Penn State Great Valley Library Blog

There’s no limit to what students can do if challenged. In a quest to study the Earth’s stratosphere, four Spanish high school students and their science teacher captured this image of space (and others) with a $100 camera and a balloon. Making all their own weather equipment, they attached it and a camera to a helium balloon. The balloon traveled 20 miles above Earth before it began to descend. The equipment was recovered approximately 6 miles from the release site. The weather sensors and photo card were recovered. To read the full story click on the following link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-capture-images-of-space-with-56-camera-and-balloon.html .
To see additional photos, click on the highlighted word photograph within the text of the story or click on the following link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/sets/ .

The Atlantic recently posted an article by Simon Johnson - MIT’s Sloan School of Management professor & former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Johnson stated the “finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises”. Simon continued by writing “if the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time”. To read this article click on the link
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

According the latest report from the Pew Internet and American Life project “some 39% of Americans have positive and improving attitudes about their mobile communication devices, which in turn draws them further into engagement with digital resources – on both wireless and wireline platforms.” More information about these trends can be found at http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/5-The-Mobile-Difference–Typology.aspx