Blogs

Each summer for the past four years, Ben has attended a five-day baseball intensive. It is held in the Bronx, only an hour's trip from our home, but since he stays in a dorm and is engaged from early morning until late at night, our experience is not that different from the one we'd have if he were in another state, or another country. I like to mark his growing independence, and my acceptance, by charting our changing responses to this repeating event.

With emotion, I think that removing the statue of Joe Paterno was the right thing to do. Why with emotion? Because in so many enduring ways, Joe Paterno remains a model of fortitude and spirited excellence. Because, I admit, I look up to Italian-American achievement with pride. Because tragedy -- which is what this story is in the truest sense -- is dramatic.

Just a short thought, regarding sustainability books. The Local Politics of Global Sustainability, the best book I've found so far about social sustainability, is filed in the Greenback library system under Library of Congress classification "HC 79". HC 79 is the classification for "Economic history and conditions -- Special topics".

Beijing-based reflections on international collaboration, Yale-NUS College, and internet censorship in China.

I read with interest that the City College of San Francisco may need “special” trustees to come in and right the ship. Folks who’ve been following the development of “emergency fiscal managers” in Michigan, or even the municipal bankruptcies in California, will have a sense of deja vu.

TED released a new TedBooks iOS app this week. The app is free, the books are $2.99 and are built on the Atavist platform. The text is accompanied by videos, images, links, and in some cases audio narration.

When I teach sampling in my statistics classes, I often talk about the role that Ohio has traditionally played in determining the outcome of presidential races. This was something that I was blissfully unaware of growing up on the East Coast, where I was led to believe that anything that mattered in the country happened east of the Hudson River. Now that I live in Ohio, I realize that my adopted state has often played an important role in determining the final outcomes of presidential races, and that this year’s race promises to be no different. Indeed, those of us who live in Ohio cannot turn on the radio or TV these days without encountering ads from both sides of the isle. This is particularly annoying to those of us who tend to watch or listen to the news, as such programs are where political ads are being concentrated at this point in the race.

A few years ago, I was walking down the streets of my hometown trying to picture places of my childhood to make an archive. When I came in front of the house I lived in as a child and compared my life then and now, I asked myself the question: “How the hell did you get to where you are, Itır?”