Sense and Nonsense

Spencer Tunick's "Architecture of Flesh"

See some of Spencer Tunick's incredible photos of large groups of naked people here.  One wonders how he gets so many people to volunteer to do this. 

Romney's Inanity

I've enjoyed watching Mitt Romney stumble his way through his foreign trip.  This was supposed to be his big chance to show off his foreign-policy chops, his opportunity to impress Americans by his abiility to navigate global waters.  Epic failure.

I loved his foolish performance in London, where he insulted the British on their Olympic preparations.  But it was his vapid eagerness to curry favor with America's Jewish community that floored me the most: calling Jerusalem the "capital of Israel," and blaming low Palestinian GDP on culture rather than the oppressive Israeli occupation. Disgusting.

Of course, Romney is only part of the unfortunately long line of American politicians over many decades standing in blind support of Israel.  But his words show him to be one of the most craven and absurd of them.

Incredibly Dull Campaign

David Brooks has an excellent op-ed piece in this morning's New York Times.  He complains that the 2012 presidential campaign is one of the dullest ever, symptomatic of the general decline in American politics. 

Tips for Surviving Freshman Year of College

Over the last few years, I've discovered that the single most frequently read post on this blog (FAR outnumbering any other post or topic) is this item from June of 2008 that contained advice for college freshmen, offered a couple years earlier by Ben Jones, an assistant director of admissions at MIT, to the incoming class of 2010 there.  I think the post was picked up by sites like StumbleUpon, because it gets dozens of hits a day.

Recently, I received an email from a woman who came across that post in the course of doing some research for a piece she was editing, which she wanted to call to readers' attention.  It offers tips for surviving freshman year of college. You can find it here.  It's commonplace fare, not as interesting or fresh as the advice from Ben Jones.  But I offer it to you for what it's worth.  Cheers. And good luck. 

Skip Teaching Algebra

Andrew Hacker, a political scientist at Queens College (CUNY) published a cogent piece in the New York Times on Sunday, suggesting that it makes no sense for high schools to teach algebra to most kids.  I agree.  What's your view?