Yesterday, several journalists converged on a study arguing that students at Northwestern learned more from adjuncts than from tenured/tenure-track faculty. Here’s my take: This study reveals something about the great work done by adjuncts, but also makes me think about the perverse incentive structure of R1 full-time faculty life. Every incentive – prestige, status, money…
Yesterday I had an argument with a man who felt that feminists were disrespecting him as a father. I gained a few insights from it that I thought I would share with you. 1. If you find yourself compelled to write a sentence that starts, “The problem with feminists is …” – Consider writing a…
Jacob Barnett, a 14-year-old with Asbergers, is a genius. Now I think the smarter-than-Einstein gimmick that reporters use (here’s one on an 11-year-old English girl) just demonstrates how little we understand about intelligence and how limited the notion of IQ (the number) is. That said, Barnett is clearly a genius. I’m interested in two things…
This week oscillated between vaccines (Jenny McCarthy begins at “The View” on the 9th) and the big Ethan Saylor news. I could write about Saylor every day, honestly, but I think the readers of this blog know how I feel on the issues. Still, please remember that Gov O’Malley is resisting calls for an independent…
EDIT: This is one of the most popular posts on the history of the blog. I assume many of you coming here are looking for confirmation that Vaccines are terrible. You won’t find them here. I am, however, fascinated by the way that anti-Vax language comes from both the right and the left and the…
One thing we learn from the history of the Crusades (and I think one of the core arguments of Jay Rubenstein’s work) – when military figures view contemporary events through an apocalyptic lens, we’ve got a recipe for extra special kinds of disaster. The influence of apocalyptic thinkers on the Bush White House always concerned…
Dear Governor O’Malley, This morning the family and supporters of Ethan Saylor will deliver over 338,000 signatures to you. They are asking you to do two things. First, call an independent investigation of the death of Ethan Saylor. Second, standardize training for police in how to handle situations like this in the future. Let’s take…
What diseases show up in contemporary music? Cancer? AIDS? I’ve never really looked, but I suspect there are pretty few songs referencing Whooping Cough or Polio playing on the radio these days. But if you dive into the American folk tradition, there’s plenty to be found. Take this old camp song: Way down yonder not…
I am not going to write thirty posts on vaccines this month. But I do think it’s worth visiting some of the breadth of the vaccine problem both nationally and internationally as we head towards Jenny McCarthy’s first day on The View. Oregon has become one focal point for the left-wing anti-vax movement, as opposed…
Jenny McCarthy month will last no more than a few days, I hope. She starts on “The View” on the 9th. I’ve written about her for The Atlantic and CNN. Monks with the Black Death One of the things that interests me about the anti-vax movement is how it has both right-wing and left-wing elements,…