berkeley offers free classes

although this article says berkeley is first to do this, i think
MIT started doing something similar over a year ago. MIT also
puts the course notes online.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15627859.htm?source=yahoodist&content=sjm_news

Go to UC for free, on Google Video
BERKELEY CAMPUS SHARES 100 INTRODUCTORY COURSES
By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News

The best of college is now available, for free, without unpleasantries such as 8 a.m. classes, pop quizzes or term papers.

In a new deal with Google Video, the University of California-Berkeley is sharing with the public, via the Internet, dozens of videotaped seminars, speeches, special events and even entire courses taught by some of the campus' leading professors.

``It's click and play,'' said Dan Mogulof, director of public affairs at the university.

Easy to view and accessible to everyone, the Web site offers more than 100 introductory-level lectures in subjects such as physics, biology, chemistry, information systems and bioengineering. Viewers can't earn credit, but they don't have to find a parking space either.

``We are a public university,'' said Mogulof. ``We have fabulous faculty and incredible events. We want to share the wealth across the state, country and world.''

Also online are a noontime poetry reading series, a debate over the politics of obesity, and speeches by luminaries such as economist Robert Reich, who proposed that a Massachusetts liberal will be the next president.

A growing number of universities are providing audio and video recordings of campus events. But at most schools, including Stanford and Santa Clara University, public access is limited to public lectures and sporting events. Complete course lectures are available only to registered students.

UC-Berkeley is the first campus to post entire course lectures online and the only school with its own page on the Web site of Google Video, a new, vast and often chaotic video marketplace that features everything from ``I Love Lucy'' reruns to amateur footage of car crashes and cats flushing toilets.

``We're the first, but we expect others to follow suit,'' said Obadiah Greenberg, who helped design the project with UC-Berkeley's Educational Technology Services.

The campus already offers free videotaped course lectures and special events through a campus-based Web site (http://webcast.berkeley.edu). But that site -- which offers live and on-demand archives of lectures, including ``administrivia'' -- requires installation of the program RealPlayer.

The Google Video project will be easier for those less technologically inclined -- including legions of older Cal alumni, nostalgic for the intellectual inspiration of faculty members, said Mogulof. The Google site is more polished than the university's Webcasts, with higher resolution and light editing.

The school also uses iTunes to deliver podcasts of audiotaped course material. Users download the lectures individually or subscribe to semesterlong podcasts, which transfer new sessions to MP3 players when connected to a computer.

``Google appreciates the opportunity to partner with progressive universities like UC-Berkeley to make undiscovered lectures and entire courses available to our users,'' according to a press statement by CEO Eric Schmidt, a Cal graduate.

``UC-Berkeley's content -- much of which wasn't easily accessible online -- will enhance the comprehensive and diverse range of offerings by Google Video,'' he said.

At Stanford University, audiotaped course recordings are available on iTunes, but only to students. The university is planning to record and post several courses for its Web site, available to the public later this year or in January, said Scott Stocker, director of Web communications for Stanford.

While Stanford is researching the possibility of video coverage, Stocker said that he believes audio is often a more effective teaching tool than video.

``You can listen on mobile devices, untethered from the computer,'' he said.

``Stanford is definitely exploring ways to make course content available on the Internet through a variety of distinct mechanisms,'' said Stocker. ``We have had some discussions with Google Video but haven't made any agreement yet.''

``New technologies emerge so quickly,'' he said. ``We are trying out a variety of them.''

Said UC-Berkeley's Greenberg: ``There is a move in higher education to provide open access. We look forward to more schools joining us.''

More than 250 hours of UC-Berkeley content is now available online (http://video.google.com/ucberkeley).

too much testosterone kills brain cells

<i>can you say "Barry Bonds"?</i>

Too much testosterone kills brain cells

<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060926/hl_nm/testosterone_dc_2">By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent</a>
2 hours, 8 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Too much testosterone can kill brain cells, researchers said on Tuesday in a finding that may help explain why steroid abuse can cause behavior changes like aggressiveness and suicidal tendencies.

Tests on brain cells in lab dishes showed that while a little of the male hormone is good, too much of it causes cells to self-destruct in a process similar to that seen in brain illnesses such as Alzheimer's.

"Too little testosterone is bad, too much is bad but the right amount is perfect," said Barbara Ehrlich of Yale University in Connecticut, who led the study.

Testosterone is key to the development, differentiation and growth of cells and is produced by both men and women, although men produce about 20 times more of the hormone.

It can also be abused, and recent scandals have involved athletes who use the hormone, or steroids that turn into testosterone in the body, for an unfair advantage.
...

a heck of a civics lesson

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/20/national/a213157D29.DTL

Ky. Flag-Burning Teacher Avoids Charges

Wednesday, September 20, 2006
(09-20) 21:31 PDT Louisville, Ky. (AP) --

A middle school teacher who burned two American flags as part of a civics lesson won't be charged, but may still face discipline from the school board, officials said Wednesday.

Dan Holden, who teaches seventh-grade social studies at Stuart Middle School, burned the flags last month during a lesson on freedom of speech. The students were asked to write an opinion paper about how they felt about it.

eye makeup blamed in lead poisoning

more proof you can't be too paranoid about lead.

City bans eye makeup after lead found in tots
By Douglas Birch
Sun reporter
Originally published September 9, 2006

The Baltimore health commissioner ordered a ban yesterday on sales in the city of several brands of an eye cosmetic popular in parts of Asia, after two toddlers whose parents applied the product suffered significant lead poisoning.

Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein said he asked the owner of one city specialty market to remove from its shelves several types of kohl eye makeup, marketed as Kajal, Al-Kahl and Surma.

A citywide ban could go into effect as early as Monday, he said. Violators could be fined up to $1,000 for each offense.

The city health commissioner acted after the state Department of the Environment found that two tubes of one brand sold in Maryland, "Hashmi Surma Special," contained 39 percent and 45 percent lead, respectively.

According to state officials, the higher figure is 750 times the current national limit for lead in paint. These levels, Sharfstein said, represent "just a huge amount of lead."

While investigating the lead poisoning of a Baltimore County boy and a girl in Silver Spring, state environmental officials discovered that both were poisoned by kohl products made in Pakistan. Both are between 2 and 4 years of age.

One of the families bought the makeup at a Baltimore market, officials said. The other family couldn't recall where they purchased it.

Horacio Tablada, waste management director of the state environment agency, said there are probably several markets in the state selling these lead-containing cosmetics, which is also sometimes used as a teething powder for infants.
...