How wonderful!

It may never be settled enough for some people...

Lady with a Secret

But it all seems magnificent. (And I don't care if it is worth $100 or $100,000,000. Its beauty and history make it just so wonderful!)

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A small article

about a very weird conference.

Vatican university hosts unusual tattoo conference

I mean, I guess I can see the justification for it, to a point. It just seems to me to be a pretty unusual and esoteric area of specialization...

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I will never understand

what motivates people to do things like this...

Pagan stone circle may have been destroyed in religous hate attack

"Police are probing the destruction of a Pagan stone circle in a possible religious hate attack."

(...and why do newspaper editors follow a headline with a quotation or comment that expresses almost word-for-word what the headline did...)

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I'm biased

but I happen to believe it does.

Catholic education: Does it still make a difference?

Or it did when I experienced it. Some years ago survey results showed that it did make a difference, quality of education-wise at least, in some U.S. studies that I read (but can no longer locate, even on the capacious intertubes, so I guess it has to be considered heresay). Times have changed, though. I don't know if Catholic education has changed as well.

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It may not be anti-religious, but docking marks might be extreme

'God bless you' causes classroom ruckus

"Just common practice or disruptive behavior? Bay Area teacher plays judge"

I think kids today can be different. I'm old, so things were different back in the days of slates and chalk (or clay tablets and pointed sticks, as SWMBO says). If something was forbidden we might test it once in a while, but generally we'd stop doing it. Kids today seem to try to push things more. That's where the disruption might come in...

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Our increasingly stupid world

Can I say that, or will Big Brother consider it a threat against the world?

The People's Democratic National Security State of Heaven - Part Deux

Here's the first poster, and here's the fascism poster he replaced the first with. (I've seen the fascism poster quite a few times in various places).

So, shouldn't all those violent TV shows be banned? And video games? And so on, and so on?

This is just silly...

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A good article

with an interesting argument on a great book...

 The Catch in “Catch-22”

"Joseph Heller’s iconic novel “Catch-22” set the political and moral agenda of the last 50 years with its hilarious cynical viewpoint. Morris Dickstein on how we still haven’t escaped or really heard the novel’s message."

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It seems to come down to

the usual academic bickering and worry about liability and money.

What Happened Between David Protess and Medill?

The university seems to be more concerned about their possible liability and image than about the lives of people wrongly convicted. It's not surprising.

Universities are run by lawyers and accountants now, and have been for some time. Intellectual honesty and courage are things of the past except for a few individuals, who the new establishment perceive as risks...

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An article

about another new book, this one academically focused, on Scientology...

Hugh Urban: An Interview With the Professor Who Took on Scientology

...the organization Time Magazine called the 'thriving cult of greed and power', which doesn't seem to be thriving so much anymore...

For more information on Scientology, visit: The Secrets of Scientology and http://www.xenu.net/

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There is a huge loss

The Departure of an Order

In my city and school district it was very gradual, with fewer and fewer Religious teaching until, suddenly, they were all gone and there were no teachers but secular teachers. Now I look at the classes, and there are good teachers teaching them, and at the graduates, and, yes, there are good people graduating, but there has been a huge loss. More than anything else, what hasn't been well preserved has been the Catholic identity. Very often now there is nothing that distinguishes the system of Catholic schools from the Public system. It makes one a little sad...

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A different Trinity

The Trinity Sisters

"Many of America’s most powerful women went to a college you’ve never heard of."

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Fairness?

Academic Purgatory: An illegal immigrant earns a Ph.D.Now what?

As usual, the comments are the most entertaining. I can't believe the attitudes of some people...

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For comic fans everywhere

Manga Doctorate? Fans Of Japanese Comics Can Earn Ph.Ds

Along with your complete collection of 'Blood: The Last Vampire' you can boast about your doctorate in Manga studies! What a coup! Your friends and collegues certainly won't be able to do that. Isn't this wonderful?

(I'm keeping my 'Good Grief' comment to myself...)

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Education

in America...

Live And Learn

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Teaching Science

A very good column by Jon Carroll

The Value of Facts

"The idea partly was to teach biology in a new way, and also to try to end homophobia and teasing in the schools by demonstrating that gender switching is a phenomenon as old as the animal kingdom itself. If you want to include the plant kingdom, well, tread lightly because stuff gets really kinky there. "

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I wouldn't have thought

that it was that old...

The MIT factor: celebrating 150 years of maverick genius

"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has led the world into the future for 150 years with scientific innovations. Its brainwaves keep the US a superpower. But what makes the university such a fertile ground for brilliant ideas?"

...but I did know that it was that illustrious...

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An American situation

that mirrors the situation in Canada well.

Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education

It's great for personal fulfillment and development, but you'd better have a good way to pay off all the student loans at the end of your struggle, because a tenured faculty position isn't very likely...

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This is such a good idea

Across the Country, Food Co-ops by the Students for the Students

When I was at university, in the college I registered through and finally worked at, we had a food co-op that produced inexpensive, healthy lunches every day (it was called 'Ulcers' for some reason). People worked in the co-op one shift a week and got a substantial discount on their food. It worked perfectly for many, many years. Finally, something happened. Fewer and fewer students wanted to work a shift. More and more they wanted to be served their food and simply pay for it. A commercial cafeteria took over. More was lost than just the cheaper food. A sense of community that had existed in the college died with it. Most of the people who remember the old co-op are long gone from the college now, so there's no one to miss it. I hope that the trend written about here continues...

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New faith at university...

Meeting Jesus at Oxford

"Why are undergraduates at Britain's oldest and most respected universities more likely to undergo conversion to fundamentalist forms of Christianity than other students?"

Interesting article...

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Nice vision for a college

Whose College? God, money, and power beneath the Empire State Building.

"God Money Power" is supposedly the vision of the college. It's the vision of that whole stream of conservative Christianity as well, perhaps not in that same order for some.

Christians are supposed to have an effect on society. I don't think that they're to remake society in their own flawed image...

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