Monthly Archives: October 2011

U.S. Lags in Social Justice

Strangely enough, the transnational media conglomerate Bertelsmann happens to be majority owned by a non-profit social research organization: the Bertelsmann Foundation. This foundation has just published a report analyzing social justice in the OECD (ie. industrialized nations) through metrics such as … Continue reading

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In Village’s Fight Over Gas Drilling, Civility Is Fading

As it turns out, despite the furor here, the Marcellus Shale, a vast rock formation under New York, Pennsylvania and other states, is so shallow near Cooperstown it is not clear how much gas would be available and what kind of … Continue reading

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The Health Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing

After last week’s presentation by industry and regulators, yesterday’s panel discussion focused on the health risks of hydraulic fracturing.  It was sorely needed, as the previous discussants were averse to speaking about risk -something to be expected of corporate representatives, … Continue reading

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Candidate messages of the Occupy Movement

Žižek gave his take Wednesday: Their basic message is: the taboo is broken; we do not live in the best possible world; we are allowed, obliged even, to think about alternatives. via Occupy first. Demands come later | Slavoj Žižek … Continue reading

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Slavoj Žižek on #Occupy as an Acephalic Movement

Ok, he didn’t use that term.  But as he strikes many of the same notes I heard in Britt’s previous post, I’ve excerpted a bit from his essay in the Guardian this week (it’s worth reading in its entirety): What one … Continue reading

Posted in Open Access, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Transdisciplinarity | 1 Comment

Acephalic movement causing pundits to lose their heads

Occupy Wall Street is occupying the attention of news agencies, and frustrating them at the same time. This according to Dahlia Lithwick’s article in Slate: How OWS confuses and ignores Fox News and the pundit class. – Slate Magazine. The … Continue reading

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‘Getting to Clear’ – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education

We scholars are an odd sort. If we are philosophers, as well as academics, what are we doing in the Academy? Is ‘academic philosopher’ a contradiction in terms? How accurate is this characterization? The present is a depreciated form of … Continue reading

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Contrary to conventional wisdom…

… or is it? A recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece details several studies which argue that life choices such as raising a family are not the primary cultural factors that drive women out of professional careers. In the field … Continue reading

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The “Last Place Aversion” Paradox…

…needs interdisciplinizing: Support for redistribution, surprisingly enough, has plummeted during the recession…our recent research suggests that, far from being surprised that many working-class individuals would oppose redistribution, we might actually expect their opposition to rise during times of turmoil – despite the … Continue reading

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Why Obama Should Pay Attention To Occupy Wall Street’s Critique Of Higher Education

Because they’ve got a point? You be the judge. Why Obama Should Pay Attention To Occupy Wall Street’s Critique Of Higher Education | The New Republic.

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Citizen science takes off — but do we know where it’s going?

Anyone interested in innovation and accountability ought to read this article, which simultaneously raises a host of fascinating issues and evokes the feeling of the sublime. Citizen Science Takes Off: Could Community Labs Hatch the Next Generation of Bio Innovators? … Continue reading

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The Checkered History of the Texas Railroad Commission

The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) is supposed to be responsible for the environmental regulation of natural gas drilling in the state of Texas, but environmental regulation is simply not in its DNA. Rather, the RRC is a public bureaucracy that … Continue reading

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What is the State of Texas State Regulation?

A mixed crowd of students, academics, local residents, and about 15 protesters (all but 2 of whom left halfway through) attended yesterday’s panel discussion of Texas’ regulation of natural gas drilling. Jay Ewing, the first speaker, works in corporate management … Continue reading

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Urban Gas Drilling: Why do it?

CSID is hosting a panel discussion tonight on urban gas drilling in Denton, with panelists representing Texas state regulators and the petrochemical industry.  Before I go, I’m reading something of a case study of some of the local economic effects of … Continue reading

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Have Student Loans Become a Ponzi Scheme?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, college enrollment skyrocketed 38 percent, from 14.8 million to 20.4 million, between 1999 and 2009. (The previous decade it had only gone up 9 percent.) This should be a good thing—except it was … Continue reading

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More Corn Used for Fuel than for Food

For every 10 ears of corn that are grown in the United States today, only 2 are consumed directly by humans as food. The remaining 8 are used in almost equal shares for animal feed and for ethanol. And, for the 12 … Continue reading

Posted in Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 1 Comment

What’s the Future of Big Science?

The closure of the Tevatron particle accelerator seems to be prompting more nostalgia than introspection among those considering the implications of this event. The termination of the space shuttle program has brought on similar reactions: Neil Armstrong went so far … Continue reading

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The Most Practical Major?

[Philosophy] is also one of the most competitive disciplines. When I was a science editor I sometimes saw readers’ reports on colleagues’ philosophy manuscripts. There were often pages and pages of challenges to the authors’ arguments, concluding with a recommendation … Continue reading

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Is there a Bubble in Higher Education?

This massive infographic makes it seem fairly likely:

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Climate Science is Politically Repressed

…in other news: dog bites man. Just in case we thought the censorship of politically undesirable science was no longer de rigueur in the wake of the Bush administration’s many adventures with data, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is … Continue reading

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Reputable Scientists & Journalists Blow a Major Science Story

It’s well known that tropospheric warming causes stratospheric cooling, but somehow the BBC, Guardian, and New York Times don’t seem to know that: A huge hole that appeared in the Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Environmental policy, NASA, Open Access, Peer Review, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | 4 Comments

Someone wants to hear from the philosophers!

Richard Khalenberg thinks we’ve got something of value to add to the question of the future of the university: Adding philosophers in a more robust way to higher-education debates would surely have a salutary effect on administrators who are now … Continue reading

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The On-Going Wilderness Debate

…among the economically/financially inclined thinkers. Economist Debates: Wilderness.

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What’s anthropology worth? Not much to Florida Governor

Yet another round spent in the accountability barrage, this one from Florida Governor Rick Scott: “If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education, then I’m going to take that money to create jobs,” Mr. Scott … Continue reading

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Borges on Exactitude in Science

Through this one paragraph allegory (from 1946), Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges calls upon his reader to question the relation of scientific representation to the world it claims to represent: …In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection … Continue reading

Posted in Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 1 Comment