Here is your morning solar flare shot to get you started. The Sun’s “northwestern limb” gave us this incredible display this week with an arcing jet of super-heated plasma.
Category: Academia
George Washington has been named Britain’s greatest ever foe by the UK’s National Army Museum. There is one guy who has grounds to object that those little skirmishes of Battle of Trafalgar and Waterloo appear to be entirely irrelevant.
Continue reading “Excusez-Moi? George Washington Named Britain’s Greatest Foe”
First the Italians took credit for discovering America hundreds of years after Vikings landed on Newfoundland. Now, it appears that the Viking landers discovered life on Mars in 1976, but were once again overlooked. The Genovese have already filed claims that they were it first. It would however explain why there were no valuables or life found on the planet decades after the Vikings land.
Continue reading “Eric the Red [Planet]? New Analysis Claims Vikings Found Martian Life”
After the bruising battle for the top opinion blog in past years, our regulars have been planning to prepare for this year’s competition. However, I am sorry to report that as of this morning I have decided to shelve the plans for a Turley Blog Death Star. Due to these lean times of downsizing and layoffs, the Death Star is no longer financially practicable in light of the recent report by Lehigh students that the star will cost $852 quadrillion. With current revenue generation from advertisements at zero, we will have to focus on other methods of seeking a competitive edge against Volokh Conspiracy, Ann Althouse and the rest.
Continue reading “Note to Bloggers: The Turley Blog Death Star To Be Shelved”
A former student of mine sent me this disturbing story about students at Jack Robey Junior High School in Pine Bluff being pepper-sprayed when they failed to go to their classes fast enough after lunch. One mother says that her daughter suffered a severe allergic reaction to the spray.
Jay Bauer, a Northwestern University doctoral graduate and former University of Wisconsin assistant professor of Communications Science, has filed an interesting lawsuit alleging that females are given unfair advantage in training for special agents. Bauer fell one push-up short of making the cut for agent and was denied a second try that was afforded to female candidates (who are required to do less than half of the push ups).
Continue reading “Former Professor Sues FBI For Gender Discrimination”
We made it home last night from Vermont after having a glorious time. I have always said that, if I ever left Virginia, I would go to Vermont. No state has worked so hard to protect the environment and preserve the natural beauty of the land. Vermont legislators basically work for free (with a small stipend for travel) and every citizen seems connected to the local and state political system.
Today the Turleys venture out to see if we can find a moose and to experience more of Vermont. We will start again with breakfast in downtown Randolph, which serves up heaping piles of blueberry pancakes and its own Maple syrup. While it is snowing a bit, the temperatures are not bad (in the 40s) for venturing out into the woods.
Below is my column this morning in The Los Angeles Times on the increasing number of cases where teachers are punished for comments or activities in their private lives — often under nebulous disruption or moral turpitude grounds. While the recent case of a teacher moonlighting as a porn star in California raises understandable concerns for school officials, most of these cases involve either past conduct or clearly protected speech. This is part of a broader number of cases that we have been following dealing with public employees ranging from city managers to police officers to firefighters. The question is how much our public employees must confirm their political and social activities to satisfy members of the public.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
A recurring meme used in American society by leaders and politicians is that certain acts must be done to “Defend Our Freedoms”. The use of this meme has occurred repeatedly in our history as a justification for certain governmental actions, particularly in defense of war. In some cases like our Revolution, or World War II its usage has been right on point, in others like Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan it’s been used as untruthful propaganda. On national and local levels the meme has also had a mixed history. It has been used to persecute radicals, as a States Rights justification of “Jim Crow” and post 9/11 to enact “security” legislation that many of us think actually diminishes freedom in the name of saving it. Continue reading “Defending Our Freedoms?”
A new report is out that the average education debt for law graduates at private schools last year was nearly $125,000. The list of the top schools in the debt competition may surprise you.
Continue reading “Debt U: Study Ranks Law Schools With Greatest Debt Load For Students”
This story is so bizarre that I had to check it twice to make sure it was not an early April Fool’s joke. The New York City Department of Education has barred the use of “Dinosaur” on tests to avoid upsetting people who believe creationism. Putting aside the fact that creationists do not deny that dinosaurs existed, the decision is to bar the use of a reference to an entire species because a fact might insult religious sensibilities.
Former William Mitchell sports law professor Clark Calvin Griffith, 70, has been charged with indecent exposure in a meeting with a 24-year-old student. The son of the former owner of the Minnesota Twins, Griffith resigned from the faculty and denies the charges.
Continue reading “Mitchell Adjunct Law Professor Arrested For Exposing Himself To Student”
Professor Paul Frampton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is not in his classroom his week because he is sitting in Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires for allegedly smuggling cocaine in his luggage. Frampton insists that he is innocent and that he will return to his research into “phenomenology” at the physics department. Frampton is an accomplished physicist and an adviser to the National Republican party, including drafting the science portion of the Republican platform for the 1988 Convention.
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Seems the far Right just can’t stay out of – or quit throwing – the muck. The Huffington Post reports that University of Rochester econ professor, Steve Landsburg, has launched his own attack on Georgetown law school student, Sandra Fluke, who had the temerity to speak her mind to a congressional committee discussing contraceptive services. Landsburg apparently dabbles in English grammar when his dismal graphs Continue reading “Professor “Defends” Sandra Fluke As Mere Extortionist or Prostitute Not Slut; Students React Creatively”