Frankie Bow

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Huh.

1) In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student—who was randomly assigned either a male or female name—for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant. These participants also selected …

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Tom Friedman’s Career, as Predicted by C.S. Lewis

John Warner's new column in Inside Higher Ed got me wondering about the enduring appeal of certain high-profile columnists. And then I remembered The Screwtape Letters. In C.S. Lewis's classic Christian satire, senior demon Screwtape advises his nephew Wormwood, a newbie tempter, on how to get his "patient" to look away from the truth: Don’t waste time trying to make him think …

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Coffee is like sin

It always smells better than it tastes.*  And now, Science tells us why! "The act of swallowing the drink sends a burst of aroma up the back of the nose from inside the mouth, activating a “second sense of smell” in the brain that is less receptive to the flavour, causing a completely different and …

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Thumb on the PayScale

Here's a great post on college rankings. The thing is, we already know that universities can't magically bring back the mid-tier jobs that have been lost to productivity increases and outsourcing. But we keep blaming the universities (and in the case of state run institutions, legislatively micromanaging them) because it's something we can do.

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Review: Shadow Campus

Shadow Campus by Kathleen Kelley Reardon My rating: 5 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this, and am hoping for a sequel. The descriptions of the university, and some of the characters in it, were perfectly done. I liked the brother-and-sister protagonists, and can see some interesting conflict between the two in future installments. View …

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