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NEWS ABOUT: academics

Obama's Pick for Economic Adviser: Alan Krueger

Labor economist, Princeton prof worked in Treasury Department

(Newser) - President Obama is set to nominate Princeton labor economist Alan Krueger as his top economic adviser. Krueger, who helped lead the Treasury Department through Obama’s first two years in office, would become the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. In the position, he’d likely urge government action... More »

Kids Don't Learn Much in First 2 Years of College

They're more interested in socializing, surprise, surprise

(Newser) - Yet another reason to skip college : You probably won’t learn all that much anyway. A new book reveals that almost half of the undergrads in America learn basically nothing during their first two years, USA Today reports. Even after four years, 36% of students had made few significant gains... More »

Calling Obama 'Professor' Is Palin Code for 'Uppity': Prof

Palin's brainy slam is really a racist slam, says longtime pal

(Newser) - When Sarah Palin told Tea Party activists last week that President Obama was "a professor of law standing at the lectern," she wasn't just tapping into populist anti-intellectualism—she was also making a not-so-subtle attack on the president's race. So says Harvard professor and longtime Obama pal Charles... More »

Anthropologist Levi-Strauss Dead at 100

French ethnologist introduced structuralist theory

(AP) - Claude Levi-Strauss, widely considered the father of modern anthropology for work that included theories about commonalities between tribal and industrial societies, has died. He was 100. The French intellectual was regarded as having reshaped the field of anthropology, introducing structuralism—concepts about common patterns of behavior and thought, especially myths,... More »

Krugman Spat With Professor Explodes Online

Sniping turns to race when Ferguson calls Obama Felix the Cat

(Newser) - Niall Ferguson picked the wrong Nobel-winning economist to mess with. The Scottish historian, who teaches at Harvard, has been caught up in a high-profile academic feud with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has called him a "poseur" and a "whiner" in recent blog posts. Ferguson hit... More »

GOP Needs Its Brains Back

(Newser) - Republican sycophants may think Sarah Palin’s resignation was brilliant, “but don’t kid yourself,” writes Robert Eisinger in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The GOP is in trouble.” The party has lost its intellectual coherence, and if it wants it back, it’s got to look beyond... More »

If Economists Fail, Don't Blame Economics

...don't give up on economics

(Newser) - Economists have made some disastrous calls recently, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on economics, opines an editorial in the Economist. True, too few economists predicted the financial crisis, but the current backlash, which assumes that the dismal science is basically useless, has gone too far. “... More »

Obama Meets With Human- Rights Leaders

Under fire for recent moves, holds 'probing' pre-speech discussion

(Newser) - Dogged by criticism over recent decisions, President Obama invited a crew of human-rights and civil-liberties leaders and academics to discuss Guantanamo, tribunals, and transparency ahead of today’s speech on similar themes, the Huffington Post reports. Obama said he was unhappy with Congress’ denial of funds to close Gitmo and... More »

Spooky Universal Pattern Captivates Math Experts

Academics ponder similarities between cities and organisms

(Newser) - A fascinating mathematical similarity between infrastructure requirements of cities and the nutritional needs of different-sized animals has energized a field of study that is enthralling academics. Researchers have discovered that any measure of a city's infrastructure—from number of gas stations to miles of roadway—grows only in proportion to... More »

FSU Must Give Up Wins in Academic Scam: NCAA

(Newser) - An academic-misconduct scandal that reached into all corners of Florida State University’s athletic department could cost the school victories in a number of sports, the St. Petersburg Times reports—including in football, where coach Bobby Bowden is second on the all-time list. An NCAA probe found that the Seminoles... More »

NYC Prep Student Leaps to Death Into Recess Crowd

Fourth-graders out playing as body plunges to ground

(Newser) - A 17-year-old student at an elite Manhattan prep school leapt to his death from an eleventh-story classroom window yesterday, reports the New York Daily News. His plunging body narrowly missed a group of fourth graders playing in front of the Dalton School. "I heard a loud bang," said... More »

Is Something Rotten in the Bard's Works?

Debate over who really wrote Shakespeare's plays rages on

(Newser) - Did William Shakespeare really write the plays attributed to him? The question remains the subject of an intense academic debate, NPR reports. Those who doubt the “man from Stratford” penned his plays point to a lame rhyming epitaph on the supposed bard’s headstone, and to lack of documents... More »

George W. Bush Library Finds a Home in Texas

SMU will host presidential library, think-tank

(Newser) - George W. Bush's presidential library will be built at Southern Methodist University, the Dallas Morning News reports. The First Lady's alma mater has had its eyes on that prize since just after Bush took office. "It took us 71 days to find a football coach, so we don't like... More »

Research Notes Make Internet History

New project to archive academic raw materials online

(Newser) - The Center for New History and Media has received a big grant to help store the raw material of academic research as part of its Internet Archive project, Ars Technica reports. Director Dan Cohen wants to help the academic world by making it easy for scholars to make their research... More »

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