Res ipsa loquitur ("The thing itself speaks")
It is with great sadness that I report the death of Chapman Law Professor Mary Katherine Baird Darmer, 47, a leading proponent for protections of gay and lesbian citizens. Darmer died in a six-story fall from a parking garage that was believed to be a suicide. She leaves a husband and at least one child.
Continue reading ‘Law Professor And Leading Gay Rights Advocate Dies In Apparent Suicide’
Sometimes the Chinese are sooooo competitive. On the heels of the announcement of Russian scientists that they have grown a plant from 30,000 old seeds, Chinese scientists have announced that they have found an entire 300-million-year-old peat-forming forest at a site near Wuda, China. Of course, Americans have had the last laugh but pointing out that the Earth is only 5000-6000 years old, according to Creation Science and many of our leaders.
We have previously discussed the growing number of stories of young children raised in the opposite gender (here) or without a gender (here and here). The children raised in the opposite gender are often found to have Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Now, a four-year old boy named Zach has been diagnosed with GID and he is being raised as a girl. He began to evidence GID, according to his doctors and parents, when he was three.
Continue reading ‘Four-Year-Old Boy Diagnosed With Gender Identity Disorder And Raised A Girl’
Scientists in Russia have announced that they have grown plants from seeds stored away by squirrels over 30,000 years ago in the banks of the Kolmya River in Siberia. The Institute of Cell Biophysics team claims to have raised plants of Silene stenophylla from the squirrel leavings. Of course, what they really found was a den of atheist squirrels since various presidential candidates and religious figures have agreed that the Earth is only 5000 to 6000 years old.
Continue reading ‘Atheist Squirrel Science: Russians Grow Fruit From 30,000 Year Old Seeds’
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Recently, the Wall Street Journal refused to publish a letter on the subject of climate change that was signed by 255 scientists—all of whom are members of the United States National Academy of Sciences. The WSJ chose instead to publish an opinion piece titled No Need to Panic about Global Warming that was written by 16 “other scientists.” It has been reported that the 16 “other scientists” include engineers, a physician, a retired airplane designer, a retired electrical engineer, and astrophysicists. Also included among the “No Need to Panic” authors are two men—one who questions whether smoking causes cancer (Richard Lindzen) and another who does not believe that asbestos is a health hazard (Claude Allegre).
According to Media Matters, most of the scientists who signed the WSJ op-ed do not publish peer-reviewed papers on climate research. In addition, more than a third of them have links to fossil fuel interests.
Peter Gleick, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a MacArthur Fellow, wrote an article for Forbes descrying the WSJ’s actions.
Gleick wrote:
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has long been understood to be not only antagonistic to the facts of climate science, but hostile. But in a remarkable example of their unabashed bias, on Friday they published an opinion piece that not only repeats many of the flawed and misleading arguments about climate science, but purports to be of special significance because it was signed by 16 “scientists.”
We have followed a disturbing trend of teachers, and other public employees, who have been fired for activities in their private lives, including jobs previously held in the entertainment or sex industries. Now, an elementary teacher in the Bronx, Melissa Petro, has lost her job because she wrote a column in the Huffington Post on her brief stint as a sex worker. Dubbed the “Hooker Teacher,” Petro was shown the door at the demand of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Some drinks just make you want to scream “UCC.” The Uniform Commercial Code that is. The Cheesecake Factory has announced it will yield to demands from Massachusetts lawyer Ross Mitchell who objected under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act to the failure to post the prices of its drinks. He is supported by Texas Wesleyan law professor Franklin Snyder who has invoked the UCC as required reading for anyone bar hopping.
Texas Southern University Jonathan Chan and Karla Ford have created their own form of clinical education. They are suing the law school in the Southern District of Texas for the D grades given to them by adjunct professor Shelley Smith teaching a first-year contracts class. They allege that the grades were “arbitrary and capricious” and meant to “curve them out” of the class.
Continue reading ‘Clinical Credit? Texas Southern University Law Students Sue Over Poor Grades’
The University of North Dakota has decided to challenge the NCAA and its threat of sanctions for using Native American names and symbols for its sports team. The UND is bringing back its traditional nickname of the “Fighting Sioux” and said that it will take whatever punishment is meted out by the NCAA. Various universities have withdrawn such names except schools like the the Florida State Seminoles and the Central Michigan Chippewas who received tribal permission to keep their nicknames.
Temple University Edwin T. Kim, 31, has received a criminal conviction and two-years probation after pleading guilty to hacking into the school’s system to improve his grades. The tampering with records violation was discovered by one of his professors who found herself locked out of the system in trying to enter grades. What is remarkable however is the temerity of Kim who changed his F grade in a couple of classes to an A-.
The Catholic bishop of Harrisburg, Pa., Bishop Joseph McFadden is being criticized for comments where he compares American public schools to the system that Hitler and Mussolini sought to create. I actually think that part of the criticism of McFadden is misplaced, though he is certainly worthy of criticism. McFadden’s controversial statements follow a call for Catholics to organize against President Obama and his health care program by leading Catholic leaders.
Continue reading ‘Catholic Bishop: Hitler and Mussolini Would Love American Public Schools’
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
The bible of psychiatric/psychological diagnosis is the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)” published by the American Psychiatric Association. What it does is provide a standardization of diagnostic criteria, which allows Mental Health professionals to communicate with one another in a clearly defined set of common understandings.
“It is used in the United States of America and in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and policy makers. The DSM is a legitimating document and provides legal, medical, and ethical justification for physicians to diagnose and treat, judges to incarcerate and excuse, insurance companies to pay.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders
First published in 1952 the DSM has undergone five revisions since then. The latest revision will be the DSM V, scheduled for a May 2013 publication. The last major revision in 1994 was called naturally the DSM IV. There are many problems with the DSM. Since this Manual is so important to the treatment for those suffering and recompense for those who profit from psychiatric/psychological needs, this is an issue that needs greater public awareness. I think is most pertinent to look at the underlying issues entailed in the DSM’s new iteration and how it affects us, or those we know. To do so, however, we must look at the problems with the DSM, from a psychological, systemic and economic perspective.
The first critical issue is that no health insurance company, Medicare and/or Medicaid will pay for psychological and/or psychiatric treatment and medication, without a professionally certified diagnostician categorizing the patient with a valid DSM diagnostic code. Thus the DSM’s definitions have critical importance to practitioners, provider agencies, drug companies and health insurance providers. I retired from the Mental Health profession seven years ago and other things have held my interest. However, l I caught a NY Times article, posted at the MSNBC website last week and it brought to mind issues that had bothered me during my career, specifically with the DSM. Continue reading ‘Defining Grief’
Researchers at the University of California (San Francisco) are calling for 
government regulation of sugar that compares to alcohol and tobacco regulations. While that may seem odd from the home of Ghirardelli Chocolate and the original Ho-Hos, the researchers cite elevated risks for heart disease, liver failure and obesity in showing that the risks compare to harm from controlled substances. By the way, can you tell the difference between these pictures of sugar and crystal meth? The answer is below, but it appears there is less of a difference on some levels in terms of societal danger.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have published a startling article in Science Magazine stating that drug addicts may have brain abnormalities that give them a predisposition toward addiction. It could radically change how we view addiction and its causes.
Continue reading ‘Study: Drug Addicts May Have Abnormal Brains Prone To Addiction’
The mad scientists at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania have developed this swarm of nano quadrotors that can perform remarkable flight operations.
Continue reading ‘Fun With Nanos . . . Or First Generation Hunter-Killer Robots?’
An appellate court has upheld a lower court decision that ordered American treasure-hunter Odyssey Marine Exploration to return to Spain some 594,000 gold and silver coin valued at roughly $500 million recovered on the ocean floor from a sunken Spanish Galleon. The United States government supported the Spanish in the claim and the coins are supposed to be returned to Spain within ten days.
Continue reading ‘Arggg! U.S. Court Orders The Return Of 500 Million Dollars Of Gold Coins To Spain’
The Economist just published an amazing chart of “Two Thousand Years In One Chart.” However, the most interesting claim is this: “[o]ver 23% of all the goods and services made since 1AD were produced from 2001 to 2010.” That is from the first product (the fig leaf outfits of Adam and Eve to last year’s Britney Spears CD).
Continue reading ‘Study: Over 23% of All Goods Created Since 1AD Were Made Between 2001 and 2010′
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
With apologies to Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton, I’m offering this version of his famous “fork”:
You’re a young idealist standing for the highest office in the land. Against many odds you’ve offered a candidacy of hope and change to an electorate tired of both war and the prior Administration that got them into those wars. There are rumors of widespread atrocities committed by that Administration in response to a horrific terrorist attack on American soil where thousands of your countrymen died. In your capacity as an US Senator, you’ve been briefed on several of these and you see a pattern developing. You’re a Constitutionalist; a lawyer; and a principled man, but you recognize the nation faces a real threat of nuclear holocaust at the hands of committed, well-funded terrorists supported and protected by renegade states and even some of our allies. These terrorists have a fanatical zeal and value martyrdom above self-preservation. You believe that if they acquire weapons of mass destruction the question will not be if millions of people will die, but which millions of people will die.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
I’d actually halfway finished a blog on a different subject today, when I was spun in a different direction. Thursday night I had done something I never do and watched the Republican Debate in Florida. It was frighteningly enlightening to say the least, but what stood out for me was Newt commenting that our President was a disciple of Saul Alinsky. I thought then “How many people today know who Saul Alinsky was and what he represented?” On last nights Bill Maher’s show, Bill asked the question “Who was Saul Alinsky?” as part of his New Rules segment. This morning in HuffPost, Frank Mankiewicz addressed a variant of the same question: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-mankiewicz/america-meet-saul-alinsky_b_1238953.html
The idea of following heroes to me has always seemed silly, yet there are people whose lives and work I deeply admire and to some sense try to emulate. My first was Clarence Darrow and it is therefore no coincidence that I am a denizen of this blog. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow . Clarence Darrow’s picture is used above because it is in the public realm, while mysteriously Saul Alinsky’s isn’t. Obviously, Saul Alinsky is another person whose life I admire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky Alinsky was a radical in his methods, but one who eschewed the doctrinaire self assurance of an ideologue. When asked if he ever considered joining the Communist Party he famously replied”
“Not at any time. I’ve never joined any organization—not even the ones I’ve organized myself. I prize my own independence too much. And philosophically, I could never accept any rigid dogma or ideology, whether it’s Christianity or Marxism. One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as ‘that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you’re right.’ If you don’t have that, if you think you’ve got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated. The greatest crimes in history have been perpetrated by such religious and political and racial fanatics, from the persecutions of the Inquisition on down to Communist purges and Nazi genocide.”
His was a belief that has resonated with me since those radical days in the 60’s, with the Movement, when I was surrounded by and courted by various ideologies, mostly Marxist whose rigidity of thought and party line belief, actually disgusted me. Yet there was Alinsky, the man who literally wrote the book on community organizing, who felt similarly towards ideological rigidity. He was truly an America Patriot, whose guiding idea was to assist downtrodden people to gain power over their lives and give them a chance to decide their fates. Alinsky was a man who achieved great success, if you define success as achieving ones goals. The disdain and demonization again being heaped upon him today comes from the very real threat his methodology has towards the 1% elite and curiously that aim of his was the reinstatement of “The American Dream” of freedom, equality and social justice. Continue reading ‘Who in Hell is Saul Alinsky?’
We have often discussed the ever-widening scope of copyright and trademark laws. This trend has prompted lawsuit over using generic images or terms, obvious parodies, or names. Now, an English court has ruled in favor of UK souvenir maker Temple Island Collection Ltd against New English Teas for using a picture of a London bus. Not a picture taken by Temple Island, mind you: Taking its own picture of a London bus that the court deemed as too close to a picture of a London bus taken by Temple Island. The Defendant used photoshop software to alter the image.
The Senate Education Committee of the Indiana Senate has overwhelmingly voted to approve a bill allowing for the teaching of creationism in the state’s public schools. The Sponsor is Senator Dennis Kruse.
Continue reading ‘Indiana Senate Moves Toward Teaching Of Creationism In Public Schools’
We have previously discussed the rising anti-intellectualism in the GOP race from the rejection of basic science principles to the demonification of academics and higher education. Rick Santorum this week ramped up on the attacks on colleges and universities with a speech that seemed to call for voters to avoid supporting — or even attempting — college. Santorum appears to be proudly embracing the pledge of Will Rogers that “America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.”
We have previously discussed how history is being forgotten in the United States, England, and other countries. We can now add Germany to the list. While one would hope that there are certain historical facts that are indelible, one in five young Germans has no idea that Auschwitz was a Nazi death camp.
Continue reading ‘One in Five Young Germans Do Not Know Auschwitz Was A Death Camp’
Country singer Garth Brooks has prevailed in his lawsuit to force the IntegrisCanadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon, Oklahoma to return half a million dollars from a prior gift. The case will likely be examined closely by universities and hospitals as a cautionary tale on the handling of donor money. What is clear is that, after taking one of its largest donors to court, the IntegrisCanadian Valley Regional Hospital can expect a rather chilly response from future donors. Here is the get part: the jury decided that he was a Victim of the Game and made the damages a cool $1 million dollars with punitive damages. Now that was a smart legal strategy for the hospital.
As a history buff who loves visiting France, I have previously objected to the commercialization of historical sites of a former French minister of Versailles. However, nothing quite prepared me for the new idea of former French minister Yves Jégo, who is planning the creation of “Napoleonland.” He is raising £180 million for the amusement park on the site of Napoleon’s final victory at the Battle of Montereau in 1814 just south of Paris.
Continue reading ‘Liberté, Egalité, Débauche: Former French Minister Pushes For Creation of “Napoleonland”’
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
For the first time I am writing a guest blog with a blatant message supporting a cause that you might say is near and dear to my heart. I hope Professor Turley excuses this personal usage of my guest blogging
privileges, as hopefully will my fellow guest bloggers. Here is my pitch. Some regulars here at the Turley blog know that I am a heart transplant recipient. I received my new heart in October 17, 2010, two days after the birth of my third grandchild. I am, needless to say, an extremely lucky man. My nuclear family all had heart issues. My parents both died at the age of 54 from heart attacks (Myocardial Infarctions {MI’s} as they’re known in the trade). It was my mother’s fourth or fifth and came as a result of her third stroke. When my father died, the requisite autopsy found that this was actually his second MI. My older brother has also had a severe stroke and an MI, but thankfully he is doing quite well today at age 75.
The main reason I am alive today, beyond the fact of my heart transplant, is because my wife during the worst stages of my illness, literally saved my life four times. Her love, care-giving, watchfulness and fierceness in ensuring my medical care, pulled me through very difficult times. We married thirty years ago when I was thirty-seven and six months later I suffered a massive MI, literally destroying one of my three main arteries. Unlike me, she had never experienced the severe illness of someone close, so this transition was obviously shattering but she saw me through. I guess you could say that there is a certain resiliency about me because I was to have two more MI’s at five year periods and yet was able to recover from them and work productively. However, seven years ago at age sixty, in the prime of my profession; I developed Congestive Heart Failure (Cardio Myopathy) and was forced to retire. Continue reading ‘From the Bottom of My New Heart’
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
This week I’m presenting something a little different as a blog. I’ve just read an incredibly interesting book that I was turned onto by either or both, Dredd and Anon Nurse. This book has added scientific clarity to a phenomenon that I’ve noticed for many years, with dismay. Why is it that some people, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, doggedly hold onto beliefs that they can’t logically defend? We can all agree that there are some issues that simply do not lend themselves to being categorized into absolutes of right and wrong. However, I will let the reader catalog those issues mentally, since there will be some who would no doubt take umbrage from any examples I would personally present. Yet I assert that there are some issues where despite probable protests, are not open to rational dispute. One of these is the age of the Earth and the Universe. The Earth is far older than Creationists/Intelligent Design advocates would set at six or seven thousand years. This is proven fact. I note that there are many religious people who accept this scientific fact and yet still believe in a creator and while not by any means a fundamentalist, I do believe that there is a creative force that informs the Universe. Whatever that force may be, it did its thing multiple billions of years ago.
I presented the above to illustrate the difference between a proven fact and an as yet, if ever, provable belief. The book “The Authoritarians” was written by Bob Altemeyer, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Professor Altemeyer has spent more than forty years doing research as a Social Psychologist into the parameters and root causes of authoritarian behavior in human beings. John Dean, of Watergate renown, made Bob semi-famous by using Bob’s work as a framework for his book “Conservatives Without Conscience”. I call Professor Altemeyer “Bob”, not out of personal familiarity, but because one of the joys of this book is that though it is a serious socio-psychological work, it is written by a man who doesn’t take himself too seriously, while presenting a very serious subject. My original intent in writing this piece was to present my conclusions, using the book as backup. However, the book, though well-documented, is only 262 pages and at the end of this piece will be a link that allows you to download it for free and read it. Bob presents this important topic far better than I could ever condense it. I’ll just give you a taste, hopefully whetting your appetite and then let you read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Continue reading ‘“The Authoritarians”, A Book Review and Book”’
In North Carolina, students at the North Windy Ridge Intermediate School were told that they could pick up a free Bible, donated by the Gideons. When Ginger Strivelli’s son came home with a new Bible, she decided to offer her own free copies of sacred books. She is a pagan and brought pagan spell books to the office. She was turned away (though I expect spell books in the age of Harry Potter would be snatched up like Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans). The Buncombe County Board of Education now says that it will reexamine its policies. However, this only came after a non-Christian religion asked for the same access to schools.
It is said that the world will rush to the door of the man with a better mouse trap, but what about a better mouse? A rat lies motionless on a sterile, spotless table. Israel’s Tel Aviv University psychology department is close to developing a cyborg rat — a leap ahead of those mad Swiss scientists. Where the Swiss are developing a more muscular mouse, the Israelis are going for the cyborg rat. I’ll put my money on the Israelis in the upcoming enhanced rodent wars.
Continue reading ‘Israeli Scientists Developing Cyborg Rats’
Sites like Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, and Reddit have gone black this morning in protest of The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which threatens Internet independence and free speech as well as a host of other rights. We have long discussed the ever-widening array of criminal and civil penalties pushed through Congress by the powerful radio and television lobby as well as other industry groups. The Obama Administration has been particularly willing to carry the water for these groups over objections from public interest groups. SOPA reflects the power of this lobby and its hold over members of Congress and the Obama Administration. While the Obama Administration has now responded to the outcry by insisting that it will tweak the bill, such promises ring hallow given its past efforts to appease this industry and its dishonest statements recently in other areas like the indefinite detention controversy. Notably, the recent admission from the White House that it has some concerns over the bill did not come until the public rallied against the bill — another indication of the control of an industry group in the drafting of legislation. This lobby is not going to go quietly into the night. It is more likely that it will work with the White House and Congress to achieve the same purposes with an incremental series of laws — if it does not simply win outright.
There is an interesting article published in Appetite Magazine showing the results of a study by German and Swiss academics into the effect of color on food consumption. The Scientists found that eating from red plates and drinking from red cups reduced the amount that people ate by forty percent.
Continue reading ‘Want to Lose Weight? Think Red’
Scientists at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris have published findings in Nature Geoscience that has challenged assumptions about the moon Titan, one of Saturn’s sixty moons and a focus of scientists because of the presence of an atmosphere and potential for life. Benjamin Charnay and Sébastien Lebonnois created a computer model that simulates the atmosphere on Titan and the model yielded some interesting results showing that the moon has two different boundary layers and the lower produces methane clouds, dune movement on the surface and wind patterns.
Continue reading ‘Titan Has Heat . . . And Two Atmospheres’
Below is today’s column in the Sunday Washington Post. The column addresses how the continued rollbacks on civil liberties in the United States conflicts with the view of the country as the land of the free. If we are going to adopt Chinese legal principles, we should at least have the integrity to adopt one Chinese proverb: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” We seem as a country to be in denial as to the implications of these laws and policies. Whether we are viewed as a free country with authoritarian inclinations or an authoritarian nation with free aspirations (or some other hybrid definition), we are clearly not what we once were.
Continue reading ’10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free’
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Almost four weeks ago I read an article in Huffington Post entitled: “Can Loving A Robot Lead to Divorce?” by Vicki Larson, a journalist. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-larson/robots_1_b_1150679.html Ms. Larson introduces her piece by quoting the claims of a current manufacturer of anatomically correct “sex robots”, who presumably speak and move in sexual ways. I followed the article’s link to the website of the robots inventor, Douglas Hines, who enthusiastically discusses his creation and has a few videos (non-explicit) that demonstrate the robot’s “capabilities”. While the HuffPost article links the Company’s website, I’m not doing it here, since publicizing this device is not my aim. Should you want further information it is available at the articles link. The “sex robot” being produced now is but an update on inflatable sex toys, though with a “skeleton”, rudimentary movement and speech added. It therefore is only an opening reference to a real issue that will shortly become scientifically possible.
The next part of this short article is an overview with of the opinion of Artificial Intelligence Expert David Levy http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=humans-marrying-robots “It also may be the future of love and marriage, if you believe artificial intelligent (AI) expert David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots. According to Levy, human-robot sex, love and marriage is inevitable — perhaps as soon as 2025. He predicts that robots may not only be more lovable and faithful than many humans, but they may even be more emotionally available than the “typical American human male.” Not only will they make us become better, more creative lovers, but they also will offer those singles who feel a void in their emotional and sexual lives and married couples with differing sexual needs new, nonjudgmental ways to be happy and healthy. Although Levy believes that the “availability of regular sex with a robot will dramatically reduce the incidence of infidelity as we know it today,” he also acknowledges there may be some potential sticky points. “Some human spouses and lovers might consider robot sex to be just as unfaithful as sex with another person.”
Levy’s view naturally flows into the conclusion of the article which is an E Mail interview with Sonya Ziaja, a San Francisco Bay Area attorney who blogs at numerous law and policy media outlets as well as her own, Shark. Laser. Blawg.
“And what could be more fraught with legal dilemmas than a love triangle among a married couple and a sexbot? How that might impact a divorce? That’s what Ziaja explores in her paper, “Homewrecker 2.0: An Exploration of Liability for Heart Balm Torts Involving AI Humanoid Consorts,” which she presented at the 2011 International Conference on Social Robotics that took place in Amsterdam at the end of November.
“If the doll’s owner becomes enamored with the doll, and leaves his spouse, can the spouse sue as she or he would be able to if the interloper had been human? And who would be sued? The manufacturer? Inventor? The AI itself?” she questions. “So long as we’re intent on adding socially interactive AI into situations that would ordinarily be only human. … socially interactive robots need to be ‘safe to play with’ in a way that manufacturers of toaster ovens never had to imagine.”
Thus we are presented here with a legal quandary instigated by the advent of revolutionary technology affecting serious legal, moral and ethical issues. How should we view this inevitability and how shall we deal with it as a society? Continue reading ‘Robot Love?’
Ben Stein is an actor who often appears at conservative conferences and events — often speaking against such things as global warming. Stein’s hard-right politics has made him a hero for conservatives and a villain for liberals. Now, however, he is suing after a company decided that his political advocacy undermined his value as a spokesman. While some conservatives might view such discrimination lawsuits and emotional distress claims as another sign of our litigious society, Stein is suing Japanese company Kyocera Corporation and the New York ad agency Seiter & Miller for the loss of a $300,000 gig. He says that Kyocera then tapped a University of Maryland economics professor whom his lawsuit portrays as a Stein lookalike or clone. Stein declares in his lawsuit that he is “the most famous economics teacher in the world.” Sure there were Adam Smith, John Kenneth Galbraith, and John Maynard Keynes. There were even people like Karl Marx who fashioned themselves as well known economists. But none of them appeared in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
Continue reading ‘Ben Stein’s Money: Actor Sues Japanese Company For Dumping Him For Another Nerdy Economist’
Rhode Island high school student Jessica Ahlquist has taught her school officials a useful lesson on civics this week. The Cranston High School West student won her challenge to a large prayer mural displayed at the school with a federal judge ordering its removal as a violation of the separation of church and state.
Continue reading ‘Brava, Jessica Ahlquist: Rhode Island High School Student Wins Separation Lawsuit’
It is oft said that those who can’t, teach. Well, a new AOL study finds legal teaching to be the second best job in terms of lifestyle in the United States. Airline pilots come out on top. After my continuing failure to land the job with the Chippendale dancers and the Chicago Bears offensive line, the study could not be more welcomed. However, the “lifestyle” ranking seems to be code to “little work, high pay.”
Continue reading ‘Law Professors Ranked Among Top Jobs In Annual Study’
Last night, we received word of two considerable accomplishments. First, we won the ABA Journal’s selection as the top opinion blog. Second, we hit our 10 millionth viewer on the blog. We are routinely ranked as one of the most visited legal blogs by AVVO. As our viewership has grown in only a few short years, we have reached a wider and wider international audience.
Continue reading ‘Turley Blog Hits 10 Million Viewers’
Last night the editors of the ABA Journal informed us that we have voted the top opinion blog of 2011 in the ABA Journal competition. It is our second such top award in the annual competition and it is an honor shared equally by all of our contributors and readers.
Continue reading ‘TURLEY BLOG PICKED AS TOP OPINION LEGAL BLOG IN 2011′
This rather attractive rock fragment has a lot of scientists talking this week. According to their tests, it is a previously unidentified natural quasicrystal that came to Earth riding on a meteorite some 4.5 billion years ago. They believe it is composed of the original material from the formation of our planetary system. For creationists who believe the Earth is only 5000 years old, it is a shiny rock in the office of a professor who can’t do math.
Continue reading ‘It Came From Outer Space: Scientists Believe They Have Found New Quasicrystal in 4.5 Billion Year Old Meteorite Fragment’
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Augusta State University (ASU) of Georgia was taken to court by a clinical psychology student, Jennifer Keeton, who refused to do coursework necessary for completing her degree. The coursework in question dealt with LGBTQ population. ”In her brief, Keeton describes herself as a Christian who is committed to the truth of the Bible, including what she believes are its teachings on human nature, the purpose and meaning of life, and the ethical standards that govern human conduct. She holds several beliefs about homosexuality that she views as arising from her Christian faith. She believes that ‘sexual behavior is the result of personal choice for which individuals are accountable, not inevitable deterministic forces; that gender is fixed and binary (i.e., male or female), not a social construct or personal choice subject to individual change; and that homosexuality is a ‘lifestyle,’ not a ‘state of being.’” ASU’s officials became aware that Keeton held these beliefs when she expressed to professors in class and fellow classmates in and out of class that she believed that the GLBTQ population suffers from identity confusion, and that she intended to attempt to convert students from being homosexual to heterosexual. Keeton also said that it would be difficult for her to work with GLBTQ clients and to separate her views about homosexuality from her clients’ views. Further, in answering a hypothetical posed by a faculty member, Keeton responded that as a high school counselor confronted by a sophomore student in crisis, questioning his sexual orientation, she would tell the student that it was not okay to be gay. Similarly, Keeton told a fellow classmate that, if a client discloses that he is gay, it was her intention to tell the client that his behavior is morally wrong and then try to change the client’s behavior, and if she were unable to help the client change his behavior, she would refer him to someone practicing conversion therapy.” Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 10-13925, D.C. Docket No. 1:10-cv-00099-JRH-WLB (Dec. 16, 2011)
This raises some interesting questions concerning free speech, free exercise and educational and professional accreditation.
Continue reading ‘Science and Education Win . . . in Georgia’
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the federal government has spent almost a billion and a half dollars to explore politically popular but scientifically dubious claims such as $666,000 to determine if distant prayer could heal AIDS. It didn’t. I would be interested in how this was tested. I cannot get the image of Lyn Cassady praying at a goat in a secret military lab.
Just as Henry V rallied the thin, tired troops on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, it is time to make that final call for votes in this year’s competition for the top opinion blog by the American Bar Association. There are now just two days left and, while we have pulled ahead in the last week, the contest remains very close with one of the top five largest legal blogs. If you like our blog, it is time to pony up and vote.
Continue reading ‘Just Two Days Left In The ABA Competition: We Need Your Vote!’
Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. Continue reading ‘Merry Christmas To All’
Scientists in England have declared the tune below to be the most relaxing tune in the history of human civilization. Aside from the expected lawsuit from Kenny G, the claim is based on a study of 40 women (no men) that selected the tune over pieces by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay. The claim is that “Weightless” can produce a trance-like calm. Much like Gingrich at a Tea Party Convention.
Continue reading ‘The Most Relaxing Tune Ever Or Really Bad Elevator Music?’
This year’s competition for the top opinion blog by the American Bar Association has become an intense race between our blog and one of the largest conservative legal blogs, Volokh Conspiracy. Even though VC is one of the largest blogs in the country, we are only a couple of dozen votes away with voting closing on December 31st. We need every vote so please spread the word to civil libertarians and others that we need their support to pull off the ultimate David and Goliath victory.
Continue reading ‘The Turley Blog Needs Your Vote! The ABA Competition Is Down To The Wire For Top Opinion Blog’
NYU Professor José Angel Santana says that he was doing what any responsible academic would do when faced with a student who missed 12 out of 14 assignments: he gave him a “D”. The problem, he alleges, was that the student was Hollywood hunk James Franco (left) from “127 Hours.” He says that he was ridiculed by the star and fired by the school over the decision. Franco gained fame portraying James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.
Continue reading ‘Celebrity Curve? NYU Professor Sues After Being Fired Allegedly For Giving Star James Franco A Bad Grade’
Newt Gingrich this week unleashed a series of attacks on the judiciary, calling for abolishing judges, getting rid of lifetime tenure, and ignoring judicial rulings that he does not agree with. We discussed yesterday his suggestion that judges could be arrested by federal officers and forced to appear before Congress to answer for their unpopular decisions. However, last night on Hardball I took Gingrich to task for what I consider a misrepresentation of not just the law but history in his reference to Lincoln.
Continue reading ‘Gingrich: The Great Emancipator From History?’
It appears that scientists will not stop at anything to fabricate fossils older than 5,000 years old — the rough age established by the Bible according to some creationists. The scientists found the fossils in a quarry that date back to the Ordovician period. The range of the fossils is considerable from sponges and worms to nautiloids.
Continue reading ‘Another Darwinistic Plot? Scientists Find 450 Million Year Old Fossils in Quarry’
Submitted by Mike Spindell, guest blogger
“Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor.” http://www.prosperousamerica.org/2011/02/23/ian_fletcher/
Mr. Fletcher wrote an article in HuffPost this week titled ” Why Is the American Left So Ineffective in Economics?” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-fletcher/why-is-the-american-left-_b_1142615.html?ref=politics&ir=Politics . On my first reading of this article, I sped through it cursorily, with general agreement and approval, book marking the link for further reference. As the day went on the article remained stuck in the back of my mind, for there was something about it that disturbed me, but I couldn’t quite figure out why. I looked up Mr. Fletcher’s credentials and they seemed good and certainly not one of being a Corporatist economist. The Coalition for a Prosperous America appears a worthwhile middle-of-road organization, whose supporters include labor unions, as well as medium and small businesses. They look askance at current US trade policies and that is a view with which I agree. Mr. Fletcher has a book titled: “Free Trade Doesn’t Work” http://www.freetradedoesntwork.com/ which people I respect like Fritz Hollings and Thom Hartmann have praised. In it he discusses how there is a free-trade hegemony of both Democrats and Republicans representing the Washington establishment and marginalizing all the voices who disagree with free trade policies. This hegemony is what I describe as the Feudalist Corporatocracy. This is a man with who I’m in general agreement, why then my discomfort with his thesis in this article?
This article opens up with the following paragraph: “Anyone who’s still in a state of denial about the thesis implied by the title of this article can stop reading right here. I’ll just assume it’s obvious enough that we can take it as a given.” He’s right, the thesis implied in the title is indisputable. The Left has been ineffective in combatting the economic policies started by Ronald Reagan’s election and has been in constant retreat from the onslaught of right-wing economic policies. This has been true to such an extent that Bill Clinton reaffirmed Alan Greenspan as the head of The Federal Reserve and Barack Obama reaffirmed G.W. Bush’s choice of Ben Bernake. Both of these men are little more than philosophical minions/co-dependents of Wall Street and the Big Banks. Where I take issue with Mr. Fletcher is in why he believes the Left’s economic weakness has come about. To me his view of the origins of this Left Wing retreat is shortsighted and ignores the 800 pound gorilla in the room. If we don’t understand the causes of problems we face, then no matter how prescient the analysis of their nature, we are almost powerless to combat them. Since the article in question is rather brief, I’m going to dispute it point by point. Continue reading ‘Is the American Left Ineffective in Economics?’
This poster was made by a teacher to announce the Rock Paper Scissors tournament. Pure genius.
Continue reading ‘History As An Extension of Rock, Paper, Scissors’
Ever marvel at how your baby mimicked your spouse? Now you know that the baby was not just copying your spouse but rejecting you as “unreliable.” A new study of behavior in babies found that they sized up parents and adults before choosing who to copy — rejecting some as not credible or reliable.
Continue reading ‘From The Mouths of Babes: Study Finds That Babies Copy The Most “Reliable” Adults’
Yeshiva University has taken a step that appears to affirm that it is religious first and a university second. The school’s study body stripped an online student newspaper of funding over a column that discussed a sexual encounter between two students. The attack on free speech and free press occurred after the students rightfully refused to censure their own newspaper and writer. It is a shameful act by Yeshiva that puts the university squarely in the category of intolerant, orthodox institutions — a blow to many faculty and students who have struggled to make Yeshiva something more than a school teaching Jewish values.
Continue reading ‘Yeshiva University Strips Newspaper Of Funding For Standing Up For Journalistic Principle and Refusing To Retract Article’
University of Illinois Law Professor Dhammika Dharmapala was the victim of a shocking violent attack this week at a train station when Joshua Scaggs, 23, allegedly stabbed him in the neck after shouting something about this being Scaggs’ country.
Continue reading ‘Illinois Law Professor Stabbed In Throat At Train Station’
This is very cool. Voyager 1 is about to become the first manmade object to leave our Solar System and enter the Milky Way after more than three decades in space. I remember when it was launched in 1977. It has been moving at 11 miles per second through space. We also learned some interesting stuff about Vesta in the asteroid belt this week.
Continue reading ‘To Boldly Go Where No Machine Has Gone Before: Voyager Set To Become First Man-Made Object To Leave Our Solar System’
Is this the face of a sexual harasser? This week, we discussed a seven-year-old who was investigated for sexual harassment for kicking another boy in the groin. Now, a nine-year-old boy in North Carolina who was accused of sexual harassment because a substitute teacher overheard Emanyea above chatting with a friend and calling a teacher “cute.” UPDATE: Jerry Bostic, the principal, has resigned over his decision to suspend the student.
Continue reading ‘Nine-Year-Old Boy In North Carolina Suspended For Sexual Harassment . . . For Telling Another Student That A Teacher Is “Cute”’
The Washington Post has an interesting article on “The Aging Brain” this week. I was particularly drawn to one observation . . .
Continue reading ‘The Aging Brain and the Torts Professor’
I have previously criticized Virginia Tech for its well-documented failures in the massacre of its students and faculty in 2007 while commending the actions of individuals like Professor Liviu Librescu who surpassed the school’s negligence with their own selfless heroism. One of the most outrageous aspects of the aftermath of the massacre was the use of ridiculously low liability caps of $100,000 in Virginia to deny recovery of reasonable damages by the families — and avoid full accountability over the school’s negligent conduct. Now the school is challenging a mere $55,000 fine for its negligence — a pittance in terms of the millions that it avoided through liability caps. While the school motto is Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), it views that in strictly non-monetary terms.
Continue reading ‘Virginia Tech Challenges $55,000 Fine For Negligence in 2007 Massacre’
Mark Curran is a presumed sexual harasser under investigation in South Boston. Nothing strange there. There are unfortunately a great number of sexual harassers in every city, but Mark Curran is seven. Officials at South Boston elementary school have informed his parents that Mark is the subject of a sexual harassment investigation after he kicked another boy in the crotch.
Continue reading ‘School Investigates Seven-Year-Old Boy For Sexual Harassment After Kicking Another Boy In The Groin’
For fans of Breaking Bad, Professor Irina Kristy, 74, would seem to walk right out of central casting. The math professor from Boston was arrested with her son and accused of dealing methamphetamine from her home.
Continue reading ‘Meth Math: Massachusetts Professor Arrested For Allegedly Dealing Drugs From Home’
In Nanuet, New York, parents are irate after a second-grade teacher reportedly told her 7-year-old students that there is no Santa and that their parents leave the presents under the tree. In Chicago, the FOX Chicago news anchor Robin Robinson decided to make the case to a bigger audience and proclaimed on the news show that Santa was not real and parents should tell their kids that the presents come from them.
Continue reading ‘Santa Slips: Teacher and Reporter Under Fire Over Santa Comments’
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
The National Review was founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley, Jr. It defined its’ purpose in a statement of intentions:
“Middle-of-the-Road, qua Middle of the Road, is politically, intellectually, and morally repugnant. We shall recommend policies for the simple reason that we consider them right (rather than “non-controversial”); and we consider them right because they are based on principles we deem right (rather than on popularity polls)…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review
Bill Buckley, the son of an oil baron, was born to wealth and privilege. He was a lieutenant in the Army from 1943 until 1945 when he entered Yale and became a member of Skull and Bones, along with future President George H.W. Bush. In 1953 Buckley became prominent for his book “God and Man at Yale”. So when he founded the National Review he was already prominent in Conservative circles. Oh yes, it should be mentioned he was a CIA field agent under E. Howard Hunt, from 1951 through 1953.
“George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement, believed that Buckley was “arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century… For an entire generation, he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure.”[6] Buckley’s primary contribution to politics was a fusion of traditional American political conservatism with laissez-faire economic theory and anti-communism, laying groundwork for the new American conservatism of U.S. presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan“. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_Jr.
Whether you like the National Review or not, you must admit that it is the single most important magazine of the Conservative movement in America and has been so since its’ founding. As you can see from their mission statement above they claim to eschew popularity and polls, serving higher priciples. I was therefore interested to come across a story this week that calls into question their true dedication to higher principles, or perhaps one of their principles is merely naked greed. Continue reading ‘Et Tu National Review?’
Submitted by Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Andy Warhol, said in 1968 that “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Forty-Three years later the remark has become ubiquitously prescient. The world is awash in a celebrity culture and America is at the acme of this “culture”. From one perspective this is merely the harmless fluff that people use in order to distract themselves from the depressing things their lives have offered. It is the triumph of “kitsch” over substance in the business of being famous. This has been true throughout mankind’s history. The lives and activities of the powerful have been followed by the masses with avid interest and have been the fodder of discussion around what served as the ancient’s water coolers, perhaps the public wells. Without a doubt in ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh’s comings and goings were constant conversational topics. Today, in a much different context, the American multitudes avidly follow the lives of the powerful, rich and famous, via innumerable outlets including Facebook and Twitter.
The question I’m broaching here is if this is a historic human trait, are there negative aspects of it that threaten the functioning and stability of our society? My own answer is that I’m not sure one way or another, but I am concerned about what I see all around me and perhaps would like the writers here to talk me down, so to speak. Now one might rightly ask what does this have to do with the law and the other topics we treat here on a daily basis. Only this week we have had news bulletins and stories about the sentencing of Michael Jackson’s doctor to four years in prison. On that same day no doubt there were dozens of news stories that had greater effect on our lives, yet every network paid much attention to it on their nightly news. At the risk of offending Michael Jackson fans, the death of this once famous “Pop Star”, self titled “King of Pop” if you will, was hardly worth the attention paid to it, when issues of economic collapse, wars, revolutions, genocides and famines raged throughout the media frenzy. Yet, I must say that the media knew their audience and this story catered to that audience. I understand the need for, and I myself have need of distraction from the woes of the world, so it is not as if I hold myself apart from the indulgence. Frequently instances of self loathing come to the fore as I slavishly behold the spectacle that our media creates for us surrounding people and issues that embarrass our attention, as they play out before our wide-eyed gazes. Continue reading ‘Today’s Celebrity is Yesterday’s Aristocracy’
Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University, and the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, have issued a “scientific” report that the proposed lifting of the ban on women driving will result within ten years in “no more virgins” in the Kingdom as well as “a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce.”
The ABA Journal has released its list of the top 100 legal blogs in the world and we are once again in this august group of blogs. Congratulations to all of our regulars contributors and weekend bloggers. This blog’s success is due entirely to the consistently high level of commentary among our readers and, I believe, our commitment to civil and substantive (if at times passionate) dialogue on the legal and political issues of our day. We are again placed in the “opinion” category and facing two of the top five most popular blogs. You can vote at You can vote at this site by clicking on the “opinion” category and we need your vote. A quick registration is needed to prevent cheating in the competition.
Continue reading ‘Turley Blog Selected As A Top 100 Legal Blog — Now We Need Your Vote!’
We have another case of a teacher who has been suspended or fired because of conduct in their private lives. Kevin Hogan teaches English and crew at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, a highly rated high school, in Malden, Massachusetts. That was before someone told the school that he has appeared in pornographic movies like “Just Gone Gay 8″ under the name Hytch Cawke
Continue reading ‘Massachusetts Teacher Suspended Due To Prior Career As Porn Star’
Former Philadelphia schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman is the center of a firestorm this week after she accepted a roughly $1 million buyout from the city and then promptly filed for unemployment benefits. The outrage over the unemployment claim may be better directed at the school district’s handing out obscene salaries and buyouts.
Continue reading ‘Philadelphia School Head Is Given $1 Million Buyout . . . And Then Files For Unemployment Benefits’
We recently saw how the leading California physicians group has called for the decriminalization of marijuana as no more harmful as alcohol. Now a new study suggests that legalizing medical marijuana has resulted in a nearly nine percent drop in traffic deaths and a five percent reduction in beer sales.
Archeologists in Israel have shocked religious officials with a new finding that the revered Western Wall in Jerusalem is not what people have long believed: a wall built by the Jewish ruler Herod. Newly discovered coins underneath wall strongly indicate that it was built long after Herod’s death.
Continue reading ‘Oops: Archeologists Discover Western Wall Was Probably Not Built By Herod’
I just saw this video on YouTube and had to share it. Scientists decided to pump a special concrete into an ant colony to create a hard structure of the “ant city.” The result is astonishing.
Continue reading ‘Welcome To Ant City’
Grant Smith, 47, of Utah is the subject of a rare case of child pornography involving witnesses. Usually child porn cases arise from searches of personal or work computers. Smith, however, allegedly decided to review his cache of child porn on a flight from Utah to Boston. Another passenger in First Class reported him to flight attendants who called in the police. [Update: Smith is a professor at the University of Utah and has pleaded not guilty].
Many of us grew up watching Monty Hall on Let’s Make a Deal. It turns out that the show presents something of a mathematical conundrum: does switching your choice at the last minute between the two remaining rooms increase your chances of success? The video below presents the answer and it may surprise you.
It appears that British medical schools are facing a growing problem of Muslim medical students and doctors walking out of courses in protest when evolution is taught as part of biology. The students and teachers believe that Darwin’s theories conflict with the Koran, as do many Christians (and apparently most — but not all — GOP presidential contenders) believe in the United States. The view is a bit more unsettling when future doctors refuse to even hear about evolution as a blasphemous subject.
Continue reading ‘British Medical Schools Facing Backlash Over Evolution From Muslim Students’
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
America has the world’s highest rate of incarceration, currently 738 per 100,000. Our nearest competitor for this dubious distinction is the Russian Federation with 607 and Cuba with 487. “The US incarcerates at a rate 4 to 7 times higher than other western nations such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany and up to 32 times higher than nations with the lowest rates such as Nepal, Nigeria, and India.”
http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2006nov_factsheet_incarceration.pdf Despite possible protestations that this is because we have the best law enforcement, my sense is that the reasons lie more in the system, than those who enforce it. No one ever lost an election in America because of the perception they “were tough on crime”.
“Race: Black males continue to be incarcerated at an extraordinary rate. Black males make up 35.4 percent of the jail and prison population — even though they make up less than 10 percent of the overall U.S population. Four percent of U.S. black males were in jail or prison last year, compared to 1.7 percent of Hispanic males and .7 percent of white males. In other words, black males were locked up at almost six times the rate of their white counterparts.” http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2006nov_factsheet_incarceration.pdf
Despite possible protestations that this is because we have the best law enforcement, my sense is that the reasons lie more in the system, than those who enforce it. No one ever lost an election in America because of the perception they “were tough on crime”. “Race: Black males continue to be incarcerated at an extraordinary rate. Black males make up 35.4 percent of the jail and prison population — even though they make up less than 10 percent of the overall U.S population. Four percent of U.S. black males were in jail or prison last year, compared to 1.7 percent of Hispanic males and .7 percent of white males. In other words, black males were locked up at almost six times the rate of their white counterparts.”
http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/boiling-hot-mad/.html
These two sets of statistics when viewed together tell a terrible tale of how racial oppression still exists in this country despite our Black President and Black Attorney General. This Administration hasn’t caused of this problem, but they don’t seem to have made any progress dealing with it. We do know that there has been a widespread effort to play down the racial division that continues to plague this country. This continues despite Civil Rights Laws, Martin Luther King’s Birthday and TV beer commercials that always include at least one black male friend enjoying the camaraderie. Clearly there is a disconnect between how we Americans want to see ourselves and the reality for many Black males. Continue reading ‘The Incarceration of Black Men in America’
UCLA researcher have announced a discovery that should have garnered more attention in the media: a mouthwash that could effectively eliminate dental cavities. The study details how the researchers have been able to eliminate S. mutans bacteria – the main cause of tooth decay — while not killing good bacteria that helps fight tooth decay. Current mouthwash products act like nuclear bombs — killing good and bad bacteria indiscriminately. The scientists used new antimicrobial technology known as specifically targeted anti-microbial peptides, or STAMP.
Continue reading ‘Scientists Develop “Smart Bomb” Mouthwash That Could Eliminate Tooth Decay’
There is an interesting study out by University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky, which appears to show that one of the causes of forgetfulness may be doorways. Radvansky’s study shows that “entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away.” Does this mean that we need a type of psychological feng shui movement with homes built with fewer doorways?
Continue reading ‘Abandon Memory All Ye Who Enter Here: Study Finds Doorways Cause Forgetfulness’
We have been following the uproar over Suffolk Professor Michael Avery’s email criticizing the sending of care packages to troops abroad. Many of us joined in that criticism while supporting Avery’s right to raise his objections. Now, an adjunct professor, U.S. Army Reserve Major Robert Roughsedge, serving in Afghanistan has resigned over the controversy — a curious response that seems to suggest that Avery should not have been allowed to voice such positions.
Continue reading ‘Suffolk Professor Resigns Over Anti-Military Statements of Colleague’
Princeton George M. Moffett Professor Emeritus of Biology John Bonner, 89, has dedicated his life to Dictyostelium discoideum, known to the rest of us as slim mold. He is described in Science Magazine this month as “the current patriarch of the slime mold community.” I loved the article and I think it is about time for you to take a little time out and consider the beauty and genius of our often-forgotten friend, the slime mold.
Continue reading ‘In Praise of Slime Mold . . . and The Academic Life’
Submitted by Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Last week during a long road trip, I was listening to a CD from the band The Eagles. A song came on written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey the group’s songwriters and leaders. The song is called “Get Over It”. As the autumn beautiful Shenandoah Valley landscape was passing by, a line from the song jarred me from my motoring reverie and made me think of this blog. The line was:
“The more I think about it, Old Billy was right
Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ‘em tonight.”
Continue reading ‘Let’s Kill All The Lawyers?’
A math teacher in Fort Myers, Florida is under fire for teaching his students about supply and demand within a market-based system. Jeff Spires’ problem appears to be his choice of pedagogical vehicle: purchasing their own grades. Spires was suspended from Charlotte County High School in Charlotte County, Fla., without pay on Oct. 14 and resigned two weeks later. This “new math” approach could have promise for wider applications as discussed below. Think of it as a variation of Adam Smith’s work, a type of “Wealth of Students” approach to the job market.
Continue reading ‘Teaching Supply and Demand: Florida Teacher Accused of Selling Math Grades’
In class, we discuss the evolution of mental health defenses in torts as society has come to recognize widespread emotional and behavioral problems. Like earlier studies, the latest report from Medco Health Solutions gives a glimpse into how common such problems are in our society with more than one in four American women taking at least one drug for conditions like anxiety and depression last year. This rate rose by 22 percent since 2001.
Continue reading ‘One in Four U.S. Women Take Medication for Mental Health Programs’
Toronto’s Earl Beatty Public School is the latest example of a school overreacting to simple schoolyard accidents or antics. A parent at the school was injured after being hit in the head by a soccer ball. The response: ban all balls for the children.
Continue reading ‘No Balls: Toronto School Bans Balls After Playground Accident’
EXCLUSIVE. Loyola University Professor Ralph Braseth in Chicago has shared with me a complaint alleging another incident of police ordering a citizen to delete videotape of an arrest taken in public. I have previously written about this worrisome trend. The difference is that Braseth is a journalism professor. The complaint raises some extremely serious allegations of censuring a journalist and violating core constitutional rights. If true, it is a telling retort to the taunting remarks of Judge Richard Posner recently about the “snooping” of citizens on police.
Continue reading ‘Chicago Journalism Professor: Chicago Police Department Detained Him and Deleted Video of Arrest’
Michael Avery, a professor at Suffolk University Law School, has found himself at the center of a raging storm after he sent the four-paragraph email below to colleagues complaining about the “shameful” program at the school to send care packages to U.S. troops abroad. Avery, a constitutional law professor, objected to send such packages to people “who have gone overseas to kill other human beings.” As you might imagine, the response has superheated with even Senator Scott Brown (R., Mass.) attacking the professor.
Continue reading ‘Suffolk University Law Professor Triggers Firestorm With Criticism of Care Packages To U.S. Troops’
Scientists have announced that they have invented a super strong mouse. One could debate whether we really need a super-strong mouse. However, those concerns would appear magnified for the Swiss with their copious amounts of cheese to protect. Yet, Swiss scientists believe that they have created a faster and stronger mouse.
Continue reading ‘Scientists Invent Mighty Mouse: Medical Breakthrough or Swiss Conspiracy?’
Submitted By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Who Are Penn State?
That ultimate question uttered by Senator Howard Baker encapsulated the Watergate Era as Congress grappled with assessing culpability of President Richard Nixon, who was then at the zenith of his presidency. Now almost forty years later, the nation is again captured by a fall from grace as steep and as fast as Nixon’s. And again that question has to be asked of “America’s Football Coach.”
Continue reading ‘Penn State: What Did They Know and When Did They Know it’
Scientists have made an amazing discovery that has answered a long-standing question: where cavemen who drew the spotted horses in Pech Merle, France taking artistic license? The answer appears to be no. The horses were indeed spotted, according to new DNA analysis of horse teeth from 25,000 years ago.
The University of Illinois law school has been fighting to regain its footing after a scandal over the admission of students due to their political connections. Now, the school is reeling from a new controversy: the disclosure that the school has published misleading data on admissions in six out of the last ten years.
I often read ABA Journal as a great source of legal stories. The journal however has been the center of controversy this month after reporting on the results of a study on the preference of secretaries vis-a-vis male and female partners. The study by Professor Felice Batlan interviewed 142 secretaries at larger law firms and produced a surprising result: not a single secretary preferred female partners. When the ABA Journal reported that surprising fact, professors accused it of fostering gender stereotypes, misrepresenting the results of the study, and displaying a sexist view of the work. Some demanded a retraction and apology from the ABA Journal.
Continue reading ‘ABA Journal Under Fire For Coverage Of Survey Of Legal Secretaries’
It appears that regular prostate checks were not common 2,250 years ago. Scientists have announced that they have found the oldest case of prostate cancer in a Ptolemaic mummy through high-powered digital imaging.
Continue reading ‘Mummy Told You To Check Your Prostate: Scientists Find Oldest Cancer’
In an amazing breakthrough, French researchers were able to restore the youth of cells taken from people aged over 100 years to reprogram them to the stem cells stage. The work published in Genes and Development Journal would suggest that aging is reversible.
Continue reading ‘Have Scientists Finally Found The Fountain of Youth?’
I am pretty certain I know the favorite graduate lab in Canada. Canadian researchers have just released the genome sequence of the Cannabis sativa, better none as The Purple Kush, one of the most potent forms of marijuana.
What do you get a new gas protoplanet just forming 450 Light Years ago. A Buzz Light Year nightlight? That is no doubt one of the pressing questions for a University of Hawaii astronomer who used the twin 10-metre Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea to capture the first direct image of a planet forming around a star. Much like human babies, it proved a bit gassy.
We just moved a little closer to making Superman obsolete. MIT scientists at the Lincoln Laboratory have announced that they have developed a new radar system that looks through walls using “ultrawideband multiple-input, multiple-output phased-array sensor.” For the rest of us, they developed x-ray vision!!!
Continue reading ‘MIT Scientists Discover X-Ray Vision . . . Sort Of’
This is a very cool story. Scientists have discovered that Mars once had a mild temperature of 64 degrees Fahrenheit. They deduced the temperature from a rock found in Antarctica that had a wild ride starting four billion years ago. (Of course, the scientists again ignore the “creation science” account and misjudge the age of the rock by just short of four billion years).
Continue reading ‘Rock of Ages: Scientists Determine Mars Once Had Mild Surface Temperature’
This week proved rather gruesome for teachers and students alike. In Illinois, Linda Walker (shown here) decided not only to hang herself but to do it in her kindergarten class. In France, a high school math teacher set herself on fire in the playground during the recreation period full of children.
Continue reading ‘School Horrors: Teacher in France Lights Herself On Fire on Playground While A Teacher in Illinois Hangs Herself in Her Classroom’
A Georgia teacher, Ashley Payne, has lost her lawsuit seeking damages after she said she was forced out due to a Facebook picture taken of her drinking in Europe. A teacher or parent had filed an anonymous complaint against Payne for photos showing her holding drinks in Europe — not normally a shocking image.
Continue reading ‘Georgia Court Rules Against Teacher Who Lost Job After Posting Facebook Pictures Drinking in Europe’
Florida Governor Rick Scott is messing with the wrong people. Recently, Scott used anthropologists as an example of the type of degree that the state could do without. Anthropologists have reacted across the country, suggesting that Scott should be re-classified as a Homo Moronus. I would be careful before you tick off people (in the case of forensic anthropologists) who dig up bodies for a living. In the academy, we have long viewed our anthropologist colleagues with a certain fear and intimidation. When you confront one of these guys at a faculty senate meeting, they make it clear that there are “a lot of still active tar pits around the country where mammals can disappear for thousands of years.” When a critic for another department disappears, they just shrug and say, “Louie, is sleeping with the aquatic vertebrate.”
Continue reading ‘Florida Governor Campaigns Against . . . Anthropologists’
I wanted to thank the faculty and students at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service for the honor of receiving the Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta Elder Justice Award this weekend in New York. This is the first year of the award, which is named after one of the great public interest figures and academics of our age.
Continue reading ‘Fordham and the 2011 Quaranta Award’
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
From Climate Science Watch (March 18, 2010): To the libertarians, the widely-shared scientific assessment that human-caused climate change will likely produce major harmful consequences — and the communication of this evidence to the public by the leading climate scientists — poses a particularly serious threat. An informed public concerned about the likelihood of harmful impacts of unchecked global climatic disruption is more likely to call for significant government action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In order to block proactive government policymaking and keep corporate interests unregulated, libertarian groups have focused a significant part of their efforts on climate change on distorting the science to confuse public opinion, denying the seriousness of the problem, and, most recently, impugning the integrity of the climate science community. The Koch brothers have stepped forward with deep pockets to bankroll such efforts.
Continue reading ‘The Mercatus Center: A Tentacle of the Deregulation-Loving Kochtopus Helping in the Effort to Deny Climate Change and Eviscerate the EPA’
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