The FREAKest Links: Time After Time Edition

Discover magazine examines the attempts by physicists to break down the Planck scale, “a region where distances and intervals are so short that the very concepts of time and space start to break down.” So far, all tries have been unsuccessful, leading more than one physicist to conclude that, “at the most fundamental level of physical reality,” time may not exist. (Hat tip: Jonathan Mallard, via the Bacon’s Rebellion blog)

The New York Times reports that many state colleges and universities are charging higher tuition rates for certain majors like engineering, business, and journalism. (Journalism? Journalism?) Academic officials cite “the high salaries commanded by professors in certain fields, the expense of specialized equipment and the difficulties of getting state legislatures to approve general tuition increases” as the impetus behind the increases. (Again, we say: Journalism?)

Today would have been the 95th birthday of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who died last November. In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Thomas F. Siems describes Friedman’s legacy as follows: “Thanks to his unwavering support for free enterprise and open markets, Friedman’s ideas have elevated standards of living for a rising share of the world’s population.”