Jun
12
2006

URLs du Jour

2006-06-12

  • Amusing and amazing facts about outcomes of US higher education, as summarized in a talk given to the incoming freshman class of the University of Chigago by Andrew Abbot. You'll laugh, you'll cry. If you're a parent with kids in an expensive college, you'll almost certainly cry.

    The long and the short of it is that there is no instrumental reason to get an education, to study in your courses, or to pick a concentration and lose yourself in it. It won't get you anything you won't get anyway or get some other way. So forget everything you ever thought about all these instrumental reasons for getting an education. The reason for getting an education is that it is better to be educated than not to be.

    (Via the Pejman.)

  • Early to bed and early to rise … fuhgeddaboutit. Drink Coke! The Economist shows that it makes you healthy, wealthy, and, if not wise—see the item above for that—at least makes your country freer. This will come as no surprise to The Smartest Woman in the World. (Via Club for Growth.)

  • Think of all the times you've seen a story with this structure:

    1. A serious problem is perceived;

    2. Political posturing and demagogic demand for "solutions" causes a policy shift;

    3. Said policy shift has unintended consequences, that:

    4. Makes the situation worse off than before.

    It's all a lot of fun until someone gets hurt, or killed. For a possible example, see Paul at Wizbang, where it is alleged that the "uparmoring" for Humvees in Iraq is making them more susceptible to fatal rollovers.

    There are a few reasons to be skeptical: for one, the source is working "to design a lighter-armored vehicle to replace the Humvee." But still. If it is true, will the posturers mentioned in point (B) above take any of the blame?

  • One of the nice things about blogging is that it's safe against malware … whoa, wait a minute … aw, crap!

    Blog.Worm

  • Pun Salad readers in a position to make critical personnel decisions in their organizations will want to head on over to Prof Althouse's article titled "Is it legal to fire a woman because her breasts are too large?" Key quote:

    I really didn't expect to find Cheney in this article.

    I think it's safe to say that none of us did.


Last Modified 2012-10-23 3:04 PM EDT