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The average ACT composite score nationwide was 21.2 The Top composite scores were all of New England (23.x), NY & NJ (23.x), Mid-Atlantic (22.x) and Mid-West (22.x) The Bottom composite scores were Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky and Arkansas (19.x) and the majority of Southern states scored below the national average of 21.2 The College Readiness Benchmark was purely laughable and predictably sad. http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2011/benchmarks.html

Surprised there haven't been /.ers that mentioned the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (www.tams.unt.edu) at The University of North Texas. This program has been around for 20+years as a 2yr early admissions college program for the best students in TX interested in STEM careers. Initially it was the only game in the state for the best of the best students until the mid-90's when a separate liberal arts based program (TALH) was created at Lamar University.

As to the quality of student productivity for 16/17/18 yr olds... not only are they mature enough to succeed at a research intensive university, they compete with the brightest students in the country based on not only being named Intel and Siemens science competition semifinalists/finalists but also Barry Goldwater Scholars. Over the last 10-15yrs that UNT has nominated students, the vast majority have been TAMS students, and the resulting named scholars from TAMS/UNT equal or outweigh in number those from the 'other' larger TX research universities.

In other words, the brightest 16yr olds (however you measure them) can succeed - excel even - at the college level, way beyond what most give them credit for. I'm an old-school TAMS graduate myself and many of my former classmates are like myself, PhDs, MDs, DOs, JDs, etc. providing needed economic growth not only to TX but across the country.

We Kansans appreciate the humor, we also appreciate our students scoring higher than the national average on ACT science scores, as well as reading and math.

/another ultra-defensive flyover stater //laptops in the classroom?

Due to resource conflicts, we were not able to schedule this [programming] contest in late March or any Saturday in April. Based on feedback, May 1st is too late. Because of this, the 2004 High School Programming Contest is officially cancelled.

Don't get me wrong, I am not characterizing the whole state as slack jawed, cross burning, inbred, yokels, but saying that LA is a great state for gaming companies is rather like my state, Massachusetts, saying we are a tax haven. A cursory examination of prima facie evidence suggests otherwise.

Well, I was really going to rant about trademarks. TMs is usually the part of IP regime that I find the least problematic, but. There is something strange there.

Here's my story:

I have for several years maintained a site titled "How to use a compass". Since I've been orienteering for many years, and just because I could write this, just because the web allowed me to become a publisher, I did write it up.

It is time for the site to move on, I intend to open it up for many contributors. I intend to get a few excellent orienteers and expeditionists to join me in making this site even better, and I intend to release it under the GNU Free Documentation License (but with some modifications to allow people to print and distribute printouts more easily).

Obviously, I should have a domain for it. While I have other options, what can possibly be more fitting for this site than compass.info? It is the most used compass tutorial on the web, there are a few of them, but most are actually using my illustrations... The site is literally information about the centuries-old gadget called a compass.

However, it has been decided that trademarks owners should have a prior right to our language (eh, well, English is not my native tongue, I'm Norwegian). They should be allowed to grab first, and so, compass.info is gone. Like in some many cases, the compass has been used metaphorically. There is actually very little information about the gadget compass on the web, but there is extensive use of the term "compass" used metaphorically. In fact, this is a problem I've had when designing metadata for the site.

I'm quite confident (yep, I do have some self-confidence :-) ), that if the delegation of domain names had been based on what merit a site has for accurately describing what lies in a name, my site would have won... :-)

So, what is it with trademarks that makes them so valuable for mankind that it is more important that the domain name compass.info is used do point to a product that has nothing to do with what has for centuries been known as a compass, rather than an accurate description on how to use this gadget....?

I do not doubt that the American College Testing Program, who has been awarded compass.info has good intentions for it, but still, the question stands, why is it that trademarks should have that level of protection?

I feel there is something wrong about all this. Names are a scarce resource, and should be treated with caution. I feel the use of trademarks needs a review. This isn't what they are supposed to be: My parents went to China and bought "The North Face" jackets with a Gore-Tex membran for just about nothing. While they realize it certainly aren't real North Face jackets, I have yet to convince them it certainly has no Gore-Tex membran. They are going to get seriously wet one of these days... :-) That's what trademarks are supposed to do for us: protect us from being sold crap. They're not supposed to be used for grabbing bits and pieces of living langauges...