“One Little Hour”

NPR – wonders will never cease – delves into the motives of doctors who gave Hassan a pass.

What’s next!? A news story critical of Obama?

At the end of June, financier and swindler Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison. He had defrauded thousands of people of over $65 billion. Although many of his victims were relatively well-heeled, plenty of poor-to-middling investors lost their life savings. These bare facts reveal a tragedy, but one that is not particularly unique except for its record-breaking scale. A quick google news search shows that another dozen ponzi schemes have popped up in the news in just the past 24 hours.

But Madoff’s sentencing took on a special significance. (more…)

Over this weekend I saw this hilarious Intel commercial while watching some shows on Hulu.

The rockstar treatment for Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of the USB, is humorous because the object of worship is so incongruous. Instead of the doors opening for the 6′ 8″, 250 pound LeBron or American Idol winner Kris Allen, a short, dowdy, overweight computer tech strides into the break room and is immediately mobbed by devoted fans. (more…)

I work as a bank teller. My current branch keeps the radio behind the teller line tuned to a Philly station that plays everything from golden oldies to current hits. While the playlist is rather unpredictable, I can guarantee that the song on the air will be unspeakably raunchy whenever Sister Paul from a local Catholic college comes in to do her banking. (more…)

I just received the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History for February. One of the articles complained about the shrinking availability of tenure track positions at universities. Also, over the past two decades part-time faculty have taken on an increasing share of the teaching load in the academe. The history profession has become more and more stratified. (more…)

I was trying to figure out which courses I should take at Temple University this semester so I took the requisite step of googling all the profs that were leading interesting sounding classes. A video of Bryant Simon presenting a lecture on the ethnography of Starbucks popped up.

(more…)