NASA has released an extraordinary tape of the sound picked up by the Cassini spacecraft as it plunged into Saturn on its final mission in 2017. The craft captured plasma waves from Saturn to its rings and into one of its moons, Enceladus. It is mesmerizing. It has been describing as Saturn singing and it is strangely beautiful.
Continue reading “Cosmic Whale Music: Listen To What Cassini Picked Up Near Saturn”
Students at Cambridge are objecting to the hiring of American Aron Wall, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California-Santa Barbara who studies “quantum gravity and black hole thermodynamics.” It is not Wall’s academic credentials or theories that are controversial. Rather, three years ago, Wall wrote a blog post critical of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, the decision protecting the right to same-sex marriage. Wall’s criticism was of non-monogamous relations in the gay and lesbian communities. One can easily see the objections to such arguments but critics have gone further to object that Wall’s personal views create a hostile or threatening environment. Continue reading “Cambridge Under Fire For Hiring American Physics Researcher Who Advocated Monogamy On Blog Three Years Ago”
We have been discussing the continuing problems at University of Missouri after the school mishandled the controversy over the actions of Professor Melissa Click who notoriously led attacks on a student journalist as part of protests. The school sacked Click, but the school proceeded to make a series of controversial concessions to protesters and forced the resignation of the President and Chancellor.The meltdown at Mizzou has continued this year with further deep budget and staffing cuts. This includes lay offs and the elimination of 155 positions. Continue reading “Meltdown At Mizzou: University of Missouri Cuts Budget and Staff In Continuing Decline After 2015 Protests”
Colleges and universities have been struggling to become more inclusive by allowing a variety of gender identities, including many asking that academics and staff post their preferred pronouns on emails or alter how they address students based on different pronouns. Now the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) has adopted 12 different gender identity options for students to choose in creating their account. The choice include include “agender, “androgyne,” “demingender,” “queer or genderfluid,” “man,” “transgender man,” “non-transgender man,” “questioning or unsure,” “woman,” “transgender woman,” “non-transgender woman,” and “additional gender category/identity [fill in the blank].”
Continue reading “LSAT Adopts 12 Different Gender Identity Options”
The death of UCLA Professor Doran George, 48, has shaken the university after he was found dead during a bondage session at the home of a Hollywood executive Skip Chasey. Chasey is known as Master Skip in the BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Dominance and Submission) community. George, who insisted on being called by the pronoun “their” rather than “he” or “she”, was found wrapped “head to toe in plastic wrap and gaffer’s tape, with small breathing holes at the nose and mouth.” George died in something called the “mummification” sex play.
Continue reading “UCLA Professor Dies During BDSM “Mummification” Game”
University of Central Florida Assistant Professor Ali Borji, 39, is criminally charged over what police say was a pattern of stalking that included over 800 text messages a day to a female student. He was arrested on campus at this office on June 28th. UCF says that he resigned earlier from the Department of Computer Science. Continue reading “Publish and Perish? Florida Professor Arrested For Allegedly Stalking Student With 800 Messages A Day”
The University of Exeter has had the embarrassing task for apologizing for its distribution of an inspiration quote to students that “One cannot permit unique opportunities to slip by for the sake of trifles.” The problem is that the quote is from General Erwin Rommel. What should be the most alarming aspect of this story is not the use of the Rommel quote but that the university personnel did not know who the “Desert Fox” was. Continue reading “University of Exeter Apologizes For Use of Inspirational Quote From Erwin Rommel”
Dr. Betsy Nabel, the president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School has decided to sanitize the school’s Bornstein Amphitheater . . . of white men. Nabel declared recently that she decided that all of the portraits of the historical leaders of the hospitals made minority students and visitors uncomfortable because they are white and male. Nabel therefore ordered their removal and was celebrated for her race-based cleansing of history. Continue reading “Harvard Hospital President Removes Historical Portraits Of White Doctors In The Name Of Diversity”
Many academics have been been following the long-running litigation over Harvard’s admissions criteria. The University has steadfastly resisted efforts to review its admissions statistics and criteria by both litigants and even the Department of Education. It has had to turn over that information and the results are a bit stunning, particularly with regard to the treatment of Asian students. A federal case has revealed what challengers claim is a sizable bias against Asian students and in favor of African American students with much lower scores. This includes a systemic downgrading of Asian students on a “personal” category that many have suggested is an effort to conceal an effective race-based quota or affirmative action system.
Continue reading “Harvard Accused Of Anti-Asian Bias In Admissions”
There has been a rising movement in colleges and universities led by professors who are advocating speech regulation and contesting basic values of free speech. The anti-free speech movement takes many forms. I previously voiced my objections to Antifa and its anti-free speech values, including academics legitimizing efforts to violently curtail free speech on our campuses. One of the most recent examples is the writing of University of Tennessee sociology Professor Victor Ray who explained in a column in Inside Higher Ed that diversity of thought is something of a trap and is in reality “a Trojan horse for white identity politics.” Continue reading “Sociology Professor Declares Diversity of Thought Is “A Trojan Horse For White Identity Politics””
University of Southern California Associate Professor of Communication Stacy L. Smith has written a report entitled “Critic’s Choice?” with USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative which discussed the problem that film critics are “largely white and male.” The solution appears to be the selection of critics based on their race and gender — as opposed to simply their talent and writing — to achieve “inclusion among film reviewers.” We previously discussed a Canadian gender quota for directors.
Below is my column in USA Today on the assertion of President Donald Trump that he can pardon himself. Since such an act would be the most profoundly disgraceful moment in the history of the American presidency, it is chilling to have a president to even engage in such a public debate. However, I believe that such a power does exist in the Constitution. It is a long and unresolved debate that turns on how you interpret silence. Since the Constitution is silent on any bar against a president benefitting from this power, I believe that a self-pardon is indeed constitutional, even if distasteful. Continue reading “Trump Can Indeed Pardon Himself . . . And We Should Now Never Speak Of This Again”
Former high school dean Shaun Harrison, 58, has been found guilty in one of the most bizarre and disturbing criminal cases in Boston. Harrison was an anti-violence advocate that the students called “the Rev.” He turned out to be a drug dealer who shot a student who was selling pot for him.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Carmen Puliafito, 67, the former Dean at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, was pushed into drug use by a 21-year-old former prostitute named Sarah Warren. His counsel argued that the Harvard-trained ophthalmologist is bipolar and became “addicted” to the young woman who led him into perdition.
The ACLU has an interesting free speech case in Missouri where Kylan Scheele, 18, was banned from his graduation by the Truman High School in Independence, Missouri. The high school appeared a bit ticked after Scheele post a Craigslist ad to sell the school for $12,725. The ACLU contends that the ban violates Scheele’s first amendment rights.