Dowbrigade

Holding severed head in place, he defied death

AGRA: A 28-year-old carrier van driver’s head nearly got chopped off in
a road accident. Weeks later he is alive, thanks to sheer grit.
His head almost severed, blood oozing and eyes popping out, Balram kept
his head attached to his body with some cloth. When no one came to help
him, he drove his own vehicle for 30 km to reach a nursing
home in Agra. Doctors there found the head partly joined with the
spinal column — something that saved his life. from
NewInd Press

College Rating by U.S. News Will Now
Skip a Key Factor

The New York Times Education Life reports that US News and World Reports
annual ranking of the top US colleges and universities, the holy grail
of Admissions Directors, is changing the way they rank. Gone will
be "Yield Rate," basically the % of those sent acceptance letters who
eventually
enroll.

Turns out that in order to inch up a position or two, colleges were
pressuring students to accept "binding early decision" (pay the deposit)
committments and thus automatically up their yield rates.

Personally, I am still pissed at US News and World Report for taking
the annual rankings off of the free section of their site, where until
last year I found it an excellent teaching tool and resource in counseling
my foreign students.  Now they want 10 bucks for access to EACH
SECTION, i.e. undergrad, business schools, etc.  Last year my class
took up a collection and bought a couple of passwords, pero que verguenza….

read excerpts

Note
to my students: As promised, I have posted my
page about Boston Beaches Accessible by Public Transportation to
our web site. These are all good alternatives
to Cape Cod, which turns into a giant parking lot on summer weekends.
Remember your sun screen!

Excellent
article this morning in the Globe about women competing
against men at the highest level of professional athletics.  The
article mentions Susy Whaley and Anika Sorensen in golf, Billie Jean
King in tennis, Nancy Lieberman in basketball and Janet Guthrie in auto
racing.

But let us not forget ex-Cambridge resident Susan
Butcher, four-time
winner of the murderous Iditarod 12-day dogsled race, over a field composed
almost exclusively of men.

And now comes word that Tanya
Streeter, a British woman known as "the
Human Torpedo" has not only smashed the woman’s freediving world record
of 311 feet, but surpassed the all-time men’s word record of 394 feet
as well, with a dive of 401 ft, without air or other aids. She was under
3 minutes, 38 seconds. read more….