The Open University is claiming a world record for the number of iTunes downloads - as the first to reach 20 million.
Universities around the world are now distributing material through the iTunes U educational area of the online service.
The global figure for downloads from iTunes U has reached 250 million.
"The way people want to learn is changing," says Open University vice-chancellor, Martin Bean.
The video says it all: A tideline of tar balls, off Horn Island Pass south of Pascagoula, Mississippi - blobs stretching as far as the eye can see.
While a good portion of the country was gearing up for the U.S.-Ghana World Cup game, workers and residents in the Gulf were coping with day 68 of the oil spill - the day that the oil slammed into the as-yet-little-affected Mississippi coastline. Here's the raw footage:
Sitting up straight is not the best position for office workers, a study has suggested.
Scottish and Canadian researchers used a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to show it places an unnecessary strain on your back.
They told the Radiological Society of North America that the best position in which to sit at your desk is leaning back, at about 135 degrees.
Experts said sitting was known to contribute to lower back pain.
Data from the British Chiropractic Association says 32% of the population spends more than 10 hours a day seated.
Sunday is set to be the hottest day so far this year and temperatures may hit 31C, the BBC weather centre predicts.
The previous high for 2010 was on 24 May, when it reached 28.8C at Heathrow Airport.
The prediction comes as millions are set to watch England play Germany in the World Cup and Glastonbury festival-goers bask in the sun.
The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport.
Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.
The seventh-inning stretch may never be the same.
Baseball tends to be a quiet sport. There are no raucous chants of “defense!” or buzzers going off every time a run is scored. Sure, a home run ignites the home crowd, but for the most part, order beats out obstreperous behavior in the stands.
Come Saturday night, that precedent may change in South Florida. The Palm Beach Post reports that the Florida Marlins will be giving out horns similar to vuvuzelas to the first 15,000 fans in attendance at Saturday night’s game against the intrastate-rival Rays. (5 reasons to ban the vuvuzela right now)
“It’s not really a noise you hear at a baseball game,” Marlins third baseman Jorge Cantu told the Post. It’s obviously going to be loud.”
Some teams have a different view toward the South-African staple. The weird hum was not tolerated this week at Yankee Stadium, as a fan was ejected from Tuesday night’s game against the Phillies. The New York Post reports that 27-year-old Anthony Zachariadis hid the horns in his shorts to enter the game, but eventually had them confiscated by a guard for disturbing the peace in the bleachers.
It may be a World cup fad. But somehow, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” seems more appropriate.
One of China's most influential newspapers, the official People's Daily, has called for workers' incomes to be raised.
The paper says wages need to rise to protect stability and transform society.
It warns that what it calls the "made-in-China" model is facing a turning point.
The University of South Florida wants to become a globally known university. But with just 1,800 foreign students out of about 47,000, the university's Tampa campus is far from international.
So officials there decided to turn to Into University Partnerships, a British company, to recruit and educate foreign students in a college-preparatory program that combines intensive English instruction and academic course work.Matthew L. Jockers may be the first English professor to assign 1,200 novels in one class.
Lucky for the students, they don't have to read them.
As grunts in Stanford University's new Literature Lab, these students investigate the evolution of literary style by teaming up like biologists and using computer programs to "read" an entire library.
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-Go-Google/65713/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
