Category: Politics

Dehumanizing the Two Cultures

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have full-text access to Mark Slouka’s article in Harper’s, with the title “Dehumanized: When math and science rule the school.” Just the description in this Columbia Journalism Review piece makes me want to hunt down the author and belt him with a Norton anthology: According to the… Continue reading Dehumanizing the Two Cultures

Second-Hand Second-Rate Culture War Hackery

Dave Munger on Twitter drew my attention to this blog post on college costs, and I really wish he hadn’t. The post in question is really just a recap-with-links of an editorial by John Zmirak, blaming the high cost of college on an unlikely source: [W]hat if universities began to neglect this basic charge, and… Continue reading Second-Hand Second-Rate Culture War Hackery

Kennedy and Nixon

One of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen was the posthumous rehabilitation of Richard Nixon about fifteen years ago. Here was a man who resigned as President before Congress could throw him out, whose whole term in office was characterized by an all-consuming arrogance and a contempt for the law that wouldn’t be matched… Continue reading Kennedy and Nixon

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Categorized as Politics

Furloughs and Shutdowns

Janet is currently exploring the implications of the California university furloughs. If you haven’t been paying attention, California is so grossly dysfunctional that the state government has had to order all employees– including university faculty– to take 9% of their work time off as unpaid “furlough” days, in order to cut costs enough to have… Continue reading Furloughs and Shutdowns

Let’s Hear It for the Staff

The Dean Dad had a great post about staff yesterday: Politically, hiring office staff is a harder sell than hiring faculty. Faculty are conspicuous, and the tie to the classroom is obvious. Back-office support staff are inconspicuous, and show up in public discussion as ‘overhead’ or ‘administrative bloat.’ But their work is necessary, as anyone… Continue reading Let’s Hear It for the Staff

CSI: Ambiguous Sentences

The New York Times yesterday had a story with the dramatic headline DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show, explaining that, well, there are nefarious tricks you can pull to falsify DNA evidence, provided you have access to a high-quality biochemical laboratory. The story is a great boon to conspiracy theorists everywhere, especially with this… Continue reading CSI: Ambiguous Sentences

Hey to Uganda

I mentioned a few times that one of our physics graduates from 2008 was spending a year in rural Uganda, working at a clinic and school there as part of a college-run fellowship program (with Engeye Health Clinic. Steve is back in the US now, and headed to graduate school in Seattle in Atmospheric Sciences.… Continue reading Hey to Uganda