Newmark's Door

Comparative advantage, as newly applied in universities

"This amounts to a sizeable paradigm shift from the idea of a faculty member who balances teaching, research, and departmental service, to a model based on employees who are specialists. By increasing the specialization and division of labor among the faculty, universities are transforming how the institution functions. Highly trained specialists now exist on two tracks. The research track offers the possibility of tenure while the teaching side has a growing pool of lecturers carving out rewarding positions that focus on instruction. The two models complement each other and allow faculty members to focus on their comparative advantage, either in the classroom or in research."

Link via George Leef on NRO.

UPDATE: link to article is fixed now.

Two on WFB

Of the things I read after William F. Buckley's death, this was one of the best: Rick Perlstein's "Why William F. Buckley Was My Role Model".

Espeically for my younger readers who may not have had the chance to see Firing Line, a few shows are available online here.

Hydration backpack

When my kids were young and I wanted to give them a key phrase summarizing my life's wisdom, I told them to "have patience and persistence". That seemed to work well, but as they got older, I felt that I needed a new phrase.

Trouble was, I didn't have one. So I opted for the semi-self-mocking, "stay hydrated". This product at Wal-Mart can help.

"Negative pleasures"

Joseph Epstein discusses an interesting idea: ". . . negative pleasures, the genuine delight found in things avoided or deliberately not done."

UC Berkeley econ

David Warsh (column posted 3/9) provides a bit of inside baseball concerning the economics department at UC Berkeley.

More than you probably wanted to know about Britney

Rolling Stone limns "The Tragedy of Britney Spears".

Sad, yes; tragedy, no.

A real tragedy

For my money, one of the absolutely most difficult areas of the law: society has an interest in protecting children from abusive parents, but a false accusation against a parent of child abuse is just . . .  horrible.

Two on spam

The "king of spam" is facing a 26-year prison sentence. Good! His punishment should be, each day for 20 years, he has to read 10,000 e-mails looking for one important message among the 9999 spams.

Let's hope they stop these folks, too: "40% of all spam comes from just one source".

Planned buildlings in Dubai

"The Future in Dubai": drawings of some of the amazing buildings planned for Dubai.

Sometimes, blogging is easy

"Hottest Student Bodies: Top 50 Universities Ranked By Looks".

Top 10 listed below the fold.

(Link via del.icio.us.)