Go West, young man; or perhaps, go into plastics. And now, go become an academic administrator. The City University of New York’s new chancellor, James Milliken, will soon be drawing upon his $670,000 salary. When he does so, he’ll be able to entertain guests in style at his $18,000 a month apartment on the UpperContinue reading “The New American Dream: Becoming An Academic Administrator”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
Getting What We Really Want: Heavily Armed Police Forces
A couple of months ago, I made note, yet again, of the steady militarization of US police. Today, we have more news from that ‘front.’ (A word that seems ever more appropriate). The New York Times‘ Matt Apuzzo reports: [A]s President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,”Continue reading “Getting What We Really Want: Heavily Armed Police Forces”
Beverly Gage Misses the Mark on Ken Burns’ ‘The War’
Ken Burns‘ The War–a seven-episode, fourteen-hour documentary on the Second World War, released in 2007–was never going to find favor with all who viewed it. Mostly because it is unabashedly sentimental, an unforgivable sin for those of ironic and skeptical persuasion. Even granted this, Beverly Gage‘s review in Slate–which I read after finishing my viewContinue reading “Beverly Gage Misses the Mark on Ken Burns’ ‘The War’”
On Reading the Unreadable (or Persisting)
Michael Greenberg writes of Jorge Luis Borges: He advises his students to leave a book if it bores them: “that book was not written for you,” no matter its reputation or fame. Good advice, but not easily followed. Borges’ advice isn’t easy to follow because the decision to continue reading is just another instance ofContinue reading “On Reading the Unreadable (or Persisting)”
Of Annapurnas and Men: Maurice Herzog’s Epic Lives On
Just over sixty-four years ago, on June 3rd 1950, a pair of French mountaineers, Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, stood on the summit of Annapurna, the world’s tenth highest peak. It was the first time mountaineers had succeeded in climbing a peak above eight thousand meters altitude. The French pair’s trials and travails were notContinue reading “Of Annapurnas and Men: Maurice Herzog’s Epic Lives On”
Maureen Dowd Lays Her Mile-High Bum Trip On Us
It might have been predicted, with probability one, that in the wake of Colorado legalizing marijuana, we would be inundated with tall tales of reefer madness sweeping the state, scouring the slopes and plains of that mountainous land like one of those snowy avalanches that sometimes afflict its more outdoorsy folk. That moment is nowContinue reading “Maureen Dowd Lays Her Mile-High Bum Trip On Us”
Programs as Agents, Persons, or just Programs?
Last week, The Nation published my essay “Programs are People, Too“. In it, I argued for treating smart programs as the legal agents of those that deploy them, a legal change I suggest would be more protective of our privacy rights. Among some of the responses I received was one from a friend, JW, whoContinue reading “Programs as Agents, Persons, or just Programs?”
Why You Hate Work (And Will Continue To)
Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath tell us why we hate work. (“Why You Hate Work“, New York Times, May 30, 2014; the “You” in their title article is less inclusive than it appears, for the primary focus of their study is white-collar workers. Still, perhaps there are lessons here to be learned by all.) TheirContinue reading “Why You Hate Work (And Will Continue To)”
Causation and the Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon
In reviewing Joel Greenberg‘s A Feathered River: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction (Bloomsbury, 2014), and in particular in noting his analysis of the causes of the mass disappearance of the passenger pigeon, Elizabeth Kolbert writes: [G]reenberg isn’t much interested in the mechanics of the bird’s extinction. Even if there was some other contributing factor, he observes,Continue reading “Causation and the Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon”
The Vale of Tears: From Babe to Adult – II
A year or so ago, I wrote a post on how my infant daughter’s crying sometimes provoked, in me, thoughts that seemed considerably weightier than those one might have imagined as being occasioned then. On Monday, a spell of night-time crying triggered a chain of reflection that felt similarly cosmic. A little background: my daughterContinue reading “The Vale of Tears: From Babe to Adult – II”
Samir Chopra 