Links for 2012-01-17

Inspired by FSP’s post on 2-body problems in hiring, i.e. situations where both members of a couple are seeking academic jobs, I’d like to pose some challenges to those of my readers with opinions on academic hiring. This topic is usually considered as a moral issue, rather than as a resource issue, and often people do not think through the implications of their stances. Consider several applicants, each of whom provides the information indicated. What effect, if any, should that information have on your hiring decision:

Let’s all say it together again: people have sex together, with each person performing some physical activity, because it’s fun to have sex. Please note also that under the economic model, lesbians can’t exist, since they have nothing of value to exchange for sex, except for…um…sex? And since women only use sex as a means to an end, and exchange it with men; and since further, sex has been explicitly devalued to something cheap, well, hm. I submit that if you propose a model of human sexual behavior, and it positively forbids the existence of a whole class of people who nonetheless actually exist, then maybe there’s a problem with the theory? Just a thought.

The Internet is a weird and wonderful place.

Emotions of the non-pregnant parent, in helpful pie-chart form.

“If your kids don’t believe in the corn god, do we still get to judge them?”