A question raised in comments to yesterday’s rant about humanities types looking down on people who don’t know the basics of their fields, while casually dismissing math and science: [I]t occurs to me that it would be useful if someone could determine, honestly, whether the humanities professors feel the same sense of condescension among science… Continue reading Paging Humanities Bloggers…
Category: Politics
The Innumeracy of Intellectuals
I know nothing about art or music. OK, that’s not entirely true– I know a little bit here and there. I just have no systematic knowledge of art or music (by which I mean fine art and classical music). I don’t know Beethoven from Bach, Renaissance from Romantics. I’m not even sure those are both… Continue reading The Innumeracy of Intellectuals
We Agree on the Important Things
Via Will Wilkinson, James Pethokoukis at US News considers the state of the economy, and draws the same conclusions I did, for exactly the opposite reasons: My theory is that the amazing resilience of the American economy through this slowdown–as well as the lack of a bad recession in a generation–is indirect proof that the… Continue reading We Agree on the Important Things
It’s the Stupid Economy
Kevin Drum is pondering the economy: A few days ago, in passing, I remarked that I was impressed (surprised?) by the ability of our economy to absorb so much catastrophe in such a short time without things being even worse than they are. What accounts for this? He goes on to quote part of a… Continue reading It’s the Stupid Economy
Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting With Jesus [Library of Babel]
Yesterday, I had an appointment at the local orthopedic associates to get my dislocated thumb looked at. The receptionist escorted me to a curtained-off corner of a big room, where I got to spend ten or fifteen minutes listening to the physician’s assistant on call dealing with other patients. One of them, a women distressingly… Continue reading Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting With Jesus [Library of Babel]
An Ethical Dialogue
Just before we turn the corner, a woman goes jogging past with a Golden Retriever. As we continue on our way, I can hear the Doberman three houses up barking at them as they go past. The windows muffle the sound, but I can make out a bit of it. “Get offa my lawn! Gonna… Continue reading An Ethical Dialogue
Graduate Networking and Science Cartoons
A couple of links about things that have turned up in my email recently: — As a follow-on to yesterday’s post about grad school, I got an email a little while ago about Graduate Junction, a social networking/ career building site aimed at graduate students. I’m coming up on ten years of being out of… Continue reading Graduate Networking and Science Cartoons
Saying “Sheet Head” Is Uncool
Tobias Buckell brought the whole sordid racist rejection letter episode to my attention a couple of days ago. This has apparently decided to become the “Violet Blue” episode for this week, and today, Toby dredges through the sewers of the Asimov’s forums to find a few real gems of sexist and racist filth. I hadn’t… Continue reading Saying “Sheet Head” Is Uncool
How to Lie With Incompetent PhotoShopping
Via Matt Yglesias, the following pair of pictures purports to show that “an equal number of people can fit into a vastly smaller space if they’re riding a bus than if they’re in single passenger cars.” See if you can spot the problem: Answer below the fold:
My iPod Won’t Let Me Be President
Via Matt Yglesias, an interesting twist on the shuffle-play “meme”: 1. Take out your iPod (or Zune, I guess…really, who buys a Zune?) 2. Press shuffle songs. 3. Answer the following: a) How many songs before you come to one that would absolutely disqualify you from being President? b) What is that song? This sounds… Continue reading My iPod Won’t Let Me Be President