Chaos Tower

From the random files: If you need to find a gift for the person who has everything, how about a chaos tower? Looks like endless fun for all ages, plus it could easily double as a quirky and interactive addition to your living room furnishings. Just an idear.

Posted 09:47 PM | life generally

Technical Difficulties

If you haven't seen it yet, this short flash animation is a compact little summary of how U.S. rhetoric is completely inconsistent with material reality.

Posted 01:22 PM | general politics

Why is this Illegal?

I heard this morning on Weekend Edition Sunday that domestic distribution of government publications intended for foreign audiences is illegal. Is this true? And if so, what could possibly be the reason for this? The only logic for such a law that I can think of is that our government wants to be able to lie to the rest of the world without worrying that its own citizens will know about it or object to it. If that's the logic, the law seems pretty indefensible.

Anyway, in this case the question may be moot. The NPR piece was about a book called Writers On America and it seems to be all online. Of course, without being able to see the printed copy (which U.S. embassies are distributing around the world), I guess we just have to trust that our government is giving us the same text it's giving to the rest of the world.

Posted 12:30 PM | law school

Two Paths Diverged in the Woods

I went to a party last night where nearly everyone in attendance was an English grad student—most of them further along in the program than I am (or was). In many ways, it's getting harder to hang out with these people who everyday become more dedicated to their profession, while everyday I grow more estranged from it. One of these grads is actually on the job market and just got a call yesterday to set up an interview for MLA. This is an amazing feat; just getting an interview is almost a miracle in a job market like this [thanks to SCW for the link]. According to the Modern Language Association (MLA):

the number of English positions fell to 792 this year, from 983 in 2001, a 19 percent decline. The number of foreign language positions fell to 535 from 675, a 21 percent drop.

I wish all the luck in the world to anyone who is willing to run the gauntlet that is the pursuit of a career in English these days. I admire your tenacity and perseverance, and sometimes I still wonder if going to law school is somehow selling out, or taking the easy way out, or ... something. And there are certainly ways that it is, and ways that it isn't; I've hashed over those pros and cons in this space before, so I won't drag you through them again. Suffice to say here that no matter how bad things get, I hope there will always be people willing to endure the sacrifices and hardships necessary to become an English academic; our world would be a far uglier place without you.

Still no word from Georgetown; maybe tomorrow.

Posted 12:07 PM | Comments (2) | life generally