Fascinating. First, how gold leaf is painstakingly made, and then how it is worked with (including picking up static electricity from your cheek!)
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Do driver training programs reduce crashes?
Do driver training programs reduce crashes and traffic violations?
Conventional driver training programs in the U.S. (30 hr classroom and 6 hr on-the-road) probably reduce per licensed driver crash rates by as little as 5% over the first 6–12 months of driving. The possibility of an effect closer to 0 cannot be dismissed.
The Mixed Bag of Driver Education. NY Times
"in 16 states drivers who complete education courses can sidestep some graduated licensing restrictions, including the age limit to receive a learner's permit, requirements for hours practicing behind the wheel, and passenger and night-driving limitations...The Oregon curriculum includes classroom training, substantial supervised driving instruction and parental involvement. It focuses on risk assessment to help young drivers anticipate problems. The state also trains and certifies instructors, an area that has received little oversight....Since it overhauled driver training about a decade ago, Oregon has had a reduction of more than 55 percent in the number of 16-year-olds behind the wheel when someone is killed or injured in a crash and a drop of almost 40 percent for 17-year-olds"
Sent from my iPhone
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Why are humans so intelligent?
Interesting essay in this week's Economist about an evolutionary theory of why humans are so much more intelligent than their close evolutionary counterparts. They argue there's a feedback loop in evolution of more helpless babies, born earlier in their gestation before their head becomes prohibitively large, require ever more intelligent parents to look after them because they are so helpless when born. And the requirement for intelligence makes human heads ever larger.
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