In Case You Missed It… Assorted Oddities from Around the Web

George H.W. Bush Socks

Don't Miss Sarah Jones's Essay On Kristi Noem Titled Predatory Is The Point On The Daily.

For a $35 donation, the GOP will send you a special-edition pair of socks honoring former president George H.W. Bush. Designed by the RNC, the socks are embroidered with the Republican elephant and feature Bush’s signature.

In a 2012 Today Show interview that aired on his 88th birthday, Bush copped to being a “sock man”. The limited-edition socks’ garish orange/blue/yellow/florescent green stripe scheme is presumed to be a tribute to the 41st president’s like for a “colorful sock”.

Itty-Bitty Magnetic Robots Manufacture Stuff

SRI International is experimenting with micro-robots in electronics assembly and biotech experiments, and for manufacturing small mechanical systems in hostile environments. Per their website, the company’s patented Diamagnetic Micro Manipulation (DM3) technology uses programmable, electromagnetically-propelled magnets “to “drive and control” the micro-bots. SRI likens the results to “harness(ing) the power of an army of ants”. The above video of the process supports the analogy. DM3 will also be applied to large-scale structures.

The experiments are targeted for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Open Manufacturing program, an initiative aimed at lowering the costs and delivery times of high-quality manufactured goods to the military.

How Much Do You Love or Hate Your State? The Numbers Are In

The results of a 2013 Gallup poll in which respondents were asked to rate their satisfaction with their resident state were released last Thursday. Alaska and Montana scored at the top of the scale, each at 77%. Illinois and Rhode Island are at the bottom, at 19% and 18%, respectively. With the exception of New Hampshire and Vermont, all top ten states are west of the Mississippi River.

Results were based on ratings in the categories of “the best possible state to live in”, “one of the best possible states to live in”, “as good a state as any to live in”, or “the worst possible state to live in”. Gallup’s release notes that with the exception of Texas, most of the high-rated states have relatively low populations. It also mentions that the two top-rated states border Canada.

Study Recommends Taking Notes by Hand

A recent Princeton University study finds that comprehension of lecture material is improved when notes are taken by pen and paper rather than by laptop. Laptops have have long been questioned as a method for note-taking due to their tendency to provide distraction, as students with laptops can easily browse the internet, shop online, or play games during lectures. But the Princeton study focused on students who used them diligently to take notes. The study’s author, Pam A. Mueller of the university’s Psychology Department, concludes that “laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning”.

The study was prompted by a discussion between Mueller and researcher Daniel Oppenheimer in which Mueller related how she’d realized she’d she’d gotten more out lectures she took notes on by longhand. Oppenheimer told her how he’d attended a faculty discussion and took notes on a laptop, then “looked up and realized that he had no idea what the person was actually talking about.”