Power up

NEW YORK – You know how you're always wishing that you could use your time in the elevator to charge your phone or laptop? And how if you could put the electricity outlet anywhere, you'd put it in the corner against the floor?

No?

Oh right. That's because no one in the history of the world has ever needed an electricity outlet in an elevator.

Sputnik moment

"There will be no single Sputnik moment."
— President Obama, April 27, 2009

"This is our generation’s Sputnik moment."
— President Obama, Jan. 25, 2011

Money well spent?

In advance of Monday night's BCS National Championship, here is an interesting ranking from the Associated Press compiled from a data set from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education.

These are the highest-spending, bowl-bound* football programs in 2010:

1. Ohio State, $31,763,036
2. Alabama, $31,118,134
3. Notre Dame, $29,490,788
4. Auburn, $27,911,713
5. LSU, $25,566,520
6. Florida, $24,457,557
7. South Carolina, $22,794,211
8. Wisconsin, $22,041,491
9. Arkansas $22,005,014
10. TCU $20,609,361

These are the bowl-bound schools that spend the most per undergraduate student:

1. Notre Dame, $3,531
2. Tulsa, $3,236
3. TCU, $2,822
4. Stanford, $2,625
5. SMU, $2,113
6. Miami (FL), $1,927
7. Boston College, $1,891
8. Northwestern, $1,851
9. Arkansas, $1,625
10. Auburn $1,518

*The "bowl-bound" distinction is important, since the University of Texas spent $25.1 million but did not make a bowl game this season.