Dave Vanness

Also 👇🎯💯.

Kevin's written before: if we're applying the customer model to higher ed, the <employers> are the customers, & the students are the <product>.

But let's simply not do this & instead educate students. Look around. The case for more, not less, liberal arts education is greater than ever.

Imagine if the public good were the customers, and knowledge was the product.

Funding cuts -> high prices -> customer model -> de-professionalization of faculty -> transactional higher ed -> dissatisfaction -> funding cuts...

#WeAre!

Sadly, even not-for-profit colleges act like they're trying to turn a profit.

What if it's exactly because we've turned higher education into a transactional exercise and treated it like a profit-making commodity that people are questioning its value?

NIH National Institutes of H... * • Follow ... X 9h • Interested in joining NIH leadership? We're looking for exceptional applicants for Director level positions. Applications due by December 12. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4i2vltO NIH is Hiring Director level positions • Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) • Director within the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) • Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) • Director for Intramural Research (DDIR) • Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) • Director within the National Library of Medicine (NLM) • Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) • Director within the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) • Director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) • Director position in the Fogarty International Center (FIC) • Director of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) • Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) NIH

Presented without comment

False dichotomy alert.

UPDATE: Another Chicago-area church has put up an immigration-themed Nativity scene.

A church member at Urban Village Church sent this one along, where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are gone and replaced with a sign that reads: “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”

It would have saved you a day! And if enough people followed suit, maybe it would eventually have an effect.

Looking for a good* source for movie/music posters. Any recommendations?

* ethical company, reasonable selection, and good customer service.

“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”

Upon examination, it has so many fundamental flaws, it would take me at least three reviews' worth of time to provide comprehensive constructive comments, therefore I must decline this review."

I think it's entirely reasonable to write a confidential comment to the editor along the lines of, "When I agreed to review this paper, I assumed that it had met basic standards of scientific quality...

An app to ban "Baby, it's cold outside" from every holiday playlist. #whatiwantforchristmas

Assistant or Associate Professor of Rural Sociology APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

My program is hiring in population health, at the assistant or associate level. See below and please feel free to email me with any questions.

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Regents vote to eliminate four programs at UNL after more than 100 speak out against cuts The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted to eliminate four programs — educational administration; earth and atmospheric sciences; statistics; and textiles, merchandising and fashion design —a...

UNL eliminating the #statistics department and the earth and atmospheric #sciences department is another sign that people (admins) take scientific progress for granted. Especially in a world filled with flawed use of ever increasing data, statistics nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news... [1/2]

True, but large n does not unbias a study with substantial unmeasured confounders. Likely some of the effect is direct (most interesting finding is that the effect wanes over time as COVID-related mortality wanes), but much likely runs through SES, as the authors were careful to note:

Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue in front of a chalkboard

When science starts drifting into performance, producing results, signaling productivity...

What’s missing is the messy, uncertain curiosity and inquiry that once drove the whole.

Without space for open-ended questions, we risk turning research into a polished simulation of discovery.
#philsci

Confirmed. This text is from the petition, not the order. Signed by DOJ.

Pretty sure this is the DOJ's work, not the Court's.

Walking a Few Thousand Steps a Day May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk

And finally, buried in paragraphs 11 and 12, we read...

"Dr. Erickson cautioned that these results are observational, so it’s possible that another factor explains the connection between physical activity, cognition and tau."

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/w...

This is the best explanation I have heard.

We're living in the upside down, aren't we.

SMDH

My document keeping notes on "bad things that have happened to research and higher ed this year" is now over 700 pages.

Wow! I even remember that as a MKE high school student...

Thank you, Scott. Appreciated seeing your name on there.

I just had occasion to use this one:

And if you were to ask what is the difference between finance and economics, I'd probably say about 10-100x the salary. But then I'd be proving your point that it's all about money. A catch-22.