A Bayesian Take on Julian Assange By NATE SILVER* Suppose that you are taking the bullet train from Kyoto, Japan to Tokyo, as I did yesterday. The woman seated across from you has somewhat unusual facial features. You are curious to know whether she is Japanese, Caucasian, or some mix of both. Suppo[...]
Archive for December, 2010
Great Depression Comes to UW
The Daily asked in February ‘33, “Where will the University budget-cutting axe fall?” It got its answer at the conclusion of the 1933 legislative session when operating expenses were reduced 31.9 percent and faculty had their salaries cut 31 percent. read more.[...]
December 14th, 2010 - 12:08 am § in Politics
National Privatized Radio (c) NPR 2011
Michael Hood at Blatherwatch writes about the right wing effort to defund NPR. While NPR itself now only receives 2% of its funding from Congress, the real danger may well be to KUOW and the other locaL affiliates. The local stations get about 10% of their budgets from Congress. That is only $90 m[...]
December 13th, 2010 - 3:44 pm § in Misc.
Faculty Worry That Their Influence Is Waning, a New Book Says
An article at the Chronicle from Robin Wilson Shows that the UW is not alone in the decay of academic government: Some key findings from the survey: Administrators are more confident than either students or faculty members about how well their institutions are educating students. Fifty-two percent[...]
ANIMAL FARM, Congress Style
As government employees, we are all quite aware of NOT using government reources. How it it them that a Congressman’s son was caught using OUR federal Cadillac Escalade? Can a UW profs get a car too? Or at least a Vespa? The story is about John Conyer’s son. The Detroit Free Pr[...]
Nixon on Anthropology and The Jews
“I’ve just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits.” “The Jews have certain traits,”. “The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean whe[...]
Kiss My Tush?
from PZ Myer’s Pharyngula: “Funny business, this. Professor John McLachlan corresponded with the organizers of an international conference on integrative medicine, proposing some very peculiar ideas that he wanted to present. They were…intrigued. They asked him to flesh out his concept[...]
December 11th, 2010 - 4:37 am § in Uncategorized
Cutting @ Missouri University: Comp Sci, Nutrition and Foreign Languages
Computer science, food science and nutrition and three foreign languages are among the subjects on the Columbia campus meeting the state’s criteria, that is programs that produce too few degrees. 40 MU programs could be back on chopping block All this is confusing to me. Does this mean those f[...]
December 11th, 2010 - 3:55 am § in Misc.
UW Senate Reviews Emmert’s Arbitrary Decisions in the Aprikyan Case
News on Aprikyan (see previous entries here): The Senate leadership and the Secretary of the Faculty are seeking advice from the Advisory Committee on Faculty Code and Regulations about the principles upon which the President based his overturning of the faculty Panel’s decision. The plan is for[...]
December 9th, 2010 - 9:52 am § in Misc.
UW Email, Scandals Coming?
THE Ave is “off campus” .. This is One Reason Why: Yesterday I heard a very strong rumor about a scandal that may break soon on the Seattle media. The rumor is that one or more Seattle media (not TA!) has been using the freedom on information act to mine for abuses in the use […[...]