A colleague of Super Sally’s forwarded her this*:
It’s funny because it’s true, and the pain isn’t just from laughing so hard.
Category Archives: Current events
Futile cycles.
While we’re speaking about revolutions and such, Hilzoy on the ongoing violence in Gaza:
I imagine what people on both sides are thinking is something more like: do you expect us to just sit here and take it? Do you expect us to do nothing? To which my answer is: no, I expect you to try to figure out what has some prospect of actually making things better. Killing people out of anger, frustration, and the sense that you have to do something is just wrong. For both sides.
The inner workings of the North Pole.
I was presented with this picture by the younger Free-Ride offspring.
I’m not entirely sure whether it’s more accurate to describe it as a map or a process diagram. However, this being December 24th, it is timely.
Here is what I can glean from the various pieces of the diagram:
Wait, you’re saying ignorance *is* a defense?
And you’re really a lawyer?
The verdict came back in the Los Angeles trial of Lori Drew, the Missouri mother who facilitated cyberbullying of a former friend of her daughter, who subsequently committed suicide. Since cyberbulling isn’t an easy crime to prosecute, the trial focused on whether, in setting up a fake MySpace page as a 16-year-old boy (whose online identity was used to befriend and then harass the girl who killed herself), Drew violated MySpace terms of service.
So, here’s the legal point- counterpoint, as reported by the Associated Press:
Students plagiarize, professor publicizes.
… and the university, in turn, fires the professor.
You’ve probably already seen this story. Loye Young, an adjunct professor at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, warned his students (as we all do) against plagiarism. Indeed, as reported by Inside Higher Ed, he included this statement in his fall course syllabus for his management information systems course:
No form of dishonesty is acceptable. I will promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating, or stealing. That includes academic dishonesty, copyright violations, software piracy, or any other form of dishonesty.
While grading an assignment, Young discovered (at least) six students taking the course had committed plagiarism. Then he followed through on what he had promised in his course syllabus and publicized the names of the six on his (public) blog for the course.
Permanent budget crisis.
There are some newspaper stories that must be pretty easy to write at this point because it seems like they’re essentially the same year in and year out. California is having another budget crisis, and the Californians who are going to take it in the teeth are students — especially students in the California State University (CSU) system, to which the university that employs me belongs.
Physics professor gives common sense the day off.
Sadly, the Houston Chronicle brings us another story about an academic caught plagiarizing. The academic in question is Rambis M. Chu, a tenured associate professor of physics at Texas Southern University, who is currently under investigation for plagiarism in a grant proposal he submitted to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
Since the investigation is still under way, I’m open to the possibility that Chu will present some evidence to demonstrate his innocence here. However, should the facts reported in the Houston Chronicle stand up to scrutiny, this is shaping up to be one of those cases where the accused took leave of common sense.
From the Houston Chronicle article:
The world is flat. Your adult edibles are adulterated.
Maybe you heard about the melamine contamination issue when tainted pet food started killing pets. But, if you don’t have a pet, maybe you didn’t worry so much.
Or maybe you noticed when tainted infant formula started sending infants to the hospital. Stuff that harms babies (even way far away in China) is really sad. But if you’re not currently caring for a baby that ingests infant formula, eventually your attention wandered.
Then the news came that melamine levels were testing high in treats like White Rabbit candies and Panda’s March cookies — treats that may have been on your shelves (as they were on ours). Sure, it’s annoying to toss out that bag of candy, but it’s a relief that someone is testing all of these products to keep us safe, right? (Because the products meant for human ingestion are all being tested, aren’t they?)
My Oxbridge interview.
Drawing on the Guardian article on the sorts of interview questions being deployed by Oxford and Cambridge to “identify intellectual potential” in prospective undergraduates:
How do you organise a successful revolution? And, given the present political climate, why don’t we let the managers of Ikea run the country instead of the politicians?
As a university professor (and one paid by the people of the State of California), I’m pretty sure if I answer the first question my name will go on some list that will make me an unattractive prospect for palling around, at least for those who aspire to elected office.
The myth that will not die.
Dear Sarah Gardner and Marketplace producers,
I listened with interest to your story on today’s show about the current prospects for the solar energy sector. While the story was engaging, I have a nit to pick.