- NYRB review of the latest sociobiology tome begins like this: “It turns out that if you begin an assertion with “it turns out” and sprinkle it with statistics and acronyms—especially if it’s expressed in the passive voice and followed by a footnote—up to 83 percent of the variation in whether people buy it is explained by their SCI (science credulity index) and 78 percent by their BDS (baloney detection score).”
- Harvard’s faculty approved (70%) a proposal to limit the number of A’s given in undergraduate classes to 20%. A- has no limits.
- The Economist reports on homeschooling’s popularity.
- Jim Houston died several weeks ago. Going back through some of the recordings I’ve listened to since I left Regent in 2000, here is one of his lectures on CS Lewis, whom he knew in Oxford in the 1950s.
- The academic journal article: a living document enabled by AI.