Education

Based on what I've seen here at Case, the most advanced learning environment in the Galactic Federation(and looking at Ashland and basically 99% of the assclowns I see who have college "degrees"), education is simply a business. As long as s/he can pay, any asshole can get a degree with minimal work and absolutely no demonstrable intellectual, moral, social (or any combination) value. Most schools will do everything they can to KEEP students from failing out, even when they have, in fact, already failed. I mean, hey, that's a $30,000 loss if the student leaves. Make him a gym major so we can get his money and he can walk around as a big, proud college grad.

And it's even worse in my department for grad students. It's basically impossible to fail out of this place which pisses me off for two reasons: (1) it's devaluing my doctorate having clueless people graduating at the same "level" as I do (this is the more important of the two) and (2) I hate these people to begin with, so I'm all for removing them from any possible setting where I have to talk to them. I think the idea of education as a right is more prominent at this level because we are being paid to be here, not paying. I think this makes a huge difference a the undergrad level vs. grad level (I know not all departments are paid like we are, but either way the end result is the same: n00bs getting degrees they don't deserve and haven't really earned). It reminds me of Angrybot when he fires his students from school. I wish that would start happening.

PS

Be careful with the Warcraft comments. That might hit a little close to home with some of our contributors.

A sensible thought...

...but not one that I relish since the Buckeyes might get another shot at it. And clearly there have been deserving champions in the last few years even Florida as much as I hate to say it.

Well said, Prof. Larson

(I don't mean the Prof. as a pejorative.)

I think I agree with most of what you said. You are exactly right about knowledge and learning making the student free, hence "liberal education." I'm not as sure what you mean by there cannot be non-politicized education, but I have an idea.

I don't think higher education is about "raising students consciences" and inciting them to political action. In that sense it doesn't have to be politicized. Education should serve the purpose of instilling a civic-mindedness and responsibility as you said. If that is what you mean by politicized then I agree.

"We don't need no education...."

I agree there are “too many people in college,” but only in a sense. I don’t believe higher education should be exclusionary, in the sense that it is inaccessible to people who want access to it. Knowledge and literacy are the only weapons that can actually make people free, and they should be available to everyone. So I don’t buy into any theoretical limitations on how may should be there. Ideally the whole civilization should desire, pursue, and attain a “higher” education (admittedly, a slippery term).

I think there are “too many,” though, in the sense that not all of the bodies occupying seats in the academy are really there for that “higher” education itself, but for some other reason. Sowell rightly points out several of these. We can all relate to this from our AU days as well as any post-graduate studying we may have done.

It’s no big secret that the academy has been drifting steadily and inexorably from an enlightening/enriching model to an industrial/corporate training model for decades (1970 was the last time more than half of college students had liberal arts majors). But the situation has shifted so far toward “training good little workers” that traditional educational goals—critical thinking, moral reflection, civic responsibility—seem antiquated and irrelevant to the culture at large. I imagine that even in the Middle Ages, university students resented having to study certain subjects. But a huge portion of the students I teach honestly think history, philosophy, political science, foreign language, literature, and art courses are just ploys by the university to get their money (not coincidentally, those students usually only produce the most superficial, banal work). Perhaps things look a bit worse to me because of where I’m working: KSU-Tuscarawas is a remote, rural branch that only has a handful of majors, all of which are “vocational.” (That’s not to say I don’t get some absolutely awesome students—most of whom are non-traditional students with full time jobs and families—but core classes are generally looked at with raised eyebrows.)

There’s evidence things aren’t much different elsewhere. John Sperling, CEO of the company that brought you University of Phoenix, offers this enlightened assessment: “This is a corporation […] Coming here is not a rite of passage. We are not trying to develop [students’] value systems or go in for that ‘expand their minds’ bullshit.” If this ethos is representative of our view of higher ed, then it’s no wonder so many students are simply keeping seats warm (and trying to get laid, or playing Warcraft all day in the dorm, or whatever).

Maybe this is the problem: the intrinsic “value” of an education is self-evident to those who have one, but it’s a tough sell to those who don’t already see it. Nearly all of the messages we are bombarded with appeal to instant gratification and transient pleasure. Contemplating Plato’s Philosopher King or identifying with Hamlet’s indecision aren’t easily packaged in those terms, so why bother with them? Since I’m just going to be a nurse, thinking about Federalism is a waste of my time.

I really think that if students could pay the fee and pick up a degree at a drive-thru, they would. I think it sucks.

(And there has never been, nor can there ever be, a “non-politicized” education.)

You're a big tool if...

... you say 'vacay' instead of vacation or 'tat' in place of tattoo.

Like this: "I took a week off for a beach vacay at the Outer Banks but I couldn't go because my new tat got infected and the doctors had to cut off my arm."

Of this, there can be no dispute.

RIP

Drinkin' to my man Kevin and pissin' off the neighbors with the Metal Health album on repeat.
And there's this:


Also, I watched this: :(

Awwwwww

Kevin DuBrow apparently is dead. :o(

What's that you say?

I haven't posted anything from Mark Steyn for a while? Well, I had stopped reading him for a while because I was tired of hearing how pathetic Westerners are in the face of the rising tide, demographically and politically, of Islamists. The humor of the idea of lefties making nice with Wahhabis who would behead them given the opportunity wears off once the reality sinks in.

But anyway, here you go. From a recent column:

Apparently there are still one or two holdouts who decline to prostrate themselves before Al Gore. As ABC reporter David Wright fretted, “Even the Nobel Prize is not going to be enough to silence the naysayers . . .”
Ah, so true. Say what you like about Al’s predecessor in the pantheon of glory, the late Yasser Arafat, but there was a guy who knew how to silence naysayers and, when he needed to, he didn’t leave it to the luster of his Nobel.

Harry Reid is pathetic

Apparently the Democrats decided to have one Senator come in and bang the gavel to hold a 30 second session every day but Thanksgiving last week to avoid the possibility of recess appointments. Have we reached a new low in representative democracy?

Here is a humorous take.

Too many people in college?

I don't think there is any doubt really. Tom Sowell argues this is the case, and I bet Nick could attest to it as well.

However, I don't know how harmful it is. This dovetails with one of Allan Bloom's arguments as well. I think it has been destructive of the core purpose of universities just as politicization of education has. College is a place to spend a few fun years, get a degree, and hopefully a job rather than a detached center of learning, somewhat independent and separate from the commerical and political world. It is now higher learning only in the sense that it is a higher level than high school not in the sense that the learning somehow transcends practicality.

Any thoughts?

Drive with God

As a rather lackadaisical Catholic, I must admit I'm somewhat relieved that Vatican is concerned with my car maintenance and road safety...

Actors, warts, etc

Nick, have you read the comments by the dood playing Dumbledore? He won't even read the books because he doesn't want to be constrained by the character's role or some such shit. It's ridiculous. As his weak portrayal of Dumbledore, IMO.

This makes me a happy man. I didn't actually read the article because the subtitle and picture are enough for me.

As for the tree man, I just want to point out that he has a daughter. So someone slept with Warty McTree. I'm going to go vomit.

This is fracking INSANE

Just go read/look at the pictures. Criminy. I don't even know what to say.

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish I had had one of these :o(

At the risk of being mocked

I want to just let everyone know there is a new Battlestar Galactica movie on Sci-Fi tonight at 9.

My Thanksgiving Message to Actors: STFU

There's this thing that really irks me when actors express disdain for original source material (books, novels, old english poems) because it doesn't give them enough raw grist to show off their considerable acting chops.

I give you Ray Winstone, the motion-captured face of the new Beowulf movie (which, by the way, shouldn't actually be called Beowulf but actually Neil Gaiman's Olde Timey Englishe Monsterre Rompe): "I had the beauty of not reading the book, which I understand portrays Beowulf as a very one-dimensional kind of character - a hero and a warrior and that was it. I didn't have any of that baggage to bring with me."

Excuse me, fuck you. I don't want to hear how you were liberated from the restrictions of the source material so you could bring 'depth' to the character. Especially when the source material is one of the most venerated and studied pieces of writing in the English language. Read the book, and put it on screen. Is that so much to ask? Apparently it is.

I remember David Wenham (the guy who played Faramir in Lord of the Rings) saying something very similar... 'Faramir's such a flat character, too good and honest and whatnot, totally boring to play on-screen!' to paraphrase loosely. Piss off, dude. You don't have to turn every freaking thing you do into Fucking Streetcar Named Goddamn Desire. Stop dicking with the source material so you can show off your range.

If the character's flat, play the flat character and STFU.

Enjoy:

Too late...

Val Venis (holy crap, remember him???) already threw his weight behind Ron Paul! I say Flair and Venis wrestle over who will take Iowa. John Cena will go McCain or Guiliani. The big question is who The Hulk will go with. Predictions?

I agree with you on Huckabee, except that I hate almost ALL of his positions. But he at least seems like a guy you could have a beer with and talk about the Stones (one of his favorite bands). The only other candidate you could say that about would be McCain (and probably Obama).

Chuck Norris *and Ric Flair?!

So, Mike Huckabee has cornered the market on internet-celebrity and washed-up wrestler endorsements. This may be a disturbing but entertaining new trend in politics. I want to see the candidates scurry and pander to the likes of the Macho Man or the the Undertaker. I can see the headline now... "Tom Tancredo and the Undertaker place a moratorium on the death tax... in hell!"

This is kind of like Family Guy/American Dad winning the best recurring guest roles award with Adam West and Patrick Stewart. Both are awesome, but most of the time neither actually makes for a better episode.

Joking aside, I kind of like Huckabee. Other than the fact that I think he'd make a terrible president, he seems fairly honest, and he's one of the least boring candidates to watch.

Re: Holy Crap

My favorite part from that link is the way the excited scientist can't quite complete his chain of alliteration.

Dr Simon Braddy, University of Bristol said, "This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realised, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were.

Monster millipedes! Super-sized scorpions! Colossal cockroaches! And... err.... uhh.... damn-big dragonflies? Disastrous? Double-packed? Diabolical? Hey, kids, pay attention to science, we got giant bugs! Hello? Anyone there?? Hellooooooooooooo?!?!

Holy crap

This scares the ever-lovin bejesus out of me. More than sharks, squids and octopii combined.

Awesomeness

I can't remember if this made it up or not yet (mostly because I use the so called "internets" for the downloading of certain movies to aid masturbation), but I'm putting it up regardless because it's pretty damn cool. A larger one with pretty good resolution (but no penetration) here.

Re: Belichick

Nick, I think the sappy folks over at espn wrote this one for you. He has an "inner teddy bear." Needless to say, I didn't read much past that little caption under the title. Perhaps you will though, and you can develop a love for the "monotone man of mystery."

Belichick

I want to be there when you get yours. That is all.

Football Night in America

on NBC (right before the sunday late night game) is the worst football commentary on TV.

Album recommendation

Just got Levon Helm's new cd, "Dirt Farmer" and it is amazing. If you don't know, he was the drummer/singer from the band (he sang "up on Cripple Creek") and has a very distinct voice. His new cd is all traditional folk or older folk music. I cannot reccomend it enough.

And for the record, I don't hate the lolcats, John just somehow manages to pick the most annoying ones possible. Most of them are pretty funny.

Also, the new Gram Parsons archive release has a cover of the Everly Brothers ("When will I be loved") that is also pretty awesome. If anybody else knows who Gram Parsons is.

They call me Dr. Law...

These are weak charges. Obviously they don't have the evidence to get him on substantive charges. This is what happened to Lewis Libby and Martha Stewart as well (although I am much more sympathetic to them than Bonds). Either the prosecutors are convinced that Bonds is guilty of whatever they were investigating but do not have the evidence they need, or they are trying to get Bonds to roll over on someone. Either way, your impression was right on, Nick.

Bonds

While I hope that Bonds steps on glass and rusty nails and all that to wipe that smug grin off his face, aren't these charges kinda weak? Perjury and obstruction of justice? Isn't that what people get charged with when the investigators can't find enough evidence to charge with a real crime?

Bert, show us them sexy legal brains and sort this out.

Getting excited for Rock Band

And you should too. Watching this gets me pumped up.

Barry Bonds Indicted

That's right. Jerk.

More Cats

Since Slaps hates the cat pictures, I have made a caption for him.

Slaps upon checking his eharmony account.

Slaps

you have to like this one...

Warren Buffett Sucks

Many look to Warren Buffett as a business and charity hero. I think he's not so great although he admittedly has a talent for making money.

I had heard about Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway's practice of leaching off the estate tax scheme a couple years ago, and saw this article yesterday that also touched on the life insurance aspect of this leaching.

Buffett buys up smaller companies upon the death of their owners when the families and estates cannot afford to keep the companies going because of estate taxes. Further, Buffet is in the life insurance business. Since life insurance is tax free to beneficiaries, people put their wealth in insurance instead of more productive vehicles so that it can pass to their families instead of being confiscated by the government.

Bloom and bicycles

The bike path guy reminded me of this hilarious Dave Foley sketch from kids in the hall. Sorry I couldn't find the audio, but I'm at work. (This is why John thought I'd find the article funny I believe.)

Most of us like rock n roll, and like you, Nick, I have trouble with that chapter. Bloom took a lot from Plato there, and he makes a forceful argument. I think we just can't bear the thought of giving up the music we like, and we probably won't even if we come to grips with Bloom.

Glad to hear you used the book in class. It is one of the best polemical/philosophical books I've read. There is a lot of difficult stuff in it, but it is a good read.

My new favorite coach

is Kansas head coach Mark Mangino. Below is all the explanation that is needed (with regards to the outfit: it's valoooor).

Funny

Or at least Bert will also think this is pretty humorous...I hope.

Watch Your Step Kid,

Protect ya neck

and

"Things that are balls nasty"

Speaking of running up the score

How about that GB/ Minn. game?

Bloom

In a fit of righteous spite, I 'borrowed' the only copy of Closing of the American Mind from ISI's library on my way out the door, and over the past year I've read almost all of it, though out of order.

I used some sections of it (those specifically pertaining to the university and its roles and functions) in my freshmen classes this semester, and I think it was effective... the students, now approaching the end of their first semester, have uncovered a trouble paradox. The university, they unanimously agree, is there to prepare them for their careers--and yet the university teaches nothing that is directly useful to a majority those careers, and very little that is indirectly useful. What, then, are they doing there? (I've asked that question repeatedly this semester... sometimes rhetorically, sometimes in frustration.) They can find no answer except the cynical one, the degree they earn is simply a prerequisite for their career of toil and drudgery. Since I'm teaching a comp class and not a class on Bloom we don't have time to read more than a few selections, but at least they are asking questions.

I've read Steyn's piece on Bloom a couple of times and, in conjunction with Bloom's chapter on music, I have a really tough time with it. I like rock music... I like playing it, as I can, I like listening to it, I like watching it live. I enjoy listening to it while I drive or run, and I like putting it on in the background while I'm doing other things. Does this place my soul in jeopardy? As I read Bloom, he thinks that it does. And there are many legitimate points there... as it pertains to the sexual nature of rhythm and violent/stupid/pointless lyrics. But Steyn goes so far (maybe echoing Bloom) as to lump the music in with the musicians, when that separation is key. Just ask Bert when Eddie Vedder was tearing G.W. Bush masks in two on stage in '04. What would Bloom say about an internet and itunes that lets anyone grab any song they like? There's no need to invest in the artist, to discover who he/she is, their sexual history, how they act on stage, their politics. There's only one music personality, I think, who has nearly perfectly melded his off-stage persona (or character, even) to the experience of producing his music, and that is Bono, but I've gotten pretty far afield. Suffice it to say, Bloom's music chapter is really tough, and I still don't know how to think about it.

Mostly South Park

I agree with most of your assessment of South Park. However, I have to disagree about the Imagination trilogy. While as a narrative, it didn't really go anywhere it had the best and most pop culture references I've ever seen. Seriously, I mean part 3 had ROM the Spaceknight, part 2 had a prolonged Stargate reference AND Manbearpig, and part 1 had the funniest joke they've ever done (which of course was the Butters/rape joke which still makes me wet my pants). Now that I think about it, Butters is probably my favorite character in any show ever. Including my favorite show, Futurama (end of the month, new movie!!!).

As for this week's episode, I didn't think it was as similar to the WoW episode as you. I thought it was more a parody of rock bands/musicians (Behind the Music) and the fact that the kids thought game was cool, the actual music not so much. I mean, they kept making heroin jokes (chasing the dragon was fantastic).

I used to watch the Fox sunday cartoon/whatever block, but i really don't care that much anymore. With the exception of King of the Hill, which I still think is the superior sunday show (right now).

Re: Green Week

I agree, Kris. The 'Earl-30 Rock-Office-Scrubs' corridor of NBC Thursday is just about the best of TV, conveniently lumped together for me.

As for South Park... combining last night's episode (Guitar Hero was the theme) with the World of Warcraft one, I think the message is that if you a play a game too much you're a douche? I'm mean, sure, I buy the message, but this is what you come up with given the subject matter? A bit lame. But it is funny to see how the parent companies implicitly play along while the show skewers their games and the people who play them (Blizzard helped the South Park guys make the warcraft episode, and it seems to me the Guitar Hero folks helped with last night's, or at least they ran a commercial spot during it).

Coupled with the the Imagination Trilogy of the past month, it doesn't seem to me like these guys have much of anything to say anymore.

Increasingly South Park has fallen into two categories, one of which is 'Libertarian moralizing' as someone I can't remember coined it, and the second is immediate quick and dirty cultural/social commentary (as in X event happens on the weekend... we will satirize and spoof it by Thursday night). I sympathize with the former, and sometimes the latter is extremely witty, but neither is really a good vehicle for bringing the funny.

The Closing of the American Mind at 20 years

Allan Bloom's book was published in 1987. If you have not read it, you must. This year being the 20th anniversary of publication, The New Criterion's November issue has several essays on the book and its reception also worth reading whether you've read the book or not.

Cool science

A lab at Harvard fluorescently tagged every neuron in the mouse brain. The result? Cool.
Even better? They're calling the "brainbow mouse."

Re: Green Week

Bert, I don't know if you caught them but both My Name is Earl and 30 Rock had hilarious takes on the Green Week crap. Earl's message was essentially they were being forced to add a "green message" because the suits upstairs said so. 30 Rock was even more biting. You can watch the episodes on nbc.com . Aside from football and South Park, the thursday NBC comedies are the TV shows I watch. Otherwise, it's VH1 classic, all the time!

NBC's Green Week

Green Week kicked of on Sunday night with Bob Costas and the boys lighting candles and turning off the lights for Sunday night football. This silliness is going on all week with NBC pretending to help the environment and trying to make you and me feel bad about our way of life. Annoying. Show me football and make me laugh. Please don't pretend that you're saving the world from this week's faddish apocalyptic catastrophe.

BEST CAMPAIGN AD EVER

Speaks for itself.

Couldn't decide

so I'll let you pick Bert...

Holy crap

This is friggen' cool! I just need to figure out which cities have the highest population of single, alcoholic, post-secondary degreed East Asian girls! (I'll cross my fingers that it's San Diego, Dallas, NYC or Boston or outlying suburbs).

Asterisk for Football?

Sounds dumb, but since it seems at least better than average odds that the patriots go undefeated, should they get an asterisk for the whole spying on other teams? I think it's a legitimate point, especially if steroids are considered cheating, since, uh, it's hard to cheat more blatantly than to film the other team's signals.

Vince Young (Bert this one's for you)

Just a quick stat line on the "star" QB of the Titans:

"Not only has Vince Young not passed for 200 yards in a single game this season...in his last four starts he has thrown for a grand total of 429 yards, 0 touchdowns and 6 interceptions."

Bert, he has 3tds and 8 picks this season. I saw this and thought of you after our conversation yesterday. JB said he made the Pro Bowl last year (not sure - don't remember cuz that's a joke game), but if he did he did it with a 51.5% completion, 12td and 13 picks. I know he's young (pun not intended), but he's very clearly not the reason for the Titans winning.

I think it's safe to say that a dominant (or even decent) QB isn't necessary to win in the NFL. The Titans are doing it in the toughest division (in my opinion) in football with the 2nd lowest rated passer in the league (his 61.5 is only better than Alex Smith).

Kudos to the Titans defense/running game.

I R stoopid at foosball

In drawing up my scenarios, I neglected to mention the one that seems to always happen when I bother to watch the Patriots play from start to finish. Opposing team wins the first 3 quarters, Patriots win the 4th and then win the game. Infuriating.

Why the NFL is stupid

I enjoy watching football. However, I hate the NFL's stupid, terrible blackout rules. Unless I go to a bar (or get satellite, which I damn sure can't afford) I am stuck watching just ONE goddamn game at 1 (Cinci-Buf? wtf? seriously) and the Cleveland game at 4. I've enjoyed watching Cleveland this season, but really, THE game to watch is the NE-Indy game at 4. And its not even an option. It really pisses me off, especially since those are the two games I would flip between. I hope whoever made the blackout rule gets AIDS and dies. Eff them.

Leroy's Old

Leroy Jenkins has been around for a couple years, they even have commercials now....

NFL gets decided tomorrow

Here's the scenarios, from most likely to least, imo:

1) Pats win in a blowout (+21 pts or more). I think, unfortunately, this is most likely to happen. And if it does, you can turn off football for the rest of the season. At that point, the only thing that could stop the Pats is a season-ending injury to Brady.

2) Pats win in by 7 to 14 pts. This is almost as bad as option 1. If they dominate the Colts but don't run up the score, then the effect is nearly the same. Again, nothing stopping them at this point except Brady getting hurt.

3) Colts win in a squeeker. From a football fan's PoV, this is probably the best thing that could happen. It builds drama and sets up a titanic rematch in the AFC championship game, at which point you can then ignore the superbowl completely, just like last year.

4) Colts win in a blowout. Heh. Even if this were to occur, I think it tracts the same as 3. The Pats seem so otherworldly that even a blowout against them here could be channeled into 'motivation' or some other stupid analyst-speak quantity for the AFC championship game. But this seems really unlikely to me.

5) Pats jet crashed on the way to Indy, an unknown team of hardscrabble and over-the-hill replacements dons the Patriots uniforms, discovers that the original team made a deal with Satan, repudiates this deal and loses by a field goal to Indy, but at the same time earns the respect of Peyton Manning and millions of television viewers. Hardscrabble replacement QB reconciles with his amputee wife at the end. Hey, wanna see my screenplay?

Meatloaf retires?

::tear::

WOW

For those of you who don't get this (and those that do, the clip still makes me lol!) the clip referenced is below. It gets really funny around 1:20, but the whole thing is worth a watch.

Supermice

Actually, in the scientific community those mice are old news. The paper was published online months ago and at least 2 other labs have already shown (though 1 remains unpublished) similar results by tweaking different aspects of the same metabolic cycle. So I don't really understand the big deal now.
That being said, the lab that made them is in my department (Biochemistry) right down the hall from me and the data is kind of exciting. However, I know from talking to Richard Hanson (and other members of his lab) that there are all kinds of other phenotypes these mice display that were too complex to report. These mice are apparently VERY agressive, among other abnormal behavorial phenotypes, all of which are hard to pin down due to their complex natures. That being said, it is a very artificial system from which to draw important physiological conclusions. But also, it is very cool.

This is kinda neat

ESPN uses some crazy statistical analysis to predict performances, stats, scores etc. of football games. I won't pretend to understand any of what they do, but I'm going to see how close they come.

Case's Super Mice

Do you guys know anything about this? Can they alter my genes so I can get bigger and run faster?

Why Football is Tops in My Book

You may have seen this already, but if you haven't, here it is. If I were the coach of the purple team, I'd whup some ass for letting this happen, but I love it.