online archive
12:00PM
AUG 31 2007
Academia and education
From MRZine, a look at how DePaul violates Norman Finkelstein's contract and further undermines academic freedom. The (new) idea of a university: A review of Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis by James E. Cote and Anton L. Allahar and What's Wrong With University: And How to Make It Work for You Anyway by Jeff Rybak. Leaving art out of history: American academics' focus on social history ignores the contributions of music, art and literature. The loss is ours. Are college campuses safe? Yes. The Virginia Tech massacre has had the unfortunate effect of injecting fear into the school selection process. Shocking tales of the underground: At campuses across the nation, undergrads insist on making rumors about utility tunnels into the stuff of legend.
From Inside Higher Ed, The Professor’s Ten Commandments, Thanks to Notorious B.I.G.: Phil Ford explains why the best advice for new faculty members comes from hiphop. Affirmative Action Backfires: Have racial preferences reduced the number of black lawyers? Finding Their Voices: Ignacio Evans and Jermol Jupiter make a good argument for supporting Urban Debate Leagues in inner-city public schools. Ward Churchill and Multiculturalism: Why American schools are becoming anti-American. A review of Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy by Richard Kahlenberg (and the introduction).
A review of Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol and A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools by Alec Klein. An interview with Stephen Law, author of The War for Children's Minds. Noah Feldman on Universal Faith: Religion can have a place in public schools. It just can’t be for believers alone. An interview with Gore Vidal on education in America today. How High-IQ Kids Are Neglected in School: The years of effort to raise standards in America’s schools has come at the expense of one group: America’s super-smart kids. Labels Aren't What Kids Need: Applying "gifted and talented" labels to school kids is bad for everyone. Here are the Top 5 myths about girls, math and science.
12:00PM
AUG 31 2007
Lifestyles and family life
From FT, people have the right to choose to live wherever suits them. But when they choose to live in cities, the rest of us benefit. Why, then, are we so keen to pay them to stay in the countryside? The Simple Life: A look at why we should all be more like the Amish. A review of Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich by Robert Frank and Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 by Jack Beatty. From the Mises Institute, a look at why the miser hurts no one but herself. In an impressive new book, The Social Conscience, Michel Glautier asks a simple question: can a caring society exist in a market economy?
An interview with Benjamin Barber, author of Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole. A childish panic about the next generation: Many of those fretting over the state of contemporary childhood, concerned that kids are passive, cooped up and sedentary, are motivated by naked nostalgia - sometimes even by snobbery. Who's Your Nanny? Here's a crash course on the politics of nannying in the US. Where the Boys Aren’t: Latin? Poetry? Knots? A not too dangerous book, The Dangerous Book for Boys, sounds like a scary movie. A review of Hopscotch and handbags: The Essential Guide to Being a Girl by Lucy Mangan (and more).
Jeremy A. Blumenthal (Syracuse): Abortion, Persuasion, and Emotion: Implications of Social Science Research on Emotion for Reading Casey. An op-ed on the quiet campaign against birth control. From TNR, why the Dems should not shut up about gays and marriage vows. Are civil unions a 600-year-old tradition? A study reviews historical evidence, including documents and gravesites, suggesting that homosexual civil unions may have existed six centuries ago in France. From Nerve's "History of Single Life", an article on Casanova. From Forbes, a special report on the Best Cities For Singles, and Stop Singlism! Discrimination against the unwed may be the last socially acceptable prejudice in America. I kid you not: Why are the childless considered freaks? Frankly, they're doing themselves and society a big favour.
12:00PM
AUG 31 2007
India, the United States and political strategy
From Prospect, India's middle class failure: India's 200m-strong middle class is the most economically dynamic group on the planet, but is largely uninterested in politics or social reform. Until it begins to engage politically, India will suffer from a lop-sided modernisation. How to Unravel an Unchecked Superpower: India's history provides timeless lessons on how (and how not) to confront corporate power with protest, litigation, regulation, rebellion and, ultimately, corporate redesign. The partition evasion: Dividing territories and "unmixing" peoples is an idea whose time is past. The introduction to Hindu Nationalism: A Reader.
Robert Kahn (St. Thomas): Why There Was No Cartoon Controversy in the United States. A cartoon due to appear in Sunday's Washington Post and several other newspapers across America has been pulled after it was deemed offensive to Muslims. Frenemies at the Gate: America's most dubious partners in the the war on terror. A nation of outlaws: Scourge of the free world! Peddlers of poisonous foods! Pirates of literary works! Counterfeiters of medicine! A century ago, that wasn't China — it was us. Several countries are opening their polls to their more baby-faced voters, but are American adolescents ready (or willing) to step up to the booth?
A Guide to Media Manipulation, Republican Style: In recent years the GOP has turned the technique of making hay from their opponents' words into a reliable formula for success — with a few distortions and a little help from the media, of course. The poisonous rhetorical legacy of Karl Rove: Even Fox's Chris Wallace wants to know why Bush's newly departed advisor had to paint Democrats as traitors. David Brooks reviews The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen (and an interview). Kevin Drum reviews Talking Right by Geoffrey Nunberg and Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea by George Lakoff.
12:00PM
AUG 31 2007
Food and New York City
From The Atlantic Monthly, a review of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. A review of Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats by Steve Ettlinger; In Bad Taste? The Adventure and Science Behind Food Delicacies by Dr. Massimo Francesco Marcone; and A Moveable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization by Kenneth F. Kiple. A review of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel. Putting Cambodian cuisine on the map: Little Miss Muffet might go for fried spiders, but most everybody else will go for whatever is more appealing on the menu.
From TNR, Gourmet's restaurant columnist defends gluttony. Our diets can kill, in more ways than one: A review of The Vitamin Murders by James Fergusson. A review of Julia Child: A Penguin Life by Laura Shapiro and Backstage With Julia: My Years With Julia Child by Nancy Verde Barr. To drink really hot coffee (or hot tea) is to swallow a paradox of pleasure and pain. The Jefferson Bottles: How could one collector find so much rare fine wine? Grape expectations: Global warming has blessed cool-weather wine regions with record vintages. But while savoring their gold-medal wines, viticulturists are looking to the future — and it isn't pretty.
From The New Yorker, New York Local: Adam Gopnik on fruits of the five boroughs. From New York, Verisimilitude Test: Is this really the city you know? Wake up, Manhattan: New York’s skyline is one of the most distinctive in the world. But the city should stop trading on past glories. New York state of mind: A review of Through the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik. Watching From a Distance: How James Kurisunkal blogged his way onto New York’s social scene from his dorm room in Urbana.
