Made-up Wikipedia Quote Makes Obituaries
[caption id="attachment_36114" align="alignright" width="229" caption="AP Photo/Fionn Kidney "][/caption] The erstwhile Dr. Leopold Stotch passes along news of the exploits of a fellow Irish prankster: When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news. His report card: ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 12, 2009 05:44
Blog Polarization and Self-Segregation
Henry Farrell, Eric Lawrence, and John Sides have collaborated on a paper, still in late draft stages, entitled "Self-Segregation or Deliberation? Blog Readership, Participation, and Polarization in American Politics." A PDF of the working copy is available here. Henry reports that, [B]log readers seem to exhibit strong homophily. That is to say, they overwhelmingly choose blogs that are written by people ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 1, 2008 15:29
Spanish Miami’s Primary Language
Spanish-only speakers have an easier time getting by in Miami than English-only speakers, AP reports. In many areas of Miami, Spanish has become the predominant language, replacing English in everyday life. Anyone from Latin America could feel at home on the streets, without having to pronounce a single word in English. In stores, shopkeepers wait on their clients in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 29, 2008 07:17
Michelle Obama and Public Schools
The Hotline On Call Quote Of The Day: "I want people to know when they look at me, to be clear that they see what an investment in public education can look like." -- Michelle Obama Now, I'm in favor of investment in public education. I went to seven different public schools growing up, including three on American military ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 16, 2008 13:33
Sending Your Kid to College: The Wrong Questions to Ask
Dennis Prager, who apparently hasn't been on a college campus in a few decades, compiles a handy dandy list of questions to ask in selecting a college for your kids. 1. Can one obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree at your college without having read a single Shakespeare play, one Federalist Paper or one book of the Bible? If so, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 6, 2008 15:21
Horowitz Calls Ahmadinejad ‘Persian Hitler’
Several days after the story of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Columbia University visit inflamed the blogosphere, professional outrage monger David Horowitz has weighed in. Robert Stacy McCain has the story on the front page of today's Washington Times. Columbia University's invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the Ivy League school's New York City campus tomorrow is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 23, 2007 07:47
Georgia Junior College Prof Has Nutty Ideas
Rusty Shackleford has discovered that Hassan Ali El-Najjara, a Palestine-born sociology professor at Dalton State College in Georgia, is pushing crackpot theories about American foreign policy and Zionist plots on a website and a self-published book. He finds it "really surprising" that "the people of Georgia aren't demanding the immediate firing of Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar." I'm really ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 22, 2007 20:19
Socrates’ Teaching Evaluations
Wellesley College sociology prof Thomas Cushman muses on what Professor Socrates' teaching evaluations would look like. Some samples: Socrates is a real drag, I don't know how in hell he ever got tenure. He makes students feel bad by criticizing them all the time. He pretends like he's teaching them, but he's really ramming his ideas down student's throtes. He's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 21, 2007 14:11
Fat Studies: Coming to a College Near You?
The New York Times is on the case of yet another group who've been oppressed by The Man and aren't going to take it any more: the obese are the latest group to stake a claim on a research program within the academy: Even as science, medicine and government have defined obesity as a threat to the nation’s health and treasury, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 27, 2006 01:56
Auburn Clears Self in Grade Scam Scandal
Auburn has investigated itself and found that it did nothing wrong. Auburn athletics officials were cleared of wrongdoing by a university probe of claims that athletes improperly boosted their grades with an easy independent study course. Interim university president Ed Richardson said at a news conference Thursday that an internal investigation determined athletes were not steered to the courses of sociology professor ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 10, 2006 19:16
Auburn Football Players Got Top Grades for Bogus Classes
Today's NYT has a long feature on one particular Sociology professor who almost singlehandedly ensured Auburn's football team had the best grades of any squad in the nation. A graphic popped up on James Gundlach’s television during an Auburn football game in the fall of 2004, and he could not believe his eyes. One of the university’s prominent football players was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 14, 2006 15:27
Ayn Rand, the College?
North Carolina may be the home of a college "applying the philosophy of Ayn Rand," if organizers, including two Duke faculty members, get their way: Founders College has submitted an application projecting a fall 2007 start and an enrollment of 500, said Michelle Howard-Vital, associate vice president of academic affairs for UNC General Administration. Eric Daniels of Durham filed the request, Howard-Vital ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 8, 2006 08:09
Is American Higher Education on the Verge of Collapse?
William Stuntz argues that Harvard's pushing Larry Summers out the door signals the decline of higher education. Noting that seemingly lofty institutions quickly fall from their own arrogance and inefficiency, Stuntz contends, Harvard is the General Motors of American universities: rich, bureaucratic, and confident--a deadly combination. Fifty years from now, Larry Summers's resignation will be known as the moment when ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 27, 2006 11:18
Military Gay Ban Expensive
Enforcing the Congressional ban on gays in the military cost $364 million from 1994 to 2003, substantially more than originally calculated. The financial costs to the U.S. military for discharging and replacing gay service members under the nation's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are nearly twice what the government estimated last year, with taxpayers covering at least $364 million in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 14, 2006 10:04
Egypt Published Danish Cartoons During Ramadan
Egyptian blogs Freedom for Egyptians and Arab Sandmonkey both report that the Danish Mohammad cartoons that have sparked so much outrage "were actually printed in the Egyptian newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005," during the holy month of Ramadan. Many more photos here. Amir Taheri notes that, despite what we have been told since the cartoon controversy ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 9, 2006 00:45
