This month is rather empty. A great many N and Cs got erased by the server malfunction. I might eventually put some of them back, if only for my own satisfaction. And the date is really July 27, but I have to call it June to get it in this month.… Read the rest
Winner-Take-All System in US Universities 
Jun 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A star system for a few while the drones barely make a living. Is this education or show biz?… Read the rest
Himself in Letters
Jun 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Flaubert’s letters tell more of him than a biography can. Julian Barnes on the late Flaubert scholar Jean Bruneau.… Read the rest
Marina Warner Reads Harry Potter
Jun 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dr. Faustus meets Horatio Alger, and Rowling piles on the horror.… Read the rest
Much Bolder Than it Looks
Jun 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And not a summer cottage read. George Graham reviews Daniel Dennett’s Freedom Evolves.… Read the rest
Behavioral Economics
Jun 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
6 jam versus 24 jam, and libertarian paternalism.… Read the rest
What is Irony, Again?
Jun 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Watching ‘Big Brother’ can be lazy or maybe postmodern, but ironic, no.… Read the rest
Eagleton on Orwell
Jun 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Opinion on him was divided, as it would be on any animal with the rib-cage of a hippo and the snout of a badger.… Read the rest
Wool
Jun 26th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Another call for ‘demotic science’ from the Economic and Social Research Council.… Read the rest
Not Deceptive but Crudely Deceptive
Jun 26th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘…no audience is easier to beguile than one that is smugly confident of its own sophistication.’… Read the rest
Bogus authorities
Jun 26th, 2003 | By Julian Baggini"After reading Captive State, I will never be able to take the Labour
government seriously again."
Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead (Quoted on cover of George Monbiot’s
Captive State)
In my opinion – which has never been humble – and in the opinion of many others,
Radiohead are the best rock band on the planet right now. They are one
of only two groups whose latest album I buy as soon as it comes out, without
listening to it or reading reviews first.
But although I am prepared to acknowledge the genius of Thom Yorke et al in
the realm of music, I was not aware that Yorke was also a political commentator
worth paying serious attention to. … Read the rest
Orwell Centenary
Jun 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Guardian offers a page of Orwell links.… Read the rest
A Talk With Steven Pinker
Jun 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The blank slate became Official Theory, enforced by “accusation, intimidation, name-calling and moralising intellectual questions that are questions of fact”. … Read the rest
What Are the Tasaday?
Jun 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What is a lost tribe anyway? From Marie Antoinette to Imelda Marcos, what are the uses of ‘simple people’? Where does the World’s Fair come in?… Read the rest
Post-traumatic stress and counseling
Jun 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Surprise, surprise, it’s not always good to talk.… Read the rest
Historians and Plagiarism Again
Jun 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Philip Foner helped himself to students’ work, and many of them fumed but kept quiet about it.… Read the rest
Historians Discuss Foner
Jun 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And interesting issues are raised – is objectivity possible? If not, why write history at all? Why not just pledge allegiance to something?… Read the rest
Innocuous or Threatening?
Jun 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Does enlightenment summon its own enemies into being?… Read the rest
Mixed Decision in US Affirmative Action Case
Jun 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The US Supreme Court narrowly upholds University of Michigan’s use of race in admissions, rejects point system.… Read the rest
Split Decision in Michigan Case
Jun 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michigan’s law school can continue to consider race; undergraduate programme is unconstitutional.… Read the rest
