You Can Feel the February Sunshine

At least inside, the sun has a definite warmth when it touches you.  When I go downstairs every morning to spray the bamboo, bromeliads, and begonias, it's light earlier.  Sunrise today was 9:10 am  and it sets at 5:18 pm (the moon gets four more hours in the sky) for a total of eight hours eight minutes and 55 seconds.   But don't believe everything you read on the internet.  The Anchorage Daily News says sunrise today was 9:09 am (five minutes after their scheduled moonrise).   And when I went on line to get the ADN link, I found the online version gave yet another time for the sunrise. (Note, the ADN link goes to weather in general and probably changes from day to day.)  At least they all agree on sunset time.



I'm not sure how you calculate exact sunrise for a place with mountains to the east.

In any case, here are some pictures of my flock.  

 

UAA Faculty Senate Upset about Chancellor Appointment Process

[Some people I've talked to this week said they really aren't aware much of the University.  That's a shame because it has a large budget and its mission is to educate the people who will be Alaska's future.  The ADN simply cut and pasted a brief version of the University's press release.]

The UAA Faculty Senate discussed the appointment of Tom Case as its new Chancellor at Friday afternoon's meeting. I posted earlier in the week that former Air Force General and now University of Alaska President Pat Gamble had appointed former Air Force General Tom Case to be Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.  At the time I pointed out that this would mean that the four highest positions at the University of Alaska would be held by white males over 60 who did not have terminal academic degrees.  The idea of diversity is pretty entrenched in American government and business these days.  Not just for symbolic reasons, but because it is understood that people with different life experience see the world differently and bring different perspectives to the table, perspectives that better understand and reflect (in this case) the people of the State, the student body, and the faculty, and others in the university community.  You simply get better decisions if your leadership reflects your employees and constituents.


But today's Faculty Senate meeting didn't focus on that issue.  After dealing with old business, they took up discussion of the Chancellor appointment.  There were three key concerns:

1. The Individual.  There was widespread agreement that the group did not want to focus on the individual who was appointed Chancellor.  The group's comments suggested they did not want to embarrass Tom Case in any way, or even the president.
    
2. The Process.  There seemed to be three responses to how the new Chancellor was selected:
1. Outrage/Anger -  This response, based on my count of people's comments, seemed to reflect a plurality, if not a majority.  People felt the university culture's process of collaborative governance was trashed and people felt insulted and outraged and wanted the President to be aware that he had seriously abused his position.
2. Upset - Pretty much the same as 1 but expressed less passionately.
3. We should reach out - One person, using nursing (I think) terminology said that there was a knowledge deficit and that the faculty needed to educate the President about academic culture.  She also said the faculty had a knowledge deficit about the president.  While others didn't necessarily share this non-judgmental way of putting it, it seemed that most agreed there needed to be more communication between the faculty and the President. 
3. What to do next.

Background

This seems like a good point to step back and talk about the process which came out in bits and pieces in the meeting and which I also learned more about from commenters in the last post on this and asking folks.

The academic culture tends to have very collaborative search processes for important positions - faculty and high level administrators - who will have a major impact on the organization for a long while.  Other government and business organizations also use nationwide searches for many positions, but often are less inclusive of so broad a cross-section of the organizational community.  I sat on the search committee that chose Lee Gorsuch as chancellor.  He also did not have a PhD.  But having the national search meant that we were sure we couldn't attract a better candidate and the new Chancellor came in with the strong support of the faculty.  Yes, cost is a factor, but there are options between nothing at all and a full, costly search.  APU, the small private university nearby, last year had a nation-wide search for its president which included faculty, students, alumni, and community members.  And attracted a strong, experienced academic administrator from Outside who also had good Alaska experience.  In that case, the Alaska candidates did not prove to be the strongest.  To get a sense of a normal search, here are the steps from the University of Minnesota.

1. Board approves search plan;
2. Board selects desired leadership characteristics for a new president and appoints a search advisory committee;
3. Search advisory committee recruits pool of candidates, reviews their qualifications and selects candidates for initial interviews;
4. Search advisory committee conducts interviews and forwards semi-finalists to board;
5. Board reviews semi-finalists and publicly names finalists;
6. Finalists visit campus for public interviews by the board and meetings with campus community;
7. Board selects president.  

These are pretty short and to the point.  The State University of  New York (SUNY) has far more detailed steps which appear to be statewide policy or perhaps even law.  The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has another detailed list for President/Chancellor searches.  This is the norm in academic institutions.  When a President such as Gamble comes in from a different organizational setting, it is his responsibility to get up to speed on how things are done, or at least have a couple of very good insider advisers that he can check with.  Either Gamble didn't do this and should have, or he knew what he was doing and was using the management maxim "It's better to ask forgiveness than permission."  Or the full meaning of 'shared governance' was hard to believe for a retired Air Force general. 

Search Timeline

January 22, 2010 - Chancellor Fran Ulmer announces her retirement in mid 2011.  She gave over a year's notice, giving the university plenty of lead time to conduct a search.  The Anchorage Daily News quoted then President Hamilton:

"Fran's announcement today was done in the typical thoughtful fashion that is Fran's hallmark," said University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton, who also recently announced his own retirement. "She has given the UAA community, me and the next president plenty of time to plan for a smooth transition. She cares deeply about this institution."

I'd note that academic national searches take as much time as you have.  Ideally you'd begin about a year out before the position has to be filled in hopes of attracting people before they have committed to other institutions.  And also giving them reasonable time to cut ties from their old institution and get settled in the new one.  In this case, the University could have established a position description in Spring 2010 to get a head start.

November 23, 2010  (Ten months later on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) - President Gamble sends out memo to University community announcing the beginning of the President search.

Double click to enlarge

The memo - I have a PDF copy that doesn't allow me to cut and paste as text- so I have to take images.  Here's a bit of what the President said he thought was needed in the next Chancellor.

But he also hinted at what was coming at the end of that memo:

I am mindful that the last formal, national UAA chancellor search in 2003-2004 cost $250,000 and took eight months.  I am equally mindful that all three of our current chancellors, who I personally consider exceptionally talented leaders and working partners, were not selected through and extended and costly formal search process.  Considering these past experiences I believe we should remain open minded about a method that will lead to the best outcome for UAA and the state.

So, it would appear from this document that President Gamble knew about - even if he might not have understood the practical implications - the importance of shared governance.  And he knew that these searches could take a long time and that by waiting until late November he'd let a lot of time slip by.

Dec. 6, 2010 - The Faculty Senate responds with this memo (a pdf that allowed cut and pasting)

(Basically they say they don't want to skip the search and have a direct hire by the president, but if that is going to happen, they would support doing that for the current Provost Mike Driscoll.) 

Date: December 6, 2010
To:    Patrick K. Gamble, President, University of Alaska
From:    John Petraitis, President, UAA Faculty Senate
Re:    UAA Chancellor Search

In our December 2010 meeting, UAA’s Faculty Senate discussed your letter concerning how to proceed with finding Fran Ulmer’s replacement when she retires in 2011. The following motion was passed unanimously.

Faculty Senate is committed to shared governance that involves faculty, staff, and students. As such, we are, as a rule, uncomfortable with a direct hire of senior administrators. 

But, if you opt for a direct hire, the only person Faculty Senate would support is Mike Driscoll because he was hired as Provost after a national search, he has performed well as Provost, he knows UAA perhaps better than any other applicants for the position, and he has served as Acting Chancellor several times as Chancellor Ulmer has worked on the Presidential Oil Spill Commission. 

Given our commitment to shared governance, we encourage you to consult with UAA's other governance groups to get their opinions on this matter. 

If you do not opt for a direct hire of Mike Driscoll, Faculty Senate requests that the Chancellor's position be filled after national search and that the search committee consist of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and representatives from UAA's community campuses.

For 44 Against 0 Unanimously approved

Mid January [18,] 2011 - President has a meeting with invited participants including faculty officers, local business people, alumni, community leaders, students, [a couple of deans/directors, and representatives from UAA's community campuses] and asks them for their characteristics of a good chancellor.  


January 31, 2011 - The President sends out a memo announcing he has chosen Tom Case as the new Chancellor.

These are the dates of meetings that I know of.  If there were other meetings on this I'm not aware of them.


Back to the Meeting - What to do next.

The faculty wrestled with the following issues:

1.  Was Gamble willfully violating the university culture  and the notion of shared governance or just acting out of cultural ignorance? 

2.  What was the most appropriate way to let him know they were seriously pissed with the process and at the same time maintain enough cordiality to be able to work with Gamble in the future and also with Tom Case?

Since they didn't know his motives - and some complained that he'd never been to campus to talk with them - it was difficult to decide.  If he was knowingly skirting the process because he thought he could get away with it and appoint his friend, then they felt they needed to stand up to him and let him know he was going to face resistance if he tried this again.  But if this was a genuine culture clash, they were willing to give him another chance. 

Faculty Senate President Petraitis

Two people at the meeting who have had most contact with Gamble said they thought he would prove more willing to involve faculty in important decisions than had President Hamilton.  Faculty Senate President John Petraitis pointed out that the faculty had been asked to  take a key role in preparing the University strategic plan.  Chancellor Ulmer said she thought a reason he hadn't been on campus much was he believed in decentralization and staying out of campus business.  (Some people wondered how that squared with how the Chancellor was chosen.)  She also pointed out that since neither she nor Brian Rogers had been appointed through a major search process, he might not have thought such a search necessary.*

Petraitis also announced that Gamble would be at UAA at a public meeting on Wednesday, February 9.  The exact time and place weren't certain - probably 4:30-5:30 in Library 307, but check.  He said he'd suggested this to Gamble after the announcement and Gamble agreed. He said Gamble couldn't make today's meeting because he was out of state at a grandchild's baptism. 

Action Taken

They passed a motion to send a memo supporting Provost Driscoll. There was major concern about the perceived snub of Provost Driscoll whom the faculty had supported in their Dec. 6 memo.  The faculty still strongly supported him and were worried that he would seek a job elsewhere after the President ignored the faculty recommendations.    I didn't get to see the actual motion so I won't try to characterize it more than that.

[UPDATE 12noon:  Here's a copy of the motion:

Motion: A vote of confidence for Provost Michael Driscoll

We have confidence in the leadership of Provost Michael Driscoll because he has wisely and successfully provided academic and administrative guidance to the University of Alaska Anchorage. We commend him for many things, including the following:

• Representing us and advocating for us to statewide administration, the Board of Regents, and the community of Anchorage
• Supporting shared governance by soliciting faculty, staff, and student input and, then, being responsive to it in appropriate measure
• Following academically authorized processes of curriculum development and approval; hiring of faculty and administrators; and promotion and tenure, giving faculty significant leaderships roles in those processes
• For ensuring transparency in the Office of Academic Affairs

We thank you for service to our institution and hope it continues for many years.]

The faculty decided not to send a second motion to convey their outrage about the process and what that meant for the future, deciding that it would be better to do that in the face-to-face meeting next Wednesday.





*I'd point out that Ulmer was first appointed as Interim Chancellor after Chancellor Maimon announced her decision to take a new position in Governor's State University in February 2007 - fairly late in the year to do a serious Chancellor search.  Faculty were involved in the decision.  I'm not sure about the decision later to forgo a search and make Ulmer's appointment permanent.

Rogers' interim appointment also included faculty having a chance to meet two candidates and give their feedback to the President.  I don't know if there was any participation in his permanent appointment.

[Update 5:30pm - see comments below which say that for both Ulmer and Rogers' appointments - interim and permanent - faculty were involved and supported the decisions.]

Blogger Updates - Fonts, Tina Delgado Is Alive Audio, and Snail Mail

Observant regular readers might have noticed I'm using a new font for the posts.  Blogspot now offers a lot more fonts for bloggers to play with.  I tend to like a more informal font and people have complained that the old font was too small.  Bloggers, you can find them on your dashboard at Design → Template Designer → Advanced.

I'll probably experiment with this to see if there's a better permanent font.  One of the problems is that you seem to have to pick a font for all posts.  I understand that gives the blog a level of consistency, but more flexibility would be nice.  I could, for instance, leave the old posts in the old font and then use the new font into the future. You can't go back to the old posts to compare because they've all been changed.  Or I could use a unique font occasionally if it were appropriate for a particular post.    It's like buying a new car and the history of all your old cars has been changed too. Same with the colors.  It seems to be all or nothing.  (Though you can set different fonts and colors for different parts of the blog as you can see in the second column, left in image above - page text, background, links, etc.)

[UPDATE 4pm - If this font stuff interests you, be sure to read Dean's comment below before you start playing around.]
[UPDATE Feb. 4 pm - You're right Dean, CGinWI, Anon-lurker, and Kathy.  It was starting to get to me as well and I've change it (cherry cream soda) back to Georgia, but I made it 13 instead of 12 because 12 seemed too small.   I learned from all the font lessons you sent me that I should go with a more common one (that's available on more computers) and let the words, not the font, do the talking.  I learned a lot and I would also recommend Anon-lurker's referenced site to the list too, which also gets into accessibility a bit, meaning for those who have more trouble seeing the words than most people do.   And it had this to say about Georgia:

Georgia

Georgia is like the other web fonts discussed so far in that it is wider than similar fonts meant for print design. Unlike the other web fonts, though, Georgia is a serif font, more along the lines of Times New Roman.

Georgia is somewhat easier on the eyes than Times New Roman, although high resolution screens with font smoothing technology also display Times New Roman quite well. One advantage of using Georgia is that it is not the default text of the browser. It is easier for users to see that the designer has applied some style to the font when fonts other than the default font are specified. Georgia ends up looking slightly more artistic than Times New Roman, though CSSIt's time we take back Times New Roman on the Web - external link on mezzoblue.com.) styling can certainly breathe new life into Times New Roman too. (See, for example the article It's time we take back Times New Roman on the Web - external link on mezzoblue.com.)]

Tina Delgado Update

When I monitor sitemeter to see how people get here and where they go, I'm reminded of old posts.  Sometimes I have to look it up to remember what it's even about.  And sometimes I realize I need to do an update.  Should I make a new post too to alert people of the update?  Usually, probably not. 


For instance, I continue to get people googling, "Tina Delgado is Alive, Alive."  When I did a post on the LA radio soundscape of the past (Oct. 2009), I couldn't find an audio.  But I decided to check again today and found a 90 sec YouTube piece that will allow people to hear that, back then ubiquitous, proclamation.  Here's a link to the updated Tina Delgado post.  It's at the end of the video/audio that you get the real deal.

Snail Mail

Also, I did a post on the impending death of the post office recently.  Today on Talk of the Nation they had a discussion of the art of snail mail.  So I'm adding a link to that post.

Year of the Hare - Happy Chinese New Year

From the Taipei Times (which has a beautiful calligraphy rabbit)

Emerging from the fierce Year of the Tiger, the Chinese lunar calendar now enters the Year of the Rabbit (or Year of the Hare), and the imagery is certainly of a more peaceable nature, although much of the trauma from the Tiger still continues to cause havoc across the globe. . .

From the Qi Journal:

HARE:
January 29, 1903 to February 15, 1904 (water)
February 14, 1915 to February 2, 1916 (wood)
February 2, 1927 to January 22, 1928 (fire)
February 19, 1939 to February 7, 1940 (earth)
February 1951 to January 26 1952 (metal)
January 25, 19673 to February 12, 1964 (water)
February 11, 1975 to January 30, 1976 (wood)
January 29, 1987 to February 16, 1988 (fire)
February 16, 1999 to February 4, 2000 (earth)

Celebrities include:
Michelangelo - Napoleon - Albert Einstein - Walt Whitman - Marie Curie

Hares (rabbits) are happiest when with friends and safely inside of social circles. They are often meek and withdrawn among groups of strangers. They seldom like to argue and enjoy quiet, peaceful lives. A Hare is cautious and will weigh the pros and cons from every angle before moving ahead.

A lover of good conversation, reading, and intellectual discussions, the hare is sincere and are often gifted healers, herbalists, and doctors. Traditionally associated with clear-sightedness, the Hare is an excellent judge of character and has a certain ability to recognize when others are lying. A Hare's home is typically a beautiful one, and they take great care and expend a lot of energy making it comfortable. You will find a lot of expensive and precious items in the home of a Hare personality.

The Chinese have many strange legends about the Hare, one of them is that they inhabit the moon, together with three-legged frogs. Another legend has it that the Hare possesses the secret recipe for the elixir of immortality.

From Webexhibits:

The Chinese calendar - like the Hebrew - is a combined solar/lunar calendar in that it strives to have its years coincide with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar:

• An ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months.
• An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days.

When determining what a Chinese year looks like, one must make a number of astronomical calculations:
First, determine the dates for the new moons. Here, a new moon is the completely "black" moon (that is, when the moon is in conjunction with the sun), not the first visible crescent used in the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is the first day of a new month.
Second, determine the dates when the sun’s longitude is a multiple of 30 degrees. (The sun’s longitude is 0 at Vernal Equinox, 90 at Summer Solstice, 180 at Autumnal Equinox, and 270 at Winter Solstice.) These dates are called the Principal Terms and are used to determine the number of each month:

• Principal Term 1 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 330 degrees.
• Principal Term 2 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 0 degrees.
• Principal Term 3 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 30 degrees. (etc.)
• Principal Term 11 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 270 degrees.
• Principal Term 12 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 300 degrees.

Each month carries the number of the Principal Term that occurs in that month.
In rare cases, a month may contain two Principal Terms; in this case the months numbers may have to be shifted. Principal Term 11 (Winter Solstice) must always fall in the 11th month.
All the astronomical calculations are carried out for the meridian 120 degrees east of Greenwich. This roughly corresponds to the east coast of China.
Some variations in these rules are seen in various Chinese communities.

[This site has a lot more interesting information about the Chinese year and calendar.]

Alaskan Snowshoe Hare

House Labor And Commerce Commission - Regulatory Commission of Alaska

Committee Chair Rep. Kurt Olson, Kenai

Last year I mentioned in a blog post from Juneau that someone could probably blog the legislature from Anchorage using BASIS, the Legislature's website, and Gavel to Gavel, and readers might not even know the blogger wasn't in Juneau.  I'm not going to try to fool anybody about where I am (Anchorage) but I am checking now and then on what's happening in Juneau.  And I'll remind you that this is happening and you can drop in anytime. 

For example, today, right now as I type here, the House Labor and Commerce Committee is hearing from Bob Pickett, the chair of the  Regulatory Commission of Alaska (this used to be called the Alaska Public Utilities Commission.)

Pickett is giving an overview of the Commission, what they do, and answering questions from the committee members.  You can get to it live right now here. (It's 4:17pm as I write, later you'll get reruns of sessions that were recorded today.)

It's Marmot Day in Alaska

44.12.110. Marmot Day. Marmot Day is established on February 2 of each

year. The day may be observed by suitable observances and exercises

by school programs, the Alaska  Zoo, civic groups, and the public. 

(The picture was taken during the summer and if any marmots stuck their
heads out today they didn't see their shadows, at least not around the
Anchorage area.)

Six Books - Media, Ethics, Balance, Language

I got an email a while back saying to come in and renew my library card and I've been trying to get that done.  Tonight it happened.  Expiring the cards, he said, because the data base was getting full.  That doesn't seem like it should be a problem in 2011, but who am I to argue?

Double click to enlarge

Our new book club selection is Cutting for Stone, but it wasn't in.  I put it on hold and looked at the new books in the non-fiction section.  Wow! Anyone bored?  Go to the library.  Not only can you look, but you can borrow. 

I'll let you know which of these is good.

But I started with I live in the future & here's how it looks by Nick Bilton.  At dinner I shared the epilogue  - "why they're not coming back" - with J.

It's addressed to Dear CEO, Publisher, Producer, Editor, Author, Journalist, Advertising Director, Filmmaker .  . .



"They" are traditional customers, "[m]edia, brands, and the established narratives."


It all boils down to storytelling, he tells us.

In the past stories cost money and were told by people with access to a printing press or television studio, but now everyone has the ability to spread and share information equally with inexpensive tools at our disposal, with our mobile phones, digital cameras, and laptops, we all have an equal voice.

. . .we need to accept that we are not simply selling content. W're not selling the words on the page or the images on the screen, instead we're selling an entire experience. The content we create and sell is just one segment of a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.

As we move to the next iteration of storytelling, as a great flattening is taking place between consumer and creator, the medium will no longer be the message. The medium will be pervasive. The medium will be amateur, professional, and infinite. And it will all exist as a mutual collection of bytes, snacks, and meals.

So as I'm byting on my meal of yakisoba, I look up at my wife and say, "So, then, why is he writing a book?"

But when we got home and I went to the author's note at the beginning, I saw that he had thought about the question (one of the problems with starting at the end. )

So there are computer extensions of the book.  You can download an app for your iPhone to scan the QR code (that chippy looking box) to take you to the page matching the chapter. 

Or you can just go to nickbilton.com and see the extra for that chapter. 


But let's go back to the content above. 

If the story is the core (and I'm a big believer in the importance of the narrative), Bilton's history doesn't seem to go back far enough.

"In the past stories cost money." 
 I think he's talking about the recent past.  Besides, the stories themselves didn't cost money.  The story is the idea, is the narrative itself.  What could get expensive was the telling of the story.  But let's go back further than his limited time horizon.  Before electricity, before print, the medium was the voice and the body.  Everyone had access.   If you could use your voice and body to make your stories compelling you would get your audience.  (Though it could be costly if the people in power didn't like the message.) 

When the printing press came along, there was also a great liberation because access to the written word could no longer be monopolized by the monks, the time to hand copy a manuscript was now reduced to the time to set the type.  Once you did that, printing took relatively little time.  And with printing, more written material was available and more people could learn to read.  And more was printed in the local language.  Printing at first, wasn't seen as a monopoly, but rather as the breaking of the monopoly.  Those opposed were the ones that had the monopoly.  (Ithiel de Sola Pool's Technologies of Freedom describes the history of changing technologies of media and predicted back in the early 1980's the convergence of most media that Bilton is discussing. )

My concern today is that people like Nick are so enamored of the technology that they see themselves as the powerful ones (because they have mastery of the technology) and they are almost condescending to the old power people who don't know how to do things with the technology.  But just as with the printing press and movies and recordings and television and radio, the good old boys will take some time to adjust, but then they will figure out how to gain control of the new medium, and they have the money to do it. 

Just as Facebook might have allowed the Egyptians to communicate more freely and widely than ever before, the government also figured out how to turn Facebook off.  As governments and businesses figure out the power of the internet they will also figure out how to use it for their traditional pursuits - control of the population and making money.  To do this they will hire techies who will willingly restrict access and track dissidents for them. 

As Bilton revels in the idea that his gps can track him through his cell phone and have his order ready when he gets to Starbucks, I'm thinking that's a pretty cheap bribe for also allowing the government (or Google) to be able to track people and pick them up or use their data for their own ends. 

I've gotten ahead here to the Introduction (remember I started at the end of the book), but you get the idea of where this book seems to be going.   "The future is here and it's gonna be so cool, so stop resisting and get with the program" is the message I'm picking up from the little I've read.    But I'd say it's time for Nick to go the library and check out 1984 and think about how the new technology could be used to allow Big Brother to track Winston.  And then think about how to prevent that. 

And the way Bilton says "The medium will no longer be the message" suggests to me he doesn't understand what McLuhan was saying. (Or maybe he does and I'm just too dull to keep up with him.)  McLuhan - and I acknowledge that people interpret him in different ways - was saying that the medium itself changes the dynamic between the creator and the receiver and thus it changes the communication.  So, the world of people getting 'news' on the page of the morning newspaper is slightly (or greatly) different from the world of people getting 'news' on their mobile phones.   Let's look again at what he said:

The medium will be pervasive. The medium will be amateur, professional, and infinite. And it will all exist as a mutual collection of bytes, snacks, and meals.

 Now, I'm willing to acknowledge the possibility that this is profound and I'm too dense to understand it.  So let me interpret it as I read it and let's see if someone (is Nick set up to track  bloggers writing about his book so he can swoop in here and straighten me out?) can show me the error of my ways.


"The medium will be pervasive'

Does this mean that there will only be one medium?  If that is the case, then, of course, the medium will no longer matter because all content will come via the same medium, so the role of the medium will be neutralized.  But how can there only be one medium?  People will still be able to share stories by natural voice and speaking face to face.  They will be able to draw pictures and write stories on pieces of paper.   Is he saying the internet will cause movie theaters to shut down?  Will all menus become digital?  I think not.  Even though we have electric fireplaces, people still burn wood as well because it has a look and feel and smell an electric fire just can't match.


"The medium will be amateur, professional, and infinite."

Now if Nick is changing the meaning of the word medium because its old meaning isn't adequate for the new world, he needs to explain himself a bit.  Otherwise, he might just be writing gibberish and no one is willing to call him on it.  (Actually, I haven't checked to see what people have said about the book.  Maybe they have called him on this.)  In my old fashioned way of thinking, 'amateur' and 'professional' describe the people creating the story.  They either do it without pay or with pay.  The medium (again, only one seems to exist in this sentence now) isn't amateur or professional, the content creators are.  The medium could refer to the method of realizing the concept - crayon, calligraphy, keyboard, blackboard, camcorder, etc. - or it could refer to the method of distribution - phone app, birthday card, email attachment, blog, 3D Movie, skywriting, etc. 

One guess at his meaning here is that everyone - amateurs and professionals - will be producing with equal access to the global audience in the new world.  But moving words around into grammatically proper places for nouns and verbs and adjectives doesn't necessarily produce sentences that have literal meaning.  If he does mean the only medium will be the internet, he's dreaming.  What happens when the power goes out?  We stop communicating altogether?  Now, if he is only talking about commercial content, he should say so, but then he would be the one who isn't keeping up.  And he does talk about amateurs, so I don't think that's his intention.

I now have to finish reading his book.  Meanwhile he does say in the introduction

. . . this book will give you a new framework for looking at these difficult issues and making sense of the radical trends that have emerged in the last few years.  I will take you deep into the consumnivore's [again, he seems to be embedded in the market paradigm here and subtly excluding those who might not wish to cater to 'consumers' but to aficionados]  new world, explaining how navigation, aggregation, and the narrative are changing.

 He's going to take us through the California porn world to see how they use the new technology.

Then, to reassure you and put today's changes into perspective, we'll take a walk through history to see how radical new developments time and again have prompted fear and upheaval before proving their immense worth to society - and why we'll survive this sea change as well.

 I shouldn't jump to conclusions, and I know every major innovation elicits resistance from those who don't want to adjust, particularly those who have a vested interest in the status quo.   But I take it from this reassurance that he has no concern about global climate change, about the swift disappearance of species around the world, about the impact of derivatives, and other impacts of new technologies. These are probably just crank complaints by the modern Luddites.  But I haven't read that chapter yet.

And in the interest in being relatively current, I have to figure out how to combine blogging about the book and also putting comments on his book's website. 

And let me say that none of us really know what's happening and his book has got me thinking here and that's a good thing. 

Alaska's Military-Educational Complex - Gen. Tom Case To Be New UAA Chancellor

The Nitty Gritty:  The University of Alaska system has a state wide President and three campus Chancellors - in Juneau (UAS), Fairbanks (UAF), and Anchorage(UAA.)  When Tom Case becomes Chancellor at UAA, two of the top four academic leaders in the University system will be former Air Force generals.  None of the four academic leaders will have a doctorate.  While there is room for non-traditional appointments in any system, I find it severely troubling that we either cannot attract or aren't interested in having some leaders with first rate academic qualifications in our highest academic institutions.  Like, how about a general with a doctorate at least?

[UPDATE Feb 5:  There's a follow-up post on the Faculty Senate meeting where this appointment was discussed.]

Tom Case Selected as Chancellor

The University of Alaska Anchorage website announced President (former Gen) Gamble's choice of (former Gen) Tom Case as new UAA Chancellor   January 31, 2011:

University of Alaska President Pat Gamble today announced that Tom Case, the former dean of the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Business and Public Policy, will succeed Fran Ulmer as UAA Chancellor.

Case is currently the president and chief operating officer for the Alaska Aerospace Corp. headquartered in Anchorage. He’ll resign from that position to take the top leadership position at UAA. . .

“Tom is the right person for this big job,” Gamble said. “I received valuable input on Fran’s replacement from a diverse group of UAA stakeholders, elected and community leaders, the Board of Regents, and others.  Many people advised me that a costly and lengthy national search wasn’t necessary because we have excellent talent right here in Alaska. They were exactly right. Fran has been a true champion of our students, higher education and of UAA in particular, and I believe Tom clearly has the leadership experience and academic credentials to continue Fran’s good work.”

OK now.  President Pat Gamble came to the University last spring from the Alaska Railroad and before that  from the Air Force where he retired as a four-star general and as commander of U.S. air forces in the Pacific region.

Now Tom Case comes to UAA from being COO of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, and from being Dean of the UAA College of Business and Public Policy, and from being deputy commander in chief of Central Command and Pacific Command.

Before Pat Gamble was President, Army General Mark Hamilton had been President of the University of Alaska.  


I haven't been paying close attention to the selection of the Chancellor.  But it appears from President Gamble's words, there was no serious search for a new Chancellor.  

“I received valuable input on Fran’s replacement from a diverse group of UAA stakeholders, elected and community leaders, the Board of Regents, and others.  Many people advised me that a costly and lengthy national search wasn’t necessary because we have excellent talent right here in Alaska. They were exactly right. Fran has been a true champion of our students, higher education and of UAA in particular, and I believe Tom clearly has the leadership experience and academic credentials to continue Fran’s good work.”

DISCLOSURE

As some readers here know, I'm a retired UAA professor.  Tom Case was my dean for four years.  Before that I'd had contact with him in my role as chair of the Public Administration program and his role as head of Elmendorf Air Force base.  I like Tom Case a lot.  He's a decent, honest, public spirited, and fair person.  I would trust his word absolutely.


UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP BACKGROUND

Tom Case was originally appointed Dean of the College of Business and Public Affairs without a more formal search process.  At this point I don't remember the exact details, but I recall it was an interim appointment and then later the faculty agreed that he should stay on.

Fran Ulmer had been Mayor of Juneau, a legislator from Juneau, Lt. Gov. of Alaska, and ran for Gov.  After that she had an appointment at Harvard as a visiting professor in something like Environmental Policy, was a guest faculty at UAA, and then was appointed director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research.  She too was appointed without a search committee to be interim Chancellor and then about a year later if I recall correctly, was appointed as permanent Chancellor.  She's recently served as one of President Obama's BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commissioners.


FUNCTIONS OF A UNIVERSITY

Faculty at the University of Alaska Anchorage are expected to do, and are evaluated on, three main functions:  Teaching, Research, and Service.  Universities have traditionally been seen as academic institutions where positions require academic training, usually what is called a 'terminal' degree.  That means the highest academic degree in one's field, usually a PhD, but for law, a JD is considered a terminal degree.

• Case is an Air Force Academy graduate and has a Masters Degree in Systems Management.  
• Ulmer has a JD.  
• Gamble has a 1978 Masters Degree in business administration and management (as well as Air War College education) 
• Chancellor Rogers at UAF has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard (my field) and   
• UAS Chancellor John Pugh has a 1970 MSW  (Masters of Social Work) from the University of Texas, Austin. (❉See bottom of post)

Community Colleges are able to get good leaders with PhD's.  The University of Alaska System's top four academic leadership positions will soon include no one with a terminal degree.





SHOULD PEOPLE WITHOUT TERMINAL DEGREES AND ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE HEAD UNIVERSITIES?

It wouldn't make sense to simply rule out anyone without a PhD as University President or Chancellor.   A PhD is not and should not always be the requirement.  There are people with unique experience that makes them qualified despite not having a degree.  I taught public administration and I believe that general management/administrative skills are transferable from one area to another.  But one needs to understand the functions of the organization - in this case teaching, research, and service - to be able to lead the people who do the work and to represent them well outside of the organization. 

In Mark Hamilton's case, as President he very skillfully lobbied the legislature for funding increases after a string of years of budget declines.  As a faculty grievance representative, I personally found President Hamilton approachable and receptive.  Several times I wrote him lengthy emails and he responded quickly, thoughtfully, and in detail.  And there were several grievances that we won only at his level. (It was a bit strange though since the statewide attorney wrote the Chancellor's response at the campus level.)

As my Dean, Tom Case was exceptionally careful not to violate academic culture.  Sometimes this led to him not being as forceful as I thought he should have been because he wasn't sure enough about what was appropriate and didn't want to impose military standards.  He did get the opportunity to teach some classes - I believe he co-taught with a faculty member so he didn't have complete responsibility for the management of the class.  His strongest asset for the college was his connections and respect off campus.  Again, he would have been stronger had he better understood the roles of the faculty in teaching, research, and service so he could have made his pitch for funding more effectively and he could have better understood the quality of proposals and their likelihood for success.  He was also somewhat at a disadvantage dealing with national academic issues such as accreditation.  But he's a bright, decent, and hardworking man and I know his time as Dean will serve him well as Chancellor.  He had to sit in at countless meetings with other deans so he should have a reasonable reading of the issues of other colleges. 


WHAT ABOUT ALL THIS MILITARY INFLUENCE ON CAMPUS?

Clearly, no one at the University could move laterally into a high level military positions as military retirees are able to do.  People are expected to move up through the ranks because that way they can understand the needs of their workforce.  It seems strange that people from such closed systems see no problem when they go into totally different systems.  (Though in the US, they do have civilian leadership in the Department of Defense and White House.)

The military is an institution in which people are constantly undergoing training and education and people who make it to the rank of general have to be very good.  But 'good' for becoming a general doesn't automatically transfer outside of the military culture - especially to the much more egalitarian and independent culture of a university.  In the military there is a very strict hierarchy and obedience to orders from superiors is the underlying rule.  Universities are structured around collegial governance.  Even if one understands that abstractly, understanding such a different culture is not easy.  The way you get faculty attention is much different from how you get military attention. 

A concern that I have is NOT that an occasional general gains a top leadership position at the University of Alaska.  But the University has now had two generals in a row as President of the Statewide system and soon a third general heading the largest campus of the university as well. 



MAYBE UNIVERSITIES NEED SOME SHAKING UP

I recently posted about a report that says Universities are not teaching students how to think.  I noted in that post that I wanted to do another post on the obstacles faculty face these days trying to teach logic, reasoning, and critical thinking.  That post is still coming up.  Here's a preview of my thoughts:   The basic management logic of efficiencies of scale has led many legislators to conclude that teaching classes of a 100 would be more efficient if you doubled the class size.  The same with graduate classes.  That would work if classes consisted only of one-way information flows and computer graded exams.  But it doesn't work if classes are interactive and students actually write papers that faculty read carefully and comment on extensively.  The emphasis on efficiency is one of the reasons that critical thinking isn't getting taught.  Faculty simply don't have time for the important personal work as class size increases.  And at UAA, with one fledgling doctoral program, it's hard to have real teaching assistants who can do some of the teaching in smaller sections. 

There are many changes that have come to higher education over the last 30 years and the next 30 years will probably be even more challenging.  Technology offers lots of opportunities  to transform how we teach.  Computers can be used to teach many skills.  Applying computer gaming technology to curriculum could make memorization of terms and rote skills much more interesting for students and free faculty to concentrate more on teaching that requires human interaction.   But much of what I've seen come to the University in my time was either driven by people trying to cut costs or trying to sell technology, without seriously getting into the pedagogy.  There are some real exceptions.  Programs like Blackboard, as elementary as they may be, have greatly increased student-student and student-faculty communication for teachers who could take full advantage.  But some distance education systems crank up the student-teacher ratio and there is an incentive for both students and teachers to dumb down the curriculum so both can survive.  But this is all for another post.

Yes, I think that university faculty are often living in a different world from other people.  This isn't a bad thing.  They're supposed to have time to educate (not train) the people who will be in charge in the future.  They're also supposed to think about what we are doing without being caught up in it all.  A little fresh blood now and then is a good idea.  But there is a reason most organizations hire people at the top who know their field, and having less than the academically best in all four top positions is not where a first class university should be.  


KEEPERS OF THE UNIVERSITY ETHOS OF LEARNING AND RESEARCH


Ultimately, the Board of Regents have to approve the major policy decisions at the University.  Regents are appointed to eight year terms.  In recent years, we are seeing regents who are not serving out those terms.  Below is a list of the last 19 regents from the Regents website.  Current regents are in blue and you can link to their bios.

Sean ParnellSean Parnell

REGENT	DATES	APPOINTED BY
Mary K. Hughes*	2002-2009	Tony Knowles
Byron I. Mallot	2002-2003	Tony Knowles
Derek Miller	2002-2003	Tony Knowles
Michael Snowden	2002-2009	Tony Knowles
Cynthia Henry*	2003-2011	Frank Murkowski
James C. Hayes**	2003-2007	Frank Murkowski
David J. Parks**	2003-2005	Frank Murkowski
Jeffery B. Staser	2005	Frank Murkowski
Robert Martin*	2005-2013	Frank Murkowski
Carl Marrs*	2005-2013	Frank Murkowski
Timothy Brady*	2005-20007 2007-2015	Frank Murkowski Sarah Palin
Jacob Gondek**	2005-2007	Frank Murkowski
Cowell Fuller*	2007-2015	Sarah Palin
Patricia Jacobson*	2007-2015	Sarah Palin
Kirk Wickersham*	2007-2015	Sarah Palin
Erik Drygas*	2007-2011	Sarah Palin
William Andrews**	2003-2009	Sarah Palin
Kenneth J. Fisher*	2009-2017	Sarah Palin
Ashton Compton*  **	2009-2011	Sarah Palin
Jyotsna Heckman*  ***	2011-2019
Michael Powers*  ***	2011-2019
*Currently Regent	**Student Regent	***Appointed after Chancellor approved

[UPDATE Feb. 12, 2011 - I've added the two Regents who were appointed after the new chancellor was approved.  They seem to have replaced Henry and Drygas.]

Below is a list of the kinds of academic degrees the Regents have.

BS Engineering - 3
BA/BBA - Marketing, Management - 2 
Law - 2
BA Education/MA Education - 2/2  (one has both)
MA unspecified - 1
Can't find - 1
Current student - 1
[UPDATE Feb. 12, 2011 - new Regent Heckman has BA and MBA, new Regent Powers has a BA in English Literature and MA in Health Services Administration]

As you can see, this is a bit unrepresentative both in terms of disciplines (all are in professional fields) and in level of degrees.  Although the bulk of the service delivery employees (the faculty) have doctorates, I can identify no one on the Board of Regents who has a doctorate, nor does the President of the University, nor will the new Chancellor at UAA.  Nor the other two campus Chancellors.

Our regents may feel they are dedicated to higher education, but their backgrounds are troubling.  Individually, each one. if combined in a more representative group, would be fine.  But collectively they don't show me the depth and breadth of experience needed to understand the institution they are running and what this state's university system will need to stay competitive in the future.

It's time for the faculty and students and residents of Alaska to lobby heavily for the next Chancellor hired to be one sharp academic who knows the academic universe and has great contacts around the US.  And for legislators to demand more academically diverse and experienced regents from the governor.

Maybe back in the 80's when the Board of Regents merged the Community College system into the University and got rid of Anchorage Community College, they should have, instead, merged the university and into a statewide community college system. 


CONCLUSION

Tom Case is an honorable man whom I personally respect greatly.  I know he will do his best to make UAA as good as it can be.  But this is an academic institution.  Having two of the four top leadership positions held my ex-Air Force generals is not exactly the kind of diversity we need.  Having ALL four top positions at the university held by people without terminal degrees is not the kind of diversity we need.  Having four white males over 60 in our four top leadership positions isn't the kind of diversity we need.  Again, I'm not faulting any one individual, but this group collectively doesn't represent the broad academic excellence a university system like ours needs.

I'm not calling for symbolic diversity.  I'm calling for diversity because people with different backgrounds and professional and academic experience will see things that this team won't see.  Women will see things these men won't see.  A non-white academic will see things these four won't see.  Having one air force general at an academic institution adds a unique perspective.  But what does the second one add? 

That President Gamble didn't recognize that adding Case to this team might NOT add the qualifications and experience missing from the existing team is part of the problem.  That the Board of Regents didn't recognize it is part of the problem.

And it looks like if the faculty, students, and citizens of Alaska don't do anything, there's no reason to expect things to change at the next vacancy. 





❉The UAS Chancellor bio  doesn't mention academic degrees.  I got this degree information from Pugh's VITA  last spring when he was a candidate for University President and the old link no longer works, but this is from my download of it:

John Robert Pugh
University of Alaska Southeast 

11120 Glacier Highway Juneau, Alaska 99801 

(907) 796-6272

Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Masters of Science in Social Work, 1970
Graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, 1967
Academy of Certified Social Workers, 1975-Present

Wolf Hall: Words and Silence

I've been reading Wolf Hall, the 2009 Man Booker Prize Winner by Hilary Mantel, since early December.  I finished it this afternoon.  I've been tempted to put up quotes now and then while I was reading it - the prose is so incredible, and so different.  Sparse.  Present tense, though set 400 years ago.

The impetus for finally getting it done - it's one of those books I didn't want to end - is that the book club meets tonight.  And it's a good thing I finished it, because only in the last line, as Thomas Cromwell is looking over the travel plans to catch up with King Henry VIII who's out of London for a bit do we even get close to Wolf Hall:

Before "Bromham," he makes a dot in the margin, and draws a long arrow across the page.  "Now, here, before we go to Winchester, we have time to spare, and what I think is, Rafe, we shall visit the Seymours."

He writes it down.

Early September. Five days.  Wolf Hall. 

But I'll focus here on some exchanges between Cromwell - the commoner, the blacksmith's son, who, through his physical presence, his way with words (in any number of languages), his incredible memory and administrative skills has become Henry VIII's Chief Minister, Master of the Crown Jewels - you can see all the many positions he held at Wikipedia - and Thomas More who is a prisoner in the Tower of London awaiting trial and execution because he will not acknowledge Henry's right to split from the Church in Rome and take over as head of the Church in England.  You get a sense of Cromwell's
position

Tower of London last summer

with the King in this exchange where Cromwell - who in this telling of the story does not want to force Thomas More's hand and is willing to let him sit in the Tower rather than execute him - argues that

". . . No one is in doubt of his loyalty to Rome and his hatred of Your Majesty's title as head of the church.  Legally, however, our case is slender, and More will use every legal, every procedural device open to him.  This is not going to be easy."

Henry stirs into life.  "Do I retain you for what is easy?  Jesus pity my simplicity.  I have promoted you to a place in this kingdom that no one, no one of your breeding has ever held in the whole of the history of this realm."  He drops his voice.  "Do you think it is for your personal beauty?  The charm of your presence?  I keep you, Master Cromwell, because you are as cunning as a bag of serpents.  But do not be a viper in my bosom.  You know my decision.  Execute it."

But that is background for the discussions between More and Cromwell.  And I'll do only a little part of that - that focuses on words and silence.

Cromwell is finishing a long soliloquy about the possibility of improving the world, being corrupted, the constant fight between ignorance and learning, the weather's impact on one's will (it's been raining all summer), and the need to maintain order and justice even if not perfectly. 

". . .  Last week the people were rioting in York.  Why would they not, with wheat so scarce, and twice the price of last year?  I must stir up the justices to make examples, I suppose, otherwise the whole of the north will be out with billhooks and pikes, and who will they slaughter but each other? 

(Is this what Mubarak is thinking?)

I truly believe I should be a better man if the weather were better. I should be a better man if I lived in a commonwealth where the sun shone and the citizens were rich and free.  If only that were true, Master More, you wouldn't have to pray for me nearly as hard as you do."

"How you can talk, "  More says.  Words, words, just words.  "I do, of course, pray for you.  I pray with all my heart that you will see that you are misled.  When we meet in Heaven, as I hope we will, all our differences will be forgot.  But for now, we cannot wish them away.  Your task is to kill me.  Mine is to keep alive.  It is my role and my duty.  All I own is the ground I stand on, and that ground is Thomas More.  If you want it you will have to take it from me.  You cannot reasonably believe I will yield it."

(Is this what Egyptians are thinking as the government tells them to go home and they stay out on the square?)

"You will want pen and paper to write out your defense.  I will grant you that."

"You never give up trying, do you?  No, Master Secretary, my defense is up here,"  he taps his forehead, "where it will stay safe from you."

 Cromwell looks around the empty and dark room and calls the guard to bring a candle.

Martin brings a pricket candle.  "Anything else?"  They pause while he sets it down.  When he is gone, they still pause:  the prisoner sits hunched over, looking into the flame.  How does he know if More has begun on a silence, or on a preparation for a speech? There is a silence which precedes speech, there is a silence which is instead of speech.  One need not break it with a statement, one can break it with a hesitation:  if . . . as it may be  . . . if it were possible  . . . He says, "I would have left you, you know.  To live out your life.  To repent of your butcheries.  If I were king."

Seven pages later, after More's trial and execution:

He [in this book 'he' almost always means Cromwell] says, this silence of More's, it was never really silence, was it?  It was loud with his treason;  it was quibbling as far as quibbles would serve him, it was demurs and cavils, suave ambiguities.  It was fear of plain words, or the assertion that  plain words pervert themselves;  More's dictionary, against our dictionary.  You can have a silence full of words.  A lute retains, in its bowl, the notes it has played.  The viol, in its strings, holds a concord.  A shriveled petal can hold its scent, a prayer can rattle with curses; an empty house, when the owners have gone out, can still be loud with ghosts.

Newspaper Still Relevant - Sunday Tidbits from ADN on Young, Palin, etc.

Rep. Don Young

 The ADN coverage of Don Young over the years has highlighted pictures of his hunting trophies - as they did again today - and his malopropisms.

I think lots of readers, particularly those on the left - myself included - underestimated him based on these stereotypes.  His skills were less tangible and harder to document.  But someone doesn't get reelected over and over again if he doesn't have something working right. OK, living in Republican state didn't hurt, but there was more to it.  I 'got it' in the 2008 election when I attended a debate between Harvard grad Ethan Berkowitz and Don Young.  Young creamed him.  This was not the Young I'd conjured up based on reading about him in the newspapers.

Today's story by Erika Bolstad is the most subtle and balanced one I can remember reading.  It's worth a look.  This isn't an endorsement of Young, but we need to know as much about politicians as possible to understand them as complete people, not two-dimensional cutouts.  The Abramoff connections and the Florida highway are still questions that the Justice Department's handling doesn't resolve in my mind.  Here are some highlights:

Knife, but no computer

The 77-year-old congressman who brags of never using a computer but always carrying a knife?

Here, editing the online version to get rid of the misplaced question-mark would have been ok, but it's online as well as in print. 

His wife convinced him to run for reelection before she died.

In August 2009, Young lost his wife of 46 years, Lu, his constant companion. If she hadn't persuaded him to file for re-election before her death, he might not have run last fall, Young said in an interview recently.

He was asked if he'd learned who his friends were during the investigation hard times.  He chose to focus on those who weren't his friends.

"Let's put it this way. I learned who was not my friend," he said. "It's like a movie star who has three flops in a row. Nobody goes to their movies, nobody knows who they are anymore."

"I'm very happy with those that did stay with me," he added. "Those that didn't? You recognize that. And just have a little short pile in the back of your head and just remember that."

"I don't need a lot of friends," he added. "I never have." 

And while Young may be different, he's solid and not ideological.

"Despite the gruff exterior and the un-Washington ways, sometimes his intuitions and insights into things are extraordinary," said Kish, who acknowledges he's also "nearly come to blows arguing" with Young.

"But it's born out of respect," he said. "Washington is full of that crap, and Don's different. It's a different cut of cloth. He continues to have that bright-faced optimism."

Young is skilled at building coalitions other Republicans won't touch, Ferguson said, including with organized labor. And he knows how to trade.

"There's something about Don Young that enables him to make friends on both sides of the aisle, to further his chairman in sort of a sly way and be such a cooperative sort of fellow that they work close," Ferguson said. "He's like a trapper. Trappers learn how to trade. You've got a certain number of pelts, they've got what you want, you've got to put a value on it, then you've got to strike a trade. He's always been like that."

Then, Young launches into a story about the work he did with former Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., to pass the landmark fisheries bill known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The 1976 bill created 200-mile exclusive economic zones off the country's coast and led to Alaska's multi-billion dollar fishing industry

Young said he has always worked well with Democrats. He points out that some of his signature achievements -- including the Alaska pipeline -- happened while Democrats controlled the House.

Those House members closest to him include former Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who lost re-election last fall after 36 years. Loner or not, Young takes "a very personal approach," Oberstar said.

We're Paying For Young's Life Saving Health Care

if I hadn't had the job, I would have been dead in a heartbeat," he said. "Now I've got more to focus on, so it keeps me going, and I thank her for that."

Trudeau Skewers Palin with Her Own Words

And while I feel there are enough people writing about Palin that I don't have to do that, now and then I feel compelled.  Last time I couldn't resist pointing out while she and her supporters claimed Rep. 's shooter was totally responsible and none of the blame could be traced back to her actions and words, that she had said Ansange was a terrorist who had 'blood on his hands' for publishing government documents.  In his Doonesbury today, Garry Trudeau takes a quote from Palin's book and skewers her with it. (I checked - various people covered this quote when the book came out in November.  While it's not new, it probably has more relevance after Bristol's stint on DWTS.)  Here are a couple of panels.

Double click to enlarge if you can't read it or go to link and see whole strip

Can a woman in custody consent to sex with the officer?

There's more of interest.  Julia O'Malley's piece on how former Anchorage police officer Anthony Rollins' attorney, Susan Carney, is using outdated stereotypes to make the jury think that his rape victims (while in custody) all consented.  She concludes with:

He knew he didn't need to use violence. He had an invisible weapon. It was in his position as a police officer. It was in his uniform, a symbol of trust. His word was more powerful than hers. He could take her to jail if he wanted to. He weighed almost twice as much as she did, and he was twice her age. She was shocked, emotional and scared. She was still in handcuffs. He had a gun on his hip.

Maybe she didn't exactly say no. But that doesn't mean she said anything close to yes.

WHAT??!!

I'll end with this bizarre disclaimer from a syndicated gossip piece on Charlie Sheen (the online version is a little different from the print version - one of the dangers of online news:  it can change over time, whereas hardcopy can't be doctored after the fact.)

The person familiar with the call, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details, spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.

Talking about qualifying your facts . . . This was a story about Charlie Sheen going back into rehab.  Did this source get paid or did the leaker violate Sheen's privacy and organizational procedures voluntarily?  Look, it's reasonable for organizations to have some rules and structure for releases of information to the public.  If the information were not released through regular channels (if that is required) in a timely way and there were some critical issue interest that's a different story.  There's a difference between someone blowing the whistle because the organization is hiding damaging information the public really should know and handing tips to gossip columnists.