is 75%. Dubious advice: “If you see a brilliant flash, leap behind a bank, sturdy building or in a doorway.” Apparently, a bank isn’t a sturdy building, and apparently, no one thought that a brilliant flash could be a bug zapper, someone’s high beams, the sun, a paparazzo, a cigarette lighter, a firefly, lightning, the Rapture or the Terminator’s time machine. Or maybe you’re just having a seizure.

8) Bobby Gets Hep (1946)

The folks at Bell Telephone delivered this oh-so-dated comic  that instructs groovy, hep kids on the etiquette of using party lines. Somehow, Bobby’s overuse of the line leads to him almost burning to death. Sounds like an appropriate punishment.

7) New Uses for Good Earth (1960s)

Apparently, strip mining is awesome for the environment. The Mined-Land Conservation Conference wouldn’t steer us wrong, would it?

6) The Secret of the Happy Pig! (1962)

This social engineering from the National Social Welfare Assembly comes with a vague goal of making kids feel good about themselves, basically implying that you can cure clinical depression with a two-minute conversation.

5) Foreskin Man (2010)

This anti-circumcision propaganda piece from a group seeking to pass legislation against “male genital mutilation” inadvertently (or perhaps not so inadvertently) veers dangerously close to anti-semitism, with its Aryan “intactivist” superhero taking on the evil Jewish supervillain Monster Mohel. Oy vey.

4) Dangerous Playgrounds (1950s)

With this comic, the Association of American Railroads aimed to show children the dangers of playing around railroad tracks, but it ends up making the rails look like the coolest playground ever, giving kids ideas for pastimes like racing trains across the tracks, tossing rocks at passenger cars, riding bikes between the tracks, flipping railroad switches and putting spikes on tracks.

3) What’s Your B.Q.? (1966)

This well-meaning one-pager from the National Social Welfare Assembly tests your Brotherhood Quotient — i.e., your propensity to commit a hate crime — by asking you to rate how much you like or dislike a series of seemingly innocuous items (alligators, cabbage, detective stories, “long-hair music,” spiders) but tricks you when you let your guards down by slipping in “foreigners,” “Catholics,” “Indians,” “Jews” and “Negroes.” One misstep and oops, you’re a racist!

2) There’s a New World Coming (1974)

Doomsday Christian evangelist Hal Lindsey, who incorrectly predicted the apocalypse would occur in the ’80s and then again the ’90s (more on that type of stuff: here), created this comic as a “hip” way to explain the book of Revelation to kids. The end result is a confusing onslaught of images, pseudo-cool yet inadvertently sexual phraseology (“THE GREAT SNATCH!!!”) and “facts” about Jews being “God’s chosen race,” kids today taking part in “drug-related occult activities” and the subtle implication of the artwork that non-hot, buxom, nubile, Caucasian youths need not apply for admission into Heaven.

1) The Perils of Pip Preventing Poisoning (1978)

This comic from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission introduces Pip the Magic Safety Elephant, a mascot who’s supposed to teach kids about the dangers of swallowing poisons and other harmful substances. Instead, he ends up giving a lesson in socioeconomic discrimination, as he allows an “inner city” child to eat lead paint flakes for MONTHS before stepping in to explain to his parents why Johnny is approaching death’s door. Meanwhile, in other story lines, he steps in before any of the kids ingests even a drop of poison. He explains to the “inner city” parents (as their son lies unconscious) that they should take Johnny to the emergency room right away because “lead poisoning must be treated early if it is to be cured.” Gee, thanks a lot, Pip.

More Comics Related Goodness:

• Lamest Hostess Snack Cake Villains Ever

Sophomore Cristina Lara thinks that for over $50 grand a year spent on tuition you should be allotted more than the current 50 gigs a month.  “With a pricetag $57,000 per year, Cornell University should give it’s students unlimited internet usage.”

Especially since the college is located practically in the middle of nowhere (according to Cristina) and that for many students, herself included, internet is more of an ‘anti-drug.’

“If Cornell was situated in a major metropolitan area with a vast nightlife that could accommodate(sic)  the interests of most, if not all, our undergraduates, then many Cornellians wouldn’t be so inclined to stay in their rooms and get on the internet…While some students opt to partake in drug-related pastimes, other students stay in and watch movies, talk on Skype or iChat, or even just surf the web. We should not be penalized for this.”

The information was available as a result of what’s known as Google dorking. Cyber criminals take advantage of Google’s advanced search mechanisms to find data caches that most people wouldn’t even know where available. This is the same technique used if say you wanted to do a search of every public non-guarded webcam currently on the web (something else you can do with Google dorking).

Complicating matters further is the fact that this isn’t the first time that Yale has just randomly lost thousands of SSNs. A similar situation arose back in 2007 as well.

(Source: IvyGate)

It would seem that a growing number of colleges and universities are now requiring students to write personalized ‘thank-you’ notes to their benefactors before they can actually receive the funds. With the economy in its current state, colleges are realizing just how precious such endowments are – for both themselves and the students.

“Advancement officers frame the policy as part fund-raising strategy, part education. Donors who feel connected to the college are more likely to continue to give, these officers say, and they love hearing from students.”

It’s not exactly a new practice to ask students to write out these notes but rarely has the release of funds been contingent upon their mailing. Now, schools like La Sierra University, Barton and St. John’s University, in New York have all begun instituting such a policy and many more are expected to follow suit. And for good reason!

“People will say, ‘I want to increase my gift this year, I was really moved by Tom’s letter.’ ” said Saskia DeCaires, director of donor relations for St. John’s University.

10) Billy Crystal

Before he witnessed Meg Ryan fake a mind-blowing orgasm in When Harry Met Sally, Billy “The Face” Crystal was a substitute gym teacher at an all-girls middle school in Long Island. He learned how to actively engage an audience that was catty, self conscious, and desperate for attention. This skill eventually carried over to a successful Oscar hosting career. If only Anne Hathaway had taken his class…

9) Art Garfunkel

In middle school, I had a curmudgeonly physics teacher named Mr. Enis; naturally, his name provided a lot of material for our budding poetic minds.  Our next famous teacher followed in the grand tradition of tragically rhyming teacher names and certainly inspired a lot of back-row snickers. After college, Art Garfunkel taught at Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut, during which time “Bridge Over Troubled Water” became a hit.* The rest is rock history.  So congratulations Mr. Fart Barfunkel, you will always have the last laugh.

*I wonder if Clay Aiken’s students reacted the same way when “I Was Invisible” dropped?

8)    Mr. T

A “hip” teacher will allow students to abbreviate his or her last name to a simple one-letter moniker.  For example, Boy Meet World’s avuncular Mr. George Feeny (everyone’s favorite neighbor, high school teacher, college professor, principal, mentor, friend, and co-dependent) let the occasional F-word slip. However, our next famous teacher took his abbreviation very seriously.* In the mid-1970s, long before he pitied fools, Laurence Turead taught  gym in the south side of Chicago. He also worked as a nightclub bouncer, where he cultivated his alter-ego “Mr. T.” Even after reaching fame and fortune, Mr. T continued teaching, producing self-help videos aimed at high-risk youth.**He left his original teaching job when Sylvester Stallone discovered and cast him in Rocky III. Which brings me to my next point:

*When someone asks him what his real name is, he responds “My first name is ‘Mr,’ my middle name is ‘period,’ last name is ‘T’.”
**Rent Mr. T’s Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool. Just trust me on this one.

7)    Sylvester Stallone

Was also a gym teacher. At least he didn’t teach rhetoric.

6)    Sting

Before his lyrics romanced Generation X, Gordon “Sting” Sumner taught English, music, and soccer at St. Katherine Convent School in England. He recalls, “I was the only man on the faculty. In fact, I was the only teacher not in a habit.”  Does that mean he went naked?*

*Please, God…

5)    Sir William Golding

Now, Sir William Golding might seem out of place among the pop-culture icons listed above. However, his story is both haunting and incredibly badass. After earning his degree from Oxford University in 1935, Golding taught English and Greek literature in translation at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury, UK. When WWII broke out, he joined the Royal Navy and became a commander of a small rocket-launching ship that helped sink the German ship Bismark as well as advance British forces on D-Day.  He returned to his teaching position after the war, but maintained a “dark view of people’s ability to destroy one another.” He once allowed a class of boys complete freedom in a debate, but had to intervene as mayhem and violence broke out. He drew inspiration from his students and his grizzly war experience to write The Lord of the Flies. If only the ubiquitous “Edward vs. Jacob” debate inspired the next great American novel…

4)    JK Rowling

Long before Quidditch became a respectable sport in American colleges, JK Rowling was a struggling writer and English teacher. She taught abroad for a year in Portugal, where she wrote the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philsopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in America). She came back to England, where she taught full-time, stayed up at night writing, and took care of her infant daughter without any help. Bloomsbury Publishers eventually picked up Philosopher’s Stone, and now Rowling is one of the highest-paid women in history.

I wonder: if Sir William Golding got ideas for the characters in Lord of the Flies from his students, did Rowling do the same? Are her Hogwarts students direct reflections of her muggle students? If I had been her student, what character would I have inspired? Hermoine Ganga?

3)    Stephen King

Before he made me piss my pants, Stephen King taught at the Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. He used is spare time to write short stories, but developed a heavy drinking problem during his teaching station. We’ve all had that teacher who hid a flask somewhere in his desk and smelled a little like a distant uncle. However, the unholy trinity of alcoholism, Maine, and elementary school teaching eventually worked out for King, who became the third-highest paid writer in history (just behind James Patterson and JK Rowling).

2)    Barack Obama

Although his words were deemed “too professorial” for the American public, Barack Obama was one of the most lauded instructors in Constitutional Law in the history of the University of Chicago. At the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, He remarked, “Some people now suggest that I’m too professorial, and I would like to address that head-on: by assigning all of you some reading that will help you draw your own conclusions.” Burn. He would be my RateMyProfessor.com top pick of the week.*

*He also very much deserves a “chili pepper.”

1)    Gene Simmons

Carrying on the rabbinic scholarly tradition, Chaim Witz devoted himself to his studies, becoming fluent in English, German, Hungarian, Spanish, and Hebrew. He considered becoming a rabbi, but decided to explore other careers and focus on his music. He ended up teaching sixth grade at PS 75 in Spanish Harlem, where he was reportedly fired for, among other things, replacing the Shakespearean play in the curriculum with a Spiderman comic (what a shanda!) This might have been the greatest thing to ever happen to Chaim; he changed his name to Gene Simmons and become the Jew with the second-most amount of sex partners in history (right after King David). I would like to take a moment to thank Chaim for all he has done for my tribe, giving hope to pre-adolescent Bar Mitzvahs with cracking voices and no game. What a mensch!

There we have it: ten famous people who once immersed themselves in academia. Next time you see a teacher, thank them for living the dream.

Bill Nye “The Science Guy” was in town for the McLennan Community College’s Distinguished Lecture Series giving speeches on Mars exploration, climate change and energy consumption. Everything was apparently going fine until Nye made the cardinal mistake of suggesting that the moon itself does not emit light but rather reflect the light from the sun.

Nye couched this in a way however that was quite troublesome for most of the God-fearing denizens of Waco. Nye mentioned that in Genesis 1:16, it reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

He then pointed out that the lesser light was actually just a reflector and not an actual light itself to the audience responded with a giant gasp of “Oh no he di’int” and presumably hundreds of waving fingers.

The citizens of Waco were “visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence,” according to the Waco Tribune.

At one point an angry woman stood up with her three children and screamed “We Believe in GOD!!!11one” (punctuation is ours) before rushing out of the room. No word as to whether or not she was headed to buy herself a Fat Ho Burger.

For what it’s worth, the original article has already been scrubbed from the Waco Tribune website (mostly because hey, how much bad publicity does one place really need?).