miscellaneous

The Sacramento Bee carries an interesting article today about textbook costs and alternatives, including the “open-source” model. My sense is that textbook publishers nowadays see that technology will eventually overtake them and are operating in a take-the-money-and-run mode while they can. Internet, Cost Spur Textbook Revolt Dec. 6, 2010, Sacramento Bee, Laurel Rosenhall When Elizabeth Walz ran for student government last year, she built her campaign around an issue she knew would resonate with her peers at UC Davis: the cost of textbooks. For days, she stood in the quad polling students on their textbook-buying habits. “A lot of the…

During boring classes, texting is the new doodling By Michael Rubinkam, AP, LA Daily News 11/26/2010 Tom Markley, 21, of Lehighton, Pa., a senior at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., poses with his phone in a Wilkes classroom. A recent survey by two Wilkes psychology professors found that more than 90 percent of students at the university admit to sending text messages during class. …It’s no surprise that high school and college students are obsessive texters. What alarms Wilkes psychology professors Deborah Tindell and Robert Bohlander is how rampant the practice has become during class: Their recent study shows that…

Apologies to vegetarians.But it can be tough on the carnivores, too:

Faculty and staff recently received an email from UCLA Corporate Financial Services reminding them that their paycheck will arrive at the beginning of January rather than the end of December. All other paychecks arrive at the end of the month – not the beginning of the month – so why the exception? I can’t tell you the date in which this occurred, but it was probably in the early 1960s. At that time, everyone was paid in all months at the end of the month – including December. Then someone had a bright idea. If the Dec. 31 paycheck was…