Historian Dr Lucy Worsley looks through writer Samuel Pepys’ scrapbook from the 17th Century, an early example of popular print culture.

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VIDEO: The original celebrity gossip mag

Over the past half-century, the amount of time college students actually study — read, write and otherwise prepare for class — has dwindled from 24 hours a week to about 15, survey data show. And that invites a question: Has college become too easy? Read full article > >

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Is college too easy? As study time falls, debate rises

The federal lawsuits filed Monday by Catholic institutions against the contraception mandate under the health care law are not surprising, but they are unfortunate. The Bishops’ Conference and many — though not all — Catholic organizations are acting as if the Obama Administration had never backed down from its original, broad mandate and had never offered to negotiate. Read full article > >

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E.J. Dionne Jr.: Did the Catholic organizations have to sue over the health care mandate?

The Carlyle Group is leading a $100 million investment into Avail-TVN, which will allow the Reston-based video company to fuel its international growth, the firms announced Monday. Avail-TVN’s investors already include Columbia Capital, Valhalla Partners and Novak Biddle, which are Washington-area venture capital firms. Read full article > >

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Carlyle to invest in Reston video company

When she heard her younger son’s quavery cry of “M-o-o-o-m-m-m” drifting down the hall in the middle of the night, Jocelyn Mathiasen stiffened, braced for what lay ahead. Sometimes the little boy would awaken just before dawn shaky and weak, complaining of hunger or thirst; after consuming something he would quickly recover. But on the bad nights Peter Dawson would spend hours lying on the floor of the bathroom clutching his stomach, vomiting intermittently and refusing to drink anything. It took him hours to rebound — and it was never clear what had made him so sick. Read full article > >

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A boy’s serious ailment required only a simple fix once it was diagnosed

Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic is a Bay Area writer and editor. Her first book Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater's Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate , a humorous non-fiction narrative and exposé on the lives of picky eaters, will be released by Perigee Books on July 3. My husband is a calculus professor and one who brings food items into the classroom with surprising regularity. No, he doesn't bring pies on Pi day – though he can recite the string up to a couple dozen digits – but he does bring Pringles. As a teaching aid. This afternoon when I walked into his study, I nearly tripped over a plastic Safeway bag filled with six red cans of Pringles. “Is it Pringles Day already?” I asked, nudging the bag. Pringles Day is the day Dr. Mathra lectures on the classification of critical points in multivariable calculus , and he uses the saddle-shaped Pringles to illustrate his points. After class, the students get to eat his illustrations. It's their favorite day. However, this Pringles Eve, Dr. Mathra is kicking himself because in addition to stocking up on Pringles, which were invented by Proctor & Gamble & heaven in the 1960s, he also got an oblong can of Lays Stax, the parvenu potato chip that's only been around since 2003. Personally, I've never been turned on by Lays Stax. Not only are they covered with the stink of being the unoriginal upstart that is so obviously trying to rip-off the adored-for-decades potato chip, but they're not thin and delicate enough, they're not oily enough, and they're not addictive enough. However, none of the above is Dr. Mathra's complaint with them. “It's ridiculous!” he fumed, “They set themselves up as a Pringles competitor, but it's an entirely different curvature!” The shape of the Lays Stax – known as a parabolic cylinder – is way less mathematically interesting than the hyperbolic paraboloid of a Pringles, which is also known as a saddle. In math, the Pringles saddle shape exemplifies how you can stand at the flat point of a surface and not be at the highest point of your surroundings or at the lowest point of your surroundings. Basically, you could call the saddle “the taint” of critical points. T'aint the highest point, t'aint the lowest. “Um, sure. If you wanted to be crass about it,” Dr. Mathra mumbles. The big three types of critical points in multivariable calculus are the bottom of a bowl (aka the local min), the top of a dome (the local max), or in the middle of a saddle (saddle point). “The Lays Stax shape isn't even as interesting as a bowl – it's a wishy-washy bowl. I mean, you can make the Lays shape with a piece of paper ,” Dr. Mathra explains. (In my twelve years of being married to him, I have frequently found that being able to make something with paper is met with derision.) See, you can't replicate the Pringles saddle shape with a piece of paper without cutting the paper and actually adding more paper to it and that makes it more mathematically desirable. Sensing he has my attention throughout all of this raving, Dr. Mathra continues, “They've got these Lays Stax right next to the Pringles as though they are equivalent. How can they do that? One is a positive semi-definite quadratic form and the other is an indefinite quadratic form – they're not even the same definiteness!” When I don't react, he insists, “Oh, come on – that will KILL in class tomorrow!” And why should you, the non-calculus student, care about the Pringles saddle form? The principal application of calculus is optimizing, or determining whether you are at a maximum. You use calculus whenever you want to optimize, well, anything. “If you are at a local max (the top of a dome), everywhere you go moves you down. If you're at a saddle, there's a way you can go that will take you up.” Knowing this is important when thinking about increasing filthy lucre, precious time, diminishing resources, or a supply of Pringles. And that, my friends, is why Pringles will always, always beat Lays Stax. Flavor is subjective. Math is irrefutable.

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Saddle up for maximum snack satisfaction (mathematically speaking)

Facebook has plunged in value to well below its offer price, two days after its shares were floated in New York. So what does this mean for the social networking site?

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VIDEO: Facebook drops below float price

Uses Booker’s words to raise money.

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RNC: ‘Stand With Cory’

MOSCOW — Having proved himself with his response to political protests that erupted here in December, Moscow’s police chief, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, was named minister of the interior in the new Russian cabinet announced Monday. Read full article > >

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Moscow police chief promoted to Russian cabinet following protest response

Facebook’s stock was down more than 10 percent on Monday morning, to around $34 a share.

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DealBook: Facebook Shares Slump on Second Day

European antitrust officials announced Monday they have found four areas of concern in an investigation over Google’s search practices, saying the search giant had “a matter of weeks” to volunteer remedies. Read full article > >

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Google search practices draw scrutiny of European antitrust officials

Like Sunday morning talk shows, office lunchrooms and sports talk radio, Twitter loves controversy, and the Twitterati sunk their teeth into Saturday’s Style story about the racism charges leveled at the Fojol Bros . food trucks. Read full article > >

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Twitter sounds off on Fojol Bros. controversy

Micah True became a mythic figure after being featured in the best-selling book “Born to Run.” Then, on March 27, he went for a run in the Gila Wilderness.

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Caballo Blanco’s Last Run: The Micah True Story

Now, yet more evidence that children’s health is in dire need of attention: A new study released today shows that almost a quarter of teens have diabetes or prediabetes. Almost a quarter. That’s up from 9 percent a decade ago, according to a study in the June 2012 issue of Pediatrics, published online today. Read full article > >

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Nearly a quarter of teens diabetic or prediabetic, report says

Nasdaq boss Robert Greifeld says he is “humbly embarrassed” about the glitch that led to a delay in trading of Facebook shares on Friday.

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Facebook glitch ‘embarrassing’