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There was no lack of, well, buzz about Google's new Buzz social-media platform last week, but more important were a series of moves that suggest the search giant is ready to take a tentative step toward fixing one of its longest-held gripes: the speed of Internet connections...
Valentine?s Day won the full four-day weekend, taking in a record $66.9 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Percy Jackson held second with $38.8 million; The Wolfman was third with $36.5 million. Avatar held strong in fourth, slipping only 2% from last weekend for $30 million. The James Cameron eco-epic has now earned $667.6 million, the all-time leader in current dollars and, in real dollars, is now 17th on the all-time list, between two Steven Spielberg adventures: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park...
Speaking to my friends back home, I sense a certain frustration and discontentment with the higher education system in India. Exams are held in the middle and at the end of every semester and these exams determine the GPA. On paper, it seems comparable to a semester in the U.S., but that could not be farther from the truth. I hear that attending college day-to-day feels like a chore, there are no term-time assignments (papers or problem sets in Harvard-speak), lecturers are disinterested and discrepancies in lab reports can be “fixed?...
...factor behind such stark contrasts between the two countries is the difference between their respective college entrance systems. In China, a student has only one shot at entering college every year through the Gaokao, a college entrance examination held annually in June. My teachers used to tell us, “One point, one soccer field,” meaning that if you dropped one point of the Gaokao, you would drop back as many places in the rankings as the number of people you could fit on a soccer field. Imagine the SATs being 10 times as hard...
...that "even the most ridiculous issues" can be forced on the electorate, as was the case in 1996 when a proposal was put forth to abolish federal subsidies for parking spaces near train stations. A few years ago, a joke made the rounds that an initiative should be held on whether to raze the Alps so the Swiss people could see the ocean. (Regrettably for beach lovers, this never came to pass.) Joking aside, experts say the countless ballots can lead to voter fatigue - Switzerland has long had one of the lowest voter-turnout rates in Europe. Indeed, even...