During a recent online discussion, lots of people had questions about student loan debt. Here are my answers to a couple I didn’t get a chance to address. One person wanted to know whether when carrying student loan debt — in this case at 7 percent — you should dip into your savings to pay it off. The reader wrote: “The debt would be paid off in a year at my current payment rate. Since the interest rate is so high, I’d like to raid my savings to just be rid of it. My job is stable, so otherwise I’d keep my savings just in case I had a car repair, a needed new roof, etc. What do you think?” Read full article > >

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Student loans require homework

When is a photograph not a photograph? At the Torpedo Factory Art Center , the exhibition “Diverging Mediums: Photography vs. iPhoneography” asks whether there’s a difference between pictures shot — and often tweaked — on iPhones and those taken with more traditional cameras. The show’s side-by-side pairings of pictures by fine-art photographers and pictures by members of a group dedicated to iPhone photography raises intriguing questions, but leave the answers open to discussion. Read full article > >

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‘Diverging Mediums — Photography vs. iPhoneography’ ponders the future of photography at the Torpedo Factory Art Center

Gio Gonzalez hit town Thursday for what may be the first brilliant performance of a seven-year gig at Nationals Park. The grinning Gio, who has so much personality he can hardly contain it, brought all the answers to questions that have hovered over him for weeks. For the sellout crowd of 40,907, there were many memories in a 3-2, 10-inning win in the Washington Nationals ’ home opener. But for long-term impact, Gonzalez’s importance stood alone. Read full article > >

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Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez has everyone smiling

The parents of Trayvon Martin walked into the 9th floor board room at the Washington Post with grief etched in their faces. Then, again, it’s difficult to mourn and heal when your son’s killer is free and you’re doing everything you can to see that he at least gets arrested. Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, along with their lawyer Benjamin Crump and Daryl Parks, spent nearly 90 minutes answering questions from reporters and editors of The Post. They answered every question forthrightly and without evasion. The disbelief was as plainly apparent in their answers as it was on their faces. Read full article > >

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Jonathan Capehart: Trayvon Martin’s parents speak: some questions answered

On HealthTap, an interactive Web site, users can ask for medical advice, and doctors can gain whimsical “awards” for their answers.

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Digital Domain: On HealthTap, Advice for You and Points for Doctors

Social Security is: A. A Ponzi scheme? B. One of the nation’s most important and effective social programs? C. At risk of being significantly less than it has been, no matter the answers to A and B? The answer is C, at least in terms of service to the public. Read full article > >

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Potential Social Security Administration budget cuts paint bleak picture for aging population

The SNP should stop dodging questions on independence and start providing the answers, Scottish Secretary Michael Moore demands.

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Moore calls for answers from SNP

There are questions Eric Fischer wrestles with in his head, mysteries of movement he longs to understand.  Why do people of a certain race live in some places and not others? Why do people vacation in one type of environment but live in another? Why do people choose to walk? Why do people drive cars? Why do people write about some locations and photograph others, abandon certain parts of towns and flock to others? Fischer, 38, tries to tease out the answers in the meticulous way of a computer programmer — following data to make sense of human motivations. Read full article > >

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Eric Fischer uses maps, Twitter and Flickr to explore the contours of cities

You’re stuck in traffic and fuming. The only thing moving is the clock on your dashboard. You want to scream: “What’s the holdup, and when’s it gonna end?” Technology, with ever-increasing frequency, can step in with the answer. Yet another option had its debut Thursday in Maryland when the state’s 511 system became operational. Now you can dial those digits to find out what’s going on. Although Maryland State Highway Administration officials would prefer that you call to check the roads before getting behind the wheel, they recognize that you will often do it while driving, so the system is based on a series of voice-activated prompts: You can get the answers you need without fiddling with the buttons on your phone. Read full article > >

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Maryland launches 511 traffic information program

From Coronet Instructional Films , friend making tips for teens … “Popularity: What is it made of? How does a person get to be popular with lots of people and get a few close friends, too?” Zeroing in on a group of teens trying to navigate the social landscape of a 1940s high school, we learn the answers to these questions. While some girls, like Ginny, think they might have the key to popularity — parking in cars with boys — that doesn’t translate: “No, girls who park in cars are not really popular — not even with the boys they park with.” We follow Carolyn, Wally, and their friends while they help out with the school play, learning how to cultivate respectable relationships. Watch more instructional films .

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‘Are You Popular?’: Social Guidance From 1947

Mike Shanahan doesn’t spend Sunday afternoons surrounded by subordinates, a cadre of advisers helping him form his opinion. Rather, he is something of a solitary figure as he paces the sideline of the Washington Redskins , one hand shoved into a coat pocket, the other holding a sheet of paper…

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Few answers after Shanahan’s first season

What makes a city grow and thrive? What causes it to stagnate and fall? Geoffrey West thinks the tools of physics can give us the answers.

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A Physicist Solves the City

Singapore spreads the news with a unique magazine dedicated to design A foreword by BBDK design agency founder and Thinkingforaliving’s Duane King on the modern definition of craft kicks off the inaugural quarterly issue of Singaporean magazine Bracket , featuring interviews with an international who’s who in the creative industry like Aaron Rose, Geoff McFetridge, Frank Chimero and even musician and skate punk Tommy Guerrero. “But craftsmanship doesn’t pertain just to the handmade,” King writes. “Instead, craftsmanship is a basic human impulse; the desire to do a job well for its own sake. A craftsman is engaged in their work.” To that end, the artists starring in the issue are design studio SILNT and its research arm Anonymous’ picks of those who they believe best exemplify the issue’s theme. The format is simple. Subjects respond to a questionnaire by writing out their answers by hand and sending them back that way. While seemingly primarily geared toward those who recognize the names in the issue, questions like “What keeps you going?” and “Who/What do you have a bone to pick with?” keep it interesting for casual readers. Many of the interviewees sprinkle their sheets with doodles, while others like Amsterdam creative agency KesselsKramer take the cue and run with it, sending back a photographic accompaniment to answers. Only eight issues total, each between 24 and 36 pages, of the newsprint-printed issue are planned. Michel Gondry is already confirmed for the next edition, and upcoming topics will cover hunger, ethics and failure. Out in February 2011, the debut issue is $23 including postage for those outside of Singapore, and can be ordered directly from the site .

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Bracket

Singapore spreads the news with a unique magazine dedicated to design A foreword by BBDK design agency founder and Thinkingforaliving’s Duane King on the modern definition of craft kicks off the inaugural quarterly issue of Singaporean magazine Bracket , featuring interviews with an international who’s who in the creative industry like Aaron Rose, Geoff McFetridge, Frank Chimero and even musician and skate punk Tommy Guerrero. “But craftsmanship doesn’t pertain just to the handmade,” King writes. “Instead, craftsmanship is a basic human impulse; the desire to do a job well for its own sake. A craftsman is engaged in their work.” To that end, the artists starring in the issue are design studio SILNT and its research arm Anonymous’ picks of those who they believe best exemplify the issue’s theme. The format is simple. Subjects respond to a questionnaire by writing out their answers by hand and sending them back that way. While seemingly primarily geared toward those who recognize the names in the issue, questions like “What keeps you going?” and “Who/What do you have a bone to pick with?” keep it interesting for casual readers. Many of the interviewees sprinkle their sheets with doodles, while others like Amsterdam creative agency KesselsKramer take the cue and run with it, sending back a photographic accompaniment to answers. Only eight issues total, each between 24 and 36 pages, of the newsprint-printed issue are planned. Michel Gondry is already confirmed for the next edition, and upcoming topics will cover hunger, ethics and failure. Out in February 2011, the debut issue is $23 including postage for those outside of Singapore, and can be ordered directly from the site .

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Bracket

Another federal-state showdown is brewing, but this one has nothing to do with immigrants. It has to do with pot.

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Let California voters lead the way on state drug-use answers