Israel Quietly Tends to Syria’s Wounded from the New York Times
"As the civil war in Syria rages, scores of casualties have been discreetly spirited across the hostile frontier for lifesaving treatment in Israel, an enemy country."
America Squanders its Human Capital: The U.S. Will Pay for Its Lackluster Investment in Children from the Los Angeles Times
"Unbeknownst to our bundle of joy, the country of his birth was down at the bottom of the list of 29 nations, with Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. .. . the Academic Pediatric Assn. had released its strategic road map, proclaiming poverty the "greatest problem for children in the U.S." ... Thus my grandson was ushered into America's garden of human capital."
Ah, those poor children -- let them eat cake - or asbestos - or lead paint or whatever. So sayeth the leaders of one of our two big political parties.
Moo Cluck Moo, Detroit-Area Fast Food Joint, Pays Its Workers $12 An Hour, Still Profits: Founder from the Huffington Post
"Enter Moo Cluck Moo, a Detroit-area burger joint profiting while still paying its employees $12 an hour. Brian Parker, the restaurant’s co-founder, explained the philosophy behind paying workers more than the the state mandated-minimum wage of $7.40 an hour. “The number one investment is human capital,” he told HuffPost Live. “We are investing in the process, in better foods, better quality, better service and better people.”"
Fate of Humanities Grad Programs in Question from the Pitt News
"This September, Pitt officials will decide whether certain graduate programs within the humanities will be cost effective enough to remain available. If Pitt’s administration elects to pass current proposals, admission to graduate programs in German and the classics will be “indefinitely suspended” until further notice. Additionally, the religious studies graduate department would be entirely terminated by 2022, under the current plan, which was proposed last month and is currently under consideration. The University’s plan reflects a nationwide pattern of universities cutting or terminating humanities programs at higher rates than the sciences in order to meet financial constraints."
While cost is probably a key driver, another consideration SHOULD be that there are virtually no jobs for grads coming out of these departments. I hate to say it, but this needs to happen in core areas of the humanities as well -- such as language, literature, and, yes, history. There is no need for more people with advanced degrees in these disciplines. Zero.
A very different view on essentially the same topic:
Old Professors Never Quit, They Just Hang Around (Mark Bauerlein) from Bloomberg
"The phenomenon of the teacher who sticks around well past age 70 has been widely noted, yet colleges have had little success in mitigating its impact. A survey commissioned by Fidelity Investments and reported at Inside Higher Ed in June found that “some 74 percent of professors aged 49-67 plan to delay retirement past age 65 or never retire at all.”"
"Little success in mitigating its impact..." Oh contrare! In the 1980s, the professoriate in the humanities was composed of approximately 2/3rds tenured faculty verses 1/3rd adjunct or temporary faculty. As the author notes, those numbers are now reversed. What you've been seeing for years is the shift away from tenured positions towards endless one-year appointments where professors make the equivalent of minimum wage or close to it. This guy's beef is (it seems) that old professors are paid too much and can't be easily fired. In my view, this guy largely misses the point. In academe, most tenure track professors in the humanities make between $40,000 and $70,000 a year with a handful topping out at $100,000. For all of them, they took x years of undergraduate study and then y years for grad school and then some years of adjuncting or do short-term gigs before they got on even the bottom rung of the tenure ladder. Most humanities professors now never even get to that bottom rung. That's where the concern should be -- not for that small percentage of folks who live their careers moving up that ladder and make it to retirement age.
How a Convicted Murderer Prepares for a Job Interview from Longreads
"Today we’re excited to make another recent Longreads Member Pick free for everyone. It’s a full chapter from Among Murderers: Life After Prison, by Sabine Heinlein."
Republicans Need a Budget Deal. They Need a Budget Deal Bad. (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"Republicans are coming to realize that sequestration is both a political and policy disaster for them, and they need a deal that replaces it. “Sequestration — and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts — must be brought to an end,” said Hal Rogers, the Republican chair of the House Appropriations Committee, after THUD’s failure."
This story (and others below) showcase how not-ready-for-primetime the GOP is to actually govern. That it is only now dawning on these people that "Oh sh*t! I may have to pay a political price" or "OMG! This policy I've been promoting as such a winner is totally unworkable and untenable!!" makes this abundantly clear.
Inside the Obamacare Resistance (Sarah Kliff) from the Washington Post
"“Our goal is directly opposite that of the administration’s. Our mantra is, ‘skip the exchange, pay the fine.’” Clancy concedes it’s a difficult pitch."
The GOP’s Kamikaze Mission to Stop Obamacare (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"The campaign will likely fail to make a dent with the broader public. But it might be convincing to some hardcore conservative activists, who will go without health coverage they otherwise would have had. And then some of them will get sick, or hurt — and then what?"
Endgame, Part 2: Have House Republicans Already Started to Break? (Ian Reifowitz) from Daily Kos
"Obama may well be able to break the logjam and get Congress moving again. In the process, I argued, he might even be able to break the House Republican caucus, if the couple of dozen not insane Republicans decide to come to a compromise with Democrats and, you know, govern, rather than go over the cliff and into the ravine with the tea party types. In recent days, a few things have happened that suggest that the Republican caucus in the House may have already begun to break."
How Obama Is Heeding the Lessons of Martin Luther King Jr. (George Condon Jr.) from National Journal
"The president's renewed call for economic fairness echoes King's push for jobs 50 years ago during the March on Washington."
GOP Governors: Don’t Shut Down The Government To Defund Obamacare from Talking Points Memo
"Republican governors sounded the alarm this past weekend over threats by some members of their party to risk a government shutdown in a quixotic effort to defund Obamacare, The New York Times reported."
The Lessons of 2012, Lost on Romney (Howell Raines) from the Washington Post
In “Collision 2012,” The Post’s Dan Balz explains how Republicans never knew what hit them."
Christie vs. Paul vs. Rubio vs. Cruz -- the Republican Implosion (Ruben Navarrette) from CNN
"American humorist Will Rogers once said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." The old saying goes that, come election time, Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall apart. ... That's how it has long been in our politics. Republicans were the party of order, Democrats were prone to chaos. No more."
WORLD WAR II NUGGET!!
Hitler in Colour: Rare Pictures of the Führer from the Daily Mail [of the UK].
"Hugo Jaeger was one of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's personal photographers. Shot thousands of images between 1936 and 1945 - most in colour."
SCIENCE NUGGET (of a sort)!!
The $330,000 Fake Burger (Nico Hines) from the Daily Beast
The world’s first lab-grown hamburger, made from the cells of a living cow, was eaten in London today. Diners’ verdict? A taste more test tube than meat."
COLD WAR NUGGET!!
‘The Diplomat’: Socialism’s Most Beautiful Face from the Daily Beast
"Katarina Witt was a figure-skating champion and the darling of the East German regime. A new ESPN documentary examines her ascent in the symbolically loaded Cold War sports scene."
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