Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
Remember when I predicted that the Cheney administration would never really leave, and would continue to wield power through dark and shadowy arts forbidden to ordinary mortals?  Well, so far, early indications are that the old management is determined to assert itself at the White House.

By Thoreau
See, I’m not the only one complaining about Generation Veal:
A week or so ago a student came to talk to me about her quiz. She pointed to one question that I had put at the very beginning as a confidence booster/at-least-I-will-get-some-points-even-if-I-can’t-answer-any-other-questions kind of question. It was a question that 99% of the class got [...]

By Thoreau
Last night we went to see Wagner’s Rheingold at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  I’ve only been to a few operas, so I’m still getting the whole cultured thing down, and I don’t really have much basis for comparison, but FWIW I liked it.  The river maidens in the beginning, and the trickster god Loge [...]

By Thoreau
I may be released from the Borg:  A colleague who is heavily involved in academic politics told me that the administrators are trying to craft a policy on how to implement policies.  This could very well put them into an infinite loop, which is, IIRC, a means by which the Borg has sometimes been [...]

By Thoreau
With 2 recent threads getting ugly, it’s time to take a break from blogging about politics, academia, and science, and focus on the core mission of the blogosphere:  Kittens!  Or, even better, kittens and puppies!

By Thoreau
Hilzoy observes that the Uighurs in US custody at Guantanamo were long ago determined to pose no threat to the US, and that there are immigrant communities in the US willing to take them in and help them start new lives.  She also observes that while a court found that it has no authority [...]

By Thoreau
Muntather Zaidi is on trial for throwing a shoe at George Bush, and is apparently quite the rock star, with adoring throngs of fans showing up at the trial.
With a legal dream team objecting to the case on technicalities, court was adjourned after 90 minutes until March 12, when a three-judge panel will decide [...]

By Thoreau
Radley Balko is without a doubt one of America’s finest journalists. He’s spent the past few years working on exposing the deep, deep flaws and gross injustices of Mississippi’s legal system. He’s been especially ardent in investigating the state’s former medical examiner, Dr. Steven Hayne, who will say whatever a prosecutor wants [...]

By Thoreau
In the latest issue of Nature, there’s a report on a new MRI design that would make the machines bigger, removing the claustrophobia factor.  In addition, a larger MRI may enable applications not yet envisioned:  High-throughput screening of large numbers of lab animals or other types of specimens, and quite possibly applications not yet [...]

By Thoreau
I admit it, I haven’t followed the California budget crisis as closely as some. Truthfully, the daily newspaper hasn’t had much that sheds light on the situation, so it’s been a hard topic to follow. I will, however, say this:
A lot of people are blaming ballot measures for locking in spending rules. [...]