links for 2009-02-11

  • "Let me add to the “Stanley Fish is just kind of pathetic” dogpile a bit here. In many ways, Fish’s latest column kind of reveals just how naked the emperor has become when it comes to hack complaints about the leftist intolerant academic-freedom abusing groupthink academy. "
  • "An editorial titled Is PRL Too Large to Have an ‘‘Impact’’? in this week’s PRL addresses some of the issues surrounding the journal and the impact factor. Not surprising to me, that single number fails to tell the whole story."
  • "Which description of reality are you (secretly?) cheering for? Are you more comfortable with the completely non-random deterministic view of the world, or are you instead enjoying the idea of a world built on random behaviour?"
  • "[P]eople going around saying things like "government is the problem" are either complete idiots or, at best, people who don’t bother thinking things through with enough effort to avoid sounding like complete idiots. When they say "government is the problem" what they’re really saying is "Having a state police force is the problem." Having a justice system is the problem. Having schools is the problem. Providing care for the indigent elderly and the physically or developmentally disabled is the problem. Public transportation is the problem. This is what they’re saying, whether or not they care enough to realize that this is what they’re saying. And what they’re saying is indefensible and abysmally stupid."