Links for 2011-01-22

"Further details below, but the basic idea is that 10 Torontonians have committed to showing up each month, stuffing $100 each into a paper bag, and giving that bag to the person we think has the best chance at achieving something awesome.

No reporting, no strings, no oversight. Just $1,000 to do whatever it is you think is worth doing.

Deadline for submission is February 15th."

"[A] buzz surrounds the new claim by Ruth Richardson, a historian of medicine and author of an acclaimed history of body snatching, Death, Dissection and the Destitute, that she has identified the model for the workhouse in Oliver Twist - and that the building in central London is now facing demolition. The irony is that, given Dickens's feelings about workhouses, he may well not have been supportive of the campaign to preserve it."

"Thousands of scholarly papers and books are written each year. Many have value to audiences beyond the academy and the institutions supporting these efforts. Yet most new works don't find a broader audience, so their ability to influence change is not fully realized. ''Ideas no longer score points,'' says one university professor. ''Their impact must be amplified to be noticed in an increasingly complicated world.''

Dust settles quickly on many scholarly compositions, the knowledge they offer buried within their pages. Many scholars and researchers do not have a plan for communicating their ideas and findings. They assume or hope their published works will rise to the top of conversation among their peers and the public. They rest in the belief that their reports, scholarly papers, or books, often filled with jargon, will find their way to key audiences, be read with anticipation, and enter the realm of professional and public discourse. They are often disappointed."

"The Avogadro constant links the atomic and the macroscopic properties of matter. Since the molar Planck constant is well known via the measurement of the Rydberg constant, it is also closely related to the Planck constant. In addition, its accurate determination is of paramount importance for a definition of the kilogram in terms of a fundamental constant. We describe a new approach for its determination by counting the atoms in 1 kg single-crystal spheres, which are highly enriched with the 28Si isotope. It enabled isotope dilution mass spectroscopy to determine the molar mass of the silicon crystal with unprecedented accuracy. The value obtained, NA=6.022â140â78(18)Ã1023ââmol-1, is the most accurate input datum for a new definition of the kilogram."