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To: Letters to the editor; mailcall@thebattalion.net

Regarding the recent lawsuit against the Seattle Seahawks, to the chagrin of some over zealous members of the Aggie family, A&M did not invent the concept of team spirit as enshrined by the 12th man tradition. While the legalities and facts will be sorted out in court, this is really no different than a golf course trying to enforce a trademark on the “19th hole” or a media outlet trying to enforce a trademark on the “4th estate.” Similar to Kleenex and Aspirin, the terms have become generic overtime and are not causing any specific brand confusion. If A&M is looking at marketing itself as a world-class institution, perhaps it should begin by showcasing other feats we are truly recognized for, such as: animal cloning research, genetically modified crops and developing exceptional scholars.

Tim Swanson
Class of 2003
Graduate Student

Activity: Filiming – Body Doubles Needed
Location: Hong Kong, Tokyo and BFE
Description: From the producers of “I Kinda Know What You Did Last Summer, j/k” and “What Did We Do Last Night” comes an intrepid investigation delving into the road less traveled. What if there was a pop culture surrounding the events of recruiting computer geeks at the collegiate and professional level? TV shows like E! and ESPN dedicated to sensationalizing second-hand gossip of what school was courting potential engineers or what hi-tech firm drafted the latest guru straight out of highschool. Web forums, paparazzi, tabloids, red carpets and pointy-haired punditry by the pound all culminating into: “CyberJocks, the Untold Story.” Investors inquire within. Void in AK, CA & NY.

Google.EDU:

Google could provide a fantastic K-12 curriculum for approximately $200 million.

Why would they want to?

Well, for starters, most kids use the web as an adjunct to their existing school efforts anyway and most use Google as the starting point for locating resources to help them. Google can formalize this by building a mirror K-12 curriculum.

This is an interesting idea, although one that I find unlikely to occur. I do not see Google as a content creator to any degree. They’ve tried to focus around areas in which other people create and host content from which they can generate relative advertisements with. This is not to say that Google will not create an easy-to-use interface (e.g. Google Base) that allows independent educators to design curriculum, there are after all thousands of employees playing around with ideas there. My question however is, why wait for them to do it?

If you’re familiar with the term “mash-upâ€? (combining multiple services like Craigslist and Google Maps), perhaps someone could do just this with OCW, podcasts, etc. The biggest stumbling block (aside from implementation) would be “copyrightâ€? material, and that is not something to ignore.

I have received lots of positive feedback from my recent Mises article on the state of the University. One of those was from Larry Sanger, one of the founders of Wikipedia and a director of the Digital Universe project. He mentioned that he wrote a manifesto some ten years ago that discussed some of the same ideas. To this end, Forbes recently published an article discussing the ramifications of Stanford offering free podcasts (i.e. you no longer need to spend $30,000 to get the same education; see also Apple’s new program ‘iTunes U’). And to make everyone happy inside, I bumped into an article from Gary North discussing the non-marketability a PhD is in today’s saturated marketplace.

Having all of this knowledge under my belt, I spent about an hour compiling a tangible list (as seen below), to answer the question: “what will businesses and the populace as a whole think of someone who earns a degree from an online entity?”

U.S. News & World Reports has catalogued numerous institutions that operate extensive distance education and online classes. While some programs are relatively restrictive (i.e. requiring that you take some classes at their physical campus) many others offer fully-customizable degree plans that can be taken exclusively online. Below is a list of nationally renowned accredited college’s that offer multiple majors for undergraduates, graduates and professionals.

Note: I do not plan on updating this list, it is merely an illustration as to where the industry is heading. In no particular order:

University of Tennessee
University of Florida
Florida State University
University of Maryland
University of Maryland University College
Iowa State University
George Washington University
Rutgers University
Boise State University
Washington State University
University of Washington
University of Colorado System
Connecticut State University System
University of Oklahoma System
University of Nebraska System
University of Nebraska
University of North Dakota
University of Missouri
Northeastern University
Auburn University
State University of New York
Seton Hall
University of Georgia
Texas Tech University
Oregon State University
Indiana State University
Embry-Riddle University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
University of North Carolina
Montana State University
Michigan State University
Illinois Institute of Technology
University of Illinois
Syracuse University
University of Pittsburgh
University of Waterloo
University of Toronto
Open University
University of North Texas
University of Denver
Arizona State University
University of Delaware
University of South Carolina
Boston University
Kansas State University
Harvard
Stanford
University of Southern California
Pepperdine
UCLA
New Jersey Institute of Technology
University of Hawaii
Rochester Institute of Technology

In addition, both the University of Oklahoma and Texas Tech offer dual-credit highschool distance education programs allowing high school kids to earn both a diploma and credits toward a college degree at the same time. Also, EPGY from Stanford and CTY from Johns Hopkins offer similar services for young “gifted and talented” students.

Mainstream? Yes. Innovative? Perhaps. Legitimate? Depends on who you talk to apparently.

And speaking of creative solutions for virtual interaction, check out the 3DLearning Academy, which uses fully immersive digital avatars to interact with students in grades 7-12. Perhaps one day someone will design a full lineup of courses to be played in the World of Warcraft (questing brings on a new meaning). Perhaps the two million homeschooled kids can figure out some way to both implement and capitalize off such an innovation.

[Note: this is a test message from the Digg interface where you can apparently post an entry word-for-word straight into your own blog]

How will technologies such as podcasting, VoIP and OpenCourseWare affect their bottom line and their ability to stay competitive with online distance education programs? What role will digital libraries play in empowering independent scholars and researchers? These questions and many more are discussed in the following article.

read more | digg story

Contrary to public opinion I will exercise my right to self-promotion.

This was originally titled, Study shows students operating huge trade deficits with Universities

That got nixed however, as the only thing the editor (Jeff Tucker) changed was the title, Will the University Survive?

Digg it!

And for the record, I did watch most of the bowl games between the Peach and Rose — the Peach was so lopsided I ended up watching “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and I cried myself to sleep after USC lost, damn Vince Young.

I vented my disappointment by writing the above piece (some people eat chocolate, others drink… I write).

Man’s Relationship Advice Same As His Hunting Tips:

VERONA, WI—Friends report that HVAC installer Kirk Pulver has markedly similar advice on both relationships and deer hunting. “You have to dress either to blend in with the scenery or to stand out from it, depending on the situation, but either way, you want to disguise your scent,” said Pulver to friends at a local tavern. “You have to find out where they eat, where they sleep, where they pee, and when they’re most likely to be off guard. Then, when you’ve got a clear look at their rack and you’re sure they’re legal, bam! You take ‘em.” Pulver’s associates noted that he has not bagged a deer or a woman in six years.

This reminded me of that guy who, no matter what kind of situation you are in, always has some kind of advice to give. That guy.

And to round things off, I thought this was a great headline for the simple fact that despite similar contents it illustrates just how disturbingly ridiculous products can be if they are merely rebranded: Christian Juggler Regrets Years Wasted As Secular Juggler

Lew Rockwell on immigration:

Caller: What do you think of securing our borders? I’m reading in the Constitution right now, in [Article 1,] Section 8, “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” Simply put, our nation is being conquered by illegals coming over the border, and OTMs — Other Than Mexicans. So what do you think of border security?

Lew Rockwell: Well you know it’s a very interesting point. The immigration policy of the country was deliberately changed in 1965 by a law that Johnson signed, that Hubert Humphrey and Teddy Kennedy (who’s still around) wrote to change the demographics of the country…. This is not a coincidence this all happened … they actually set out … and there were many think tanks writing papers about why this should happen … to change the demographics of the country. I don’t know if it’s a huge social experiment we’re undergoing, but you know … this is the way the government has designed it. I’ll make that point.

The second point is that unfortunately the people who are advocating border control tend to want to put businessmen in jail for hiring an illegal. They want to give more power to the federal prosecutors, more supervision by the federal government, put more people in jail, more cops, more spies and so forth. You know, I don’t think that’s the way either. I must say I’m not entirely sure what to do.

One thing I think we should all be able to agree on is that nobody should be able to come here and go on welfare.

Caller: Exactly!

Lew: Nobody should be able to come here and go to public school, be allowed to have Medicaid, get AFDC and all the rest of these either state or national healthcare programs. That should help some.

On the other hand, a lot of people come here to work. People want to hire them. I wish that we would do a lot to make the cost of doing business here in this country lower so there’d be more people hired, more businesses started, more profits made and more prosperity, but … even though I think you’re making a legitimate point, I worry about the idea that we should further empower the federal government. I don’t think there’s any excuse ever to give the federal government more power for any reason whatsoever! I don’t care what the excuse is. We need to be focused on decommissioning them.

I will just add also in the original American Constitution — the original American Constitutional setup until the Supreme Court changed it in the 1840s and especially after the Civil War — citizenship and immigration were matters for the states. It wasn’t a federal matter at all. So I think that again, the federal government messes up everything it touches and I guess that includes immigration as well.

Host: That is a great answer!

That was a transcript from a recent interview with Karen Kwiatkowski. With any luck, this should once-and-for-all answer the criticism leveled by the guys over at No-Treason and Cato. The question now remains is whether or not Hoppe agrees.

Study: Viking Teeth Were Groovy:

Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they likely had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden.

Caroline Arcini of Sweden’s National Heritage Board analyzed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from between 800 and 1050 A.D. They discovered that 22 of the men bore deep, horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.

“The marks are traces of deliberate dental modifications … they are so well-made that most likely they were filed by a person of great skill,” Arcini wrote in the current issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Both Chris Rock and Bill Cosby are noted critics of what they see as systemic sophomoric tomfoolery in the “black community” which the metallic grill plays a role in.

Apparently the Vikings did something similar, although the dental work was a bit more permanent and probably a lot more painful. Damn that would hurt.

Of late, I have been privately debating a couple of fellow Austrians via email as at least one of them wants to spearhead the creation of a peer-reviewed “Intelligent Design” journal. Perhaps the greatest piece of irony is that of Rothbard’s Law which essentially says everyone specializes in what he is worst at (I wrote the Wikipedia entry on it). Very frustrating to say the least, the fact that they not only are buying these arguments from creationists-in-disguise, but that they are going to use valuable time they could have otherwise spent promoting economics, the field they got their PhDs in.

And is it just me, or is it also odd that proponents of ID want to “teach the controversy” despite lacking an actual theory/model? Does this not show where their ulterior motives lie (see the Wedge Strategy)? What exactly are they going to teach? “Scientists cannot currently explain phenomenon Y, however if you step outside the natural bounds of secular science, there is a simple solution: an intelligent designer!” That is the good ol’ hackneyed ‘god-in-the-gaps‘ theory: if you can’t explain it, god must have done it (similarly, “if libertarians cannot create a business model for an industry, the State must regulate it”).

If proponents of ID want to play in the world of empiricism it would help a lot to have some kind of empirical data to look at. Thus far, many of the leaders simply just criticize portions of “evolutionary theory” they feel is inadequately studied (which is good for them to do, but doesn’t make up for a lack of testable alternatives).

With regards to publishing, in “Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker” (cached):

The Templeton Foundation, a major supporter of projects seeking to reconcile science and religion, says that after providing a few grants for conferences and courses to debate intelligent design, they asked proponents to submit proposals for actual research.

“They never came in,” said Charles L. Harper Jr., senior vice president at the Templeton Foundation, who said that while he was skeptical from the beginning, other foundation officials were initially intrigued and later grew disillusioned.

Why are publishing rates, or lack thereof, so important? They usually correlate with original research or at least a meta-analysis of past research in a specific field. If no one is publishing research then it can mean a number of things, including the simple fact that you simply are not doing any research. And you guessed it, the publishing rates of major ID proponents in their area of specialty is next to nil.

Hugh Ross is the only prominent “creationist” of sorts who actively publishes in any type of journal and he really does not like being clumped with other IDers, as he is a ‘old-earth-creationist.’ In fact, he even semi-praised the recent Dover case as seen in a recent press release discussing this issue.

With regards to actual theory, irreducible complexity (which is the only kind of model ID has, however it isn’t really a model per se) simply says that in order for a system to have developed or evolved to its current state, it must have been designed by a 3rd party — as modifications normally rendered through biological evolution would not have created its necessary foundation in the first place.

Despite the fact that this has been empirically absolved several times, its creator Michael Behe (who believes in a common descent as well as an “old earth”) continues to promote it.

Look for more on this topic on the weeks to come. See also ‘Intelligent Falling Theory‘ – ‘Incompetent Design‘ – Talk Origins (1 2) and Pharyngula (1 2).