Unqualified Offerings

Doug Mataconis and Glenn Greenwald smack a couple of CNN spokesmodels around for badmouthing “anonymous internet bloggers” in the wake of the Shirley Sherrod pogrom. And they’re not wrong! But neither of them notes what I find the really galling misdirection perpetrated here: Andrew Breitbart is a lot of things, but “anonymous” is none of [...]

By Thoreau
The non-academic blogosphere is taking notice of tenure.  Whenever people talk about tenure and the alternatives, the question always comes up “Why not multi-year contracts that provide some stability and moderate security but also accountability?”  Hey, I’d gladly sign off on that.  I don’t really believe in tenure as anything virtuous.  Give me a [...]

Ugly Overload.

By Thoreau
To over-simplify a bit, this is a speech by a black woman who discusses resentments that she had, and an episode in her life in which she ultimately learned to see the commonality between her struggles and those of a poor, rural, Southern, white couple.  If you were to tell me that a white [...]

By Thoreau
Oakland is doing the utterly predictable, and contemplating factory farming of a taxable crop.  When politicians view something as a revenue source, they want more of it, and they are prepared to get in bed with any businessman who can make that happen.  Most significantly, if it’s a source of tax revenue they are [...]

By Thoreau
One downside of moving is that the cable company, which I already hate for giving us unreliable internet service, keeps flaking on appointments and yet has the gall to try to persuade us to sign up for more services.  Even my wife, normally much nicer than me, is being rude with them, and I [...]

By Thoreau
My brother was unexpectedly diagnosed with a congenital heart malformation and is going into surgery in a few days.  As befits a man who used to comment here as “Idi Amin’s Last Meal”, he’s keeping a good sense of humor.  Upon hearing that Dick Cheney is officially becoming an undead creature, he said that [...]

By Thoreau
Cheney’s heart condition may necessitate an interesting implanted device:
Everything is implanted in the chest except for the batteries, which are worn on a vest much like a hunting vest.
When he wears the battery pack on his chest, he’ll look like this:

Also, this device won’t necessarily keep him alive.  It might just keep him [...]

By Thoreau
Today at lunch, I was chatting about Murphy’s Law with somebody.  I noted that I always carry a small collapsible umbrella in my laptop case, as a precaution.  I then said that if I ever stop carrying that thing around, it will rain.
On a lark, I left the umbrella in my office this evening.  [...]

By Thoreau
This evening I went to the first part of a workshop on some new teaching tools.  Normally I’d stay away, but it focuses on tools for teaching some really cutting-edge and modern science  (instead of the usual “Here’s a hip new tool for teaching the same old stuff!”) and a friend really wanted me [...]