IT Insights Blog — science

Studies have found that about 40 percent of U.S. residents make at least one resolution each time that the calendar turns over to a new year. Further studies indicate that, out of the 40 percent who make a resolution, about 40 percent will be successful in achieving it. In other words, it's more likely than not that you didn't make a resolution — and even if you did, then it's more like than not that you won't be successful in achieving it.

The Transcona Grain Elevator, built at Transcona in Canada's Manitoba province, is notorious in civil engineering circles for its near collapse in 1913. The structure's bin house — the part that includes the bins, or vertical cylinders (65 of them in this particular instance), where grain is stored — famously tilted 27 degrees to the west in a single day. This occurred shortly after the structure's initial opening, when it was filled with 875,000 bushels of grain.

With all of the Democratic presidential campaigns out there — we already have nearly two dozen candidates — there are lot of campaign promises floating around that boil down to, "If elected, I will ensure free and unfettered access to [desirable thing] for everybody." Free and unfettered access to Medicare is popular with almost everyone running. Some are promising free and

We've spoken out here before about the damage done — both to IT certification as a whole and to individual careers — by exam candidates who cheat to pass a certification exam. Most people in certification can probably empathize with anyone experiencing the various stresses that cause people to resort to gimmicks and shortcuts to pass an exam. Yet because of the ripple effects of cheating, a certification cheater really is the proverbial bad apple that spoils the whole bunch.

In 1955, after years of study and testing, virologist Jonas Salk announced a successful polio vaccine. Across the United States, in the four years immediately preceding the release of Salk's vaccine, polio caused paralysis in more than 16,000 patients and killed nearly 1,900 patients every year. Today there are fewer than 10 documented cases of polio per year.