Find DARPA's Red Balloons

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Arpanet, DARPA will launch 10 red balloons this morning, and is seeking to test how the internet, crowdsourcing, and social networking can help solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. The winner of the DARPA Network Challenge gets $40,000. The balloons will be in ten fixed and accessible locations that are visible from nearby roads. Source: ReadWriteWeb

Teams began registering for this event in November, but anyone who identifies one of the balloons may participate.

UVA Systems Engineering for Veterans

The University of Virginia recently announced the new Accelerated Master's Program for Veterans in Systems Engineering.
(CNN Money on Systems Engineering in November 2009)

From UVA Today:

The veterans program will use a graduate engineering and business hybrid curriculum developed by faculty from the Engineering School and U.Va.'s Darden School of Business.

"We saw an opportunity to help veterans reenter society and begin a rewarding career path supported by an advanced degree in systems engineering," said Michael Smith, executive director of the program. "Because of their training and clearance to work on classified projects, many veterans are uniquely qualified and highly sought after in the advanced technology industry."

Royal Society Launches Trailblazing

In anticipation of its 350th birthday in 2010, the Royal Society has launched a new web site, Trailblazing, making 60 historic papers available online.
(The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge Wikipedia article)


From the Royal Society Announcement:

Trailblazing will offer unprecedented public access to the most influential, inspiring and intriguing papers published by the Royal Society over the last 350 years including the world-famous Philosophical Transactions (Phil. Trans.), the oldest continuously published scientific journal in the world.
Leading scientists and historians have chosen 60 articles from amongst the 60,000 published since the journal first began in 1665.

H/T: Open Culture and BoingBoing.

UVA Partners with Zipcar

The University of Virginia has joined the ranks of more than 100 universities that partner with Zipcar to provide alternate transportation with hourly car rentals. According to UVA Today, the program launched in mid-November with six vehicles. Additional information on the UVA Zipcar program.

The Christmas Price Index from PNC

The cost of providing the gifts detailed in the Twelve Days of Christmas has been announced by PNC Financial Services Group for 2009. And it turns out that the PNC Christmas Price Index remains higher, thanks to a significant drop in the price of a Partridge in a Pear Tree, Five Gold Rings, and Seven Swans back in 1995. The Christmas Price Index, up for 2009, does exceed the US Consumer PRice Index, which is down for the same period.

Cyber Monday Results Arriving

Cyber Monday (coined in 2005) sales appear to have been in line with Black Friday retail sales online, according to several sources, including Investors Business Daily, GigaOm, and Seeking Alpha.

Experian Hitwise statistics indicated that Amazon again topped the most-visited retail site for Cyber Monday, followed by Walmart, Target, BestBuy and JC Penny, according to the Washington Post. The NY Post projects $900m in sales.