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Apparently it is surprising to some that you can bribe seventh graders to study! (via) Imagine! So Spark is running a pilot program where seventh graders earn $50 everytime they do well on one of ten tests (so they can earn up to $500 over the year) and it’s working, test scores were up 12-15% in schools running the program. Sure it’s a mite questionable to have to pay students to do well, but if it works it works! Of course, you’re bummed if you’re not in a school paying kids and you’re doing well all on your own, but that’s life. Get used to it, suckaz!

On a completely separate note, io9 has posted something that I completely disagree with. Completely. They posit that JJ Abrams is the new Joss Whedon. First of all, wtf? Second of all, Joss Whedon is the new Joss Whedon. Third of all, Joss Whedon has not done one thing in moving pictures that was not fantastic to mind boggling. Not. One. Thing. And he’s done quite a lot. JJ Abrams? Remember Mission Impossible III? No? Yeah… What about Superman Begins? Eeehhhh… The second season of Lost? I mean please. How is it even a contest? It’s like just because he gets to direct a new Star Trek everyone’s falling over with the slobber. I, though, see things clearly through my Joss Whedon colored glasses.

Finally, it’s pretty cool, but Randall Munroe of XKCD fame was interviewed in the New Yorker. (via) Not the most in depth interview but in the New Yorker, which counts for something! And more cooler was the cartoon off, which had some moments in it, my favourite of the set were the 1999’s. I like XKCD, sometimes a lot although I admit some of his work annoys me – I’ve linked to him no shortage of times. He has an outsized influence on geeks and thus web culture in general – his work has an uncanny knack for becoming live. And most importantly he was the guest artist on my favourite web comic today, Dinosaur Comics!