Monthly Archives: August 2013

Suez Has Already Happened

The problem with “turning points”, as they’re commonly described in popular forms of historical storytelling, is that very few of them were recognized clearly as such at the time. When I’m in the archives reading past individuals writing to and … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | 12 Comments

The Method

Obama’s new education policy neatly showcases the spectrum of choice we now have in our political system: to be ground down a bit at a time by technocrats who either won’t admit to or do not understand the ultimate consequences … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Politics | 11 Comments

Denial Is a River In Egypt

While I’m broadly in agreement with Adam Frank’s op-ed about the grave political and social costs of the current state of scientific literacy in America, there is something about the way that he comes at the issue that feels like … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics, Popular Culture, Swarthmore | 7 Comments

A Clean Room for Colleges?

Collaboration is one of those things that everyone in higher education claims to want more of, in more ways, and yet almost no one ever gets around to pushing beyond calls for more. I keep feeling in particular that there’s … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | Comments Off on A Clean Room for Colleges?

It’s a Confidential Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand

I had a heated conversation a few years back with someone I know whose work for the U.S. government routinely involves classified information. We weren’t talking about the content of that work, because this person takes classification very very seriously. … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 6 Comments