Posts from — November 2003

Hey Ralphie, boy!. Art Carney …dead @ 85. My favorite Ed Norton quote: “One hand washes the other… And both hands wash the face.” [MetaFilter}

copenhagen http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/06180.html

blacksburg http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=24060

only a 10 degree difference in fahrenheight, i'm going to freeze though, i can tell….

Why I Love Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the deliciousness that is Tofurky!

Tina thinks i will be spoiling my Thanksgiving treat by eating Tofurky tomorrow. I beg to differ. Tofurky is a treat everyday! Especially since it comes with gravy, dumplings, stuffing, and wishstix. It's like a dream come true. Tomorrow, we feast on the Tofurky. Then for the next three days, we feast on Tofurky sandwiches and leftovers! Even better, the Chai Nog hit the shelves this week.

I'm in vegan heaven.

Tina would like me to point out that most of the time she cooks fabulous gourmet vegan feasts but that i tend to only blog about the Tofurkys and Tator Tot Casseroles. She's right. Why just the other day we had fake meat festival where i have a Yves Chik'N Patty with Tofutti mozzarella fake cheese, fakin' bacon, and pineapple on it. And again tonight!

I live like a king!

Two things:

1. For those of you who are all inspired and have come down with Tofurky fever (it's contagious!) from this post, be warned. You need to thaw the Tofurky for 24 hours before you can cook it.

2. I think i'm sleeping on the couch tonight. [Eat Your Vegetables]

VETERANS DAY LINKS. Blogosphere tributes to our veterans: Donald Sensing Michele Catalano Kathy Kinsley Joe Katzman Alex Knapp… [OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY]

11 November 2003. In remembrance…. [Invisible Adjunct]

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nice symbolization

well its that time of year, veterans day in the u.s.

there are many veterans in this world, probably more than you think and they all served their government usually in the armed forces, but occasionally in other areas as determined by law. there are approximately 48million veterans in the u.s.

elsewhere people celebrate this day as rememberance day.

as for me, i performed my service:
157th SIB (Mechanized) (Spearhead Brigade)
D.C. Military Police
114th Infantry (Light) 29th (Stonewall Brigade)

from 1989, just after Panama, until 1997, 7 years and two months in the reserve and guard with a smattering of active duty, several near activations, a trip to the california desert to ride with the black horse, all fairly interesting.

If we didn't have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create something the size of NASA to make one. –H. Ross Perot. Paperplane.org : Ken Blackburn holds the World Record for time aloft for a paper airplane. Visit his site to read how he did it, the history of paper airplanes, read some competitive airplane flying rules, and learn to fold some new airplane designs of your own. [MetaFilter]

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i used to make all kinds of paper airplanes, usually when i was bored. i even have a few books on the subject around here. there is something very important about learning to build paper airplanes, it teaches you that you can make things that fly, and that is a liberating experience of sort. it also teaches you that design and precision matter when you are attempting a certain effect, like hovering in a breeze or long flight…..

Solidarity and Hierarchy in Academic Job Markets.

Via Brayden King, I’ve come across a nice paper by Shin-Kap Han in the current issue of Social Networks, which my colleague Ron Breiger co-edits. The paper is a network analysis of the exchange of job candidates in a number of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Though academics talk about “the job market,” it will not surprise you that placement is deeply embedded in systems of departmental status that bear little resemblance to a properly functioning market. Indeed, the paper finds that the discipline that makes the study (and promotion) of markets its specialty is the one with the highest degree of elite solidarity and hierarchical control over the placement of its graduate students.

The paper confirms the intuition that there are self-reproducing departmental status systems within disciplines. Job candidates in all disciplines are exchanged in a well-defined manner between three classes of departments. Class I departments, at the top, exchange students amongst themselves and supply lower-tier departments with students but do not hire from them. Class II departments are on the “semi-periphery,” generally exchanging candidates with each other (though there is a hierarchical element to this) and also sending students to Class III departments, which never place students outside of their class and usually do not hire students from within their class.

This broad structure applies to all disciplines, though some draw sharper boundaries than others between Classes I and II. (In Sociology, for instance, the differentiation is particularly strong.) Within Class I departments, there’s a good deal of variation across disciplines in the degree of factionalization within the elite departments and the solidarity of the exchange system, as measured by within-class exchanges of students. Economics has the most cohesive elite faction and its “dominance over the entire discipline is overwhelming.” Class I Psychology departments, by contrast, are considerably more decentralized, with three contending factions. Different measures bring out different aspects of the structure. Economics scores highest on all exchange-based measures of hierarchy and solidarity.

There’s an old article by Arthur Stinchcombe called “A Structural Analysis of Sociology” which, only half-jokingly, treats the exchange of job candidates in sociology from the perspective of Levi-Strauss’s structural anthropology: departments are tribes, graduate students are women to be married off, and areas of specialization are clan-markers that help define which exchanges are appropriate and which are taboo. Han’s paper does a nice job of quantifying the structure of exchange in graduate students and demonstrating how it varies across disciplines. It wouldn’t do prospective graduate students any harm to have a clear picture of this social structure in mind — together with a grasp of their own potential place in it as a unit of exchange — before applying to grad school.

[Kieran Healy's Weblog]

Soros declares war on Bush

Multi-billionaire George Soros just upped the ante, giving 5 million to MoveOn.org, furthering his campaign to insure Bush is not reeelected.

George Soros, one of the world's richest men, has given away nearly $5 billion to promote democracy in the former Soviet bloc, Africa and Asia.

Now he has a new project: defeating President Bush.

“It is the central focus of my life,” Soros said, his blue eyes settled on an unseen target. The 2004 presidential race, he said in an interview, is “a matter of life and death.”

Asked whether he would trade his $7 billion fortune to unseat Bush, Soros opened his mouth. Then he closed it. The proposal hung in the air: Would he become poor to beat Bush?

He said, “If someone guaranteed it.”

Soros is putting everything on the line. Expect the Republicans to do whatever to destroy him, expect him to do whatever to destroy Bush. Expect the 2004 Presidential race to be the equivalent of nuclear war.

This is not the time for sitting on the sidelines debating means vs. ends. This is war. Join in. Because Soros is correct, it is life or death.

Background

America Coming Together
Soros has given them 10 million so far. They plan attack ads against Bush in 17 swing states. Their board has other wealthy, committed lefties on it. Get on their mailing list. Join the fight. Now.

[Politics in the Zeros]

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this could be fun….. it does make things very interesting, very interesting indeed….

“What Is a Game” Conference. I've given myself an hour to writeup my impressions from the LevelUp conference, which will be a challenge because it was a busy 3 days. I'll give some highlights, anyway. (Here's a WSJ article previewing the event.) It was an… [grandtextauto.org]

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sounds like it was interesting and fun, hopefully i'll make it next year.