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Meta
Author Archives: Timothy Burke
Could College Be Cheaper?
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
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
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
How Many Bad Apples Before You Blame the Farmer?
Human Rights Watch has a new report on the widespread torturing of Iraqi detainees by US forces from 2003-2004. I’ll be curious to hear the explanations, excuses, alibis from defenders of the war. Probably quite a few will try to … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
28 Comments
Caiman on the Crum
Well, that was a different sort of story to read in the local newspaper. A four-and-a-half foot caiman was found by the cops in the little creek that runs below the college, about a half-mile south of the college. They … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
2 Comments
Choose Your Own Adventure
When you read a number of blogs, you get to a point where you know very well which articles in the mainstream media, especially the New York Times, are going to spawn a frenzied discussion. Then it’s primarily a question … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Politics
15 Comments
High Camp
So we were thinking a bit of going camping this weekend. I used to backpack in the Sierras with my family when I was a kid, haven’t really done anything like it as an adult, just a lot of day … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
8 Comments
You Can’t Shoot Someone Online
…but boy, do I understand why someone in a 19th Century Wild West saloon might have reached for the hidden gun in their boots to blow someone away after a hand of [online] poker. I say this after having gone … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
8 Comments
As Long As I’m At It…
Ok, so I’ve suggested to the American Historical Association (AHA) that they should eliminate formal paper sessions with extreme prejudice. That goes for all big professional meetings (MLA, AAA, what have you): no more formal paper sessions in which participants … Continue reading
Posted in Academia
31 Comments
On Dreams
This morning my 4-year old daughter Emma reported that she had a nightmare last night. We’ve talked a bit about nightmares, I’ve told her how I used to have really bad ones at her age. She asked me what dreams … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
3 Comments