Engineers and computer scientists more admired than lawyers and academics.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
‘Ghost Ships’ Not All That Spooky?
Nov 19th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn fact no more dangerous than most ships. Crying wolf is not clever.… Read the rest
Two Cheers for Nerds
Nov 18th, 2003 9:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonIsn’t it nice, the way we’re always so anxious not to let each other get above ourselves? The way we’re so terrifically concerned to make sure no one gets any big ideas? The way we’re so very very careful to make sure that everyone understands that our first duty is always to be normal, to be regular, to be like everyone else – so that if we must do something as eccentric and peculiar and self-indulgent as developing some intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge and inclination to think about things – well, all right, maybe we can be forgiven for that, as long as we can show that we’re not nerds about it, and that we realize how boring … Read the rest
They Were Murdered for Being Jews
Nov 18th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHitchens on the Istanbul synagogue bombing.… Read the rest
Amartya Sen on Democracy
Nov 18th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s more than public balloting, it’s the ‘exercise of public reason.’… Read the rest
Gurcharan Das on Martha Nussbaum
Nov 18th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The Sangh Parivar’s idea of a Hindu nation goes against this basic tenet of our Constitution.’ … Read the rest
Wetlands Cause Pollution
Nov 17th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf the research irritates developers, well, get new researchers!… Read the rest
Open-Access Science Publishing
Nov 17th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s not a plot to destroy capitalism, it’s a different way to make research available.… Read the rest
Not OK Corral
Nov 16th, 2003 11:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an interesting item on Kenan Malik’s site. An email from Nirjay Mahindru, administrator of Tara Arts theatre, commenting on and agreeing with Malik’s tv documentary Disunited Kingdom, and talking about the way the focus on diversity and ethnicity forces minority groups to talk about certain subjects only or else shut up.
… Read the restArtistically, this type of vetting, for fundamentally that’s what it is, consistently holds the British Asian artistic community back and ensures that cutting edge challenging theatre is somehow viewed as the exclusive monopoly of whites…Thus, I am expected to write basic derivates of ‘Bollywood’, or plays that deal with ‘the family’. What I can’t write about (as no venue will produce it) are plays that could
Insiders and Outsiders
Nov 16th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCan minority communities be studied only by their own members?… Read the rest
‘Berlusconism’ for Short
Nov 16th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMoney has contempt for the life of the mind, George Steiner says.… Read the rest
No, Not a Coincidence
Nov 15th, 2003 7:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonIn a way I hesitate to make this criticism, because the writer of this letter also wrote a good one on another issue. But I just feel compelled to make this one comment, because people keep saying the same thing, and it keeps being wrong and point-missing.
The author would do good to actually address the issues of trying to articulate what hasn’t been articulated before rather than simply trashing everyone who tries to write on difficult issues.
The trouble with that is that I’m emphatically not ‘trashing everyone who tries to write on difficult issues,’ and I never said I was. I’m ‘trashing’ or rather criticising bad writing, not writing on difficult issues. It’s simply not the case … Read the rest
Teaching is Another Form of Political Domination
Nov 15th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd graduate study at Yale is so over, and Buffy was never the same after the fourth season.… Read the rest
Love of Knowledge is not ‘White’
Nov 15th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSelf-imposed barriers can be the hardest to overthrow.… Read the rest
Why Did the Tate Apologise?
Nov 15th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s not the Tate’s job to appease the sensibilities of particular religious groups, says Kenan Malik.… Read the rest
Asians Must Write About the Asian Experience
Nov 15th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOnly whites get to write about whatever interests them.… Read the rest
How the Humanists (Not the Irish) Saved Western Civilization
Nov 15th, 2003 | By Christopher OrletIt is a story worthy of a great Romantic pen, how a few Celtic monks, cloistered on remote, wind-blown islands with only their prayer beads and a few nervous sheep for company saved Western Civilization. It was nothing less than a miracle that as the darkness descended upon Europe, Greek and Latin manuscripts were being first introduced to the Emerald Isle where generations of monks would dedicate their lives to copying and preserving the ancient texts. Later, descendents of these selfsame clerics would carry their precious cargo to European monasteries where the Italian, the German and the Frenchman waited to be enlightened.
A pretty idea, as I say, but about as genuine as the jackalope. A truer picture would show … Read the rest
Fishy Requisites
Nov 14th, 2003 5:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh good, another one. Another nice barrel full of docile, torpid fish.
Why is it that every article bashing “theory” comes from someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about?
Hmm. Why is it that the defenders of ‘theory’ (at least on this site at this time) can’t do better? One, does every article ‘bashing’ (that is to say, criticising) ‘theory’ come from someone who knows nothing of the subject? As a matter of fact, no. I’ve read several articles and indeed books by people who know a lot about it, including some by people who were once keen on ‘theory’ themselves. There is William Kerrigan’s essay in Wild Orchids and Trotsky, for example. And two, why is … Read the rest
Ray Monk on Hitler’s Scientists
Nov 14th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPoison gas and atom bombs, Bohr and Heisenberg, science and ethics.… Read the rest
Scientists Must Educate the Public
Nov 14th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf they don’t help journalists do a better job, then the better job won’t get done.… Read the rest