This advice is intended for anyone interested in pursuing graduate education (toward the Ph.D.) on a full-time basis, not for part-timers or weekend scholars. Also, my graduate education was in the sciences, so some of what I say may not apply to someone in, say, management or the humanities. 1. Maintain a positive attitude...

One of the big ideas in the world of education (both K-12 and postsecondary) is the whole notion of “learning styles.” By this, we mean that people have different ways of learning and recalling knowledge and information. For example, some people consider themselves “visual” learners, which means they need to see pictures and words...

In the latest issue of Psychological Science, Chen, Cohen, and Miller report that kids from low socioeconomic status (SES) families show elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol. From their abstract: Individuals with a low socioeconomic status (SES) are at increased risk for mental and physical health problems, and the relationship may be mediated...

There’s been a lot of news lately in the world of artificial intelligence. First up, was the news from IBM Research. Last month they reported that they had constructed a cortical simulator built upon the IBM Blue Gene supercomputing architecture. According to IBM, this cortical simulation is able to run at near-real-time, and possesses...

After a couple of years of trying to figure out just what the hell is wrong with me, I’ve finally determined that I am going through a midlife crisis. It seems this is the normal course of action for guys my age, to quite suddenly hit a stage in life where you question what...

I just received a DuelAdapter for use with my splendid new Lenovo S10 IdeaPad. The DuelAdapter (http://www.duel-systemsadapters.com/) is a device that is supposed to allow you to use older PCMCIA cards in the newer ExpressCard slots featured on new laptops such as the Lenovo S10. I have an AT&T cellular modem card that I...