Gentle reader, I'll be gone for a few days for the Labor Day weekend.  (No, my professors don't know.  No, they won't know either.  Ever.  They can go on thinking I'm locked away in the library working on my horrible dissertation.  What they don

The aftermath of Katrina has been heartbreaking to watch on the news.  It's been a few years since I visited New Orleans (or, in native parlance, "Nawlins"), and I remember a gracious and beautiful Southern city full of good food and fine

I just finished the draft of a dissertation chapter.  I feel like I've just run some kind of crazy mental marathon.It's 36 pages long in Times New Roman font, 12 point.  The tiniest font ever, really.  When I switched it to Courier font, the chapt

No, really!  I'm not making this up!The incident happened a few days back in Sweden:A Swedish nuclear power plant shut down one of its three reactors Monday because of an abnormal accumulation of jellyfish in the cooling system...."When there a

Language lovers take note: here's an interesting story on the ups and downs of translating foreign words into/out of Mandarin Chinese.The words that are in the thick of this current flap are (sigh) "Jews" and "Islam."  I suppose

Check out this story about advertisements for eggs in India.  Eggs-cellent!So much controversy over "the incredible, edible egg"!Oh... Heck with it.  I give you, once more, the most eggs-cruciatingly cute egg cartoons ever.  Click on &qu

The recent Chinese version of "American Idol" is causing some waves in the Land of Ge-Ge.It's been wildly popular, with millions of Chinese fans voting to choose their favorite contestant and many millions more tuning in to watch.  (The wi

Gentle reader, there's an interesting op-ed piece in the Telegraph this morning which might be worth your time.Here's a bit of it:It is interesting to see our Government, which for years promoted the destruction of Britishness more assiduously than a

"Intellectual diversity" is everybody's clarion call on campuses everywhere, but in practice, I haven't seen too much of it.  If anything, the self-proclaimed elites try their best to stamp out viewpoints they don't like.  Insider Higher

Gentle reader, the word from my little island is that President Chen isn't mincing words:President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its chairman, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), to abandon the "myt

Gentle reader, I came across this fascinating page listing Harry Potter character names in other languages.  Very intriguing!According to it, the Mandarin Chinese renditions of some names differ depending on whether the version is from mainland Chin

Funniest education satire I've seen in a while!  Link xie-xie to Random10.OK, here's the look at teaching math in the U.S. over the last few decades...Teaching Math In 1950A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5

Rummy was recently asked about Taiwan during a press conference, and as usual, his responses are refreshingly unvarnished in this present age of endless "nuance" and circumlocution.  Among other things, he referred to Taiwan as a "sov

No, I'm not making this up.  I were I were. Here is the entire sordid tale as reported by the UK paper Telegraph:Farmers breeding guinea pigs have said they will abandon the work in the hope that the remains of their relative dug up from a grave in

This stupid statement by Pat Robertson is splashed all over every media outlet and blog known to man.  Look, this is America, and citizens have the right and freedom to express themselves.  Often, as in Robertson's case, this means the right and fr

No, I'm not making this up.  Those poor German students!I will never complain about campus housing crises again.  I will never complain about graduate housing again.

If you're unhappy with something the way it is, you ought to do something productive about it.  Same goes for education.The new hot thing is for parents to get their students tutoring outside of school.  (Link from Newsalert.)  Moms and dads are w

"March of the Penguins" was indeed a great little flick.  It seems penguins are a very hot commodity right now.  Check out this other penguin march, where a penguin named Nils Olav has been named Colonel in Chief of the Norwegian Royal

A few days ago, there was a massive outcry Down Under a new directive tcame out that ordered the Aussie parliament's security guards not to call lawmakers and visitors "mate."No more saying "G'day, mate"?  That's practically un-A

It's finally the weekend!Here is a little musical cartoon fun: "I Can't Afford My Gasoline!"Enjoy.

Professor Camille Paglia takes on academic madness and cultural decay.  Recently she gave a great interview.READ THE WHOLE THING.  It is fabulous. She's fabulous. Add her to your list of wonderfully incisive, reasonable, bold professors who are fig

The BBC reports that South Africans are the world's most aggressive drivers.Really? The researchers behind this tale have clearly never seen the road rage, 4-wheeled aggression, or sheer traffic insanity in New York, Rome, or Taipei (or, even more t

Well, they've gone and done it -- Beijing and Moscow have offically started their 8-day-long series of extensive wargames.  The exercises are called, by the way, "Peace Mission 2005."  (Excuse me while I *gag*.)Blogger Dignified Rant has

You'll remember that at the time, Taiwan was ruled by Japan.  There are all sorts of horrific stories of what went on -- from the Japanese use of Taiwanese "comfort women" to the jailing of Taiwanese natives (incidentally, my grandfather w

Gentle reader, have a look at this article from the BBC.Several political dissidents from China have fled to Taiwan for asylum.  Alas, this is causing a lot of trouble for both the dissidents and the Taiwanese government, since Taiwan itself is at l