In case you're not sure what "data science" looks like for a 4th grader, it's not about spreadsheets or using computers. What most states expect of 4th graders are some fundamental understandings about how things have attributes and that those attributes can be measured and/or categorizeed, and that data can be organized in tables or simple plots. Here are typical 4th grade academic standards that one might associate with "data science":

• Students know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table. For example, know that 1 ft is 12 times as long as 1 in. Express the length of a 4 ft snake as 48 in. Generate a conversion table for feet and inches listing the number pairs (1, 12), (2, 24), (3, 36),
• Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Solve problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions by using information presented in line plots. For example, from a line plot find and interpret the difference in length between the longest and shortest specimens in an insect collection.

These build from a few 3rd grade standards that might be tested in 4th grade as well:

• Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets.
• Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.

Thanks for the excellent reply!

The U.S. federal government already has the U.S. Digital Service (https://www.usds.gov/), which was started in 2014 to help fix problems associated with the launch of healthcare.gov, and they've been re-engineering federal websites and services ever since. This new U.S. Digital Corps (https://digitalcorps.gsa.gov/about/) sure sounds and looks like a duplicate agency. Does anyone know how they'll be different?

Once upon a time (late 1990s), a company called Kryotech essentially put a refrigerator inside a computer rather than do it the other way around. At the bottom of a very tall and heavy case, they had the workings of a refrigerator (compressor, condenser, coils, etc.) that pumped coolant to the CPU. AnandTech and Tom's Hardware still have their coverage on their sites, complete with diagrams.

I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate Instagram's decline in user activity has a lot more to do with a rise in popularity in Snapchat than their TOS snafu. I don't know how popular Snapchat has gotten, but the college kids I teach were raving about it.

Paul Thurrott discussed this on Thursday on Windows Weekly:
http://twit.tv/show/windows-weekly/261 (jump to 21:20 and watch for about 5 minutes)
Paul thinks there was some pretty shoddy journalism with this story.

Of course. Publishers aren't in this for the science.

FYI - Dan Maes followed these comments by winning the Republican primary. He defeated Scott McInnis, who just paid $300,000 to settle a plagiarism suit. Now all Maes has to worry about (other than John Hickenlooper, the Democratic candidate) is Tom Tancredo, who is also known for making some outlandish comments:

http://rdonaldsnyder.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/09/4647834-poll-is-tom-tancredo-bat-guano-crazy

Not exactly a bumper crop of top-quality Republicans this year in the state of Colorado.

(Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with this company, but I know somebody who is. I should talk to him about a "complimentary robot for referrals" program.) http://reconrobotics.com/ Recon Robotics makes a product called the Scout that is designed specifically for this purpose. Each robot weighs only 1.2 pounds, is deployable and easily controllable by a single soldier, and is relatively inexpensive compared to other combat-ready robot technologies. I know I want one. ;)

Agreed. I just finished a 10-day trial of Kubuntu 9.04, after having used KDE3 versions of Kubuntu since their first release. It was pretty, for sure, but really felt like every visual enhancement came at the sacrifice of some functional enhancement. Example: Icons of folders containing pictures in KDE4 have tiny thumbnail pictures on them, but no longer could I hover over a picture to see its dimensions or JPEG comment. Granted, KDE 3.5 might be the most feature-packed, customizable desktop environment of all time (for better or worse). Recreating every one of its features is a huge task, and it's going to take time. I can keep using KDE 3.5 while I wait.