links for 2009-02-25

"I'm glad at least though that Time and Isaacson are trying to deal with the question of newspapers' survival. That's more than I can say for many of the newspapers themselves. Take for example my employer, the largest newspaper chain in the country. They own dozens of newspapers, small and large, which puts them in an ideal position to experiment with various approaches and business models to figure out what is and isn't working. But they don't seem interested in such experimentation -- instead remaining focused on uniformity throughout the chain, as though they were operating a fast-food franchise rather than a journalistic medium in crisis."

"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. Especially that douchebag Rick Santelli from CNBC. But each one of them also received a denarius. When he received it, the overpaid, whining, miserable prick began to grumble against the landowner. "These men who were hired last worked only one hour," he said, "and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.""

"In fact, the most efficient way to conduct a research program would be to hire non-student workers who require little training and who would stay in the position on a long-term basis rather than leaving just at the point when they finally know what they are doing. This would be more efficient even than hiring postdocs who only stay a couple of years and then move on. Alternatively, if I wanted to have a small research program and work on 1-2 projects at a time, the most efficient scheme would be for me to do all the research and writing myself."

"If an employer really felt that higher education should provide more information about the quality of graduates, donât demand that we enforce absolute and rigid standards for grades. Instead you should be asking us to go in the opposite direction, closer to what Hampshire College does, and provide a written assessment of a studentâs performance in a course, and a written description of the specific competencies which measured a studentâs performance. Now I doubt that personnel directors for large organizations are going to want to read forty or so evaluations of this kind for each and every candidate who applies for a job, but if high-value information is what you crave, thatâs really what you should be asking for from professors. "

"This in a nutshell is not only whatâs wrong with David Brooks but whatâs wrong with the entire form of op-ed writing. All this column does in the end is serve as an intellectual fig leaf for a Lakoffian frame. All it amounts to is planting a meme, providing a soft and chattering-class-friendly translation of Michael Savageâs ranting on talk radio about Obamaâs Marxist plans to destroy America. Thereâs no interesting question convened here, no open conversation begun. "