A specter is haunting our time: the specter of the short term. We live in a moment of accelerating crisis that is characterized by a shortage of long-term thinking. Rising sea levels and other threats to our environment; mounting inequality; rotting infrastructure. Our culture lacks a long-term perspective. Where can we turn for deep knowledge? […] … learn more→

In public school, I was trained to think fiat currency, creating money out of slips of paper, was an excellent thing. I was trained to think that “a little” inflation was actually good for the economy. I was trained to think great quantities of money printing was a great thing, since everyone got a share […] … learn more→

Every morning as I head to my office at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, I have to drive past two armored military vehicles aimed in my direction: an M60 tank and an M42 Duster anti-aircraft gun. The vehicles are on display in front of the National Guard Armory, which happens to sit beside my academic building, […] … learn more→

Most creativity involves theft. Take Thesis Bootcamp as just one example. My good colleague Dr Liam Connell from the University of Melbourne, along with his colleague Peta Freestone, didn’t really invent the Thesis Bootcamp, but they did steal it creatively appropriate it in a rather special way. I watched Melbourne University Thesis Bootcamps at a […] … learn more→

Michael Gorman, a former president of the American Library Association, wrote some years ago that \”a professor who encourages the use of Wikipedia is the intellectual equivalent of a dietitian who recommends a steady diet of Big Macs with everything.\” If that is true, I must be an intellectual fast-food vendor. I am a professor […] … learn more→

A deal was struck with 20th Century Fox to run a native advertising campaign on MailOnline and Metro.co.uk to promote the release of Ben Affleck’s latest film, “Gone Girl”. The movie was advertised in two features exploring “trust in your partner” with content written by MailOnline staff. Quoted in media and marketing magazine, the Drum, […] … learn more→

Academic freedom has been put in the spotlight with two universities recently coming down hard on academics for comments on social media. Martin Hirst, a lecturer in journalism, was suspended earlier this year from Australia’s Deakin University for making provocative and obscene comments on Twitter. The university acted after conservative columnist Andrew Bolt drew attention […] … learn more→

This weekend’s Wall Street Journal featured a well-intentioned piece, “A Musical Fix For U.S. Schools,” which took up nearly 3/4 of a page with a huge accompanying photograph of a child playing the trumpet. Unfortunately this visual only added to the Oliver Twist like desperation of can I have some more porridge please, as the […] … learn more→

I have a good friend who listens to Rush Limbaugh every day for too long. Of course some of us would say that to meet this limit should not take even a day or one minute. My friend spends the remaining part of the day, having been vaccinated by Limbaugh serum parroting in feverish pitch […] … learn more→

I’ve often cited Academically Adrift, which shows that much of higher education is bogus: most students go their whole college career without being able to read or write in any significant amount. The authors of that book have produced a sequel of sorts, Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, looking at how well […] … learn more→