The Structure Whisperer

US Unemployment Rate (blue line) & recessions, 1976-2009, BLS

Greetings from Kingston, Ontario. Happy Civic Holiday/Provincial Day weekend to many Canadian readers.

José’s post on the

Ever wondered what would happen if poor people voted at the same rate as the non-poor? Dylan Matthews did a quick and dirty merging of CNN exit polls and Census data and found that Obama’s vote…

Lisa Wade at Sociological Images posted a fascinating chart on the level of patriotism citizens of different countries exhibit – details here. Predictably, the USA ranks #1 in thinking they are #1…

Andover Townsman

Date Published: July 22, 2010

UMass Lowell electrical engineering student Paula Bustus of Andover had had no experience with individuals with developmental disabilities last winter when she first visited the Bridgewell Day Center in Lynn. But the University of Massachusetts Lowell student was on a mission, to complete an assistive technology project for one of her requirements.

Her challenge was to create a fitness machine for clients with limited motor skills and short attention spans, according to the school. The goal was to figure out how to motivate them to exercise.

Read the entire article on the Paula Bustos’s invention.

As box office numbers for Christoher Nolan’s Inception continue to rise – right now, Variety reports that the film has grossed $6M ($149M total) – so do the…