tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post4446411287762414009..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: What Mattered This Week?Jonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-40226092821419928352013-08-13T22:57:05.096-05:002013-08-13T22:57:05.096-05:00Matt Jarvis,
Your comments are illuminating, as I...Matt Jarvis,<br /><br />Your comments are illuminating, as I know little about the subject. I'm sure there's a positive correlation between non-obesity and PhD attainment, but the tweet was pretty aggressive. I like the idea that he's lowered his load of annoying work by doing this. Maybe being un-PC in academe has some benefits.backyardfoundrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-4176379414104320192013-08-13T07:04:17.741-05:002013-08-13T07:04:17.741-05:00Bergson: the opposite of comedy is grace, not beau...Bergson: the opposite of comedy is grace, not beauty. Fits!CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-75110493506564564402013-08-13T00:19:53.559-05:002013-08-13T00:19:53.559-05:00Apparently Miller has a theory about how and why h...Apparently Miller has a theory about how and why humor evolved (as an aspect of sex selection, or in layman's terms, as a way to impress chicks). He did originally say that his tweet was intended as "research." Perhaps he intended to test the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughter:_An_Essay_on_the_Meaning_of_the_Comic" rel="nofollow">Bergsonian Hypothesis</a> and figured the best way to do it was by slipping on a banana peel.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-87196309739310729022013-08-12T21:40:08.981-05:002013-08-12T21:40:08.981-05:00Those papers are *tweaks*? For shame. In serious...Those papers are *tweaks*? <i>For shame</i>. In seriousness, doesn't that add to the deliciousness of the schadenfreude? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't tweaking one of those regrettable things that occurs in the academy, but always by someone else? Professor Miller is not at UNM because he's an inveterate tweaker, its these FAT KIDS...<br /><br />Actually, his list of refereed publications is priceless. He has 2011 and 2012 publications in a something (having a reasonable impact factor!) called <i>Journal of Sexual Medicine</i>. Forgive any cultural insensitivity, but how can the theme from Shaft not be played on an endless loop in their editorial offices?<br /><br />Better, though, is last year he published something in <i>Humor</i>. Man, how great would it be to be an editor for that Journal? You wouldn't just do a vanilla rejection of a submission. It would have to look like this:<br /><br />Dear Professor Miller, <br /><br />We regret to inform you that your recent submission, titled "_____", is NOT. FUCKING. FUNNY.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />The Editors of <i>Humor</i>CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-52348980356061381022013-08-12T20:58:33.765-05:002013-08-12T20:58:33.765-05:00In your defense (and mine), CSH, Miller's CV i...In your defense (and mine), CSH, Miller's CV is the Schadenfreude equivalent of a "Kick Me" sign pinned to his backside.<br /><br />One thing to keep in mind about those publications: some social-science research lends itself to -- how can I put this delicately -- saying basically the same things over and over in slightly different ways and different formats. Or, similarly, taking basically one big study and breaking off little pieces of it here and there, like a chocolate bunny that you can have and eat at the same time. There's also some of that where I come from (discipline-wise), but I think it's less common. I was "raised" to think that each significant work should say something you haven't said before.<br /><br />Then again, maybe I've just been naive. I was never a very good academic careerist, as my own CV makes plain. On the other hand, I never took up tweeting, and at the moment that's looking less like Luddism and more like a smart career choice.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-27879374464183149922013-08-12T17:42:07.148-05:002013-08-12T17:42:07.148-05:00Jeff, thanks for picking me up on this one; first,...Jeff, thanks for picking me up on this one; first, you're right about the obnoxiousness of the CV. The ~50 refereed publications and ~50 book chapters is pretty good for a guy at the #92 ranked grad program (and mad props to Matt Jarvis for uncovering that - the intertubes and USNWR rankings are amazing in isolation...together, a wonderment)<br /><br />Its kind of delightful to speculate that perhaps Professor Miller thought that the thing keeping him from a more appropriate, Top 25-type Psych grad school was the phalanx of fatties that kept showing up at UNM each year, admitted by phone interview only, which the Bowling Green research suggests may be hiding something relevant.<br /><br />"If only I had some lookers as proteges", he may have said to himself, "all this work and accomplishment on my part would pay off with the rewards I deserve. Maybe if I just put out a tweet that says 'No fatties please', all will be well, and Yale, here I come!"<br /><br />Oh, that's the thought of the day. Schadenfreude is a terribly unattractive trait, but there you go, that hypothetical makes me smile.CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-22067506546716097472013-08-12T14:26:51.176-05:002013-08-12T14:26:51.176-05:00CSH, thanks for this reminder of what I hate about...CSH, thanks for this reminder of what I hate about academic CVs. Nonetheless, yes, it's an impressive record for a guy who's about 48. (One lesson: If you want lots of media notices, write about sex.) As to the point: Since people "compare upward" when looking at their own circumstances, you're probably right about Miller's personal expectations. Compared to 99.9% of working academics, though, he's got a really sweet deal: apparently a 2-2 teaching load, with one course each term being a large lecture (i.e. the actual work mostly gets done by graduate TAs) and the other being a small seminar, sometimes with enrollments in the single digits. Plus sabbaticals, visiting appointments, grants, prizes, etc., AND a lifetime contract. But despite the amazing long list of interviews, talks and scholarly publications, including books translated into many languages, he's best known publicly now as, "oh yeah, that guy who tweeted about fatties." That has to sting pretty bad. It's like a Greek tragedy performed in clown shoes and a rubber nose.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-12651946455420888672013-08-12T12:26:29.069-05:002013-08-12T12:26:29.069-05:00Actually, just to clarify: its not Miller's pe...Actually, just to clarify: its not Miller's pedigree that's odd for UNM, its the number of high-impact publications, as well as the endorsement of several superstars in his field. CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-5498744252775334242013-08-12T12:18:28.316-05:002013-08-12T12:18:28.316-05:00Interesting that the piece to which backyard linke...Interesting that the piece to which backyard linked finishes with a study out of Bowling Green that showed that obese applicants to grad school are discriminated against in face-to-face interviews, relative to applicants doing telephone interviews.<br /><br />I'm profoundly ashamed to admit I looked at this, but Miller's <a href="http://psych.unm.edu/people/directory-profiles/cvs/millercv.pdf" rel="nofollow">CV</a> puts an intriguing spin on this story. For one, in the sense that he should know better than to write a tweet like that. But also, because its not entirely clear how many Columbia undergrad/Stanford grads end up at a place like University of New Mexico. I mean, if you go to the end of his CV, you'd probably even recognize several of his references (even if you are not in his field), most notably perhaps the most famous living mass-media scientist (not named Hawking): Steven Pinker.<br /><br />Puts a bit of a poignant spin on this story, no? Surely Professor Miller's credentials leave him wanting some sort of upgrade from University of New Mexico. But his poor judgment explain why he'll surely stay there.<br /> CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-66201095857009949112013-08-12T11:32:50.696-05:002013-08-12T11:32:50.696-05:00I'm with Prof. Jarvis, and If there's any ...I'm with Prof. Jarvis, and If there's any practical purpose to #2-5, it's to (hopefully) reassure future students they won't be judged on their appearance. So that too, actually would benefit his career, but it's mostly wasted time.<br /><br />Backyard, the prof dorked up, he knows it, and he's owning up to it. He's a big boy, and he can handle himself. Since you seem to admire him so much, I would've thought you could afford him that much credit. He will be fine.Thomasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-3339547542803627482013-08-12T11:04:07.798-05:002013-08-12T11:04:07.798-05:00BYF,
Your observations notwithstanding, there are ...BYF,<br />Your observations notwithstanding, there are plenty of overweight PhDs, and a good number of them are obese.<br /><br />I studied under one of them, regarded by most in the field as a genius and leading intellectual. According to the definitions I've seen (BMI over 30), I am obese. Didn't seem to hurt me getting my PhD, nor tenure. <br /><br />As for your 1-5, as someone with tenure, those are laughable punishments. <br />#1 is a BENEFIT. Trust me, admissions work is tedious and time-consuming. And, as a professor at the #92 department for Pyschology, you can't expect that you're going to mentor the next Solomon Asch or Leon Festinger or whomever. Moreover, after getting famous for this, the good potential applicants in your subfield are going to steer clear of you, because you're poison to their job prospects.<br />#2-5 are simply annoyances. In practice, it will mean some wasted time in his life, as he sits in some rather boring meetings/lectures that he would rather not do.<br /><br />If you want to hurt a tenured professor, you take away research support, you deny them course buyouts, you assign them to teach courses they don't like to teach, and you don't approve of their applications for sabbaticals. This is simply nothing.<br /><br />His comments, to me as an obese PhD, are not so offensive as they are stupid, particularly for someone in psychology, who should REALLY know better. Honestly, the best punishment is that which he will be given: derision and scorn from his colleagues and his profession. This guy will not be taken seriously again, and will be thankful for double-blind peer review protecting his submissions. But, he will be a joke and a cautionary tale told to grad students. Matt Jarvisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-65020923261961049592013-08-12T09:06:11.898-05:002013-08-12T09:06:11.898-05:00You do realize this thread is for things that matt...You do realize this thread is for things that matter, yes? Or is that giving you too much credit?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-18395976215367328452013-08-12T03:28:08.744-05:002013-08-12T03:28:08.744-05:00byf,
you really are getting too weird to appear ...byf, <br /><br />you really are getting too weird to appear in this mostly rational (except for you) space.<br /><br />I saw a bumper sticker today, "don't believe everything that you think." Whatever you are perceiving in in some fantastical "prog" in your imagination, it is not related to anything actually occurring in real life. <br /><br />Get out more, or give it up. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-39225325394009138812013-08-12T01:11:40.169-05:002013-08-12T01:11:40.169-05:00Sure,
It's OK to use coercion in every aspec...Sure, <br /><br />It's OK to use coercion in every aspect of life, no matter how piddling. The state doesn't need to be limited to handling important things, but should point a gun at people during every decision they make. Gov got some random hypothesis and a nanny complex? Point the guns!backyardfoundrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-2599711181231906392013-08-11T23:48:34.961-05:002013-08-11T23:48:34.961-05:00Of my recent colleagues, one was a Ph.D. with a ma...Of my recent colleagues, one was a Ph.D. with a massive weight problem (causes unknown to me, but I sense that it had some medical basis). She nonetheless finished the degree; I saw it happen. What this tell us one way or another, I don't know.<br /><br />You do know that Bloomberg didn't tell anyone how much soda they could drink, right? Nobody pointed a gun at you if you bought a refill. (Well, nobody from the government.) Limiting serving sizes is meant to change the incentives; it's about as mild a restriction on people's liberty as there is.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-76384252042419788922013-08-11T22:43:58.210-05:002013-08-11T22:43:58.210-05:00The prof stated that he thought that obese people ...The prof stated that he thought that obese people would fail. Bloomberg wanted to point guns at people to keep them from drinking from soda cups that he thought were too large. <br /><br />You still haven't answered my question about fat PhDs. I'm not going to use your anecdata to prove anything; I'm just curious if you've noticed the same in your environment. They've all been between skinny and slightly overweight.backyardfoundrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-48816032933399969242013-08-11T22:04:21.573-05:002013-08-11T22:04:21.573-05:00Actually, even that wouldn't be a very good an...Actually, even that wouldn't be a very good analogy. This is better: the Bloombergian equivalent of the professor's tweet would be a directive that if someone a shopkeeper considered obese tried to buy a large soda, that person would be banned thereafter from entering the shop at all.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-18414266191831360162013-08-11T22:01:31.821-05:002013-08-11T22:01:31.821-05:00backyard, you are mixing up individual judgments a...backyard, you are mixing up individual judgments and public policymaking. There's no question that in many cases, overingestion of carbohydrates contributes to obesity. Knowing that, we can rationally try to craft public policies that try to curb this through measures that apply equally to all. Your Professor Numbskull wasn't doing that. The context of his "one insulting tweet" was his role and power within a professional position to help or hinder the aspirations of individual students. He was entrusted to make certain kinds of judgments, and he effectively announced that he planned to do this in an idiotic and prejudiced way. For such purposes, 140 characters is plenty. (If we found out that Obama had texted just one sentence to his aides like "Make sure the IRS puts the screws to right-wing groups," there would be a legitimate move to impeach him, since that one sentence would be adequate proof that he was abusing a position of trust.)<br /><br />I haven't studied the NYC soda ban closely enough to have an informed opinion on it. In general, I'm not opposed to nondiscriminatory public-health measures that work. At any rate, that's what Bloomberg was doing -- making public policy aimed (whether wisely or not) at lessening a known public-health problem. Making policy is what mayors are supposed to do. Did he order shopkeepers to keep selling big sodas to all comers <i>except</i> those they eyeballed and considered too fat? That would be a closer analogy to what this professor did.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-54335069621751613942013-08-11T21:02:33.162-05:002013-08-11T21:02:33.162-05:00I'd like to point out that that professor thin...I'd like to point out that that professor thing doesn't qualify for "what matters." I only wish I could have posted this sooner.ModeratePolihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01721945380057992971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-34546083291845843822013-08-11T20:22:37.863-05:002013-08-11T20:22:37.863-05:00Anonymous,
I'm referring to normal prog and c...Anonymous,<br /><br />I'm referring to normal prog and con responses to each incident. Even though Bloomberg is an R, his push was much more popular among progs and loudly scorned by libertarians and the right, excepting Frum and a few others.backyardfoundrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-54077837107000040662013-08-11T20:15:45.274-05:002013-08-11T20:15:45.274-05:00Thomas,
You make it sound like it's normal f...Thomas, <br /><br />You make it sound like it's normal for a professor to receive this treatment. Fair enough. It looks like an effective way to enforce prog speech codes. backyardfoundrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-39854103754712224432013-08-11T20:10:26.608-05:002013-08-11T20:10:26.608-05:00Jeff,
You're best point was about self-contr...Jeff, <br /><br />You're best point was about self-control and trolling, but I've cut back a lot and the doctors think that I'm going to be OK.<br /><br />Do you know of many obese PhDs?<br /><br />Why is it so much more dickish than to lecture obese people from a position of gov authority and use coercion to keep them from buying a cup that's larger than 16 oz? Can you tell me why progs are generally OK with one (which involves guns and snide lectures and little evidence of possible efficacy) and not the other (which involves one insulting tweet?)backyardfoundrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-61140996815319745412013-08-11T16:55:21.328-05:002013-08-11T16:55:21.328-05:00I don't like to see speech codes enforced on p...I don't like to see speech codes enforced on professors. That said, this guy was being a dick, and is seriously ill-informed for someone who wants to be employed for his brainpower. He assumes a simple relationship between obesity, "eating carbs" and lack of self-control. That's one common relationship, but obesity can also be caused by hormonal imbalances or as a side-effect of medication regimens needed to treat other conditions. The tendency toward it also genetic -- as is the tendency away from it, which means that a non-obese person might have even less self-controlled eating habits than an obese person, but we just wouldn't see it. And then there's the fact that a lack of self-control might easily take some other form entirely, like, say, spending too much time trolling online political discussions hoping to bait "progs." (Or maybe that's a sign of intense focuse, I'm not sure.) <br /><br />The point is, different cases are different, and you don't know what factors are in play in a given case just from looking at a person. Someone with an inclination to do that certainly should <i>not</i> be on graduate admissions committees or otherwise trusted to make decisions affecting others. And anyway, isn't this for the employer to decide? I remember just a few days ago hearing that employers shouldn't be bound by rules in their treatment of employees, they should be able to do whatever they think is good for their business. A university, even if it agreed with this clown, would not be mistaken if it decided that his loose lips are a business liability.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-41030249840994286652013-08-11T15:47:00.359-05:002013-08-11T15:47:00.359-05:00Dr. B,
I'm going to run with Obama's pres...Dr. B,<br /><br />I'm going to run with Obama's presser on NSA/natl. security, Holder's remarks on NPR this week about his upcoming speech (probably better counted into next week, but I'm allowing it), and the R on R fight in the ID 2nd. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-58157407145169998662013-08-11T12:55:20.720-05:002013-08-11T12:55:20.720-05:001) Their hands are tied, they can't NOT do th...1) Their hands are tied, they can't NOT do this. Since "weight" is not one of UNM's stated admissions criteria, they have to disown this entirely or leave themselves vulnerable to litigious applicants. People have to recuse themselves from committees or boards, for any number of reasons, all the time. Sometimes it's their own fault, sometimes it's not. Either way, it happens. Not the end of the world.<br /><br />2) & 3) Measures for appearance's sake to show people they're "doing something" without actually doing something. It's silly, but typical of bureaucracies. And the professor knows it, he's not a nube. So, not serious.<br /><br />4) Too vague, I don't know what this is either. Probably same as 2&3.<br /><br />5) The minimum standard for any decent human being. So, not serious.<br /><br />In short, not a controversy. It did not matter this week.<br />Thomasnoreply@blogger.com