Category Archives: Robert’s posts

Should a President Be Allowed to Block You on Twitter?

Jacob Sollum from Reason Magazine’s Hit & Run Blog has a good piece on the topic this morning. It will surprise no one familiar with Donald Trump’s attitude toward criticism that people who make negative comments about him on Twitter … Continue reading

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The Bad Mess at Evergreen

The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington has earned its renown as an experimental – indeed avant-garde – institution; its ‘progressive’ bona-fides have been warranted as well. Back in the day, I explored the possibility of taking a faculty position in … Continue reading

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Professions

V. told me that when someone [at a meeting to program literary events] proposed a poetry reading by cops who write poetry, another person said, “Yeah, and let’s have a night for poets who beat people up.” – Reginald Gibbons, … Continue reading

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A succinct explanation of “hate speech”

NYU Journalism Professor has been alarmed by USA President Donald Trump – which is unlikely to surprise readers of this blog. Professor Rosen is hardly more sanguine about the journalists who “cover” him. This is from a recent twitter thread you … Continue reading

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News Literacy 2017 – a guide

With several of his graduate students NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen has just published the second annual “What’s Changing in Journalism” guide, which “depicts trends that are influencing the business now, and are still new enough that even experienced journalists may not … Continue reading

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Update needed

I had long been puzzled by how many people don’t get the saying “That’s the exception that proves the rule.” This morning it occurred to me that the opacity is not in the minds of my friends but in the phrase’s … Continue reading

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Come to Canada

In a tart post this morning Atrios notes that he would be shocked if foreign enrollment in [American] colleges and universities wasn’t down 10%+ next year (I completely made up that figure, of course, but you get the idea) even if … Continue reading

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Abandoning One’s Mother Tongue

I had not thought this possible. A very poignant story via the great Language Log.

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Holiday season re-post: Keep your online platforms happenin’

It is a truism that dormant websites and social media platforms can do more harm to you than good, no matter how active you have been in the past. I teach my students numerous methods to keep their online presence … Continue reading

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The Interruption

The renowned and divisive Hungarian-American physicist Edward Teller would tell this little story about an exchange he had with the great Niels Bohr: Some of us, including Bohr, were having a discussion about the spectrum and states of molecular oxygen. Bohr had some opinions, … Continue reading

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