NET NEUTRALITY: “If you like your internet, you can keep your internet.”

THANKS APPLE: Pilot and wife use iPads to navigate and safely land plane after total electrical failure leaves them flying blind.

MAJOR QUESTIONS in the net neutrality debate. The wise thing to to keep government regulation far, far away from the internet.

SHOULD EMPLOYERS give paid time off for volunteering? No. Absolutely not. Keep the ‘social justice’ movement out of the workplace. And out of the IEEE as well: it’s a professional organization, not a social justice one.

IF YOU LIKE HBO’S GIRLS, you might be an overeducated overcredentialed insular dumbass.

MORE ON QUALIFICATIONS VS. COMPETENCY: The non-mystery of Scott Walker’s college career.

Howard Dean seems to think that Walker is ‘unknowledgeable’ because he has no college degree, but seems to be totally unaware that George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry S Truman are among the eleven presidents who did not have college degrees.

I might add that Ronald Reagan, whom I regard as the best President in my lifetime, graduated from tiny Eureka College, certainly not an ‘elite’ institution like Harvard or Yale.

POPULAR MECHANICS: Bizarre aircraft. I know I’m showing my age, but 13 of the 17 were within my lifetime, and 7 of them I’ve actually seen.

THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUSINESS MODEL: I don’t think it’ll fly outside of government....

THE SCOREKEEPER writes about Mike Rowe, qualifications, and competency.

Our so-called ‘ruling class’ has long mistaken qualifications for competency. With the assistance of the Obama administration, that may be changing.

TAKING ON HIGHER EDUCATION:

There is still a lot of respect in the country for the hard sciences and the people who teach them, but with the partial exception of economists and business school professors, much of the public has been losing its veneration for social science professors and humanities professors for some time.

What we are likely to see is a steady and long term pressure against the ‘research university’ model outside of the natural sciences, with politicians (often supported by voters who want cheaper tuition) pushing to increase teaching loads. Teachers would be paid to teach, not to write critical gender study analyses for peer reviewed publications of little interest to the average voter.

About time. Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s governor, is taking the lead, and I’d like to see what Carly Fiorina (another potential candidate to my liking) has to say.

ROSETTA IMAGES show comet 67P/Churyumov-Serasimenko becoming active as it nears the sun. Also interesting is the video showing how Rosetta’s orbit is maintained.

CALL OFF THE DOGS? No way. Hillary’s 2016 election candidacy is going to be a slimefest.

Grab extra popcorn; 2016 is going to be interesting.

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY: China's new stealth fighter isn't great, but it may not need to be.

Two thoughts: (1) When I was working new programs for Lockheed Martin, ‘quality vs. quantity’ was always a big issue, especially for aircraft programs. (2) Read the comments; the ignorance is astounding.