University of Sydney to fire academics for not publishing enough

Probably a good idea. Although with some academic fields there isn't much more to say about their subject matter. The colleges here in America would never be able to pull this off, sadly. [via Slashdot.org]

China's educrats to cancel college majors that don't lead to ready employment

It's all about the Benjamins, yo!

What even makes people want go into majors where they are likely to be unemployed two years after graduating? The heart wants what it wants I suppose but the cost for that indulgence is enormous. The Chi Com educational bureaucracy is now studying how to cut back on college majors that leave over 40 percent of their graduates unemployed or employed outside their fields after two years. Mao Zedong's Year Zero concept from the Cultural Revolution days being applied here albeit with less pain and blood.

Sign of the times...cont'd.

Self-described libertarian & Reason editor Katherine Mangu Ward opposes student loans to learn technical and blue collar skills (e.g., nursing, x-ray techs, hair dressing, auto mechanics, etc.) but approves of loans to go to Yale to study political science and the liberal arts (i.e., as Mangu Ward did). Go figure? Ironic or hypocritical? - BHTv

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Michigan Police Officers Association endorses Rick Snyder (R) for governor. Wow. That's the second major union to back Snyder. What's going on out there?

Some advice about writing for a living in the digital age. To wit: Just go ahead and write. Kinda like an article I read yesterday about being a chef for a living. The writer said about the same thing: Just go cook and see if you like it and more importantly see if you can do it. Never mind going to grad school or getting a culinary arts degree both of which rack-up a lot of debt before you even know if you want or can do the work.

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Life without bread - Weston Price Foundation (book review)
Is a college degree worth the money? - LA Times
"Don't train yourself or your children [in work] that a computer can do or a smart kid in China or India can do. Because that's ferocious competition."
People are creeped out by targeted web ads - Physorg.com/ ( via Slashdot.org/)
A PSA-type ad from the NSA about what fun it is to be polygraphed - NSA.gov (video)
A critique of optimism — the religious dogma that states there will be an ultimate triumph of good over evil — in the far left - The Anarchist Library