Captain Colorado and Sheena

Captain Colorado sent me this crazy video by some band. Art lovers beware (it's Pageant of the Master*****s). The video is pretty funny and odd. I especially like the part with Vinnie Van Gogh, singing, despite his ear issue. Jesus and the gang breaking into the "Last Supper Club" is also fun.

Meanwhile, Sheena, formerly of the jungle, sent me the picture below, which I am calling "Turkish Sky." She took it some time ago. Nice.

Earlier, she had sent me a pic of a young Sheena and her pet mountain lion, back in the day. (I know she lived in Africa as a child. But are there mountain lions in Africa?) There they were taking a bath together, Mister Lion looking up into the camera (see below). Then there they were again, with Mr. Lion evidently chewing a chunk out of her arm (but not really, I guess, since I've never noticed anything missing on Sheena's body, and I've looked).

That Sheena is full of surprises. One time, she sent me her "Vixen on motorbike" pics. Stunningly va-va-voomular. I made the mistake of asking, "Who's the, um, gal on the bike?"

"It's me, goddamit!" she said. Something like that. You gotta be careful around Sheena. I find that that's true about all women, really. You can say just about anything to a guy. Doesn't much matter. Women? Not so much.

Absolutely nothing happened at IVC today. It's dead, man.

Speaking of Colorado, Rebel Girl is headed to a conference in the Centennial state tomorrow. She and her partner in travel have attempted to scope out all the vegetarian restaurants along the way. Me, I figure there aren't any. "Vegetarian restaurants? Forgetaboutit. Just go to a freakin' Denny's and order some French fries, soup, pancakes--that kinda shit."

That's when I learned: you never suggest Denny's to Rebel Girl. Never. Never ever.

Evidently.

"What about a bean-and-cheese burrito at Taco Bell?" I suggested.

She glared. Said the wrong thing again, I guess.

(*Yep, I corrected the name of the Jungle Queen.)

iPad, therefore I am

iPads on Campus: The iPad has landed. But should campuses be throwing it a welcome party? (Inside Higher Ed)

…[Greg Smith, the CIO at George Fox] said that having to adjust to new technologies — regardless of whether students are likely to want them — gives professors everywhere jitters. “The biggest fear starting to grip [professors] is that… e-textbooks might actually become reality,” Smith said — acknowledging that there are exceptions, but they are the minority. “If you know higher ed, you know that the biggest fear of a professor is having to change how they deliver their course.”…..

When Professors Get Their Politics (Inside Higher Ed)

Theories abound about why academics are more liberal than are average citizens. Some blame bias, arguing that conservative scholars are denied positions. Others see self-selection at work, with academe attracting more liberal individuals, while conservatives are more likely to opt for other careers. Still others see some sort of socialization going on in graduate programs or early faculty careers, such that the young academic emerges on the left. And there are numerous other theories.

One of the leading scholars on the issue has just finished a series of in-depth interviews designed as a preliminary test of the self-selection theory – and the resulting research finds that academics tend to form their political views early in life, backing some theories (including self-selection) but not others.
. . .
In that study, Gross and Fosse noted that some demographic and personal characteristics of professors explain why they are more likely than others to be liberal. For example, professors are more likely than others to have high levels of educational attainment, to experience a disparity between their levels of educational attainment and income, to be either Jewish, non-religious, or members of a faith that is not theologically conservative Protestant, and to have a high tolerance for controversial ideas. While these trends may explain some of the differences politically between academics and others, Gross and Fosse also argued that faculty work may now be "politically typed" in a way that attracts more faculty members from the left than the right -- and that this typing may explain the rest of the gap.

Philippines Commencement Speaker Resigns After Plagiarizing Oprah and Obama (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

Admitting that passages of his commencement speeches were lifted from several celebrities, one of the Philippines' wealthiest businessmen has resigned as chairman of the board of the elite Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippine Daily Inquirerreported. The March 27 speech, as well as well as Manuel V. Pangilinan's apology, appeared on the university's Web site after accusations of plagiarism surfaced on Facebook. Comparisons revealed that several phrases had been taken from acommencement address delivered by President Obama. In one section of his speech, Mr. Pangilinan managed to use passages from the author J.K. Rowling and the television personalities Oprah Winfrey and Conan O'Brien practically back-to-back.