Monthly Archives: October 2005

I’m Doomed

Posted on October 27, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Civilization IV is out. I thought Civilization III was a very poor addition to the series, with a lot of half-baked ideas, bad balancing and inexcusable bugs, as well as an AI that cut corners and depended a lot on … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming | 5 Comments

Miered in Standards

Posted on October 27, 2005 by Timothy Burke

So Harriet Miers withdraws. Not a surprise. I never weighed in on the nomination in the first place, and that’s because I had (perhaps characteristically) ambivalent feelings about it. On one hand, I thought some of those who were hesitant … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

Amazing New Promotional Strategy

Posted on October 25, 2005 by Timothy Burke

For the recent BBC revival of Dr. Who, Amazon lists (as of 3:45 pm today) the following for the DVD of the 2005 season: “Doctor Who (2005 TV Series) DVD ~ Joe Ahearne Availability: This title will be released on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Mawwage

Posted on October 21, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I despair, I really do, whenever I read someone like Maggie Gallagher over at the Volokh Conspiracy combine what appears to be a functioning intellect with sheer empirical bullheadness when it comes to characterizing the history of marriage and using … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments

Department of Bad Ideas

Posted on October 21, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Maybe in any event the United States would have ended up isolated at UNESCO’s latest attempt to put global popular culture under the thumb of state sovereignities, but the Bush Administration’s earlier contempt for all multilateral processes hasn’t made it … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | Comments Off on Department of Bad Ideas

Could College Be Cheaper?

Posted on October 18, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Like Fontana Labs, I’ve long fretted that some day, all at once, in a tipping point reaction, both employers and families are going to decide in two different directions that expensive college degrees no longer predict success strongly and are … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 18 Comments

Tenure

Posted on October 13, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I’m with Brad DeLong: John Tierney’s column on cronyism and academia is an especially annoying case of the lack-of-pluralism-in-academia argument. It is a lazy conflation of two completely different issues. I’m perfectly willing to agree that there is a problem … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 5 Comments

Serious Fun

Posted on October 10, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Though it put me into a serious week-long hustle to catch up on all sorts of work (hence the paucity of entries here lately), Edward Castronova’s Ludium conference at Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Synthetic Worlds was easily … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Games and Gaming | 9 Comments