Another study about how file-sharers actually consume more music than their peers. These studies are no longer surprising. What still needs to be demonstrated is the nature of the relationship. It’s not surprising that there is an overlap of afficionados – questions remain about the impact that file-sharing has on an individual level. If any.
Though it didn’t take, I did watch Men of a Certain Age for a few episodes. My favorite part was when one of the main characters, on his hospital bed, said that he had to quit his job even though he didn’t know what he wanted to come after. To which she responded, are you crazy you can’t quit your job!. I appreciate more honest looks at the subject rather than the polyannaish one we always get.
Jon Last writes a review of a book about Marvel Comics that almost makes me want to read it.
Should we export higher education? Or rather, start opening universities wide open to foreigners and pocket maybe $150B? I dunno. My main concern is that it wouldn’t necessarily be a positive-sum thing. If foreign students are more money-making than domestic ones, would they increase capacity or simply start shoving Americans off.
A guide to writing a novel in 30 days.
It’s slightly dated, but I found this story about one-room schools interesting. I’ve driven by some. I’d be interested to know how they compare to the other schools. Personally, I’m glad I went to a school of 4,000 instead of a school of 4.
An intriguing (by which I mean “it says something that has repercussions I find favorable”) argument: anti-texting laws increase accidents.
The Hoover Institute says there is no Resource Curse. The Resource Curse being that being resource-rich leads to poor governance.
The Economist on how scientists are looking more and more on how genes influence political outlook and behavior. This does run contrary to my social politics model (in which sociology has as much to say as psychology), but only somewhat.
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would they increase capacity or simply start shoving Americans off.
In our decadent state, much of the value of a degree lies in what it signals rather than what one has learned. Selectivity and prestige contribute a lot to that signaling value, so I think we can expect that the schools won’t increase class sizes enough to endanger those parameters. American citizens probably would be displaced by wealthy foreigners to an extent.
Omega, though that’s true, to what extent does having a bunch of foreigners attend your university actually help its prestige? I don’t know that it hurts, but I don’t think it helps all that much. You can get the reputation as being an “Asian school” for instance, which on the whole can do more harm than good.
The UCals won’t – and shouldn’t – become open to all Californians. So I wouldn’t expect that to happen. Though transitioning from being for the top 13% to the top 8% and filling in the blanks with foreign students strikes me as potentially problematic. I don’t know if it will help their prestige, but it would help their pocketbook. Which, in the current economic environment, has to be enticing.
I agree with you, and I am strongly against colleges making this move. Like you, I think that accepting more full tuition paying foreign students is entirely motivated by money. And I agree that elite schools certainly don’t want to be completely filled with grinds. My point was that they can’t risk increasing class size too much or it will hurt selectivity, which is a significant component of USNWR college rankings. On that basis, I expect that native born students would be displaced.
Should we sell mobile phones to foreigners, or will that mean there won’t be as many available for Americans?
Admitting more students doesn’t necessarily reduce a school’s ranking. In fact, it can help smaller schools get more recruiters to come by if they have more students to choose from.
If schools admit more students by lowering their standards, then it will quite likely hurt the school in the long run, but that effect will likely be isolated to that school and not the American education system as a whole.
Should we sell mobile phones to foreigners, or will that mean there won’t be as many available for Americans?
If we maintain a scarcity, yes. Companies will produce and sell as many cell phones as they can. Colleges don’t do the same. Oftentimes, they don’t just seek not to lower standards, but to raise them. It seems less than entirely clear to me that a lot of schools wouldn’t use this opportunity to raise standards.
Sure, expanding the applicant pool to the wealthiest and smartest foreign students could very well raise standards, even at more elite schools. But if total class sizes remain the same or are only minimally increased to preserve selectivitiy, it will be harder for citizen applicants to secure a place. Virtually all major universities, including private ones, receive tax-funded government handouts as well as preferential tax treatment. Citizen applicants have a right to expect some preference.
The French and the Germans aren’t nuts, just trying to shake down a wealthy foreign conglomerate. Can’t say I blame them entirely–resentment of the USA has got to be acute there.
Except that it’s counterproductive. Google’s revenue system is a mile wide and an inch deep. Seems to me that the end result here is that Google pulls out or delists anyone that wants their commission.