Evidently the economy is encouraging more “need-blind” schools to look more favorably on students who don’t need financial aid.
Institutions that have pledged to admit students regardless of need are finding ways to increase the number of those who pay the full cost in ways that allow the colleges to maintain the claim of being need-blind [...]
Archive for March, 2009
Making college less attainable?
Posted in acamademia on 30 March 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For those about to shock, we salute you
Posted in Obamarama, diversion, possible homes in exile, send in the Slavs, tagged AC/DC, Czenglish on 27 March 2009 | 1 Comment »
Evidently when Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek blasted the Obama stimulus plan as “the road to hell,” he was ad-libbing from his prepared remarks, in which he was to say “road to ruin.”
But that’s less interesting than the revelation that the inspiration for Topolánek’s impromptu turn of phrase came from AC/DC’s classic song “Highway to [...]
The decline of the newspaper
Posted in news, tagged new media, news on 26 March 2009 | 2 Comments »
One comforting (?) thought I’ve had of late is the knowledge that while my current job search has largely stalled and gotten me nowhere, I’m probably not much worse off having abandoned my previous choice of career as a journalist.
In recent weeks I’ve heard about former classmates from j-school being put on unpaid furlough from [...]
Praise Canada
Posted in don't want to be an American idiot, news, possible homes in exile, scumbags, the Internet is a series of tubes, tagged Canada, Fox Moos on 25 March 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Spotted via Sme, a clip from some Fox News program bashing Canada for all the usual stereotypical reasons.
I especially love how, after repeatedly denigrating the Canadian armed forces and casting aspersions on their military efficacy, the host proceeds to say he “respects anyone who serves,” Canadian, American or otherwise. Right. And [...]
It ain’t over till the victorious worker sings
Posted in acamademia, book learnin', course development, tagged Marx, opera on 24 March 2009 | 1 Comment »
Chinese director He Nian is bringing Karl Marx’s heartrending story of oppression, exploitation, revolution and redemption to an opera house near you.
That’s right, He is transforming Marx’s Das Kapital into an opera.
The opera’s plot will involve a business where workers begin to realise their boss is exploiting them. They then embrace the Marxist theory of surplus [...]
Red okres, blue okres
Posted in possible homes in exile, send in the Slavs, tagged Slovak presidential election, Slovakia on 21 March 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The first round of the Slovak presidential election, held today, didn’t produce the requisite majority, requiring a runoff between the incumbent, Ivan Gašparovič, and the challenger, Iveta Radičová, with Gašparovič polling 46.7 percent to 38.1 percent for Radičová. This puts Radičová in excellent position to become Slovakia’s first female president.
That would be remarkable, but what’s [...]
Marathon grading
Posted in acamademia, course development, tagged teaching on 21 March 2009 | 1 Comment »
As I was down to the last couple of papers last night, I began to wish I had kept a running blog of the process, mostly to document and share with the world all the bizarre, head-scratching and unintentionally humorous things students write in their papers.
But then, I thought better of it, mostly because most [...]
Grading blues
Posted in acamademia, course development on 20 March 2009 | 2 Comments »
Sigh. It’s finals week, which means I get to grade papers for my seminar. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve already received six of the twelve research papers, so I’ll only have the other six to grade later today (the deadline is this afternoon, so they still have a few hours to turn them in).
I’ve been [...]
Does statistical wunderkind Nate Silver have too much time on his hand?
Posted in Obamarama, tagged Nate Silver, Obama, sports on 19 March 2009 | 1 Comment »
Yes he does.
Silver, the analytical prodigy behind FiveThirtyEight.com, ran some statistical simulations based on Obama’s NCAA tournament bracket and came to the qualified conclusion that Obama appears to be favoring schools from swing states in his tourney picks.
The proof, Silver claims, is in the upsets.
This is actually fairly easy to see if we look at [...]
Sports and society sometimes mix
Posted in diversion, tagged ESPN, gay rights, sports on 18 March 2009 | 1 Comment »
Rarely are the columnists for ESPN.com that interesting or insightful when it comes to political and social issues.
Take, for instance, Paul Kix’s short column yesterday responding to the boos Venezuelan slugger Magglio Ordoñez received in Miami after he endorsed Hugo Chávez’s endorsement that would remove presidential term limits.
On the surface, Ordonez’s support of Chavez seems [...]
