A large number of schools participating in a pay-for-grades program have seen test scores in reading and math go up by almost 40 percentage points. The Sparks program will pay seventh-graders up to $500 and fourth-graders as much as $250 for good performance on 10 assessment tests. About two-thirds of the 59 schools in the program improved their scores by margins above the citywide average. "It's an ego booster in terms of self-worth. When they get the checks, there's that competitiveness -- 'Oh, I'm going to get more money than you next time' -- so it's something that excites them," said Rose Marie Mills, principal at MS 343 in Mott Haven. Critics, who are unaware that most college students don't become liberal arts majors, argue that paying kids corrupts the notion of learning for education's sake alone.

A group of researchers set out to discover what makes the ideal Bond girl. Why they did this is anybody's guess. Perhaps they had already determined how many fools Mr. T would pity on an average day. The team assessed the physical traits of all 195 female characters in the first 20 movies, then contrasted the characteristics of the 98 who had "sexual contact" with Bond with those of the 97 who did not. They found that the women Bond sleeps with tend to be younger, slimmer and more attractive than the women he does not. Amazing. "A majority of female characters engaged in some sexual activity, particularly those in major roles. And the great majority of sexual behaviors involved Bond himself," says the research team, led by Kimberly Neuendorf, professor of communication at Cleveland State University, Ohio.

dot-magnon writes "The Liberal Party of Norway (Venstre) passed a unanimous resolution that advocates legal file sharing. The party wants to legalise sharing of any copyrighted material for non-commercial use. It also proposes a ban on DRM technology, free sampling of other artists' material, and shortening the life span of copyright. The Liberal Party is the first Norwegian political party, and the first European mainstream political party, to advocate file sharing. The Liberal Party's youth wing proposed the resolution."