John Stewart on Fox News: It's a Perpetual Revulsion Machine

What's wrong with Fox News? If you don't already know this video presents a case study and lays out the case beautifully.

Technorati Tags: John Stewart, Daily Show, Fox News

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Why Yes, Eva Pell Did Have Her Head in the Sand

It was reported last December that graduate student applications were down at Penn State despite the bad economy and the fact that grad school enrollment has historically tended to be counter cyclical. At the time, Dean of the Graduate School Eva Pell pooh-poohed the notion that anything was amiss and guessed that

...a better test of the hypothesis will come when we see what applications look like this January when the bulk of applications arrive for 2009-10[.]

And sure enough come January the application numbers looked pretty damn good. Here's what Graham told the Board of Trustees that month.

Graduate applications are up 6.4 percent compared to last year. International graduate applications are up 13 percent...

Why the turn around? My guess is that a front page story in the New York Times on November 20, 2008 about cloning a woolly mammoth might have had something to do with it. Penn State professors Web Miller and Stephen Schuster had just published a paper in Nature about their efforts to sequence woolly mammoth DNA and they were ready to speculate to the times about bringing one of the hairy beasts back to life.

Did The Old Main Propaganda Shop help to plant this story in the Times in the hopes of boosting interest in Penn State amongst potential grad students? That's my suspicion. Did the story actually help to increase grad school enrollment? Well, not so much.

Yesterday the Collegian reported that Eva Pell did indeed have her head in the sand last December.

Enrollment data shows graduate student enrollment has dropped by 1,795 students since 2003, Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Eva Pell said in a presentation. This year, 9,088 students are enrolled in the graduate school.

"It will not be healthy if it drops too much more," Pell said.

Pell explained that the decrease can be attributed to the instability of the economy and faculty insecurity about funding for doctoral students.

She said many people expected graduate school enrollment to increase once the economy took a turn for the worse a few years ago, but that has not proven true in Penn State's case.

See added cryptically,

"Graduate education is not top-down, it's bottom-up," Pell said. "Some of these are trends that will turn around in time."

I'm not sure what she means about it not being top-down, but my guess is that that is code for don't blame me.  She attributed the decline to

...the instability of the economy and faculty insecurity about funding for doctoral students.

Insecurity about funding?  The Penn State Propaganda Portal announced today that external funding at the University was up this year by $30.5 million over last year.

Oh well, I wonder if the decline in grad enrollment had anything to do with her decision to take a job at the Smithsonian starting next year.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, Graduate Student Enrollment, Eva Pell

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Prescient, If I Say So Myself

During Spring semester of this year, the Collegian held a design contest for this football season's White Out t-shirt.  When Onward State posted an announcement of the winning design (picture below the fold), I was flabbergasted. Here's the comment I posted there.

Isn’t the graphic a bit too suggestive of Xtian cross for a team with a lion as a mascot?

Well, it appears that I wasn't the only one to have basically this reaction. The Collegian reports today that

The 2009 White House T-shirt's cross-like design has spurred complaints from organizations and alumni, including requests that the shirt be taken off of store shelves.

There's not much point in raising a stink about this now with most of the season behind us, but perhaps next year they could work a crescent, a star of David or a pentagram into the design to make amends.

CNN Your Network for Goat F#cking

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Leaves It There
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

If you wonder why so many people have no clue as to what is going on in health care reform, this Daily Show clip will help to give you some clarity.

Technorati Tags: Daily Show, health care reform, CNN,

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A Couple of Items on the Labor Front

First, Fritz Fitz, a longtime reader of this blog and sometime commenter, sent along word this morning that the United Students Against Sweatshops will be holding at teaching-in on the Employee Free Choice Act this upcoming Thursday, October 15, at 7pm in 160 Willard on the Penn State University Park campus. Speakers will include a representative of the AFL-CIO and  Paul Whitehead  a Penn State Labor Law professor.

Also, there was news today about the AAUP pushing back against complaints lodged by the right wing Landmark Legal Foundation against  academic labor centers around the country which conduct research about and offer programs for unions .

Technorati Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, Penn State, USAS, AAUP, Landmark Legal Foundation

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GT a Man with All the Smarts of W

GT is upset that we haven't started any offshore drilling following the lift on the moratorium at the end of Bush's second term. He explains that there is no reason  not to and the concerns about the environment are misplaced. He recycles a Bush era talking point to bolster the claim.

He disputed claims that off-shore drilling poses environmental problems.

One need look no further than Hurricane Katrina, when oil rigs off the Gulf Coast escaped any damage, despite potentially damaging winds and flood waters which ravaged coastal communities including New Orleans, he said.

The worst environmental disasters related to oil or natural gas occur when they spill while being transported over water, he argued.

Oh yeah, GT?

The US coastguard, which is responsible for the marine environment, said yesterday more than 6.5 million gallons of crude oil had been spilt in at least seven major incidents. The previous worst spill in US waters was the 11m gallons in Alaskan waters from the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

"This is a major event," said Lieutenant Colonel Glynn Smith of the coastguard in New Orleans. "Things are going well, but three-quarters of the oil from the spills has not yet been recovered."

So if you liked the Bush years, I'm sure you love GT.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), offshore drilling

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Place Your Bets Ladies and Gentleman

The Pennsylvania General Assembly sent a budget bill to Governor Rendell today which he is expected to sign tonight, but it is too soon for the folks in Old Main to jump for joy.

That will leave table games and funding for Penn State, Pitt, Temple, Lincoln and other universities, health institutions and museums as the only budget-related bills on the to-do list.

The House and Senate have yet to reach an agreement on the legislation that will allow the state's casinos to have table games. Until that agreement is reached, no action is expected to occur on funding those institutions.

What do the cards hold?

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania budget, table games, state-related universities, Penn State

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