From Engadget: Apple pulls out of EPEAT green registration, may not be able to sell computers to federal agencies

apple-pulls-out-of-epeat-green-registration

Apple has withdrawn all its laptop and desktop computers from the EPEAT environmental rating system, including older MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. According to iFixit, who recently tore down a MacBook Pro and its retina screen, that’s likely related to a design direction favoring smaller, lighter notebooks and longer battery life. Doing so required them to glue the cells to the aluminum shell, making it impossible to recycle the case and other parts — iFixit couldn’t pull the batteries out without spilling the (highly toxic) battery guts all over. Cupertino’s decision means that many federal agencies might not be able to buy those products, since 95 percent of its electronics purchasing must conform to the EPEAT standard. On top of that, many educational institutions that require the certification would also need to opt out of Mac purchases, as well as large corporations like HSBC and Ford. Currently, iPhones and iPads are exempt from that certification, but considering recent ads from Apple specifically touting its conformance to EPEAT, the company might have some ‘splaining to do.

[Image credit: iFixit]

 

from Engadget

From Discover Magazine: The law school scam as a cognitive bias | Gene Expression

I’ve been aware of the whole “law school scam” genre for years. The basic issue is pretty straightforward: all the problems of higher education with easy loans and inflated tuition for credentialing are manifest writ large in law schools. Here are some plausible numbers, Law Grads Face Brutal Job Market:

The numbers suggest the job market for law grads is worse than previously thought. Nationwide, only 55% of the class of 2011 had full-time, long-term jobs that required a law degree nine months after graduation. The ABA defines “long-term” jobs as those that don’t have a term of less than one year.

Read the whole article, and you see how law school deans try to present weasel explanations for the damning statistics. There’s also a nice interactive graphic. Whittier College of Law has a 40% unemployment rate for the class of 2011. The bar passage rate is 66%, and the tuition is $38,000. In contrast, Columbia 2011 grads have an unemployment rate of less than 1%, with a tuition of  $51,000. Obviously the inputs matter here. Columbia professors aren’t that much better than Whittier professors. Rather, Whittier is probably taking $38,000 a year from individuals who are …

from Discover Magazine