Blogs

Don't get me wrong – book reviews often offer telling insights about the reviewer as well as, hopefully, the book under consideration. They are often fun to read, if only for the small jabs that reviewers make when the (dubious) benefits of anonymity are removed. My favorite is: “The text had minimal typographical errors.”

A friend of mine once told me she heard that 80% of people, when asked, say they are “writing a book” (at least, in their head). I don’t know where she got this “statistic,” it may not accurately represent the population at all, but I like the idea that so many people have a book sitting in their mind. Hey, I’m one of those 75% with a half-completed book on the back burner waiting for…what? Inspiration? Perseverance? Time? I think all of the above.

MOOCs are all the rage, and there is nothing wrong with that, although don't count on it lasting in its...

In an early 21st century era of austerity, is it is time to end the dominance of "methodological nationalism" and take advantage of the "opportunity to create a truly global social science"?

A new correspondent writes: "I've been teaching college English as an adjunct for a few years (in addition to my full-time gig at a high school). I love teaching college and want to move into it full time. I have a BA and an MA in English right now. My question for you is, from a community college hiring perspective, is there more value in a PhD than a DA (doctor of arts)?"

This past weekend we dropped our younger daughter off at sleep-away camp. As we were helping her carry her trunk and meeting her counselors and bunk mates I had the following thoughts:

Midsummer may have been last month by the calendar, but it’s July that feels like the middle of the summer. If I’m truly honest with myself, the middle of my summer passed a few weeks ago, but with six weeks (yikes! Only six?) until the start of classes, mid-July seems close enough. For six more weeks, my time is unscheduled, my routines refigured by heat, an office renovation, and—most importantly—a respite from classes and committee meetings. I’m gloriously unscheduled, free of routine … mostly.

A NYT article, More Demands on Cell Carriers in Surveillance, resounds with the theme that technology has disrupted the Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in communications. It is also a testament of what the USA-Patriot Act has wrought not because that Act created the gap but because it exacerbated it. More than a decade later, that which has been lost in the bargain becomes more obvious.