http://www.cnn.com/2011/08/29/living/bizarre-college-courses-mf/index.html?hpt=li_c2

22 fascinating and bizarre college classes offered this semester

1. Sociology of Fame and Lady Gaga

University of South Carolina

No, you won't get extra credit for wearing sirloin to class. As the syllabus warns, "This is not a course in Lady Gaga but in sociology; and it is not a course about Lady Gaga as much as about the culture of the fame as exemplified by the career of Lady Gaga. There will be no PowerPoint presentations in this class nor any music or videos."

2. Wordplay: A Wry Plod from Babel to Scrabble

Princeton University

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/21/observer-editorial-celebration-of-kindle

The Kindle is lifting the spirits of a trade whose mood, traditionally, runs the gamut from the apocalyptic to the merely suicidal

The Observer, Sunday 21 August 2011

Dear all,

i collected some articles about Lady Gaga on Time magazine.

Lady gaga now is world famous, what is your idea of this superstar?

Above all else, be honest and sincere. Remember, what you say isn't as important as how you say it.

 http://www.rd.com/family/how-to-break-the-ice-and-meet-new-people/

Tired of the same old opening lines? We’ve all heard them, and they can sometimes be a real turn-off. But since you never get a second chance to make a first impression, what’s said in those first few moments is as significant as it often is tongue-tying.

http://www.ted.com/talks/mikko_hypponen_fighting_viruses_defending_the_net.html

I love the Internet. It's true. Think about everything it has brought us. Think about all the services we use, all the connectivity, all the entertainment, all the business, all the commerce. And it's happening during our lifetimes. I'm pretty sure that one day we'll be writing history books hundreds of years from now. This time our generation will be remembered as the generation that got online, the generation that built something really and truly global. But yes, it's also true that the Internet has problems, very serious problems, problems with security and problems with privacy. I've spent my career fighting these problems.

So let me show you something. This here is Brain. This is a floppy disk -- five and a quarter-inch floppy disk infected by Brain.A. It's the first virus we ever found for PC computers. And we actually know where Brain came from. We know because it says so inside the code. Let's take a look. All right. That's the boot sector of an infected floppy. And if we take a closer look inside, we'll see that right there, it says, "Welcome to the dungeon." And then it continues, saying, 1986, Basit and Amjad. And Basit and Amjad are first names, Pakistani first names. In fact, there's a phone number and an address in Pakistan.

source:  http://www.cracked.com/article_19308_6-silly-sounding-jobs-that-are-way-harder-than-you-think.html

When you meet a sports mascot, a "food critic" or an Internet comedy writer, you kind of shake your head and wonder what it's like to draw a paycheck for something completely ridiculous.

Keep in mind before you apply, though: Some of these frivolous-sounding jobs are harder, more dangerous and deadlier than anything you've ever done in your life, such as ...

Gay couples and proponents of gay rights have a reason to celebrate tonight, as the New York State Senate has passed a bill that allows same sex marriage.

New York will be the sixth, and largest, state in the union to adopt gay marriage. Governor Cuomo signed the bill into law at 11:15pm on Friday, which means the law will take effect on July 24, 2011.

The decision, which passed 33-29, was the culmination of weeks of contentious debate and negotiations between Governor Cuomo and the GOP-controlled Senate. After the bill passed in the Assembly, it was unclear if the bill had secured enough votes to pass in the Senate. When a few notable undecideds joined the cause --including Republican Roy McDonald who famously defended his decision, saying "fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing" -- the scale in favor of gay marriage seemed to tip.

Gay rights advocates are hoping the vote will galvanize the movement around the country and help it regain momentum after an almost identical bill was defeated here in 2009 and similar measures failed in 2010 in New Jersey and this year in Maryland and Rhode Island.

"We are leaders and we join other proud states that recognize our families and the battle will now go on in other states," said Sen. Thomas Duane, a Democrat.

Quoted from:http://edition.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/20/women.sci.fi.galactica/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

(CNN) -- "Women and men of the fleet: This is your president. We have come to a crossroads in our long and painful journey," Laura Roslin tells the survivors of humanity's near-destruction while a mutiny rages on.

That women get addressed first, and that a woman has authority over the last human population, isn't considered odd in the universe of the hit TV show "Battlestar Galactica."

The show aired from 2004 to 2009 on Syfy (then called the Sci-Fi Channel), and was a "reimagined" version of a 1978-to-1979 series of the same name.

Resource: http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/07/15/student-profile-sections/

Students are different from typical LinkedIn professionals – with less work experience to add to their profiles. Starting today, we’re helping our members showcase a wider variety of accomplishments on LinkedIn profiles.

This capability is particularly important for students and recent graduates – and here’s why:

The LinkedIn profile is a powerful tool for working professionals.  By capturing accomplishments in real time and publishing them on the LinkedIn network, members catch the eyes of other professionals – colleagues, recruiters, and hiring managers – and find one another for networking opportunities. These are benefits that no resume on a hard drive can ever deliver.

source: http://www.fastcompany.com/1767074/adapta-is-putting-real-animals-through-future-climate-change-simulations

Live Animals In A Climate Change Simulator Reveal Which Species Adapt

A Brazilian project called ADAPTA will put hundreds of species from the Amazon in conditions that mimic what the world will be like after years of climate change. The mission: to see which animals adapt and which will need our help to survive.