Academic Freedom Media Review
July 31 – August 6, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here or at their site. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.
U. of Miami President Halted at Israeli Airport
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/6
Iran’s publish ‘at any cost’ mentality blamed for surge in academic fraud
Hannah Fearn, Times Higher Education, 8/5
I swear I am just doing my job
Rebecca Attwood, Times Higher Education, 8/5
Three Student Activists Appear in court
The Students Solidarity Trust, The Zimbabwean, 8/5
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Author Archives: Michael Anthony
Citizens Medal
President Barack Obama turns 49 today. Happy Birthday Mr. President! But the celebration at the White House that really deserves attention today is the announcement of the recipients of The Citizens Medal.
The Citizens Medal is the second highest civilian honor in our nation. For over 40 years, some of America’s most respected heroes and public figures like Muhammad Ali, Colin Powell and Bob Dole, and everyday heroes like Oseola McCarty, a washerwoman who left her entire life savings to establish a scholarship for students in need, have received this award.
This year the White House solicited nominations for the medal directly from the general public and narrowed them down to 13 recipients who have done great things in their community. See who they are and what they did here. Isn’t it wonderful to see people acknowledged for good works?
Whrrling around the deCordova Sculpture Garden
Spent a couple of hours this this afternoon at the deCordova Museum in the Sculpture Garden. It’s awfully interesting that place.
The deCordova Sculpture Park encompasses 35 acres of beautiful rolling woodlands and lawns, and is the largest park of its kind in New England. The Sculpture Park is open to the public every day of the year from dawn ’til dusk, and contains approximately 75 artworks at any given time.
Here’s a few images from the day.
Random July Playlist and Summer Songs
I am so reluctant to admit, but July is coming to a close. I am not a winter person, so I spend all summer in denial that it will ever end. Sadly, it is foolish to do so. Today is the last day of July and there is no use in denying it. So I am posting a July playlist to mark the passing of this wonderful summer month. Alas, we hardly knew ye!
As usual, this playlist is composed of songs that are in current rotation on my iPhone. They are what comes up when I play it on shuffle. That doesn’t mean they are new songs. Many are quite the opposite. The only exceptions to the rule are that I only included the first song that popped up by each artist, and it had to be something that is available on Rhapsody. Otherwise it couldn’t be in the playlist. Click on the button and you can listen to the whole thing.
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Share Random 7-31
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Bettye LaVette From a new album, Interpretations: the British Rock Songbook, this is a version of this classic by one of the most uncompromising and important pioneers of Detroit Soul.
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Music in the Clouds
Source: My Grafitis in Tehran (http://my.opera.com/nbt4u/blog/)
A day before that the American Public Radio program Marketplace had an interesting segment on cloud computing and streaming music, but from a totally different angle. This time it is not the users that uploads and access their own files, but rather rather the users subscribe to a huge digital library of music and stream what they want. Most of these services also offer the opportunity for downloads for users who want to be able to take their music offline. The best known examples of this are Rhapsody.com and Lala.com, recently purchased and shut down by Apple. For a monthly fee you can listen to whatever you wan in the order you want. In essence it is a vast online digital library.
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Praise and Blame. Well, Pretty Much All Praise.
The video below is a recording of “Did Trouble Me,” a Gospel song by Susan Werner, as sung by Tom Jones on his new album Praise and Blame. To most people Tom Jones is probably best know for songs like “What’s New Pussycat?,” “Green, Green Grass of Home,” “It’s Not Unusual,” and his cover of Prince’s “Kiss.” Praise and Blame is his second release on Lost Highway Records, better known for releasing music that might be labeled “Roots Music” or “Americana.” It turns out the fit between Jones and the label is not at all a forced one.
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High-Speed Rail. The US v. the World
Check out this video. It contains so really eye-opening information about the expansion of high speed rail in the US, particularly in relation to other countries. It’s not the most exciting presentation, but the chart lays out some surprising facts.
Below is a screen capture of the chart for reference. Now let me add some context. The US has a land mass of 3,717,813 sq.miles and Japan about 145,883. In spite of that vast difference in size, the US is literally many hundreds of miles behind the US in terms of the expansion of high speed rail. The US has an inconsequential amount of high speed rail currently in operation and it looks like less than 1,000 miles planned to be in operation by 2025. Japan has approximately twice that already in operation and is still planning modest expansion.
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Checking Facts on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster
The April 20 explosion that started oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has prompted a slew of claims and counterclaims about the disaster. What caused it, how it’s being handled, the history of drilling accidents in the area – all are subjects ripe for false or misleading statements by politicians and others.
We keep track so you don’t have to. Some of the lowlights so far, in no particular order.
* Some Republicans falsely claimed Obama was slowing the cleanup by not waiving the Jones Act, which actually doesn’t apply to the cleanup operations.
* Obama said he issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. Not quite. Much drilling continues.
* A Republican governor keeps saying the spill is the first big blowout in the Gulf, failing to note a 1979 disaster that continued for 10 months, and numerous smaller blowouts.
To get it you have to log in the site and thus apply sildenafil online canada for it through online. One should inquire all his queries relating to sex and its levitra without prescription diseases. This anti impotence medication is easily available on the online shops because here the viagra generic usa medicines are cheap and good at quality side by side the company or shop is offering the best brand to a reasonable price. generico levitra on line In what capacity can a man build his charisma? To expand one’s charisma one needs to first comprehend the explanation behind losing it in any case. * A DNC ad claimed that a GOP lawmaker spoke for his party when he said BP deserves an apology. But that apology had already been rejected by other leading Republicans.
There are plenty more where those came from. See our “Analysis” section for a roundup of the oil-spill whoppers we’ve encountered.
Academic Freedom Media Review, July 17-23
Academic Freedom Media Review
July 17 – 23, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Note: The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here or at this link. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.
UC-Irvine Urged Not to Suspend Muslim Student Union /
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/23
BP and Academic Freedom
Cary Nelson, Inside Higher Education, 7/22
Ultimatum to Illinois Over Catholic Studies Instructor
Inside Higher Educatin, 7/21
A Tougher Conflict Policy at Harvard Medical School
Duff Wilson, The New York Times, 7/21
What if College Tenure Dies?
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Academic Freedom Media Review – July 10-16, 2010
Academic Freedom Media Review
July 10 – 16, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Persecuted Scholars Find Refuge in the Netherlands
UAF-SAR, 7/16
Three University of Zimbabwe students appear in court
The Zimbabwean, 7/16
Academics attack RCUK’s ‘dogmatic stance’ in refusing to rethink impact
Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, 7/15
The Growth of Private and For-Profit Higher Education in Britain: Competition or Collaboration?
Geoffrey Alderman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/15
Teaching or Preaching?
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Education, 7/15
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