A ''Waist'' of Time?

Meetings are often routine if not downright boring. How many journalists have counted up the number of hours wasted in a career sitting at night week after week, month after month, with a bunch of dull politicians? As opposed to the worthwhile hours they might spend in a local tavern engaged in lofty conversation over…

Irony

As Cicero put it, Socrates was always “pretending to need information and professing admiration for the wisdom of his companion”; when Socrates? interlocutors were annoyed with him for behaving in this way they called him eiron, a vulgar term of reproach referring generally to any kind of sly deception with overtones of mockery. The fox…

The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

The combination of prolificacy and inattention to accuracy that characterizes this process is highly suggestive of the modern pedagogic technique known as “journaling.” For decades, (following, we are probably meant to assume, some breakthrough research at a school of education somewhere) young students have been not merely encouraged but required to fill pages of their…

The Powerpoint Anthology of Literature

–Daniel Radosh —The Powerpoint Anthology of Literature Via KairosNews. Similar:The Surprisingly Savvy Weird Al Internet Machine When he talks about his business being…AestheticsU Michigan's North Quad Complex: A Media CathedralThe North Quad Residential Complex at th…AcademiaLimit child TV viewing to an hour each day, study urgesThe study followed about 1,000 people fr…HealthAnti-globalism Is Common Factor…

IF Comp 2004 Results

—IF Comp 2004 Results (IFComp.org) Luminous Horizons, by Paul O’Brian, is the winner. Similar:Introduction to The Skin of Our Teeth (optimistic, absurdist metatheater; Thornton Wilder,…https://youtu.be/1okt8MIVTtsAcademiaKafka Meets Charlie BrownThis year marks the 100th anniversary of…AmusingFacebook's director of media tries to appease news industryFacebook’s Patrick Walker assured a room…BusinessDozens of Plagiarism Incidents Are Reported in Coursera's Free Online…

Firefox 1.0 Makes Flashy Debut

Firefox 1.0 has excellent bookmark-management features, some of which were present in earlier versions of the browser. Users can, with one click, sort bookmarks according to site name, location, date last visited, etc. The newest bookmark feature is Live Bookmarks, which allows users to browse RSS feeds from their favorite websites directly from the site’s…

Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual

After Nixon crushed McGovern in the 1972 election, the film critic Pauline Kael made a remark that has become a touchstone among conservatives. “I don’t know how Richard Nixon could have won,” she marveled. “I don’t know anybody who voted for him.” While the second sentence indicates the sheltered habitat of the Manhattan intellectual, the…

9 Interviews

Each year, on the day after Christmas, scholars and teachers of Modern Languages convene for their annual North American conference. At that conference, countless job interviews take place — an early step for some toward achieving a coveted academic position. 9interviews.com documents the progress of nine such scholars, each one committed to attaining a place…

Out of site

Many people come here, just as many people seek out the stage, because they know it is a place where they won’t have to grow up too quickly, where the fickleness and irresponsibility of youth are a way of life. Pasts and past relationships are shed like so much old luggage. The unspoken, winking conviction…